Nautical Research Journal
half slightly reduced to make a push fi t. They can be seen in Figure 5.
On my hull frames so built, I have marked the position of every frame as it would have been in the actual ship, and the exact position of every strake of planking. The treenails, correctly placed, will indicate the positions of the prototype’s frames. This is illustrated in Figure 7, along with the treenails in the black strake above the main wale. I have built a thicknessing machine that produces planks down to 0.01-millimeter (0.004-inch) in thickness, and another to make treenails. A treadle-operated press will seat the treenails. These and other preparations should facilitate the work I hope to do in extreme old age.
About half my time so far has been spent on research and preparatory work. Some three years ago, I decided not to delay any longer doing the carved works. To do those for the stern I fi rst had to build all the details of the ship that would impinge in any way on them. That included such things as accurately constructing the panels under the stern gallery and in the quarter galleries, and also the aftermost strakes of the main wale.
I then spent six months carving the starboard wyvern, using a binocular microscope and chisels and gouges ground from needles. Fortunately, my son Hugh introduced me to Pixologic’s utterly brilliant digital sculpting software called ZBrush. ZBrush has produced such things as the dragons in Game
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5. The two halves held together with screws and butterfl y nuts. The deck-like shelf supports the deck beams of the upper deck. Its upper margin is determined by the datum line I drew on the sheer plan and copied to the body plan, to which every measurement relates.
of Thrones, and the Warhammer fantasy creatures. The program seemed fi endishly complicated at fi rst. However, two things made it possible for me to master all the tools and techniques I have so far needed. The fi rst is that Pixologic provides dozens and dozens of free tutorial videos, in three grades. The tutors are all fi ne artists and technicians with a wonderful ability to provide exactly the help you need at every stage. Moreover, you can stop and drag back the videos, and make your tutor repeat himself as often as necessary, and even, like me, make unhurried notes. The second is that, by virtue of sculpting in a virtual environment, one can undo every stroke one has
6. The model ‘in frame’ but built with all the frames touching and glued to form a strong and stable substrate for the planks. Marked on this substrate is every strake of planking and, too, every frame as it would have been on the actual ship. Treenails correctly placed will indicate the positions of these ‘actual’ frames. Several pieces of the main wale have been fi tted ‘hook-and-butt’ style, and one piece of the thinner black strake.
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