Thursday, April 26, 2012

The Gouda and the Bad-a

...In which our protagonist finally gets off his lazy butt (or is that 'sits on his lazy butt'?) and writes another blog post. Yes, it's another 17th century ship from Langton Miniatures.


Dare I mention that it's been a while since my last post? Yes, yes I dare. I have no real excuse for the long interim, other than my aforementioned laziness. I've had the time, but lacked the volition... and now I'm several months behind in my blogging. Such is the price of procrastination, I guess.


The good news is, I've got all sorts of stuff to show off-- yes, more ships, but also plenty of not-ship stuff. The bad news is that my computer is quite obviously nearing the end of its life, and I'm not real keen to replace it. I've got so many internet-capable phones and ipods and e-readers that I can no longer justify a computer as a necessity... so I figure one last farewell-to-the-old-laptop blitz in a futile effort to get back up to speed is warranted (smart money says it's not going to be much of a blitz, by the way). So here goes.


Anyway, today we've got the Stad Gouda, a ship named after the fabled land of cheese wheels. Yes, those beautiful, mild, wonderful-melted-over-garlic-toast gouda cheese wheels... which is to say somewhere in southern Holland. You might reasonably expect a ship named after gouda to be somewhat rotund, perhaps covered with a protective waxy rind. Rather disappointingly, the vessel is, in fact, pretty representative of Dutch warship construction of the 1650s. Of course 'representative' is pretty useful if you're trying to build a fleet for wargaming.


There isn't much else to say about the historical ship, if only because I haven't been able to learn anything! The model is presumably based on one of the ubiquitous van de Velde drawings, depicting a ship of 46 or 50 guns, built in 1656. 46-gunners only seem to have been built for the Amsterdam admiralty; 50 gun vessels, on the other hand, were found in all six Dutch Admiralties. Taken together, this class of warship would have been the most numerous in the United Provinces' battlefleet, although larger vessels seem to have borne the brunt of the fighting.


The model itself is generic, meaning that unlike the rest of the named ships in Langton's Anglo-Dutch range, Stad Gouda has a blank taffrail. This gives the modeler the option of greater variety, but at the cost of being somewhat more difficult to paint. Trying to duplicate the painting that graced the historical Stad Gouda actually proved impossible-- showing the Gouda skyline in an area about a quarter of the size of my pinky fingernail is beyond even my talents. Instead, I decided to stick a moon on the taffrail and turn this ship into De Halve Maan, or, in English, The Half Moon. This was a popular name for Dutch ships, and while the most famous of these is undoubtedly the fluyt that carried colonists to the Nieuw Amsterdam/New York settlement, the actual vessel I had in mind was a 40-gun warship that served as the flagship of Cornelis Tromp at the Battle of Leghorn in the First Anglo-Dutch War.


Also worth a mention is the size (or lack thereof) of this particular model. The masts are so close together that rigging it proved quite the pain in the behind. For those used to doing the ships of Nelson's day in 1/1200, Stad Gouda is about the size of a 24-gun frigate of the Napoleonic era-- small indeed! For those who have never tried anything in this scale... well, suffice to say you can't even imagine.
Look, ma! No captions! Except for this one...

Next time: another ship. Gotta get through the backlog!

20 comments:

  1. Again a beautiful ship.
    What do you use for the ropes?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your rigging is fantastic - top notch work
    Miles

    ReplyDelete
  3. Microscopically beautifully!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Again, amazingly beautiful work - and even more so impressive when scaled next to the keys! Best, Dean

    ReplyDelete
  5. MIke you are my hero! that is so cool!
    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  6. when you, however, do now not excel in these situations, you might be denied the certificates. In most instances additionally best assignment help perth, efficiently finishing the route isn't always k on its personal.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Really very happy to say, your post is very interesting to read. I don't want to stop myself to say something about it. You’re doing a great job. Keep it up
    assignment writing help USA

    ReplyDelete
  8. Very Interesting,your article made a huge impact on my thinking.As you mentioned that good sewing skills makes a huge difference,The umbrella academy Robert Sheehan Coat I never think about that before.keep it up,you are doing great..

    ReplyDelete
  9. IdealAssignmentHelp is one of the best names in the business to help you with your needs of assignment help service. The experts are working all around the clock giving you a great opportunity to have write-up completed in the quickest possible time. You can connect with the via call or through email and have your educational queries resolved right away. Get yourself connected now for your Finance Assignment Help!

    ReplyDelete
  10. CrazyForStudy provides assignment service at affordable cost in a wide range of subject areas for all grade levels, we are already trusted by thousands of students who struggle to write their academic papers and also by those students who simply want Organizational Behaviour Assignment Help to save their time and make life easy.

    ReplyDelete
  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  12. TSBIE was established in the year 2014. The primary aim of the board is to improve the education system of the state and to promote the vision of world-class education in Telangana. TS 1st Inter Question Paper 2021 Conducting examinations is one of the most important functions of TSBIE. Board conducts the annual board examination in March every year and the supplementary examination

    ReplyDelete
  13. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Awesome blog!! Thank for providing excellent information. Actually quite helpful data accessible here. If you are looking for university assignment help australia then you can visit our site. Hire native seasoned experts algebra homework help australia at very affordable prices. We are the most reliable assignment helpers. We have gained our specialization after spending most of our time making ourselves perfect. We provide 100% plagiarism-free algebra homework help. Our assignment helps developers are experts in every subject because of which they provide math homework help reliable services all over the world.

    ReplyDelete
  15. FuboTV plans might have an incredible scope of organizations, but it 's actually cheap. So if you that you don't miss the multi-station link insight, there are some incredible VOD choices. Viewers have unrivaled admittance to significant games networks like NFL and FS1, just as a similar general entertainment channels. fubo.tv/Connect

    ReplyDelete
  16. You will also get a 7 days free trial from FuboTV to experience the features. You can choose a FuboTV subscription by fubo.tv/activate code easily. You don’t have to pay any TV operator to use fubotv activate code. It will be easily doable for you. You don’t have to pay any extra without making any changes to your subscription plan. fubo.tv/Activate code

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thanks for the post, author! Thanks for sharing this informative and interesting content with us. I enjoyed reading the profile on spacebar game. The spacebar counter is described. Here you can calculate your spacebar click speed and practice until you get better.

    ReplyDelete
  18. best sex dolls have a very low viscosity and good fluidity, are easy to inject and are suitable for manual operation as well as injection molding processes.

    ReplyDelete