The Crimson Crusader Galleon
It’s a very rare thing to find much spare time in the Christmas period, but with all the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, excess time seems like it’s always coming.
To fill the extra time on my hands I turned once again to my Meccano hobby. It was early on the morning of the 23rd December when I decided that my time usually spent with visiting family would be filled by creating a new model and that another ship build was going to get my attention.
With three ships already in my garage armada and another I had previously dismantled, I thought about adding a predecessor, an older galleon, and how that might look. I started with that idea and spent until late afternoon creating the shape of the new model, continuing on through the 24th and 25th until by Boxing Day the ship was almost complete. All that I needed to do was to add the sails and rigging, and as I was now in the zone I started on this the very next day.
I re-used the red sails from the ship model I had dismantled, and added all the rigging, resulting in the ship looking related to the previous model. It’s main differences are in the shape of the hull, decks, masts, and cabins, but the three masts are also much higher in proportion to the size of the hull.
I went on to add more rigging, four cannons, a bell, some lights and the necessary anchor. I thought to use a long wooden base covered with a dark blue colour in cloth or similar material so that the ship would be presented as if it was on the water.
It total it took about 50 hours to build from the 23rd to the 29th December 2020, and where my family were missing, my fleet got their own ancestor to join them instead.
They say blood is thicker than water — well at Christmas some waters run deeper even than that. Cloaked all in its scarlet colours, The Crimson Crusader is a blood vessel like no other!