Santa Maria produced by Pavel Nikitin

Made some progress with this build. I'll need to do some clean up on the finish to make it more presentable. Still a lot of work to do. I've assembled most of deck furniture with a few more pieces to go particularly the life boat. And that raises a point about the fragility of some of the pieces. The stern detail and pieces of the life boat in particular are very thin and thus fragile. I've unintentionally / accidentally damage some pieces even when trying to be careful. I can repair these and hope that they won't be too apparent when I'm finished.

Shaping the masts will be a challenge too. They are made of 2 or 3 rectangular pieces. I don't have a lathe and will need to shape them with a lot of sanding. If anyone has a suggestion of an alternative of how to shape these I welcome your input.

All and all this has been a fun build!


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Craig C said:
Hi Glenn and sleepfish

Thanks for your messages. I’d like to get the finish kit on the Nikitin site but can’t make the purchase as Model Expo will at some point sell his products but not now, I plan to stain the individual pieces before assembly for just the reason you mentioned. In the absence of Nikitin’s kit I was considering Watco dark walnut Danish Oil and then a wipe on poly or wax finish.
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Craig,

The Santa Maria is already being sold at Model Expo. Our version comes with the above mentioned Slipway that your kit is missing.
And right now it's on sale... Buy it Here
 
Thanks for your reply but it's a lot too late as I've almost finished the Santa Maria. When I learned that Model Expo was selling Nikitin's model I sent an e-mail request about the slipway and the paint kit for the Santa Maria directly to Model Expo more than a month and a half ago with no reply.
 
Craig C said:
Thanks for your reply but it's a lot too late as I've almost finished the Santa Maria. When I learned that Model Expo was selling Nikitin's model I sent an e-mail request about the slipway and the paint kit for the Santa Maria directly to Model Expo more than a month and a half ago with no reply.
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Apologies for missing your message, Craig. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.
Looking forward to see your finished Santa Maria!
 
Craig C said:
View attachment 410224View attachment 410225View attachment 410226View attachment 410227View attachment 410228View attachment 410229View attachment 410230View attachment 410231View attachment 410232View attachment 410233View attachment 410234View attachment 410235View attachment 410236View attachment 410237View attachment 410238View attachment 410239View attachment 410240View attachment 410241View attachment 410242View attachment 410243View attachment 410244View attachment 410245View attachment 410246View attachment 410247View attachment 410248View attachment 410224View attachment 410225View attachment 410226View attachment 410227View attachment 410228View attachment 410229View attachment 410230View attachment 410231View attachment 410232View attachment 410233View attachment 410234View attachment 410235View attachment 410236View attachment 410237View attachment 410238View attachment 410239View attachment 410240View attachment 410241View attachment 410242View attachment 410243View attachment 410244View attachment 410245View attachment 410246View attachment 410247View attachment 410248View attachment 410224View attachment 410225View attachment 410226View attachment 410227View attachment 410228View attachment 410229View attachment 410230View attachment 410231View attachment 410232View attachment 410233View attachment 410234View attachment 410234View attachment 410235View attachment 410236View attachment 410237View attachment 410238View attachment 410239View attachment 410240View attachment 410241View attachment 410242View attachment 410243View attachment 410244View attachment 410245View attachment 410246View attachment 410247View attachment 410248View attachment 410248I received my Santa Maria kit yesterday and unboxed it today. This is a heavy kit. Very well packaged and presented. I think it's a good value for the money. I've attached photos of the unboxing. There is a spiral bound instruction book. There are sheets with illustrations. There are fabric sails and sigils/flags. The only negative was that the container with the blocks, deadeyes, etc. came open and the small parts were scattered in the box. I tried to be careful to make sure I retrieved them all.

My next step is to inventory of the parts list and read the instructions before starting the build. I am excited about the model. I think it's a piece of art. I hope I can do it justice.
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Hallo @Craig C
we wish you all the BEST and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Birthday-Cake
 
I've been away from actively building for about a month. I slipped off the last tread of a movable ladder at work and went down hard on my back. thankfully no fracture or breaks but a deep bruise that has gotten better with time.
I'm working on the sails. Following Signet's Ragusian Carrack I've gotten ideas for my Santa Maria sails. I've attached bolt rope to the main sail and then lashed the three components together. I wrapped the edges of the sail cloth around 18 gage copper wire and then sewn the edges. I used fabric glue because it doesn't stain the cloth like CA and the glue drys quickly.
My next move is to fill the sail. I going to use a small U.S. football and spray fabric finish (starch) to get a full appearance.


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And I also assembled a new work station.

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Wow, this is looking really good. I love the color. Beautiful work. Beautiful ship! I'll be curious to hear what your evaluation of the rigging will be. Looking forward to seeing more on this build.

What is the consistency of the fabric fusion glue that you have? Can it be injected from small gauge needles?

Did you build your own building platform? I'd love to have one of those.

I'm so sorry about your accident. :( I hope you're healing okay with no long term effects expected.
 
Good morning Toni

Thanks for your message. RE my accident, after a week off to rest and 4 weeks of PT I’m a lot better. Thank you for asking.

RE the fabric glue, it’s thick and wouldn’t work in a fine gauge syringe. Not sure if you can dilute it.

I’m progressing with rigging (slowly because I’m flying by the seat of my pants and the schematics aren’t great). And I’m waiting on an order of rope I ordered to complete the rat lines. The order is coming via Canada Post. It’s going on two week so until it arrives I’ll work on other things.

I didn’t have a platform. When I purchased my model I wasn’t aware the platform was a separate purchase. And right after my purchase from China Model Expo became the US distributor and they didn’t have it available at first and they didn’t have the paint kit available either. So I winged it. I thought the platform would be great to have and it would probably have made the build easier. But in the end with some patience I did without.

If you’re considering buying a Santa Maria model take a look at the offering from Maria Stella (sp?). Theirs looks really nice. I am impressed with their embroidered sails.

I’ll post some pics to up date my build.

Respectfully

Craig
 
Will be working on this one after I complete my Bluenose, so definitely have been following your progress and success, Craig.. Great work!
 
Craig C said:
Good morning Toni

Thanks for your message. RE my accident, after a week off to rest and 4 weeks of PT I’m a lot better. Thank you for asking.

RE the fabric glue, it’s thick and wouldn’t work in a fine gauge syringe. Not sure if you can dilute it.

I’m progressing with rigging (slowly because I’m flying by the seat of my pants and the schematics aren’t great). And I’m waiting on an order of rope I ordered to complete the rat lines. The order is coming via Canada Post. It’s going on two week so until it arrives I’ll work on other things.

I didn’t have a platform. When I purchased my model I wasn’t aware the platform was a separate purchase. And right after my purchase from China Model Expo became the US distributor and they didn’t have it available at first and they didn’t have the paint kit available either. So I winged it. I thought the platform would be great to have and it would probably have made the build easier. But in the end with some patience I did without.

If you’re considering buying a Santa Maria model take a look at the offering from Maria Stella (sp?). Theirs looks really nice. I am impressed with their embroidered sails.

I’ll post some pics to up date my build.

Respectfully

Craig
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Hi Craig,

I'm glad to hear you're doing better. That's a lot of PT. It must have been a really nasty accident. Scary, too.

The reason I ask about the fabric glue is because, after a certain point, I found during my Buccaneer build that access to ropes, etc., was very limited. There is no way I could have gotten a glue bottle in there. Needle gauges with CA glue were my only salvation. But I don't like the way CA glue stains the ropes and sails. It also gets very brittle. What sort of applicator do you use for the fabric glue?

I think I'll build a platform like the one you are using. I just used a big piece of styrofoam but, as you can probably imagine, it left a lot to be desired.

If I ever build a Maris Stella it would probably be the Ragusian Carrack. I was cruising around on YouTube one night and ran across one of Olha Batchvarov's videos of her build of the Ragusian and fell in love. Although I'm loving your Santa Maria right about now and may change my mind.

I hope you get your rope soon. Keep on with your outstanding work!
 
Craig C said:
Good morning all from Spring, TX

I need some help / suggestions. The part numbers etched into the deck planks need to be removed, However the amount of sanding required to remove them completely will reduce the thickness of the plank. And unless etching is completely removed they will show through whatever stain I use. I've already dealt with this on the keel and stem. These those parts are much thicker and the sanding didn't have any negative consequence. Thank you.View attachment 412325View attachment 412326
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Good (early) morning Bluebeard,
A lot has transpired since my last post re the Santa Maria. I'll include some more recent photos to show my progress with the ship. But over the past 60 or so days I haven't done much work on her. I won't labor this writing with a lot of detail but I've be occupied with other things. Since hurricane/tropical Beryl came and briefly took away our electricity I've been installing a standby generator to be ready for the next power outage. Additionally we've had a couple of appliances go out due to age and I've had a hard time dealing with our home warranty company to replace these items with new, comparable items. The generator is now ready to go and the appliances have been replaced.
During the ship building down time I decided to redo and relocate my work station. I made it twice as big and moved to a room over our garage. I also added a portable air conditioning unit to room.
So after spending a lot of money, dealing with contractors and living with our miserable Texas heat I'm finally ready to resume ship building.IMG_1320.jpegIMG_1329.jpegIMG_1330.jpegIMG_1323.jpeg
 
Graig:
I absolutely understand your situation since I live in Miami and we get lots of hurricanes and of course…the power outage follows.
Just about all of the Miamians have a generator.
I also moved into a new home and had to adapt the garage for my workshop.
I also read about you trying to get parts for your model from Model Expo.
I work for Model Expo. They location is close to my home.
I used to handle all of their emails and parts request but now I’m only refurbishing their show
models whenever they hay damaged.
Model Expo is the best model company because they stand behind their products.
This is their latest model that got damage and I refurbished for the second time.
I hope you like it.

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Im also building a carrying case to protect the model while being transported, so I created on PS the add you see in my last picture to go with the carrying case.
 
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