• Win a Free Custom Engraved Brass Coin!!!
    As a way to introduce our brass coins to the community, we will raffle off a free coin during the month of August. Follow link ABOVE for instructions for entering.
  • PRE-ORDER SHIPS IN SCALE TODAY!

    The beloved Ships in Scale Magazine is back and charting a new course for 2026!
    Discover new skills, new techniques, and new inspirations in every issue.

    NOTE THAT OUR FIRST ISSUE WILL BE JAN/FEB 2026

Santa Maria1:48 (Pavel Nikitin)

Four finished. Whoo Hoo. Just as much fun as tying ratlines.

I gave up trying to notch the bumpers. To difficult to notch them and get them to fit the profile of the hull. As other builders have mentioned. They don't fit the profile of the hull. Sanding is needed in places, shims in others. The 3rd from the stern needed quite a bit of sanding at the bottom and a shim in the middle.

I decided to cut the wales as it is much easier to cut the wale out of the way, then work on getting the bumper to fit the hull. Four down. Twenty to go...

I went ahead and transferred the locations of all the remaining bumpers from the ships plans.

1.jpg
 
Installed all the bumpers and chain plate board on the starboard side.

I found that cutting notches in the wales much easier to fit the bumpers to the hull profile. I did this for all the reminder of the bumpers.

I tried to hold the bumper in place aligned with the upper and lower marks I transfered from the kit drawings. Usually by hand as there aren't too many places to get a clamp.
1.jpg

Then I would mark all the wales on both sides of the bumper with an xacto blade. I used a lot of blades while cutting out the wale to keep a sharp edge for cuttings.
2.jpg

Then slowly chisle out the wale.
3.jpeg

Being able to lay the bumper against the hull made it easier to sand and/or shim. This was versus cutting a notch in the bumper. Then trying to determine if the notch in the bumper wasn't deep enough or was the bumper not fitting the hull porfile.

Quite a few bumpers were about 2mm away from the hull, in places. Usually the top of the bumper.
4.jpg

I trimmed the bottom of the bumpers to align with the groove of the hull plank.
5.jpg
 
Started on the port side. Like the starboard, bumper #12 (last bumper at the stern) needs to go on first as it's the only bumper that has a position it must fit into. It lays against the decorative piece at the stern. It can then be used as a reference moving forward.

And like the other side, it didn't fit well. The bottom fits fine, but the top is 4mm away from the hull.
1.jpg 2.jpg

And, like the other side, I soaked the bumper in water, then clamped it down and used a heat gun to dry it.
3.jpg

Once bent, it fit great... Now for the other 11 bumpers...
4.jpg
 
Last edited:
Finally finished the bumpers.

Some of them were not even close. This is #10.
1.jpeg

I finally thought to get one of my crown and base molding conture gauges out. molding guage. This really helped to fit the bumpers. Wish I had thought if it at the beginning.

I sort of soaked it, clamped it much straighter, heated it with a heat gun, allowed it to dry. Then added a piece of wood and used the conture gauge to sand it to fit the hull.
2.jpg

Cutting away the wales really helped gettting each bumper to fit. They all requier some work to fit.
3.jpg
 
Started on the inside. There's a log of small pieces to put in.

This piece goes at the base of the main mast. GUESS WHAT!! Went to get a mast to use to glue the little pieces together to make the cylinder AND I DIDN'T GET ANY MASTS!!. The parts list doesn't list the masts. Not that I could find anyway. If anyone has a list of the mast pieces, could you please post here? Good thing I have some dowels in the drawer. So I measured the main mast from the drawing, found a walnut dowel the same diameter and made the cylinder by gluing the pieces around the mast.
1.jpg2.jpg3.jpg

HA!! Now that I see the drawings again, I see there is a band around the cylinder. It's not glued in place yet as need to fit the position of the mast later. I'll have to correct this.

Next to the main mast there is a hitching rail for the ropes coming down from the mast. Per the drawings there are 8 ropes coming down. The ropes are tied to the rail without any (can't remember the name of the pins on a rail that you tie ropes off to). I wanted the pins so I made my own posts and rail. The posts in the kit are pieces of wood glued together. I used some left over 6mm stock I had cut for the the bow pieces.
4.jpg5.jpg6.jpg7.jpeg

I use pins in the bottom fo the posts to hold them in place. The pieces at the base of the mast aren't glued in yet.
8.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top