Cossack Chaika

[M.P.]

Hi,
I'd like to present you a kind of cossack boat - chaika in 1/72 scale:

[Byblos]

Superb work 

[mikeygees]

That is cool....

[Thaddeu]

Oh, very nice. Swivel gun and everything!

[Patrice]

 

Thank you! I had never heard about these boats or their name.

[M.P.]

Thanks guys . Chaika was primarily used by cossacks, but I've recently read that Serbs under the Habsburg rule organized a fleet swimming on the Danube.

[winder]

Sorry for the thread necromancy M.P. but I love the work you have done on this Chaika!

I'm actually trying to build one for my Napoleonic Austrians to use, as you mentioned they used them on the river ways near the border with the Ottomans. Did you scratchbuild this one or is it based on a model? I was tempted to buy a viking ship and leave off the shields and the prow as I thought they looked quite similar to a Chaika, do you think that would work? The Austrians used even bigger ones which had up to 6 swivel guns and could carry 50 or 60 sailors so I thought a gunboat model might work for those larger ones.

Anyway, if you have any advice or ideas on how to go about building one I would love to hear it .

[M.P.]

Hi thank you:).

Well it's a scratchbuild based on contemporary engravings. As for Shaikas used by Hapsburgs, as you've already mentioned were quite a different beasts from their cossack counterparts not just in terms of size. If you pm me your e-mail I think I can help you with some photos of shaikas from XVIII century.

[Painter Jim]

Very, very nice!

[winder]

MP thanks for the reply mate! Yeah, after I posted I realised that of course they were totally different. Looking forward to seeing the pictures, I have only found 2 pictures in ospreys, it seems difficult to get information in English.