Making Xebecs

Some months ago I read a great little article by Guy Bowers entitled "Too Many Brigs" having just purchased the Master and Commander set at the time I was very interested in his article about building a Xebec. They Next three pictures are taken form his articles and are used with Guys permission.

I followed Guys lead in cutting up a pair of brigs per Xebec I wanted to make. the image above is a good guide as to where to make the cuts, but you can adjust some forward or back to make a longer or shorter ship.  The short parts can be used to make schooners or cutters as per Guy's blog and are a handy addition to your fleet. 

Cut the deck pieces as follows I kept all my cannon but you could trim some of them out at this point if you wanted too, Xebecs where used as merchants and these would have fewer guns. 

Recombine your miniatures as shown above the one on the right will be the body of your Xebec.  Guy hasn't yet posted his own Xebec so form here I was on my own.

I did an additional step taking pieces left over from other projects to make a poop deck and cabin.  The windows are form a Frigate stern plate that I did need (you should have two extra per sprue if not 3 if you use the metal stern plates) I used part of an old 25mm shield (cut square of the deck) and made the railings out of left over 15mm tank tracks form an old Battle Front/Flames of War plastic tank. Look in your bitz box and get creative. 

I've been painting hulls first and then adding masts but some people attack masts first there is no right way.

This is my preferred mast material Fire Forge Pikes left over from an old project

You can see my first attempt at a Xebec I made a major error not tilting the forward and rear masts. Even so the result is pretty good. 

My second Xebec correct this error the fore mast has a significant forward tilt and the mizzen mas has a slightly less extreme tilt. I could have put it further back on the deck and been more accurate but opted to use the hole that was already present on the model.

Next I attached the pars to hang my lateen sails from I chose to put the fore mast spar out to starboard and the others to port you will see this configuration in paintings of Xebecs like the one below.

Antonio Barceló's Xebec Facing two Algerian Corsair Galiots. 1738

With the spars glued into place its time to start rigging. Keep it simple is my approach I strung a line from the bow to each mast and then down to the stern. I did a line form the mizzen mast to hole by the mounting for the ratlines to mount a flag. I also wrapped some of the thread around the point where the spars meet the masts.

I cut my sails out of gray tracing paper from my daughters sketch pad I basically cut the sails in the shape I wanted but made sure I was a little large then trimmed them down to fit.  The rear mast is an attempt at a furled sail.  I used some scraps of cloth its OK but not quite what I was going for.  Feel free to reach out with question hopefully this will give you some guidance for your own projects.  There are some 3D printed Xebecs that may well prove an easier option, but this may also give you some ideas how to proceed with your extra brigs.