Ian_Grant

I debated the same thing about the bulwark. I'm aiming for about 40" after lying paper across "Julius" my 1/32 scale human figure cutout, but I'm not committed yet as my bulwarks aren't yet cut and anyway the top rail could vary a little. Bear in mind the average Roman male was 5'-6" or 5'-7" or so. Pitassi's drawings seem to show a bulwark even less then 3 ft; but that's trying to measure up from a drawing where the ship is only 4" long. That "Nave Roman" build seems to have pretty robust bulwarks. Pitassi does list pumps in his chapter on equipment, but doesn't mention Archimedes screws. Here is an extract from his book:

Wow! She's really beautiful!

I have used an old kettle and a length of PVC tube to steam wood for bending, but this was for a full-size canoe's laminated stems. It takes 30-45 min for 1/4" thick hardwood strips to become very pliable. The time required should scale according to thickness. I realize steaming may not be very practical for most modeling but I mention it here as it may be a way to do edge bending.

Bob is right - don't just grab some fir plywood from Home Depot. Baltic birch plywood has many all-birch plies, no voids, and full thickness outer plies, as opposed to face veneers, which are not so easily sanded through. I've just been gang-routering edges in 1/4" birch ply to form ribs for my current build. Edges are clean. This plywood is heavy and strong. I can barely break a 3/8" wide strip with full hand strength.

I wouldn't use hardboard, it's little more than compressed cardboard. Not suitable for a 9 ft model in my opinion. My choice would be 1/4" plywood. Maybe even 3/8" for the keel. Is this for display or on the water?

Nice looking bolts, Bill. And the anchor lining. I'm taking notes for my alleged future build. 😃

Bob, your decks look great!

Didn't Marc somehow melt the ends into more of a bolt head shape, I dimly recall? Or was it some other upgrade he made which involved heat?

Thanks Bob for this recommendation. CPES sounds ideal for my RC project; I was dreading the race to coat the inside before setting starts, and also trying to keep the coat thin and light.

Sorry, I thought you had seen my log as there was recent mention of a bandsaw in it.

I take it you looked at my log. 😄 I'd love to have a big shop, mine in the basement is about 15ft x 16ft. If my dad could see the mess in it right now he'd have a fit. I debated doing an RC galley or a square rigger; I thought the galley would be an engineering challenge but tedious to sail after a while, while a square rigger would be easier to build (many plans available) but a constant challenge to sail (multiple sail winch servos). For better or worse I opted for the galley this time but I would still like to do a full rigger if not a 4-masted barque. I have the catalogue of Harold Underhill's sailing ship plans. Happy modeling!

Fantastic display Glen! She looks great! Just worried about that stick holding the lid open....😉

I've used West System to build a cedar strip canoe and repair my fiberglass dinghy. I love the stuff and the results. The resin is a constant but you can buy hardeners with various cure times, and also cellulose filler to thicken it up. I've never thinned it; the reason I mentioned it is I've seen several mentions in RC forums of painting the inside of a hull with "thinned epoxy" hence my question. I will need to waterproof my current RC build (first in 40 years), when I get to that point, and I thought "thinning" might reduce the coating's thickness and hence added weight, which is a concern. Here is what West System has to say about thinning their epoxy: https://www.westsystem.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/thinning_epoxy.pdf

Having said that, I don't know what to thin epoxy resin with. 😄 Could you clue me in? Thanks.

The custom for RC is to use thinned epoxy resin on the inside. You'll need to fiberglass planking on the outside with light cloth and resin.

I decided I spend WAY too much time reading news on the internet, and wasn't making any progress on the ship working in dribs and drabs. I actually spent a solid afternoon making the lower bulkheads. My new year's resolution is to cut back on computer surfing time and do something more useful. Almost anything would be.😄

Roughed out the bow bulkheads; just their outlines without hollowing out their insides. I, umm, may have overdone it as regards their spacing. They're pretty close together. 🙄 In these pictures they're just stuck into their keel slots. Most are nice and snug, a couple a bit loose. There seems to be an alignment issue with deck level at the very front. Haven't examined it in detail. The frame as is seems quite heavy, though there is quite a bit to cut off bulkheads yet. With all the bandsaw cutoffs from sawing these out, I tried some narrow bits for strength. This baltic ply is pretty incredible, I can't break a six inch long 3/8" wide strip with hand force, so there seems to be lots of scope to make the bulkhead webs skinny and thus lighter. But now I'm worried about being able to press pins or whatever into the edges to hold ply skin down while glue dries. 😬 These bulkheads will be a bitch to fair, they're so hard. Maybe I should have used ordinary ply? Too late now. Once I figure out this alignment issue I will hollow out the bow bulkheads and see how much internal space is available for electronics. I'm now thinking battery and Arduino and possibly one sweep servo up front, lift servos and one (or both) sweep servos between the oar mechanisms, rudder servo at back. Battery up front makes sense since it only connects to the Arduino daughter board. The humpback-style NiMH pack might be better than the flat one, in this location.

Because last spring's "derecho" felled a neighbour's tree which crushed our above-ground pool, I was thinking maybe I could maiden her in the shallow pool/fountain at Nepean city hall on Centrepointe Drive, if it's deep enough, not sure. If something went amiss I could easily wade out to my ankles to retrieve it. Also not sure how "security" would react...... A swim in the pond at AH park would be pretty yucky. 😬 Apparently the Ottawa RC boat club (Rideau Nautical Modellers) sometimes uses the pond at Brown's Inlet in the Glebe. That might be nice calm location for a galley!

Dick, thank you for the information. Your model looks amazing!

Well once again I have to walk back previous comments. I scanned my drawn bulkhead for the "engine room" central portion of the hull and imported into inkscape. I tried to understand the node and path editing, I really did, but it was just too aggravating. The last straw - I noticed a 1/8" discrepancy in a dimension; probably the fault of the printer I used to scan but it decided me to just draw the bulkheads and cut them out without benefit of a laser. The hull is a constant cross section from just in front of the first oar to a bit in front of the last oar. I was able to draw and carefully cut one bulkhead then use it as a template to gang bandsaw/router six duplicates. All without cutting my finger😁. By necessity, the "lower bulkheads" must end at the outrigger; they are spaced midway between the lower reme oars which means they are in line with those in the upper reme. "Upper bulkheads" start in the outrigger, spaced midway between upper reme oars, but can't do much more than define the slope of the outrigger top surface because if they extended further they'd interfere with those oars. I am making all bulkheads up to the level of the sub-deck so I can add a temporary wide brace along the top to hold everything in line while the hull is constructed. When I first drew the full bilge amidships I was thinking how great, I can move the mechanisms much lower down to benefit stability; but in fact I am limited by the bilge curving inward and upward in that great arc at the stern, constricting the interior volume. The platform location shown is the best I can do. At least it's 1/2" lower than the initial drawings. So here's the keel with these central bulkheads and the first one forward of them, which is beyond the oars and extends up to deck level. The rest of the bow and stern bulkheads will each be unique obviously. Looking at my traces for the stern I'm thinking I made it too much of a "vee" shape instead of a "u"; there is a fair slant at the top which if extended into the bulwarks would perhaps look odd. I will do the bow bulkheads next then worry about that. My current plan is to have fixed bulwarks at the bow and stern, with the central bulwarks lifting off with most of the deck, for access., mainly because much of the mast rigging will be on cleats on the bulwark and I don't want to unrig them every time I open the boat. I presume there was a backstay too; it could be a problem. A long time ago I said I'd extend the bow a little to increase space for electronics. Ultimately I didn't because it just looked wrong. Not sure how much space I will have now. The sweep servos may end up installed between the beams too, along with the lift servos AND I'd like to have a sturdy handle midships, attached near the keel, to help me lift what will be an awkward model with all the oars sticking out. Sorry, another wordy post. 😔

Bill, just cut the old rope, tie the new one on, and pull the new rope through using the old rope.

woodrat, you wouldn't happen to have a picture of what such a mast step might have looked like?

Me too.

Eugene, thanks for the link to the Nave Roman build video which I just watched. It's great! I could never get good looks at the model in the video I cited whose lighting is a bit dim. There are a couple of shots in this new video which show the "boarding bridge" lying across the foredeck in line with the gaps in the bulwarks. I was going to do the same as my target is after the corvus was obsoleted. Was hoping to get a good look at the fixture at the base of the mainmast allowing it presumably to be tilted down when unrigging which is something I will need to make. I also really like his colour scheme. Think I will do the same. Except for the planked natural areas. I'd love to get this kit.

Superb! Marvellous! Outstanding! Great job, Glen!