by Mario Grima
1/180 Sovereign of the Seas 1637 (Airfix)
This Sovereign Of the Seas model represents the British Man of War, triple decker of 102 guns. Historically the ship had set a standard for ships during its time. Being the first triple decker and the beginning of large warships.She was ordered by King Charles 1.Her designers were a father & son team, Phineas and Peter Pett. Sovereign will always be known for its nicely arranged sculptures that adorned it from bow to stern.The warship had a very active and successful war career, The ship fought in three Dutch wars of 1652, 1665, 1672 and the war of the English Succession 1689-97. Nicknamed the Golden Devil by the Dutch that encountered her. She was rebuild & renamed a few times and was eventually downgraded to a two decker. On January 27,1696, her luck ran out to an accidental fire in Chatham.
The Airfix model is an old 1960's kit. The box kit does not have the planking details on its hull sides. It is also Lacking a lot of very important galley & forward ornamentation. The deck should also curve around the ladders behind the forecastle and rear deck platforms as is traditional for these large British wooden warships. I did not want to go crazy tearing apart decking on the kit so I worked within the confines of the kit. The scratch building I did was to add the hull side door Archways, ladder, and also I added my own sculptures a lion and unicorn to the upper taffrail. I inscribed some planking to the hull sides. The sails are the kits vinyl ones. One thing that the kit had which was very nice and unique was machine made string like ratlines that saved a lot of time.
In the colors of my model some will notice a large black boot above the water line. Painting this model I felt that the best source as the ships actual color was the old Peter Pett painting which was painted during the time period showing Peter Pett and the Stern of the Sovereign. That painting is like a window in time and an eye witness of the Sovereign true colors. The colors show the stern was black with gold gild, white hull. What I did find interesting is that the hull above the water line is also black, The sovereign must have had an all black hull or a large black waterline boot that ran from the edge of the rear stern galley to the front of the Forecastle forward platform. If you look at the painting and the model, from the same stern view it will look like the painting. The visibility of the side hull appears all black. Refer to the photo with the caliper.
The flags are the paper ones that the kit came with, the red banners I made from construction paper. I added pulleys from my stock.
