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Louie da fly

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  1. Louie da fly
    Yes, white glue. I haven't yet found out how well it works when cutting through it - does it hold the paper onto the wood securely as the saw goes through? I dunno. Steven
  2. Louie da fly
    More work on the martnets. As there are two sets of them, I've now started on the lower set. Six ropes to a martnet - actually three both sides of a deadeye, and the two deadeyes joined by a rope that passes through a block. As you can see . . . The rope holding the block passes through the sister block, and down to do the same job on the front of the sail. Not a terribly good photo, but if you look hard you can see the block at the end of a rope passing over the yard - and another rope passing through the block, with a deadeye on each end. Getting the lengths of these ropes was a particular problem - too long or too short and the proportions would be all wrong. Starboard side. Again, difficult to see, but the rope with the block on the end passes over the yard and down at the right of the photo, with the rope with the deadeyes passing through it. On the left are the other ends of the martnet behind the sail with a small peg holding them together. The picture is further confused by the presence of the starboard bowline tackle, stating at the edge of the sail and passing to the right. Front side of the upper starboard martnet, with the bowline passing in front of it. Rear larboard martnets - both of them. Intentionally left loose until I have everything sorted out. And a closer view SO many ropes! Steven PS: And what I'm listening to? Bruch's violin concerto No. 1 And for a touch of the sublime, Kol Nidrei No, I can't work on the model while I listen to this. It would be wrong.
  3. Louie da fly
    I cheat.
  4. Louie da fly
    G'day, Alex, from sunny Ballarat, and welcome to the wonderful world of ship modelling. Where in Sydney do you live? (I lived there for quite a few years). Steven
  5. Louie da fly
    Thanks everybody for the likes. Druxey, of course these martnets are currently left loose until I get everything worked out. I discovered on the forecourse that they shouldn't be tightened until everything else is finalised, otherwise they go slack and look bad. In fact once everything else is done, I'm going to revisit the forecourse martnets and see if I can't improve them. Chief Mark, thanks for the comment. Alvb - it's 170mm wide x 115mm high (including the bonnet) - that's 6.7 x 4.5 inches for our American cousins. Steven
  6. Louie da fly
    Yes, very fond of Telemann. And of course Vivaldi . . . and then there's Bach . . . not quite so light . . . Thanks everybody for the likes and the comments. More progress today. After a lot of preparatory work, I've finally got the main course in place. As it's an early period ship, the mainyard is quite a distance below the top. I held the yard in place temporarily with a big green peg and sewed it loosely to the existing parrel truss (rescued from the original build). Tyes (the thicker thread) loosely tied (sorry!) until I got everything else lined up. Overall view. Tyes finalised and glued in position. The sister block on the left is for the mainsail martnet tackle (there's another one on the other side if you look carefully). Martnets, sheets and lifts (sorry about the bad definition - it was the best I could get). Lifts and clewlines, plus martnet tackles partly done Martnet tackles; larboard: The martnets go through a deadeye on a pendant that goes through a block, which in turn is itself on a pendant that goes through the aforementioned sister block. As there are going to be two sets of martnets for each side of the sail, another deadeye will be at the other end from the first - you can see it just glued to the pendant on one side. and starboard - you can see the second deadeye almost fully glued in place. More in due course (sorry!) It's been a long journey, and it's very good to see it all coming together at last. Steven
  7. Louie da fly
    All the pieces for the keel and the curved parts of the framing are now laid out ready for cutting out with my new scroll saw. Wish me luck! Steven
  8. Louie da fly
    While I'm waiting for glue to dry, or planning my next step, I make blocks . . . I find it quite restful. And though all the flags are complete, I still have to make the pennants. Here's the first one. Main martnets. This time I'm doing double martnets, instead f the single ones I did on the foresail. It's going to be very difficult getting everything to line up. Steven
  9. Louie da fly
    These are the halyards for the lateen topsail and topgallant - Anderson couldn't find any information at all on how they were arranged, where they were belayed etc. If he couldn't find anything, I doubt I'd be able to. So I'll just have to make it up as I go along , (using educated guesswork, and based on what happens on the other halyards) Steven
  10. Louie da fly
    "Dog's breakfast" is a common expression here in Oz, as well. Steven
  11. Louie da fly
    I love Scarlatti's harpsichord sonatas - I have a CD of Wanda Landowska playing a number of them, recorded in Paris during WWII. She was brilliant. (Oh, and you can occasionally hear the crump of artillery in the background.) Steven
  12. Louie da fly
    Here's the mainsail with the bowlines added (I had to pull them out sideways so they'd be visible). And far too late I realised I needed knights for the mizzen and bonaventure mizzen lateen halyards. I had to somehow drill holes in the deck past all the shrouds and other rigging. Here are the knights dry fitted. I'll need to run the lanyards through them before I glue them in place. It won't be feasible afterwards. But I have no idea how I'm going to do the halyards for the lateen topsails. And Anderson's The Rigging of Ships in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast, for a change, is no help at all. I'm sure I'll figure something out. Steven
  13. Louie da fly
    The site I got these pictures from interpreted the two figures as Adam and Eve, and I got the impression that this is the academically accepted interpretation (though that doesn't by any means prove it!) Steven
  14. Louie da fly
    Hi Dick, I just came across these articles, which may have some bearing on your build - https://medium.com/the-bronze-age/the-ships-of-the-sea-peoples-part-1-994249af5304 , https://medium.com/the-bronze-age/the-ships-of-the-sea-peoples-part-2-2bed75f8e05c I realise these are just someone's interpretations of the original, but I hope they are of some use to you. Steven
  15. Louie da fly
    I'm sure you're right. Steven
  16. Louie da fly
    I found this on Facebook. "Stillingfleet. Yorkshire. The church is Norman. The ironwork hinges and decoration on the south door date to much earlier, probably to the middle of the 10th century when York formed part of a Viking kingdom. That would mean that either there was a church here several centuries earlier than was thought, or, more likely, that the door was brought here from elsewhere." The ship appears to be incomplete - by rights it should have an upcurving bow similar to the stern, but it's presumably been lost over the centuries. Steven
  17. Louie da fly
    Hi Joe, and welcome to MSW. Have you chosen a particular ship for your first model? I'd recommend you read these pages before starting out: And when you do get under way, start a build log - it's a great way to get help and advice (and we get to see your progress as you build your model). If you are building a kit, use this: or if you're building from scratch, use this one. And above all, have fun with it. That's the whole point of this wonderful hobby. Steven
  18. Louie da fly
    Hi LegoKing, Several others have already commented on the tools needed to start off with, and I'm probably duplicating what some of them have written, but I've found it's amazing how few tools are really necessary to get started on ship modelling. I wouldn't even think of getting machine tools to start with, except possibly a drill. Plenty of time for that when you find the need for them. In the meantime, I'd suggest a good coping saw, a craft knife or a scalpel with exchangeable blades (a No. 11 blade is the best for modelling, I find). LOTS of clamps - *LOTS* of clamps, of all possible sizes from tiny to fairly big. One of those green cutting boards, glue (I use PVA (white) glue, but others swear by CA (cyanoacetate = superglue - but watch out for the fumes) one of those headpieces with built-in magnifying lenses - you can get them at car supply places. Files and (SHARP!) chisels of various sizes. When it comes to bending your planks, in the real world they use steam. But although there's some disagreement about whether you should wet or heat planks to bend them, apparently the heat is the important factor - it loosens the fibres in the wood and allows it to bend without breaking. You can get specialised bending tools, but honestly I find a cheap soldering iron clamped in a vise (oh, yes, get a vise, too), and gently bending the wood around it works well - see picture below - (you can get really tight curves - those dimensions are in millimetres). If you're building a kit rather than a scratch build, much of the preliminary work (such as getting thin wood for planks) is done for you. The other advice I'd give is to start simple - don't buy a kit of HMS Victory - too many people start out with great enthusiasm but get discouraged by the complexity of their first build. There are really good kits of such things as longboats - see https://modelshipworld.com/.../18657-new-to-ship.../ . Oh, and a good workspace (doesn't have to be big) with good light and where you can safely keep the model "set up" in between modelling sessions. Good luck, and have fun with it! Steven
  19. Louie da fly
    Making fiddle blocks for the mainsail martnet tackles. Holes drilled in blank Cut to shape Glued and clamped after it split Note the tiny plastic pegs (available from craft shops) And with tackle going through both holes (temporary - just to demonstrate). Steven
  20. Louie da fly
    Current state of play: A new pair of blocks on the stay for the two maintopsail bowlines (the pegs are just weights, to tension it all till the glue dries) And with the bowlines in place: And just below the top you can see the two-sheaved block the bowlines run through to the deck. I realised I'd misinterpreted Anderson's book for the topgallant sheets. In fact, they double as topsail lifts; there are only separate lifts on the topgallant yard. So I had to undo the sheets and add a new pair of blocks just below the topmast top to take the sheets/lifts, and run them through those. Unfortunately, I'd made the same mistake on the foretopsail sheets (though I'd added the extra blocks, I hadn't run the sheets/lifts through them). But it would now be much too difficult to correct, so I'm going to leave it as-is, as a reminder to make sure I've really understood the instructions. Steven
  21. Louie da fly
    No, he shows them in the video. They are definitely ducts - square wooden tubes for and aft, angled up at the ends.
  22. Louie da fly
    A few minor points regarding terminology, but overall, an excellent video! Steven
  23. Louie da fly
    More rigging; now I've got the main topsail in place. I had quite a bit of trouble getting the original "parrel truck" (really made out of cotton thread) to fit back onto the mast - it got all mutant on me for a while and I had to pretty much force it into the right shape - not really what I wanted to do. But eventually it worked and I was free to start rigging. First, the topgallant sheets now had a spar to hold them (sorry about the photo quality). The sheets run through a block on each topsail yardarm then along the yard to a block near the mast And down to the bitts Then - disaster! I snapped the larboard topsail yard (they're VERY thin!) and at the same time the block for the clewline pulled away from the sail. Then the sheet pulled away from the sail as well. This photo was taken the next day; I'd already mended the yardarm with CA, but still had to fix the clewline block back in place - you can see the dislocated block in the top right of the red rectangle. This took far longer than I'd expected - several failed attempts before I got it right. Here's the repaired assembly, roughed out: And trimmed: and I've added brace pendants for the topsails A match to show how very thin the yards are - very easy to snap. And the brace pendant on the starboard side (a bit blurry, sorry): And trimmed to length: And I've now started adding a two-sheaved block to the foremast to take the topsail bowlines. A lot of swearing at this point - I was trying to get the strop around the foremast past all the ropes that were already there. Absolute murder, and I finally gave up and just looped a length of cotton thread around the mast (not very visible I'm afraid - all you can see are the loose ends): And added the block to the loop (in the centre of the red rectangle, just above the parrel truck) Adding blocks to the mizzen shrouds to take the main topsail braces: And trimmed off. Lots of fiddly stuff. But slowly getting there. Steven
  24. Louie da fly
    I never fail to be amazed at how strong model hulls are - even though the planking is to scale thickness. Enjoying the ride. Steven
  25. Louie da fly
    I thought you might like to have some contemporary pictures of carracks to refer to in your build. I've divided them into vessels with a single mast (which I like to call "proto-carracks"), and those with at least two. The hulls seem identical: https://www.pinterest.com.au/lowe1847/proto-carracks/ and https://www.pinterest.com.au/lowe1847/carracks/ Steven

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