The 15mm sloop H.M Chancellor

Having read the piratical blog of the club secretary I was inspired to revisit my boat building plans for my 10mm Pathos Napoleonic Naval games.  I was curious to see if I could construct one of my scratch build paper/card models in 15mm.
First off some maths.  Not the strongpoint of a dyscalcic English teacher.

My plans were drawn up for a Topsail cutter, essentially a British name for a vessel rigged in a particular way.  A cutter would have a length of around 60 feet, and in 15mm I reckoned to use just over 15cm for the deck length.  The bowsprit would add another 20 feet at least.

For 10mm I use 1.8mm to the foot.  In 15mm it's more like 2.5mm to the foot.  A small 100 foot frigate would be 25cm.  Just about manageable on an A4 printout.  The Cutter or sloop at 60 foot (actually 63ft) 15.5cm.

Having adjusted the hull to the set requirement I took myself off to the library to print up the plan in colour, as well as do my own half dozen ship plans for Cyprus.

After that the real build started.  Thick cardboard, actually the backing from a writing pad was glued to the plan, and then cut out.  It's a difficult process, but I find that pins, clips and elastic bands soon warp the hull into the shape I'm after.

A 20mm Roman HaT plastic figure, cut off at the midriff, forms the golden figurehead.  Not strictly correct for this size of boat but Tobias Farthingdale shipyards demand a certain quality.  Yes I know, I have a boat building persona whom I blame for this sort of thing.

I used a penny as a handy marker to work out the depth of the deck, figuring that at 10mm to get the look I wanted.  Barbeque skewers for masts and spars was easy enough, remembering to stain them with wood stain.

The fighting top is a section of balsa, reinforced underneath to prevent it from breaking when used.  One of my strict requirements is that the masts and spars dismantle for storage.  Some mess about is needed to create this, but  it still  needs the look.  

The hatch cover and tiller glue onto the deck, and a covering allows the bowsprit to be set up and removed.

That is the model about half complete...
The next phase is the detailing.  

Several of my 10mm ships needed painting after I made errors in the build.  Easy enough to cover over the paper decoration but it's a lot of work. For HM Chancellor I avoided that, but gave the stern gold highlights and blackened the railings.  A general tart up really.  I also added the 'wings' for the ratlines.

The gunports had wooden strips glued in place and painted a black brown colour.  I left the internal side of the ports.  

A simple anchor was added on the bows, painted "rusty iron."

Next I tackled the guns.  There are six ports, but I decided that in fitting out only four guns would be set up.  Old Tobias gave the boat three of the standard six pounders this size vessel would have carried, as well as an older three pounder long gun,with a little more range but less striking power.

Likes to save a bit of his cash does Tobias.  I did add in a couple of swivel guns above the waist.  The Naval Lieutenant who takes the sloop on will have to deal with the disparity in armaments.

With the name of the vessel added on the stern I moved on to tackle the sails.

A sloop would have a fore and aft rig but that would make storage far more difficult.  Actually having any sails set makes storing the ship a nightmare, so I went for furled sails.  In retrospect I could have done furled and set sails to swap out.  Winding modelling clay onto the spars I rigged it up with thread from an old boot lace.  It's rigged as a Topsail cutter rather than a ship sloop, and is single masted, but these were a vessel type used for nearly three hundred years, and in many roles.

And there she is HM Sloop Chancellor, about to  a be handed over to Quilp of the Navy Board, ready to be crewed and to patrol the Caribbean.
Now I just need to build myself a Brig, and crew her  with my own Peter Pig Pirates to challenge the Chancellor on the open seas.  One for a Christmas game?