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Louie da fly

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  1. Louie da fly
    Well, finally back to work on the Great Harry after more than 4 months without my workspace (in use as a bedroom for a guest). I wondered if spreading PVA (white) glue all over a sail and draping it over a gluestick would give it a better and more consistent shape. It worked - sort of. But once it dried, the back of the sail was all shiny. So I rubbed it with a damp cloth - seemed to do the trick. So I put it in place, using the original parrel truck which I'd salvaged. Next job - to make a whole bunch of tiny blocks for the mainmast rigging. Very labour intensive, though I invented some shortcuts. Here's the first 6. Steven
  2. Louie da fly
    So do I.
  3. Louie da fly
    Looking really interesting, Dick. I'm pretty sure pitch was used. There were petroleum deposits in Asia Minor, which it is thought were also used in the production of Greek Fire. And though it's completely the wrong century, it reminds me that there was a Byzantine Emperor called Michael the Caulker. From Wikipedia (source of all Knowledge); "Michael V Kalaphates (Greek: Μιχαήλ Καλαφάτης) was Byzantine emperor for four months in 1041–1042. He was the nephew and successor of Michael IV and the adoptive son of Michael IV's wife Empress Zoe. He was popularly called "the Caulker" (Kalaphates) in accordance with his father's original occupation." Note how short a reign he had. It didn't end well . . . Steven
  4. Louie da fly
    Yep. Steven
  5. Louie da fly
    Oh, I see. But it doesn't have a railing, and at this point I certainly wasn't going to add one. And cleats at this scale are pretty much impossible. But more importantly, Anderson in "The Rigging of Ships in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast" (which though the period it covers begins 55 years after the Great Harry, is the nearest thing we have to a definitive exposition of the rigging of such ships) basically says there's almost no reliable information on where the foremast braces were belayed, and if anything that it should be to the sides of the ship, just aft of the forecastle. Which is what I've done. Steven
  6. Louie da fly
    I can't remember - it's a long time ago, but I either found the yard or discovered it wasn't missing in the first place. They do. They each pass through a block on the mainstay/maintop stay/main topgallant stay, and then down to the rail at the side of the weather deck, behind the forecastle . Steven
  7. Louie da fly
    You can taper those cables by stripping off the plastic sheathing far enough back to expose the wires, and then gradually reduce the number of them as you get further and further along toward the tip, right down to a single wire. Then cover with clay or possibly some other "goo". I'd recommend you practice that with some cable that you're not going to use until you get on top of the technique. Steven
  8. Louie da fly
    Actually, I'm leaving that to others who are much better at it than I am - Javier Baron for one, and there's another out there whose name I disremember who does amazing tiny WWI battleships.
  9. Louie da fly
    Starting to take shape, Dick. With these speculative models of ships about which so little is known, there's a huge amount of research and development needed before any chance of actually making sawdust. I'm following with great interest. Keep up the good work! Steven PS: Is that Beaker from the Muppets standing amidships? Sure looks like him . . .
  10. Louie da fly
    Yep. Good idea. Looking forward to it, Steven
  11. Louie da fly
    Just looked up the history of the Mercury. Unfortunately it doesn't give enough details to get a full idea of the battle, but WOW! A 20-gun brig against two ships of the line, one of 100 guns, the other of 74. And she got away with it! Steven
  12. Louie da fly
    Welcome to MSW, Jose!. I just googled La Candelaria - she's a bomb vessel - fantastic! Start a build log so we can see your progress on the ship. It's also a very good way to get help and advice from the experienced modellers here. Steven
  13. Louie da fly
    Very nice. I've enjoyed following this build. So, what's next? Steven
  14. Louie da fly
    Yes, mine dates to c. 1150. Steven
  15. Louie da fly
    Dick, the ship will have proportions are about 7.4 : 1 - It's so long ago now I can't remember whether I based that on the Contarina ship or not - I have a feeling I made it somewhat wider in proportion to length, but I may just be having a senior moment there. I took the Mezza Lune method of calculating the narrowing of the floor timbers that you outlined in your Round Ship build and copied it. I may not use your wonderful jig to do so, but that's the general idea. Jaager - fascinating information. There's very little information on what exactly constituted a balinger - according to Wikipedia the Source Of All Knowledge; "A balinger, or ballinger was a type of small, seagoing vessel. It was swift and performed well under both sail and oars. It was probably developed in Bayonne for hunting whales. The ships were used in the conquest of Anglesey in 1282. They were also in use in the 15th and 16th centuries. They were distinguished by their lack of a forecastle, and by carrying either a square sail, or a sail extended on a sprit on a single mast. They were generally less than 100 tons, with a shallow draught, and the earlier vessels at least carried 30 or more oars for use in sheltered areas or for close fighting. They were mainly used for coastal trade, but could also be used as transports, carrying around forty soldiers. A number were employed in the early Royal Navy for this purpose . . . Despite their long history there are no confirmed illustrations of a balinger in contemporary medieval sources while a confirmed archaeological example has yet to be discovered. Speculation suggests that it may have resembled a modern Thames barge in overall size but with a square rig." It puts me in mind of the small vessels used by the Dutch against the Spanish in the 16th century; their crews were known as something like "sea children", or possibly "sea orphans" but that's obviously the wrong terms because a Google search didn't turn them up. But I've see illustrations in the past of the vessels in action, and accounts of the battles between these tiny vessels and full-size Spanish ships. If only I could find them again. But as far as making a model of one - fascinating idea, but well, I don't think so. Too little information and not even a single picture. I'd be better doing one of Henry VIII's roo-barges (rowing barges) or one of his so-called galleasses (not a true galleass, but apparently a sort of precursor to the galleon). Both those are very tempting to me. But I've probably got enough proposed vessels already lined up for the future to keep me going for several lifetimes . . . Steven
  16. Louie da fly
    I've been gluing outlines for the shapes of the futtocks for the frames onto 2mm walnut sheet from the dead tree next door which I got from the neighbour and cut up by the bloke across the road who has a bench saw. He was apologetic that there were holes in the sheets where some pest had eaten into the wood, but for my purposes it's still fine. These are the bilge futtocks. But I made a mistake with the floor timbers - they should stretch the full width of the hull from bilge to bilge, but I printed off only half widths. Fortunately I caught it before I cut the wood. So I'll be re-doing those. I'm going to simplify them, though. At this scale it's just too difficult to make a floor timber with an upward curve at each end with a precise enough width, so I'm just going to make them straight and cut off at the overlap with the bilge futtocks. Not quite historically accurate but close enough for the job at hand Steven
  17. Louie da fly
    At last I have my workspace back. We've had visitors for the past 4 months (staying in my workroom) and I haven't been able to do any modelling. First step in actually making sawdust. Here's the keel layout and the pieces ready to be cut. Not sure when I'll be able to get it happening but it's nice to be on the way again. Steven
  18. Louie da fly
    Beautiful work, and a historic and noble vessel. Good to hear she will be on display in a place worthy of her. Is this to be a permanent exhibition or only short-term? I'm going to have to make sure to get down there and see her. Steven
  19. Louie da fly
    You're making very good progress with this, and the lateen rigging looks very fine. Just be careful with that singeing process. Try it with thread that you don't care about first, so you can make all your mistakes on stuff that doesn't matter. I can't vouch for the technique myself because I haven't tried it - I've just read that it's one method to use (so don't blame me if it's a disaster ). Steven
  20. Louie da fly
    Yep. Been there, done that.
  21. Louie da fly
    Well, almost . . . Steven
  22. Louie da fly
    Oh, yes. Very famous. There's even an Australian saying "Game [brave] as Ned Kelly". And a lot of rednecks have him as their role model - they have his last words before they hanged him - "Such is life" - on the back windows of their utes (pickups). And you can get Ned Kelly garden ornaments. Very tacky. There was even a movie about him with Mick Jagger playing Ned (pretty ridiculous - Ned was a big hairy Irish guy with a huge beard, not a weedy little Pommy rock star with big lips.). There's a lot of mythology about Ned, that he was a Robin Hood figure, and tacky theme park stuff at Glenrowan where he had his last stand, but for all his grievances (and yes, he was targeted and harassed by corrupt police) to me he was just a brutal crook and murderer. Steven
  23. Louie da fly
    I see you've already worked out that my current build is a restoration of my Great Harry from over 50 years ago - currently everything's on hold because my workspace is occupied by a relative who has moved down here from Queensland and is living with us till he moves into the new house. He's supposed to move out today (I hope!). Regarding the complexity of the rigging - crowsfeet on the leechlines etc - my only conclusion is that it must have been to distribute the forces more evenly or make it easier to pull the sail in when furling. It did last for quite a long time, so they must have seen some value in it. Shame about the dent in the sail, but if you're ok with it that's really all that matters. And yes, sails do flutter in the wind - though I think the botisman* might have got in trouble with the captain over it. And you might be interested in this link - nautical terminology in the sixteenth century from a contemporary source - Steven * (= boat man - the old word for boatswain).
  24. Louie da fly
    Nice work. You can certainly be happy that your build is considerably better than Revell ever had in mind. Steven
  25. Louie da fly
    Coming along nicely, mate. Broken spars are unfortunately part of life's rich tapestry when you make ship models. Fortunately, there's almost nothing that can go wrong that can't be remedied. Steven

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