DanielD

Good morning Bill. As you have seen, I have seven circuits in my build, six for various lighting effects and one for the motor that runs the propeller. Each and every LED and the motor gets a black wire, the ground or negative side of the project. There are several black wires that run around the ship, but they all start at one place, a ground lug if you will. In the diagram I sketched for you above, if you follow the negative wire around, you will notice that they all connect together. There is a circuit for 1) the deck lights, 2) a set of cabin lights, 3) a second set of cabin lights, 4) the night light display the AV is famous for, 5) marker lighting, 6) emergency lighting, and 7) the engine. Now imagine that if I used only red wires for each different lighting/motor path/circuit. That would get very confusing. So…I had 4 colors available in my stash. I always used black for the ground/negative (since they all start/connect together). Then I spread the other colors around a bit so that things weren’t so confusing during construction. For example, the decks lights, cabin 2 lights, and marker lights are white wire. Cabin lights 1 and night lights are green while the motor and emergency lights are red. The color of the plastic that surrounds the copper wire makes no difference in how the circuit works, just makes it easier to keep things straight. I used 22 gage wire because it’s what I had. I could have gone smaller, 28 gauge for example, but the smaller the wire the harder it is to work with. I would suggest 22 gauge for your first time. Good question though, Daniel PS, if I were to do it again I would ditch the emergency lighting circuit. I could only find 2 lights on deck that were related to the fire system on board. I’m sure that are more and probably many below deck, but below deck isn’t relevant for my build since you can’t see inside. My favorites as the build has continued are the marker and night light circuits. But you have to have the deck lighting…oh and in my case I have the two cabin lights circuits because I wanted a more realistic look. I have never seen a ship with all its port holes lit up at once, so I have two sets of lights, turn one set on for a scatter port holes lighting, turn the second set on for a different port holes lighting effect or if you are daring turn on both sets and all the port holes will be lit. So many options.

Yes, this is exactly what you need.

Yes, the one I selected does seem to come with the adaptor. I didn’t notice that when I did my search, bonus!

Bill, here is a good choice from Amazon. https://a.co/d/gEG4DrN Most power bricks will come with an end like the one linked above. I would find the correct adapter to build into my base, simple, professional and removable. Also, no alterations required to the power brick. If you look closely on the unit, it shows that the outside ring of the connector is - (negative) while the pin inside is + (positive). You could cut off the end if you wanted to make a permanent connection, but I’d go with a connector. While I do have an AA degree in electronics, I’ve never worked in the field. For the last 25 years I have worked as a chiropractic physician. I can’t tell you how much $ I have saved because I have been able to fix or change things around the house. My only goal here is to help people like you push yourself a bit, just as I push myself, to make my models better than I thought I could. Each one we build will be better than the one before, and that’s a good thing. Oh I almost forgot. If you look closely at the wire of most DC power bricks, you will notice that one of the two wires has a faint usually white stripe and sometimes a +, this will be the positive side of the circuit. The things that are all around us that we never notice, until we know, then that’s all we see…sorry for the philosophical insite. 😂

Bill, here is a quick drawing. I’ve shown it with 3 circuits, but you could have more. As for a power supply, I would choose something between 12-20 volts. If you had an old piece of equipment that had a power brick, I’d check that before buying one. I seem to have a bin of them. The important thing to look for is the output needs to be DC (will be labeled DC or AC, only DC for our use), more than 9 volts but less than 40, and has a 1-3 amp capability. Again, all this info will be printed on the power brick, maybe in very small type, but it will be there. The voltage regulator I suggested above has a small screw that you adjust the output voltage to each color of LED which will be slightly different. Personally I set to a little more than the minimum voltage for the color of LED you will be using. Also, this circuit is in parallel, which means nothing to you at this time, but what it means for the long term is that if one LED burns out, it won’t affect the rest of the LEDs so they will continue to work. This is importance since some LEDs will be inside the hull and once fully planked you will never be able to change one out. I’m sure you remember old Christmas lights where one bulb burned out and they all went out…these were designed in a series configuration which we want to avoid. Last thing to keep in mind, the LEDs have a short and a long lead, short is negative and long is positive. The resistors can be installed in either direction so don’t worry about those; however, the OCD in me will pick one direction and install them all the same way. 😂 Oh, one more thing to think about. Where to “store” all this stuff? I’m building mine into the base which will be hidden but accessible if I want to increase or decrease the brightness of each color. If you build this into the hull, which will work, you will lose the ability to adjust things in the future. The trade off is going to be a more beefy display stand…

Bill, here is more information as promised. First, your warm LEDs: the minimum voltage is 3 volts, the max you will get from 2 AA batteries. If you connect a single LED to your 3 volt supply, it will work. But, if you have 10 LEDs on that same battery source, each LED will draw current and reduce the readily available power. Meaning you start out with 3 volts (2 AA batteries) each LED will decrease voltage by a small amount. So by the time you have 10 LEDs in the circuit, you will have less than 3 volts available and now you don’t have enough voltage to turn on any of them. Also, the more lights you add, the more current draw there is and the faster you drain your battery. so…. The fix to this problem is to use a voltage regulator. Basically you supply (input) more voltage than you will ever need, 9 volts for example. Then the regulator reduces that voltage to a constant set output, 3 volts in your case. As you add more LEDs, the regulator automatically adjusts the output to, you guessed it, 3 volts. The voltage regulator I used can be obtained from Amazon here: https://a.co/d/8F3D2dZ I also used a resistor on each of my LEDs. This is to add extra protection because I’ve installed the LEDs deep into the hull and in places that I could never replace them. So I want them to last forever. If you use a resistor, I suggest a 430 ohm 1/4w resistor which, practically speaking, can safely be used on all your LEDs regardless of color. They are inexpensive and will, in theory, reduce shock to the LEDs prolonging the life of the light and prevent over voltage. The one I used can be found here: https://a.co/d/dYBj2cP I have my lighting currently running on two 9 volt batteries but I plan to run it on a 12 volt power brick that will plug into the wall. Again, 9 or 12 volts is way higher than what I need but my regulators reduce to voltage to what I need for each color set, since they are all different. I also have a 6v motor on my ship to run the propeller, so the minimum voltage I need is 6 volts. The advantage to plugging into the house supply, I’ll never have to change batteries. some things to consider…in my HMS Terror, see build log below, I built the battery into the hull, below the capstan. I thought this to be a good idea at the time, but a 9 volt battery is huge to make room for and design a way to change the battery when it dies. At first it was not a problem, but by the time I had the rigging done, it’s a very difficult process. In my AV, power is supplied off ship and enters through the bottom of the keel. Hidden away but accessible and doesn’t take up any room. i think that’s enough overload for one night. I’m happy to sketch out a basic diagram if you are interested. It wouldn’t take long and likely helpful if you have never done something like this before. Happy planning and building.

Bill, more information for your overload 😊. If you choose to use more than one color, warm white and red for example, it would be best to wire two circuits. What I mean by this is don’t mix the white and red LEDs on the same red wire. The black wire can be share among all the LEDs. If you look at a new LED, you will notice that one lead (wire) will be longer than the other. The long wire is positive and should be connected to the red wires while the short lead connects to the black wire (this is important as the LED won’t work if this is backwards). If you add a resistor to each LED, you can technically add to either the long (red side) or short (black side) of the LED; however, for troubleshooting, always be consistent. I add my resistors always to the long (red) side of the LED. The reason for this is that as you install your LEDs you will likely need to trim the leads to fit and it can be very easy to lose track of what side the black wire should be attached to. You can also look at the LEF case, you will notice that there is a flat portion of the plastic…this is the side that the black wire should attach to. Hope this helps. Ask your questions. While this initially seems hard, once you have it figured out for one light you can easily replicate for 100s making a stunning display.

The two voltages are important. The low number is what is required to turn on the LED, a minimum voltage if you will. The larger number is the do not exceed voltage. In your case, the warm white will require 3volts (2AA batteries) to just turn on the LED. In this setting they may be a bit dim. To get a brighter warm light you would need to add more voltage, but an additional AA battery (4.5 volts) would be way too much and likely burn out the LED. In the case of the red LED, 1.8 volts required to turn on but don’t exceed 2.0 volts. So a single AA battery (1.5v) not enough to turn on the red, but 2 AA batteries (3.0v) would burn them out fairly quickly. This is why we use resistors. To be fair, most LEDs have a plus/minus tolerance of around 20%, meaning you could, with a little risk, use a max voltage of 2.2v for the red LED and probably be okay. Adding a resistor to each LED is not hard and safely protects the LED from over voltage and quick burnout. Resistors are very cheep, can get a 100 of them from amazon for a buck or two. Technically a different size resistor would be required for each color of LED; however, in real world practice, allowing for all the tolerances, the same small 1/4 watt resistor can be used for all the colors. When I get home I can let you know what I used and even provide an Amazon link.

Bill, Mike is correct in that as long as you don’t exceed the voltage requirement for your LEDs, you have everything you need. Now comes the hard part. Each color of LED has a different max voltage, usually stated on the package. In my case, the voltages ranged from 2.3 volts to 3.2 volts and a couple in between. A single AA battery would be 1.5 volts and not enough to turn on most LEDs while two AA batteries is 3 volts and exceeds the 2.3 volt requirements of my green LEDs. While this doesn’t seem like much a difference, .7 volts will cause my green LEDs to be very bright and likely burn out much earlier than they should. Thus the desire to use resistors to protect the LEDs from over voltage. Another option, like what I used on my AV is to use an adjustable voltage regulator. I purchased a 10 pack of these from Amazon for about $12. Using this method, I can have a large input voltage, in my case a 9 volt battery. Way too much voltage for most LEDs, but the cool thing is the output of the device is adjustable. With this scenario, you can set the output voltage to exactly what you need, I.e, 2.3 volts. Also, as you add more LEDs to your build there will be a voltage drain and you can then just turn up the output on the regulator to get back to the 2.3 volts necessary for full brightness. One last advantage is, because it is adjustable, you can to some extent control the brightness of the LEDs. Hope this helps.

Bill, I did a second planking and filled and sanded the entire hull. It was a lot of work to get a steel plate appearance. As you probably saw on my build log, I added rivets in a pattern across the hull to give it that steel plate vibe. Interesting thought about making her have a wood planked hull…I can’t even imagine what that would look like…good luck. Do you have a build log started yet? I want to follow along.

Bill, I also noticed that on the ships I’ve previously built, the standing rigging is dark (black or brown) while the running rigging is lighter (tan). However, many of the standing lines on the AV are light but served with black. So as I build my model, I’m using the virtual tour to, where I can, determine which color I should use and whether the line is served or not. Oh, and the OcCre kit leaves out a few important lines / details that are unique to the AV. For example, the kit has a single black chain from the bowsprit to the front of the bow, but on the real ship there are two. For the running rigging, the kit uses pin rails like most ship do, but the real version the running line goes first through a sheave below the pin rail then tied off on the pin. At the base of each mast the kit ties off each line at the pin rail and either there is no extra line or you add extra line hanging off the pin like most other ships. In the case of the AV, the extra line is “stored” in a unique way and this detail is very important to the uniqueness of this special ship…so I added this feature. I realize that I can’t possibly have every line on my model match that of the real ship, there are thousands, but I will do the ones that make her unique if I can.

Good morning Bill, good catch,! I’m not using the thread that came in the kit, for me it’s just well…too fuzzy and the colors that came with my kit are a dark tope and brown. If you go on the virtual tour of the AV you will notice that the lines used on the actual ship are either black or light tan. As such, I’m using pre waxed thread in black and tan, but in the photos the tan appears brighter than in real life.

And one more with the night lights on, slowly starting to look like the Italian flag.

Here are a couple more up to date shots.

Good evening mates. I’ve finally progressed to the shrouds and some rat line production to stave off some boredom 😂. The photos don’t do it justice, but here are a couple.

Good afternoon mate! I have very much enjoyed my OcCre Amerigo Vespucci build. My philosophy for working on these models is to build in as much accurate detail as my skill level allows regardless how long it takes me to complete the model. I’m about two years into my AV with about a year to go. The best tool I have had for my build is a virtual tour of the AV which can be found here: https://tourmake.it/amerigovespucci The OcCre kit lacks a lot of details that are relatively easy to add that, in my opinion, really make the kit shine. Good luck and enjoy.

Good afternoon mates, I’ve finally started the standing rigging…

Good day mates, finished the chain work on the bowsprit. A bit different than the OcCre plans, but more like the real America Vespucci. Now to study the standing rigging for the bowsprit.

Good morning mates, last night I finally fitted and glued in place the face of the AV, the explorer Amerigo Vespucci him self, or a reasonable facsimile. Lots of work went into widening and shaping the groove of the piece to fit my hull, but in the end a nice firm snug fit.

Welcome to MSW!

Good morning, I just saw a post on Facebook about your model. It looks great! I was just on her decks about a week ago and I immediately recognized the canopy frames of the USS Constitution. Keep up the great work. This might be my next build….but need to finish my Amerigo Vespucci first.

Good evening mates! I have a question for all you more experienced modelers. The Amerigo Vespucci that I'm building will require some 1mm chain from the bowsprit to the bow of the ship. Several of the chains need to be black, not a big deal, I can chemically tarnish the chain from the kit and make it black with a mat clear coat sealer and done! The model will also require some WHITE 1mm chain. I've thought about painting it, but I'm not sure that will work as paint doesn't stick well to the chain. What have you all done to create small 1mm white chain? Daniel

BozzyBox, thank you for your kind words. Sorry it's taken so long to get back to you, my wife and I have been out of town. Actually, I had the opportunity to go on board the USS Constitution floating in Boston, MA USA harbor. Like you, I'm not really into war ships; however, I might have to make an exception for the USS Constitution because I have actually stood on her decks! While I was there I took a ton of pictures that may help in a future build. As for my Amerigo Vespucci by OcCre, it's my third build and each new ship I feel my skill level improves and is more detailed than the last one. Funny you mentioned that I call things by their "actual" names...that made me laugh because I'm still struggling with the terminology on these old ships and probably make up more terms than use the real names of things. Additionally, some items have several names which also make it difficult for me to follow along at times. Good luck on you AV build. Be sure to create a build log so that we all can follow along! Daniel

Thanks for stopping by and/or following along with my OcCre Amerigo Vespucci build. Here is a wide shot from today along with some closeups of what I’ve been working on recently.

Good evening mates. This next task has taken a long time to figure out what to do. The Amerigo Vespucci has a lantern type light near the stern of the ship. I have wired for this, but have not, until recently, found a lantern that would work. Thanks to Syren Ship Model Company, I finally found my lantern.