overdale

Les, I build these things for a living and wouldn't dream of taking on a job that didn't allow me enough time to factor in 'burnout breaks'. I never work on any project continuously. I always take a break at regular intervals and go and do something else. 
 
I learned this a long time ago at art school so don't worry, you are not alone!
 
Dan.

Les, I build these things for a living and wouldn't dream of taking on a job that didn't allow me enough time to factor in 'burnout breaks'. I never work on any project continuously. I always take a break at regular intervals and go and do something else. 
 
I learned this a long time ago at art school so don't worry, you are not alone!
 
Dan.

Interesting to see the lavish use of pen and ink for the skylights and doors. Not seen that much these days. It's very effective but requires a steady hand.
I suspect a lot of builders back then were proficient draughtsmen too and were more familiar with lining pens etc. 

Interesting to see the lavish use of pen and ink for the skylights and doors. Not seen that much these days. It's very effective but requires a steady hand.
I suspect a lot of builders back then were proficient draughtsmen too and were more familiar with lining pens etc. 

Temporarily added the mast and bowsprit. Fitted framing on the rudder guards.  Also fitted the shroud rails. Will give everything a coat of acrylic varnish shortly and then add the weathering 'wash'. Then paint all the rails etc. black.
 
 

Interesting to see the lavish use of pen and ink for the skylights and doors. Not seen that much these days. It's very effective but requires a steady hand.
I suspect a lot of builders back then were proficient draughtsmen too and were more familiar with lining pens etc. 

Interesting to see the lavish use of pen and ink for the skylights and doors. Not seen that much these days. It's very effective but requires a steady hand.
I suspect a lot of builders back then were proficient draughtsmen too and were more familiar with lining pens etc. 

Temporarily added the mast and bowsprit. Fitted framing on the rudder guards.  Also fitted the shroud rails. Will give everything a coat of acrylic varnish shortly and then add the weathering 'wash'. Then paint all the rails etc. black.
 
 

Bob Thanks for the information.
 
I have a spool of .006" copper wire and I have been twisting up a few different combinations to see what happens, definitely a different process than the rope.
 
This pic shows the large broken stay off the model and the 2 in the back are 3 strands, the one in the front is 4 strands.
 

 
I did another experiment with some bright 49 strand Beadalon bead stringing wire that I happened to have in stock it is .024" some of the pictures on the web of older ships and the stays looked like they were folded through the thimble and whipped the copper wire in this picture is too heavy .006" but this might be a path with the right diameters of Beadalon and fine whipping wire.
 

 
Michael
 

Temporarily added the mast and bowsprit. Fitted framing on the rudder guards.  Also fitted the shroud rails. Will give everything a coat of acrylic varnish shortly and then add the weathering 'wash'. Then paint all the rails etc. black.
 
 

Temporarily added the mast and bowsprit. Fitted framing on the rudder guards.  Also fitted the shroud rails. Will give everything a coat of acrylic varnish shortly and then add the weathering 'wash'. Then paint all the rails etc. black.
 
 

As an alternative to the tiled roof, I added a curved wooden roof that would have been covered in tar to waterproof it like below the waterline. Also added the hatch covers.The whole thing will of course be weathered so the colors won't be so strong when finished.
 Dan.
 

Added the rudder boards and started undercoat paint.
 

On to the water base.  A simple masonite box was made with the wave pattern cut into all four sides. 
 

 
The box was filled with urethane foam.. Then carved to follow the wave lines.
 

 

 
A hole cut out for the hull.
 

 
The waves were covered in spackle and smoothed. They will eventually be covered in glass fiber.
 

 

 

 

 

 
The rudder oar posts were added and the tile roof test fitted.
 

I had made a start a year or two back but was sidetracked by other work as usual.
 
 
 

 
I built the deck house first to get an idea of the rest of deck layout.
 
 

 
 
 
 

I have been the proud possessor of a large chunk of an ancient Roman Amphora. The storage jars the Romans used to transport everything from wine to fish sauce and olive oil to the four corners of their vast empire. It came to me quite a few  years ago at the very dawn of ebay when it really was just an online flea market and not the commercial juggernaut it is today.
 
A guy in Ohio was clearing out his garage and put it on line along with a lot of other 'junk'. I bought it for the princely sum of 25 bucks, not knowing if it was genuine or not but I just liked it. I asked him where he got it and he told me he was a retired mailman and a little old french lady on his route had left a box of junk out for the garbage collection and the amphora piece was inside. He asked her if he could have it for his fish tank and she told him to take it. She also told him that it was found by her brother in the 50's. He was a diver in the French navy and found the amphora on the mediterranean sea bed during an exercise and took it for a souvenir for her. The mailman took it home, dropped it into his fish tank where it promptly killed his entire collection of marine fish!  He had it lying in his garage ever since.
 
I have a collection of genuine shipwreck artifacts and I thought that it would still look good even if it was a fake.
 
The package arrived and judging by the extensive marine growth encrusting it, I was fairly sure it was real. To be certain, I took it to a museum marine archaeologist client I had worked with in the past and after consulting a catalog of amphora types and styles, he certified it was 2nd century Roman.
 
When I am not working on other people's projects, I build model ships to display with an artifact from the wreck of that ship and the amphora was next on my list.
 

 

 
You scan see from the photos where the line of sea growth stops where a section was buried in the sand.
 
Here is a photo of one in situ. Apparently it is a 'Gallic' pattern from Gaul, modern day France which would fit with the circumstances of it's history.
 

 
There are not too many things known about the thousands of Roman merchant vessels plying the coasts of the empire. Their lines and content went largely unrecorded except for what can be supposed from their remains.  My research brought me to a set of drawings made by an Italian amateur marine archaeological society and a couple of other sources which gave me enough for an attempt at a small coastal vessel by not building from one source, but taking information from all the sources and combining it.
 

 

 
I think this is the most likely impression and based most of my model on it.
 

Janos,
I'm not sure I agree with you about the 'gingerbread carving' between the gun ports. I think it more likely to have been painted.
 
If you take a look at John Franklin's excellent book 'Navy Board Ship Models 1650-1750' not one of the 17th century contemporary models that make up half the book has any carving on the frieze, they are without  exception painted. The gun ports, head and stern are all beautifully carved so I doubt they didn't carve the friezes to save work, I suspect that the friezes were almost always painted. The exception being perhaps royal yachts etc.
 
Dan.

Having finally delivered my Frigate 'Boston' to it's new owner I am moving back to the late 17th century and about to start one of these two. (the one on the left) Bought from the NMM.
Their online plans system seems very unwieldy to me. I pretty much found this plan by accident.!
 
 

 
 
Dan.

Lovely work Nils.. It's turning into a real beauty.
 
Dan.

Get yourself a pack of bamboo kebab skewers from the supermarket and a draw plate from Model Expo or Ebay. You can make some very passable small scale wooden masts with those.

I had to 'antique' a ship model for a TV company a few years ago. After much experimenting we discovered the most effective results were with spaying the whole model with well thinned down wood stain (dark oak). The trick was not to spray regularly as if you were trying to paint it, but to use more random passes gradually building up the color to the level of age you want. It doesn't require a lot and is very effective. (on TV anyway)
 
Dan.

I had to 'antique' a ship model for a TV company a few years ago. After much experimenting we discovered the most effective results were with spaying the whole model with well thinned down wood stain (dark oak). The trick was not to spray regularly as if you were trying to paint it, but to use more random passes gradually building up the color to the level of age you want. It doesn't require a lot and is very effective. (on TV anyway)
 
Dan.

I had to 'antique' a ship model for a TV company a few years ago. After much experimenting we discovered the most effective results were with spaying the whole model with well thinned down wood stain (dark oak). The trick was not to spray regularly as if you were trying to paint it, but to use more random passes gradually building up the color to the level of age you want. It doesn't require a lot and is very effective. (on TV anyway)
 
Dan.

I had to 'antique' a ship model for a TV company a few years ago. After much experimenting we discovered the most effective results were with spaying the whole model with well thinned down wood stain (dark oak). The trick was not to spray regularly as if you were trying to paint it, but to use more random passes gradually building up the color to the level of age you want. It doesn't require a lot and is very effective. (on TV anyway)
 
Dan.

One quick image showing the symmetry done for the bow. Now moving slowly towards the stern the same method as the other side.