Moonbug

Nice work!  Always good to see another Santa Maria! 

- Bug

Great work. I love this kit - a great opportunity to try new techniques and add as much or as little as you like.

- Bug

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

Great looking, and very artistic work. 

- Bug

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

Nice work and great detail. I'm enjoying the mods.  I've often looked at this kit to work as well.

- Bug

Nice looking work Jason!

- Bug

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

Nice work on the planking Adrieke! Can't wait to see the second layer.

- Bug

Nice work Augie. Precise as always.

- Bug

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

Ha, Mark you got me.  :-)  Maybe that was over simplifying for civilians.  heh

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. 

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. 

Thanks Grant!

And thanks also Marktime. And as I mentioned in the last forum when I started this project - your Santa Maria provided (and continues to provide) lots of reference and motivation for my own ship. So, again thanks for the great job you did on yours!

Thanks Sjors and Augie!  It'll be great to get back to seeing everyone's work!

And I guess it's off to scrubbing the decks so I can earn a little bit of rank back!  *laff*

- Bug

Once the Fo'c'sle has been constructed, the foredeck has been mounted to it, and the head beam is put in place, I was able to add both the bowsprit and foremast. Unlike later ships in which the bowsprit and foremast are mounted separately, the Santa Maria's bow masts are linked together. This made for a very tricky process.

The technique involved putting the two masts in place while the foredeck was unattached. I then bound the two masts together at the proper angle at their base. The patience then kicked in when it was time to mount the foredeck while matching up where the masts enter the main deck.

The final product with the head beam and windlass in place looked pretty good. It all makes me realize just how little space the sailors had to run around and actually sail the ship.

To ease the tension of the rigging, the lines go through holes in the foredeck and around pulleys called reeving sheaves. To create these sheaves, I first drilled holes into the foredeck clinker planking.

 Then I created the pulley by cutting off the end of a dowel and grooving it.

The ladders are created exactly how one would expect - each piece is cut then glued together. It takes a great deal of patience and persistence to glue the ladders with all of the "steps" even and secure.

Although some reference material shows only one set of steps from the poop deck, Xavier Pastor's reference shows two ladders. The final detail to the ladder is the chain guide running from the top stanchion to the bottom stanchion.

Thanks Anja!  Good to be back.  :-)

- Bug

Although most of the research I've read indicates that the Santa Maria was by all accounts a very basic vessel, many of the models being manufactured and displayed have an overwhelming amount of embellishments and accouterments common to Spanish vessels.  However, many of these details were not evident until decades or even centuries later.  I have chosen to keep this version of the Santa Maria realistic, but I am taking some small liberties that have not been well documented. For instance, I wanted to include more decorative windows on the rear of the captain's cabin that were likely present.

 I framed the windows with 2mm X 2mm strips cut and glued. Then I covered them with "glass" made from the plastic container that held some screws. I scored the glass carefully with an older, dull Xacto blade being careful not to pierce all the way through the glass.

I then stained and mounted the windows to the rear of the captain's cabin trying my best to match the coloring as closely as possible on the outside, while maintaining a mahogany color on the inside of the cabin, a location which would most likely have been more decorative.

A very tedious task that I had been putting off was the deck railings. Like the bow of the ship, the poop deck railing consists of stanchions, railings, then wooden slats.

Each stanchion needs to be cut precisely then notched, rounded and sanded. Each stanchion mounted on the sides of the poop deck are the same absent the rounded top. More stanchions are then cut and prepared for the quarterdeck railings.

Rather than just gluing each stanchion to the deck (which would be terribly unstable),  I followed the same protocol as the bow and fitted the poles with a pin to hold them in place.

Chair & Desk

I had some pretty specific ideas in mind for the chair and desk and was happy I was able to pull off something close to what I envisioned. The chair is started from a strip of 1.5 X 3 mm walnut and modeled after a combination of some 1400s research and the chairs we have in our dining room. Our dining room chairs are Amish made from oak.

The original walnut piece was sanded to fit the shape of the seat.  The legs were sanded from a 2 mm diameter walnut dowel. This sanding was so delicate, that I went through several inches of the dowel just to get the four legs as well as the cross pieces.

Finally, the back was sanded down to include a small curvature emulating an actual chair.  I used my dremel tool with the smallest possible tip I could find to create the slats in the back.  The entire chair was then left unstained, but coated in Tung oil to bring out the natural colors of the walnut.

The desk is a really unique piece for me. Out of sheer coincidence, I was given a set of wooden pens. Each pen came in it's own case. The sides of the case were these beautiful little pieces of polished mahogany that fit absolutely perfectly with what I was trying to accomplish!  The only drawback, they were extremely difficult to cut, sand, and polish.

 The legs of the desk were made from a 3mm diameter dowel that I inserted into my drill (same trick I often use) to create a make-shift lathe. I then used a variety of pin files to get the patter that I wanted. Once again, I went through many cases of the legs breaking off before I ended up with four good pieces. It was also very, very difficult to get four legs whose patterns looked close enough to one another to be acceptable.

 Finally, I sanded (600-1000 grit sandpaper) and polish all the pieces, stained the legs, and coated the entire combination with another coat of Tung oil.

Chess Set:

 I am a huge fan of chess.  In my home I have a collection of 14 different chess sets from 13 difference countries. I realize that actually have a chess set and table on board a ship the size of the Santa Maria is completely and utterly unrealistic. However, because I love the game, and it's not too much of a stretch to think the Ship's Captain would be a player, I decided to add the chess board. I'd also seen another builder create one out of card stock, and I admired the effort so much I had to give it a shot.

The board is made from a soft piece of pine.  Each set of squares is a mm wide, and the entire thing is boarded by 1.5 mm x 1.5 mm mahogany.  Coloring the squares was obviously a huge challenge.  I scored the wood at 1 mm intervals with a razor blade, then I used wood stain and a size 0 brush. Each drop of stain fell and spread within the square, but was successfully contained by the cuts in the wood!

At first I tried to have some detail in the pieces, but that failed miserably.  Instead I just distinguished them by size. I also realized that trying to have all 32 pieces was going to make it pretty crowded - so we'll have to consider it mid-game with a few pieces missing.

Here are a couple of shots of the final pieces and how the desk will ultimately be arranged within the cabin.

Finally for the cabin is a bed, at least one chest, a toilet facility and a couple of other small items.

Pictures & Frames:

Each picture was selected from the time period, but it's a complete guess on what a devout member of the church and essentially an employee of the monarchy would have brought along.The first frame is built with 2 X 2 mm strips of mahogany sanded down and mitered and the corners.  I mounted the strips onto a piece of printer paper to stabilize them. I used a sharpie to darken the back and mask any irregularities since the margin for error here was so slim.

I stained the frame a dark stain, then painted it with a thin layer of gold paint. This coloring ended up very similar to many of the frames I've seen over the years while living in Europe and visiting museums. This first picture is one of the many, many versions of Mary and child.

The second frame is made from sapella with two layers of mitered pieces. The two layers gives it a little depth and gives the appearance of a slightly more elaborate piece. The final product is stained a red oak. 

Books:

 Three books are all made from balsa wood and a layer of cardstock with a printed coloring. 

 The balsa wood is sanded to shape with pin files and 600 - 1000 grain sand paper. No matter how fine the sand paper is, the balsa wood is not going to be perfectly smooth. This is an added bonus in this situation and gives the appearance of texture for the book.  The wood is then painted white and the edges are repeatedly scored with an x-acto knife to give the impression of several pages.

For the open book - a red marker and some red highlights are added to give the overall impression that this book is a Bible, which would have most certainly been carried by Columbus.

The Sword:

  The sword is based on some light research on what a typical 15th century Spanish blade may have looked like. 

The blade is made from a 1.5 x 3 mm piece of walnut.  I chose walnut because I've had more success with the wood holding together while I sand it very small.  Nonetheless, the sword still took a couple of tries before I managed a successful blade.  Even still, the handled snapped at one point and I had to superglue it back together. The good news is, that was covered by the paint.

The brass protective / decorative piece is made from a strip of brass. I had to sand the corners to get it to bend in the directions that I wanted.  Once I had it successfully shaped, I added the knuckle shield. Gluing each of those pieces ended up being the biggest challenge in making the sword.

You may remember, my initial desire to build the ship was instigated by my teenage daughters' lack of knowledge of the Santa Maria - which I found quite disconcerting.  That's why, as I laid out in the previous post - a big part of my vision for this project was being able to see inside the captain's cabin and to have some items within that cabin that illustrate the time of the voyage of Columbus.

Granted, there is quite a bit of editorializing and guessing when it comes to the items that I've started to build here. That's mostly because there is so little documentation regarding that voyage, and Columbus' own notes with regard to basic amenities are sparse at best.  However, I did base the look of the cabin on actual items from the same time frame, and with a Spanish and sometimes Italian slant.

First, I had to finish constructing the cabin itself:

I started by cutting a sized template of two-layer thin plywood.  I planked the inside with the same mahogany  strips I used for the rest of the cabin.  The outside of the cabin is stripped with the walnut planks used on the rest of the hull - which is important because I plan on using the same stain pattern and color.

The door itself it cut, then fitted with brass hinges pinned down with brass pins. The pins have been cut to less than a millimeter, but the head is still showing. Then hinges and door are then aged with blackening patina. Also notice that there is crowning all around the inside and outside of the cabin wall. 

Finally, the door and hinges are fitted to the wall.  The hinges on the wall and doorframe needed to be inset slightly to allow the door to fit smoothly.  The door is mounted with two small pins that are inserted into pre-drilled holes into the frame. 

Once the cabin was pieced together, I was able to draw out a plan of what I wanted inside. I'll touch on each item individually to illustrate how it was made.

A big part of this build for me is the ability to see the Captain's cabin and the accouterments that are inside.  I've mulled over how I wanted to accomplish that tricky feat, and have decided to come up with a hinged poop deck.  I want to be able to open the deck and see the cabin, but still have as much accuracy as possible regarding the rigging along the stern and transom.

I started by carefully measuring the poop deck and then cutting the outline of the section that will hinge upward. Although they are obviously a complete flight of fancy, I wanted the hinges themselves to be effective, but to also remain representative of the time period. My concept was to attach small dowels to the underside of the deck, then mount them to the deck edges with brass loops and pins.

The brass strips were drilled with the small bit then aligned with the dowel and the deck.  The thickness of the deck became and issue and needed to be trimmed so that when the deck opens it is not obstructed.  The dowels and hinges also needed to be separated enough from the edges so that they too were not obstructed.

After the pieces were put together, the entire deck was then dry mounted to the stern of the ship. It was during this time that I discovered that somewhere along the line my measurements were off!  The Port side of the stern of the ship was 3mm longer than the starboard side!

My guess is that at some point during cutting and measuring I didn't take into account the thickness of the outside planking.  At any rate, not the deck did not fit properly on the stern of the ship and needed to be repaired.  My plan was to cut off a portion of the bulwarks where the lines intersected, then attach a new piece that was the additional 3mm longer. My hope was the if I made the cuts in the right place I could come very close to patching and staining the area to get it to look very close to the existing bulwarks.

Since the area I needed to replace was very thin, I suspected it wouldn't hold properly with just glue. I drilled and inserted metal pins into the bulwark on which to mount the new piece.

After gluing and mounting, I re-paneled the inside planks with mahogany, then the outside with walnut and stain. I then re-positioned the vertical strake so it evened up with the starboard side of the ship.

Finally, I soaked, steamed, and molded the walnut railings from 1.5 X 4mm strips and mounted them as well.  Ultimately, the repair turned out well and I think the mistake will not be very noticeable in the finished product.

After mounting the foredeck, and getting pretty much all I could out of the main deck and working the hull, I decided it was time to finally mount the second deck. I sanded around the edges to get it to fit as smoothly as possible along the bulwarks of the ship. There's a small gap between the deck and the bulwarks, but that will be covered with a very thin strip mounted where the deck meets the rest of the ship.

As you can see, it took a little bit of creativity to hold the deck in place while the glue dries. It's pretty common practice for me to use whatever is available to lodge, lean, mount, or clamp parts together while they dry in place.

I also carved and sanded my own version of deck mounts to the port and starboard sides of the ship, once again based on the illustrations from my reference materials.

Another major distinguishing difference between this kit and many of the reference materials for the Santa Maria is the existence of a "head beam" at the bow of the ship. According to the famous "Mataro Model" studied at the Rotterdam Maritime Museum, a beam at the bow was in Spanish vessels of the time to help hold the anchor(s). The Mataro model is the only actual model in existence that closely represents Spanish vessels of the 12th and 13th century timeframe. Many of Xavier Pastor's references in the book to which I refer are taken from the Mataro model as well.

For these reasons I decided to also include the head beam on my ship. It definitely creates a tight spacing issue at the bow of the ship, but I think increases the accuracy of the model by quite a bit!

I took a 5mm X 5mm piece of walnut and soaked it overnight. Then I steamed and heated it to get a mild bend. It took a lot of patience and slow manipulations. I then drilled then sanded the square holes in the bow to accomodate the beam. I had to sand the holes at the same angle that the beam would sit, which essentially meant mitering the edges instead of just cutting them straight out.

The hard work paid off with the beam in place and sitting snuggly. It took several gentle taps with the small hammer to get it in place without damaging the hull around it. I actually didn't even glue it in place because it fit so tightly.