The San Marco mosaic ship c. 1150 by Louie da fly - 1:75

[woodrat]

As long as the weight of the knees doesnt sink the ship by the stern!😎

Dick

[Ian_Grant]

Steven, I'm constantly amazed at all these pictures you dig up .... impressive research.

[Louie da fly]

Just a matter of keeping one's eyes open - all from stuff on the internet.

 

Steven

[Louie da fly]

And I've just discovered that February 3rd is the feast of St Blaise, patron saint of woodcarvers (and wool combers).

 

Steven

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

  Super build and great carving !   ...  inspirational as well.  I know a 'sheep to shawl' person, and have sympathy for wool shearers, washers and combers - what, with all the soil, grease-in-the-fleece and 'dingle berries' found on wool from the sheep.  Hmmmm - lots of sheep down under, mate.

[Louie da fly]

Yes, my home is on a hill overlooking the Yarrowee River on which sits a wool scouring mill which closed in (I think) the 1970's. It wouldn't have been a very nice place to live at the time, what with the smells and whatever came out of that enormous brick chimney. And I can imagine the effluent was released into the river, though there are what were probably settling ponds. But it's a beautiful spot now, very des res.

 

The mill is a beautiful Victorian building with decorative brickwork, arched windows etc. It's been languishing since it closed down, but somebody is currently refurbishing it to become a "multi-function centre" (whatever that is).

 

We see it every morning from our bedroom window and it really is a beautiful addition to the scene, whatever it may have been back in the day.

 

Steven

[Ian_Grant]

"des res"  ??

[druxey]

Desirable residence?

[Louie da fly]

Yep. That's real estate agent abbreviations from the old ads in newspaper "For Sale" sections, where they were charged per letter. 

 

Steven 

[Louie da fly]

Well, the Silkspan I ordered arrived. Unfortunately it looks like I ordered the wrong thickness - I asked for the thinner version and it's see-through. Not much use for sails.

 

I can either order more, of the heavier grade (postage costs as much as the stuff itself!), or try gluing two layers together to see if that will work.

 

But I had an idea - there's a radio control aircraft club here in Ballarat. Maybe I can go along to them and try to arrange a swap - my Silkspan for heavier stuff. It - COULD - WORK! (shades of Gene Wilder as Young Frankenstein).

 

In the meantime, I've been carving the second steersman.

  

It didn't occur to me that in that stance he looks very much like a zombie . . .

In fact, it's starting to look a bit like a zombie apocalypse . . .

 

 

Steven

[Mark Pearse]

12 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

or try gluing two layers together to see if that will work

Hi Steven,

 

I can confirm it works, I used acrylic paint (tinted to suit the colour I was after) plus 10-15% PVA, then rolled on with a 100mm roller. There's some more details starting from about post 344, linked below. I used a 6H pencil for seams & finished with clear matt spray finish. 5 years later & there is no sign of any delimitation or discolouring. 

 

 

 

[Louie da fly]

Well, that's worth knowing. Thanks, Mark!

 

Steven

[Roger Pellett]

Steven,

 

The consensus on available material for sails is that no matter what you choose, it will still be over scale.  It would therefore seem that the problem with your Silkspan is not that it’s too thin but that it’s translucent. So instead of laminating two thin sheets together, why not just paint what you have?  I have found that it’s easy to paint Silkspan with diluted acrylic paints.  If you first attach it to a frame, mist it with water, and let it dry you should have a drum tight surface to paint.

 

Roger

 

[Louie da fly]

Yes, it's the translucency I don't like. I like your solution, and I'll give it a try. Thanks.

 

Steven

[Louie da fly]

Oh, dear. I've just had to change my whole attitude to quarter rudders, now that I've seen this video from archaeologist Kroum Batchvarov, who's been working on the Black Sea finds:

 

 

I'll have to carve new steersmen to replace the ones I've done, with the tillers facing aft, not sideways! 

 

Steven

Edited February 12 by Louie da fly

[Mark Pearse]

19 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

archaeologist Kroum Batchvarov, who's been working on the Black Sea finds

 fascinating stuff, thanks for posting it

 

[druxey]

What Roger suggested is what I do. Stretch SilkSpan on a frame wet and let it dry. It will then be drum tight and without wrinkles. Paint to taste with one or more coats of dilute acrylic paint. I actually paint the seams with thicker acrylic paint using an old fashioned bow pen. The blades are adjustable for line width. Ta da! For very small scales, pencil would be easier.

Edited February 13 by druxey

[Louie da fly]

Looks like I have a new skill to learn . . .

 

Steven

[woodrat]

Thanks for showing us Kroum's Video, Steven. Very useful for future builds. Let's hope more preserved wrecks are found and that nondestructive visualisation of buried parts of the hulls and rigs can be achieved with further advances in technology.

Dick

[Louie da fly]

I've been a bit distracted by my other build, the Golden City paddlewheeler, but I've also been working on crewmen for the San Marco ship. Here are a bunch I've already finished and have now painted,

and two of them I've also shaded. I've exaggerated the light and shade as otherwise they look bland.

  

 

And two new crewmen letting go and hauling on the shrouds as the ship tacks. (Big lateeners had to move the yard to the other side of the mast every time they tacked, and to do this the shrouds had to be loosened off - after tacking the lee shrouds would be somewhat loose and the weather shrouds tight.)

 

Crewman hauling down on (new) weather shroud.

  

And opening up the gap between his arms

  

And the legs . . .

  

Normally I'd do his face early in the process, as if I got that wrong there'd be no point in continuing - but in this case I couldn't get at it until I'd opened up the arms

  

And the hands and fingers . . . (I'm getting better at fingers).

  

  

And another crewman, belaying a shroud.

 

   

Looks a bit like Sir Ralph Richardson at the moment, but that will change. Now more like Noel Fielding . . .

  

Or perhaps Richard Harris?

   

Yep, Richard Harris . . . 

I've decided to discard the two helmsmen (in the top picture - one in yellow and one in green) in light of the Black Sea discoveries about tiller location on quarter rudders, and I'll be making new ones. So I had to get some photos taken to base their arm positions on.

 

And here are the two helmsmen just started:

 

Steven

 

 

 

Edited February 17 by Louie da fly

[Louie da fly]

Druxey and Roger - how do you hold the silkspan to the frame? Staples? Tape? 

 

Steven

[liteflight]

Yes, but the staples then rust.  

Me, I use masking tape to hold the covering material to frames made of 1/4 square hard balsa ( 6 mm in newfangled money)

I have heard of people buying old pictures in Op Shops ( Charity Shops, Thrift Shops) and scrapping all but the frames.  If made in the last 30 years the frames themselves are probably Ramin

 

Thank you for the glimpse into carving real chaps from fruit-wood.  We can just hope that you find a source of boxwood.

 

I like the photos of You-as-steersman.  Good way to visualise the stance.

I do wonder how much the tillers would kick back in choppy weather and do the steersman’s ribs a power of no good.  He would also probably ( my speculation) need one foot thwartships to brace him against the kicking of the tiller

Were there two steersmen, one per rudder?  And how did they communicate and coordinate the steering?

Two independent quarter-rudders make it possible to get considerable braking by turning both inboard (or outboard, but that would require longer arms!)

 

[Glen McGuire]

9 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

Yep, Richard Harris . . . 

I don't know about that, Steven.  I think the crewman bears an uncanny resemblance to the helmsman model.

[BANYAN]

And note the warm clothing in the MIDDLE of SUMMER - yikes.  It has been one of those seasons down this a-way.

 

BTW, nice carving Steven.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Roger Pellett]

Steven.  I just used ordinary hardware store masking tape and taped it all around.  I keep a stock of cheap construction grade softwood lumber in my shop for knocking up things like the frame.

 

Roger

[Louie da fly]

Thanks everybody for the likes and thanks particularly to Liteflight, Glen, Banyan and Roger for the replies.

 

I got hold of an old picture frame from an op shop - 3 bucks - much easier than making my own and it still had the glass in it, which I expect to have a future use for.

 

Liteflight, I echo your hope that I'll find a source of boxwood.  Looking forward to seeing if it's as good for carving as people keep saying.

 

Regarding kick-back on the tiller, I expect that's a factor, and also the bracing of the feet. Normally I have them fairly well spread apart anyway (it helps them stand up on their own without a stand), but I'll certainly take this on board (sorry!) when carving them. Legs and feet are usually the last things I finalise.

 

I don't have any information regarding whether there were one or two steermen - I expect it would depend on the width of the ship  at that point. I do know that when Tim Severin re-enacted Jason's voyage, his 'Argo' had only a single steersman working two rudders simultaneously, but that was a fairly small narrow vessel.

 

14 hours ago, Glen McGuire said:

I think the crewman bears an uncanny resemblance to the helmsman model.

 

Dammit, Glen! So I'm immortalising myself? I know some artists did that kind of thing, inserting themselves into their paintings, and Alfred Hitchcock used to appear in cameos in his movies . . .

4 hours ago, BANYAN said:

And note the warm clothing in the MIDDLE of SUMMER - yikes.  It has been one of those seasons down this a-way.

Yep, trakkie daks and a flannie and a sloppy joe and a koala jacket*. Can't be too warm. but this is Ballarat. And I really hate the cold. I usually rug up more than other people anyway.

3 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

I just used ordinary hardware store masking tape and taped it all around.

Thanks, mate. I think I'll use masking tape to hold the silkspan in as well - less likely to tear it.

 

Steven

*Gym pants, flannelette shirt, loose jumper, fleece-lined zip-up jacket.

Edited February 18 by Louie da fly

[Louie da fly]

Question re painting the silkspan - am I right in thinking the acrylic paint is to be used full strength, not diluted with water?

 

Thanks.

 

Steven

[Ian_Grant]

14 hours ago, BANYAN said:

And note the warm clothing in the MIDDLE of SUMMER - yikes.  It has been one of those seasons down this a-way.

 

BTW, nice carving Steven.

 

cheers

 

Pat

Too-cool summer down there, too-warm winter up here. Outdoor skating and skiing haven't been memorable.

[druxey]

Steven: I use old-fashioned brown paper gummed tape, but masking tape is fine. And the acrylic paint I use is very dilute, two or three coats to get the shade or color I want while retaining translucency.

[Louie da fly]

Thanks, Druxey. I'd thought it needed to be full strength. So you've saved me from making a ghastly mistake.🙂

 

Steven