Jump to content

Ian_Grant

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,954

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Ian_Grant

  1. Ian_Grant
    No, just drill and glue in the eyebolts and rig the shrouds later. The lines you do need to add before you glue in the quarterdeck are the main sheet and tack, and the fore sheet (A72, A74, and A125 respectively on Heller pg 6). These all attach to staghorns on the maindeck bulwarks, part no. 41 and 100 (see heller pg 7). These lines should be passed through the holes in the hull, coiled on the staghorns, and the excess left coiled outside the hull until needed (years in my case, probably months in yours 😁). But you have a ways to go before you need to worry about them.
  2. Ian_Grant
    Bill, I made a mistake in my earlier message; had just completed a 12 hour drive back from a camping trip. Where I mentioned bobstays I meant shrouds, corrected in red above. Sorry for the confusion! I believe E50 is a Hellerism. They probably thought there should be the same number of shrouds as bobstays, however Figure 118 shows there is no shroud pair at the outer bobstay. Model on!
  3. Ian_Grant
    Bill; yes, plate 71 is not too helpful. But plate 74 shows the two starboard shrouds emanating from the hull eyebolt(s) just behind the lower edge of the cheek, below/ahead of the first lower deck gunport. You can just see the lines heading up to the right, towards the bowsprit. Note that text on pg 226 says two eyebolts for the two shrouds but this picture seems to show both hooked to a single eyebolt. That's what I did. It's too dark in this image to see what happens at their other ends. Fig 118 pg 187 shows the two hearts on the side of the bowsprit to which the bobstays attach. As the text pg 226 states, each bobstay has a heart on its end, these hearts being lashed to the bowsprit hearts with several turns.
  4. Ian_Grant
    That's true - with high thrust I could shorten the loom of the oars and achieve a full sweep in less distance hence less time. Might need carbon fiber oars though, to handle the stress point at the thole....😁 The US$100 linear 3050 moves 1.2" in 1 second with 6.8 lbs thrust. That's about what I'd like to achieve as a highest "ramming speed" sweep time. I could set the loom length such that 1.2" gives the full sweep. As a bonus, shorter looms reduces internal width of machinery which increases space for the battery and ballast along the keel. On the other hand a CDN$60 Futaba FUTS3305 dual ball-bearing high torque servo provides 7.7 lb-in and moves in half the time. Not that I need any faster, but assuming I get 120 degrees out of the servo a 0.7" arm would give me 1.2" of sweep at 11 lbs thrust. Some study required to find the best solution........🤔
  5. Ian_Grant
    Some slight progress to report: Components received from Digikey and soldered onto Arduino daughter board. It took me a while to find a layout which best takes advantage of the copper connections on the board. I included four fuses to protect the oar servos; optional jumpers to bypass each fuse (for the demo jig if not the actual ship); a quad DIP switch for future contingencies; a little decoupling for each servo supply. The large DIP header is for battery supply for servos, which is independent of the Arduino +5V rail. A 9V battery will supply the pittance of current required by the Arduino (which regulates down to +5V) as well as the RC Receiver, via its servo connection wires to the Arduino. I have not yet soldered hook-up wire to make the connections; that will have to be after we return from camping up by Lake Superior next week.
  6. Ian_Grant
    Hi Bedford, thanks for the idea! Yes I saw linear servos on ServoCity's web site before. What put me off were the prices on their only Linear Servo line at the time: US$300 apiece!!!!! 😒. Plus they need 12V. That said, you are right even this small demo jig is very noisy! If I can convince myself that this thing is feasible I will take another look at these new Hitec linears, at least for the sweep motion. I think I am limited to rotary for the up/down motion just because of space limitations in the proposed hull. One thing I do notice in the video, though, is that they're quite slow. I have just screwed the servos down on the jig, without the little rubber mounting pads, so perhaps the entire assembly is acting like a piano sound board? I must add the rubber in and see if the noise reduces. Perhaps an actual hull would muffle it somewhat? Perhaps I could enclose them in a padded waterproof box using those rubbery pushrod doo-dads you pointed out earlier?
  7. Ian_Grant
    Bill, the gunports and lanyards are always present. Think of the glazing as "storm windows" except that they're added on the inside not the outside and removed when required.
  8. Ian_Grant
    Hi Bill; thanks for reminding me of this model ship collection. I did go there once a few years ago when we were passing through (used to take the kids to the nearby "Prehistoric World"), but it was closed. I since forgot about it. I see it is closed for the entirety of 2021 too 😞. I have also been meaning to visit the Thompson model ship gallery at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, but haven't been yet. Toronto is not a place I go to for pleasure, having grown up there 40 years ago and seen traffic explode since. http://www.ago.net/thomson-collection-ship-models In other news, I see I missed the visits of the "Theodore Too" tugboat along the St Lawrence and lake Ontario on his way to a new berth in Hamilton. Many years ago we took our son on a road trip to ride in "Thomas the Train's" passenger cars in the railway museum in Strasbourg Penn, and then we saw "Theodore Too" in Philadelphia. Fun times 😀. Plus dad got to see "Moshulu". https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/theodore-tugboat-might-pass-montreal-on-semi-secret-voyage-to-ontario http://www.moshulu.com/
  9. Ian_Grant
    Well, ahem, no, only the port side is seen at present. Suppose I could turn it when occasionally removing the case for cleaning. I kept the extra cannons in my parts box, for who knows what future use? Those wires are for making the gunport lanyards; see pg 15 near the right margin. They expect you to cut them to perfect length and glue the ends🤪. I didn't use them.
  10. Ian_Grant
    On my model, I have all guns run out on the port side and no glazing for the captain and admiral. On the stbd side I closed all gunports on the two lower decks (to see the chequer effect), and glazed where applicable for captain and admiral. What you do is your choice.
  11. Ian_Grant
    Another Smithsonian news article re ancient shipwrecks: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-find-ancient-roman-vessel-near-sicily-180978313/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20210730-daily-responsive&spMailingID=45385991&spUserID=OTY4MjUzNzkyMTQ3S0&spJobID=2047048466&spReportId=MjA0NzA0ODQ2NgS2
  12. Ian_Grant
    This is the future. Coming together in record time and looking great!
  13. Ian_Grant
    It's hard to say from that photo because the actual meeting of hull and forward edge of the 1/4 gallery is out of sight "round the bend". I've just been looking and I cannot find a closeup stock photo of the 1/4 galleries taken from forward. I thought the upper two beelines merged nicely with the lower two rows of gallery windows, indeed this is what my copy of Geoff Hunt's "England Expects" seems to show, as here: That's how I painted mine, as here: However it seems one of the beelines might not be so aligned: The first beeline lines up with the gallery windows as expected. The second beeline just misses the lower sill of last middle gun deck port, and ends up above 1/4 gallery sill. Mine also just misses the last gun port sill, yet aligns with the gallery windows. So I may have mis-spoke, as the politicians say 😁. Sorry to distract. I'm sure your beelines will be fine.
  14. Ian_Grant
    Hey Bill, Don't completely trust Heller's bee lines. If you compared to photos that's great. I would, however, offer up the quarter galleries to your hulls before you paint and make sure the ocher bee lines meet nicely with the lower two levels of gallery windows. ps: nice balusters...
  15. Ian_Grant
    I have never had a lot of patience with computer applications and their idiosyncratic user interfaces, the creators just didn't seem to think like me; in fact I nearly quit engineering in the late 80's to pursue a cabinetmaking certificate once PC's landed on all our desks. Lost the "creative" feel when switching from drawing schematics on vellum with pencils to sitting with slumped shoulders clicking away on a mouse 😒. And what goes around comes around - after my Nortel layoff they paid for career consultant time for us, and it quickly became apparent I had a greater aptitude for skilled trades all along , no surprise really......
  16. Ian_Grant
    Yes, I shudder at the memory of writing in assembler at university 😬
  17. Ian_Grant
    Thanks Bedford, that's very interesting and perhaps I could cut them shorter since the oars only move about 1/4" along their axis!
  18. Ian_Grant
    Generally conditioners are called for for soft woods like pine, or fir plywood, which otherwise can absorb stain unevenly and give a "blobby" appearance.
  19. Ian_Grant
    Joe, Yours sounds pretty specialized. A Nano or Uno are more general-purpose.
  20. Ian_Grant
    Hi Steven, yes they used sheaths as you describe, apparently called "askomata". I wondered about doing something similar, but how to attach to hull in some way to allow replacement, also there would be 44 or 60 of them....😅.....plus the oar slides back and forth a little through the stroke as distance to loom mounting point varies.........something like the rubber bulb on an eye dropper comes to mind 🤪😵........trying to think of something..... By the way, your dromon is AWESOME!!!! Love the scenic backdrop!
  21. Ian_Grant
    I have been wondering how to construct oar ports on a real model. Wouldn't want the oars rubbing away at the necessarily thin skin and making the holes ever bigger! My current idea is a drilled hole, with a suitably dimensioned brass "chicken wire staple" for the oar to rub against. Real galleys apparently lashed the oar to a single thole pin, but this doesn't seem practical in a working model. The lower reme's ports need to be pretty snug because their scale freeboard will be less than one inch from the water - remember, literally whole fleets of these things were sunk by sudden storms. Here is a brief video showing movement of the mechanism. As I said before, with my two channel RC set I can only power one side; that's where the Arduino comes in! The last part is me trying to row by twiddling both sticks, not very successfully. Arduino will provide consistent motion. Next step is to go to Digikey and order the servo connectors I will need for the Arduino daughter board, plus I think some DIP switches in case I need a "Cal" test case or whatever. I was also thinking of using the 3-position switch channel on my nicer 2.4G RC transmitter as an "over-ride" with its three positions (a) stopping all oars in water, (b) allowing oars to row normally according to throttle and rudder signals, (c) stopping all oars out of the water. But for that I would need to buy a new 2.4G Rcvr unit of 4 or 6 channels. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivhx3jbQ4p8 Let me know if this link works or not 😉
  22. Ian_Grant
    Thanks Steven, I saw this before but you are right, the stroke is very flat. If this project proceeds to fruition, I expect to be modifying the oar code pool-side during trials to get the shape right, and also to decide at what point the rudder needs the assistance of stopped or backward-going oars on one side.
  23. Ian_Grant
    Funny you should mention Fusion360. I've only used tinkerCAD which seems to be at a rather "for children" level. There really are no accurate plans extant for any ancient galley; having purchased both "Age of the Galley" and "Roman Warships" I am amazed at how little we actually know. Knowledge of Roman galleys is gleaned from coins, a few uncovered fresco paintings in Pompeii or Herculaneum, and some stone relief carvings on Trajan's Column among others. That's it; that's all. Contemporary historians never seemed to include descriptions when mentioning galleys, assuming their contemporary audience had actually seen them already. "Roman Warships" provides an "educated guess" at the various ships but drawings are pretty much limited to a side view, top view, and single cross section in the "engine room". Oh, and they're about 4" or 5" long. Anyway I was wondering how to modify and marry the bow and stern lines from "Olympias" (as an approximation) to Pitakis's extended engine room cross section and Fusion360 came up in my thoughts. But what a learning curve! Oh, for my old drafting machine and table.........
  24. Ian_Grant
    I'm just using standard Arduino language commands, which are based on the "C" language, and the Arduino "integrated development environment" (IDE). The great advantage of the Arduino language is that you can write programs without having to understand and control all the register bits in the microcontroller, and more especially how to use all the timers. For example, the "pulseIn" command returns the duration of a pulse occurring at a specified input pin in microseconds; the compiler handles setting up a timer to count clock cycles during the pulse. For another example, the SERVO library provides the writeMicroseconds command which outputs a pulse of specified length on a specified pin i.e. to a waiting servo; the compiler picks a timer and sets it up to time out after the desired pulse length. In fact, using the servo library one can control up to 12 servos with the compiler employing only a single timer. I won't need to worry about timers at all, because I know that each time the program receives and measures the "throttle" and "rudder" pulses from the RC Receiver, 20 msec has elapsed since the previous pulses. I can derive the stroke cycle timing in terms of "number of 50Hz RC cycles elapsed". I think 🤪. You can find a list of the standard Arduino commands at https://www.arduino.cc/reference/en/ . Arduino provides a free development environment which one uses to write, compile, and easily download programs to the target board.
  25. Ian_Grant
    Checked under "CGTrader boats" but no Roman galley files.....sigh....

About us

Modelshipworld - Advancing Ship Modeling through Research

SSL Secured

Your security is important for us so this Website is SSL-Secured

NRG Mailing Address

Nautical Research Guild
237 South Lincoln Street
Westmont IL, 60559-1917

Model Ship World ® and the MSW logo are Registered Trademarks, and belong to the Nautical Research Guild (United States Patent and Trademark Office: No. 6,929,264 & No. 6,929,274, registered Dec. 20, 2022)

Helpful Links

About the NRG

If you enjoy building ship models that are historically accurate as well as beautiful, then The Nautical Research Guild (NRG) is just right for you.

The Guild is a non-profit educational organization whose mission is to “Advance Ship Modeling Through Research”. We provide support to our members in their efforts to raise the quality of their model ships.

The Nautical Research Guild has published our world-renowned quarterly magazine, The Nautical Research Journal, since 1955. The pages of the Journal are full of articles by accomplished ship modelers who show you how they create those exquisite details on their models, and by maritime historians who show you the correct details to build. The Journal is available in both print and digital editions. Go to the NRG web site (www.thenrg.org) to download a complimentary digital copy of the Journal. The NRG also publishes plan sets, books and compilations of back issues of the Journal and the former Ships in Scale and Model Ship Builder magazines.

Our Emblem ®

Modelshipworld - Advancing Ship Modeling through Research

Nautical Research Guild ® and the NRG logo are Registered Trademarks, and belong to the Nautical Research Guild (United States Patent and Trademark Office: No. 6,999,236 & No. 6,999,237, registered March 14, 2023)

×
×
  • Create New...