"Spanish ship "Rayo" up on the blog." Topic

Since I am working on finishing up my Spanish fleet for Trafalgar, here's the latest Spanish ship. Rayo was an 80-gun ship of the line that was converted to a 100 gunner from 1803-1805. For pictures, drop by the blog at:
link

BWW

I am currently painting the Spanish Trafalgar portion of the combined fleet and am having the same issues with paint colors. For the Spanish, it really appears to be what source you want to look at. I'm doing the battle in 1/3000 to be able to use all of the ships on one table, so me being overly specific isn't that necessary. I enjoy the period and genre but details aren't all there.

Of the three navies, the Spanish do seem to be the hardest to get good information on. As you said, it seems to be whichever source you pick up. It's even more complicated because, for several years before Trafalgar, the Spanish government had been going through a financial crisis. There were painting regulations, but they were often overridden by the need to keep the ships maintained.

I do have an article I found online a few years ago that talks about the painting regulations of the Spanish Navy. The website is apparently long gone, and what I have is a Google Translate version of the article with graphics. It's only a three-page article so if you're interested, I can send you scans of the pages.

Try to find "Trafalgar and the Spanish Navy" by Harbron.

I really liked the entry to your blog. It seems that Langton's new resin models should be treated more carefully with respect to their metal counterparts, especially in the area where the hole is made to pass the thread.

I'm glad you found the Todo a Babor blog useful. It is a very complete blog where you can find a lot of useful information.

I attached a link where you can read about the evolution of the hulls of Spanish ships from that blog: link

I also add a page where you can see some pictures painted by a Spanish artist, Carlos Parrilla Penagos. After the middle of the page the ship Rayo appears but you can also see the other pictures because they are beautifull to see. link

I must also say that do not worry about yellow portholes, they are correct. The Spanish navy did not introduce Nelson's checkered scheme until after Trafalgar, therefore Rayo had yellow portholes.

21eRegt,
I have Harbron's book. I know it has some color pictures in it, but didn't remember specific painting instructions. I will dig it out of the study (currently clogged with Christmas boxes) and take a look.

Julian,
A most definite "yes" on the resin hulls. I was going to say on the blog that they are not for beginners. However, I think this is part of a general trend by Langton for larger hulls, since the cost of metal has been rising. So, it may be that resin hulls are going to be the future for three-deckers.

Todo a Babor is an excellent blog! I wish I had found it earlier in my Spanish fleet construction. Penagos' paintings are wonderful as well. In fact, if you look closely at his painting of Rayo, the few visible gunport lids are colored black. That's the rationale I'm using to keep from repainting mine, so my ship is a combination of the drawing I posted and Penagos' painting.

BWW

You're right in the painter's gunports, but personally I don't think the Spanish fleet had the black gunports until after Trafalgar. When I have painted the Rayo I have painted it on both schemes, both the top of the hull in black and yellow but I have always painted the yellow gunports.

I think you're right about that. One of the links you posted said that the change from yellow to white stripes came in 1810. I would suspect that the Nelson checker came in about that time as well, although I have no proof of it.

I daresay that I will go back and paint the gunports yellow at some point. It's clearly wrong to have them in black, and the more I look at it the more it bugs me.

BWW