Ye Olde Shyppes

16th Century Ships in 1/2400

I thought I'd share a project I've had bubbling away on the back burner for the past 18 months or so. The Cowdray engraving, pictured above, depicts the Battle of the Solent in 1545. The view is from the North looking  towards the Isle of Wight, with Southsea castle pictured and Henry VIII in the centre foreground. Out to sea the Mary Rose has just heeled over in a gust of wind and sunk. Immediately above and to the right is the huge Henry Grace a Dieu, or Great Harry, leading the English fleet to chase away the French galleys that have been harassing them while at anchor.

I wanted to see if it was possible to cobble together some fleets for this era using models from the Spanish Armada ranges of Tumbling Dice and Figurehead. In the process I ended up going off on a tangent and concentrating on the later 1588 period instead, but at some point I'll be returning to the campaigns of Henry VIII and Francis I.

Looking North, with the English on the left and the French on the right.

 English 1545

The two large warships are TD's ASD10 Small Carrack and ASD11 Great Ship Henri Grace a Dieu. The "small" carrack is actually quite large, perhaps because it's meant to be an Armada-period urca or hulk, but also because TD's ships seem to be a little over true 1/2400 scale to my eyes. I think I'll be using it for all warships around 350-600 tons. The Great Ship speaks for itself. It's a bit of a strange model and bears only a passing resemblance to the Great Harry, but it paints up nicely enough and will be good for all nations' great ships, from 1000 tons upward.

The smaller ships are a mixture. The four in the centre are TD's ASD8 Square Rigged Caravel which make excellent small warships or armed merchants. In fact they'll be useful for the 17th Century as well. The other small ships are Figurehead: the two larger ones are FR33 Large Pinnace / English Galleass x2, and the four tiny ones are FR21 Small Pinnace x4 (no sniggering at the back there).

The Figurehead English galleasses are nice, but too small up next to the TD models. They make good rowbarges and general auxiliary vessels, but I still haven't found anything in either range that looks right as a galleasse.

French 1545

The large warship, top left, is TD's ASD9 Large Carrack. I think it'll work for all ships around 700-1000 tons (such as the Mary Rose).

The two smaller carracks, bottom right, are Figurehead's FR10 Great Harry and FR11 Santa Catherina. Nice models, but the scale problem is evident if you look too closely and count the gunports!

The four very small ships are FR6 Carrack x4, useful as small armed merchants.

The galleys are also Figurehead, which I have to say I much prefer over the TD galleys, and which look fine scale-wise next to the TD carracks.

English 1588

All TD race-built galleon (RBG) models, codes ASD12-15. These are good for all the royal ships. For the armed merchants I'll be using mostly ASD12 Small RBG, some of the previously mentioned ASD8 Square rigged caravels, and perhaps the occasional ASD13 Medium RBG. Some clear labelling will be required to distinguish the models that overlap.

Spanish 1588

All TD galleon models with the exception of the ship at the far back which is Figurehead FR5 Great Carrack (Knights of St John). I need to add a bunch of carracks to serve as hulks, but I'm thinking I may paint and flag those as French ships for the earlier period. Either that, or just speed paint a load of generic carracks without flags, so they can be used for any nation according to scenario.

Figurehead Price Increases

When I bought some of the Figurehead ships they were generally £3.75 a pack, which was expensive even then. Sometime recently the prices were hiked to a whopping £5.50. I understand the commercial need to raise prices from time to time to meet rising costs & inflation etc., but 47% feels a bit cheeky. To be fair, TD mostly charge £2.40 for a single ship, while some of the Figurehead packs contain 2 ships. Overall though, there's no doubt that while the Figurehead models are beautifully sculpted and detailed, TD's represent much better value for money. I'm glad I bought a decent selection of galleys before the price increase.

Another point in TD's favour is that the models are robust. Figurehead's are cast in a soft metal, great for fine detail, but it means the masts get bent out of shape with even gentle handling.

And Finally... Ye Olde Buildings

While I'm here - here are some work-in-progress shots of the Brigade Models buildings. Although meant to be about 1/1000 or so, they work fine with 1/2400, perhaps because we're not used to gauging the size of a galleon next to a building in real life. These still have to be based and need a few finishing touches.

Medieval village painted in Tudor style, with a church and a small farm.

Farms.