Airfix Golden Hind

I've been working on an Airfix Golden Hind along with a Revell Mayflower. Since the latter is waiting for blocks and other parts to arrive, it was good time to get some structural work done on the Hind. It requires a lot of detail work, fixing and so on but represents a beautiful design. Looking at a built Airfix version on the ModelWarship site has been very inspiring.

The Airfix kit represents a small fighting ship with elements taken from larger galleons, and specifically those designed by Hawkins in the 1570s and 80s. Its designed to fight it out to the last with protective bulkheads and loopholes for firing small arms at boarders, interior ladders and other features. It also has an ornate "carved" hind and the shields of Sir Francis Drake and Sir Christopher Hatton, Drake's patron, on the stern.

I've been working on it with the goal of representing Drake's ship as it may have looked off the coast of California in the early summer of 1579. So far I removed anachronistic details like the the carved hind, and the shields. I'd like to know more about the number of cannon carried on the ship at various times, since the kit has those mentioned by a captured Portugese writer, but the number sounds like it changed during the course of the circumnavigation.

Other structural work included rebuilding the flat of the stern to proportions more like ones shown in Matthew Baker's drawings, adding strakes (?) to the interior of the hull where there was no detail, and cutting open the stern windows on the upper bulkhead. There are additional windows on the upper sections of the hull sides, but I don't think that's documented historically and makes a poor design in heavy seas, so I'm planning to add hinges and make them small doors, similar to those on the replica Batavia. The gunports are shallow so the lids will be closed except for one or two which are partly open to allow light and air into the lower decks. The kit has hatches and so on all molded as sealed up with wooden planks.

The deck and the interior of the ship's hull have received its first coats of paint, which is pretty exciting. An oil wash will follow, and drying time. When these are completed I can assemble the hull and get to the painting of the exterior. All "tarred wood" surfaces have been grained with flexifiles, so I'm interested in seeing how they will turn out.

Airfix recommends a pretty flashy paint scheme and I'm going to tone it down a bit, mostly blue, ochre, red, and black above a tarred wood hull.

No photos yet, but I'll post them when I have some progress and the hull exterior completed.

Jim