Jump to content
MSW Spring Donation Drive

Louie da fly

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    7,567

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Louie da fly

  1. Louie da fly
    That looks fine, Waldemar. Except for the calcet (my ship is English, after all) I used a similar method on my Great Harry - see post #319 at but I wasn't really certain it was appropriate for my period, as at least one of the books related to ships from about 1620 onwards. Does your book specifically mention the ramshead block/knight assembly for the late 15th century? Steven
  2. Louie da fly
    Working on the fore shrouds. I'd already (way back when I was 17) glued the ratlines to the starboard shrouds, thinking it's be easy to add the deadeyes later (how wrong I was!). Since I took this photo I have tightened the lanyards, glued them in place and cut the free ends off (also very fiddly). And the port shrouds were new. Unfortunately my clever way of setting up the spacing of the deadeyes just didn't work. The shrouds ended up too long, and I ended up having to strip them off, cut off the top end and glue them back on. A lot of mucking around. I'm hoping that with experience I'll get better on later ones. And I did some test painting for the "cloth of gold" sails. Here's the original painting from 1545, and the reconstruction painting from Björn Landström's book The Ship, which I used as my model. I traced the repeating pattern and made a template for it, but wasn't satisfied with it so I made another by photocopying the pattern and sticking it to thin card from a manilla folder. For the first test run I used gold acrylic - looked good, except they didn't have gold paint back then. So I ended up trying out various combinations of yellow, brown and black acrylic paint, doing it in layers, and finally mixing them to try and get a convincing colour (far right). By the way, the colour values are very bad - the fabric is really a canary yellow and the paint colour is a sort of brownish greyish yellow. I hadn't wanted to do it this way, because it's so hard to get separate "batches" to match each other, and acrylic starts to dry the moment you expose it to air. But that turned out to work best, so I have to grit my teeth and do great long stints of fiddly painting until the current batch runs out and I can take a break (not wanting to waste my limited supplies of paint). So here's the fore topsail painted and the foresail and topgallant marked out for painting. Since I took this photo I have painted a little over half the pattern on foresail. More to come. Steven
  3. Louie da fly
    Couldn't agree more.
  4. Louie da fly
    I hope I didn't offend you, Dick. The furthest thing from my intention. I agree completely with your comments regarding the value of experimental archaeology. Unfortunately, kit manufacturers follow what they perceive the "market" to be - so there's plenty of Santa Marias, Revenges, Golden Hinds etc based on very little and even (such as in the case of all those square-sterned Santa Marias), in direct contradiction of the available evidence. This alone is a justification for a certain amount of well-earned grumpiness. OTOH, there's the occasional wild card - there was a beautiful kit on MSW awhile ago of a Liburnian from umpteen BC, based on contemporary representations, and sporting a stern rudder! Personally I'm not all that interested in building a model of a ship where all the information is handed to you on a platter. I would far rather exercise my mind investigating lesser-known ships and trying to work out hwat* form they really took and how they were made. I think at least half the fun in ship modelling is in the research and speculation, and the attempt to duplicate something where the information is far from complete, or interpret the available (often obscure) information to make something that actually works. And there are so many ships out there, particularly from the Middle Ages and Renaissance, that nobody has ever attempted. Like, I wouldn't mind having a go at this one, from Carpaccio's Legend of St Ursula. or perhaps one of these, a bas-relief (probably from the 12th century) on the leaning tower of Pisa Anyway, I'm following this build with great interest, to see how the theoretical idea turns out in the real world. Congratulations on your persistence and perspicacity, and other things beginning with per- Best wishes, Steven *(that was a typo, but is also the Old English version** of the word what, so I'm leaving it in place) **(actually it's hwaet, but what they hey . . .)
  5. Louie da fly
    Beautiful work, Dick. Particularly for a vessel that may never have existed!
  6. Louie da fly
    Looking good. You should start a build log for this. Do you have any photos of her at earlier stages of construction? Steven
  7. Louie da fly
    Good luck with the surgery, Bob. Good to see you've started a build log even if you have to wait a bit to start the build itself. I'll be following with interest (this period is one of my main passions). Steven
  8. Louie da fly
    That's very interesting speculation, Waldemar (BTW, this discussion is something of a hijack of Foremast's thread, but as it's still on-topic with his own build I hope he won't mind). As Gene Wilder says in Young Frankenstein "IT - COULD - WORK!!" The bit about women's underwear - I'd always thought it went against common sense. Men's underwear is repeatedly shown in contemporary illustrations, but on a purely practical basis if anyone needed that kind of thing, it would surely be women rather than men. I was going to raise the issue of mechanical advantage if there's no blocks and tackle. And at least in the bigger carracks, the mainyard and mainsail were enormous and must have been very heavy. Steven
  9. Louie da fly
    I think so, but of course it can never be proved. But as they say "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence". (It was thought until recently that women in the 15th century didn't wear underpants - no documentary mentions, none in iconography, no archaeological evidence. Then they found some, proving they really were used.) Steven
  10. Louie da fly
    Hi, Bob. I'd agree with Mark in recommending you start a build log. The instructions are here: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/24705-before-you-post-your-build-log-please-read-this-starting-and-naming-your-build-log/ I know it's a bit intimidating when you're starting out, especially when you see all those amazing models others have done. But they also had to start sometime, and they made all kinds of newbie mistakes (and you will make mistakes, believe me - don't ask me how I know), but they kept learning from those mistakes, and each model was better than the last until you see the incredible models that show up in the build logs. But starting a build log exposes you to the help, experience and advice of those self-same people, and you'll find everybody is helpful and encouraging. As well as starting a build log, I'd recommend you do a search for other people's build logs of Amati's Santa Maria - the search bar is at the top right of this page. That should give you quite a few tips and help you avoid going up dead-end tracks. There's even a Youtube video available - And if you want to delve further into the whole subject, do a search for "carrack" and you'll see some amazing, phenomenally researched builds of ships of Santa Maria's era and type. Good luck with the build. And ask lots of questions - there's no such thing as a stupid question. And you'll find the wonderful members here will do the best they can to provide the answers. Steven
  11. Louie da fly
    It's looking good, Patrick. Unfortunately, the further back you go, the harder it is to be sure of how things were done. But then, who's going to tell you you're wrong? Steven
  12. Louie da fly
    Thanks, Waldemar. An interesting point - I looked through my entire collection of contemporary illustrations yesterday and couldn't find a single one that showed anything that looked like halyards or ties. Many of them showed lifts attached to the yards near the yardarms, but I don't believe that would be enough - I can only assume the artists just missed the ties/halyards among the "forest" of other ropes. The information you're putting up on this thread is very interesting and useful. Thanks very much for it. Steven
  13. Louie da fly
    Mark, apart from the difficulty of the actual carving of such fine detail, the grain of the wood is also a limiting factor - it may be coarser than the detail you're trying to carve. I'm using pear wood which has a pretty fine grain, and I'm hitting this problem. AFAIK box is finer and might be better for the purpose, but if you can 3D print these things you might be better off. Steven
  14. Louie da fly
    By the way, have you looked at Woodrat's build log? LOTS of very worthwhile research went into this one - I think you'd find it helpful. And also a collection of contemporary pictures of carracks I've put together at https://www.pinterest.com.au/lowe1847/carracks/ Steven
  15. Louie da fly
    I take my hat off to you, Schrader. Exquisite work. Steven
  16. Louie da fly
    Hi Darryl, and welcome to MSW. You should do well with your previously acquired skills. But I'd highly recommend you start a build log for your Flattie, and whenever you hit a "what do I do now?" moment, put the question up on your log. Lot of people here very willing to help, and probably many who've already encountered and solved the same problem. Where are you in WA? I grew up in the Perth suburb of Attadale (south of the river - I wouldn't be able to afford a house there nowadays!) and I have very fond recollections of my childhood and teenage years there. Steven
  17. Louie da fly
    Richard McKenna is known as a science fiction writer, and he stated that Sand Pebbles was a science fiction story - the science being psychology/anthropology. He's written some fascinating stories on the nature of reality - my favourite being Casey Agonistes, about an imaginary ape who becomes all but real by the inhabitants of a naval hospital ward all believing in him. Beautifully written and thought-provoking. Steven
  18. Louie da fly
    'Fraid so . . .
  19. Louie da fly
    Waldemar, I'm afraid you're asking the wrong guy. I have terrible trouble getting my head around the way rigging works at the best of times, especially block/tackle systems. All three of the examples you show would work, but I'm not at all qualified to make an informed comment on which would be better or more likely. As no wrecks have been found with masts/rigging intact (surprise, surprise!) except perhaps the ones in the Black Sea which aren't relevant here anyway, we're forced to rely on contemporary iconography and manuals of shipbuilding, which don't give enough reliable information to base a proper reconstruction on. However, one point - as far as I understand it, the calcet was a feature of lateen masts - so would have been used on the mizzen of the Lomellina. Again, we're short on reliable info, but I believe the sheaves for the mainyard were not at the masthead, but ran through cheeks at the sides of the mast - certainly this is the way they were done in the 17th century, but I admit it's stretching things a bit to extrapolate that far back. Steven
  20. Louie da fly
    Oh, VERY nice! Steven
  21. Louie da fly
    Yes - interesting question comes up here - what did they do in the Vasa's time, before staysails came into use? Steven
  22. Louie da fly
    Glad to be of service. The Lomellina, because she ended up on her side, has had quite a bit of the upper structure preserved. My post #13 in the link above shows it. The documentation is very comprehensive and well worth a read all the way through. I did an English translation of the main report - any mistakes are my own . . . I can send it to you if you like (I was going to attach it but it's 16Mb). Send me a PM if you're interested. Steven
  23. Louie da fly
    You might this useful - The Lomellina (probably built around 1503) had a capstan and a knight for the halyard, both of which have been recovered, and her approximate proportions have been figured out. However, she was probably a considerably larger vessel than the one the"Coca" is based on. Steven
  24. Louie da fly
    My understanding is that the capstan was used to hoist the yard. I love the advertising for Bjorn's Used Cogs .
  25. Louie da fly
    You're a bad, cruel man, Druxey . In fact I'm looking at painting the "cloth of gold" decoration on the sails - just chickening out at the moment. This is another thing that I didn't do back in the day when I first built the model, and I'm not looking forward to it . . .

About us

Modelshipworld - Advancing Ship Modeling through Research

SSL Secured

Your security is important for us so this Website is SSL-Secured

NRG Mailing Address

Nautical Research Guild
237 South Lincoln Street
Westmont IL, 60559-1917

Model Ship World ® and the MSW logo are Registered Trademarks, and belong to the Nautical Research Guild (United States Patent and Trademark Office: No. 6,929,264 & No. 6,929,274, registered Dec. 20, 2022)

Helpful Links

About the NRG

If you enjoy building ship models that are historically accurate as well as beautiful, then The Nautical Research Guild (NRG) is just right for you.

The Guild is a non-profit educational organization whose mission is to “Advance Ship Modeling Through Research”. We provide support to our members in their efforts to raise the quality of their model ships.

The Nautical Research Guild has published our world-renowned quarterly magazine, The Nautical Research Journal, since 1955. The pages of the Journal are full of articles by accomplished ship modelers who show you how they create those exquisite details on their models, and by maritime historians who show you the correct details to build. The Journal is available in both print and digital editions. Go to the NRG web site (www.thenrg.org) to download a complimentary digital copy of the Journal. The NRG also publishes plan sets, books and compilations of back issues of the Journal and the former Ships in Scale and Model Ship Builder magazines.

Our Emblem ®

Modelshipworld - Advancing Ship Modeling through Research

Nautical Research Guild ® and the NRG logo are Registered Trademarks, and belong to the Nautical Research Guild (United States Patent and Trademark Office: No. 6,999,236 & No. 6,999,237, registered March 14, 2023)

×
×
  • Create New...