Greek Bireme by Vinnie - Amati - 1:49

[Vinnie]

Well it’s been too long…

hello all who are interested …this will technically be my second build…however my last build (Hms Bounty) very sadly 😢…suffered a catastrophic accident and now no longer exists…no matter…I will build another better one…I learned a lot on my last build and intend to reach for higher levels of craftsmanship in the future on another bounty, but in the meantime while I considered which one to buy. I started work on this little Bireme. I’ve been at it for about 2 months now, but from this point hopefully I’ll post smaller more regular posts…

so, like several other past logs I’ve read, I’ve noticed the usual disappointments. The instructions are very vague, and some of the laser cutout pieces are inaccurate. However, the fun of model ship building is sometimes, problem-solving…so let’s do this.

at a snails pace, I added one bulkhead each day, obsessing over, trying to make it as square as possible. I end up being mostly satisfied with results, but I think next time, I could probably find tool that would do a better and easier job.

trying to fix some of the inaccurate frames… ended up being quite happy with my efforts…

The admiral took a photo of me using some tracing paper to trace off the plans for the stern cut out section… the balsa that is essential to complete this kit is not included. This is another criticism I have of this kit many parts that you need to finish simply aren’t inside the kit. Anyway…went out and have got a nice stash for my future balsa needs

 

a lot of the frames will still be quite visible when the model is finished…so I ordered some mahogany strips to cover up exposed areas…stern section all smooth and shaped. 
Planked and sanded the inferior deck. Thought long and hard about whether or not to simulate tree nails. Did research on whether they where historically accurate…apparently a resounding yes…did a few test samples…I used toothpicks as the tree nails…

they seem less visible than what I imagined…however I still think they will add some nice details…so I’m going to go ahead with tree nails…

Will probably do tree nails on the walnut hull planking also…

 

in the process of doing the garboard plank…

 

and that is where I’m up to…please let me know if there are any suggestions or pieces of advice

[Vinnie]

I’m back…it’s been a busy few weeks. So will be good to post to the community and get any feedback there might be…the following is how I did things chronologically, however the photos are not necessarily chronological…because I’m bad at taking photos as I go 😅…will have to work on that…

Well the keel is planked including in some tricky areas. The garboard plank is done also. So will be ready to dive right into hull planking when the time is right 

 

Here are some photos of the nearly fully done inferior deck, and the process I went  to complete the tree nailing. After the tree nailing I gave it a thorough sanding in preparation for a later coat of polyurethane. I was aware that it was going to be more difficult to sand this inferior part of the deck once the benches were glued in…

This is the inferior deck nearly completed. At this point I’ve just got to finish decking at the stern of the bireme, finish the tree nailing give it a thorough sanding and and then I’ll be ready for the crews seats/benches. 

Planked, tree nailed and sanded…ready for benches

The obligatory photos of the ship builders mate slacking off and napping as usual 🥹….while I’m hard at work 

The next thing I did was cut all the benches where the crew sit and row the Bireme… these benches were quite intricate… they were cut at an 83° angle…the instructions seemed to indicate to let them overlap the inferior deck a little bit… so had to carefully cut out the thickness of the inferior deck planking out of each bench. And also the shape of the corresponding areas of the interior of the bulkheads.

Here are some photos of a bench that i made and then rejected putting on my model because it was not quite right…just to show you guys what was involved in making these  

I ended up being quite happy with the results of all 26 benches anyway…

 

Here are some photo angles of the deck, completed, the tree nails sanded the benches attached, and I put on a coat of non-sheen oil based polyurethane. Wasn’t happy with the initial results…it came out fairly waxy…I sanded it all back…with some difficulty though… because working around these bulkheads and benches was tricky when sanding…but got it done…added about 20 percent turps to the polyurethane…and it turned out a lot better 😊

 

Some areas of the plywood bulkheads will still be visible even once the boat is fully planked…so I covered these areas with mahogany…this is me pre heat bending them before gluing…

 

The instructions are pretty bare bones for this kit…as I continued my build…I started to realize that getting the upper bow planks to attach to bulkhead 3 (circled) was going to require some creativity 🤔

 

….i wish I took some more step by step photos…but long story short I made this out of extra walnut planks. And this is the result, I’m quite happy with it  

As some might have noticed…I’m in the process of planking the outriggers…looking forward to uploading more pics when I’ve completed that and get all your feedbacks…I think/hope it will be shorter timeframes between posts now  

[Vinnie]

It’s been many months since my last post…but I haven’t stopped! I probably should have taken more stage by stage photos and done some more posts. But here is what I’ve taken and done so far….

 

At this point I was in the process wood nailing the top of the outrigger, 

 

 

 

I wasn’t sure how it would look after nailed, sanded and done. But I ended up being really happy with the results and was very ready to motor on!

I continued on to plank the side of the outriggers then underneath…then proceeded to drill the oar holes into the side…was very stressful work 😅…photos will show up later of the results…I was happy enough with it

 

 

 

I quickly realized that planking the stern section would be very difficult without more balsa wood added between the bulkheads… glad I did that 

 

 

Then started this tricky stern section 

 

 

For the sides of the stern, I decided to cut curved planks out of some walnut sheet wood, because I don’t think there is a way to edge bend regular planks quite so dramatically…

 

 

After all was said and done…ended up being quite happy with the result 

 

 

Over the course of about 2 months…i slowly progressed on the planking of the hull…

 

 

Finally finished the planking, roughly sanded it(120grit) drilled it, tree nailed (with toothpicks) sanded it again, then a 240 grit sand, then a 400 grit sand…it came up so nice and smooth…quite happy 😊 

 

 

 

I had to undo some old work. 

 

When I was thoroughly sanding the outriggers, I scuffed nearly all the mahogany bulkhead strips with the sanding block. It was really bothering me, so I decided to rip them off and re-plank them.

 

 

And this is where I’m up to…next I’m onto the bow and ram section…some time after planking it. I’ve decided I’m going to try and make a small bronze ram cap…but at this stage I have no idea how I’m going to do it. So if anyone has advice I’m all ears! Please give some of your wisdom 🙏 

I think last time i said that I’d post more often…I can only say that again, that is my intention…hopefully after the bow section is done I’ll post again. Until then I hope everyone has smooth sailing ⛵️ 

 

Edited January 2 by Vinnie