Lindberg 1/144 Santa Maria

 A few Christmases ago my youngest daughter gifted me the Lindberg 1/144 scale box set of Columbus' three ships. 

I built the Nina and Pinta a long while back. It was quite a challenge to make those very plain and simple models look respectable. And this last one was no exception. 

I had to add a lot of detail. The stern was just a blank, no channels, the super thick flags attached to the masts had to be removed and replaced with new flags. A stern spar was added and the anchor modified. Like the other two models, the supplied cannon were from a much later era so I had to make some short ship bombards to fit the narrow space available. I also added gratings and coiled ropes where I deemed appropriate.

Thank you for stopping by. I'm not sure what I'll work on next, there are so many ideas floating around up there.

Small Lighted Hogwarts Display

 

I decided to take a short break from building ships to make another Hogwarts diorama for one of my daughter's upcoming birthday. This time a small one, only 7-inches in diameter, lighted, and in winter. The basic castle is a 3D print, hollowed out using various drill and Dremel bits. Drill bits didn't work very well for the window holes, so I used a small heated wire to punch through the hard plastic walls. Not all of the buildings are lighted, just the ones I could reasonably get to. The surrounding land and lake bottom is sculpted from foam. The lighting is a 20 count fairy light string powered by two 3V wafer batteries mounted underneath with a switch. The lake is poured resin. The covered wooden bridge, standing stone circle, and Great Hall courtyard palisade and roof are scratch, as well as all of the flocking and shrubbery. Pine trees are painted pipe cleaner bits, and the Whomping Willow is made from twisted wire and foam flocking.

Lots of work went into hollowing out the buildings and towers to place the lights

Testing it out, cool!

After gluing down to the foam base

Mounting the battery pack and switch in the base

You can see the internal lighting through the clear housing. This had the added benefit of wicking the light through the clear round acrylic base

The lake bottom was dug out of the foam. Vinyl spackle was applied in a thin coat over the lake bottom to seal the foam.

The vinyl spackle was applied over the rest of the foam terrain as well, blending the printed parts to the rest.

A Mod Podge mix was applied to seal the whole structure

I resized and printed the Owlery tower from another model to add here

The castle is painted and now the first coats of paint are going on the terrain

I worked hours on this little bridge only to realize.......

It's too darned big for the scale!! Back to the drawing board!

Ah, this one is better

The roof turned out well

This is where the standing stones will go

The inner courtyard roof supports

The outer courtyard facades

The finished courtyard

Looking good so far

Let it snow

Nice glow effect with the base

The lake is poured

You can just make out the standing stone circle to the left of the covered bridge

I have ordered some gold leaf to treat the lakebed contours and rear of the model base at the request of my daughter, so there may be an update post on this.