Scratchbuilt Renaissance galleys

[Fire at Will]

They've been a long time coming, but it has been a sequence of stops, starts and odd diversions that didn't work, until I had them close enough to call it a day. First up with Ottoman crews


They take my standard units based on 45mm square bases


A total of 5 bases, one command/crew, three sailors/marines and one gun


The Ottomans can be swapped for European crews


Similar crewing, but not as colourful


I haven't bothered with a rear awning as I haven't worked out how to do it and keep it removable and I'm also not sure whether it would be kept up during combat. If they furl the sails then I would expect the same for the awning.


Basic construction is foamcore, with the edges covered by cardboard then planked, the ram is a left over piece of hard plastic, and the oars just matchsticks. The mast and spar are wooden stakes used for supporting small plants, with a kitchen roll sail. Hopefully I can use them with 28mm figures it it every becomes necessary.

[Peter]

Looks great!

[Wiking]

Matches for use in water ?

Fire at Will wrote:
... sequence of stops, starts and odd diversions that didn't work, until ...

Hm ? Why are these description are sooo well known to me ?


"Reduced to the max."
Nice made ships.

[carlosfaro]

I love this kind of "simple but very effective" projects.
You also thought on versatility (different scaled, different factions)
Which are you plans for them??
Maybe you may share some templates to reproduce your creation at home?

[Minuteman]

I like anything which is scratchbuilt and which 'looks the part', as these galleys do. The 'modular' approach allowing five crew bases to populate the vessel is a good way of approaching this; presumably you could substitute one of the fighting crew bases for another cannon, if you wanted a more heavily-gunned galley?

How many more of these would you need to refight Lepanto? !!

[Fire at Will]

The basic concept came from a small scale version in MDF created by "Skull & Crown" This provided my starting point.


They would be much more suitable for sea battles such as Lepanto, whereas mine are really for coastal operations
More details and ideas on the Skull and Crown blog
http://skullandcrown.blogspot.com/2016/03/galleys-guns-and-glory-assembly.html

[MABO]

Interesting to see!