A representative Privateer 5th rate Frigate for your Sailpower game or other 6MM scale age of sail needs!

6MM scale Captain’s Edition : This is the latest 6MM version of this kit featuring MSLA resin 3D printed hull, masts, shrouds and sails. The kit features an improved resin that has high detail but maintains part flexibility. The goal of the Captain’s Edition is to get a model on the table for gameplay in a faster manner then previous versions. They come unpainted and unassembled.

Designers Note:

This version is referred to as “the type C” in house to the Sailpower senior GM crew. Long time Sailpower Player Matt Adami researched seeking a frigate that might be large but fits better into a Sailpower game with smaller ships. He was interested in a British frigate called HMS Barbados - which having been a captured privateer turned merchant was gifted to the royal navy thus having a unusually light armament for the period. He originally commissioned this under my hobbyist freelance rate as a custom project, but the development hulls were found by the Senior GM team who liked the idea of a less powerful 5th rate. Thus after discussing it with the community I have decided to go ahead and release this as a kit.

It is perhaps natural to think of frigates as limited to the standard classes we read of in the reference texts of the navies of the age of sail. If we dig deep and read more we find these ships that drop into the navy’s more recorded eye, that came from other places and builders and are not these more generally standardized warships. The reality of merchant ships of the era is they tended to be built with similar hulls to warships. Larger Indiaman were often framed with all the ports of a full-on line ship and simply planked over. This meant the ship could be pressed into military service later or simply up armed for additional security in time of war. We have numerous accounts of frigates used in the merchant trade. HMS Barbados gives us a good look at what one of of those looks liked. This Privateer frigate thus represents a frigate that caries lighter arms then would be typical of ships of it’s size. I hope it is an interesting option for Sailpower players looking to represent these merchant and privateer frigates of the age of sail.

Historic ship type:

HMS Barbadoes was built as a French privateer and later worked a merchant in the vile African trade named Brave or Braave. A British ship captured her in 1803 and she became the British privateer Barbadoes for a few months. In 1804 the inhabitants of the Island of Barbados purchased her and donated her to the Royal Navy, which took her into service as HMS Barbadoes.

She was initially rated as a 32-gun fifth rate; she was later rated as a 28-gun sixth rate. She had a long career in the Royal Navy until she wrecked on 27 September 1812.