1/1200 Mad for War: 30 Years War's Galleons and fort.

 Hi guys, 

Happy New Year!

Today I’d like to share two small additions to my Spanish fleet in 1/1200 scale, both built and painted for naval wargaming in the Mediterranean during the Thirty Years’ War and Franco Spanish War. The models come from Ark Royal Miniatures, produced under the Warfare Miniatures range, a line nowadays well known among small-scale naval warfare lovers.

The models are a 38 gun frigate/galleon,  an  old merchantman and a 3d printed naval fort. The ships although modest in size, play an important role on the table top.

I also bought scenery in 2mm from Irregular miniatures , intended both for Mad for War naval rules and my campaign map game (see previous post).

The first model is a small merchantman, lightly armed and clearly intended more for patrol, escort, or convoy duties than for line-of-battle engagements. Unfortunately, I no longer remember the exact catalogue reference, but its compact hull and reduced artillery make it immediately recognizable as a secondary combatant rather than a major warship.

For painting, I aimed for a restrained and practical look: muted hull tones, simple decoration, and weathering that suggests long service at sea. In Mediterranean scenarios, this type of vessel works perfectly as a support ship, a scout, or an objective vessel—valuable but vulnerable if caught by heavier enemy units.

The second model is the 38-Gun Frigate, a much more aggressive and versatile design. Fast, well-armed, and capable of independent action, this type of frigate represents, along the galleon/Man o'war, the backbone of many Spanish naval operations during the conflict.

I painted her to stand out slightly more than the galleon, with sharper contrasts and cleaner lines, with paper flags attached.

Both ship's flags are metal painted and paper printed,  the paper flags are slightly oversized, but I don't care about that, because the are easier to identify from distance in games.

Both ships are intended primarily for Mediterranean naval battles, where shorter engagement ranges, coastal actions, and sudden encounters dominate play. In the context of the Thirty Years’ War, they fit naturally into scenarios involving Spanish–French naval rivalry, convoy interceptions, and regional control, but also massive fleet actions.

I started painting this range back in 2023, and I am very happy with it, at 1/1200 scale, these models strike an excellent balance between detail and playability, allowing entire squadrons to be deployed without overwhelming the table.

Now my entire fleet so far:

4 galleys, 2 small galleons/frigates,  a yacht and an armed merchantman, all of them Ark Royal Miniatures , and a 3d printed galleon by Turner miniatures.

Cheers

3D printed 1/200 Spanish galley XVII c.

 Hello guys,

Here I am again with more galleys. This time a 3D printed galley from Henry Turner miniatures 1/600 galley, scaled down to 1/1200.  

I printed also some smaller fustas or galiots, just scaling it down even more the original file with Anycubic Workshop app for the future.

The model comes with its base, and lucky me, it was exactly the same size of my other galley's bases in metal, by Ark Royal miniatures.  The base was too thin to leave it as it comes, so I glued it to a piece of plastic of a similar thickness of my other metal bases.

I substituted the 3d printed resin mast with a metal wire, and attached the sail. I still prefer the metal models than the 3d printed models, but this are quite nice , detailed and cheap, although more modelling skills are required, the material is a little bit brittle and the process is messy and smelly.

I painted the model with the same paints and style (basecoat, wash, a couple of highlights) as the other metal galleys from Ark Royal miniatures. The flags are again from Minairons, excellen quality and historically accurate.

The rigging is simplest possible, made with broom bristles following this tutorial

http://leagueofaugsburg.blogspot.com/2021/07/much-requested-video-on-rigging-ships.html

·3D Printed galley next to metal galley from Ark Royal miniatures

I hope you like them!

Cheers

More Spanish war galleys 1/1200 for MAD FOR WAR

 Hi guys,

These days I`ve been painting more little XVII c. ships. I have added 2 more galleys  to my Spanish Mediterranean fleet, now I have 3 painted, and several more oared ships waiting in the painting queue, including a 3D printed galley as a test.

In just a week, I received a parcel from the UK with all the goodies from Ark Royal miniatures' ships, my order was: 5 medium and small galleons,  4 fustas (small galleys) and 2 lanternas/galeras capitanas or big galleys.  Barry Hilton also gifted me with a bergantin (very small galley) and a fireship. All very well detailed with no flash and clean sculpts 👍

all this plus their ratlines and masts with sails.

Coming back to my recently finished galleys, I tried to introduce subtle variations in colors, trying to keep as historically accurate as possible. Again I combined hand painted flags with paper flags from Minairons miniatures, I am pleased with the end result, given its small size. More soon!

The full "squadron" of galleys so far...

I hope you like them!

MAD FOR WAR: Ark Royal miniatures 1/1200 Ships

 Hello there!

After a loooong summer break, I have come back into painting minis again.

I have been reading a book about a naval battle right off the coast of my town, the battle of Cartagena-Cabo de Gata in 1643. 

During a relief operation during the Barbary/Algerian siege of Oran, then in Spanish hands, a French fleet appeared off Cartagena,  French tried to sent fireships to the narrow bay of the port, but were beaten after some hours of fire from the port's  batteries. Then the French headed south and found the Spanish unprepared for battle.

The French fleet, superior in number and with better quality ships, (41 vs 25) made the Spanish fleet take refuge in the port of Cartagena. The casualties are not exctaly known, but the Spanish probably lost 2 sunk ships and 2 captured. The French lost 1 sunk ship and 4 fireships. The galleys closed the port to the French, who could not enter it. 

So I have been in the mood of XVIIc. sailing ships lately. I have just finished my small model ships, and also I am working on a list of actions and scenerarios to play with, all of them historical.

The models are, obviously from Ark Royal miniatures, by Warfare Miniatures/The League of Augsburg brand. In a previous post about ships and scales, I was thinking about painting and wargaming naval warfare in 1/600 or in 1/1200 scale and I was not sure which of the two scales to choose for the project... I finally opted for 1/1200, I think it fits better my needs of squadrons of 6-12 ships per side.

This ships are; and advice jacht, a war galley and a small galleon/frigate of 26 guns.

Advice Jacht:

War Galley:

Frigate:

I use plastic bases, painted in blue, and most important,  with AK interactive water gel over it.

paper flags re scaled by Lluis from Minairons. In this scale sometimes it is better to paint the flags on the metal flags casts in the ships. For instance for Dutch or French, as their flags are super easy to paint. But other navies with more difficult patterns are more complicated, so I will mix paper and metal painted flags.

The modelling and painting stages were very simple, but the tricky part was adding the simple rigging to the ship, and the photo etch ratlines (from the same brand! ).

There were a huge number of actions and battles of 80 Years War/ Thirty Years War and Franco Spanish War,  involving Spanish fleet, all three were interconected and often simultaneously. I recently read that no other navy in the world up to that time (and maybe ever!) had fought for so long , against so many powerful enemies at once.

In the decade of 1660 the Spanish navy declined for 30 years because of the lack of funds, This coincided in time with the admirable rise of the English, Dutch and French navies. It would not be until the beginning of the 18th century when Spanish naval power grew again until it was in the "top 3" in the world until Trafalgar.

My main interest nowadays is wargaming mostly early to mid XVII actions in this scale. I placed an order yesterday to get more little ships!

I hope you like them!

XVII c. Ship models 1/600 vs 1/1200

 Hello guys,

This is the first post of 2023 :D I am very excited about a new mini project (literally mini), I am getting into naval wargaming, and can't decide which scale fits better to my needs and to my taste:

1/600 and 1/1200...    In both scales you can finde great models and fantastic rules. For example I placed an order on Warfare Miniatures'  naval rules, "Mad for War"  XVII c naval engagements, but I would also like to try Warlord Games' "Black Seas",   XVIII-XIX c. battles.    The first one is 1/1200 scale and the second is 1/700 o 1/600.

Regarding the models, my choice for 1/1200 is Ark Royal miniatures, the naval brand of Warfare Miniatures/League of Augsburg, I have not seen them in flesh, but ordered a small fleet this week. I also bought a 3D printer last November and have made some print test of naval models by Henry Turner miniatures, they are 1/600 but reduced the scale with the 3d printer software !

The finished model I bring you today is 3d printed in 1/1200

My choice for 1/600 will be Minairons Miniatures, like this late Galleon. A very good sculpt although the sails are metal and a little bit heavy for my taste, appart from that, perfect for my needs.

Also Warlord Games galleons and galleys seems very nice, although I don't own any of them.

1/600 Flags are by Minairons too, In my humble opinion, the best out there! They also modified some of their flags for 1/1200 scale so I will show you the result in the near future.

This is the finished model, I have no ratlines ( I think that is the English name) so it seems a little bit "nude" in this scale.

My intention is wargaming a wide variety ot conflicts from late XVI to 80 Years War, 30 Years War, and late XVII conflicts in Europe, Asia and the Caribbean, building small navies for Spain, France, Netherlands, England, maybe Portugal too.

The question is …Which scale to choose? Maybe both , I don’t know yet.

One point is detail vs numbers, in 1/600 there is a lot of work to put in, plus the tedious rigging of the ship, which in 1/1200 is much simpler. I will post soon pics of Ark Royal metal miniatures in 1/1200 to compare.

Here some pics of both models