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Louie da fly

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Everything posted by Louie da fly

  1. Louie da fly
    I've attached the top to the mizzen mast - I've temporarily put the mast in place (dry fitted) so the top has the best chance of staying in place and square while the glue dries. And added the topmast: Making sure it's square and in line: Here are the new hooks on the main and fore yardarms (they're the ones in a lighter colour). And I've made a new main topmast - the old one was so badly broken, with several pieces missing, that a new one was needed. Here it is against the topsail and topgallant - you can just see the old fighting top with the remnants of the old topmast. And here it is without the sails, so you can see it better. Coming along steadily. Steven
  2. Louie da fly
    I've just finished the fighting top for the mizzen mast, plus the lateen yards for the mizzen and bonaventure. And I've made the hook for the end of the mainyard to replace the one that broke off and got lost. These are shown on the mainyard and the fore yard of Great Harry in the picture on the Anthony Roll (along with a grapnel on a chain attached to the bowsprit) and are thought to have been to grapple to the rigging of opposing ships to enable boarding, which had been the traditional method of fighting at sea until the development of cannons, though the discussion in Woodrat's Nave Tonda build log casts some doubt on this. At the time of the Great Harry they were probably being phased out . Steven
  3. Louie da fly
    Anyone still remember Flanders and Swann? I grew up loving their records. This song is what English people (the only ones with the right to do so) say about English weather:
  4. Louie da fly
    That's right, Pat. Regarding the flange I think the first idea is more likely - an eye would probably pull off if the vessel was tossing about at all. Just a quick update - another 5 shields complete plus one partly painted and another under way. So far a grand total of 41 complete out of 48. Only another 7 to go! Interesting these shields with multiple dots. They seem to come up a fair amount. Perhaps it's supposed to represent a sky full of stars? And that motif that looks like the Greek letter pi (π) appears a lot, too - no idea why. Steven
  5. Louie da fly
    Very nice work, Peter. Beautiful run of planking, and that walnut really looks good. Steven
  6. Louie da fly
    Hey, this is England we're talking about! Steven
  7. Louie da fly
    I've finished the top for the bonaventure mizzen mast: Steven
  8. Louie da fly
    A rather bad place to get a knot in your piece of wood. Filled the holes with a mix of white glue and sawdust. Trimmed it down. I'm leaving the final smoothing off for the moment - I'll do that as a separate action when all the figures are made. Steven
  9. Louie da fly
    Thanks for the likes and comments. Druxey in particular - having seen the painted decoration on your hospital barge oars, I regard that as high praise. Quite possibly, and I might end up using it (them) for that purpose. I'd like to know why it has that narrow flange all around one edge, though. Steven
  10. Louie da fly
    When it works . . . Steven
  11. Louie da fly
    Mostly - how on earth did you manage to do that at the age of 17? If I could do it then, why can't I do it now? Perzakerly. Otherwise I'd have had to come up with some other solution. Thanks for the likes, everyone. More photos in due course, but today my wife and I are working on paving a parking space beside the house, so ship modelling has to take a back seat (though I managed to set up another shield for the dromon before we started - I've got it down to a fine art now - it takes maybe 5 minutes tops). Steven
  12. Louie da fly
    Some more progress. I really don't like fiddling around trying to get a mast to go down into the mast step once the deck is in place, so I made a sort of "channel" for the mizzen As the bonaventure doesn't go down so far I just put in a set of mast partners for it. Bonaventure dry fitted: And both mizzen and bonaventure Constructing the fighting top for the bonaventure mizzen: A hole drilled in the bottom for the mast to go through. When I first built the model I didn't know about crosstrees and trestletrees. The other (existing fore and main) masts don't have them, so I'm not putting them on the new ones. And a disc on top. I'll be carving out the middle to form a ring as the upper surface of the top. Reinforcing ring at the bottom - great gobs of glue, I'm afraid. Wiped off later: And around the middle: More photos when I've completed it. Fighting top for the mizzen: and I've made a "master" to get it circular. I'm hoping it works. That other disc will have the middle carved out to form the ring around the upper surface of the top. More to come as I make more progress. Steven
  13. Louie da fly
    And here's another block, this time from the 11th century Byzantine ship wrecked at Serce Limani (also known as the glass wreck because of the cargo it carried). The block turns out to be very small when you make it at 1:50 scale - 4mm long, 2mm wide and 1.2mm thick. Drilling the holes was quite a challenge (it took three tries before I succeeded). Here's the original block as discovered (from The Rig of the Eleventh Century Ship at Serce Liman, Turkey - MA Thesis by Sheila Matthews, TAMU 1983: And here's my copy of it under construction: Transverse hole: Holes for sheave slot Trimming to size: Finished: And assembled, with lines in place: VERY fiddly. Now to work out where to use it! Steven
  14. Louie da fly
    Hi Binho! I hope you're keeping safe and well. Any progress on the build? Steven
  15. Louie da fly
    Just out of interest I made one of the blocks that's been found in the Istanbul excavations. Here's the original: and here's the model. I don't yet know what I'm going to use it for - but it does look very useful. Steven
  16. Louie da fly
    No worries, mate. I can also give perhaps some more accurate ideas on what would have been on the shields (and, for that matter, on the sails) of an early 16th century Portuguese carrack, compared with what's on the kit. I've sent you a PM. Steven
  17. Louie da fly
    Thanks for all the likes, people, and the nice comments. Peter, I've got quite a bit of info on the shields used on carracks, which I'd be happy to share with you. And the technique I've been using to make mine should work on yours as well. It is nice to have shields that are the right thickness for the scale we're using, and this is the only way I've been able to figure out that actually works. Druxey, all these are taken from original Byzantine representations of shields - I'm just copying them. But I am pleased with the results - better than I'd been expecting (unless you use a magnifying glass). Though sometimes the colours aren't quite right - or the shields are taken from carvings so I have to make an educated guess of the colours, based on those that are common on painted representations. Steven
  18. Louie da fly
    Best wishes, Jack. I can sympathise with you being so far from your modelling, but you're keeping safe; that's the main thing. Steven
  19. Louie da fly
  20. Louie da fly
    Thanks for the likes, everyone. Pat, it was like pulling teeth in reverse, but I've finally finished that part of things. Unfortunately two of the gunports were right in line with a couple of the balsa frames, so I had to drill holes in the frames and force the barrels into them. It worked, though. And I've been working on the masts. Here's the lower mizzen. I'd planned to have a mast step, but when I came to position the mast I discovered that one of the frames was right in the way, so I stepped the mast into the frame, and cut a sort of "channel" out of the crossbeams for the mast to go through, after first gluing a reinforcing piece to each. The bonaventure mizzen (these ships had two mizzen masts - the bonaventure fell out of use in the following decades). I've followed Landstrom in making this mast out of a single spar. Here are the two mizzen masts together And I ought to know the name of this spar but I don't - it's to control the bonaventure lateen. And the mizzen topmast (I forgot to take a final photo, but the procedure was the same as the lower mast). Here are the masts dry fitted, including the original mainmast which I currently have in storage, to put in place when the time is right. I'd have done the same with the foremast, but I couldn't get it out of the hull without breaking it, so I let it stay. Steven
  21. Louie da fly
    Thanks for the likes and comments. Yes, the shields are rather attractive, especially the colours. I've tried to duplicate these as closely as possible with my limited palette (keeping in mind that the people who did the original pictures also had a limited palette and might not have got the colours quite right). I think Byzantine shields are particularly beautiful and interesting - not at all like Western Europeans shield patterns, which wound up in a dead end once they started introducing rules - only a certain number of colours, only a certain number of shield motifs and arrangements. This was because they developed the subject of "heraldry", which allowed you to describe a coat of arms in words so anyone could reproduce it - in a book or whatever, and as a means of individual identification, but it also restricted the flexibility of design.This never happened in Byzantium, so you have all kinds of "coats of arms" - many of which simply couldn't be shoe-horned into the Western descriptive system. Though I've been concentrating on the Great Harry for the time being, I haven't completely dropped the dromon. Here are the next 5 shields, plus one part painted and another in the mould. And I've been carving more oarsmen. Two more so far - since I dropped the feeling of "I must get this done" the enjoyment has come back. It should be fun, not a chore. One guy had his legs too far out from the body to fit him between the oarbenches (my bad). So after a bit of thought I developed a cunning plan - I cut the legs off and glued them back on closer to the body, with dowel joints to keep them in place (you can see the dowels if you look carefully). Now he fits, but I'll be taking more care in future to try and avoid it happening again. Steven
  22. Louie da fly
    After a long hiatus while I worked on the dromon, I've come back to the Great Harry to give me a rest from the never-ending carving of oarsmen. Before I can add the upper deck of the aftercastle, I had to put in the cannons below it. As I didn't add lower decks when I first built the ship, I've had to get a bit clever and put in narrow "false decks" along the sides of the ship to put the guns on. I've turned some gun barrels from 1.5mm brass tube. A bit rough and ready but at this scale they look pretty good. As the carriages won't be seen I made them pretty basic. I glued the barrels to them with CA, which I don't usually use. (PVA doesn't stick brass very well). I rested them on a sheet of paper so they didn't stick to everything in sight/each other, and I could peel/sand it off later. And here they are on the false decks: and from outside: Steven
  23. Louie da fly
    That's a good save. And a valuable addition to your knowledge and skill-set. Steven
  24. Louie da fly
    Looks like you've "nailed" it! (sorry for the pun). How about a close-up of the area of difficulty, as in your first post, for comparison? Looking good. Steven
  25. Louie da fly
    Good point, Jaager. I note it also has a hardy hole for holding auxiliary tools, and the wooden "stump" has iron reinforcing rings to stop it from splitting under the force of the hammer - a good solution for something that small a diameter. Interesting - there's a "main" stump that is massive and heavy, providing lots of nice inertia, and above it (it looks to cut out of the main stump, not an addition) the smaller diameter stump. It seems to me there would be a reason for doing it that way. Perhaps there needed to be room around the stump for things that went over the edge of the anvil - perhaps the reinforcing hoops for the oil barrels?. The 'main stump' also has a ring in it, perhaps so it could be hoisted easily. Steven

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