Louie da fly

In the church of San Marco (Saint Mark's) in Venice is a series of mosaics celebrating the so-called "translation" of the body of Saint Mark from Alexandria to Venice, where he became the city's Patron Saint. "According to legend, Saint Mark’s body was taken from Alexandria, Egypt, in 828. Two Venetian merchants travelling in Alexandria, obtained the relics of Saint Mark from Priests at the church of Saint Mark, where the saint’s body was interred. The Priests feared Saint Mark’s relics might be damaged or destroyed by the Saracens during the persecution of the Catholic community in Alexandria. Promising to safeguard the Saint’s relics, the merchants convinced the Priests to allow them to return to Venice with the body of Saint Mark. The body of Saint Mark was taken out of the sarcophagus and unwrapped from its silk shroud, the relic being substituted by another and less eminent Saint. It was then placed in a chest and taken on board the Venetian ship, the merchants first ensuring, that the Saint’s remains were covered by a layer of pork and cabbage. When the Muslim officials asked to inspect the chest, they cried out ‘Kanzir, kanzir’ (Oh horror) at the sight and smell of the pork. . . . Thus the Evangelist was safely conveyed to Venice but not before a number of miracles eased his passage across the Mediterranean.” There are five mosaic panels showing the ship itself at various stages of the voyage. They are all very much the same - three masted, lateen rigged, with two side-rudders - but with minor variations in the shape of the aftercastle, the stempost, the line of the gunwale etc. Some of these variations don't make a lot of sense and I am going to have to reconcile them and come up with a version that I'm happy with. This is a rather difficult ship to get a good concept of, but I was inspired by a couple of sketches on a Facebook forum by Wagdemar Lookomsky (I hope he doesn't mind me posting them here) which finally suggested a configuration for this ship that made sense. I'll be using these as a basis for my own reconstruction, but I won't be copying them exactly. I will be basing the hull shape mainly on that of the 14th century Contarina ship which Woodrat has already used for his 14th century Venetian Round Ship (see https://modelshipworld.com/topic/17991-venetian-round-ship-13th-century-by-woodrat-132-scale-fully-framed-completed/ ) and I will be shamelessly copying much of his technique in building my own (though at a smaller scale). However, this is at the research stage at the moment. First I want to get a lot more done on my Great Harry restoration, which as languished while I built my nef. But this is a bit of a heads-up for those who are interested. Steven

Oh, yes! Just out of interest, you might find this amusing: "the leading genuine fake Russian choir in Southern Hemisphere" By the way, even the name is a joke. An Esky is the Australian name for what might be called a chilly bin or a cooler (for keeping your beer in). So the band is named for a dusty esky . . . . And the Australian town of Mullumbimby ("Mullum" to the locals) becomes Mullumgrad. Steven

Hi Greg and welcome to MSW from the Land Down Under. You'll find quite a number of 3D printed models and accessories on MSW - it's becoming more and more popular. Mke sure you start a build log when you begin. The best way to get help and advice. Steven

Welcome to MSW, mate! Love Kurt Weil - "Mack the Knife", "Surabaya Johnny" . . . Though I have to say my great love is classical (currently sitting with the earphones on, listening to Butterfly's aria - sublime!) Looking forward to your first ship model. Steven

And another welcome from The Land Down Under, this time from sunny Ballarat. I've had a look at your build log. VERY impressed. Steven

And this is your FIRST ship???? Steven

Hi Brian, and welcome to MSW from the far antipodes. You'll find a wooden model involves a lot more - at least making the hull - than plastic. But persevere and you'll get there in the end. What time/place is your railroad? And what model ship are you planning to go with it? Make sure you start a build log when you begin your model - definitely the best way to get help and advice, and meet the (slightly crazy) members of this amazing forum. Steven

Hi Pirate, and welcome to MSW from sunny Ballarat in Oz. You'll find a wooden model is very different from plastic - a lot more to do than just glue two halves of a hull together, though the masts and rigging are very much the same. But with your woodworking skills I'm sure you'll do fine. Steven

Hi Marcus, and welcome from Oz. I'd second MTaylor's advice to start a build log when you begin your model. Great opportunity for help and advice - and we get to see another model in progress. Steven

Thanks, people. Silverman, I hadn't really decided to have this bloke hidden from view to still fit with the town seal, it just turned out that way. Once I'd decided to show the cargo, I had to somehow come up with a scenario to fit it in with the ship being about to leave port. So I came up with someone just doing the final touches in closing up the hold, which fitted both requirements. Marcus, I'd love to see the Viking ships, and particularly observe people in the process of building replicas with the original tools and methods. As an old mediaeval re-enactor that's right up my alley. Something I'd been hoping to do (before Covid hit) was to travel to France and visit the castle they're building in Guedelon using only traditional methods, and volunteer my services for a week or two, even if only as a labourer. In the meantime, I'm going to be working on the Great Harry, while researching my next build - I'm looking at something mediaeval (surprise, surprise!) Steven

I usually have two scratch builds on the go at once. Currently I'm restoring my Great Harry model I built when I was a teenager, having just finished my Winchelsea nef. I'm currently researching two mediaeval ships with the idea of starting one of them in the near future. But as I put the Great Harry on hold while I built the nef, I think I'd be wise to get a fair bit of it done before I start on a new one. Steven

Interesting. That's what my kids called him, too. Steven

Nice work, Dick. Regarding the tiller, have you tried shaking the vessel to see if it rattles? BTW, I like the fact that the Incredible Hulc is green! Just don't make him angry . . . Steven

Rodolfo, it's been a pleasure following this build. Your attention to detail and your inspired imagination and creativity have been wonderful to see. Congratulations on completing such an impressive build! Steven

I'd agree about the self-healing mat - got mine cheap from a junk shop (selling cheap stuff, not Chinese ships - just to clarify). I've found it invaluable. Steven

All RIGHT! Good to see this build starting. Steven

Beautiful job, Silverman. This build is a pleasure to follow. Steven

Thank you everyone for all the flattering comments. I'm going to be on a two week break from modelling (got a lot of stuff to do around the house and garden), then get back into the Great Harry restoration. Steven

Oh, and he's shaved off his moustache - perhaps a sort of reverse-Movember? In the meantime, here's some photos taken by my lovely wife Louisa, who (unlike me) actually knows how to work a camera! But first, for comparison, a picture of the original town seal upon which the model is based. One thing that seeing these photos does for me - because of the carved figures - is to give a better sense of scale for the ship - how big it is in the "real world" Steven

Beautiful work, Rodolfo. Yes, I think your justification for the paintwork on the top is a workable one. The only other alternative would be to re-paint it but as it's already in position at the top of the mast, I think that would be too difficult. This build is a pleasure to follow. Steven

But that's 50% of the fun! Speculation, research, trying to make sense from pictures and descriptions with far too little information, and ending up with something that looks beautiful and would have worked as a seagoing vessel. Steven

Here are the anchormen pulling up the anchor - the one at the front is of course Ron Burgundy. Making the Cinque Ports flag. This took more work and mucking around than pretty much any other aspect of the build. I first tried doing it with acrylic on paper - disastrous. After various other attempts, this is enamel on a piece of old cotton sheet. I need to work out a better method of making flags, but this will do for now. I found that I hadn't allowed enough room between the top of the shrouds and the cross at the top of the mast to add the other flag shown on the town seal, so I eventually decided the best thing to do was just leave it off. And . . . FINISHED! Unfortunately there was something wrong with the light when I took the photo, so I'll be asking my wife (who's a good photographer) to do some better ones. And here's the town seal for comparison. Now I can get back to working on the Great Harry. Steven

I found this one very interesting and inspirational - Steven

Not sure. The junk shop in town was selling small aquariums a few months ago - maybe I'll get one of those to serve as a ready-made case. I've been thinking I'll put a back board in it with a reproduction of the original Winchelsea town seal to serve as a comparison with the model that's based on it. Steven

Nearly complete! Just a few things to organise and she's done! First, adding the forestay. It seemed to me that it would be sensible to fix its lower end through a hole in the stempost, but the contemporary representations, when they show anything at all, show it wrapped around the stempost, clumsy though that appears. So that's how I did it. Holding the "eye-splice" together at the top of the forestay with a small peg until the glue dried. I had already worked out that I would have to cut a hole in the front "wall" of the forecastle for the stay to pass through, so that was already done. Putting in lanyards between the pairs of hearts at the bottom of the shrouds to replace the wire spacers. I used a needle to get the thread through the holes. Shrouds and stays (including backstays) in place and lanyards loosely tied. Adding the yard (sorry about the quality of some of these photos!). Tightening lanyards. In retrospect I would have made the wire spacers longer so I could pull the shrouds tighter while keeping the upper and lower hearts far enough apart. The shrouds and stays aren't really as tight as I'd like them to be, and I'm a bit worried that they'll start to sag after a while. Note the halyard wound around the windlass. Making the parrel. The halyard passes through a sheave in the mast (not sure if a rotating sheave is correct for this time and place, despite being in common use in the Mediterranean at the same time - it might have been just a hole in the mast, back in the day). The ropes are a bit furry - it looks worse in the photos than in real life. I tried the beeswax trick too late - I should have done it before I put everything in place. Flagpole for the forecastle - in the shape of a spear. As Winchelsea is one of the Cinque Ports, I'll be using their banner. Here it is on the seal of Dover, and in full colour (but note this is a modern flag - with a stern rudder instead of a side rudder). Adding the crew (at last!) Buisiniers Working the windlass - also note the pumps have now been added. Climbing the backstay to unfurl the sail. A little more to do, but getting very close to complete. Steven