"Pennants for 1/2400 Napoleonic Navies" Topic

Hello I am new to the world of naval modelling, and am intending to commence a Napoleonic campaign which will have limited naval engagements (ie not Trafalgar!). I have chosen Tumbling Dice as the likely models, and looking at the prior TMP postings may even try some simple rigging on these models.

My question is what pennants were used by navies of that time and are they available in 1/2400?

From…Tumbling Dice, as a matter of fact:

link

That is very funny StarCruiser!

To explain I had seen on the Tumbling Dice site, but I had seen them as "flags", and not the long wispy furling things on top of masts which I may clumsily have called "pennants".
As you can see I am hopelessly bad with naval terms…

But, for want of a better word, I saw some 1/2400 models which had pennants and that seemed to be the method by which these ships were identified as to nationality. Is that all bunkum, and the Tumbling Dice flags were on top of masts, or were there pennants? The latter have visual attraction because of their length.

Star Cruiser was correct. The sheets that TD has include both ensigns and pennants.

Actually they don't, not for the British Napoleonic sheets, and the pennants on the earlier ones are different to those flown from the mid 18th century.

From around 1720 the pennant becomes the main identifying flag on British warships and the Ensign (flown at the stern) is no longer required to be flown (though, in practice, it usually was). The Jack (previously flown at the bow) fell out of use about this time in British warships.

Flagships of Admirals replaced the pennant with a command flag in squadron colour but may also move the pennant to the mizzen or fore, Vice & Rear admirals flew their command flags from fore & mizzen so may retain the pennant. Common ships only flew the pennant from the mainmast.

Most other countries stuck with the Ensign as the identifier but still flew pennants of one sort or another.

Get a copy of Flags at Sea by Tim Wilson for more details, an excellent book.

^ Yeah – they decided NOT to include pennants for the Napoleonic era!

That makes sense (not)…

Thanks for the responses. GildasFacit I have bought a copy (2nd edition 1999 I think) of Tim Wilson's book. It looks like a superb resource.
StarCruiser yes that is peculiar! But TD may have had reasons for releasing only the flags they did – I might contact them and ask. They have been superbly responsive so far.

I found the earlier TMP thread with the 1/2400 pennant wearing ships which were infact TD models:
TMP link
They are so nicely turned out I was determined to have a stab myself. But the question remains: if I want the things shown on top of the masts in the above thread, should I make them myself or can they be bought for 1/2400? If I make them myself I will probably go for something of that size. At 1/2400 my guess is many details are oversized by necessity.

Got any Inkjet printer? Got some type of graphics software (Photoshop – Drawing etc…)?

Commissioning pennants tend to be very long back in those days (still are, in some Navies). They aren't usually very complex designs though so, you should be able to create a simple set and then print them out on good quality white paper.

Trim them out, mix up some white glue with a bit of water to thin it and attach them to the mast tops.

Thanks StarCruiser – sounds like a plan! I have used that technique for modelling Napoleonic flags with nice waving, the white glue setting once a flag has been bent into shape.

But will get my 19 y.o. son to do the formatting & printing for me, otherwise bad things will happen. Or worse still nothing will happen, with me staring and blinking at an unresponsive screen…

Good to know about the length of the things, which I now understand are called 'commissioning pennants'.

Cheers LPWC