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Santa Maria Ships Boat (Pavel Nikitin)

lakedaisy

lakedaisy

Joined
Jan 9, 2022
Messages
897
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Location
Winter Haven, Florida
Thought I had seen a build log for this ships boat, but can't find one. I'll start this one...

I had build one other of Pavel's ships boats. It's kind of a hard build as the parts are so thin and fragile. One must really take care when assembling and sanding the parts. Plus you must be careful with glue as it makes some parts unstainable.

This ships boat kit comes with the ship kit...
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Here is the jig for the boats frame alignment...
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And the parts... the two sheets with the planking boards are very thin..
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I put together the jig to build the boats frame. As the other ships boat I built, the jig pieces are thicker than the grooves cut in them to fit the pieces together. The pieces are, I think, a paper or wood dust, glued and pressed to make a hard material. On the previous build I tried 'tapping' the pieces together and that didn't work too well. One this build I ran the pieces through my thickness sander several times to where they were still tight and would slip together.


When assembling the parts one thing stood out... the end pieces which hold the jig are a different height. I sure hope this is right. Be sure to align the jig with the pointed end towards the higher end of the jig holder.
1.jpg
 
Put a few pieces together. Like the previous ships boat I built, the instructions and pieces don't match the kit.

I glued the 3 pieces of the keel together. It doesn't fit into the jig. I cut out the top notch in the jig a few times, still won't fit. I unglued the bow piece from the keel.2.jpg1.jpg
Put the stern pieces together...
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Put the bow pieces together.
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Will bevel the glued pieces and dry fit. Then see if I can fit everything in to the jig.
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I built a similar (but different model) boat from Pavel. I wouldn't say there were any real errors in the kit, but I found it quite challenging and some pieces were not long enough. My boat is shown here.
 
Signet said:
I built a similar (but different model) boat from Pavel. I wouldn't say there were any real errors in the kit, but I found it quite challenging and some pieces were not long enough. My boat is shown here.
Click to expand...
I had to chuckle looking at your log for the small boat. I had a weak moment a few months back and decided a good break would be building Pavel's 1:48 scale small boat. Big fingers added a lot of frustration to manipulating small parts. I broke more than a few, gave up and put the kit back on the "some day" shelf.

This is far as I got.

IMG_5216.jpeg

Jan
 
This is how the build has progress so far...

1. The keel with the stem/stern fittings attached will not fit into the jig.
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2. I cut the upper stem holder away from the jig. Now it fits.

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3. The stern frame is 2 pieces glued together. But glued together they don't fit into the groove in the keel. I cut a groove about 3mm wider. Now it fits.
3.1.jpg3.2.jpg

4. With the stern piece set in the keel slot it will no longer fit in the jig. I had to carfe away jig material at the stern. Now it fits. 3.3.jpg

5. The stem framing is 4 pieces glued together. Per the instructions, parts 12, 11, 10 and 9 are mostly solid pieces of wood. But you can see the pieces in the sheets that they are nothing like they should be.
4.2.jpg

6. So... With the stem pieces glued together, rather than have a solid piece of material to sand for the planking pieces, you have a large piece of wood held together with a 1mm piece of wood. I couldn't sand the bevels without breaking the 1mm piece
4.4.jpg4.3.jpg

Think I'll wait a little while before working on this little boat again. I'll try more in a few days.

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Okay. Checking out the next step today. Just isn't right. And I have a question towards the end for any of you knowledgeable builders...

I got the bow/stern framing pieces added to the keel.
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The kit frames are not the same as the instruction illustrated. 2.jpg

When the two pieces are glued together, there is no notch in the bottom of the frame. There is no 'flat' area in the center of the frame for the floorboard. I tried reversing the ends to be glued. That wasn't right either.
5.jpg

I started sanding the bevel...3.jpg
glued back together...
4.jpg

I'm beginning to think this little kit is more frustration than fun... Headed outside to work on my tomato plants and relax!!
 
AHHH... believe I found the frame problem. I found an image of the ships boats parts on another build. It's not on SOS so I won't post a link. But, here's an image of the parts. I've circled a sheet that has the frames. I don't have this sheet.

I would write Denis at Pavel's, but I had a few parts missing on my Pavel Santa Maria build. I wrote Denis asking for the parts and he told me I have them, look for them.

I'm not going to bother with asking for this missing sheet. Not worth the aggravation. This build is finished. Too bad, but I had mentioned in my Santa Maria build that I was considering not putting the ships boat on the SM as it takes up 1/2 of the main deck space.
Screenshot 2026-03-08 at 7.42.51 PM.png
 
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