Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'kitbashing'.
Found 1 result
-
***Santa Maria 1492 - Artesania Latina*** Hello shipmates, Before we are getting started with my new buildlog, a short introduction of myself and the ship is in order. I'm a member of this forum for many years, and I live in The Netherlands a small country in Europe. Once we were dominating the world seas by having more ships in the water as a nation then all ships from all countries combined. So ships and shipbuilding runs through the veins so to say. Unfortuately after the big crash of MSW all my photo's and my buildlogs were gone. For a few years I put my hobby asside and concentrated on my family and on my work. At this moment I've found some spare hours to work on my hobby, and I would like to share my new buildlog with you guys and gals. please have a bit patience on my written English, because it's not my native language and so I'll probably make some grammatical mistakes and I appologies upfront... To the project... History The Santa Maria originally named La Gallega, was the largest of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus in his first voyage. Her master and owner was Juan de la Cosa. She was built in Pontevedra, Galicia, in Spain's north-west region. Santa Maria was probably a medium-sized nau (Carrack), about 58ft long on deck, and according to Juan Escalante de Mendoza in 1575, SM was "very little larger than 100 toneladas" (about 100 tons, or tuns). She was the flagship for the expedition aside La Nina and La Pinta, two smaller of the caravel-type ships. Shipwreck With three masts, Santa María was the slowest of Columbus' vessels but performed well in the Atlantic Ocean crossing. Then on the return trip, on 24 December (1492), not having slept for two days, Columbus decided at 11:00 p.m. to lie down to sleep. The night being calm, the steersman also decided to sleep, leaving only a cabin boy to steer the ship, a practice which the admiral had always strictly forbidden. With the boy at the helm, the currents carried the ship onto a sandbank, running her aground off the present-day site of Cap-Haïtien, Haiti. It sank the next day and was lost forever... The build At first, let's inspect the workplace, which is the kitchen table by the way, and the box...and yes, the box on the left is my toolkit and on the right the ship... Everything looks neat and tidy at first glance. The box is well organized and the wooden parts and timber are of a good quality as can be expected from AL. However, the buildmanual turns out to be very dissapointing. A few photo's on one single page and an instruction list is all that's added to the box. The best parts are the two bigger drawings of the rigging and masts which looks very nice doh. The Bulkheads and false keel / keelplate I start by numbering all the bulkheads and parts on the plate. They are all lasercut and I use some sandpaper to remove the burn from the laser. After inspecting a collect all the parts and dry-fit them together to see how good it fits.....it doesn't! After some corrections, the bulkheads fits nicely on the false keel. However I noticed a small warp in the keelplate. I did some further inspection and Yes, it's warped just between bulkhead 12 and 10. This needs to be fixed otherwise I run into some problems later on....I took the keel plate and soaked it in some water. I let it dry between a couple of books with some pressure on the books so the plate was fixed into a flat position. I let it dry for a day and the next day it was straight. I put everything together again and glued the bulkheads into position. The false deck Next step is to place the false deck on top of the bulkheads. Again, the false keel was pre-fabricated and lasercut. I use the small brass nails and glue to fixate the plate on to the bulkheads. I have limited tools and clamps at my posession at this moment, so I use the nails. They will be coverd up later when the final layer of thin wooden strips are placed on top of the false deck. Overhere I use a nail (red circle) to "help" the deck plate a litte bit and guides it into a better position.... After his I placed some blocks to make the bow a bit stronger and sturdier. Now it's time to sand the end of the bulkhead so they are prepared for planking the first layer of the hull. It will be a dual layered or planked hull. I took my time on this process. If done correctly, the beauty of the lines and shape of hull will shown after the planking process. It is also the part were I struggle the most and we'll have to see later on if I made some mistakes or not... So, to be continued soon.... regards, Peter
Our Emblem
