Amerigo Vespucci 1931 by schiffebastler - Mantua - scale 1:84 - Italian sail training ship build

[Kevin]

lovely work - its still hard to believe i have this in the partial build state, but have lost in the will to continue with her

[schiffebastler]

Thanks a lot Brian and Kevin!

 

Kevin, I can understand you, that you have lost the will to continue with the kit. I also had this phase. Therefore, in-between I built a smaller kit (the Robert-E-Lee), which was much easier and I build it out of the box, without any research to the ship. But this gave me the motivation to continue with the Amerigo.

 

Brian, you are right, this is one of the most detailed kits on the market, but it is still not detailed enough (I think no kit can be this). 

During the build, step by step the intention is, to improve the kit in order to become get a more realistic model. So, for example, I had to built all the boats individually, I could not (or would not) take the simple ones from the kit. 

The next improvement will be the rigging, the included plans are not sufficient and partly wrong. So, with help of a few people (e.g. @fabius.b from the forum here), I will come to the right plans.

 

Regards, Joachim

[gjdale]

Nice work on the boats Joachim. Hope you have a nice holiday.

[schiffebastler]

Thank you very much, Grant!

 

Regards, Joachim

[schiffebastler]

Hello everybody,

 

the last post has been long, long time ago.... but it is going on now. Perhaps, somebody will find the way again to the Amerigo...

Now the last things, which have been made.

 

First of all the boatclamps. Again they are build according to pictures from the ship. They have to be fixed on the frames on deck. And then the boats test their clamps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bye, Joachim

[schiffebastler]

After the boats had tested the clamps, the had to be removed again, because there have to be build individual lashings. They are build of metal strips and fixed on top of the boats. The lashings are tightened with clamping screws. The parts are really small, e.g the metal strips are 1.2mm wide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bye, Joachim

[schiffebastler]

and now again some lashings for the open boats, which are build very similar to the others but contains chains and are also tightened together with chaines.

All of the lashings have not been within the kit and had to be designed according to pictures of the ship.

 

 

First a picture which shows the size of the parts.

 

 

 

and now the lashings for the open boats

 

 

 

 

 

Bye, Joachim

 

 

 

[schiffebastler]

And now the last update for today.

 

These are the last parts before finally starting with the rig. 

On each front side of the ship there is fixed one spare (sorry, don't know the right english word ...). These are fixed with a head fitting and can swing outside. They are used to attach the boats whenever the ship lays on road and the boats have been launched. 

In this case a handrail is fixed on top of the spare and the ladders are fixed. Then it is possible to go into the boats via the leashes or the ladders. You can see this on this picture.

Also this video shows, how it is used (after 40seconds video).

 

But the spares are also used in order to fix the studding sails, which you can see on this picture.

 

 

Now, how I made these parts.

 

 

 

 

Fixed on the ship

 

 

 

here you can see the head fitting

 

 

 

on the back the spare is fixed at the side of the ship with a special fitting, which can be opened.

 

 

 

And again a picture of the whole spare

 

 

 

 

Bye, Joachim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[WackoWolf]

WOW. The extra detail work has pay off big time. You have done an excellent job with the fine detail work. Love it. Keep the pictures coming.

[schiffebastler]

Thank you very much Wacko!

Will continue soon, but actually the Amerigo is displayed on a German model ship fair. Next week I will come back and continue.

 

Bye, Joachim

[md1400cs]

Joachim,

 

So nice to see an update on your build. Wacko is SO correct. The amount of superlative extra details, at every step of your build, that you are incorporating is so beautiful to see. Your quality of work is superlative. Your ship is already certainly light years ahead of the basic kit. Whoa Nice, very nice indeed. 

 

Regards,

 

Michael

[schiffebastler]

You are so kind Michael, thank you very much for your compliments! 

 

Bye, Joachim

[WackoWolf]

Your metal work is outstanding, and the detail sets things to a new high. I would like to see more as to how you made the extra detail as you go along. This is up to you, I don't want you to take away time from your build. Please keep the pictures and the post coming.

[schiffebastler]

Hi Wacko,

 

thank you for your interest. And of course I like to show you some details.

 

On the enclosed pictures you can see some spare parts, on the left the basic parts of the lashings and on the right some of the basic parts of the fittings for the spares.

I used brass plates with a thickness of 0.1mm and cut strips of it with a width of 1 to 1.2 mm, depending on the needs.

The clamping screws I build of small brass tubes with an outher diameter of 1mm and an inner diameter of 0.5mm. After cutting parts with a length between 5 and 8 mm (depending on the type), I could easyly press the end of the parts, hone down it and drill a hole (0.5 mm) in it. The connection of the parts of the clamping screws is build with 0.5 mm wire. The connection of the parts is done with rings of 0.3 mm wire, wich I had to build.

Similar material is used for the fittings of the spares. The connection is build of small rings which have been honed a bit and connected with small parts of nails.  

 

 

 

 

 

Hope, my description is not too confusing and my english is not too bad, but unfortunately I made no photo while assembling the parts.

 

 

 

Bye, Joachim

[WackoWolf]

Your English is right on. I understood it perfect. Thank you very much for doing this. Your work is top of the line.

[gjdale]

And now the last update for today.

 

These are the last parts before finally starting with the rig. 

On each front side of the ship there is fixed one spare (sorry, don't know the right english word ...). These are fixed with a head fitting and can swing outside. They are used to attach the boats whenever the ship lays on road and the boats have been launched. 

In this case a handrail is fixed on top of the spare and the ladders are fixed. Then it is possible to go into the boats via the leashes or the ladders.

 

Joachim,

 

These spars are simply called "boat booms". On arrival at the anchorage, the order would be given, "Out boats, booms, and ladders", meaning the boat booms and ladders would be rigged and the boats launched.

 

Lovely work, by the way.

[WackoWolf]

Now Thanks to Grant I have learn something new. Thank you never knew they were call that.

[schiffebastler]

Many thanks Grant! So, step by step I will always learn a bit more .

 

Bye Joachim

[dafi]

As I realised yesterday by seeing the AV on the exhibition, you did not step forward, neither did a leap, that was a jump!

 

Congratulation, well done Daniel

[schiffebastler]

Hello everybody,

 

now a continuation of the Amerigo. The last few weeks I made some tests concerning rigging and I finalised the calculation of thickness of the ropes. For doing this, I based on the lists and calculation rules from Wolfram zu Mondfeld within his book "Historische Schiffsmodelle".

 

First of all I build a rope walk for producing own rops according to the needs.

 

 

Here you can see the rope walk, fixed on a shelf.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And as you can see, the fist results are ready for waste...

 

 

 

At the end I succeeded with some examples of the major type of

ropes, needed for the Amerigo.

 

 

 

Bye, Joachim

[schiffebastler]

And now, the next preparations, a jig to serving ropes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Due to the fact, that the Americo Vespucci contains steel shrouds I need a jig to serving these ropes. I took the plans from Jürgen Nicklis, but enlarged it a bit. It can be used manually or by adapting a drill machine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here you can see some examples. In the middle the basic rope which was build of three strands. It has a diameter or 0,8 mm. The upper rope was produced by using a drill machine, the handling is not easy and the result is not good enough. The lower rope is build with manual usage of this jig. It is much better to control and it looks better. But still it needs some practice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bye, Joachim

 

Edited July 31, 2017 by schiffebastler

[schiffebastler]

 

 

 

At least a flexible holder for yards. Within this holder the yards with different length and thickness can be fixed. The it is easier to fix all the different small part, where always an additional hand is missed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I wish you all a happy new year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bye Joachim

 

 

Edited July 31, 2017 by schiffebastler
lost pictures

[RGL]

Such a detailed ship, the amount of work is mind boggling. Well done

[schiffebastler]

Thank you very much, Greg!

Bye Joachim

[md1400cs]

Joachim,

 

Nice to see you back at "work" in your shipyard...you are doing nice work with the ropes. Having a ropewalk is so helpful. The kit supplied ropes are usually inadequate, especially on a ship such as yours where so much attention to details are everywhere. 

 

Michael

[schiffebastler]

Thank you Michael, it is really necessary to produce own ropes. The kit contains only 2 types of ropes, a black and a brown one...

For the Amerigo I need about 10-12 different types and those I cannot bye with the necessary size and quality.

 

As mentioned before, I could not use any rigging plan of the kit, the reality is quite different from these. So it took lots of weeks, and still will take weeks to achieve good and correct plans of the rigging.

 

Now I start with the bowsprit. So far it is still a very rough shell. One of the unimpressive parts are the thimbles where I need hundresds of different sizes. How you can see on the picture, I use brass tubes in different sizes from 1 to 3 mm diameter. With two drill machines I sand a small groove in it and cut it. On the picture you can see the biggest ones.

 

 

 

The bowsprit contains of 3 spares, the biggest two on iron and the last one on wood. There are different reels which have to be put into the spares. Theese have a diameter of 1,2mm.

 

 

 

Beside of theese there also needed a lot of metal parts in order to connect the parts of the bowsprit together and fix ropes on it. But as you can see, all parts are not ready so far.

 

 

 

And now, to get a first impression of it ....

 

 

 

Bye, Joachim

 

 

 

 

 

[schiffebastler]

Now, a small continuation. The martingale boom usually is not spectacular but it still took me some time with all the small parts.

 

On the first picture you can see some of the parts, e.g. the 4 reels with an width of 0,4 mm. On the top there is a metal part to connect the boom to the bowsprit. The parts are soldered together.

 

 

 

Below there is a golden part at the end of the boom. I produced this from a small part of brass and painted it with golden colour.

 

 

 

Here you can see the final boom with all parts, also some metal part which contains eyelets where chains are connected later.

 

 

 

 

 

So far today,

Bye Joachim

 

[laps]

Hi Joachim,

I'm quite amazed about the amount of work you put into your AV. I'm very much looking forward to how you tackle your rigging. I only follow the instructions which leave a lot to be decided. Perhaps I should slow down and wait for you to catch up so I can get hints from your log

 

Keep up the good work and do not wait too long with an update.

 

/Lars Peter

[schiffebastler]

Hi Lars, 

thank you very much for your interest. I'll try to proceed quickly with the next steps (hope I succeed ).

 

Regards Joachim

[md1400cs]

Thank you Michael, it is really necessary to produce own ropes. The kit contains only 2 types of ropes, a black and a brown one...

For the Amerigo I need about 10-12 different types and those I cannot bye with the necessary size and quality.

 

As mentioned before, I could not use any rigging plan of the kit, the reality is quite different from these. So it took lots of weeks, and still will take weeks to achieve good and correct plans of the rigging.

 

Now I start with the bowsprit. So far it is still a very rough shell. One of the unimpressive parts are the thimbles where I need hundresds of different sizes. How you can see on the picture, I use brass tubes in different sizes from 1 to 3 mm diameter. With two drill machines I sand a small groove in it and cut it. On the picture you can see the biggest ones.

 

Bild002.jpg

 

 

The bowsprit contains of 3 spares, the biggest two on iron and the last one on wood. There are different reels which have to be put into the spares. Theese have a diameter of 1,2mm.

 

Bild003.jpg

 

 

Beside of theese there also needed a lot of metal parts in order to connect the parts of the bowsprit together and fix ropes on it. But as you can see, all parts are not ready so far.

 

Bild004.jpg

 

 

And now, to get a first impression of it ....

 

Bild005.jpg

 

 

Bye, Joachim

Joachim,

 

Your idea on how to make pulleys is Brilliant !! I will try this as well. I purchased some brass rods today. What a great idea (:-) Thanks for sharing

 

Michael