Santa Maria

[GrantTyler]

Odd jobs. The blocks are pretty good, but need staining. They come in little grip top bags, so that's handy. L to R - dark oak (deadeyes), walnut and light teak (oil based) -

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Washed off with thinners. I even made a container (is my OCD showing?) to foil the workshop gremlins -

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The longboats are white metal castings. Some clean-up necessary, but the definition is pretty good, so I will just spray them white. There needs to be a deck, so I made a card template ' -

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Planking glued to the card -

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Interiors painted, deck stained, gunwales roughly bent to shape -

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Gunwales and thwarts (seats) fitted -

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Oars and mast -

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Stands and accessories fitted on the boats -

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This is where they go on the deck -

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Chain plates. A length of pin (to be cut to length) will secure them into the hull -

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Fitted, plus some triangular strengtheners-

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The hull so far -

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I have painted the external parts for the stern -

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...but I don't like them, they are just too 'blingy'. These will be consigned to the 'might come in handy' box and I will go with some much simpler windows as per the full scale sailing reproduction.

Very very cool boats Graham.

 

[Graham]

Very very cool boats Graham.

Cheers, Grant.

 

[Graham]

Rails around the fore and aft decks.
There is a curvature to these which necessitates bending some strip across the grain. I made some templates before fitting these decks and used them to make a jig using panel pins to form a profile -



Strips were then soaked in boiling water for 3 minutes and bent to the pins. The fore deck has a steeper profile and kept popping up, so strips were stapled across to keep them flat -



I spent ten minutes on them with a hair dryer (don't tell the boss) to try and get a set in the shape before releasing them. Eight strips made in total - tops and bottoms. I think it went okay -



While things were drying I made the rudder. Four pieces of 5 x 5mm are laminated. I stuck on the drawing from the plans as a template to help form the shape -



There is not enough strip to make a complete rudder from teak, so I
used what was still available in the box. No problem I will paint it -



It may be that I used the teak strip in error when I made the longboat stands, but I double checked and the instructions aren't clear on what to use. Anyway, I gave up on the instructions a while ago!
Ever onward!