Hanseatic Ship c. 1470 by Foremast - 1:50 scale

[Foremast]

Now, lower part of the ultimate planking. It was made using a different mansonia walnut wood (size: 1,5x5 mm), darker than upper part. Every strip was trapezoidal-shaped, bended and shrinked at the top. Every strip was also cut and portions of different strips were mixed before their laying to create a little clear/dark effect in the planking. In bow and stern area, the planking was sanded to eliminate - gradually - the level difference.

 

Alex

[augie]

I personally like what you call the light/dark effect with the planking. To me it's very realistic. Looking forward to more!

[Foremast]

Using strips 12-14 cm long, I tried also to simulate an hypotetic original planking (in scale 1:50, about 6-7 meters) and the light/dark effect helps to see better the junctions.

[Foremast]

Some other pictures ....

[augie]

I am trying to imagine what she will look like when you apply your finish.  I'll take a wild guess ---- fantastico!

[Foremast]

Thanks, Augie! "Fantastic"? I hope it so...  but "something interesting" is surely enough!!!  
I haven't still decided the finish treatment. I'm used to paint the planking: first, with pore filler, then with satin varnish. In this case I'd like to try a different method... first, blackening with colored straw oil, then finishing with linseed oil. In this way, I'd succeed in making stand out wooden fibers .

 

Alex

[augie]

Alex-  I'm all for the oil treatment.  Of course, you'll need to experiment first.  My only question would be, will the oil finish stand up over time or will it naturally dull a bit as it's absorbed.  Or do you intend to oil and then apply a protectant finish of some sort?

[Foremast]

Augie, I'm thinking to use cooked linseed oil as finishing. I've read it penetrates into wood fibers and in a few days it oxidizes becoming a kind of satined and waterproof finishing. Have you ever so finished a model? Advices are veeery welcome!!! 

The previous straw-oil treatment only makes darker the planking and dries quickly

 

Alex

[augie]

No, never have.  I usually use varnish over stain.  That said, I used to oil the wood on my full size sailboat years ago and it really looked nice....teak wood.  The problem was it needed re-application because of the sun/rain.  You shouldn't have that problem with your model

 

Check out Kiwiron's latest build.  I believe he's used multiple coats of oil on that and it was looking nice last time I looked (I think it's the Brig Supply).

[Foremast]

Thanks Augie, I'll give a look. I think, If a re-application of finishing product will be needed, it will be a problem of Hansa Ship's crew!!! With the delivery of the ship, every shipwright's obligations cease and begin captain's ones !!!!

To have a sailboat is a wonderful thing. Many years ago I often went by sea with friends on a sailboat up and down along Croatian and Greek coast and their isles during my holidays. Now you have made me remember just all restoration works, night shifts at the helm, and the countless times I had to go underwater to disengage the anchor in the port!!!! But .... what a joyful holiday was every holiday. A period by sailboat is one of the most beautiful things that one can do during his life; everyone should live this experience at least once.

Alex

[mtaylor]

Alex,

Beautiful planking.  I'm with Augie, I can't wait to see it with the finish on it.

[AnobiumPunctatum]

The planking looks really good. i can't remember the clinker planking at the lower hull. Are these part of the plans?

[Foremast]

Thanks Mark, thanks Christian.

Clinker planking isn't part of the plans. Looking at Hanseatic paintings and retrieved shipwrecks (eg Bremenkogge), it seems that was common for Hanseatic ships of that era. Perhaps it was due to periodic needs of make them come out from water . When I saw it, immediately had a great feeling and - being it anyway  realistic - I have tried to replicate the clinker planking.

 

Alex

[AnobiumPunctatum]

Alex, thanks for the info.

 

your model and the cog, which was found in Bremerhaven (here are some pictures I made some years ago) are not of the same type. As mentioned earlier your model is not a real cog. It's more like a holk, which was the type that was used after the cog. As far as I know these ships were kraweel planked.

 

But I think your solution looks really interesting and perhaps ...

[Foremast]

Christian,

Thanks for the link. About Cogs you're right. There's a lapse of time of about hundred years between Bremenkogge and this ship, made by the fantasy of its author and a few paintings that inspired him. It's a long period, but I think tecnical evolution wasn't as speed as now, so - in the darkness due to lack of other informations - I  can choose some solutions typical of the previous century. Even great Cogs or other ships, often shown in ancient paintings, drawings or votive offerings, are made with clinker planking ... so I decided to do it, that is - anyway - a fascinating covering. I only hope my fantasy isn't more than ship author's one.

[Foremast]

Hello all,

here are a few photos of keel covering. I didn't remove the false keel, but covered it with walnut squared carved listels. I choose a very dark wood to contrast the color of planking.

 

Alex

[st george]

Alex,

 

Great planking of the hull.

 

David

[Foremast]

Thanks, David.

When I started this kind of covering I had some doubt, and not only for historycal reasons, as correctly observed by Christian. I thought it wasn't easy to mantain the same measures and the simmetry of every single strip and all strips together. But the challenge was interesting, so step by step I succeeded in completing all the planking, with several working hours and some imprecations all the times that I had to remove a too large/thin/wrong-shaped strip. It can seem strange, but a single strip that was a bit different from the close one, made a terrible effect on the whole planking. And I had often to change and change again something.

 

Alex

[Hyposphagma]

Alex, very clean and outstanding work on your hull. Love the Nain carpet on which you presented the frame also :-)

 

Harry

Edited March 12, 2013 by Hyposphagma

[Foremast]

Thanks, Harry!

That carpet was the result of a long bargaining with a clever and expert Iranian shopkeeper. I went into his shop for curiosity and, after a long afternoon, I came out with that carpet. The trade began just when I asked for a Nain carpet, pointing a pile of carpets of his  ... and he, smiling, replied that they were Qum. The difference between Nain and Qum, he told me (apart the city of manufacturing), is in the external area: they both have floreal drawings and are light-colored in the centre, but the frame is as well light-colored  in Nain carpets, whereas is reddish and blue in Qum ones. The amount of words that he told about Nain, Qum and others and his fluent speech made me as drunk. In the end, I had in my hands that carpet ... at a reasonable price. I don't know if it's really a Qum or a Nain, but I still like it

 

Alex

[Foremast]

Hello all,

some other pictures: construction of cutwater and sternpost, by simulating the final part of keel's filling timbers

[Foremast]

The cutwater and the sternpost were made, carving a thin lath of walnut (true national walnut), the lower part of the keel was made with mansonia walnut. The cutwater was realized in 2 parts, and as well the lower keel, to simulate junctions.

 

Cheers

Alex

[Paul Salomone]

Good morning Alex,

 

That's some fine planking you have there. The overlapping is just wonderful and exact.

 

Looking forward to see more of this.

[Foremast]

Good morning, Paul!

Thanks for your visit and the good appreciation.

Thanks also for the new word you've teached me ("overlapping")

 

Alex

[augie]

Yes, we are all so used to striving for the smooth finish we can forget the beauty of a clinker built hull.  I am anxious to see the finish applied

[Foremast]

Hi, Augie!

In this ship you'll find them both. The hull is clinker-made only in the lower part, behind the lower whale, which will be applied where you can see a bit larger strip about in the middle of the planking.

The higher part will be the usual hull, smooth finished (and half painted) even in the forecastle and upperdeck. I like to see junctions, so every strip will be a bit sanded on its external corner to remark every joining

 

Cheers

Alex

[augie]

Yes, I can see that.  An unusual combination?  I'm just sure she is going to stand out.  Very impressive.

[Foremast]

Augie,

when I started this model I didn't know the project was full of author's interpretations to fill hystorical lacks. So, in the web, I looked for paintings, drawings, images of votive ships of that era and a bit before. I supposed that in hundred years it couldn't be changed all what was made in the previous century and I tried to be - as possible - in line. I imagined this ship as a great Cog with a not greatly evolved superstructure (foredeck and upper deck) ... and in this perspective a clinker planking could be done, as we can see in XIV century's Cogs and after, in some paintings of other ships. Reasonably, only in the lower part of the hull: it would have been truely harsh, for Hansa carpenters, make clinker between a so close whales and totally unuseful to make it as bulwarks.

Not only: having seen this solution in another similar model, shown in the attachment, I felt the desire to replicate it ...

 

Cheers

Alex

[augie]

Thanks for the background on that.  Fascinating!

[Blue Ensign]

Nice job on the planking Alex, I really like the look of her.

 

Regards,

 

B.E.