Henry Grace a Dieu (Great Harry) by Louie da fly - FINISHED - Scale 1:200 - Repaired after over 50 yrs of neglect

[Louie da fly]

28 minutes ago, mtaylor said:

Steven, you are master of the obscure and fiddly parts.  

When it works . . . 

 

Steven

[Louie da fly]

I've finished the top for the bonaventure mizzen mast:

Steven

Edited April 11, 2020 by Louie da fly

[BANYAN]

Nice work Steven; a difficult and very 'fiddly' part to make which you have achieved admirably.  Were the insides white though; would have cooked the poor lookout when the sun did shine?

 

cheers

 

Pat

Edited April 12, 2020 by BANYAN

[Louie da fly]

3 minutes ago, BANYAN said:

Were the insides white though; would have cooked the poor lookout when the sun did shine?

Hey, this is England we're talking about! 

 

Steven

[BANYAN]

Sure, but that is why I said when it did shine

 

cheers

 

Pat

[mtaylor]

Looking good, Steven.  A real change from what you started out with.   I'm guessing you're not planning on a crew for this one, right?

[Baker]

On 4/10/2020 at 6:35 AM, Louie da fly said:

On 4/10/2020 at 6:06 AM, mtaylor said:

Steven, you are master of the obscure and fiddly parts.  

When it works . . . 

 

but you hold on until it works 👍

[Kikatinalong]

19 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

Hey, this is England we're talking about! 

 

Steven

Poor buggers,  when the sun shines, all they get is warmer rain.😂😂

Edited April 12, 2020 by Kikatinalong
Word spelling

[Louie da fly]

15 hours ago, Kikatinalong said:

Poor buggers,  when the sun shines, all they get is warmer rain.

Anyone still remember Flanders and Swann? I grew up loving their records. This song is what English people (the only ones with the right to do so) say about English weather:

 

 

Edited April 13, 2020 by Louie da fly

[Louie da fly]

I've just finished the fighting top for the mizzen mast,

plus the lateen yards for the mizzen and bonaventure.

And I've made the hook for the end of the mainyard to replace the one that broke off and got lost. These are shown on the mainyard and the fore yard of Great Harry in the picture on the Anthony Roll (along with a grapnel on a chain attached to the bowsprit) and are thought to have been to grapple to the rigging of opposing ships to enable boarding, which had been the traditional method of fighting at sea until the development of cannons, though the discussion in Woodrat's Nave Tonda build log casts some doubt on this. At the time of the Great Harry they were probably being phased out .

 

Steven

[Louie da fly]

I've attached the top to the mizzen mast - I've temporarily put the mast in place (dry fitted) so the top has the best chance of staying in place and square while the glue dries.

 

And added the topmast:

  

 

Making sure it's square and in line:

Here are the new hooks on the main and fore yardarms (they're the ones in a lighter colour).

And I've made a new main topmast - the old one was so badly broken, with several pieces missing, that a new one was needed.

Here it is against the topsail and topgallant - you can just see the old fighting top with the remnants of the old topmast.

And here it is without the sails, so you can see it better. 

 

Coming along steadily.

 

Steven

Edited April 15, 2020 by Louie da fly

[Louie da fly]

I've finally started the decking on the aftercastle. The original decks on the model were made from bamboo strips from an exterior blind, glued straight onto the deck beams. I'm making the new decking from the same stuff  (it's ok - I didn't steal them from outside the house - they were surplus strips when we adjusted the blinds to fit the windows. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

I had to strip off the outside "skin" of the bamboo to make it sit better. And sanded the inner surface smooth, as it's the side that will be upward. 

The original deck was made by just gluing the full-width strips onto the deck beams, but this time I'm cutting the planks individually to the correct historical width - partly to show which is old and which is new - and as bamboo is "tube-shaped" the strips have a bit of transverse curve to them, which can be minimised by cutting them into thin strips. 

Here's the first plank in place:

 

And another. I've marked the locations of the masts, so I can cut holes for them later. And I've also marked the hole for the ladder down from the upper deck into the hull.

 II

And here's the ladder (remember it's 1:200 scale - where's that giant matchstick I use for comparison?)

 

I added a fake deck below it so there's somewhere for the ladder to go. Another consequence of not adding the lower decks when I originally made the model.

Putting this assembly in place was harder than I'd expected. You can't just glue the top of the ladder to the underside of the deck and expect it to stay there. My first solution was a frame that was to be glued to the adjoining deck beam and the underside of the deck.

It didn't work. Much too fragile and kept warping and bending out of shape. 

 

So then I made a solider structure, with a  bit of wooden sheet glued upright at each end, like a couple of walls.

That worked. Unfortunately as I was gluing it in my hand brushed against one of the bronze cannons and dislodged it, so I had to glue it back in place (not shown in photos).

I'll have to tidy up the edges of the hole in the deck, but that can wait till later. Also the central plank is a bit high but I'll be sanding that down when all the decking is in place.

 

Steven

 

Edited April 18, 2020 by Louie da fly

[Louie da fly]

Continuing to add the upper deck. Bamboo is a dreadful thing to make deck planks out of - the grain forces your blade to go where it doesn't want to, so getting parallel sides to your plank is quite difficult. The only reason I'm using bamboo is that I'd used it when I first made the model. I thought it looked cool, and the grain made it seem that there were lots of narrow planks instead of a few wide ones. Never again.

  

Nearly finished. More on this in due course.

 

Here is the last of the new tops - this one is for the mizzen topmast. The central wooden rod kept it together better than in my previous attempts, and was removed once the top was finished. Still not a perfect method and if I wanted to make more I think I'd have to work out a better way of doing it.

      

Lateen yards for the mizzen and bonaventure masts.

 

And I've started cleaning the existing decks. I've been using sandpaper for the main gundeck, but the forecastle deck is too small for that to work, so I've turned to the use of cotton buds and saliva. You can see the clean patch compared to the rest of the deck which is still dirty. Yuk! Assuming the rest of the ship is equally dirty, it looks like I've got my work cut out for me.

Steven

 

 

 

Edited April 26, 2020 by Louie da fly

[BANYAN]

Despite the tribulations, those decks look good Steven.  The colour especially looks very good for decking.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Louie da fly]

Finished the planking on the upper deck. A little difficult at the end because the frames were so far apart there was no support for the "pointy" end of the last couple of planks. 

I got a bright idea - glue two planks together for each side.

That seemed to make it possible to cover the gap - that plus friction against the adjoining planks held them in place well enough to glue them in. 

 

So that's done. It has to be sanded down and then that will be complete. I'm pretty happy with it - it's in keeping with the existing decking but can be seen to be different.

 

My next major job will be planking below the water line. Wish me luck!

 

Steven

[Louie da fly]

Thanks everyone for the likes.

 

A little more progress. I've recycled the old fighting tops from the fore and main topmasts. Even though I'd made a new fore topmast I was pleased to find that I could salvage the old one - though it was broken into three pieces, they were all intact so I could glue them together again. I'd far prefer to keep as much of the original build as possible rather than replace it with new. I'd also made a new main topmast, but in that case the old one was past saving. So here are the old tops in their new homes.

And here's the old fore topmast rebuilt,

and the broken off stump still attached to the lower mast. It might be a bit of a problem to hold the two pieces in alignment while I glue it together again, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I won't be doing that until the hull planking is complete, possibly later.

 

The main sanding of the upper deck is done. Only a little tidying up to go.

The foredeck is proving a bit of a devil to clean. When I was a kid I slathered white glue everywhere, including on this deck, and the dirt is ingrained in the glue. So I have to carefully remove the glue within a pretty confined space. I've tried slicing it off with a blade, scraping it off, and removing it with isopropanol. None of those techniques is perfect - I'm just having to wing it. I'll probably have to remove the foremast bitts to get at the front of the deck, but there's a great glob of glue at the base of each upright anyway, so it's probably just as well.

 

Steven

[mtaylor]

Gluing flat to flat in that small area is going to be iffy, Steven.   Maybe fix then in position and band it with something thin?  

[Louie da fly]

Mark, I can probably insert wooden pins in the bottoms of the uprights and make holes in the deck to key them into. I'm getting pretty good at that.

 

I've been tidying up the mainyard. It was covered with old bits of cotton from previous incarnation.

Also it had been broken and though I was able to put the pieces together the yard was missing a small part so it was thinner at the join than it should have been. I took a leaf out my dromon build and sanded down a remnant of the old timber and mixed it with white glue to make filler. With it I was able to make up the thickness of the mainyard. 

  

I had to do two lots of filler to get it up to full thickness.

Here it is sanded to shape.

And here it is in full, with the surplus cotton removed. 

Steven

Edited May 3, 2020 by Louie da fly

[Louie da fly]

And cleaned the forecastle: I used isopropanol and cotton buds (Q tips), and occasionally a scalpel to remove built-up glue when it was too thick. The deck isn't perfectly clean, but it's a lot better than it was.

  

I had to remove the bitts, but it's just as well - it was smothered in old glue. I'll put it back later.

 

Steven

Edited May 3, 2020 by Louie da fly

[BANYAN]

Great job on the cleaning Steven, your patience has paid dividends.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Louie da fly]

Yes, not too bad, Pat. I've been chasing down those white marks (which are only obvious in a photograph - almost invisible to the naked eye). 

 

Thanks everybody for the likes, by the way.

 

Steven

[Louie da fly]

Working on the underwater hull so I can start planking. Because I was not only reconstructing the ship but changing the hull shape, there was a fair bit of trial and error involved.

 

I used battens to get the curves as close as I could

I've had to build up some of the frames (you can see open space between the frame and the top batten in the photo below).

I cut strips of sheet balsa to make the additions, bending them to follow the curve, gluing them in place then trimming them to shape. I haven't been too careful with the glue because it'll all be hidden by the planking.

and I had to shave others

Almost ready to start planking.

 

Steven

 

 

 

Edited May 6, 2020 by Louie da fly

[druxey]

Fairing on the fly! The photo with the clothes peg shows me how small your model actually is.

[Louie da fly]

Nah, just a giant clothes peg . . . 

 

Thanks everybody for the likes. It's good to get the feedback.

 

Taking a short break from setting up for planking (no, I'm not chickening out! ) 

 

Those who are familiar with the Mary Rose will remember that the archaeological team found her "figurehead" - aTudor rose - which is also shown on the picture of her on the Anthony Roll.

You can see it at the top right of the forecastle, just to the right of the flags.

 

The Great Harry is shown on the Anthony Roll with a crown on a staff at the end of the bowsprit, as is appropriate for a ship named after the king. It also has a dragon head as was common on carracks at the time.

Landström shows both on his reconstruction in The Ship.

So I made both - you'd think I'd get sick of carving . . .

actually this model originally had them - I'd carved them when I first made her, but they got lost somewhere along the way. One day I'm going to find the box I put all that stuff in - probably not till I've re-done it all, however.

 

Steven

 

Edited May 7, 2020 by Louie da fly

[druxey]

Angels on the head of a pin....crowns on the head of a match!

[BANYAN]

Looking good Steven; wonderful collection of 'larger' perspective objects you have there in the form of pegs matches etc .

 

You are probably already aware, but please consider sealing that balsa (a diluted pva and water solution works well)  so that the glue for your planks is not wicked/soaked into the balsa when you get to lay the planks.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Louie da fly]

Elvis on a grain of rice . . .  that way lies madness!

 

Pat, I hadn't thought of that. Thanks for the tip.

 

Steven

[Louie da fly]

I've bitten the bullet and set up the lines defining the below-waterline hull with black thread, following the David Antscherl tutorial. I'd appreciate feedback on whether the lines of the threads are correct.

I've also done a mark-up showing where I think the garboard strake should begin and end. Any advice would be gratefully received.

Steven

[druxey]

The lines converge too much at the bow. You will have strakes that taper to points. Let the first thread above the keel end at about bulkhead 2 and space out the other threads above. If you read Antscherl's advice, you'll see that the garboard strake ends just where the stem begins to rise, which you do indicate.

 

Aft, the strakes should spread out over the deadwood all the way down to the keel, or you will end up with splinter thin strake ends there as well. The lower edge of the garboard should be  parallel to the top of the keel.

[Louie da fly]

Thanks, Druxey.

 

I had my doubts about those strakes at the bow. Your solution solves a problem for me - I hadn't thought of ending the lowest thread at bulkhead 2.

 

I'm glad I got the forward end of the garboard right, but I may have a problem with spreading those strakes at the stern down onto the deadwood, because of issues with the thickness at the keel. I understand what you mean about the strakes coming to a point at the stern, and I certainly want to avoid that, but unless I make the strakes paper thin over the deadwood it'll be hard to pull off. I'll have to have a think about that and check other examples in build logs and tutorials, and see what can be done.

 

I'll re-do the threads and re-post with those and a new outline for the garboard, if you'd be so kind as to review them once posted.

 

Steven

Edited May 11, 2020 by Louie da fly