kit review 1:65 Santa Maria – 1492 - Artesania Latina

[James H]

1:65 Santa Maria – 1492
Artesania Latina
Catalogue # 22411N
Available from Artesania Latina for €149,99

 

 

La Santa María (The Saint Mary), was the largest of the three Spanish ships used by Christopher Columbus in his first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492, the others being the Niña and the Pinta. Her master and owner was Juan de la Cosa, a man from Santoña, Cantabria, operating in south Spanish waters. Requisitioned by order of Queen Isabella and by contract with Christopher Columbus, whom de la Cosa knew previously, the Santa María became Columbus's flagship on the voyage as long as it was afloat. Having gone aground on Christmas Day, 1492, on the shores of Haiti, through inexperience of the helmsman, it was partially dismantled to obtain timbers for Fort Navidad, "Christmas Fort," placed in a native Taíno village. The fort was the first Spanish settlement in the New World, which Columbus had claimed for Spain. He thus regarded the wreck as providential. The hull remained where it was, the subject of much modern wreck-hunting without successful conclusion.

 

 

The kit
I’ll always have an affection for Artesania Latina as those were the kits that started me in this hobby, and I built a small number of them before moving onto things like Panart, Model Shipways, Amati, and the sort of projects I’m building now. In fact, my first ever kit was their San Francisco, bought from a shop in York. Although there are of course other very fine entry points into the hobby for the raw beginner, there is obviously still a real place in that market for AL, who seemingly came back from collapse in the recent past. The re-emergence of AL kits has also seen then getting a revamp in terms of some materials, packaging and instructions. I’ll come to the latter, later in the review.

 

AL’s original Santa Maria was first released in 1992, and now we see a ‘revitalised’ kit. The new release is packaged into a much different style of box than I’m used to seeing with Artesania, with it still being a rigid and glossy affair with many images of the finished vessel. Inside the box, the contents are packed a little differently too, and not quite as tight as they used to be, with some space for things to rattle around a little. All strip and dowel is packaged into bundles tied with elastic cord and shrink-wrapped, whilst the sheets of parts are presented in a tough shrink-wrap film. Also included in the kit are the pre-stitched sails and some masks to paint the crosses onto them, a sheet of photo-etch parts, flags, a plastic storage box containing all the fittings, and an instruction manual on DVD.

 

Why a DVD?
I think it’s more to do than with me being a traditionalist, the reason why I am not a fan of manuals on a DVD. The only place I can see these is on a screen, and I won’t take my MacBook into a dusty workshop while I work on a project. To me, there is no substitute for an actual paper copy to work from. This model has no plans either…absolutely everything is done from the images on the DVD. Don’t get me wrong, Artesania have done an incredible job of showing every stage, including rigging, in photographic form, but unless I print this out, then I will need to keep referring to a computer. I suppose it’s understandable that they won’t want to supply one though, as the manual is a hefty 164 pages long! All done in the most brilliantly pictorial fashion. There is also another 12-page manual showing every single sheet of material and strip of wood, fitting etc. in high resolution. In all, the DVD contains the manuals in both PDF and JPG format. As well as those, six videos are also included which show a few tips and how to use some of the tools that you might want to purchase. Generally, I have to say that I would prefer the older style instructions AL used to supply, along with plans.

 

Timber!

The ship’s hull is built up from 3mm ply, which is all cleanly cut, with part numbers engraved on there too. On the false keel, all bulkhead positions are also engraved with the bulkhead number which slots into there. That’s all easy enough. Also included on the 3mm ply sheets are parts for making the cradle for the kit, shown on the box as a ‘bonus’. In all fairness, the original release of this kit didn’t have a cradle for build/display, so that’s fair enough. The deck sections are supplied in a combination of both 1.5mm and 2mm ply. There is no camber in the decks on this kit. It’s perfectly flat across its breadth. The 2mm sheet also carries parts for the jig used to build up the ship’s boat. I’ve definitely seen that approach to ship’s boats featured by another manufacturer somewhere (!) It is a big improvement over Artesania’s original practice of including poorly cast boats in their kits. Also found on the 2mm sheet are parts for the mast top.

 

Also in 1.5mm ply are the hull sides/bulwarks, extending from their lowest point on the main deck, up to the very top of the forecastle and poop deck bulwarks. The ply used on this kit is verry reminiscent of the stuff I used on the Artesania kits I built all those years ago, but maybe a higher quality than it was back then. Other parts are supplied on 1.5mm sheet.

 

The ply itself is of a very reasonable quality, and definitely a step up from the AL kits I built when I started in the hobby, although there is still warping present, perhaps exacerbated by tightly shrink wrapping the sheets up with parts. Strip timber is verry reasonable in quality and it’s of a nice consistency. As the strip material is also coded, you can clearly identify this with the parts plan which has images of the various material types and thicknesses. 

 

Photo-etch
One fret of photo-etched parts is included in this kit, containing the stand nameplate, cabin door, inside edge of mast top, lantern body etc. Production quality is very good and generally on par with like materials I’ve seen in some other kits.

 

Fittings

All fittings are supplied in the same style plastic compartment box that I remember when I first bought AL kits. Many of the parts in here are generic, but the quality of them seems to be perfectly fine. You’ll find eyebolts, turned brass cannon, cast anchor, swivel guns, cleats etc. as well as turned wooden windlass, barrels etc. I have to say the larger barrel size looks unfeasibly large for this scale. Other wooden items include buckets, parrel beads, deadeyes and riggings blocks. 

 

 

Flags, rig, sails and masks
The included flags are nicely printed and come as either foldable or parts assembled from a front and back. Flag parts will need to be cut out of their master sheet. Rigging cord is of a verry reasonable quality and certainly better than I remember it being in the old days where it was full of fuzz. I mean, it’s not Gutermann, but certainly better than I remember.

Five pre-sewn sails are supplied with this model, and they already have a nicely aged effect to them. Of course, one thing this ship was famous for was the large cross on the sails. This is something you will need to paint onto the sails, and thankfully, Artesania has supplied some cardboard templates to help you with that task. 

 

Instructions
The Santa Maria is actually a very simple model to build and follows many of the conventions and techniques that I remember were prevalent when I began in this hobby. The breakdown of the model is quite straightforward and is depicted admirably throughout the 164 pages of the manual. There really is nothing left to any doubt with the sheet number of photos suppled, showing the various steps from so many different angles. The photos are superbly clear and will guide a builder like as if virtually holding their hand. I have to say the method of planking the hull is certainly bizarre!

 

 

As this model comes with no plans, the instructions also come with a step-by-step to adding every single rigging lime on the model, and all off it is very, very clear. 

 

 

Conclusion
I do have a lot of affection for Artesania Latina. As I’ve said before, if it wasn’t for their San Francisco, I may never have made the step into this hobby. There is quite a different feel to the actual product now, but with most familiarities remaining. There has been an improvement of sorts in the overall quality of things, or that’s certainly the way it feels/appears to me. A big change has been the instructions and their format. I’m not sure about the price point for this kit. On one hand, it seems a little high, but then again, I suppose if you even that among the number of hours it’ll take to build, it’s still a relatively cheap hobby. Definitely a nice build for a beginner. 

 

My sincere thanks to Artesania Latina for supplying this kit for review on Model Ship World. I do think it’s nice to see their name back in the hobby after that short break. To purchase directly, click the link at the top of this article. 

 

…lastly:

 

Set of 10 x 1:65 Metal Figurines for Caravels and Galleons
Catalogue # 22411F
Available from Artesania Latina for €19,99

 

 

 

This is a set of white metal figures designed to be used with kits such as this, especially as Christopher Columbus himself makes a guest appearance in the line up! The figures are listed as:

 

• Christopher Columbus.
• Juan de la Cosa.
• Martín Alonso Pinzón.
• Vicente Yáñez Pinzón.
• Rodrigo de Triana.
• Sailors 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5

 

I have to presume a couple of the sailors are boys as they do seem to be smaller than the other protagonists. Metal casting is quite nice and these should paint up nicely with the prerequisite skills. Various poses are included so you can have men climbing up rig etc.

 

The figures are supplied in a slip box and held in a plastic tray within. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Moab]

James; thank you for the excellent review...Moab

[Kevin]

thanks James, i can see a few experienced builders redoing this, and bringing to an even higher level

[Artesania Latina]

Dear James,

Thank you for this excellent review!

[James H]

On 3/23/2022 at 7:58 AM, Artesania Latina said:

Dear James,

Thank you for this excellent review!

The Endeavour will be online within the next week too