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Louie da fly

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  1. Louie da fly
    Beautiful work, Ilhan. Steven
  2. Louie da fly
    When I look at this stuff I go all vague - far out of my league. But then I've always thought anything more modern than a water wheel is an instrument of the devil 😉
  3. Louie da fly
    Nice to see you back, Dick. She's looking very good. Steven
  4. Louie da fly
    That's right - I remember we had a discussion about that, and though metho was an unknown quantity it appeared it might still work. Isopropanol is probably difficult to get hold of here, but you can get metho at the supermarket for next to nothing. I decided as I didn't have isopropanol but I did have metho I'd try that first, and it seems to have worked. Steven
  5. Louie da fly
    Doing repairs to the existing structure. I intend to keep as much as I can of the original model, though some of it is in pretty poor condition I think a lot of it can be repaired. Here are the sides of the aftercastle made up of strips glued together, with arches cut out of the individual strips where the gunports are. Here they are seen from the back, with remnants of the frames and decks still attached. I was VERY enthusiastic about white PVA glue when I made this model - I seem to have slopped it on with great abandon. I've taken a tip from (I think) Druxey and used methylated spirits to help dissolve the glue. It seems to work, but there's a LOT of glue and it's over 40 years old. The metho seems to soften the glue, however, and make it easier to remove with a scalpel. The idea is to get back as close as possible to bare wood before I put it all together again. Note that I was clever enough when I was 17 to glue paper to the back of the strips containing arches, to keep the wood from splitting. I remember I used a tiny woodcarving gouge to cut the arches. The pieces below have had the metho and scalpel treatment, and are quite a bit better than when I started. Still a bit more work to do, but making progress. There were breaks in these panels even before I started work and they broke a bit more while I was removing them. Because the shape of the aftercastle is to change (it will become narrower at the stern), these strips will have to be separated and glued back on individually. Here is the main channel which broke off the ship at some point. I've taken off the glue and will glue it back on when the time comes. The matching face of the channel is still attached to the ship, so it shouldn't be too hard to put it back on. One of the frames was a little fragile and likely to bend under the forces of the new planking, so I've glued a reinforcing piece to strengthen it. One of the solid bits of balsa that acted as cant frames seems to have vanished, so I've replaced it. Bowsprit broke at some time, but the break was clean and fitted together well, so I just glued it back in one piece. The mend is about half way between the chain and the end with the grapnel. Snapped fore yard glued back together. The sails were made from waxed drafting linen (extremely finely woven fabric), which I'd washed in hot water to remove the wax. After over 40 years they have all gone dark brown and the linen has deteriorated quite badly. So all the sails will have to be replaced. I'm keeping the old ones to use as templates. One of the things that really got on my nerves even back in the day was that I'd made the keel out of balsa, and even though I'd stained it to match the Queensland walnut of the rest of the model, it looked like - balsa. So I'm making a replacement keel out of walnut - you can see the pencil outline below. I'll trim the balsa keel back where the existing frames are still in place, and it'll be full size from there on back to the stern. I'll be doing the same to the stempost at the bow. Steven
  6. Louie da fly
    I've decided to go with the shorter masts and yards. I've made six masts overall - the first two taken directly from Age of the Dromon which I decided were wrong, then the longer ones, which looked too long. Because I didn't want to shorten those ones to find out if shorter ones looked better I then had to make two new ones. And I've ended up with two that will actually go into the ship. Here's the second (or sixth!) mast under construction. I've shamelessly copied the concave joint of the mainyard of Woodrat's Cocca/Nave Tonda to join the two spars of each yard. The're glued together but I've yet to add rope lashings. Steven
  7. Louie da fly
    Fixing the outline of the existing frames in line with the shape of the frames per the Mary Rose discoveries. Steven
  8. Louie da fly
    Thanks everybody for the likes and the comments. Roger, ancient Mediterranean ships were certainly built this way, but the the first millenium AD saw a transition between tenon and framed construction and by the time of this dromon shipbuilding had almost completely evolved to a fully framed method with very few or even no tenons between planks. I'm pretty sure none of the Yenikapi galleys had any tenons at all. Mark, in Age of the Dromon Professor Pryor states (based on 12th century Sicilian galleys) that the fore was the "main" sail and the "middle" was smaller. On the other hand, the only Byzantine picture of two-masted galleys (from the late 9th century - about 200 years before mine) shows the foremast smaller than the "middle" mast. [Edit: Though evolution did occur in Byzantine ship design, it was pretty slow. The Yenikapi galleys span several centuries but have only minor variations between them. Which leads me to believe the picture below is probably almost as appropriate for the 11th century as for the 9th.] However, as Prof Pryor says, that may be artistic licence - perhaps an attempt to fit the picture into a restricted space on a page. In earlier posts, particularly those of June 21-24 I've outlined my reasoning for the masts and yards. There's very little out there, either pictorial or written, and absolutely nothing in the archaeological record. According the the theory, I've got a pretty good relationship between the sails, with the "combined centre of effort" of the sails a little forward of the centre of resistance of the hull. Ideally it should be pretty much directly above, but a little forward is pretty ok too. And no, the galleys were pretty much confined to sailing before the wind because a heel of more than 10 degrees would have swamped them. Messis, thanks very much for the compliment. Steven
  9. Louie da fly
    First action - making new frames to accommodate the new shape at the stern. Steven
  10. Louie da fly
    Thanks, Druxey. I certainly hope so - it's really all I have to go on. Still, who's going to tell me I'm wrong? Ah, for a time machine . . . Steven
  11. Louie da fly
    I don't know how I missed this build log up till now. You've done a very good job with this. It's really interesting to see you taking on what is really a pretty steep learning curve, What I particularly liked was that rather than do what so many newbies do and try to build something far too complicated and difficult (usually HMS Victory!) which normally ends in failure and disappointment, you took on something simple enough but with enough challenges, to allow you to methodically carry it all through, picking up skills and knowledge as you go, resulting in an impressive final product. The next and subsequent models will be better still, and you'll keep on amassing skills and experience till you'll be the guy whose builds people refer others to as an example of what to do. Welcome to a fascinating (and addictive) hobby! Steven
  12. Louie da fly
    Beautiful work. Steven
  13. Louie da fly
    Lest it be thought revisiting the Great Harry has caused me to neglect the dromon, I've been working on the yards and trying to reconcile the yard lengths and mast heights with what's in the contemporary records, what's theoretically best for sailing, and what looks right. Here are the yards squared off but not yet rounded. Then rounded off. The masts and yards are made of walnut from the neighbour's tree which died some years ago and which I've been gradually using up. I have a suspicion that masts would have been made of fir, but contemporary pictures show a dark timber, so I feel justified using walnut. Once I'd dry fitted the masts and yards they looked too long, likely to capsize the ship, so I've revisited both I ended up making the yards the length of the foreyard estimated in Age of the Dromon and made new masts [edit: which were shorter, but longer than the masts in the book], that look right with the yards. As the yards are each made of two spars, I just had to slide the spars past each other till the overlap gave me the length I wanted. Here is the ship with the long masts and yards (temporarily held in place with rubber bands). And here it is with the shorter ones. The shorter ones look better to me, and if I decide to go with them I'll be shortening the spars that make up the yards to fit within the range of overlaps shown in contemporary pictures. There's a lot of theoretical speculation in all of this and the best I can do in the long run is go with what I think is right. Steven
  14. Louie da fly
    Not necessarily. This ship dates from fairly early in the development of shipborne artillery and the guns were still pretty small - see the artillery from the Lomellina wreck of 1516 at http://www.archeonavale.org/lomellina/an/l_11a.html Also this was a merchant rather than a dedicated warship (though it could have filled both roles if needed) and would not have carried the largest calibre of guns available. Steven
  15. Louie da fly
    Of course it is! Old memories, and regrets that I made a model of this quality as a teenager, almost finished it, then pulled it to bits and neglected it for decades. And a determination to eventually do it justice. Don't think it hasn't occurred to me. But I really think it deserves better of me after all these years. Patrick, I've already got a copy of this thesis, but you've inspired me to have another, closer look at it and I'm seeing things there I'd never noticed before, so thank you. Roger, I have all the pics and contemporary descriptions from the Anthony Roll (they're downloadable from the Net), but they're not in book form, just digital, and perhaps the quality isn't as high as in the book. The appendices and glossary would be very useful, too. Terminology has certainly changed over the centuries. I've done a little investigatory work on all this (I find language fascinating!), which I've put up at for those who are interested in this kind of thing. I find it particularly interesting, for example, that the 16th century word for boatswain is botisman. The word swain for "man" is very old (dates back to Anglo-Saxon times, and the Scandinavian name Sven is the same word). Steven
  16. Louie da fly
    Thanks, Roger. Is there much explanatory text in it? I have the pictures themselves, but background text might indeed be useful. The other vessels on the Roll are also very interesting - I've thought of doing a 1:200 model of each class of vessel to go with the Great Harry - the roo barges, the "galeasses" (really they seem to be missing oars entirely and are more like galleons) and the galea subtile . . . but there's even less information available on them than on the Great Harry. Might be fun, though. Steven
  17. Louie da fly
    Back to the Great Harry after a delay of over two and a half years. All this time I've been working on a folding table in my wife's sewing room/ironing room, which also doubles as a bedroom for the incontinent old dog (which means we have to mop the floor every morning and can't leave a chair on the floor). Just this week we finished converting the sitting room/library/spare bedroom, so I've finally got a dedicated space to work on models which has storage space, a nice big desk with drawers in it, a chest of shallow drawers, and overhead shelves for reference books and tools and two more shelves each with enough vertical room for a ship model, masts and all. Not as much light here as in the other room, so I'm going to have to work on that. I hate working with insufficient light. So now I can work on the Great Harry when I'm stuck/bored with the dromon. I've put together a little stand to hold her upright while I'm working on her. My first project will be to re-do the frames I made two and a half years ago as I've realised the flat stern extends well below water level, which would stop water flowing past the rudder. Looking forward to it. The ship's been sitting there sneering at me far too long . . . Steven
  18. Louie da fly
    Very good progress so far, Peter. Looking good. Steven
  19. Louie da fly
    Beautiful work, O.C. Steven
  20. Louie da fly
    Nice work, Jack! Steven
  21. Louie da fly
    Well, those are what heraldry would call a leopard "proper" (in its own natural colours), and a blazon (heraldic description) would certainly take the trouble to point out that it was a real leopard rather than a "leopard". Carving hair to look natural is an absolute bugger. Generally most carvings of people tend to oversimplify its features and curls etc, even when, as shown below, the thing is enormous (designed to be seen from quite a distance). I've done a little at 1:50, but when the scale gets down to 1:80 as you're doing, it becomes almost impossible. Generally, at that size the finer detail becomes pretty hard to see with the naked eye anyway. Looking good. Steven
  22. Louie da fly
    Yes, at least one - see Steven
  23. Louie da fly
    They're obviously snow leopards, just emerging from winter . . . Steven PS: In heraldry a "leopard" has no spots - in fact the name leopard denotes a lion(!) passant gardant (walking past in profile, but looking at the viewer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopard_(heraldry)
  24. Louie da fly
    Hi, Rod. I'd echo Vossy's remarks. The longboat is a nice and relatively easy intro to wooden modelling, but it's a huge leap from there to the Endeavour herself. It might be good after finishing the longboat to take on something intermediate in difficulty, perhaps a naval cutter (such as the Cheerful), before moving up to the Endeavour. In the meantime best of luck and success with the longboat kit. There are certainly build logs for it on the forum to refer to, and the people here are very willing to help with advice and guidance. Steven
  25. Louie da fly
    Beautiful work, Dan. A project and a finished result to be proud of. Steven

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