David Lester

nice work on the deck! And thanks for the hint with the topgallant masts. This will be usefull, when I arrive at this point too! 🙂

Well, I managed to eke out a few more hours to work on the Rattlesnake.
 
Anyway, I salvaged the inner bulwark painting by sanding with 400 grit. I repainted with Liquitex Red Oxide. I thinned it this time with plain water and the results were much better. I also finished the covering boards and even did a small bit of carving on the step that you can see in the photo (although it's a bit hard to see).
 
I painted the outer bulwarks as well and noticed a few problems, but I think I can live with them. When I used shellac to seal and prep for sanding, I did some research and found that you have to sand the surface after the shellac dries, otherwise acrylic paint won't stick to it. You can see that in the covering boards where I missed a few spots and the paint chipped off.
 
The paint really shows all the areas I didn't sand very well.
 
I still need a few more coats of paint and lots of touchup, but all in all, I'm satisfied considering I'm working with basswood and I'm not a good painter!
 

Next up is to plank the hull.

Starting to see the light at the end of the copper tunnel!  Both sides are coming out very close to symmetrical so that is a good indication that my frames were faired correctly.  


Estimating around 900 tiles so far.  Definitely falls into the same category as tying 1500 clove hitches for the ratlines on my Leopard. 😜
 
Tom
 

Thanks E Z. I goofed and didn’t catch the fuzzy rope I used. The shellac magic went like this. I weighted the anchor so the lines were taught. Then coated them with shellac, let it dry and then took the weight off the anchor and the lines stay nice a straight making it look like the lines were really holding up the anchor.
 
 

Decided to hang the starboard anchor... no real reason why. I've seen others do this and decided it fits. Now on to the rope coils.
 


After I took the previous pics, I noticed the lines were not taught on the block and tackle for the anchor, so I tried some shellac magic. It worked. 😁
 
l
 
 
 

Your LN is looking great Dave. You mentioned getting blocks attached to eyebolts on the deck. Have you glued the eyebolts in yet? If not, it's easy to attach a block and eyebolt together and then glue the eyebolt and block assembly in place. If you have already glued the eyebolt in place, it's harder, but only by a little bit and will probably involve a bit longer piece of thread. Do you know about a "figure of eight" seizing?
 
Thread the line through the eyebolt, then make a "figure of eight" and add a seizing. Place the block in the loop and slide the seizing up tight against the block. Then you can pull both ends of the line and the block will snug up against the eyebolt. If you use a fairly long piece of line, you can add the seizing well away from the deck, where it's easy to hold the line in your "helping hands" clip.
 
This is also how I would attach a block to a yard, as you asked in an earlier post.
 
I hope I'm understanding your question correctly and I'm sorry if this is redundant.
David

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:
 
 

Finally! 
I did a few mistakes but are quite happy about the result. This really adds a cherry on the pie. Not an easy project but definitely worth it!







 

I realized that I have now completed the building phase of the model and reached page 48 of 54 in the manual.

No more cutting wood, sanding, painting nor gluing parts. All what is left to do has been organized into this box.

I have no clue how long time it will take to tie all the blocks and rig Speedy but it feels good to have completed this stage of the build. I will try to take some proper photos of how the ship looks like and post them in the next post. Thanks for all the nice comments and support so far.

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
 

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

 

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

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
 
 

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
 

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




 
 

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

 

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
 

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
 

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
 
 

Hello - Deck Bulwark Cleats plus Belaying Pin Racks all pinned into place as instructed. The Belaying Pins I opted for wooden ones.
Also the Channels pinned into place with the Deadeyes which have the Strops yet to be pinned down at the correct angle.
The Steps I have decided to leave unpainted.
I opened the Strops to take the Deadeyes by sliding the Strops over a tapered dowel - they are very delicate. Found sliding Strops over a tapered dowel helped to keep their shape whereas using tweezers to open them up found I was distorting them but then again maybe doing it wrong.
 

 

 
Thank you for looking.
 
Regards
 
Doug

Hello – a bit of a step forward. Have managed to fit HMS Flirt using brass mounts onto a plinth.
Used the smallest brass stand from Amati but found the next size up did not match the top and bottom sections of the smaller one. So doing some measurements got a friend to make one by 3D printing which I was then able to check that the waterline was level before finding a local engineer to make one in brass.
 

Deck 'furniture' in place but not glued down as I first will get the cannons in place and rigged. The cannons are made - just adding the small blocks.
 

 
Thank you for looking.
 
Regards
 
Doug
 
 
 
 

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
 
 

Taking it out for a testdrive... no leaks according to the Captain!

Hi All,
 
As I follow many of the outstanding examples of nautical history here on MSW, I am continually amazed at the artistry and intricacy that went into the building of a wooden ship that went out to sea and got blasted to splinters. All the carvings, fancy railing, all the way down to the furniture I imagine. I thought about this while watching tall ship movies as the ships got cannon ball-itis, but seeing the examples of ships with their artistry and color that are made here on MSW just makes my head spin. 😀 Its a pleasure to constantly watch and view such wonderful works that keep nautical history alive.