Louie da fly

That's a very good result, Hellmuht. This is a very enjoyable log to follow. (I'm learning a lot)

Nice. Worth the extra effort.

Nice solution to the problem. But are you a wee sleekit cowerin' tim'rous beastie?

That's very nice work, Lapinas. I'm looking forward to the next instalment of this saga . . .

Yes, much finer and less intrusive.

Hi Mark and welcome. Is this a kit or a scratch build? Either way, it looks very good. Make sure you start a build log - that way you'll get a lot of encouragement, plus help and advice (if needed - though it looks like you may not need it! )

Beautiful work. What are you using for cleanup? Just water?

And Australia, for that matter. And all the rest of the Commonwealth, except England itself. But honestly, only Scotland makes it official. It's to do with national pride and individual identity, and at least partly to do with an attitude which resulted in books of British history until recently being entitled "A history of England". The first monarch of England and Scotland was of course James the Sixth of Scotland and James the First of England (when I was a kid I saw a picture in a book with that title, and couldn't work out why there was only one person in it - true story)

PhilB that's a whole subject in itself, which others know a lot more about than I do. Apparently there were tables for how thick a rope should be for a particular job - obviously the mainstay had to be thicker than the mizzen stay because the load was greater. You might try a search for rope thickness or size, or something of the sort in the Search function at the top of the MSW page. Or else look through the "Masting Rigging and Sails" section. Or if all else fails, put an info request up in the same section. Then you'd need to convert rope size (which is measured as the circumference, not the diameter) to thread weight at the scale you're working in. But that was for the Great Days of sail - the 18th and 19th centuries. There are naturally no tables from the Middle Ages. For my build I got quite a few thicknesses of thread and just chose a thickness that looked "right" for the job it had to do, and I suggest you do the same. Aaah, you're thinking of Western Europe, where the so-called "coat of arms" was on the shield, on the clothes, on the horse-trapper, sometimes even on the helmet, such as in these renditions of Diepold von Schweinspeunt (Note the wild boar emblem as a pune or play on words on the name Schweinspeunt) from the Liber ad Honorem Augusti (Italy under Emperor Frederick II) c. 1195 The Byzantines didn't get involved with all that sissy stuff . . .

You've done a beautiful job, Rik. That's a model to be proud of.

Hi Erik,and welcome to MSW. That's a nice model you've chosen. You've done the right thing starting a build log. Remember to ask questions if you hit problems. If I recall correctly there are quite a few build logs of this model on MSW - looking at them can also be very helpful.

Dark rope is "tarred" - standing rigging was often coated with tar to preserve it. Running rigging couldn't be, because it had to run through blocks etc - tar would make the rope stiff, and also build up on the things it rubbed against (like the blocks).

Well as I mentioned before, I've re-jigged the blocks at the bottom of the shrouds. Naturally enough, since I was shortening the block assembly, the shrouds needed to be longer so I had to replace them. I was lucky enough that one shroud in each set could be re-used, and that I seemed to have enough dyed cord to make the rest. Until the last moment, when I discovered I was one shroud short! The existing shrouds are darkened to look like tarred cordage. I dyed another lot of cord, having to re-insert it into the dye bath three times to get the colour to match . Of course as soon as I'd finished, I discovered I actually had just enough of the old cord to do all the shrouds after all. Ah, well, at least I've got some nice dark cord that I can use for other things. Here is the ship with shrouds undone and incidentally the yards lowered to allow new shrouds to be installed. The bosun is going to be in big trouble from the captain for that horrible raffle on deck. Here is the new, shorter, block arrangement. (Sorry about the vagueness of the photos - I don't know what went wrong the day I took them). I'd originally put cleats inside the hull walls to belay the downhauls - I'd used modern cleats because none have been found in archaeology but I really wasn't happy with them. Then when it came to it I found it was much easier and probably more sensible to belay them to the oarbenches. At least as strongly fixed as a cleat and much more convenient to use. You'll note small clothes-pegs hanging from the sides of the ship - they're holding the downhauls in tension while the glue dries. After that I removed the pegs and tied off the downhauls. That raffle of unsecured ropes is getting gradually less. The bosun will be happy. After I'd replaced the shrouds my lovely (and observant) wife, all unsuspecting, pointed out that the after yard was hoisted inside the shrouds (instead of outside where it should have been). Oops. So I had to loosen off the tacks which I'd temporarily tied up, undo the toggle that held the yard to the halyard, and take the halyard off and re-set it outside the shrouds. I'm very glad she noticed it. It would have been murder to fix it later in the build. And here is the after yard in its correct place - you can see the toggle which joins the halyard to the yard itself, as well as the trozza (truss) that holds the yard to the mast. The guy lying on the deck isn't dead. He's "in storage" - when the four guys are put in place hauling up the yard he'll be holding the tack to keep the yard under control. To provide belaying points for the ropes of the after lateen sail (tacks and vangs) I need to install the xylokastra (wooden castles). But first I have to add the shields to the pavesade - the castles would make it impossible to reach in and tie off the ropes holding the shields on. In an earlier post I showed the ochanos (straps) at the back of the shield. To hold each shield in place I tied a piece of cotton sewing thread (to resemble rope, same as I've been using for the rigging) through the ochanos and around the railing and each upright of the pavesade, then added a dab of glue to make it permanent. That holds it fairly securely, though I may also glue the bottoms of the shields in place to stop them from flapping around. Here are the shields about half-way installed on the starboard side: And here's the starboard side complete. It's nice after having painted all these shields some months ago and having had them in storage all this time, to finally be able to put them in place. I'm pretty happy with the way they look. Certainly makes the ship look more colourful.

Yes, not sure about citrus - I was mostly talking about the fruits like plum, nectarine, apricot etc and pomes (apple, pear).

Very nice. A superb build of a beautiful vessel.

Sorry to hear about all the difficulty you've been (still) having with the planking. Unfortunately I can't suggest any remedies. Is this a "thing" with kits of clinker-built (i.e. Viking) vessels? As you know, you're not the only one having trouble, though Balclutha's is a from different manufacturer. As I'd been considering making a (scratch-built) clinker vessel, it makes me very wary - though I suppose if I get to cut my own strakes to shape I've nobody to blame but myself if I get it wrong. Regarding Ragnar's height, I wouldn't worry too much - Harald (Hardrada) Sigurdssen was reportedly 7 feet tall - according to the sagas, before the battle of Stamford Bridge his opponent Harold Godwinson of England promised him a grave larger than usual because of his height. Harald had a mailshirt that reached to his ankles, known as Emma (the mailshirt, not the ankles).

Luponero, thanks for the clear explanation of the flags. I'm very tempted to use this technique, as I'm not totally happy with the cloth flag I made. PhilB, falconet is probably the better name to use, as culverin can mean a falconet but also a much larger cannon - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culverin

Agreed. Fruit woods in general are very good. And for carving, as well.

Wow! Those flags are amazing! I've just completed a flag from fabric, but now I'm thinking of following your lead instead. How difficult was it to print on tissue paper? Is this the kind of paper that comes on rolls and is used in the kitchen when baking?

I'd always intended to contact the NMM and let them know the picture was wrongly attributed. I've finally done it.Let's see if anything comes of it.

Fascinating stuff. This "winnowing shovel" looks a lot more like an oar than a winnowing fan does. Just reinforces the fact that translations can give a wrong impression, just as in the "red-cheeked" vessels we discussed earlier. It's very difficult if not impossible to give an exact translation from one language to another and retain the full sense of the original. On the other hand, I've learnt something from all this - I didn't know there was an implement like that shovel thing - very interesting.

I think you've made the right decision - but that might just be because you agreed with me . . .

Very nice. Beautiful work.

Oh, yes. No argument about that! If you want to see how good it can look, see the completed model at