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Yesss, he's back...

Sooo excited to see the continuation of the Galeon San Salvador

Tissue paper sails? - sounds absolutely crazy and a painful process, but the end result is looking great

 Ruglud wrote:
Yesss, he's back...

Sooo excited to see the continuation of the Galeon San Salvador

Tissue paper sails? - sounds absolutely crazy and a painful process, but the end result is looking great

Thanks for looking in, It was about time I resurrected this thread. I have worked on other projects since the last posting and I believe that this one has been in limbo for too long.

In the making of the running lines, I used the upholstery thread showed here. It is a very strong thread with a tremendous tensile strength, almost like a fishing line. The booms for the sails were adapted to the sails. Through references, there were various ways of running the lines and I tried to make them look feasible. Enjoy and see you all soon with more updates.

That's great I'd really love seeing it finished. I made a ship out of lollipop sticks once. Not as pretty as the san salvador!

 weetyskemian44 wrote:
That's great I'd really love seeing it finished. I made a ship out of lollipop sticks once. Not as pretty as the san salvador!

Thanks for looking in. As a matter of fact, Someone did this model out matchsticks. While it was way smaller than mine, it was also highly detailed for it mini size.

More stuff on the rigging. So far, the rigging is coming along nicely. Enjoy and see you all soon with more updates.

Re worked the Dead-eyes, by using wood instead of card stock. With the card stock, I was getting one good dead-eye out of three. The drilling had a tendency to rip the lamination apart. By suing the wood ice cream sticks. the procedure was more rewarding. The work is going slow, due to the handmade details and the rigging is a monster. I do not believe, that I will try the HMS Victory. Doris has done a fantastic job in that department. Enjoy and see you all soon with more stuff.

Continuing with more rigging details. The center ratlines are coming along nicely. The original concept, was to make the ratlines on a jig. I had trouble aligning the ratlines to the keepers and the length was either too short and loose or too tight and throwing off the other rigging lines and making them limp. Later on in the build I will show how the ladder system is constructed. Enjoy and see you all soon with more.

The new deadeyes are better than the earlier ones made from card stock. While drilling, I hold a piece of a mini spatula to hold the piece inside the jig. If you do not hold the piece down, it will have a tendency to spin or fly out of the jig. The drill, is actually a piece of rod cut from a paper clip. It does not have the drill ridges but when cut diagonally, it leave a sharp cutting edge which will drill out the hole.

The last photo, is of a rigging jig for the deadeyes and threading of them.

It is looking better with each little detail. the rigging is murder and there is much more to do. I added some extra details that are not in the plans but I found them in the references. The rigging as mentioned earlier for the ratlines, will be done while the long lines are in place. I tried the jig method, but I ran into conflict with the notches later on. This method works for me. Once the lines are in placed, they are locked in with a strip of laminated or heavy cardstock. By doing this, the lines seem to come through the spreaders. Enjoy and more is to come this way.

You're not wrong, this is looking totally amazing with all the detail you're putting in. The rigging is mind boggling

 Ruglud wrote:
You're not wrong, this is looking totally amazing with all the detail you're putting in. The rigging is mind boggling

thanks for looking in. This rigging is driving me nuts. I want to continue with something else but I will finish this thread before I move on.


Still working on the rigging. There are more lines being attached that I lost count.

The main mast standing rigging/ratlines are almost done and the sails will be next. The ratlines have to be done first, because if the sails and booms were attached, it would be a hassle trying to attach the ratlines. here are shown a couple of techniques for aiding in the ratlines while attached.

Awesome build, amazing attention to detail.

And the care put in documenting the step-by-step, mind blowing as well as enlightening.

 Littletower wrote:
Awesome build, amazing attention to detail.

And the care put in documenting the step-by-step, mind blowing as well as enlightening.

Thanks for looking in. I also enjoy your build thread on scratchbuilding scenery.

The ratline riggings are finished. very tedious construction. Even thought they were done the easiest way, gluing them in place, it still consumed a lot of time. The upper ratlines for the main mast, were made using the swivel joints from a fishing accessory. For this scale, the #14 is about right. The sails will come next.

So on with more rigging. I looked for references on the rigging of Spanish Galleons and they seem to be rigged different from each other. The mechanics are still the same but they are not as orderly as the English ship of the line which follow a strict order for rigging. I assume, that is were the term ship shape came into use, since the used a uniform flow for the rigging. Enjoy and see you all soon with more details, the anchors and the base.

Now for the making of the anchors. I was going to make four anchors, two for in service and the others in the stowed position. The deck seemed a bit too cluttered with the anchor on it, that I decided to make just two anchors.

That rigging - . Simply astounding, looks so good. Great job on the anchor, has areal solid weight look about it (as it should)

 Ruglud wrote:
That rigging - . Simply astounding, looks so good. Great job on the anchor, has areal solid weight look about it (as it should)

Thanks for looking in and for your kind words. That rigging is why The next ships, will have simpler rigging and less clutter.

The ship is finished and there is just left some minor details and a different way to make that display stand. Like I mentioned earlier, My version has that used look to it, compared to one making its maiden voyage. More updates and soon on to something else.

The galleon is almost coming to an end. It should have been finished over a year ago but it was so detail intensive that I lost the urge for a while. Here are a few updates on the ship, the gun ports. The stand came out great and she looks mighty proud in her display stand but those photos will come later. Enjoy and see you soon with more updates.

With this update, I will show the build of the rudder. It has a laminated center and the outside templates are cut into strips and glued to the inner center, sort of like a sandwich. The hinges are made from cardstock thin strips and using cut straight pins as the hinge pins. The rudder template is from the plans sheet and it seemed a bit to narrow to steer the ship. This maybe one of the reasons that the galleys were a bit cumbersome and slow in their steering capabilities. Added to the small rudder, the galleys were too fat in their bellies and had too much water contact to allow for a smooth flow and get speed to get away from privateers. Enjoy the show and the end is coming soon. See you all soon with more updates and small details.

I have nothing to add that I haven't already said - but this thread is a joy to read

 Ruglud wrote:
I have nothing to add that I haven't already said - but this thread is a joy to read

thanks for looking in and for your comment. By the view counts, There are many out there who also enjoy this thread as silent members. It is here for all and hopefully some of the techniques can transfer over to other models as well.


More updates on the build. this session, is on the display base. I was planning on a full ship length base but opted for the smaller cradle. I used the template from the printed plans as a base and used coffee stirrers to plank the stand.

Man that is an astonishing amount of detail and work.

 Desubot wrote:
Man that is an astonishing amount of detail and work.

Thanks for looking in and your words of encouragement. This ship has an over abundance of details which drove me crazy on some occasions.
I am glad that it is coming to an end so that I can continue with something else.



The small cradle base can also be attached to a longer wood base. It fits good and I did not add a felt strip to the contact edges or to the bottom of the base. I will probably do that sometime in the future but for now it will stand as is. This session is divided in two portions. This split is due to one of my sites will only allow ten photos per upload and this will keep me straight as to what I post on each site. See you soon with part two.

Here is the second portion of the base. I believe it stands out a bit better than the original. As mentioned earlier, my first option, was to make a long base, but this small cradle can also be attached centered on a larger wood base. The next installments, will be on the finished ship. Until then, see you all soon.

And so, another thread comes to an end. I will not say that it was fun all of the time but the effort of building it was worth all the while. Hopefully, all of you who have looked in now and then enjoyed the show. here are some final photos of the Galleon, it could use some more small details but I believe that I will stop here and move on to the next subject. It will be the small Steampunk tracked vehicle. Enjoy and see you all in the next forum.

A fine ship.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And its amusing to see guardsmen in the rigging

Absolutely stunning work. The attention to detail, skill and dedication are amazing.

weetyskemian44 wrote:A fine ship.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And its amusing to see guardsmen in the rigging

thanks for looking in. The 40K minis are there for size comparison. The Minis are almost to scale, and now I have to check EPIC minis to see if there are some that I can use.

Paradigm wrote:Absolutely stunning work. The attention to detail, skill and dedication are amazing.

thank you for looking in and for your kind comment. I am pleased that you have enjoyed the tread. More to come but next will be a Steampunk tank.

Congratulations on a stunning and inspirational build Silver. She certainly is a beautiful scale model and as you say, well worth the time spent on her.

Out of interest (and you may have said this already) but what are the measurements bow to stern?

 Ruglud wrote:
Congratulations on a stunning and inspirational build Silver. She certainly is a beautiful scale model and as you say, well worth the time spent on her.

Out of interest (and you may have said this already) but what are the measurements bow to stern?

Somewhere in the build thread, there is a ruler alongside the model while in progress, But it is about 20 inches (US) or 50 cm.