Juan Sebastian Elcano / The Moshulu Build Log

[JacquesCousteau]

Personally I would go for painting it, but it's really up to you, the brass doesn't look bad on this as it's not intended to be a 100% accurate representation. But be aware that brass can be tricky to paint, a lot of paints don't stick to it well. Some people chemically blacken it, which also generates a rougher surface that's easier to paint. I personally don't really like blackening, as it requires a highly toxic solution and produces a toxic dust residue, but I do quite like the color produced by blackening. (It's also a much more efficient and permanent way of coloring chains, which otherwise are very tricky to paint). I use a miniature modeling primer spray that for whatever reason adheres fairly well to brass, after first washing the part in water with dish soap, vinegar, and rubbing alcohol (and avoiding touching it directly afterward) to remove any residues that may impede adhesion.

 

[Ignatius27]

JacquesCousteau - The figurehead for Esmeralda is actually pewter and I painted it with gold paint to achieve the brass effect. And I can easily paint over the gold paint, no problem. Given that I won't need to use toxic chemicals, would you still recommend staying with the brass color or should I go with semi-gloss black?

 

[JacquesCousteau]

I hadn't realized it was already painted. Up to you, then! Interestingly enough, the Chilean National Maritime Museum has the old figurehead of the Esmeralda on display.

 

[Ignatius27]

I hadn't realized it was already painted. Up to you, then! Interestingly enough, the Chilean National Maritime Museum has the old figurehead of the Esmeralda on display.
View attachment 593054

Here's the figurehead that came with the kit. The original material is pewter or maybe lead. I think I may just paint it semigloss black with yellow head and white cowl as in your Esmeralda picture and match it with black painted anchors. I think I'll also check the Chilean Maritime Museum site to see if they have any info on the current Esmeralda. Thanks!

 

[Ignatius27]

Some random thoughts about the Esmeralda build and the kit from Artesiana Latina. I'm on my way home from my trip, so hopefully will get to these ideas tomorrow.

I must say that, while I've learned alot building this kit, I don't think I will ever buy another kit from ArtesianaLatina. The lack of design drawings and rigging plans force the modeler to focus just on the (poorly done) videos and the picture of the completed model on the box top. I find this to be a real obstacle to fully enjoying this build. Nevertheless, I am savoring this build because I feel like I've learned some good fundamentals of rigging a sailing ship from this build.

After going back and forth with my new friend and SoS member Jacques Cousteau, I think I want to do a few things to make the build a bit more realistic. Yes, its a simple "Easy" kit, not very realistic obviously, but I have tried to make the deck furnishings a bit more interesting than the all-white plan of the real vessel. I used more cherry wood and maple stains and adding sea foam green for the stairways and red for the personal floatation devices.

I'm going to redo the bowsprit rigging, and change the line from gray thread to black thread. If you look at the pictures of the real Esmeralda, the rigging on the bowsprit is white, whereas on the A/L kit box the bowsprit rigging is black. For now I think I'll use a single line of black rope yarn after buying a thicker black rope at the hobby store. The black bowsprit rigging would match the standing rigging on the 4 masts.

The thicker rope looks better as the standing rigging, so I may also re-rig the 3 jibs and the foremast stay sail with the thicker black thread. I also got rope thread in various brown hues that I will use for all the running rigging on 14 out of 19 sails. The kit box top and videos show a camel colored yarn for the running rigging.

After JC showed me the real picture of the Esmeralda figurehead from the Chilean Maritime Museum, I decided to repaint the model figurehead, which is currently painted gold. I find it interesting that the picture of the Esmeralda underway also shows the black bird (I think its a Condor) with the white cowl and the yellow head. Plus, the real figurehead has the colors (blue and red) and the lone star of the Chilean flag.

The issue will be to remove the figurehead to repaint it while I am redoing the bowsprit rigging. FYI, the figurehead on the A/L kit box top is the smaller figurehead used by the J.S. de Elcano, which is a female figure, most likely Queen Isabella of Spain.

ASKING FOR ADVICE:

The figurehead is now glued to the ABS plastic hull with CA glue (Gorilla superglue gel). In the past, I have used acetone (nail polish remover) to unglue CA glued joints on previous wood builds (like my hull-only build of the HMS Victory hull). But does acetone work on ABS plastic? Does acetone interact (negatively) with plastic and CA glue? Also, would acetone affect the white and red paint scheme of the hull if it bleeds down the hull? Any advice for removing the figurehead for repainting would be welcome!