Greek Trireme by ships88 - Dusek - 1:72

[ships88]

Yeah.. life is unpredictable... Wife gotten very sick ... everything is on hold. I will try to restart the build later this summer.

Edited March 28, 2019 by ships88

[Louie da fly]

Good to hear from you, Ships88. Totally understandable - some things are much more important than others.

 

Best wishes - I hope your wife gets well soon.

 

Steven  

[Louie da fly]

Hi, Ships88. How's it all going? Do you think there's a chance of doing any more on your trireme? I was very much enjoying following your build log, but I can understand if other issues take priority.

 

Best wishes,

[VTHokiEE]

I'm curious as well; hopefully things have improved. One of the monoreme, bireme, or triremes model is definitely on my radar for the future.

[ships88]

I will see if I can restart this build in next few weeks.. 

[Louie da fly]

That's good to hear. I hope evrything's ok for you and yours.

[ships88]

It seems the Duesk's kit  plan and build instruction for the top deck (a straight rectangle) is to ease the construction process for the model maker. However, I don't think this will result in a realistic trireme model.

The build plan would have some of the top tier rowers actually sitting outside of the hull (see highlighted area). The stern upper deck would also protrude too far out of the hull if built as the plan/instruction indicated; this would be a huge liability for a war ship uses ramming as the primary weapon.

 

There is a customer model built pictures from Mr. Cryns of Amsterdam on the Duesk's customer's photo section - customer page #4 http://www.dusekshipkits.com/greek-trireme1 . He did a great job making a modified trireme model from the Duesk's standard built.

I watched the Greek Trireme Olympias on YouTube videos and viewed the Olympias' detail pictures and have few personal thoughts about this life size trireme:

• Olympias has very nice curved outer supporting structs to the upper desk. However, Trireme's purpose is a warship where hull strength, minimization of unnecessary weight and speedy ship building are the top priorities. I doubt visual ecstatic would be a priority at time of war in accident Greece.
• The mast rigging on Olympias such as the use of dead eyes, belaying pins and rack would not likely to be found on an accident trireme.

I think I will continue my trireme build somewhere between Mr Cryns' interpretation and the Trireme Olympias as there isn't a definitive trireme plan to base on.

 

[ships88]

The Olympias'outer/top level rower's seat arrangement pictures can be found on this website.

 

http://www.ww2wrecks.com/portfolio/olympias-a-2500-years-old-ancient-greek-trireme/

 

Below are few pictures from the website clearly showed those seats are parallel to and within the hull. In addition, some showed the oars and the rail system they rested on.
 

[Louie da fly]

I'd agree with you about the rectangular upper deck, Ships88, and your plan to"bash" it to a more believable shape sounds good. When making a model based on theoretical reconstructions this kind of thing is likely to come up every so often, and this probably won't be the last time on this build that you'll question the way the kit has configured the model. That's all part of life's rich tapestry 

 

Good to see you back again, by the way.

[ships88]

Added the outer/top level rower support beams. Looks to be reasonable & logical enough. It resembles a bit of life boat type bracing (which adds hull structure integrity & strength).

 

Not looking forward to cut all those needed little rower seats.

[ships88]

 Getting back the build and taking a break from my Billingboats Spanish galleon build https://modelshipworld.com/topic/30191-spanish-galleon-by-ships88-billing-boat

 

Using the 1/72 Airfix RAF rescue launch kit’s crew figure to gauge if the covered top deck to the bow is feasible/ realistic. Looks like it is not.

Decided to use the hull curve for the basis the deck roof shape instead of the kit provide rectangular deck (wet the 2x2mm stakes and clamped).

A side by side comparison. The curve deck form difference against the plan’s drawing clearly visible. What do you guy think ? Better or should I use the kit’s rectangular deck form (this shape doesn’t make sense to me for a ship using ramming as a primary weapon. The front would protruding too far out and get stuck to the enemy ship after the attack)

[ships88]

One thing about going with the hull curve shape for the deck roof versus the kit’s rectangular deck is majority of the deck rafter has to be individually cut to length to fit. This took almost 2 full days to complete. 

The completed deck roof frame.

 

Test top view of the deck frame over the hull to illustrate the overhang.

 

Using 4 temp vertical support beam (according to plan heigh, 27mm) to check the fit.

Another closer view.

 

A lot more vertical support posts to cut,,, Going to take awhile.

[ships88]

The most challenging aspect of this build is the curve stern. I really didn’t have any good idea how to go about it and put off tackling it for a long time. The build now can’t progress without  completing the stern first.

 

The kit supplied 2 x 2mm walnut plankings are impossible to bend (even after soaking in water for hours).  I ended up splitting those planks down to 1 x 2mm, bend them where ever possible and build the stern with sectional plank pieces to make the required curvature.

The end result looked decent enough after sanding.

[ships88]

Added the upper wale to the hull, which enabled the frontal platform to be installed.

The 1/72 scale Royal navy figures clearly shows the overhang deck cover to the bow post is not possible/ feasible.