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Trireme c. 480 BC by *Hans* - ancient Greek warship


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In Europe we have the Euro. The 1 cent, 2 cent and 5 cent coins are in diameter between 12 and 15 mm, and these 3 coins i used for the shields. I hammered them a bit convex, filed the edges thin and removed the euro-marks and value. Then tinned them and blackened them.

Now I have to think of coloring them pale red and put some extra markings on it - like this:

post-11645-0-43320500-1422019018_thumb.jpg

 

 

Hans   

 

Owner of Kolderstok Models - 17th century Dutch ships.

 

Please visit www.kolderstok.com for an overview of the model kits available   

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Superb idea! I'm looking forward to seeing the final result!

Cheers

 

FAM

Joint building:

   Brick de 24, 1/48, jointly with Jack Aubrey (POB from Ancre plans)

 

Works in progress:

   USS Constitution Cross Section, 1:93 (POF bashed from Mamoli kit)

 

Completed models:

   Santìsima Trinidad, 1/90 (POB heavily modified DeAgostini kit)

   Genoan Pinco, 1/50 (POB bashed from Euromodel plans - my current avatar)

   Viking Knarr, 1/72 (POF from Dusek kit)

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In Europe we have the Euro. The 1 cent, 2 cent and 5 cent coins are in diameter between 12 and 15 mm, and these 3 coins i used for the shields. I hammered them a bit convex, filed the edges thin and removed the euro-marks and value. Then tinned them and blackened them.

That is a great idea and looks good. I wonder if the European Bank is bothered that you took some coins out of circulation.

Marc

Current Built: Zeehaen 1639, Dutch Fluit from Dutch explorer Abel J. Tasman

 

Unofficial motto of the VOC: "God is good, but trade is better"

 

Many people believe that Captain J. Cook discovered Australia in 1770. They tend to forget that Dutch mariner Willem Janszoon landed on Australia’s northern coast in 1606. Cook never even sighted the coast of Western Australia).

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That is a great idea and looks good. I wonder if the European Bank is bothered that you took some coins out of circulation.

Marc

To be honest - in the Netherlands the 1 and 2 cent coins are already almost out of circulation. It's easier and cheaper for everyone to round amounts of money to a value of 5 cent - Every article in a shop can cost f.i. 1,69 euro and 24,99. This is then a total of 26,68, but you pay 26,70. Other way round also occurs. Your total is f.i 16,52 - you pay 16,50

Hans   

 

Owner of Kolderstok Models - 17th century Dutch ships.

 

Please visit www.kolderstok.com for an overview of the model kits available   

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Hans,

Agreed with the rounding up and down of the money. In the US it cost more to produce a penny than what its worth. Like Europe, there is no need for pennies.

Marc

Current Built: Zeehaen 1639, Dutch Fluit from Dutch explorer Abel J. Tasman

 

Unofficial motto of the VOC: "God is good, but trade is better"

 

Many people believe that Captain J. Cook discovered Australia in 1770. They tend to forget that Dutch mariner Willem Janszoon landed on Australia’s northern coast in 1606. Cook never even sighted the coast of Western Australia).

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I like the idea of the shields, Hans. The one in the middle bears the Greek letter lambda, which signifies Lakedaimonia, the city-state of Sparta, and would only be seen on a Spartan ship. As far as I know, the other doesn't have any particular significance.

 

Steven

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  • 3 weeks later...

Due to the fact that I'm busy making another model of almost the same ship as the Batavia, The Dordrecht - 1618  (this for a wooden modelkit to be released later this spring) It is a bit quiet on this topic.  Hope you readers don't mind.

 

And if there are any questions - please post them!

Edited by *Hans*

Hans   

 

Owner of Kolderstok Models - 17th century Dutch ships.

 

Please visit www.kolderstok.com for an overview of the model kits available   

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Hello Han,s

 

i,ve just started to follow your build today you say your having a problem bending oak planking if you put a planking strip in the microwave in a damp clothe for few minute,s and it will be trail and error on timing,s the oak will bend easier, i can't take credit for the idea i got it off one of my other model group.s but it work,s so try it you have nothing to loose, i will be following your progress. 

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Haha never tried this, but I'm sure it will work. Only trouble might be to find a microwave which is wide enough (or deep) for the planks....

 

Oak was quite a new material for me to work with.  Not the most easy, but manageable.

 

Unfortunately, due to a related project for my Batavia I will not post very often here the coming period. But be sure - more posts will follow.

Hans   

 

Owner of Kolderstok Models - 17th century Dutch ships.

 

Please visit www.kolderstok.com for an overview of the model kits available   

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi Guys,as an occasional (and nervous) modeller and maker of toy yachts for children and grandchildren I am delighted to have discovered this forum, thank you all.  I  recently ordered the Dusek kit to be shipped to Ireland from the factory in the Czech Republic, seems the cheapest way, should be here in a week or two.

My interest comes from the histories - Herodotus and Thucydides.  

Helpful books are 'The Athenian Trireme' by the guys who led the project to build the Olympias, the working replica.  They are J. S. Morrison, J. E. Coates, and N. B. Rankov, academic, naval ship designer and champion oarsman respectively.  A useful illustrated paperback is 'Ancient Greek Warship 500-322 BC' by Nic Fields illustrated by Peter Bull in the Osprey series.  'Lords of the Sea, the Triumph and Tragedy of Ancient Athens' by John R Hall is a superb history of the trireme.

This winter I gave a talk on 'Oared Warships' to several of our local sailing clubs.  As well as Powerpoint slides I used a model made from the plastic Russian kit to illustrate.  But it is not accurate - less than 170 oars, the outriggers are covered over with a curved roof etc. So I need something better!

Garry Owens

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Hello Garry, welcome.

 

I recently have bought the book The Age of Galley as I was eager to know which colors the ancient Greek used on their ships. Unfortunately not much information on that, so I used black and dark red. But it is quite an interesting book - describing (roughly) the period 1200 BC up to AD 1300

 

Because I am busy on starting my own range of modelkits of Dutch 17th century VOC ships I have stopped working on the trireme temporarely. But once in a while I will post here. 

Btw - please feel free to have a look on my scratch Batavia project (link hereunder)  :)

Hans   

 

Owner of Kolderstok Models - 17th century Dutch ships.

 

Please visit www.kolderstok.com for an overview of the model kits available   

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It's all going a bit slow at this moment - due to other projects and things I'm working on.

 

However - I know you are all eager waiting for further steps.

 

Busy on the bow, made some ornaments out of small coins.

 

That's all I can show for now - sorry.

 

attachicon.gifCimg8177.jpg

 

Nice work Hans,

 

Nils

Current builds

-Lightship Elbe 1

Completed

- Steamship Ergenstrasse ex Laker Corsicana 1918- scale 1:87 scratchbuild

"Zeesboot"  heritage wooden fishing small craft around 1870, POB  clinker scratch build scale 1:24

Pilot Schooner # 5 ELBE  ex Wanderbird, scale 1:50 scratchbuild

Mississippi Sterwheelsteamer built as christmapresent for grandson modified kit build

Chebec "Eagle of Algier" 1753--scale 1:48-POB-(scratchbuild) 

"SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse" four stacker passenger liner of 1897, blue ribbond awarded, 1:144 (scratchbuild)
"HMS Pegasus" , 16 gun sloop, Swan-Class 1776-1777 scale 1:64 from Amati plan 

-"Pamir" 4-mast barque, P-liner, 1:96  (scratchbuild)

-"Gorch Fock 2" German Navy cadet training 3-mast barque, 1:95 (scratchbuild) 

"Heinrich Kayser" heritage Merchant Steamship, 1:96 (scratchbuild)  original was my grandfathers ship

-"Bohuslän" , heritage ,live Swedish museum passenger steamer (Billings kit), 1:50 

"Lorbas", river tug, steam driven for RC, fictive design (scratchbuild), scale appr. 1:32

under restoration / restoration finished 

"Hjejlen" steam paddlewheeler, 1861, Billings Boats rare old kit, scale 1:50

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey Don,

 

Can you give me the numbers of the parts?  Maybe then I can give a proper answer - now it is a bit difficult for me 

 

On the other kits I will reply later in a pm

Hans   

 

Owner of Kolderstok Models - 17th century Dutch ships.

 

Please visit www.kolderstok.com for an overview of the model kits available   

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Due to the fact that I'm busy making another model of almost the same ship as the Batavia, The Dordrecht - 1618  (this for a wooden modelkit to be released later this spring)

This should be a nice East Indies ship. I read somewhere that there were several ships by that name or was it all the same ship but different years.

 

What kit manufacturer is this? Are you making your own kit? I am curious.

Marc

Current Built: Zeehaen 1639, Dutch Fluit from Dutch explorer Abel J. Tasman

 

Unofficial motto of the VOC: "God is good, but trade is better"

 

Many people believe that Captain J. Cook discovered Australia in 1770. They tend to forget that Dutch mariner Willem Janszoon landed on Australia’s northern coast in 1606. Cook never even sighted the coast of Western Australia).

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@Don,

 

Looking at the plans: starting with the vertical beams 46 and 48, and the horizontal beam 50 - beginning from the stern - the first 3 of them have no vertical number 46. 

Number 46 starts at the lower deck in the middle of the ship.

Number 48 which is al the way round the outside upper deck (made of 49 and 50) have the diagonal beams 51 al the way around, als on the smaller part at the stern.  

Hope this info will help you.

 

@Marc,

 

The Dordrecht was build in1618 on the Peperwerf in Amsterdam - the same wharf where in 1628 the Batavia was built. As they had no drawings and plans for building the ships, each one was build merely by heart, and so each ship was quite the same as the others. The Dordrecht therefore must have been similar to the Batavia (other stern of course, but further in shape and looks similar).

 

On her fatal journey in 1628-1629 the Batavia sailed out in a convoy of 7 ships - one of them being the Dordrecht.

Opperkoopman Pelsaert who was skipper on the Batavia had previously sailed on the Dordrecht.

 

After finishing the Batavia I have started a small company in making wooden modelkits of 17th century Dutch VOC ships - started with the Dordrecht - as I do not have yet permission to make it as the Batavia (being busy on that though). The Dordrecht is merely the same as the Batavia.

 

The Stern is diffirent of course. In the town of Dordrecht there is an old gateway/arch with an image of the virgin of Dordrecht on it:

post-11645-0-36869800-1426363716_thumb.jpg

 

On this gateway (which is from the year 1616 there is this carving:

 

post-11645-0-52236000-1426363764.jpg

 

And this the resin cast I made for the wooden kit of the Dordrecht:

 

post-11645-0-29820800-1426363857_thumb.jpg

 

The wooden kit of the Dordrecht will be available on the Dutch market this summer, via website www.kolderstok-models.com (not yet online).

 

If you are interested on this kit, please send me a pm.

 

Hans   

 

Owner of Kolderstok Models - 17th century Dutch ships.

 

Please visit www.kolderstok.com for an overview of the model kits available   

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Hans, Did you get my PM. Thanks Don

 

Ehh - when you mean the one you send on the 14th of march - yes. I did reply on that one.

 

If you have send me another PM after this I haven't received it.... :(

Hans   

 

Owner of Kolderstok Models - 17th century Dutch ships.

 

Please visit www.kolderstok.com for an overview of the model kits available   

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Don,

 

I have send you an email via the normal way - have you received this one?

Hans   

 

Owner of Kolderstok Models - 17th century Dutch ships.

 

Please visit www.kolderstok.com for an overview of the model kits available   

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Hi Hans, Do you think it would help if I got the Dutch merchant ships by Ab Hoving etc. with your build comming up. Thanks Don

Don, definitely a book with a lot of interesting history and information, and a wannahave for me as well (but over 100$ to get it here, so to expencive :( )

 

So if you can lay your hand on it - just do it!

Hans   

 

Owner of Kolderstok Models - 17th century Dutch ships.

 

Please visit www.kolderstok.com for an overview of the model kits available   

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The book by Hoving on the 17th Century Dutch Merchant Ships is very good. His son Emile did all the graphics in Photoshop and they are so realistic. The 24 sets of plans are very accurate and I plan to make several small boats. The one thing I was disappointed in is that the plans are not on CD. But then again it could be for copyright reason.

 

The ships of Abel Tasman has a CD of both ships and both in the scale of 1:50, 1:87.5, 1:100, 1:150 and the paper plans are 1:75. This is all in cm.

 

Marc

Current Built: Zeehaen 1639, Dutch Fluit from Dutch explorer Abel J. Tasman

 

Unofficial motto of the VOC: "God is good, but trade is better"

 

Many people believe that Captain J. Cook discovered Australia in 1770. They tend to forget that Dutch mariner Willem Janszoon landed on Australia’s northern coast in 1606. Cook never even sighted the coast of Western Australia).

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Hi Guys,

Although I won't be able to start on the Dusek trireme kit until the winter I am thinking about it a lot!  The illustrations with the kit and on the box show the ship plain, even unvarnished.  Do you have any ideas about colouring?  I reckon below the waterline will be black as the Greeks used tar and/or resin to protect against the toredo worm etc (just finished anti-fouling my own boat).  Does anyone have suggestions for the rest of the structure apart from varnishing the hull, and maybe white blades on the oars?  The Olympias full-size replica seems to be only varnished, but the ships must have had sway to recognise each other?  The Greeks vs the Persians or Athenians vs Corinthians, could tell their friends from their enemies so I presume there was some distinguishing colouration or maybe flags? I guess a muted primary colour on the bow or on the 'ears' forward of the outriggers might serve but ideas welcome. 

Garry Owens

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I did have the same "problem", really not knowing which colours these ship would have had. I bought me the book "The age of Galley" which has some colourfull images on the cover. However, in the book itself hardly anything about colours.

 

I think colours like pale red, black and ocre and maybe some blue-green were used - but no official sources for that...

Hans   

 

Owner of Kolderstok Models - 17th century Dutch ships.

 

Please visit www.kolderstok.com for an overview of the model kits available   

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  • 1 month later...

Pure by coincidence I discovered a typical effect between acid (vinegar) and oak:

 

For coloring deckplanks I always make a nice "soup" of vinegar and steel wool. Put vinegar in a jar - add a dot of steel wool to it - close the jar and wait a few days untill the steel wool is completely solved in the vinegar. This mixture give planks a rather old look.

 

What I discovered: when you put this vinegar-steel mixture onto oak the oak will color almost black, within minutes.

 

I can imagine the old greek had similar mixtures (f.i. old wine and steel particles from oar  or so) and threatended their ships with this mixture - giving it a nice black natuarl finish.

 

 

And for all the readers of this topic: sorry for not posting this much. I am very busy on my wooden kits of VOC ships; End of june is the (self set) deadline for having it available. Last week we had the website online for the first time. www.kolderstok.com or www.kolderstok-models.com

It is still in Dutch, but I am working on the English translation which will follow within short time.

 

The Kolderstok is the Dutch name for whipstaff - the stick used for steering the ship - this was used in the 17th century until 1660 or so. From that time on the steering weel became more and more used.

In the logo of our website you will find this kolderstok also:

 

post-11645-0-24944400-1431336385_thumb.jpg

 

Edited by *Hans*

Hans   

 

Owner of Kolderstok Models - 17th century Dutch ships.

 

Please visit www.kolderstok.com for an overview of the model kits available   

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If you type into Youtube "sea trials of Olympias" you can see a video of Olympias in action in 1990. Thought you guys might be interested. It answered a lot of questions for me.

 

Steven. 

Edited by Louie da fly
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And there are several other videos of Olympias in action on youtube, as well as a really fascinating one of a reconstruction of Jason's Argo being built, and then in action. They're in the column on the right hand side. If you hit the Argo link it leads also to other Olympias ones.

 

Steven

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Just one extra post in this topic. As many of you already know I'm busy on a modelkit of the Batavia. This comes available 2nd half of june. It is possible for me to send worldwide, but have to consider postal costs and dutypapers. Please feel free to have a look at my website as mentioned hereunder.


 


One of the items in the box is the lantern. This is made of three cast resin pieces - the base and the cap, and the middle piece of transparent resin:


 


post-11645-0-49652000-1432194999_thumb.j


 


This is the rough version - it needs some sanding and of course painting. I will post a painted version later.


Hans   

 

Owner of Kolderstok Models - 17th century Dutch ships.

 

Please visit www.kolderstok.com for an overview of the model kits available   

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Hello Hans,

 

I've been following your log for some time now. I am building a Bireme from Dusek, its very similar but much much less complicated than yours. What I am in particular interested is the ram that you made by yourself and it look incredible! Just wanted you to know that I am using your pictures as a reference for building my own on the bireme (since the ram on Dusek bireme is, well, rather bad)

 

Keep up the good work, cant wait to see more!

 

 

Yes, and another thing. I saw that earlier you were talking about painting detalis on the euro coins like shields. Were here is a thing that might be of interest to you concidering shield paintings:

 

post-19359-0-27943100-1432500478_thumb.jpeg

http://store.warlordgames.com/collections/greeks

Those are made based on actual shield paintings found on pottery and such.

 

They are made for 28mm models, I've ordered myself some recently. If u are interested in scale and size of the decals i can take some pictures with a ruler next to it when they arrive, if u are interested.

 

Cheers

Edited by pasanax
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Hello Pasanax (not your real name I guess :) )

Thank you for your reply! And the image you showed about the shields is exactly the thing I have searched for for longer time, but couldn't find! So if you can send me some images (and please yes - with ruler) this would be very nice.

 

Due to the fact I have also started selling Dutch East Indiamen kits my work on the Trireme has stopped for a while.

 

And to be honest - I am always looking for ways to improve basic items of a kit and I did that for the ram as well. But it is simply a larger block of wood which I have sanded into the right shape. It is some work, but not the most difficult thing in the world. 

 

Please be patient - postings on this topic will start again this autumn

Hans   

 

Owner of Kolderstok Models - 17th century Dutch ships.

 

Please visit www.kolderstok.com for an overview of the model kits available   

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