QuoteAre the oars the wrong way round, or is it a fore stroke?

The oars are at the beginning of the stroke (towards the bow), the models also come with oars at the end of the stroke (towards the stern)

Quote from: mollinary on 18 June 2025, 01:40:28 PMWhich brings me to a question I have always wanted an answer to, but never seen one. Which way did oarsmen in ancient galleys face, forwards or backwards?

The limited contemporary or near contemporary artwork that shows galley crews has them facing the stern (back)

e.g. Trajan's Column


The designers of the Olympias replica also have the rowers facing the stern

QuoteThe oars are at the beginning of the stroke (towards the bow), the models also come with oars at the end of the stroke (towards the stern)
The limited contemporary or near contemporary artwork that shows galley crews has them facing the stern (back)

e.g. Trajan's Column


The designers of the Olympias replica also have the rowers facing the stern

Many thanks for that! I suspected as much, but was not sure.

Rowing backwards is much more efficient, and almost universal.

I can think of three exceptions:

Venetian gondoliers.
They row, it isn't a punt, but using a figure of eight motion with a rowlock at the rear of the boat.

Venetian Galleasses - 
Venice again eh!! This one's a bit of a cheat. 
As oars became bigger, with more rowers per oar,  the rowers didn't grip around the oar. They used handles, or hollows in the oar.
At galleass scale, the rowers are standing, some behind the oar facing forward and some before, facing back.
Some rowers are facing forward.

This modern gadget, which converts direction of movement.
    https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/forward-facing-rowing-system/
I wouldn't like to rely on this using ancient materials on an open seaway.


There are other boat scale solutions, canoes, dragon boats, pacific island canoes.
But we refer to that mode as paddling, not rowing.
The significant difference is the lack of mechanical advantage levering through a rowlock.

And the Coracle.
https://youtu.be/ZR3WD34wlL8?si=GjESZOE5iZqPXIBB

And War Canoes of various cultures.

I've started on the first six units.

Unusually for me I'm assembling and painting these on the unit bases. It makes sense to glue the parts of the galley to the base at the same time I glue them together. This worked well for the test galley and I'm pretty sure the galleys are widely enough spread on the bases that painting won't be a problem.

I've painted the test galley in four different colours/styles to see how they look. The plan is to have some galleys plain wood, others will have primary and/or secondary areas painted in various colours. The primary areas are the prow and bow as well as the stern post the stern. The secondary area is gunwale (upper edge of the side of the galley).


This side aft is plain wood with a blue gunwale, forward is plain wood, with eye


This side forward is a red prow and bow, with eye, aft is a blue stern post and green gunwale

The sea is some spare blue paint I had. I will match the main blue of my sea mat that will be on its way from Europe soon.

I'm interested in feedback on the painting.

I'm planning to use the following colours; ivory, blue, yellow, brown, green, red, black grey.

I wonder if I need stronger colours particularly for the blue and green. They work well on the crew's tunics but are perhaps too muted on the galleys given the small areas painted.

"I wonder if I need stronger colours particularly for the blue and green. They work well on the crew's tunics but are perhaps too muted on the galleys given the small areas painted."

Have you considered posting a few pics (hint hint) and perhaps a poll so we can help you with your quandary?
 

The two pictures above feature the blue and green in question both on tunics and ships

I've assembled the first 6 units (18 galleys) and painted the first coat on the hulls  
I'm using two thin coats on the plywood ships
I've very pleased with the look of the galleys on the bases, the spacing has worked out as planned    

Second batch of 6 units have the hulls based and the required parts cut out, some need a bit of sanding to improve them
They will get done tomorrow as I have a game this evening

One paper I read (while researching something else) said that if you collected all the ship colours from Mediterranean mosaics, then a Roman fleet would have been as technicolour as a tarts boudoir...

QuoteThe two pictures above feature the blue and green in question both on tunics and ships

I think more colour then - the deck and the oars are the main areas visible (in the photos) and are plain wood. The spot colours on the prow and stern kind of get lost.

Quote from: paulr on 20 June 2025, 05:28:58 AMThe two pictures above feature the blue and green in question both on tunics and ships

Thanks! Had to drop my vpn to see them! 
I actually think they look fine as presented.

When painting my Navwar Phoenician galleys I painted them brown all over then added colour to the prows but felt they looked rather dull so I painted the oars a slightly different brown from the hull and gave them a cream deck. Even though I doubt they holystoned the galley decks!

Accurate or not I think it makes them visually more interesting. YMMV!

Here's mine from a good few years back
https://madlemmey.blogspot.com/2018/02/poseidons-warriors-first-game-romans-vs.html?m=1

Thanks all

QuoteOne paper I read (while researching something else) said that if you collected all the ship colours from Mediterranean mosaics, then a Roman fleet would have been as technicolour as a tarts boudoir...

I've seen several, less colourful, references to colourful ships

I'm using three different browns for the galleys and the same three for oars all randomly assigned so most times the hull & deck will be a different brown from the oars

I'm going with a stronger blue and green for the ships keeping the muted green & blue for tunics

My knowledge of these types of boats comes from watching Jason & the Argonauts and Troy, so excuse me if it's a stupid question, but don't they have masts & sails? And if so, isn't that the opportunity to add colour and difference?

Ancient galleys left their masts and sails ashore before going into action, unless they were merely planning to run for it.

The exceptions being the Hemiola and Tri-hemiola, which were mainly pirate ships.

If you rammed or were rammed with the mast stepped in all likelihood the mast would come crashing down on your own deck.

Mine have masts and sails, mostly to aid identification

Some of my thoughts

• They definitely look more colourful with sails, some of which had symbols on them
• As Ithoriel says historically they are more accurate without sails in battle. You are carrying less weight and have clearer decks
• The models are simpler to assemble & paint and are more robust without masts and sails
• LaserCast galleys don't come with masts (but Tim could probably cut you some based on the merchant ship masts he does)

I've finished painting the galleys of the first 6 units

I'm waiting until my sea mat gets here before I paint the bases. I want to match the colour of the mat

I've assembled and painted two coats on the hulls and oars of the galleys of the next 6 units

Reasonably happy with progress and pretty happy with the look of the galleys. They will look much better once washed and dry brush and when the sea is painted, at the moment the brown hulls and oars blend into the MDF bases