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Louie da fly

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  1. Louie da fly
    I finally got to use my Birthday Present - My Precious. (We gots it on Our birthday, Precious). And I made sawdust! I hope to get more exact with my sawing, but I'm pretty happy with my first attempt. And I can always smooth the cut pieces down to shape. I'm currently designing a couple of jigs - one to assemble the frames from the futtocks and another to put the completed frames onto the keel. The first one will blatantly steal the idea from Woodrat's 14th century Venetian Round Ship build log. Here's the second jig, drawn on Sketchup. The keel and its supports are the white and yellow bits running across the drawing. The two yellowish pieces with the curved cut-outs are for the frames to rest against - they slide in and out between the purple guides (to allow for the narrower frames as we go fore and aft from the master frame). And the Pink and brown things are the two halves of an assembled master frame. More anon. Steven Steven
  2. Louie da fly
    Wood gets brittle as it gets old. Steven
  3. Louie da fly
    You might like to refer to my own HGaD build for the rigging configuration - not necessarily to follow it exactly, but to see the decisions I was faced with when the best text I could find (Anderson's The Rigging of Ships in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast) starts over 50 years later than the Great Harry, so I had to extrapolate backwards and hope I'd got it right. There's also the Anthony Roll and The Embarkation at Dover to refer to for rigging, as well as a few contemporary pictures of galleons, which, though a different kind of vessel, often date back to 1545, such as the ones below. 1545 - from a map of Normandy by Jean Jolivet - there are another 3 pics from this series if you're interested. outgoing-ship Holbein 1532-3 Have fun with it. Steven
  4. Louie da fly
    A cunning plan indeed, my lord. But does it involve a turnip?
  5. Louie da fly
    Ringerike style - http://viking.archeurope.com/art/viking-art-styles/ringerike/ - a particular characteristic of the style is big single animal figures. Jellinge style - http://viking.archeurope.com/art/viking-art-styles/ringerike/ - interlaced animals are one of the main features. Steven
  6. Louie da fly
    Adding the pennants. I had to revise the pennants - the "staffs" were made of bits of a weed growing across the road - circular section, beautifully thin - ready-made staffs! Unfortunately the glue wouldn't stick to them (I think they have a waxy surface), so right in the middle of things the pennant would come adrift from its staff. So I made replacements out of wood. Much more work, but the glue stuck to them. I glued a bit of cotton to each fighting top, then put a short loop of cotton from one end of the "flagstaff" to the other. Then soaked the loop with a weak mix of PVA (white) glue and water., and hung the loop from the aforementioned bit of cotton attached to the fighting top and added weights, so the loop became a triangular shape. Then I scrunched up the pennant so it looked like the wind was blowing it, and added a dab of PVA glue wherever the pennant crossed the rigging, to keep it in place (otherwise gravity would take over and it would hang unnaturally). The one below had to be clamped as well - it kept sagging off the rigging. By the way, no captain in his right mind would have these huge things flapping around while the ship was under way. They'd get in the way horribly, and could even knock sailors off the rigging. Antepenultimate* pennant added: And - FINISHED! 20230520_121919.mp4 Steven *Third last.
  7. Louie da fly
    I'd agree with Chuck about the timber. If you can't get boxwood, try for one of the fruit woods - apple, cherry - I use pearwood (from the neighbour's tree) and have found that if you pick a fine-grained piece (some of them aren't - they've grown too quickly) they carve very nicely. Apricot's good too. I've not seen your completed shields before. They look very good. Nice work. The figurehead you've chosen is one of the more attractive ones in existence - though it's not from a ship (IIRC it's from a bed-end or something - or perhaps from the frame of a tent). But then NO Viking ships' figureheads have ever been found, so we have to work with what we've got. Just be glad you're not trying to copy the dragon head carved by the unknown Viking woodcarver referred to as the Academician . Steven
  8. Louie da fly
    That was my thought. But it was developed at a time when there was no spritsail, and I think they'd have had to make adjustments to allow for the new sail. Certainly it would be sensible to not only furl but also to physically remove the sail and yard so as not to obstruct the chain. I know Woodrat disagrees with me, but I believe it was to hold ships together for boarding. I think my main change of mind came from an incident in the battle between the Shannon and the Chesapeake, when one English sailor was tying the ships' yards together to facilitate boarding until an American cut his arm off. The grapnel in my view is too light to hold the weight of the ship, and this one, for instance, has too many "flukes" (arms? hooks?) to work as an anchor. Steven
  9. Louie da fly
    A-a-a-nd the flags are on. A bit of a problem where the sails got in the way (particularly the forecourse), but I figured the wind bouncing off the sail would make the flags go the other way, so all good. Just the pennants to add, now. Steven
  10. Louie da fly
    Getting very close, Bob. A vessel to be proud of. Is it too early to ask what you plan to make next? Steven
  11. Louie da fly
    Looking very good, mate.
  12. Louie da fly
    That's beautiful work.
  13. Louie da fly
    I've just added the bowsprit grapnel and its chain. The grapnel is a survival from the original build. It's made of 4 staples (i.e. the things that you staple pages together with) glued together at right angles. The chain I got from some tacky jewellery from a thrift shop ('op shop' in Australian). There are only three ships on the Anthony Roll with grapnel and chain - the Great Harry, the Mary Rose and the Peter Pomegranate (named after the coat of arms of Catherine of Aragon's family, for those who are interested in such things). As far as I know they were the three biggest ships in Henry VIII's navy. Interesting point - Landström shows the chain looping several times - presumably somehow attached to the line that pulls it in and lets it out, running through blocks or something. The original picture shows it running straight up the bowsprit. It raises the question - does the spritsail yard foul the chain, or at least stop it falling down properly as it should, so its full extent is unencumbered? If you look at the Anthony Roll picture, the spritsail is not attached to the bowsprit, but is stored somehow down at the bottom of the forecastle. This ties in with R.C. Anderson's statement "At the beginning of the 17th century the spritsail became for the first time more or less permanently attached to the bowsprit. Before that it had been the custom to take it bodily to the head, yard and all, when the sail was not set." Unlike these vessels, the Great Harry doesn't have a beakhead, and it's an interesting question as to how that spritsail was secured against the forecastle. It's shown the same way in all the big ships in the Anthony Roll. As Landström is showing the ship with all sails set, he's had to show the spritsail in position, and he's had to figure out how to show the configuration of the chain so the yard doesn't get in the way. I don't think it's right, and if, as many believe, the grapnel was for securing an enemy ship to allow boarding, it wouldn't have worked very well. Another interesting point is that in all the other pictures I've seen of vessels (carracks) with a grapnel on the bowsprit, there is no spritsail and the grapnel has an easier fall. The development of the spritsail must have posed a bit of a problem, and perhaps the Great Harry and its sisters were among the last vessels to have a grapnel and chain. All that being said, I've chosen to follow Landström, as I'm already committed. Looking back, I might have chosen a different way of tying up the loops of the chain, but it's as it is, and I'm happy with it. Disregard the background bits and pieces, I was in the middle of doing something else and couldn't be bothered tidying up for the photo. Steven
  14. Louie da fly
    Yep
  15. Louie da fly
    I'll have to make sure I get down to Williamstown to see her. She's magnificent! Steven
  16. Louie da fly
    Them's fightin' words! Steven
  17. Louie da fly
    I'd agree about the oculi. It's interesting how small they are on the Maltese luzzu in the photo above. Unless the eye on the duck performs that function. Steven
  18. Louie da fly
    Patrick, those flags are beautiful. But as I've almost finished the Great Harry's flags I must regretfully decline (I'd hate all my hard work to go to waste). Steven
  19. Louie da fly
    1. Yes, it's cartoon-like. 2. It might be possible to use shading to make it more naturalistic, as was done in the Middle Ages Funeral effigy of Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy (died 1134) 3. Given the Mediterranean love of bright plain colours, your version is probably historically correct. Steven
  20. Louie da fly
    Working on the pennants. A rather fiddly job. Acrylic paint on cotton cloth. A layer of paint needed each side to get the colour to go all the way through. Adding crew members. And restoring pieces I clumsily broke off while working on other things. The little flagstaff with crown on top at the end of the bowsprit: And the "grapnel" at the larboard end of the mainyard. Anchors in place And the first penannt in place; folded to approximate the effect of the wind, and final state. Getting closer to the end. Steven.
  21. Louie da fly
    Making good progress. Steven
  22. Louie da fly
    Thanks everyone for all the wonderful supportive comments. I have to say I'm not celebrating fully until the whole build is complete. But THEN . . . Steven
  23. Louie da fly
    I do know what you mean. I've had the same problem. Steven
  24. Louie da fly
    I've spoken to Banyan on the phone in between times and he's explained that he uses a dowel to produce the catenary curve in ratlines - the dowel is inserted at right angles between a pair of shrouds and weighs down the ratline between its fixings to the shrouds on either side in a nice smooth curve. Clever idea. Now that the spritsail and its yard are in place, I've been adding the rigging. A pair of blocks fixed to the forestay to take the braces. Belaying the foresail tacks. Ringbolt (eyebolt actually - I can't make a ringbolt at this scale, so I faked it with an eyebolt) to take the spritsail sheet, and a hole drilled in the side of the hull immediately above it, to represent a sheave to take the free end of the sheet through to where it's belayed within the bulwark. The rope right next to these is the maintack. Braces added to the spritsail yardarms. Hanging free at the moment, while the glue dries. Braces going up to the blocks on the forestay. Not very good definition in the first photo, I'm afraid. I needed blocks to take the lines for the spritsail lifts, clewlines and braces back to the forecastle to be belayed. Anderson in The Rigging of Ships in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast puts these on the beakhead. One tiny problem - the Great Harry doesn't have a beakhead. So I had to figure out somewhere I could put the blocks. They should probably have been at the front face of the forecastle but I just didn't have the room to drill holes to take the lines supporting the blocks (strops? I don't quite know what to call them). So I put them along the sides of the forecastle instead, as far forrard as I could. The first photo shows the blocks for the lifts and clewlines. I added the one for the braces later, but the photo isn't all that clear. And everything belayed. I'm not totally happy with the "belly" of the spritsail (nor some of the other sails, for that matter), but I don't think I can do any better under the circumstances, so I'm leaving it as it is. There's an old saying "Better is the enemy of good" and I think it applies in this case. And the outrigger and sheet for the mizzen "course" on the bonaventure mast. You know what this means, don't you? I've FINISHED THE RIGGING! Party time! There's more to do, of course. Adding the little men in the rigging, the anchors and the flags (all the rectangular ones are done and ready to attach, but there's about 7 or 8 pennants that need to be made). And then replacing the two bits I broke off while I was doing the rigging. And then (weather permitting, and if all goes well, and barring accidents and misfortune, and touching wood) the whole build might (possibly - not to put the curse on it) be FINISHED. Steven
  25. Louie da fly
    Great basket, mate! And in return for my tip on the cling-wrap you gave me one on how to keep the CA cap from sticking to the tube. So Thanks for that. It would never have occurred to me. Steven

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