Nina, Pinta & Santa Maria by Revell

 Steve, this is my new Wasa, the Airfix one & I am getting ready to do the rigging including those pre made shrouds. They look like they will work nice. Here are my first pictures of it . The Airfix kits build up real nice. I have more work to finish on the gold painting. No way I could paint those little figures like the original was.

  I just put it on the oak base today . I have a bunch more now finished for my other Nina, Pinta & Santa Maria & Mayflower.

   I am now looking for the Airfix St Louis. I'll have to ask WarshipGuy. I really have enjoyed these little ship kits more than anything in a while. I love fighter planes to build because I was around a lot of the earlier planes & knew a lot of the great pilots. I like cars, especially Ferrari's . I saw all the early great drivers in them, Phil Hill Pedro Rodericues (?) & on & on. 

gene I just started a new thread my armada , as 1943mike has only just taught me how to post pictures , I didn't have any other build photo's ,I am not a natural like davidk , but I am improving with every build

steve5

 Don, I saw pictures of the Pinta & it did have square sails & a lanteen rear sail. It was bigger, but not that big. I believe they had the Nina too. It was square rigged. For all the ships I have built & books I have on ships, I don't really know the terminology of ships. 

    My brother was a WW2 battleship sailor & he got right & left all screwed up He was great with Port & Starboard tho, except not many people know them.

 Steve, I am anxious to see more of your ships. Have you seen Britmodelers Airfix Wasa ? He did a super paint job on all those little figures. I will do gold because they are so small. I did put a lot of color in it too.

    The red paint, I had to mix Red Brown with Tamiya red to get a duller red. Tamiya red does not cover good in brushing. I put a good coverage of white lacquer primer on the top part of the Wasa so I could use it as a finish. Then I painted all the yellow line & went in & brushed the red all over where needed. Yellow does cover good for touch up over the red.I use Tempara black in all the places where black was needed, 2 coats to cover. When it was dry I used a Q tip in water to wipe off any extra black Tempara. Then I hit the red, yellow & black with a mix of clear & dull coat. That seems to even out all the paints. 

  Tempara is great for a lot of places on a model, then wipe off any over age & seal with clear lacquer dull or gloss. I used it on submarine models for the drain holes etc.

   Where can I find your ship pictures Steve ? I wanted the Airfix kit over the Revell, which is a much better kit I an sure, because of the shroud/ratline rigging.I used them on my Mayflower & for the first time they worked great. You do have to play with them to get them tight.

There was a picture in our local paper about a replica of the Pinto touring Wisconsin now- in the St. Croix River.  It sure looked big for the Pinto- had five masts, square sails on three of the masts.  Anyone familiar with this replica?  What do you think of it?

really looking forward to seeing you do this kit . as I have never seen it done , I have done the revel 1/150 kit . it will be interesting to see the difference's , from what I have seen of your skill's , it should be beautiful .

steve

Steve & Steve,  I saw your Soliel Royal Yesterday & hadn't known you did that, beautiful. I want to get back & look at it from the start.

 I am on my Airfix Wasa & am into detail painting the hull already. It is really nicely detailed & is fun. I can't paint it like the original Britmodeler did , but I am using mostly gold. It is pretty. I am real happy with those old thread shroud/ ratline deals as I have learned to use them & is the only way I can do ratlines anymore. Airfix's old kits included them, but not anymore. Got to finish watching a movie now.     Gene

wive's never notice things like that gene , lol .

Steve & Bill, Thanks a lot. I still have a lot of things I like to do, shoot, read, draw house plans, & right now build plastic ship kits. I don't want to get tied up with another wood ship kit. The plastic ones are fun & I can finish them. 

  I wonder if my wife would notice if the table turned blue. It would look good.

both model's are beautiful gene , pity the table isn't blue the wave effect is great .

steve5

I'll second Steve's comments.  Your work is exquisite!

Bill

Thanks Steve, I have really had a lot of fun on these ships. It reminds me of when I was fired up on model railroads. I built 2 10'x18' fully detailed layouts. I built them in the garage in sections & moved them into the house, mountains & all.  They were at 2 different times.

   I started the Airfix Wasa today, but not before I lost the plans. My wife found them where I layed them in the Living Room on a riverboat. I really think the Revell Wasa is better but I got this one on ebay for $20.95 + shipping. It had the thread shroud lines & now that I know how to do them, they will be fine. I would never get the ratlines done with my fingers.

Greetings, Gene. All that I can say is that your Mayflower looks beautiful. I am amazed at your prolific model building. Nice job, sir!

Thank you so much for sharing your work!

I finished my Mayflower today & took some pictures with the sails on. I liked it & on these small ships I like the sails. I shorted it on rigging, but I couldn't get my hands in it anymore. I am ready fo the Wasa.

I have still got to put oak base's on all of them. My son is making them now for me.

 And a couple close up's of my Constitution when I could still rig. 

Gene, thanks for the additional information and clarification. Good stuff!

Steve, I have been building models for 75 years & I still learn a lot from this forum. I prime my models with Dupli color lacquer primer. I like a light gray or white in some cases. They only make a dark gray now so I mx it 1/2 & 1/2 with white.

  If you prime with lacquer you can wipe off acrylic mistake with alcohol. Next time when I am finished with acrylic, I will put clear gloss on it. I can always dullcote what I want to.

 I have been oil washing with artists mineral spirits about 90% over non coated acrylic. I used to use gloss cote over my planes because I didn't want to get them dirty looking, just to fill in the lines. I am going to try some gloss over a ship before I wash it . My 2 favorites for hulls are, mostly, burnt Umber but Van *** Brown is good too. I have been using MM wood tan mostly for my decks, with a wash of burnt Umber. It looks different on a deck color & a hull color. I do use Tam. Deck Tan for gray.

  Thanks to David K , as he gave me some hull colors. They were Dark Tan & Earth Red in MM.

Gene, I have nothing to show. The Mayflower that I am working on is my first ship, and I have a ways to go on it. Maybe Bill is willing to share his work though. I wish he would because I would like to see it as well! 

Bill, show us your Mayflower, I would sure like to see it. You have done some really nice ships. 

Steve, drill your spar's first before you glue them on & then drill & glue the mast later when you put it on. I didn't & it was much harder.  They are on an angle you know. I sprayed my sails first with a mix of deck tan , small, white ,more. desert yellow, light & then sprayed it after it dried with Raw Umber wash this time, & burnt Umber wash last set of sails. I gave it a real light spray of Umber.

   My fingers get real shaky some days. I just hold them down on the desk & away I go. I still want to build my Revell Nina, but first I am excited to do my Airfix Wasa. Look at the one he did on Brit Modeler, forget who, but what a beautiful job.

 Boy, I look at the ships the guys have built on this forum & it blows my mind. I love to see other peoples work. You & Bill show me yours, please.

Gene, there you go. You have provided some good tips. I knew that I was missing something good. 

There has been a lot of dialog recently regarding weathering techniques and I think that this is great! Maybe we won't follow each others processes verbatim, but there could be something in each of them that we can adapt to our own process. Sharing knowledge is a good thing.

That is a really good point about the spars! I remember building the kit when I was a kid and I had a heck of a time getting the spars to hold. I will do your wire fix when I get that far.

Thanks about the CA too.

I am looking forward to seeing what you do with your sails. 

Steve

Steve, a lot of what I wanted to say was in priming with white lacquer primer I can wash off any mistakes with acrylic colors/ Especially when you have a lot of colors. I always used to use MM clear gloss over  acrylic before I washed it.  I have even used Tempara water base paint for some lines & washing & coat it with Dullcote.

    I also drill a small wire thru the spars & masts & CA it in place. It stengthen's the mast a lot. I am going as simple as what looks ok on the Matflower.  The mayflower masts have a weak attachment on them. I have had to brush all the Mayflower & it looks as good as sprayed. I have not had peelig with the MM when it is primed with lacquer. I had trouble with it on bare plastic.

   I also have used the medium 15 or so second CA as it works better with a knot. The thin CA seems to stiffen up your thread more. I use a 1/2 toothpick with a thin wire in it to put on the glue. I do have to scrape them clean a lot. 

I am tieing some extra forward lines to hold the big sails forward. I am more interested in how the sails looks on these little models than correct rigging. It does give them a more realistic look. I have even had to use a thin wire to hold the sail out insted of thread.

Hi Gene. Either way, I am sorry to hear that. You always have interesting things to say...it is our loss. I hope that you have a wonderful 4th.

Steve

Steve, It is not really the Forum, it is me moving the mouse around while I am typing. I do have trouble finding things I want to read, but that again is me. I am not a computer genius.

Gene, it grieves me to hear you are having so much trouble with this forum, and I regret not being able to read what you took the time to post. Maybe another time your can try again, when you are up to it. Or, shoot me an email. Maybe that will be easier for you.

Steve

  Thanks Steve, I wrote a long reply & lost it & am not going to try again now.

Greetings Gene. She looks really nice, sir! Its great to see a finished one. 

I am starting to do the sails on the Revell Mayflower & it is rally a "cute" model. I guess it is allright to say that. I have the Airfix mayflower together & primed too. The detail on the Revell is nice, but I think the Airfix is a better size & might be a nicer kit. Here are some pics of my Mayflower to date & I still have a lot of work to do on it. I really like the shrouds & for me they are sure easier.

  I left off some of the red dash's on the white stripes as that gets too much for my old fingers. This little kit really has been a fun build. I also will go light on some final rigging after I put on the sails. G Morrison, I cheated on the sail tieing again, but I will try to do better on the next one. 

Thank you Bill. It is surprising that you only get worse in a few things & that is trying to spray fine things like German camo. & rigging a ship. Any fine painting with a brush is hard too. 

 I am rigging the little Revell Mayflower now & it is turning out great. I finnaly learned to rig those glued thread ratlines & they look super if you get them straight & tight. I picked up an Airfix Wasa on ebay last night for $20.95 + shipping. It was in perfect shape too. It has the glued shroud/ Ratline's & that was the reason I got it. I am past doing ratlines. I did them on a bunch of big wood models, but that was years ago. The Wasa is the 1/144 big one.

  Since I built the Nina, Pinta & Santa Maria, I really love the small models. They build really nice. I wrapped the masts with thread & put brass tube inside the masts. That really helps. I did it on the Black Swan That has always been my dislike of plastic ships, but I think I have keeping the masts straight under control. I was used to being able to tighten rigging on a wood ship because they did not bend easy.

  Bill, thanks again.

Gene,

I just have to say that I hope that I build models half as good as yours when I am 85! Kudos to you, sir!

Bill Morrison

GM this is part of my 18 plane build.

 2 of the best new models were Revels new German built 1/32 planes & they were about the cheapest. The FW 190 with a beautiful motor.

 And the Spitfire.

They are both around $25 & make sure you get the new Spitfire kit.