Moonbug

Bindy - That should be EVERY day's lesson. ~
 
- Bug

It took a while, but I finally got the cleats, rails, and sheaves in place.  
 

Bindy - That should be EVERY day's lesson. ~
 
- Bug

Sjors - the snow is finally thawing out!  But, more to come this week. :-/
 
I've been fighting with a little launch I'm trying to build. :-/  She's quite stubborn.  I've trashed my first attempt completely and have started over with a different method.  Pictures to come soon! 
 
- Bug

Sjors - the snow is finally thawing out!  But, more to come this week. :-/
 
I've been fighting with a little launch I'm trying to build. :-/  She's quite stubborn.  I've trashed my first attempt completely and have started over with a different method.  Pictures to come soon! 
 
- Bug

Hello everyone. Please pardon my delayed return. Like many, the idea of re-creating ship build logs is a daunting task. However, I obviously miss the shared knowledge and camaraderie. 
 
I'll do my best to both re-create my Santa Maria log as well as catch everyone up to speed on the Ship's progress. Please forgive some of the rudimentary comments, I have copied and pasted some of the progress posts from a Blog I also keep that is geared more toward those how are unfamiliar with ship builds.
 
Most people know that the ship "Santa Maria" or La Santa María de la Inmaculada Concepción was the flagship of Christopher Columbus' journey to the Americas.  However, people may not realize that there is very little historical evidence regarding exactly what the "Santa Maria" looked like, or how it was built. There was little to no documentation regarding ship building in 1492, and this ship was scuttled and its lumber used for shelter not long after its initial voyage.
 
Interest in reconstructing the Santa María started in the 1890s for the 400th anniversary of Columbus's voyage. In an effort to reproduce history, the "Santa Maria" has suffered three major Spanish versions, the first timed with the 400th centennial anniversary of Columbus landing in the New World, the second, for the Expo Iboamerica of 1929 and the last, the New York World Fair, 1964
 
In 1892 the naval historian, Fernandez Duro, modelled the ship as a Nao - A carrack or nau was a three- or four-masted sailing ship developed in 15th century Western Europe for use in the Atlantic Ocean. It had a high rounded stern with large aftcastle, forecastle and bowsprit at the stem. It was first used by the Portuguese (its creators), and later by the Spanish, to explore and map the world. It was usually square-rigged on the foremast and mainmast and lateen-rigged on the mizzenmast. Unfortunately, Fernandez Duro made a fundamental error as result of an erroneous reading of Columbus's log. It was also criticized as being too ornamented for the period.
 
The second attempt to recreate the ship was by Julio Guillen Tato, known as the Guillen version. This reproduction for the Expo was controversially designed as a Caravel - a small, highly maneuverable ship developed in the 15th century by the Portuguese to explore along the West African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean. Caravels were much used by the Portuguese for the oceanic exploration voyages during the 15th and 16th centuries. Tato's reproduction sailed badly and ended up a wreck.
 
Director of the Maritime Museum of Barcelona, Spain, Martinez-Hidalgo returned the "Santa Maria" into her rightful class, as a Nao. He further refined his ideas for the 500th centennial celebration in 1992. The model I am building is from a kit by Atesania Latina, and will be based on this 1992 version which is considered by most ship historians to be the most accurate.

Just getting caught up on some builds. Nice work Viv!
 
- Bug

Just some pics for comparison and explanations on what I changed from the original instructions.
 
Kit instruction

 
My view

 
Explaining what I´ve changed:
 
1 - Bowsprit (?) - Maybe not a bowsprit, for it has no function as one, but this piece on the fore didn´t pleased me, so, it was cut more like some other references I found.
 
2 - Peering holes - Didn´t like them from the beginning, but that´s not all. When I was reinforcing the hull some planks couldn´t fit cause the pre-cut parts just ignored this building step. To fix the problem I remade the planking on this part of the ship and completely closed the holes.
 
3 - Collor for the Hull - The kit´s instruction tells us to paint the hull black. I thought it would be a shame to put all timber to paint and made it different - used betume on the hull to give an aged look and then a wood sealer to protect the wood. Disagreeing with the kit´s excuse for the painting (iconography shows black hulls), we don´t have any proofs about the hull colors and although the iconography shows dark hulls, it was hard to have the right color to paint the hull on the middle ages - almost all iconography shows dark hulls for many types of ships, and those we have some evidence were not that patterned on painting.
 
4 - Rudder´s fittings (holders) - That was something the kit didn´t provide. Had to improvise and make my own with the few tools I had. In the instructions it is left with the original collor (brass), mine, as all metal on the ship, was painted black.
 
5 - Deadeyes - this took me some time. Deadeyes provided were lead, as all metal fittings. The manufactor said it was because he thought wooden deadeyes didn´t show a realistic view, since deadeys were handmade. Well, I disagreed again and had to order new fittings. Deadeyes took 1 month to arrive, but the results are way better. Funny part is that in the instructions the deadeyes are wood.
 
6 - Didn´t put the flags. Those which came with the kit were paper and I prefer to have my caravel countryless.
 
7 - Cleaning holes - Intructions told me to make four of them in each side. After searching for immages on the case, I found it was pretty conjectural and made 2 on each side, to better accommodate fittings inside. Could´ve put them all along the hull too, but 2 didn´t seem too few to me.
 
 

The handle of the pump is created from two strips of 2mm x 2mm square walnut sanded and etched out. They are based in 3mm x 3mm square walnut strips sanded to fit the side of the pump.

 

   

 

The pieces all put together initially and then stained.

 



 

The pump mechanism and the strips around the pump are made from a scrap brass dowel and scrap brass flattened pieces.  I flatten the end of the brass dowel out by putting it between the flat areas of a pair of pliers and striking it with a hammer.

 

   

 

All of the strips, the handle, and the pump mechanism are attached using a touch of glue, and then firmly attached using pins with the heads sanded down. Finally the pumps are re-stained, and the brass pieces are given a layer of patina.

Although the Xavier Pastor book I have been continually referencing lists the Santa Maria as most likely having a single turn-crank water pump, every other reference I've seen has shown a more traditional pump-handle style water pump. Often times there are two, as in later ships. When it comes down to it - I think the pump-style handle looks better, so I went with that.

 

To build my water pump I started with a 5mm diameter dowel and thin basswood strips. 

 

   

 

I trimmed the sides of the basswood strips at a 45 degree angle so they would fit together mitre'd nice and snug. I then cut them at 15mm lengths and glued them around the dowel to create the base of the pump. I went with this idea to create a solid base that wouldn't collapse when I started working on it.  

 

   

 

I then hollow out the base of the pump with a drill. The base is made from a 10mm dowel of walnut with the center drilled out at 5mm to accept the base of the water pump. Of course the sides of the base are sanded and beveled.  

 



 

The spout of the pump is a 2mm dowel of walnut with the end drilled out hollow first with a 1mm hand bit, then with a 1mm etching bit for a dremel at low speed. 

 

 

Time for cleats.  After a couple failed attempts at making wooden cleats for the bulwarks, I finally came across this entry from Floyd:
 
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/1906-wooden-cleats/
 
which of course made me feel silly for not looking here in MSW first.  Doh.
 

At any rate, I used a very similar process starting with a 3mm X 2mm strip, measuring off every 10mm for the width of the cleat I needed. I used a 10mm dremel grinder for the bottom of the cleat and a 3mm to 7mm conical shaped grinder for the top.

 
I then sanded and rounded the edges with 400 grit sand paper. I did this BEFORE I cut them apart since sanding any kind of small piece is much easier for me if it's still on a stem.
 

 
After cutting the cleats apart I rounded the edges.

That's hysterical Eamonn!  A great plan. My middle daughter for one is obsessed with them.
 
Last nights work - display adjustments.  When I first moved into my house I built a bookshelf into the wall of the downstairs family room to accommodate the pretty large number of books and movies we have. My San Juan Nepomuceno was on display in the upstairs family room on an end table. Looked good, and people saw it when they came in the house, but it was a little obtrusive and my lovely wife wasn't super fond of it.
 

 
That led to the discussion of "What are you going to do with the Santa Maria." Then a FURTHER conversation when I started mentioning my future build of an HMS vessel - a more adamant "Well, where's THAT going to go, we don't need giant ships all over our house!"
 
So here's my solution - I converted the bookshelf to hold my builds.  The square in the center (that currently houses my Jamaican chess set (I collect chess sets - yes, I'm a nerd) will house the Santa Maria. Then, the shelves on the right will be converted later to house the future build.
 

 
I still intend to install some plexi-glass over the ship display areas, but I'm pretty happy with the temporary adjustment.  Once the future build is done I'll make necessary adjustments and finalize the entire thing and make it permanent. 

Great work Viv. Good looking ship you have there.
 
-Bug

Great discussion and great work.
 
- Bug

Hey Wolf - I'm telling you right now that although I'll need to alter the shape a bit to fit my Santa Maria's time frame - I'm totally stealing your techniques for my second life boat.  Nice work!
 
- Bug

It took a while, but I finally got the cleats, rails, and sheaves in place.  
 

It took a while, but I finally got the cleats, rails, and sheaves in place.  
 

It took a while, but I finally got the cleats, rails, and sheaves in place.  
 

JSGerson,
 
   I chose to go with the "pretty" coils on much of my San Juan Nepomuceno because I approached the build with the idea that it was just out of the shipy yard. 
    To accomplish them, I used diluted the rigging in diluted white glue, used a sewing pin to hold one end in place and slowing wrap the rest around the center.  I did each coil on a piece of cardboard. Then, after it dried, I slowly cut it away and lifted it from the cardboard by sliding a razor blade under it (much like using a spatula on a pancake) then glued it on the deck.
 
- Bug

First an update and then some questions.
 
The update: I 've now added the hatches, ladders and shot racks on the gun deck. The coamings were made from boxwood strip, the gratings are the laser cut pieces from the kit, the shot racks are boxwood strip and the ladders down to the lower deck are made from boxwood strip. The gratings were stained with golden oak stain and all of the pieces were finished with Wipe-on Poly. The "cannon balls" provided in the kit seemed much too large, so I used smaller ones that I had on hand. Predictably, after installing these pieces the work previously done on the lower deck sections pretty much disappeared.
 
Now for the questions:
 
(1) I'm going to add two cushioned benches in the great cabin as shown in AOTS. Does anyone have an idea as to what color the cushions would be?
 
(2) The kit shows only one partition on the gun deck. AOTS shows three, with the great cabin partition and a partition for the captains bed space aft of the one in the kit. I'm assuming that these are correct, but there is nothing to show their appearance. Would they be simple board construction, or paneled construction on one or both sides?
 
(3) There are cannon in both the great cabin and the captains bed space.Should these be shown any differently than the other cannon on that deck?
 
I would be appreciative of any help you can provide.
 
Bob 

A bit of both Bug .
 
  Danny

It took a while, but I finally got the cleats, rails, and sheaves in place.  
 

Well, clearly I'm late to the party here, but good luck with version two. As far as version one, after salvaging what you can, might it be beneficial to keep her around as a frame of reference (no pun intended) so you can see where the mistakes were (as painful as they may be) and avoid repeating them?
 
That's why I still keep in touch with my first wife. :-)
 
-Bug

Well, clearly I'm late to the party here, but good luck with version two. As far as version one, after salvaging what you can, might it be beneficial to keep her around as a frame of reference (no pun intended) so you can see where the mistakes were (as painful as they may be) and avoid repeating them?
 
That's why I still keep in touch with my first wife. :-)
 
-Bug

Well, clearly I'm late to the party here, but good luck with version two. As far as version one, after salvaging what you can, might it be beneficial to keep her around as a frame of reference (no pun intended) so you can see where the mistakes were (as painful as they may be) and avoid repeating them?
 
That's why I still keep in touch with my first wife. :-)
 
-Bug