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Glen McGuire

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Everything posted by Glen McGuire

  1. Glen McGuire
    Water time! Once again I'm using blue-dyed epoxy resin for the water in the bottle. I'm getting better with my set-up, this time using a handscrew clamp to hold the funnel in place while I pour. And on to the sail(s). I went back and forth on what I wanted to do for the sail or sails. Most pictures of the reme ships feature a single mast and main sail. However, some show 2 triangular sails above the main sail like in the picture below. I decided I liked that particular look, so that's what I tired to replicate with a slightly different emblem on the main sail. If anyone knows the correct names of those 2 sails, please educate me. Here's some of the steps along the way. I started out by overextending my limited painting skills. I took a fine point brush with some Testors enamel and tried painting the emblem onto some muslin fabric. The further you are from the sail, the better it looks! But I was ok with how it came out. Next, I used red shirt cloth for the 2 triangular sails and sewed a bolt rope around the perimeters. Same for the bolt rope on the main sail.
  2. Glen McGuire
    I agree with you about the importance of ventilation and I believe you came up with a reasonable and interesting solution. I also ran across a quinquereme illustration that took your alternating deck planks a little further. So who knows, maybe they had missing deck planks rather than gratings? Alas, that time machine...
  3. Glen McGuire
    Thank you Keith and Javelin for the assembly suggestions. I was getting a little ahead of myself there so I will revisit that process after I get a few more things done. First up was finishing the oars on the starboard side which happened without any real fanfare (yay). I also made a small mast step while waiting for the oar paint to dry. Next, I made a couple of gratings to fill up some of the deck space between the mast step and the archer's tower and corvus platform. I don't know if the actual quinqueremes had gratings or not as half the pictures I see of the ship do and half do not. But it makes sense to me that there would need to be some kind of ventilation for the rowers on the oar decks within the hull. Here's a couple of pics with all the deck fittings placed in position (nothing glued down yet). Next, I revisited the decorative tail on the stern post. In previous post #102, Steven (a.k.a. @Louie da fly) suggested that the tail should curve upwards rather than just stick straight out like I had planned. I liked his idea as I thought the flare would give the stern a little extra flair (ahem). But when I started looking at quinquireme pictures to model it after, I found that some curved upwards but just as many, it seemed, curved downwards. So as usual when I find myself in a moment of artistic indecision, I turn to my dear friend and get her opinion. I showed her pictures of 6 different quinqueremes - half upward curve and half downward curve. She immediately said downward. To her eye, downward was a natural extension of the curvature of the sternpost as well as the curved brass wire I'd already affixed to the side. I know better than to argue with her, so downward it is! Plus I think she is right, as she usually is! But I must say thank you to Steven for his suggestion because ether way, up or down, it's better than straight.
  4. Glen McGuire
    Hmmm. That's an interesting idea, Keith. I'm also thinking about a process like below where I drill holes in the bottom of the hulls, make 2 small platforms with upright dowels that fit into those holes, insert the platforms into the bottle, insert each hull half onto each platform, slide them together, then lift the joined hull off. I'll have to do some test runs to see which will be easier.
  5. Glen McGuire
    LOL! Had not thought about it that way, but it does kinda look like one! Thanks, Bob. What I have yet to figure out is how I'm going to push the 2 halves together once they are both inside the bottle. All those oars are in the way of the surface area I would normally use. I'll have to come up with a custom tool of some sort.
  6. Glen McGuire
    Back from a wonderful week spent mostly in Olympic National Park where the temps in the 50s (F) felt like frostbite weather to me. Back home and back in the Texas shipyard where the 180 quinquereme oars have been patiently waiting. Right off the bat, as I got back into the project, I made a big mistake. I revisited @Ian_Grant’s build log for his quadrireme to check out his oars. I really liked how his oars were two-toned with darker wood for the paddle and lighter wood for the shaft. Even though it would more than double the time required for painting my little oars, I knew I had to have a similar look. I also tried doing the reverse with a dark shaft and light paddle, but I decided the way Ian did it was better. At the end of the day, I think it was worth the extra painting effort. So thank you, Ian, once again! The next step was deciding how long the oars could extend out from the hull and still fit through the neck of the bottle. When I look at the illustrations of quinqueremes, the oars are very long and extend far from the hull. Unfortunately, I’m restricted significantly by the bottle opening, so my oars are going to deviate from the norm and look pretty blunt. The following pics show some steps of the basic process: paint, cut the shaft down to size, insert each oar into its oar port (one row at a time starting with the lowest row), bend the oar downward to its proper angle, go back and touch up the paint. And then a test fit for the port half of the ship. It's tight (wouldn't want it any other way, right?) but it works! Now on to the other side.
  7. Glen McGuire
    I agree that the uprights look like frame extensions. But the small loops hanging outside the gunwale don't look like rope loops to me, since the other rigging ropes are all dark. The small loops being so bright, it seems to me like they were made to stand out, perhaps an illustration of some of the relics that were transported with St Mark's body? Or maybe trade beads? Certainly an interesting question to ponder!
  8. Glen McGuire
    Your painting skills are extraordinary! Beautiful model.
  9. Glen McGuire
    Enjoy your vacation, Ian! And I'm sure you won't think about your quadrireme while you are gone!!
  10. Glen McGuire
    Marvelous work, Bryan!
  11. Glen McGuire
    Such an intricate hull. Fascinating to watch you piece it together!
  12. Glen McGuire
    Thanks, Mark. First, I'm going to Washougal, WA for a motocross race. High temps are supposed to be near 90 which sounds amazing considering we hit 109 in Austin this afternoon, something like our 10th day in a row over 105. Then I'm headed to Olympic Natl Park where the temps are supposed to be similar to Keith's Michigan description, lows in the 40s and highs in the 60s. This cold weather sissy will be packing my heaviest winter clothes for that!
  13. Glen McGuire
    You got off and running on another epic project and I missed the start. But I'm caught up and fully on board now. Let er rip, Grant!
  14. Glen McGuire
    Bottle or no bottle, this is still a very intriguing project and the detail of your components is superb. So glad you are continuing work on this!
  15. Glen McGuire
    I finished up the corvus and its associated mast. I decided to give it the capability of rotating on its platform like the real ones appear to do. Not sure if this will help get it in the bottle later, but it certainly won't hurt. After dry-fitting everything, I'm pretty sure the castle, main mast, and corvus assembly will have to be added after the hull is inside the bottle and its 2 halves joined together. Also, this will probably be my last post for a couple of weeks. At the risk of further admonishment from @Javelin for doing something besides working on my model 😃, I'm heading to the Pacific northwest for a vacation. It will be nice to escape the Texas heat for a little while!
  16. Glen McGuire
    Thanks, Pat. Sorry to hear that the flu got hold of you but glad you are on the mend.
  17. Glen McGuire
    Ditto what GrandpaPhil said!!
  18. Glen McGuire
    Wonderful craftsmanship, Bryan!
  19. Glen McGuire
    Welcome, Miguel! Sounds like you've got a very interesting project. I hope that you will create a build log for it so we can follow your progress,
  20. Glen McGuire
    There were some interesting and entertaining responses to the question I posted on the Tips and Techniques forum regarding size reference for pictures. A #11 hobby knife blade and a Tic Tac seemed to be the most popular. But I have neither of those, so for now I will go with the push pin. I finished up with the scorpios. And dang, those were the hardest things I've tried to make for any of my SIB projects. My tweezers were acting like a hand-held ballista, launching tiny bits of wood and wire all over the place. I think I made 20 of them to end up with 6 that I thought looked acceptable. The shield part is made from some pieces of a walnut strip that was a hair over 1mm thick. For the launching arm and legs, I started with 1mm x 1mm wood strips and sanded the 4 sides down a bit. The arrow is a piece of copper wire that is 0.2mm thick and the bow is wire that is 0.25mm thick. The bowstring is made from ultra thin fly fishing thread.
  21. Glen McGuire
    Not only is it devilry, I think it's GIANT devilry. I'm guessing the gridlines on your mat are centimeters which would make your matchstick about 4.5cm long. My beastly green thing is 6cm. Maybe everything IS bigger in Texas.
  22. Glen McGuire
    That's pretty dang funny, Keith. But since I bought that box of matches here in Austin, it's probably true!! It also probably explains why they were so expensive. 😃
  23. Glen McGuire
    Good point, Steven! However, a matchstick would dwarf some of my stuff. Anything smaller that is universal that you can think of? What about a push-pin? As a test, here's one of the scorpio weapons I've been working on today. Or maybe I just put the object next to the head of the match. That might give the best perspective for the really small stuff. Thinking out loud again. (later edit) I just posted the question on the Tips and Tricks forum to see what ideas others might have.
  24. Glen McGuire
    How interesting, Ian! That means I accidentally made mine more historically accurate, right?
  25. Glen McGuire
    The castle or archer's tower is complete. It's made from 1mm thick basswood. For painting and texture of the surface, I used the same limestone dust method I used for the seawall earlier. The construction process is shown below. In the 4th pic, I used a tip I read in someone's build log here on MSW, but I cannot for the life of me remember whose it was to give them proper credit. The brilliant builder used lego pieces to true-up corners. I loved that idea and stole a few pieces from my son's old lego box. The last pic shows the castle dry-fit in place. I'm thinking right now that I'm gonna have to affix it to the hull after the boat is in the bottle and the 2 halves of the hull joined. When the castle is in place, it prevents that mast from lying flat enough to fit thru the bottle opening. That should not be to difficult.

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