Ferrus Manus
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The type of engine used in the Skymaster is a Continental IO-360, a 6 cylinder, flat aircraft engine. Here's a real example: Most of the examples I have seen on the web seem to show a mostly steel-colored engine with a deep, oily, almost bronze-like patina over the entire thing. I recognize many of the individual elements of the engine in the picture, having looked at the instructions and the sprues. About the sprues: Remember when I said this model is very complicated for what it is? There are a grand total of 100 engine parts, 50 to an engine, across the aircraft's two engines. For context, there are many entire aircraft kits at this scale with fewer than a hundred parts. This should make for an interesting assembly, and should make painting easier. I might begin assembling one of the engines tonight, or I might not. My only gripe is the size and location of some of the sprue gates, and that issue extends across the entire model. It reminds me of some of the Warhammer kits I used to make when I was younger.
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The history: From the outset of Rhodesia's existence as an independent nation, it remained completely unrecognized by all but South Africa and under total sanctions. Some of you might be old enough to remember the Rhodesian Bush War, but probably not most. Due to the sanctions and a growing threat from Soviet and Chinese- trained insurgents, Rhodesia needed a solution, quick. The solution was to purchase civilian aircraft such as the Cessna 337 Skymaster, which was made under license by French manufacturer Reims. The Cessnas, renamed the Lynx, were modified to carry napalm, cluster bombs and conventional munitions, and were used to brutal effect as a light attack aircraft against the insurgents, fulfilling much the same role as an aircraft like the A-10 Thunderbolt II. It seems as though less than two dozen of these modified Skymasters were ever made, and upon Rhodesia's transition into Zimbabwe, all were eventually scrapped. The model: Roden seems to be a relatively middle-of-the-road kit manufacturer, akin to the ancient Airfix kits in quality and detail. While things like rivets are sparse, the kit is surprisingly complex for what it is, and everything I have read about it says it should, with considerable effort, build into a nice looking model. That being said, this kit has some issues (flash for example) that any kit designed in the last decade should be immune to. With all that out of the way, I will say that I am planning to build this kit OOB, with minimal modifications, but an extensive and detailed brush-painted paint job. My goal, as airplanes are really not my area of expertise and haven't been since I was 12 (and I haven't built a model airplane since 2022), is to build a nice looking model that doesn't involve much research or modification, except for aesthetic and quality purposes. Thus begins a build that will hopefully last a few months.
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Thank you, Steven! Next project is actually not a ship, but an airplane. Check for it in the non-ship logs!
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I have now decaled the stand. I think one singular flag is sufficient for this model's aesthetics, and not inaccurate. And with that, the Santa Sofia is finished. Honestly, I had lots of fun with this one and look forward to seeing it on my shelf.
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The flag I designed around the Afonso family crest is now on the ship. With that, we can piece together a narrative about the Santa Sofia: This would have been a ship owned by the noble Afonso family at around the middle of the 15th century, in Portugal. It would have been among a number of similar caravels and coastal vessels built for and used by the Afonsos, and this one might have been leased or rented out to fishermen who plied the coasts of Portugal, bringing up cod from the depths- a staple food, especially during Lent or other fast days. The Afonsos would have pulled in profits either as a flat rate, or more likely, a substantial cut of the profits from the fishermen's catch or the catch itself.
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The big stick: I have an issue with your assessment about the possibility of the ship being owned by Da Gama- that being the fact that this vessel is from the 1450's, not the 1490's. At some point during my research, it dawned on me that I know a guy who's from Portugal. His last name is Afonso. I looked up the family name Afonso and the internet is in relative agreement that the Afonso family crest looks like this: If what you say about Portuguese laws regarding family crests is true, this must be a noble last name. The name Afonso is mentioned in the book. Bingo. We have our shipowners.
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It seems as though sources on shipowning families are exceptionally rare- a Wikipedia list of noble families in Portugal, and what businesses they were in, yields no results. Some of them were involved in the Portuguese exploratory missions, however, but none mention general shipowning. A little bit of help would be a massive benefit. Do you know of any articles or sources that would lead me to said information? The big problem with this is that the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 and subsequent fire would have destroyed many of the records of Portugal's noble/merchant/shipowning families, a problem that the Lomellinis never faced.
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The ship is Portuguese. I will build the multi-tined fork and put it on the other side of the ship's deck. The weight would have been attached to the net, which sadly was too ugly to display on-deck. I think that, given my situation, the weight is in the best spot it could be. Perhaps the weight would be tied onto the net when it was taken up out of the ship's hold. I am very well aware of the Lomellinis and what business they were in- the Elisabetta would have been owned by them.
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Regarding the flag of the Order of Christ: This flag would be unsuitable for use on this ship, as it was only used from the 16th century onward and mostly in a military context.
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The spear, hook and weight are now on the ship. The net was excluded. Steven @Louie da fly I appreciate your advocatus diaboli. Feel free to resume if anything I say is incorrect or unreasonable. The ship itself is now complete with one exception: the flag. Now, I have been hesitant to include a flag on the currently bare flagpole until now. The reason why is that I have no clue what flag the ship would have flown. You see, all the Medieval ships I have built until now have been owned by a particular monarch, family or crown. This ship, on the other hand, would have been owned by either a shipowner who would have leased the vessel, or a fishing captain. This has important consequences for the flag flown atop the mainmast. It stands to reason that only a vessel owned directly by a monarch or crown would have the right to fly the nation's arms. This possibility would have a very practical purpose- ships owned directly by Portugal's government might be exempt from certain taxes, tolls and fees, and having an easy way to identify the vessel in question as being owned by the crown would be of great importance. I have no idea whether any of this is true, but it certainly stands to reason. I have no idea if a manuscript on maritime law from around this time and place even exists, and if it does, there's no guarantee that flag etiquette is even mentioned, let alone elaborated on. Any information would be helpful.
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Here's what I came up with: a net, a spear, a hook, and a weight with a cross carved into it. I am thinking of just stowing the net below decks. This is because, while I did the best I could with what I had (an old garlic bag) it looks the same type and level of tacky as using plastic ratlines. Other than that, the spears and weight look good, and the spears should scream "fishing boat". Given how massively important fishing, and especially commercial fishing was in the Late Middle Ages, it's surprising that we don't see more about how fishing was done and with what tackle.
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I elected not to show them under the careful consideration that they simply might not have been added in contemporary paintings. I assume at least the caravel will have the sail lowered further. By "deck" I really meant "gunwale". Gathering sail in a context whereby a fall from a straddled yard would not be fatal or significantly injurious is just good seamanship in an age significantly before the introduction of manropes. Hemophilia A strikes again! I actually elected to display the sail fully raised as the issue of the port brace fouling the main halyard and parrel was too significant to ignore. Thank you for your comments regarding this adventure, which is now almost finished! Now for a question: Where would fishing gear be stored on a ship of this type, time and place, and what (other than a net) would have been employed in this context? I have come across a surprisingly numerous supply of Medieval images regarding boat fishing, but not much more than a net is shown.
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The mizzen yard halyard and parrel tackles: While it's only visible with flash photography and not visible in real life, one of my only gripes about CA glue is that it dries with an ugly white residue left behind around the application site that needs to be painted over.
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Small update, I have bent the mizzen sail to the yard and made the stand, which will eventually be painted and decaled. My solution for the mizzen yard and sail:
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It's time now that I run headlong into the only real problem with this kit- the mainmast placement. As I started to work on the placement of the mizzen yard, I realized just how little space there was to work with at the back of the ship. I actually intended on displaying both the main and mizzen yards in their fully upright position, but now I have some doubts. I quickly realized that the mizzen yard would be at a steeper angle than the main yard, which looks a bit tacky to me, especially in light of paintings of caravels. So, I am thus preparing to depict the mizzen yard at half-mast, in the process of being raised. Thankfully, the lee shrouds on the mizzen loosened up naturally on their own. As per Steven's advice, I wanted to depict the mizzen yard outside the shrouds, just like the main. You should now understand the problem here. The placement of the mainmast complicates this severely, as seen in the photos. The main halyard and parrel tackles both foul the mizzen port side brace, and vice versa. The main vang fouls the mizzen sail and potentially the mizzen sheet, depending on how I depict the sail- both of which are problems that would not exist if the main could be moved to about the middle of where the forward hatch is now. I realized this at the beginning of the build, and I just wasn't willing to scratch-build a new main deck. Belaying the braces on the relatively empty forward section of each main rail would severely limit the crew's ability to wrestle the mizzen yard to a different tack. My plan is to either suck up my pride and display the mizzen fully aloft, or keep all the mizzen lines, save for the halyard and parrel, slack.
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I am now one with the ship. Somehow, in the process of hand-sanding the second spar for the mizzen yard, I nicked the tip of my thumb. In other news, the mizzen yard is ready to be assembled.
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More progress on the mainsail: I recently rigged the braces, single vang, and sheet. I've recently adopted a more realistic modus operandi for displaying coiled line. I don't really want to risk ruining the work I put into making the sail material wrinkle-free by brushing it with diluted super glue and blowing it with a fan, as the amount of billow in the sail currently is realistic for a light wind. The issue is that this type of silkspan, while scale-accurate, is very light and not stiff in any way. This lends it to poor billowing in the absence of real wind.
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I got the halyard and parrel lines rigged today. I based the parrel off of this image, which I'm assuming is from some Italian research paper: Yes Steven, I've been stealing your sources. Here's the parrel: And on deck, the halyard and parrel lanyards, blocks and knights: The sail provides excellent shade for the crew, protecting the men aboard from the blazing Mediterranean sun. The ship so far:
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Regarding gaskets: I have never seen permanent gaskets affixed to any yard on any Medieval ship in any of the artworks I have seen. However, from evidence, I could probably give you a good idea of how sails were taken in on a Medieval lateener. Realistically, lateeners and square-riggers were probably pretty similar when it came to taking in sail. I know of a couple of good pictures of men tying up sail, here is one of them: Taking in sail on deck: Another good shot of a furled sail: My guess is that a sail was lowered to the deck and men would take short lengths of rope, climb on top of the yard, gather the sail by hand, and tie it up with the ropes. This would probably have been gradually replaced by permanently affixed gaskets.
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The bent sail and yard, and how they will be displayed on-ship: I did something a little differently than usual. Usually, what I do is take a small piece of line, thread it through the hole in the sail, and tie it together at the top of the yard. This time, I put a knot between the sail and yard, and another one on top of the yard. The idea of this was to prevent the top of the sail from bunching up at the yard, and it worked about as well as I expected. I dunked all of the ropes needed for this sail in a brown paint/water mixture, and you can see some of them behind the stern castle.
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The rigging elements for the main yard and sail: I have chosen to display my ship with only one vang on the main yard, and this is why: Now, I have some ideas regarding how the rigging is supposed to work. Remember, Santa Sofia is more a Medieval lateener than anything else, and caravel running rigging sources are nearly non-existent. When they exist, they are almost always over a hundred years after my caravel would have sailed. So, let's go back a hundred years. This is a detail from the "Siege of Acre" painting in the Cocharelli Codex, from the 1330's. Historians actually have no real idea whether this is Acre or Genoa, but based on context, it is probably Acre. Anyway, the artist is kind enough to teach us how to sail a Medieval lateener at the bottom of the page, showing one ship in the process of changing tack. Either way, only one vang is shown on each yard. This vang swings around the yard behind the sail on each tack. This, logically, performs the same function as two vangs would, with half the hassle. The braces at the front of the yard would actually control it, while the vangs (or vang) would simply brace the end of the yard against the wind. As I have said before, we need to discard more modern notions of how sailing works when dealing with Medieval ships, as parts change purpose.
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Now, I have a solution for the anchor issue. The issue is, last time I made this kit, I endowed the ship with an anchor system more befitting of a much larger vessel. So, for this version, I planned on keeping it simple- a single, stockless anchor that rests on the deck with a coil of rope and no rope locker. When in use, the anchor cable would be tied to the huge timberheads at the bow and would run between the stop cleat and the stempost. The windlass would be used to weigh anchor. I also used the kit-supplied barrel, presumably as a means of storing caught fish, and made my own main yard by turning two kitchen skewers. It is ever so slightly longer than the kit-supplied yard, and much thicker, in keeping with near-contemporaneous sources on Medieval lateeners. You don't want a flimsy yard, especially considering the huge forces the mainmast, yard and sail would have been subjected to when underway. The logical next step is to make and bend the sail to the yard, make blocks and toggles, and set the main.
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The last few days' worth of progress includes the ship's stempost, a stop cleat, two timberheads, the fore belaying rails, the windlass, and the ship's only ladder. I am also working on a solution for the ship's anchor setup.
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