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Louie da fly

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Everything posted by Louie da fly

  1. Planks trimmed: Adding the battens (if that's the right name for them): More to do . . . And the awning over the poop deck: Gluing the support arcades to the roof arches: Column capitals glued on the bottoms of the arcade arches and columns made (no lathe, so all carved by hand): Dry fitting the columns. Steven
  2. More work on the new forecastle. Parapet planking started: And continuing: And complete: Steven
  3. Thanks, Greg. Can you get the nets separately, or do you have to buy a whole lot of stuff that may never be needed (I don't expect I'll ever be making a Seydlitz)? Pat, if I can't get the netting by itself I'll probably follow your advice. Fortunately my wife knows everything about fabric! Steven.
  4. This is coming together well, Slowhand. I'm glad you didn't give up on it. Whatever historical accuracy issues there may be with the model as issued, you're putting together a very well worthwhile build. Steven
  5. What an interesting subject for a build. And you're doing an excellent job on it. 1:150 is not an easy scale for a ship of this size and type. I look forward to further progress. Steven
  6. Unbelievably brilliant, Greg. A magnificent build - the complexity and detail, and of course the weathering. What an amazing result. I have to ask, though. What did you use for the nets? I'm going to need something similarly fine if I want to put boarding nettings on my Great Harry. Steven
  7. Lovely crisp work, Patrick. I bet the piece of wood just died of fright when it saw that big spanner. If at first you don't succeed . . . use a bigger hammer. Steven
  8. Not as far as I know, Dick. Not all the results are out, but though one of the Yenikapi galleys had almost the whole of one side still in existence (including two or three oarports) nobody seems to have mentioned any rudders - or even oars, for that matter. But who knows what the Black Sea finds will turn up? Steven
  9. Looks really good, John. I can see the apparent crookedness of the transom was an optical delusion on my part because it's made of two beams angled to each other, not a single one at right angles. Steven
  10. Yes, the only thing I can think of (as it seems that having uphaul and downhaul it ought to swing) is perhaps the beam at the back could be removed? It doesn't affect the present model anyway as you're using a different method, but it would be interesting to come up with a solution as there seem to be far more representations of box-mounts than any other type. In the meantime I have to figure out what I'm going to do with my own rudders; back to Lawrence Mott, I think, and see if I can get any ideas there. [1/4 hour later] I've just been looking at Mott's paper and he was of the opinion that a swing mount was a variation of the aft-mounted rudder, but I can see that your braced rudder version would also work well. (Explanatory note for those not into side-rudders: aft mounted means two through-beams one above the other, with the lower one somewhat aft of the upper, and the rudder fixed to the after side of both beams. Braced is similar, but the rudder shaft passes between the two beams. Mott's paper discusses the relative advantages and disadvantages of the various systems.) Steven
  11. Siphon assembly in place. Adding "pipes" to convey the oil from the reservoir to the pump and thence under the decking (didn't take a photo of that, but it's the same as in the previous iteration of the forecastle) to the riser. The nozzle itself won't be added till I have the fore wall planked etc and the lion's head in place. Again, experience having taught me a better assembly sequence. Side walls in place. Making the arches for the awning over the poop deck. This time I used pear wood - easier than planetree wood to carve fine detail at this scale, and less prone to splitting. Roughly sawn to shape. Carving the concave parts of the arches. One arcade with the arches cut out. Paper removed and ready to carve the convex sides of the arches. One arcade cut to shape. And both arcades cut to shape and smoothed off. Steven
  12. New forecastle in progress, incorporating lessons I learnt when I did the first one. The main lesson was to get the sequence right. This time I put the siphon assembly in place before the side walls went on. Much easier to deal with. Adding the deck planking. Side walls - all the bits ready to put together. Side wall under construction. Decking and side walls complete, and siphon assembly (and lion's head) removed from old forecastle for recycling into the new one. Forward wall built and in position, with riser support in place. Pump lever, showing underside where the connecting rods for the cylinders will be fixed. Pump lever dry fitted. Pump cylinders dry fitted. Pump and oil reservoir glued in place. More to come. Steven
  13. Thanks for the likes, and thanks Druxey for the (very welcome) comment. More fiddly stuff. Gluing backing pieces behind the existing planking, for support when new planks are added. Steven
  14. By all means: 1372 Lorenzo Veneziano - Miracle of St Nicholas 12th century San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro - Pavia. Note the ship at the top has its rudder swung into the "up" position. Giotto di Bondone (1226-1337) - Navicella Milano - Church of Sant'Eustorgio, chapel of St Peter the Martyr - 1339 12th century mosaic - translatio of St Mark - San Marco, Venice 14th century Greek Romance of Alexander Plus the one at https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/rib-vault-with-the-navigation-of-st-peter-by-andrea-di-news-photo/494733296 which I hit upload trouble with, so I've given the URL. And this is the kind of thing you get from Byzantine representations (unfortunately!). No detail at all of the suspension method. I hope this is of help. I find it fascinating. Steven
  15. Thanks for the likes. Pat, I think it's ok for what it is. I've done another similar repair since then and the colour is rather better. Just needs a bit of practice. The larger additions are going to be the big test. Just doing fiddly little repairs at the moment - I want to finish them all before I start on the big stuff. The side planking has split over the years and has had to be glued back together here and there. Here I've got the planking clamped to the (new) frames with clothespegs. As the hull is now narrower at the stern, the planking has to curve further inward than it was in the original model. This affects the vertical curve of the planking to a small degree, but it doesn't seem to have made enough difference to be noticeable. In the meantime, I discovered and glued back a bit of the curved top timber of the foretop. There's a remnant of the top rail as well. Note how thin it is compared to a match. I certainly had high aspirations when I was 17, even if I didn't have the knowledge I have now. By the way, the black blob at the left-hand end of the rail is the back of one of the (decorative?) shields that seem to have been scattered all over the Great Harry, even in the tops. Steven
  16. Oh dear. Sorry for putting you to all that extra work - that's certainly not what I intended. Still, I think you're doing the right thing and you'll end up happier with it. Steven
  17. Yes, Hollywood has a lot to answer for, Pieter. I hadn't known it either till I read Age of the Galley. As Michael Caine would say "Not many people know dat".😉 Steven
  18. Very interesting, and showing your usual thorough research to arrive at a solution. I look forward to developments. As far as swing rudders go for Byzantine ships, the pictorial evidence is very sketchy indeed. They mostly don't bother to show any kind of attachment for the rudder. If I recall correctly, rudder "uphauls" and "downhauls" often appear in contemporary representations about the 14th century, but the earliest representations I can find are some 12th century mosaics in San Marco in Venice that show a downhaul. Having looked at my picture files I've also found several more examples of the swing mount in contemporary representations. You may already have them, but I'm quite happy to send them to you (or post them here) if you want. Steven
  19. Again, depends on the time and place. No matter what Ben Hur shows, in ancient Greece and Rome, mediaeval Byzantium and elsewhere, and right up to the Renaissance (when everything changed because of shortage of crews) galleys were rowed by free men. It was a skilled activity. And even galley slaves had rights. Some of them hoarded up a proportion of their food ration and sold it ashore. We know this because the captain wanted them deprived of the profits, but was told they had a perfect right to do it and get the benefits. (Information from the excellent book Age of the Galley. Took me by surprise, too.) Steven
  20. Very sneaky. And as Gene Wilder said in Young Frankenstein "IT - COULD - WORK!!!" But would it be secure enough in a rough sea? I get visions of the thing whacking back and forth and coming loose as the waves hit it. (Of course I'm not totally without an ulterior motive - I'm currently trying to work out how to do the side rudders for my own build.) Steven
  21. I do all my carving in pearwood and can get some pretty fine detail. Never tried box, but can certainly recommend pear. Can you post a photo of your carvings with something that can give an idea of scale? (Matchstick, coin, ruler, whatever) Steven
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