David Lester

I see your problem. I believe that the bulkhead extensions needed to either be pared down to the same size as the false stanchions or else removed completely and a false stanchion put in its place. It's still not too late to do that, but, of course, the issue is this would leave gaps in your deck planking. I guess you could add a new plank on top of the existing planking and it would be like a waterway; slightly elevated from the rest of the decking, but that would entail cutting it around the false stanchions which would be very onerous. Another idea is to replace all of the railing with wider material and another would be to taper the bulkhead extensions so that they are full width where they meet the deck and narrower where they meet the railing. If it were me, at this point in the process, I think I would opt for this last approach. I think it would give the best overall result and shouldn't be too noticeable to the casual observer.
 
Your workmanship is really great and the model is looking really nice.
David

I see your problem. I believe that the bulkhead extensions needed to either be pared down to the same size as the false stanchions or else removed completely and a false stanchion put in its place. It's still not too late to do that, but, of course, the issue is this would leave gaps in your deck planking. I guess you could add a new plank on top of the existing planking and it would be like a waterway; slightly elevated from the rest of the decking, but that would entail cutting it around the false stanchions which would be very onerous. Another idea is to replace all of the railing with wider material and another would be to taper the bulkhead extensions so that they are full width where they meet the deck and narrower where they meet the railing. If it were me, at this point in the process, I think I would opt for this last approach. I think it would give the best overall result and shouldn't be too noticeable to the casual observer.
 
Your workmanship is really great and the model is looking really nice.
David

Some success! I re-made the beak out of scrap wood, retaining the plastic grating and support bits. All in all I am happy and it fits OK. I am noticing that the skinny rails that decorate the hull sides do not always line up well. I guess the beak location would have been the determining factor but was made last. The poor pictures in the booklet and lack of any kind of instructions didn’t help indicate what it should look like. 
 

 
thanks for looking. 
cheers,
Dave

Good Morning,
I have most of the bits and pieces ready to be added to the deck. Getting the size correct on these has been a bit of a challenge. The plans cannot be trusted. The drawings differ between the plan view and elevation view by as much as 10mm on some things!
 
There is a measuring tool on the 360 tour on-line that works very well, but it's difficult to get every measurement needed and not always easy to get the same measurement twice. So it's been a matter of trial and error and discovering what fits and looks about right to the eye.
 

I enhanced the kit provided windlass a little bit, relying on the on-line pictures and working only with the limited supplies and tools that I have.
 


I'm not sure that it's completely correct, but it looks complicated enough to be believable 😁
 
Thanks for looking it and I hope everyone has a great Easter weekend.
David
 

This solves a mystery for me. A few years ago I bought some "boxwood" strips from Model Expo and received this same rough yellow stuff. I was at a loss to understand why everyone raved about boxwood so much. I could see no improvement over the basswood strips I was intending to replace. Now that I understand I want to try some of the real thing.
David 

Thanks Thukydides.  I am trying to get over this brasswork hump which I feel has slowed my enthusiasm and progress more than I'd like. 
 
Probably because the pintles and gudgeons have taken way more work than I planned.  This weekend I spent a couple hours fine-tuning.  All the pieces fit mostly, but lots of slightly lengthening or widening mortises, slightly shortening and rounding off the ends of the strapwork, and chiseling holes to allow the rudder to be seated with the smallest gap possible.  Heres where I started; to me the gap was too wide and the top pintle a little too high.  Not much I can do about the high pintle at this point but I can work on the gap.

I also noticed all my handling and fitting of straps was getting the holly dirty.
 
After this final futzing I washed the brass in isopropyl alcohol for 20 minutes, then moved them with stainless steel tweezers to a aprox 1:8 brass black to water for 15 minutes.

Here they are drying, about 99% coverage.  1 spot on a gudgeon that will need paint.  I haven't handled them yet to make sure the blackening sticks but I am optimistic.

And finally I started with the hull's finish coat.  After sanding off any marks on the sternpost from fitting the brasswork  I applied the first coat of Polycrylic (water based polyurethane that doesn't yellow) with a qtip, the immediately wiped it down with a old cotton t-shirt.  Most of the finish comes off so its a thin coat, but the tshirt smooths quite nicely.  I'm guessing I'll do 3 or 4 coats.  I have to test some of my discarded blackened brasswork to see if it looks ok covered with this finish; if not I'll put hinges in after finishing.
 
Here's the hull after its first coat.  It looks almost identical to before I finished it, which is the point.

thats it for me.  Monday is fast approaching and its off to mentally prepare with some hot chocolate and a book before bed.
 
thanks for reading
 
cisco

Good Morning,
I have most of the bits and pieces ready to be added to the deck. Getting the size correct on these has been a bit of a challenge. The plans cannot be trusted. The drawings differ between the plan view and elevation view by as much as 10mm on some things!
 
There is a measuring tool on the 360 tour on-line that works very well, but it's difficult to get every measurement needed and not always easy to get the same measurement twice. So it's been a matter of trial and error and discovering what fits and looks about right to the eye.
 

I enhanced the kit provided windlass a little bit, relying on the on-line pictures and working only with the limited supplies and tools that I have.
 


I'm not sure that it's completely correct, but it looks complicated enough to be believable 😁
 
Thanks for looking it and I hope everyone has a great Easter weekend.
David
 

Good Morning,
I have most of the bits and pieces ready to be added to the deck. Getting the size correct on these has been a bit of a challenge. The plans cannot be trusted. The drawings differ between the plan view and elevation view by as much as 10mm on some things!
 
There is a measuring tool on the 360 tour on-line that works very well, but it's difficult to get every measurement needed and not always easy to get the same measurement twice. So it's been a matter of trial and error and discovering what fits and looks about right to the eye.
 

I enhanced the kit provided windlass a little bit, relying on the on-line pictures and working only with the limited supplies and tools that I have.
 


I'm not sure that it's completely correct, but it looks complicated enough to be believable 😁
 
Thanks for looking it and I hope everyone has a great Easter weekend.
David
 

This solves a mystery for me. A few years ago I bought some "boxwood" strips from Model Expo and received this same rough yellow stuff. I was at a loss to understand why everyone raved about boxwood so much. I could see no improvement over the basswood strips I was intending to replace. Now that I understand I want to try some of the real thing.
David 

Good Morning,
I have most of the bits and pieces ready to be added to the deck. Getting the size correct on these has been a bit of a challenge. The plans cannot be trusted. The drawings differ between the plan view and elevation view by as much as 10mm on some things!
 
There is a measuring tool on the 360 tour on-line that works very well, but it's difficult to get every measurement needed and not always easy to get the same measurement twice. So it's been a matter of trial and error and discovering what fits and looks about right to the eye.
 

I enhanced the kit provided windlass a little bit, relying on the on-line pictures and working only with the limited supplies and tools that I have.
 


I'm not sure that it's completely correct, but it looks complicated enough to be believable 😁
 
Thanks for looking it and I hope everyone has a great Easter weekend.
David
 

Brief update for this morning -
Bill, if you use the 360 tour and go to the extreme forward starboard side of the roof of the deck house, you can just get a glimpse of the rod arrangement running along the roof. It appears to be a complicated set-up and pretty hard, if not impossible to model accurately at this scale, at least without a better reference. So I'm just representing it with a simple single rod.
I'm not going to add sails. I tend to prefer my models without them, but this model would be an ideal one to show furled ones on. Have you seen Tom Lauria's youtube video on making furled sails from silkspan? It's quite good.
 
I've been working on the lifeboats. I don't like the fact that they're plastic, yet at the same time, I don't really like the idea of building new ones either and I can't seem to locate cast ones that are quite right. So my solution is to use the plastic ones and show them with their canvas covers.
 
I use some sail material from another kit. I was hoping to leave them unpainted, but did paint them in the end, because they looks just a bit too dirty by the time I finished.
 
I first thought I could make each one from one piece of cloth, but soon realized that wouldn't work. The real ones, of course, are constructed out of several pieces, taking the shape into consideration. So, my solution was to use three pieces for each boat like this:
 


I simple glued the side pieces on first. I used white glue which holds quite well. I didn't want to use CA in case I had to remove the piece and start over. I don't think the plastic boat would stand up to the acetone. (It may not have stood up to alcohol any better, had I needed to start over, but I thought the odds were better.) As it turned out, I didn't need to start over.
 
This seems to work fairly well and with so little of the boat showing, it's hard to tell what it's made of.
 
Next, I'm going to attack the windlass.
 
Thanks for checking in.
David
 
 

This solves a mystery for me. A few years ago I bought some "boxwood" strips from Model Expo and received this same rough yellow stuff. I was at a loss to understand why everyone raved about boxwood so much. I could see no improvement over the basswood strips I was intending to replace. Now that I understand I want to try some of the real thing.
David 

This solves a mystery for me. A few years ago I bought some "boxwood" strips from Model Expo and received this same rough yellow stuff. I was at a loss to understand why everyone raved about boxwood so much. I could see no improvement over the basswood strips I was intending to replace. Now that I understand I want to try some of the real thing.
David 

This solves a mystery for me. A few years ago I bought some "boxwood" strips from Model Expo and received this same rough yellow stuff. I was at a loss to understand why everyone raved about boxwood so much. I could see no improvement over the basswood strips I was intending to replace. Now that I understand I want to try some of the real thing.
David 

This solves a mystery for me. A few years ago I bought some "boxwood" strips from Model Expo and received this same rough yellow stuff. I was at a loss to understand why everyone raved about boxwood so much. I could see no improvement over the basswood strips I was intending to replace. Now that I understand I want to try some of the real thing.
David 

Brief update for this morning -
Bill, if you use the 360 tour and go to the extreme forward starboard side of the roof of the deck house, you can just get a glimpse of the rod arrangement running along the roof. It appears to be a complicated set-up and pretty hard, if not impossible to model accurately at this scale, at least without a better reference. So I'm just representing it with a simple single rod.
I'm not going to add sails. I tend to prefer my models without them, but this model would be an ideal one to show furled ones on. Have you seen Tom Lauria's youtube video on making furled sails from silkspan? It's quite good.
 
I've been working on the lifeboats. I don't like the fact that they're plastic, yet at the same time, I don't really like the idea of building new ones either and I can't seem to locate cast ones that are quite right. So my solution is to use the plastic ones and show them with their canvas covers.
 
I use some sail material from another kit. I was hoping to leave them unpainted, but did paint them in the end, because they looks just a bit too dirty by the time I finished.
 
I first thought I could make each one from one piece of cloth, but soon realized that wouldn't work. The real ones, of course, are constructed out of several pieces, taking the shape into consideration. So, my solution was to use three pieces for each boat like this:
 


I simple glued the side pieces on first. I used white glue which holds quite well. I didn't want to use CA in case I had to remove the piece and start over. I don't think the plastic boat would stand up to the acetone. (It may not have stood up to alcohol any better, had I needed to start over, but I thought the odds were better.) As it turned out, I didn't need to start over.
 
This seems to work fairly well and with so little of the boat showing, it's hard to tell what it's made of.
 
Next, I'm going to attack the windlass.
 
Thanks for checking in.
David
 
 

Brief update for this morning -
Bill, if you use the 360 tour and go to the extreme forward starboard side of the roof of the deck house, you can just get a glimpse of the rod arrangement running along the roof. It appears to be a complicated set-up and pretty hard, if not impossible to model accurately at this scale, at least without a better reference. So I'm just representing it with a simple single rod.
I'm not going to add sails. I tend to prefer my models without them, but this model would be an ideal one to show furled ones on. Have you seen Tom Lauria's youtube video on making furled sails from silkspan? It's quite good.
 
I've been working on the lifeboats. I don't like the fact that they're plastic, yet at the same time, I don't really like the idea of building new ones either and I can't seem to locate cast ones that are quite right. So my solution is to use the plastic ones and show them with their canvas covers.
 
I use some sail material from another kit. I was hoping to leave them unpainted, but did paint them in the end, because they looks just a bit too dirty by the time I finished.
 
I first thought I could make each one from one piece of cloth, but soon realized that wouldn't work. The real ones, of course, are constructed out of several pieces, taking the shape into consideration. So, my solution was to use three pieces for each boat like this:
 


I simple glued the side pieces on first. I used white glue which holds quite well. I didn't want to use CA in case I had to remove the piece and start over. I don't think the plastic boat would stand up to the acetone. (It may not have stood up to alcohol any better, had I needed to start over, but I thought the odds were better.) As it turned out, I didn't need to start over.
 
This seems to work fairly well and with so little of the boat showing, it's hard to tell what it's made of.
 
Next, I'm going to attack the windlass.
 
Thanks for checking in.
David
 
 

Brief update for this morning -
Bill, if you use the 360 tour and go to the extreme forward starboard side of the roof of the deck house, you can just get a glimpse of the rod arrangement running along the roof. It appears to be a complicated set-up and pretty hard, if not impossible to model accurately at this scale, at least without a better reference. So I'm just representing it with a simple single rod.
I'm not going to add sails. I tend to prefer my models without them, but this model would be an ideal one to show furled ones on. Have you seen Tom Lauria's youtube video on making furled sails from silkspan? It's quite good.
 
I've been working on the lifeboats. I don't like the fact that they're plastic, yet at the same time, I don't really like the idea of building new ones either and I can't seem to locate cast ones that are quite right. So my solution is to use the plastic ones and show them with their canvas covers.
 
I use some sail material from another kit. I was hoping to leave them unpainted, but did paint them in the end, because they looks just a bit too dirty by the time I finished.
 
I first thought I could make each one from one piece of cloth, but soon realized that wouldn't work. The real ones, of course, are constructed out of several pieces, taking the shape into consideration. So, my solution was to use three pieces for each boat like this:
 


I simple glued the side pieces on first. I used white glue which holds quite well. I didn't want to use CA in case I had to remove the piece and start over. I don't think the plastic boat would stand up to the acetone. (It may not have stood up to alcohol any better, had I needed to start over, but I thought the odds were better.) As it turned out, I didn't need to start over.
 
This seems to work fairly well and with so little of the boat showing, it's hard to tell what it's made of.
 
Next, I'm going to attack the windlass.
 
Thanks for checking in.
David
 
 

More progress on the eight fishing dories, using swiss pear which is very nice to work with, planks are .018" thick easily bendable with fingers.
Had a clamp which I glued bits of wood to, so that sanding to shape was easier. 

 
First planking done now have to work out shape for the second plank.
 

 
Until next time,
Regards
Richard
 
 

Brief update for this morning -
Bill, if you use the 360 tour and go to the extreme forward starboard side of the roof of the deck house, you can just get a glimpse of the rod arrangement running along the roof. It appears to be a complicated set-up and pretty hard, if not impossible to model accurately at this scale, at least without a better reference. So I'm just representing it with a simple single rod.
I'm not going to add sails. I tend to prefer my models without them, but this model would be an ideal one to show furled ones on. Have you seen Tom Lauria's youtube video on making furled sails from silkspan? It's quite good.
 
I've been working on the lifeboats. I don't like the fact that they're plastic, yet at the same time, I don't really like the idea of building new ones either and I can't seem to locate cast ones that are quite right. So my solution is to use the plastic ones and show them with their canvas covers.
 
I use some sail material from another kit. I was hoping to leave them unpainted, but did paint them in the end, because they looks just a bit too dirty by the time I finished.
 
I first thought I could make each one from one piece of cloth, but soon realized that wouldn't work. The real ones, of course, are constructed out of several pieces, taking the shape into consideration. So, my solution was to use three pieces for each boat like this:
 


I simple glued the side pieces on first. I used white glue which holds quite well. I didn't want to use CA in case I had to remove the piece and start over. I don't think the plastic boat would stand up to the acetone. (It may not have stood up to alcohol any better, had I needed to start over, but I thought the odds were better.) As it turned out, I didn't need to start over.
 
This seems to work fairly well and with so little of the boat showing, it's hard to tell what it's made of.
 
Next, I'm going to attack the windlass.
 
Thanks for checking in.
David
 
 

Brief update for this morning -
Bill, if you use the 360 tour and go to the extreme forward starboard side of the roof of the deck house, you can just get a glimpse of the rod arrangement running along the roof. It appears to be a complicated set-up and pretty hard, if not impossible to model accurately at this scale, at least without a better reference. So I'm just representing it with a simple single rod.
I'm not going to add sails. I tend to prefer my models without them, but this model would be an ideal one to show furled ones on. Have you seen Tom Lauria's youtube video on making furled sails from silkspan? It's quite good.
 
I've been working on the lifeboats. I don't like the fact that they're plastic, yet at the same time, I don't really like the idea of building new ones either and I can't seem to locate cast ones that are quite right. So my solution is to use the plastic ones and show them with their canvas covers.
 
I use some sail material from another kit. I was hoping to leave them unpainted, but did paint them in the end, because they looks just a bit too dirty by the time I finished.
 
I first thought I could make each one from one piece of cloth, but soon realized that wouldn't work. The real ones, of course, are constructed out of several pieces, taking the shape into consideration. So, my solution was to use three pieces for each boat like this:
 


I simple glued the side pieces on first. I used white glue which holds quite well. I didn't want to use CA in case I had to remove the piece and start over. I don't think the plastic boat would stand up to the acetone. (It may not have stood up to alcohol any better, had I needed to start over, but I thought the odds were better.) As it turned out, I didn't need to start over.
 
This seems to work fairly well and with so little of the boat showing, it's hard to tell what it's made of.
 
Next, I'm going to attack the windlass.
 
Thanks for checking in.
David
 
 

⁰Thank you very much everyone for the likes and comments 😀  Well it seems like my head still not
in the game but fixing my mistakes is part of the fun .lol.
In my haste to get started on the ratlines, I am half way up the Mizzen mast 


When I reliesed that the shrouds were tied on wrong at the top. You guessed it, one cut with the scaple blade and she came down.I only wanted to cut one rope. So this is what I came up with, a rope ladder.lol looks fine to me. You can see why I stoped  the Pegasus build lol, rigging skills are not ready for it.
 Lol  Let's move on too the Main mast . At first glance I thought ok. But just noticed the channels are on backwards.  

The bigger end should be at the back I hope this doesn't make too much of a difference to the shrouds  and ratlines  we will see , it is to far along to turn back now. I will just have to mark it down as "on the next build I will do better".lol
I am going to add shear poles , The plan doesn't  call for them but I like the way  they  look  and it helps straighten things out as well. So I will lash this one on and do some more ratlines.  @Baker Patrick the song 99 ratlines on the wall  is on auto loop it goes on forever  and ever. Lol I can't stop signing it. And wonder how many crew members  hum this tune lol.
So lots of ratlines to do , I am in my happy place. Lol. Very glad there is no actual plan for the Mayflower because it could have been built this way lol but most likely NOT lol.       It's moving along well, tons of errors but live able.  It's all practice  now  and practice makes perfect  they say. Looks like I will need a lot more practice lol  😆 😂  
 
Bob M.
 

So, when I went to build the beak I found that the sides stood way proud of the planks making up the beak. I compared them to the drawing and found that the plastic piece I used as a pattern was too small. So back to the drawing board. 
 

 
I used my saw and some rare earth magnets to hold the pieces in place as they dried. 🤣
 

 
After trimming you can see the plastic part, first wood attempt and final go at it. 


 
Definitely happier now. 
 
I also added some trim around the front which was on the drawings but seemed to make sense and will help fit the beak, I think. 
 


thanks for looking. 
Dave

I've been trying to figure out the complicated steering arrangements on this boat. The kit provides some, but not all of the parts that are required and absolutely no mention of any of it in the plans or instructions. However, I've managed to decipher enough of it from the on-line 360 tour to make an acceptable representation of it.
 
It seems really odd to me that considering that this boat spent most of its life in the Arctic, exposed to snow and ice that so much of this gear would be external, rather than internal.
 
It appears to me that either cable or chain (which is encased and not visible) connects the wheel to rods that in turn connect to chain that runs down the aft side of the deck house, then runs aft along the deck to the rudder which is located beneath a deck fitting; a table or bench (not sure what it should be called.)
 





Now I'm mulling over how to handle the two winches and windlass. The ones provided in the kit are over-simplified and mostly plastic. The winches shouldn't be too hard to re-imagine, but the windlass is a complex piece and will be more difficult. At least, too difficult for my evening brain; more suited to my morning brain. All I'm good for by this time of night is a detective series on BritBox! (my favourite is Vera)
David 
 
 
 
 

All the best Bob!