Louie da fly

Rather than this . . . Nice armour - shame about the hose . . .

Beautiful work, Silverman. Very convincing. But as those of us who've worn them know, maybe the hose should have been a bit baggy at the knees? (or is the fabric cut on the bias?) Seriously, though, I'm extremely impressed by the clothing on these figures. You've really made it look real. Can't wait to see it all painted. Steven

Interesting idea. From personal experience with the real thing, round shields with central bosses are a bugger to stack - they seem to develop a mind of their own. Unless you tie them together somehow (and I have no idea how), they're liable to roll around the deck and get in the way and have people fall over them. If each of them has a guige (shoulder strap) and it's tied/buckled around its own thwart, perhaps that would work? Steven

For the foremast I realised there just wasn't enough room on the forecastle for the knight and a capstan - so I've cut a hole in the forecastle deck to lead the ties down to a supposed knight and capstan conveniently hidden belowdecks. Then the problem was to lead those ties down and fix their ends belowdecks. So, I led the ties as a loop through the hole in the forecastle deck and made a wire hook to grab the loop and pull it out through the "doorway" at the break of the forecastle. I got the inspiration for this method from C.S. Forester's Lieutenant Hornblower (where a gunner uses it to repair an unbushed cannon). And then I put a bit of wood through the loop and glued it in place. Then slid the piece of wood through the "doorway" and glued it in place on the inner deck. Next I put cheeks with sheaves on the foremast and threaded the ties through them. Needs a bit of tidying up. You can see the hole in the mast where I'd originally intended to put a single tie - until I did some reading and realised they were always double. A bit of filler will fix that. And I've been working on the stand. Not finished yet, but well on the way. Dry fitted. Steven

That's pretty much what Woodrat decided to do with the mast on his Frumious Hulc. Steven

I think I've found evidence to support your crew's choice of clothing . . . Steven

That should make it very secure, Dick, and your take on it seems very logical. Steven

I've been doing some more fiddly things. Funny, my list of things to do seems to expand - even as I'm crossing items off it more suggest themselves to me. I had to dye some thicker thread for the halyards etc to match the thin cotton I'm using for the lanyards - a mix of brown, tan and green fabric dye. I've wrapped a length of the thicker thread around the reel of the thinner thread. I'm pretty happy with the colour match And I decided the knight needed four sheaves instead of three, as the Lomellina (the ship I copied the knight from) was quite a bit smaller than the Great Harry. I followed the outline in The Rigging of Ships in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast. Though it deals with ships of maybe 100 years later, a lot of things seem to have already been in use considerably earlier. And also Wolfram zu Modfeld's Historic Ship Models. Here is the knight and the "ramshead" block that goes with it. And I added cheeks with hounds (sheaves) to the mainmast for the halyard ties. Again I'm in a bit of a quandary. The idea was to keep the restoration as close as possible to the original model, but as I hadn't bothered myself with the halyards it had no cheeks or hounds on the masts - in fact it didn't even have crosstrees and trestletrees to support the tops. And rather than being looped around the top of the mast, the tops of the shrouds were just glued to the sides of the mast. So to put halyards on, I needed to make the ties and cheeks and hounds. And to add the cheeks I had to remove the shrouds that were already in place and I'll have to re-glue them in position - to the sides of the new cheeks. I've stopped short of adding trestletrees and crosstrees - otherwise it just gets too far away from the original. And here's the railing for the foretop, made out of a thin sliver of wood curved in a circle around the lid of a plastic bottle. I'll be putting it on in due course.

I used a hand drill and a mini-hacksaw, sawing gently back and forth. https://modelshipworld.com/topic/12426-henry-grace-a-dieu-great-harry-by-louie-da-fly-scale-1200-repaired-after-over-50-yrs-of-neglect/page/4/ The first results were a bit rough but as I got more practice "I got better" (like John Cleese after being turned into a newt).

Hi Tallyho and welcome to MSW. Have you decided on a model to build? Steven

Bienvenu à MSW, Francis! Have you decided on your next maquette? When you start making your model, make sure you also start a build log for it. The instructions are here: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/24705-before-you-post-your-build-log-please-read-this-starting-and-naming-your-build-log/ It not only shows a pictorial record of your progress but it is also a very good way obtain advice and encouragement from other members - they are very friendly and helpful. Steven

Welcome to MSW Pascual. Yes the Palma Nova looks like a good kit to begin with - an interesting vessel that should teach you many of the important shipmodelling skills, without being too complicated, but will be something to be proud of. Yes, starting a build log is a great way to get advice and encouragement, and the people here are very friendly and helpful. Good to have you aboard. Steven

Welcome to MSW! You've made good choices with those kits. They should build your skills without overwhelming you, as a larger more complicated model would. And you'll have something very worthwhile at the finish. Yes, make sure you start a build log when you begin your model/s. It's a great way to get help and encouragement, as well as a record of the build itself. The instructions are here: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/24705-before-you-post-your-build-log-please-read-this-starting-and-naming-your-build-log/ Good to have you aboard. Steven

Nice work. How many more to go? Steven

Well that's pretty much what I told him. We'll see if anything comes of it. But as far as I can see there are no other kits out there that are anything like the ship he wants to build. It appears to be a neglected field among kit manufacturers - but then again, there's certainly very little information available on (or interest in) merchant ships of this period, and the Josiah (if Wikipedia is to be believed) started life as a frigate. Steven

As far as he can make out his ancestor came from England to Virginia as an indentured labourer in 1679 (not 1684 as I previously stated) on a ship called the Josiah, which is described as a frigate. But most of his information is from Wikipedia and can't really be verified further. He's a beginner who wants to build a kit model of the Josiah (which is of course impossible - no kits exist, and there's no real idea of what the Josiah was like - so I've pointed him at the nearest thing - and not very near at that - Corel's Berlin). I don't think he's interested in historical accuracy - he just wants a nice model to display to his friends so he can say "The Josiah was a bit like that", which is fine by me. Steven

Thanks everyone for the answers. Very interesting. I'd thought those would be the flags flown, but didn't know if they were confined to warships. Chuck, interestingly enough I'm trying to find out for someone whose ancestors were colonists in 1684. Steven

That pretty much says it - does anyone know what flag/s would have been flown by an English merchant ship in the 1670s-1690s? Steven

That's such a great idea! And the vessel looks just right being supported by the book. It'll probably be something most people miss on first inspection, and you can perhaps enjoy the "Aha!" moment as they realise the book really is about the ship.

That's looking very good, Kondzik. Steven

Having worked with sheet metal myself, I'm very interested in how you went about shaping the hull. Fascinating project!

Welcome to MSW, Halvor! I see you've already begun your build log. That's great. Make sure you put up plenty of photos, and don't be shy about asking questions. The members here are very friendly and helpful. Steven

Beautiful work (as usual), Dick. Steven

I think that's a good creative solution that could well have been used at the time. Steven

Onto fiddly bits. Here's the picture in Björn Landström's book The Ship I originally worked from, showing the dragon figurehead and the decorative crown and flagpole on the bowsprit: I'd already carved the dragon-head - now I've painted it: Very happy with the crazed look on his face. And here is the flagpole/crown assembly I made a mistake - the fore topmast had snapped off just above the top and I was intending to just glue it back onto the remaining stub. Then I forgot what I was doing and removed the stub. So I had to reconfigure the topmast by adding an extra bit of wood to replace the stub . . . and carve it to shape. I wouldn't have needed to do any of this, if I'd remembered what I'd originally planned Steven