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

[moreplovac]

Nothing fancy is happening, today i was working on Santa Maria first planking layer....



Lots of glue, sanding, cutting, fitting...

Want to share one very useful tool one of our member was kind to share (thanks lakedaisy) which allows to run very precise line of carpenter' glue. I was always struggling with keeping the glue line tiny enough and not drying after not being used for a day or two, using different syringes. This bottle is perfect for dispensing the same amount of glue every time.. Particularly useful for planking work...







Happy modelling..

 

[moreplovac]

On Santa Maria, i am adding a bit of extra balsa wood to the top of the frames just to make sure the frames are shaped correctly for smooth planking..





Not sure about you guys, but since my models most likely will not ended up in some museum exhibition, i always have a good and bad side of the model. Bad does not mean it is extremely ugly that no one will even wanted to check it out, just there are always room for improvement and if technique i am using on port side might be improved on starboard side... On that note, i started to work on a wales on port side. This wood is fairly thick and hard to keep in the shape and mounted on the model. I soaked the wale for a few hours, start putting it on using the brass nail to assist, in addition to glue.
The holes made by nails will be filled with either other type of a wood (to simulate the trenails) or wood putty. Will see... Not sure if this is historically correct but it will look nicer on the model...







The challenge is to keep the top of the wale (at the bow) attached to the ship. For this i used small clamp and hopefully not damaging inner planking, able to finish it up.





For the starboard side, i actually shaped the wale, after soaking it in the water for a night. This was not intentionally, just forgot to take it out of the water.
The mold was made by tracing the shape of the hull where the wale will be mounted, traced on the leftover piece of wood, cut the shape and squeeze the wale with two clamps...





Today, i will mount the second wale....

Upperdeck gunwales were also mounted on both side. For this i actually added a "line" of other plank material to widen the kit provided gunwale. At the end, i gave up on making my own gunwales and used kit provided, with a small improvement...





Happy modelling..

 

[moreplovac]

Outside, first planking layer is done on port side of Santa Maria, and yes, it does look extremely ugly but will be corrected with some sanding, scrapping and wood filler...



The shape of the hull that has to be achieved with planking is very difficult for first planking layer. Second layer will have a nice foundation to lay on..





Then i continue working on wales by adding the second, 3x3mm wale. This time i marked down places for nails, predrilled the holes and put nails in. The wale will be soaked in water for some time to assist with bending around the hull..







On the hull...





Some of the "hard to keep on the hull" parts of the wale, were kept in place with a little help of mini clamps:







Once wales are dry i removed nails and start filling up the holes with trenails. This time i went for an irregular trenail shape, at least the top part, simulating non consistency in making those nails back in the days. Using some left over shaves, i shaped them with a bit of sanding paper so they can fit into holes..





Then cut them just above the wale, and with special "hammer" push them in and breaking/squeezing the top into "weird" shape..

Special hammer..





I like the way this irregular trenail shape look on the wale and with a layer of protective oil or something it is going to look very interesting.. The whole idea is to use different wood colour than wale...





The trenails were than sanded with another tool i found very useful overall, not just for this usage...






Happy modelling..

 

[moreplovac]

Work continues with hull fenders... these pieces are made by sandwiching 3x1mm planks together, in 4 layers with two extra layers on the top, covering all wales..





Work can be speed up by glueing planks ahead of time and cut them to the desire length. I tried both option laying one plank at the time or glueing 4 together and results are the same, a bit faster with pre-glueing...











At the top and at the bottom hull fenders are shaped to fit nicely to wales..



Happy modelling..

 

[moreplovac]

The hull fenders have been completed. The most effective way was to pre build those fenders by sandwiching 4 planks together, sand them on the sides and put them in place. The other option of glueing each plank individually on the hull is working fine as well but a bit more sanding will be required afterwards so they can all be nicely finished. The biggest challenge with fenders is to make sure their position is accurate; for that purpose i have used an Ikea paper ruler, very useful..

The finished look..



In the process..





Here i have protected the upperdeck gunwales while making correct angle shape of fenders..





For this particular fender, i glued each plank individually on the hull..









Happy modelling..

 

[GrantTyler]

The hull fenders have been completed. The most effective way was to pre build those fenders by sandwiching 4 planks together, sand them on the sides and put them in place. The other option of glueing each plank individually on the hull is working fine as well but a bit more sanding will be required afterwards so they can all be nicely finished. The biggest challenge with fenders is to make sure their position is accurate; for that purpose i have used an Ikea paper ruler, very useful..

The finished look..

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In the process..

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Here i have protected the upperdeck gunwales while making correct angle shape of fenders..

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For this particular fender, i glued each plank individually on the hull..

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Happy modelling..

Good morning. The hull fenders and tree nailing add a lot of value for sure- great job. You also have really cool clamps. I do enjoy your log and how you describe your process. Lovey build. Cheers Grant

 

[Kramer]

Were tree nails only used on a certain period of ships? I’m going to start my second build soon and was thinking of some upgrades from the beginner kits and didn’t know if using tree nails would fit the period.

 

[moreplovac]

Were tree nails only used on a certain period of ships? I’m going to start my second build soon and was thinking of some upgrades from the beginner kits and didn’t know if using tree nails would fit the period.

I am not sure if tree nails were used in that period. I was trying to locate some more accurate data regarding nails of that era but was not able to do so. Guessing some sort of connecting wales up the hull must have exists, but did not want to go for a brass nails. The wooden nails (and of random shape) sounded to me like a nice solution. Kit it self does not mention anything about nails, but it has some "dots" visible on the kit picture.

Looking thru pictures from the book "The Ships of Christopher Columbus", i can see that some sort of nails were used in that period:








This book also shows a plan of Pinta which is different than one used on Amati kit;



For example, number of hull fenders is bigger on the plan than included in the kit (and in different locations); the bow area just above the anchor rope opening is completely missing from the kit, but the book shows plan for Nina which closely matching what Amati presents as Pinta, when it comes to the hull shape:



So, someone is not quite historically right, book or Amati kit.. this basically makes me think that each model is different based on modeller' approach and if Amati can have such a liberty, we can do it as well . I think adding the tree nails will make the model a bit more appealing. I am also planning to add nails in the fenders as well...

Happy modelling..

 

[moreplovac]

Good morning. The hull fenders and tree nailing add a lot of value for sure- great job. You also have really cool clamps. I do enjoy your log and how you describe your process. Lovey build. Cheers Grant

Thanks Grant, appreciate your comment.

Regards,

 

[moreplovac]

My fancy tree nails, in the prep process..



In the action...



This approach is fairly simple: push the tree in the hole, since it is fairly soft wood, tweezers are used to push it in, cut and go for the next hole..

The wales are first attached with a regular nails, to help with gluing..





Tree nails inserted, waiting for a sanding..



And sanded..





Happy modelling..

 

[Uwek]

From Amati family there were always something nice happening; first there were violins and then ship models.

From Wikipedia: Amati (/əˈmɑːti/, Italian: [aˈmaːti]) is the last name of a family of Italian violin makers who lived at Cremona from about 1538 to 1740. Their importance is considered equal to those of the Bergonzi, Guarneri, and Stradivari families. Today, violins created by Nicolò Amati are valued at around $600,000.[1] Because of their age and rarity, Amati instruments are mostly kept in museum or private collections and are seldom played in public.

From ship model world, Amati makes very interesting and quality models. Since i am not quite a musician to enjoy the quality of Amati violins, i will stick with ship models. This time i decided to go with Columbus ships, Santa Maria and Pinta. The foundings for Nina were not available so i was able to purchase only two models. My plan is to start making them in parallel, for example will make planking on both, will put the deck on both, etc... Not sure if this will work well, but would like to try it. Anyhow, Pinta will be the first one to attack.
First will be making a copy of kit plans, trying to keep the kit plans unused. Then will start with building.

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Actually at this moment, i started to work on figures, Columbo and his crew, 10 figurines, by Artesania Latina.

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First the base coat was applied to all figures... and started to paint them...

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I was actually thinking of doing some other model but decided to work on these two ships instead...

That is all for now,

happy modelling..

Hallo my friend @moreplovac
we wish you all the BEST and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Enjoy your special day

 

[Jimsky]

Happy Birthday!!!

 

[moreplovac]

Hallo my friend @moreplovac
we wish you all the BEST and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Enjoy your special day

Woohoo, thank you...

 

[moreplovac]

Happy Birthday!!!

Thank you...

 

[moreplovac]

A layer of protective oil was applied to the model..



The oil layer showed some glue areas that have to be scrapped before another layer is applied.. here are visible on gunwales..







Then i installed stem shelf.. the original one did not fit properly since i have glued some veneer to cover the ugly plywood, so needed to build a new one..

Trace it and shape it to fit properly..



Transfer the shape to new piece of wood, cut from one Pinta' leftover part..



Then shape, fit, shape, fit, shape, fit, shape and fit..







A first layer planking work continuing on Santa Maria..

After initial scrapping, i put some glue in spaces between planks, scrapped one more time and sanded to fill out those opening. I will be going with wood putty as well, but this provide a better surface for putty.









Happy modelling..

 

[moreplovac]

Windows were completed by soldering the net to the window frame. Did not find better way to bond these two together so now i have to clean up a burning spots.



Windows and door assembled and attached to the ship. Another visual test..







That black shadow on the right hand window is actually thickness of the hull..

So, now lets replace the gun carriage and clean up guns a bit.. Made out of a planking left overs, the new carriage..






The front area needs to be tapered, so using some old part of plywood to hold the carriage, sanded to the correct angle..





Testing..





Now, lets add a "pedestal" with hooks and ropes...



The "pedestal" was glued to the carriage.




Start "sewing"...



With a help if very pointy tweezers, i was able to pull the rope thru the hook..



Lets do a bit differently now, using a fancy tool.. do not know the name of this tool but it works like a charm..





The next carriage was done a bit differently; first the rope was pulled thru the both hooks, making two loops, then hooks are attached to the "pedestal" and glued. Then the carriage was glued to the pedestal, between tow hooks and rope was adjusted..





So that worked out much easier that the first method..



I will be adding few more details to carriage latter; at this moment just few treenails were simulated..



Happy modelling..

 

[moreplovac]

At this moment i have paused the work on Pinta and turned to Santa Maria so i can complete a "dirty" work of planking, sanding, cutting, etc... The plan is to come to the stage similar as Pinta is and i can concentrate on decks, details, furniture, etc...



This stage of work includes the cabling for lights on the board...



The LED cabling was extended and LEDs can now reach the mid of the ship.



The same is coming from the stern but in this case i am not sure where the light will stay so i just pulled extra cables from the back of the ship.





Also i had pulled two cables from the keel that will be used to connect the lights from the outside...



Next i have worked on the deck area, sanding and fitting boards that will be used as planking foundation for a main deck. There were not many shaping and cutting needed, the material is good and nicely laser cut.







Happy modelling..

 

[moreplovac]

The deck foundation, for the lack of better words, has been put on, glued and nailed down..



During the process of laying down the board, first planking layer was damaged a bit, so needs to be fixed..

A little bit of a sanding to smooth down few bumps will be needed. The nails will stay. LED cables are also pulled up to the deck..





Happy modelling..

 

[moreplovac]

Nothing interesting to report; some sanding, wood filler, sanding, wood filler...





and some inside planking...





Happy modelling..

 

[moreplovac]

The inner planking, for the lack of the better words, was added to strength the hull a bit since i made a mistake removing the frame tops before actually planking the hull with second layer.. This left the first planking layer a bit weak so i have to enforce it with inner planking.



The inner planking needs a bit of clean up and sanding, as well as some finishing touches at the bow area. Not a big deal...



The hull shape was transferred from the plan to the hull with the help of tracing paper.. and cuts were done with a scalpel, #11.. The wood is easy to cut/carve, now some sanding and final shape will be done. This way i can plan the second planking layer a bit more accurate..



Happy modelling..