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Thanks doc. Wish I would have made the bulkheads a little lighter in color. I was trying to get them the color of the inside bulwark planks. I should have taken more time. I'm calling this practice for the San Bartolome. 
I managed to lighten the bulkhead some by sanding the areas I could and airbrushing some more 'oak' dye. I like this much more.
I also cleaned up the quarterdeck hatch coaming and airbrushed some lighter 'oak' dye.
before
after
before
after
How many times have you cleaned your airbrush thus far ?
?
I buy cleaner by the gallon!!
Drilled holes for the anchor cable. #21 Hawseholes
Was going to estimate where to put them, but found that Pavel said 20mm from keel in the video comments. I estimated about 11mm up from the rail.
Was going to estimate where to put them, but found that Pavel said 20mm from keel in the video comments. I estimated about 11mm up from the rail.
Finished the forecastle. I'm going to leave the rail open and not cllose up with vertical timbers per the instructions. The rails are open on the poop deck, so I like these open too.
I'm making the rails next. the kit has you glue a bunch of strips together then lay a paper template on them and cut out the rail...
I decided to cut the rail out of a piece of walnut and bend it to fit...
Oh... when setting the rail in place I noticed this... There is an area behind and below the forecastle that isn't planked. I'll have to figure out what to do here.
Daggum it!!! In the above image vs the instructions I see I bent the rail wrong!!. The main deck rail is suppose to go up and touch the forecastle rail. Darn, I'll have to soak and rebend or if I can't, I'll have to cut another rail.
I decided to cut the rail out of a piece of walnut and bend it to fit...
Oh... when setting the rail in place I noticed this... There is an area behind and below the forecastle that isn't planked. I'll have to figure out what to do here.
Daggum it!!! In the above image vs the instructions I see I bent the rail wrong!!. The main deck rail is suppose to go up and touch the forecastle rail. Darn, I'll have to soak and rebend or if I can't, I'll have to cut another rail.
I was going to cut some decorative piece or knights shileds to put on the rails at the forecastle, but not quite good enough with my CNC to cut them completely out yet. This piece is 14mm
The kit comes with a lego set to build a partial wall for the bow area...
Will all the tiny pieces glued together.
And this is where it goes. Sure hope it fits without sanding... this little wall is very fragile...
to build a partial wall for the bow area...Will all the tiny pieces glued together.
And this is where it goes. Sure hope it fits without sanding... this little wall is very fragile...
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Working on the hand rails. I decided to cut them from a piece of walnut rather than gluing about 60 tiny piece togehter then use a template to cut the rails out.
Upper, shorter rails...
Lower, longer rails...
if you decide to cut your own rails, be careful with the template. The length is measured for cutting the inside curve, not the outside. Add extra length to rails when cutting. I went ahead and cut two new lower rails as I had bent both in the shape of one side. Duh!! Forgot to flip the 2nd rail over before bending. And I had rounded over the top edges of the rails correctly, just forgot to flip one over before bending . My tools are getting plenty of use.
Here are the two jigs I mage from basswood to bend the rails. I had to cut another jig for the lower rail to make the jig wider as the lower rail has a lot of curves. I couldn't keep it setting correctly in the jig as too narrow. Putting he two jigs side by side made it wide enough to handle the curves while bending and still sit in the jig..
Checking fit...
I airbrushed a coat of patina and dark walnut with a light sanding between coats. Then a couple thin coats of minwax wipe on poly satin.
In an earlier post I had shown a small area at the bow where there wasn't any planking. And I couldn't find anything in the instructions or video about this. I cut 2 small filler pieces from a small block of wood and stained them.
Don't know if I need to do other work before gluing the rails on. I have to check. Some of the build instructions and videos are out of sequence. Other builders have found they couldn't get to places to fit parts.
Upper, shorter rails...
Lower, longer rails...
if you decide to cut your own rails, be careful with the template. The length is measured for cutting the inside curve, not the outside. Add extra length to rails when cutting. I went ahead and cut two new lower rails as I had bent both in the shape of one side. Duh!! Forgot to flip the 2nd rail over before bending. And I had rounded over the top edges of the rails correctly, just forgot to flip one over before bending . My tools are getting plenty of use.
Here are the two jigs I mage from basswood to bend the rails. I had to cut another jig for the lower rail to make the jig wider as the lower rail has a lot of curves. I couldn't keep it setting correctly in the jig as too narrow. Putting he two jigs side by side made it wide enough to handle the curves while bending and still sit in the jig..
Checking fit...
I airbrushed a coat of patina and dark walnut with a light sanding between coats. Then a couple thin coats of minwax wipe on poly satin.
In an earlier post I had shown a small area at the bow where there wasn't any planking. And I couldn't find anything in the instructions or video about this. I cut 2 small filler pieces from a small block of wood and stained them.
Don't know if I need to do other work before gluing the rails on. I have to check. Some of the build instructions and videos are out of sequence. Other builders have found they couldn't get to places to fit parts.
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Nice job on the rails, Rob. Your solution worked perfectly!
Bravo Rob. An all round well crafted Santa Maria. Great progress. Cheers Grant
Thank you Doc and Grant. I'm enjoying putting this kit together.
Put in this partial wall. It had to go in before the rails went on... I'll airbrush a little more 'oak' stain on the wall to maybe make it a litte more 'golden' color. 
Then put the rails on...
Then put the rails on...
Working on the poop deck rails. There's 3 decorative plastic (type) pieces with wood covering on both inside and outside.
I glued the base wood pieces together and airbrushed them with the patina and dark walnut. Lightly sanding between coats. Then a couple coats of minwax wipe-on poly. And glued in place...
I glued the 3 plastice pieces together and set in place. Opps. Plastic peg's don't exactly line up with the holes in the bottom wood railing piece. Close, but not quite. And they are too big to fit in the the square holes. The took the 3 plastic pieces apart. and trimed each side to fit correctly.
Note: Don't know the kind of plastic these are made from, but they are very brittle. So be careful when timming the bases to fit into the square holes. And one other important thing to watch for... I thought the two long plastic pieces were the same... There is a left and right! At the very front of each long piece there is a curve to fit against the main deck wood rails that extend up to the poop deck. There is a sligh curve on the wood rails and there is a slight inside curve to front AND inside of the plastic piece. Make sure you watch for the correct fit of the left and right.
There are inside and out side wood coverings for the decorative pieces. I sanded them and glued thme together. Keep them separted as they are different size. Will airbrush and glue in place.
I glued the base wood pieces together and airbrushed them with the patina and dark walnut. Lightly sanding between coats. Then a couple coats of minwax wipe-on poly. And glued in place...
I glued the 3 plastice pieces together and set in place. Opps. Plastic peg's don't exactly line up with the holes in the bottom wood railing piece. Close, but not quite. And they are too big to fit in the the square holes. The took the 3 plastic pieces apart. and trimed each side to fit correctly.
Note: Don't know the kind of plastic these are made from, but they are very brittle. So be careful when timming the bases to fit into the square holes. And one other important thing to watch for... I thought the two long plastic pieces were the same... There is a left and right! At the very front of each long piece there is a curve to fit against the main deck wood rails that extend up to the poop deck. There is a sligh curve on the wood rails and there is a slight inside curve to front AND inside of the plastic piece. Make sure you watch for the correct fit of the left and right.
There are inside and out side wood coverings for the decorative pieces. I sanded them and glued thme together. Keep them separted as they are different size. Will airbrush and glue in place.
Very nice, Rob. This build report will be very helpful to those who build this model in the future.
Finished the poop deck rails...
Something to note: These are the inside and outside wood coverings for the stern plastic piece. They were both the same size. One has to be shorter than the other to fit inside the plastic pieces. So... One was too long and the other was too short. If you look at the image below you can see where I had to sand the side down a lot on one and add wood to the other to make them cover correctly.
Up next. The ribs on the side of the hull... Not sure how I will fit the pieces to fit over the wales. One build, the builder cut out a section of the wale for the piece to fit flat against the hull. Another cut notches in the rib to fit over the wales. Others don't show what they did. The directions don't show how it is done either. Unless, you look at the diagram and guess since there are no notches the wales were cut out. It's too bad the ribs are built up by gluing 2 pieces together. Would be nice to have 1 piece. I think 2 pieces together will show. Maybe on an actual ship they were made up of 2 or more pieces?? I plan on airbrushing them the same color as the wales, dark walnut. Thoughts anyone on cutting the fit??
Something to note: These are the inside and outside wood coverings for the stern plastic piece. They were both the same size. One has to be shorter than the other to fit inside the plastic pieces. So... One was too long and the other was too short. If you look at the image below you can see where I had to sand the side down a lot on one and add wood to the other to make them cover correctly.
Up next. The ribs on the side of the hull... Not sure how I will fit the pieces to fit over the wales. One build, the builder cut out a section of the wale for the piece to fit flat against the hull. Another cut notches in the rib to fit over the wales. Others don't show what they did. The directions don't show how it is done either. Unless, you look at the diagram and guess since there are no notches the wales were cut out. It's too bad the ribs are built up by gluing 2 pieces together. Would be nice to have 1 piece. I think 2 pieces together will show. Maybe on an actual ship they were made up of 2 or more pieces?? I plan on airbrushing them the same color as the wales, dark walnut. Thoughts anyone on cutting the fit??