Lego recently came out with a new Troll Warship, part of their updated, Fantasy-oriented Castle theme. It includes four oars and several hull sections, as well as assorted other pieces that work nicely for constructing a classical or medieval galley. I immediately saw the potential for creating a dromon, a medieval Roman war galley distinguished in large part by a tower built around the central mast. I managed to acquire several of the Troll Warships via ebay, and this is what I put together: 
This last picture is a close-up of the Greek Fire Siphon that I managed to build for the bow of the ship. The actual siphons would often have their spouts designed to look like the maws of dragons or lions or various other beasts, so I took one of Lego's old dragon-winged horse helmets, attached it to the end of the spout, and hooked a hose up to the other end and ran it to a barrel. It makes for a decent enough fire thrower.
The whole thing only has 12 oars, which isn't much (a basic pentaconter, or small, fast dromon, would have had 25 per side if I remember rightly), but considering that it's Lego and most things are either smaller-scale than normal or somewhat exaggerated, it isn't too unreasonable. I also don't have a sail yet, in part because I'm not sure if I should stick with the current lateen rig or switch to a square rig.
As for personnel, I have a fully-armored knight minifigure as the captain, using the barred helmet instead of the full helm with moving visor (I have to use them on somebody, and it distinguishes him from the heavy cavalry lancers). I also have two marines (I'd prefer more), using the soldier minifigures with surcoats printed on them instead of either of the scale armor prints (which I use for my infantry). For the rowers, I lacked the number of blue wizard minifigures to man the oars with blue-uniformed unarmored men, so instead I opted to use older armor-printed minifigures (to represent rowers being issued old, archaic armor while the frontline troops get the newest gear). I tried to include pikes for when the rowers need to arm themselves in the event of a boarding action (I also have a rack of swords for the marines, who will use crossbows until they need to prepare for hand-to-hand).
The bow of course has the Greek Fire Siphon, the central mast has both the distinctive tower of the dromon war galley as well as a crow's nest for a spotter or a sniper, and the stern has a sterncastle complete with catapult. I don't have a ram, since it'd be underwater and thus impossible to model on something intended to have the waterline flush with the tabletop.
So, what do you think? Is this a workable interpretation of a dromon? If I had the pieces I think I could expand it into a proper pentaconter, and with even more I have some ideas about how to make a bireme out of it (two ranks of oars on each side, one above the other), but for now this is the best that I can do without burning through entirely too much money.
2 comments:
Splendid. I would love to have one of these (if I magically had the room for it). You should definitely go with square-rigged, not just for coolness' sake but because it's accurate.
Do you think they'll ever make truly classical bows and sterns, with the fish design? The ram would probably be right at the waterline, too, not entirely beneath it, and would be partially visible under normal conditions.
Have you seen the book I bought some years back on the Athenian trireme?
I don't think I ever did see that book.
As for the rigging, I've seen evidence that depicts them both ways (square and lateen). Something to keep in mind, dromons weren't classical galleys (or even medieval European galleys such as the Italian states used). They were a unique modification to the galley design, in some ways a retrograde modification for the purposes of military efficiency and in others an innovative evolution that added to the combat effectiveness of the vessels.
Sadly, there is no good way to add a ram without having the bow be lifted off of the table surface by the attaching pieces. I guess I could get around that by adding bow waves and a wake and all that, with the ram a part of it. That should lift the whole structure enough that it remains relatively even.
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