Sails with the crosses painted in look very good indeed.Cheers
Si
Thanks Si. I always liked the sail markings of ships of this era - they add interest to those otherwise large, blank sail surfaces.
1 Like
Tim, it’s really coming together. I like what you did with the sails. I don’t have an airbrush so I might use your pin washes to pre-shade the seams on the sails as well as on the sail lines over the sail color. I really like the looks of the red and yellow crosses. I think it gives you more control over weathering than the decals provided in the new release. Keep it up. I’m taking notes as quick as I can.
John
Thanks John, I appreciate the comments. You know, you don’t really need an airbrush to do the two-tone sail effect; you can also effectively apply the darker color around the seams with a paintbrush using a stippling action. Doing the same thing with an airbrush is so much easier, though!
1 Like
Another little gem, Tim!
The flags are looking fantastic, even if you know about a few “shortcomings”… And your art of painting even brings such simple old kits to life!
Cheers
Jan
2 Likes
Another little gem, Tim!The flags are looking fantastic, even if you know about a few “shortcomings”… And your art of painting even brings such simple old kits to life!
Cheers
Jan
Thanks Jan!
I’ve begun mounting the sails starting with the main, topgallant, and fore sails. I’ll leave the mizzen and sprit sails off for the moment to make it easier to mount the standing rigging without knocking them off.
5 Likes
Hi Tim,
The sails look impressive in place, really coming together.
Good luck with thhe rigging.
Cheers, Si
2 Likes
Tim,
Love watching you build these kits… not only do you put so much into them, but the discussion is both entertaining and educational. Of course, when you are building more modern vessels you do tend to put as much detailing into the various ships boats as you do in these beauties… heck, you make a ships boat into a major build… so I can see that these are a lot more relaxing. Either way you are building, I look forward to seeing what you do, and how it comes out…
Bob
2 Likes
Hi Tim,
The sails look impressive in place, really coming together.
Good luck with the rigging.
Cheers, Si
Thanks Si - I really like Pyro’s old school styrene plastic-molded “billowing sails.” They look so much better than those vacuform things we usually see in plastic sailing ship kits, and they are super easy to use. Now on to the rigging…
Bwiber
Tim,
Love watching you build these kits… not only do you put so much into them, but the discussion is both entertaining and educational. Of course, when you are building more modern vessels you do tend to put as much detailing into the various ships boats as you do in these beauties… heck, you make a ships boat into a major build… so I can see that these are a lot more relaxing. Either way you are building, I look forward to seeing what you do, and how it comes out…Bob
Thanks Bob, good to hear from you - it has been a while! You are right, I do tend to perseverate on my projects, making crazy-complex assemblies out of what really could be adequately represented by much simpler structures. Still, I find them all - even the intricate ones - strangely relaxing. Thanks for your comments!
Before mounting the sails I had experimented with EZ Line for the shrouds. This line had worked well on my USS Constellation build, but in this smaller scale the flat and slightly uneven width of the material seems to be just a bit too obvious.
Now I’m going back to the same polyester sewing thread used previously on my Niña and Pinta builds. It isn’t as easy to get pulled tight without slack, but it looks good since it is basically miniature rope!
5 Likes
Nice work, Tim.
You’re right, in that case the sewing thread looks a lot better!
Cheers
Jan
2 Likes
Tim, it’s looking good.
i agree with you about using the thread. I’m curious to see what you do with the fore sail. To my eye it looks excessively curved. But a lot depends on where it’s anchored. Also, I’m impressed how you get the thread to stay glued down when you set the rigging. I’ve tried all sorts of CA glues with accelerator on the thread, but I still can’t get it to stay without some type of pin to anchor it. Work your magic, Obiwan.
John
2 Likes
Nice work, Tim.
You’re right, in that case the sewing thread looks a lot better!
Cheers
Jan
Thanks Jan. Sometimes EZ Line works, sometimes not. I do have some concerns about the long term durability of the rubber EZ Line shrouds anyway, so really no problem going back to polyester thread - it is a little harder to work with, but it is a known quantity and definitely stable.
1 Like
Tim, it’s looking good.
i agree with you about using the thread. I’m curious to see what you do with the fore sail. To my eye it looks excessively curved. But a lot depends on where it’s anchored. Also, I’m impressed how you get the thread to stay glued down when you set the rigging. I’ve tried all sorts of CA glues with accelerator on the thread, but I still can’t get it to stay without some type of pin to anchor it. Work your magic, Obiwan.
John
Thanks John, and good eye about that excessively curved foresail!
I only noted the dramatic bends at the bottom of the sail after I cemented it to the mast. Adding sheets (the control lines at the bottom corners of the sail) will be a problem. I think I’ll remove and re-attach the yard/sail at a higher angle to see if that will redirect the sail corners to more a reasonable direction to anchor the sheets. We’ll see… 
2 Likes
Before continuing on with the shrouds I removed the spar/foresail to address the excessive curve of the sail.
Pressing it hard under my finger, the thin molded polystyrene plastic flattened out nicely. To make sure the sail kept at least some of the new shape, I let it sit overnight under a 20 pound dumbbell.
The sail now shows a nice – but more restrained – billowing curve.
5 Likes
Hi Tim, Excellent fix. I had been thinking about a solution and was going to recommend gentle heating with warm water or a hair dryer to soften the plastic slightly. I think your idea is better. Continuing to watch.
John
2 Likes
Tim, how did I miss this?! 
As always you are creating something special out of these old series of kits! 
Kudos, Sir!
2 Likes
I don’t know… All that room-temperature deforming with weights might have fatigued the plastic. What if it blows out during an Atlantic gale? 
3 Likes
Hi Tim, Excellent fix. I had been thinking about a solution and was going to recommend gentle heating with warm water or a hair dryer to soften the plastic slightly. I think your idea is better. Continuing to watch.
John
Tim, how did I miss this?!
As always you are creating something special out of these old series of kits!
Kudos, Sir!
Danie
I don’t know… All that room-temperature deforming with weights might have fatigued the plastic. What if it blows out during an Atlantic gale?
John, Russ, and Danie, thanks!
I actually did have a concern about the strength of the little sail as I pressed it flat… would the 50 year old plastic part reshape or just snap under the pressure? I should really have warmed the material first to soften it, but I got impatient – and lucky! The plastic may be fatigued, but it looks to be still good for the job.
Now in anticipation of those Atlantic gales, I went ahead and began adding the mast stays using polyester sewing thread.
These were attached by first tying the lines, with the knot in the middle, to the mast top and securing each knot with a tiny dab of cyanoacrylate (super glue). The ends were then fixed to the deck edges with super glue and trimmed off.
The mizzen stays were added in the same way.
4 Likes
The shrouds (stays) for the mainmast came next. The previously attached main and topgallant sails looked good, but after trying to maneuver around them to fit the shrouds I ended up just taking them off again to make more working room.
The stays, as the name implies, were there for the purpose of bracing the masts to stay in position while being pulled forward by the wind-filled sails. Beginning with the forward and aftermost lines, I applied these the same way as the foremast and mizzen stays/shrouds except that these were anchored to the outside of the hull along those chain wale (channel) ledges on the hull sides.
The lines were secured one at a time with each covering both right and left sides. This evolution, although simple, required care since they had to be kept gently taught but not so much as to distort that thin mast. Also, the tension on the shrouds had to be kept equivalent right-and-left and consistent with the others down the line.
When done there were nine of these mainmast shrouds on each side aligned with the raised shroud blocks Pyro had molded on the hull. This arrangement matches that of Spanish Navy Captain Fernández-Duro’s 1892 replica Santa María, the ship upon which Pyro apparently based their model kit.
8 Likes
Nice intricate rope work Tim. … I’m having flashbacks to Victory… But yours is soooooo much neater 
2 Likes
Ha ha! I was going to ask something very similar…
3 Likes
Ha ha! I was going to ask something very similar…
No Mark, sadly, Columbus’ 1492 Discovery Expedition was strictly a Boys Club. As for any cavorting that may have occurred among them, well…
1 Like