French Army / Pirate Diorama - Help wanted

[Skywalker]

Hi playmofriends,

i am in a bigger project to build the island / port of my pirate enemies. i have choosen the french army to have a "port royale" .the island is growing in the planning but i don´t have the right ship. so my question would be which ship would you think is the best for the guys ?

[cachalote]

hello skywalker.

in a thread i started - http://www.playmofriends.com/forum/index.php?topic=4639.0 - you can see all the pirate ships playmobil ever made.

the only "navy" one is, of course, the 3740 (3055us) schooner.
it will be "completed" by the newly announced 5140 tender (rotrock kanonensegler).
both of them, though, are "equiped" with british crews.
you would have to customize a new crew.

the same would apply if you would go for a bigger ship (the biggest being the 3940/3286us and now the announced 5135).
in any case remember that ships should ne manned by sailors and officers. 
marines are only there to help (playmobil wrongly included them as the only crew members in the 5140).

another thread initiated by pyrrhus - http://www.playmofriends.com/forum/index.php?topic=2095.0 - and "revived" by me gives you a list of osprey's books containing a lot of info on british and french navies and also on pirates.

i hope i was able to help you. 

[Skywalker]

cachalote: thanks for this quick and detailed answer. i will def. have a closer look to your tipps. perfect !

[playmofire]

Cachalote is quite right - it has to be the schooner.

[Skywalker]

yeah...the schooner is maybe the right choice...found this nice list while surfing..

http://www.google.de/imgres?imgurl=http://www.gardenwargaming.com/pirates/images/3740ship.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.gardenwargaming.com/pirates/pirates1.html&usg=__ZrLlDuEQHopYJjF3Eczt7deO1b8=&h=355&w=449&sz=19&hl=de&start=1&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=mz33kw7uwSCiYM:&tbnh=100&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dplaymobil%2B3740%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dde%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26tbm%3Disch&ei=KAmJTcnAOofLswbNjdW5DA

[Hadoque]

I'd advise the 3940 (US 3286) as "frigate" or "corvette" for your island's French army. It even has the right colours: red deck with blue stickers (French ships often were applied with red paints)
If the colours turn out like they appear on the images, and if the fake guns below deck are exchangable, I'd advise the new 5135 (to be released in August in Germany & Benelux) as an English naval vessel (with the skull-sail exchanged for a normal one).

The 3740 white schooner is well suited too, but much smaller.

[Giorginetto]

3940 in my opinion, colours match the flag and its the bext looking and mightiest ship of them all !!!!

[Ds dad]

For our version of Port Royale I have used the 3940/3286 with the pirate flag replaced with the Bluecoat one from 5775 (http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/showpart.pl?partnum=30%2062%204162). I have left the lion flag on the aft mast.

I have also scratched together a crew from our pirates. You can see some of them in third picture here: http://www.playmofriends.com/forum/index.php?topic=6737.0
They are not historically accurate but at least they are all similarly dressed. I also have assigned the 4444 cannon boat to the Bluecoats as I find this boat better suited to shore patrol than pirating on the high seas. I'll try to post some pics soon.

[Skywalker]

Thx Everybody,

3940 is now my choice. i will still look for the schooner but they are hard to get with complete crew....

Cheers