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Ty for the tip Torbogdan! After I've completed the planking i've realised some things about planking, but I will apply that knowledge on some other project learning through mistakes, the only way I know... Anyways, I think I am finished with the main part of the construction. Next step is to make rows! Paralel with that I will paint the rowers so I can position them and the rows correctly. Applied 2 coats of matt lacquer to seal the paint and protect what i have so far from the elements. Also made a little chair for the [guy that controls the rudders]. that is sepose to represent this: I've drawn the eyes (i have to correct this little black line in the eyeball that i messed up) and made the ram. The ram was ''sculptured'' from Greenstuff (its a really nice modeling asset --> https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71au1BqMamL._SX355_.jpg and here are some things that people do with it -->http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JUyGGlqg55k/UTpnhPLPjQI/AAAAAAAAAPM/Um1pKu3Spck/s1600/23957_md-Dark+Angels+Deathwing+Greenstuff+Space+Marines+Terminator+Armor.jpg Now I have a little problem, my front fence didnt meet that pole in the front of the ship, due to the fact that i've cut off the original front part and made a new one. Now i have a little gap between the two: The new version (left) and the old version of the pole (right) that was properly designed to meet the fence. But I am not worried by that fact because there will be a sort of a flag (sheet) covering the front part of the ship so the gap wont be visible, just like in the picture below:

Long time no update well, probably because I didint work on the boat for some time... but I am resuming now alright. Unfortunately, I've lost the box with the remaining parts so I'll have to improvise from now on and remember the plans from my head. So the fence is done on the boat, it fits the height of the models rather nice. Also I've covered the red line with some planks to make it a bit more tidy. Hoplites are getting ready to board the ship

Its been some time since i uploaded some photos last time I haven't been working on the model a lot, but i managed to get a few coats of paint on it. So I basecoated the black parts, and added the red strip on the sides. Well, my plan now is to drill the holes on the sides for the rows and than build the fence drilling the holes will be a chalange! Attempt at wheathering effects inside the hull

Finished the ram. The bottom part of the ram has some holes in it that got revealed through the sanding proces, so bit more wood filler will do the job. Next step is to glue the upper deck and than do the rough paintjob

Louie (Steven) I listened to your advice and I picked a book about myths that i had home (from Gustav Schwab, any mythlover should have it). There I started reading the myth about argonauts. So here is the thing: The ship that Argonauts sail on is a pentakora (50 oars in one row) that predates the bireme. The myth itself is happening way before the bireme and trireme time, before the Troyan war (that is still in bronze age if i recall good). So all of the crew are fighters and sailors at the same time, but the bireme and trireme had a much more complex hierarchy onboard so i belive that the Argo doesen't give a good representation of it, although it gives a good ''first hand'' look into their age of sailing (that could be before 1200BC). The period I am looking at is of 6th and 5th century BC But i will read the myth to the end and see if there is anything else of interest. Furthermore i've done some progress on the ship naming. Basicaly i've found a picture of Olympias trireme from behind that shows the ships name carved into a piece of wood. So I will go with that, and do the same on my model Here you can see the picture and the ships name on the left side.

Thank you Loiue, reading the argonauts mith is a really good advice. I haven't done that yet, but am sure i could find some interesting info there. And i've never seen that video before, I was more concentrated on the bireme/trireme that i forgot about the argonauts! ty!

So the gaps can be fixed with some wood filler and after the sanding they should be less visible. Here is what the gaps look like after the sanding: You can see where the gaps were because the wood filler is slightly different color, but after painting it it should blend

I've finished rough sanding and its beginning to look like something next step is to make the ram!

Hmm strange that you couldn't find them. They are exacly on this link http://store.warlordgames.com/collections/greeks You just need to scroll down, they are somewhere near the bottom under the name Greek Hoplite shield designs waterslide transfers. (thats a direct link to product) But if the link doesent work than go to the site warlordgames.com ---> then pick category Hail Caesar 3000BC - 1500AD ---> select category GREEKS The decals are listed somewhere near the bottom/middle And by the way, if you want plastic shields you can easily find greek shields online in different scales (or maybe you enjoy more making your own out of coins)

Here it is Hans, the order arrived in mail today ! There are different size of decals, so you can basicaly pick the size you need. Here is a scale next to 5cents (the only euro I had) If you want me to send you more, just tell me

So the crew arrived through the mail today! Those are Roman sailors made by Orion and 2 sprues of hoplites from warlord games. The oarsmen are just fenomenal and exactly the scale I needed. They are made from a strange rubbery kind plastic which I haven't seen on models yet. But what is good about that is that their arms can bend a bit, allowing for proper placement of oar in their hands, this is what comes in one box. I will be using only the oarsmen and sailors that are not wearing any armor. All of the other models are Roman only, so they wont fit on a greek ship. Now the hoplites are just fenomenal models. Outstanding detail and plastic for the price you pay for them. Now, unfortunatly I wont be using them, because they are out of scale. They are 28mm and oarsmen are 25mm. I tought the difference will not be that big, but I was wrong. So the hoplites will wait for some other project. scale difference All in all, i am very satisfied. Oh yes, and i fixed that broken part effectively

Hello Hans, I've been following your log for some time now. I am building a Bireme from Dusek, its very similar but much much less complicated than yours. What I am in particular interested is the ram that you made by yourself and it look incredible! Just wanted you to know that I am using your pictures as a reference for building my own on the bireme (since the ram on Dusek bireme is, well, rather bad) Keep up the good work, cant wait to see more! Yes, and another thing. I saw that earlier you were talking about painting detalis on the euro coins like shields. Were here is a thing that might be of interest to you concidering shield paintings: http://store.warlordgames.com/collections/greeks Those are made based on actual shield paintings found on pottery and such. They are made for 28mm models, I've ordered myself some recently. If u are interested in scale and size of the decals i can take some pictures with a ruler next to it when they arrive, if u are interested. Cheers

Hmm I haven't seen that book so far, might aswell look it up. hahaha, epic failure?

Thank you all for the feedback, this forum really helps me because your opinion matters to me, since this is the first ship ever that i am building. So I applied wood filler and now when it dries i hope that i can sand it so atleast its not so obvious.

Finished the planking, I've applied wood filler and i hope these gaps between planks will be less visible after the sanding, which i planto do next.

That is one really good picture! But i think its a Roman trireme because of the aquilla at the front and on the sides. I would like to find out more about the Greek warships. And i wish the charts were readable on the side

Well the funny thing is that I actualy study history, but there are no real experts on classical studies at my university. We had the best classical department in the country but it got disbanded due to their internal affairs. Very sad thing. I guess I could share here what I found out so far about the crew of the trireme. Basicaly all the info you can find about greek naval warfare is about the trireme. Ancient warships were not built for large scale sailing so they always had to be near the shore. So sailing would be done during the day, and during the night the ships would dock and the crew would eat and sleep on the shore. So combat was never conducted in the open sea, and before they would engage they would leave anything they don't need on the shore, including the mast that would be taken down. When the ship was sailing all of the top deck crew would be sitting down, centered in the middle, so the ship doesen't lose its stability it needs for rowing (wich was fairly easy to happen). Classical greek ships were based on speed and manuverability. They focused on ramming the enemy ship and tried to sink it that way, avoiding any boarding actions. Ramming another vessel required a lot of skill and training, and only the most experienced crew were able to do more compicated manouvers (like crushing oars of the enemy ship). With that approach the Greeks won their most famous naval battle, the battle of Salamis. They managed to defeat the enemy that outnumbered them with much larger ships, but manouverability and speed proved to be better than sheer size and strenght. The trireme was praised by one of the ancient historians as a true depiction of the greek society. All of the crew in the lower decks were free men (this is atleast tought to be), and above them stood the men that were in the society above them. All of them, the rich and the poor, working together for a goal as true democracy that they treasured. Apparently the rowers were free men and it was their profession to be one. It required a lifetime of training to do effectivly some of the complicated manouvers. The image of rowers bound in chains under the crack of a whip was constructed in the middle ages, since the Venetians use to do that. So the same view was about Romans and all of the rowers of ancient times, but the reality could be much different. Now the number and consistancy of the crew onboard the trireme seems to vary depending on the situation. There are accounts that say a trireme had 200 men onboard, including 170 oarsmen, 16 hoplites, 4 archers, a ,,captain'' (i am keeping it simple and not going into real terms), deck officers, some ondeck sailors and a flutist. It is rather interesting how they only had 16 hoplite infantry on board, one would think what could they do with 16 men if they went into melee. Well, as far as I realise it, they avoided melee combat on seas so it was not needed to concentrate on heavy infantry on board. That is the reason why the Romans managed to defeat them at sea. Greeks had a far superior knowlidge of naval warfare, and the Romans never mastered it. But the Romans did a smart thing and turned naval combat into land combat by constructing a bridge with a hook that they mounted on their ships (corvus). With that they would board the ships that rammed them, and since they put a significant number of infantry on board, those ,,16'' hoplites would soon find themselves in a difficult situation. Now I couldn't find any info about a ship that I am building - the bireme. I am guessing that the crew of a bireme would be similar to the trireme, only in fewer numbers. Trireme had more than triple rowers than the bireme, but there is no info about the crew (so i sepose the deck crew numbers are atleast half of the trireme).

I am a new shipbuilder and I just finished planking my first ship. Now I see that at some places my planks are not connected good. Can this kind of gaps be fixed with wood filler and than later sanded? Or that will look strange?

I've been trying to get as much info about antic warships and as far as I've realised it is very obsecure. All that we have is an ocasonal description from an ancient historian and a few archeological evidences. The most famous antic warship, the trireme, is still very much a mystery. There are only a few rare hints from the past on which historians can create knowlidge. I need these answers because I am building an antic Greek ship with model crew and I want to get as much info because I want the amount of detail to be as real as possible Now questions that I need answered were hard for me to find online or in the books I've read. So I was wondering if any of the naval history lovers of this forum could know answers. 1) Historians belive that the oarsmen of greek ships were free men and it was their proffesion. So were they trained to fight when naval combat turns into melee? Did they carry shields and spears arround with them and if it comes to that situation they would rise from their seats and defend? Was such a situation ever talked about in antic sources? I need this because my bireme model will have 48 rowers and I need to know if i should get 48 spears and shields to put them somewhere on the ship. 2) I know ships were given names by the Greeks (like Argo) but did they put the name somewhere on the ship? Is that known? 3) We all know that scene from Ben Hur where the crew of the ship rows in the beat of the drums. But did the Greek use drums aswell? I've read that they had a flutist on board but no one acctualy says what was sthe flutists role, maybe similar to the drummers? I have a 1/72 model of a drummer but it would be just plain wrong to put him on deck if the Greeks didn't practice that. If anyone knows any useful information, doesn't have to be about my questions, I would really appritiate it. Thanks!

Greetings fellow shipbuilders! To clear something up before i start my log - this is my first model and I am new to the business of working with wood. I picked up this kit because it looked to me like something rather simple to start with and because I simply love antic history, being a history student. So the dilema was should i start with the small bireme kit or the larger and more complex trireme kit that Dusek is offering. SInce it was my first model I decided to play it simple and went for the small 455mm long Greek Bireme from 6th century BC. Other than that I decided that the model will be crewed with 48 rowers, 3-4 sailors and 5-6 hoplite infatry. This came into my mind later when I already started to build because I saw online a finished model of the same ship that is fully crewed. So I found out that the company Orion makes 1/72 scale antic sailor models and got myself 3 boxes nad a box of hoplite infantry hehe... And one thing that I really care, as all of the people that do this hobby, is that the model is finished historicaly accurate, that it can serve as a mini history lession of antic naval warfare. Now, it is not the same if you have to deal with well known ships and something that is as little known as antic ships. I've gone through two books that deal on antic naval warships and i still have some unsolved dilemmas. Almost all of the literature is focused on the more common known ships like the trireme, but almost nothing does it say about a bireme. The model i have is entirely based on greek pottery paintings! Which is rather interesting. I still have some unresolved problems that I will put up before i start crewing the boat. I belive I should point out that i got the idea from user yancovitch where I saw that it can be done! http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/gallery/image/9877-dsc-0449a/ So this is the box and the plans. Now one thing I noticed is that the picture on the box is of some older version of the model. The one pictured doesent have planking on the deck since it is only a straight flat plank, but the model itself comes with a wooden sheet with deck planking already inprinted on it. Some things i dislike on the ship is the plain white sail and the wide reddish/brown plank that looks like some sort of shield in the front of the ship. I plan not to put that silly ugly plank upfront and i will sew my own sail out of red and blue cloth to make it more interesting, specialy because greeks enjoyed colourful things, didnt they And I plan on painting a red strip on the side of it, aswell as the fence (I am sorry for the lack of propery usage of naval terms, and english is not my mother language so I cant think of anything else than fence). The plans are really not that much. A scaled picture of the model and a few pages that pracicaly say nothing more than first do this, than do this, and voila a bireme. So this is where i curently am with the planking. This is the first time I tried it, and it looks kinda flimsy but I belive that after the sanding process that it should look better. The lower deck where the bottom rowers sit is already painted since those areas might be harder to paint afterwads. Planking the front of the ship was rather hard, since the plank has to bend from the center of the ship to the front by almost 90 degrees. The holes i left in the front are there because that part will be covered by the ram that i will construct since i really dont like that little plank that is sepose to represent a ram. The back of the ship was much easier to plank that the front since on the front it has a rather strange bend. Now what bothers me a lot are theese gaps between the planks that I made because of my lack of skills. I really hope I can somehow carefuly fill them with wood kit, and that after the sanding and painting they will not be so visible. Anyone has an idea if it can be fixed? Oh yes and another thing that really got me mad haha. One of the plastic clippers that i used for hodling0 planks together until the blue dries slipped and crushed this piece here... Now it will take some carefull work to bring it in its place in such a way that it is not noticed after everything is finished. And atlast, here are some online pictures of the models that are still on their way from e-bay! There are rowers aswell as sailors who pull ropes and similar. I also ordered a ,,captain'' and a flutist, oh and the hoplites are not in a battle position, they are more like in a chill figure, which suits me since the ship will be cruising and not in a battle formation. http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j470/Sharko021/P1020444_1.jpg Well, that is it for now. Soon I will be finished with the planking and than i hope the sanding will go well! After that i will throw myself into building that ram! Thank you for reading