Moonbug
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Everything posted by Moonbug
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Watching with interest! - Bug -
Nice work. Collecting ideas for future use... - Bug
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Gorgeous work. I love the Spanish vessels. :-) - Bug
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LoL Sjors... that's the exact problem. I am getting fewer and fewer building hours allotted to me by my lovely leisure coordinator... ;-) - Bug
- 1,616 replies
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- 2
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- caldercraft
- agamemnon
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Jason, I once calculated the highest possible amount I could sell my San Juan for, then divided it by how long it took me to build and came up with a potential earning of something like $2 an hour... hehe. - Bug
- 800 replies
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- snake
- caldercraft
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Great approach Vivian! Whenever I start to get in a hurry (particularly during the repetitive bits like ratlines etc.) I try to tell myself that if my finished build is going to last forever, the least I can do is invest an extra few minutes or even a day to get a part the way I want it. At the same time, it's also very important to me to make my own artistic liberties to get her the way I want her even if those changes may not be completely accurate. After all, they are MY ships and I'm the one that's going to see them most often. ;-) Keep having fun and I'll be following with interest! - Bug
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Sjors, All this is doing is perpetuating my desire to finally build one of the HMS kits. ;-) - Bug
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Nice work Bob. I like the treenailing method. I think the color difference turned out quite well. - Bug
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Nice build. Thanks for the review of the kit - always interesting to see the differences in the manufacturers. - Bug
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Sephirem, hope you're enjoying the world of the Santa Maria. Looking forward to watching your build. - Bug
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Nice work with the sails! I may be stealing a bit of this when I get to the rigging. :-) - Bug
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Nice work! Always good to see another Santa Maria! - Bug
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Great work. I love this kit - a great opportunity to try new techniques and add as much or as little as you like. - Bug
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Hey Mike. Nice work so far! FYI - I've had three Artesania kits and have ALWAYS had to purchase more wood for some section or another. - Bug
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Nice clean version of the SM. It's always interesting to see the variations different kits bring of a ship that has such little historical documentation. Marktime is dead on (no pun intended) with the likely cause of your twist. Also check how they're tied to the mast on the top end. A twist up there can translate to a twist at the bottom. - Bug
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Nice work and great detail. I'm enjoying the mods. I've often looked at this kit to work as well. - Bug
- 97 replies
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- 1
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- finished
- muscongus bay lobster smack
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Hi Vivian, she's looking good! I'm always happy to see a new shipbuilder join the gang. My advice on building your first ship is to really, really take your time. I had a tendency to get so excited that I would plow through at a faster pace than I should have - and the next thing you know - you're done already! So before you really jump into the sails and rigging, take a look at what you have and see if there's anything you want to do differently or change. Once all the lines are in, it's very difficult to do that. Also, before I would tackle a new piece or deck fitting, I'd go through the forum and see who's already done it - then take what I could from them. As you get new kits you'll likely find that the kit instructions vary SO much that it's a good idea to take the best bits from each, then the rest from what builders here have already done. You're doing a great job, and I can't wait to see you finish out this build and jump into your next ones! - Bug
- 188 replies
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- latin caravel
- artesania latina
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Nice work on the planking Adrieke! Can't wait to see the second layer. - Bug
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Love that you also frequent the "Households" doll house section of Hobby Lobby! They have great stuff there if you can match the scale. - Bug
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Ha, Mark you got me. :-) Maybe that was over simplifying for civilians. heh
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I then moved on to the gun ports in the side of the ship. It always makes me very nervous to cut into the ship. Obviously making any kind of error would be very difficult to correct. So I spend quit a bit of time planning before I actually cut into the ship. After measuring where each gun port will be and drawing it in place, I started by drilling small holes to outline where the ports will be cut out. I then used a larger bored carving and etching dremel tool to get close to the sides of the gun port. The rest is done by hand using pin-files. It's a very slow sanding and filing process because it's very easy for the siding and planking to fray, crack, or break off. The outside of the gunports are framed with thin strips of mahogany that is mitre cut and mounted. In these cases I used "super" glue since the pieces are so delicate. Since I always have difficulty creating frames this small, I used a technique similar to when I created the pieces for the captain's cabin. After pre-staining the wood, I cut and glued the 2mm x 2mm strips to a piece of paper. This makes it MUCH easier to eventually mount to the gunports. After the glue dries, I use a fine X-acto knife with a new and very sharp blade to cut the paper from inside the frames. I then lightly sand the paper side until it is thin enough to not be noticeable on the final product. Each frame is then glued, sanded again, and stained.
- 274 replies
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- Santa Maria
- Artesania Latina
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Like most kits, the cannons included in the AL Santa Maria fell very short of authentic. Although the die-cast brass cannons themselves were pretty close, the base on which they were to rest were woefully inadequate. So, once again, I turned to Pastor's reference material. However, this was also an area where I didn't mind shifting slightly from authenticity. I also like the cannons created by Garik Grigoryan used in his rendition of the Santa Maria. Although much of his Santa Maria is a little too elaborate for my taste, I really enjoy his miniature deck fixtures. I started with my cannons by letting them soak to create a patina coating. I then drilled out places to attached fixtures to the cannons. The handles and loops are shaped brass wiring. I then re-soaked the entire fixture to build up the patina once again. Unfortunately the patina didn't build up as nicely as I would have liked, so I added some paint and other methods for aging as well - which I will get to. I carved the base pieces out of solid blocks of wood using both hand tools and a dremel. After the bases were carved out to hold the cannon barrels, the feet and backing are added, each is stained. The metal strips are cut and molded brass strips. The rivets are straight pins cut short and inserted into pre-drilled holes through both the brass strips and wood. I then used this fantastic product I came across by Tamiya. The trick is to add the fake soot and/or rust to a slightly damp product. In my case, I sprayed each piece with a thin coat of polyurethane then added the weathering product. Additionally, I painted the brass fittings that would not patina properly, then coated the entire fixture with the soot just before the paint dried entirely. I was very pleased with the final product.
- 274 replies
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- Santa Maria
- Artesania Latina
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