My Workbench

Monday, February 10, 2020

Two GHQ West Indies Merchant Vessels

Still working my way through the box of merchant vessels. Next up are two GHQ #291 West Indies Merchants. I had built another one quite some time ago as a French trader. These two are British EIC. They have no guns on  the forecastle or quarterdeck but have 20 ports on the main deck so would probably be armed against pirates or privateers. I replaced all of the lower masts and jib sails. The spanker sails are from my spares pile. All of the rest of the sail set is GHQ.

The first several pics are of how I replace the lower masts on GHQ sail sets.

The sail set as it comes (except for the spanker which is not GHQ)

I started with the mizzen mast:

The first cut is above the fighting top platform

Next cut off below the fighting top platform. Note the shiny new lower mast.

Drill a hole in the fighting top platform.

Slide in the new mast. Secure with superglue.

Do the mainmast and foremast in the same way:





 The finished merchant ships:












My French West Indies Trader. Note the incorrect mizzen rigging for a French ship, before I knew better, haha!

8 comments:

Stew said...

Great result. I did notice the improper rigging but didn’t want to say anything...lol. Just kidding of course bc no one notices such things. 😀
If you’re interested I’m about to embark on a ship building frenzy so watch my blog.

A Miniatures Hobby Room said...

Haha thanks Stew!
I am interested and will be watching!

If anyone else is reading this and is interested, Stew's blog is https://tllw.blogspot.com/

Stew said...

Thanks for the plug. I have one more ACW post to go then it’s full sails ahead. 😀

Jonathan Freitag said...

Beautiful work on this pair of ships! Stew’s blog is a good one and worthy of plugging!

A Miniatures Hobby Room said...

Thank you Jonathan, and yes it is

Phil said...

Wow, splendid ships... And photos, looks great!

A Miniatures Hobby Room said...

Thank you Phil, much appreciated

Stew said...

You guys are makin me blush. 😀