Amerigo Vespucci by Bill97 - OcCre - 1/100

[Bill97]

Well my AV building has been temporarily put on hold. Just temporarily. My grandson (10 years old) enjoys helping me build my ships when he is at my house. He asked me the other day if I would help him build one of his own. Of course. Absolutely!  What grandfather could say no to that. So picked up the Airfix Golden Hinde. We were in London recently we saw the replica. So we started it and will work on it from time to time when he is here. School starts next week so he will not be here real often. But when he is my AV will take a back seat to the Golden Hinde. He wants to go with a modified color scheme that a white hull and colorful top similar to other galleons we see pictures of. &nbsp
 

On a side note I now have all the hull lighting installed on my AV. 

[Bill97]

Little update on my lighting of the wheelhouse. Bit of a struggle getting the level of interior light I would like. The brightness is good but maybe too bright to be authentic using a 9v battery. However when I connect the wheelhouse to the OR ship circuit that is controlled by a voltage regulator set at 3.2 volts the wheelhouse interior is barely illuminated. I tried two 5mm warm white and now four 3mm white (shown in picture). Can’t turn the voltage regulator up much higher.  
Going to add additional furniture inside the wheelhouse and also working on next deck structure which will also require figuring out the lighting.

[Bill97]

Daniel what, if anything, can I do about getting the interior lighting brighter?  Did you have a problem with that. I am leaving the clear plastic off the windows. 

[DanielD]

14 minutes ago, Bill97 said:

Daniel what, if anything, can I do about getting the interior lighting brighter?  Did you have a problem with that. I am leaving the clear plastic off the windows. 

Hi Bill, I believe that I just put 2 warm LEDs in my bridge structure, more towards the middle of the ceiling which will allow the light to come from the center of the room. Typically bridge lighting is on the dark side to help with visual acuity while underway. I have it tied to the deck lighting circuit, and use the same warm LEDs as I have on the deck so the brightness is exactly the same as the deck lights. As for the windows, I too skipped the plastic sheet that came with the kit and instead used liquid glass, a product from Testors to fill the window space with an Elmer’s glue like substance that drys clear and thin, nice glass look.

[Bill97]

Thanks Daniel. I used warm white for my port hole lights and standard white, as in my pictures, for the deck lighting. I will give the standard white (5mm possibly) a try. Have to see if I can find the Testors liquid glass.

[Bill97]

Finishing up building the bridge and castle superstructures. They have interior lights that will come on with either of the port hole light circuits. 

[Bill97]

And so the first planking begins. Take my time to get the first row just right and it is smooth sailing after that. 

Edited August 19 by Bill97

[Bill97]

An update of sorts. Stepped away from planking this week to finalize my design for the base. The wiring inside the hull is complete and I have lead the connector that goes to the bus bars out through a hole in the bottom of the hull with a rubber flange that will press up tight to the planking once finished and painted. The connector will be hidden inside the base. The rough base will be covered with a nice wood veneer. The voltage regulators will also be hidden inside the base. The switches that will turn each circuit on or off will be along the bottom of the base with the Amerigo Vespucci name plate centered between two on each side. The power cord from the power block will plug into the back of the base. My plan is to just have the ship set in the base per chance I would need to lift it to access the voltage regulators. May use some type of removable pin to fasten the ship to the base. Not sure about that yet. 

[Bill97]

Continuing the first planking. Model setting in what will eventually be the finished base. I found during my build of the OcCre Endeavour the more patience and fine tuning I do with each of the first planks the better outcome I will get with the second planking. 

[Hubac's Historian]

Nice progress on your latest build, here, Bill!  I really like the herringbone decks - they look really cool.  Also, love the GH project with your grandson!

[Bill97]

Thanks Marc. That herringbone is a labor of love pattern. Have used it a number of times during home remodeling but first timer on a model ship deck!  I continue to debate with myself if I want to go back and put the impression of nails at both ends of each board. Might look more authentic for wood deck boards. Not sure if that would make it to busy or look even better.  Can’t really test it since there are no places that would not show if I did not like it. 

[Bill97]

First planking on port side complete. The push pins you see here and there are used to bow a plank in or out along its route to match the plank next to it creating a tighter and smoother first planking surface. This will hopefully cut down on the amount of sanding needed prior to the second planking. 

[Bill97]

First planking done and sanded smooth!  Ready to start the second planking as soon as I get in the mood 😊.  Also finishing up the base that the electronics will be housed in. Once I know for sure it is going to work I will post pictures. 

[Mike Dowling]

Nice job on the planking, well done.

[Bill97]

Finished the custom made base for my Amerigo Vespucci. I needed to design a base that would house all the electronics that will be used to light the model. There are four separate circuits running through the ship. So I have 4 voltage regulators, 2 bus bars, the connector that joins to two ends of the electrical system (one end coming out of the bottom of the hull and the matching end in the base. The power pack plugs into the back. I used the OcCre supplied base ends to obtain the needed shape for the bottom of the hull and joined them with planking then covered it with veneer. The bottom of the base I painted black and added accent line of the Italian flag. 

[Mike Dowling]

Very nicely done and a splendid idea.

[SiriusVoyager]

Very cool custom base to hide the electronics.  The Italian flag makes for great accent mark.

[DanielD]

Hey Bill, it’s my turn to borrow an idea from you! I’ve been thinking how I might do my base for over a year, love what you have done!

[Bill97]

Sure Daniel. I owe you a bunch. Any questions let me know. I just happened to have some old sheet veneer from back in my woodworking days that used to cover the “box” I made.  The base OcCre included was perfect to repurpose. I used the two end pieces that fit the shape of the hull and to gain some needed extra height I cut the 2 runners OcCre supplied and glued them to the bottom of the end pieces. That gave about another 1” in height. Prior to cutting the runners I put the stand together as OcCre designed and measured the distance between the ends so as to make my base the same length. Once I had that measurement I cut, glued, and nailed 1/4” strips of wood along both sides to make the shape. I used pieces of wood from simple wood tongue depressors joined at the middle to make them long enough. The veneer holds it all together. You can probably find sheets at a local wood craft store or cover your’s with anything you like. I further added triangles in the bottom corners to run screws through into the wood base. Cut out the places for the switches and wired it. One thing I did notice is that the hull bows out a little between the two ends. It is not a straight line. So that did require a little sanding and shaping. To accomplish that I added a 3/16” wood dial at the top on each side that I could shape. You can kind of see that in one or two of the pictures. You can also see the inside of the box to further understand what I did. Please feel free to ask anything Daniel. I am glad ti finally be able to help you. 
 

Thanks Mike and Eric. I appreciate your compliment. 
 

Bill