Nikiforos

If you succumb (and you ought!) be aware that DD now uses walnut for his pentekontor. Previously, he offered alder. This means an inherently darker wood in an entirety, so that typically nice orange stain that looks about perfect for alder (search for Robin Lous' build) is now no longer possible unless jiggerypokery. Also ditch the 2 mm hull planking, use 1.5mm at best; that's an evil stern curve she has. Oh and epoxy for the plywood, it's as porous as venetian glass. I'll hush now : ) Looking forward to see how this progresses.

Oho. The zvezda/ICM Zveno... possibly the most 'this is how to assemble a real aircraft' plastic model available a decade or so back. Is that AM2 underside colour there? Regardless, take a bow. Even the unaccompanied TB 3 is a beast of a kit. All that corrugation... Thumbs up!

Well then. A demonstration of what makes this forum -and especially its members- such a gold mine. Not merely sawdust but gold dust, as it were. Stephen thank you for the assist; I've an extra thought about this fascinating image which in brief is arguably about captivity AND/OR religious practice. One of them has no relevancy, the other does, but another red herring is of course possible. The figures on deck aren't celebrating The Bangles reaching No. 1 with "Walk like an Egyptian", they're captive slaves. Will write more about your learned observations when feeling less wretched but suffice to say, I'm accepting your interpretation of a short stumpy middle strengethener and will model it in. It j7st makes simple, sound, sense. Oh and my 8 feet of Lebanese Cedar veneer arrived. Sorting it slowly into 'scale' strip and 'overscale' strip; either of <4mm and 'looks silly'. The kit plywood to be traced directly onto homogenous parts of the veneer where appropriate. What is odd is that tilia plywood forms the actual visible hull exterior. I think Amati wants us to stain it, but we can do better. By the way, 8 feet isnt that much when you consider my dhow took 8 metres of Niove wood (4mm width but including wastage and another gorgeous wood species) to finish its decking. (Good Lord..). Thank you Stephen, his heron and those who offer upvotes and support. Later! Cedrus libani. Smells fantastic too.

Down and out for a little bit due to 'big C' -related stuff but I have time for a couple of questions to pose for those who understand the structure of -any- seagoing small vessel similar in size and manouverability as Byblos-ship. Questions: Why would -any- ship require a tripodal mast? Is it needed to support more weight, perhaps in a transition to the more horizontal heavier wider sail we observe in the later egyptian boats (load bearing enough to include limited human travel across the yards)? (we cannot see much from this small image -the remainder of it in Conway's yields no clues). Such a technological leap forward here seems doubtful -we're talking about the very early Dynasties -i.e. Pharaoh Sahure. Perhaps extra support because of weather/seaworthiness issues? Feeling beyond puzzled about this whole tripod thingy honestly! How would this arrangement look compared to the standard bipodal drawn plans, as it ascends towards the mast head? Lastly, I see tensioning bars at the lower mast in the grapevine heavy rope affair, exactly as per a hypozoma. What would tensioning bars be doing exactly at that location? And why is only the lower mast to be tensioned as the hemp doubles back on itself exactly there? Thank you, if anyone has any ideas or proposals. Part of Amati's illustrations (for discussion purposes only!) showing how a bipodal mast operates in the original kit. Quack. (Do herons quack?)

Like the rest in the series, various authors write about their specialisation but collaboratively. From memory (lol), as it's all of one storey above me in Castle Nikiforos (sort of bedridden for a bit) - neolithic types, egyptian, minoan, phoenician, iron age, a nice section on chinese Dragon boats and then northern European development right up your street. This book is actually quite cheap 2nd hand at ama*on co uk exactly now, but you've postage to pay of course. On balance its a title probably more for you than I, but my Lord, such excellence all in one place. A superb series. Edit: Its -definitely one for binho; 'celtic' and 'north european' boats seem to fill a lot of pages but a nice dhow section as well : ) O/ Best wishes,

One of Tupolev OKB's finest. Engine life V. Poor though. A common enough complaint Uncle Joe could tolerate. Nicely done : } (good not to see Mr. Pilawskii's research on display, if you remember those days ; )

Nobody used to make ww2 soviet aircraft. I made them from diabolical kits and loved them because of it. Polikarpov UTI trainer 1936, 72nd scale with detailed engine. Il-2 1941, 72nd scale. Canopy's a bit 'off'.

RickyGene -a stunning Sardinian-Piedmontese Xebec model got me into boats after years of other subject matter. I for one would love to see a build log, if you could spare the time. Best wishes,

Thanks again! The poor old Mora seems to have surrounded herself with misrepresentation. And agreed, Daniel Dusek makes a real effort in his kits. His 'bireme' is a veritable prototype for a variety of (single and double banked) craft; my Thracian pentekontor is based upon it. Friendly fellow to deal with too, which is always a bonus. Nudging you a little off-topic, I have to ask... do you yourself work as a profession in research and publishing in this particular field of naval archaeology? Regards,

Welcome Binho and grab a rope! The kit is outstanding so far (plans and instructions especially so) with the only fly in the ointment being the horrid soft lime plywood. It's not expensive particularly out-of-the-box. Maybe one day, one of these ... but Byblos-ship is fine for now. Regards, Added two more books to the towers of tomes already present in Nikiforos Castle. Conway's 'The earliest ships' which covers your area of interest as much as it does mine, Binho. And a real treasure -- for one penny on amazon, Prof. Moscati's 'The World of the Phoenicians'.

Thank you for your comprehensive reply. I have an image allegedly of the Mora, below, complete with tent / war quarters assembled midriff of the vessel - this might involve ripping out of some thwarts if used (semi)-regularly? A leap in the dark as these beautiful ships are alien to me, sadly, but surely you couldn't go tripping over a thwart when planning an offensive or a regroup or what have you inside your HQ. The image is named 'Drakar' btw. Apologies for my ignorance on these matters, honestly. Nika

It was chain-shot, those French scoundrels! Loving the dedication you're putting into your project. Regards,

Making the rudder paddles. There's a distinguished league of gentlemen here on MSW who have made the manufacture of oars a personal crusade. Robin Lous in his marvelous Bireme build proclaimed modelling miniature oars a "...self-inflicted misery..." We only have 8 rudder paddles to make and 16 ordinary paddles. We can manage that right? You may well be thinking, "Is he actually blessing his build with a coloured piece of wood?". Nope, read on, friend, although a blessing might be a good idea. I went for a diamond shape for the rudderpaddles. Note well, tilia is horrible fuzzy wood in this kit -- dont even mark it with pencil. I decided to replace the stempost with oculus with my pentekontor reject one. The sternpost remains as it's (the ankh) a sacred symbol and we should leave well alone (remember Howard Carter?). I think the heron looks quite nice unpainted. The paddle shafts are made from 2mm Ramin dowel. Lovely wood so it is. By the way, an oculus is an eye painted or made from marble, on the prow. The Greeks made them famous but these 5th Dynasty Byblos-ships had proto-oculi as can be seen in the bas-relief. Marking my tilia paddles with ... pencil. What an idiot. You'll recall our painted wood earlier. Tyrian red, orange and blue strip just affixed to the paddleruddles. A dot of said red and these two are ready for ... cleaning up... trimming and sanding sealer-ing. The reverse of the blades will have 4 red dots in that diamond shape, freehand. Painting Ramin is a crime against the Natural Order of Things, so let's not do that although, red gloss.. no. We must stand firm. 6 to go and that's that. Next time ... red pottery and a heartwarming tale. Edit: Above are the in-place bulkheads. In the plan, parts 2 and 10 are drawn as identical. In section A thereof however quite clearly aligning with the actual wood cut, 10 is slightly longer. Use section A rather than the generic parts call-out for guidance. Nika. 2nd Edit: Those coloured rudder blades looked bloodyawful. Replaced immediately with such painted a very very dark grey. Much better!

Evening, Steven. Well, if you remember SS Portuguese Limbo, one got bogged down with off-tangents, pot-holes and narrative with little to no sawdust. Oho, how young and foolish we (I) were back then! But as you know, newer research comes to light and you have to bring it in to the log as it seems exciting enough to mention. In this case, a brand new paper just fell into my lap and discusses the Byblos Run itself and reveals associated figures of various types of pottery -- which just so happens can be modelled from AL's turned boxwood 'amphorae' deck furniture... sometimes things like this are too opportune to avoid discussing. Its a balance, like so much else in life. Anyroad, 250cm (!) of cedar veneer is on its way, so it's going to be more ephemera and ... painted rudders until it arrives. Exquisite work on the dromon, Stephen. Justinian would hold a Triumph for you...

Vossy, goto your favourite stockist's website and just type in 'egyptian' 'nave' or 'sahure' in their search database; "Nave Egizia" should do it, precisely. Cornwallmodelboats has them for £64 excluding VAT which outrageously comes to £74, with. CMB restocks Amati products regularly if unavailable; they give ETAs on everything too. Hope this helps.