topsides completed.

all hull repairs completed. aft gallery/balcony constructed and fitted. all painting and varnishing done. bottom white and waterline to do. acylic paint (revelle) used throughout. all covered with polyeurethane clear satin varnish.

hours 56.

the dreaded triangles.

well, i did them on the port side. this was really hard. originally they were marked out and painted with the cards flat on the bench and the cards fitted to the hull o/c. painting in situ is hard. the results are not as good as roy's efforts but when model is completed my errors will hopefully melt away.

hours 44.

removed rubbing stakes prior to painting triangles.

after much thought have decided i don't have the ability to freehand paint the triangles. they are too small. therefore will have to mask them with tape. in order to get access for tape, removed rubbing strakes. they were pinned, not glued, thankfully. pried them off with chisel, leaving pins behind. pins very small and heads corroded away. managed to remove most and drove the rest flush with hull. then masked off and primed area.

tried using tape with no success, so tried freehand with reasonable results. will look better when rubbing strakes replaced. will take hours.

hours 34.

primer, colour match and rails.

weekend sent priming and topcoating rails and bulwarks. very fiddly and slow. am going to have to get a whole lot better before attacking the triangles!!!

hours 28.

repairs, tops and topmasts.

carried on with repairs. replaced bumpkin reinforcing with 1.5 mm bras rod. stuck down rail capping where sprung. glued in place rib end on port inner gunwhale. repaired topgallant mast top supports. struck down all topmasts to facilitate fitting shroud loops over lower mast tops. finaly gave topsides hull, masts and yards a good going over with dark spirit stain. will start painting tomorrow.

hours 22.

started repairs.

the side boards forward had lost the edge trims and warped badly. gave them a good soak and dried them pressed flat. removed traces of old animal glue and secured them with cyo. one trim, the port upper, was missing so replaced it with card laminated x3. the deck house was in bits. am going to have to do a bit of pen and ink on the sternlight. they didn't have glass that big in those days. i'm making up the names of thing i don't know so they sound nautical. i should know them but have forgotten a lot. i could look them up but can't be arsed.

hours 18.

after cleaning.

last two days managed 4 hours cleaning. used
q tips and weak solution of flash. it's slow and delicate, but the only damage it does is show up
pieces that need refixing.












the nex step is repairing damaged and detached

pieces.

then preparing for re-painting. am going to use

acrylic paints, thinned with water. painting one

side first keeping the other side for a pattern. am dreading doing those tri-angles. the pics don't show the size very well. the model is only 17" long so it's going to be difficult. will try valium washed down with triple g&t. that used to steady my hand pistol shooting at bisley!!!

received the cordage from cornwall model boats.

their service very quick and the product looks

very good.

bought a metre of fine cream callico from the local haberdashers. was going to use linen as the original but on looking at what was available, thought it too coarse for scale.

hours 14.

de-rigging.

today spent more time studying the model, in particular the rigging. i am begining to doubt this is the "santa maria". the plans that came with it show a vessel with much lower fore and aft castles. looking on tinterweb shows a replica "santa maria" not painted at all. i believe this model to be of a much later vessel. hey ho.



after taking many photos of the rigging, making notes and drawing diagrams, i de-rigged the model to bare poles. i left some of the wire bound blocks in position as they were in ok condition. i was surprised to find the yards pinned to the masts. it should make re-rigging a lot easier. will order chordage from cornwall models tomorrow. i got some pure beeswax at the north wales show on saturday.


i pinned sails, blocks and odds and sods onto a
board. item sets such as shrouds i can make jigs
for to speed up the process and get some
uniformity.



i am now in a position to clean everything properly prior to repairs and repainting/finishing.

i think we can call this a major refit.

will have to source some fine linen to make new sails as originals crumble at the slightest touch.
most of the rigging is the same even though it's waxed.

the coloured paint on the topsides comes off with a damp q tip and there is no primer underneath.

i will have to make new bits to set up topgallant masts as all bits missing. rigging of lateen sail will be a bit of a guesS cos its missing and i can find no witness marks to give a clue where it went originally. the plans for "revenge" (which has 2 lateens) should give me fair idea.

hours so far 10

the begining.

santa maria was built by roy tonkinson of willenhall in the early 1950s. roy was a remarkable teenager with a really good future until he contracted hodgkins disease.
he made this model in hospital scratch built from plans. he then scratch built a 1/2 scale copy of a model built by the science museum from plans and photos obtained from one of the curators. the model was of the "elizabeth jonas" built to a scale of 1:48.
shortly after completeing this last model he died. he was 21 years old.

he was my only uncle and i was about 5 years old when he died. i am 60 and my mother has asked me to restore both models. i will do santa maria first.

this model has never been in a case. she is very dirty, her rigging is in some places broken and showing signs of rot. her canvas is very brittle and will almost certainly need to be replaced. the sails were made from a nurses apron. the wood trim has suffered from drying out caused i imagine from central heating and some of the glue (animal)has failed

so far i have removed all bits lying on deck to a safe place and have blown the dust off with low pressure from my airbrush. next need to do test areas to find safe way of cleaning further. also need to decide on how much to re-rig and how much to paint.

hours 4.