moreplovac

Thanks Michael, much appreciated.

Thanks Fernando E, much appreciated.

So, that would be it for this build. It is done, finished. The only one thing left, which i think is the most important is to build a cover to protect it from dust, fingers, 'let me see how it feels on touch', 'oh Henry, looks at those cute little warriors', etc... For now build sits in my dinning room, waiting for better place and cover. Final thoughts: is there anything i would do differently or what would my project manager at work prefer to say.. "lesson learned", meaning i scr.w it up, how to make sure it will not happen again. The planking material is very good but to be precise and history correct, i would be very surprised to have ancient Greeks making planks in the length of the ship. For next time i would definitely make it more realistic and have planks in correct length, using some of techniques tested on this forum. The shape of the hull is very nice and to make it more desirable i would be doing double-planking, shape the hull with some putty if needed and start second planking. Forgot to varnish the inside of the ship during build process when it was very easy to reach. Ended up twisting the brush to reach some of hard reachable spots, particularly where oarsman should be sitting. Kit plan does not cover all details, particularly of keel ornament position. Turned out it has to go all the way to the main deck, where captain's enjoying the view but i was under impression it has to stop just shortly passing those two dolphin fins. Suggestion to kit manufacturer - spend a bit more time to make plan more detailed. Not that is a big deal but it would be worth effort. There are some small items i already covered in the log so no repetition necessary. I am still working on hoplites, painting the shields and marking them. Was not too happy with my first attempt so will be completing it today or tomorrow. Once Greeks are on board will snap few more pictures but for now, here are final pictures of the build.

Hi John this is very good advice. Thanks, much appreciated..

Thanks Dan Vadas, i dont think you are cheap, i think it turns out to be like that when you spent too many hours into something you like to do. Just hard to find correct price.. Appreciate your response.

Thanks Tom, all makes perfect sense; Yeah, once you start charging for a hobby it becomes work, work you like to do but it is still a work.. Appreciate prompt response.

Thanks Kurt, appreciate your advice.

Thanks John Allen, it appears that like in any other contract job you have to cover your self very good in case something goes southwards. Occasionally i get lucky and pick up some good wood for shipyard but far away from being able to make millions. I think better chances are with Lottery tickets :-) Thanks again, appreciate your response.

Absolutely right; i do enjoy building models and have a real job so cannot spend full day in shipyard.. The threat i started is what bothered me in the past and just wanted other fellow builders opinion in case something cones along. Appreciate your response.

Hello, hope this is correct forum for this type of question; if not pls direct me and i will repost the question. Wondering if any of you, experienced or less experienced builders, had opportunity to build or did a kit building for a small profit? Model building process takes time, resources, investment and would like to hear how did you present the final bill to your customer? What could be an average cost to build, lets say 1:72 scale size wooden ship model? If for example, kit cost is $700.00, some material (glue, wood, tools) is $300.00, the amount of time to build it is 900 hrs, what would be a decent, cannot say fair price, for final product? If you charge 3 dollars per hr, this gets to $2700.00 to the total of $3700.00. I understand this is a hobby but sometimes it is nice to blend hobby with some extra cash which can be used to buy more kits, tools., etc. Appreciate your comments.

The hoplites finally got their weapons, still missing shields. That is next on to-do list. It is oars time. Oars supposed to be sticking out differently depending if the oarsman sits closer or further from the ship edge. Used very "sophisticated" template, marked length A on 20 and mark B on other 20 oars. Started to mount 40 oars. I had to come up with some sort of template so oars can be on, approximately same level. Happy modelling..

Today i worked a bit on hoplites' spears; cut and sand them into correct diameter, "sharpened" spears' heads and paint heads in silver. I found out that doing this from toothpick is better that making them from some other scrap wood part; toothpicks appears to be fairly strong when sanded into less than 1mm diameter. No cracks or broken spear. I cut spear head in approximate size using razor blade and then sand it to correct shape. Then a tiny layer of silver was applied to simulate steel head; some weathering will be applied later. I applied a small layer of varnish on hoplites' new, wooden stands. Once heads are dried i will paint shafts in some wood-looking colour to simulate ash or other wood types used in making this weapon. I also need to mount all 48 oars and few other ship parts; this will most likely be done sometimes this week. Happy modelling.

Not that complicated ship rigging is done. To make a rope a bit more straight to get the impression that rope is tight, i used white glue to stiff the rope a bit.. Then i start cutting warriors of the base so it can be replaced with a wooden base. Did not like base colour and the fact that is sticks out to much. So instead of painting it i decided to replace it. Out of some spare lumber i cut 8 new bases and sand them to shape. After that i started to work on spears i planned to replace. Here is first prototype, need to scale down the front end of it, looks a bit to big. Have few pictures from the net so i will scale it to size that fit better.. And the whole ship looks like this, oars are still to mount... And for some reason just cannot get those guys of the ship... Happy modelling.

There is a time in building process when you need to attack rigging; regardless of its complexity it is always a fun process to go thru when you have tiny ropes and big fingers. So, here we are. The rigging for Greek birema starts with making eye splice for two ropes that hold the mast in vertical position.. These two ropes were completed and waiting for a next step. Then i mounted compete sail to the mast.. Here is the process of making a "fake" rope ends... Once completed it was mounted to the end of the rope and "casually' throw to the ship.. I did similar technique for other ropes... So here is end result.. Then the two ropes holding the mast... This spot for a rope was very tight but managed to get it thru.. Then the part on bow.. That was all work done today. The ship has few more ropes to be installed.. So this is how birema looks so far. And at some point friendly hoplites decided to jump on board too.. Happy modelling ..

Wrapping up this kit build slowly. Today i finished installation of captain's seat, decorations, mast and started to work on ship stand. For now i will be using stand that comes with the kit; later will come up with something else, a bit more eye catchy.. I also spent some time thinking about oars positioning and how to make sure, once installed oars will not move in and out, up and down. For now made two measure template i will use to position oars inside of the ship. Not to high-tech template, coffee stick from Starbucks, cut to length.. Then, it was time for captain's seat, decoration (Lion's head) and other. For lion's head i also use a small peace of balsa to get some good grip since the decorative head has no that many flat area. Seat and decoration installed. Happy modelling..

Today i spent a bit more time with painting friendly hoplites. Some touch-ups, painting the swords, one dude' hair that was sticking out of helmet (i nicknamed him a Hairy Harry), etc. Hairy Harry is second from the left... While i was waiting for a paint to dry out, i was thinking about spears that come with the box. They do not look quite good; most of them are twisted and usable to some extend. Noticed few toothpicks laying around and some 80-size sand paper, i started to shape what turned out to be really decent looking spear. Did some google-ing and find out a painting of hoplite with a spear that looks very realistic. Spear is longer then ones included in the box so i decided to give it a try and see if i can get a decent-looking spear to replace plastic one... I did not use my mini lathe; rather just a sand paper and was able to make a spear that will work, i think much better on the warriors.. Like i dont have nothing else to do with this build, it is a go decision - i will make at least 6 new spears for my hoplites... I believe spears will be about 45-50mm long (that is kind of my rough estimate and measurement taken from the above internet picture) with 1mm of thickness.. I am expecting to have several broken ones as my fingers might be to big for such a delicate work... Unless i break several of them in my attempt, i think i can get there in a few hours. Happy modelling..

Today i painted second coat on mighty warriors. Some touch ups and another layer of varnish on the ship. This painting/varnishing process is not very exiting. You can run another coat of varnish which takes about 5 min and spend 10 minutes cleaning brush... Oh well, more to come soon. Happy modelling...

Warriors are getting some paint... They are very tinny for colouring, using lamp with magnifying glass to assist. I can also do some manicure in the same time.. Need to do few more layers of paint as the toys colour is dark grey and very hard to cover with either white or yellowish.. Was thinking to test different approach on few of them: to cover them all in white or skin colour, then to continue with other (red, gold, solver) or to cover them in flat black and then the same process. Will try it for sure. Happy modelling.

Today i finished up the ram by adding few pins to simulate a way to fix ram to the ship. Not sure what techniques was used back in days but i think they had some sort of iron pins for this purpose. I painted the pin head black but during installation process some of the paint was removed. Not a big deal.. I also drilled a pilot hole for pins. Had to make particular attention to the top corner of ram since the pin will be visible after installation so i ended up cutting most of the pin and leaving only head with few extra mm in length. And installed. Then the Hoplite arrived.... Finally i received a box of Greek warriors (Hoplite) figures i planned to put on the ship. The reason for having them is to give a bit of a scale vision of ship size. The scale of warriors is not quite matching the scale of the ship but it is fairly close... They have made in China, sold by company in Austria via Amazon and shipped to North America. I was actually surprised with the level of details these small dudes have. It will be interesting process to paint them in the colour of ancient world. This friendly dude will definitely have a place on the ship; he is the leader and must be there.. Not sure how many warriors will be enjoying the mighty bireme but i am planning to have them 4 or 5. Will see.. They also need to have shields and spears so here they are. This part is not quite good but it is workable.. Then i decided to run a first layer of protective satin varnish on the hull. I used this product in the past with satisfactory results. Will need several layers of it. This complete the work for today. Will continue with varnish and painting warriors. Happy modelling.

Thanks Don, i will definitely keep that on mind for future projects. I was actually contemplating of using markers but on test runs i was not getting quite satisfactory colour shades. To modern for Greek bireme..

I finally finish painting ship eyes. They took me a while and two attempts as my hand was not steady enough and slightly stronger push on the brush resulted in wider line that expected. So remove all and start from scratch. I wanted to have a more mighty look particularly when you look from the enemy' perspective to the approaching ram. Later in painting process i came across one picture that really shows how mighty eyes should be looking but it was to late to start painting all over again. So it is what it is.. And from enemy's point of view: So, this activity completes this stage of the building process. Next is few layers of protective coating, mast, sail, captain's chair, oars and stand. More to come soon.

Getting there, getting there. Started to work on eyes, painted them on both ends. Need to work on pupils today and some touch up since i painted it all by hand, directly on the ship. Very good brush is all what is required and some acrylic paint.. Need to fix that top of the ram, accidentally damaged it with flat strip decoration. More to come..

I had some extra free time today so i completed all decorations. I made executive decision to use pins in addition to glue to fix the flat strip decoration that goes on the keel. Reason is just to make sure it will stay put. Cut few pins to the size of 4-5mm, drilled a pilot hole in decoration, a bit smaller in diameter than pins and start with glue first. Than drive those small pins into the flat strip and to the keel. Did not want to be extremely precise but tried to make the distance between pins as even as possible. These flat strips comes in 4 strips, so at the end there will be a small gap that has to be filled with 2cm long flat strip. Wondering should this small piece be at the ram area or in the middle of the ship. Middle of the ship it is... The whole length of keel decoration. I was not quite sure what was the point of this decoration on real ships as you might not be able to see it anyway, unless you have some ancient Greek made scuba gear. Next will be to paint two eyes; will do it free hand, and as precise as possible. Do not want to use printer and print them out; i think it will be to thick and sticking out much more that doing it by hand.. I am getting fairly close to complete this interesting model. After eyes there will be several coats of varnish for protection, captain seat, flag, mast, sail and oars... Happy modeling..

Nothing interesting to report today; spent time gluing and clamping bubbly ornaments, cutting pins to 4 mm in length so i can put them back in pre-drilled holes, without damaging the hull again. And bubbly ornaments completed.. Happy modeling..

Today i continued applying side borders/ornaments and other decorations. The border ornaments (or bubbly peaces of brass) are surprising well made. Not quite sure that original ship has this type of decorations although it might have some type of decoration. Anyhow, the bubbly brass decoration are surprisingly well made and tough. They are about 0.8mm tick and robust and i would say a bit on hard side when it comes to shape them to fit on the hull. I was able to drill small holes for pins (0.4mm) and even counter-bore the hole so the head of pins sits fairly flush. There is also a flat strip, very good quality with embossed design on the face. It runs on the keel.. I started by marking every sixth bubble at the back so i can drill a hole. Brass is very slippery and no way to hold the drill bit properly on the top of the bubble. Drilling holes.. Drilling holes... Then i put in nails, the hole for a nail is a bit smaller than the nail, so tapping with hammer is required to push the nail into brass bubble. Here you can see that this brass ornament was accepting counter-bore very well.. Decoration going on the ship.. One side completed.. I have completed the other side of the ship as well.. All looked tight and well done. And i discovered that i did not mark the holes that will match position of ship frames so majority of the pins went thru the ship hull, right to the space where oarsmen will be sitting. That was really bad on my part. Then i also discovered that flat strip decoration was not holding on the keel; i was either not mixing well epoxy glue or removed holding clamps before glue was completely cured or Martians were coming to the Earth. According to Amati' plan i supposed to use pins to fix the flat strip to the keel. I am not quite happy with that solution so i will try to fix the problem by using another type of glue, since i am sure that Martians are not coming. At the same time i removed all pins that were penetrated the hull and start gluing the bubbly decoration to the wales. I will need to put pins back into drilled holes but will cut them very short making sure they are not penetrating the ship hull. Will see tomorrow how this works. Hopefully glue will hold tight and will be no need for pins. Worst case scenario i can use pins for flat strip; also will need to make several more holes on bubbly-like decoration to match the ship frames and again use pins. Time will tell.. Happy modeling.