David Lester

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!

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!

Very nice looking Mayflower, Bob!

Very nice looking Mayflower, Bob!

Very nice looking Mayflower, Bob!

Very nice looking Mayflower, Bob!

Very nice looking Mayflower, Bob!

Ok  well I finally got some time to giv'er lol .It has been quite the experience  before Christmas  the family  was all sick but we are all better now. Then the rodents moved in turn the place up side down lol.
  So I decided  to finish  making  the shrouds and deadeyes.  Slow process, but at least some movement.   I am so happy .


I used a line to help line things up and soon  had the plates and one shroud on the foremast. I made the other shrouds  and moved the string . 



I am still having the time of my life.  Trying to learn how to build ships right is so much fun I can't believe I never got started before I did. 
  Thanks so much for all the help . Don't  mean to be a pest  lol but I still have so much to learn and so little time  giv'er  I am up to 70 know lol. Just  an old man having fun being 14 lol.
 Don't mean to butt in on others logs but some of them are so fantastic  I just blurt right in. Ok
 Hopefully  can get some more shrouds done and then and then  yes rat lines. Let the song  begin.lol 
 I am liking this model once again  lol
Bob M.
 

I have decided to attempt to make the beak out of wood. I traced the outline of the plastic piece onto paper and cut some planks to match. I put a bit of curve in the top piece as well. I have a thin plastic cutting mat that I put the pattern under. That allowed me to match up the pieces and glue the edges with gumming up the pattern. I still have to sand it down once the glue dries completely.
 

 

 

 
I’m pretty happy about how it’s going so far. Once the glue cures completely, I will sand it down and trim to fit. Of note, once I started down this path of modifying the beak and started looking at different models and pictures I realized that this beak doesn’t match the existing replica at all. I may try to duplicate it but since no one knows what the original looked like anyway, I may not lose sleep over it either.  
thanks for looking.
Dave

Good Morning,
 
Bill, those models look great. Just saw your post now; we've been away for a couple of days.
 
A Saturday morning update -
 
Lately I seem to have the attention span of a gerbil and have been working on all kinds of different things.
 
First, the four vent pipes:
 
They're made out of 1.5mm brass rod, bent into shape. I wanted to indicate the joints. First I tried some Evergreen styrene strips, .01" x .02" but it was much too large to be in scale. Then I tried some rigging thread. By trial and error I discovered that both .5 mm and .25 mm lines were too heavy. I settled on ordinary sewing thread and it seems about right.

 


Next, I was concerned that the supplied piece of dowel was not going to be quite right for the funnel. Taking measurements from the on-line 360 tour, I discovered that at 16mm diameter it was spot one. It was just a matter of flattening the sides to about 12mm. Finishing the funnel is probably next in my peripatetic approach to the details.
 


 
The biggest challenge for me has been the four metal ladders. The ones provided are brass and are not bad quality, but don't look anything like the actual ones on the boat. It took me several attempts, but I have come up with something that I think is acceptable and are a pretty close approximation of the real ones.
 
The three that mount on the deck house have curved tops, flat sides and round rungs. So I used some 1/64" x 1/16" brass strips for the sides. I made a small saw kerf at about the place where I wanted it to bend, and then just bent it using two pairs of pliers. It buckled a little, so using my best blacksmithing skills, I just hammered it flat. It's not very elegant, but once painted gray, it's going to work just fine. The rungs are .5mm wire.
 
I'm really bad at soldering, but I discovered that one of the secrets is to hold the parts very firmly. I made two parallel grooves in a piece of wood. Once I had the holes drilled and the wire rungs inserted, I just placed the sides in the two grooves and gave the whole thing a tap with a hammer to seat it. This worked really well, and it wasn't too difficult to solder each rung in place.
 
The ends of the rungs are snipped off and they've had some cleanup ready for paint. I think these will work, and besides, it's the best I can do, and once I know I've reached that point, I can live with it.
 
The fourth ladder that mounts to the wheelhouse doesn't have a curved top and I'll cut it to length when I get to that point.
 

 
The final item for today is the railing that extends out from the wheelhouse on both sides. These pieces were easy to make and I added the detail to the back side to match that of the real boat.
 

So that's it for now.
Again, many thanks for checking in, likes etc.
David

Small update this morning -
 
I've been working on the wheel house.
 
The first thing was building up the depth of the roof -


Then the assembly was quite simple. The walls are made out of very thin plywood and I didn't like the idea of the exposed edges, so I applied a narrow strip of Tamiya tape over the joints, which both hid the raw edges and more or less replicated the look of the real thing.
 

I noticed that the real wheel house has one operable window, while the rest are all stationary, so I tried to replicate that with the cross bar in the one window. You can't see it in this picture, but I also added an actual steering wheel, which you can see when looking straight one.
 
I also built what is referred to as a cargo scow. I assume it's designed to be towed across snow/ice. It has curved ends and sits on runners. For some reason the kit shows this component as a simple box.
 
 
It's shown below along with the hatch, both of which are not installed yet, but just sitting in their approximate locations.
 

You can also see two of the six gooseneck vents which are not included in the kit. I bought some from Cornwall Model Boats and cut them down to size -

 
I also made the three water outlets, which are not included in the kit, using the valves which are not needed for the vents.
 

To make these I used some 1mm brass rod and some brass tubing just big enough to fit the brass rod and the stem of the valve.
 
That's it for this morning. I'm currently working on a number of the other small deck details.
 
Thanks again for checking in!
 
David
 
 
 
 
 
 

Good Morning,
 
Bill, those models look great. Just saw your post now; we've been away for a couple of days.
 
A Saturday morning update -
 
Lately I seem to have the attention span of a gerbil and have been working on all kinds of different things.
 
First, the four vent pipes:
 
They're made out of 1.5mm brass rod, bent into shape. I wanted to indicate the joints. First I tried some Evergreen styrene strips, .01" x .02" but it was much too large to be in scale. Then I tried some rigging thread. By trial and error I discovered that both .5 mm and .25 mm lines were too heavy. I settled on ordinary sewing thread and it seems about right.

 


Next, I was concerned that the supplied piece of dowel was not going to be quite right for the funnel. Taking measurements from the on-line 360 tour, I discovered that at 16mm diameter it was spot one. It was just a matter of flattening the sides to about 12mm. Finishing the funnel is probably next in my peripatetic approach to the details.
 


 
The biggest challenge for me has been the four metal ladders. The ones provided are brass and are not bad quality, but don't look anything like the actual ones on the boat. It took me several attempts, but I have come up with something that I think is acceptable and are a pretty close approximation of the real ones.
 
The three that mount on the deck house have curved tops, flat sides and round rungs. So I used some 1/64" x 1/16" brass strips for the sides. I made a small saw kerf at about the place where I wanted it to bend, and then just bent it using two pairs of pliers. It buckled a little, so using my best blacksmithing skills, I just hammered it flat. It's not very elegant, but once painted gray, it's going to work just fine. The rungs are .5mm wire.
 
I'm really bad at soldering, but I discovered that one of the secrets is to hold the parts very firmly. I made two parallel grooves in a piece of wood. Once I had the holes drilled and the wire rungs inserted, I just placed the sides in the two grooves and gave the whole thing a tap with a hammer to seat it. This worked really well, and it wasn't too difficult to solder each rung in place.
 
The ends of the rungs are snipped off and they've had some cleanup ready for paint. I think these will work, and besides, it's the best I can do, and once I know I've reached that point, I can live with it.
 
The fourth ladder that mounts to the wheelhouse doesn't have a curved top and I'll cut it to length when I get to that point.
 

 
The final item for today is the railing that extends out from the wheelhouse on both sides. These pieces were easy to make and I added the detail to the back side to match that of the real boat.
 

So that's it for now.
Again, many thanks for checking in, likes etc.
David

Topmast Shrouds
 
The shroud pairs and individual ones (odd number) were made up same as the lower ones:
 

 
A simple jig like that found on countless other build logs was made up with 2 pieces of wire to fit into the upper and lower deadeyes to keep their spacing per the plans and the same to each of their neighbor’s:
 

 

 
 
Once the shrouds were in place it was just a matter of reeving the lanyards thru the deadeyes and securing them:
 

 

 
Next on the to -do list is rigging the Futtock Shrouds, the Catharpans (hopefully) and the ratlines.

Turnbuckles…

I used 1/16” OD Aluminum tubing and copper wire to build dummy turnbuckles. There is no mention of turnbuckles in the instructions. I wanted to try to add this detail and tried to get them small enough to be of proper scale. 😆


Used needle file to cut both sides of tubing. 

Used Copper wire to fit through the tubing. 

Turnbuckle body is held in place with a touch of CA glue. 

 

Bobstays placed
 
 Cheers 🍻 

Good Morning,
 
Bill, those models look great. Just saw your post now; we've been away for a couple of days.
 
A Saturday morning update -
 
Lately I seem to have the attention span of a gerbil and have been working on all kinds of different things.
 
First, the four vent pipes:
 
They're made out of 1.5mm brass rod, bent into shape. I wanted to indicate the joints. First I tried some Evergreen styrene strips, .01" x .02" but it was much too large to be in scale. Then I tried some rigging thread. By trial and error I discovered that both .5 mm and .25 mm lines were too heavy. I settled on ordinary sewing thread and it seems about right.

 


Next, I was concerned that the supplied piece of dowel was not going to be quite right for the funnel. Taking measurements from the on-line 360 tour, I discovered that at 16mm diameter it was spot one. It was just a matter of flattening the sides to about 12mm. Finishing the funnel is probably next in my peripatetic approach to the details.
 


 
The biggest challenge for me has been the four metal ladders. The ones provided are brass and are not bad quality, but don't look anything like the actual ones on the boat. It took me several attempts, but I have come up with something that I think is acceptable and are a pretty close approximation of the real ones.
 
The three that mount on the deck house have curved tops, flat sides and round rungs. So I used some 1/64" x 1/16" brass strips for the sides. I made a small saw kerf at about the place where I wanted it to bend, and then just bent it using two pairs of pliers. It buckled a little, so using my best blacksmithing skills, I just hammered it flat. It's not very elegant, but once painted gray, it's going to work just fine. The rungs are .5mm wire.
 
I'm really bad at soldering, but I discovered that one of the secrets is to hold the parts very firmly. I made two parallel grooves in a piece of wood. Once I had the holes drilled and the wire rungs inserted, I just placed the sides in the two grooves and gave the whole thing a tap with a hammer to seat it. This worked really well, and it wasn't too difficult to solder each rung in place.
 
The ends of the rungs are snipped off and they've had some cleanup ready for paint. I think these will work, and besides, it's the best I can do, and once I know I've reached that point, I can live with it.
 
The fourth ladder that mounts to the wheelhouse doesn't have a curved top and I'll cut it to length when I get to that point.
 

 
The final item for today is the railing that extends out from the wheelhouse on both sides. These pieces were easy to make and I added the detail to the back side to match that of the real boat.
 

So that's it for now.
Again, many thanks for checking in, likes etc.
David

Good Morning,
 
Bill, those models look great. Just saw your post now; we've been away for a couple of days.
 
A Saturday morning update -
 
Lately I seem to have the attention span of a gerbil and have been working on all kinds of different things.
 
First, the four vent pipes:
 
They're made out of 1.5mm brass rod, bent into shape. I wanted to indicate the joints. First I tried some Evergreen styrene strips, .01" x .02" but it was much too large to be in scale. Then I tried some rigging thread. By trial and error I discovered that both .5 mm and .25 mm lines were too heavy. I settled on ordinary sewing thread and it seems about right.

 


Next, I was concerned that the supplied piece of dowel was not going to be quite right for the funnel. Taking measurements from the on-line 360 tour, I discovered that at 16mm diameter it was spot one. It was just a matter of flattening the sides to about 12mm. Finishing the funnel is probably next in my peripatetic approach to the details.
 


 
The biggest challenge for me has been the four metal ladders. The ones provided are brass and are not bad quality, but don't look anything like the actual ones on the boat. It took me several attempts, but I have come up with something that I think is acceptable and are a pretty close approximation of the real ones.
 
The three that mount on the deck house have curved tops, flat sides and round rungs. So I used some 1/64" x 1/16" brass strips for the sides. I made a small saw kerf at about the place where I wanted it to bend, and then just bent it using two pairs of pliers. It buckled a little, so using my best blacksmithing skills, I just hammered it flat. It's not very elegant, but once painted gray, it's going to work just fine. The rungs are .5mm wire.
 
I'm really bad at soldering, but I discovered that one of the secrets is to hold the parts very firmly. I made two parallel grooves in a piece of wood. Once I had the holes drilled and the wire rungs inserted, I just placed the sides in the two grooves and gave the whole thing a tap with a hammer to seat it. This worked really well, and it wasn't too difficult to solder each rung in place.
 
The ends of the rungs are snipped off and they've had some cleanup ready for paint. I think these will work, and besides, it's the best I can do, and once I know I've reached that point, I can live with it.
 
The fourth ladder that mounts to the wheelhouse doesn't have a curved top and I'll cut it to length when I get to that point.
 

 
The final item for today is the railing that extends out from the wheelhouse on both sides. These pieces were easy to make and I added the detail to the back side to match that of the real boat.
 

So that's it for now.
Again, many thanks for checking in, likes etc.
David

I too have a long way to go on my soldering skills,  or lack of them.
I did ok on a 1:48 scratch built tug on my first attempt at soldering rails but failed miserably on a 1:72 plastic LCT kit. But on the plastic kit I used polystyrene rod and glued it. Came out pretty good. I think I will try that again for the ladders. Also I'll try gluing brass rod pieces.
    Bill

Dave, My crows nests are finished.  They look like the might be a bit thick (scalewise)but I think they will be OK once installed

Small update this morning -
 
I've been working on the wheel house.
 
The first thing was building up the depth of the roof -


Then the assembly was quite simple. The walls are made out of very thin plywood and I didn't like the idea of the exposed edges, so I applied a narrow strip of Tamiya tape over the joints, which both hid the raw edges and more or less replicated the look of the real thing.
 

I noticed that the real wheel house has one operable window, while the rest are all stationary, so I tried to replicate that with the cross bar in the one window. You can't see it in this picture, but I also added an actual steering wheel, which you can see when looking straight one.
 
I also built what is referred to as a cargo scow. I assume it's designed to be towed across snow/ice. It has curved ends and sits on runners. For some reason the kit shows this component as a simple box.
 
 
It's shown below along with the hatch, both of which are not installed yet, but just sitting in their approximate locations.
 

You can also see two of the six gooseneck vents which are not included in the kit. I bought some from Cornwall Model Boats and cut them down to size -

 
I also made the three water outlets, which are not included in the kit, using the valves which are not needed for the vents.
 

To make these I used some 1mm brass rod and some brass tubing just big enough to fit the brass rod and the stem of the valve.
 
That's it for this morning. I'm currently working on a number of the other small deck details.
 
Thanks again for checking in!
 
David
 
 
 
 
 
 

David, thanks for chiming in! There is so little information on this kit and no build logs. I found, now, two people who have built it but just have a finished product to show. 
I agree with the combination media idiocy. Why!?
I will try your idea with the paper backing. The backside will be hard to see once the sprit and rigging is installed. I will also use your ideas for the “Y”-shaped thingy (all sailors are cringing at this landlubber’s use of lingo) and deadman. 
The grating isn’t glued yet. Just trying to keep multiple pieces together with two hands. I think I will need to shorten the wooden keel bit to match the length of the grating/beak assembly. 
thanks for looking. 
Dave