An early 16th Century Warship?

After working on the merchant ship earlier this year (see http://camisado1500s.blogspot.com/2023/01/a-merchant-ship.html) the temptation to find an early 16th century ship better equipped for war has proven too great! Whilst various later medieval boats are available there aren't really many suitable for the first half of the 1500s. Searching the internet led me to this 3D print file, which was only $7.50, https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-print-models/miniatures/architecture/merchant-ship-tabletop-terrain-28-mm and I thought it was worth picking up just in case I could find someone that could print it. I contacted a few companies but they were daunted by the sheer size of the model. Through a mutual friend I was then introduced to a local chap named Ben who was keen to test the abilities of his newly constructed 3D printer, I just needed to pay for the cost of the materials.

Ben did a fantastic job, managing to print the ship in chunks that would fit the printer and could then be assembled as if much of it had been printed as one piece. If you look at the images on the link to the file above you will see that the original model has sails. I didn't really want the sails to be replicated on this vessel. Ben cleverly removed these in the printing process so the booms or spars (I am not great on nautical terminology!) then just had to be cleaned up so my own furled sails could be attached using the same method as for the previous ship.

The Mary Rose from the Anthony Roll of the 1540s. The model ship does not have exactly the same shape but it is not far off.

Embarkation of Henry VIII at Dover - The painting depicts Henry's embarkation to sail from Dover to Calais in 1520, in order to meet Francis I at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. It is dated from 1520 to 1540.

Detail from the Embarkation of Henry VIII shown in full above. Note the shields that line the ship as well as those surrounding the crow's nests. I have tried to replicate this on the model ship.

Carracks clashing in a depiction of the Battle of Zonchio between the Venetians and Ottomans in 1499. As with the above image note all the shields that line the ships.

The shape of this 3D ship matches contemporary images of early 1500s carracks fairly closely (see the images above). There a some odd things about the model. I have no idea why a rudder is not modelled on, but could always add something for this later. The lower gun ports did not have hatches so I made a mould with siligum using a hatch from the smaller model ship and over a couple of weeks made all the hatches from green stuff. The same method was also used to replace the windows of the aftcastle with further gun ports. For more detailed 3D printing Fire Storm games were really helpful and printed out loads of swivel guns from this set https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/european-light-artillery-pack. These were then used on the side of the boat and also for some of the barrels poking out of the upper decks.

The ship is meant to represent a large merchant vessel that has been prepared for war. The gun ports are one way this is represented whilst the addition of the shields or pavises is the other. Have a look at all of the images above and it is clear that these ships were covered in these pavises when going to war. The detail from the "Embarkation of Henry VIII at Dover" clearly shows them all along the decks and surrounding the crow's nests as well. I was torn when it came to these shields as the ship would've looked spectacular if they had all been in Tudor colours, with roses, St Georges crosses and portcullis adorning them. This would have limited the use of the ship on the gaming table though. The flags on the top are interchangeable so with a simple swap it can become a Scots, French or Venetian vessel. For this reason I went with the simple red and white colour scheme. Initially it was painted in red, yellow and white but when it started to look like a "McDonalds" ship this was quickly changed!

The other reason for simply painting the pavises in red and white is that there are 93 of them. Most are plastic ones from lots of sprues of Perry medieval plastics but some metal ones were needed to make up the numbers. In total there are 36 guns, 14 of which are heavier cannons, the other 22 being lighter guns or swivel guns. For the crew in the photos below it is filled with 1540s Assault Group and Petes Flag miniatures. These will be based up later for units in my collection. I am keen to paint up some more suitable crew figures but whilst there are crew models for the Elizabethan period I am not sure of any particularly good ones for the earlier part of the century. Maybe renaissance gun crews would be a good place to look for suitable figures?

As with the first merchant ship this will be useful for lots of scenarios and naval landings, anything from James IV subduing the islemen and highlanders on the Scottish west coast through to the Venetians landing troops to attack Ottoman positions in the Mediterranean. Below are lots of photos of the ship and the troops on deck. Of course now I have this miniature a big refight of Pinkie is definitely going to have to happen!

A Tudor Warship.

Note quite the Mary Rose in 28mm but it's not too far off!

A view of the vessel from the shore.

Note the three tiers of gun ports.

A view from the bow.

The war ship and the smaller merchant carrack.

A view from the stern.

Note the bronze cannons in the aftcastle.

A view of the warship from above.

A Tudor warship in 28mm.

A view of the soldiers manning the crow's nest.

The crow's nests are protected by shields.

The main deck.

The figures manning the deck are mainly 28mm Tudor figures from the Assault Group with a couple from Pete's Flags also on deck. All the flags used are from Pete's Flags.

The ship is armed with swivel or "base" guns.

Tudor arquebusiers man the decks.

The Captain and his officers.

The Captain leads from the aftcastle.

The ships command.

A Tudor Warship in 28mm.

A view of the aftcastle.

Larger cannon on the gun deck. The hatches were made out of green stuff.

In total the ship has 36 guns on it, not including the figures carrying arquebuses.

A view of some of the guns in the stern.

A view of the formidable array of guns!

 

Wallachian Calarasi

A new unit for the collection today with a return to the 16th century border warfare of Eastern Europe. These horsemen would be as equally at home in an Ottoman raiding party as they would in an army defending the eastern reaches of Christendom. The figures represent the light cavalry of the provinces of Wallachia and Moldova, the calarasi. The calarasi were made up of plainsmen or members of the lower nobility. Armed with bows and lances they made ideal scouts and couriers. They could often be found patrolling the borders of their provinces, ever vigilant against the constant threat of enemy raids.

The calarasi wore rich and bright clothing when they could afford it. Another distinctive item of clothing often worn were tall beehive shaped hats, made of lynx fur, which they decorated with feathers. There are some interesting contemporary images of these expert cavalrymen, but the images need to be treated with caution. The first image below, from around 1530, shows two "turks" from a raiding party. One of them looks to be a Wallachian or Moldovan horseman serving as an Ottoman vassal. He wears the distinctive beehive shaped fur hat and is in striped clothing. The second is from a German military manual in the University of Heidelberg. It is so similar that it may simply be a copy of the fist image by Erhard Schön. The later 16th century images by Abrahm de Bruyn match the clothing and hats of the first two images very closely.

Erhard Schön 1530 Two Turks. One of the horseman is probably a Wallachian in Turkish employ as he wears the distinctive fur hat of the calarasi. Note the striped clothing he wears.

A possible image of a calarasi horseman from "the book of the tried arts", South West Germany 1535.

Abrahm de Bruyn - a Wallachian c.1585.

Abrahm de Bruyn - Wallachian from the later 1500s.

A contemporary image to Erhard Schön's is Daniel Hopfer's etching of three "Mamluks" shown below. Rather than being mamluks this trio of horseman may well be calarasi, they certainly look very similar with the distinctive hats and striped coats. In fact so similar that it is most likely that Schön or Hopfer has copied the other, although whose image was first is hard to tell. The later image shown below from the mid 16th century costume codex, now in Madrid, is clearly a copy of Hopfer's etching. Again they are labelled "Mosqvwiter" which I assume is meant to refer to them as mamluks. So we have images, some of which are probably of Wallachian and Moldovan calarasi, even though labelled as mamluks, but it is had to tell how many, if any, are by an artist who actually witnessed these cavalry. Some of them are clearly copies of the earlier works.

Daniel Hopfer, three Mamluks c.1526-1530 - but are they actually Wallachian cavalry wrongly identified as Mamluks?

Probably a copy of the image above from a codex of costumes - the Códice De Trajes c.1547. Are these Mamluks or Wallachians? This also serves to illustrate how images were clearly copied by other artists.

This being a Camisado blog post I had to find an excuse to include some woodcuts from Maximilian's Weisskunig! While the two images from it included below may not be of Wallachian or Moldovan troops specifically they do show the fashion for striped tunics among Eastern European troops in this period. Both woodcuts depict various characters and two of them in eastern fashions are clearly in striped clothing. I had intended to avoid the stripes when painting up the miniatures but having found these images I decided at least some of them would have to be painted like this.

Woodcut from the Weisskunig c.1514-1516. The two gentlemen on the left look to be Eastern European and one wears the distinct striped tunic as shown in the Erhard Schön and Daniel Hopfer images above. The mix of mail and plate armour of the man second from the left is also interesting.

Another woodcut from the Weisskunig c.1514-1516. Again some of the characters depicted look to be Eastern European with the gentleman on the right being in another striped coat.

These figures have all been converted to show the distinctive beehive fur hats. These were sculpted with green stuff after the hats the figures had been wearing were filed down. The feathers were then added from other miniatures I have converted in the past. Most of the figures are Old Glory Miniatures Balkan light cavalry or Delis whist the captain, carrying a mace, is an Assault Group Figure. Some of the figures carry the shields they originally came with whilst some have been swapped for Perry or Redoubt Enterprises shields. Finally all of the figures are on Assault Group horses instead of the Old Glory ones. 

I am pleased with how they have turned out. These cavalrymen fought for both Ottoman and Christian armies during the constant border warfare of this period and they will make a really colourful addition to both my Ottoman and Hungarian armies. They are also useful for a relatively long time period being suitable from the 15th Century through to at least the end of the 16th. These troops would also be great in a 15th century army of Vlad the Impaler and I was tempted to go down the rabbit hole of starting to build an army for Vlad to take on my Ottomans. But that will have to wait for now as there are lots of other projects in the pipeline!

28mm Wallachian or Moldovan calarasi.

Calarasi fighting under a Christian banner.

Wallachian cavalry, possibly in Hungarian service.

The calarasi under an Ottoman banner.

28mm Romanian Cavalry.

Converted 28mm Old Glory miniatures.

The figures would be perfectly suited to a 15th century Wallachian army under Vlad Tepes.  

Detail of some of the figures.

Detail of the striped clothing worn by some of them. The captain is a converted figure by the Assault Group whilst the rest are Old Glory miniatures.

The standard bearer is in a particularly fine purple coat.

A view of the unit from behind.

And finally an image of the calarasi with a unit of more generic Balkan calvary behind them. Most of the figures in the calarasi unit were converted from the Old Glory Balkan cavalry miniatures.