"Turk and Malta Galleys" Topic

A couple of examples of how I build out my 1/300th scale laser cut galleys, one as a Turkish ship, the other as Knights of Malta.

Nothing fancy here, just good examples on how a few colors and the flags, awnings and a bit of rigging can produce a handsome gaming model.

I took this image to show how to paint up crew markers that come with the ships. I always give you extra for each ship, because I lose things. Also a great way to experiment on different color choices. Or new buttons for your favorite gaming shirt.

Thanks for looking!
skullncrown.com

I hate to be a downer on the galleys – but it looks really odd that the oars are pointing slightly towards the stern in the water, but appear to be pointed towards the bow onboard. Makes them look like as if they have some kind of crank shaft (which they don't!).

I hate to say it because otherwise they look really nice.

Excellent job. I've got some of your ships (about a dozen) and plan on getting some more. Go together easy, paint well and really look great on the table.

Your rules are excellent also.

Call me a fan boy (smile), but great products.

Dan

P.S. Sorry, 20thmaine, but I don't follow your comment. The oars all point to the rear.

I think 20thmaine means that the outboard oars are pointing to the rear, but the inboard oars appear to be slanted toward the front. But I thought what appear to the inboard oars are actually the rowers benches, wouldn't they be slanted – or would they be straight across? And if they are slanted would they be towards the front or back? I am not an expert on galley rowers benches obviously. Either way I am impressed by the color schemes, flags, and decorations, nice job!

That makes sense!

link

My mistake was thinking because they are the same colour (or appear to be to me anyway) that they were a continuation of the oar. I'll downgrade my comment to "might have been worth making the oar benches a different shade to the oars so that some idiot doesn't think you've painted the oars as if they have a crank shaft in them"

Of course….the benches could have some crew on them to make it really clear!

But: I really do like these models, they are nice clean representations and look really good the way you've painted them.

Love these galleys! My friends and I have close to 100 of them.

Wonderful

The rowing bench has to be slanted because the oar is essentially a lever with the fulcrum at the oar hole (whatever that's called). If more than one man operates the oar, that means the man near the fulcrum would extend his arms and body much less than the man closer to the centerline of the vessel. ("I'll take the window seat! No, really, I don't mind!"). But that still doesn't really explain an angled bench, because no matter which way you angle the bench, the aisle-seat guy is gonna have to reach either considerably forward or considerably backward compared to fulcrum boy.
But unlike Hollywood movies, it appears that leading up to the 16th century, there were no such thing as "galley slaves" chained beside each other to oar side by side on the same oar, but rather professional rowers each with an individual oar. *THAT* situation requires the slanted bench as shown, to maximize the number of oars the vessel can use simultaneously. So the window-seat guy has an oar, and the middle-seat guy has an oar, and aisle-seat guy has an oar, and they're staggered so as not to interfere with each other while each still is able to maintain a full extension while rowing (though aisle-seat guy still has to extend a bit further due to his distance from his own fulcrum— maybe tall guys got the aisle?).

That's just me speculating.

Put I do like the look you've achieved with these galleys!

Gents- thanks so very much for the comments all around. Fun fact- When doing a lot of research on Renaissance galleys, If I were to make the historically accurate, the oars would never really angle back like you see, but would stop at about 90 degrees- but angle forward about 60. I actually tried this (imagine the oard I have now, but backwards) and it looked super odd- like the ship was not "moving" in the right direction. Aesthetics won over on realism on that- and a few other designs to make the models easier to build and sturdy enough for years worth of gaming.
Cheers!
Thomas "Skull&Crown" Foss

Also have some of Thomas's ships and vouch for how nicely they go together & paint up. They look great on the table.