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Hello! I became the owner of a new KIT for the assembly of galleys from the Russian manufacturer. I know that I will be the first blogger to tell about this model. I hope you will find this interesting and you can ask questions to me or the manufacturer, I think they will be interested in this. The Kit is good because of the large scale 1:48 and quality of the laser cut from wood.(pear) The instruction is only in Russian now, but there are beautiful pictures.

I usually scratch-build RC ship models of the 19thc. Recently, my interests changed to earlier time periods where I have little source material. So, I'm posting here for your help. I've read/viewed some great build logs here of earlier ship types. I hope my efforts may add to that interest. I'll begin to post my research that I need to do to determine what the model will look like. As far as I know, no plans exist of a of Irish Galley c.1580. Historical background: It’s hard to research Irish Maritime history for several reasons. At first glance, you’d think it wouldn’t be. It is an island. Of course, they’d be interested in the water and boats. But, that has not been the case. They are a culture that has been suppressed for over half a millennium. Since English King Henry VIII in the 1500s, Ireland has been under siege and then conquered by a policy called Surrender and Regrant. Later, there was the Plantation Policy by Queens Mary and Elizabeth I. Their language, customs, laws, and certainly history have altered to demoralize them through the filter of a conquered nation. Any state promotion of an anti-English history (which this model represents) was suppressed. And this in turn, lead to a perpetual rebellion against a corrupt authority. One of those rebelling clans was the O’Malley clan in western Ireland in the County of Mayo. In the 1500s and as it had been for many centuries, Western Ireland was the far west of western Europe. So far west, that it was not even conquered by the Romans or Vikings. This gave the Island a longer period of insolation to form their own customs than any other peoples of Europe. Ireland never had the unifying force of the Roman government and army. Various clans ruled and warred amongst themselves for limited control of limited parts of the Ireland. The O’Malley clan was one of those Western clans. They ruled over the baronies of Murrisk and Burishoole. They were somewhat unique in that their power came from a combination of warriors to control land and seafarers to trade and war on the sea. This gave them the ability to trade not only with other clans but also other lands. It’s recorded that they travelled to the ports of England, France, Spain and Portugal. Theirs was no small enterprise. English State Papers record O’Malley maritime activities from the mid-1200s to the early 1600s. Some of their vessels, oared galleys, were recorded to hold 300 warriors. That is a significant size vessel of the 16th century. The most famous of the O’Malley clan leaders, called chieftains, was a woman called Grace O’Malley. She lived from circa 1530 to 1603. It is her life I find the most interesting. Because she grew up when the old Irish customs were still in force in Ireland. But by the time she ruled and for the rest of her life, England was conquering Ireland clan by clan. Usually, it a was a process of the superior English power making deals by granting money and titles to those who would submit to them with the least effort. Often clan was pitted against clan with the backing of English power on one side. In the midst of this upheaval, Grace refused to submit her clan to this transition and warred on land and sea against the English. She is called in English State Papers as a “nurse of all rebellions”. The clan motto in Latin, a common language of the educated in the period, proclaims their importance with Terra Marique Potens. This means Powerful By Land and Sea. The vessel: It is stated many times that this clan used galleys or oared rowing craft. But, what type and how large? Surely a clan that was known for ‘piracy’ by the English were not using the same vessels for trade and warring. ...more next time.

1:72 La Real Dusek Ship Kits Catalogue # D015 Available from Dusek Ship Kits for 409€ La Real was a Spanish galley and the flagship of Don John of Austria in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, the largest battle between galleys in history. She was built in Barcelona at the Royal Shipyard and was the largest galley of its time. Real was usually the designation of the flagship in a particular Spanish fleet and was not necessarily the actual name of the ship. Almirante was the designation of the ship of the 2nd in command, others with a specific command function were patrona/padrona and lanterna. The galley was 60 metres (200 ft) long and 6.2 metres (20 ft) wide, had two masts, and weighed 237 tons empty. It was equipped with three heavy and six light artillery pieces, was propelled by a total of 290 rowers and, in addition, carried some 400 sailors and soldiers at Lepanto. 50 men were posted on the upper deck of the forecastle, 50 on the midships ramp, another 50 each along the sides at the bow, 50 each on the skiff and oven platforms, 50 on the firing steps along the sides near the stern, and 50 more on the stern platform behind the huge battle flag. To help move and manoeuvre the huge ship, it was pushed from the rear during the battle by two other galleys. As befitting a royal flagship, it was luxuriously ornamented and painted in the red and gold colours of Spain. Its poop was elaborately carved and painted with numerous sculptures, bas-reliefs, paintings and other embellishments, most of them evoking religious and humanistic inspirational themes. Photo by author, Barcelona, 2006 The Battle of Lepanto in 1571 saw Juan of Austria's fleet of the Holy League, an alliance of Christian powers of the Mediterranean, decisively defeat an Ottoman fleet under Grand Admiral ("Kaptan-ı Derya") Müezzinzade Ali Pasha. La Real and the Turkish galley Sultana, flagship of Ali Pacha, engaged in direct deck-to-deck combat very soon after the start of the battle. Sultana was boarded and after about one hour of bloody fighting, with reinforcements being supplied to both ships by supporting galleys of the two respective fleets, captured. Ali Pacha was wounded by musket fire, fell to the deck, and was beheaded by a Spanish soldier. His head was displayed on a pike, severely affecting the morale of his troops. Real captured the "Great Flag of the Caliphs" and became a symbol of the victory at Lepanto. The kit Dusek’s La Real is packaged into a long, very sturdy and attractive box with a nice glossy-finish lid which depicts a completed model of this famous galley, along with finished dimensions. The side panels also contain a further four smaller detail shots of the finished model. Lifting the lid reveals a clear plastic compartmented tray containing rigging cord, resin and fittings etc. Also seen at first look are the bundles of strip-wood and dowel, sailcloth pack, bundle of plans with a flag sheet, and lurking underneath are the timber sheets, wrapped in white plastic sheet. The hull of La Real is double-planked, and our first bundle of timber is for the first planking layer and deck planking, with there being 50 lengths of 2mm x 5mm limewood. Material quality is first rate, with nice, clean cutting, no split or frayed edges and all material being uniform. Also, all timber bundles are held together with elastic bands and these aren’t too tight as to deform the timber. A smaller bundle contains various diameters of Ramin dowel. The material is uniform, straight and again of a high quality. A few lengths of loose dowel are also found within the box, of varying lengths, and also machined from the same quality of Ramin as the previous bundle. Whilst on the subject of dowel, take a look at this little bundle! Here we have 61 lengths of 3mm Ramin dowel. These are for the 60 oars, so a spare piece is given. You will need to taper and shape each of these parts identically, so you could ideally make use of a lathe, if possible. This bundle of timber strip is produced from walnut and caters to the second planking layer for the hull. Colour is mostly uniform, but not all due to the nature of timber, so lay these accordingly. As with the first planking, these are beautifully cut with no fluffy or broken edges. With all other materials removed from the box, you’ll note the rest of the sheet material is wrapped in a sort of thick, white clingfilm material which needs to be peeled open to reveal the contents. Inside this wrap we have all of the laser-cut timber sheets including those manufactured from ply, walnut and pearwood. A real joy to see the latter included in an off-the-shelf kit. Here we see sections for the keel, laser-cut in walnut, along with some fine laser-etched details which are quite common to this release. This sheet is either Ramin or limewood and contains a lot of parts pertaining to the rower areas, as well as the hoops which form the covered section at the stern of the galley, plus the small launch. All parts are packed in very tightly on this sheet, to the point where there are practically touching each other. Save to say there will be little material waste here! Of course, you will need to remove char from all laser-cut parts, and there are some minimal, localised heat-affected areas which should be easy to sand from the surface before you begin to remove parts. It’s worth mentioning at this stage that no parts have numbers on or adjacent to them. There are two sheets of illustrations which map out the parts for you and number them accordingly, so you will need to keep referring to this during construction. A walnut sheet contains further parts that are laser-etched. When you have sealed these, you will need to either paint them gold or, if you have the ability, gold-leaf them yourself. As with the previous sheet, many parts are quite tightly packed on this sheet. There are FOUR sheets of laser-cut and occasionally engraved pearwood here. These are very thin sheets, almost to the point of being veneer, and they are crisply cut with nice, minimal tags for removing the components. The long straight lengths you see are veneers for the deck planking. One large sheet of 3mm ply contains all of the bulkheads and false keel for this vessel. Note that the false keel is in two sections that are linked with a dovetail joint. Also, the bulkheads have two holes in them to accommodate the dowels that will pass through them and help to make the narrow hull all that more rigid. What is quite unusual here is that the bulkheads slip onto the false keel from underneath, defying convention. Like other contemporary kits, this one contains a clear plastic tray and a lid, used to house the smaller kit components. Extensive use of resin has been made here to produce the various rails and features that contain carvings. These look exquisite and underneath gold paint, will look simply superb and very indicative of the gilded ornamentation of La Real. All resin parts, including the anchors, will need to be carefully sawn from their respective casting blocks and then cleaned up before use. It’s also a good idea to wash resin before use, to clean off any residual mould-release agent that could stop paint adhering. Casting is excellent with no visible flaw or defect that I can see. Also in resin are come parts for the stern lanterns and cooking pots etc. Cast in white metal are the cannon, etc. The finish is very good with just minimal seams that will need to be filed away. A small fret of photo-etch metal is included for their embellishments. As well as a length of fine brass wire, here we see a pack containing chain, parrel beads and various eyelets. Looking at the rigging blocks, these look perfectly acceptable in terms of quality, with them looking uniform and having nicely drilled holes and machined slots. Four spools of rigging cord in three colours and three diameters, are supplied. Along with this is a thicker length of rope and a length of blue cord. As is de rigueur these days, a fret of photo-etch parts is included, with parts for the observation top, name plates, dead eye fittings, rudder hinges, to name but a few. Etch quality is excellent, but the connection tags are quite wide, so be careful when it comes to removing the parts, as there will undoubtedly be some clean-up required. A pack of sail cloth is included for you to make your own sails, and illustrations are included as to how these will be made, including sewing in a bolt rope to the edges. Whilst the sails on this model are quite large, there is ample material here to make them. Flags are supplied as prints on a sheet of a material which looks like cloth but is slightly plastic in feel. These just need to be cut out and draped to suit. They are very thin so making them look natural should be an absolute cinch. Print quality is very good too and they most certainly look very attractive. FIVE sheets of plans are included with a LOT of illustrative info supplied. You really will need to study these as La Real isn’t a model for a beginner and deciphering the various sectionals will be vital to get the most from your purchase. Every single facet of construction is shown in super detail, with key areas being shown as separate areas of detail. All rigging and masting is shown in detail, with the galley being relatively simple in comparison to a Man ‘o War of the same or later period. Sheets appear to be A0 in size, so you’ll need some bench space! Two double-sided A3 sheets show the parts maps for everything, including the photo-etch sheet. An instruction booklet takes each main step and gives some simple text to guide you on your way. A complete parts list is also included here. Conclusion La Real and her place in time, for me, have always conjured up an image of a quasi-obsolete military marine technology that had its heyday during classical Roman and Greek times. The juxtaposition it creates when you consider that the Battle of Lepanto took place whilst other European countries were sailing Galleons, really tends to put things into perspective, yet La Real and her contemporaries were fighting against an empire which was creating an existential crisis in Europe, and they won the day. This elegant vessel has been immaculately recreated first in Barcelona in 1971, and now in kit-form by Dusek Ship Kits. This is a kit of superbly high quality and with a refined excellence in design execution, using some of the finest timbers I’ve seen in an off-the-shelf kit, such as sheet pearwood, walnut etc. The pearwood sheets are almost veneer-like in how thin they are, yet still have that laser-engraved etch detail. Superb. I also very much like the resin castings for the anchors and sculptures/rails. I know that resin isn’t generally seen by model shipwrights as a legitimate material, but it works very well and provides the modeller with details that they either wouldn’t be able to recreate at all or would need to use a more 2D photo-etch to simulate. Remember, we saw resin in Amati’s HMS Vanguard that we reviewed HERE. I’m quite used to this material from my plastic modelling time and know how good it can look when used. Dusek Ship Kits’ La Real is an absolute gem of a kit and when complete, its intricacies with all of those rowing positions and the multitude of other small details in décor and fitments, will doubtless result in a really beautiful finished model of this famous vessel. My sincere thanks to Dusek Ship Kits for the review kit seen in this article. This model is available right now from Dusek, so click the link at the top of the article and remember to tell them you read about it on MSW.

1:72 Ragusian Galley 18thCentury MarisStella Available from MarisStella for €147 plus shipping The Republic of Ragusa was a maritime republic centred on the city of Dubrovnik (Ragusa in Italian, German and Latin; Raguse in French) in Dalmatia (today in southernmost Croatia) that carried that name from 1358 until 1808. It reached its commercial peak in the 15th and the 16th centuries, before being conquered by Napoleon's French Empire and formally annexed by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1808. It had a population of about 30,000 people, out of whom 5,000 lived within the city walls. Its Latin motto was "Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro", which means "Liberty is not well sold for all the gold". The Dubrovnik galley was an integral part of Dubrovnik's war fleet, which in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, had only a few small warships (at most ten), operated solely because of frequent harassment and looting by pirates and cargo ships at that time. The Galleys were stationed in Dubrovnik and Mali Ston. Other Croatian coastal centres had this type of ship, along the eastern Adriatic coast: Kotor, Omis, Senj, and others. The Dubrovnik galley was driven by both wind and rowers (Galiot), who were both sailors and soldiers, as was appropriate, but there were also condemned criminals that rowed the State ships. Their main feature was their speed, and they were used for military, police and customs purposes, courier services, and for the transport of diplomats and senior civil servants. They were also used for the transportation of goods at the expense of the State. The kit MarisStella’s kit range is currently undergoing an upgrade, and most certainly in terms of their boxing. This one comes to me in its original incarnation, with a deep midnight blue thin card lid with all printing and imagery in gold ink. This does look quite stark but very attractive. I’m told that the new appearance will have finished model imagery on the box. MarisStella have said they will send over examples of the upgraded kits for us to look at on MSW, so we’ll get to see those changes first-hand in the next months. This release comes in a fairly weighty box, and lifting the lid off, we are first presented with a product leaflet, sheet of printed flags and a thick 122-page manual which is spiral-bound. All of these items sit on a cardboard tray which when lifted out, reveals the kit materials below. A large cardboard cover first needs to be lifted out to access the kit itself. Inside, several bundles of timber and dowel sit on top of two laser-cut sheets of plywood for the main bulkhead and keel construction, two sheets of laser-cut walnut, several fittings packets, another very thin sheet of laser-cut ply, one fret of photo-etch brass parts, pre-sewn sails, and a packet of rigging cord. Apart from the main sheets of ply and the timber bundles, all other elements within this kit are packed into clear sleeves that are either stapled closed or heat-sealed. My sample arrived with everything in good order. This POB model is designed very traditionally and is constructed around a 3-part false keel and a set of 15 bulkheads. The ply used for this is 4mm thick, and like all other parts on the main two constructional ply sheets, everything is very cleanly laser-cut, with an absolute minimum of scorching. One thing I noticed on all of the ply sheets is the laser-engraving and marking of where other components will fit to. I quite like this approach as it helps to ensure correct and precise construction throughout. That engraving has also been put to good use on the display stand elements that can be seen on these two sheets. These are also supplied in English, Italian and Croatian text, and contain a little engraved scroll work. You may opt for something a little glitzier with your build, but then again you may be perfectly happy with the parts that MarisStella provide here. In between the various bulkheads, some 8mm² lengths of lime have been included that can be cut to length and wedged in to keep everything straight. I believe some of the other kits have lengths of dowel which slot continuously through the bulkheads. I would’ve liked to have seen similar here, but at least the timber is included. It is also suggested that this material be cut up and used to create the bow and stern filler blocks, although you might like to use balsa for this purpose. Two sheets of walnut are supplied, one of which (the narrower and thicker sheet) contains the keel components. Although you will need to cut the rabbet into these, the positions for this are engraved onto the parts and the manual clearly shows how this is done. The other walnut sheet is lighter in colour and thinner than the previous, containing parts for the gun carriages, rail cap strips, cabin bulkhead, and transom, channels etc. Again, and where appropriate, more engraving is present for constructional accuracy. All walnut sheet timber is of high quality with good grain that shouldn’t split etc. A very thin sheet of birch ply is included for the head rails, transom and cabin door detail etc. All strip stock in this kit is also of the same standard, with numerous bundles of timbers of different sizes and types, including European Walnut for the hull planking. There is some natural variation in the colour of the walnut planks, so I would look at possibly grouping them, so wood of the same tone is used the same for both sides. This model also has a single-planked hull, unlike the double-planked that we so commonly see these days. However, the deck is double-planked, and the planks sit directly atop of the bulkheads, with no thin ply deck to lay first. The second layer of deck planking is supplied as beech strips. Various lengths and diameters of dowel are included, and all supplied in walnut. These are tightly grained and have excellent natural colour. This is one model that really would benefit from having sails fitted, just to highlight the elegance of the shape. A feature of MarisStella kits is that the sail material is pre-sewn. By this, I mean that the shapes are lightly printed to a piece of pre-aged sheet and the inner stitched lines are present. All you need to do is to cut out the sails and sew the outer edges. Sail colour is akin to natural linen and looks good to use without any further ageing trickery. Two anchor packs are included. These contain a metal anchor that is painted black, a separate walnut stock, and some brass bandings that would look nice if they were also blackened. Another pack contains 3-eye rigging blocks, single blocks, eyelets, belaying pins, and parrel beads. There is some colour variation in the block colour and all look to be made from walnut. One length of 1mm brass wire is included in one fittings pack, as are two 4mm cannon for the bow. These are finished with an antique patina and may benefit from being blackened in some way. I would use Gunze Dark Iron paint which is then burnished to an iron finish. A reasonably thick sheet of photo-etch parts is also included, containing head rail decoration, transom decoration, rudder straps etc. Quality is again excellent, with reasonably thin tags to remove the parts from their positions. Tag positions are the only clean-up that will be required with these parts. A single packet is included that contains four spools of natural finish rigging cord in 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1mm diameters. One length of 1.25mm is included separately, as is a 1mm length of black rope. Every vessel of course needs a flag and both this and a pennant are supplied here, laser-printed in colour onto paper. You’ll need to furl these realistically and they could’ve done with been thinner, possibly from tissue paper, but will still look very attractive when flown. Instructions This 121-page spiral-bound A4 manual also has a clear plastic cover to protect it. Each of the constructional stages are illustrated by generally uncluttered CAD line drawings that are annotated in English, Italian and Croatian. Some drawing details are a little small, such as the eyelet positions, footplates etc. so maybe magnify those a little. A very comprehensive section on making the sails is also included. Illustrated construction takes place over 83 pages, and this is then followed by the building instruction text and list of parts. Plan A large single sheet plan is included that contains pretty much every dimension/measurement you'll need and the line drawing quality is excellent. To prevent any piracy, I have only included a portion of that plan here, with no bulkhead shapes. Conclusion A very nice kit of a very unusual subject. I’ve seen so many model ships of antiquity, but this is one that seems to bridge the gap by being of a generally ancient style, whilst being an 18thCentury vessel. MarisStella’s design is nice and easy to follow and is coupled with high quality materials and drawings. In all, an excellent package that will provide many hours of pleasure for a very reasonable price. As this is single-planked, I would recommend this to intermediate modellers. My sincere thanks to MarisStella for sending this kit out for review on Model Ship World. To purchase directly, click the link at the top of the page, or head over to your local MarisStella stockist.

Hi everyone I am wondering if someone knows the best place to get a brass or any metal galley chimney /stack / flue / ventilator / funnel that I can add to my little revenue cutter. Stack should be like 3/4" length tops at 1/64 scale. Havent seen too many of themthey seem surprisingly hard to come by so maybe one of you knows a decent company or version that may have them. I already checked corwall uk. Closest Ive seen is this one below. Charlie

Hi everyone! I've just started my third model ship, a scratch-built Roman quadrireme, as the title says. The model is in 1/48 scale, and will have a total length of 40 inches. It will be constructed mostly of basswood, but it will be stained and sealed to eliminate any unsightly fuzziness. Additionally, a sizable portion of the hull on the starboard side will be left un-planked, in order to show the inside of the ship. I'm basing my model primarily on drawings by John F. Coats, the naval architect who designed the reconstruction of the trireme Olympias. However, he apparently never drew a reconstruction of this particular type of ship. Anyways, I'm hoping to end up with something that looks sort of like this: But, unfortunately, this isn't actually a J.F. Coats drawing; it's based on several of his drawings, but it was created by someone on another forum. Even more problematically, it gives only one cross-section, and no top view. So, for the hull, I am using this drawing of a Roman quinquereme: I also prefer this hull form, which lacks the odd projection at the front, where the ram is mounted. Due to the lack of concrete historical evidence about these ships, I have a considerable amount of leeway with this sort of thing. And, since I don't have a real set of plans, a lot of this build is going to be based on other models, illustrations, and books. So far, I haven't done much besides the keel, which, as you can see, is much simpler in its construction than that of a later sailing ship. To give a sense of scale, the keel stock is 1/8x3/16". (Don't worry, my sloppy pencil marking next to the cut will be sanded off. ) It isn't perfectly aligned with the plans in these photos, but the curves do match up. I've also completed most of the curved stern section of the keel, but I haven't got a photo handy right now. I'll try an update this log with some degree of regularity, but it all depends on my progress, of course! In the mean time, comments, questions, and especially suggestions are welcome! By the way, for those who may be interested, photos of my previous model ship can be found in the MWS gallery here. Thanks for looking! Sharpie

Background It has been suggested that I should post a retrospective build log for my diorama of the sinking of the US gondola Philadelphia during the Battle of Valcour Island, Lake Champlain, in 1776. The final result is shown under “Diorama” in the gallery of completed scratch builds. A retrospective log may be unusual, but I hope that there are one or two ideas that others may find useful. If too many people get fed up with it, I’m sure they’ll tell me. The story started when I saw the Philadelphia in the Smithsonian in Washington DC. Although she sank in 1776, she was recovered in 1935 and is now on display, complete with the 24pdr British cannon ball that sank her. The Smithsonian has published a set of plans which I obtained (with some difficulty!)... .....but Philadelphia is a pretty basic and crudely built barge, and I decided that it wouldn’t make a very interesting model on its own. However, there is a modern painting by Earnest Haas of the US galley Washington standing by the Philadelphia and taking off the crew (Photo 4), and it struck me that this would form a good diorama. Washington was captured later in the battle, and the Admiralty, as was common practice, took off her lines. The draft is now in the National Maritime Museum in UK, and has been reproduced in a number of books. (I should add that my model was built before NRG published the plans for Washington). Although both vessels were small (Philadelphia is 53’7” OAL and Washington was about 80’ OAL), I have run out of room for large glass cases, so I decided on a scale of 1:144. (......to be continued)

Properly the name should be Αφροδίτης, but I didn't want to upset the sorting feature. As the title says, this ship is an Akatos, a type of ancient Greek merchant galley propelled by forty oars and a sail. The model is based on the ship in Harry Turtledove's (writing as H.N. Turtletaub) Hellenic Traders series, a series of excellent and very detailed historical novels set in the mediterranean in 311-308 B.C. I will be deviating somewhat from the books' descriptions of the ship, mostly for practical reasons. Currently I'm about 1/4 of the way into the build, so there will be a bit of catching up to do. Here goes! This should give a rough idea of what I'm going for. To give credit where credit is due, it's actually a modified version of this image, which I used for my trireme build: http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/war/images/TriremePlan1.jpg The sail shown here is considerably different from what will actually be going on the model-- more on that later. The earliest I thought to start taking pictures was after I had glued all of the lower frames onto the keel. The lower frames extend from the false keel up to the waterline. The upper frames will be placed in between the lower frames, overlapping with the curve of the lower frames and continuing it up to the gunwales. (Please let me know if I'm using any of these terms incorrectly, or just not making any sense! ) Here you can get a better idea of the shape of the lower frames. To be continued...