Thursday, 11 June 2015

Galleys and Galleons [22]


I assembled the 1/500th scale Heller plastic kit of Le Superbe this evening to see how it matched up against the 1/450th scale Peter Pig pirate ships. The kit went together quite easily even though I had to cut it down to the waterline and shave off all the underscale deck cannons, which I may replace with Peter Pig metal guns and crew or just leave off entirely. I was planning to use the model as a very large merchant flagship for the pirates to capture, so the guns are not essential.


The hull itself is masssive but not at all out of scale with the metal pirate ships, one of which I've parked alongside for comparison, although I have yet to add a base and sea texture. The sails and masts are, however, even more enormous and tower over the ones on the adjacent medium sized warship model. They are also a bit flimsy and could well break off if handled without care, so I'll probably replace them with a more sturdy and scaled down set of masts, spars and sails, so that they are more in scale with the other ships in the fleet.


One way to do this would be to remove the lower sail on each mast and re-model it as a furled sail, then cut down the masts so that the whole lot drops down in overall height. At the moment the masts are detachable so I coulld easily use them as a template for construction of some replacements in brass or thicker plastic rod, then reattach the modified sails and rigging to fit. It's quite a lot of work and probably a bit fiddly but it would give me a very impressive centrepiece for a boarding action scenario.

3 comments:

  1. That is a big old ship right there! I am amazed at the scale variability I have seen in different naval ranges.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Big ship Jim.
    Will there be painted ships for Tuesday?
    Gary

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ummm...not much of a chance but I will have a nicely painted fort and some gun batteries, if I can find the time.

    ReplyDelete

Labels

Bag The Hun (858) Books (503) AK47 (499) Ironclads (492) Wings at War (417) Pre-Dreadnoughts (244) Back of Beyond (242) Coastal Warfare (225) Napoleonic Naval (201) Britain's Small Wars (199) Bolt Action (175) Victory at Sea (172) What a Tanker (171) Knights of the Sky (166) Target Locked On (163) MiG Alley (160) Chain of Command (149) Old West (147) Find Fix and Strike (138) Bag The MiG (127) Naval Thunder (120) Sandbox Skirmish (119) Naval Command (118) Air War Over Khalkhin Gol (117) Pirates (117) Indo China / Vietnam (115) Fistful of Lead (109) 15mm Sci-Fi / Near Future (95) Darkest Africa (91) VBCW (89) Strength and Honour (87) Continuation War (84) Ancients (81) Shows (79) ACW (77) The Football War (76) Corsairs and Cavaliers (71) Boardgames (67) France's Small Wars (67) Shipwreck! (66) BKC (65) Rapid Fire (63) Saurian Safari (62) Air War C21 (60) Cruel Seas (60) Journals (60) Saga (60) The Men Who Would Be Kings (58) Nimitz (55) Flashpoint Alto Cenepa (53) IABSM (53) International Naval Wargaming Day (53) Gladiators (51) Flashpoint Taiwan (50) Finest Hour (49) Fortifications (47) Red Actions! (47) One Hour Wargames (46) Scramble for Britain (45) Flashpoint Baltic (42) Duel of Aces (41) Flames above the Falklands (40) War of the Pacific (40) Cold War (39) 2mm English Civil War (38) Thud Ridge (37) SCW (36) Desert Spitfires (35) Death in the Dark Continent (34) RCW (34) Algernon Pulls It Off (32) Atlantic Wall (31) English Civil War / Anglo Dutch War Naval (31) Lion Rampant (31) Post Apocalypse (31) Iron Cow (30) Bag the Springbok (29) Mexican Revolution (28) Normandy Firefight (28) Dreadnoughts (27) Full Thrust (27) It Rolls For Ivan (26) Bulldogs Away! (24) Samurai (24) Jet Knights of the Sky (23) 28mm English Civil War (22) Arctic Eagles (22) Imaginations (22) Achtung Kommando! (21) Flashpoint PVO (21) Ancient Naval (20) PITS (20) Galactic Heroes (19) Steamer Wars (19) Strontium Dog (19) Iron Cross (18) Winter War (18) Aeronef (15) Aircraft (15) Imperial Commander (15) Rate of Fire (15) Zulus! (15) Aliens (14) Dragon Rampant (14) Black Ops (13) CY6 Jet Age (13) Congo (13) Mad for War (13) Impetus (12) Wars of Insurgency (12) Flashpoint Fleet Air Arm (11) Gaslands (11) Sharp Practice (11) 633 Squadron (10) Bohica (10) Franco Thai Air War (10) Get the Goeben! (10) Jungle Green (10) 28mm Future Wars (9) Dux Britanniarum (9) Fire in the Sky (9) HYW (9) Merry Xmas Mr Sankara (9) Portable Pike and Shot (9) Adventures in Jimland (8) Bombers over Germany (8) Cry Havoc (8) French Indian Wars (8) Renaissance Naval (8) Star Wars Legion (8) Sword and Spear (8) Through The Mud and Blood (8) Air War Angola (7) Frostgrave (7) Lacquered Coffins (7) Target for Tonight (7) A Mighty Fortress (6) AirWar:1918 (6) Five Parsecs From Home (6) French Resistance (6) Check Your Six! (5) Five Men at Kursk (5) Fivecore Skirmish (5) Maurice (5) Seven Days to the River Rhine (5) Three Musketeers (5) What a Cowboy (5) Wings Over Suez (5) Arab Revolt (4) Corvette Command (4) In Her Majesty's Name (4) Infamy Infamy (4) Medieval Naval (4) Never Mind The Billhooks (4) Battletech (3) Blood Red Skies (3) Gangsters (3) HOTT (3) Hind Commander (3) Lord of the Sea (3) Luft 46 (3) Mourir Pour l'Indochine (3) Sturmovik Commander (3) Whispering Death (3) Chincha Islands War (2) Crom (2) Disposable Heroes (2) Fire and Steel (2) Fivecore Company Command (2) Iron Stars (2) Judge Dredd (2) Lethal Skies (2) NUTS! (2) No Go Zone (2) Pulp! (2) Starfighters! (2) War in El Dorado (2) A Billion Suns (1) Air War 1940 (1) Battlegroup (1) Black Powder (1) Convoy (1) Dropzone Commander (1) Falklands War (1) Harpoon (1) If The Lord Spares Us (1) Indo-Pakistan War (1) Load and Return (1) MiG Hunters (1) Missile Threat (1) Missiles at Sea (1) Nam '68 (1) Naval Wargames Society (1) Norway 1940 (1) Oi Navarcoi! (1) Sea Wars Fleet Actions (1) Si Vis Pacem (1) Spanish American War (1) Sunray is Down (1) Ultracombat Normandy (1) Wars of the Roses (1) Xenos Rampant (1)