Roman Quadrireme Galley by Ian_Grant - 1/32 Scale - RADIO

[Ian_Grant]

25 minutes ago, yancovitch said:

so wonderful to watch this build....gads...i could remove those blocks on the tower one by one, they're so clean.....such patience and attention to detail i never had.....amazing i still have my own teeth 😁

HaHa!  Vic, no patience was involved; I just drew some lines in the Inkscape program and the laser cutter machine etched the "blocks" into the surface for me. 

(and then cut out the full walls too).

[BANYAN]

Great to see the use of modern technologies in improving our hobby Ian.  Looking very good.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[yancovitch]

aha.....that's a bit of a relief.....hmmmm....i'm likely wrong, but the walls of the tower seem a bit thin, as ''they'' didn't have plywood in those days 😁...but maybe they are to scale........hmmmm.....

 

[Ian_Grant]

5 hours ago, yancovitch said:

aha.....that's a bit of a relief.....hmmmm....i'm likely wrong, but the walls of the tower seem a bit thin, as ''they'' didn't have plywood in those days 😁...but maybe they are to scale........hmmmm.....

Good eye. I wasn't sure of true scale either. I know after the corvus became obsolete (partly due to its weight's adverse effect on seaworthiness) they used relatively light-weight "boarding bridges"; Pitassi also mentions that the "towers" became light, collapsible affairs which allowed them to be lowered and stowed when not used. They weren't meant to actually be like protective castles for the archers apparently. My 1/16" ply is a scale 2" which is my interpretation for "collapsibility";  according to Steven ("Louie Da Fly") these ships' actual hull "ribs" were only 2" x 2" members to keep the structure light and nimble for human power.

[yancovitch]

aha...thanks for that.....!!

[Ian_Grant]

When I went to the hobby shop to get some paint the other day, I happened to notice Vallejo Model Colours "Verdigris Glaze" and thought, "Aha! Just what I need for the ram!".

 

Over the last two days I have applied three washes of this verdigris, after painting the ram a bronze-like brown (the "bronze" paint was out of stock). Picture below. By the way, I really like these Vallejo paints better than the Humbrol tins which seemingly can't be found over here now.

 

What think you? Do I need to apply a wash of white at some of the projections? A little black? To me it looks pretty good but .....

 

 

Edited January 11 by Ian_Grant

[Javelin]

Looks brilliant and real to me! Wouldn't add any further washes to it.

[Glen McGuire]

Agree with Javelin.

[Ian_Grant]

37 minutes ago, Javelin said:

Looks brilliant and real to me! Wouldn't add any further washes to it.

 

30 minutes ago, Glen McGuire said:

Agree with Javelin.

Thanks guys, I will just clear-coat it and consider it finished.

 

Got the ventilation strakes glued onto their black backgrounds today. She's coming together!  I'm happy.

[BANYAN]

Hi Ian, overall your build is looking great.  One small point that may/may not bear further consideration is the motion/force of the bow wave on the verdigris seen on the ram.  Would the leading edges of the ram be more 'clean'?  I would not say polished as these would never have achieved sufficient speed to polish the edges.  However would a gradient leading back from the leading edges be more realistic.  That said, if the vessel had been alongside for a while this gradient would be gone but more salt/barnacles seen.  Only offering this as you asked  and may be a little OTT.

cheers

Pat

[Ian_Grant]

You could be right .... I've never seen an ancient galley ... looking at photos of "Olympias" the ram looks like a pretty uniform verdigris green all over. I may add a little more; I don't want to simply "paint" it opaque verdigris.

Edited January 13 by Ian_Grant

[rookie]

I thought the green on copper is due to exposure to air

looks great by the way 

[Ian_Grant]

On 1/17/2024 at 3:20 PM, rookie said:

I thought the green on copper is due to exposure to air

looks great by the way 

Maybe you're right. People debate how to paint copper plating on their models. I just like the look of this verdigris, and everyone will know what it is.

[Ian_Grant]

More progress. Finished the inner bulwarks at bow and stern and added all the cap rails. Archery tower painting is complete now too.

Next steps are a little light sanding of remaining areas of the external hull, then on to painting it in all its gaudy glory.

 

One thing I am wondering about is the brass and copper "bling" from etsy. Most of it will be painted yellow, except for gold colour at the stem itself. Will CA glue the backs of these strips to a painted surface, do you think, or should I CA the metal on to the sanded epoxy resin then paint the detailing in situ? Opinions please, bearing in mind that this will get wet on the water.

 

Pictures;

 

Overall shot. I wish I hadn't made the bilge so rounded and large, but my weight estimates were off as explained earlier. It will be unseen when on water. And now that I see the entirety, It could do with a 3/4" reduction in beam. Oh well, no one really knows about these ships for sure.

Stern. The brass tube in the middle is for wire leads to a possible "flickering LED" lantern hanging off the fantail; the other two are the rudder tubes. Speaking of which, I can't figure out how to draw the fantail decoration for either laser cutting or 3D printing. Limitations in TinkerCAD on the one hand, and my understanding of Inkscape on the other.

The bow.

Marcus likes his tower.

Boat with all removable deck portions off.

Edited January 29 by Ian_Grant

[Richard Braithwaite]

On 1/11/2024 at 10:19 PM, Ian_Grant said:

When I went to the hobby shop to get some paint the other day, I happened to notice Vallejo Model Colours "Verdigris Glaze" and thought, "Aha! Just what I need for the ram!".

 

Over the last two days I have applied three washes of this verdigris, after painting the ram a bronze-like brown (the "bronze" paint was out of stock). Picture below. By the way, I really like these Vallejo paints better than the Humbrol tins which seemingly can't be found over here now.

 

What think you? Do I need to apply a wash of white at some of the projections? A little black? To me it looks pretty good but .....

 

 

Ive got one of these to make...I was thinking of making from brass sheet and chemically coloring, but 3D printed and then painted looks much easier, and probably closer in apearance to a casting...

[Ian_Grant]

3 hours ago, Richard Braithwaite said:

I've got one of these to make...I was thinking of making from brass sheet and chemically coloring, but 3D printed and then painted looks much easier, and probably closer in appearance to a casting...

Yes, I thought of using brass too but I don't have much experience in soldering multi-part assemblies.

[Ian_Grant]

I decided to CA the decorative bits on before painting, so the glue can get a "bite" on the sanded epoxy resin hull instead of a paint surface. It will however be quite tedious to paint these details later. On the other hand if I had pre-painted them the paint probably would have cracked off as I bent the brass to follow the required contours.

 

At the bow:

At the stern:

In other news, the Roman navy recruiters sent a new crew member over to help Marcus guard the ship while in the builder's yard.

What a lookout team! I really must give Marcus back his javelin (pilum).

Edited February 1 by Ian_Grant

[Glen McGuire]

What the heck!  I thought I was missing a penguin and now I know where he ran off to!! 

 

Glad he found a job with you, Ian.  No doubt he will be a lot happier with the weather in Canada versus Texas.  ⛄⛄⛄

[Kevin-the-lubber]

19 hours ago, Richard Braithwaite said:

Ive got one of these to make...I was thinking of making from brass sheet and chemically coloring, but 3D printed and then painted looks much easier, and probably closer in apearance to a casting...

There’s a very good thread here about painting to look like metal https://modelshipworld.com/topic/35788-painting-resin-printed-cannon-bronze-color/. I’ve used Vallejo metallic bronze and their Verdi Gris to reasonably good effect but I’m not in the same league as some of the stuff in that thread. 

 

[Thukydides]

12 hours ago, Ian_Grant said:

It will however be quite tedious to paint these details later.

I think you made the right choice. Where they are not obscured if you paint them first it shouldn't be to bad, especially if they are going to be a lighter colour than the hull. The detail looks like it would work with drybrushing well which is minimal effort and if you paint the hull later, the overspill won't matter. Could even consider masking them off after painting if you are worried about the steadiness of your hand, but hard corners tend to be pretty easy to follow as long as you take your time and don't try to get right up to the edge immediately.

[Ian_Grant]

I went to the library to pick up a book on hold (one of Ian Ross's excellent "Twilight of Empire" series) and took a memory stick with the 3D file for stern medallions, in the event that the printers were available. They were so I whipped off the pair (33 minutes, 70 cents). One has a notch for the stern flagstaff to pass through, enabling the crew to lower the staff if required. Here they are with some primer on them. I had to use black PLA this time.

And here in place:

I've been applying primer to the ship too. Some parts are at two coats, some at one, all around the lower ports at zero. I can now see it's going to be quite a chore to mask and paint it all. Amazing how a little paint highlights the flaws. Some filling and sanding will be needed.

 

Tomorrow we're off (at 4am 😭) to fly to Bonaire for a week of snorkelling/scuba/hiking. The boat will await my return.

 

Edited February 4 by Ian_Grant

[Keith Black]

 Well, I'm quite late to this party! Sorry, Ian. Enjoy your trip.

 

 

 

[Ian_Grant]

Great trip but back to reality. Bonaire is for scuba/snorkeling on its 1st class reef; there isn't a lot else to do there. There may be a night club in Kralendijk but we're too old and tired for that stuff. Lots of tasty seafood dinners. I'm very pleased with my underwater camera (Olympus TG-6) except that it doesn't have much zoom power.

 

For example here are a few shots I took:

 

Anyway, back to our regular programming.

 

Wednesday afternoon I will be rowing the galley in a local pool which will be its debut to the RC boat club members. I've been slowly painting it but must stop now to let the paint cure. I haven't painted anything that will be in the water; after Wednesday I have another month to finish painting and to clearcoat it for protection before the last winter indoor pool session. I will spend tomorrow improving the oar mechanisms (according to findings of the September trial in our pool) then reinstalling to make all ready.

 

Below the red and above the main wale will be "natural", the same colour as the inner bulwark panels to represent unpainted wood.

Below w/l will be not-quite-black including the quadrilaterals at the bow. The black will extend up the stem and stern posts and also be on the cap rails.

The decorative bits between the colours will be yellow.

Some stem decorations will be gold.

 

I still need to add the shield motifs in the outer bulwark panels.

Still need to make rudders, scorpion artillery, fantail decorations, deck ventilation hatches, two fake access ladders to belowdecks, mast and yard, artemon and yard, aft flagstaff with eagle atop, and of course a crew.

Oh and I still need to shorten the upper oars by 1/2" as discussed previously.

 

Will try to make a video at the pool. Planning to take my bathing suit, just in case. 😐

 

 

Edited February 20 by Ian_Grant

[yancovitch]

amazing how something so graceful and colorful can exude such power.......

[BANYAN]

She is looking great, very nicely presented Ian.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Glen McGuire]

Wonderful paint job, Ian!  Looking forward to the video!!

[Ian_Grant]

6 minutes ago, Glen McGuire said:

Wonderful paint job, Ian!  Looking forward to the video!!

I'll have to read up on how to video with this camera. No manual was included; do they expect us to carry around 8.5"x11" printouts wherever we go?

A pet peeve of mine.

[72Nova]

Those colors really pop Ian, nicely done. With it sitting on your table saw, it really put's into perspective of big she is, fantastic job👍

 

Michael D.

[BETAQDAVE]

One begs to ask the question Ian, just how heavy is this beast going to get when its fully loaded?  Looks like you might need to get pumped up at the gym first to launch and recover it. 💪🏋️‍♂️

[Ian_Grant]

On 2/20/2024 at 12:09 PM, BETAQDAVE said:

One begs to ask the question Ian, just how heavy is this beast going to get when its fully loaded?  Looks like you might need to get pumped up at the gym first to launch and recover it. 💪🏋️‍♂️

It's true. Back when I guesstimated the weight of hull/mechanisms/battery/electronics I was way over, so the bilge volume is needlessly high. Trials in our pool in September yielded a weight of 22-23 lbs to set it to waterline, which is about 50% lead-shot ballast.

 

It's a real issue trying to get it up the basement stairs and through doorways with oars sticking out both sides, and its 53" LOA.

I will need a dolly or a wagon to take it to water.

Edited February 22 by Ian_Grant