AdamC: Royal Navy ship of Renown and last post.

So this will be my last post because I got my first shot today.

My second shot is scheduled for early May but I did just finish these last three ships so here they are.

HMS Revenge as ships of renown go she's not impressive. She did take part in Trafalgar and that along with her name seems to be why she is included. 

She was one of the first 74s to carry 24-pounders on her upper gun deck instead of 18-pounders so she has that going for her.

HMS Tonnant an excellent choice she took part in two of the main encounters of the Napoleonic wars the Nile (as French) and Trafalgar on the British side.

An 80 gun third rate she served as flagship for the North American Station in the second half of the War of 1812 and was active in the Chesapeake region. I gave her the spiffy there color banner so she can act as a flagship and he national color comes off so she can play a French ship if I need an extra.

HMS Bellerophon know as Billy Ruffin and "Napoleon's bane" she was one the best know ships of her class taking part in several major actions and she as in the thick of them all.

She had a reputation for giving hard blows and shrugging off the heaviest shot the enemy could dish out. 

She even gets some special rules and a unique card from Warlord.

Before I say so long until December here is a group shot six ships of the line in about 3 weeks is production any ship yard would be pleased with. 

AdamC: HMS Orion and HMS Vanguard

Ok Royal Navy fans here are two English 74s.  I've named them both for two Veterans of the Battle of the Nile.  

The HMS Orion with it's Red (bark tan) sails. There is no historical reason for this other than I had a set of bark tan sails to use and it helps identify a ship.  Her flags can be removed if I want to have a red-sailed pirate ship of the line (a strange creature that would be)

I have to wonder why Orion isn't one of the "Warships of Renown" that Warlord has released (I'm currently painting these) she took part in several battles (Glorious First of June, Groix, Cape St. Vincent, Nile and Trafalgar) and had three future admirals(Duckworth, Saumarez and Codrington)  in command at different points. She even had Jack Aubrey as a 3rd Lieutenant.  

HMS Vanguard  Nelson's Flag ship at the Nile  her only major action but she was certainly stuck in there and you got to like the name. 

I've added some signal flags to both ships I like how they look I have three more English ships on the table right now and I need them to equal my French fleet. 

Adamc1776: USS United States and Wreckage

The USS United States the final ship from my US Navy box.  The United Stats awas the ship whos building was directly overseen by Joshua Humphreys in Phladelphia.   She was active durring the Quasi-War serving as flagship for John Barry.

She did further good service durring the Barbary Wars but her great moment of glory was during the War of 1812 when she defeated the Macedonian in a single ship action. This exploit along with a similar victory by the USS Constitution rocked the Royal navy to its core.  The USS United States was blockaded for the rest the war but her crew helped turn the tide on the great lakes. 

The United States has this intersting poop deck feture that doesn't apear on the other two ships of the same type (President and Constitution) at first I thought this must be some creativity on the part of Warlord...

but an early drawing does show such a feature.

The figure head seems to be two woman or angles and I really wish I had an alturnative option to use.  

The sturn looks sharp though the window details didn't full show up.  I'm out of ships for now but hope to have some more to paint soon

I've used some of my leftover bits and pieces to make some wreckage markers to indicate wreaked ships.

AdamC: Top Sail Schooner

My Xebec Project left me with some extra bits and pieces and I used them to build some schooner. I made this one a Top Sail Schooner.

Top Sail Schooners were popular ships for trade and privateering.  They were swift sailors especially good as sailing close to the wind. Cargo capacity was relatively limited but for small high value cargos schooners were ideal. 

I cut out the sails for these myself then realized I had not rigged the ship yet! fortunately I was able to get in enough rigging to make it work but I don't want to make that my regular approach. 

AdamC Schooners, Xebec and Corvette

Some more kit bashing using Black Seas brigs.  

First up we have my second Xebec. If you are interested in my build process you can see it on my Blog Fencing Frog: Making Xebecs and thanks again to Guy Bowers for the inspiration and permission to use photos form his blog. 

T

his time I angled the fore mast forward which is sort of key to the Xebec look.

The stern windows taken from an extra frigate piece.

Top sail schooner I've done a few schooners, but this is probably the first one I’m really happy with. 

I cut the sails myself using paper from my daughter's sketch pad.  They do not look as cool as Warlords but good enough.

A smaller schooner more of a sloop or cutter. It makes a good small privateer merchant or warship.

Last a corvette or sloop of war as yet unflagged. It is acting as a merchant ship in my game this Saturday for the Let’s Roll Convention

I had thought about making this a third Xebec but decided I wanted something more flexible. 

I am very happy with how this ship's quarter deck came out. As with all things practice makes perfect.  USS Chesapeake is almost ready to go and USS Constellation is waiting for a few final bits of paint and then rigging.  

AdamC: USS Congress

The Second Ship from you US Fleet Box is the USS Congress built in Portsmouth New Hampshire.  She was one of the original six and was built in New Hampshire because Washington wanted to use the six frigates as a foundation for the navy in more ways than one.  He wanted to spread the know-how and facilities to build warships thought out the country.

The Congress is one of the officially 36-gun but always latter called 38-gun frigates. She is somewhat smaller than her consort the President.  Historically the two ships sailed together often doing two cruises in company during the war of 1812.  The Congress never found an opportunity for a dramatic single ship action but captures several British Merchants and caused the Admiralty no end of anxiety.  The two ships would have been something like the Bismarck and Prince Eugene lose in the North Atlantic except without radar and air search to help out.

Her Figurehead is an American Eagle with a Star above it head and several additional stars tailing from its tail.

Here you can see her stern with her name and coat of arms.  This part is cast in metal and looks very sharp.

The Historic Congress may not have had an exciting battle career but she is off to a good start on the table as fellow AHPC member John Michael took her helm Tuesday night and used her to good effect engaging two French frigates. 

AdamC: Black Seas Gun Boats and work in progress

I recently got the US Navy fleet box, and these are the first fruits of that purchase.

Like everything form the Black Seas line they are lovely little models. I especially liked the sculpted sails.  I did the guns to look like they are brass cannon as these are lighter and this makes a lot of sense for small boats.  

The sculped base is a nice touch thought I would have liked the option to use them individually. 

I thought I would share some of my work in progress three Xebecs and 4 of the "original" 6 US frigates.

From PeterD Anglo-Dutch Wars Dutch Ships

I had these painted up a week ago and planned to post this soon after my English squadron but you know how it goes....

With COVID19 my university lectures got moved to Zoom lectures which took a lot more time planning than my normal stand in front os white board blather on and do examples lectures.  Maybe it's not such a bad thing long term, but my oldometer may be limiting my ability to learn new tricks.  Lectures are now over but I've got two take home final exams to prep a bunch of term projects to mark.  

I've got the following ships ready for posting.  And we will sail on to the sea of Arcania and the Five (yes FIVE) Admiralties that co-existed in  the Dutch Republic until 1795 (when they lost their fleet to French Hussards).  I expect that our Dutch friends will be watching for my inevitable mistakes as I navigate these shoals.

Leading the squadron is the Speigel from the Admiralty of Amsterdam.  She was built in 1663 carried 70 guns and was DeRuyter's flagship for the squadron that DeRuyter took to West Africa and North America just before the start of the Second Dutch War.  She was in thick of the fighting on the first two days of he Four Days' Battle and got sent home in a badly damaged state after the second day. I've given her a (probably) anachronistic triple-X Amsterdam flag at her mainmast.

Next in line is the Noorderkwartier from the Admiralty of the Noorderkwartier (North Quarter) aka the Admiralty of West Friesland based in Hoorn.  She carried 60 guns and was brand new when she served as part of the squadron that DeRuyter took to West Africa and America.   She fought in the Second and Third Wars.  I've given her a West Friesland flag (blue with lions) at her mainmast.

Last we hav two ketches (I think these would be hoeckers in Dutch) Zwolle and Goede Hoop from the Admiralty of the Maas (Rotterdam).  The Goede Hoop was made into a fireship.

The ships are once again Tumbling Die 1/2400 and very nice when assembled.

There was a fair bit of rivalry between the various Admiralties and Dutch fleets tended to have scads of "flag offices" as each Admiralty wanted to make sure that their men got roles.  And of course, the actual squadrons were made up of ships from several Admiralties not serrated into regional fleets.  Quite apart from his tactical brilliance, DeRuyter's other major plus was that he was so well respected that all the factions shut up and listened to him. 

You can see the variety of flags used in the stern view.  I have to touch up some around the edges with finalize black marker.

I've played a little fast and loose on the flags.  The 5 admiralties typically used combinations of the Princes' flag (sideways tricolour) and Triple Princes flag (same thing only  3 times as many stripes) as ensign and jack.  I'm substituting regional flags for each of the five admiralties, some which probably weren't used in the seventeenth century.

From PeterD Anglo Dutch Wars Squadron c1666

I am a bit late off the starting gun with my first post but here goes.  I've got some Tumbling Dice 1/2400 scale ships from their Anglo Dutch Wars range.  This project was meant to be one of my big focuses for the regular challenge but I had issues gluing sails to masts and then got distracted by other projects that weren't as fiddly to assemble.  I think I finally figured out how to assemble these little ships reasonably and hopefully will have more to come in the Quarantine Challenge.

Assembly issues aside (all of which lie between the seat pad and the cutting mat) these are lovely little ships with a nice amount of detail and paint up nicely with a gentle hand.  You can get away with more basic modelling skills vis a vis larger scales and don't need to rigging if you don't want to.  I've been inspired by Barry Hilton's work over at his blog (oh sod that I flat out blame Barry for getting me interested in this period).  Go get lost there to see ships with very nice paint work and rigging.

First up a set of English ships.  Two of these appeared in my later flurry on the last day of the regular challenge, but they've been touched up a bit and given names and flags.

• On the far right leading the line is the second rate Royal Oak, named for Charles II's place of refuge after the battle of Worcester.   She was completed in 1665, heavily engaged as a flagship during the three major battles of the Second Dutch War and then burnt by the Dutch at the Medway fiasco in 1667.
• Next in line is the third rate Monck one of the last tips built under the Commonwealth.  She was named for Cromwell's General at Sea George Monck who basically handed Charles II his throne and become Duke of Albemarle as a result.  Albemarle tag teamed command of the fleet through most of the Second Dutch war with Prince Rupert.  Monck the ship served through the Second and Third Dutch Wars, the Nine Years war and part of the War of Spanish Succession before being rebuilt in 1707.
• Next is the fourth rate Ruby built in 1651 under the Commonwealth to a design that was resumed many times in the English navy.  She served 50 years and fought in 16 major fleet actions.
• Behind Ruby is the fifth rate Colchestor built in 1654 and lost in 1667 fighting the French in Martinique.
• There are also two ketches Nonsuch and Lizard.  Nonsuch is a famous ship in Canada as in 1668 she was sold to Prince Rupert for the expedition that created the Hudson's Bay Company.  Lizard was used a fireship in the action known as Holmes' Bonfire.

Stern view.  I tried to show the detailed galleries but it's a bad photo and angle.

Sailing off to adventure and battle.

I played a little loose with flags on these ships trying to balance historical accuracy, game play and my limited  fine motor skills.  These larger ships were all in the Red Squadron so where red ensigns at the stern, if somewhat oversized.  (My dad could tell you the arcane rules of using of red/blue/white ensigns in modern times but in 1666 it was much easier!)  I've added a Union Jack (again oversize) at the main, apparently this was first used in Charles II reign.  Royal Oak gets an additional red ensign to denote her flag role at her foremast.  The labels include the ship's name, a Union Jack to show nationality and red ensign to show that they are part of the red squadron.