"Making your own 1/1200 galleys?" Topic

Did anybody make ancient galleys in 1/1200 , with balsa or other materials? Should not be difficult. I would like to try. What should be the size for various ships (Bireme, Trireme, Quadrireme, Quinquireme, etc) in this scale? Any help or info will be highly appreciated… thank you.

I used to make mine out of balsa and card in my early gaming days at roughly 1/1200 scale but they were all generic galleys. I used the Paul Hague Adventures in naval wargaming book which has a guide. Also, there is an older book on Salamis that has guides on making galleys. I have it on my shelf someplace.

I made some with balsa hulls and sheet styrene oar banks. Although the photo does not show them well, they are the eight ships on the left end of the 5th row from the top:

I think he is asking about dimensions of the ships in this scale?

Navwar model lenghts:
Triremes 28mm
Quinquireme 30mm

Langton model lenghts:
Trireme 30mm
Hexeres 37mm (has a long ram, hull is shorter than Hepteres)
Hepteres 37mm

Or historical estimates could be used, e.g.:
link

Quinquireme = 45m / 1200 = 37.5mm

IThank you! I suppose the length of a ttireme / quadrireme / quinquireme wasmore or less the same, byt the hull was larger to acconodate more rowers?

(Pardon, I was not able to find my glasses :) I rewrite)

Thank you! I suppose the length of a trireme / quadrireme / quinquireme was more or less the same, but the hull was larger to accomodate more rowers?

Deserter

We don't know a lot for sure about sizes of ancient ships so answers to this type of query tend to be rather vague and unsatisfying.

The longest 5 would probably be longer than the longest 3 but the longest 4 MAY have been longer than either.

When these three craft were all around together just after the 'invention' of the 5 the 3 may have been the longest but later developments left the 3 as a 'small' warship somewhat shorter than at the peak of its usefulness.

Later the 5 becomes the mainstay of various fleets, sort of a standard battleship, with 3's and 4's often supporting them.

The 4 seems to have been a 3-bank ship inititially but later a 2-bank. Lower, beamier and more heavily built than a 3 (or even some 5's) and may have been strong enough to have more oarsmen per side and so be longer than either.

If you are talking Punic Wars, all the same length may not be a bad guess but later a 3 would almost certainly be shorter and slimmer. At most dates I'd say the 4 was the broadest but not that much broader than a 5.

From John Coates reconstructions.

The 5 was the largest commonly used ship type once it was developed it was stable and durable. Types with more rowing ranks were not much bigger. They had double the displacement of 3s and 4s. (c.120tonnes loaded)
The 4 was able to fit into a 3's shed so not much broader than a 3 and probably shorter because they had so many fewer oars.

Beam Length
Greek 3 5,5m 35m
Phoenician 3 4,5m c.35
Roman 5 – 7,75m including outrigger. c.45m
Phoenician 5 – 6,6m – no outrigger. c.45m
2-level 4 5,6m with outrigger c.37m
Roman 6 – 7,75m incl. outrigger -same as 5 with lowest oar double-manned c.45m

Heights;
The 5 and 6 were the highest with top decks at something like 3 to 3,4m above waterline.
Phoenician 5s may have been marginally higher than Roman.
3's and 4's have a deck c.2,5m above waterline.