I think most of the guys here know the history of this ship, so I will go directly to the build. Some of you are aware that I got a heavy dose of 'Carrack Fever' from 2010 to 2012 or so. During that time I scratch-built several carracks, all conjectural:
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MW Mary Rose 1 - 2.jpg [ 56.96 KiB | Viewed 1368 times ]
This was my first carrack and my first scratch built ship. I was just getting my feet wet with original subjects, and knew very little about carracks at this point. I called her the '
Beja.' As a representation of a genuine 16th Century Portuguese carrack she has a lot of errors, but I had huge fun building her and learning about the subject.
I had competed successfully in model contests before, and decided to enter the
Beja in IPMS competition in 2011. To my great disappointment, she did not place. In fact, I had made several critical errors with this build that cost me in competition.
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My next carrack was another conjectural build, which I named the '
Fora.' This build incorporated much improved accuracy and historical information. I also made sure my modeling was up to snuff with this one. As a result, she took best in her category at the 2011 IPMS nationals, a resounding vindication for me at the time.
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These are two shots of the same build, based on the famous 'Willem Kraek' contemporary illustration of a Northern European Carrack. Although this build is not done, it was probably my best effort at a carrack, the most accurate, since the Willem Kraek Carrack is considered by most historians to be an actual ship. I plan on finishing her concurrently with the
Mary Rose this year.
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Other historical ship efforts included a still unfinished
Solferino French Ironclad, which I also hope to finish this year.
For good measure, i'll include the remaining incomplete carrack builds in my collection, all generalized and conjectural:
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So, I had some experience building carracks, and had spent the better part of two years familiarizing myself with the nature of their hulls, decks, superstructure, armament, and rigging. But the
Mary Rose was a special ship for me. I'd known about her since childhood, and I even composed a piece of music in her honor in 2011, a fantasy for Violin and Orchestra, which was premiered by a local symphony in my area. So, naturally, I was keen to model the
Mary Rose.