I’ve always fancied having a go at sailing ships, but never had the time.  Back in 2005 our local club decided to recreate the Battle of Trafalgar at the Ulster Museum. This entailed buying about 4 ships each, painting, rigging and basing them, them turning up on the day. Now I have never done any sailing ship modeling or painting, but I had a go, and was pleasantly surprised at the results.  Here follows a few pictures of the ships under construction and finished. I’m quite proud of them!

Stuck to a wooden strip, undercoated in black and then painted white with red gun ports and gold stern, this is the good ship Pluton.  I kept the masts black (tar covered) and didn’t go to too much trouble on the details. Sails were painted white, dry brushed brown, with a little detailed added with a fine brush.

The rigging was a real pain, but has a rhythm to it. Once you have done one ship, the others seem to fall into place

And here she is, in as much of her glory as I could paint on to her!

Also provided for the battle by me where the Achille, Victory and Redoubtable. Pictures below.

HMS Achille

HMS Victory

The Redoubtable

You will probably note that only the Reboutable has rat lines. Having put them on and realising how much of the rigging they obscured, I decided to leave them off the other ships.  I don’t think this omission jars the eye, and it does show off the mind numbing, tedious rigging to good effect.  If I spent hours doing it, you can be sure I’m going to make sure someone can see it.