moreplovac

Not much to report today. Was working on mounting that goldish-like ornaments. It turns out to be a bit of a pain. The ornament is fairly stiff and hard to twist to correct shape. I tried to glue it with cyano gell glue but it was not successfully. Then i used epoxy glue. It is in process of curing at this moment. It appears to me that ornament is slightly wider than ship keel so on the end it might stick out for about 1mm total on both side of the keel, at bow. I will see once it is all done. For now i installed ornament on bow and stern. Since i used epoxy glue it will take some good number of hours for glue to cure so no more work in shipyard today. Happy modeling..

Thanks zappto.

Today i was working on wale and tried to laterally bend it. It is a tough job but managed to get is up to required curve. Left wale planks in the water for some time and drop it into bending helper... Was not quite perfect but was able to make it acceptable. At the end on these wales i will be mounting some other pieces.. Started from the ram, i used few nails to assist with holding it in place. Few drops on cyano gel and continue with work.. One wale installed.. And a view from front... Both wales installed. Then i cleaned up the model from dust, sanding particles and applied a light coat of danish oil, covering wales as well.. So that is all for today. I dont have that many tasks left on this building so i am hoping to complete it by the end of January, unless i win lottery.... Happy modeling..

It is time to mount this part. Just by working with this small scale model i can imagine how difficult must have been back in days to build, transport, mount, hold, raise and fix it to the ship. If i have a time machine this history time slot will definitely be a must to visit. Being close to 2 m tall i think i would be sticking out from the crowd for sure :-).. So, with assistance of epoxy glue, which i freely applied to inside of the ram and after a bit of sanding of location where ram will be mounted, i fix the ram to the ship. Used few clamps to hold it it place and i left it overnight for glue to cure.. And in the morning this was my first task; to go to the shipyard and check it out.. And here it is, mounted and ready for some RAMing actions... On this picture it does not look that mighty, more like some smiling guy that has lost all his teeth.. :-) But i would still be very concerned seeing it approaching from the horizon.. But it absolutely gives more realistic view than the original "ram" shown on below picture. Happy modeling...

Thank you Michael..

It is weathering time... which brings me back to my airplane modeling days. After coating it with a flat black paint i started to make it a bit more oldish-alike. Used a dry-brushing techniques which is nothing more than drying out the brush almost to the point that there is no color on it, and running it in back-front motions randomly on the model, in this case ram. Very simple and effective. This is color i used for a first layer; it is Testors mat military brown. I must say something about these colors. About 10 years ago was the time when i did my last model; it was a German Kubelwagen. I left all my modeling tools and paints in the drawer for future use. After moving into new house and doing some renos, i was hoping that i can still use these paints even dough there were all disintegrated, leaving thinner and paint color in separate levels. After several good shakes ("shaken not stirred") which 007 would like, all paints went back to life. I can easily start using them for plastic models with no issues. Must say very impressive... Next step was to use Tamiya's Earth Yellow to lighting up the edges... Other side... Then it was time for Testors again, this time it was dark brown color. I also added, some by accident some on purpose, very tiny sanding particles to bring up effect of parts that are under heavy rusting and starts to breaking off the ram. Accidentally - i sanded some other model parts forgetting to move freshly dry-brushed ram away which caused some particles to end up on the ram, sticking on it for good.. On purpose, i spayed those particles in some areas. Slightly crooked nose is witnessing many fights this ram went through... Anyhow, for me this part went very well; i really like the end results. Was also thinking that i might be able to provide the same effect (or very close) if i used a template ram i made from a cardboard and perform dry-brushing weathering.. But this copper one was really fun, i enjoyed process of making it, to the point that i might even make just a ram itself, based on the picture from Israel museum... Will see. Happy modeling..

It is all about copper, soldering, flame, burned fingers, sanding, cutting, etc. so lets start... Based on a template from a cardboard i made some posts ago, i cut the copper sheets to the approximate size. Wanted to leave some extras in case i had to modify it. I wanted to go with a ram that looks like one in Israel museum (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Israeli_National_Maritime_Museum-_Naval_ram-2.jpg ). Unfortunately this one was made for a ship that it is not the same shaped as my model so i needed to adopt it a bit. Was doing a bit of online research and came across multiple different versions of this mighty war weapon. This always leave some room for builder' personal touch... First picture shows top and bottom part of a ram. In order to trace a correct shape a bit more easily i put a layer of tape on the copper sheet, trace the form and cut with scissors for metal. The gauge of copper is thin enough so there was no problem cutting it. Removed the tape and started soldering process. Must admit that i had some challenges finding correct soldering wire, proper heat temperature and some tools to hold everything together. Copper does transfer the heat very quickly so make sure you are wearing some protection on your hands.. In the past i did a bit of plumbing soldering around my house but this task requires way more precise tools.. The other side.. First test on the ship.. Then it was time to attack side panels. Cut side panels, shape them in the correct form and start soldering. Must admit that this was very challenging task as by heating the copper for side panels, the heat transferred to the whole copper plate and "un-solder" previously soldered parts. In the process, one side installed. Both sides soldered and first test on the model.. The top piece of a ram installed. This piece connects both side panels. Had plenty of extra copper and cut the excess with scissors. That is why the top piece looks very sharp and screams for a good sanding.... After spending some quality time with different sending belts and Dremel sanding bits, here is end result. No sharp edges. Now i wanted to put some ornaments on it, to make it a bit more original-like but was not quire successful and was ending up soldering an 'infinity symbol' made out of a electric wire. Also i put a small strip of electric tape on the edges; i replaced it with a duck tape as duck tape is a bit ticker than electric tape. I wanted to simulate the edge that is visible on the original ram. So that's it. The soldering is done and ram fits very nicely on the model.. I was contemplating what to do next: leaving it like this or do some weathering to give it a bit of patina look. Was not quite happy with all colors (copper, solder, sanding) shown on it and decided to go with weathering. I sprayed a small layer of black paint on it and now ram is drying waiting to weathering process. This will be interesting process, hopefully the end result will be satisfactory. I can always build another ram if weathering process ends up being disaster. Anyhow, more to come soon.. Happy modeling

Hi Blighty, thanks for a chair..

Thanks Michael and zappto..

It is time to work on sail and mount it to the yard. Was thinking since there is only one sail, it will be a walk in the park working on it but turns out not to be that way. Most likely the reason is that my skills are a bit rusty these days. But practice makes it perfect so lets start or what old Latins would say.. repetitio mater studiorum est. Before i start, need to mention that kit plan does not provide much details how to mount the sail, what techniques to use to attach the sail, etc. Also, few threads on ship modeling forums showed different ways to attach the sail and including not that much detailed pictures from the process. Not having enough details about the whole process leave me with an opportunity to put a personal touch to the model. Which i did, so lets get it going.... Here is beginning of the process. Sail was mounted to the yard with assistance of few pieces of scoth tape to keep it stretched until i attach at least few lines of ropes. I did not spend much time getting historically correct rope size, instead i decided to go with the rope size i think was available 400+ years b.c. and what i had in the shipyard... Below picture is during rigging process; i ended up running 5 loops of a rope around the yard and freeze it with a touch of cyanogel. During the process i used scotch tape to help keeping the sail stretched and on the yard... Then i had to make four "eyes" (need to spend some times learning the proper ship modeling terms, dough) that will be used to run the rope thru and it is used to assist in rolling up the sail. Good old nail helped with correct eye diameter. First i run four runs of rigging around the yard, then run the line thru the sail and around the nail, back thru the sail and again around the nail making a two-loops eye. Small amount of cyanogel to freeze the eye.. Finished and with a test rope running thru.. All four "eyes" completed. Had to test the fitting on the mast... Then i ended up making blocks, actually only two blocks needed on the ship. Tiny, 3mm blocks are very hard to keep on the bench during seizing process.. Blocks attached to the yard.. After attaching two blocks on yard and running four lines of rope thru "eyes", here is a final sail/yard product.. Next i will need to complete the mighty ram... Had some challenges with soldering, copper, etc but will cover this process in the next post. Happy modeling..

It is time to attack the sail. It has been a while since my last 'war' with a sail, few decades ago... The plan was to simulate separate cloth pieces sawed together to form a big sail. Idea was to run sail material thru sawing machine, with setting for a small stitches so stitching will not not look out of the scale. At least that was an intent.. First, i transfer lines from the sail plan to the cloth with a HB pencil. Then i set a sawing machine to: I tested this setting with a cloth sample just to make sure i have it right (or to the satisfactory pattern). Sawing is well underway and it looks very nice.. Sawing is completed and looks very good to me. I was running sawing lines well above the sail size; then i will cut sail to the required dimensions. Actually i forgot to wash the sail material before any work on it; it is a good practice to remove any factory added stiffeners that will keep the material wrinkle-free. It is OK, will do it later in the process. After cutting the material to required dimensions, i decided to run a rope all over the sail. I was not sure how they've done it 480 B.C. but was thinking that in order to mount the sail and have sail does its job, the sail has to withstand some pressure and there should be some type of rope around it. On the other hand, i need to make few eyes so the sail can be attached to the ship... Needed to follow some pattern when it comes to sawing the rope on sail edges so i made a small template and marked holes where sawing needle will go thru. Before that i did freeze the edges of the sail with a small drop of cyano glue gel. Wholes were marked and ready for hand-sawing process.. I did not want to use sawing machine just because it might look to uniform. Some deviation will be more accurate, i think.. I placed the rope around the edge of the sail and used a tape to hold the rope to the edge of the sail. During the process i discovered better way - put a small amount of glue on the edge and press the rope on it. This would make sure that rope is right on the edge of the sail.. There might be some better way for doing this so i need to do a bit of a research on this forum. In the middle of the sawing process. One side (top) of the sail completed. Does not look bad at all... Attacking another sail side.. The sawing process is done. Now it is time to wash the sail and prepare it for darkening process so it will look a bit more ancient-ish, i hope. Have some green tea left overs and soaked the sail into it. Two hours later, sail is removed from tea and stretched to dry.. Final product looks like this: Looks very nice to me. Tomorrow will be mounted to the yard... Happy modeling..

A bit of a work completed today. Was working on a main yard, actually the only one on this ship. First created a small template to follow while doing ridging. Transferred markings on the yard and .. Yard in the new, i called it ridging helper table... you might noticed that i added two more clamping helpers, this time made out of clothespin. I find out that a spring clamp i intended to use has a strong grip that might be damaging some delicate wood parts in the future build so decided to replace them (actually to add) two more clothespin.. If the grip is not strong i can always add a rubber band around it.. One part completed.. A bit of a closeup.. Prep for seizing.. Two completed, two more to go.. All roping done.. Testing on the mast... Now i need to do a bit of a research how to attach the sail. The kit plan is not quite helpful for this task... Happy modeling to all..

A bit of a work happened over past weekend. Was working on yard, preparing it for a sail. Needed to make a call what type of rope (threat) to use... The second from the bottom appeals the best for me, but the first one is also good.. Will see.. Back to work on yard.. Making a small grove.. Few drops of gel glue.. .. press tight and small amount of sanding make it looks like this A little bit of a work on ends, and final products is like this: So now i have to find i way to hold this yard and tight a ropes around it; not sure i can make it with only two hands. Researching some other forums threats, i come across very useful workbench extension i can easily build. So here it it; the purpose of it is to use those two clamps to hold yard or sail when you need to work on them. While i was in build mode, i completed a small table that will be solely used to work on ridging, sails, masts, and other roping activities. I will show more about this when times come; again, cannot use credit for this small workbench, it is borrowed from one of the forums on the internet. Happy modeling.

It is time to drill some holes for oars. First i made a copy of a plan, cut it and mark it on the hull. Make the marks for a drilling... It is time to do some drilling... Once the holes are drilled, i used needle file to reshape the hole. It supposed to be in kind of a egg shape as the oar movement is in front-back direction. This process is a bit repetitive but it was completed in a few hours, no problems there.. Holes completed. Then a test run of setting up oars was done, just to feed curiosity of how it will look at the end. Tomorrow i will start working on ridding but need to visit local shop to get few roles of good cotton threads. The one that comes with the kit is a bit too shiny and too polyester-ish for my taste.. Happy modeling..

Back to the shipyard after some time dedicated to real work and daily routines.. Today i attacked a part i did not like last time... Cut down a block of poplar, 1cm x 2cm so i have some room to hold the `patient` while drilling ( :-)) Some old basic geometry skills helped to mark down place for a hole and for pilot hole.. Back to bench drill press and made a hole.. Now this part has to be shaped to the correct size and form.. There are two holes, very tiny and close to each other that are used to hold some rigging so i decided to make them ahead of time and with some extra wood i can use to hold it while drilling.. I ordered few chucks that can hold the small size drill bits but, unfortunately there are not here yet. So. back to basics, i covered a 0.5mm drill bit with plenty of masking tape, make it a big fatter so it can be used with bench press drill. Just to show the perspective.. Managed to make those small holes, here is brief fitting test on the mast.. After some quality time with rasps, different sanding blocks and paper size, here is end result. Happy with it, glued to the mast and tested on the ship.. At the end, i collected all attempts i was not quite happy with and here they are; some wrong size, some wrong wood, wrong hole, etc.. But they can be reused somewhere else so will keep them in a spare parts box. Then i was thinking of treenails and what to do with them. The ship kit comes with 200 metal nails that can be used but for my taste they looked a bit out of the scale and too long. So i decided to either make my own treenails or to fake it with wood filler. Here is my test attempt with wood filler: Made a few holes, filled them up with wood filler and sand them - the beige colored one is called `natural` (red circle). For my planking it looks a bit to white-ish.. The second is walnut-colored filler (blue circle) and it looks much more acceptable. Since the whole point of treenailing the planking is to just add some details to the model and not for a structural strength, most likely i will go with walnut filler. I also like the fact that walnut colored filler will provide less visible treenails which would not drag attention from the model to treenails. There are few other techniques for making/faking treenails but i think will leave those for some other models. During research i did not find correct answer how many treenails this ship requires. I still need to make decision how many treenails to install: should i just cover the upper part of the ship including place where oars will be installed or to cover the whole ship, including the complete hull.. Not sure yet, TBD. This is the one i will go with in case i decide to do the treenails at all.. More to come soon...

Hi Michael, thanks for following.

Was working on main mast (actually the only one) today and here are some highlights. First, following Amati's plan i draw the template for a mast. I started to work on mast; protected the end of the mast and here is my setup.. Looking at the template and actual mast provided by Amati. Something was not quite right.. The size of the mast from a plan looked to me a bit bigger than the pole that comes within the kit.. So, digging up on some left overs from another project was able to find out an pole that might be better in diameter than the one form the kit.. Started to work on it and end result was quite satisfactory.. Worked on the top peace of the mast which will hold rigging by gluing 4 small left overs together, spare parts from the exercise of making oarsman sits. Sanding them to the shape and to correct size, drilled a 3mm hole in the center and two small holes, as indicated on the plan plan. The diameter of those two holes is 1mm. Looked like Thor's hammer but in small scale.. :-) Then i noticed at the back two holes are not as accurate as in the front. They do not line up correctly as they should; i will go back to make another version of mast top. Not today, i stayed late tonight, it will be interesting tomorrow when clock rings... More to come.

No much time for shipyard work during this long weekend; managed to work on ram a bit and to transfer basic templates to the more stiffer cardboard. This will be final template for a copper sheets..

Today, the work was concentrated on making a captain' chair (or throne) and finishing up building a ram out of the paper, for now. For captain's chair i started by building a chair model out out packing material, to get it to the right shape and size. Following the plan suggestion i made a chair out of a soft wood.. Did not have much available so i glued two peaces of balsa and carved the chair out of it. After some thoughts i decided to drop a balsa chair since i would need to glue some other parts on it and balsa is not quite know by longevity when it comes to keeping glued part to itself, at least not in my experience. So the decision is to made a seat out of poplar, which i have kicking around from some other house work i have done. With a help of a rasp in different shapes, this was done to the satisfactory level.. Here are seats made from balsa and poplar... Straightening up the front edge of poplar seat and testing on the ship.. Looks acceptable. Now i will start working on a ram. After some research i decided to try replicating the ram from Israel's national museum.. Challenge accepted :-), will see what outcome will be. Ordered some copper sheets and wires from Amazon. This will be interesting part. More to come..

Today i have completed two fins and glue them to the ship.. Interesting little details. Then i decide to re-do a little part that will sit at the bottom of the mast, on the main deck. It is not on the plan but i think it might be a nice addition.. Trace out one nut, rasped it to the desired shape, made a 6mm hole with bench drill press, little bit of a sanding, dry fit and it was ready for glue. Part is installed and ready for a coat of danish oil. Long weekend is coming...

Today i was working on, what Amati plan is calling, a "bitt". It is a peace of rigging equipment where rigging ropes are tight to. Hopefully after few more builds i will get a grasp on correct ship part terminology :-) First on a longer peace of 4x4mm, i made a to 2mm wholes; than transfer the measurements from the plan to the 4x4s and cut them with a saw to the correct dimension. From the bottom i made a small hole for a mortise part. Shaped a part that will connect both peaces thru the drilled hole and dry tested all fitting. Drilled the holes on the deck and mounted peaces.. Than i started to work on two extra "fins" on the tail. These parts are just shown on the plan but no mention of them in instruction plan. Nothing in the kit suggesting what type of wood to use so i used scrap plank left from building of oarsman' seats and started to shape it into correct curve.. Have not get a chance to finish them up so will continue next time, hopefully tomorrow..

Yeah, they look more oar-ish than rudder-ish to me.. :-)

Hi Michael the cardboard cylinder is from plastic wrap (Glad brand or similar); it is stiff enough to withstand any bending attempts around it. Cheers.

Today i worked on ship part that will hold the steering oars, not quite sure what correct term for this part is... It is basically a place where i need to bend few planks, make... oh well, lets get to pictures.. Again, plan is not quite clear how to set this part up so it is on builder's discretion (and some help from some other building logs) how to make this part as appealing as possible. Here is my end result.. So how did i get here: First, made decision to use a 2mm instead of 3mm dowels for a peace that hold two steering oars, tighten up with a rope. This has to go into ship so small hole was drilled on both sides. Hand drill for better depth control. First dry fit testing was OK. Then this dowel was measured, cut and sanded a bit on the bottom. Then one 2mm hole was hand drilled in plank that will be installed on dowel... It was kind of a tiny whole that has to be drilled in 3mm width plank. After few broken peaces, it was all done. A bit of a sanding was done to make a hole slightly bigger so the dowel will slide into without to much troubles. The last thing i need is a small hole, not adequate for a dowel... I know this might sound a bit weird.. Dry fitting, all looks OK. Cut both dowels and install them on the ship. Then i started to bend two planks. Give them an alcohol bath for several minutes and bend them to the shape. One plank installed. And end results: And both from the bird view: Then i cut extras, sand and they were ready for a danish oil coat.. That should be all for today..

"Repetitio mater studiorum est" in my case makes perfect sense. One handle completed and second handle marked for work. Starting to shape it with a small rasp.. Done with a rasp, now it is time for more sophisticated tools. Here is picture showing different tools used to make the handle. I do have some power tools but my shipyard is still not ready yet, missing some shelving so my power tools are still in the boxes.. Testing the fitting on the ship. Looks ok even without ancient Greek basketball player :-) Started to collect a bit of a dust left after rasping and sanding. It will be used to fill out some imperfections on the ship itself. And with one coat of danish oil, it looks very decent. It will not be this shiny, it is just lights that is playing with our eyes and my phone' camera..