Pyro's Santa María

[Tim Reynaga]

17 hours ago, Courageous said:

Looking very nice. It's great to see what can be done in these smaller scales.

 

Stuart

Thanks Stuart. Smaller scales are actually easier in some respects - you can get away with adding less detail!

 

The topsail is has now been remounted at its adjusted angle.

 

 

Here the lifts which supported the yard are being attached. The mast still needs a little touch up where the white plastic is showing from when I removed the topsail before... 

 

 
After fitting the braces from the topsail yard which converged on the mizzen, the topsail is done. I’m not so sure of Pyro’s kit design here, though; the lookout in the crow’s nest surely couldn’t see forward when that topsail was set!

[Bertie McBoatface]

1 hour ago, Tim Reynaga said:

Thanks Stuart. Smaller scales are actually easier in some respects - you can get away with adding less detail!

 

The topsail is has now been remounted at its adjusted angle.

 

 

Here the lifts which supported the yard are being attached. The mast still needs a little touch up where the white plastic is showing from when I removed the topsail before... 

 

 
After fitting the braces from the topsail yard which converged on the mizzen, the topsail is done. I’m not so sure of Pyro’s kit design here, though; the lookout in the crow’s nest surely couldn’t see forward when that topsail was set!

 

I guess in that case he'd shin up to the topsail yard. 

 

I'm very impressed by the amount of rigging you are incorporating.

 

[Tim Reynaga]

On 11/3/2022 at 9:13 AM, Bertie McBoatface said:

 

I'm very impressed by the amount of rigging you are incorporating.

 

Thanks Bertie!

 

 

 

The foresail rigging was next with the braces (at the ends of the yard) and sheets (at the lower corners of the sail) all tied off at the fife rail at the base of the mainmast.

[Tim Reynaga]

The final sail, the spritsail at the bow, has now been attached.

 

 

Some old books stacked on my desk make a temporary working platform while rigging the ship. I find it easier to bring the model a little closer to eye level as I work on what can sometimes feel like an intricate puzzle!

 

 

 

 

After adding a second forestay, I attached the lifts to it and then added the tacks at the spritsail yard and the sheets to the bottom of the sail.

 

 

 

I’m not sure what they were called, but plans also showed a set of lines going from the tips of the yard to the end of the bowsprit, so I added those as well.

 

 

The rigging is now complete! All that remains is to attach the anchors (one is test fitted here), the ship’s boat, and the swallowtail pennant.  
 

[Tim Reynaga]

 

I had at first thought the sheet line looked ok, but a friend suggested that it looks like the line is seized to the boomkin with no way to take in or let out the sail... and I agree – sticking out back there with nothing around it, it does draw the eye!

 

 
Accordingly, I cut the sheet off and added a little block made from a .028 inch disc punched from .020 inch plastic (for a block about 4 - 4½ inches round in scale.) 

 

 
Attaching the sheet line to the little block, I also rethought having the line go into the cabin. Instead, I reattached the end to pass through the stern bulwark at the weather deck (presumably through a reeving sheave there), and a little coil of rope inside the stern bulwark suggests where the working end of the sheet line is tied off.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Tim, I don't know much about the rigging of this vessel but your alteration to the rigging on that aft boom seems to make sense to me. Regards, Jeff.

[dnl42]

I'm certain this is head and shoulders above anything Pyro every envisioned for this model. 

 

As you're looking at how this works, how did those lads get to the spars or crow's nest?

[Bertie McBoatface]

It just keeps getting better and better...

[Tim Reynaga]

9 hours ago, dnl42 said:

I'm certain this is head and shoulders above anything Pyro every envisioned for this model. 

 

As you're looking at how this works, how did those lads get to the spars or crow's nest?

Interesting question.  Columbus sailed at a time when nautical technology was rapidly evolving with ships getting bigger and crews larger, but Santa Maria was still a fairly small ship with a crew of only about 40 and a fairly simple sail plan. There were not yet the large numbers of sailors working the complex sails aloft like we see in a man 'o war of the 1800s, so ships didn't yet need the masses of ratlines. Some ships in the 1490s apparently began to have ratlines, some not.

 

 

Some Santa Maria references show traditional ratlines on the shrouds, some show only single rope ladders leading aloft. For simplicity sake, I have chosen the latter option! 😆

[Tim Reynaga]

Now to fit the anchors.

 

 

As with many details, it isn’t precisely clear just how the anchors were stowed aboard the Santa María. The 1892 replica ship and most reference drawings show the anchors as test fitted here on the starboard side, but I thought securing the anchors a bit farther forward would have made more sense since otherwise men moving topside would have had to dodge those flukes overhanging the deck.           

 

 

In the absence of any definitive information I went ahead and installed the anchors my way, but it would have been better to have secured them earlier in the build. Having to maneuver through the rigging to tie off the anchor tackle, I couldn’t avoid knocking some of the lines loose! At least fixing the hawser from the pipe to the anchor ring was simple...

 

 

Hawsers attached and rigging repaired, the ship’s boat is now aboard as well.

[Tim Reynaga]

Doing a bit of inspirational reading to keep me motivated as I approach the conclusion of this build, I discovered that most estimates of Santa María’s tonnage place her at about 90-100 tons. However, unlike modern nomenclature, 15th Century tonnage didn’t refer to water displacement by the hull but rather to the amount of cargo the ship could carry measured in “tuns,” or barrels, of roughly 252 US gallons capacity each. The tonelada of the Santa María thus meant she could safely carry about 100 of these large barrels. 

 

 

Anyway, all this got me thinking that it might be fun to include a few barrels on the deck, so I picked up some N and Z scale items. 

 

 

I realize that the cargo would have been safely stowed away below decks, but I reasoned that there might also have been smaller casks on deck for washing or refreshment purposes, so I painted up a few. What really sold me, though, was that each of the larger 3D printed casks would have been roughly equivalent to a half-tun sized barrel, or “pipe” (about 126 US gallons), also known as a “butt.” 

 

 

 

 

 

Now how could I resist providing my thirsty Spaniards with a couple of buttloads of wine? 😁

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Tim, Yes, I understood that tonnage (or tunnage) was a measure of hull volume, not weight back then. Those tuns (barrels, casks etc) are a nice touch on your model. And I refuse to use the word 'Butt' in case it triggers a whole string of off-colour jokes from some of our not-so-gentlemanly members. 😁       Regards, Jeff.

[Bertie McBoatface]

Every time I think you must have finished this, you've made it better

 

[Tim Reynaga]

On 11/24/2022 at 9:59 AM, Bertie McBoatface said:

Every time I think you must have finished this, you've made it better

 

 

Thanks Bertie!

 

The final touch to the Santa María was to attach the previously painted swallowtail pennant to the lateen spar at the mizzen.

 

 

 

And done!

 

 

It is fun to display Columbus’ ships together, but the nao Santa María is clearly out of scale with the caravelas Pinta and Niña. Pyro’s old box-scale models are all the same size, but Santa María should really be half-again larger than Pinta, and Niña should be smallest of all.

 

Still, it is nice to have the little fleet completed!

[dnl42]

That's excellent work! 

 

Head and shoulder above anything Pyro imagined.

[Bertie McBoatface]

Ten out of ten Tim. That's a lovely little fleet. I share your slight regrets about the different scales but perhaps it's a historical curiosity of a different kind. 

 

I'm far more anxious about those two heavy books sliding sideways and shooting all three models over the edge of their world!

[Tim Reynaga]

On 11/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, dnl42 said:

That's excellent work! 

 

Head and shoulder above anything Pyro imagined.

 

20 hours ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

Ten out of ten Tim. That's a lovely little fleet. I share your slight regrets about the different scales but perhaps it's a historical curiosity of a different kind. 

 

I'm far more anxious about those two heavy books sliding sideways and shooting all three models over the edge of their world!

 

Thanks guys! Bertie, I agree about the books... I was simply experimenting with the display, but now you mention it they might just end up being a hazard!

 

Edited November 27, 2022 by Tim Reynaga

[Tim Reynaga]

 

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The scale disconnect does still bother me a bit. I initially thought to display the ships separately to mask the size discrepancies, but the little models seemed to get lost on my bookshelves.

 

 

So for now the fleet is back together again!

[Courageous]

She /they look fantastic. Love the little touch with the barrels. I have ask...what's next?

 

Stuart

[Bengalensis]

As Stuart says; they do look fantastic! Very nice work to bring them to this state from such humble origins.

[Tim Reynaga]

On 11/27/2022 at 10:54 AM, Courageous said:

She /they look fantastic. Love the little touch with the barrels. I have ask...what's next?

 

Stuart

Thanks Stuart! As for what's next...

 

 

...something a little different, I think.

[Courageous]

22 hours ago, Tim Reynaga said:

little different

Understatement, very little wood, no sails, submersible...looking forward to it.

 

Stuart