Le Chebec Requin 1751 by Ferrus Manus - Heller - 1/50

[Ferrus Manus]

After I finished my Reale, I imagined a world where I could make another large lateener without having the hassle of dealing with poorly molded parts and excessive numbers of oars and oar-related parts- a proper sailer, properly armed, properly rigged, and properly good looking. Well, today, the ship I imagined showed up on my doorstep. 

The chebec was the galley's last breath- a final, hail-mary attempt to remain relevant in the age of the gun. Probably developed in North Africa or the Middle East, the chebec was the perfect weapon of the Barbary Pirates. It was a sleek, fast, nimble sailer that could rapidly approach a large square-rigged merchantman, hold them up, and make off with the stolen goods with authorities being none the wiser. it was so bad, in fact, that the major navies of the Northern Mediterranean built their own chebecs as an anti-piracy weapon. 

The kit is so well thought out that I might not even replace the kit blocks, just add more for the ship's gun tackles. I will have to do some research on rigging, but overall, it is an extremely well-made kit especially by Heller standards. I got it on eBay where there are several listings of this same kit, for maybe half of what it would be worth unopened. The kit is complete and unstarted, and I want it to look like this when complete: 

Shall we begin? 

 

Edited Saturday at 01:34 AM by Ferrus Manus

[Ferrus Manus]

Let's start off this build by getting the ship's boat out of the way. 

Interestingly enough, Heller has a kit called La Sardane, which I thought, until now, depicted a 17th century ship's boat. In reality, it's a repackaging of the Requin's boat plus some sails, yards and masts. As per the sprue label, the boat is known as a chaloupe. This is likely the direct French translation of the English word shallop, meaning a small boat/ship's boat, especially in the context of 16th and 17th century maritime terminology. 1751 seems a bit late to call a ship's boat a shallop. By that time, at least in the English-speaking world, ship's boats had individual names based on form and intended role (pinnace, jolly boat, launch, etc). 

The ship's boat, apart from some warping of the keel halves, was easy to put together, and was molded so precisely that the interior pieces fit easily into the boat without glue. 

Here's what the ship's boat should look like when it's done: 

This, to the best of my knowledge, is a museum model from Toulon.