Louie da fly

That'd be great. Probably your best bet would be to resurrect your build log and put them up there. And then you could ask any further questions on your build log as you progress through your build. Another point - when you hit problems specific to this model maybe you could PM the guys whose build logs are referenced above, and ask them directly. They'd probably be very willing to help (though of course I can't speak for them). And also Messis, who built this model in 2015. Best wishes with it. I look forward to seeing your further progress. Steven

Hmm, it seems to me that step 3 should be after step 4. The wales aren't especially thick planks, they're glued on over the top after the planking is done. If you look at the note at the bottom of the section drawing "Plank the hull completely with strips mm 1x3. Then apply wales which must be shaped from mm 1x5 strips", this tells you what planks are needed for what - the main planking is from strips 1 mm (millimetre) thick by 3 mm wide and the wales are from strips 1 mm thick x 5 mm wide, and that the wales go on after the planking. It seems to me that the terms "shams side" and "covering of the oars shams" means "false side" and "false oar covering" because they refer to the outrigger for the oars - which is a sort of "false hull" - rather than the hull itself . But I think you use the same 1x3 mm planks for the outriggers - you'd have to check whether you have the right amount of planking. In fact I think it would be a wise idea to get hold of all your timber before you do anything else and spread it out by size (and type of wood - it looks like the decking is made of a light coloured wood and the outer planking from dark wood) and see if you can work out what each bunch is for. Also if you have trouble with the English translation of an instruction, try typing the Italian instruction into Google Translate and see if it makes some sense - that's how I worked out what they seem to mean by "sham". For example, "inferior deck" just means "lower deck", and in the cross-section "banchi" means oarbenches, "ponte" means deck (you're at least lucky with the translation with this one - the Italian word is often translated as "bridge", which causes a lot of confusion to us English-speakers). And I'd highly recommend you have a good look at the above build logs for this model. I think they might answer a lot of questions for you. Steven

Thanks, Siggi. That's beautiful work. Now I have two different media to try when I next want to have invisible gluing. I've changed my mind about the knight for the main halyard. The Lomellina was considerably smaller than the Great Harry, and for her a two-sheave knight was enough for the main halyard. But I think for a ship the size of the Great Harry, a three-sheave knight would be more appropriate. The capstan may have had a bigger diameter to allow for more bars, but with the design I'm working from that would have needed three through-holes in the drum, which would have made for problems with the height of the bars above the deck. So I've kept it at the same size. It just needs the cleats to be trimmed and it's complete. Steven

I just read the instructions. SHEESH! No wonder you're confused! Unfortunately the person who translated them into English had very little idea. My understanding of step 3 is "Nail and glue the wales to the frames indicated". So, what is a wale? It's basically a thicker, heavier plank which gives the hull greater longitudinal strength. Here's my dromon with just the wales attached (note: I built mine a different way from yours - I used a "plug" - a bit of wood the same shape as the hull and planked over that, then added the frames afterward.) and here it is fully planked and removed from the plug - you can see how the wales reinforce the planks. So look for some bits of wood that look like they'll fit the bill. Do you have a diagram which shows the wales? As for the planking, I can't really help you. The bundle of timber for the planking probably contains more pieces than the bundle for the decking. But there have been at least two build logs for the same model - and I hope they can help you. Messis also did an Amati bireme in 2015, but I couldn't find it in a search. Hope this helps. Steven

Thanks, Druxey. I haven't tried that.

I've stained the hull below the waterline, using a mix of black and dark tan boot polish. Worked quite well. This is how it was before - just too light in colour: and finished the breechings on the cannons - a bit of a problem with glue spread everywhere - I'll have to remove the surplus. And working on the knight and the capstan for the main halyard. The capstan needs the rest of the cleats put on it before it's complete. It's based on the one from the Lomellina wreck of 1516 - nearest we have to the right time and place. I have an e-book which purports to show the Mary Rose capstan, but as far as I'm aware it was never recovered, so the e-book one must be based on speculation, so it's no more reliable than my own. And here's the knight dry fitted. I won't glue it in place until after I've threaded the lanyards through it. Otherwise I'm just making my life difficult. Steven

Now for the fun part . . .

Me too, I'm afraid. Steven

That's beautiful work, Bolin. Your patient work is really paying off! Steven

That was pretty much Cap'n Atli's conclusion, as well. That shows the difference between mere theorising (where it seems logical that oar length would be an important factor) and practical experience, which shows that it really doesn't make much difference. Steven

Looking good. mate.

I agree with Kurt - the fan sheet is the way to go for the job you're doing - but Jim is also correct when cutting. I used to be a building designer - when measuring up a building I was taught to do a "continuous measure". Measure everything in relation to a specified "zero" point. So if measuring a wall with windows, doors etc, rather than measure from the corner to the first window, then the width of the window etc etc, I'd hook the tape measure to the corner of the wall and treat that corner as zero, and then all measurements were taken in relation to that point - i.e the distance from the corner to the window, then from the corner to the other side of the window, then from the corner to the next window etc etc. Steven

That dinghy turned out very well. On to the next project . . .

You've probably been pushing the work through the saw too hard. It's something I'm guilty of, and it makes the blade bend sideways. Steven

And here are the cannon in place. I not only had to sand down many of the wheels, I even had to whittle away at the tops of the gunports to get the barrels to fit through. Not a lot you can do about that - you only find out when everything's made, and all you can really do is adjust things a bit, unless you want to start again from scratch (which I'm not prepared to do!) I'm going to put the breechings on the cannons, but I'm not so sure about adding the tackle for running them up. Gunports had only been in use for a relatively short time when the ship was built, and I'm not sure there'd been enough action with guns to get people thinking in turns of tackle - perhaps they were more likely to run the guns up by main force, as they did on land. They'd only just started using 4-wheeled carriages - most of them still had a pair of wheels at the front and a skid at the back. Granted the circumstances were different, particularly with a ship heeling over. I realise that's going out on a limb a bit and there's no real evidence to justify it (or to disprove it, for that matter) , but that's what I've decided to do. Steven

Here are the cannons for the main (lower) deck, which is open to the sky so the carriages can be seen. They're based on those found on the Mary Rose, though I haven't been able to reproduce the shape of these rather unusual barrels with the equipment to hand (hell, at this scale, I haven't even given them trunnions!). I made the barrels the same way as I have previously, with a piece of brass tube from a hobby shop in my "poor man's lathe" (electric drill), and shaped with a small hacksaw and files. And here's the cascabel, made from yet another "sequin pin" with the head filed down: I glued it in place with CA. And here's the construction of a gun carriage (note the giant matchstick): The wheels were cut from a piece of pear wood I'd carved into a cylinder and drilled the holes for the axles with another sequin pin. And more sequin pins for the axles. And all complete. Some of them are a little too high to fit through the gunports, but I'll just sand the wheels down a bit and they should be fine. Steven

Good progress, Ken. I'm looking forward to seeing the next step. Steven

A beautiful result, John! Steven

There's quite a few of us Aussies here. Welcome, Gaz! Do you have a ship you're planning to build? Steven

Well, this is a step forward in a way - when I first built the model I never got around to making and fitting the rudder. Most of what I've done so far is simply re-doing what I did way back then. But this is new. I'm not saying that means I'm getting close to finishing or anything like that, but it is nice to be doing something I haven't done before. Steven

I've made the chocks for the longboat and glued the chocks to the longboat and the hatch cover. I've dry fitted the assembly to the deck to give an idea of how it's going to work. I've finally decided not to continue trying to make the deadeyes out of wood - I just get too many failures from splitting. So I'm goingahead with card impregnated with CA. It works much better. Here's a strip of card to cut them from, and the three holes drilled with a bit made of a brass "sequin pin" (very useful, these - about the diameter of a dressmaker's pin but with a point like a nail, so it acts as a drill bit - you can get them from art supply shops). Trimmed to shape and the strop attached on one side: And carried around the other two sides. And a few deadeyes - some of wood and some of card. At this scale there's really no point in making chains for the lower end of the deadeye assembly - much too fiddly - so I'm just going to fake it with thread. When I made the model way back in the day I had no idea that chains existed anyway. I next went to work on the rudder. Here it is all cut out, with the tiller next to it. I thunk and thunk about how to attach the rudder to the sternpost - there's no way I'm going to make pintles and gudgeons at this scale. I went back to my tried and tested method of inserting pins. Those sequin pins are a Godsend. First photo shows them complete, the second one shows them trimmed to length. For the rudder irons I went back to my trusty aluminium foil catfood containers. They're purely for decoration. When I tried blacking the aluminium previously, I found the paint scraped off really easily. So this time I tried roughening the surface with sandpaper. It seemed to work, though I think I should have brushed off the sandings better as I seem to have got some grit in with the paint. But I don't think this is really a serious issue. I cut strips with a craft knife: I wasn't happy with my first attempt: So I did it a different way. I used CA glue in this case - PVA (white glue) doesn't stick to metal. And finally glued the rudder in place. Voila! Steven

If you have a fine enough drill you might be able to drill holes at each end of the part to be added, and insert a brass "sequin" pin (available at art suppliers - they're about the same diameter as a dressmaker's pin) in each hole, with a mating hole where the pin will go on the main body of the model. I used a cut-down sequin pin as my drill bit. The end of one of these pins isn't a perfect point - it's more like the point of a nail, so it acts like the cutting point of a drill. This is how I attached cleats to my dromon model: Mass produced cleats with holes for pins. Then I cut the piece into individual cleats. Then; And cleat in place: I hope this helps. Steven

Sooner you than me, mate . By the way, some time ago I was wondering what effect the "pointy at both ends" shape of Viking ships would have on whether the oar lengths would need to be different. So I asked someone (Cap'n Atli) who regularly rows a Viking ship reconstruction, and here's his reply. Thought it might be of interest to you in your build: http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=179436&p=2733651&hilit=longship+oar+length#p2733651 Steven

Nice save on the bulkheads being in the way of the deck beams. The build is going well. And looking good. I still can't get over the difference in the hull shape of reconstructions before and after the discovery of the Bremen cog. This is how they thought a cog would look - much narrower (at least at the top) than it turned out to be. Steven

Thanks, guys! Steven