Louie da fly
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Everything posted by Louie da fly
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That's looking extremely good, Silverman. I love your windlass - I wish I'd known about it when I made mine! (I had to copy the Mary Rose windlass, 500 years wrong!) -
Those bottom blocks look very good. A good solution for fixing them to the hull, too. And I agree - she looks better with the boat behind her than alongside.
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Ok, the model itself is finished, and now I've done the stand. The wooden part, painted gold, was done ages ago. The base is made of a piece from a broken slab of marble that was in the garden when we bought the house. Marble - Byzantium; of course they belong together! I was going to paint a fairly elaborate decorative border - vines curling around and all that. Then I decided the focus should be on the ship, not the stand, so I've kept it simple. Just the description and date in a readable font. Unfortunately after all the work I did on carving that beautiful golden stand, it's almost invisible behind the oars.
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Hardly an equal contest - Congress had almost three times the weight of metal and a much larger crew. Savage could have avoided action with a force so superior with no shame. As she was unable to get away, she gave a superb account of herself, surrendering only after losing her mizzenmast and considerable damage to the mainmast, and suffering 42 casualties including the captain. She inflicted almost exactly the same number of casualties on the Congress, though with a considerably lighter broadside. A very valiant defence against heavy odds.
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[Bluebottle voice] You rotten swine! I don't like this game . . . [/Bluebottle voice]
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Thanks everybody for all the help, advice and encouragement during this build - which as taken considerably longer than I expected. You've made the process much more enjoyable, and I have used tips from very many of you in solving problems and in making the model better than it would otherwise have been. It's been an experience. Now to figure out where I go from here . . .
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Oh, and almost forgot . . Fascinating stuff, Cathead. In Western Australia there's a town in the far north-west called Marble Bar, after the big reddish and purple rock outcrop in the local creek. If you ever go to Marble Bar it's traditional to have a beer in the Ironclad pub (built 1891) "The hotel was constructed of corrugated Iron. It was allegedly given the name by American miners who were reminded of the Ironclad ships from the United States." (Wikipedia) The town is celebrated as the hottest place in Australia, "The hottest day recorded for Marble Bar is 49.2 degrees C (120 degrees F) in 1905. Marble Bar is renowned as the hottest town in Australia and can spend every day for more than a month with temperatures topping 40C (104 F)" But the whole point of it is that the "marble" of the bar is actually jasper. You can't trust anybody these days . . . How did you know about the ducks?
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Thanks everybody for the all the comments. It's very nice to have finally finished this build, and I'm pretty happy with the final result. Actually, much appreciated. Just done. I had to figure out how to make it all work - never posted in the galley before. I've got a few ideas, but haven't made up my mind yet - so many choices . . And I still have to finish off the Great Harry. Mustafa must be an Arabian immigrant - which wasn't all that uncommon. A lot of mutual exchange of populations. But a more likely group would be Con, Theo and Iouannis . . .
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Mike, that Venetian ship looks very beautiful. You're doing the right thing by putting it off until you build up your skills. Scratch building is a whole extra level of difficulty, but is very rewarding. I only scratch build nowadays - I far prefer it. When you get to doing the Panart Victory (and I understand you want to ease into the hobby gradually - very wise indeed) there's at least one build log for it here: This might help you with your own Victory project. And you might find others if you do a search (top right of the page) for "Panart Victory".
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Not so sure about the building, Mark - I'm very aware of its shortcomings in that department - but many thanks.
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The awning for the poop has been painted for a long time, with an eagle motif. And now I've painted the substructure to match the rest of the ship, particularly the castles. The columns are wood painted to resemble porphyry, the purplish marble reserved for Imperial use. And now to add the figures I've been saving up all this time. The Emperor (Alexios I Komnenos, known to the vikings as Kirjalax - from Kyrie (lord) Alexios). And now the awning, and the flute-player who gives the time to the oarsmen (far right of the picture, in blue): And the Emperor's Varangian (Viking) bodyguards: And two Imperial courtiers: Unfortunately, you can barely see the Emperor under the awning: I just have to tidy up a couple of ropes and the ship is complete, after more than 5 years! I still have to complete the stand, add a nameplate and make a case. But that's it. I'm already having withdrawal symptoms . . .
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I'm pretty sure that when I was a kid in a youth orchestra we went to Bridgetown as part of a concert tour and we all got billeted overnight by local families - I ended up being billeted at the pub (which was a bit of surprise). I can date it pretty well, because we met a local girl called Rita and Sergeant Pepper's had just come out, so we called her "lovely Rita". Not sure if she got the reference . . .
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Very interesting information. I had no idea sailing performance improved so much in this period. Truly a "maritime Revolution"
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You're off to a good start, Dan. I can see what you mean about having somewhere to store tools, but the workspace looks ok, to start with at least. Maybe down the track you'll be able to organise something a bit more user-friendly, but I've seen the most amazing stuff produced from pretty minimal working spaces.
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That'd be great, Phil. Have you decided on a kit to start with? With your experience you ought to do well. When you begin, make sure you start a build log. Check out these instructions, and note that the build log section is divided up by periods, starting with "up to and Including 1500 AD" and going forward from there. So figure out which period is right for you and put your log there. Where in Perth do you live? I grew up in Attadale but haven't lived in WA for yonks. Say hello to the Swan River for me, will you?
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I've carved the second steersman and finished the hands on the first one, and put both steersmen in place.
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New to modeling where to post a kit build for advice?
Louie da fly replied to bosco72's topic in New member Introductions
There's a completed Airfix Golden Hind build log which might be of use to you . . . And if you put "Golden Hind" in the search bar (top right of the page) you'll find other builds - some non-Airfix kits, and at least one scratch build - they could be helpful in sorting out details. As you probably know, nobody knows what the ship really looked like. All the kits and reconstructions are "best guess" based on the information available from the time. You might in particular like to look at Backer's scratch build - a lot of valuable research information in that one (as well as a brilliantly realised model). -
Nice and relaxing. Better than expending all that energy marching, counter-marching, lugging a heavy pack, firing off rifles . . .
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I found a couple of interesting illustrations from the Madrid Skylitzes. First, I need to let you know that this manuscript is a Byzantine history and was produced in Sicily in the second half of the 12th century under the rule of the Sicilo-Normans. A number of different artists from various traditions and cultures illustrated it, which accounts for the different artistic styles. Most of the ones below are probably by Western artists, but the ones I've based the dromon on (such as the one above with all the flags flying in the breeze) are in the Byzantine tradition, produced by Byzantine-trained artists. Two handed grip on rudder - folio 132 verso. folio 134 verso. This is the only illustration by this artist who is almost certainly West European. Probably single-handed. Folio 146 verso. Folio 168 verso. Western artist, whose renditions of ships are very simplistic. From folio 138 verso. Note the beached galleys with their steering oars swivelled up out of the water. This appears to be the only rendition of a ship in the manuscript that shows both steering oars, though it's pretty certain that double rudders were a standard feature. It is possible that in smaller vessels there was only one steersman who operated both rudders. Certainly when Tim Severin and his associates followed Jason's voyage from Thessaly to Colchis in what is now Southern Russia in the 1970, the steersman held one rudder in his right hand and the other in his left, and it worked well. Due to budget constraints their reconstruction of the Argo was smaller than Jason's 50-oared pentekontor. However, each rudder shaft broke twice on the voyage and had to be mended. So the forces involved are considerable, even on a twenty-oared vessel.
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Thanks everybody for the likes and OC for the nice comment. Pat, as far as I can work out that's the fixing point for the steering oar against the hull. They came in various types (the TAMU paper goes into them in considerable detail). I chose the triangular ones you can see in my pictures above, but there were plenty of other types - "box", "socket" and even some where the steering oar actually goes through a hole in the hull..
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Hi Mike, and welcome to MSW. Do you have a particular model in mind? If not, there's a good place to look here: Once you start making your model, make sure you start a build log of your own. A great way to get help, advice and encouragement. If it's a kit, the instructions are here: If you're building from scratch, this is the place to look: Note that the sections for both kit and scratch build logs are sub-divided into periods - the first one being "Up to and including 1500 AD", and moving up from there. So make sure your log goes in the right category so it can be found easily. Good luck with your build, and have fun with it!
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In Oz until Covid hit every second Easter there was a gathering open to all Australian "pre-colonial" re-enactors, where everybody immerses themselves in the ambience (or ambulance as my family prefer to say) for four days - living under canvas, fighting, talking, having workshops, making music, cooking over a wood fire etc. I learnt how to make a fire with flint and steel, and it's quite rewarding making do - we know it's not really like living back in the day - thank heavens - but it's very enjoyable. Every other Easter, there has always been a "Dark Ages" gathering in a pine forest at Armidale in rural New South Wales - same sort of thing, but Dark Ages specific, That's where I met my lovely wife.
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