Tired of Square Riggers - Navwar Small Xebec/Felucca

This little boat from Navwar is either a small xebec or felucca. I received three unpackaged so I'm not sure what they were intended to be. I cannot find anything like it on Navwar's website so they may not even make them anymore. The prow is different from normal xebecs but the stern is the same. Most feluccas are two masts while this model has three. So I am leaning towards a small xebec. This little boat has 12 guns.

Langton Barque on left and GHQ Xebec on right

With Langton 38 gun Essex

Tired of Square Riggers - Langton's Chasse-Maree Lugger

The next non-square rigged vessel I built is Langton's chasse-maree lugger. An interesting appearance but the lugger sails just look weird to me. This little boat has only eight guns.

Tired of Square Riggers - Langton Lateen Barque

I sort of grew tired of building square riggers. I had been looking at some of the more unusual models I have stored away for rainy days and pulled out three, a barque, a lugger, and a small xebec/felucca.

I decided to build Langton's lateen barque first. I love the hull on this one, so much nice decorative detail. I was reluctant to drill the sides for later rigging, so that later rigging turned out to be a bitch. I didn't have any brushes on hand with the right weight bristles so I had to improvise a lot. I pulled it all apart and redid the sails and rigging twice. This little barque is 20 guns plus two chasers for a total of 22. There is not much I could find on this style of barque. One close picture called it a Mediterranean Barque, and that is the only illustration I could find.

Langton Ship Rigged Xebec Frigate

I finally got around to building the xebec frigate. Thank you again Rob Eubank for the small frigate sail set to go with it. I made the lateen driver because none of the lateen sail set sails were the size I wanted. This Langton model is supposed to be 32 guns, but I only count 26 guns and ports total. All of the paintings and drawings I could find of this type of rigged xebec show a single bowsprit without jib boom and much shorter than the sprit plus jib boom in the SF sail set, so I made one. None show any spritsail yard and sail. The drawings and definition of poleacres show the masts as single poles except for the mizzen which is two pieces. I opted to use the SF set masts. Anyway here are some photos of my version. There is just something about the lines of a xebec that I like. They look so cool! Hope you like. 

Three Brigade Models Forts

With all of the fires burning in the Northwest the smoke here has been so bad that we have just had to stay indoors a lot. Which has been a great excuse to spend some time in the shop.

I ordered three of Brigade Models new European forts last Spring from Pico Armor along with several packs of guns. These models are excellent! Perfectly scaled for 1/1200 AOS model gaming. And they are resonably priced.

The first is Fort Boyer located on the West coast of France between the Ile-d'Aix and Ile-d'Oleron. Construction was started by Napoleon in 1801 and completed in 1857. The fort is 223 ft (68 meters) long, 102 ft (31 m) wide, and 66 ft (20 m) high. The project was suspended in 1809 and not resumed until 1837, so the fort was not in actual use during the Napoleonic wars. But what the heck? It looks cool and works for me.

Next up is Fort Louvois or Fort du Chapus. The fort was built between 1691 and 1694 during the reign of Louis XIV to protect the Rochefort Roads from the South. The area that the battery occupies is about 171 and 180 ft (52 and 55 meters). The firing platform is 39 ft (12 m) above the surface of the water, and the battery's lateral coverage is 180 degrees. The keep has five levels and is 79 ft (24 m) high. A causeway that is submerged at high tide joins the fort to the shore. In 1755 Fort Louvois saw modifications that were intended to keep pace with advances in weaponry. One result was the reduction in the number of embrasures for artillery to ten from the original sixteen. The battery lost its roof, and the fort also recived latrines on the walls. These were the last modifications to the fort. I have kept the original 16 cannon for the model.

The last is Fort Lupin also called Fort de la Charente, completed in 1689. The fort is located on the Southern bank of the Charente river, built on a rock midway between the river mouth and the first meander towards Rochefort. This position was advantageous, allowing the guns of  the fort to either enfilade the Charente against warships trying to enter the river or to fire on the rear of any vessels that passed the difficult entrance to the river. It crossed the fire with another fort built on the northern bank of the river, Fort de la Pointe. On the river side the fort's semi-circular battery measures 236 ft (72 meters) with 22 embrasures for guns 16 ft 4 inches (5 m) above the river at low tide.

I bought a pack of Eduard 1/700 scale Imperial Japanese Naval figures from Lots Of Models eBay store, painted them (sort of) like French and tried them out here.

Added a few more plus a formation of Irregular 2mm troops.

I was thinking of using these Eduard figures for ship crews.