Background
The dream of having a sailing ship on a shelf, and certainly made of wood, was a long time ago, from early childhood. Once, as a student, I saw a box with a sailing ship on a store shelf, in my opinion it was some kind of galleon, most likely Spanish, but the price, it scared the poor student immediately.
In October 2007, I went to Moscow to the All-Russian Educational Forum. There, at VDNKh, I saw sailboats, albeit parodies. I realized their parody later; then they seemed to me the height of perfection and beauty. I returned to my native province and discovered on the Internet a website selling wooden models sailboats, and said to his wife: WANT! Moreover, there was a suitable reason - shopping new wall, on which there was a place that made it possible to put a small model of a sailboat, it only later became clear that the ship did not fit there, that it was necessary to look for another place for it and make a display case.
The agony of choice began and lasted about a month. The requirements for the ship were the following: a sailboat with three masts and always with a balcony at the stern, dimensions no more than 65 cm. The price at that time was indicated no more than 4,000 rubles (2007). So, based on the availability of models in the store, a choice was made: the San Martin galleon from the Spanish company OcCre. Moreover, the Armada attracted me like a magnet since the 6th grade, when I first read about it on the pages of a textbook on the history of the Middle Ages.
The box arrived quickly, too quickly, at that time the house was undergoing renovations, and I did not have time to collect the required amount, because I expected the order to arrive no earlier than in three weeks. When the financial problems were safely resolved, I rushed to the post office. I didn't think the box would be so big and so heavy, not a single one plastic model It did not lie in such a large box and did not weigh so much (and this is, in general, a very small model). The contents were carefully unpacked under the skeptical gaze of his wife. I saw, in principle, what I expected to see, based on the photos and description of the set. The wife, seeing the “pieces of wood,” said that you would never make a ship out of this.
So, the contents of the set: linden slats with a cross section of 5x2 mm for rough cladding, mahogany veneer strips 0.6x5 mm for finishing cladding, round blanks from mahogany of various diameters for spars (from 5 to 8 mm), ramin planks 0.6x5 mm for decking, disgusting quality with jagged edges and terrible texture (this only applies to deck planks).
The set also contained plywood parts for the frame, saling, bulwark, while the frame was cut with a water jet. The set included metal eselgofts, a boat, cannon carriages and the cannons themselves, made in bronze, a lantern, doors, windows, aft decoration in the form of a horseman figure, pillers, pins, anchors and their rods, covers and frames of cannon ports, pumps. In addition, in two transparent cassettes, there were many blocks, rax-clots, rax-slime, scallops-blanks for gratings. The set contained ready-made sails, which I didn’t like right away, the material resembled burlap, and they were sewn extremely roughly, besides this, the main topsail had a hard-to-remove defect - it was dented due to the fact that it was sewn incorrectly, the wrinkle was exactly in the middle of the sail and crossed its horizontal line. The kit included two turned mars, on the outside, in general, then correct form. All this was completed by flags made of a material resembling oilcloth and having nothing in common with the fabric.
Two large sheets of drawings were included with the set: general form ship, spars and sails, as well as a drawing showing the internal structure of the hull. I liked the good, colorful instructions, made in photographs (traditionally for this company), a pair-list in the form of a brochure, which also included a rigging wiring diagram.
Frame
My hands were itching, so the set went into construction almost immediately. I started, as usual, with the frame. I glued it together in a couple of evenings, spilling the seams with superglue and controlling the angle of installation of the frames to the keel frame using a square. There were no particular problems here. The frame parts fit together perfectly. Then, as instructed, I started laying the deck. This is where the first mistakes were made. Firstly, the false deck should have been marked out initially by drawing a center line (I drew it), and then mark parallel lines with a step of 5 mm (according to the width of the planks of the finishing flooring, but I didn’t do this, but only drew 2-3 parallel lines at a distance of approximately 2.5 cm). That is, it is more convenient to mark all longitudinal joints first. It is also good to apply transverse joints and make a more plausible layout of the boards, say in three boards, and not as shown in the "native" drawings.
Secondly, after marking, the deck would have to be glued immediately, and only then the flooring would have to be done, contrary to the instructions.
It was not possible to carefully make the flooring, imitating transverse joints on it, now this is not surprising, since main reason there was the use of “the wrong glue”, I initially just used carpentry PVA, but it dries longer and does not glue very well. About a miracle called Moment-carpenter, I did not know then. The deck was torn off several times until I moved almost all the ramin slats intended for decking. I had to go for a simplification, spit on the transverse joints and make the flooring a solid rail, imitating stud corks with toothpicks. The flooring was made from linden rivers purchased here on the site. You see the result in the photo. The deck is the most weak link on my Martin.
Gluing an already sheathed deck is an occupation that does not bring any joy, a sheathed deck bends disgustingly and cannot be fixed with anything except fingers. So a lot of superglue was used.
Along the way, along with the flooring, ruster gratings were made. With that glue, they also did not stick very well, they had to be glued many times.
According to the instructions, the spire is placed after the installation of the afterdeck. It is very uncomfortable. Made it before. Here the first improvement of the set took place. The embossing was proposed to be made from round brass blanks, the set included a square section rail 2x2 mm, I rounded it with a needle file and put embossments made of wood.
On the afterdeck there is a “booth” under which there is a calderstock for steering, there was no steering wheel in the 16th century. This booth was also completely sheathed with mahogany planks, contrary to the instructions. The vertical bars on the window of this booth were replaced with wooden square ones.
Next came the turn of the bulwarks. The instruction suggests simply painting them with reverse side. I tried to do this with the Nut Biotex. It turned out well, but still I decided that it would be better to cover them with the same wood as the outside of the body. I thought for a long time. There seemed to be enough material for everything. Therefore, I first sheathed the bulwark from the inside, and only then glued it. When gluing, superglue was again used.
Now came the turn of the most terrible and terrible thing for me - rough cladding. I was afraid of her due to my absolute lack of experience in bending wood. After reading a series of articles for beginners, I began this terrible procedure with prayers. I bent the planks of the rough sheathing, soaking them in ammonia from the pharmacy, and then soaking them in boiling water, periodically using an iron in this procedure. The result was very sloppy with numerous cracks and dips. It’s good that after reading articles for beginners, I thought of grinding off the keel frame in the area where the sternpost will be, so I had to sand less later. I attached the rough sheathing to the same carpentry PVA, nailing it to the power set with nails from the kit. The nails in the set are very high quality and do not bend, so I did not use a nail, but simply the smallest hammer that I could find.
Problems arose when the rough sheathing slats cracked when nails were driven in. If you did not first drill a hole with a drill, they almost always cracked; a drill did not always solve this problem. Some slats were overdried and cracked if the cap was slightly inserted into them. Then superglue was used, and the crack was filled with it and PVA. At the same time, the nail was removed and, after the glue had dried, hammered in again. For what? Now I don’t know why, but then I thought it was necessary. The hardest part was in the bow, it was there that bending work was required; in the stern the slats bent themselves. And of course, you must follow the principle: rack on the starboard side, rack on the left side, etc.
After finishing the sheathing, all the nails were removed, as they interfered with the finishing of the sheathing. Now I will never use carnations! There are more progressive techniques, for example, iron!!! And it’s faster and easier and you don’t have to remove the cloves.
The rough sheathing was puttied with ordinary acrylic wood putty AQUA, purchased at a regular hardware store. Then it was sanded and the body took shape, the defects of the rough plating were removed.
The design of the metal ports is such that they have a square protrusion on the back side. So, as you can see in the photo above, all 32 ports were cut (another two on the transom). To do this, a template for the location of the ports was taken from the drawing attached to the model onto an A4 sheet, then with its help the ports were marked and cut on the body of the model. The most difficult stage for me was over. Well, that's what I thought then, at least.
Before starting the final trim, I again deviated from the instructions. I glued the keel and stem with the knyavdiged until the final skin was finished. I thought for a long time how to close the layers of plywood and did not come up with anything better than how to paint them in Brown color. Tamiya paint was used for this. Not the best solution.
Then the finishing work began. There were no particular problems here, especially since I finally decided to try the iron. First I covered the transom. I cut everything and proceeded to sheathing the sides, first laying a pair of rails from the left and right sides, guided by the master rail - the rail of the draft skin, from which the sides began to be sewn, it is thicker than the rest of the rails of the draft skin and there were grooves under it in the frames, so that these slats were located absolutely symmetrically.
Then the finishing work went like clockwork. I sheathed the ship, departing from the instructions. The location of the planking slats below the waterline is completely inconsistent with reality. All slats should be parallel to each other and perpendicular to the stem. In addition, the slats to the bow and some to the stern need to be narrowed. Adjusting them is sometimes troublesome, but the game is worth the candle.
In the area of the sternpost, the planks form triangular-shaped gaps. They must be closed with triangular inserts (in fact, the inserts should be trapezoidal).
When doing the finishing trim, after gluing each plank, when the glue had not yet completely dried, I ran fine sandpaper along the seam. Sawdust, getting into the seam, filled possible defects, this protected against white bald spots. All the same, before finishing the plating, it is better to paint the body with a paint of a suitable color, matching the color of the finishing plating.
At the end the finishing skin was sanded. The operation did not take much time, since rough sanding was performed after gluing each plank.
After completing the rough plating, I began work on the bow of the ship. On galleons, the latrine was simple and did not have any regels, figures or other frills. The problem was only in fitting his deck. Although, it seems to me, according to the logic of things, there should be a lattice. But I didn't bother. I adjusted the standard part, pre-sheathing it. The part went into place with no problems. From below, I added beams to it, which, in theory, should have been.
Then proceeded to gluing the bow guard. Fortunately, at this stage, our household stores finally have a moment-carpenter. Otherwise, I don't know what I would do without it. To improve the fit of the fence, I chamfered the back of the part, then held it for a long time, about 20 minutes, until the part stuck. The latrine was ready. Admiring the result and, sighing heavily, proceeded to the velvet and gunwale
To be continued......
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Background
The dream of having a model of a ship on a shelf, and certainly made of wood, has been around for a long time, since early childhood. Once, when I was a student, I saw a box with a sailing ship on a store shelf, in my opinion it was some kind of galleon, most likely Spanish, but the price immediately scared off the poor student.
In October 2007, I went to Moscow to the All-Russian Educational Forum. There, at VDNKh, I saw sailboats, albeit parodies. I realized their parody later; then they seemed to me the height of perfection and beauty. I returned to my native province, discovered the “Shipyard on the Table” site on the Internet, there was a store on it, and I told my wife: I WANT IT! Moreover, a suitable reason was found - the purchase of a new wall, on which there was space to put a small model of a ship. It was only later that it became clear that the sailboat did not fit there, that it was necessary to look for another place for it and make a display case.
The agony of choice began and lasted about a month. The requirements for the ship were as follows: a sailboat with three masts and always a balcony at the stern, length no more than 65 cm. The price at that time was indicated no more than 4,000 rubles. So, based on the availability of models in a local store, the choice was made: the San Martin galleon of the Spanish company OcCre. Moreover, the Armada attracted me like a magnet since the 6th grade, when I first read about it on the pages of a textbook on the history of the Middle Ages.
Kit
The box arrived quickly, too quickly, at that time the house was undergoing renovations, and I did not have time to collect the required amount, because I expected the order to arrive no earlier than in three weeks. When the financial problems were safely resolved, I rushed to the post office. I did not think that the box would be so big and so heavy, not a single plastic model lay in such a large box and did not weigh so much (and this is, in general, a small ship model). The contents were carefully unpacked under the skeptical gaze of his wife. I saw, in principle, what I expected to see, based on the photos and description of the set. The wife, seeing these “pieces of wood”, said that you would never make a ship out of this.
San Martin OcCre. Set Contents
So, the contents of the set: linden slats with a section of 5x2 mm for rough sheathing, mahogany veneer strips 0.6x5 mm for fine sheathing, round mahogany blanks of various diameters for spars (from 5 to 8 mm), ramin strips 0.6x5 mm for deck slats, of poor quality with jagged edges and terrible texture (this only applies to deck slats).
The set also contained plywood parts for the frame, saling, and bulwarks. At the same time, the frame was cut in a way that I do not understand, on laser cutting does not look like it, there is no characteristic charring, but not mechanically too (this is cutting with a jet of water). The set included metal eselgofts, a boat, cannon carriages and the cannons themselves, made in bronze, a lantern, doors, windows, aft decoration in the form of a horseman figure, pillers, pins, anchors and their rods, covers and frames of cannon ports, pumps. In addition, in two transparent cassettes, there were a lot of blocks, rax-clots, rax-slime, scallops-blanks for gratings. The set contained ready-made sails, which I immediately did not like, the material resembled burlap, and they were sewn extremely rough. In addition, the main topsail had an intractable defect - it was dented due to the fact that it was sewn incorrectly, the wrinkle was exactly in the middle of the sail and crossed it with a horizontal line. The kit included two turned mars, on the outside, in general, the correct shape. All this was completed by flags made of a material resembling oilcloth and having nothing in common with the fabric.
The kit was accompanied by two large sheets of drawings: a general view of the ship, spar and sails, as well as a drawing showing the internal structure of the hull. I liked the good, colorful instructions, made in photographs (traditionally for this company), the Part List in the form of a brochure, which also included a rigging wiring diagram.
Frame
My hands were itching, so the set went into construction almost immediately. I started, as usual, with the frame. I glued it together in a couple of evenings, pouring superglue on the seams and using a square to check the correct installation of the frames to the keel frame. There were no particular problems here. The frame parts fit together perfectly. Then, as instructed, I started laying the deck. This is where the first mistakes were made. Firstly, the false deck should initially be marked by drawing a center line (I did this), and then marking parallel lines in increments of 5 mm (along the width of the finishing flooring slats). But I didn’t do this, but only drew 2-3 parallel lines at a distance of about 2.5 cm. That is, it’s more convenient to mark all the longitudinal joints first. It’s also a good idea to apply transverse joints and make a more plausible layout of the boards, say in three boards, and not as shown in the “original” drawings. Secondly, after marking the deck, contrary to the instructions, it was necessary to immediately glue it, and only then lay flooring on it.
It was not possible to carefully make the flooring, simulating transverse joints on it. Now this is not surprising, since the main reason was the use of the “wrong glue”; initially I just used carpentry PVA, but it takes longer to dry and does not glue very well. I didn’t know about the miracle called “Moment-Joiner” at that time. The deck was stripped several times until I had almost all of the decking slats removed. I had to simplify things, spit on the transverse joints and make the flooring with a continuous strip, simulating the plugs of studs using toothpicks. The flooring was made from linden rivers purchased here on the site. You can see the result in the photo. The deck is the weakest link on my Martin.
Gluing an already sheathed deck is an activity that does not bring any joy. The sheathed deck bends disgustingly and cannot be fixed with anything except your fingers. So a lot of superglue was used. Along the way, ruster gratings were made along with the flooring. They also didn’t stick well with that glue; they had to be glued many times.
According to the instructions, the spire is installed after installing the poop deck. It is very uncomfortable. Made it before. Here the first improvement of the set took place. It was proposed to make the embossments (handles) from round brass blanks; the kit included a 2x2 mm square strip, I rounded it off with a file and installed the embossments from wood. On the poop deck there is a “booth” under which there is a calderstaff for steering the steering wheel; there was no steering wheel in the 16th century. This booth was also lined entirely with mahogany slats, contrary to the instructions. The vertical bars on the window of this booth were replaced with square wooden ones.
Next came the turn of the bulwarks. The instructions suggest simply painting them on the reverse side. I tried to do this with the Nut biotex. It turned out well, but still I decided that it would be better to cover them with the same wood as the outside of the body. I thought for a long time. There seemed to be enough material for everything. Therefore, I first sheathed the bulwark from the inside, and only then glued it. When gluing, superglue was again used.
It was the turn of the most terrible and terrible for me - the rough skin. I was afraid of her because of the absolute lack of experience in bending wood. After reading a series of articles for beginners, I began this terrible procedure with prayers. I bent the planks of rough sheathing by soaking them in ammonia from a pharmacy and then soaking them in boiling water; periodically an iron was involved in this procedure. The result was very sloppy with numerous cracks and dips. It’s good that after reading articles for beginners, I thought of grinding off the keel frame in the area where the sternpost will be, so I had to sand less later. I attached the rough sheathing to the same carpentry PVA, nailing it to the frames with nails from the kit. The nails in the set are very high quality and do not bend, so I did not use a nail, but simply the smallest hammer that I could find.
Problems arose when the rough sheathing slats cracked when nails were driven in. If you did not first drill a hole with a drill, they almost always cracked; a drill did not always solve this problem. Some slats were overdried and cracked if the cap was slightly inserted into them. Then superglue was used, and the crack was filled with it and PVA. At the same time, the nail was removed and, after the glue had dried, hammered in again. For what? Now I don’t know why, but then I thought it was necessary. The hardest part was in the bow, it was there that bending work was required; in the stern the slats bent themselves. And of course, you must follow the principle: rack on the starboard side, rack on the left side, etc.
San Martin OcCre. The rough lining is coming to an end. You become confident that a pile of pieces of wood will turn into a beautiful ship
After finishing the sheathing, all the nails were removed, as they interfered with the finishing of the sheathing. Now I will never use carnations! There are more progressive techniques, for example, iron!!! It’s faster, easier, and you don’t have to remove the cloves.
The rough sheathing was puttied with ordinary acrylic wood putty AQUA, purchased at a regular hardware store. Then it was sanded and the body took shape, the defects of the rough plating were removed.
San Martin OcCre. The rough sheathing is ready and sanded, all that remains is to slightly trim the bulwarks
The design of metal cannon ports is such that they have a square protrusion on the back side. Therefore, as you can see in the photo above, all 32 gun ports were cut (two more on the transom). To do this, a template for the location of the ports was taken from the drawing onto an A4 sheet, then with its help the ports were marked and cut on the model body. The most difficult stage for me was over. Well, that's what I thought then, at least.
Before starting the final trim, I again deviated from the instructions. I glued the keel and stem with the knyavdiged until the final skin was finished. I thought for a long time about how to cover the layers of plywood, and I couldn’t think of anything better than painting them brown. Tamiya paint was used for this. Not the best solution.
Then the finishing work began. There were no particular problems here, especially since I decided to try the iron. First I covered the transom. I trimmed everything and started covering the sides, first laying a pair of slats on the left and right sides, guided by the rail (in the instructions it is called the master rail) of the rough sheathing, from which the sides began to be sewn. It is thicker than the others and the manufacturer made slots under it in the frames (which is very convenient and greatly facilitates the start of rough sheathing). So these slats were positioned absolutely symmetrically.
Then the finishing work went like clockwork. I sheathed the ship, departing from the instructions. The location of the planking slats below the waterline is completely inconsistent with reality. All slats should be parallel to each other and perpendicular to the stem. In addition, the slats towards the bow and some towards the stern need to be narrowed. Adjusting them is sometimes troublesome, but the game is worth the candle.
In the area of the sternpost, the slats form triangular-shaped slots. They must be closed with wedge-shaped inserts. When doing the finishing trim, after gluing each plank, when the glue had not yet completely dried, I ran fine sandpaper along the seam. Sawdust, getting into the seam, filled possible defects, this protected against white bald spots. All the same, before finishing the casing, it is better to paint the body with paint to match the color of the finishing casing. Finally, the finishing trim was sanded down. The operation did not take much time, since rough sanding was performed after gluing each plank.
After completing the plating, I began work on the bow of the ship. On galleons, the latrine was simple and did not have any regels, figures or other frills. The problem was only in fitting his deck. Although, it seems to me, according to the logic of things, there should be a lattice. But I didn't bother. I adjusted the standard part, pre-sheathing it. The part went into place with no problems. From below, I added beams to it, which, in theory, should have been.
Then proceeded to gluing the bow guard. Fortunately, at this stage, Moment-Joiner glue finally appeared in our hardware stores. Otherwise, I don't know what I would do without it. In the back part, to improve the fit of the fence, I chamfered it, then held it for a long time, about 20 minutes, until the part stuck. The latrine was ready. After admiring the result and sighing heavily, he began to work on the velhouts and gunwale.
Due to the thickness of the planks, this is not an easy task. Steam solved the problem! Somehow they didn’t bend very well with ammonia. There was not enough material, I had to buy more on the website, in addition, the material was very different in color. So, having bent the velkhouts over steam and outlined their position with a pencil, I started gluing them. I secured them with nails from the kit that remained in the velhouts. Maybe they are slightly oversized, but after looking, I calmed down. Perhaps they should have hammered more cloves between them and bit off the caps. In general, the design of velhouts is flawed: velkhout is the same sheathing board, only thicker, and in my version, as in the instructions, it turned out that the velkhouts intersect the joints of the boards, but then I didn’t figure out how to do it differently because bow design. I highly recommend Martin and similar galleons to all builders. His .
Vertical fenders are not difficult to install. Using a knife along a ruler, a slot was made in the velvets, then a fender, previously cut to length, was inserted into it. It was given its final shape after installation. Everything was glued together by the Joiner Moment.
The gunwale was bent using ammonia, in several stages flat surface with a shape pre-drawn on it, repeating the bend of the bulwark. In my case it was cutting board, whistled by his wife. The gunwales bend there only in the horizontal plane, so after bending there were no problems with gluing. Along the way, ports were also installed. The result is in the photo.
Before varnishing, I made dowel strips on the latrine. Massive racks, made of a 4x4 mm square strip, were inserted on metal pins; the dowel strip was also inserted on pins, only thinner. It was all glued together with Secunda glue.
The body was varnished as follows: the body was cleaned of sawdust using a brush and acetone. First I cleaned it with hard bristles, then soft ones, blew everything out, wiped it with acetone and coated it with NC furniture varnish with a brush. It dries quickly. The fact is that ever since I started aircraft modeling, I don’t recognize anything that takes a long time to dry. The result was not bad, but it was shiny. That’s why I bought the matte Tamiya aerosol, it gives the surface a smooth matte look. I like it. Everything was varnished like this: the boat, the spar.
The assembly of the ladders and the installation of dowel plans on the sides were carried out according to the instructions. Only the dowels themselves were replaced with nut ones purchased on the website. True, 6 pieces were not enough, and how did I count?!! I had to cut it myself from a round blank with a cross-section of 2 mm, also purchased on the website for the boat oars and carriage axles. The dowel strips on the sides and behind the masts were installed on pins made from large paper clips and glued with Sekunda. I only made adjustments to the design of the dowel strips behind the masts. The planks themselves were made of walnut, and not plywood, as in the kit. Among the problems I can note is the difficulty of drilling holes for the dowels; the rail constantly tends to split. So I first soaked them in Secunda, then gave them the required form and sanded it with sandpaper to remove traces of glue. After this treatment, drilling the planks was much easier; they did not split. Now there were windows and a balcony on the building. The windows from the set were made of “blind” metal and categorically did not suit me. It was decided to remake them. After much experimentation, I made windows according to the following scheme:
A 2x8 mm dark walnut strip was taken and lightly processed sandpaper to reduce its thickness, then it was impregnated with superglue (so as not to crack during processing). From the resulting workpiece, a workpiece was cut out using a knife and files (mostly round and flat) (Fig. 1). Then this blank was cut and glued, as shown in Fig. 2 and 3. A strip of suitable width and thickness was glued to the bottom, which was then filed down and cut (Fig. 4). The end result was a finished frame.
It was necessary to make a grid, which was the case on ship windows of that period. For this purpose, I ground down a 2x8 mm walnut strip almost to zero, first on a coarse sandpaper, then polished it on a finer one. I didn’t measure the resulting width, but I think it’s somewhere around 0.2 - 0.3 mm. From this blank I cut the “sticks” of the future mesh with a regular razor blade. I pasted them in equal increments, first in one direction, then in the other, perpendicular to the previous one. This process and result are clearly presented in the last three illustrations. Glazing was carried out using a small amount of superglue. The material of the set itself (celluloid in which the stand was packaged) was used as glass. The windows were glued into holes pre-cut on the body in the shape of a “piece of glass”; if they are not cut through, it is impossible to glue the windows tightly with the frame to the body.
Initially, the windows were installed a little low, probably not critical, but I decided to redo it. I tore off two strips of finishing trim (with prayers) from the last fender in front of the stern to the stern and also two strips on the stern. Then I glued new planks, sanded and varnished. It turned out darker, since the ship was standing on the window and was fading under the sun. This is what explains the surprisingly even and uniform color of the velhouts, fenders and gunwale. But this operation made it possible to raise the windows higher. Their upper edge was now located at a height of 2 cm above the balcony platform.
After the alteration, the velvet running from the fender to the stern will disappear, and the windows themselves will be higher. Now the height of the upper edge of the windows above the balcony platform is 1.5 cm
The upper side square windows were made in approximately the same way. Only the frame on them was simpler - square, made of four slats. It was glued together, not cut.
The balcony was made almost according to the scheme, but there were some changes here: according to illustrations from the book “War at Sea. Spanish Galleons 1530 - 1690” the balcony should be inclined and located in accordance with the sheerness of the deck. Therefore, I installed the platform itself not according to the instructions, laying it directly on the velhout. To do this, it had to be slightly bored. The pillars for the balcony railing, as well as the other railings on the galleon model, were replaced with turned walnut ones purchased on the website. This type of fencing looks much better than just painted “white metal” pillars from the kit. All pillars, both on the balcony and on other fences, are mounted on metal pins made from paper clips. The bases of the pillars had to be sharpened to accommodate the slope of the balcony platform.
Finally it was the turn of the stern decoration: the figure of some saint on a horse. I painted it in the same color scheme, as on the flag. I glued it with superglue.
Separately, I would like to mention the stern beam (I still haven’t figured out what it is called correctly). It should not be attached according to the instructions, but made as long as possible and glued to the keel frame inside. Then it will be strong. Until I did this, dragging the model from place to place in the cramped space of my one-room apartment, I broke this part several times and was exhausted from gluing it up.
The final touch is the rudder feather. The stock steering wheel didn't suit me. I ground it down almost to zero, leaving a millimeter of thickness, and covered it with walnut strips. I slightly changed the shape of the steering wheel. I remade the hinges on the steering wheel from brass. Well, nails can’t get into the cracks between the boards! And the board cannot hold itself up with prayers alone! The hinges on the sternpost are standard, from the kit. I hung the chain a little differently. I didn’t make an eye on the steering wheel, but simply drilled a hole and pulled the chain through it.
The brig "Mercury" was launched on May 7 (19), 1820. And it was an 18-gun, two-masted sailing warship. In May 1829, under the command of captain-lieutenant Alexander Ivanovich Kazarsky, the brig won a brilliant victory in a battle with two Turkish battleships, how he immortalized his name and for which he was awarded the stern St. George flag. Brig "Mercury" is one of the most famous sailing ships, the canvases of many painters, including Aivazovsky, are dedicated to his feat.
It is not for nothing that the Italian company Amati began to offer a model of the Mercury ship, which became the first model of a Russian sailing ship. With extensive experience in designing sailboat models, Amati offers a stacked hull design made from laser-cut MDF frame parts. This, unlike plywood parts from other kits, ensures the absence of propellers, required thickness and ease of further processing. Full double cladding is made of linden slats and dark noble walnut. Unlike other sailboat models, here Amati for the first time used the technology of laser drawing of the deck flooring with drawing of all the insets, waterways, hatches, correct bends and narrowing of the deck slats. Moreover, laser engraving of the flooring was also carried out on the lower deck of the brig "Mercury". The bulwarks are already provided with cut-out cannon and oar ports, which greatly facilitates the assembly of the model. The magnificent multi-layered decor of the side and rear galleries is made by photo-etching from several details, including the coat of arms of the Russian Empire. Good detailing of deck elements, hatches, drawers, grilles, spire - all this is at the level of the latest and best Amati developments. Below the waterline, the hull of the brig can be sheathed with copper sheets supplied in the kit, and the copper sheathing is of very high quality, with imitation nails. An entire chapter in the assembly instructions is devoted to the topic of copper plating. This model is the first to have a standard mechanism for moving the steering wheel from the steering wheel. That is, when turning the steering wheel, the steering wheel will also turn through the system of blocks. The armament of the Mercury brig model consists of 18 carronades, each of which is mounted on wooden machine, consisting of more than a dozen wood and photo-etched brass parts. Like the carronades, the brig's two cannons are mounted on wooden lathes. The model is especially proud of the kit boats (longboat and boat): each boat is a small full-fledged project, the boats are assembled on a kit hull, have two skins made of walnut slats 2 mm wide, the boats are decked, cans are attached, rowlocks are made, oars and an anchor are placed -cat. If desired, the smaller of the boats can either be hung behind the brig on crane beams, or placed on top of the longboat on special keel blocks. The model of the brig "Mercury" was the first model we have seen where spare spars need to be made and placed near the boat. At the request of our forum participants, Amati has prepared and applies ideal rounded one-, two- and three-pulley blocks made of pear only for this model. For the spar there are round blanks made of dark walnut, and for the rigging there are threads of two colors and several diameters. St. Andrew's flags complete the model. Good assembly instructions complement the set of seventeen large sheets of drawings. Although the model seems complex, due to detailed diagrams, good scale and fit of parts, Amati recommends it even to beginners. And here we agree with Amati. We absolutely do not regret that we waited several years for the release of this particular model of the Mercury brig. In addition, we have completed and are pleased to include a translation into Russian of instructions for assembling this sailboat model.
