Two Scratch Built 1/144 scale 15th Century Ships

I haven't posted in quite a while, not since August of last year. I haven't been idle, I just haven't built or painted anything I felt would interest anyone following this blog. The projects I have completed since I last posted have been of a book nook or diorama display nature. But spring arrived and summer is here. There is the seasonal work outside to be completed, so I started on smaller projects that I can work on in the evenings for an hour or so each day. 

I picked a couple of 15th century type ships to try scratch building. For the first one I thought I would try a simple type, a caravel like the Nina but not the Nina. I didn't take any early pics because I wasn't sure of what I was doing. The base is plywood. The sides are card from a frozen food box. Ribs and rails are also card. The masts and yards are wood skewers and toothpicks. The furled sails are TP soaked in a PVA water mix then tied to the yards.

The next ship was a bit more complicated. It is a Portuguese carrack of the mid to late 15th Century.

for this one I used a foam base, card decks and sides, struts and rails. Wood and metal masts and yards. And some plastic bits like the crows nest and anchors. Cloth sails and paper flags. The furled sail is TP like on the caravel. The guns have foam carriages, toothpick barrels, and bead muzzles.  

That's it! Hope you like. They were fun and I learned a lot.