Vivian Galad

Mates,
 
Thanks for all of your kind "clicks". It's been a bit of a learning experience for me to move forward - at a "slow boat to china" progress. As I mentioned - now for mainmast construction. This bit will be new, but looking forward to the challenge. I will post my interpretations.
 
PS: igorsr you are also so kind (:-)
 
Cheers,
 
Michael

Hi Mates,
 
Thanks for your thoughts and "clicks".
So it is "repaired" - Not B. Hills plastic surgery results (;-(. There are scars), but much cheaper ha ha.What did I learn?
 
Not to install parts prematurely. Big learning lesson for me. Platform (crowsnest) will stay in the tray for a while. Now, happily, on to the mainmast.
 
Again thanks so much Mates for your support, and encouraging posts.
 
 
Michael

As promised I give it a try to redo that broken decoration. In fact I had to give two tries as number 2 also broke but at finishing not at cutting this time. Luckily number 3 was a success as I didn't plan to go for number 4. Also the removing of the already glued piece proved to be a very easy thing - in fact it came down in a single piece. Maybe because glueing on ebony is not as strong as on other wood essence.
 
I am quite happy with the results. Thank you Heinz! If you wouldn't have insisted I would almost sure let it like that.
 
Here are the pictures.
 
Regards, 
Alexandru

Hi.
Lots of work done and only a few photos.. Opps.
 
Ladders in place.

 
working Side doors with bar. Trial fit... Looks good.

 
Bow and Stern doors with working bolt.

 
Mast securing timbers. Temporary mast inserted while work in progress.

 
Funny block on the rudder. Allows the rudder to turn with ease.

 
Walls dry fitted.

 
View from the Stern of the ship.

 
Side walls from the outside.

 
 

 
Views from the Bow's

 
 
Time to clean up and start the fixing and cleaning up.
Next job after glueing the side walls in place will be fitting the second deck in place.
 
Regards Antony.

Great build, Anthony!

Hello all,
Thank you for comments and likes.
 
Here is another update on my Victory.
Alexandru

Ferit: Thanks for always dropping by and posting encouraging words. I have to assume, as also with most builders,  the last bits will be the flags.
 
Edwin : appreciate your visits and thoughts - Thanks
 
=======================
 
Working on rebuilding the mainmast lower platform. The one that I had started pre-building (same size as the foremast one) turns out is a bit too small. This one is easier, having struggled through the first two; now have a better grasp on how to make the small bits at a faster clip
 
MIchael
 

Hi mates,
 
So lower mainmast is now completed. Here are some updated pics.
 
Now onto re-building a lower top for the main – need to order some rope from Chuck so shrouds pending.
 
Again – as always - thanks for the comments, the Likes and/or just dropping in for a visit.
 
PS: Nigel your pencil suggestion made such a great diff. Thanks again.
 
Cheers,
 
Michael
 

Frank - so nice thanks so much so appreciated.
 
Hi mates,
 
So all of the bits are finally, cut, glued, and assembled.
 
Segway to pic after detailing, sanding, and adding a bit of stain.
 
Starting some of the finishing detail work;
 
Adding the first of three sets of rope wraps. Looking at the 1/10th, and the museum’s it appears as though they cleated the rope ends to the mast as opposed to a Y-Binding.  So model-railroad bits to the rescue (same cleats that I used on the hull)
 
Also for the metal straps Ferrari parts have come to the rescue. Vinyl self-adhesive strips that are leftover from an F40 that my son and I built from a 1/12th kit. We had fun. I will use that as well as those small cleats at the wrap ends.
 
==================
 
But today came the “acid Test” milling the two pulley grooves. This made me a bit edgy because failure here and a lot of previous work would need to be redone.
 
My main concern was how would the milled holes look on the bottom part of the mast, when flipped over for a look, would they also be correctly centered, and grooved??
 
I remember my first attempts at milling knighthead grooves. Hmmm.
 
But it turned out ok on both sides.
 
PS: I had pre-built a second top platform the same size as the one for the foremast (forward thinking !) 
 
Turns out that the main mast lower platform needs to be a bit larger, and the platform planks are diff. shapes Oh well…see last pic (Corel – of course – has fore and mains the same size parts)
 
Thanks mates for dropping by – I won’t post again until mast it totally completed. 

 
 
 
 

Ferit, - Thanks (:-)
Woodo, Thanks so much for choosing to follow along. Very kind of you - welcome aboard.
 
Updated progress on mainmast;
 
Slid-in that middle sleeve filler at upper part of joined mast halves.
 
Cut the end bits which will house the pulleys
 
Measured the needed angle so that the crow’s nest will remain horizontal given the rake of the mainmast.
 
X’d out where I needed to cut the indentation groove to fit the two side half pulley bits.
 
Measured where I should glue the first piece allowing room for the platform cross braces.
 
Glued the first one.
 
PS: I think that my measurements were a bit off at the mast part that will be above the platform base. Looks too short? I will have to be creative when I add the mast cap and the metal sleeve that will wrap around the mast just under the cap. Hmmm L
 
====================
 
Next update will be sometime AFTER tonight’s most important worldwide event. GØT Season 6 Premiere. - John better show up !!
 
Cheers,
 
 
Michael
 

 
 

Hi.
Updates as per previous post.
 
Main Deck is now planked and needs a fine sanding.

 
Main deck from above.

 
Rudder and tiller.

 
Winch for anchor.

 
Drum

 
Anchor

 
The Bow front panel.

 
Doors are working and I need to add a beam lock to the both ends of the ship.

 
All the hand rails made up . Need finishing before adding to decks.

 
Various ladders made up. also needs finishing.

 
second Deck from above.

 
Second deck from below.

 
Bow and stern ends added to model.

 
 That's it for today.
Regards Antony.

Hi.
Happy today...The deck fitted the hull and is now in place.
 
Picture one is the Hull side securing details. I used elastic bands to mark there position as you can see.

 
The Deck being planked. Not sure if these would have been fixed in place or just laid into the recess.

 
another close up of the side fixings.

 
Bow area fixings.

 
Looking from the Bow towards the stern of the ship.

 
Next job will to be finish the deck planking and add the deck beams fixing pins and wedges.
Also need to make the ladders that lead from the deck into the hold.
 
 
Thanks for looking in.
Regards Antony.
 

Mark,
 
Yes, the shields hang on the sides. If you look on the first page of this thread, there are a couple of diagrams I've drawn which show them. Unfortunately, I've just realised that hanging them by the enarmes the way I've shown is physically impossible - the enarmes should be slung over the upright, not threaded along the horizontal beam of the pavesade. You'd never get the shields on and off. I haven't yet worked out exactly I'll fix them in place, but I'm sure I'll come up with something.
 
I've never tried sculpy, but I believe without having to cram the cardboard into the boss in the middle, it's likely the dog biscuit card will do the job without crumpling. And the detail is surprisingly good. I've just made a flattish conical shield out of modelling clay and cast it in a plaster mould.
 

 
 
Once that's hard, I'll cast a new shield blank made of builder's bog. It's hard and stable enough that I can carve all the detail in it I want - particularly the raised shield rim and perhaps a line to show the (non-raised) boss. And then use it to make a mould out of of builder's bog so I can make all the cardboard shields I want.
 
I've been collecting contemporary pictures of Byzantine shields. At this time they were pretty equally divided between round shields and others which were  tear-drop shaped. I'm going for round shields on the dromon (a tear-drop shield wouldn't work on the side of a ship) and I've so far collected over 50 designs, though several of them seem to duplicate each other. I've probably got enough for all the shields to be different from each other.
 
During my shield research I began to notice other things, particularly about the oars shown in contemporary illustrations. I'd based my oar blades on the ones in Age of the Dromon, but on further investigation I believe they aren't a true reflection of the shape of oar-blades of the time.
 
Contemporary illustrations show oars tapered all the way from the handle to the end of the blade. I don't believe the whole loom took part in the taper, but the blade itself may have. This picture is contemporary with the ship I'm making, and I based the shapes of both the dromon's tail and the steering oars on it. I've just noticed, by the way, that the steering oar of the left hand ship appears to show a tiller (though the steersman's not using it). 
 

 
 Even taking into account the likelihood of error and carelessness on the part of the artists (and the possibility they may never have really looked at a dromon's oar-blade), I still feel it's the best representation we have. Lacking any definite evidence to the contrary I've decided to taper my oar blades. I'm changing the ones I've already made and will make the next ones to the new shape (only 82 to go!). Here's a pic of the old and new shape together.
 

I've just spent about a week literally going around in circles (pun intended) making shields for the sides of the ship. 
 
I decided that I didn't want to carve 50 shields.  Byzantine shields in contemporary representations are routinely either the shape of a bowl with the inside toward the holder
 

 
or a very shallow cone
 

 
and carving 50 of them would be just too much hard work.
 
 
Ideally I'd make them of wood, but as a shield of the time was usually about 7mm (a little over 1/4") thick, it was totally unrealistic. So I decided to carve a single shield and cast from that in some suitable material that would be light and strong, probably paper or cardboard, or perhaps papier mache'. I also thought of using builder's filler, but for various reasons (including wastage every time you mix up a batch) I decided against it.
 
I decided to make the shield bowl-shaped. The shields I was accustomed to using in my mediaeval re-enactment days had a hole in the middle covered by a bowl-shaped central iron boss, which encloses and protects the hand so you can grip the shield by a rigid handle across the hole. This puts your hand in the same plane as the body of the shield, so your control is better than if the handle was offset.  
 
Here is the shield in the process of being carved out. I used pear wood, as it has a nice fine grain.
 
  
 
And here it is complete.
 
   
 
But I shouldn't have made my mould out of plaster of Paris. Trouble is, that stuff is too soft to take repeated castings without deteriorating to the point that all useful detail would be lost. So I decided to change tack and make the mould of builder's filler instead. But as the wooden original had curled up at the edges when it got wet, I couldn't use it again.
 
So I cast another on in the plaster mould, using builder's "bog" (filler) - wonderful stuff - hard and strong and durable, and makes a beautifully detailed casting. An hour or so later I tried to take the new shield 'blank' out of the plaster. Couldn't do it without breaking the mould, but as I wasn't going to use it any more, that was ok.
 
Then I made a new mould out of goopy builder's bog and put the shield in face down. I'd covered the shield with shoe polish first, to stop the casting from adhering to the mould. It worked well - there's a small nick in one edge of the blank where I had to put a blade in to get leverage, but that's all.
 
Then I tried making shields. I used thin card to approximate a 7mm edge, but it crumpled in the mould, even though I'd wet it first. Next I used card from the box the dog biscuits came in. Pretty good, but still a bit of crumpling, so it ended up with a groove from the centre to the outside edge. It's possible that with care and practice I might be able to overcome this problem. I also tried papier mache', using damp shredded paper and a bit of PVA glue. It filled the mould all right and came out ok, but didn't have the quality of detail the dog biscuit card had provided.
 

 
From left to right - the builder's bog 'blank', the mould, dog biscuit shield and papier mache'
 
 
Then I took a break overnight, and as I lay awake it came to me. I'd got the shield wrong! I looked again at the Byzantine shields I had pictures of. They didn't have a boss sticking out of the surface of the shield. Because Byzantine shields, without exception,  were controlled not by a rigid handle as the Viking, Anglo-Saxon and other West European shields were, but by enarmes - short leather or rope loops attached to the back of the shield. You grab both enarmes in one hand and control the shield that way. Having used both techniques I can say I'd far rather use the handle, but that's not the point.
 
 

 
 
With enarmes, you don't need the a hole in the middle of the shield or a boss sticking out of it.
 
 
 
So I'm back to square one. I'll make a new shield blank (this time as a shallow cone). And it won't have that boss sticking out.
 
I know if I had kept it as it was hardly anybody would have known. But I would.
 
Steven  

Here are the frames I've made so far.
 

 
It's interesting that even though they're supposed to be progressively narrower as they progress towards the ends from amidships, they seem to be anything but consistent in shape. However, I believe this is because of variations in the wood and the conditions under which it was clamped into place.
 
In any event, the springiness of the wood will enable them to return to their correct shape once they're in place on the plug and held in with planking and wales. The hard part was getting the wood to bend around a quite sharp corner at the futtock. Once that's been achieved the rest should follow without too much trouble (I hope).
 
Steven

Aside my luck with electronics, all is fine! This week I´ll move my workbench from a room to another so my dogs stop breaking things (they´ve already put down my builds two times - the Caravel will need some repairs). Health is good, finally - but I´m unemployed right now (working on some side projects though), which means I have some spare time to build ships. Always love the receptiveness you show. Ty for all your care.
 
     

Great updates. Rigging is the funny part, sure, but gives us some headache. 
 
Nice to be back to your log!

HI Mates
 
George, John, Vivian, David thanks for your concerns. Vivian so nice to see you back posting on your build log (;-)
 
EL_J  after reading your much more involved damage, I feel embarrassed posting my, by comparison, little damage. That must have really been a pain.
 
igorsr - thanks for your such nice comment -blush....
 
Ferit, thanks – noted, as usual your thoughts are always appreciated.
 
So after yesterday’s double trauma (The also Dodgers lost ha ha). Today I sat and looked at the damage, found more (minimum) at the gallery. 

 
Did the repairs easier than expected. Glued the deadeye/chainplate with CA to its broken off ring. and then that section was able to be coaxed back into place.

 
Then went back to shrouds/deadeyes. Hmm - noticed that for some reason the fish davit beam was loose and moving around.
 
Then it “hit me” the davit absorbed the majority of the impact shock as the ship fell over. This “foresight” (of installing this bit) probably saved me from dealing with a lot more potential damage, especially to the platform and gallery. Well once-in-awhile an important win gets me by. J

 
Luckily it was well glued and did not slide across the deck causing more issues
 
Michael

good to hear your OK Vivian........hope you can get past your currant setback    looking forward in seeing your continued build  

Great updates. Rigging is the funny part, sure, but gives us some headache. 
 
Nice to be back to your log!

Aside my luck with electronics, all is fine! This week I´ll move my workbench from a room to another so my dogs stop breaking things (they´ve already put down my builds two times - the Caravel will need some repairs). Health is good, finally - but I´m unemployed right now (working on some side projects though), which means I have some spare time to build ships. Always love the receptiveness you show. Ty for all your care.
 
     

Thank you all, very much. I´ve been working on my sails but, all for the bad, have no camera to take them pictures. My cellphone is broken, my camera missing, my tablet died and for now, all I can do is give some words about how it is going.
 
I´ve refused the kit´s sailcloth. Was thinking to use something more robust regarding the fabric, but changed my mind. Now I´m sewing some cloth from a new year´s unused dress. Can´t say, yet, if I´ll keep that, but, for the time being, seems pretty good.
 
Hope to have a new cellphone soon, with a nice camera, so I can show you the results. 
 
Bye ^^

Thank you all, very much. I´ve been working on my sails but, all for the bad, have no camera to take them pictures. My cellphone is broken, my camera missing, my tablet died and for now, all I can do is give some words about how it is going.
 
I´ve refused the kit´s sailcloth. Was thinking to use something more robust regarding the fabric, but changed my mind. Now I´m sewing some cloth from a new year´s unused dress. Can´t say, yet, if I´ll keep that, but, for the time being, seems pretty good.
 
Hope to have a new cellphone soon, with a nice camera, so I can show you the results. 
 
Bye ^^

Aside my luck with electronics, all is fine! This week I´ll move my workbench from a room to another so my dogs stop breaking things (they´ve already put down my builds two times - the Caravel will need some repairs). Health is good, finally - but I´m unemployed right now (working on some side projects though), which means I have some spare time to build ships. Always love the receptiveness you show. Ty for all your care.
 
     

Aside my luck with electronics, all is fine! This week I´ll move my workbench from a room to another so my dogs stop breaking things (they´ve already put down my builds two times - the Caravel will need some repairs). Health is good, finally - but I´m unemployed right now (working on some side projects though), which means I have some spare time to build ships. Always love the receptiveness you show. Ty for all your care.