Greek Warship Bireme by NicholasManila - Amati - Scale 1/35

[NicholasManila]

Hello all! This is my first model ship I have ever made and I'm determined to make it look beatiful! I posted a question awhile back in regards to making the frame but due to family issues I had to take a LONG break with making my ship. Upon my return I find myself quite overwhelmed and confused. The manual (which I inluded a photo of) gives little to no detailed information on what I'm actually supposed to be doing. I'm not sure where I'm supposed to put the nails (in step 3) and I dont know what wood I'm supposed to use to start planking the bottom of the ship with. I've never even planked before! I've looked up many videos and articles and nothing is specific enough. So my main questions as of now- 

 

1. Clarification on step 3 

2. What wood do I use first to plank with?

 

I appreciate the help, I really want to get into this hobby so I need experience but I also don't want to mess my ship up! Thanks for the help! My ship is the "Greek Warship Bireme - Amati - Scale 1/35". 

 

Also, if anyone can send some videos that are helpful to beginners I will be willing to watch them, esspesially if they are specific to this model or videos/ articles about this model. I've seen a lot but I would love to see what you guys recommend, thanks!

Edited January 25, 2022 by NicholasManila

[Louie da fly]

I just read the instructions. SHEESH! No wonder you're confused! Unfortunately the person who translated them into English had very little idea.

 

My understanding of step 3 is "Nail and glue the wales to the frames indicated".

 

So, what is a wale? It's basically a thicker, heavier plank which gives the hull greater longitudinal strength. Here's my dromon with just the wales attached (note: I built mine a different way from yours - I used a "plug" - a bit of wood the same shape as the hull and planked over that, then added the frames afterward.)

 

 

and here it is fully planked and removed from the plug - you can see how the wales reinforce the planks.

 

 

So look for some bits of wood that look like they'll fit the bill. Do you have a diagram which shows the wales?

 

As for the planking, I can't really help you. The bundle of timber for the planking probably contains more pieces than the bundle for the decking.

 

But there have been at least two build logs for the same model -  

 and 

 

I hope they can help you. Messis also did an Amati bireme in 2015, but I couldn't find it in a search.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Steven

 

 

 

 

[NicholasManila]

thank you so much for the response. Here is the other diagrams shown in the manual. I'm not sure if this is the information you are reffereing to. 

[NicholasManila]

The darker brown wood has a sticker on it that says "hull planking" so I imagine thats what I use to plank the bottom of the ship. Theres another bundle of wood that says "deck planking". I just need to figure out what I do before planking. (which is step 3). 

[Louie da fly]

Hmm, it seems to me that step 3 should be after step 4. The wales aren't especially thick planks, they're glued on over the top after the planking is done. If you look at the note at the bottom of the section drawing "Plank the hull completely with strips mm 1x3. Then apply wales which must be shaped from mm 1x5 strips", this tells you what planks are needed for what - the main planking is from strips 1 mm (millimetre) thick by 3 mm wide and the wales are from strips 1 mm thick x 5 mm wide, and that the wales go on after the planking.

 

It seems to me that the terms "shams side" and "covering of the oars shams" means "false side" and "false oar covering" because they refer to the outrigger for the oars - which is a sort of "false hull" - rather than the hull itself . But I think you use the same 1x3 mm planks for the outriggers - you'd have to check whether you have the right amount of planking.

 

In fact I think it would be a wise idea to get hold of all your timber before you do anything else and spread it out by size (and type of wood - it looks like the decking is made of a light coloured wood and the outer planking from dark wood) and see if you can work out what each bunch is for.

 

Also if you have trouble with the English translation of an instruction, try typing the Italian instruction into Google Translate and see if it makes some sense - that's how I worked out what they seem to mean by "sham". For example, "inferior deck" just means "lower deck", and in the cross-section "banchi" means oarbenches, "ponte" means deck (you're at least lucky with the translation with this one - the Italian word is often translated as "bridge", which causes a lot of confusion to us English-speakers).

 

And I'd highly recommend you have a good look at the above build logs for this model. I think they might answer a lot of questions for you.

 

Steven

Edited March 9, 2021 by Louie da fly

[NicholasManila]

thank you so much Steven. I have looked at the build logs, but verything is just very new and quite confusing for me. It was ignorant of me to think this was going to be like legos lol! I'm going to compare all my timber like you said. Thanks so much for everything I feel more comfortable now that I talked to a real person about these things I'm confused on. I'll send you some pictures of my progress

[Louie da fly]

3 hours ago, NicholasManila said:

I'll send you some pictures of my progress

 

That'd be great. Probably your best bet would be to resurrect your build log and put them up there. And then you could ask any further questions on your build log as you progress through your build.

 

Another point - when you hit problems specific to this model maybe you could PM the guys whose build logs are referenced above, and ask them directly. They'd probably be very willing to help (though of course I can't speak for them). And also Messis, who built this model in 2015.

 

Best wishes with it. I look forward to seeing your further progress.

 

Steven

[JeffT]

Nicholas, is this a build log or are you just asking a question?

[NicholasManila]

Well, I'm open to it being a build log but right now its a question. 

[Louie da fly]

Hi Nicholas. Any progress on the Bireme?

 

Steven

[NicholasManila]

Back to it 

[Louie da fly]

Wonderful to see you back at the workface! That's looking very good so far.

 

By the way, now you're back into it, it might be time to change the title of this thread by taking out the word "clarification". You do it by going to the very first post you made and click on the three dots at the top right of the post, then select "edit" from the drop-down menu and change the wording of the title.

 

Looking forward to more progress on this.

 

Steven