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 enjoying this build because I feel like I've learned some good fundamentals of rigging a sailing ship.

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). But does acetone work on ABS plastic? Does acetone interact (negatively or positively) 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!

 

[JacquesCousteau]

Best of luck with the changes! The kit certainly seems lacking in many things that I think are ideal for a "beginners" kit. Clear instructions really are a must.

As for your question, hopefully someone has an answer. I haven't used much plastic so I really don't know.

 

[Ignatius27]

24. Build Log Esmeralda

Back from my trip, spent alot of the day at the bench doing small rigging jobs around the Esmeralda build, including:

1. Ran lines up from the mast tops to the top bead of each mast to set up shroud lines from the mast tops to the masts highest point. Will need to knot each line needed before it passes through the mast top. I will attach the tops of the shroud lines with the extra line from the wooden blocks, 2 of which need to be attached at the top of each mast.

2. Running new standing rigging for the jibs and foremast. I ran out of dark brown rigging yarn, so picked up some matching rigging rope yarn at the hobby store.

3. Cut off the bowsprit rigging to get to the condor Esmeralda figurehead so I can paint it the IRL colors black, white and yellow. The condor is carrying the blue and white flag of Chile with the lone star. Will try and paint the figurehead tomorrow so I can re-rig the bowsprit with single wind black rope yarn.

4. Scraped away excess glue and rope thread from the foremast and the mast toppers. The multiple glue applications have made the sail tops very bulky, so I cut some of the wound ropes off trying not to sever any standing rigging.

5. Fabricating a new outside jib, making and staining 2 identical sails to see which would be better sized. Then painting the outside jib with acrylic white paint to make it semi-stiff and bendable. Attach 1.5mm brass rings to the new outside jib. Ran the standing rigging line through the Brass rings.

6. Drilled 8 pinhole for the 8 davits that hold the ships' tenders. Used dark wire for the lines running from the davits to the tenders. Temporarily installed the ships tenders with the dark wire lines.

7. Temporarily installed all the deck furnishings, including the anchors, water cannons, personal flotation devices, and davits. Since we are going with a black figurehead and black anchors, I decided to paint the water cannons black. I might add a red highlight to the water cannon later. There really was no reason for the water cannons to be brass colored.

My goal is to finish constructing the mast, sails and rigging in the next 3 days.

 

[Ignatius27]

25. Esmeralda Build Log

Square sails go up!

Spent the better part of today affixing the Mainsail, which is on the foremast, the fore topsail, fore topgallent, and fore royal sails. A lot of work to keep several centimeters of give in the Mainsail rigging, so that all 4 sails can move 90 degrees while getting the running rigging attached to the 25 blocks and the standing rigging attached to the 12 eye loops on the top deck.

Won't say much more, other than that tonight I'm going to finish painting the figurehead yellow and white to match the real Esmeralda figurehead. And if I have time, rigging the bowsprit with black thread rope.

Progress slow but steady.

 

[Ignatius27]

Today's labors on the Esmeralda.

The square sails are all nicely set up.

The bird figure at the bow has been painted to look more like the real one.

The bowsprit has been re-rigged with a single wind of black rope yarn. Looks much better.

Re-did the top jib because the previous one did not have a clean edge at the top. Looks much better.

With the condor's head colored yellow and cowl painted white, it adds some nice detail.

Now only the gaff sails need to be sewn in and the running rigging lined in.

 

[JacquesCousteau]

Nice work on the figurehead!