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Robin Lous
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Robin Lous got a reaction from EJ_L in Greek Bireme by Robin Lous - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 - First wooden ship build
Thanks for the advise Bob.
The odd shape of the bow and the raised stern will cause me headaches here and there I guess, but I just start and I'll try to spot issues before they become...issues.
Robin
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Robin Lous got a reaction from pythagoras in Greek Bireme by Robin Lous - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 - First wooden ship build
Thanks guys!
I try my best, it's fun!
Working on the top seats now and practised bending hull planks.
Not even that difficult (phew!).
What worries me a bit is...the planks are only 3mm wide and 2mm thick...making neat stealers will be very tough....I think
We'll see...more soon!
Robin
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Robin Lous reacted to cobra1951 in Greek Bireme by Robin Lous - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 - First wooden ship build
Make stealers with wet wood and use lots of small passes with the blade not one big cut. The wet wood will help prevent the blade from trying to follow the grain
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Robin Lous got a reaction from cog in Greek Bireme by Robin Lous - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 - First wooden ship build
Thanks guys!
I try my best, it's fun!
Working on the top seats now and practised bending hull planks.
Not even that difficult (phew!).
What worries me a bit is...the planks are only 3mm wide and 2mm thick...making neat stealers will be very tough....I think
We'll see...more soon!
Robin
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Robin Lous got a reaction from cobra1951 in Greek Bireme by Robin Lous - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 - First wooden ship build
Thanks guys!
I try my best, it's fun!
Working on the top seats now and practised bending hull planks.
Not even that difficult (phew!).
What worries me a bit is...the planks are only 3mm wide and 2mm thick...making neat stealers will be very tough....I think
We'll see...more soon!
Robin
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Robin Lous got a reaction from WackoWolf in Greek Bireme by Robin Lous - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 - First wooden ship build
Thanks guys!
I try my best, it's fun!
Working on the top seats now and practised bending hull planks.
Not even that difficult (phew!).
What worries me a bit is...the planks are only 3mm wide and 2mm thick...making neat stealers will be very tough....I think
We'll see...more soon!
Robin
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Robin Lous got a reaction from Canute in 10th-11th century Byzantine dromon by Louie da fly - FINISHED - 1:50
Hey? I missed this one until now.
Wonderful!
Robin
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Robin Lous got a reaction from PeteB in Greek Bireme by Robin Lous - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 - First wooden ship build
The new "open look"
Finished all the frames...and my target for the day (that's a first!)
More soon,
Robin
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Robin Lous got a reaction from Nikiforos in Greek Bireme by Robin Lous - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 - First wooden ship build
A change of plan! Bireme v2.0
I was thinking about it for a while already, but dryfitting convinced me to do it.
The 2 side decks underneath the lower rower seats bothered me, because I think they serve no purpose whatsoever.
I doubt these decks excisted (not sure of course).
Dry fitting with the decks. Note the visible keel and the void underneath the top deck.
My plan...ommit the side decks (triremes didn't had them either btw) and make a centre lower deck instead.
To make this work I need to perform some surgery.
See above...frame 7 is original...5 and 6 modified.
And had to cut off part of the keel to make the deck fit the altered frames.
The ruler is where the deck will come.
The structure lost some strenght and stiffness because of the surgery I guess, so I'll make some invisible reinforments alongside the keel under the deck to be.
More soon,
Robin
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Robin Lous got a reaction from zoly99sask in Greek Bireme by Robin Lous - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 - First wooden ship build
Thanks guys!
It's amazing to read about ancient naval warfare. What strikes me is how advanced the tactics and use of recourses were back then.
It's also amazing to read about the sheer size of fleets engaging eachother, The pinnacle of ancient naval battles was of course the battle of Salamis, but many more sizeable battles (mainly Greeks fighting Greeks) followed.
Faster ships made up for numbers...and a fast ship was a "dry" (not waterlogged) ship with trained, rested and well fed rowers....a fast ship could be a slow ship the next day...and the other way round. The way commanders used their recourses made the difference between winning or losing.
People were pretty clever 2500 years ago!
Shipyard by candlelight (photo by Admiral of the fleet).
Cheers!
Robin
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Robin Lous got a reaction from Nikiforos in Greek Bireme by Robin Lous - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 - First wooden ship build
Every oarsman brought his own cushion made of sheepskin with him.
I think you can compare the "luxury" with modern time sport rowers...none whatsoever
But...keep in mind these ships were made for relatively short stay on the sea. Most battles were fought near the coast.
The ships hardly ever stayed out for more than 6 to 8 hours. The ships were normally beached to dry and to feed and rest the crew after that time out..
Longer journeys were divided in short legs...along a coast line or from island to island
Nice video of the sea trials of the Olympias trieres...you can see the oarsmen (and women) rowing.
...note the comfort (and my seats! between 7:10 and 7:50 some good foot rest views also)
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Robin Lous got a reaction from Nikiforos in Greek Bireme by Robin Lous - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 - First wooden ship build
Shipyard in business again
Reworked the deck to prepare it for the railing. I removed the planking above the frames for a better railing post attachment there.
And removed chunks of the deck where the railing posts will go down to form additional deck support beams.
I think these extra support beams make sense and they'll make the railing construction much easier and a lot more sturdy.
I'll do the railing later and I wait with finishing the deck planks until I did the hull planking there. Need to finish the rower seats now, because I need to slide in the lower seat beam before I can start planking the hull.
So...boring seats tomorrow...I ran out of excuses to do other things first
More soon,
Robin
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Robin Lous got a reaction from Farbror Fartyg in Greek Bireme by Robin Lous - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 - First wooden ship build
After a fairly uneventful journey home....back home!
It was a great vacation, but it's nice to be back home also.
Time to unpack and continue my build.
I finished fairing the frames, but before I start planking the hull I'll do some deck surgery.
I'll add vertical beams in between the frames. They'll be additional deck support beams and continue to be railing posts above the deck.
More soon!
Robin
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Robin Lous got a reaction from zoly99sask in Greek Bireme by Robin Lous - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 - First wooden ship build
Thanks for the encouraging words guys! much appreciated!
Where I am now...
Finished the framing and did the forward and aft decks.
Top and lower deck, rower seat beams...there for the show.
I salvaged the 2 side decks...I cut them up to make the lower centre deck from. Will be 2 parts, so I can slide them in place when I'm ready for them.
Finally it start to look like something. Until today it was a pile of bits and pieces...now it's a "thing"!
More soon,
Robin
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Robin Lous got a reaction from zoly99sask in Greek Bireme by Robin Lous - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 - First wooden ship build
A change of plan! Bireme v2.0
I was thinking about it for a while already, but dryfitting convinced me to do it.
The 2 side decks underneath the lower rower seats bothered me, because I think they serve no purpose whatsoever.
I doubt these decks excisted (not sure of course).
Dry fitting with the decks. Note the visible keel and the void underneath the top deck.
My plan...ommit the side decks (triremes didn't had them either btw) and make a centre lower deck instead.
To make this work I need to perform some surgery.
See above...frame 7 is original...5 and 6 modified.
And had to cut off part of the keel to make the deck fit the altered frames.
The ruler is where the deck will come.
The structure lost some strenght and stiffness because of the surgery I guess, so I'll make some invisible reinforments alongside the keel under the deck to be.
More soon,
Robin
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Robin Lous got a reaction from PeteB in Greek Bireme by Robin Lous - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 - First wooden ship build
Despite the heat...I made some progress.
Still busy with the darn seats. It took me a while to get the hang of making them. Plastic is easier!
And I changed the bow to one of my own liking. I used ship images on greek vases as an example for this.
Only the new bow glued on. All other parts still dryfitting. I'm also sanding the filler blocks (or whatever they're called) atm.
I'll replace the stern section also, but that's a bit more complicated.
More soon (but I'm moving slowly...steady, but slow )
Robin.
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Robin Lous got a reaction from BIGMAC in Greek Bireme by Robin Lous - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 - First wooden ship build
Decks done!
The finished decks look way too dark on this photo, but it's the shade and crazy light outside atm, 37 degrees Celsius and no cloud in sight.
I didn't stain them...just a semi mat coat of varnish...real colour is more like the right side insert.
Also finished cutting the rowers seat parts. I think I get those done tomorrow.
Robin
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Robin Lous got a reaction from PeteB in Greek Bireme by Robin Lous - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 - First wooden ship build
Before I move on, I did some testing.
Drilled 0,5mm and 0,8mm holes in a scrap deck plank and filled them with light and dark wood filler.
Still not sure what I like best. The 0,5 plugged holes are barely visible, but best to scale. I'll make up my mind after a few cups of coffee.
Same with the wood staining swap I made. The dark colours are more realistic, because the Greek treated the wood with pine tar.
The red brown (cherry) is more pleasing to the eye though...pffffff.
Tough
More soon,
Robin
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Robin Lous got a reaction from Nikiforos in Greek Bireme by Robin Lous - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 - First wooden ship build
I think I got all I need to start my build, all packed and I did some research and planning.
My "mobile shipyard" ready to move from the Hague Netherlands to the vineyards of Bordeaux in France.
The first task will be the lower row of seats (both sides of course) for the oarsmen and the lower decks to support them.
The kit supplied a 2x2mm beam for this, but that's only 14,4 cm high (1:1 scale), so I'll replace the beam with a 2x3mm beam.
I'll scratchbuild a lot to modify the seats. 1x1mm beams to support the seats and foot rests...the foot rests themselves and a side support on each side of the seat.
Each seat will go from 1 to 7 parts. An oarsman can't row without a proper foot rest. Specially the top row. There's no deck below the oarsman there. It will be a right mess with their feet dangling, they'll pull themselves off their seats when they use some force to row, so foot rests are a must.
from 50 to 350 parts to start with
Don't expect this to be a quick build!
My next post will be early next week when I actually start building.
Off to France!
Robin
Edit: foot rest: 0,5x1,5x4,0mm
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Robin Lous got a reaction from Nikiforos in Greek Bireme by Robin Lous - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 - First wooden ship build
Thanks,
I saved about all the bireme and trireme images available on the internet I think (and I have my books)
Still somewhat tricky to take the information and images for granted, because there's a lot of guesswork, artistic freedom and copycat behavior out there.
But also some properly researched findings, like the marble ship eyes.
Also a nice 1st century bc bireme ram found on the Black Sea shore...thanks Tim (harlantk)
Research and learning about what I build is a big part of the fun
Robin
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Robin Lous got a reaction from PeteB in Greek Bireme by Robin Lous - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 - First wooden ship build
Thanks for the nice replies guys.
To be honest...I bought two without giving it much thought, because I got a nice discount.
With the 2 different sails I got also...I'll build two and I'll alter both, so they will be different.
When I like this...and I expect I will, I'll do the same with two triremes. One with masts and sails (journey rigging) and one with the masts left ashore (battle rigging). But that's optimistic future talk, I don't have a clue how long it will take me to finish my first bireme.
I now got all my books on the subject sorted out, but it's amazing how little is known about these famous ships.
Robin
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Robin Lous got a reaction from Nikiforos in Greek Bireme by Robin Lous - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 - First wooden ship build
Oh dear...
Not even started and I already got myself enough stuff to scratch build a Spanish Armada
Modelers behavior I guess. Very eager to start building now...one week to go.
I'm now spending my time planning my build. Already figured out I won't use the printed deck, I'll plank the deck instead.
Will also replace the plywood bow and stern with wood. The side of plywood looks like...uhh...plywood.
Okey...one more week!
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Robin Lous got a reaction from Nikiforos in Greek Bireme by Robin Lous - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 - First wooden ship build
Today I received the two bireme kits and I'm busy packing my tools, so it's time to start my build log.
I also received 2 ready made (already stitched) painted sails. they look really neat imho.
I'm still waiting for some books on the subject, but I'll get them before we leave for France.
I start this build as a vacation project, but I'm of course aware this will take me much longer. It's just a kick off.
We rent a small cottage in the Médoc (Bordeaux region). My wife loves to read books and I love to do things with my hands (or I go insane). I used to bring a couple of plastic kits with me on vacation, but the insane amount of paint and tools made me look for something else to build.
The Greek bireme seems to be a good choise. I love the subject, it's a good starter kit I think and I don't need that many tools...not as much as I used to drag with me anyway. Above all...no rediculous amount of paint jars, airbrush and compressor!
We leave the 19th. I'll use this time to educate myself. Read this forum, read downloaded tutorials and watch youtube videos....and hopefully I won't make too much of a fool of myself when I start building in two weeks time.
Looking forward to this!
Robin
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Robin Lous got a reaction from Canute in Scharnhorst by CDW (Craig) - FINISHED - Dragon - 1:350 - PLASTIC
QFT
It's a bit of a Dragon issue it seems...superb molding, but my goodness how they can f up otherwise...geez!
An example...their 1:32 Bf 110D-3 (that's a plane....sorry ) decals...horrid...a disgrace! lovely kit, but....pfffffff!
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Robin Lous got a reaction from Canute in Scharnhorst by CDW (Craig) - FINISHED - Dragon - 1:350 - PLASTIC
I bow to you Sir!
I once started this also...Artwox, barrels, pe...the whole lot. The pe brought me on my knees.
Really great build...really...really cool!
Robin
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