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Trireme Olympias by Richard Braithwaite


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Starting to plan the first of these projects...

Extract of plan 26 - looks quite involved...

The timber frame is covered with leather on the sides and back and has leather strips for the seat "upholstry"

Would be nice to make from real leather, but not sure if I can shave it down thin enough for 1/24 sale...

 

 

Edited by Richard Braithwaite
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Really nice work on this build Richard; sorry for being a bit of a 'looker on' for so long.  I have enjoyed following without making a comment.  I managed to shave some nice 'kid' leather down for use at scale 1:64 so you should be OK if you tried?

 

cheers

 

Pat

If at first you do not suceed, try, and then try again!
Current build: HMCSS Victoria (Scratch)

Next build: HMAS Vampire (3D printed resin, scratch 1:350)

Built:          Battle Station (Scratch) and HM Bark Endeavour 1768 (kit 1:64)

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Hi guys, I came across a really unique process of constructing framed hulls. It seems extremely suitable for a smaller scale or miniature trireme model because of its exposed hull in final construction. It allows for the really small and thin internal ribs of a trireme to be made at small scale without the risk of breaking when planked over. The solid carved hull also provides a base for the ribs to be bent around maintaing the grain direction maximising strength. I just think this is really cool to share and might just give a bit of inspiration for anyone thinking of building a minitare olympias or any ship with an exposed hull of the sort with similar construction methods of a larger model. As such, I have my own eyes set on pursuing a miniature olympias model in the future.

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That seems to be a pretty common jig for ships boats and small craft.  I think Louie the Fly uses them on most of his ships also.

Mark
"The shipwright is slow, but the wood is patient." - me

Current Build:                                                                                             
Past Builds:
 La Belle Poule 1765 - French Frigate from ANCRE plans - ON HOLD           Triton Cross-Section   

 NRG Hallf Hull Planking Kit                                                                            HMS Sphinx 1775 - Vanguard Models - 1:64               

 

Non-Ship Model:                                                                                         On hold, maybe forever:           

CH-53 Sikorsky - 1:48 - Revell - Completed                                                   Licorne - 1755 from Hahn Plans (Scratch) Version 2.0 (Abandoned)         

         

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

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Very nice work Richard, your model is looking great!

 

cheers

 

Pat

If at first you do not suceed, try, and then try again!
Current build: HMCSS Victoria (Scratch)

Next build: HMAS Vampire (3D printed resin, scratch 1:350)

Built:          Battle Station (Scratch) and HM Bark Endeavour 1768 (kit 1:64)

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On 10/1/2019 at 11:26 AM, Roger Pellett said:

Unlike modern “high tech” rowing, this appears to be all arms and backs with short strokes

The crew in the video is new so the first order of business is to be synchronized. Form would come later. An eight man crew takes a month or two before proficient and longer to be competitive. (That’s based on my personal experience from the 1980’s.)

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 11/5/2021 at 9:30 PM, Johnny.D said:

I'm just curious to know Richard, how did you replicate all the posts for the outrigger and top deck supports with their high part count and complex shape.

Unfortunately the shape of the hull changes so that these timbers have to be shaped individually. I used the jig shown in the photo below to ensure that the outer canopy supports would line up with vertically above the outrigger at the correct height...I cant find a photo of the arrangement I used for the outrigger supports, but the issues are very similar...

DSC_0070.thumb.JPG.2143d561e9bd6be2b50d9416db233fd4.JPG

Edited by Richard Braithwaite
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On 10/22/2021 at 1:00 AM, BANYAN said:

Really nice work on this build Richard; sorry for being a bit of a 'looker on' for so long.  I have enjoyed following without making a comment.  I managed to shave some nice 'kid' leather down for use at scale 1:64 so you should be OK if you tried?

 

cheers

 

Pat

Pat

Thanks for the comment. Yes I was thinking that split pigskin lining shaved down might work. It needs to be about 0.25mm thick to fit in the recess in the arms of the chair...

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Hi again Richard, the other trick I have tried was to print a 'skin type' light pattern (which included the nail/tacks on the edges) onto brown paper, and pasted in place with a matt varnish.  if the leather idea doesn't work out, this may also be worth experimenting with.

 

cheers

 

Pat

Edited by BANYAN

If at first you do not suceed, try, and then try again!
Current build: HMCSS Victoria (Scratch)

Next build: HMAS Vampire (3D printed resin, scratch 1:350)

Built:          Battle Station (Scratch) and HM Bark Endeavour 1768 (kit 1:64)

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I am using holly for constructing the Trierarch's chair. Its a remarkably fine grained hard wood that can be machined rather like a soft metal such as aluminium and I hope to be able to mill scale joints in accordance with the drawing. I have a large amount of holly from an 8 inch diameter tree that I cut down about 30 years ago (!!). I cut the (5 foot) log into 1 inch planks, painted the ends and stacked them to dry out in our garage. As you can see from the picture below they warped a bit while seasoning, which makes it a bit awkward to cut pieces from it, particularly as my circular saw (https://www.byrnesmodelmachines.com/) can only cut a maximum depth of 15mm...so I've been cutting chunks out of it with a handsaw...

PA312833small.thumb.jpg.cfb9559fda4dc3126a19cab883b4f79c.jpg

 

Here are some timbers machined to size from this log ready for final shaping and jointing to make up the various components for the chair. PB012835-small.jpg.9214301e376bf130d7f1fcc319d0da83.jpg

 

Edited by Richard Braithwaite
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Marking out and machining the chair back timber. I've purchased a set of 0.5mm engraving end milling tools which I'm using here to cut the base of the back and accurately cut the sides so that the width of the chair will be correct. As you can see the tool is very slender and delicate, I broke one by being overambitions about the depth of cut (0.2mm cut and a slow steady feed is tops for a hard wood like holly...). The cutting part of the tool is only 5mm long so I had to finish the cuts with a saw (maximum cut shown in the picture), but still a great improvement over me trying to do it freehand...

m also hoping to use the tool for cutting mortices for the various joints as its is the right size

Chair-back-1.thumb.jpg.6bf3511d00e9f7c22964b3d9c764adbc.jpg

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13 hours ago, Richard Braithwaite said:

my circular saw (https://www.byrnesmodelmachines.com/) can only cut a maximum depth of 15mm...

?

That is a surprise. Can I ask what size blade are you using? I ask because I want to know if there is a limitation on the saw that I am not aware of. I have cut 22mm oak on mine, am I possibly exceeding spec?

 

I like what you are doing with this build.

 

Bruce

🌻

STAY SAFE

 

A model shipwright and an amateur historian are heads & tails of the same coin

current builds:

HMS Berwick 1775, 1/192 scratchbuild; a Slade 74 in the Navy Board style

Mediator sloop, 1/48 - an 18th century transport scratchbuild 

French longboat - CAF - 1/48, on hold

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6 hours ago, bruce d said:

?

That is a surprise. Can I ask what size blade are you using? I ask because I want to know if there is a limitation on the saw that I am not aware of. I have cut 22mm oak on mine, am I possibly exceeding spec?

 

I like what you are doing with this build.

 

Bruce

I think you may be right. With my 100mm saw blade I can do a deeper cut. So I don't think you will be exceeding the spec if you can make the cut. It wont cope with a 5 foot long 1 inch thick holly plank though, so at some point I shall have to get/borrow a larger saw to cut some usable pieces for model building.

Edited by Richard Braithwaite
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First pic shows seat back machined on Unimat and second pic shows the outer and inner radius shaped by hand...

The piece is deep enough for me to cut the rake of the seat back. I think I will cut the mortice and tenon first to give the join some strength and then work out how to mount it on my milling table to cut the rake...

Chair-back-2.jpg.af8d65b8f0df10b845be9b6e81da28b3.jpg.a34079dec91d1a6309285f8728fc6db0.jpg

 

Edited by Richard Braithwaite
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  • 1 month later...

Continuing with the Trierach's seat back.

Photos in order from top left:

1. Seat back reoriented in jig. Shown after  the rear face has been machined.

2. Jig altered to take out the 20 degree angle so that the front face can be machined parallel to the rear face. In order to hold the piece down I designed the jig with two clamping positions. This photograph shows the first clamping position which allowed the top half of the front face to be machined.

3. Clamp moved tot he second position so that the bottom part of the front face could be machined.

4. Front face completely machined

5. Completed seat back.

As the maximum dimension of this part is only 23mm I think I would have struggled to make it without the help of my Unimat🙂

Milling-seat-back.thumb.jpg.087dc1390a849d517f2b6c2d8d7bee84.jpg

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