Dutch galleon "Verenigde Provinciën"

[Hadoque]

Here another...hum...5135-variant 

She's a 17th-century galleon from the Dutch East Indian Trading Compagnie, and I named the ship "Verenigde Provinciën" * ("United Provinces" in English).

*: I believe this name wouldn't be  historically correct for the 17th century, as Flanders back then (=  today ca. the complete territory of Belgium + a part of the north of France), which used to be the Southern Dutch Provinces, got seperated from The Netherlands (= Northern Dutch Provinces) in the late 16th century, due to the Spanish occupation under King Philips II.
Wikipedia says the dutch "United Provinces" refer solely to the Northern Provinces in the 17th century (so after the separation), but I learned it differently. So to me, the "United Provinces" are the Southern Provinces (Belgium) together with the Northern Provinces (Netherlands).


This time I kept the original "fake gun"-deck, and I installed guns with black carriages and golden barrels on the topdeck. I think the colour-layout of the canons fits best this way with the colours of the fake-guns below deck.

I applied stickers (on sides and stern) from a 3940/3286, a midbrown anchor-winch again and a redbrown wheel (or "helm") from a 4290 on top of the ship's stern-castle. The sail with the skull is replaced with a skullles one...

Sorry for the pics being real bad quality, they were taken indoors with really bad weather conditions outside (storm, thunder, black sky, etc).
I'll try to take better pics of the ship later this week, if time & weather allows...

[Hadoque]

...

[Hadoque]

The flagpole at the stern is from a 5140-canonboat...(there exists also such a midbrown one, in set 5137 rowboat). The 2 lanterns come from a 4290-pirates' ship.

[Hadoque]

I also tried out the ship with black riggings instead of the white/beige ones, and in the end I kept her that way.
The black ones look best imho with the other colours of this particular ship, but the bad quality pics don't show it all to well...

[BlackPearl2006]

nice custom

the brownish colour of the hull almost looks like that weird baby food yellow colour found on british ships of the period...at least in the pics.  With an almost black-coloured bottom half, it almost already appears to be in the right colours for a british ship.

On my 3286 I had to cut gunports on the main deck to accommodate cannons because without the ports, the cannons could only sit at a fixed 30 degree angle without the capability of being aimed straight outward (at zero degrees) parallel to the horizon.  Since playmobil has now released the 5135 with on-deck cannons, have they solved this issue?  Or do the cannons simply rest on-deck as they would have on the 3286?  And are there any notches, grooves, or attachment points for the cannons to fit into so they're not just sliding around on deck?  (most previous ships with on-deck cannons have notches or pegs for the cannons to sort of snap into in fixed spots).

I like your use of the 4290 lamps (I like the lamps, though I wish they were more real instead of using stickers.  Can't wait to see better pics

Will you be ornamenting the stern further?  Dutch galleons probably had the most ornate sterns of all the tallships.

I like your ship!!!

[WarriorOfToys]

Magnificent!
I was just learning about the Dutch today in a project of mine...
Incredible ship,
I cannot wait for the 5135 ships to get to the US.

My questions echo Atto's.

[Wolf Knight]

Aye!!! Superb!!! i like these small alterations, give the ship a new character!!!

[playmofire]

Even in the "wind and the rain" it looks good, Erwin!  Look forward to seeing more on a finer day.   

[PrimusPilus]

It came out VERY good!
Any small detail that makes your set unique is always worth the trouble IMO. I'm not a fan of "clone armies".

[Birdie]

*: I believe this name wouldn't be  historically correct for the 17th century, as Flanders back then (=  today ca. the complete territory of Belgium + a part of the north of France), which used to be the Southern Dutch Provinces, got seperated from The Netherlands (= Northern Dutch Provinces) in the late 16th century, due to the Spanish occupation under King Philips II.
Wikipedia says the dutch "United Provinces" refer solely to the Northern Provinces in the 17th century (so after the separation), but I learned it differently. So to me, the "United Provinces" are the Southern Provinces (Belgium) together with the Northern Provinces (Netherlands).

I don't know where you learned differently, but 'Verenigde Provinciën' is in fact the name for what we now know as the Netherlands. I studied history in Leuven and my textbook of that period states this:

They were called 'De Nederlanden' (together with 'Flanders') but when Gelderland, Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Friesland, Overijsel en Groningen seperated in the 16th century, they formed 'De Verenigde Provinciën', 7 in total. So the name of your ship is 100% correct. 

* modified: And btw, these photo's are stunning!!