Here is a cut and paste of the Article I wrote on how to build thr revell Spanish Galleon. I hope this helps. Jake
Historically, one of the most famous types of ships during the Golden Age of Sailing was the Spanish Galleon. The first galleons made their appearance around the middle of the 16th. Century. For nearly a hundred years these popular ships served the needs of merchant services and the Naval services alike.
This article will deal with the building of the Revell Spanish Galleon model #H-400. Revell first produced this kit to go along with the other large ship series all in 1/96th. Scale. Revell was and is considered by many to be the best “ship model” company to date due to their early extensive line and very good details in the molds. Due to low sales in the US, the model was retired in 1975. The molds shipped to Germany where there is a better historical base for this type of vessel. The model was reintroduced / re released to the hobby market in 2001 and sells for a whopping $139.00 retail. However, you can find them a bit cheaper on eBay or at an Internet hobby shop.
The model itself has very little inaccuracies and over all is a big and well detailed kit. Almost every level of builder should get a beautiful model with a bit of care. I’ve broken the review and instructions down as if you were following the kit instructions manual, so if you read along with the review, you should be able to follow the kit inst. booklet as well as my tips and detail info. To make this easy to follow I have listed all the paint color and brands up front so you can decide if you want to use these colors.
I have three rules of painting, always paint the light color first, and if you need to do detail painting in a small area paint the lower most section first also if there is a chance of color “blending” seal the first color with a flat sealer. I have not gone into detail on how to use basic modeling skills, but have listed a few special tools you will find useful in building this model.
Testors: Armor Sand, and Military Brown
Floquil Antique White, Ft. Black, Roof Brown, Rail Brown, Gold, Med. Blue and Tuscan Red
Tamiya: Transparent Yellow and/or blue or green (for use on the gallery windows)
Special use tools: Bend nose tweezers ( for rigging the lines), ACC type (crazy glue for modelers), find steel wool, white glue, bees wax, a-clamps, c-clamps and a “blind mans needle threader”.
Rigging material: Coats and Clark brand thread made for buttons and carpet sewing. But the black, tan and brown colors.
Web Site list: I have listed a few web sites throughout the article so you can fall back on them as reference point and I have made notes when to compare to the “real thing” to help you along the building process.
As soon as you open the kit inst. booklet you are given painting instructions, before you begin following them lets take a look at accuracy.
The Lower Hull: The lower hull of the ships of this period were coated with Tallow, a mixture of grease from animals and horse hair it was off white (just like bacon grease when cold) I use Floquil antique white.. There is no “molded” water line so you have to use a hull line jig or place your tape via eye level based on the drawing. Also you can follow the bottom most rub rail as a guide, either way it is historically correct. The rudder pinion was wrought iron and can be painted black with a rust wash.
The Upper Hull: I painted the main upper section of the hull Floquil rail brown which is a reddish brown that matches the artwork on the box, the cannon doors were painted with roof brown as to contrast with the main color. The railings were painted gold as inst. and the I followed the rest of the inst. as written. However, the chevrons along the sides were usually only used on military vessels and can be eliminated if you wish. If you want to put them on, let the base coat color dry for 24 hours then seal it, paint the stripes with either a free hand method or mask them off which takes a while I promise.
Inboard areas: I painted all inboard bulkheads roof brown, and dry brushed with armor sand.
Guns: Cannons ft. black, carriages rail brown, with black wheels.
Details:
Belaying pin racks - roof brown, pins - amour sand (as)
Eye bolts, Cleats, anchors - ft. black
Anchor stocks - roof brown, with ft. black banding
Boat stocks - roof brown, with (as) dry brush (db)
Main Deck Hatchway - rail brown with as (as - db)
Life Boat - roof brown with (as-db)
Ladders/stairs - roof brown with (db)
Windless, wood parts - roof brown, metal parts black although it’s hard to see
The Deck Sections: The deck sections are well detailed and can be done in such a manner that will bring out the fine grain detail that Revell carved in the mold (it must have cost a lot). First airbrush all deck sections with a coat of ft black, let dry 24 hours then coat the deck sections with a later with armor sand. When dry another 24 hours use the steel wool to “lightly” rub through the AS to show the black paint on the raised highlights of the deck, in the tight areas you will need to use your #11 blade to the same effect., paint the rest of the details in, and your done with them. MAKE SURE to paint the under side of the Gallery decks with the same technique, you can see the decking detail from the rear of the model.
The Masts: The mast of the real ships were made up of several pieces of wood, and then coated with varnish which over time darken the mast to a medium brown shade, I used military brown which is a medium lt. brown and looks very good on the mast against the rest of the hull colors and rigging. You need to take care in assembling the mast as they are kind of out of round, use liquid cement, and work a small area as you go. The edge that stands out a bit can be filed down with a “Flexi-file” or emory board. Any low spots can be filled with modelers putty and re-sanded. Check out photo http://www.hms#8209;victory.com/Foremast.jpg
The Yards: I found the yards to be simple and easy to assemble, you also need to work the ridges out with the files. The yards can be painted the same color at the mast but I chose paint them roof brown to off set them against the mast.
The Mast Tops: I painted them overall rail brown, then painted the top and sides of the mast tops roof brown. Once dry I dry brushed with AS. The timbers that make up the bracing under the mast tops were painted roof brown. The inst. tells you to paint the inside of the “vertical sanctions” black, but my research in the design did not mention anything about being a different color so I left them the base color.
The Windows: In researching the real vessels, the windows came a few different ways, some were clear (poor owners) and some were stained (rich owners). If you choose to have clear windows you will need to remove the “window”. Start sanding the backside of the part where the window is. As you sand you will thin out the plastic until you just have the framing, clean these up with your hobby knife, and after you are through painting, put liquid crystal clear or (white glue) in between the frames to make a window. You can also paint them white but it stands out too much and takes away from the model. If you want stained windows I masked off the inside of the window, painted the parts the base color, let dry and then brushed in the transparent yellow, with the bottom row I used trans. blue to match and tie in with the blue on the bull, then I dry brushed the frames with gold paint.
The rest of the painting instructions can be followed as written in the booklet. You can substitute any color you want for the blue. These vessels were decorated in every possible color combination by the different owners as to be able to tell their ships apart . I liked the blue as it blended well with the gold trim on the railings. I think a med dark green would look good such as Euro dk. green by Testors.
The Construction: The building of the model is pretty straight forward but a few items need to be corrected.
Step 1 The guns are assembled as instructed, but you will notice that the width of the gun pinion just barely reaches the cross channel of the carriage, I glued the guns with a bit of ACC glue to make sure that they did not come lose.
Step 2 I very seldom like to use the plastic stands that come with the models because I feel they are not decorative enough for the model. I use them in the basic construction phase and then transfer the model to the final cradle or stand after completion. I used these stands because of the way the lower keel was too shallow for the normal sanctions I normally use. Because the model was going to be handling a bit, I temporarily glue the stands to a thick piece of cardboard with a very small amount of ACC to hold them in place. When I was finished with the model I simply transferred the model to the wooden base using the same method of gluing with ACC.
Step 3 The booklet they ask you to place the windless, pin rails and the boat cradles on the deck prior to placing the deck in the hull. Do not do this, first place the deck in the hull and glue in place. I also placed the stern of the model into place and glued it to the hull at this step instead of step 5. Once it dries then place the details on the deck. I have broken off small items like these because they got in the way of clamps, rubber bands etc.
Step 4 Now put the deck detail on the deck and place the eye bolts and cleats into place. Before you place the eye bolts into place, you need to clean out the hole before you glue them to the model. Use a small drill bit or a needle reamer to clean out the hole so you can pass the rigging material through without any problems.
Step 5 You can now glue the rudder into place being careful not to get glue on the pinion support. If no one is going to “touch” the model just glue them into position they do not need to move.
Step 6 You can follow step 6 as instructed. Be careful not to break the rear section of the cannons off.
Step 7 READ THIS FIRST BEFORE PROCEEDING. Part number 34 has an exact opposite part that mounts on the other side of the hull. YOU CAN ONLY PLACE ONE SIDE ON THE MODEL AT A TIME. If you think you can glue both sides in place you will not be able to put in part #36 the upper deck because it is wider than the hull piece and slips into the slot and makes up the upper gallery catwalk. Follow the instructions exactly.
Step 8 Notice how the deck fit into the groove. Follow as instructed.
Step 9 You need to drill a small hole in the bottom of part #42 so you can mount a eye bolt into place for a later step which will be explained in step 13. The small boat would have been covered with some sort of tarp. You can make one out of paper with out too much effort, I used a piece of toilet paper folded over to double it’s thickness. I covered the boat with the paper and brushed a little water over the paper so it would lay down and conform to the hull also to soften the paper. Be gentle when brushing the paper, it tears easily. Once you have it in position (don’t worry about the excess it will be removed at a later step. Now spray the paper with hair spray any brand will do, let the first layer dry then give it a second coat. After it’s dry you can cut the paper away from the boat about 3/32" from the top, (just judge it, no reason to pull out a ruler). Once it is dry and trimmed you can paint the paper with a very lt. tan color to replicate sail cloth. Place the boat into position and tie it down.
Step 10 Locate parts # 47 & 52; these are the railings that decorate the upper decks. These parts have locator pins on the bottom but they are not matched to the holes in the deck and will not lay right if you do not remove one pin from either side, on part #47 I left the center pin and removed both outside pins. On part # 52 I removed the one by the stairs. The deck house goes together well but the decorative molding at the bottom of the house does not line up with the side molding, there is no right way of fixing this without causing other problems that show up on the top of the house so glue it together and fill in with a little putty by the bottom. You will notice that the house is just a bit too narrow for the deck opening and leaves a slight gap on one side or the other. Pick a side to glue it too and then once dry use a toothpick and place a small amount of white glue in the area to fill it, then you can come back and paint it when dry. No one can tell.
Step 11 Follow this step as instructed, make sure that you have the railing trimmed in the gold paint before placing them on the model, it’s hard to paint them one in position.
Step12 You can follow this step as instructed also, but nowhere in the instructions does it tell you what color to paint the chain plates. I chose to paint the roof brown to contrast with the hull sides. They also can be painted black as a “tarred” coating to serve as a preservative for the seawater.
Step 13 This is the only step that was grossly wrong in the model not counting the incorrect pulley’s and blocks that came with the kit. Think about this, how did the men raise the anchor? I mean sure they had a capstan to pull in the hawser cable (anchor cable) but how did they manage to rig up (lift) the anchor to the cat-head timber (part #42 step 9). You need to rig up a double block at a later this is why I asked you to insert a eye bolt in the bottom of the parts. The large diameter rope the kit is supplied with is OK to use for the hawser, but you need to stain it a dark brown color. Follow the rigging instr. at http://www.hms#8209;victory.com/anchorsandcables.htm this will give you all the information you can use on this subject
Step 14: This step can be skipped until later but for the sake of completing the steps in order, go ahead and assemble the bowsprit as instructed. Note that the side view does not show the stem brace that the bowsprit (BS) rests on, you must have part #26 from Step 7 in place before you rig the bowsprit gammoning. Look for a brand of thread called Coats and Clark for buttons and carpets. (you cannot break it with your hands, don’t try you’ll only bleed). This thread is perfect for the scale and can be worked with tweezers and a needle threader. The rigging for the BS is made up of a heavier line so look in the package provided for a piece about 12" long and go over the BS and through the slot on the stem make about 56 wraps, pinch the last wrap with an a-clamp, place a small drop of ACC to hold then use a length of black C&C thread to seize the gammoning as shown, glue this with ACC again, snip off the extra line. Remember the lines were neat and laid correctly , no cross overs, or mislaid lines, rigging for ships was very neat, and well ordered. Because in the dead of nigh in a storm every sailor had to know what that line controlled and what it moved not knowing got them killed or worse, crippled.
Let’s stop here and admire your handy work. All of the super structure should be in place and looking SHARP. The next few steps should take you through the mast assembly and the yards assembly.
STEP 2
Building the mast and yards Steps 15 through 17:
The Masts The construction of the masts was straight forward but a bit of attention need to be paid to the alignment of the parts as they seem to be off set from the mold. Because of the close duplication of the parts I separated the parts for the foremast, mainmast, and mizzenmast. I made sure to keep them separate in a zip-lock bag. To break it down for you here are the suit numbers:
Foremast consisted of parts numbers 74-84.
Mainmast consisted of parts numbers 85-95.
Mizzenmast consisted of parts numbers 96-100.
I place the lower mast in place on the model but
DO NOT TIE ANY RIGGING TO THE MAST YET, WE WILL DO THAT LATER!
Major Decision Time
This is where you need to make a major decision. Remember earlier I told you that the kit had “little inaccuracies”. Well the tackle and blocks they provide with the kit are too modern. Look at the “triangle” shaped blocks at the bottom of the plastic dead eyes and shrouds provided these are called “Old Style hearts”. These are correct for the period. You need to decide whether to use the incorrect blocks or replace them with the correct ones. I always fall to the side of appropriateness and decided to use them. Only a few of my friends would even know they were incorrect. You can get correct replacements from Bluejacket ShipCrafters. I personally like dealing with a company called “The Dromedary” in El Paso Texas. The size and amount you need to order are the following. You need two style of blocks:
1st. - Thimble blocks (these are single pulley style) about 50, they cost $1.35 per dozen
2nd. Hearts, in the size 1/8" about 200. Make sure that you order triple they do not make a double. They cost $1.35 per dozen also. Triple can serve as double.
If you choose to use the kit blocks you need to paint them roof brown or black. Use your needle reamers to clean out the rigging holes and tie points. Before beginning I usually use up several hours removing the blocks from the trees, cleaning them up and separating them into small containers to easy the use of the small parts without delaying the rigging action taking place.
THE RIGGING
In steps 15-17 the instructions told you to cut different lengths of rigging material to the various lower masts. I ALWAYS add about 5-7" more to what ever they state, this comes from long experience with rigging and trying to tie a knot with barely enough rigging material.
All lines shown in steps 15-17 are called fore-stays and were not simply “tied” to the mast they were seized just like you did to the anchor cable. You need to use the heavy black thread given with kit. There will be times and places that you simply feel that you cannot seize the lines as would be proper, that’s O.K. just knot them and then wrap the extra string around the other line a few wraps then you can coat if with a bit of white glue, once dry paint it black to replicate tar. There are two types of rigging lines/ropes on a ship:
Standing Rigging: are the lines that stay in the same position and did not get worked by the crew on a daily basis. These lines were the main braces for the mast and ratlines, also these lines were coated with tar to protect them from the elements.
Running Rigging; are the lines that the crew members use to move the yards and sails as well as lift the cargo and boats. These line were used every day and were replaced over the course of every year or so.
Knot tying / making because of the scale of the model, the knots you must use to tie up the blocks and other assemblies can be simple overhand knots. If you use ACC glue a small drop at the cross over point is all it takes. When tying a knot on a block, use an overhand first then give a little pull on the “keep side” of the line this will pull the knot slender then place a drop of ACC at that point. It will look much neater than making a full overhand / granny knot.
Turn to page 1 of the instruction sheet on the rigging.
1 Foremast Forestay The instruction are pretty clear on this part, but when you are rigging the fiddle-block, tie the shortest line first, then proceed to the next longest, this way you can control the tension on the lines. Then tie/seize the forestay to the mast.
2 Mainmast Forestay follow the directions but use the method above to keep control of the line tension.
3. Mizzenmast Forestay Same as above.
The rest of the rigging was straight forward and I could find no problems with any of them so follow in order and you should be O.K. However, in step 8 of the fore braces, they ask you to tie the lines to the railing, this would not have been correct, tie them to the pin rail. Also when ever you see two lines going together you need to make sure that you use the correct blocks.
The Yards You need to do a bit of additional work of rigging the yards that is not shown in the instructions. You need to rig up foot ropes for the sailors to use when working the sails. For some reason this step always seems to be left out of most model kit rigging instructions. To make foot ropes you can tie a piece of string (use black) from one side to the other of the yard using one of the small crew members as a gauge for the correct height. If the yard is a long one you need to tie the rope from the ends to the middle and then tie another one from the middle to the other end, making sure you cross at the middle so the crew member can reach the other foot rope. Check out this site for a good drawing and further info.
http://www.crewdog.net/ship/rose/aloft.html
http://www.crewdog.net/ship/rose/work.html
The Sails and their Rigging:
The plastic sails that were supplied with the kit were in such bad shape they could not be saved.. I have never like the plastic sails that came with any ship model kit I’ve ever bought, I either have a set made by a local seamstress or rig the model in “Port” with the sails removed.
To make a set of sail seems hard but it is not, buy some sail cloth at a local fabric store, trace the sail pattern, and use a #2 pencil to draw the reef lines, so the seamstress can follow and put stitching over the lines you drew, it will look just like the sail were made for the model. I have had many a set of sails made this way. They normally run me about $20.00 a set depending on how many have to be sewn.
If you decide to use the plastic sails I would painted them with a flat water base off white/canvas color, ONLY USE WATER BASE PAINT FOR THIS STEP, the regular solvent type paint will distort them. Follow the instructions for mounting them to the yards, rigging them and you’re DONE.