Columbus ships, Santa Maria and Pinta, kit by Amati... [COMPLETED BUILD]

OK, so let open Pinta....

Exiting moment; just wondering should we not be that exited when opening a kit box, or is it just me? Aging? Anyhow...

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Nice set of instructions, we'll how are they once i start following..

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Flags, parts, ..

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The wood appears to be of nice quality, no wrinkled/crooked parts so far..

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The ship boat will definitely be replaced with a scratch build one, as well as guns' carriage..

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Quick check shows not obvious sighs on twisted plywood.. maybe a bit on the end...

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Will check it later...

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Now it is time to mark the parts and cut from the frame...

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Next will be dry fitting and thinking of a place to run cables for lights...

Happy modelling..
 
If you need more sources try this:

Die Schiffe des Christoforo Colombo 1492. Santa Maria - Nina - Pinta. Planedition nach historischen Unterlagen rekonstriert und gezeichnet von Wolfram zu Mondfeld, Peter Holz und Johannes Soyener.​

The ships of Christoforo Colombo 1492. Santa Maria - Nina - Pinta. Plan edition reconstructed and drawn from historical documents by Wolfram zu Mondfeld, Peter Holz and Johannes Soyener.

Regards, Christian
 
Gebirgsmarine said:
If you need more sources try this:

Die Schiffe des Christoforo Colombo 1492. Santa Maria - Nina - Pinta. Planedition nach historischen Unterlagen rekonstriert und gezeichnet von Wolfram zu Mondfeld, Peter Holz und Johannes Soyener.​

The ships of Christoforo Colombo 1492. Santa Maria - Nina - Pinta. Plan edition reconstructed and drawn from historical documents by Wolfram zu Mondfeld, Peter Holz and Johannes Soyener.

Regards, Christian
Click to expand...
Thank you, Christian.
 
With no intention whatsoever to present a correct way to build a lifeboat from scratch, here is several steps i have performed when building two lifeboat for my Santa Maria and Pinta, replacing kit provided boats. This method is combo of my personal steps and steps from some other forums. Feel free to use this and ad your own touches..

First, follow the shape of the boat that will be replaced, or plug. If there is no such a boat available, get your self a blueprint of the lifeboat so you can transfer it to the wood.

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I used scroll saw to cut the rough shape..

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Here are templates i will use to check the shape while carving. Templates are taken from the kit boat, but first i marked 8 lines on the boat that will be serving as a place where the template was taken.

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Then just start carving with your favourite carving tools. The wood i used was construction grade fir.

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Testing..

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Mark those places where you will be checking the shape of the carving, in my case, 8 templates..

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The carving wood is way bigger than needed; the reason is to have some extra wood to glue the ribs. The idea is to have ribs that are longer than needed, and to glue them below the boat (above the boat' rail) so you can reuse the carving block for more that one boat..

The plug is completed.

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The ribs are cut 2mm wide, and about 10cm long, longer that needed. Little water soaking for easy twisting...

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Just a few minutes are enough. Then the fun part starts. Glue one end of the rib with, i used CA glue but any glue is OK; CA just dries quickly, stretch it along the marked line and glue opposite end.

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A little helper keeping the glue at the top...

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The ribs will be shaped a bit to get rid of those sharp ends, like on top of the rib #1.

Then the planking starts. I must warn you that i have broke almost each and every planking rule doing these boats.. but the end result is what counts..

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Then sanding takes place...

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Keel is added after, but if you want you can add the keel before planks... Keel is build from 2x2mm plank and shaped/sanded afterwards..

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Now, we need to remove the shell. Cut the rib leaving some length that will be trimmed later.. and slowly remove the shell from the plug. During planking there will be time that glue was pass onto the plug so you have to be careful removing the shell. I used several types of knives and other sharp tools to remove ribs from the plug.. Just take your time...

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The plug with extra rib lengths..

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Now the rib is cleaned from the extra wood and ready for the next boat..

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Now you can continue building the boat in the way you like it..

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Building the footings..

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Other parts are also added so here is the complete product.

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I put the layer of dark oak stain on it...

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Comparing with the kit provided, by boat is slightly bigger.. but this will not make a much of a difference..

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And that's, i will also add some ropes, few rows, etc... Feel free to use this post, add, remove, subtract, multiple by 4 in order to make it useful for you..

As usually, happy modelling..
 
The second boat is completed and taken off the plug. Next, few more detail on it..

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This time the boat was done much quicker and cleaner than the first one. The beauty of repetition..

Even dough these two models are relatively smaller scale, i have decided to add some lights, to test the process and end results. There were no much area to add lights so i decided to put some planks in the areas that will be visible, hardly but somehow visible. One area is right behind the windows and second is where the gratings will be installed.

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Need to hide the cables, so i made few "groves" in 4mmx6mm dimension.

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The visible area received a light coat of golden oak stain and groves are also installed.

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Then lights are put in..

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The idea is to have power for lights outside of the ship, the cables will go thru future pedestal and connected to the battery that will be sitting hidden, somewhere on the wooden base.

And testing...

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The led pair on the right are flickering lights, imitating candle and the pair on the left are solid lights. Both are yellow in color. The lens are 3mm, clear, round, voltage range 9-12V.

Happy modelling..
 
The work on the ship boats continues... The second one is almost completed. There are some improvements i am planning to do as well..

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Instead of using balsa or other wood types, i decided to test the insulation...

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So far it is working just fine, sanding is very easy and can be glued with just carpenters' glue no problem... For this amount of work, i have used very small part of one XPS insulation, 60cmx60cm sheet..
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Happy modelling..
 
Continuing work on ship boats; without some decent historically backed up facts about boats used during SM voyage, i have decided to do some combo, using venetian type boat from XVI century and some common types from some other, close to the XV century period types, kind of below.

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First, i put a layer of base coat on a completed boat.. did not like the way how golden oak stained the wood, i put a layer of dark brown color which will be weathered a bit later in the process..

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Added a gunwale...

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... then made a stern bench...

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First attempt that was replaced with the bench, constructed as above...

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Then on the boat that will be sitting on Santa Maria' deck, i painted a golden line, in free form, and put a masking tape in the golden line desired width. The rest of the space around the masking tape was repainted with brown color, leaving just a nice, golden line...

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Then i started to do some work on Santa Maria (SM). The keel is slightly curved so need to be corrected.

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The frames are not fitting well...

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The keel was watered and placed under some heavy books in attempt to make it straight. Will come back later with results...

Back on Pinta... Continue with other parts...

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While waiting for SM keel to dry (and hopefully get arrow-straight), a bit of first planking layer was done on Pinta...


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Happy modelling..
 
I have a feeling, you are really enjoining your scratch project, and this is how it should be. It is a joy and proudness at the same time (Two in one ;)).
 
Working on the first planking layer, must admin one of the worst planking job ever... Thank God for a second layer... ;)

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The piece of scotch tape was added on the bulkheads; it should be assisting with frame top removal once planking is done so i don't ruin the planks...

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Planking completed and ready for wood filler and sanding...

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Work on Santa Maria continues as well.... all frames are glued after the keel curvature was corrected. The pieces of wood between bulkheads are there to keep the keel straight and to assist with laying down planks. Will be adding them between all keels.. The holes for future lighting cables are also drilled before bulkheads are mounted. With a bit more planning ahead it is easier that way..

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Comparing two ships...

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Happy modelling..
 
Making sure lights are still lighting after all those planking tasks...

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Extra planking will be trimmed; i am planning to cover the keel with a veneer since i dont like the look of the plain plywood. This layer of veneer, raised a bit from the first planking layer, will also provide a "grove" for the second planking layer so the final planking should be finishing neatly and flush with the keel... At least that is my plan...

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The wood filler was applied and sanded..

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A little bit more sanding is needed, especially from the port side but pretty much ready for second planking layer...

Happy modelling..
 
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