WIP - Row Galley, Part 2

Last night was spent working out the rigging of the masts and lateen yards for the row galley.  The kit came with two masts and four yard pieces.  Last week I fished the yards together using some dark brown thread appropriated from my wife's sewing basket.  The masts will initially be loosely mounted in the holes in the deck provided for them while the yards will be hung on the masts so that they can be removed.  I bought a roll of 24 gauge (~0.5mm) copper wire from my local Ace Hardware store on the way home from work.  After several hours and a couple of false starts, this was the result:

If you double click on the picture you can get a close-up of my rigging technique.  I drilled a hole through the top of each mast and threaded the wire through it.  I had filed a groove around the mast where the hole was and wrapped and super-glued the wire to the mast, leaving enough to form into a loop.  This simulates the rigging "falls" that hold the yard.  I did the same to each yard but formed the wire into a hook that would fit into the loop piece on the mast.  By careful measuring (and some trimming of one end) I ensured that each yard would hang at a slant since this type of row galley used a lateen rig.  Now all I have to do is paint the masts and yards, make the sails, and get them attached to the yards.  There will not be any other rigging as this will be a wargaming "model" and I don't want to have to worry about rigging getting fouled with fingers and vice versa.

You will also notice that the galley has been completed painted.  The outer hull is charcoal and antique gold (ochre) while the interior is red (to hide the blood splatter).  The deck is painted a desert tan color to simulate "holy-stoned" wood planking.  The quarterdeck is a separate piece to which I've glued pins that fit into holes on the main deck sides.  The tiller bar still requires painting (in progress) and mounting.  The crewmen are being painted as well.  The artillery is still unpainted.

I plan on using this same rigging technique for the smaller vessel and the three gunboats that I have.  The smaller vessel will get a fore-and-aft rig on a single mast while the gunboats will have a single square main sail.

Now all I have to do is come up with a suitable name for a Britannian colonial ship from the southern colonies.  Any suggestions?

WIP - Row Galley, Part 1

Some time ago I acquired an 18th Century American row galley (the Old Glory Shipyard GG9, Washington, from Benedict Arnold's flotilla on Lake Champlain).  I've finally begun painting her for an upcoming Capitania General de Florida game where she'll play a role as a Britannian ship in the naval part of the battle.  I've primed the galley and have painted both of the sides.  This might not have been anything close to what the Washington was actually painted, but it suits me (he says with a big grin!).   [As usual, please click on the pictures for a larger version.]

The row galley Washington with a few older MiniFig crewman aboard for perspective.  The lower part of the hull is red while the upper sides are charcoal and yellow ochre.  I think that the quarterdeck railings will also be yellow ochre, while the deck will be a light wood color (to represent holystoned decking) and the interior of the sides may be red.

And here is an overhead view.  She came with two masts (the two crewmen happen to be standing over the holes in the deck) and yards.  Her rig on Lake Champlain was lateen sails on both masts.  I am going to try that arrangement.  The yards are each in two pieces so I'll have to "fish" them together.  I have a clamp device that my nephew gave me several Christmases ago which will come in handy to hold the two halves while I wrap glue soaked thread around them.  I have a good drawing of the galley in a book on American Revolution navies that shows how they would have been attached and hung on the mast.

More pictures later as work on her progresses.

Renaissance Galley Game

Today I treated our wargames group to a naval game in the Mediterranean in the 1500s. A small fleet of Christian galleys engaged a small fleet of Moslem galleys. We used the WizKids Pirates of the Barbary Coast "snap together" galleys, suitably painted and marked to differentiate the two sides.

This first picture shows the initial clash between the two Genoan squadrons and an Algerian squadron supported by an Ottoman squadron.




The second picture shows the action a little, with the Algerian command galley sunk and the Genoan fleet command galley on fire.


The rules we used are called Barbarossa and can be found under the Renaissance section on the Free Wargame Rules web site ( www.freewargamesrules.co.uk ).