This has been an enjoyable “voyage”, Tim! From the construction of the ship to it’s “sailing into the sunset”! Excellent work, as usual.
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This is unbelievably good, imaginative modelling; well done!
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Tim, I think that the two additions to the side panels are terrific and that they “cap off” a marvelous work of art completed by you. The figures, sailors, cat, and now fish, add that "whimsical touch"to the presentation. Any thoughts of adding rats getting off the sinking ship?
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This is one of the more creative dioramas we’ve seen. Outstanding. It keeps bringing me back to this thread. 
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Looking really good Tim, the leaping fish is a great little addition.
Cheers, Si
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Thank you all for your comments, I really do appreciate them!
This project was pretty much finished with the addition of that jumping fish, but a couple of prior perspectives stuck with me:
You might want to add a layer of green algae and white barnacles too, as these grew on ships that sailed on sea for prolonged times. These gave rise to problems with speed, requiring them to be removed (burned off) on a regular basis.
I wonder if, at that scale, you could use texture medium to use its granular effect to be a quick way to simulate barnacles. Ships I’ve seen in dire need of careening have had strands of weed growing out from the hull, but for a ship in motion they’d be flat against the hull, so it’s just painting strands of green in different shades back along the hull. The coatings applied to the hull were intended to fight barnacle and algae growth, along with countering teredo worms (sometimes using toxic materials) but I don’t think anyone through history has made a truly effective anti-fouling coating.
Erwin and Sean, you are correct! I was going to leave the underwater hull as is with just some gloss to make it look suitably wet… but as you have pointed it out, it does seem WAY too pristine for a working ship.
I’d initially built the model “clean” for full hull display on a base, so the underwater hull was simply painted a dark gray to represent the tallow/tar marine antifouling the Spanish used.
Now that the model is in a diorama with the lower hull visible, depiction of marine growth on the underwater hull would be appropriate. I don’t know when the Santa María was last careened before her final voyage, but she left Palos in August, 1492, and by the time she was lost in January, 1493 she had spent at least five months in the water without maintenance. By that time her hull would definitely have shown a good deal of fouling!
I used marble dust “snow” to represent the barnacles. Sprinkled over a fresh application of water-based Behr Polyurethane Gloss, the miniscule grains stuck fast to the hull like, well… barnacles!
In addition to the barnacles, green algae would probably have been in evidence as well, so I brewed up a mix of greens that seemed reasonable. Enamels were the choice here so the paint could be liberally thinned without the solvents disturbing the underlying acrylic paint and gloss layers.
The “algae” was dabbed in uneven patches all over the lower hull. This was followed by a highly thinned green to take most of it off and let the underlying color show through the green filter. I made sure to let a bit of the transparent color creep a little above the waterline to show algae thriving in the upper hull splash areas of common on small ships at sea. Finally, a few very light passes with a sanding stick helped the lighter marble dust barnacles show through. Now she looks like she’s been at sea for a while!
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Great addition and execution.
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Wow, Barnacle Tim! That really does the trick! 
—mike
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Brilliant! Avast matey, I’m feeling a keel-hauling a-comin’ on!
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That, my friend, is a case of pure genius and, above all, brilliant execution!
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Excellent!
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Awesome job Tim! This is a wonderful build/diorama and will look great on your shelf.
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While painting the algae on the hull I also gave the grey-painted fish a thin wash of the green to give him a more “fishy” tone and glossy wet look…
And with that final touch, it is done!
Tucked in my bookcase, the little diorama stands in mute testament to the true story of the loss of the Santa María at the Ends of the Earth!
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Please put that in some kind of plastic cube so it does not get dusty or crushed by a falling stack of books.
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Please put that in some kind of plastic cube so it does not get dusty or crushed by a falling stack of books.
Thanks Doug, I appreciate the concern! The books are pretty stable, and Santa María should be safe enough in the bookcase behind the glass doors.
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Splendid build, all the detail touches, every time I have looked at this spread I have noticed some other little touch. this time it was the flukes of the whale near the stern.
Cheers, Si
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Incredible. I love this so much!!
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