David Lester

Good Morning, The next order of business for the hull was the addition of the bulwarks, which were planked on the inside prior to installation. Then the waterways and the stanchions. I decided to add the grating to the main deck at this point too - I discovered that the stanchions tend to pop off pretty easily, so I decided to add some wire to secure the ones that will support the pin rails and kevels. I'll also secure the pin rails and kevels to the stanchions with wire when I get to that point. I'll do that before moving on to the planking of the upper hull. That's all for now, many thanks for checking in. David

I've been working on various aspects of this build, in no particular logical order. This morning I turned my attention to the kevels. There are eight kevels on this ship and I don't really care for the cast kit-supplied ones, so I set out to make some wooden ones. Here's how I approached it. I could see that there are two ways to do this. One would be to create two holes or slots in the cross member at the right angle and then slide the uprights through. Since I don't have a mill or a drill press and I'm working with basswood, I knew that would be an exercise in frustration, so I decided to try a second method, which is to laminate the cross member on the uprights. I drew some lines establishing the dimensions on a piece of paper and covered them with double-sided tape. I placed the first upright in position and trimmed the bottom of it along the pencil line - I then added the second upright and the three pieces of the cross member. There's no glue at this point; only the tape is holding everything in place. These pieces are all 1/32" x 1/16". I then glued a piece across the cross member (1/16" x 1/16") Peeling the assembly off of the tape. It's quite rigid by this point. Then I added a second piece across the back of the cross member - After some trimming and sanding. There may be some more sanding yet to do. I'm not sure if the cross member is still a bit too thick. I think this method is going to work. Once they are all completely covered with rope coils, they should look just fine.😁 Thanks for checking in, much appreciated. David

Glad to hear there's another MS Mayflower out there. There's currently a Billing version, but I think that's it. I'm surprised that it isn't a more popular subject. It has a very interesting story, it makes a handsome model to display and the MS version at least, (I'm not familiar with the others) is quite a nice kit. I think the crows' nests are the only real difference between what the instructions indicate and what's included. It appears that they were originally turned pieces of wood. I imagine that replacing them with the cast ones was an economic decision or perhaps one of availablity. My replacements weren't actually very hard to make, but one bit of advice I didn't mention is rather than use one piece of material for the base, use two thinner pieces laminated together with the grain going in opposite directions. One piece will tend to split, but the lamination won't. I happened to have some thin stock in my stash, but if you don't you can glue together scrap bits from the billets and still get an acceptable result. Thank you for mentioning your photos. Sometimes I like to refer to a photo if there's a detail I'm not quite clear on, and it's frustrating when it seems every aspect of the ship is photographed and on line, except the one tiny detail I'm after. If the need arises, I'll contact you and see if you have the solution in your pictures. David

Hi Dave, I agree with both comments above; a piece of basswood will work just fine for the anchor stocks and I have never used a build board. I glue the bulkheads in one at a time. It's a slow process but works just fine. Then when it's down to planking and sanding, the hull seems to spend as much time on my lap as it does on the bench. I'm looking forward to following your progress. I've built the Mamoli Rattlesnake, which my grandson now has, but I'd like to build it again, this time the MS version. I have a real soft spot for this one. I credit it as the reason I got into building model ships. I've told the story on the forum before, but it was a quite a while ago now. When I was a kid my best friend's dad built model ships and I was mesmerized by them. I've forgotten the names of most of them, but what little kid could forget the name Rattlesnake. My friend still has it. This model would be about 60 years old now. I don't know if it's a kit or from scratch, but the way he handled the stern makes me think this might be a scratch build. Look at the unusual colour he used for the bulwarks. I believe the MS instructions suggest that the bulwarks should be gray. I guess that's what he was going for, but this is almost a pale blue. Also look at the flag. I don't know much (let's be honest - I know nothing) about flags, but I'm pretty sure this can only be a British ensign. My friend's dad was a real history buff and serious anglophile, so he must have opted to display the model after it was captured by the British. From what I've read, I understand that it was first re-named Cormorant by the British and then later changed the name back to Rattlesnake. Sorry, I hope I haven't hijacked your build log too seriously with this digression. David

I've been working away at my Mayflower on a number of different fronts at the same time. I've finished the first layer of planking on the lower hull. Despite having a very blunt round bow, this isn't a very hard hull to plank. This kit actually includes a template to use to help "spile" the planks at the bow. I used it along with an iron and it worked like a charm. I have the lower hull sanded and filled. I happened to have some mahogany wood filler kicking around, so that's why it looks a bit odd, but it doesn't matter as it will all be covered up. I started the boat, using my usual approach of cutting it in half in order to more easily carve out the interior. I read about this technique in another build log somewhere and have used it ever since. I recommend it for this type of boat. It works really well. Once the interior's carved out, I just glue it back together. Here's how I'm doing the windows. There are a number of very small windows on the Mayflower with a diamond pattern. This detail is just far too small for me to model, so another approach is needed. The instructions with the kit indicate that there is narrow white tape provided to be placed on a piece of acetate. I received the acetate, but there certainly was no white tape included, so I needed another solution. My first thought was to get an extra fine white paint pen and draw the white lines on the acetate, but then another idea occurred to me. There is an image of the white lines on a black background in the instruction book which I photocopied, with the idea of just framing it into the window openings. The resulting image on regular paper didn't seem quite crisp enough to me, so I created a new image, using a graphics program on the computer. Then I printed in on a piece of photographic paper with a glossy finish. The result is very crisp and I think it will work just fine. To make the white frame around the window I placed some tape and painted it white. Lest you think I'm brilliant for coming up with this, let me share with you how long it took me to figure one aspect of this out. I tried making the lines on the computer diagonally, but they wouldn't come out right; they had a small "stepped" effect which ruined the look. I had pretty much abandoned the idea altogether when days later, I awoke in the night and realized I could create the lines straight and then just cut the windows out on the diagonal! Duh! This isn't a very difficult model, but there is one big challenge and that is the finish. Much of this model is shown as having a natural, rather than painted finish. This isn't too big a problem when working with nice wood, but in my experience, it can be a nightmare when working with basswood and this model is all basswood. It just never wants to take a stain evenly and I have never been happy with the results whenever I've used Minwax stain or something similar. So, I've been experimenting with paint to give a stained effect. I'm convinced this is the better way to go. I just buy inexpensive acrylic paint - Americana Decoart - and it works well. I water it down and then experiment with different applications of different viscosities. I sand in between applications and if I've applied it too thickly, I sand it off almost completely. It's just a matter of trial and error. Here I've used burnt umber, watered down with several coats applied, attempting to even out any huge differences in the boards. I then sealed it with a coat of amber shellac and gave it a light rubbing with steel wool, which knocked the sheen back. I'm happy with the result and for sure it's better than anything I could have done with stain. These bulwark pieces get planked on the inside prior to being installed on the hull. I used a similar approach for the deck, this time going for that sort of grey-taupe colour that decks often have. This time I won't seal it with shellac or poly, but use Tom Lauria's suggestion of just burnishing it with a piece of paper towel. So that's where I'm at so far. Thanks for checking in. David

Congratulations Dave. Your Lady Nelson looks pretty darn nice. I'm looking forward to you next one. David

Boring little update for you - I have the bulkheads installed and faired. Everything fit together well with only very minor tweaking needed. It's a fairly blunt bow, so I added some filler blocks to help retain the profile. There's really no need for me to say anything more at this point. Very straightforward so far. Thanks, David

Beautiful job!

I would simply make that name in Microsoft Word. I do them this way all the time. Your situation is ideal for it, because there's a frame around the area with the lettering. You should be able to find a font that's very close to what you want. You can even give the name a slight curve if you want to follow the curve of the stern. I would either create a one-celled table or use a text box and set the background colour to black. Make the cell or box quite a bit larger than you need. That way you have lots of room and margin for error when you cut it out. Centre the white lettering in the cell or box. It will take a bit of trial and error to get just the right font style and size etc. Once you've got the lettering right, print it, cut it out large enough to cover the whole stern area, glue it on and add the white frame. It should look pretty good. There may be better ways of doing it than this one, but at least this one works for me. I have never had good luck with other methods such as dry transfer lettering etc. David

I expected to be now concentrating on my Agamemnon, but it seems the ship modelling gods had something else in store for me. I have been asked by someone to build a Mayflower for them. This is not a model that I would have chosen for myself, as I'm not particularly interested in 17th century vessels. My favourites are late 18th century. Nevertheless I'm happy enough to build it for someone else. Keeps me off the streets. There are several Mayflowers available, but I settled on the Model Shipways version, as I tend to like their kits generally and Chuck Passaro designed this one, so it seemed to me to be the best option. I don't tend to complain too much about cast metal parts. Usually I find they can be made to be acceptable with a little filing, paint etc. But I don't think I've ever seen anything as bad as these cast metal crow's nests that came with the kit. In the instructions, it shows wooden components which appear to be quite acceptable and which I assume is how the kit originally shipped. However, I was surprised by what I found which look like something my grandmother would have baked tarts in. These just won't do. Not only do they look horrendous, but I don't know how I would be able to use them. It's difficult to see in the picture, but there is almost no lip or overhang on the upper rim, yet it's necessary to mount deadeyes and futtock shrouds. I just don't see how I could do that. Also, much of this ship has a natural finish, so painting these things to blend in would be almost impossible. So rather than starting at the beginning, I decided to get this problem behind me first and I set out to design and build something that I could live with. Here is what I have come up with: I simplified them slightly. The plans show 16 brackets of about 1/32" wide. I was having quite a bit of trouble with that, so I reduced the number to 12 and made them 1/16" and I found that worked better for me and still looks ok. The crow's nests on the replica Mayflower II have closed sides, and I believe it was the idea for this model too. However, I'm going to leave them open. I experimented with closing them in and wasn't happy with the look. Also, all of the other kit versions of the Mayflower have open sides, as do many other ships of this period. There isn't a lot of glue surface on the upper ring and there's going to be a bit of tension on it, so I added four pieces of brass rod that run through to the bottom, which should give it a bit more structural integrity. You can see one of them in the picture above, but I don't think they will show up when all the bits and pieces are in place. So, now I can relax, knowing that I have that little problem solved and go back to the beginning. David

Thank you, thank you - you are all too kind. I feel like a real amateur compared to most of you, so it's really nice to read your remarks. Thanks again, David

Thanks guys. A friend of mine called one of my models "a great achievement." I told him that finding places for them is the great achievement! Displaying them is no small problem. We have the Bluenose, and only the Bluenose out for public enjoyment in our living room. The rest are confined to shelves in my hibernaculum. I have been working away at farming them out. My grandson has my Rattlesnake, my daughter and son-in-law have a Bluenose, my son and daughter-in-law have my Charles Morgan and Speedy is going to my son-in-law's office. Also I donated my Armed Virginia Sloop to a silent auction fundraiser, but I still have a number of them to contend with. The Agamemnon has been weighing heavily on my mind. However I think I have a solution. Just this week, my daughter moved her law practice into a new office space and she has announced that she would like to have the Constitution there. It has always been her favourite of my collection and she says she now has a perfect place for it. It's similar in size to the Agamemnon, so it looks like a spot is about to open up for it. It's a never ending battle, but one I'm prepared to accept because I get so much enjoyment from building them. Thanks again, David

Good Morning All, Speedy is finished. The last of the braces wrapped up the rigging, then it was just a matter of adding the anchors, rope coils, boat and swivel guns. A bit of touch up with paint was the last thing to do. Now I just have to transport it safely to my son-in-law's office. This model was a pleasure from beginning to end. The only swearing was directed at myself and not at the kit, which is how I know it's a great kit. Thanks again for checking in, "likes" etc. Very much appreciated. David

I have been working on rope coils. I have always hated doing rope coils. Not because they're fiddly and monotonous; I don't mind fiddly and I thrive on monotony. But because I am seldom happy with the result. There are many different methods shown either on the forum or on youtube which are essentially variations on the same approach and I can never make any of them work really well for me. My problem is always with the "small dab of glue" to hold the whole thing together. I can never get the loop at the top to hold unless I apply considerably more than a small dab, which always discolours the line, shows through to the front and ends up looking like a mess. Then when I use glue to attach the coil to the belaying pin it just looks like a solid row of glue running along the tops of the belaying pins. (I'm exaggerating slightly, but still I'm always disappointed with my efforts.) So here is my new variation and I think the results are better than what I have been able to do in the past. It isn't substantially different from what others do, but I solved the problem of holding the whole thing together - I started out the same as most of the other methods. I wrap the line around two nails four or five times, however I don't worry about making the loop at this point. Then I tied a knot at the top of the coil with a piece of fine thread. I slathered the whole thing with glue. I used matte finish podge, which I understand is similar to watered down white glue. When it was dry, I ended up with this - I pulled one of the long ends from the back to the front and made a loop and pulled the long end up to the top at the back, adjusting the loop to the approximate correct size. Then with the good side down, I held in the the clamp and tied another knot around the base of the loop with fine thread. This way, it's possible to add a small dab of ca clue to the knot at the back and have it hold well, without showing through to the front Then it was just a matter of trimming the threads and attaching it to the pin. I guess one could argue that there shouldn't be a knot tied around the base of the loop and the loop should not be cinched. Nevertheless I think it looks better than the heavily glued look which, despite my best efforts, I was usually ending up with previously. So for what it's worth, there's one more variation on rope coils. David

Dave - yes it's 3/16".

Hi Dave, I can't answer your questions specifically, and personally, I don't worry about such things too much as I tend to paint my models. However, have you discovered Tom Lauria's series of youtube videos. They're all excellent, but he has one specifically on choosing and finishing wood so that it mimics the real thing, yet keeping the grain in scale for the model. He also feels that the finish is an important part of scale and that even a too thick coat of varnish can look over scale. One area where I have adapted his technique to a degree is on my decks. I like my decks to be gray, and as he shows, a good effect can be achieved by using watered down acrylic paint, rather than stain, to get the colour you want and then rubbing it with a paper towel. It gives a very nice look with a soft sheen. Even a lowly basswood deck can look ok with this technique. Here is my Niagara: That's black, white, a little brown and a little yellow mixed into a very watery mixture, then rubbed with a paper towel. I think it gives a fairly natural representation of a real deck. David Here's the link to Tom's video:

Good Morning, I'm now getting very close to the finish line for the running rigging. I've been working my way through it, step by step without any real problems (except for a couple of my own making.) The plans are excellent and it really couldn't be more straightforward. Boom and gaff - The lifts - Many times when I return to the model, I look at what I did previously and think "Were you on drugs? What were you thinking?" In this case, for reasons I don't understand I had placed the lower yard lift blocks near the aft side of the mast cap and not the fore side. So I had to fix that in situ, but otherwise smooth sailing. Clews, tacks, sheets and bow lines all added next - I'm now working on the braces. The spritsail yard braces are in place and here are the blocks attached to the main stay for the lower fore braces - I did run into a complication with the spritsail yard braces that a bit of foresight on my part would have avoided. One of the nice things about well drawn plans is that they show each component of the rigging in isolation so it's quite clear where each line originates, its path and where it terminates. However, this also makes it easy to forget that in actuality you end up with a tight concentration of lines and blocks in a very small area, such as under the mast top. In the picture below, you can see that the spritsail brace (#49) runs through two blocks underneath the mast top. They are actually double blocks which the brace shares with the clew line #29 in the second picture. I had previously attached the clew line and belayed it and as a result those two blocks no longer had much range of movement. When I went to add the brace, it was almost impossible to thread it through the second block. The area was dense with shrouds, futtock shrouds and many other lines running down. It was difficult to even find the block, let alone identify the clear path through it. I tried approaching it from the front and from the rear, but the same problem arose either way. In the end I cut the clew line, freeing the blocks and then I could manipulate them sufficiently to get both the brace line through as well as the new clew line. All I needed to have done was either not belay the clew line until after I had the brace line in place or possibly have added the brace line much earlier in the process and just let it rest there until I was ready to fully install it later. Just a minor frustration that I will take note of for the future. Other than that, the running rigging is progressing very easily (largely due to the excellent drawings) and when the braces are complete, it will be done. Then all that remains is to add rope coils, the anchors and the boat and to transport it safely to my son-in-law's office! Thanks again for comments, likes etc. David

The work that's been already done on the model looks pretty good to me. It doesn't appear that you will have to undo anything, which is really nice. With respect to your questions - I'm not familiar with Billing plans, but I'm pretty sure the circled numbers are belaying points, that is, the points where rigging lines end and are tied off. In the last picture, there are some blocks also identified with circled numbers. You will probably find that the circled numbers on the blocks will correspond with circled numbers on the deck area. Someone else more familiar with Billing plans may have a better answer, but I think this is likely the case. With respect to the rudder, it's hard to tell from the photo, but it looks like there might be some tapering from about the mid point forward. I think the key is to ensure that after parts 36 and 37 are glued together that parts F856 will fit over the assembly properly. If some tapering is necessary to make F856 fit properly then that will be your answer. If they fit properly without tapering, then if it were me, I wouldn't worry about it. In the photo the aft end of the rudder doesn't appear to be tapered. I hope that's of some use to you. David

Tom, your CWM is looking wonderful. That white edge is a nightmare to paint. My wife almost had me committed before I was finished. Yours isn't looking too bad, but I just could not get a decent job. In the end I painted some paper white, cut it into strips and glued it on. That worked really well and it was completely undetectable what I had done. I agree with John - I think you've nailed the bulwarks colour. It's a hard colour to get just right. David

That's quite interesting Allan. The shininess isn't actually an issue. It might look a bit shiny on the skein, but it doesn't look shiny on the model. I'm not advocating for its use, just raising the question as a point of interest. I tried it and thought it was fine, (by that I mean comparable to kit provided thread,) but I'm not likely to rush to use it again. I was just curious about anyone else's experience. David

Hi guys, thanks for all the interest. I'm not talking about using it to make rope; I am talking about using it right off the spool. It's available in a wide range of sizes from size 100 which is very fine to about size 3 which is quite heavy. Here are a couple of pictures of some size 10 which is just a tiny bit larger than my regular .5mm line, which I believe is from Amati. To my eye, it looks quite a bit like rope, there's a distinct twist to it and it's only a little bit fuzzy. So, I'm not trying to advocate for it, just trying to determine if people feel it's a suitable rigging material or not. OK, I'll fess up - as an experiment, I used it for all the rigging on my Niagara, using a few different sizes. I can't just remember them all off hand, but size 10 is about .5 mm and either size 20 or 30 is about .25mm etc. I thought it was easy to work with and I'm reasonably pleased with the result. I think it looks as good as the Amati line that I've used on most of my other models. On the other hand, I didn't feel it was particularly superior either. And I'm not trying to compare it to handmade rope, which is in a category all by itself. I don't believe I'll rush back to it, but I was just curious if anyone else has experimented with it in this way. Now that I've added serving to my modest repertroire of skills, I am slowly working up the nerve to try my hand at making my own rope. David

Here's a question I haven't seen raised. (Maybe I've just missed it, I'm not sure.) Is there any reason not to use plain old crochet cotton as rigging line? It comes in a wide variety of sizes, enough to match any rigging size needed and it comes in a wide variety of colours - many different naturals and dark brown and black. It seems to have a nice finish and it's quite inexpensive. Does anyone use it? Are there reasons why it shouldn't be used? I'm just curious. Thanks, David

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I don't feel so bad now. I now feel empowered to continue to use CA without beating myself up over it as if its use was some sort of character flaw. I'll strive to apply the glue as carefully and sparingly as I can. James - I've already started to touch up the seizings with flat black, not because of the glue, but because I've started using light coloured thread for the seizings on black line. The contrast makes it easier to get a nice even wrap. Allan - thank for the video link; that's a great explanation. Thanks again David

The discussion of the best glue for ratlines in another thread has me thinking about my seizings. The consensus seems to be that anything other than CA glue is the way to go, but for some reason I cannot seem to get anything other than CA to actually secure my seizings. I've tried PVA, watered down PVA, podge, shellac and varnish. In every case, the seizing will always fail. After I've let the glue dry, I snip the ends of the seizing line and everything will be fine, but as soon as I snip the ends of the actual line being seized close to the seizing, it will always slip through. This is especially true if, for example, I am seizing a block to an eyebolt or hook. Just a little bit of pressure and the line around the block will slip out of the seizing and release the block. It seems that the glue is holding the seizing, but not the actual line and the seizing itself is not enough to hold the line in place. As a result, I always end up resorting to CA, trying to use as little as possible. It holds well, but goes hard and looks a bit rough. I would love to avoid CA, but I have never had success with other glues. Does anyone have any ideas of what the trick is or what I might be doing wrong?

Good Morning, Just a brief update this morning. I've attached all the yards - Lower yards - jeers and trusses For the trusses, I used these small cast bullseyes from Bluejacket. I'm a big fan of them and I like to keep a supply of them on hand. They come in several different sizes, but I really like the smallest ones - 1/16" inch - because they're easy to use and never look over scale. They blacken easily and just need a small amount of cleanup. (Of course when all is said and done, you can't even see them on the trusses, but at least I know they're there.) Parrels and ties on the topsail yards - Ties on the topgallant yards - There isn't really too much to explain about my methods. I just added each according to the plans. It was all pretty straightforward and free of problems. I've started working on the boom and gaff. The completion of this build is actually within sight; then I will turn my attention to Agamemnon in earnest. Thanks again for likes, comments etc. Very much appreciated. David