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Magnificent David!

Main mast ratlines now done on the other side.  Slow but steady.  I put them against a black background since they are white, in order to see them better.
 
You can't see it, but hanging behind the black baseboard is a tablet I bought that allows me to stream TV while I'm working on the model.  Helps on the grindingly repetitive things like ratlines.
 
Regards,
David

Definitely keep it and try to clean it up a bit. Who cares if it doesn't represent an actual real life vessel. I have numerous models that I have painstakingly made myself that are, to me anyway, good representations of historical vessels, and at least 3 versions of my favorite vessel, Santa Maria, which may, or may not, be good representations of her. No-one really knows as there are no verified pictures of her or Columbus for that matter. Who's to say that your find is not a true representation of an early vessel? Having said all that I also have a small wooden sailboat about 10 inches long that my sister bought for me about 6 years ago. It is a simple model with a solid hull, small square wooden cabin and a single mast and sail. It was carved on a beach in Queensland, Australia by a local craftsman from a single piece of driftwood and is among my favorite models.
 
If you like your find, clean it up, find it a place in your home, and treasure it.
 

Definitely keep it and try to clean it up a bit. Who cares if it doesn't represent an actual real life vessel. I have numerous models that I have painstakingly made myself that are, to me anyway, good representations of historical vessels, and at least 3 versions of my favorite vessel, Santa Maria, which may, or may not, be good representations of her. No-one really knows as there are no verified pictures of her or Columbus for that matter. Who's to say that your find is not a true representation of an early vessel? Having said all that I also have a small wooden sailboat about 10 inches long that my sister bought for me about 6 years ago. It is a simple model with a solid hull, small square wooden cabin and a single mast and sail. It was carved on a beach in Queensland, Australia by a local craftsman from a single piece of driftwood and is among my favorite models.
 
If you like your find, clean it up, find it a place in your home, and treasure it.
 

Definitely keep it and try to clean it up a bit. Who cares if it doesn't represent an actual real life vessel. I have numerous models that I have painstakingly made myself that are, to me anyway, good representations of historical vessels, and at least 3 versions of my favorite vessel, Santa Maria, which may, or may not, be good representations of her. No-one really knows as there are no verified pictures of her or Columbus for that matter. Who's to say that your find is not a true representation of an early vessel? Having said all that I also have a small wooden sailboat about 10 inches long that my sister bought for me about 6 years ago. It is a simple model with a solid hull, small square wooden cabin and a single mast and sail. It was carved on a beach in Queensland, Australia by a local craftsman from a single piece of driftwood and is among my favorite models.
 
If you like your find, clean it up, find it a place in your home, and treasure it.
 

Definitely keep it and try to clean it up a bit. Who cares if it doesn't represent an actual real life vessel. I have numerous models that I have painstakingly made myself that are, to me anyway, good representations of historical vessels, and at least 3 versions of my favorite vessel, Santa Maria, which may, or may not, be good representations of her. No-one really knows as there are no verified pictures of her or Columbus for that matter. Who's to say that your find is not a true representation of an early vessel? Having said all that I also have a small wooden sailboat about 10 inches long that my sister bought for me about 6 years ago. It is a simple model with a solid hull, small square wooden cabin and a single mast and sail. It was carved on a beach in Queensland, Australia by a local craftsman from a single piece of driftwood and is among my favorite models.
 
If you like your find, clean it up, find it a place in your home, and treasure it.
 

Definitely keep it and try to clean it up a bit. Who cares if it doesn't represent an actual real life vessel. I have numerous models that I have painstakingly made myself that are, to me anyway, good representations of historical vessels, and at least 3 versions of my favorite vessel, Santa Maria, which may, or may not, be good representations of her. No-one really knows as there are no verified pictures of her or Columbus for that matter. Who's to say that your find is not a true representation of an early vessel? Having said all that I also have a small wooden sailboat about 10 inches long that my sister bought for me about 6 years ago. It is a simple model with a solid hull, small square wooden cabin and a single mast and sail. It was carved on a beach in Queensland, Australia by a local craftsman from a single piece of driftwood and is among my favorite models.
 
If you like your find, clean it up, find it a place in your home, and treasure it.
 

Definitely keep it and try to clean it up a bit. Who cares if it doesn't represent an actual real life vessel. I have numerous models that I have painstakingly made myself that are, to me anyway, good representations of historical vessels, and at least 3 versions of my favorite vessel, Santa Maria, which may, or may not, be good representations of her. No-one really knows as there are no verified pictures of her or Columbus for that matter. Who's to say that your find is not a true representation of an early vessel? Having said all that I also have a small wooden sailboat about 10 inches long that my sister bought for me about 6 years ago. It is a simple model with a solid hull, small square wooden cabin and a single mast and sail. It was carved on a beach in Queensland, Australia by a local craftsman from a single piece of driftwood and is among my favorite models.
 
If you like your find, clean it up, find it a place in your home, and treasure it.
 

What you have there is a "decorator's model" from the first quarter of the 20th Century, or thereabouts. It appears to be remarkably good condition. As of its one-hundredth birthday, it will be a genuine antique. Many of today's modelers turn their noses up at such models because they lack any historical importance (often being simply "impressions" of generic ship types) and, by today's modeling standards, are crudely built. That said, these models, built in Europe, often Germany or Spain, on a production basis for export as home decorative pieces, have become, or are now about to become, collectable antiques. It probably won't get you a starring role on Antiques Roadshow, but if you clean it up, taking care to preserve the patina it's earned over the last hundred years or so, you should end up with a nice example of this type of "decorator" model that anybody would be happy to display in their home library or "man cave." Mind you, it's not a six-figure museum piece, but in another hundred years or so, it should start to appreciate on the antiques market.  
 
I submit that the better examples of these "decorator" models, if they've lasted this long now, have earned the right to enjoy some measure of respect from the ship modeling community. They do have a certain "folk artsy" charm that should be appreciated. I think it should be noted that this is true of many ship models, dioramas, half-models and the like that are approaching the century mark. While they may not interest today's museum administrators, there are a lot of amateur and sailor-built unique scratch-built pieces from the first half of the 20th Century still in circulation that are, or will soon become, collectable in their own right.  

This looks awesome David!
 

Pictures below of completed ratlines on ONE side of the main shrouds.  I've kept them a bit dark because the ratlines are white and hard to see.
 
I've been working on these for about 2 1/2 weeks, which is an indication of my motivation level when it comes to ratlines.  Probably not alone in that regard.  At this rate, I'll still be working on this ship at this time next year.   
 
Regards,
David

Thanks. I did the Amati Santa Maria years ago and had awful trouble with this part. Looked like a big lumpy mess on mine, but yours looks really good I reckon. Also I dont know if its just the picture you took, but yours also look like they have been tarred, which I guess might have been the case on the real thing? Anyway, great job.
 

Chris:
 
Here you go.  It's really a rats nest.  Except for the 11th shroud, this is all two-shroud loops, tied off at the top with black thread.  The manual says to push the knots up, but that's not really practical, so I thread it and then tie it in position.  I also use that to try to manage the alignment of the shrouds as they come up to the mast tie-off.
 
I used to do one shroud at a time because it made the alignment easier, but the top was really a mess when I did that on earlier ships, so I mount one deadeye, thread it through the top, and then there is a fiendish alignment process for the second deadeye at the other end of the second shroud.
 
Curious why you asked to see this.
 
Regards,
David

Really nice David. Got any pics where you tie them off at the upper end?
 

Finished the main mast shrouds.  While the instructions say to go on to the rest of the lower and upper shrouds, I'm going to do the ratlines on these first to inject some variety into the work.
 
Regards,
David

Masts are now done and permanently mounted.  Including the bowsprit, the masts have taken me just about a month.
 
Now on to standing rigging.
 
Regards,
David

Main mast done, so 2 out of 3 completed.  I've found that the tapering on the topgallant masts makes them incredibly fragile where they taper back to 3.5mm in the middle.  After two breaks on the main topgallant, I had to sink a pin in while re-gluing it.
 
Regards,
David

Finished the foremast.  Some notes:
 
1)  Painted the boarding pikes after they were mounted.
 
2)  I completely gave up on trying to shape the masts as octagons.  Much of that shaping is painted black and doesn't show anyway, but the real reason is that I just don't have the skills for it.
 
So it's round masts (and yards).
 
Regards,
David

Interim fore mast progress:  built the lower fore mast and banded it with thread (vs. cartridge paper).  Built the top.  What you see is all dry-fitted, which is why on the side view the top might seem to tilt down a bit.  The bibbs aren't on yet and the top isn't painted yet.
 
Since I used thread, some of the wood to be added later to the lower fore mast will be glued to the banding, and will stand out a bit from the mast, which I actually think is fine.  My aversion to using the black cartridge paper is getting the strips to be uniform.  I should also note that the manual calls for painting the bands yellow, and I think the black will look better (even if not accurate), so that's how I'm building it.
 
Some look-aheads needed here:  the boarding pike racks don't fit over the 12.7mm dowel without sanding and fitting, which needs to be done before painting.  I painted it, then looked ahead and had to sand it and repaint it again to get the pike racks to fit.  Those racks don't go on until later in the process, and they will need to be prepainted black.
 
Now on to the next section.
 
Regards,
David
 
 

Full bowsprit completed and shown still dry-fitted.  I could glue it now but I'm concerned that I'll prang it when I move the ship to mount the masts.  I will wait until the mast shrouds are up, I think.
 
Lots of "figure it out" needed with this poring between the instructions and the drawings.  Also had to slice one of the mast rings to fit it on, but that works OK.  I used wrapped thread for the main sprit banding vs. the black cartridge paper the manual calls for. 
 
Regards,
David

Worked on the first part of the bowsprit.  I've added some pictures of the unpainted bowsprit showing all of the parts added, and then a picture of the painted one -- still dry fitted on the ship.
 
A couple of comments on building this:
The plan sheets would suggest that the full 12mm dowel can go down inside the bow -- and on my model, there's no way that a hole that size is provided by the bow deck template openings.  So as you can see, I had to taper it down in order for it to fit. I found the instructions and plan sheets extremely hard to follow.  Had to pull up lots of pics on the internet and feel my way through it.  I think I got it right, but wouldn't swear to it. Now need to work on the jibbooms.
 
Regards,
David

I have finished the brass rails along the side of the hull (see pictures attached), and that completes my work on the hull for now.  I took some artistic license with the routing of the brass rails compared to the plan drawings, because by the time I got to this point things (like chain plate) didn't line up vertically exactly the way the plan sheet thinks they should.
 
I say finished 'for now" because I have left some things for later that are fragile, and that I'll do at the end:
The lanterns The boomkins (built but not mounted) The anchors, which need to be mounted after the other rigging is done I also have the four ship's boats to build, which I think I'll do as mental breaks when I get weary of sanding yards or rigging ratlines.  The instructions for building those are in the rigging manual.
 
Regards,
David

In the "much to my surprise" category, I managed to get the Poop Deck Bulwark Barricades done.
 
My concern was fitting the lower curve that sits on the poop bulwark capping rail, so I scanned the profile of the bulwark on Plan Sheet 5, and then printed it out at about 107% to get it back to the right size.  I then had a template pattern I could use to mark a line on the laminated bulwark for cutting and sanding, and it was perfect for cutting out the gunports.
 
I only cut two of the three gunports, because the third one would require cutting down into the poop deck bulwark and I wasn't up for that.
 
Regards,
David

Looking awesome David!
 

Finished the hammock cranes, deck rails, and external poop stair rails.  The lines aren't always easy to see in these pics because they are white.
 
Next step is the poop barricade.  I'm not clear that I can get it shaped to look nice, since I have to shape it to an irregular curve, so I'm going to give it a try and if it fits well and looks good, I'll use it -- otherwise I'll leave it off.
 
Regards,
David