Greek Bireme by Robin Lous - FINISHED - Dusek - Scale 1:72 - First wooden ship build

[Robin Lous]

Thanks a lot gents!

 

As you can see, I still have to do the clewlines (the ones on the edge of the sail).

The brass eyes for them on the yard are already there, but I'm unsure about loops on the sail for them.

Didn't spot any on the Olkas photo's. I think I do just one loop in the middle, so the line won't wander off that much.

 

What shall I do? A furled sail or a deployed sail?

Historical....sail + oars are a no no. the Greek didn't use both together

I planned to do a furled sail, because of that, but with the added details a deployed sail can look nice. I don't know what to do now! 

Edited December 3, 2016 by Robin Lous

[EJ_L]

With all the detail you are putting into the sail, having it deployed may be the way to go. On the other hand, it is not uncommon for us model ship builders to put in lots of details in places that will never be seen...

[donrobinson]

I'm on the same page as E.J.. I guess it may come down to what details do you want to show off more, the sails or the deck and rigging. I hope this helps  

[Old Collingwood]

I would go with the sail raised and tied as that way you can show off the ropes and gear better not to mention the ours 

 

OC.

[Robin Lous]

Good point Don and OC!

 

With the sail furled, the rigging, deck and general appearance of the ship will be more visible.

Together with the historical sail/oar "issue"....I guess I better stick to my plan.

 

EJ....I come from planet Plastic and I'm used to do stuff never to be seen again. 

Something the Admiral loves to point out.

Edited December 3, 2016 by Robin Lous

[Old Collingwood]

Good point Don and OC!

 

With the sail ruffled, the rigging, deck and general appearance of the ship will be more visible.

Together with the historical sail/oar "issue"....I guess I better stick to my plan.

 

EJ....I come from planet Plastic and I'm used to do stuff never to be seen again. 

Something the Admiral loves to point out.

Me too  i once built that Fab plastic sub with all the intside details, that after building and painting inside and out - was glued shut never to see the inside again.

 

OC.

[CDW]

But hey, if you take your model/s to a contest, you can be sure some judge/s will be there with a flashlight looking inside every possible opening to see whether you finished everything inside or not.

Been there and done that many times in the past. 

[Louie da fly]

It's been a while since I checked your build, and I can only say how impressed I am with what you've achieved.

 

I have to make shields as well for my dromon and so far I haven't found a satisfactory way to do it. Maybe I can emulate your method. Can you provide some more detail on how you went about it?

 

Steven 

[Robin Lous]

Hi Steven,

 

Sure...I used 0,15 mm thick brass sheet (Albion Alloys).

To shape the bowl I drilled a 1 cm hole in a scrap piece of 2mm thick plywood.

Lay an oversized piece of brass sheet on it and pressed the bowl with a round tipped hammer.

I didn't hammer...just pushed and turned it around until I had a nice bowl in the sheet.

Pushed the edge next to the bowl flat...think I used therear end of an Xacto handle for that...not sure.

Cut out the shield with scissors and filed the edge until I was happy with the result.

A trident decal, painted the edge black, gloss varnish.

 

Since the brass sheet is very thin, it's easy to shape.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Or...your build is 1:50 scale, that's very close to 28mm wargaming scale.

Take a look at this...

 

http://www.victrixlimited.com/collections/greek-ancients/products/greek-unarmoured-hoplites-and-archers

 

Robin

Edited September 19, 2017 by Robin Lous

[Mike Dowling]

My opinion for what it is worth is to go with the furled sail idea. The occupants might only just have decided to 'ship' the oars.

[Robin Lous]

A bit quiet on the bireme front at the moment. 

December is a busy month for me. Not much shipyard time...and when I have time, I'm often too tired to do anything.

For a while I thought I was able to finish this build before the end of the year, but I'm afraid it will take me about 2 more months.

 

I more or less finished the yard, sail and most lines involved (6 more will go on...4 of them after I fixed it to the mast).

 

With the sail loosely pulled up. It works!

 

I'll tighten the sail to the yard a bit more and fix the tight bundle with sail coloured sewing thread. That won't be visible.

Even when tightened to the max, the sail bundle will be somewhat too bulky, but not too bad I think.

 

More... semi-soon I hope!

 

Robin

 

 

 

Edited September 19, 2017 by Robin Lous

[cog]

Looking good!! If you keep it bundled up, Robin, you can use less cloth. It will look more natural. It's a frequently use practice .. 

[Robin Lous]

Thanks Carl...and...yes...I read and thought about that, but I wasn't sure about what to do with the sail, so I kept the full size.

I was also curious about the the curtain system, so I made it 100% functional.

 

I'll reduce the size of the bundle more, but it will still be oversized.....for future builds I'll use half size or tissue paper.

 

Edit:

 

I just checked what's possible with what I have now...on the photo shown the thickness of the bundle is 1 cm (loosely pulled up).

When I pull it tight and press the sail together to the max it will be about 5 mm thick (35 cm converted to real size).

I think that's acceptable, specially since the sail wasn't tied to the yard...just pulled up by the bunt and clewlines.

 

I plan to tighten the centre part of the sail (8 buntlines) and let the edge (the clewlines) sag a bit. (pulled down by the sheet lines (Dutch: "schoot"). 

 

Note: the 8 buntlines will go to the large pin rail on the rear deck. The 2 clewlines and the sheet will go to the pin rail on the railing on the rear deck. Lines from the tip of the yard will also go there. With 1 stay going aft...15(!) lines altogether. This will result in the typical ancient Greek "harp look" rigging.

Edited December 10, 2016 by Robin Lous

[Robin Lous]

Today I finally found some time and...more important...energy to do at least something.

 

Finished the yard (hey! it's something!)

5 of the lines will go down alongside the mast. The rest will go to the several pin rails on the rear deck.

The 2 sheet lines and the 2 lines from the tips of the yard can wait.

 

I'll now "do" the mast. Not too much work...6 stays and 5 blocks fixed to the top of the mast...plus 6 blocks on the end of the stays.

 

Maybe the mast and yard can go on before Christmas? That will be nice. 

 

More semi-soon again!

 

Robin

Edited September 19, 2017 by Robin Lous

[MESSIS]

Thats a great crattmanship you are doing there.... congratulations

[Robin Lous]

Thanks Messis...I can't thank you enough for the photo's you send me. They help me tremendously!

It's not only nice for my build, but to know the purpose of all lines and blocks made me understand the rigging of ancient Greek ships.

 

Without your photo's it would look like..."ok, it looks a bit like something greek"...but not even close to the real thing.

 

Thanks a lot! 

 

Robin

[Mike Dowling]

What on earth is 'crattmanship' ? Must be something to do with boats I suppose!!

[cog]

Mike,

 

How's your Greek, or Dutch for that matter ...?

[MESSIS]

Είχα κάνει misspelling.... αλλά δεν θα διορθώσω για να ψάξετε λίγο τα ελληνικά.... best wishes for christmas and a happy new year

 

Chris

[MESSIS]

Happy holidays and all the best.... merry christmas and a happy new year....

[Robin Lous]

Merry Christmas to you all!

 

The kind people here make my build even more enjoyable! I'm not even sure I could manage to do it without you guys.

Not even asked for much advise, but the encouraging words are very helpful.

 

I'm so looking forward to continue and finish the bireme. 

Extreme december business now.....think 450+ customers per day who need advise and gifts wrapped. It's insane!

The shipyard will go full swing again soon...right now I'm glad I survived the day!

 

Thanks guys!

 

Robin

Edited December 24, 2016 by Robin Lous

[Robin Lous]

I'm back on the shipyard!

 

Things slowed down early december and I've done nothing at all the last 2 weeks, but now it's January and I have the time, peace of mind and energy needed to work on my build again.

 

Where was I? Ah! yep....the mast!

 

Here I go again!....more soon!

 

Robin

[Torbogdan]

I look forward to new pictures of your great ship!

[Robin Lous]

Mast done.

 

Nothing spectacular and the only reason I post this is because it's a "I'm back on track" photo.

 

So I placed the mast with the 6 stays attached to it (1 goes forward, 1 goes to the rear and 2 to each side).

I now must do the blocks. One on each stay and the same amount of blocks attached to the ship to tention the stays.

 

I'm still struggling with the proper nautical word for them. In the Dutch language...and nautical terminology... these blocks are called "jufferblokken"...dead eyes in the English language. The Dutch language makes no difference between one or three eyes. They serve the purpose of a dead eye block...just 550 BC...with one eye. It's what the ancient Greek used. English nautical terminology call one eyed blocks...heart blocks.

I just don't know how to call them here. 

 

Pfff....anyway....the first update in almost 3 weeks.

 

Now...12 blocks (give them a name...I don't know) to do to attach the stays to the ship.

 

With some luck....monday.

 

More soon.

 

Robin

Edited September 19, 2017 by Robin Lous

[EJ_L]

Call them what you want it's your log!

 

I do like to try to use the proper word for a part both for my education and that of who ever is reading my post. That being said, I still don;t always do that. Often times I am trying to explain something that either I or my readers do not fully understand and therefore common wording must be used. I run into that a lot on facebook when I am sharing with my friends and family. If I use wording like abaft, gunwale, bulwark, even port and starboard they can easily get lost. At that time I have to decide how much typing I want to do. Do I explain every term or do I just simplify? Simplify usually wins.   

 

Anyway, welcome back to your build! As you said, it may not be much but it is another step forward and a little closer to finishing.

[Robin Lous]

hiya EJ!

 

Yeah....the difficulty is...we (the Dutch) have the odd habit to feel superior, because we used to bully half the world with our infamous VOC.

We find it hard to realise we're no longer on top of the food chain, so we keep pretending...against all odds and reality.

 

Aren't we cute? 

 

About Facebook....search for my name. Friends and family are my wooden ship adventure cheerleaders. 

When I tried to explain....it's not a good idea to slam a bottle of champagne against the bow when finished...they simply claim the bottle to drink! (clever gits!) It's tough to be Dutch! ....specially since we have to deal with the Dutch each and every day ourselves!

[Old Collingwood]

I'm back on the shipyard!

 

Things slowed down early december and I've done nothing at all the last 2 weeks, but now it's January and I have the time, peace of mind and energy needed to work on my build again.

 

Where was I? Ah! yep....the mast!

 

Here I go again!....more soon!

 

Robin

Keep going you can do it - we will all join you for a slipway lauching party :)

 

 

OC.

[Robin Lous]

Disaster struck!

 

Remember these?

 

The 23 blocks I made (I need 17 of them)....They're gone 

 

Today I was ready to attach the blocks to the stays and to the receiving end...on the deck and to the sides of the ship.

 

I made my coffee...cleared my (messy) workbench and was ready to do the job.

The small plastic cup (until last week) with them in front of me...on the cutting mat....with tools, glue and whatever.

 

Only difference...the cup was empty. No blocks....gone!

 

"Darling? you have an idea what happened here?"

"Those grape seeds? I threw them away if you don't mind"

"Oh...please...say that's not true"

"What?"

"My blocks!"

"Your what?"

"Took me days to make them!"

"They looked like grape seeds"

"Never mind  "

 

Sigh!

Edited September 19, 2017 by Robin Lous

[EJ_L]

Oh no!!!! Reasons why I am glad my Admiral stays out of my shipyard. We each have our own spaces that we do not mess with the stuff in there. At least this time you know how to make them so it is just the time required to build and not to design. 

 

As horrible as that is, the story did make me laugh a little. Forgive me though as I do feel your pain.

[Robin Lous]

Yeah...it's completely my own fault (so glad I put the finished oars in a box...in a drawer...a "me only" drawer), but we had an argument over it.

 

"but...I thought!?!?!"

"you can think anywhere...but please don't think in my room....just don't!...it's my little place"

"but...but  "

"ok...get your coat...we go to a restaurant"

"yay!"

"from now on...grape seeds are BLOCKS...at least in MY room!

"aye aye sir!"

 

It really was my own fault...my desk IS a mess! ( but it's my mess!)

 

I now ordered ready made blocks (with more "stuff" of course!)