Caravel "Santa Maria" Ship Kit 1:65

historical ship model kit caravel "Santa Maria", an Artesania Latina ship kit made of wood 1:65

History of the original:

Yes, it is perhaps the most important ship in history, as it was the one that Christopher Columbus was on when he discovered America at the end of the fifteenth century, in 1492 to be precise. Santa Maria Nao, erroneously called a "caravel" - the other two smaller ships were actually caravels, La Niña and La Pinta - although the three ships were referred to as caravels in the original documents. Originally, the Santa Maria was called La Gallega, and its owner was Juan de la Cosa.

The adventure did not begin with the discovery of a new continent, but with the search for a new safe route to the Pacific Ocean. The first stop was in the Canary Islands, specifically La Gomera, to collect more supplies and repair the damage that the Nao, built with wood from Cantabria, might have.

On 12 October, after several disturbances among the crew, the cabin boy Rodrigo de Triana discovered "land": first they reached the island of Guanahani, which they called San Salvador, in the archipelago of the Bahamas, until they reached another island, which he called La Española -now Haiti-. On the night of 24 December, the Nao ran aground on a sandbank. The coral reefs destroyed the hull of the boat and the crew had to climb onto La Niña. In this context, it was rumoured that Columbus was interested in this sinking in order to return to Castile, as he had not found any gold and was trying to deceive the Catholic kings. Eventually, using the materials left over from the sinister Santa Maria nao, they built the Christmas fortress with a palisade, making them the first Europeans on the new continent.

Columbus later returned to the Iberian Peninsula with La Pinta and La Niña, only to return to America later, where he found the forty colonists he had left behind. It seems that the natives wanted to punish them for stealing their food and their women. Surprisingly, Columbus did not punish the leader of the natives, but allowed other abuses to take place, while Isabel La Católica forbade the punishments to be carried out, but did not pay much attention to them.

Kit description:

The kit contains all the necessary parts to build the model. High-quality birch plywood is used for the frame; these parts are precisely prefabricated using the laser cutting process. All fitting parts are clearly organised in a sorting box. The sails are already sewn. All building plans, German instructions, many photos and video tutorials to help with the construction are available digitally for download! NO printed instructions in the set.

A model stand with a small brass plate is included in the kit.

Who is the kit suitable for?

The kit is easy to build and therefore suitable for beginners and less experienced modellers!

What do the building instructions look like?

The following are available for download:
-parts list
-Illustrated instructions, multilingual including German as a PDF document
-15 video tutorials on YouTube

What else is needed?

Colours, adhesives and tools are required and can be found in our range.

Type A and C scraper blades are recommended.
The figures shown in the pictures are not included in the kit and must be purchased separately.

Technical data:

Scale: M 1:65
Length: 560mm
Height: 485mm
Width: 260mm
Construction time 350 hours