Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Mediterranean Galleys WIP

One of the ship types I have to produce for my cog project is some 14th century Mediterranean galleys.  The French hired galleys and crews from the Genoese and the Castilians, so it's only right that I have a few in my collection.  Three models are necessary for Sluys, so I made six, hoping might get three usable ones.

Found this picture in Fighting Techiniques of the Medieval World by Matthew Bennett, Kelley DeVries and others.  Single square rigged sail, but I couldn't quite accept the low yard.  Why bother with a strange teeny, tiny sail?
I started with this picture of a 14th century Venetian galley and did the best I could.  I cut 1 1/2"  hulls from 3/8" by 1/8" thickness basswood, and cut the bow into a point.  I added a little forward and aft superstructure and followed up with lots of sanding.  Then I drilled holes for steel wire and voila, we have the unfinished product.  They will look anything but perfect, but I think they'll do.  I'll post the finished product when I'm done
Fairly close up shot.  As you can see, nothing special.
The lot of them definitely look better at a distance.

5 comments:

DeanM said...

Kevin:

I was also thinking of scratch-building some 1/1200th Ancient ships - looks good so far, but appears to be alot of work ;)! I'm wondering if I can scale down the PDF Roman Seas stuff - and still be able to fold them together, etc. Dean

Kevin said...

Not that bad, really. Believe me, if they were that much work I wouldn't have done them. I made the six galleys in about the time it took to watch "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" which is about 2 1/2 hours. Maybe a tish longer. Again, they aren't perfect--strictly representational.

Dave S. said...

Kevin,


The galleys look great. I'll be interested in seeing how you paint up the awnings for the galleys. That can really add some 'personality' to the galleys.


The Sluys project is really coming along well.


Dave

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Kevin said...

Awnings. Wow, I hadn't even thought of that. Actually, I'll probably go with the arms of Genoa (Grimaldi family) and the arms of Castile. That may give them a bit of color. Thought about painting the hulls too, but maybe I'll go with a more golden brown color than the basic brown I've been using on the cogs.