Painting commission completed

Today I've completed a painting job I was commissioned some months ago, consisting of 17 Peter Pig ships to be painted as either Spanish merchantmen or pirates. Only the two largest ones out of the commission were left, and these are what I'm going to show you now, along with a couple others that I've built for my own collection.

This time I've performed very few modifications on the ships --just replacing their original bowsprits. Both have been dressed as Spanish indiamen, so proudly flying large Burgundy Cross ensigns and mast flags.

One of them has been given a different flag on foremast (a light blue one with the Spanish coat of arms), that was historically used by one admiral in WSS times. I thought it might be useful to the user --for identifying the Treasury Fleet admiral for instance, or a ship commanded by an able Reserve captain perhaps, or for whatever other reason he might need.

As you can see, decks are crowded with Peter Pig crewmen and guns, Minairons lifeboats and some unmanned guns from my spares box.

I've enjoyed this commission intensely, and would like to thank the commissioner for his patience and trust. Hope he likes the result not less than I do.

More on the same painting commission

Some ships else added to the current commission. It's been now the turn for the smaller ships in the client's collection, a total of five single-masted sloops --one of which, painted as a Spanish escort warship while the rest have been dressed as pirates.

As it can be seen by the picture above, one of the pirate ships has had a second mast attached to transform it into a lateen sailed tartane. Although own to the Mediterranean Sea, tartanes and other lateen rigged ships were'nt uncommon at all in the Caribbean --manned by French and Spanish crews mainly, but also by Italian or Maghribian sailors in foreign service. I've taken advantage of this for assigning her a red-yellow striped flag, supposedly flown by one Edmund Cooke, but that could also belong to a French or Catalan buccaneer (even it could do for a Barbary pirate!).

The other three pirate sloops show slightly different rigging configurations, making them close to either a 'pure' Bermuda sloop, or to a square course sail cutter instead. All this, with the aim to make every ship unique. Spare parts from brands other than PP have been used for this, as well as some conveniently shaped plasticard pieces.

On its side, the Spanish escort ship follows quite a standard pattern, with no other modification than making the gaff sail a bit smaller. After this batch, the current commission is almost over now --there are left only two large indiamen, that I've already started painting.

Painting commission WIP

Let me show you a second group of ships belonging to the current commission, that consists of all the two masted boats in the commission, all them from Peter Pig. The one in the middle is a 18-008 medium warship or brig, while all the rest are 18-007 small warships --with some variations amongst them, making them look like either a small brig, quetch, schooner or brigantine.

Two of those smaller warships have been painted as Spanish escorts. One of them has been enlargened the stern castle, as well as assigned a lateen sail on mainmast, as if a primitive form of brig or quetch it was. The other one has been dressed as a proper brig with a gaff sail. Both are flying 1701-1785 Spanish war ensigns as well as long commission pennants.

On its side, the larger brig has been given an austere look as a pirate ship, showing flags allegedly belonging to Christopher Moody. Red on red all along the ship!

And last, the other two smaller ships have been built and painted having pirates in mind too. I assume that purple is quite an anachronistic colour for a ship of that era, but if you watch her flags set you'll understand why of such odd choice --for these are the ones that some sources state for the french pirate woman Jacquotte Delayahe. As for the second warship, it shows the flags supposedly flown by another french pirate, Olivier Levasseur.

I've already started working on this commission third batch, that is to consist of all its single masted ships --again, five models. Worth to warn that one of them is going to be assigned a second mast and rigged with lateen sails, with the aim of making a tartane of it. Despite what is commonly believed, lateen sailed boats were quite common in the Caribbean, manned by Mediterranean powers such as France and Spain.

New painting commission taken

This month I've started working on a new painting commission, that is to consist of a dozen and a half of model ships from Peter Pig, split into two opposite fleets (Spanish merchant and Pirate). I've planned to paint them by batches of five models, as got accustomed to lately; and I've chosen to start with the merchant fleet's five small/medium ships (two galleons and three fluyts). Here below you can see the results:

The pattern followed for painting them is the same already explained somewhere before: chocolate brown with a drop of neutral grey for hulls, dark leather brown for masts, pale sand for sails and a mix of iraqui sand and tan yellow for upper decks. Other colours I also use for sails from time to time are sunny skin tone (like one of the ships in this batch), stone grey or neutral grey. Accordingly to the customer's wishes, his merchant fleet had to be dressed as Spanish, and that's what I've done --with some particularities, as you'll see later. Let's go for the galleons first:

The ship at pictures' right has been given regulation merchant flags for the 1701-1785 period (red cross of Burgundy on a white field), but the other one is hoisting an ill-known set of flags (white cross on blue). This odd design first appeared during the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1715)intentionally used by Spanish merchants with the hope to be confused with French from a distance. To get an idea on what they pretended, take a glance on this fluyt belonging to my own collection. Although actively fought by authorities, this practice seemingly continued well into the 1760s. Let's go now for the three fluyts:

Again, some rigging features have been modified, with the ultimate purpose that not two ships of the same type are looking identical. Please note that their flags are smaller than those of the galleons (so as to emphasize ships' own size difference). Once again, here there are some differences in flags too: the ship at the left is flying a Galician ensign, while the one at the right shows a Castilian one (both likely used on coastal waters mainly). The ship in the middle is hoisting a colourful set of Southern Dutch flags.