Korean Turtle Ship by AntonyUK - FINISHED - Scale 1/32

[AntonyUK]

Hi.

Its time for a new project.. Been looking at this for sometime now.

I have made several trips to Korea and visited the war Museum in Seoul.

This was my first encounter of this ship.

There is a kit of this ship made by www.youngmodeler.com at 1/64 scale

There are also a few on E-Bay by the same manufacture.

There are no drawing of this ship and there are a lot of replicas made but most of them are very different. Very confusing.

There are a few referrals to the Turtle ship here on MSW.  including a Kit build by Wim500.

Also lots of nice photos by Grimber.

 

I intend to Build this @ 1/32 scale so the model will be big enough to include a bit of detail.

Rule 1...  No paint..

Rule 2..  Follow as much as possible the method of ship building as used in Korea. Lots of HELP wanted here.

The main timber I will be using will be English Cherry as I have a vast stock of it.

Other timber will be used to give contrast and looks.

Most of the Timber is very thick on this ship.

And the hull planking is pined downwards into the plank below.(very long tree nails) Will post a link to the information later.

I am at the stage of just starting the build planning. and laying the hull base (No keel on this ship).

Will be Building this in the Shed as its the only space big enough for the model and me.

 

That's it for now.

Thanks for looking in.

 

Regards Antony.

 

 

 

 

[Siegfried]

Hello Antony,

 

That's an interesting project. I've seen a model of a turtle ship at the Schiffahrtsmuseum in Hamburg. Wish you a good start.

 

Daniel

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Antony

 

Highly interesting project, we`ve been writing about that type of ships in another (german) forum. There is not very much to find in the net, but there is a maybe useful link for you, including measured drawings!

http://www.yi-sunsin.com/03ship/02_03_01.jsp

 

Good luck for your build

 

Regards

Gerhard

[AntonyUK]

Hi Gerhard.

Nice find. No I have not seen that information before most usefull.

 

Thank you Daniel.

 

Regards Antony.

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Antony

 

I found this "by accident" and saved the full set of plans for later use on my PC. So, if this plans are offline somewhen, I do have them all. All the best for your build again,

 

Regards

Gerhard

[AntonyUK]

Hi.

A question regarding how did the Koreans fix the planking on there ships.

I know they drove long pieces of Oak dowel into the top of the plank into the next plank below.

But the planking has no support.. I.E. ribs or frames.

The fixings into the side of the plank are big nails made of Oak and they are clearly visible in all models and replicas of the Turtle ship.

And the Question is:- What do they drive into??

One sketch of a ship wreck drawing shows timbers going across one side of the hull to the other side.

Could the nails be driven into thease ? That's a lot of timbers if so.

 

Also some ship wreck drawings have metal brackets attached into the planks and to the timbers noted above.

I would love to have some input on this.. Even the theory..

Will post the links and pictures mentioned above when I get computer access.

 

Regards Antony.

[davyboy]

Hi  Anthony,

 

What an interesting project. Funnily enough I watched a Korean film on TV here recently which had a reproduction of one of these ships in sea battles with the Japanese navy. Wish i'd taken a bit more notice on the construction but I did observe how they were rowed. The oars had a bar fitted which allowed the oarsman to feather the oar when moving it forward to make the next stroke. As you can see from the plans the oars were hung vertically so couldn't be lifted out of the water like a western conventional oar. I don't know if you would be able to get a DVD copy of the film (made in 2003) possibly some good info in it. The German title was I think "Der fluch des dunkeln Sees",the curse of the dark seas in English.

 

Regards, 

 

Dave 

Edited March 15, 2016 by davyboy

[AntonyUK]

Hi Dave.

I have a blu-ray Roaring Currents.

A really interesting film.

I've not seen the TV program ..Will keep my eyes open for that.

 

Regards Antony.

[AntonyUK]

Hi.

I have just been pointed to a Exelent PDF file. http://anthropology.tamu.edu/papers/Sasaki-MA2008.pdf

 

It's just what I wanted.

 

Regards Antony.

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Antony

 

Great find, thanks for sharing! This will help many others too!

 

Regards

Gerhard

[Belco]

Hi

 

You can find a lot of information  searching in Google Turtle Ship in Korean:

 

 

거북선

 

You need to use google translate.

 

Regards

 

Belco

[AntonyUK]

Hi Belco.

Yea there are lots of information on Google.

But not much with enough details to make a model.

Even the replicas are so different and constructed in all sorts of ways.

I have a bunch of friends in Korea that have assisted me in my search.

 

I have done some drawings using Illustrater that look like the one in the Korean war museum.

 

Started to cut the timbers for the base. Bow and Stern.

The planking will require some sort of frame to hold the empty hull in shape help with the planking. Have done some drawings for this temporary frame.

 

Thanks for looking in.

Regards Antony.

[AntonyUK]

Hi.

Made a good start with the information I have..

 

A drawing of the Hold base. No keel on this ship .Flat bottom with thick planking.

 

The planking laid.

 

I've used the studding and bolts to squeeze the planks with wedges.

 

Base with cross sections ready to build up.

 

Bow and stern planking. The bow will have extra bulks of timber on the bows for ramming the enemy ships.

 

Made a jig to hold the planking in place while building. basic but that all that's needed.

 

Another view of the jig. showing the planking positions.

 

The jig is made of plylite. 

 

Will start to make the planks for the hull sides tomorrow. These are described as "L" shaped. 

Will post a photo of the making..

 

Regards Antony.

 

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Antony

 

Impressive start! Waiting for much more

 

Regards

Gerhard

[AntonyUK]

Hi.

Thanks for the likes..

 

Have done a bit of digging on Google but I am unable to find anything on the Film listed below in Dave (Davyboy)

Has anyone seen this and was it called "The curse of the dark seas"

 

Hi  Anthony,

 

What an interesting project. Funnily enough I watched a Korean film on TV here recently which had a reproduction of one of these ships in sea battles with the Japanese navy. Wish i'd taken a bit more notice on the construction but I did observe how they were rowed. The oars had a bar fitted which allowed the oarsman to feather the oar when moving it forward to make the next stroke. As you can see from the plans the oars were hung vertically so couldn't be lifted out of the water like a western conventional oar. I don't know if you would be able to get a DVD copy of the film (made in 2003) possibly some good info in it. The German title was I think "Der fluch des dunkeln Sees",the curse of the dark seas in English.

 

Regards, 

 

Dave 

Regards Antony.

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Antony

 

Just found the original title of the film, it was "The Legend of Evil Lake" maybe it is somewhere to find as  stream.

 

Regards

Gerhard

[AntonyUK]

Hi Gerhard.

Agh found it.

I was looking for Cures of the dark seas.

Thanks.

Antony.

[davyboy]

Hi Anthony,

 

Sorry but I gave you the wrong title,my memory aint what it used to be   There have been a number of Korean films recently on one of the German TV channels I watch,guess I got the titles mixed up a bit. Your DVD Roaring Currents is the film I saw but I'm sure it didn't have that title. The Germans do seem to change the original titles (not a translation problem) of many films I have found. 

 

Your model is coming along beautifully,I will be following your build.

 

Dave

Edited March 19, 2016 by davyboy

[AntonyUK]

Hi.

Just a little on were I have researched  the information and construction methods.

 

Some very intresting reading here.

http://anthropology.tamu.edu/papers/Sasaki-MA2008.pdf

 

page 38 and 40 show the basic method of hull construction.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ULh8BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA37&lpg=PA37&dq=korean+ancient+ship+building&source=bl&ots=6k05sVn3Ms&sig=fQa031fB0XcZHWltlczovosclAM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiq-7WxsLTLAhXBWxQKHbLbBHwQ6AEIPjAK#v=onepage&q=korean%20ancient%20ship%20building&f=false

 

A drawing from this web page  https://namu.wiki/w/거북선Showing a cross section of the hull.

 

http://www.yi-sunsin.com/03ship/02_03_01.jsp This web page is in Korean.. but you can see there are a lot of differences between replica ships and models.

 

 

The timbers below are the bow timbers that were pined to the front of the ship for ramming protection. Rough carved for appearance.

 

Bow knees in place. This is just guess work But it is known that the Koreans used knees in there ship building.

 

Stern Knees.

 

A mast step. The mast on the Turtle Ship could be lowered down. and there must been some type of box to hold the mast base in place. again this is guess work. Step only placed and not yet fixed.

 

This drawing shows the mast in the lowers position. But other information shows the mast pivoting from the hull base.

 

Well that is about it for this post..

 

Regards Antony.

 

[cobra1951]

Hi Antony

              Some very competent scratch building going on here, i like it   

[mtaylor]

Just fascinating, Anthony.   Much different than what we're used to seeing and it also put a totally different perspective on things.  

[AntonyUK]

Hi.

A little update.

Started planking the Hull.

First strip on each side. The strips are only glued to the Bow and Stern bulkheads and to the Base.

 

 

Second plank on each side. Again only glued to the Bow and Stern Bulkheads and to the first plank.

 

Close up of the plank overlap. 

 

While waiting on the planks to dry I started on the decks beams.

All cut to shape but not in length yet. Not Glued at this point as I will cut them to length first.

 

This is the Bulk timber that runs down at each side. Laminating the two planks will hold its shape. Note Also curved up at each end.

 

Third planks in place.

 

 

 

Hoping the hull will remain in shape after removing the building jig when all the planking is done.... might make some temporary external bulkheads to help before removing.

 

That's it for now..

Regards Antony.

 

 

[cobra1951]

This looks great, even more so seeing as you only have photo's to work from

[gjdale]

Great work Antony. A really fascinating build.

[AntonyUK]

Hi.

Another update and whats next..

 

Planking now completed. Quite happy with the result.

 

The deck beams and supports.. Not glued or trimmed to size at this stage.

 

Side view of the planking. 

 

The stern area. Spacers not yet glued in position. The Tempory frame that I used to plank the hull with has now been cut into 3 sections. The gap's between them are for the hull supports.

 

Close up of the hull on the inside. The bow fas not yet been trimmed as I need to finish the deck before this can be done.

 

 

Another picture.....

 

Supports removed. look like the hull is holding its shape quite well.

 

Stern section. the bottom 3 planks are yet to be trimmed to size.

 

Inside the bow area. 

 

Next I need to finish the Deck and its bits.

 

Then I will start work on the Hull supports.

This should be fun. Especially as I intend to do a cutaway to show its construction.

The supports were held to the hull with huge nails made from wood and pinned with small tree nails.

 

That's it for now..

Regards Antony.

 

 

 

 

 

[cobra1951]

Fantastic Antony   those curves at the stern are superb

[Vivian Galad]

Great build, Anthony!

[AntonyUK]

Hi.

Thanks for the likes and reply's.

Yesterday I had a model kit of a Turtle ship given to me as a belated Christmas present.

It's the one from Young modeler manufacturer in Korea.

I tried some time ago to purchase one but the seller would not ship it to the UK.

 

The kit looks nice and the Quality is spot on. And no I will NOT be starting this until I have finished this build.

But the instructions and drawing will be very useful to get the little details right.

Will post more updates on this build later on today.

 

Regards Antony.

 

.

[AntonyUK]

Hi.

A little update..

 

First photo is showing the Deck assembly with the bulwark/Strake being added to the deck beams.

Using a board with the correct camber the deck is held in place and the bulwarks are driven tight with wedges.

 

This is a method of getting the correct angles for the support braces.

Just 2 pieces of timber held flat against the planks and clamped. Gets the angles right and measures the length at the same time.

 

Photo showing the deck assembly with the oar holes supports in place.

 

Close up of the oar holes. Timber not yet finished.

 

The Stern spacers are now fixed in place. Have Got to add the rear platform yet.. Will do this when main deck is in place.

 

Photo of the hull support braces in place. I've rough cut these with a knife as they looked to clean having been cut on a saw.

 

And another one close up.

 

Will add the deck to the hull next week and make the deck support post's.

She is turning out to be one big ship. 

 

Thanks for looking.

Regards Antony.

 

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Antony

 

Great progress with every new step. This is a very strange construction, compared to the usual ships we know.

 

Regards

Gerhard