Nuestra Senora del Pilar de Zaragoza by marktiedens - FINISHED - OcCre - scale 1:46

[marktiedens]

Hi everyone - another little update. The upper decks are now in place & finished off with a coat of polyurethane.

 

 

 

Mark

[marktiedens]

 Hi everyone - the next thing to do is the inner bulwarks at the aft end of the ship. It comes in one long laser cut piece,which I painted red & glued to the bulkhead extensions - I had to look closely at the pictorial instructions to position it right.

 

 

Next,the aft cabin walls were made up. The doors & windows are bronzed metal & were pretty well done. The instructions say to cut out the window inserts from the paper provided,but I thought it looked kind of cheesy,so I made my own windows by gluing some black window screen material to some clear acetate,then cut them to fit.

 

 

Next,the cabin wall were chiseled out & painted yellow. Then the doors & windows were glued in place. The instructions indicated just painting the walls brown,which would look awful,so I planked them with some walnut strips. It came out that the doors & windows were close to flush with the planking,which I thought looked much better than just glued on & painted around.

 

 

 

 

 

Mark 

[pietkm]

Mark,

Do you know there is an e-book available describing the build and history of these Manila galleons, in particular

this Nuestra Senora del Pilar? It's called  "Retrato de un Navio" by Jesus Garcia del Valle y Gomez, available at 8 Euro

from Bubok.es.

Although it's in Spanish only, still you could get some interesting info from it I think.

 

Piet

[marktiedens]

Thank you for that info,Piet. I had no idea someone wrote a book on this ship. I will probably not purchase it for now as my budget is pretty tight right now. Maybe later.

 

Mark

[marktiedens]

Update - the poop deck,stem&keel,and the lower gunport frames have been added. The keel & stem are plywood,pre-stained,so I lined the edges with a veneer stained to match. Also,the planking has begun.

 

 

 

 

Mark

[md1400cs]

Hi Mark,

 

Glad I found your new log. Looking very good. Good choice as well. Planking looks excellent as well.

 

Cheers,

[marktiedens]

Thanks Michael.  So far this is a much easier build than the Royal William despite the much lesser quality of wood. I am experimenting a little to see if I can cut some strips of cherry veneer to use on the lower part of the hull instead of the kit wood - it`s difficult to cut consistently even.

 

Mark

[zappto]

This is important step to make all ports in good position, you are doing great work, I like your clean work! 

[marktiedens]

Thanks zappto - I like your work also.

 

Mark

[marktiedens]

A small update - planking is done & sanded smooth from the waist to the level of the lower wales. The blanks for the dummy cannon barrels of the lower gun deck were glued in place & painted flat black,along with painting the inside of the gunports red. This is a single planked hull,so I needed to get it nice & smooth. Below the lower  wale I am going to double plank the hull with some cherry veneer(I hope). The planking on the upper part of the hull is 2mm thick,so I`m using some 1.5mm thick lime to do the first layer of planking below the wale,which after adding the second planking should come out very close to the same thickness as the upper planking. Any slight variation will not be noticeable due to the wale separating the upper & lower halves of the hull. I`ve never tried using veneer for planking,so if it doesn`t seem to be working ok I can always sand it down & use some of the usual .5mm thick strips.

 

 

 

Mark

[md1400cs]

One of these days my planking deck and hull will hopefully look as excellent as yours  

Well maybe not  - Mark superb work

[marktiedens]

Thanks Michael. As you can see,the planking on the upper half of the hull is something called ramin(maybe another term for basswood?) & has very inconsistent color & grain. I intend to paint the upper part with black & yellow ochre as shown in the pictures in my first post,so it doesn`t really matter.

 

Mark

[marktiedens]

Hi everyone - another update. The first planking is now done below the level of the lower wale. I used 1.5 by 6mm strips of limewood for this. Now i`ve got a lot of sanding to do - may need to add a little filler at the bow area to some low spots.

 

 

 

Mark

 

 

[Zapto]

Your planking looks really well, wanted to ask how you make plank edges? Do you use only knife to make them thin? Beautiful work, this could be second planking for me!

[marktiedens]

Hi Zapto - the planks were thinned at the front using a small plane & sandpaper. Then they were edge bent after soaking in water for about 15 minutes. The limewood is pretty soft,so it was not too difficult to bend. The dark brown planks will be covered by the wales - I put them there so I would know where to attach the wales.

 

 

Mark

Edited March 15, 2018 by marktiedens

[marktiedens]

Hi everyone - a little update. The first planking is now sanded nice & smooth. I had to add a little filler due to not using filler blocks at the bow.

 

 

 

Mark

[petervisser]

Beautiful planking job Mark, on such a curvy girl, ships being she's and all...

 

Peter

[marktiedens]

Thanks Peter - the easy part is done. The hard part is trying to get the second planking right. Right now I am trying to line off the hull,but have 2 problems. 1 - I can`t find any narrow tape that will stick to the hull. 2 - this is a really bluff bow,so no matter how I lay the tape it just doesn`t look right. I might just end up drawing lines on the hull with a pencil instead of tape.

 

Mark

[Vivian Galad]

Hi there, Mark! I'll join the expectators on your build. Great work, so far. Neat first planking. It seems you've got a nice ship to work on. 

 

Edited March 17, 2018 by Vivian Galad

[marktiedens]

Thanks Vivian & welcome aboard! Yes,a nice looking ship - I hope to do it justice.

 

Mark

[marktiedens]

Just a little update on my experiment to use cherry veneer. The transom was planked first leaving a gap for the rudder post. The lower hull planking was then started. This veneer has to be spiled around the bow - there`s no edge bending this stuff! With the scale of this ship at 1:46,I am cutting the planks from the veneer sheet at 7mm wide,tapered down to 4mm where it`s spiled at the bow. The veneer is a bit fiddly to work with but so far,so good. This is gonna take a while...............................

 

 

 

 

Mark

[Landlubber Mike]

Magnificent planking Mark!  I bet the planking will take a while, but the results will be well worth it if you take your time. How thin is the veneer?

 

Interesting looking at the stern of this ship.  Her stern is kinda close to my La Renommee which you commented on earlier today, though a more pronounced square tuck stern.  The tear drop at the bottom is quite nice.

[piratepete007]

On 17 March 2018 at 3:31 PM, marktiedens said:

Thanks Peter - the easy part is done. The hard part is trying to get the second planking right. Right now I am trying to line off the hull,but have 2 problems. 1 - I can`t find any narrow tape that will stick to the hull. 2 - this is a really bluff bow,so no matter how I lay the tape it just doesn`t look right. I might just end up drawing lines on the hull with a pencil instead of tape.

 

Mark

Mark - I have been taking a sabbatical leave from shipbuilding due to house shifting but keeping an eye on your great work nevertheless. Very narrow tape can be obtained from auto supply places - the tape is used widely in auto spray shops where fine separation of paint edges is required. It has a very strong adhesive on one side. Might provide the solution.

Pete

 

[marktiedens]

Mike - the veneer is .019" thick.

 

Pete - never thought of that,although I don`t think I will need the tape now. What I would like is to find some wide(2 inches or more) low tack tape to help with the spiling - all the art & craft stores in my area only have the one inch wide tape.

 

Mark

[md1400cs]

Mark,

 

Especially ice as usual - Veneer - great idea. Yes it is rather fiddly, and you are trying to bend yours into shape? 

[marktiedens]

Thanks Michael - bending lengthwise is not a problem as you can see in the picture. However,it just buckles if you try to force it sideways,so each plank has to be shaped very closely.

 

 

Mark

[Mirabell61]

spendid planking job Mark !!

 

Nils

[marktiedens]

Thank you Nils - your comment is greatly appreciated!

 

Mark

[NMBROOK]

Excellent work MarkTamiya do masking tape up to 40mm wide I think and is low tack.Dampening the veneer can also help to reduce splitting when cutting.Just make sure it is bone dry before gluing.Only thing you can't use both as the tape won't stickI have found life easier to roughly cut the spiled plank oversize,then trimming the edge that butts the fitted plank first.This can then be held to the hull with tape to mark the second edge.Cut slightly oversize then shape with a sanding stick.

 

Kind Regards

Nigel

Edited March 26, 2018 by NMBROOK

[marktiedens]

Thanks Nigel - planking is already well underway. Not going too bad - just takes some time to shape the spiled planks.

 

 

 

Mark