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Louie da fly

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Everything posted by Louie da fly

  1. 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
  2. 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
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. 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
  8. Louie da fly
    I take my hat off to you, Schrader. Exquisite work. Steven
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. Louie da fly
    'Fraid so . . .
  12. 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
  13. Louie da fly
    Oh, VERY nice! Steven
  14. Louie da fly
    Yes - interesting question comes up here - what did they do in the Vasa's time, before staysails came into use? Steven
  15. 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
  16. 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
  17. Louie da fly
    My understanding is that the capstan was used to hoist the yard. I love the advertising for Bjorn's Used Cogs .
  18. 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 . . .
  19. Louie da fly
    Thanks everybody for all the likes. Much appreciated. It's going a bit slowly at the moment because I'm doing these deadeyes and they take a fair bit of time with the technique I'm using - and I want to make sure that each one is finished and the glue dried before I start on the next, so I don't stuff up the previous one. I've pretty much used up most of the "in the meantime" projects I can get on with while I'm waiting for glue to dry so I spend a fair bit of time sitting on my hands. Balclutha, I used a No. 11 scalpel or craft knife, but that's because those frames are made of balsa. If the timber had been anything more substantial I'd have used a saw. Steven
  20. Louie da fly
    Yes indeed. He was pretty much Europe's "golden boy" in his youth. He seems to have gone sharply downhill physically and mentally after a very severe jousting accident in which his leg (thigh, I think) was very badly injured and never really recovered from it. Steven
  21. Louie da fly
    He was a big guy (over 6 feet), and solidly built, but he wasn't really all that fat until the end of his life. But the fashions of the time emphasised bodily "bulk". I've seen his armour from various times of his life, and it wasn't all that tubby. Steven
  22. Louie da fly
    Henry looked a bit lonely so I've added a couple more figures. I also moved him from the weather deck to the (quarter?)deck where he's a bit more obvious, and I think more in keeping with his station in the Grand Scheme of Things. Also another sailor - he'll be climbing the ratlines (when I get them in place). And I thought I'd show the process I use to put deadeyes on. I've made a little jig to standardise the spacing of the deadeyes - copied from other people's builds. (I should have made it earlier - the earlier deadeyes might end up a bit higgledy-piggledy because of that.) First put the wire jig through the extreme holes in the corresponding upper and lower deadeyes. Note this doesn't work as well on mine because I have tiny triangular deadeyes which rotate when you try to pin them down, so I just use a dab of glue to fix the shroud to the top of the triangle. Then gradually wrap the shroud around the deadeye, gluing as I go. Trim the shroud to length and "feather" the end to get it to merge into the rest of the shroud like a splice. And voila! Oh, and I've (possibly too early - I hope I don't break it) added the fore topmast. It struck me how tiny this topmast is - then I noticed that though Landström's reconstruction has topgallant sails, it doesn't have a topgallant mast! Looking at the Anthony Roll picture, it gets even worse - he's drawn it as though the mast is a single unit, all the way from the deck up to the truck! As topgallants were very new at this time, and contemporary pictures show topmasts as being pretty tiny, I'm going with Landström. Maybe they hadn't yet developed the idea of a separate piece of mast for each sail, at least up to the topgallants. Steven
  23. Louie da fly
    Beautiful figures. Better than mine, about the same scale. Steven
  24. Louie da fly
    (including building an impossible ship!) Steven
  25. Louie da fly
    Boom - tish!

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