bhermann

On the last day of our 40th Anniversary vacation, on the way home from Stonington I went to the Mystic Seaport Museum, South Entrance. On the 2nd floor of the Stillman building is an exhibit "From Clippers to Carriers." Ed Tosti's spectacular 1853 Webb, NY clipper Young America build is on display. Other 1:72nd scale replicas by Carl Davis are the 1850 Webb built packet Isaac Webb the Mystic, CT clipper David Crockett as well as the 1883 Bath, Maine Downeaster Benjamin F Packard. My sweet wife Peggy waited in the car so I was as efficient as possible to cover the entire floor. Other than one couple who soon left, the room was empty. That made my goal of documenting the sail portion of the exhibit much easier. I have additional photos of the entire sail based portion of the display but to save time didn't take pictures of the modern cargo carriers. It doesn't seem appropriate to post the rest on Ed's build log.
 

Well, it’s been several months since my last update, as I have been concentrating more on working on (and completing) this Santa Maria build than on posting status reports.  With that said, here’s what I have accomplished…
 
We left off back in March beginning to prep as much of the mast and yard spars as we can, placing ropes, blocks and eyebolts wherever we can prior to setting the masts in place.  So, I began that work, as well as began preparing for the shrouds placement, which included the building and placement of the kit-provided heart blocks to be attached to the chain plates.  The following are pictures of that build process.
 
  
 
     
 
     
 
   
 

 
As I stated earlier, trying to get as much placed on the masts and yards as possible before each of the masts are secured on the ship.  In order to have the cleats hold well on the masts (or wherever they are placed on the ship), the “well-known secret” (it isn’t much of a secret then, is it?) is to place a small piece of brass rod on the back of the cleat and a place to insert the rod in the mast (or wherever it’s going).  So, we did that, as shown.  One note, the brass rod pieces I inserted, as you can see, were longer than I really needed, so the rods on each cleat were ultimately cut down, accordingly, as they were placed.
 
   
 
For the mast and rigging work on this ship, I decided to work from the foremast and bowsprit back. And, in order to attach the yard arms to the masts, I again used small brass rod pieces to help secure and hold the spars together.  I also simulated a rope lashing on each of the spar connections, although realistically, these would not be lashed in order for the yards to be raised and lowered but would be connected by some type of pendant or parrel.
 
   
 
Once the foremast was fitted and placed, I was also able to permanently place the windlass, the stove and the ladder going from the main deck to the forecastle deck.
 
   
 
Next task was to set the bowsprit and its yard in place.
 
   
 
One thing I found helpful to me in working on this Pavel Nikitin kit, because there were so many pre-made or pre-assigned pieces that, once they were removed from their sheets were either hard to identify of hard to keep track of, was to make up some type of on-the-fly placement mat as a placeholder until the item was placed on the ship.  I even did that for the yard spars.
 

 
In looking at the rigging plans and also reviewing another builder’s YouTube build log, I tried to determine how many eyebolts were going to be necessary on the bottom of the crow’s nest to complete the rigging.  Ultimately, I ended up having more than I needed, but much better to do it now then to find out later You need to add another eyebolt after the crow’s nest is in place.
 

 
The following pictures show the work done in securing the foremast shrouds.
 
   
 
The following pictures show the main mast shrouds and… oh joy… tying the RATLINES!!  As almost everyone does, I placed a lined sheet behind the shrouds to assist with the ratline spacing.  I don’t recall now what spacing length I set up but it was equivalent to a ladder step spacing.  I will also take the time here to relay an interesting email conversation that I had with Olha Batchvarov.  As I noted earlier, I had previously prepared and installed a set of kit-supplied lower heart blocks on the channels.  In preparing to tie the shrouds to the chain plates, I was unsure how to initiate the rope ties between the upper and lower heart blocks.  I tried to research the issue here on MSW and other internet sites but was not finding anything.  I have been following some of Olha Batchvarov’s YouTube videos and had some previous personal communications with her, so decided to reach out and ask her advice.  She responded fairly quickly, stating that to her knowledge, heart blocks were never used for shrouds.  In the Carrack’s era, triangular deadeyes were used instead.  My options were, if I wanted to keep historical accuracy, remove and replace or… follow the author’s design and do whatever I want.  Replacing the lower heart blocks in the channels and connected to the chain plates would have been a mess.  And having heart blocks lower and triangular deadeyes upper would have looked a bit odd.  So, I figured out a way to tie the blocks securely and moved on.  I do appreciate Olha’s response, though!
 
   
 
I also started doing some prep work on attaching the kit-provided flags to the flag masts which are then attached to the mast toppers.  I threaded a row of 0.025” rope thru the flag edges so that they could be tied around the flag masts, as well as secured by a little CA glue.  That all worked pretty well.
 
   
 
I also ran a smaller set of shrouds (and ratlines!) from the upper mast top down to the crow’s nest, using another spacing guide slid behind the shrouds to help with the ratline spacing.
 

 
So…..!!! It’s time to actually do some rigging! This task was probably my favorite part of my Bluenose build and I was definitely looking forward to the rigging on the Santa Maria! Bad news is, though, that for my build log purposes, I took hardly zero notes and no pictures during any of the rigging… until the end.
 
There are no instructions in Pavel Nikitin’s manual pertaining to the rigging or the sails.  All that is provided are two large sheets of plans.  One of the sheets is primarily depicting what the standing rigging consists of, the other sheet shows the running rigging and placement of sails.  Although a more experienced sailor or modeler may have been able to determine what 100% of the rigging plans were to end up looking like, I landed at about an 85-90% level from what I could determine on how lines were run, how they were terminated at cleats or around side supports, etc.  Thanks to Vance McCarthy (VanMac on his YouTube build log) for answering a few rigging questions that I could not decipher from the plans.  As I said earlier, although no step-by-step accounts for the rigging, you will be able to see much of the rigging work in my final pictures below.
 
And, as I did on my Bluenose, as well, the Santa Maria will not have sails.  I understand it’s rather difficult for Columbus to have “sailed the ocean blue in fourteen-hundred and ninety-two” without sails, but mine won’t have them for a few reasons, but biggest reason is I just like the look of these majestic ships with all of the rigging exposed and the ability to see more of the ship details without the sails.  And mine would look crappy anyways.  So, there’s that, too.
 
The Pavel Nikitin kit included a separate kit for the boat that sits on the deck that they would have used to go ashore, etc.  I decided to give it a go, as well, since there was the empty space on the main deck.  Like the main Santa Maria kit, this boat was designed to be fit together practically like puzzle pieces.  Well, except that it didn’t.
 
   
 
The planks that were provided did not fit the length of the sides, inside frames did not fit as well as they were probably intended, and the seats did not fit perfectly.  In fact, because of that, I didn’t put two of the seats in the boat.  We made the best of it that we could and, all in all, the boat looked ok after it was completed and placed on the deck.  I tried to stain the small boat hull the same darker color the Santa Maria had, but it came out a bit blotchy.
 
  
 

 
I would like to at some point put some coiled rope hanks up on the belay pins and other rope terminations.  But, at this time, I believe I am calling this Pavel Nikitin Santa Maria complete.  Here are some final pictures.  I tried using a background sheet to hide some of “other things” in my shipyard like shelving and a refrigerator, but… I didn’t do so well, sorry!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I am going to take some time off before I pull the next ship kit from my shelf in order to give the shipyard a bit of good cleaning, restocking and reorganizing.  We also have grandkids making their usual summer stay with us for a few weeks coming up.  But around the first of July, I should be back with a new build log.
 
Thank you to all of those fellow model ship builders who have at one time or another followed, commented and/or liked any of the content of this Santa Maria build log.  You are truly appreciated.  This Model Ship World forum is really something special and there is no doubt that I would not have now completed my FIFTH model ship without the support and wisdom provided through this website and its participants.  I wish continued success to the NRG and its support of this website.

A couple small updates to my Santa Maria progress.  In my last update, I had completed all of the deck accoutrements, including the windlass.  In order to simulate the anchor ropes secured by the windlass, I wrapped some length around the windlass barrels with the extension to be placed through the holes under the forecastle deck, as if they were going out to the anchors.  I am still waiting on the permanent placement of the windlass (and other pieces) until I feel it's safe to put them in without fear of breaking them.
 

 
There will be a crow's nest on the main mast, so those pieces were removed from the applicable sheets, sanded and put together.
 
      
 
Next task was to begin assembling the masts and spars.  Like much of the other Santa Maria parts, pieces were removed from the laser=cut sheets.  For the main mast, three pieces were to be glued together to produce a thick squared dowel,  For the foremast and mizzen mast, two pieces were glued together.  I then needed to round the square dowels to make each of the masts.  To do this, I relied on a jig that was included in my first Norwegian Sailing Pram ship to assist in shaping masts.  Using my mini-plane, I shaped the square dowels to octagons, then used sandpaper to shape to round masts.  Although it is definitely time consuming, I really like to shape masts this way.  Seems it is easier for me to more accurately taper the masts to their needed diameters along the length of the masts.  Anyways, shaped each so they fit into their respective deck slot locations.  The spars were also shaped to their proper forms, as well.
 
      
 
      
 
     
 
This Santa Maria kit by Pavel Nikitin also includes some "mast toppers" (not sure if there is a formal name to them) that will have some rigging run through them, as well as will hold the flag poles.  The faux pulleys for the toppers needed to be inserted and were then held in place by short pieces of 0.84" brass rod.
 
      
 
The main mast has a series of bands around it running from the deck to under the crow's nest.  Those bands were made using 0.63mm dark brown rope.  Once wrapped, I applied diluted glue to each band and, once dried, they looked pretty decent.
 

 
I will now begin to do as much of the rigging on these masts and spars as I can while they are off-ship.  Hopefully, this little mast holder I made will help the organization process.
 

 
Pavel's rigging plans have much to be desired, so taking my time to see if I can accurately follow the standing and running rigging as shown on the plans.  Interestingly, much of the rigging information is listed on his plans in Swedish, so I am spending some time using an internet translator app.
 
I'll update as I move forward on the rigging.  Oh boy!  Ratlines are once again in my future! 
 
 

Got a few more little things done, so... time for another short update.  A few weeks ago, I had placed the fenders on the sides of the ship, so it was now time to place the bolts (nails) in the fenders.  Forty-seven (47) of them on each side, if I am counting correctly.  Used a pin vise to create the holes that the trimmed nails were then secured into.  Looks nice with the faux bolts in the fenders.
 

 

 
I had also begun work on the rudder previously, so wanted to finish it.  Positioned the kit-provided rudder straps for the pintles and gudgeons to fit properly and, with the ship flipped upside down, it was much easier to secure the rudder in place until the CA glue dried. 
 
      
 

 
Wish I could get the brass straps to appear a little darker and may continue to work on that.  But, with the exterior work pretty much completed on this Santa Maria, it is time to get this on the cradle.  The kit provided a pretty nice stand for the ship to sit on.  So, popped out all the cradle pieces from the sheet, cleaned up the char as best I could, and then pre-stained it, stained it, and assembled it.  Still a bit undecided on if I want to permanently secure the ship to the cradle but will make that decision shortly.  Placing much more stuff on the various decks will make it difficult to flip the ship in order to drill the necessary holes for any permanent rods between the ship's keel and the cradle.
 
    
 

 
OK, time to work on some of the deck accoutrements. First, the three ship ladders.  The kit provides three sets of rails with slots already pre-milled for the steps, and a whole bunch of rungs/steps that were popped out of the sheet.  After cleaning up the char on everything, I noted that the thickness of the kit-provided steps was 3/32", while the pre-cut slots in the rails only had clearance for 1/16".  At first, I sanded a few of the steps at the ends in order to fit, but then decided to just cut some new steps using a couple spare 1/16" x 7/32" basswood strips I had available.  Worked much better, less frustrating to fit in the rail slots.  Assembled the three ladders, tested them in place and then stained them.  Will wait on permanent placement of them (and several of the other deck pieces) until I know placing them won't be in the way of anything else going on the decks.
 
          
 

 
One of the next pages in Pavel's Santa Maria Instruction Guide has a diagram of several deck pieces that require assembly.
 

 
The kit contains some small plastic-type pieces that were designed to all be snapped off a base from which they were created (the red arrows), representing various deck pieces and parts, including the windlass barrels, bucket rings, pump parts, and stove parts.  Unfortunately, the stove pot and pan were all broken in the kit.  So, my Santa Maria stove will only have the grates with no pots.  However, I was also able to make some buckets and pumps.  I was able to shape, as best I could, the circular slats to create the buckets and the pump covers, and then using my Dremel sander, was able to shape them into more rounded shapes.  At this scale, that'll do fine.
 
    
 
    
 

 
The windlass was a fun piece to assemble.  The Instruction Guide showed MULTIPLE pieces required for assembly.  
 

 

 
Like the other deck pieces, these will all be permanently placed in their positions once I am confident they won't get bumped while doing other work on the decks.
 
Another example of items in this Pavel Nikitin kit that suddenly appear in diagrams or pictures without discussion are the anchor ropes that go from the anchors through hawse pipes at the bow and are then secured around the windlass barrels.  It would have been much easier and cleaner to create these hawse pipe holes earlier, especially on the inside, under the forecastle deck.  
 
      
 
So, we will now work on the anchor rope and then get some of these deck pieces secured onto the deck.  Also, it's about time to begin working on the three masts for the ship.  Continuing to trudge forward...
 
Again, as always, thanks for the reads, the likes, the comments, and the criticisms.  
 
 
 

OK, another quick little update on what I've just finished...  Three of the decks (forecastle deck, quarterdeck & poop deck) have railings.  The railing pieces in the kit were in multiple sheets, so I popped them out, cleaned them up, and assembled each of them, noting the positioning of the posts so they fit into the predetermined deck slots.  Gave them each a coat of prestain and then the Minwax Satin Bombay Mahogany stain.  After they were each secured on the respective decks, it looks like I may need to give them another coat of stain before we call it good.  However, it's nice to see these decks continuing to take shape.
 

 
    
 
Working on the rudder now.  I'll show how far I've gotten today.  Again, like all of the wood pieces, I popped the rudder parts out of the sheets and cleaned up the laser char.  The rudder, like the hull, is double-thickness so parts were glued together and then fit to create the full rudder piece.  The kit provides a sheet containing the brass pintles and gudgeons.  These were popped out, cleaned up, and I began shaping them using my parallel pliers, which worked out well.
 
    
 
    
 
Will work now on where to position the four (4) pintles to the rudder and where to position the corresponding gudgeons to the transom.  A 1mm brass rod will serve as the pin for each and will be secured on the pintle so that the rudder slides onto the transom.  I will also be staining the rudder and hinges so that it matches as best it can, of course, with the hull color.
 
Baby steps, but steps closer to completion, so that's a good thing.  Appreciate the likes, comments and critiques. 

Thanks for the response, Alfons.  I was too impatient to wait until I had a chance to get to the LHS, so I used the medium CA I have on hand.  It worked OK, I just had to redrill the holes a little.
 
For the first attempt at a repair, I filed away half the broken end of the jaw
 

 
Then glued a piece of stripwood onto the cut and clamped it overnight.
 

 

 
Then I filed away the overhanging parts and was left with this.
 

 
It was a bit thin for my taste so I glued and clamped another piece, then filed away the excess.
 
This is what I was left with
 

 

 
Once that was done, I drilled the hole, applied CA to the end of the piece, and redrilled.  I put some line through the hole and gave it a few good tugs.  It feels much more secure than the original, so I won't be moving on to attempt number 2 or 3.  Number 2 would have been to cut the end of the jaw flat and dowel on some fresh stock.  Number 3 was removing the entire jaw, which probably would have led to number 4 - rebuilding the entire gaff - whew!
 
Thanks for all the suggestions and for sticking with this.
 
Bob

Pier44 - thanks for the positive feedback.  Sharing my issues and techniques is one of the main drivers behind doing the log for me.  As a first time builder, it is nice to be able to give back something as well as benefiting from all the great information shared on MSW.
 
Brian - I agree that Bluenose is indeed a lovely vessel.  One of my favorite experiences over the past few years was taking a windjammer cruise on a gaff-rigged schooner where the passengers were able to share in the work of hauling anchor, setting and furling the sails, and taking a turn at the helm.  I learned more about sailing over that week than I thought possible.  Working on Bluenose brings back memories of that time and the amazing feel of been out on the water running under wind power.  I took a look at your Niagara log - it appears you have some good ideas to share.  I will be following along with interest.  When you get back to Bluenose, I'd love to see some photos of your work there too.
 
Bob

This pretty much catches me up to date.  if there is anything I missed from the old log that you would like to see, please let me know.  Here are some shots of the mast detail.  If you look closely you will see holes drilled for "mast sheaves" in the topmasts.  I don't know what they were used for - my best guess is that they had something to do with stepping and unstepping  the topmasts.
 
Main mast top
 

 
Fore mast top
 

 
Main topmast detail
 

 
Fore topmast detail
 

 
Thanks for all the support and encouragement over the past few years - now to move forward!
 
Bob

I went ahead and started drawing up some of the jibs.  The jumbo jib turned out just fine, but when it came to the larger jib itself, I was not able to get the three sides to intersect properly using the measurements from the sail plan.  I kept winding up with a small gap at the head end of the sail.  No matter how many times I measured the lengths and angle I could not get the triangle to close.
 
I assumed the issue was with the angle measurements so I decided to change my process a little.  I know that if the lengths of the three sides of a triangle are known, the angles can be calculated using some trig functions, so I decided to do up my own little calculation spreadsheet to get the angles based on the lengths I measured.  Before getting started, it occurred to me that this big old Internet was out there and I should check because someone has probably already done it.  Sure enough a quick Google search gave me several pages to choose from.  The ostermiller.org site had just what I was looking for at http://ostermiller.org/calc/triangle.html.  I plugged in my three lengths and the page quickly gave me what I was looking for.  I was then able to drop the lengths and angles into LibreCad to get the sail outline, draw in tabling and stitch lines as shown in previous posts, and generate the sail pattern. Remaining to do are the balloon jib, the fishermans sail, and the two topsails.  After that I will take one of my templates and see how it works on cloth.
 
Bob

...Continuation
 
After all the seam lines are trimmed, this is the result.
 

 
The parallel function is used one more time to draw in the reef bands, parallel to the foot of the sail; once placed they too are trimmed.
 

 

 
Since this sail is going to be larger than my letter-size paper, I then set up a series of circles to use as registration marks when putting the printed sail pieces together.  I may have gone a bit overboard, but I wanted to makes user I had two circles available when lining up any two pages.
 

 
The programs print function allows you to position which portion of the sail will wind up on the printed page.
 

 
I wound up with 5 pages for the mainsail and assembled them using the registration marks, then taped them together.
 

 
After trimming along the edges this is the end result.
 

 
Any questions/comments are appreciated.
 
Thanks,
Bob

I was able to spend a little more time with LibreCad this evening - I misspoke when I said I was using DraftSight earlier.  I figured out how to get different portions of a drawing to print by sliding the paper around in the "print preview" view and how to widen the lines a bit so they would be more visible when printing.  I added a couple of circles  to the foresail drawing to use as registration marks for lining up the two pages and also added the lines for the reef bands to the drawing, again using the parallel line feature to get them positioned properly.  Here is what the sail template looks like now.
 

 
Then I did some rough trimming:
 

 
I figure I can use this to get the actual shape completed and then trace it to something a bit stiffer to use in cutting the sail cloth.
 
Bob

Time to get serious about sails.  After much mulling and thinking and re-thinking I have decided to do stitch-less sails as a first attempt.  I have heard over and over that it is better to make things underscale rather than overscale if there is a choice between the two and stitching on a sewing machine feels overscale to me.  The first thing to do is to make templates for the sails.  I was able to use the plan and my flatbed scanner to get some of the jib sails copied but it was not a pleasant experience, so I decided to resort to something a bit lower tech.
 
Using a ruler and a protractor, I lifted lengths and angles from the plan and drew the foresail out on a piece of legal-size paper.
 

 
My drafting skills aren't the best so I had a bit of a miss at the corner under the gaff and needed to make a correction to match the plan.
 

 
Then I added the hem allowance to the drawing by marking the width from the plan on my drawing and connecting the dots.
 

 
The finished drawing came out like this:
 

 
My thought is to cut out the pattern and trace it onto the sail cloth.  I will draw the seam lines in pencil, then fold over the hem and use fabric glue to fasten it to the sail.  I will add the reef bands the same way, glueing them across the face of the sail.
 
As I was doing this drawing I found myself wishing for a 2D CAD program that would allow me to input line lengths and angles and have the sail pattern generated that way.  All the available free programs I looked at seemed too complicated for such a simple task.  If anyone has experience I'd love to hear about it.
 
I also have a question about the drawn-in seams - do they need to be drawn on both sides of the sail or will drawing on one side be enough?  I guess I'll get my own answer when I actually do the work.
 
Thanks,
Bob

LOL - if you do order the tap and die set make sure to get both RH and LH threads - so you can make those working turnbuckles!
 
I am not at a complete standstill - in fact my mind is going 200 mph, even though the build itself is crawling.  I did manage to finish making and cutting out the templates for the sail set.  Don't know if I'll use the fisherman sail, but I have it if needed.  I may add a third reef band to the mainsail - it seems too large not to have the option.
 
The sails laid out:
 

 
and where they are going to:
 

 
A closer look at the destination.  I see the mast hoops are too thick, but I have to remember I have a few extras on the mast in case of breakage.
 

 
Still working out the details of sail construction in my mind.  I am pretty clear on drawing the hem lines, not stitching them.  I am debating on whether to fold the hems over and glue them, or to get an iron-on edge and trim that to the actual sail size.  Anyway, here are a couple of shots of where I am at the moment.
 
Bob

Late breaking news - I am now in the process of setting up for retirement (yay!) and expect to be back in the shipyard soon.  It has been way too long since I have put any time in on Bluenose.  I did blow some of the heavier dust off the other day.  It'll be good to be back at it!
 
Bob

Welcome aboard, Jim (or should I say McDaddy?).  I'm glad I could help out with your mystery.
 
I learned my soldering from a tutorial Russ had posted on the MSW 1.0 site.  I use a silver solder paste, which I can't read the label on any more, as it has faded a lot over the past 10 years or so.  Since I only have the one tube, I can safely say all my soldering has been done at one temperature.  I have been able to solder as many as four lugs on a single band on the bowsprit, so there has been no need for multiple temperatures.  I use a Bernzomatic butane micro torch which I think I picked up at Home Depot.  I tried several pencil grip torches before settling on the micro torch.  I had a terrible time refilling them, this one has worked well for me.  Here is a link to the torch (or a newer version of my torch) on Amazon.
 
https://www.amazon.com/Bernz-Matic-ST2200T-Micro-Butane/dp/B000PS9TQI?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_2
 
I will poke around and see if the Russ tutorial made it to MSW 2.0.  One of the main things to remember is that the solder flows toward the heat, not away from it.  Once I figured that out I got much better at getting good connections on the first try.
 
Bob

Another short update... Trying to complete everything on the outside of the ship, so the ship's buttock fenders (is that the proper term for these?) were next on the to-do list.  Like almost everything else in this Santa Maria kit, these fenders were provided in the laser-cut sheets.  The plan was to pop these out and match two of them together to make the buttock lines thicker as they were placed on the outside of the hull.  In order to not mix them as I was gluing them together and fitting them, I made a little box chart to assist me in the organization.
 
   
 
There were also some design pieces included in the kit that needed to be placed on the hull and stern below the poop deck.  Since these were critical for the placement of the aft fenders, the pieces were secured on the ship's exterior with some CA glue.
 

 
The buttock fenders off of the quarter deck needed to be placed so that the kit-provided channel board would fit based on the spaced slots in the board.
 

 
In hindsight, I really messed up in preparing each of the buttock rider lines for placement.  They needed to fit smoothly over the wale strakes and, rather than cutting the wale strakes back to the hull where the buttock fenders crossed, I measured and milled slots into each of the buttock rider pieces.  Nice way to use my Proxxon mill, but it was not the best way to fit these vertical boards.
 

 
After they were milled but before final placement, I stained them, first with a pre-stain, and then with the same Minwax Honey stain that, of course, I used for the hull.
 

 
They were then secured to the outer hull with CA glue and the channel board secured, as well.
 
   
 
 
 
Still a bit more to do on the exterior, placing the nails in the buttock fenders, securing the rudder, and a few other things, but think I will work on the three decks' railings and ladders next.  Anxious to get this one done.
 
As always, appreciate the follows, the clicks and the comments.

It's great to see you back in the shipyard, Elia.  You appear to be back to your fine level of work right out of the gate.  I hope to join you back at work soon, my Bluenose has been sitting patiently for 12 years now.  You are an inspiration to get back into it!
 
Bob

It's great to see you back in the shipyard, Elia.  You appear to be back to your fine level of work right out of the gate.  I hope to join you back at work soon, my Bluenose has been sitting patiently for 12 years now.  You are an inspiration to get back into it!
 
Bob

It's great to see you back in the shipyard, Elia.  You appear to be back to your fine level of work right out of the gate.  I hope to join you back at work soon, my Bluenose has been sitting patiently for 12 years now.  You are an inspiration to get back into it!
 
Bob

Anchors
 
For the anchors of Arethusa years ago Erik Ronnberg recommended I use the Model Shipways plans for Elsie he had designed and drafted years before.  They were built in the same timeframe, just a few miles apart, and shared many details of the time.  With that guidance I purchased said Elsie plans and headed over to FedEx/Kinkos to enlarge the plans from their original 1/96 scale to my 1/48 scale.  With the plans at the correct scale there were a number of details I could readily use on Arethusa.  I also try to cross reference things to Chapelle’s American Fishing Schooners, and they almost always do, as did the anchors.  Here is an image of the Elsie plans showing the anchor.

I had tried, unsuccessfully, to make them, years ago, from a stout sheet of K&S brass.  This time I decided to try making them from boxwood.  The sticks of boxwood I have aren’t wide enough to cut the anchors as complete, single entities from a strip of stock, so I chose to separate the end with the flukes from the main shank (shaft) and stock hole feature.  Here is a photo of the plans glued with contact adhesive to the boxwood strip.

Next up is a photo of those details now trimmed to shape.  I used my DeWalt scroll saw, followed by files, and then sanding sticks, to shape them.

I cut notches in the sides of the shafts on both pieces and glued small lap splice details.  I’ll admit -  this felt a bit precarious as the boxwood details felt delicate.  This photo shows them being glued together.

My most recent status is shown in the following photo.  The anchors, particularly at the splices, have been sanded smooth, and rebates have been sanded in where the flukes will be glued.  Following that is photo of the anchor chain and a finer chain after having been blackened with Blacken It (from many years ago).

Throat Halliard Cranes
 
On Gloucester fishing schooners of the late 19th and early 20th centuries the set of blocks which raise the mast end of the gaffs where secured to the lower masts with a unique iron detail called a throat halliard crane.  It is bolted to the aft side of the lower masts, found on both fore and main masts.  Its general shape is very wide U with a feature for the detail which secures the blocks, oriented with the legs of the U horizontal.  Those legs are long bolts which pierce through the mast and secured by nuts on the forward side of the mast.  The upper leg reaches over the mast head details, and the lower leg beneath.  This is one of those details I pondered over for years.  I didn’t think making them from wood would be sufficiently strong for the purpose.  I could have made them from brass wire, though some soldering would be needed and I wasn’t sure I could pull them off while still looking reasonably to scale.  This year I decided - what the heck - lets see what sheet brass I had laying around (from years ago!), and see if I could cut them out that way.  A piece of 0.072” thick was what I had on hand; A little thicker than to-scale, which would have been 0.060”, but I’m fine with that.  I recall trying to make my anchors from the same brass sheet many years ago.  I broke a lot of jeweler’s saw blades then, and dropped it long ago, very frustrated.
 
Once again - I searched through MSW and found some good discussions on using jewelers saws to cut brass.  I thank Weflack and others for those pointers!  I also found a good video on Youtube of a guy demonstrating key points of cutting brass sheet with a jeweler’s saw.  I think age also plays a part here in that I am in much less of a hurry than my earlier days, and am willing to let the saw do the work, not pushing it too hard, etc.  A key take away is to keep the blade oiled on a regular basis.  I had sprayed some contact adhesive onto the brass sheet, then secured my profile prints onto it.  I found that the oil tended to loosen the profile image over time, so I tried to just cut the inside of the U with the image adhered to the brass sheet as closely as possible.  As I went along the outside I tried cutting a little wide, knowing I could use my dremel and files to bring it back to a proper size.  I used a courser file to remove material faster, and then a finer file to smooth things out.

The second photo shows the two cranes adjacent the plan images (from the Model Shipways Elsie plans).  My cranes’ legs are a bit too wide, when compared to the plans, but I’m fine with that.  A little more clean up of the bolt portions, some primer and silver paints, and they’ll be good to go.

Blocks.
 
My prior experience with blocks was on Blue Jacket Shipcrafter’s Smuggler model, which had their detailed, cast Brittania blocks, and on my Oneida model, where I used Warner Woods wooden blocks.  Both experiences were good.  One required some finish sanding and trim, along with painting.  The others required sanding and staining.
 
For Arethusa I began my blocks journey by making an inventory of the full size block types and quantities, and then finding what was available, as close to scale as possible, at 1/48 scale.
 
I first purchased my entire shipset of blocks from Blue Jacket.  They are really great looking blocks.  And I had intended to use them for Arethusa.
 
I then saw Syren Ship Model Company’s internally stropped blocks. Oh I liked the look of those!  If you look back to my posts of 2017 you’ll see I had begun making some of those internally stropped blocks.  These are great little mini-kits, and can yield some impressive looking scale assembled blocks.
 
I, again, purchased what I could, scale-wise, from Syren, and began assembling them.  To finish them I purchased the block tumbler from Model Expo.  And that is where I ran into some “issues”.  The block tumbler has a rigid central core and four wooden paddles with sand paper on them.  For those of you who haven’t worked with one of these, you place your blocks into the jar, between the paddles, secure the lid, and you attach your hand drill to the tumbler’s shaft.  Power it up and you are in business.  But - at almost every speed - my blocks came apart, beaten to pieces.  I was very disheartened, to say the least.
 
After some time I came around to ordering more of Chuck Passaro’s blocks, hoping to find a solution to the tumbler problem.  I also want to give a shout out to Chuck for trying to help a modeler out.  On the small end of my blocks, I had 1/8” long model scale singles and doubles.  His block kits stop at 3/16” long - which are pretty small if you have ever worked with them!  He tried coming up with a kit for 1/8” blocks and just couldn’t get it to work properly.  I really thank him for trying.  He even gave me a packet of his 1/8” long machined wooden blocks.  Great guy, great business - if you haven’t yet - give Syren a try.  Really nice modeling stuff there.
 
I reassembled my second set of Syren internally stropped blocks.  Before trying that tumbler again (!!!) I searched MSW for ‘tumbler’, and lo and behold there was discussion of the problems with the rigid wooden paddles of the Model Expo tumbler.  Chuck Passaro mentioned substituting just sand paper for the paddles, and Dr PR showed his mod of the tumbler, where the paddles were removed and replaced with sand paper.  Thank you guys!  I followed their lead, modified my tumbler, and voila!  My blocks stayed together and were very nicely smoothed.   By the way, Dr PR’s Albatros model is outstanding - go check it out!
 
I trimmed and glued the strops and beckets with medium CA, and then stained them with Minwax Colonial Maple.  I’m very happy with them.  I still have the pins to add and then they’ll be complete.

On the small end of the scale I tried using the 1/8” wooden ones Chuck provided, and tried making doubles from singles, but without success.  So I’ve decided to go with the small Blue Jacket Brittania ones for these.  I’ve got them cleaned and primed, and hope to get a brown tone that won’t look horrible next to the attractive, assembled boxwood ones.
 
Some things I’ve learned from making a bunch of Syren’s block kits:
 
Medium CA and a round toothpick, or a micro tip for the CA bottle, work well for gluing the pieces together. Strive, as best as you can, to align the frames perfectly on top of each other as you glue the pieces together.  Any misalignment can be corrected with sanding the exterior surfaces, BUT you’ll have to sand to the lowest (innermost set) surface to get all of the laser burn off.  If you don’t sand all the way to the last surface you’ll end up with steps and ridges - not all that attractive to my eyes.  This can result in some parallelogramming of block shape.  In the last photo you can see some of this on a few of the blocks.  Its more pronounced with the smaller blocks. Using a sanding stick hit all of the exterior surfaces, to remove the burn, and to even it out before using the tumbler. The tumbler is best for rounding the corners of the blocks. Do not glue on the strops and beckets before tumble sanding the blocks. The 3/16” blocks are pretty small and my fingers cramped constantly trying to hold them while sanding the outer surfaces (step 3, above) I found using a small drill bit helped me form the strops into clean hoops which aligned with the slots in the blocks.  I used different sized drill bits for the different sized blocks. Make a few extra in each size.  One or two may fail along the way and its good to have ready made spares. The boxwood blocks take stain well!  
In the photo below you can see, upper photo to the bottom, 9/16” doubles, singles, a triple I made from extra 9/16” kits, 1/4” singles, and a pile of 3/16” singles and doubles.  I love the way these look, and know they’ll complement the model nicely upon rigging.

Sometimes in modeling I set off down a path, only to find I did something that I quickly didn’t like.  My masts and spars are one of those things.  I had made them from basswood, and I had stained them with a minwax oil based stain (maybe Puritan Pine).  I quickly saw two things I didn’t like:  one - the color of the stain can didn’t translate to the basswood like I had thought it would, being too brown, but without a warm cast, and two - the basswood had far too much dark and light patchiness.  I stewed on it a bit, and after having seen many models here on MSW made of Costello boxwood, I thought that that wood’s tight graining and evenness of tone would be what I was looking for.
 
One build log, Mahuna’s beautiful skipjack Kathryn, showed Costello boxwood and minwax Colonial Maple mast and spars - exactly the tone and look I wanted!  If you want to see some outstanding modeling, go search it out.  Thank you Frank for sharing that.  It has the look of varnished spars I want on Arethusa.  I bought some boxwood from Gilmer Woods during the pandemic, and recently set about making new masts and spars.  I find that it’s a good thing to make masts and spars every five to ten years, just to keep one’s hand in it.  ; )  Here’s a photo of the old and new masts and spars.  I have one last small spar to complete.  I had tried doing a little mortise in the sides of my first boxwood one and split it apart, so another is in-progress.
 

 
I’ve also made new masthead details from the boxwood, replacing the old basswood ones.  On these schooners there is little to the mastheads, so that was enjoyable and fairly quick and easy to do.
 
I haven't yet stained the spars, but have done some trial staining of the boxwood and the Colonial Maple will work out fine.  
 

My goodness, where has the time gone?  As you can see by my last post, of about a year ago, I thought then that I would find time to rekindle my ship modeling hobby.  Life, of course, plays by a different set of rules.  My last true time working on my schooner details was 7 years ago.  Since then, well, life intruded.  Helping with aging parents, raising children, with their attention and activities, work, home projects, health issues..  sometimes it’s difficult to find time to do the things we enjoy.  Without going into details, I’m finally back at it in my shop (which I spent some time tidying up so that I could comfortably work on my model).  I recall someone years ago, here on MSW I think, say to a modeler who hadn’t been able to get to his modeling in quite some time that (I’m paraphrasing) ‘the model waits patiently’.  And it does.
 
I see a few of the modelers from year ago still here and active, which is great.  I also note a few older members have passed on, some who I had hoped share modeling and further progress of Arethusa with, and that leaves me a little melancholy.
 
My schooner model sat wrapped in plastic, on its box stand; my research and plans were safely stored away; my little details, and masts and spars, also waited patiently.  And this past Christmas holiday break I was able to get to it in earnest.  Some observations of mine include: I’m not getting any younger!  My eyesight is worse than before, and my Optivisor is a godsend.  Without it my work might resemble a deconstructionist thing.  My thumbs have the onset of arthritis, and that hinders tool manipulation.  And I can’t sit for as long as I had.  Such as all of those are, man it is great to be working on my model again.
 
You’ll see some posts in the near future on a few things I’ve been working at:  new masts and spars; rigging blocks; the anchors; and my attempt at making throat halliard cranes from thick brass sheet.
 
And one last thing to point out.  I have been surfing through MSW in search of suggestions on different topics.  As you all know this place is amazing.  One can find any number of helpful tips.  I’ll try to note the ones which helped me in my posts, and thank everyone for contributing to community.

Well, I've completed another phase in this Santa Maria build, so thought I'd post an update with the progress I have made and the pictures I have taken to-date.  At my last update at the end of December, I had not yet stained the outer hull, so it was time to do that.  I think I had noted that Pavel Nikitin had his own set of paints/stains that he was recommending but, being the poor sprayer that I still am, I decided to use more conventional stains and brush or wipe them on.  For the hull, I wanted a darker stain, so I opted for Minwax Honey wood finish.  I wiped it on the hull, then sanded and used some steel wool to smooth it out some, then applied a 2nd coat.  May do a bit more touchup before completion, as it is a bit "splotchy" in spots, but it gives a decent impression, I think, of how a 15th century ship may have looked.
 

 

 
Next task was to work on the main deck and quarter deck rails.  The kit's quarter deck rails consist of 5 sets of two rail pieces glued together to make the proper rail width. while the kit's main deck rails consist of 6 sets of three rail pieces joined to make its rail width.  The char on all of these pieces was removed the best I could using my Dremel with a 220-grit sanding disc.  
 

 

 

 
Once these were all glued together to form two sets of rails, the kit provided a sheet which was needed in order to cut and shape each of the rails to their proper form.  That was completed and then they were set aside for now, waiting to be stained and then placed once the decks were completed.
 
      
 
There is a back wall for the quarter deck that really isn't discussed anywhere in the pictorial instructions but suddenly shows up in a subsequent picture, so we added that now while also working on the quarter deck planking.  As the provided planks were placed on the quarter deck braces, there was a gap in the planking, so I cut an extra piece using the sheet that the planks came from and filled that gap.  The poop deck planking was also laid out.  Again, as is done with all of Pavel's sheet pieces, you can see the numbering on the planks for identification and placement but, of course, these were flipped/rotated when secured on the ship, so the numbers are not visible.
 
      
 

 
The rail system that was provided in the kit for the poop deck was a dark gray resin material.  Most of it would be covered by wood slats, but the decorative "X" supports were painted black in order to stand out a bit better.  The top rail isn't in these pictures, but you'll see it in later pictures.  The poop deck came out looking fairly well.
 
     
 
      
 
Now to the front of the ship.  I had previously completed the forecastle deck but have not yet secured it to the ship itself.  I had also worked previously on the braces that go under the forecastle deck, but they were a bit shorter than I wanted, so I re-did them so the braces extend out a bit more on the sides.  I stained the braces using the same Minwax Satin Antique Walnut that I used for the decks.  The black marks on each of the braces just helped me remember what side to face up during placement, as the forecastle deck will be placed on top and cover the markings, anyway.
 
Once the forecastle deck was placed and secured, I could then place the main deck rails and quarter deck rails that I had previously completed.  They seemed to go on fairly well, but I will need to look at filling a few gaps between the rails and the hull where needed.
 
    
 
But, with the placement of the rails, that pretty much completes this phase of construction.  I think the next project is to work on the vertical buttock riders that are placed on the hull along with the channels, and then there are several deck items to work on, including rails, ladders, the windlass, etc.  So, for now, this is how my Santa Maria looks. 
 
      
 

 

 
Appreciate those of you who have been peeking in with the likes, comments and advice.  Thanks...