- Joined
- Nov 6, 2022
- Messages
- 211
- Points
- 113
can you imagine what they saw? I would have loved that time to cast my fishing rod into an unknown ocean. Can you imagine the possibilities!
Columbus ships, Santa Maria and Pinta, kit by Amati... [COMPLETED BUILD]
- Thread starter moreplovac
- Start date
- Watchers 35
Yes, AL and Amati have different plans for their kit so having not quite accurate historic plans (as far as I was able to locate) opens fairly wide door for any kind of modification as long as they match the era...
I also don't have much of a work shop; it is actually my work office space since I work from home last several years. Same room, office on one desk and build yard on another desk; just turning the chair around and I am in the relaxing, ship building mode. I do have some machinery but those are bought when I have to do some project around the house so I squeeze in extras by looking for project material deals or collecting recyclable water bottles in my household during the year that can be converted into, for example Proxxon lathe...
Crowded shipyard...
Storage for completed models until I build the shelving and protective covers..
Happy modelling..
I also don't have much of a work shop; it is actually my work office space since I work from home last several years. Same room, office on one desk and build yard on another desk; just turning the chair around and I am in the relaxing, ship building mode. I do have some machinery but those are bought when I have to do some project around the house so I squeeze in extras by looking for project material deals or collecting recyclable water bottles in my household during the year that can be converted into, for example Proxxon lathe...
Crowded shipyard...
Storage for completed models until I build the shelving and protective covers..
Happy modelling..
Last edited:
It would be awesome to travel in time.... as a scuba diver I would dive into those water... if I can survive not being marked as a witch with all scuba gear..
I installed a layer of veneer on the keel to cover all damages inquired while working on the hull.. and I did not like the way the keel made of plywood looks..
After drying, sanding and scraping.. and waiting for a layer of golden oak stain and tung oil..
I also working on gun rigging (breeching) even dough it is not in the plan; gluing guns to the deck without any support does not look right to me. So searched a bit for available ways, I notice one plan that has somewhat acceptable breeching plan.
Not sure if breeching is correct term since I don't see the way the guns will retract back while firing, without any wheels on them...
So, here is my way, first I made some hooks and paint them in matt black, no blackening this time.. These will be attached to the rings already inserted in the bulwarks.
And the gun side..
Work on these tiny items (blocks are 2mm), will not be possible without helping hands.. or longer nails..
Happy modelling..
After drying, sanding and scraping.. and waiting for a layer of golden oak stain and tung oil..
I also working on gun rigging (breeching) even dough it is not in the plan; gluing guns to the deck without any support does not look right to me. So searched a bit for available ways, I notice one plan that has somewhat acceptable breeching plan.
Not sure if breeching is correct term since I don't see the way the guns will retract back while firing, without any wheels on them...
So, here is my way, first I made some hooks and paint them in matt black, no blackening this time.. These will be attached to the rings already inserted in the bulwarks.
And the gun side..
Work on these tiny items (blocks are 2mm), will not be possible without helping hands.. or longer nails..
Happy modelling..
Continue with guns...
Not sure if during those times sailors were worried about rope tidiness..
Happy modelling..
Not sure if during those times sailors were worried about rope tidiness..
Happy modelling..
Question; you comment above "collecting recyclable water bottles in my household during the year that can be converted into, for example Proxxon lathe..." you make a lathe from recyclable water bottles.? would you mind sharing the process? cheers. Also nice work on the SM.
Thank you.
Unfortunately, there is no way to convert plastic bottles to the usable lathe. I am collecting used water bottles in my household, get them to the recycle depot and get some money. After few months, I cash it out to something more usable like lathe. The math is simple, appr 25 dollars per month, times 6 gives enough to buy some tools.. Since I am working from home, I also included money for a coffee I was buying on daily basis while was going to the office. This gives me a bit more resources at the end of the year. And with Black Fridays or other sales event it is good time of the year to spend this "hard earned" financial sources.
Cheers
Ahuh! pocket money thrifty. That makes a lot of sense - Thank you for the explanation, cheers.
Continue with carriage gun rigging.... by adding a breech line on the carriage with no wheels... tackle lines were stretched after the small amount of white glue was applied on the lines, close to the blocks. This supposed to simulate a stretched rope and keep it like that. Small load was added to the end of both tackle lines for few hours. The extra tackle lines was cut and used to make a coiled tackle falls..
The tackle lines were first glued to the deck in as natural falling way possible; excess rope was cut and coiled tackle was added on the end. On the left hand side the excess rope is visible, after taking this picture it was corrected so it is not visible anymore by moving the coiled rope aside a bit to hide it.
Single block for tackle rope had to be adjusted to accommodate 3mm rope size by widening the strop diameter.
Blocks attached and ready for guns..
This is my way of making a rope coil.... two plastic parts (I used two dividers that comes with those plastic organizers), black duck tape to hold one end.. the rope was put thru small hole, then the second plastic cover was placed on and the nail was put in the hole. The hole diameter must match the nail.
Then I start pulling the rope around the nail making sure to keep those two plastic parts tight tighter otherwise the line will cross over already twisted area.
During the process, approximately at the half, I put a bit of a white glue to the line by sliding two fingers with the glue over the line, which helps keeping coil, well coiled...
Then the white glue is applied to the bottom of a coil, extra rope is cut and glued to the deck. I tried not to be to neat with coil ropes..
All guns completed..
Next is the upper deck..
Happy modelling..
The tackle lines were first glued to the deck in as natural falling way possible; excess rope was cut and coiled tackle was added on the end. On the left hand side the excess rope is visible, after taking this picture it was corrected so it is not visible anymore by moving the coiled rope aside a bit to hide it.
Single block for tackle rope had to be adjusted to accommodate 3mm rope size by widening the strop diameter.
Blocks attached and ready for guns..
This is my way of making a rope coil.... two plastic parts (I used two dividers that comes with those plastic organizers), black duck tape to hold one end.. the rope was put thru small hole, then the second plastic cover was placed on and the nail was put in the hole. The hole diameter must match the nail.
Then I start pulling the rope around the nail making sure to keep those two plastic parts tight tighter otherwise the line will cross over already twisted area.
During the process, approximately at the half, I put a bit of a white glue to the line by sliding two fingers with the glue over the line, which helps keeping coil, well coiled...
Then the white glue is applied to the bottom of a coil, extra rope is cut and glued to the deck. I tried not to be to neat with coil ropes..
All guns completed..
Next is the upper deck..
Happy modelling..
One layer of tung oil was applied to the rest of the beams that were put back in place, after gun carriages that will be residing under the deck are rigged.
Not sure about you, but if I have to put just a small amount of oil or paint, I usually use a piece of shop bounty, disposable, so I don't have to clean the brush afterwards..
Beams covered with tung oil..
While beams are drying, I opened holes for anchor ropes. It is always a delicate moment when you need to "ruin" the hull..
"I see the light"...
Widening the holes..
Reinforcement for upper deck was made out of 3x5mm wood. Using French curve, made two templates and carved/sanded them to correct thickness..
They will be mounted after upper deck is done. Now it is time to install upper deck..
Beams are filled with carpenter glue and several small amounts of CA, at the ends of beams and in the middle, just to grab the deck quickly until I put all rubber bands in place. Now, drying process...
Happy modelling...
Not sure about you, but if I have to put just a small amount of oil or paint, I usually use a piece of shop bounty, disposable, so I don't have to clean the brush afterwards..
Beams covered with tung oil..
While beams are drying, I opened holes for anchor ropes. It is always a delicate moment when you need to "ruin" the hull..
"I see the light"...
Widening the holes..
Reinforcement for upper deck was made out of 3x5mm wood. Using French curve, made two templates and carved/sanded them to correct thickness..
They will be mounted after upper deck is done. Now it is time to install upper deck..
Beams are filled with carpenter glue and several small amounts of CA, at the ends of beams and in the middle, just to grab the deck quickly until I put all rubber bands in place. Now, drying process...
Happy modelling...
I have build the quarter deck (story for misused the term upper deck) some time ago; during time deck was waiting to be installed, it warped slightly what I noticed after removing all rubber bands. '
Now it has to be replaced because it was not resting to beams on few touchpoint correctly.
Well, deck and beams were removed, beams cleaned from the old glue, oiled with tung oil and put back in place, on the ship. Quarter deck was rebuild out of some spare wood and new set of planks I borrowed from another Amati' kit. Need to return it, like "IOY" in Dumb and Dumber movie...
New deck on the ship, now I will not build it out of the ship..
Planking starts..
Planking completed.
I also marked the plank length and fake connection between them them with small tool I made out of old scalpel, slightly pressing on planks.
Marking the opening that has to be cut...
The opening was cut with scalpel #11.
The I decided to recycle old deck planking.. Planks were originally glued to the paper shaped as a quarter deck, following kit plans. Paper with planking was glued to kit provided board and and glued to the ship. With nice amount of acetone, I was able to remove the whole planking.
Old deck planking will be used to make a new captain' area, out of balsa wood, instead of using kit provided plywood, which was very tick and did not match the new quarter deck dimensions. New deck is slightly wider than the original.
What kind of captain's cabin will be without the cross..
Properly coloured with acrylic gold color...
Happy modelling...
Now it has to be replaced because it was not resting to beams on few touchpoint correctly.
Well, deck and beams were removed, beams cleaned from the old glue, oiled with tung oil and put back in place, on the ship. Quarter deck was rebuild out of some spare wood and new set of planks I borrowed from another Amati' kit. Need to return it, like "IOY" in Dumb and Dumber movie...
New deck on the ship, now I will not build it out of the ship..
Planking starts..
Planking completed.
I also marked the plank length and fake connection between them them with small tool I made out of old scalpel, slightly pressing on planks.
Marking the opening that has to be cut...
The opening was cut with scalpel #11.
The I decided to recycle old deck planking.. Planks were originally glued to the paper shaped as a quarter deck, following kit plans. Paper with planking was glued to kit provided board and and glued to the ship. With nice amount of acetone, I was able to remove the whole planking.
Old deck planking will be used to make a new captain' area, out of balsa wood, instead of using kit provided plywood, which was very tick and did not match the new quarter deck dimensions. New deck is slightly wider than the original.
What kind of captain's cabin will be without the cross..
Properly coloured with acrylic gold color...
Happy modelling...
Interesting, I've also cut a cross for the cabin although none is shown in my Columbus book -
Last edited:
I like your coil idea !
Yes, I had to adjust a fitting a bit. Not sure if it is my mistake or...
Thanks, had to find some way to organize those loose ends, even dough this is mostly used during ship inspection, at the sea and in the fight, don't think anyone was thinking about neatness...
Cheers
Wrapping up work on the cabin by adding the "moulding"...
Gold painted cross was placed on the wall in Christoforo's cabin. I don't think this whole space was used for captain cabin in the real life..
Since I planned to run two led lights in his cabin, needed to find the way to hide the cables..
Led lights are mounted, soldered to the power and tested.. Always fear that some lines will be cut and no light... but not this time..
Few days ago I received a portable soldering iron, and decided to test it. And I do like it; it has USB connection so it can be programmed with computer (like default temperature), perform software updates, regular 110V power plug, extra iron tip, etc...
It is really light, heats up and cool down very quickly, for a quick work like today perfect tool.. but still like my Weller for longer soldering work..
Happy modelling..
Gold painted cross was placed on the wall in Christoforo's cabin. I don't think this whole space was used for captain cabin in the real life..
Since I planned to run two led lights in his cabin, needed to find the way to hide the cables..
Led lights are mounted, soldered to the power and tested.. Always fear that some lines will be cut and no light... but not this time..
Few days ago I received a portable soldering iron, and decided to test it. And I do like it; it has USB connection so it can be programmed with computer (like default temperature), perform software updates, regular 110V power plug, extra iron tip, etc...
It is really light, heats up and cool down very quickly, for a quick work like today perfect tool.. but still like my Weller for longer soldering work..
Happy modelling..
Work on the deck continues by glueing pre-made deck side. Two layers of planking creates this part of a ship, bulwarks will come later.
While this is drying, I researched some furniture for Columbo' cabin. Started with a simple table...
... which I did not like and find out some plans for medieval furniture I think will fit nicely in this model.
Testing the hight of the table...
Then I completed one chair. Very tiny stuff... table dimensions: 15mm (H) x 15mm (W) x 34mm (L), chair 17mm (H) x 7mm (sitting part hight) x 7mm (W)...
After completing one chair, overall bulkiness of table' legs and foundation showed up so I decided to lower the leg hight and to cut the leg foundation in half, which provided a bit more dimensional balance between chair and table.
Second chair was made as well; table has leg foundation cut in half and legs were cut for approximately 3mm in hight.
Bringing important figure to the picture...
Since Portugal left World Cup earlier, guessing signore Christoforo might be a bit upset so need to speed up ship building...
A layer of golden oak stain was applied to furniture ...
And ready for assembly..
Happy modelling..
While this is drying, I researched some furniture for Columbo' cabin. Started with a simple table...
... which I did not like and find out some plans for medieval furniture I think will fit nicely in this model.
Testing the hight of the table...
Then I completed one chair. Very tiny stuff... table dimensions: 15mm (H) x 15mm (W) x 34mm (L), chair 17mm (H) x 7mm (sitting part hight) x 7mm (W)...
After completing one chair, overall bulkiness of table' legs and foundation showed up so I decided to lower the leg hight and to cut the leg foundation in half, which provided a bit more dimensional balance between chair and table.
Second chair was made as well; table has leg foundation cut in half and legs were cut for approximately 3mm in hight.
Bringing important figure to the picture...
Since Portugal left World Cup earlier, guessing signore Christoforo might be a bit upset so need to speed up ship building...
A layer of golden oak stain was applied to furniture ...
And ready for assembly..
Happy modelling..
That is just so enviably awesome with a capital "A"
