Galleon: Santísima Trinidad (1751) 1:200

[jongr90]

Hello. Thought I'd share with you all my current project: the Manila galleon Santisima Trinidad (1751) - not to be confused with the later, and much more famous 4-decker first rate of the same name.

This one was built in the Philippines to ply the Manila-Acapulco galleon route across the Pacific in 1751. She managed nearly a dozen round trips and was eventually captured in 1762 by the British in the Seven Years' War. She was then taken to Britain and most likely scrapped. The ship is called a galleon, but by this point in time, the galleon referred to the ships plying the route regardless of its actual design - some were no more than brigs of about 200 tons burthen. This one being the largest ever built in the islands is similar to a second rate of about 2000 tons burthen, just with 60 relatively lighter guns (12 and 18 pounders) on two gundecks.

The only thing I have to go on for the ship are the recorded dimensions, this drawing from the Mexican Archives (1st pic), as well as written accounts from historians and the Royal Navy officers that captured her.

The model itself will be 1:200 scale and I am using a cheap Chinese kit of HMS Victory as a base. The 3rd picture shows the skeleton with my completed Victory build. I have been making modifications as I go along such as shortening the gundeck length to reflect the records (51m as opposed to Victory's 57m), and planking over what is supposed to be the lower gundeck.

As for the paint scheme, decorations, and overall look of the ship, I am planning on using models of different ships of the same time period as inspiration including: HMS Bellona, Glorioso, other Manila galleons like Nra. Sra. del Pilar (Occre has a model), the fictional HMS Unicorn, and the Real Felipe.

Here's what I have so far

 

[jongr90]

Hello. The last few days I've been working on the stern of the ship. For the most part it is made of manually-cut bits and pieces of 1mm and 2mm balsa wood held together by wood glue.



Attached to the structural balsa wood pieces, I've reused the windows from the HMS Victory kit I've been cannibalizing. They have been rearranged and reduced in number to match the overall look I'm going for as well as the drawing of the actual ship in the Mexican archives (see first post). I decided to reuse these windows since making them at this scale without resorting to 3D printing or laser cutting has proven difficult.



Another part of the kit I've repurposed is the bit of deck that was supposed to go on the forecastle. This portion was cut when I was reducing the length of the ship to reflect its dimensions vs. HMS Victory. This bit of forecastle is now the flooring of the balcony in the stern. This way, it will match all the other exposed bits of the ship.



As for the overall look of the stern area, I've been trying to make it look older than HMS Victory and a bit more (to used a technical term ) "galleon-y." I tapered the shape of the stern a lot more, and I've also made it taller. This is in line with descriptions of the ship saying that her "upper works were gigantic, with a towering poop of seventeenth-Century proportions which were to make her leewardly and cranky" (Schurz, 1939). To help with this, I've also added some bits of wood on the poop and quarterdeck bulwarks that flare up and making the ship more curved.



Lastly, to complete overall "galleon-y" look, I've added a drawing of the Coronation of Mary at the top of the stern piece. My understanding of Spanish ships is that they often had the figures of their religious names represented in the stern somewhere. The official name of the ship is Santisima Trinidad y Nuestra Señora del Buen Fin or "Holy Trinity and Our Lady of Good Ends" which means there are four figures in the total: the members of the Holy Trinity, and Mary. The various versions of the Coronation of Mary contains all four figures and seemed like a good piece of art to replicate in the back due to its symmetry.

Thanks for you time.

 

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

What an incredibly detailed paint job for such a small ship model. Fantastic!

 

[jongr90]

With the stern more or less complete, I've decided to move on to the rest of the hull and then the bow. For the upper portions of the ship I've added yellow trimming to contrast with the blue paint. This was inspired by the modern replicas of the ships Gothenburg and Amsterdam which also use yellow. From what I've seen in models, these trimmings are usually gilded, or some sort of bronze, but from my understanding these would have been reserved for flagships and the like at the time due to immense cost.

Though financed by the Spanish crown, the merchants and officials actually in charge of the Manila galleons probably had other ideas for King Charles III's money. Since they were situated on the other side of the world, they were largely unsupervised and could probably get away with using any savings from gilding on other parts of the ship, or more likely to line their own pockets



Moving on to the bow, I decided to first start with the figurehead. Since I couldn't find a decent 3D model of a lion for printing, I decided to just make one out of some glued bits of balsa wood. I think he turned out okay, though he looks a lot like a the lion from the cartoon Madagascar. Lions were the mandated figureheads of Spanish ships at this time, and crowned lions were for ships owned by the crown. I painted him yellow, though I did make the crown gold.



With the figurehead completed, I could now move on to the headrails. I used the ones provided by the HMS Victory kit I'm cannibalizing for the horizontal parts, then used 0.3mm cardboard paper for the vertical portions. I think I will keep these pure black instead of adding any ornamentation. The ship has enough already.



Next will be the numerous things that would normally be found on the various decks. Thanks for your time.

 

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

Get some wood filler, fill those low spots in the bow and rough spots on the sides, then sand with a sanding block and re-paint. It'll look a lot better.

 

[jongr90]

Get some wood filler, fill those low spots in the bow and rough spots on the sides, then sand with a sanding block and re-paint. It'll look a lot better.

It does look bad at certain lights, huh. I'll do some more sanding and painting on this area. Or at the very least cover it up like a proper Spanish colonial official!