liteflight

All the shields of the port side are in place. Check the sixteenth and seventeenth rowers, Boxbuilds!
 

 

 
And I've finally glued the xylokastra (wooden castles) into position.
 

I will re-read all the relevant Billings kit builds again tom see if a 1mm overlap on the strakes is a good aiming point.  The strakes will end as marked at the bow and stern, so the 1mm overlap will govern where the midships strakes land.
 
My plan is to:
Mark the 1mm "land" on the GS, Mask the rest of the strake with masking tape Apply thinned glue to the land and allow to dry completely Clamp the new strake (already sanded with the scarf joint) in position Activate the glue with heat - applied with an appropriate electric device* Since the new strake will be clamped in place I will iron between the clamps, allow to cool and then remove the clamps and iron down those areas *Note:  I will try this before spending money on a suitable heating gadget.  The household Iron (with protection) or a modified soldering Iron will be used for trials.  Good shapes of tool appear to be a Plank Bending Iron, a Covering Iron or a tiny craft/ travelling iron
 

 
Amati Iron - good shape but expensive.  Not variable heat, but a dimmer would take care of that.
 

Covering iron for film covering.  Good controllable shape to apply (a little) force.  Excellent temperature control (said to be within 4 degC)  I had one of these but gave it away as I do not use film!   I'm an old-fashioned tissue and dope freak afficionado

Something like this would be manageable.  May or may not be temperature controllable (but a dimmer switch would sort that)
 
I have many soldering Irons, including a solder station I do not use any more with a threaded (M6) iron tip.  I think I can make this into a suitable device with a "shoe" threaded into the heater.  To be tried!
 
Sorry no progress photos at present - family challenges.  But I can think and sketch while waiting!
 
Thank you all for the "likes"

After a quiet week or two - alarums and progress!
 
The Alarums come about because other notable and respected Viking shipwrights have run into problems as their clinker-built hulls have reached the upper strakes.  Am I going to be in the same type of strife, I ask myself?
 
Back to the Instructions  - here they are:

And this is the complete planking instruction.
I have read - allow a 1mm overlap between planks and all will be well - but the writer had problems still with the top strakes not lying on the frames, nor forming a fair sheer.
 
I can't really see any practical way of either calculating effective strake cover and marking that out on the frames, or laying out each strake with clamps on 1/4 of the ship (one side - half the length)
 
But whatever happens later I still have to fit the Garboard Strake - so off we go:
 
And immediately run into a small snag, easily overcome, that the garboard strake does not want to fit in the space for it. 
The frames fit to the keel to a position determined by the Billings LaserMaster.
The Garboard strake (1mm thick ply) fits touching the frame and lies in the gap between the frame and the keel-reinforcing strip made from 1.5mm obechi  (part 54)
Fitting part 54 is one of the first operations, and I installed it (cunningly, I thought) so that the inside edge (which forms the planking rebate) was aligned with the shaped ply prow and stern doublers
 

 
So that is what I did, and found that when it was time to fit the garboard strake (part 14) it would not quite fit in the gap left

Sorry about the poor photo.
This is the gap into which the Garboard strake (GS) has to fit, and for most of the midships frames, doesn't
 
Easily fixed with my battery grinder and a diamond wheel.
 
The fore and aft parts of the GS were cut to length, scarfed and glued in place
 

 

This is the scarf joint (apologies to all the scarph spellers, I just happen to have settled on scarf and rebate, while liking and being aware of all the other spellings)
I am pleased with how it went - what is most visible in the picture is the "fringe" resulting from sanding to a point - it will sand out neatly (I trust)
 
So GS fitted successfully
 
Now - how could I have avoided the need to grind the gap larger?
 
1) Not fit the obechi keel doublers until after the GS is fitted?
Probably not a good plan - because the keel needs to be as stiff as possible during the processes of fitting the frames .  Also the jig would need to be made to fit the bare keel (not a huge problem)
 
2) Fit the frames without glueing, and use a small spacer made from the strake plywood to mark the closest position for the obechi doubler
 
3) Do what I did, which might have been more serious for another builder - particularly anyone who cleaned up the laser-cut slots in the frames ands keel
 
Next post - clinker planking without tears or glue cleanup, and a few more strakes added
 
Footnote - "the best-laid plans of mice and men; gang aft agley"  (Rabbie Burns; who was (briefly) a local farmer where I grew up, and knew a thing or two  about plans ganging agley)
 

Louie,
This is no the serious Burns unit!
and no, also.  No one has called me sleekit since birth, probably not even then.
 
While I would still like to be sure that my planking will reach the gunwales triumphantly, or at least tolerably: I cannot see any good way to do this, so I am going to barrel in, damming the torpedoes.
 
And yes, I do know what a torpedo was when this ship was hewn.  Apparently they were used for electro therapy in the 19th century to treat distempered, hysteria and certain forms of mental disturbance.

I am going to try the hot and neat clinker method and then dive in and plank.
“Wi’ bickering prattle”

Ciao e grazie a tutti, altre foto.
Hello and thanks to everyone too kind, more photos.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Un Saluto
 

There are two theories 
 
one is the one you just mentioned. This one is with the oars in the position I just used  They are tide in two position. 
 
the other one is they steer moving  the oars like “rowing” With the angle needed to have the ship in the right direction.  They would be tide in just one place (like the oars are)  
 
so???? Pick just one
 
 

After a quiet week or two - alarums and progress!
 
The Alarums come about because other notable and respected Viking shipwrights have run into problems as their clinker-built hulls have reached the upper strakes.  Am I going to be in the same type of strife, I ask myself?
 
Back to the Instructions  - here they are:

And this is the complete planking instruction.
I have read - allow a 1mm overlap between planks and all will be well - but the writer had problems still with the top strakes not lying on the frames, nor forming a fair sheer.
 
I can't really see any practical way of either calculating effective strake cover and marking that out on the frames, or laying out each strake with clamps on 1/4 of the ship (one side - half the length)
 
But whatever happens later I still have to fit the Garboard Strake - so off we go:
 
And immediately run into a small snag, easily overcome, that the garboard strake does not want to fit in the space for it. 
The frames fit to the keel to a position determined by the Billings LaserMaster.
The Garboard strake (1mm thick ply) fits touching the frame and lies in the gap between the frame and the keel-reinforcing strip made from 1.5mm obechi  (part 54)
Fitting part 54 is one of the first operations, and I installed it (cunningly, I thought) so that the inside edge (which forms the planking rebate) was aligned with the shaped ply prow and stern doublers
 

 
So that is what I did, and found that when it was time to fit the garboard strake (part 14) it would not quite fit in the gap left

Sorry about the poor photo.
This is the gap into which the Garboard strake (GS) has to fit, and for most of the midships frames, doesn't
 
Easily fixed with my battery grinder and a diamond wheel.
 
The fore and aft parts of the GS were cut to length, scarfed and glued in place
 

 

This is the scarf joint (apologies to all the scarph spellers, I just happen to have settled on scarf and rebate, while liking and being aware of all the other spellings)
I am pleased with how it went - what is most visible in the picture is the "fringe" resulting from sanding to a point - it will sand out neatly (I trust)
 
So GS fitted successfully
 
Now - how could I have avoided the need to grind the gap larger?
 
1) Not fit the obechi keel doublers until after the GS is fitted?
Probably not a good plan - because the keel needs to be as stiff as possible during the processes of fitting the frames .  Also the jig would need to be made to fit the bare keel (not a huge problem)
 
2) Fit the frames without glueing, and use a small spacer made from the strake plywood to mark the closest position for the obechi doubler
 
3) Do what I did, which might have been more serious for another builder - particularly anyone who cleaned up the laser-cut slots in the frames ands keel
 
Next post - clinker planking without tears or glue cleanup, and a few more strakes added
 
Footnote - "the best-laid plans of mice and men; gang aft agley"  (Rabbie Burns; who was (briefly) a local farmer where I grew up, and knew a thing or two  about plans ganging agley)
 

PhilB that's a whole subject in itself, which others know a lot more about than I do. Apparently there were tables for how thick a rope should be for a particular job - obviously the mainstay had to be thicker than the mizzen stay because the load was greater.
 
You might try a search for rope thickness or size, or something of the sort in the Search function at the top of the MSW page. Or else look through the "Masting Rigging and Sails" section. Or if all else fails, put an info request up in the same section. Then you'd need to convert rope size (which is measured as the circumference, not the diameter) to thread weight at the scale you're working in.
 
But that was for the Great Days of sail - the 18th and 19th centuries. There are naturally no tables from the Middle Ages. For my build I got quite a few thicknesses of thread and just chose a thickness that looked "right" for the job it had to do, and I suggest you do the same.
 
 
Aaah, you're thinking of Western Europe, where the so-called "coat of arms" was on the shield, on the clothes, on the horse-trapper, sometimes even on the helmet, such as in these renditions of Diepold von Schweinspeunt (Note the wild boar emblem as a pune or play on words on the name Schweinspeunt)
 
  
 
from the Liber ad Honorem Augusti (Italy under Emperor Frederick II) c. 1195
 
The Byzantines didn't get involved with all that sissy stuff . . . 

Well as I mentioned before, I've re-jigged the blocks at the bottom of the shrouds. Naturally enough, since I was shortening the block assembly, the shrouds needed to be longer so I had to replace them. I was lucky enough that one shroud in each set could be re-used, and that I seemed to have enough dyed cord to make the rest. Until the last moment, when I discovered I was one shroud short!
 
The existing shrouds are darkened to look like tarred cordage. I dyed another lot of cord, having to re-insert it into the dye bath three times to get the colour to match . Of course as soon as I'd finished, I discovered I actually had just enough of the old cord to do all the shrouds after all. Ah, well, at least I've got some nice dark cord that I can use for other things. Here is the ship with shrouds undone and incidentally the yards lowered to allow new shrouds to be installed. The bosun is going to be in big trouble from the captain for that horrible raffle on deck.
 

 
 Here is the new, shorter, block arrangement. (Sorry about the vagueness of the photos - I don't know what went wrong the day I took them). I'd originally put cleats inside the hull walls to belay the downhauls - I'd used modern cleats because none have been found in archaeology but I really wasn't happy with them. Then when it came to it I found it was much easier and probably more sensible to belay them to the oarbenches. At least as strongly fixed as a cleat and much more convenient to use. You'll note small clothes-pegs hanging from the sides of the ship - they're holding the downhauls in tension while the glue dries. After that I removed the pegs and tied off the downhauls. That raffle of unsecured ropes is getting gradually less. The bosun will be happy.
 
  
 
    
 
After I'd replaced the shrouds my lovely (and observant) wife, all unsuspecting, pointed out that the after yard was hoisted inside the shrouds (instead of outside where it should have been). Oops. So I had to loosen off the tacks which I'd temporarily tied up, undo the toggle that held the yard to the halyard, and take the halyard off and re-set it outside the shrouds. I'm very glad she noticed it. It would have been murder to fix it later in the build.  
 
And here is the after yard in its correct place - you can see the toggle which joins the halyard to the yard itself, as well as the trozza (truss) that holds the yard to the mast.
 
  
 
 
 

 
  
 
 

 
The guy lying on the deck isn't dead. He's "in storage" - when the four guys are put in place hauling up the yard he'll be holding the tack to keep the yard under control.
 
To provide belaying points for the ropes of the after lateen sail (tacks and vangs) I need to install the xylokastra (wooden castles). But first I have to add the shields to the pavesade - the castles would make it impossible to reach in and tie off the ropes holding the shields on.
 
In an earlier post I showed the ochanos (straps) at the back of the shield. To hold each shield in place I tied a piece of cotton sewing thread (to resemble rope, same as I've been using for the rigging) through the ochanos and around the railing and each upright of the pavesade, then added a dab of glue to make it permanent. That holds it fairly securely, though I may also glue the bottoms of the shields in place to stop them from flapping around.
 
Here are the shields about half-way installed on the starboard side:
 

 

 
And here's the starboard side complete.
 

 

 
 
It's nice after having painted all these shields some months ago and having had them in storage all this time, to finally be able to put them in place. I'm pretty happy with the way they look. Certainly makes the ship look more colourful.
 

Hi, Balclutha
 
I feel for your Viking ship and its planking! 
That is where I am heading and I hope that I am sufficiently wise and lucky to be able to side-step problems like this
 
My (Billings) ship has no notches on the frames until the last 2 vertical strakes - and these certainly gave problems to my gurus (VonKossa and Jack P)
 
But I find that  71 is an excellent age for life and problem-solving (with or without Tee shirts) 
Now only you and I know my real age, to others I only admit to seventy-mumble

Looks amazing Steven, been a real pleasure to watch your model evolve to it's current form. The men's on the yards look spectacular and I'm pleased you've decided to leave all oarsmen in place. Looking forward to restrictions ending and heading up your way for a few days.
Cheers
Peter

Well, I wasn't satisfied with the shrouds, so I've re-done the blocks. The problem was that the block assembly took up too much room compared with the length of the shrouds themselves - like having a hammer with a huge head and too short a handle - no good (unless you're Thor, of course).
 
Here is the "old" way
 

 
and the new
 

 
As you can see the "tails" below the single block and above the double block are considerably shorter, making the whole assembly maybe a centimetre (just under 1/2") shorter (about half a metre or 1'7" in full scale). As it turns out it didn't make as much difference to the overall look of the things as I'd expected - in the photo below the shrouds for the after mast have been changed and those on the foremast haven't -
 

 
but I'm still glad I did it - I would have been unhappy with it if I hadn't. 
 
I've also finished the banner. Unfortunately because I'd put down a white undercoat I had to paint both sides and they didn't quite line up when I cut the banner out - so I ended up having to paint the overlapped bits to get rid of the white. A fair bit of work, but I'm pretty happy with it now.
 

 
I've also finished the anchors, which have been sitting there incomplete for quite a while: I needed to add the rings and make a couple of extra stocks. These anchors are taken from those of the Serce Limani "glass wreck" which went down in about 1025 AD, pretty much contemporary with this dromon.
 

 
And I've done a trial run on how I'm going to fix the shields to the pavesade  - the railing that supports them. Byzantine shields were held by a pair of ropes attached to the back, called an ochanos.
 

 
Here's mine - I had to use CA to get them to stick to the paint at the back of the shield. I drew the line at putting tiny metal rings on the back (and anyway, most contemporary pictures don't show them). I didn't quite get the ropes symmetrical about the centre, but I'm not too bothered - they won't be visible anyway. I'm just chuffed that I've found a way to attach the shield that would have worked in the real world - just untie the rope and you can pick up the shield.
 

 
 
Then mounting the shield on the pavesade, with a bit of rope passing through the ochanos and tying it to the upright of the pavesade. 
 

 
And here's what it looks like from the outside.
 

 
This is just a trial run, but it seems to have worked pretty well. Now I know what to do when I add them to the ship.
 
I haven't quite finished changing the shroud blocks over. I expect to have that done by tomorrow.
 
Then tidy-up - adding downhauls for the trusses that hold the yards to the masts, belaying the downhauls for the blocks and the downhaul for the fore halyard and making a coil for the free end - working out how and where to belay the tacks, adding the vangs - oh, it's all fun and  games!

I suspect many of you have been waiting on tenterhooks to see how this build has been progressing, and that you can recognize sarcasm when you see it.
 
I've slowly moved forward in between several large home projects, and have now reached a possible impasse. The hull planks have been moving steadily away from the frames for several strakes. I saw this happening but figured I would come up with something near the last strake. And I think I have: my goose is cooked!
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
As you can see, the angle of the upper strakes needs to be more vertical. I've thought of steaming or soaking the entire side of the boat and bending inward so I can glue to the frames. But I suspect disaster lies down that path (?).
 
The Skipper (she doesn't want to be an Admiral) has said that for "only" $108 I should chalk this up to a learning experience, get another kit, and start anew. There is clearly some benefit to that strategy, and perhaps the next best move.
 
I suppose some solace can be found in James H's build log. He is an MSW Admin who gave a generally favorable review to this kit. But the last entry in his nice log  simply says: "Struggling with pre-formed ply planking at moment, so put on hiatus."
 
By the way, I turned 71 last month and the Skipper got me a very nice stylized Viking boat T-shirt. Looks great! 
 
 

Starting on the shrouds. Because this is a mediaeval Mediterranean lateener the shrouds are fixed to the hull with pairs of blocks, not deadeyes, and they are attached to the blocks with toggles, for quick release.
 
     
 

   
 
I've also been working on the belaying points for the tacks. To allow the tacks to be belayed near the lower end of the yard, but also to enable them to be pulled back aft of the mast so the yard could be pulled the behind the mast  to the other side I'd originally intended to add modern style "open" fairleads. Mainly because I couldn't think of any other way to do it. 
 

 
But looking at modern lateeners, I found they tended to use a much simpler system for belaying - just a vertical wooden rod, basically. I adapted this for the fairleads,using what amounts to a sort of bollard - put a loop around it and it can act as a fairlead and a belaying point as you choose. You can see them sticking up from the "battlements" just at the after end of the forecastle. 
 

 
And here is the banner still in progress. One side finished:
 

 
And because I put down a coat of white first, I have to paint the other side as well, to cover up the white. A bit of overlap past the outline of the "tails" but that's intentional - this will be cut off when I trim them to shape.
 

 

My first reaction is that they would be livelier than a flower class corvette.
 The extreme rocker and rounded cross section would, I suspect, allow it to pitch and roll like a good’un.

But reverse clinker would facilitate the banana shape, if I have understood the issues.
I still Look forward to hearing the other advantages 😄
 
 
 

My first reaction is that they would be livelier than a flower class corvette.
 The extreme rocker and rounded cross section would, I suspect, allow it to pitch and roll like a good’un.

But reverse clinker would facilitate the banana shape, if I have understood the issues.
I still Look forward to hearing the other advantages 😄
 
 
 

Great pictures of the reverse clinker in action.  I can see now one advantage - it makes the upsweep not only possible but rather more straightforward.  There is a lot of overlap on each strake, and plenty of nailing “meat”
I think it makes for a strong and heavy hull, and would be less flexible than the Nordic tradition.
 
And correspondingly, under these circumstances you cannot be lost.
But a Catnav would be handy

Aaaah!
I have acrylic Matt medium in large quantities for painting in acrylics - I will give it a whirl and see if it’s close to the acrylic varnish I have not been able to find this side of the world.
 
thanx, Druxey
 
I tend to use a synthetic/ cotton mix for sails of radio yachts because it cuts with a very hot soldering iron, getting sealed into the bargain.  
I would not propose anything so venal in this august gathering.  Such a practice would deprive hundreds of sailmakers hours of fun couching boltropes round sails and cringling where cringles are called for
 
Dromon looking increasingly fit for purpose, lovely realisation of your research, Steven

You are excited, and the wood is looking forward to being transformed into a thing of beauty

Aaaah!
I have acrylic Matt medium in large quantities for painting in acrylics - I will give it a whirl and see if it’s close to the acrylic varnish I have not been able to find this side of the world.
 
thanx, Druxey
 
I tend to use a synthetic/ cotton mix for sails of radio yachts because it cuts with a very hot soldering iron, getting sealed into the bargain.  
I would not propose anything so venal in this august gathering.  Such a practice would deprive hundreds of sailmakers hours of fun couching boltropes round sails and cringling where cringles are called for
 
Dromon looking increasingly fit for purpose, lovely realisation of your research, Steven

So I think I've figured out the basic reason for the planking problems I've been having; it's partly my fault and partly the kit's.
 
Jump way back to the initial assembly of the framing and review this image:
 

 
Most of the frames are pre-notched to help guide the clinker planking into place (these are the frames that will have to be cut away above the deck once the hull's shell is complete). But the last frame at bow and stern is NOT notched; these are Y-shaped and are meant to stay in place. You can clearly see the difference above.
 
The instructions do not tell you how the planking is supposed to interact with these Y-frames.  In the absense of any guidance, I assumed that (1) you were meant to glue the planking to them since they were permanent and (2) that their lack of notching meant the planks were supposed to lie smoothly against these (i.e. that clinker should transition to carvel by this final frame). Otherwise, why not notch it to accomodate the overlapping planks (laying clinker planks against a smooth frame provides almost no gluing surface and looks strange)?
 
Assumption (2) seems to be the source of my worsening trouble with plank shape. I have been trying to bend the planks into a shape that becomes carvel by the Y-frames, as otherwise their design made no sense to me. I finally realized that, if you let the planks overlap each other until just before the stem or stern, they actually go back to following their design curves rather well. But that was not at all intuitive to me based on kit design and poor/vague instructions. Here's another view of the transition from notched to smooth frame at the hull's current level of completion:
 

 
Once I realized that I needed to keep the overlap going all the way to the bow, things went back to planking smoothly, but there is an awkward looking transition between the two approaches. In the next two photos you can clearly see that the top three strakes have been done the new way while all those under them transition to carvel around the Y frame rather than right at the end:
 


 
Although I find this rather annoying, I saw no way around it because contining to force the planks into the other arrangement was becoming increasingly problematic. I wish I could go back and redo all of this but I can't/won't. I'm planning on doing quite a bit of finishing work on the hull and think that the overall model will hide this to all but the most discerning eyes. I don't plan on submitting this to any contests.
 
You can also see a rather obnoxious aspect of kit design. Look at the very ends of each strake, especially in the upper of the above two photos; these have widely varying widths that stand out like a sore thumb and look terrible. These strakes should all be flowing into a continuous, uniform final pattern rather than some being twice as wide as others and even widening as they reach their end. This isn't my fault, it's 100% how they're designed and laser cut. There was nothing I could do about this; trying to cut/sand the thick ones down would have ruined the pre-cut curves. As discussed a while back, I plan to fill, carve, and sand these plank ends into a smooth transition into the stems, which is also why I didn't worry too much about the current ragged curve they form. So I'm hoping this, too, will fade in the final model.
 
The stern is worse than the bow; for whatever reason the Y frame there guides the planks better and this doesn't look so bad (though you can still see the different in plank end width):
 

 
I have two strakes to go before the planking is done, but it's going smoothly again now that I understand what I should be doing. Here's the hull overall:
 

 
So I'm rather upset at the poor instructions and kit design that led me astray, as well as my own poor judgement in not realizing sooner what the correct approach would be. I was so locked into the assumption that I had to fit those planks smoothly onto those Y frames that it took me far too long to come up with a better way. Live and learn. Anyone else who builds this, LEARN FROM THIS MISTAKE and you might get a much nicer hull.
 
Anyway, almost there and then hopefully the more fun stuff starts. Thanks for sticking with me and for all the advice and ideas that helped me continue to think this through. I hope the final product is worthy of your loyalty.
 
 

You are excited, and the wood is looking forward to being transformed into a thing of beauty

Aaaah!
I have acrylic Matt medium in large quantities for painting in acrylics - I will give it a whirl and see if it’s close to the acrylic varnish I have not been able to find this side of the world.
 
thanx, Druxey
 
I tend to use a synthetic/ cotton mix for sails of radio yachts because it cuts with a very hot soldering iron, getting sealed into the bargain.  
I would not propose anything so venal in this august gathering.  Such a practice would deprive hundreds of sailmakers hours of fun couching boltropes round sails and cringling where cringles are called for
 
Dromon looking increasingly fit for purpose, lovely realisation of your research, Steven

Almost done designing the new jig...
 
Bulkheads:

 
False Keel:

 
Assembled with keel in place:

 
First five strakes:

 
After the first five strakes are installed I will be removing the bulkheads/false keel assembly and turning it upright.
 
Next steps will be:
1. Design the uprights that hold the keel in place
2. Design the horizontal cutout with notches for the bulkheads
3. Design the strips of wood to go on the baseboard to hold the keel in place when upright
4. Slice the keel into cross sections and scarfs so I can build it up out of layers
5. Print templates and start cutting things out of wood!
 
I'm so close and so excited!!!

Great pictures of the reverse clinker in action.  I can see now one advantage - it makes the upsweep not only possible but rather more straightforward.  There is a lot of overlap on each strake, and plenty of nailing “meat”
I think it makes for a strong and heavy hull, and would be less flexible than the Nordic tradition.
 
And correspondingly, under these circumstances you cannot be lost.
But a Catnav would be handy