A small cog c. 1410 by Brinkman - FINISHED - scale 1:20

[Louie da fly]

Probably. Apart from anything else they were used for fishing, and the Mary Rose (about 150 years later, admittedly) had boarding nettings.

[Brinkman]

Thanks  @Jim Lad,  I guess rope net would be best. I was a bit scared it would detract from the barrels too much, but perhaps it just will look good. It will any way be fun to make.

 

Strong rope nettings were also used by hunters according to images.

[Ab Hoving]

The bowsprit might originally be used to serve for the bowlines (I suppose).

[J11]

Here's a couple of reference images for barrel tie downs:

 

 

 

 

You've done a wonderful build, been enjoying the blog.

 

[Brinkman]

@Ab Hoving ah yes, you are right - bowlines. I think my plans had them in mind in the beginning, but that I then removed them for some reason. Maybe I will have them to give the bowsprit something to do.

 

@Jonathan11 Thank you for your kind words and pics. That's some good tiedowns, better than what I first had in mind. I'll see if that or the netting turns out best.

[Brinkman]

The chose came down to cargo netting the barrels as they lie too haphazardly for nice tie downs. 

 

I drew a grid to use as a guide and started knotting.

 

It's funny how I knew the knot in my hands after making 200 of them, but then I had to think about how to do it as the standing part at one point got really short and then I had no idea of how to do it any more and had to rewatch the instructions again.

 

 

The barrels is as I said the primary cargo and I guess the boat perhaps left the fishing village loaded with salted fish once a week, but I guess they also tried to get more things to the market as well and loaded miscellaneous wares on the foredeck.

 

I got a lot of millet straws left over from making the barrel hoops and tried to use them for other uses that you use willow for. Like baskets.

 

At first I wanted to show their contents as well, but I guess you would cover them up with cloth to protect them in transport.

 

I have started to look into making the sail and was suprised of the tips of using paper. One thought I have had through out the build is to use locally sourced non specialized materials and this silkspan paper sounded very specialized. But reading a bit more I see that it's basically what I have used on airplanes and that's basically just washi paper from the craft store.

 

And it really acts like cloth in this scale! So I made some cargo for the fore deck. You see this kind of bales all over the medieval imagery in all shapes and sizes The are made of sleeping pad foam covered in washi paper.

 

Edited November 30, 2020 by silverman834

[bigpetr]

Beautiful.

[Ian B]

What super build, the cargo and the rope work just makes it outstanding-- well done

[Louie da fly]

Yet another brilliant addition to a superb build. So impressive.

[J11]

Fantastic job with the barrels tie down. Looks very historical! An Excellent build to be proud of!

 

     

[Chuck Seiler]

[maurino]

19 / 500

beautiful details 👍

[Brinkman]

Thank you all for the encouragement!

 

I've been working on four sub projects this last week - cleats, ballast, figures and sail. I can't really say much about the sail yet as I've mostly just done test pieces for now.

 

First project was better belaying points. I really didn't like how the braces were fastened as they are adjusted all the time when sailing. And there must be some more medieval way of doing this, but I installed more modern looking cleats where the helmsman can adjust them almost while still hold the tiller.

 

 

Earlier I had planned to have bricks as the main cargo as there was a similar wreck that still had it in the hold (calculations show that it had too many bricks in it, and therefore it sank). So I ordered a mould for bricks of the correct size. 

 

But I didn't need it any more as I made barrels for cargo. But the thesis I based this on mentioned the use of bricks as ballast! The advantage of bricks instead of stones as ballast is that you can sell it with a profit if you don't need it anymore. The ship is a bit tailheavy and migth need some ballast under the fore deck.

 

Bricks became a popular building material at this time in the low countries and was a big industry.

 

 

For figures I tried to find posable figures in the correct size but decided to try to 3D print them instead. I work with CAD all day and want to do it as little as possible in my free time so I'll print them naked and as @Louie da fly suggested make the clothing out of rice paper.

 

I first needed to build a 3d model of the ship to get the poses correct. But I only needed the decks and what the figures interact with. So I made simple patterns out of paper.

 

that I scanned and built in the cad program I normally work in, Icem Surf.

 

(Yes, it looks as if it hasn't been updated since the nineties, but it's the leading program in my profession)

 

Then I imported this into the program called Poser

(The tiller got a bit bigger than in the physical model as I just made a rough sketch in cad)

 

And did the same for a person in the front of the ship.

 

 

The vertical cylinder in his right hand represents a sounding line.

 

Now I'm waiting to get them back from a couple of friends with a SLA printer.

[Louie da fly]

This is very exciting. 3D printing fascinates me, but I really have no idea how to do it myself. I look forward to seeing your figures, to see if the size of 3D printed figures is correct for what they are doing, or whether you'll need to do some adjusting.

 

I note the sounding line in the last screenshot - so this is a piece of rope with a weight on the end? 

 

Lastly, just curious - the archaeological report gives the brick size as 28.5 cm x 13.4 cm x 6.4 cm. Are the bricks you've made approximately this size in full scale?

Edited December 6, 2020 by Louie da fly

[Brinkman]

Yes, it will be exciting to see how 3d printing will transform modelmaking! I'm sure it will be much easier for smaller companys to sell custom resin kits. But I find it hard to find the line of how much to do in cad. Once I built an airplane and did details like engine, cowl, machineguns and wheels in cad and the rest with traditional methods. But it left me wondering why I didn't do it all in cad as I anyway did some bits that way. I think I will not feel the same way with this model.

 

It will be exciting to see how the figures will fit! I can always bend the limbs afterwards as it will be covered be clothing. But I'm a bit conserned about their proportions. They have correct proportions, but miniatures often are beefier and exaggerate heads and hands so perhaps these will look wrong?

 

Yes, the person will hold a line with a weight. I think it will look good to have something extend beneath the ship when it sits on it's stand.

 

I was really lucky to find a mold for the bricks that made them 28x13x7 cm! Just about the right size.

Edited December 6, 2020 by silverman834

[Chuck Seiler]

    When did bricks come into common use.  I guess I never gave it much thought.  I like the mold.  I could have used that for my PHILADELPHIA cook stove.

 

    3D printing is fascinating.  Printer prices are coming down but the other technology involved confounds me; scanners? CAD?  A serious investment in resources and learning. 

[Matt D]

On 11/30/2020 at 6:41 AM, silverman834 said:

I got a lot of millet straws left over from making the barrel hoops and tried to use them for other uses that you use willow for. Like baskets

You made those baskets?!  They look amazing!  That had to be a really neat process.

[Brinkman]

@Chuck Seiler apperantly bricks has been used since 7500 BC! Roman used them and became popular in northen europe in the early middle ages.

 

I understand that there is a step learning curve for many in using 3D technologies, but I wonder if it is as in the eighties when it was thought that everyone using computers in the future would need to be able to code. Perhaps it soon will be really simple to do 3d scans and print it.

 

@Matt D Thank you! It was quite fiddly indeed. I did two failed baskets before these, but I have also weaved a full sized a couple of years ago. 

[bigpetr]

I am looking forward to see your figures. I want to do my figures basicly the same. I will do rought 3d scans of some protagonist (the most probably my brother) is desired poses and use it to pose naked figure, print it on FFD 3d printer and dress with paper cloth. I did some tests and it looks good, poses are realy lifelike.

 

This is one of test figure printed in scale 1:48. Figure layers are exgerated here, they are only lightly visible upclose and are not noticeable from distance the model will be looked at. SLA printer would do better job but I have this printer at my hand and most of it will be under the cothes anyway. Maybe I should find someone to print hands and heads on SLA printer for me.

 

I had the same dilema with 3d printed vs hand made the whole model. I feel it the same as you silverman. Hand made model has different feeling. 3d printed model feels like I did not realy buld it eventhou I designed it completly in 3d. It feels like bought one. It is somehow soulless. But to be able to 3d print some acessories or small parts can be great help.

[Louie da fly]

I was going to comment on those baskets as well. They're briliant.

 

Artists usually don't bother showing anything as prosaic as sounding for depth, but here's an English picture from maybe late 15th early 16th century. It's the earliest one (and perhaps the only one) I know of showing a lead line in use.

 

[Brinkman]

@bigpetr I really like that you will design your own figures and print them! That feels much more "hand made" then my "ready made" figures I just pose. (Nothing wrong with that either, I just see it as if I would have bought posable figures)

 

It really fits your build that you make the figures in cad along with your ship. It will be really interesting to see the progress in your thread.

 

@Louie da fly Thank you!

 

[Brinkman]

Yesterday I revisited the belaying points for a third time. Last week's were too bulky and had the wrong feeling to them. Then I saw a picture of a ship that was from the 19th or 20th century that just had metal hooks as belaying points.

 

 

and as I got more satified with the fastening of that side of the braces I also changed the other side's. That used to go under the clamp in a big hole and I moved it to a loop on the inside of the clamp instead.

 

 

You might not see it, but the toggle for the rearstay is also changed as the old one was jusg a straight pin. This has some shape to it.

 

I've heard that its good to be able to bail the ship. It feels wrong with a pump in this small vessel so I opt for simple bucket and bailer. The bailer is yet to be made, but the bucket was a quick and fun build.

 

 

I laid out tapered planks on a bit of tape and rolled it into a circle and used different things to pull it tight, just like how you use hoops in real life.

 

 

It worked much better than I could have hoped and it closed all the cracks.

 

 

 

My first plan was to use a rope as handle, but iron handles seem to have been more popular.

 

 

I also got the main anchor made. 

 

 

I didn't have thick enough brass sheets for the shank or arms, but I had wire that I could hammer flat to the correct thickness.

 

It's a bit hard to say what a medieval anchor looked like as there hardly are any finds and I don't really trust the artists for this kind of details. I made this as a mix of earlier viking anchors and later admiral anchors. The curvature of the arms and the ring in the crown are from the vikings and the separate flukes from later ones. And almost all medieval artists depict the anchors as more stout than either the earlier or later so I have a shorter shank.

 

I'm also done with the sail.

 

 

It's made from stripes of japanese tissue paper sewed together. These stitches and the ones for the bolt rope is out of scale, but I think it looks ok.

 

A bonnet is laced to the bottom so they are able to decrease the area in strong winds.

 

Edited December 13, 2020 by silverman834

[Jim Lad]

Haven't visited your log for a while and I've certainly missed out on seeing a lot of development on your beautiful model.  Your doing a superb job on all that deatail.

 

john

[bolin]

Nice details you are adding to your model. I especially like the bucket and the sail. The tissue paper actually looks quite realistic. Well done.

[Brinkman]

Thank you all for then likes and  @Jim Lad and @bolin for your very kind words.

 

And thank you bolin for your thread, the discussion in it regarding sails made me understand what bonnets were and why they were used. I had seen them before but just couldn't understand them at all.

 

The bailer is done. It is based on a viking find, but I guess bailer technology didn't develop all that fast. It looks like it contains very little water, but I measure it to be 0,5 liters (0,15 gallons)

[Louie da fly]

That seems about right, considering the fact that milk from the supermarket comes in 1 and 2 litre containers.

 

By the way, that's a really beautiful bucket and bailer. The quality of your work on the accessories - barrels, tarpaulins, baskets and now these - is superb and leaves me awestruck.

 

Steven

Edited December 15, 2020 by Louie da fly

[Brinkman]

Testing, testing. Is this keyboard on?

 

Sorry for the three month hiatus, but life got in the way. Well, it started as a planned break but then we moved to a new apartment and all interest of building disappeared. But now I got a room as a workshop and just as it started to get in order my interest of building came back!

 

The planned break was due to me building a base for the ship. I got really excited for a really silly idea and thought it best to have it completed before showing it here.

 

You know how I based this ship on a thesis? Why then not use that thesis as a base for the ship, literally?

 

So I bound it in a book and used it as a base.

 

Another hobby I have beside modelmaking is medieval bookbinding and thought it would be fun to bind this text that I now have read so many times. So I printed it and bound it with medieval techniques and in the same style as the cog.

 

-The covers are of pitched oak like the hull.

-The spine is covered in bleached linen like the sails.

-The row of nails along the cloth is like the rows of nails in the hull.

-The raised bands on the spine resembles the hull's frames.

-The headbands are covered with the rope used in the rigging.

-The herring used as a clasp brings to mind the ship's cargo.

 

This might not be a bookbinding forum, but I think many here would enjoy doing it so I will add couple of pics to give a small taste of it.

 

The pages are collected in signatures and sewn to linen laces.

The pages are cut to make them even.

Headbands are added as support.

And the covers are laced and pegged.

 

And this was the result

 

The title of the thesis is placed on the fore edge as they did back then and no, the thesis isn't really this thick. It is only fills the first third of the book, the rest is blank paper.

 

And it looks like this as a base

 

 

 

The funny thing is that this really is the second book I made. The first one was too small. You know what they say - measure once, bind twice.

 

Edited March 26, 2021 by silverman834

[Louie da fly]

That's such a great idea! And the vessel looks just right being supported by the book. It'll probably be something most people miss on first inspection, and you can perhaps enjoy the "Aha!" moment as they realise the book really is about the ship.

[bolin]

Wow, you certainly went the extra mile on that support!

[mtaylor]

This a most unusual yet fascinating stand for the model.  Well done, sir.