Happy Halloween 2019

Another Halloween has come and gone and my two artistic girls did their annual Jack a lanterns.
The oldest decided on an Edgar Allan Poe theme this year:

The youngest painted hers:

Halloween has always been a big deal in our family, one of our favorite holidays. My wife always puts up decorations and our girls always dress up. This year the youngest had to work so she missed out. But the oldest was a Viking!

Lindberg 1:144 Caravel Nina

A few years ago my youngest daughter gave me the Lindberg Ships of Columbus pack for Christmas.
I haven't done much in the shop since I retired so I decided to put one of these plastic ships together to see what could be done with it. Like most plastic models from the majors, there are a few historical mistakes and inconsistencies. No one really knows what the Nina looked like. We know it was a typical caravel, but that is all we know. Some paintings and models show Nina as a three masted ship while others have only two masts. Some show all lateen sails, others are square rigged, and a few I have seen are a mix of both lateen and square sails. I would imagine she could be rigged in what ever way best suited the wind at the time. The four cannon that came with the model are the wrong scale and the wrong century. I had to figure out how to make more appropriate breech loaded cannon typical for the end of the 15th century.

My first attempt....not so pretty

I tried wire and thread for the barrel and balsa with sliced sprue for wheels the first go. Not very nice.
I settled on turning some barrels from round toothpicks using a Dremel and small micro file. This worked so well I also turned a small iron breech loading swivel gun.

 Carriages are carved from balsa

 The next two are the waterline model set on the full hull stand for display:

Ares Sails of Glory 1st rate ship Orient

Well it has been seven months since my last post. There have been some major changes in that time. I retired after 41 years of service, the last 21 of those years commuting to Alaska from the Spokane area. I always thought I would have more time to spend on minis and modeling after I retired. It hasn't worked out that way. I am busier now than I have ever been. There are so many things that need doing, things I didn't have time for before when I was gone half the time. And a lot of things did not get done last summer when I was recuperating from a fractured vertebrae. Then there is the living document known as the "Honey-Do List" haha! Actually not a laughing matter. It grows exponentially it seems. I no sooner complete an item on the list and three more appear. My wife is determined not to let me become idle and sedentary in retirement. I have even lost 20 pounds since I quit "working". I used to be able to leave every month for two weeks to rest up. I have discovered when you retire you never get a day off.

Several years ago I modified a couple of Ares' Sails of Glory 1st rate ships for a friend (http://volsminiatures.blogspot.com/2017/05/ares-ottoman-first-rate-bash.html and http://volsminiatures.blogspot.com/2015/01/ares-sails-of-glory-kit-bash.html). He was nice enough to gift me two more 1st rates that had broken masts. They have been sitting on a shelf all this time gathering dust. The one I chose to work on is the Orient 1791 / L'Austerlitz 1808. The masts were removed and the hull was drilled for rigging. Planking seams were carved into the deck. Grating was installed in three places. Skylight painted on the cabin and some color added to the stern and quarter galleries. The masts and top masts were replaced with music wire and the ugly plastic connecting the sails to the plastic masts was removed with a Dremel tool. I also made a sea base to fit the Ares stand for display.

GHQ French 74 Gun Redoubtable

This is another one of the GHQ #132 Temeraire hulls. This one is modeled as the French third rate ship Redoubtable. The paint scheme I used comes from the Langton Guide book example #7 on page 25: Quarterdeck gunwale stripe charcoal; upper deck stripe flat red; lower deck stripe black; basalt gray strakes; black hull.

Length of gun deck = 182 ft 6 in
Extreme breadth = 49 ft
Depth in hold = 21 ft 6 in
Tons burthen = 1929 tons
Complement = 550/650
Ordinance:
Lower gun deck = 30 x 36 pounders
Upper gun deck = 30 x 18 pounders
Quarter deck = 14 x 8 pounders
Forecastle = 6 x 8 pounders
Poop = 4 or 6 x 36 pound howitzers or carronades
Single broadside weight = 890 to a maximum of 988 pounds

(History paraphrased from The Ships of Trafalgar by Peter Goodwin)
By virtue of her association with the Victory and the death of Lord Nelson, Redoubtable is perhaps the most acclaimed French ship to fight at the battle of Trafalgar. Designed by Jacques Noel Sane and launched at Brest in 1790, Redoubtable was the third oldest ship in Villeneuve's fleet.
In 1795 she took part in the Isle de Groix action on June 23 where the British took three prizes. On 15 December, 1796 Redoubtable sailed from Brest for Ireland with a large fleet of 44 warships and transports with 18,000 troops commanded by General Hoche, The intention was to land these forces and incite rebellion in Ireland, The expedition failed and Redoubtable, with Indomptable, Fogueux, Mucius, and Patriote returned to Brest on 1 January 1797.

Redoubtable did not join Villeneuve's combined fleet until it entered Ferrol on August 1, 1805. Eight days later she sailed with the squadron and entered Cadiz on August 20. The combined fleet sailed from Cadiz on 19 October. At 7 a.m. on the 21st VIlleneuve ordered the fleet to wear together and come to a starboard tack back towards Cadiz. Redoubtable's position was now 13th in line from the head of Villeneuve's line. Ahead of her starboard bow was Neptune (84), astern San Leandro (74), and just off her starboard quarter, the frigate Hortense (40).  When the battle opened Redoubtable's gunners concentrated their fire upon Victory as she made her approach. As Neptune veered off to leeward causing a large gap to open behind Villeneuve's flagship, Captain Lucas directed Redoubtable to move up to close the gap and prevent Victory from breaking through. In doing so her flying jib boom ran over Bucentaure's taffrail. Regardless Victory drove through, firing a devastating broadside through Bucentaure's stern and at the same time running aboard Redoubtable on her larboard bow. It was now about 1:10 p.m. and locked in combat the two ships drifted leeward. To prevent boarding through the lower deck, Captain Lucas ordered the lower gun deck port lids closed. He then concentrated fire into Victory  from his main deck guns. This, supported by a hail of musketry fire from Redoubtable's fore, main and mizzen tops took out most of Victory's upper deck guns. Besides showering Victory's deck with grenades, 200 in all, Lucas had brass cohorns mounted in his tops which, loaded with grape, inflicted high casualties within the British ship. At about 1:25 one of the sharpshooters stationed in Redoubtable's mizzen tops shot Lord Nelson from a distance of only 15 yards. Mortally wounded the Admiral was taken below decks. The unrelenting fire from Redoubtable killed most of those remaining on Victory's open decks. Victory's higher sides proved problematic to Redoubtable's boarding crews. Lucas ordered the main yard to be lowered to form a bridge for his men to cross. It was now about 1:40 p.m. and as his men massed themselves for a second boarding attempt, they received a murderous fire of grapeshot from the upper deck carronades of the Temeraire drawing up on Redoubtable's starboard side. More than two hundred crew were killed. Lucas sent the remainder back below to re-man the guns and engage Temeraire. Lucas tenaciously continued to fight the Temeraire to starboard and Victory, using whatever guns remained. Redoubtable's main and mizzen masts had gone by the board and fires had broken out on her bowsprit and forecastle. She was further hampered when Temeraire's main mast fell across her deck. Victory's gunners had depressed their guns to prevent firing through Redoubtable and hitting Temeraire. This fire ripped her lower gun and orlop decks to pieces. Out gunned by two three deck ships, Lucas struck his colours at 2:30 p.m. Of her 643 complement, there were 300 dead and 222 badly wounded among whom were all the senior and ten junior officers. Under tow during the storm on the 22nd, she started taking on water. The prize crew signaled distress and were taken off, with most of the prisoners that were mobile, by boats from HMS Swiftsure. At 10:13 Redoubtable went down with all of the wounded on board. Of the total compliment, 169 survived.

Davco 18-Gun French Saint-Malo Corsair

The second Davco xebec I had started has ended up as a Saint-Malo French corsair. Why Saint-Malo you ask? Because that is the only French corsair ensign I had available. There are 18 guns/ports on this model and I have no idea what size they are. Probably 8 to 12 pounders would be my guess. Hope you like it.

Navwar Duguay Trouin 74 with Davco Saint Malo 18 corsair