Louie da fly

I've been experimenting with weathering, and I'd like the team's opinion. I don't really want the ship to look completely neglected, but I'd like to show that she's been in use for a good while. Here are two tests I made to weather the decks - the first was using a thin (water-base) wash of acrylic - not too good because the water made the fibres of the wood rise up. The second I used (black) enamel thinned out with mineral turpentine. What I'd like to ask the team is - is this too much? Does she look like a tramp, rather than a normal ship that's been reasonably kept up, but has been exposed to the weather over a good period of time?

The other problem, by the way, is that there are bald spots where the paint has been over the top of white glue. I'm hoping I don't encounter this when it comes to the real thing.

On to the rest of my recent progress. Making and installing the pumps:

I thought long and hard about how to fix the lower ends of the shrouds. I decided (as this is the Mediterranean) to use pairs of blocks, not hearts or deadeyes. But there's simply no evidence at all of how they were fixed to the hull in 1150. Nix, nada, nuthin'.

I've made a series of beams attached to, and joining, the fronts of pairs of frames. In each one is an eyebolt to hold the lower end of the strop around the lower block, plus a vertical peg to tie off the downhaul. This is a possible configuration, but is almost certainly not what was actually used. But in the absence of available evidence, hey, what can you do? Certainly, I don't think anybody can prove I'm wrong.

Eyebolts from garden tie-wire:

This had a high failure rate - I used a pair of fine long-nosed pliers to do the bending, and quite often the shape just turned out wrong. I've kept the failures in case I can use them for something where the wonky shape doesn't matter.

Beams with eyebolts:

Pegs under way:

Checking diameter:

Cut to length

And dry fitted

Steven

I'd agree that this reconstruction drawing very accurately reflects what little evidence we have on the shape of caravels - and it's a beautiful shape (cara bella! one of the possible derivations of the name). I have great respect for Landström's work. He really had a good understanding of what was likely in a vessel if it was to be seaworthy.

Weirdly, caravels were quite tiny for something that traversed the world - about the size of a fishing boat.

The rigging in this pic would be the standard rigging for a lateener, but I agree you're best checking out the contemporary imagery for yourself to confirm or discard what is shown here.

Watching with interest.

Steven

(Blush)

That's a really nice colour scheme. Looking forward to seeing it complete.

Steven

Looking good so far, but I'm looking forward even more to seeing it completed.

Steven

Hi Mark, I'm glad you think so. I do love the mosaics. Whether they inspired the interest in the boats - well, long story. Before I got back into ship modelling, I'd been into mediaeval re-enactment for many years, particularly concentrating on Anglo-Saxon and Byzantine, where they came together in the Varangian Guard.

The mosaics in San Marco are mostly Byzantine-inspired, as Venice was in Byzantium's cultural orbit for centuries (until they bit the hand that fed them in 1204!), so I naturally gravitated toward them. Once I got into ship modelling again, they stayed at the back of my mind but I'd never really been able to figure out how they would have been in real life until I saw some modern sketches that inspired me (I think the story of all this is on the first page of this build log). That got me going, and it all proceeded from there. But a lot of research was needed, and I also got a lot of help from Woodrat who'd made a model of the 14th century Contarina ship. I hope that answers your question.

Steven

Wonderful work - again! And of course rocks look like rocks!

Looking forward to seeing more as you make progress, Glen.

Steven

Hi Eindride! Is there any progress happening on this build? It'd be nice to hear from you.

Steven

And what about the Fighting Temeraire?

Thanks everybody for the likes and comments.

I'm afraid I'm not very systematic in building. I often make things as the mood takes me rather than follow a logical sequence. Sometimes I end up painting myself into a corner, but so far I've mostly managed to avoid that on this build (touch wood).

I've puzzled for some time over how to support the spears and other pole-arms sticking out at the stern shown in several of the mosaics.

I came up with several ideas but none really seemed likely or workable, until I thought of two metal hooky things, (made of bent wire) attached to the uprights of the side railings, to support each shaft.

First I tried adding them to the existing uprights. But there was too little space to make the holes to take the hooks and the uprights were too narrow - the holes were almost the width of the uprights.

So I removed the existing uprights and made new ones rather wider but still looking like they belonged, made the holes and inserted the hooks before putting the new uprights in place.

Here are the pole-arms. Mostly simple spears but one was more like a harpoon and another had a head in the shape of a shepherd's crook - which I believe was intended to cut the rigging of an enemy ship.

Took a fair bit of work - they're pretty small - but finally got them done. Painted the heads silver, and the hooks on the railings black to resemble forged iron.

And here they are dry fitted in place. You can see the pole-arms sticking out the back railing.

I've also been working on the lateen yards, for the fore, "middle" and mizzen masts. Each yard is made of two spars lashed together; the upper one longer and with a "hollow" cut into it to take the lower one. (Thanks to Woodrat for the information on how these were configured).

Here they are glued together:

And with the lashings in place.

Steven

Nice work. I'm following with interest. I finished my solid hull model of the same ship, but was not terribly satisfied with it - particularly whether I'd got the details right. So I'll be very interested to see what you do with yours (no pressure, of course!)

Steven

Superb!

Steven

Some updates: 

Making a stand for the ship out of walnut wood.

I'm also re-making the stand for my Winchelsea nef - I've never been happy with the old one. The supports are made but need smoothing off. The joining beam is re-used from the old stand. Once finished I'll post it on the nef build log.

And here are the yards for the three masts.

Steven

On 12/18/2023 at 12:20 AM, Glen McGuire said:

I just added another word added to my Aussie vocab – “gobsmacked”  

Just a bit of context - your gob is your mouth, your cakehole, your north-and-south. So it means being smacked in the gob - pollaxed, blown away . . .

Steven

(Better than  a poke in the eye with a burnt stick).

Steven

Glen, I'm gobsmacked. That's amazing work.

Steven

AAaaand - finished!

I've simplified the rig and I'm not totally happy with the sails - my fault. I should have consulted with my wife before I cut, folded and ironed them. She did what she could to correct my mistakes, but there's only so much you can do, even when you've been trained as a seamstress. Ah well, all part of the learning process.

Steven

Thanks everybody for the help and suggestions, and in particular thanks Woodrat for the photos of vessels with weathered pitch. I think I removed just the amount of paint I needed to on my first run-through. I really don't want to do any more. But I'm thinking seriously of adding greenish below the waterline for weed, and discoloration where water would run down the hull fairly often - such as where the anchors sit, scuppers etc. And weather the anchors when I get to that stage. I suppose I'll also have to weather the aftercastle (I think the mosaic shows it as bare wood, probably pine) with light greys etc as well to continue the theme. Interesting times ahead!

4 hours ago, Ferrus Manus said:

One question: will you plank between the cap rail, stempost, and stem supports? 

No - it's not shown that way in the mosaic so I won't be doing it.

Steven

Turned out all right after all, and it actually looks as if it was always supposed to be like that.

Ready for the sails, but as I can't sew I need to wait for my wife to do that bit. Looking pretty good, I think.

Steven

Well, I dry fitted the stuff that's already made but not ready to be fitted, just to get an idea of how it's going to look..

And I tried a bit of mild weathering by sanding lightly with fine grade sandpaper in places where I think there'd be a bit of wear. Didn't turn out too badly at all. Encourages me to go a little further (without pushing it too hard - I don't want to mess it up).

Mark, that's two coats of standard cheapo acrylic from a school-style set for doing pictures with. 

Steven

The client took delivery of the model yesterday. Very happy with it. I didn't think to take a photo of him holding it, unfortunately.

Steven

And painted black to represent waterproofing with pitch. It's all a bit monotone now - I'm thinking of perhaps doing a bit of weathering down the track to add a bit of interest. I haven't weathered a model before, so I'll have to do some research before I start.

Steven

A very interesting project. It's very different from the kits we get nowadays but I think you could make a very worthwhile model from it. Is it to be planked, or is that the finished hull configuration?

Though they're not built the same way, I'd recommend you check out the other Viking model build logs in this section to pick up some ideas.

And ask questions if there's anything you don't understand. They're a very helpful bunch here on MSW.

Steven

Yes it was, rather. They were way cool. But I still have the warm fuzzy feeling of having made them successfully, plus the satisfaction of making something more  appropriate - and making it just as successfully, and the evidence that my skills have improved to such a degree that I can take something like that on with the confidence that I'd get it right.

Thanks, Pat. I'm pretty chuffed with how they came out, but . . . see below.

Dick, I haven't seen hawse holes in any representations earlier than the 14th century. They may just not have been invented yet. But certainly the bitt in that opening would probably be doing the same job, even if not quite so efficiently. I agree about rabbeting the joints. Much better. And though the joint was probably nailed, my idea was to fix each join with a treenail. Regarding the possibility of an anti-splash cover, well, could be. But I'll go with the way it's presented in the mosaic. I'm doing enough speculation as it is without adding more.

Now for the bad news - after a period of existential angst, soul-searching and questioning the meaning of existence I came to the conclusion that those braces just didn't look right. I can't see what purpose those exaggeratedly complex curves would serve, why any shipwright in his right mind would go to all the trouble of making them and why any skipper in his right mind would ask for them. Yes, they are a possible interpretation of the mosaic, but not a likely one. I think Occam's razor - the idea that the simplest solution to a problem is probably the correct one - applies here.

After some discussions with and suggestions from Woodrat (thanks, mate!) I've re-considered the braces and made them simpler. Still a 3-dimensional curve, but more logical. But first I revisited the mosaic and decided the stempost was much more curved, and wider, than the original picture shows.

So I decided to trim it down to be closer to the one in the picture. Note the pencil line in the photo above. Even that wasn't quite right, so I didn't follow it exactly.

Then I put in the rabbets in the gunwales to take the braces.

And corresponding rabbets in the top of the stempost to take the other end of the braces. (I later changed the angle of the rabbets so everything fitted as smoothly as possible - a bit of trial and error involved in getting it quite right.)

Here are the new braces. Much simpler, and they carry the curve of the gunwale up smoothly to the stempost.

A tiny bit of tidying to do, but I'm much happier with this version.

Steven