36 Gun Frigate HMS Hamadryad - GHQ 1:1200

This is GHQ's model of the 36 gun frigate HMS Hamadryad.

Hamadryad was originally the Spanish-built frigate Ninfa, launched at Minorca in 1795. In April of 1797 she narrowly managed to avoid sailing directly into the clutches of the British fleet blockading Cadiz, but not without being detected. Ninfa and another frigate were pursued by the 74 gun HMS Irresistible and the 36 gun HMS Emerald, and sought to anchor in a protected bay where they expected the British ships would not follow them. They did so to no avail, however, and after a little over an hour of fighting Ninfa had struck, and the other frigate was run aground and later sunk. Ninfa was taken in to British service as HMS Hamadryad, but hers was to be a short career. On Christmas day of the very same year she foundered in a storm in Algiers bay.

Here Hamadryad is seen between a 20 gun Corvette on the left and a 32 gun Amazon-class frigate on the right.

An extreme close up - a 32 gun frigate very close on the port side

24 Gun Frigate - Langton Miniatures 1:1200

Sometimes through no fault of its own, a model will get buried underneath an ever-growing stack of projects, and wait far longer than their due to see completion. This is one of those long-suffering kits, a 24 gun frigate from Langton Miniatures that I bought a few years ago but for no discernible reason only now got around to completing.

This kit is available in Langton's Baltic line, and is intended to represent a 24 gun Swedish vessel. As such it comes with optional banks of oars. However there is nothing uniquely Swedish about it, and it will serve just as well as a French privateer

Using a spare part from a sail kit I cannibalized on another project, I've modeled this ship with the main course set, while the fore course is still clewed up - just to give it a little plausible but distinctive touch.

Here the frigate is seen between two other Langton models - a 10 gun schooner on the left, and a 32 gun xebec frigate on the right.

20 Gun Corvette La Fauvette - GHQ 1:1200

Here is a 1:1200 model from GHQ of a ship with a nice claim to fame. In February of 1793, a 23 year old Napoleone di Buonaparte set sail in the 20 gun corvette La Fauvette as part of the ill-fated expedition against holdings of the Kingdom of Sardinia. The campaign brought no glory to the French (or Corsicans) but immortalized the name of a humble sixth rate ship.

I love the lines of this model. It's a sleek, low-lying ship that looks like it can pack on the speed. I have rebuilt the bowsprit from brass rods for greater strength and to add detail, and mounted the model on a resin base from Langton Miniatures, which in turn sits on top of a plastic piece and a magnetic bottom. Ratlines are photo etched brass from Langton. Rigging is nylon paintbrush bristles.

For the sake of size comparison, here the corvette is seen between a 20 gun sloop on the left and a 32 gun frigate on the right, both of them GHQ models.