Carraca Atlantica by Dripaj

[Dripaj]

Hello, encouraged by Kikatinalongs i will submit my own build log of a carrack. I had the fortune to buy it at an auction for the equivalent of 20 $. Although not complete and lacking plans. I bought the plan from cornwall model boats. From start my intension was to use the wood as spare. The big con with my kit, which is quite old probably at least 30 years old, is the quality of metal casting. It is brittle and badly cast. From a personal view i think it quite ugly. Looks like someone put a caravan on top of a lumberyard. Mamoli did not bother to check how guns or windlass were constructed in the 16th century. 

Based on that i decided to make my own interpretation of a 16th century ship. Could possibly look like something sailing in the baltic sea.

[Dripaj]

I built new gun carriges. Supplied carriges (if they had not dissintegrated when handled) represent a typr not yet present when this ship was used. 

[Dripaj]

Discarded the supplied frames of metal and made new ones from sticks normally used for stirring coffee

[Dripaj]

I decided to get rid of the balconies. All that extraterrestial scaffolding gave the impression of a medival century of the seas cruiser. I also decided not to follow one of my guidelines, check everything 3 times before glue and managed to put one of the pieces which shape the stern in the wrong place. Well, since I never was especialy fond of the shape i filed and sanded it down to a flat stern. All this makes it obvious that I mainly make it up as I go along.

 

 

[Kikatinalong]

Well I had to come along and have a look, very nice work so far, and I'm not surprised at all that u have decided to make it up as u go along, the only thing metal that's of any use are the cannons and anchors in my and others opinions. 

Looking forward to seeing how it moves along 

Cheers 

Peter 

[Louie da fly]

On 5/6/2020 at 5:23 AM, Dripaj said:

I decided to get rid of the balconies. All that extraterrestial scaffolding gave the impression of a medival century of the seas cruiser.

Quite right. There's absolutely no historical justification for these structures in the 15th or early 16th centuries - nothing like these came into use until the late 16th/early 17th. I pointed this out to Kikatinalong (g'day, mate!) when he was doing his own build and he agreed with me and got rid of them. Good thing, too. Dripaj, I'm not sure if you've seen my collection of carrack pics on Pinterest, but you might find them useful in your build - see https://au.pinterest.com/lowe1847/carracks/ . From contemporary pictures, I'd say the configuration you're adopting for your carrack would be be appropriate for a vessel from some time after 1510-1520. You might find those gun carriages are pretty close to right for that period - have a look at the ones I made for my Great Harry, based on carriages recovered in the 19th century from the Mary Rose (sank 1545) -

 

post #97 at 

 . Tartane has also done a very nice full-sized reproduction at 

 

And yes, the metal castings are pretty crappy. The figurehead looks like a mutant duck . . . 

 

Steven