She could have gone “wing and wing”–one sail out to port and the other to starboard. This would only be with the wind right abaft. This would be a significantly difficult thing to model, though, not so much for the spars up against the shrouds, but for the tacks of the sails being so far outboard in a non-sagging way.
She looks just great and I really like the furled sail.
On a big lateen boat like that, on a tack the big spar would not switch sides on the mast. The sail just goes over against the mast with little negative effect.
One suggestion if I may and it probably wouldn’t be difficult to add on: the furled sail would have a loose clew about half way up the spar, like a triangular tab of sail hanging down a bit, with the sheets attached to it and hanging down.
Really excellent model. Needs to be kid and cat proofed!
It occurs to me that sailing this sucker with a lot of sail up would be…interesting with the near total absence of a keel, and a rudder that seems to be designed for looks, not function.
The big French galleys weren’t yachts. They were serious, effective fighting ships. The word “Reale” simply meant that the ship belonged to the king.
It’s true that they were awkward to handle under sail. In addition to the problems GM noted, they had scarcely any freeboard; a medium-sized wave could swamp a galley. They were most valuable in the waters close to the Straits of Gibraltar, where the winds are fickle and frequently calm. An enemy ship caught without wind was an ideal target for a big galley. The galley would get on a ramming course for the enemy, and the oarsmen would row for all they were worth. When the galley was within a few yards of the enemy ship, all the big guns in the bow would be fired in one devastating blast. Then the ram would strike the ship in the hull, close to the waterline. That tactic was almost guaranteed to sink the enemy vessel.
France and Spain continued to operate big galleys out of Mediterranean ports well into the eighteenth century. C.S. Forester wrote a story about Midshipman Horatio Hornblower’s encounter with a Spanish galley. It’s in Mr. Midshipman Hornblower.
You know the old joke…
Two guys rowing on the bench in a galley.
“Boom”, pause…“Boom”, pause…“Boom”, pause…“Boom”, pause…“Boom”, pause…
“Mon Dieu I hate this job”
“Boom”,“Boom”,“Boom”,“Boom”,“Boom”,“Boom”,“Boom”…
“Alors, now what?”
“The captain wants to go waterskiing!”
Hi all a little update on the Reale, I thought I would try to improve the way the rowers handles are depicted.
so, only 29 more to go. I love the way on here you get a little education each time you add to it, thanks it really make the model more interesting, and , since i’m a lazy so and so, saves me doing the research.
Hi all well here is an update on this build as Gmorrison told me the clew? was missing, I hope I’ve got it right.
I’ve added all the cannons now as well.
Hi all didn’t like the oar handle, too irregular, so browsing the net I found these, they are OO gauge steps (1/87) so near enough.
But as you can see they are too wide
so with my guage
I whittled them down a bit
cut to length
split
and with a little bit of fettling they will all look the same now
Hi all, well I think I’m on the last leg of this build, this is half way there with the oars
just these left to do
every single oar has this huge seam on it, so, only32 to sort
I really feel this is nearing the end now, once I add the oars it will be huge, no idea what I will do with it when done, I had my warspite dio in the local library, but now thats back due to the library re-utilising the areas and no longer having room for it (a polite way of saying no one was interested in it) so now I’ve got that back too. argh I have no room.
Well I am so annoyed I thought I had some oars over and I had finished them but no, stupid idiot there are 32 PAIRS of oars, not 32 oars, now I have to order more of the steps to cut down for the handles, or I display it from one side only.
It’s worth it. Keep going. This’ll be only the second one I’ve seen built. Going to be a show stopper.
Row, row…
Well I’ve got to do all 64 oars again, I ordered some more ladders to do the handles with ( ordered more than I needed as I could see them being usefull for other things) luckily I ordered the wrong bits.
now when you compare them, I just have to redo all of them
Hi all I’ve been racking my brains trying to think of a way to do the tassels round the canopy, I cant find any which match the cord I’ve done the flags on the mast with, so,came up with this.
take a piece of double sided tape and stick it to a piece of paper
tack that each end to a lollipop stick
wind the gold thread round the lollipop stick
Cut along the edge
then glue in place
Look at you!
Dun da da da,da its finished
I will post better pics tomorrow but here she is.
I few suggestions for anyone building this, don’t glue the trumpets on the angels on the stern till the kit is finished( cant count the number of times I’ve knocked them off). do not glue the side railings on till the end they were constantly getting in the way making it difficult on numerous occasions, and most annoyingly including the rigging stage, I know you tie some of the rigging off onto it but you could always tie off to the framework some where temporarily.
other than that it is a great kit and all goes together well.
I would like to thank everyone for keeping me motivated on this kit, as without you I would have given up at the first hurdle.
She looks wonderful. You did a really fine job, it was great watching it come together these past weeks.
Hi all here’s some better pics
Hi all can I ask in what way I’ve done the wrong thing. I had a few followers of this build, and yet now it’s finished no one is interested what details have I missed.
Having just returned to the forums, looking at this I think you did a great job. This can be a bear of a kit, or so I’ve read. Finished model looks good.
It looks absolutely beautiful to me! I must say you are an inspiration to me since, when things went wrong or you miscalculated the # of parts to be used (i.e.: oars), you kept on going and did a bang up job on this remarkable ship.
Thank you for all the pictures and the saga. It certainly gives me more motivation to work hard and enjoy what I do on the modeling bench.
Mike