Black Sea's Spanish 'Monarca'

The final Spanish 'Third Rate of Renown' the 'Monarca' has joined the fleet. The 'Monarca' was commissioned in 1794 at Bilbao, fought at Trafalgar under Captain Teodoro de Argumosa y Bourke being captured by the British and subsequently sinking in the storm following the battle.

I went for a slightly different colour scheme this time, black and a more brownish red than usual. The model after rigging but before adding the sails and ratlines:

The finished ship:

The entire Spanish Fleet on the table:

I now have one First Rate, six Third Rates, three Frigates, four Brigs and two Merchantmen. I'm not sure that anyone at the club has any ships bigger than a Frigate so it is hard to see how the bigger ships will see any action.

I have really enjoyed making them though, the kits are great and go together well even with my limited modelling skills. I've got the hang of the rigging now which isn't too hard at all leaving only attaching the sails (being thick card they have no 'give' and the rigging gets in the way) and the ratlines as the hardest part of making them. If I was starting again I'd seriously think about cutting the sails out of cloth instead of using the paper ones.

There does not seem any point adding more ships to the Fleet now (though I have thought that several times before and it didn't stop me) so the next choice is to either stop the project as it is or bite the bullet and buy the Royal Navy Fleet box to give them some opposition. The Fleet box is actually pretty good value from Wayland Games at around £60 which gets you HMS Victory, the three '3rd Rates of Renown', three named Frigates and six Brigs. I suspect at some stage I will invest in one.....