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

[augie]

Do not fret.  We all have friendly 'reminders' on board our vessels!

[the learner]

Foremast, Fantastic build! I like the planking installation on the hull, looks very realistic and clean

[Foremast]

thanks friends, for your good words!

 

@Augie: it's truely useful to keep this sort of "reminders" on our ships. Only, it's a pity having to wait the next model ... to follow those tips!!!!

 

Cheers

Ale

[Foremast]

...continue ...

Some other pictures of aft middle deck, and view of fore and aft middle decks completed.

 

Cheers

Alex

[augie]

Looking forward to a shot of the stern from below.  Looks like the overhang will be similar to that at the stem.

 

Very unique.

[Foremast]

Hi, Augie!

Just ask ...... here it is

 

Stern view is nicer than bow.

 

Alex

[popeye the sailor]

don't feel bad about the discrepancy........it looks so good!   you construction of these two edifices is so good,  it would be a shame to change it now.   as a matter of fact....in some pictures of these ships,  there is some curvature like that at the bow........maybe not as pronounce,  but it is there none the less.   I love how the stern is shaping up.   you have such an interesting build going on......once you get the upper sections fleshed out,  it's really going to complete the structures.   great job!

[augie]

Give me a break Alex.  I can't tell what looks better......the stem or the stern.  The wacky engineering you've portrayed is really special.  And I'll just bet it worked!!!!!!

[mtaylor]

Alex,

 

Remarkable work.  Even more remarkable by the lack of firm information of these ships.

[Foremast]

Thanks for the good words, Popeye, Augie, Mark.

I'll not change the aft structure, right or wrong it is. I can think so: this ship anticipates a typical later arrangement of the stern ...

About the strange engineering: I saw something similar in a black and white ancient drawing (if I succeed in recovering it, I'll post it here) and thinking it was quite reasonable, I made those crossings; main beams have a section of 5x5 mm (in scale, 25x25 cm), secondary beams have a section of 3x3 mm (in scale, 15x15 cm). I can confirm that the resultant structure is significantly strong.

 

Cheers

Alex

Edited March 26, 2013 by Foremast

[Foremast]

Hello all,

now, beginning of the upper fore structure. The difficult was to mantain simultaneusly: the vertical aligment, the parallelism, the horizzontal chamfering of each rib.

 

Regards

Alex

[augie]

This project of yours is more about engineering then building!  But your outstanding craftsmanship is really making her special.  I smile each time I open your log.

[Foremast]

(...continue...) It helped me the use of a template, clamps and a square ruler. The the ribs were stained, to contrast the future color of the bulwark.

[Foremast]

This project of yours is more about engineering then building!  But your outstanding craftsmanship is really making her special.  I smile each time I open your log.

 

I really appreciate your words. This model began as a joke ... but step by step it has been involving me and - quite obsessed like every modeller - I have tried to give a few answer to the amount of question of this kind of ship ... Hoping they're realistic enough.

 

Cheers

Alex

[Foremast]

Hello all,

 

we are still in the fore area. Here, I had to solve a double problem.

First, the whole portion of the main deck that's beneath the foredeck is well visible, because of the great fore opening; this means I had to make a complete and good-looking arrangement about: frames, hanging knees, deck beams and - above all - internal planking.

Second, the bulwark had to be thin: either because this wasn't a structural part of the ship (shipwrights surely used a thin timber-covering avoiding dangerous hight weights and saving a bit of money ...), or because of the gunports, where an excessive visible thickness of the planking would have been terrible to see.

 

So I decided to make a very light double planking. The internal one, with 0,5 mm thick mansonia nut strips, a bit stained and sanded to simulate something old and gloomy. The external one, with 1,0 mm strips of the same wood. So making, I solved an additional problem: how avoid fissures between the strips? Being the internal area well visible, and as well the external one , even the smallest crack between the strips would have shown an awful (and unrealistic) spot of light. I couldn't use glue to fix strips side to side: because of their minimal thickness, I would have been sure to have lots of glue residues. The trick was to place the two plankings at different height. The internal one, began and ended with a 2,5 mm-wide strip, while in the middle all strips were 5mm wide; the external one was all made with 5 mm wide strips. In this way, the bulwark is thin enough, resistant, without fissures ... and only an expert eye can see that it was made in double planking.

 

Regards

 

Alex

[Foremast]

... continue ...

Fore and aft arrangement, complete view of work in progress.

 

Alex

[augie]

Good idea joggling those planks to prevent light from getting through.  Above deck froaming is really shaping up.

 

Buona Pasqua !

[Foremast]

Hi, Augie!

Little by little the ship is growing up. You're right: now we can se something about its final shape ....

 

Happy Easter to you too

[Anja]

Hello Alex,

 

I'm sorry I'm late, but in time to wish you a Happy Birthday and Buon compleanno.

 

I hope you had a great day!

 

Take care,

 

Anja

[Foremast]

Thanks Anja and thanks avsjerome!

 

There's something funny: when I was a child, despite I waited all the year it seemed that birthday would never have been coming. Now, it seems birthday has come too much speedy.

 

[...I hope to have used correct tenses, in my sentence...]

 

Cheers

Alex

Edited April 6, 2013 by Foremast

[augie]

Sorry I missed it but Happy Birthday, somewhat belated.  I stopped celebrating mine about 20 years ago ----- and I still have too many  

[Foremast]

Thanks, Augie!

I appreciate your greetings. One day more doesn't change the situation: my years begin to be too many. Unlike what can be seen in my avatar, however, I still have all my hair and my beard is still black ... just only a few little white spots, around the chin ...

 

Cheers

Alex

[AnobiumPunctatum]

Alex,

 

I like the consturction pictures of your castles. It looks a lot more improvised than the castles in later centuries.

[Foremast]

Thanks, Christian!

I tried to think something different, but with protruding decks laying on beams there's no real alternative. Anyway, the structure is strong indeed

 

Alex

[popeye the sailor]

a belated birthday wish for you.....yea they're becoming pass-se' for me as well.   can't wait to see what you do with the stern.......the bow is looking superb!

[Foremast]

Thanks Popeye!

I'll post a new step soon

Alex

[Foremast]

Hi mates,

 

a little new step: fore gunports. As said above, I had to solve a few issues; among them, how to make thin gunports with a round ceiling. Having decided to do a double planking, I used the first planking as support for the gunport's frames. I made and pasted them in their whole shape (using a dima to have identical ones), than I holed and filed each one from internal to external to reach a very thin thickness, impossible to make in only one piece, if I had shaped them before their gluing. In the following pictures, you can see the working process; in the last picture, the real color of the hull (...in the previous ones, I had mistaken the white-balancing of my camera...).

 

Regards

Alex

[augie]

Looks like pretty delicate work.

[hopeful]

Hi Alex,

 

Just caught up with your build log and was able to read through it this morning. What better way to start the day, cofee and reading your log rather than a newspaper. I saw a ship like the one you are building in either the Maritime Museum in Kotor or Dubrovnik, I don't remember which. Will try to dig up the photo and post it to you.

 

Your workmanship is excellent and your build is a real learning experience for me as a newbie! 

 

BFN

 

Cheers,

Hopeful aka David

 

“there is wisdom in many voices”

 

Completed: Sharpie Schooner (Midwest) Posted Gallery

 

Current: Sultana (MSW)

Current: Phantom (MSW)

 

Next: Lady Nelson (Amati Victory)

[Foremast]

Thanks Augie and Hopeful.

 

Hopeful, having you seen a better shipmodel in Croatia ... I wish your coffee hasn't gone by traverse giving a look to this of mine!    If you still have those picture, I hope you find them: materials are really scarce, and every contribute is a great help to me.

 

I went to Dubrovnik many years ago, before the war, and I have ever thought it is a wonderful town, a real pearl of the Adriatic sea.

 

Cheers

Alex