Hanse Kogge 1278 by Ferrus Manus - Revell/Zvezda - 1/72 - PLASTIC - Based mostly on the Stralsund Cog

[Ferrus Manus]

This image comes from @Louie da fly's Pinterest page, where he compiles primary sources regarding ships from the Middle Ages. I have repeatedly stated how helpful he and his primary sources are, so I don't see any more need to go on further. 

This sigil depicts a cog of the Hanseatic Leage, from the German city of Stralsund, circa 1278. We will be basing our ship primarily on this source, and multiple modifications will be made. The kit I have purchased is technically the "Crusader Cog" version of the original Revell kit from 2008, re-released by Zvezda. Either way, all of the parts for the original Hanse Kogge came in the box. While this won't be a perfect reconstruction of the ship, I want to check all the major boxes. 

 

We will also be using the book "Cogs, Caravels and Galleons" by Richard Unger as a source. 

Edited July 12 by Ferrus Manus

[Louie da fly]

Hi Ferrus! I'd also refer you to the Bremen cog (c. 1380), the best preserved of all the cog wrecks. Google it for images - there are so  many wonderful details in the photos, such as the windlass. I seem to recall she also had a capstan, but I can't see it in any of the photos, so perhaps I'm wrong. And here are three deadeyes from the same vessel - they're described as blocks but they're obviously deadeyes. 

Steven

[Ferrus Manus]

@Louie da fly That was going to be one of my other questions, hearts or deadeyes for the shrouds. While the Bremen Cog is over a hundred years younger than the Stralsund Cog, it should be expected that both should share similar rigging patterns. However, the shapes of the upper works of the two ships are completely different. 

Another thing is that the deck planks on my cog are laid parallel to the keel, rather than the Viking-style "removable planks" design. Is there any real evidence either way? To my sensibilities, it seems as though the through-beams present on many examples of cog iconography are indicative of traditionally laid parallel planks (see the Mataro Nao as an example). 

Edited July 6 by Ferrus Manus

[Louie da fly]

Interesting question. I was actually surprised to find true deadeyes as early as 1380 - I hadn't thought they'd been developed by that time, and contemporary illustrations (yes, I know they're not necessarily reliable) don't show them at all. I'm afraid you'll have to decide for yourself whether the Stralsund cog had them.

 

Regarding deck planks, I doubt that the Viking method of planking was also in use further south - certainly the framing is completely different. The only planking apparently found on the Bremen cog was on the afterdeck, and its side to side, not fore and aft. The orlop(?) deck beams can also be seen, and they are oriented such that the planking would also be side to side.

 

I don't think the through-beams can be relied upon as a gauge of the planking direction, as the attached photo shows - they don't seem to have any relation to the planking. Personal opinion, however - in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, I would be quite happy with the idea of the main planking running fore and aft.

Steven

[Ferrus Manus]

I have a counter-point regarding your assessment about the planks. The entire Northern Tradition is descended directly from viking vessels, and furthermore, without much evidence from the Bremen Cog, I also think the planking question remains unsolved. Bjorn Landstrom seems to argue throughout the cog section of "The Ship" for the traditionally-laid parallel plank approach. His book, however, was written a year prior to the discovery of the Bremen Cog. Another point is that the Stralsund Cog is closer in time period to the Nef than it is the Bremen Cog. You could expect a few things like planking and rigging to be more similar to nefs than they would be to later cogs. That's almost like using the Bremen Cog as an authoritative source for a model of a ship from 1480, which you can't really do. I might go the heart route when it comes to the shrouds and stay. 

 

I'm already going to be doing a bunch of scratchbuilding for this project; I'm not building an entirely new deck. You should definitely follow this, as your input will be more than helpful as it usually is. 

Edited July 7 by Ferrus Manus

[Ferrus Manus]

Here's what we have to work with as far as the hull is concerned. I can already think of a few things we need to do to the hull before we can even start in earnest. Firstly, I intend to fill the holes for the futtock riders, as they aren't present on the Stralsund Ship. We will keep the smaller riders at the fore and aft (although not on the Stralsund Ship) as they will be used as sheaves for the sheet and tack lines. One really egregious thing Revell did is have the modeler attach the shrouds to the futtock riders, although that system isn't present on the ship from the Elbing Seal (1350) which the ship is based on. We're going to add a short stringer across two of the deck knees in order to anchor the shrouds. 

The second thing that needs to be done is to remove those crappy excuses for timberheads at the bow and replace them with scratchbuilt card alternatives. 

[Ferrus Manus]

17 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

I seem to recall she also had a capstan,

The Bremen Ship has a mounting for the capstan on the sterncastle deck. No one knows how it was used. My ship has a capstan at the fore to weigh the anchors and a windlass at the aft to raise the yard. 

[Ferrus Manus]

Here's where we are so far. 

I've built the rest of the stempost and sealed many of the holes in the ship. I opted also to putty over the holes in the interior stringer for the cleats on which the sheets and tacks belay. I wanted instead to belay those lines (as well as the braces) on scratchbuilt kevels. 

I also sanded off the molded timberheads. In addition, I did something pretty radical- I built up the stand to set the ship on as a kind of build board, which we will paint when the model is finished. The point of this was to make construction easier and keep the hull off of the table, something that tends to ruin hulls. 

This brings me to the question of how to make the anchor stowing architecture. On a ship with a simple stop cleat (like the Santa Sofia) you can find a way to stow the anchor on deck. This doesn't work on this ship, as the anchor ropes run through hawse holes in the bow. 

This brought me to two potential solutions. The stowing architecture could either be in the form of timberheads that stick up from the frames, or knightheads that are fastened inside the gunwale and would, on a real ship, go straight down to the keel. Both solutions produce essentially the same effect. 

 

[Ferrus Manus]

I have done a few things with the ship's hull in preparation for painting, since the last post. I have installed both the chess trees and the sheet blocks, some of the afterworks, and the four timberheads for the anchors. 

Any imperfections should be covered by the paint. I intend to cover any non-tan elements of the ship with a base coat that looks similar to the plastic, just for the sake of uniformity. 

[Ferrus Manus]

I got a good start on the painting today. I added two coats of a mixture of two brown paints, and a wash went on top of the entire thing. Tomorrow, once I can be completely sure the paint has cured entirely, I will put on a sludge wash of heavily diluted antiquing medium over top of the entire hull, and wipe off the excess with a paper towel. This should ensure the beautiful clinker planking stands out, which is the goal. 

After that, I can do some decent weathering below the waterline. I want to show how disgusting it gets in between those clinker planks, and just put on some general silt and slime. To my knowledge, they didn't actually tar or otherwise use any anti-fouling measures (at least, I've seen no pictorial evidence thereof), so I can presumably go wild. 

[Ferrus Manus]

This morning, I did the rest of the staining/wash for the hull of the cog. It went about as well as could be hoped for. Later today, I will see if it needs a dry-brushing, repaint some of the places where paint was stripped, and start some of the weathering. 

Since these photos were taken, I've cleaned up some of the paint on the exposed through-timbers. 

[Ferrus Manus]

Unfortunately, I'm not in charge of the ship's upkeep- just its construction. 

I went a little heavy on the algae so it would be visible when on display, but for now the ship is careened in order to show the effect. The algae is partially based on a 13th century image showing Crusader cogs crossing the Bosphorus Strait. 

 

 

Edited July 11 by Ferrus Manus

[Ferrus Manus]

Here's the deck, as well as the fore bitts and the deck knees. I made everything seem as much like unpainted wood as possible. 

[Ferrus Manus]

Hello all, apologies for the lack of posts as of this week. I have made some significant progress on the ship, starting with the winding gear. The winding gear consists of a capstan for the anchors and a windlass for the yard. More will be said regarding how both pieces of equipment are used later. I also made the mast and stepped it temporarily. It will be removed, cleaned up and painted, and re-stepped later once the hull is finished. 

The sterncastle was where I had to reference the Stralsund Seal a bit. For one, there are four merlons and three crenels on the castle's side parapets on the seal. On my model's side walls, there are five merlons and four crenels. While this isn't catastrophic enough to necessitate me fixing it, it does require me to make a few decisions regarding the decoration of the forecastle. 

For one, it does not affect the dimensions of the lower sterncastle walls, which are also differently shaped than what's shown on the Stralsund Seal. The seal depicts five flowers with five petals apiece on the lower sterncastle walls. I chose to depict them with four petals per flower for ease of painting. All of which are painted freehand, a first for me. I wanted it to look imperfect, almost akin to Medieval painting techniques. 

The flowers all have bright red outlines. The seal shows the flowers as having round centers (as a real flower), so I may paint the centers with a yellow ochre. 

A similar system will be used for the side parapets of the sterncastle. On the five merlons will be mounted five shields, with flowers. The shields will be bright red with white outlines, and the flowers will be white with pink outlines for contrast and yellow ochre centers. 

 

On the forecastle will be a similar system of decorations. I will be doing a significant amount of scratchbuilding for the forecastle, so stay tuned. 

 

Edited July 19 by Ferrus Manus

[Ferrus Manus]

I've recently finished both the fore and stern castles. On the sterncastle, I puttied over most of the holes as I intended to rearrange the patterns of the shields. The "Crusader Cog" sprue that Zvezda gave me contained many shields molded together in rows. I cut them apart and cleaned them up to use in accordance with the patterning on the real Stralsund Cog. Obviously I used quite a bit of artistic license with the painting of the flowers. 

Then, I started on the forecastle. The Seal of Stralsund shows the forecastle as being mounted significantly higher on the stempost than the actual model, whose forecastle rests on the bulwark. This was relatively easy to fix, as the forecastle ladder was long enough to accommodate the change in height. In addition, I drilled a hole in the forecastle deck to accept the bowsprit, which I turned from a kitchen skewer. 

I also added some framing and bracing to the underside of the castle. 

The next steps will be fleshing out the deck details and painting the spars (which I have already started on).

 

[Ferrus Manus]

I've recently done significant amounts of work on the cog. Firstly, I've gotten all of the belaying points and stringers painted and put in place. I replaced most of the cleats provided in the kit with scratch-built kevels. I've also painted the stern flagpole and bowsprit. 

What I've also done is made ringbolts- lots of them- and put them in place on the ship. 

This is, above all, a cargo ship. I wanted to put ringbolts- (four on each side) on the deck knees, mostly as tie-downs for deck cargo. I don't know if this is corroborated on the Bremen Cog or any other cog for which the upper works are still present. It would make sense, however. The tie-downs, in this case, are for two gangplanks- the longer of which is for men and animals to walk upon, and the shorter is for rolling barrels up into the ship.

You might be asking about the unpainted timber hanging off the stern- that is a prototypical form of fish-davit/cathead. It is essential to my solution for the anchors. Anchors on cogs would likely have been too big to weigh up into the ship by hand, necessitating devices to do so. After an anchor is raised out of the water via the anchor cable and capstan, men would haul the proto-fish davit into place (with two sheaves) and haul on the line with a four-to-one mechanical advantage, with a hooked block on the other end to weigh the anchor the rest of the way to the gunwale by its ring. The idea is to get the anchor ring as close to the foremost timberhead as possible. Rinse and repeat for the anchor flukes. The line would terminate either on a cleat on the davit or on the capstan. Imagine a fish davit doing the job of a cathead. 

This is obviously all just conjecture, and I would like a few opinions on it, but it seems like a reasonable solution. I intend to depict one anchor as fully stowed, with the other being hauled by the davit.