Moonbug

This kit is where I came up with my "fake lathe" method of creating barrels. I put a dowel into my drill and mount it in an anvil vice. When I tighten the vice on this particular drill, it somehow squeezes it just enough to keep the speed consistent. I then use both sandpaper and pin files to create the barrel shapes. I then use a miniature mitre saw to cut off the barrel and do the finishing sanding.
 

 
I then score the barrels with one of the many X-acto blades where I've accidentally broken the tip off. 
I stain it, then I create the black barrel strips out of electrical tape that is super glued in place. The electrical tape actually works quite well as long as it is stretched the correct amount and held in place by hand until it dries completely.
 

 
These are the barrels and packages that I created for below decks. The bags of wheat (or whatever they might be) are made from canvas pieces filled with balsa wood that is carved and sanded to the shape I want. 
 

 
Finally a captain's desk.
 

 
The desk is taken directly from Mastini's book "Ship Modeling Simplified" The ink pot and pen are created from a walnut carving along with a tiny piece of paper. The sextant is soldered from pieces of brass as well as a couple of sewing pins.

Mounting the bowsprit was a particular challenge. Because many of the pieces didn't quite line up, I needed to cut a new piece to fit the bow of the ship and re-create the front railing. 
 

I get board with some of the bits of the ship, so I start messing around with details. 
I wanted to add some extra features to the lower decks, but I also wanted to be able to see those details. This kit has permanent deck houses.  So I devised a plan in which a viewer could remove and replace the deck houses.
 

 
The doors are framed with thin cut strips of mahogany with mitre cuts. They're mounted with frames made from brass so that they can be opened and closed. 
 

 
I mounted pins on the bottom of the deckhouses, then I drilled corresponding holes into the deck access pieces.
 

I'll go through this pretty quickly - the inside of the bulwarks are strips of walnut and the rails and wales are both walnut and mahogany strips. 
 

 
The bow of the ship is a little flimsy also and took some "fixing" to line everything up.
 

 
 

Because of the delicate nature of the hull planking, I used several layers of tung oil and then lacquered with polyurethane before I started working on treenails for the hull.
 

 
I used strips of painters tape to line up where I wanted the treenails. This also had the benefit of preventing splintering of the hull planking when I drilled. 
 

 
My treenails are .5 mm pencil lead. I poked the pencil lead into the holes then snapped them off. I then sanded down very gently and got a decent end result. The process actually went relatively quickly. Not the exact look I was going for, but it came out ok and was an interesting experiment. 

Hello all. In the interest of current Swift and Virginia Pilot boat type builds being conducted currently, I've decided to recreate my build log of the AL Swift kit that was lost in the great crash of MSW 1.0. Hopefully it'll help some of the folks along with their own builds. 
 
I'll do my best to provide the information I can based on memory, but in all fairness this may end up just being a bunch of photos.  ;p~
 
To the moderators - hope this is ok since I already have some completed photos of the Swift in the gallery.  Obviously if I'm stepping on some of the rules please let me know and act accordingly.  :-)
 
Here are the initial shots of the kit.
 
 
   
 
Although this was a very enjoyable kit to build, I found that unlike my San Juan Nepomuceno this kit had quite a few warped and messed up parts. 
 
   
 
I had to straighten out the keel quite a bit. First I soaked and weighted the keel and bulkheads. Then I inserted balsa wood blocks at the front and rear and lined up all the bulwarks by inserted dowels that were cut to match the exact distance between each bulkhead. I measured that distance dead center at the keel to ensure accuracy.

Some shots of details including the cabins and below decks.
 




  The rest of the finished shots can be found in the Swift gallery.

Thanks Gary.  I also drilled the holes too high and after testing, redid them.  Kevin, your memory is probably better than mine, however, I'd suggest Gary do the drilling at this stage.  The gun port lining is rather fragile and once the planking and decking is in place, the drilling debris becomes part of the model.
Grant, I'm not sure I have the patience to follow the one step forward, two steps back routine,  but your results speak for themselves.
Thanks Bug.  Your post introduced me to your Santa Maria.  I enjoyed perusing your log with the wonderful details, a host of good ideas and a history lesson as well.
Are we having fun yet?  Cheers, Gil

Not a lot of progress of late.  Lot's of little stuff on the mast construction.  I did get the bowsprit and jib boom finished and ready for rigging, needed some metalwork and eyebolts mostly as well as painting and getting glued.  Pictures shall follow later today.  I also had some corrections that needed to be made on the bowsprit as well.  It seems I wasn't reading the plans correctly to set the eyebolts correctly into the bottom of the bowsprit, so I removed them, and reposistioned them in the correct places.  I also started on the dolfin catcher.  Slow progress, but progress anyways.  

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

Hello all. In the interest of current Swift and Virginia Pilot boat type builds being conducted currently, I've decided to recreate my build log of the AL Swift kit that was lost in the great crash of MSW 1.0. Hopefully it'll help some of the folks along with their own builds. 
 
I'll do my best to provide the information I can based on memory, but in all fairness this may end up just being a bunch of photos.  ;p~
 
To the moderators - hope this is ok since I already have some completed photos of the Swift in the gallery.  Obviously if I'm stepping on some of the rules please let me know and act accordingly.  :-)
 
Here are the initial shots of the kit.
 
 
   
 
Although this was a very enjoyable kit to build, I found that unlike my San Juan Nepomuceno this kit had quite a few warped and messed up parts. 
 
   
 
I had to straighten out the keel quite a bit. First I soaked and weighted the keel and bulkheads. Then I inserted balsa wood blocks at the front and rear and lined up all the bulwarks by inserted dowels that were cut to match the exact distance between each bulkhead. I measured that distance dead center at the keel to ensure accuracy.

Nice work, much improved. That's going to pay big dividends when you start planking the hull!
 
- Bug

Hey Shawn, I edited with the pictures, did they come through?

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

Hey Shawn,
 
     I totally believe how twisted it was before! When I got my Santa Maria kit, the bulwarks were so warped they had split in two.
Back to the swift - my recommendation would be to try and get out as much of the warping as possible before you try and mount the deck. I think the extra work will pay off.  
     Here are a couple of pictures of how I got some of the warp out of the front of my build. 
 

 
I used some extra dowels cut to the exact length of the keel and spread them out to the bulwarks.
 
- Bug

Yikes!
 
And yes, for a landlocked state CO is well represented. I'm a return visitor from before the MSW 1.0 crash and a 20 year Air Force guy trying to blend with sea fairing folk . ;-)
 
Sorry we hijacked your thread Augie!
 
-Bug

Shawn,
 
Adding the blocks close to the keel helps a lot. It does add a bit more sanding and evening out if course.
 
I also used balsa for mine to ease the process. You can usually pick up blocks of it pretty cheaply at most mainstream craft or hobby stores.
 
-Bug

Always good seeing another Swift! I straightened my Swift keel by soaking, then filling in blocks between the bulwarks.
 
Have fun with the build!
 
-Bug

Doing a little bit of work and watching the NFL Playoffs. I'm a pretty crazy 49ers fan, so I'll be setting the SM aside when that came comes on...

 



 

Like anything else with the Santa Maria there seems to be a variety of speculation regarding pinrails, cleats and the like.  I've had to scan the rigging over and over to try and figure out where these fixtures would have been.  

 

I've also been trying to speculate whether or not the belaying pins are more traditional looking (as they are with more modern ships) or whether they may have been more primitive in nature like some of the cleats appear to be. 

 

So, like the rest of the model I've looked at many of the builds and references that are our there and then pressed on with what I think works best while maintaining a credible level of accuracy.

 

   

 

 

   

 

I used a 4mm x 4mm piece of walnut and bevelled the top edges. I've stayed away from much ornamentation on this build because I truly believe the Santa Maria had very little. However, I wanted to include a little bit of craftsmanship that I think every vessel would have likely had. So, I used one of my mini pin-files (which sounds redundant) to notch out the top of the posts.

 

 

   

 

I  used a 1mm thick 5mm wide piece of walnut and sanded it at a curve for the rail portion of the piece. I then notched out both the posts and rail to give them a nice tight fit. After staining the entire thing in "Kona" colored stain (to match the weathering I've done on the rest of the ship) I put them all together with the belaying pins.

 

 



 

Although it's not clearly seen here, I mounted the entire piece in the same method that I've done railings and stanchions - which is to drill and mount pins in the bottom of the posts, drill corresponding holes in the deck, then mount the piece with a touch of CVA glue.  It's always a challenge come rigging time to get these pieces to hold well once the running rigging is attached and pulled tight. 

I can't bring myself to paint... Dark stain, sure. Paint... Not so much.
 
-Bug

Hey, Buck, ty! The instructions said to paint the hull almost black. I couldn´t do it to the wood, instead, thought the wax would bring stains but keep the wood visible. If I had painted her black, think I would never look at her with the same admiration.

Doing a little bit of work and watching the NFL Playoffs. I'm a pretty crazy 49ers fan, so I'll be setting the SM aside when that came comes on...

 



 

Like anything else with the Santa Maria there seems to be a variety of speculation regarding pinrails, cleats and the like.  I've had to scan the rigging over and over to try and figure out where these fixtures would have been.  

 

I've also been trying to speculate whether or not the belaying pins are more traditional looking (as they are with more modern ships) or whether they may have been more primitive in nature like some of the cleats appear to be. 

 

So, like the rest of the model I've looked at many of the builds and references that are our there and then pressed on with what I think works best while maintaining a credible level of accuracy.

 

   

 

 

   

 

I used a 4mm x 4mm piece of walnut and bevelled the top edges. I've stayed away from much ornamentation on this build because I truly believe the Santa Maria had very little. However, I wanted to include a little bit of craftsmanship that I think every vessel would have likely had. So, I used one of my mini pin-files (which sounds redundant) to notch out the top of the posts.

 

 

   

 

I  used a 1mm thick 5mm wide piece of walnut and sanded it at a curve for the rail portion of the piece. I then notched out both the posts and rail to give them a nice tight fit. After staining the entire thing in "Kona" colored stain (to match the weathering I've done on the rest of the ship) I put them all together with the belaying pins.

 

 



 

Although it's not clearly seen here, I mounted the entire piece in the same method that I've done railings and stanchions - which is to drill and mount pins in the bottom of the posts, drill corresponding holes in the deck, then mount the piece with a touch of CVA glue.  It's always a challenge come rigging time to get these pieces to hold well once the running rigging is attached and pulled tight. 

Augie - I can't even count the number of times my lovely wife has come out to my little shop, looked at me in my jeweler's specks pin filing something 6mm long and used the exact phrase "There's something wrong with you." LoL
 
-Bug

Beautiful carving Sherry!
 
- Bug

Sjors,
 
    I had to be quite careful on the second planking for my AL version of the Swift, as the second layer was at most a half mm thick and very coarse and brittle. I don't think I used anything more coarse than 400 grit paper the entire second layer so it wouldn't wear thin.
 
- Bug