Hello all,
I am getting ready to do the Nina and then Pinta by Heller. 1:75 scale.
What do you use for further detailing : making own rigging, cloth sails, etc.
I think any ideas on Photo-etch items would be useful too.[%-)]
Even info for futher kits I’ll make : constitution, victory, etc
Thanks all
Bob
Wow. This is a big topic.
To deal with the simplest part first - I don’t think you’re going to find any photo-etched aftermarket parts that would be relevant for these models. The sailing ship part of the hobby is far behind the warship part in that respect. In all honesty, though, ships of the fifteenth century didn’t have many parts that could be represented effectively by photo-etched metal anyway.
Different modelers have different opinions about rigging materials. About the only point on which there’s general agreement is - don’t use cotton. It doesn’t hold up will, and it reacts extravagantly to changes in humidity. Some experienced modelers advocate linen exclusively; others (including me) like silk. Both of those materials, unfortunately, are kind of hard to find these days. A good, authentic-looking rigging material that I kind of like is the “cotton/poly mix” sold under the Model Shipways label. You can buy it online through Model Expo ( www.modelexpoonline.com ).
As for sails - now, there’s a really hot topic. We’ve thrashed it out several times in this Forum, and several people have posted interesting ideas and opinions. I think most experienced modelers would agree on one piece of advice: throw out the vac-formed plastic ones that came with the kit.
We had a good discussion of the alternatives in a thread headed “Real cloth sails.” I’ve moved it to p. 1 of this Forum; it should appear on the topic list just below this one.
The appearance of Columbus’s ships is, of course, a matter of intense study and speculation. The bottom line is that nobody knows what they looked like. If you’re interested in the topic, though, quite a few good books have been written about it.
For model builders, the most useful probably is The Ships of Christopher Columbus, by Xavier Pastor. Part of the Conway Maritime Press’s “Anatomy of the Ship” series, it presents detailed reconstructions of all three ships - complete with rigging plans. Unfortunately it’s been out of print for some years, but you might be able to find it in a library or a used book dealer. A good second best is Columbus, by Bjorn Landstrom. I’m afraid it’s also out of print, but used copies are pretty easy to find on the web. Landstrom was a fine researcher and draftsman; his books contain reconstructions that, though not as detailed as Pastor’s, would be of great help in building a model. The general subject of ships of the period is covered in Cogs, Caravels, and Galleons, a volume in the series “Conway’s History of the Ship.” That one is in print; as a matter of fact it just came out in paperback.
For the story of Columbus himself, I continue to recommend the great old classic: Admiral of the Ocean Sea, by Samuel Eliot Morison. It’s an old book, but a thoroughly researched and beautifully written one.
The most popular general book on sailing ship modeling at the moment is Historic Ship Models, by Wolfram zu Mondfeld. A new paperback edition of it just came out recently; it should be fairly easy to find. Mondfeld knows what he’s talking about, and the book is full of useful suggestions for newcomers to the hobby. Its one big weakness is that it’s extremely general in its coverage; it doesn’t go into any depth about any particular modeling project. But if I had to recommend one currently-available ship modeling book this one might well be it.
Hope this helps a little. Good luck. It’s a great hobby.
Again, thanks for the kind reply.
SO from what you have written, WIth the plastic kits of columbus’s ships, it pretty much just the kit and changing the sails and rigging. Other detailing, etc is not available. Correct?
THanks again,
Bob
I may have written something misleading. Earlier we were talking specifically about photo-etched parts, which haven’t made much headway in the field of sailing ships yet. But plenty of other aftermarket parts for sailing ships are on the market.
I built the Heller Pinta many years ago, but I’m afraid I don’t remember much about it. I suspect the blocks and deadeyes in it (if any) aren’t very good. (Plastic is a wonderful medium, but it has its limits. A block or a deadeye has to have one or more holes through it and a groove around it. A rigid mold can’t handle that.) The deadeyes for a ship of that period probably would be either triangular or heart-shaped. Various manufacturers sell blocks and deadeyes by the dozen. I’m partial to the britannia metal ones from Bluejacket ( www.bluejacketinc.com ). Model Expo ( www.modelexpoonline.com) sells wood ones as well.
If you browse through the fittings departments of those two online catalogs you may well spot some other parts with which to dress up the models. Logical candidates might be such things as barrels, buckets, anchors, etc. It would, however, be an excellent idea to take a thorough look at a good set of plans first (bearing in mind, of course, that any plans of Columbus’s ships are almost entirely hypothetical). It’s easy to spend large amounts of money on detail parts that turn out to be less than useful.