Katsumoto

Chapter 16 - Correcting the stern and placed the rudder It's been several weeks since my last update on Cazador. Well, sometimes work and family takes up all my time and so the ship had to wait. However, I found some spare minutes last week and made some progress on Cazador. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to shoot pictures of the building process and for that I'm sorry. Next time I'll keep in mind that the creative fabrication process is one of the most appealing things to watch. The things I've done so far is remodeling the part where the rudder meets the hull. The kit had it wrong so I needed to correct this before attaching the rudder to the ship. I replaced the plywood with walnut and copied the original piece with these "notches". I removed the wood between the notches and placed a solid walnut piece in between. Much better if I may say so.... Also carved some more items and placed these on the stern of the ship. After this I attached the rudder and finally applied the Danish Oil on the outside of the hull and the inside of the bulwarks. Time to pop the texture of the wood out. I love this moment! I hope you guys like the progress, next time I'll make some photo's of the fabrication process, promise! 😉 Cheers! Pete

Hi modeller_masa, it's all about dedication. You are going the extra mile with your diagrams and explanation of the construction. So, thumbs up for you! 👍 To me it doesn't matter how long a person is building or how "good" they are to follow a buildlog. Building a model is like running a marathon, not a sprint competition, so speed doesn't matter. I'm just curious how you are building Santa Maria and I'm looking forward to your next steps. 😉 regards, Peter

Great work on the SM. I do like the "old" kit much better @Artesania Latina More solid walnut parts and less plywood please! You have probably know my completed buildlog and heavily "upgraded" the standard kit. However, I did use all the materials within the kit. The kit itself is a nice kit, it just need some upgrades. You did a nice job on the planking pattern. Looking forward to the next steps. I hope my buildlog wil help you on your way to make your own choices. regards, Peter

Hi Gregg, You ran yourself in a "nasty" situation, but solvable. What I can see on your photo is the 3 strakes closest to the keel are at the bow not tapered or not enough tapered. So the other strakes left to place need to become too narrow at the bow and you need to work with drop planks like Allan showed you. An alternative is to remove the 3 strakes including the garboard strake and recalculate the width of each strake per bulkhead and perhaps and re-do the work. Perhaps no drop planks are needed if you do this. I can't tell from this position. Please, read my post about tapering and planking during the build of my Santa Maria or Cazador. I think this will help you on your way. Both can be found here: good luck and nice model btw.

It is a matter of opinion. I think that the AL and OcCre kits are overall pretty good designed or engineered. By that I mean, the construction goes well together and is for a modeler pretty "easy" to build in comparison to let say most Italian brands (except Amati). However, I agree that the Spanish labels tend to use generic materials like gratings, boats, pins, anchors, cannons and re-use them for almost all their models. Out of scale or out of period or not. It's all about cost control. For a modeler not always pleasing to see or use and require bashing to get the model to a better or higher standard. But it seems that's common with most brands. The newer / upgraded kits all have laser-cut parts with perfect fitting. However, cheap plywood is used for almost everything. Exotic woods (walnut) are expensive and getting rare in their kits. Something to due with regulations, availability and costs. So, now they sell all sort paints and stains to give the cheap wood a representative "look". Cheaper wood costs less, extra sale on paint and stains, the price of the kit remains the same or goes up due to the "better and upgraded" marketing label and are all benefits for the owner / investor of the company. So with the Soleil Royal kit, this is no exception and we see a kit pretty "good" in overall appearance kit. When you zoom in, it's where the issues start. Lots of paint and cheap materials but with a high price on sale. It's "upgradable", but as a modeler you have to spend the extra bucks to achieve your goal. One thing I have to say is that the ornament or sculptures of this kit and also of the Vasa kit are exceptionally nice and very beautiful to see. It is what really will sell this kit!

I have had the opportunity to order rope from Ben (RoS) as well as from Chuck (Syren). Both outstanding quality and quick delivery. Syren has limited the amount of rope per placed order and I needed much more for my ship, so I found RoS and ordered the rest of what I needed. I am pretty overwhelmed by Ben's service and the quality is phenomenal. I mean really really good! I am not in the position to make my own quality rope and I was looking for an upgrade for my current project Let me explain a bit further, from Syren the rope I've ordered is a cotton / polyester blend or mix and so I've ordered at RoS cotton ropes (took a leap of fate because I didn't know Ben or RoS) to have sort of the same. However, Ben contacted me by pm and asked me if I would upgrade the ropes from cotton to 100% Gutermann polyester rope for free. To me poly rope has some benefits over cotton, like no fussiness, better resistance with climate changes and humidity and long lasting. So, I opted for the upgrade! Well, when received my package of ropes, I couldn't be more pleased. You should have seen the smile on my face when opening and layed out all the ropes and cable. Boy, the quality, tightness is fantastic. But, this is not the end of the story. Ben again contacted me short after sending out the package and apologized for the color of the "dark brown" batch. To him, the color was a bit too dark like almost black. He knew I didn't want black but more like a chocolate brown and so he told me that he's sending me a new batch with a lighter color for free! This is absolutely top service I didn't expected and when I received the second package and compared both colors, he was right down to the money! The replacement batch of the lighter dark brown color was just perfect and exactly what I wanted. I know this is a personal preference, but the service and the way Ben wanted me to get the right color and not disappoint me is a service which becomes rare in this world. For me this was a done deal, and I will order again! What a more than outstanding service! I have no ties with RoS nor with Ben personally, but RoS deserves a good review so, I give one! The batch of ropes I've ordered and a comparison of the dark brown color and a comparison of cable. So the picture below shows cable from Ropes of Scale and Syren. This is not a comparison which one is best, because to me both are excellent quality and I love both of them and I think the best out there on the market you can buy. I only want to show you the difference between left 100% polyester and on the right a mix of cotton / polyester. (I don't know the percentage but I think it's more cotton than poly) It's more a personal preference I'll guess. So, for my project Cazador I will use Ben's ropes and I'm looking forward how they will look on the ship. I'll have to wait though, because I'm very busy with carving at the moment and not gotten to the rigging part of the ship. I would like to thank Ben for his service and if you guys have any questions about Ben's ropes or service I'm happy to answer them. Just send me a pm! regards, Peter

As from now on, my log has been moved to the right era 1501 - 1750 in the buildlog era's. Apparently I made a mistake and somehow started this log a while ago in the 1751-1800 era. Thank you @James H for helping me out and moving the log to the right era! 🙂

Beautiful result on the coppering proces. Very wel done Yves!

You're welcome! I'll have to do a figurehead which is a 3d sculpture for this ship. I'll shall make some more pictures during the process and perhaps this will help you on your next "project" 🙂

If you're using a drill, keep it on a low RPM. When the RPM is high, your bits become very warm / hot and the metal looses it's hardness quickly. The same is when you use too much pressure. The result is a dull bit. So, low RPM and let the tool do it's job for you. Do not take too much wood at a time. With 3d figures use a saw / scrollsaw to shape the profile of the figure. So sideview and front view. The rest you can do with chissels or your drill. Patience is a virtue my friend....😉 Thanks for the reply, your figures looks very nice tho, don't give up, keep going! 👍

Chapter 15 - Woodcarving continues part 4 Hi guys, Ouch, I was searching for my log....it was on the third page. Guess a new update is in order. 😛 I had some obligations towards my family and I was occupied by my job, so you had to wait for this update. Thank you for your patience. You guys are rocking it with all the new posts in your logs. Keep it going! In this update I'll continue with some carving elements on the side of the ship. I made a new design for the frames around the gunports. Somehow the laurel wreath didn't do it for me. Second I made the panels and third I made the carving for the back panel. Still not done, but I'm getting there....one step at the time..... If you're here reading my log, thank you and please leave a comment if you like. Until next update, Regards, Pete

it looks awsome! love the paint and how the colors turned out! 👍

Chapter 14 - Woodcarving continues part 3 In this update I'll like to show you 3 vertical pilars I've carved out of boxwood. The pilars have a leaf motif. Between the last and the middle pilar I need to carve a frame with a flying eagle on it. It will be a difficult one. Also I need to carve some decorations around the round gunports. These are for later... I really appreciate your support, likes and comments! Thank you for following my log! 😀 Pter

Chapter 14 - Woodcarving continues part 2 One side done, the other side I'll start this weekend.

try double sided tape!

Mini tutorial - woodcarving part 2 So I'll use this post to show you guys how to carve the same flower only using a different tool and to be more precise a rotary drill. I've used a Dremel, it broke down. Changed it to a Proxxon recently and to me it's all the same and does the job fine. So, do not fixate to much on brand but more on what's available and how the handle lies or fits into your hands. It's again a personal preference. Some of the users prefer a old school dental drill, the one with belt drive. Again, it's up to you! With a rotary drill, you need bits. Please use good ones made out of strong hardened metal. You only need a few so it is wise to spend your dollar / Euro etc on good bits. I use a medium to low RPM to carve. With sharp bits you'll get through the wood easy as a hot knife through butter and you don't burn your bits. Again the same preparations are in order prior to carving as with is mentioned with the handtools. 1) Make a good drawing on scale 2) Select a piece of wood and shape the wood so it can accept your drawing 3) take away the excess of wood so only the outline of the piece to carve remains. When you did all that, time to carve! With a rotary tool, you need to use a different technique, but you can follow the same steps as with hand tools. Find the deepest point and the highest point. In my case for this flower, the center of the flower is the highest point and also the edges of the leaves. The deepest point is just around the center part of the flower. So, for my example I use a pointed bit to carve a circle on the deepest point. With the first two steps, your lines are gone. You need to redraw the lines for the step you want to execute. When finished with the previous step, your lines are gone again. So you need to draw the lines for you next step. When finished with carving, it's time to clean-up the work. You can use some fine grid sandpaper, a sanding pad, a polishing disk etc etc. What you want to achieve is to soften the hard lines and to smoothen all the details a little bit. It will improve the overall appearance. This is the end of the second part of this tutorial. Maybe you want to try woodcarving? I would say, give it a go and perhaps you will like it. I think it will enhance your model and personalize your model ship more. And last but not least, to quote Norm Abraham "the most important safety rule is to use "these" (pointing at his glasses) safety glasses". You don't want a chip of wood into your precious eyes. Good luck with yours and perhaps you will show it here on this forum as well. I'm looking forward to it. If you have any questions related to this tutorial, please feel free to comment in my buildlog or send me a pm. Cheers, Peter

Mini tutorial - woodcarving part 1 So along the way I got some questions about carving, which tools I use and how I do it. First off all, it's not only the tools. It's a combinations of the right tools, the right type of wood, a very good drawing and some insight how to carve. Experience and skills do help as well... 😅 You have to start somewhere so I tried to find stuff about woodcarving. Well, guess what. Most of the material I have found was about carving on a big scale like make a bear out a log with a chainsaw or carving a human form, leaves or animals with expensive chisels. None of it that really comes close to the scale we ship modelers have to work on. However I found one document of a fellow ship modeler "modelshipwright" or Bill Short, also a member of this forum, who made a very good and detailed document of how to carve with a rotary drill. I believe he uses an oldschool dental drill with beltdrive. Again seeing experienced French model shipbuilders using "Boxwood" to carve the smallest details into, I figured out just to try it, buy the wood and tools and experience a bit. This was a couple of years ago, and this is what I want to share with you. First of all let's get the obvious out of the way and you perhaps question yourself which tool is better, handtool or rotary tool? Well there isn't really a "better" tool only your personal preferences counts. This topic isn't a contest to see which one is better, (I know you Americans out there loves a good contest or two 😛) but a comparison of both to show you that you can get the same result with both tools. 🙂 I'll hope you find this tutorial helpfull, there was some time involved to make it... Carving with handtools I'll start with the handtools. I use wood gouges of the Pfeil brand. They are very small Lino wood gouges which comes in different shapes and sizes. You can get them online at various webshops. There are of course a lot of brands selling micro gouges. I just like the shape of the handle, it fits my hand perfectly compares to others. As you can see in the picture below. I have a couple selected. I have a choise of more than a couple because I really love the gouges, however for this tutorial I use only two of them. So, I'll show you step by step how to carve a simple flower. As always you need to do the following prior to carving. 1) Make a good drawing on scale 2) Select a piece of wood and shape the wood so it can accept your drawing 3) take away the excess of wood so only the outline of the piece to carve remains. When you did all that, time to carve! Find the deepest point and the highest point. In my case for this flower, the center of the flower is the highest point and also the edges of the leaves. The deepest point is just around the center part of the flower. So, I use a half round gouge to start from the highest point of the leaves and carve into the wood in the direction of the center. Be sure you don't cut away the center!!! After this step, your reference lines / drawing is gone. So for the next step is to re-draw the lines you want to remove for the next step. The next step is to carve on the lines you just drew, only the shape of your object guides you in which direction you should work. For this instance in need to separate the leaves from one another. The line is wide and deep on the edge of the leave and becomes thinner and shallower in the direction of the center. So I start from the center en work towards the edge and I use a different gouge with a "V"shape. Next step is again to draw your lines to carve...In my example the line that divides the leaves into three sections. To carve these lines I use the same gouge as the step before with a "V" shape. Again from inside towards the edge of the leave. When finished with carving, it's time to clean-up the work. You can use some fine grid sandpaper, a sanding pad, a polishing disk etc etc. What you want to achieve is to soften the hard lines and to smoothen all the details a little bit. It will improve the overall appearance. For this tutorial with handtools, I did not fixate my work piece. It is however a preferred way to do so. You're working with very very sharp tools and you do not want this into your fingers, believe me. Second, when your piece is securely fixate to your workbench, cutting mat etc, it's much easier to operate your tools with both hands. You can use double sides tape to fixate your piece. You can also use a mild glue. It depends on your preferences again. And last but not least, to quote Norm Abraham "the most important safety rule is to use "these" (pointing at his glasses) safety glasses". You don't want a chip of wood into your precious eyes. Next part will be part 2 where I use my Proxxon rotary tool to carve the same flower. Different tool, different technique, same result! Cheers, Peter

I think all we ship modelers have a lot of patience... 🤪 But thanks Yves, it's much appreciated! 👍

There are different sets with different sizes... Amazon.com: Pfeil : Linoleum and Block Cutter Set of 6 Tools : Set B : Tools & Home Improvement

I took a picture with better lightning, to show the depth a bit more. @Bobg, I use a Pfeill tools and also a Proxxon Rotary tool with micro bits as well...Indeed it's very small and fragile. 🙂

Chapter 14 - Woodcarving continues In this update I'll continue with carving. This time the upper part of the bulwark aft. It starts with a drawing of the design. Because the pattern repeats itself over and over again, I only needed to draw a section. I made a cardboard template and drew the outlines on a piece of wood. With my bandsaw I sawed a slide of 3mm. It need to be thinned down to approx. 2mm. However this is for later. A dry-fit of the wooden part, just to be sure my measurements are fine... Before we start with carving, the outline has to be cut out. Because of the small size of the carving, I couldn't use my scrollsaw and used my Proxxon / Dremel and my needlefiles. Another dry-fit... Time to carve. I'll start with the flowers, then the "C" parts. The three flowers on the right are done for the first step. (first step is to carve the depth and the shape) Step 2 is carving the details. It will take some while to do both sides of the ship but luckily there is no deadline... To be continued, Peter

Thank you for the nice comments guys! I’m truly honored! 😀

Nice and clean work Bob! I will follow allong the way if it's fine with you! 🙂

Chapter 12,99 - constructing the rudder and helm I've done some work on the rudder. Made out of walnut of course... Next update the rudder with helm will be placed on the ship. see you next time and thanks for all the likes and comments! Peter

Hi Yves. It's the Professional building slip of Hobbyzone. I believe there is a review of this one somewhere on this forum. It's a great tool, but also has it's limitations like any other tool out there. Professional Building Slip (hobbyzone.pl) Thanks for stopping by and the kind words! 👍