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Louie da fly

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  1. Louie da fly
    Thanks very much. I'm just trying to work out how to do my own rudder for the nef and yours seems to be very good. Steven
  2. Louie da fly
    Dick, what did you use to simulate leather for the rudder-shaft strop? Steven
  3. Louie da fly
    Looking forward to it! Steven
  4. Louie da fly
    And quite a large number of shoes were recovered from the Mary Rose - but that's over 250 years after the date of this ship, and of course we don't know who wore what shoes. Most ships had a large number of "idlers" (cooper, carpenter, etc etc) who they may have belonged to. Or the topmen wore shoes when not aloft - we just don't know. Steven
  5. Louie da fly
    I agree that "looks right" isn't always the same as "accurate". Regarding the shiny locomotive, two points. One is the obvious one - we don't often see bright shiny locos - they're usually a bit weathered. But also the "accurate"paintwork on the model doesn't take into account the light and shade that plays on the real loco. Look at the difference between a Napoleonic model figure painted in perfectly correct colours, and the amazing ones in (for example) Old Collingwood's "Attack on La Haye Sainte Farm" in MSW's non ship/categorised builds section. I'm nowhere near up to his standard, but I do try to do a bit of that with my figures. I think I'm probably a bit overcautious in case I waste all that carving work by doing a crap paint job . I don't have any written evidence, but I do have contemporary pictures to work from. For example this one shows shoes But this one shows a sailor climbing the rigging not only with no shoes, but no clothes either! Though I note that the guys helping him are stripped down to their braies (underpants), as is the fellow stoking the fire. Maybe it's a hot day. Town seals, which are my major source, unfortunately don't show enough detail to tell whether they crewmen are wearing shoes or not. Other contemporary pictures I've been able to get hold of are a bit equivocal - for example, are the guys in these pictures wearing shoes or not? So, as I've got at least one clear reference showing someone climbing the rigging wearing shoes, I'm going with that. Not to say I reject the possibility that sailors could have been barefoot - they probably were on occasion - or perhaps often. But no proof either way. Steven
  6. Louie da fly
    Thanks for the likes and comments. I find it interesting how much difference in someone's height a change of 1 millimetre makes at 1:75 scale. I did some research - though it was declining by the end of the 13th century, the average (male) height at this time was 5 ft 8". That's 23 mm at 1:75 scale. A figure 25 mm high is 6 ft 2". So 2 mm difference in height brings someone from average height to very tall. Of course, the average height isn't everybody's height - now or in the Middle Ages. I've given my figures a fair range of heights, but it's a bit weird that this range which looks completely normal just walking down the street, somehow looks very wrong on a model, where for some reason we seem to expect everybody to be the same height. However, it's also interesting that if one of my figures turns out to be, say, 6 ft 2" (which though unusual at the time was by no means unknown) I just have to shave off 1 mm (take off a bit at the top of his head and a bit from the soles of his feet) and he's only 5 ft 10". Steven
  7. Louie da fly
    So here are the two crewmen cut apart. And their legs trimmed to shape. You wouldn't credit it - after all the time and effort I'd spent to get the windlassman's hands lined up with the windlass bar, when I checked it against the ship his hands were far too high. The only way I could fix it was to cut a wedge into him and lean him over further - well, that was the plan, but he split apart. Then glued him back together and painted both him and the anchorman (not Will Ferrell). And now I've glued the removable deck planks on, and the crewman putting them back in place. Steven
  8. Louie da fly
    Yes, I've been following her progress on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/saxonship - fascinating stuff. You can even pay to own one of the iron rivets holding her together. But not - NOT - a Viking ship. She's Anglo-Saxon (well, Anglian, actually). Steven
  9. Louie da fly
    Hi Glenn, and welcome to MSW. I'd highly recommend you start a build log - it's a great way to get feedback, help and advice. The members here are very knowledgeable and helpful. Steven
  10. Louie da fly
    Very nice work as usual, Dick. Your builds are a pleasure to follow. I'd agree with that. The earliest representations I've seen of parrel trucks is early 15th century. Admittedly, artistic licence has to be taken into account (the artist just might not have included them in his picture) but the available evidence points to them coming in around about that time. Steven
  11. Louie da fly
    More work on the crewmen. Here's more progress on the second windlass-man. Note he's wearing a "hoodie". And beginning the first crewman hauling in the anchor. (I'm using the windlass man as a handle to hold the anchorman as I work on him. When both are complete I'll separate them.) Steven
  12. Louie da fly
    Thanks everybody for the likes and comments. Next is the crewman climbing a shroud to get to the yard and unfurl the sail. This is perhaps the most difficult figure I've ever had to carve - a very awkward shape, with the hands and feet all having to line up along the shroud. I'd been getting a bit short of pear wood, so I decided to try using some wood from an apricot tree that had been removed from the garden maybe a year or more ago. It's nicely seasoned and the grain turns out to be even better for carving than pear wood. And there's LOTS of it! And finally, painting. The anchor stock turned out to be too thin and I couldn't get it consistently shaped. So I started again with thicker bits of wood. The first "insert" was just cut to shape so it fitted beautifully, when it leapt out of my fingers and into another dimension. So I had to make another one. Surprisingly, and in flagrant violation of one of the fundamental Laws of the Universe, the missing piece didn't turn up as soon as the replacement was made. Curiouser and curiouser . . . Fortunately, no further mishaps of that sort. On the other hand there was a mishap of another sort . . . Fortunately, a bit of white glue and it was as good as new. Here are the completed stocks. Fitting the stocks to the anchors: And my thanks again to @henrythestaffy for 3d printing the anchors themselves [advertisement]. Making the rings: Rings fitted . . . and painted: And now the second crewman for the windlass. (After the previous problem, I made a plasticiene (modelling clay) figure as a "draft" to get his hands in the right place. I hope I get it right this time.) That's all for now. Steven
  13. Louie da fly
    What a beautiful model - and no, don't make oarsmen - I had enough trouble making 50 of them at 1:50 scale. Steven
  14. Louie da fly
    Thanks for that, Keith. Very interesting. Steven
  15. Louie da fly
    Exactly - but this seems to be an impression from the seal - look at the text around the outside of the seal; it's the right way around. Steven
  16. Louie da fly
    While researching flags for the nef, I came across something rather weird - the town seal for Melcombe Regis (now part of Weymouth, on England's South coast) shows the coat of arms of Castile and Leon - in Spain! Except that it's a mirror image - but that might just be a mistake on the part of the seal engraver who may not have spotted that this is what happens when you make an impression from a seal (though he did get the lettering the right way around) I have no idea why - there's not very much info about Melcombe Regis on the internet (even Wikipedia has let me down!), let alone anything about a Spanish connection. Strange. Steven
  17. Louie da fly
    Thanks everybody for the likes and comments. Here's the guy on the windlass - I mentioned his arms were wrong, so I've changed them. In the photos one arm's already done, and you can see how I made and inserted new arms. And here he is complete, pained and dry fitted in place. And also the guy who's replacing the removable deck planks. Note - the funny hats are called coifs and were the height of fashion at the time. As a side note, contrary to what s shown in the movies (and beautifully sent up in Monty Python and the Holy Grail), people in the Middle Ages didn't all wear mud-coloured clothing - or black. Natural dyes - madder (red), woad (blue) and about half the plants you come across every day (yellow) produce some absolutely beautiful colours, which can then be combined to produce greens, oranges, pinks and a whole range of variations on the basic colours. To fix the lower ends of the shrouds, the earliest deadeyes I've been able to find are from the Bremen cog of 1380, over 100 years later than this nef. But the Gokstad ship's rigging pieces are from the 10th century, even further away in the other direction. As a compromise I decided to do hearts for the shrouds, as a step in the evolution toward deadeyes. And I'm very fortunate in that henrythestaffy 3d printed and sent me some anchors taken from a Viking find. The stock is made from wood, based on another Viking find, as shown. Note the interesting way of attaching the stock to the shank. Looks to me as though that would be a source of weakness, but it seems to have been used, so I'm going ahead with it. More to come . . . Steven
  18. Louie da fly
    Nicely organised shipyard, and that model is really starting to look good. Regarding mistakes; we all make them, but fortunately wood is a very forgiving medium, so a lot of the time you can repair your mistakes. And if not, a lot of the time the mistakes are only visible to you, not to anybody else. And every time you make a mistake you learn something for next time. Keep up the good work, mate. Steven
  19. Louie da fly
    It's looking very good, Lapinas. Steven
  20. Louie da fly
    I've put together a Pinterest page with all the contemporary pictures of caravels I've collected over the years - it's at https://www.pinterest.com.au/lowe1847/caravels/ - I hope that helps. Steven
  21. Louie da fly
    I'm loving the research on this one. It's great to have this information available. In particular I like the information on the conversion of the guns by adding reinforcing rings. A clever and elegant (and economical) solution to updating old guns to serve new needs. Overall, fascinating stuff! Steven
  22. Louie da fly
    I don't know if you already have this, but there's some wonderful contemporary photos of Charles Martel here - https://military.wikireading.ru/35533 Steven
  23. Louie da fly
    Thanks, Hal. Steven
  24. Louie da fly
    Thanks, Mark. Perhaps more about my pickiness. Maybe I should have been wearing mediaeval clothes (I do have them, you know!) Steven
  25. Louie da fly
    Aligning the side-rudder. I had to get the locations of the horizontal rudder support, the pivot, the tiller, the aftercastle and the steersman (and his hands) all to line up with each other. Took quite a bit of experimentation. All temporarily fitted. I used a couple of spots of glue to keep the castle and the steersman in place while I worked everything out, and later used isopropanol to free them. For the final set-up I'll have to move the steersman over a bit toward the side of the ship so his hands line up with the tiller exactly right. Here are the pumps. I'll probably put them between the windlass and the aftercastle. Starting on the sail. I've made it shorter than the real thing, as it'll be furled and I don't want it too bulky. I may yet need to cut more off it to get the bulk right - we'll see. Adding the boltropes (I glued them on rather than sewing, which would be too large to get to look right at 1:75 scale). Beginning on the robands. Two more figures under way. One replacing the removeable planks over the hold as the ship gets under way, the other working the windlass to raise the sail. (The guy below will be climbing a halyard to unfurl the sail, but I'll get onto him later) More on the guy replacing the planks: At which point I asked my beloved wife to take some photos of me doing it so I could get the positions and angles right. As it turned out, most of it was pretty close to right. But I wanted to get such things as the angles and positions of the knees and feet correct. The only thing is that he's not really leaning over far enough to be sliding a plank across the deck. I'll have to have him holding one end of it up in the air a bit. And the guy on the windlass. Unfortunately, this figure is also not leaning over far enough. You can see he won't be able to reach the windlass bar. I thought of cutting him across the middle and changing the angle of his torso so he could reach the bar, but I think instead I'll re-do his arms so he's reaching out further. More to come in a while. Steven

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