WIP - The boat my friend requested

Well now that I have completed la Estefanía the number of boats in my collection has well and truly doubled! But, why stop at doubling my collection? And as I have been making boats according to what some of my friends and family have been requesting I have one more to do. This one is.... odd. I offered to make my friend a pirate ship. In my mind I was going to make a little Fluyt. But then he turned around and asked for a Greek/Roman warship! And so it began...

This thing is very small for a rowed ship. so I'll give it some serious sail power to compensate

I'll add armour plates to the front. To protect it against cannon fire once it goes in for a ram.

The book in the background is Patrick O'Brian's HMS Surprise, an appropriate book to be reading!

I'll probably use oars (forgot the term for them) rather than a rudder on this one.

Well there you have it. My strangest boat yet. Lots to do yet but it'll be a fun one once it's done. Also if you know where I can get Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey & Maturin series cheaply I'll be very thankful. I have books 1-3 then 8. So I need to get 4-7 or else number 8 will be sitting on my shelf tempting me to skip ahead.

Boats, Ships and maybe a raft or two.

So given that I just completed El San Francisco it is time to begin on the next round of ships. I have figures on the way too but while I am at my family's house I will make the most of having access to my materials to make ships, buildings and other larger things.

One ship complete... onto the next one.

 So what to do? Well there are a couple of other ships that I was working on:

4 of the six are compete. The top left and top right are yet to be done.

These ships are a small dhow and a pirate cutter crossed with a Greco-Roman warship. But these are relatively small projects and so I can think about what to do next. And for this I will look east, Far East.

A junk. But junk it certainly is not

Turns out it is rather hard to get a good set of boat plans for East Asian ships, or at least I am not that good at finding them. Anyway I have managed to download me some plans. I have three documents that allow  me to build ships from the following countries.

1. China: I have a plan (as part of a longer document) for a sea going junk used for trade. A larger project but certainly an interesting.
2. Japan: I have got the plans for a Japanese Warship what were held by the French Maritime Museum. An interesting design but slightly harder to use given the fact the writing is hard to read and in French (which I can't read).
3. Vietnam: Compiled during the Vietnam War I have a large document full of junk and sampan designs (this was to help the US identify potential smugglers - but it is very handy for me). Many of the ships and boats are quite small and so wouldn't be that diffucult a project.

Anyway I'd be keen to hear what you have to say about these potential projects. If there is one you'd like to see, any tips you have and if you know of some plans that I could use. Also don't be afraid to let me know of some completely different boats that I could do. :-)