There seems to be few Artesina Latina kits featured in this forum so I thought I’d do my bit to rectify that, having just restored/repaired it after a recent move. I made it around 10 years ago as a detox from plastic, all wood apart from the obvious other media like real cloth sails. Not exactly a starter kit, laying the hull planking was the biggest challenge but otherwise it was pure fun and went together well. Recommended for anyone looking for something new/different.
This is the Captain’s boat from the Santisima Trinidad, the largest Spanish ship in the combined force engaged by Nelson at Trafalgar. It was captured in battered condition and later scuttled, presumably the Captain’s boat also went to the bottom.
Artesina Latina now offers the big ship to go with my model, it’s over 1 metre long and at least as tall. Am I tempted? Yes. No. Yes. No. Maybe…
Artesina Latina offers two fishing boats in 1/35 scale.
Over the years, I have considered purchasing a wooden model ship on many occasions. They remind me of balsa aircraft and card model ships–exercises in artisan construction requiring a great deal of skill. Unfortunately, the high difficulty also means a high chance of failure.
Last year, I spent time looking for plans to build a cart or stage coach but they were not sufficiently detailed to proceed. Instead, I purchased a cart by MiniArt.
The upper part of the oars reminds me of the joke the docent at the San Diego Maritime Museum made about the capstan on the HMS Surprise (which is way too large for a ship that size, but the director wanted it big to be seen clearly) – you can tell whether a ship was originally British or American by looking at the capstan; if it has square holes, it was British, and if it has round holes, it was American, to reduce the number of decisions American sailors had to make when inserting the capstan poles.
The MiniArt cart I purchased is two axle. My hope was to learn a few things.
How a wagon wheel is put together
How the leaf springs supporting a cart axle work
How the hand break works
How the front axle pivot works
A few wainwrights have YouTube channels. It is possible to find videos of cart and wagon construction from start to finish. It is an exercise in using the minimum amount of material, especially metal, to haul the maximum amount of payload.
A quick eBay search will reveal even more 1/35 scale wooden models including some Napoleanic era artillery pieces, more fishing boats, and a classical Biream warship.
The price of balsa aircraft models really jumped but most are now LASER cut.
Once upon a time, I built a 1/200 scale card model Admiral Graf Spee. The hull was about as complicated as the wooden model ship frame above. Building a hull that remains true is challenging. Unfortunately, it did not survive the passage of time.
OK sorry Doug I mis-carted. One thing about the Capt.’s boat I omitted to mention was that it didn’t require a single drop of paint – although clearly the Big One needs a lot of it and probably many others in the AL range.
As already mentioned it was a very welcome change from plastic. And (unexpectedly) paint too, while retaining the enjoyment of logical/sequential building and scope for minor mods. All I needed was a flagon of PVA/white glue, spare bits of balsa and around 10 scalpel blades of varying designs. The rigging was mercifully basic, so funis-phobics (I am one) needn’t be put off. And the boat (including bowsprit) is 37 cms long, so doesn’t present serious display issues.
I made a balsa Hawker Hurricane in the early 70’s as a kid (approx. 1:32), I have very pleasant if vague memories of building it, possibly because the “dope” used to tauten the strips of tissue over the airframe smelled of pear-drops and mmmmm….it’s a miracle I still have any marbles.
Hmmm…I’ve got a Guillow’s Hurricane in my stash, too. Must be there for at least 30 - 40 years. Can you still get dope (not the smoking kind ) for the tissue?
The proper name for dope is Nitrocellulose Lacquer, used as a clear shrinking liquid to tighten model aircraft tissue and to provide a waterproof, lustrous finish to Balsa wood models. Oh and it’s poisonous and highly flammable, so generally a fun product for minors like me way back when cigarettes were cheap… anyhoo try Googling Model Aircraft Dope
Hello!
I would like to make a comment here as someone who had completed an AL kit. Here’s how mine turned out:
I still am a member of FineScale forums and in its heyday we’ve had a great poster there, Professor Tilley (sadly no longer alive). He used to call the company Artist in the Latrine. After building one of their kits I wholeheartedly agree.
The reason you see so few of their kits built is because they are barely buildable. For example my kit had a lot of factual errors in its plans. I had to read some books on ship building to iron those out and then take the rigging plan from a Model Shipways kit to properly rig my model. Some details, like the chainplates were so wrong it was obvious even on the boxtop photo.
They are very good at marketing so they sell those kits to people with no experience, leading them to believe this will be a perfect first build, and then many of such buyers realize they don’t have what it takes to solve all the problems and complete the kit.
I heartily recommend anyone who wants to build a wooden ship to try, IMO it’s worth doing at least once in a lifetime, but it would be better to choose a kit from some other company. For the first-time builders models with a solid hull are recommended.
Artist in the Latrine priceless. Well OK that is a fair point about accuracy, as a card-carrying landlubber I did take the kit on trust and did zero research - something I’d never do in a million years had it been a plastic kit – go figure, I have no explanation other than this boat was a radical vacation from building cars.
Anyhow I do like the way you displayed yours, is that display case a one-off?
Hello!
At first I would do no research, neither but some things were so obviously wrong, that I wanted to correct them, and the more research I did the more errors I was discovering.
Look at that box art (exactly the boxing I got), at the chainplates (where the shrouds attach to the hull) - doesn’t that look ridiculous at first sight?
And yeah, about that display case… I spent so much time on the kit that I felt it deserves an equally worthy display case so I had it custom built by folks who normally build aquariums. Plus a shelf from a local carpenter.
Only 1 metre? That is not too bad, now is it?
In the Rijksmuseum they have a model of the William Rex. It has been build by ship builders in 1698. On a tv show about museum treasures, they did research for the first time with an endoscope, and the results were stunning: it was build exactly like the original, including the double hull, bunks in the captains’ cabin, cupboards, etc.
For a static display model, there is no need to use dope when building a balsa aircraft. Apply tissue to form the fuselage skin. When dry, dampen a sponge with water and run it gently over the skin. Do not apply any pressure and do not flood panels with water. Apply just enough water to dampen each panel. As panels dry, they will stretch taut. If a panel punctures or comes loose, cut out the section, patch it with more tissue, let it dry, then dampen it.
If I ever build another balsa plane, I will paint it with my airbrush using water based acrylics. I suspect the result will look very good.
Somewhere in a box, I have a balsa Stuka (modified into a G1) and scratch build balsa Klingon cruiser. They were never painted. I might be fun to finally finish them.
I built this ship long ago and did not bother with any research, so I can not argue about its accuracy.
On the other hand, I did not find any construction issue, apart from those derived of my inexperience.
Later on I built also the hull and superstructure of their Harvey without troubles either.
As a newbie, for me it was an enjoyable experience and they looked very nice to my eye, so I can not complain about the brand.
Rigging like this is for me the fastest way back to the padded cell & I was only recently released…
) for the tissue?
