After seeing Docidle's beautiful work I got an urge to do all 3 in small scale. I had just finished the Black Swan & Imai Santa Maria. I built a lot of full rigged wooden sailing ship models but that has been years ago whem my hands worked better. Plastic ships have been a ball.
I wanted to build the 3 Columbus ships with the sails & the big red Crosses as a display. Here is my first the Pinta. It doesn't compare with Steve's (Docidle) but I wanted to get them done quicker.
You can see in the last picture I used a fine brass wire thru the mast to push the sail out to give it good shape. I also cheated on the shrouds as they didn't give me enough blocks to do the shrouds. I just tied the lines off of a single block,
I use a lot of brass wire in a lot of places to strengthen small parts. I most always prime with Dupli Color lacquer primer. I have used it for years on all sorts of plastic models. It is very fine & works great. I spray it from the can thru a short straw into my airbrush bottle. Lacquer primer works fine on plastic . Don't use lacquer paint tho on plastic.
I will be back & show more pictures as I finish them. I am over 1/2 done with the Heller Nina. It is not as nice a kit as the Revell Pinta but is slightly smaller & different. It does have recessed deck lines & that is good. the casting's are not as nice as Revells. The Nina & Pinta in Revell are of more recent production than the old Santa Maria.
My one problem with ship building is I can't tie knots. Even on my old really nice wooden ships & riverboats I had a fit with knots.