Ian_Grant

Glen, you've knocked another one out of the park. Beautiful! I particularly like the water wash astern of the paddle wheels.

Very clean, neat job! Shaping up to be a great model...

It's more a British-ism, many of which I picked up from my parents (remember the Scots slang words from an earlier post in some log or other?). 😉

No, we're very lucky in that our local library has 3d printers and laser cutters freely available once you take a little orientation course. For 3d printing, you pay for the plastic you use up. Laser cutting costs nothing if you bring your own material. I made extensive use of both for my Roman galley. 👍

Oh, it's Texas! I hadn't twigged the shape. Now I see. Very creative Glen!

Looks like a theatre stage. Maybe for a production of "Showboat", one of my favourites.

Ferrus, ship's boats look more alive if you add ribs inside the hull; fairly easily done with fine Evergreen plastic strips. Keep up the good work!

Cabin taking shape, with laser-cut window frames. Main access is via large cabin roof which will be held down by rubber-bands. Rudder area access via rear hatch which will be screwed down. Mast will be stepped on top of the forward part of the structure. Plan is to have an inflatable dinghy tied down on the aft platform. Cockpit layout and finishing will have to wait until I have figures in hand. Still no luck finding a helmsman although G-scale girls are relatively plentiful. They're pricey. I need to tour some toy shops looking for ideas.

That's what my engineering student daughter said the first time I had it in the pool. Sigh. 😐 There are a couple of videos of other galleys moving effortlessly through the water. I have often wondered if they have prop assist. One of them I think must have because the oar motion seemingly does not justify the speed. It would be quite a major job to bash a prop shaft hole through the stern given the embedded lead ballast. 🙄

Thanks Bedford.....As always in this log your comments are insightful and got me thinking something might be done. Now that the heat wave has broken I will try some experiments in the pool - skeg, LARGE rudders, software changes. Ian

Thanks Richard. Yes, that's what I was doing before fitting the (ineffective) rudders. I backstroked on the inside which completely stopped the boat while it swivelled on its centre point but I can't do that every few seconds. I'm not sure it would even turn with oars stopped on the inside with my hull bilges; need to try some stuff before our pool closes. Love your Olympias!

Love the electronics engineering in submarines, though I doubt I'd ever try one. 😊 Aren't Arduinos amazing to use!

Richard, you have a far better understanding of the underlying physics than I. Have you any ideas of what I could try? I can think of (1) a midships skeg (which Javelin does not think will work), (2) huge rudders, (3) internal water pumps which could act as thrusters by sucking water in on one side of the bow/stern and pushing it out of the other via nozzles hidden u/w, (4) modify software to shorten oar stroke on inside of turn. I can find 6V water pumps for RC, self priming, but don't know what force they'd generate at 1 liter per minute. I now regret my simple flat-bottomed hull design. Experiments are required but I just can't find the motivation right now. I've moved on to restoring my old 70's Marblehead yacht just to get something in the water this season. At least yours went in a straight line! Mine always curves one way or the other. Thanks for any suggestions you may have! Ian

Looks great Glen! So you just apply those products (with a brush? a popsicle stick?) and they blob up of their own accord? Or do you need to do some rough sculpting on application? Thinking of my future Soleil Royale as a waterline model since the Heller u/w hull is so implausible........

Keith, she's a thing of beauty!

What about cherry planking with walnut wales, since it will be finished natural?

I hope so. I'm a bit discouraged about my Roman galley's steering ability, so I thought I could at least get this boat working on the water this summer.

C'est magnifique!!

Good work Bill! Sure is a crowded quarterdeck - bitts, mainmast, bitts, hatch, windlass, skylight, binnacle, wheel, and mizzenmast all chock-a-block. Still can't see how they could have employed the windlass effectively. I saw a rumour here on MSW that Occre might be coming out with a model of "Great Eastern"; that might tempt me to the dark side of wood modelling. 🤔

Moderators: this originally was a kit. I'm now customizing it. Please move it to kit section if you feel it should be there. Thanks! Back in the 70's the teenaged me built a British-designed M-Class yacht for RC. M-Class requires a 50" hull and 800 square inches of sail. It's taller than me from keel bulb to mast head. During my working career it spent decades "in ordinary". I brought it out to the cottage once to sail it for my son and nephews when they were about ten but they couldn't have cared less. Modern kids! Three years ago I took it out again. While it was reaching straight away from me, I realized I could see the white deck. How could that be? The answer was she was sinking by the stern! After she disappeared completely I was able to snorkel out and recover her. Fortunately the bay off our cottage is not too deep. It turned out that the rudder post support block I had glued into the hull in the 70's came away from the inner hull and water poured in through the resulting hole. The radio gear was fine after packing in rice but the battery was very unhappy. To fix the rudder mounting I had to cut a new hole in the aft deck for access. Looking at the resulting two holes, I decided to join them into one large hole and make a reasonable-looking cabin as on an actual boat instead of having just the little flat hatch amidships for access. The cabin turned out as shown below. I used a mannequin for a helms"man" to which I planned to add those black and whit circles like on a crash test dummy. I also repainted her with actual boat topsides paint left over from my sailing dinghy. Sadly the coamings within the cabin proved to be inadequate at keeping water out. After a short sail the bilge was awash and the poor helmsman was up to his bum in water too. I set it aside for the last few years. Recently I decided to change things up. I am going to add a new cabin with walls fixed to the hull, and removable roofs with gaskets to keep water out. I'm also changing the winch arrangement (finally) to an endless primary loop to which the sheets attach, instead of attaching the sheets directly to the winch drum. The old scheme constantly risked the sheets becoming unspooled from the drum with the resulting tangling problems. The scale is changing to 1/24 for which I need "G-scale" (~3") people (helmsman and female companion(s)). G-scale girls are common but a suitably-posed helmsman is proving elusive. I may have to order a "seated young man" and amputate and reattach his arm(s) to hold the wheel. Here are a few photos of the first refurbishing, and the new cabin taking basic shape in this second refurbishing. Old deck hacked up, new transom, and new (rather massive) beams in place for extended cabin. New deck applied. It's sheet melamine. Final assembly, repainted. The helmsman. New cabin started...... The new loop on the winch drum: no more unspooling!!! Old 70's winch still works; 18 lbs pull; what's not to like other than its size? It's well made inside.

Ferrus, your nice build is proceeding at a very brisk pace. Are you getting any sleep? 😉

It depends on one's definition of "painful". 😉 Well done!

Nice model collection!

Always nice to see a galley build.

I'm speechless with admiration!!!