Louie da fly

OOOPS! I got a little impatient. I was trying to remove this oarsman from his (supposedly temporarily glued) position on his bench so I could do the final carving, smoothing and painting. I'd gooped isopropanol onto the bench about three times - surely enough to weaken the bond so I could gently lever it off. Not so - I must have put too much glue on his seat, and not put enough isopropanol on to dissolve it, and not waited long enough. And the operative word above is "gently". Yes, I levered too hard, too soon. And crack - the bench broke away from its supports and in fact the wood of the bench broke as well. You can see a bit of it still stuck to the oarsman's seat . . . Not to worry. When I first made the benches I made a few too many. So it was the work of a few minutes to replace the bench with a new one, and all's well again. I still feel like a twit, though . . .

Hi Doug, and welcome to MSW! To be honest, I've found that model-building is like riding a bicycle - you might get a little rusty, but you never lose the ability even after many years away from it. And many of the skills you've developed from your earlier modelling are transferable to ships. I'm not familiar with any of these kits - they're all very attractive - but on googling them the Lady Nelson and Polaris both have step-by-step video instructions available on-line, and apparently the Smuggler has a 96 page instruction book. I see that the revenue cutter is a solid hull (and there's at least one buildlog on MSW for it) - I couldn't figure out whether the Smuggler is as well - it says "Laminated basswod hull" - does that mean it's solid? I think that any of these kits would be a worthwhile project. And while planking can be a pretty steep learning curve, that shouldn't be a reason not to go that route. There are plenty of examples and tutorials available, as well as lots of advice from people who've been there before. A methodical approach without rushing is probably your most valuable tool. And asking questions if you feel stumped. The membership here is very helpful and willing to give advice - often the problem you're up against has been encountered (and solved) before. And yes, it can feel intimidating seeing the excellent work the best of us produces. I'm still awestruck by the stuff other people produce - things I feel "I'll never be that good". But MSW has every level of skill and ability among its members, and every member started somewhere. You will make mistakes, you can be sure of that. But not mistakes all of us haven't made at some time or another. And most of them can be remedied. Down the track you'll probably look at your first build and think aargh - I got that wrong and that wrong, and I was too careless with the other thing. As we all do. It's a learning process, and as with anything else your skills (and your models) improve with each project you do. Each mistake gives valuable lessons for next time - if your second build isn't better than your first, there's something wrong. So don't get too intimidated, and don't let that be a reason not to start. When you've decided on the model you want to build and received your kit, make sure you start a build log. There are instructions here on how to go about it. Best wishes, and I look forward to seeing your ship taking form.

It's good that you've caught that problem with the decks at this stage, rather than having to fix it down the track which would involve a lot more work (and authentic Viking cursing!) The planking looks very good. Those are beautiful curves. Tell Floki to take a back seat.

This is a very interesting build. I am impressed by the way you've re-purposed everyday items to build the model instead of paying huge amounts for specialised materials (that may not produce a better result anyway).

Agreed.

Thanks for the likes. No - I'm very aware of how far the standard of this model falls below museum quality. Ask me again in another twenty years.

Beautiful job, Jeff. Not only the paint job under the waterline (which looks really good to me), but the rest of the hull as well. A seriously attractive model.

That's beautiful crisp work, Peter. She's really starting to look like a ship. As far as motivation goes, little steps. Just do a bit as you find the time (and motivation). We're all our own worst critics, but from where I sit that's a very cool and beautiful model, and getting better all the time.

Wonderful work, Hellmuht. The sewing gives it a completely different look from most models.

Another three oarsmen complete and two more started. When I began I put the first few oarsmen in place somewhere amidships and worked both forward and aft from there, so I was able to add four new oarsmen each time - two (one each side) towards the bow of those already in place, and two aft. But now I've filled all the forward benches right up to the bow, so the only empty benches are towards the stern. So I can only add two oars and oarsmen each time. But on the bright side, there are now only 6 left to do (sigh) including the two aftermost guys who don't have their arms yet. In between times I've got back onto adding the ropes which hold the oars to the tholes - it's a tholeless task. Here are the larboard ones with a dab of glue holding each rope to its thole. I got a bright idea of how to pull the rope into its correct position across the oar, without having to sit like a twit holding each rope in turn while the glue dried. Whack a peg on the end, pull the rope taut and hang the peg from something convenient, so its weight keeps the rope taut and in position, and add another dab of glue to hold the rope to the oar at that point. And then once that's done, loop the rope right around the oar and repeat the process. Once all that's done I'll trim the hanging ends of the rope so it just looks like a loop around the thole and oar. I can only do a few at a time because the pegs get in each other's way. But once one set is done and glued in place, I can move on and do another set. Six more to go. I'm looking forward to it all being finished!

Hi Pchem, and welcome to MSW. I'm looking forward to seeing your Lynx build log.

Good to see you've started your build log, Paul. Mind if I pull up a chair? Looks like an interesting one. I've come close . . . I just - walk away . . . come back when I've calmed down . . .

That's a thought, Mark, but I really don't think this chest was intended as a seat for rowing, given its contents. Also the sloped face is the front - i.e. the one you face when you open the chest. If anything, that would mean the guy behind the oarsman would be the one who'd be able to open it . . . My belief is that this is such a highly decorated chest it probably did belong to Queen Asa, as KrisWood suggests. And as it was a burial, there would have been no reason for the oarsmen to leave them on board. It's thought one of the bodies was a maidservant sacrificed to accompany the Queen on her journey to the afterlife. But it would have been wasteful (and probably unpopular) to sacrifice the crew (and their chests) as well . . .

Christos, I agree with your interpretation for both the reasons you mention - firstly, that the red would be more visible if it was high up; second, that, as you say, Homer's word μίλτοπάρηοι relates to the upper part of the face. Of course that is always a problem with translating - a word in one language doesn't necessarily have exactly the same meaning as the "equivalent" word in the other, and though "Παρειές" translates into English as "cheek", it doesn't really mean exactly the same thing.

I should think that would be determined by the diameter of the shields and the distance apart of the oarports. The Gokstad shields were 80-90 cm diameter, http://members.ozemail.com.au/~chrisandpeter/shield/shield.html but i don't know how far apart the oarports were.

That does seem strange, but I doubt the inequality would be intended to make rowing easier - in fact I doubt that the chest was intended specifically to go on board a ship. The chests on board the Oseberg ship all contained women's possessions, except for one that contained wild apples - http://www.vikingage.org/wiki/wiki/Chests,_Caskets_%26_Boxes

Looks very good, Christos. Funny, I would have thought the "cheeks" would be lower on the hull (as they are on the face), but to be honest I can't see a better place than you've chosen.

Looks very good, Silverman. Youre making great progress. I also like your carpenter. Though this period isn't my specialty, he does seem to be wearing gear from about the right time, with the pigeon-chest doublet and little skirt and all.

Thanks, mate. So much better than I started out with. Quite a lot of worthwhile detail. You can never have too many pictures of carracks.

Oh, yet another pune - and in French, yet! We have a language expert here, do we?

Craig, that's fantastic! Really pushing the limits of the technology. Do you mind if I upload this to my Pinterest carrack page?

Coming along nicely!

Well, it's a bit of both. But books are the best way of gaining the theoretical information (depending on the book - some are pretty useless - but there's a whole section of the MSW forum that deals with masting, rigging and sails, and I just used the search function for "books on rigging" and found this which would be appropriate to ships of Thermopylae's period and there's probably others among the search results if you care to look further. Then building the models gives you the practical experience and you get to see the inter-relationships of all the ropes, and how it's all a balance of forces - some pull this way, others balance them by pulling the opposite way - for example, the stays keep keep the masts from falling backwards, the backstays keep them from falling forwards and the shrouds stop them falling sideways (and forwards). If you're doing a clipper, the above book is probably ideal. Other books are more appropriate to other periods. If you have further questions, it's probably best to ask them in the "masting rigging and sails"section (but first do a search - your question may already have been answered); then you don't have to worry about hijacking someone else's thread (which is not recommended - but heck, you have to find out somehow).

WalrusGuy, ask away - there are no "stupid questions", and those who know about this stuff are probably checking on this log every now and then. I'll leave it to those more knowledgeable to give the proper information, but I'm pretty sure that for a start those braces (the ropes at the ends of the yards) should lead aft, not forward, on the fore and main masts. [Edit] Damn! Jim Lad beat me to it! That's the trouble with both being in the same time zone . . . [/Edit]

Aha! Did an image search for Sibenik 1486, and voila! Not perfect, but certainly better.