Moonbug

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.
 

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

Hi Kinnikki,
 
  Thanks for stopping by!  I based my capstan location on reference from Xavier Pastor's book "The Ships of Christopher Columbus."  I located it just below the quarterdeck and just a few feet in.  There is also this reference that I found from an unknown Russian source that locates it in a similar position (See the red arrow).
 
Hope that helps!
 
 

Thanks Popeye and Kostas!   I've been traveling a bit again lately, but ready to get back to the shipyard soon!
 
- Bug

Thanks Popeye and Kostas!   I've been traveling a bit again lately, but ready to get back to the shipyard soon!
 
- Bug

very nice looking ship........has such a nice vintage look to her      you've made a lot of progress since I last looked in 

Another gr8 built. I am following this post, and stealing some ideas. Its a pleasure watching you with all these tiny details. Excellent work bug!!!

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.

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.
 

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.
 

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.

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. 
 

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.

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.
 

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.
 

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.

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.

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. 
 

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.