(Scratchbuilt) Galeasses for the Prince of Songkhla

More hobby time from Mark:

I’m adding two galeasses to the navy of this regional power in my imagi-nations world of mid-C16 South East Asia, for use with the Galleys & Galleons naval rules.

Inspiration came from Alan Saunders, who’s comment on an earlier shipbuilding effort pointed me to something I should have known - there were South East Asian vessels broadly comparable to the galeasses used in European waters. These vessels were used in the Aceh region (northwestern end of Sumatra), during the C16-17. The Wikipedia entry (“Galeass”) says they seem to have been intended primarily for boarding fights, though with heavy bow guns.

Here’s construction at an early stage. The first vessel, Banda Aceh, has the superstructure largely complete. The pairs of balsa wood beams on the top decks will support awnings, to be added after painting. The second vessel, Hat Yai, is still only a hull blank. I’m not sure yet if it’ll be a close copy of the first, or significantly different. 

The guide lines on my cutting mat are at 50mm intervals. Construction materials used so far are: 3mm MDF (bases), cardboard (various thicknesses including ‘cereal packet’), balsa, toothpicks. Glue is PVA and superglue.

Here are both ships, after spray priming. When the primer has dried thoroughly (could be a while because of the humidity) the remaining stages will be: painting the hulls and superstructures, fitting the awnings, fitting (and painting) sails and pennants. And last of all, the sea bases.

Hull painting done, awnings and sails fitted (textured paper). I’m not going to add the sweeps, mainly because I forgot to make the bases wide enough. D’oh!  I made the same mistake with my Ming assault ships (Peony Pavilion & Lotus Blossom). So assume the sweeps are stowed. The awnings will be getting a sepia wash to bring up the woven texture of the paper.

All finished.

Here is Banda Aceh alongside another Songkhla vessel, the galley Srivijaya. It’s a Grumpy 6mm Turkish Galley, bought from Eureka.

And lastly, a view from a nearby galley.

The stats will probably be:

2 x Galeasses (56)

Banda Aceh, Hat Yai

Q4 C5: Drilled soldiers, Heavy bow chasers, High castles, Square rigged, Sluggish, Sweeps, Veteran NCOs

Not sure when the next G&G game will be, but it’s a good bet these two ungainly monsters will be in it. The Portuguese will be running a diplomatic mission in to Ayutthaya in the next few months. That sounds like a provocation to me.

Cheers from Pattaya

Mark