Boats At The Museum And Art Gallery Of The Northern Territory

This post is pretty much a picture dump. Whilst on holiday we went to the excellent Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. This is exactly what you think it might be; a museum covering the history, nature and art of the Northern Territory, and it's well worth a visit if you're in Darwin.

Tucked away at the back is a gallery of boats, and to me it was one of the highlights of the museum. It's a small, but eclectic collection of boats and canoes that plied the waters around the Territory and the southern parts of Indonesia. One carried refugees from Vietnam in the 1970s. As my wife said, they might not look like much, but they are the kinds of vessels you don't see in museums elsewhere, so I took it upon myself to take plenty of pictures.

Those who know my approach to modelling will know I'm more into impression than detail. I didn't note down much in the way of details of the vessels; I just took pictures that show off their shapes, styles and colour, simply so I can use them for ideas and inspiration (mostly for Galleys & Galleons).

I have tried to group the pictures together logically.

I loved this large outrigger vessel, and took lots of pictures of it

The information boards had pictures of the sail-plan.

I can't remember where this beauty originates from, but it's very junk-like. Look at the lovely tripod mast.

There were smaller canoes, in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours.

And this vessel took the prize for best paintwork.

This was one of my favourites; it looked like it had been made in someone's shed one weekend out of left-over wood.

Finally here's a picture showing the lovely Mrs Kobold, just to give you an idea of scale.

I hope the quantity of pictures makes up for any lack of detail about what they represent. If you're doing any gaming set down South-east Asia way, I hope there is some inspiration here for you.