Santa Maria 1492 by Dominic - Artesania Latina - 1:65 Scale

[fifthace]

Me again!

 

I bought this as a gap filler as I knew I would end up waiting for partworks to arrive and so on.

This was also the first model I ever looked at when thinking about taking the plunge into wooden ship modelling years ago. Another good reason for this one is I've nver built a ship with sails, and this is quite simplified so will be a good way to get some experience.

 

If this one turns out ok I might think about building the Nina and the Pinta to go with her.

 

I've not done a great deal yet, just working my way down the keel to about half way so far. I've been bevelling the frames as I go, I personally find it just makes things easier, even more so as I can do the bulk of the removal before fixing the frame in place using a Mouse sander. Yes sort of cheating I know but it works.

 

Progress so far:

 

[clearway]

good work so far. we need someone to start  pinta now! I always sand frames after assembly to check the run of the planks.

Keith

[fifthace]

Cheers Keith. Yes would be good to have all three being made.

 

I do the more finer acurate sanding afterwards as well, just the first/last few frames I take the bulk of the wood off before as I find I have more control and less chance of breaking a frame. Done that once or twice

[fifthace]

I've finished attaching all of the frames to the keel and fairing them as needed. She has quite a pointy bow so quite a lot had to come off there. Not so much at the stern, more just to ensure the planks have 100% frame to lay against.

 

I marked out the locations of the frames on the false deck and pre-drilled a series of holes for pins. I fitted the deck in place and partially pinned, allowing still a gap for me to apply PVA into, then I pushed the pins fully in. Not my original intention but I was using some nice flat topped pins that I knew would sit flush with the deck and not foul the decking later.

 

This also allowed me to correct a very slight twist from the last but one frame at the stern, however I was able to persuade it go go into line and the pins helped keep it there as the glue dried. Now everything is perfectly square.

 

[fifthace]

I started the deck planking today, at least for the main deck anyway. It's meant to be planked all the way to the stern but I worked out that a lot of that wouldn't be visible so I marked out the area that would be seen and planked that only.

 

I finally found a wood/marker combination that doesn't bleed, so I tried a different method of caulking, using a marker instead. Seems to have turned out quite well.

 

The deck is meant to be planked in single lengths but this would mean simulating the joints between planks which if I did as normal with a pencil wouldn't match the longditudal caulking, so I decided to cut the planks into 7cm lengths, done intentionally so I would end up with a 1cm stagger ever 4th plank. Don't ask me why I just think it looks better, slightly less uniform. (I build for asthetics, not accuracy...within reason).

 

Progress so far:

 

Edited April 24, 2014 by fifthace

[clearway]

Looking good- wierd how they used extended ply formers from the frames for the bulwarks on Nina and not their Santa Maria kit.

Keith

[fifthace]

Thanks

 

No idea why...wish they had though. I hate solid bulwarks. I'd rather PoF the whole lot.

[Mike Dowling]

Not a bad bit of planking Dom! Still keeping an eye on you you see!!

[CaptainSteve]

Time for some tree-nails now, Dom ??

[fifthace]

Yep Steve all done. Simulated though, not got enough cocktail sticks to hand lol.

[Mike Dowling]

And there was me thinking that us Scottish dwellers were in trouble for drinking too much!!! Maybe it's a side effect of planking!!!

[fifthace]

lol Mike...no idea what you're talking aboot!

 

I've finished the main deck and added the treenailing. Next I planked the bow wall with African Walnut veneer, very nice wood. After that had dried I trimmed the excess and then set about adding the single piece bulwarks. I bloody hate these things...I'd much sooner PoF the entire side walls.

 

Still, they went on much better than I expected, and a novelty for me is I got them both on evenly!

 

[Mike Dowling]

^{Very good! Did you have to soak those beasties or were they flexible enough not to have to?}

[fifthace]

The second one. They had enough flex in them to hug the curve of the frames/decks. Had to be pinned on each frame to hold in place but they went on quite easily

[clearway]

looking good there dominic- those ply sides will deffo make the build easier.

Keith

[fifthace]

Thanks Keith. They will now they're fitted. But I'd much sooner had planked right up, cut to shape, cut the gunports...etc.

[fifthace]

With the bulwarks fitted I could get the insides planked, at least the lower section anyway. I will plank the upper sections once the quarter/poop decks are in place.

 

I decided I could plank the quarter deck before fitting as it only has a very slight curve and wouldn't need any pinning to hold in place, besides there was nothing to pin to anyway.

 

[Mike Dowling]

I would love to know how you get all this done so fast! You must spend all day at it!

 Glad to see you have ordered your next challenge though.

[fifthace]

Not at all Mike. I grab maybe half hour to an hour between my eldest leaving for school and my youngest going to nursery and in afternoons maybe another hour and half, in total, and sometimes a little time in the evening.

[fifthace]

I've finished planking the quarter deck and sanding etc. When dry fitting I noticed there was no support across the middle, and I felt this would potentially cause an issue later on.

 

I had some columns spare and found the two of these glued end to end fitting just right. So I made 6 columns and stained them with walnut and varnished them no rather than try and do it later. I fitted them evenly but recessed so they wouldn't interfere with anything to be fitted later.

 

Once that was done I fitted the quarter deck and planked the bulwarks and rear wall.

 

[Captain Al]

Nice work Dom. I am working out the planking scheme for the top deck of my Bounty so your pictures and words were very useful. At first I was going to cut planks to 75mm, but when I drew that out on a paper outline of the deck it looked far too small with way too many butt joints. I started wondering what length of plank the real Bounty would have had and I found in McKay's book that they were probably around 20 feet long. I'm only going by a line drawing which was labeled 1:96

Worked down to my 1:48 scale this comes to 127mm. I plan to go now with approximately that length. I was thinking of staggering them every 3 planks (so that plank 1 and 4, 7 etc. have parallel butt joints) and making the stagger equal to real Bounty's 8 foot stagger. But I like your 4 plank scheme. It looks less cluttered. Mind if I steal it? A question out of all this: it looks like you trenailed only the joints and not across every beam. In reality there would be pegs or nails across all beams, is that not correct? Doing all the beams just for realism would also mean that the planks need to butt up on a beam. This would make devising the layout much trickier. Since our faux trenailing is for effect only, I think your way makes sense. Down below on the other 2 decks I followed directions and simulated nailing across all beams as well as doubling where two planks met. I think now I will follow your lead.

[Captain Al]

Another question for you Dom. This goes back to an earlier discussion on someone's build log. Did you plank up to the companionway holes or cut them out after planking over them?

[fifthace]

Hiya AL. I wouldn't take my planking as red for anything. I wasn't able to find any accurate information on how the planking would have been done on the SM so really I improvised.

 

In relality my method wouldn't have been used, especially with the 7cm length and 2cm gaps resulting in a 1cm gap every 4th plank. That was more of a cock up on my part than anything else.

 

I did think about marking the treenails across the width, but I tried it and I didn't really like how it was looking. Perhaps if I was cocktail sticking the treenails it would have looked better but as I was purely simulating it...I build for asthetics over accuracy.

 

As for the companion way holes I planked over, marking their perimiter as I went and cutting away afterwards, simply to make working out the position of the next plank easier.

[clearway]

Nice work dominic coming along nicely. On my billings victory i glued spare pieces of 3mm by 2mm underneath as deck beams to stiffen them.

Keith

[fifthace]

Thanks Keith. I used short lengths of dowels to support the deck supports on my Soveriegn, however there wasn't even any cross beam supports on this one. It didn't really need any, but I felt it was just a little too flexi at the wider end for comfort.

 

Indeed as I found out earler it could have done with one right at the back, as it had sagged slightly in the middle and I had to clamp it inplace when fixing the stern backplate.

[fifthace]

Hi again.

 

After finishing the work above decks, it's time to start the planking. I won't go into too much detail nor post many updates until the first planking is finished as it's pretty repetative stuff.

 

I started with a full length strake right below the pre-fab bulwarks, sloping upward slightly at the bow. Following that I filled in the gaps at the bow above that strake, then added another one below the first one.

 

Then switched to the keel and fitted the garboard. The small triangular gap at the stern below the garboard I won't add these first planks, as when I add the veneer they would be much wider than the stern post/rudder, and sanding then thinner and tapering them would result in a in-out-in bump and would look just...wrong!

 

[fifthace]

Just another very quick update on the planking progress so far. Nothing else to report. So a pretty boring post really.

 

[fifthace]

Finally finished the first planking, sanded and smoothed not shiney smooth though otherwise there would be no key for the 2nd planking to fix to. Pics below show before and after sanding.

 

[Mike Dowling]

It looks good to me Dom but it also occurs that this 'no lateral bending' lark doesn't matter as long as you have the thickness of wood to allow for the removal of clinkering afterwards. If you don't do it the way you have you would have to shape each individual plank as I see it. I feel, whilst it may not be 'correct' that the way you have done yours is the same as I did for my stern section which once sanded looks good. So are we right?

[fifthace]

Sort of. And thanks.

 

I did taper planks and bevel the edges to get a pretty smooth fit with the minimum of lateral twist...although not as much as should be done for the reason you pointed out, the thickness of the wood allows some margin so sand out the clinker and it's a base layer and won't be visible.

 

If it was a single plank hull then yes the planks would have to be shaped as yes you would still be able to sand them down but they would be visible and wouldn't look as good.