Pentikontoros by bolin - Navarino - 1:50

[bolin]

Some years ago I finally read the Iliad and the Odyssey. It was about the same time as I started building ship models. I got inspired and wanted to build a ship like those that the greeks sailed to Troy in. As this was at the start of my career as a ship modeller I did not think I would be able to build one from scratch, so I looked for a kit. I found one from Navarino models of a Pentikontoros, that is one for fifty rowers.

 

As my shipyard was busy at the time, and have been since, the kit was put in the stash. Now I have just got access to another place to build models at, our new vacation home. In the basement there I plan to outfit a model workshop.

Since it currently lack most of any kind of equipment a simple kit could be a good place to start.

Edited March 20, 2023 by bolin

[bolin]

I have not seen any build logs of this kit, so I thought I should start by a brief review of the content of the box.

 

The box is not big and not even completely full. A part of it is filled with an inflated plastic bag to stop the rest from rattling around. This is not a complex model with many parts...

The kit mostly consists of pre-sawn pieces that will be laminated in a sandwich fashion to form two hull halves. In between them there is the keel assembly. Each is packaged in separate plastic bags. The material is described as either basswood or lime wood. I think that it is lime wood in my kit. I guess it might differ depending on availability.

The kit contains full sized plans of the modell, and also of all the parts for the hull (not shown).

The kit comes with a relatively detailed instruction for such a simple model. Unfortunately the translation of the instruction to English is not perfect. This leaves the builder with a bit of interpretation to do.

[bolin]

The first step of the build, according to the instructions, is the keel assembly.

The pieces for the keel are packaged in a separate bag, so they are easy to find, and are stamped with numbers, so they are easy to identify. A slight problem though, all pieces does not match the plans. When I checked the assembled keel against the plan it did not match.

 

I was missled by that everything was so well prepared. But in fact the middle piece of the keel is too long, and the scarf joints are cut in slightly wrong angle. Or are they? Is it the pieces that are correct and plans that are wrong?

 

I decided to not continue with the keel but build the two sides first and then check how to best make the keel fit later.

 

Now there will be a couple of weeks until I can continue.

[bolin]

During easter we visited our vacation home again (where I build this model). I only had time for a brief building session, so not to much progress.

 

I have started assembling the two halves of the hull. It is done by gluing pre-cut pieces on to each other in a sandwich fashion. The only potential tricky thing is the alignment of the pieces. 

The instructions, at least in the English translation, uses a lot of words to say that the second layer shall protrude 13 mm in the fore beyond the first layer, the second layer 11 mm etc. It's hard to write good instructions. In this case, and at least for me, fewer words and more diagrams would probably have made them easier to follow.