Moonbug

Thanks Sjors, Grant & B.E! Feels great to be back in the little shop working again. Finding it difficult to be patient. B.E. - Hope the new shop is coming along nicely! - Bug

I'm headed on my way toward the running rigging, which means I really need to finish off most (if not all) of the deck fittings and other little details. With that in mind, I took some time over the last week to finish off the launches as well and create some little pieces to add along the deck - particularly barrels and buckets. Step one to finishing off the launches was to carve out and sand some oars. I wanted at least a handful for each launch, so i created a bit of an assembly line with my handy faux mini belt sander and dremel. These are pretty raw cuts of the oars, then I did a lot of little detail sanding. Similar to the oars, I made a little bucket / barrel assembly line. The buckets are 5mm diameter downs trimmed to size then sanded down. I used an X-acto knife to carve out lines to create simulated planks, etc, then very carefully hollowed out the buckets. I left the extra trim on the sides then drilled out holes to thread in the rope handles. The barrels were pretty straightforward as far as trimming and sanding. They are wrapped with black electrical tape. A method I tried with my San Juan, the electricians tape is a great thickness and pretty easy to work with. The "cork" is a hole drilled then filled with a toothpick and clipped off. The larger launch includes a mast and sail wrapped for storage.

So - ya learn something new every day. I didn't realize this, but according to a few different pieces of documentation, apparently Naos of the time had a mainmast ladder. I figured sailors just ran up and down the ratlines like any other ship. Nonetheless, since it seems to be well documented (even by Pastor), I decided to add the mainmast ladder. Pretty basic setup here - trimmed all the steps out of 2mm strips, then stained and tied them off using a version of a clove hitch. I attached the top and bottom of the ladder using pretty standard tie-offs.

Finishing off the Anchors. I've been waiting until I had more of the fittings on deck before I stowed the anchors. It's my understanding that despite what we see very often - ships actually rarely had both anchors stowed and attached to the side of the bow. So, I've attached one, and stowed the other beneath the foredeck.

Welcome Back! - Bug

Obviously mainstay rigging has (like most rigging) evolved over the centuries. For the Santa Maria, I chose to use "Historic Ship Models" by Wolfram ZuMondfeld as a reference for the time frame. I also referenced some other models of the Santa Maria from other builders. Step one was to create open blocks to remain consistent with the ratlines, etc. I used a 12mm dowel, cut off the ends and drilled them out. I rounded and sanded them using this handy little tool that my mother bought me as a housewarming gift. It's actually a knife / tool sharpener, that comes with a variety of different sanding belts. When you take the knife adapter off, it makes for a great miniature belt sander. The top of the stay that loops around the top of the main mast is a reinforced wrapped rope. This is also the method of securing the rope to the blocks. So I simulated the effect by taking small diameter rope and wrapping the large diameter rope and creating the knot. My method for accomplishing this was to clip the top of the stay to a shelf, and the bottom of the stay to my desk. This kept consistent tension on the stay allowing me to wrap the smaller thread around the larger rope without it twisting too much. The upper half of the mainstay is connected to the bow of the ship through the foredeck. It's always sketchy when it comes time to drill holes in the deck as mistakes are unforgiving. The rope runs through the deck, around the bow keel, then back up through the deck. The ends are attached to to blocks. The blocks are combined around the foremast then connected to the upper half of the mainstay with another set of blocks. The upper end of the mainstay is wrapped around the mainmast, through the crow's nest, and reconnected using a loop and a "mouse" - essentially a woven knot. Clearly wrapping and weaving the knot as illustrated was too detailed for a small scale, so I simulated the mouse knot with a basic wrap. I followed up the mainstay with the fore stays and the aft stays. This are more simplified stays with basic single blocks. I added a small rod in the stay as a functional addition which seems to have appeared on some but not all ships of the time.

Good afternoon Lawrence, Thanks for the comments! Truth be told - much of the progress was finishing off several different things that I'd started before, but didn't complete. So, instead of running through several things start-to-finish, it was finishing off a few half-started projects. :-) That - and being excited to work again and staying up a little later than I should. - Bug

As a relatively small ship, the Santa Maria most likely had six pair of shrouds on the main masts that were then secured to the channels using deadeye blocks. Like many other details from that long ago - there is some question as to the type of deadeye blocks that are used on the Santa Maria or other ships of the time. Once again, some subjective judgement is necessary in this area. While it appears to be clear (from a Flemish carrack 1480 model and others) that earlier deadeyes were triangular or 'pear shaped' it is not clear at which point deadeyes moved from being an open hole, to the three holes that later became the norm. Based on the premise that the Santa Maria was an older, existing ship that was purchased, and some input from Xavier Pastor's research, I decided to go with an open hole version. So, step one was to drill out the triangular deadeyes and open them up. Always a delicate process, I held the deadeyes steady with suture clamps, then drilled them out with a dremel. Any drilling is always followed up with some soft sanding. Step two is to rig the deadeyes. I used my handy soldering clamp to keep the distance between the deadeyes consistent. The process is a bit dodgy, since each time you tighten the ropes, the deadeyes have a tendency to squeeze together closer regardless of how tight the clamps are. This is less likely in the newer, three holed deadeyes. Once the deadeyes themselves are rigged, they are attached to the channels. First, holes are drilled in the channels, eyes inserted, then those eyes are attached to the wales of the hull. The deadeyes are then attached to the eyes. Once again, it's important to wrap and tie them evenly so the lengths of the deadeyes and shrouds remain consistent. The shrouds themselves are wrapped around the main mast through the crow's nest and ganged together in pairs. After wrapping around the mast, an eye is seized in to them middle of the rope. The eyes are looped over the mast alternately so that both part and starboard side are evened out and the tension from the shrouds is consistent to both sides of the ship. The shrouds are attached to the deadeyes by being looped around the block an seized at the top. Rattling down the ratlines is one of the most tedious tasks of the build. Although there are quite a bit fewer ratlines in the Santa Maria as my San Juan Nepomuceno, there are still about 450 individual knots in both shrouds. Each knot is a clove hitch, which makes it a bit easier as they maintain tension when pulled. But it's always difficult for me to tie each knot with the same level of care to maintain the symmetry of the ratlines - as once again, the ratlines are one the most visible aspects of the model an any flaws are more noticeable than other aspects of the ship. While some folks use a paper with drawn lines to maintain distance, etc, I typically remeasure the distance of each knot after tying it. Then I put a spot of CA to keep them in place. For me - finishing the ratlines is an important step and, I believe, is a moment when the overall model really starts to take shape and look like a ship.

Hey Buck, Just catching up on this build - Love it! The miniatures are one of my favorites, and I'm definitely going to be stealing some ideas from you. Fantastic work. - Bug

The Launch: Based on a fair amount of research, it appears as though the Santa Maria had two smaller launches of slightly different variety. After a couple of failed attempts, I used a similar method that I used with the smaller launch to create the larger. I took the diagrams from Pastor's reference, made scaled copies, then cut out along the lines to create bulkheads to plank. The most difficult part of this small build was shaping the keel. It's a very dramatic bend. It took several attempts at soaking a strip then bending it with heat to get the shape I needed. I overbent, cracked and broke a number of pieces going to fast. Patience was definitely and ultimately a virtue here. But, I finally got a reasonable facsimile to work with. To shape the bulkheads properly, I just glued my paper templates to some thing plywood - knowing I would sand out the hulls later. As it turns out - this method failed miserably. I wasn't able to effectively plank or sand this version, because there wasn't enough wood to work this. After much aggravation, I just scraped the plank on bulkhead idea. Shifting gears - I switched to a more basic method, trying to simulate the real-world version of building smaller craft. I mounted my bent keel, filed small grooves, then bent and shaped until I came up with something suitable to plank. While this ultimately worked - it was quite difficult soaking and bending these smaller pieces. After quite a bit of planking, sanding and filling then planking again - I had a viable product to work with and shape. Filling in the launch with seats, rails, and a keel was relatively easy compared to the construction itself. Thank goodness for the weathering that I've been using because hopefully it'll cover up a fair amount of minor inaccuracies. I'll ultimately also add oars, some rope, and other small additions that represent the clutter that was often found in the small vessels. I suspect they were often used as storage bins much the same way we all seem to have a "junk drawer" somewhere around the house.

Although I'm just posting this - this was another deck fitting project I started quite a while ago and just finished up recently. Based on the items in the Captain's Cabin here, you can probably tell I'm a bit fascinated with the tiny details that I feel add a huge amount of fun to a build. I think this is true particularly for the casual viewer who may not recognize the accuracy and finesse as much as those who are familiar with builds and ships. At any rate - I wanted to create the cook stove that was commonly found on ships of the era. After failing miserably at silver soldering - a talent that I envy greatly and is held by several folks on here - I ended up cutting out the pieces and using "JB Weld" - which is essentially an epoxy weld for small metal pieces. It took a fair amount of trial and error, particularly at holding the pieces together until they dried enough. The grating is from a common screen door and the pot and pan are carved made from wood with metal bits attached.

Hey Augie, Just getting caught up on the build, as everyone has said - great work! Love siphoning your log for ideas. :-) - Bug

Just checking out your build. Beautiful work! - Bug

Just checking out your build - the Syren is one of my favorites. Nice, precise work on the deck. - Bug

Hey Adam, Just catching up on some builds after a long hiatus. Looking forward to see your progress on the SM when it rolls through your rotation. - Bug

Mark, Just catching up on the build. Looking great. I wish I'd have seen this latest on the long boat before I started working on the launch for the Santa Maria. I went with the bulkhead method, as you'll see in an upcoming post. Rough stuff for sure... This is cool method. Maybe I'll take a shot at it and see what turns out better. - Bug

Thanks Popeye, Grant & Mark! I'm pretty happy to be back on the build. Total case of - you don't know how much you've missed it, until you start at it again. :-) - Bug

The sheave block for the Mizzen is made from a piece of walnut, drilled and filed to create an opening. The opening is filled with the circular “pulley” cut from a leftover walnut dowel. The piece is sanded down to fit, placed into the block’s opening, and secured with a brass rod through the center of the entire piece. The sheave block is then secured to the top of the mizzen and fore masts with glue and a pin. After the masts are built, the touchy part comes into play. Holes must be drilled into the decks. Obviously this is an awfully nerve-wracking step. Any mistakes here are nearly irreparable and would be very difficult to mask. Each hole is initially drilled with a very small bit at a very high speed to minimize tearing the delicate wood of the deck. The holes are widened incrementally using larger bits until it gets close to the desired diameter. The holes are then finalized with a high grit sand paper to achieve as tight a fit as possible. The masts are NOT secured in place yet, but are dry-fitted.

The main mast of course houses the crow’s nest. The crow’s nest supplied is a solid wall, poorly molded version. At first I started rebuilding the entire thing from scratch, then realized that I could probably just refit the one supplied. I measured and marked, then drilled out holes in the sides. A lot of sanding later I ended up with something that I liked and that was quite a bit more accurate. The base of the crow’s nest is simply four mitre’d 5mm walnut pieces that are rounded and fitted to size. The entire thing sits on your typical criss-cross structure that will also provide a base for the topmast. Getting these pieces to all tie together nicely required a fair amount of clamps. The important aspect of the topmast is the rounded sanding at the base to ensure it fits snug against the main mast while still accommodating the double sheave block after it is tied together. The final steps are to stain and/or tung oil the pieces to make them meld together while still showing the details with different grains of wood. The final aspect for the masts is the sheave block added to the top of the masts.

Before my Haitus, I was working on fitting the main and mizzen masts. With the basics of the decks laid out, and the foremast and bowsprit in place, I decided it was time to loose fit the main and mizzen masts so I would have a better idea of exactly how much room I’m going to have on the decks, as well as get an idea of how I will need to alter the rigging from the original plans. Step one for the both masts of course was to size and taper them. My technique goes back to my makeshift lathe using my power drill, then sand it down to the desired diameter at the top. The mizzen is obviously far less complicated than the main. The next step is to decide on the base mount for the masts. The AL kit supplies circular, brass coated fittings that I think may be pewter. They not only look pretty cheap, but they’re not very well made. I prefer square mast bases anyway, so I built my own and beveled them. These were created from an old hard wood pen case. I loved the color and grain. The base of the main mast is bolstered with vertical strips of wood to strengthen it, then it is wrapped with heavy gauge rope up the length of the mast. Not long ago, I ordered 2mm x 2mm strips of walnut for a variety of needs including futtock riders. What I got (I think it was from Bluejacket) were these horribly ugly and DYED strips of wood that look like they were painted some sort of mahogany. So far, I only used them for inside the captain’s cabin to give it some color. I decided to use those strips for the base of the main mast – once again to add a little color. Particularly since I used a unique piece of wood for the base. At any rate, the strips are cut and mitre’d on the edges so they fit together adequately around the mast. Finally they are glued, then the ropes are added and tied as per Mondfeld’s “Historic Ship Models” in which the ends are tucked in to the back of the mast. The top of the main mast in the AL documentation supports a couple (at least) of blocks. However, a more accurate representation is a double sheave block. That block is created by to walnut pieces sanded to fit snuggly against the mast. The sheaves themselves are narrow cuts from a spare 5mm dowel. The big challenge here was getting everything to fit snuggly.

Hello everyone. It's been about a year and a half since I managed to really accomplish much with the Santa Maria. In that time I've been working and traveling, bought a new house and moved, and just generally been busting my hump. However, I've recently gotten back into the groove a little bit, so I'll have some updates shortly. In the meantime, here's a partial look at the new "hobby room" in the new place. :-) Looking forward to catching up on everyone's builds. - Bug

Thanks Anja, I've posted them here: http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/6305-el-galeon/?p=183190 Thanks Eamonn - I'll get to work!

Hey everyone - I know I've been absent. During a recent business trip to Orlando, I rented a car and drove to St. Augustine. One of the reasons (aside from the fact it's my birthplace) was to visit the "El Galleon" harbored in port there. Although the ship is quite modernized (it sails regularly and is used for tours) and probably doesn't serve super well for reference, I did take a fair amount of photos, etc. I muddled around the site, and can't find where I should post them all. Suggestions?

Thanks Sjors! I had a business trip last week, and I have another trip next week. :-/ Can't wait for things to settle down.

Thanks Kinnikki! I hope to get back to work on her soon! - Bug