Nice rigging job. Beeswax is also available in black which I often use for the "standing" rigging, which was usually "Tarred", therefore black. I reserve the light colored wax for the "running" rigging that was a more tan to cream colored cordage. I often dye the running rigging in various strengths of tea to get the color I want. Standing rigging can be done with black thread, but I usually just use the white stuff and run a very dark brown or black magic marker on it before waxing with black wax.

I'm loving this build. I do wood sailing ships, and have never tried a plastic kit, but this build has inspired me to try one. Thanks for posting this Tim.

EJ

that looks great. The sails and flags are surprisingly life like and animated, even the two-dimensional flapping swallow tail pennant.

sorry to hear of your travails, but I also am glad to learn of the bees wax trick and black tarring of standing rigging. thats good information. these threads have gotten me interested in attempting sailing ships in the future.

Beautiful job on the rigging rework Tim!!

Thanks for the comments Eugene, I’m enjoying this build too. I rarely do sailing ships and it seems I’m learning something new at every turn!

Jonathan, you are right, Pyro's molded sails and flags are surprisingly life like and animated. I’ve always wondered why most kit manufacturers (including Pyro) abandoned the practice of molding the sails in polystyrene and went instead for those vacuform things, which are harder to use and never seem to look as good.

Todd, thanks. I always find it hard to bring myself to re-do work – yet it seems to happen at least once in every project!

Looking good Tim...

Good to see the beeswax worked so well too

Russ

Thanks, Russ. The beeswax is working out great - love adding new tricks to my modeling bag!

Having finished with the standing rigging, I am now adding the running rigging (that is, the lines that control the sails). As with the standing rigging, the running lines are not comprehensive but rather consist of a representative sample to present a basically authentic but simplified rig that is balanced with the limited detail of the old Pyro base kit.

To attach these lines I tie simple slip knots on the ends, then loop them around the spars and cleats. I keep the knots on the undersides of the spars to make them less visible. Once in place I fix them with super glue. Lastly, I trim off the dangling ends and brush a little Testors Dullcote lacquer over the attachment points to kill the shine from the super glue.

At this point the lifts, braces, and clews are attached to the fore, main, and mizzen sails and to the various cleats near them. Next I’ll reattach the broken mizzen top with its banner and install the tacks and sheets on the fore and main sails.

This really a fun build to follow. With the right effort and TLC, and old kit can really be made to shine.

I still can't get over the actual size of that model and how much detail you're bringing to it, Tim!

I agree Michael.

These kits are deceptively small but look like lots of fun.

All these little extra touches, Tim, are really bringing them to life.

Russ.

Thanks guys, in the home stretch now!

The Castilla y León swallowtail, which I had snapped off along with the top of the mizzen mast, is now back in place. I still think the two-dimensional pennant looks a little odd up close, but the flags do add some fun splashes of color to the otherwise plain model.

Next came the mainsail sheets – that is, the lines attached to the bottom corners of the mainsail. The kit sails had come with holes here to tie the rigging, but they were way out of scale so I filled them in. Instead, the lines were attached to the sails with dots of super glue.

It may look a little strange that the other ends simply attach to the sides of the hull, but on the real ship they actually passed through small holes called “reeving sheaves” to control points on the main deck inside the cabin aft.

Tim,
Another outstanding effort. I learn something new everytime I check in. I've never heard of the reeving sheaves. Are they a common feature of ships from the age of sail or just on certain classes [or nations]?
Thanks
John

Another masterpiece Tim!

This little kit surely has come alive under your skilled hands!

Great stuff
Russ

I can only second Russ - another masterpiece that you really bring to life

It's really fun watching your build logs on those little kits!

Cheers,
Jan

Tim,
OK, you've got oil paints, flying monkeys, burnt thread and beeswax and the Nina, the Pinta now lets see the Santa Maria! These are really great builds, and they look great. I've done a lot of really complicated rigging on large ships, but they have nothing on these two quick builds you've done. By the way, several of these old Pyro kits are being reissued right now, Ive seen the Half Moon and a US Frigate at my LHS. So keep on building! VR, Russ

Fantastic work on this one Tim!! I'll wait for the obligatory "hand shot" with you holding here...give an excellent perspective of scale!! Just some really solid modelling!!

Thanks John, Russ, Jan, and Todd!

I agree Pyro’s Pinta is a pretty little model, and while my out-of-the box build really isn’t much of a “masterpiece”, the kit does go together well. Not bad for plastic from 1966!

John, I’m learning as I go along too – this is the first time I’ve encountered reeving sheaves. As far as I can tell, they were used on ships of this era because of the high sterns which, even on small caravels like the Pinta, rose well above the lower level of the sails where the sheet lines were. If these lines had attached to the cleats on the upper stern weather decks they would have had to angle up and then bend sharply down over the tops of the rails. The reeving sheaves simplified things by allowing both the main and foresail sheet lines to be controlled from the main deck level, which was about even with the lower edges of the sails.

Todd, you are right, almost there! I just have the anchors to get aboard and she should be done. Completed shots to come (and yeah, probably with my big hand in them too!) this weekend.

Very impressive work and a great example of taking an old, simple kit and turning it into a jewel of a display piece.

Thanks Michael ...but if this is a jewel, it is definitely one with flaws!

Reviewing pictures of the model after finishing up the rigging, I was irritated to discover a circular knockout pin mark on the portside gunwale I had missed when assembling the hull.




Impossible to fix now without taking things apart, I decided my best option was to simply try to hide it:

Carelessly tossed against the gunwale by a sloppy sailor, the errant pile of rope apparently hasn’t yet been discovered by the contramaestre (boatswain).

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

LOL...first thing that popped into my head to do when I seen it!! Awesome fix!!

Clever scale modeler.

You've inspired me to look for a similar project time (because God know, modelers can never have too many!) with Lindberg's Half Moon kit.

She looks great in the closeups! Can't wait to see the three of them all together!

Good choice Michael, the Lindberg Half Moon is a reissue of the Pyro kit from the early 1950s. Cool looking ship, not too many parts. And that one had (if I recall correctly) a colorful paint scheme too. Have fun with it, and be sure to post pictures!

The final detail to go aboard the Pinta was the anchor. The kit was designed to have the anchors glued to small nubs which stick out of the hull, but they looked strange as they didn’t seem to be secured in any way. I added some retaining hawswers to the anchor to show how it was fixed to the hull but otherwise used the part unchanged.


I thought the heavy kit anchors looked a little silly with no stocks and those loops at the top, but they were apparently accurate. Pinta’s anchors probably resembled those of the larger Santa Maria, one of whose anchors has survived and is on display in Haiti at the Museé du Pantheon National Haitien:

Another surviving anchor is from the so-called Molasses Reef Wreck at the Turks & Caicos Islands near Cuba. When it was discovered in 1976, the salvage team boldly announced that they had found the wreck of Columbus’ Pinta. Although this was never proved, subsequent marine excavation showed that the ship was a three masted caravel of the same period and size as the Pinta, and it probably sank around 1513... so it could actually be her! Whatever the ship’s identity, the recovered anchor is on display at the National Museum at the Turks & Caicos Islands :

So Pyro’s anchors appear to have been at least generally accurate after all. The kit parts were still way too thick, but since this was an out-of-the-box build I went ahead and used them anyway. Just for the heck of it, I mounted only the starboard anchor. Spanish 15th Century anchors, secured with natural fiber hawswers rather than chains, were frequently lost – so why not?

With the anchor secured aboard and every inch of sail aloft, La Pinta takes her place alongside her semi-sister Niña!

What a wonderful build. You have inspired me to do a plastic sailer instead of wood. Thanks for posting.

EJ

It was a great little project to follow, Tim. Thanks for posting.

Bellissima!