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Louie da fly

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  1. Louie da fly
    I got this pic off Facebook. Unfortunately it didn't say where the flag is held. Aha! "It's kept in the national maritime museum in Greenwich - and it is 32 ft. x 47 ft. in size." Steven
  2. Louie da fly
    Hmm - might be worth considering, Roger. Probably the stuff you get in electrical cord, that gets its flexibility by being made up of large numbers of very fine wires.
  3. Louie da fly
    Got the finest available fly-tying thread from Rehfisch's huntin' & shootin' & fishin' shop in Ballarat. SO many ways of killing things up on the wall and in the shelves! And Lo! and Behold! The mass produced deadeyes printed by Paul (HenrytheStaffy) arrived in the mail! To say I'm gobsmacked is putting it mildly. Here are the two sizes he 3D printed and sent me - 2mm on each side (for the lower shrouds for the mizzen and bonaventure masts and the main fore topmasts) and (for heaven's sake!) 1mm on each side (for the upper mizzen and bonaventure shrouds and the main and fore topgallant shrouds). There's no way I could have made even one of the smaller ones by myself, let alone mass-produced them. And even the larger ones are a real trial for me and never completely successful. And here is the finest available fly-tying thread going though one of the holes of the larger sized deadeye ; Unfortunately for me, even that thread won't go through the holes in the smaller deadeyes - they're just SO tiny! Just a matter of modern technology outpacing the materials (and hand-eye co-ordination, for that matter) available. I'm afraid my expectations were a little unrealistic - not of the 3D printer, but of the rest of the resources available to me. I may not be able to get thread through the holes of these tiny deadeyes, but I think I'll be able to set them up in place and glue the thread in front of them so it looks like it's going through the holes. My heartfelt thanks to Paul. You're a legend, mate. You really produced the goods, and exceeded the capabilities of this mere ship-modelling guy. All I can say is WOW! Steven
  4. Louie da fly
    Nice work as usual, Pat. Very good result. I was surprised you used brass for the pigeonholes, but on reflection you can probably get more precision that way than with wood. Just out of interest, was there any mention of chain gammoning chafing the bowsprit? Steven
  5. Louie da fly
    There's been a lot of study on this. Yes, it was hard to keep rowing strongly for any length of time, though an easier pace can be kept up for longer. The Olympias was a good source of practical information on these issues. Steven
  6. Louie da fly
    What a beautiful model! I came to this late - very glad to see it! You've done a wonderful job. Steven
  7. Louie da fly
    That's a nice find, Kris. Steven
  8. Louie da fly
    Nice job, Bill. She looks good. Steven
  9. Louie da fly
    Beautiful work, Lyle! I'm sure your Dad will love it. Steven
  10. Louie da fly
    And a bit more progress on the steersman: I've yet to do his face and a few finer details - but I'm going to leave the arms as they are until I have the ship built and the side rudder installed, so I can get them just right. And the next two figures (the guys in the aftercastle playing the mediaeval trumpet, or buisine) Steven
  11. Louie da fly
    I just came across what I think is the most atmospheric (and useful for modellers of ancient vessels) video of the Olympias at sea - including footage of the rowers in action, showing the three levels very well, plus quite a bit with the Greek coast in the background - you could easily believe you'd been transported back to Ancient Greece.
  12. Louie da fly
    Good grief! That's nothing short of amazing! Thanks so much, Paul. I don't envy me, either. I doubt ordinary cotton will go through those holes. It looks like I need to check out fly-tying thread. I know BFC doesn't carry it - I'll have to go to the dedicated fishing shop in town. Fortunately we're able to go to the shops tomorrow! (Yay!) Steven
  13. Louie da fly
    Silly man! This vessel doesn't have a jib! Steven
  14. Louie da fly
    Why, thank you, sir! Steven
  15. Louie da fly
    Okay, so I've made the stem and sternposts. It took a bit of adjustment to get them to follow the line of the slots I'd cut in the plug. The plug is still in two halves, just held together with a G-clamp. That way I could adjust the slots until everything fitted. First I made the inner curve of each post approximate as closely as possible the curve of the slot But even that needed a bit of work - the slots on the two halves of the plug didn't quite line up. So with a bit of trial and error, and adjustment back and forth, I got the slot and the inner curves of the posts to mesh, so the posts would sit in the slots correctly. The two posts are not identical, so I marked them with pencil to tell them apart (B for bow, S for stern), and did the same for the plug and the keel. Then I took it all apart and adjusted the outside curve of each post to match the shape in the original picture on the city seal. I had originally thought to have the keel in a slot in the plug, but then I looked at the midships section of the Hedeby/Haithabu knarr and it seemed to be outside the body of the hull (see picture in my first post). So I decided to do it that way - to the degree that I glued in a bit of wood to fill in the slot I'd already cut in one side of the plug. But the more I thought about it, the more impractical it seemed to be - nothing seemed to work if I did it that way. And then of course it occurred to me - this is a nef, not a knarr - there's no reason to suppose the construction method was exactly the same in a non-Scandinavian ship. So I went back to my original idea, and it seems to work much better. The main issue was getting the scarph joints between the keel and the stem and sternposts exactly in the right place and fitting perfectly. If I stuffed it up I'd have to re-make either the keel or one of the end posts. I didn't get it perfect - one of the cuts wasn't exactly at right angles across the joint - but not too bad, and I used filler made of PVA (white) glue and sawdust to fill the tiny gap I'd left on one side of one of the joints. As you can see from the photos above I used cling-wrap to ensure the posts and keel didn't stick to the plug. Et voila! And I've succumbed to peer pressure and started on the crew - this is the helmsman under way (pear wood from the neighbour's tree and No. 11 craft knife) (yes, all right I did want to do it, really ) Steven
  16. Louie da fly
    Most of this is over my head - RC is a totally unknown field to me. (In my view anything more complex than a waterwheel is an instrument of the devil). The action looks good. The only comment I can make is that lower bank oarports apparently had leather sheaths to keep the water out. I'd intended to put them on my dromon, but (a) I never got round to it and (b) they wouldn't have been visible anyway. But you might consider it for your own model, which is at a larger scale than my own. I doubt that you could use leather, but perhaps thin vinyl or something similar? Steven
  17. Louie da fly
    Beautiful crisp work, Dick. It looks very good, and the proportions look just right. Steven
  18. Louie da fly
    Welcome to MSW, OmegaDragon! If you do want to restore this model, do a search under the word "restoration" or "restoring" (the search bar is at the top right of this page). You'll see quite a few nice restorations of old models, including decorator models, which should give you some good ideas. Given that these models are now about 100 years old, they form a historical artefact in their own right and are perhaps worth fixing up just because of that. Good to have you aboard! Steven
  19. Louie da fly
    Thanks, Pat. I'll try Bunnings (when I'm allowed to go there). Steven
  20. Louie da fly
    Wonderful to see this restoration completed. You guys have done a wonderful job of returning "Harry" to his original glory, but preserving the patina of age. It's beautiful. Any chance of more photos from other angles? Steven
  21. Louie da fly
    Wow! I mean, just wow! The sides don't need to be rounded, mate - just the corners. What kind of plastic are you using for your 3d printing? I'd need probably 24 x 2mm deadeyes - but is it possible to make them 1mm as well, or is that asking too much of the technology? If it's possible, I'm going to need lots - probably more than 70(!) At the moment I'm having problems getting the glue to hold the strops to the deadeyes - I've tried CA and it just doesn't work. I've tried Tarzan's Grip, but it's too gooey. I'm going to try polystyrene cement when I can get some (i.e. after lockdown stops), and even PVA -even though it doesn't stick plastic it might hold the two sides of the strop together. Thanks so much for what you've been doing, Henry. Very much appreciated.
  22. Louie da fly
    Beautiful work, Lyle. Steven
  23. Louie da fly
    Beautiful work, Eric, from beginning to end. Steven
  24. Louie da fly
    Not so much perspective (though it's true that they didn't use it - the secret had been lost after Roman times and wasn't re-discovered till the Renaissance) but generally if something was important, you made it big. Steven
  25. Louie da fly
    And according to Landström the 13th century Kalmar boat had them as well (p. 191). Steven

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