All at Sea - Jack's French Squadron & JJ's Spanish Brigs

 

It was back in July that I showcased Jack's British Squadron, after completing work on two previous squadron builds for Bob.

JJ's Wargames - All at Sea, Jack's British Squadron

As with all my project builds, I move straight on to preparing the next bit of work as I conclude the previous one, and in normal times I would have expected to have had these French builds completed using the Warlord Games, French Navy Fleet box, done and finished in August, and indeed the painting was done and finished by mid August.

However this year has seen an added number of dates in the diary for events held over from the pandemic lockdowns, that coupled with the extraordinarily good summer weather we had this year, meant that I was away and doing a lot of stuff that kept me away from the modelling desk.

In addition, Jack had asked me to base his models similar to my own and to build a storage box and trays also like the ones I use to move my collection around and so I also took what time there was to get those done as well.

The picture below shows the fruits of my labours once I managed to sit down at the end of the week before last and the week previous to get the rigging done, plus I also managed to get two Spanish brigs finished off for my own collection and another French first rate finished for Bob, not pictured here, to make up for the one I commandeered for the Battle of Madras game run at Legionary earlier in the year.

Jack's French Squadron, one first rate, three third rates, two frigates and a brig, ready for sea trials

As per Jack's instructions, I only built two of the French frigates and one of the brigs from this box set leaving the remaining frigate and five brigs for him as he is keen to have a go at doing these himself.

If you would like to know more about the ships featured here then a quick scan back through the earlier All at Sea posts, see the label at the top of the blog, will reveal my own models where I took the time to detail the history of these famous French ships that are detailed here.

The First Rate

I think Warlord have done a great job capturing the look of these big French first rates of between 110 and 120-guns, and a few of these dotted among a French line of third rates make for an imposing sight.

The Third Rates

These three French third rates all featured at the Battle of Trafalgar and make really nice character models to include in a collection of generic third rates just built straight from the box of three such plastic kits.

All the specifically named ships come with metal named stern galleries and unique figureheads that help them stand out in the line.

Redoutable

L'Aigle

Bucentaure

As the 80-gun Bucentaure was Vice-Admiral Villeneuve's flagship at Trafalgar she flies her command pennant tricolour from the foremast.

Frigates & Brig

Themis

Comete

Brig

The brig models are in plentiful supply in the box sets that include them with each frigate sprue, allowing two such models to be built and they are a nice representation of this workhorse little ship, useful to represent men-o-war, privateers and small merchantmen.

I like to find different ways to stow their boats, sometimes amidships, or as here, by using one of the left over davit boats from other models.

As mentioned I also built Jack's storage box, which will be joined later with two extra trays to cater for the third rates of renown and the Spanish Squadron to follow.

JJ's Spanish Brigs

With work progressing well on my collection of small ship scenarios that have featured through much of this year on the blog, I was aware that I needed to build two Spanish brigs that will feature in some of them and so I tagged them into the work for Jack and Bob.

My recent visit to Colours this year allowed me to pick up the balance of the models I needed to build my Dutch Camperdown fleet, which due to other activities planned for later this year will most likely be started on in 2023, together with the remaining models for Jack and Bob's collections.

In addition I also have those character models, perfect for my small ship scenarios that now will see a purpose built razeed Indefatigable, the brig Speedy, frigate Surprise and some Xebecs joining the collection in 2023 and their appearance in future games.

Next up:

I'm off to Clotted Lard this weekend, running Sercey off Sumatra, so will be doing the usual post covering the show here with a more full report of the DWG club blog. 

More Anon

JJ