Revell 1/90 Santa Maria WIP

After being down and out with the flu, I have a couple of pictures to share.  Slow progress.  On another note, I finally found a copy of Pastor's "The Ships of Christopher Columbus".

I removed the plastic molded windows and replaced them with wire mess and MicroMark's Kristal Klear which gave them a nice antique look..... at least in my opinion.

Enjoy,

Steve

Funny how the (arguably) most accepted idea of how the SM was built includes a high forecastle, but none of the available kits depict it...I was looking at the box of my new Minicraft Chebec last night (!) and they showed a few of the other kits from their *old* sailing line....one was the Imai Santa Maria, and one (whoses name escapes me right now, Galeas, maybe?) looks very similar to the SM, except it has a big ol' forecastle on it....just thought it was interesting...I love my SM kit, and have no intention of modding it to include a forecastle...

BTW, "The Ship Illustrated" by Landstrom is an awesome book!  I just got it a few weeks ago, and I keep it on the nightstand, read a few pages each night....good info!  Tons of drawings...

No updates yet on my SM....got the stern and rudder put on, and now I'm trimning and detailing some deck furniture...the chainplates are made of rigging line, and I'm going to rig the deadeyes with line, too, in favor of the premolded deadeye/lanyard pieces....but I've also been dragging a bit....lots of *real world* distractions!  I'm finding I have less time for modeling right now....when I was building the Swan, I would dive into it for an hour or two pretty much every night...I'm pacing myself for now!  I'm sure this weekend I'll have an update...

Rob,

I do a number of things for weathering older style sailing ships actually.  I have used acrylic washes, enamel washes and oil washes per say on them.  It really depends on the ship. I have never used powder or pastels even on my modern ship builds such as the Revell 1/72 U-Boat, although I have seen some nice effects from them; it's really that I am a painter at heart.  On this build of the SM, I have used an oil wash. If you look at some of my other posts you'll see the different approaches.  Hope that answers your question.

Steve

Dave,

The Revell SM does not have a foc'sle per say.  I believe this, the Heller and the Imai were based on the 1929 Guilen replica depicting the SM as a caravela and not a (nao) carrack with a high foc'sle like Martinez-Hidalgo or Fernandez-Durc replicas.

Interestingly, one of the more bizarre Heller kits, I believe the La Conquistador, actually has you build up the foc'sle.  If you do not add all the garbage on the stern, it "might" resemble the SM, although I think that there would be some major reworking to do to make it look like, say the SM in Langstrom's "The Ship."  I've been on the lookout for the kit at a reasonable price for a couple of years to test my postulate.

Anyway, I would love to see the pictures on the newest parts of the build, since I seem to be dragging along with the Revell Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria at this time.  My youngest boy keeps asking me when am I going to start building his Santa Maria (the ERTL 1/60 that my family gave me for Christmas).  Heck, I am plugging away at my writing project plus I started mucking about with my Imai Greek Warship and Roman Warship......... Need to focus......

Steve

Very nice indeed...may I ask what is your weathering technique?

Looks good, Steve!

Does the Revell SM have a forecastle?  A lot of people believe there's supposed to be a forecastle on her, but I think most of the available kits don't represent it that way....I'm working on some deck parts for mine right now, windlass, anchors, boat, etc...got the stern and rudder in place yesterday.

Dave

I painted the lower hull with burnt umber to see how the two colors juxtaposed.  Not bad, and it is growing on me, although I still might go a bit darker on the upper hull, but not as dark as the Nina and Pinta.

Steve

Testing colors for the SM.  I want to go lighter than the Nina or Pinta but I am not too certain that I like this  color.

Steve

Thanks for the input.  Are we talking about the upper windows or the lower?  The lower windows make sense as there is an overhang just under them.  Which begs the question, should I drill holes under those windows for jakes?

Steve

There was a discussion about this earlier.

In my opinion, the diagonal glass windows have no basis in fact, based on either of the two reconstructions and their paired up drawings. Not to mention the other ships of that period, or a reasonable conjecture of what a ship of that "price" would have had.

My own guess would be that these only two openings into the poop deck cabin were at the rear, over the jakes, and were simple with curtains.

Thanks Mark!  I am going to try and get some color on the hull halves or the deck tomorrow if the fates allow.

Steve

This should be a good one to watch. Will look on with great interest Steve.....Cheers Mark

It will at that Dave.  Hope you had a wonderful Christmas.  I got my ERTL Santa Maria and man she looks sweet!  I am sooooo tempted to wayside my Revell SM build and start in on the ERTL........ We'll see.

Steve

Sweet! It'll be fun to compare our SM builds!  

Here is one of the things I wanted to try.  I cut out the molded windows on the transom and the poop deck bulkhead.  I plan on putting wire mesh of various sizes in their places and then use MicroMark's Krystal Klear to simulate the glass itself.

Steve