David Lester

Hi Tony,
My method is similar to John's but I do it with one seizing. I make a figure-of-eight with the line and do a regular seizing in the centre. I slide the seizing along until one of the loops is just a bit bigger than the block, put the block in and snug the seizing up. Then I draw the second loop until it's just a bit bigger than a drill bit that is the same size as I want the loop to be, put the drill bit in the loop and draw the two ends of the line until everything is snug. A dab of glue, cut the two ends off and it's done.
David

Hi Tony,
My method is similar to John's but I do it with one seizing. I make a figure-of-eight with the line and do a regular seizing in the centre. I slide the seizing along until one of the loops is just a bit bigger than the block, put the block in and snug the seizing up. Then I draw the second loop until it's just a bit bigger than a drill bit that is the same size as I want the loop to be, put the drill bit in the loop and draw the two ends of the line until everything is snug. A dab of glue, cut the two ends off and it's done.
David

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

Good Morning -
Just back home after a week away for a family wedding in British Columbia and we even managed to avoid all the smoke! We were in the famous Okanagan Valley which is stunningly beautiful, but I understand that even there the air quality had been poor due to smoke for much of the summer. Nothing but clear sunny skies for us though.
 
Here is an update of my progress just before I left last week. I had been working on the bulwarks.
 
The waterway is fairly easy to bevel and install, but it has an unusual profile at the bow where it meets the ceiling planks. It's not completely clear from the plans how this is achieved, but I think I interpreted it correctly as the ceiling planks ended up blending in just fine.

 
The start of the bow framing.

 
Here is the bow framing complete. It's a bit tricky as it spays outward, but actually easier than I have found on some other models because the laser cut parts fit very well.
 

 
The bulwarks is planked only at the bow on this ship and this requires spiling which is something I have never done before. You can see the cardboard template I've made. The only way I could manage this was through trial and error until I finally got one that fit the space more or less correctly. The planks up to the top of the template are thicker than the ones above it. The plans indicate to use 3/64" stock for the lower planks and 1/32" stock for the upper planks. I don't have 3/64", so I applied two layers of 1/32" for the bottom and a single layer of 1/32" for the upper planks. I opted to apply each section as one piece and then I will indicate individual planks by scribing them.
 

 
Here's the template for the upper set. The lower planking blends into the waterway pretty much as I think it's supposed to.
 

 
The port side framing is in place and you can see where I've quickly drawn on planks at the bow just to get the idea of how it will look. In actuality very little of this shows as the anchor deck covers much of it. I was nevertheless happy to have the opportunity to try my hand at spiling and the fact that it will not be front and centre on the finished model is a bonus!
 

 
Here the framing is finished and ready for planking.
 

 
One little area that caused my more trouble than I thought it ought to was the upper rail as it rises at the bow. It takes a very steep rise at about the point where the planking ends. I had a lot trouble making this a smooth transition; I did it over a couple of times because I kept getting a sharp angle at the transition point, but finally I managed it. The next piece that goes on is called the log rail and that plank lays on its edge. As soon as I was able to lay it on the rail without a gap at the transition point I was satisfied.
 
I've just started some upper planking and one little problem has become apparent. The plans call for a certain size stock for the top rail and the kit provided stock was either just under or just over that size (I can't remember the actual dimensions just at the moment.) I opted for the undersized one but should have chosen the oversized one. I spaced the rail carefully on the inside, but as you can see the rail is flush with the outer planning with no lip. Rather than pull the rail off, I've decided to sand it smooth with the planking and then add a 1/32" strip along its outside edge. I think that will work just fine and will make it easy to get a consistent depth of lip. Already I can see that I am going to have a bit of similar trouble with the planksheer, which also protrudes and I expect that I will be sanding it smooth and adding a small strip to it as well. I noticed in John's build log (charleswmorganmodel.com) that he had this problem with the planksheer as well and used that fix.
 
So that's where I'm at right now. I'm spending the day recovering from the effects of air travel (I hate it) and will be soon back in my shop.
David

Hello All,
I have now finished the Shamrock V. There was really very little rigging on it, and most of it was dependent on the sails, so once they were ready to install, there was not too much left to do.
 
After making my first set of sails, I decided to have a second go and see if I could improve upon my first attempt. I had used the pounce wheel to mark the seam lines, but I wasn't completely happy with the result. Tom Lauria uses a pencil, but I found that the pencil simply looked too much like a pencil line and tended to smear with the slightest touch. So I contacted Tom and he suggested I needed to use a much harder pencil.
 
Off to Staples I went and found a 6H pencil and this did the trick. It didn't smear at all and left a light crisp line. I still had a bit of trouble keeping the silkspan smooth and flat and I do have some wrinkling at the edges, but I know this is as good as I'm going to get it and I can live with it.
 

And here's the finished model. I didn't chronicle the rigging very much as it is as simple and straightforward as can be and the Amati plans are crystal clear in this department.
 



I don't know enough about yachts of this period to know how much of the detailing is accurate. I suspect some of the deck details are overscale, but I decided not to worry about it if that is the case. The only thing I did do was replace the standard issue wooden blocks with cast ones from BlueJacket which I think look so much better.
 
So now that my current commissions are over, it's back to the Agamemnon in earnest.

Again, many thanks for looking it and all the nice comments and likes. I really appreciate it.
 
Happy New Year to all!
David
 
 

Good Morning Everyone,
I've made good progress on the sails.
Roger, I appreciate your comment, and as a rule I prefer models without sails. However, I think this yacht needs the sails, and it's a good opportunity for me to experiment with them.
 
As I mentioned earlier, I found the kit provided material all but impossible to work with, so I had ordered some silkspan which arrived on Monday and I spent much of Monday and yesterday working on the the sails. I found the silkspan easy to work with and I believe I will have an acceptable result.
 
Following Tom Lauria's method, I painted the silkspan with some acrylic paint. When dry I pressed it flat with an iron. Tom mentioned using something called dry waxed paper. He doesn't mean regular waxed paper, which would leave quite a mess. Instead of dry waxed paper I used parchment paper which we already had and it did the trick. It can withstand quite a bit of heat and it protects the silkspan.
 
The next step was to cut out the sails. I made cardboard templates, but here I had to differ from Tom's approach, as I ruined my first sail. He outlined his sail with a pencil, but when I did that, as soon as I ran glue along the edge for the reinforcing strip, the pencil just smudged and made a mess of the sail. The next time I ran my pounce wheel along the template and this cleanly laid out the sail.

I marked the template where the seams go, according to the plans and transferred those marks to the material, but outside the edge of the sail.
 
Then it was a a simple matter of cutting out some reinforcing strips and gluing them along the edges of the sail.
 
When it came to marking the seams, I differed from Tom again. He recommended drawing on pencil lines to show the seams. However when I did this, the line looked too heavy and seemed, to my eye at least, to look too much like a pencil line drawn on the sail. I know that others have tried actually sewing seam lines on, but I wasn't about to get into that and it often looks over scale in any case.
 
So, I turned to the pounce wheel again and marked the seams with it. I'm pretty happy with the result. It shows up just enough, not so much as to be distracting, but still noticeable.
 

I then flipped the material over and applied the reinforcing strips and "seams" to the other side and then cut the sail out.
 
I then ironed the sails again, between two sheets of parchment paper, and I think they're finished.
 
There are four sails on this model - the three small ones which I've done and one large one. Unfortunately, I will have to re-do it as it's marked out with pencil and isn't too clean looking. Fortunately, I ordered enough material.
 


 
Anyway, that's my first experience using silkspan and I have to say that I found it to be a very nice product to work with.
 
Thanks again for looking it.
 
David
 

Good Morning,
A little more work on my Shamrock to report. I've finished up the deck details and have a good start on the rigging. The rigging on this model is minimal and quite simple to do. Also the instructions are quite clear so not too big a challenge -
 






I've upgraded the blocks to internally stropped ones, from BlueJacket.
 
This is as far as I can go until I add the sails. Most of the running rigging must be added at the same time as the sails.
 
I'm finding the sails to be a very big challenge. The kit provides some material that seems quite suitable to me. It's a very fine synthetic fabric which does not seem to be over scaled (to my eye at least.) But they only give you just barely enough, certainly not enough for a practice round. I followed the instructions in the kit and also followed someone's Youtube series about his build of the Amati Endeavour yacht, which appears to use the same fabric and method. His seemed to turn out beautifully, but it's lot easier watching it being done than doing it!
 
The approach is to coat the fabric with a 50/50 mixture of white glue and water. Cut out narrow strips to represent the reinforcing at the edges and other points and glue them on. Then cut the sail out. I have two problems, which aren't actually well reflected in my pictures below. First it's very difficult to get the sail to lay flat and not wringle. The first one below is by for my best effort and I even think it could pass as acceptable, however the others are not nearly as good. The second problem is that I underestimated how easily this gluey fabric would pick up every last bit of dust and dirt in my shop. As a result the sails, in addition to being wringly, also look pretty dirty.
 


I think it's possible that I could manage to get an acceptable set of sails using this method, but I would need about three times the fabric to allow for do-overs.
 
So, I have ordered some silkspan from BlueJacket and I'm going to have another go at it, this time following Tom Lauria's approach as he outlined in one of his videos. It's quite similar to the first method I tried, but he coats the material in paint instead of glue. I think I've ordered enough to allow at least one do-over. If I can't get a decent job with the silkspan, I'm not sure what I will do, but I remain optimistic!
 
Once I conquer these sails, the build will be virtually finished.
 
Thanks for checking in.
David
 

Hi Dave,
Yeah, it's just the display stand that came with the kit and I painted it black. It's a bit unsophisticated, but it holds the model surprisingly securely. The model is not attached; it's just sitting there. I used it throughout most of the build and it presented me with no problems. I kept thinking I would glue it or otherwise affix it at a later time in case I needed the model to be free for some reason, but never actually did it. (I decided not to use the kit supplied sign with its inappropriate western style lettering that would look at home at the OK Corral.) On my Constitution, I drilled the keel and implanted some posts - always wanted to be a dentist - which sat inside cherry standards on the stand, but I had a terrible time getting it to sit securely. I kept getting the slots in the cherry standards that the keel sat in too tight or too loose. On the other hand, this simple little stand was very easy and actually works quite well.
David

I am now launched on my latest project - the Charles W. Morgan. I though long and hard about what model I would like to build this time and for several reasons settled on this one. I was ready again for a fairly involved build which I think this is going to be, as well as a change of pace. Being a commercial vessel rather than a naval vessel it presents a vastly different set of features, particularly the deck details, and there are no cannons to rig! In addition there are plenty of resources readily available including excellent build logs and many photos on line, and of course it's always possible to visit the actual ship. So, the Charles W. Morgan it is.
 
At the outset, for some reason, my wife could never seem to remember the name of this ship and at one point said, "So, have you settled on the William H. Macy, or whatever the heck it's called?" So, we now tend to refer to it as the William H. Macy!
 
Last night I assembled the keel pieces and today have been dry fitting the bulkheads and I am quite impressed at how well they line up with the rabbet - very little adjustment will be needed. So far, so good.
 
I'll post some pictures as soon as it starts to get a little more interesting.
 
David

Good Morning,
I've been focusing on two things over the past few days -
 
First, I've been working on the upper edge of the hull. As I mentioned before, the sub deck is glued directly onto the hull and then the deck planking on top of that. It's necessary to get a smooth upper edge to the hull which is supposed to meet crisply with the deck.
 
I had filled the edge with some filler, but before working any further on that, I added the black painted border that goes around the deck -

Then I sanded, refilled and painted the top of the hull -
 

It's not hard to do, but it takes quite a few coats to get it smooth. It will appear to be prefect in one light, then as soon as I adjust the light, I can suddenly see all kinds of imperfections. I applied one quick coat of green to the top and this seems to make it easier to find the tiny imperfections. It's all but finished now, just some very minor touch-ups needed.

The other thing I've been working on is a stand. I thought I would use the one provided in the kit, but it's really pretty flimsy, doesn't really fit the hull very well (despite my efforts to modify it) and it isn't very attractive.
 
I was at a loss as to what a suitable stand for this yacht might look like, but then I found something that I thought was suitable in forum member Ekis's build log for his Endeavour J Class. I though it was quite handsome, so I set out to try to do something similar.
 
In the end I came up with something that is a little less sophisticated than his and perhaps not quite as beautiful, but it's simpler and I think it does the job quite acceptably.
 
It was a bit challenging without a plan to work from, so I just took a trial and error approach. There seemed to be too many variables and no fixed starting point. So I just started in and quickly learned that all I should expect from my prototype was that it would have suitable overall measurements and not to worry about how it looked. I basically just slapped the bracing etc on.  Once I had an established model to work from, ie its height, width and length, I then built a new one, this time paying attention to how it looked. I used some 3/16" square stock from my stash.
 
It's not perfect, but I kinda like it and it's a definite improvement over the little kit supplied one.
 


Thanks again,
David
 

Just a general opinionated observation for what it's worth: 
 
I think that the overwhelming majority of modeling details which are less than optimal are the result of overscale small details which the modeler focuses upon and obsesses over at the expense of the overall impression of reality which is the true objective of the modeling endeavor. Slightly underscale details do not similarly offend the experienced viewer's eyes because our minds, being what they are, unconsciously compensate for details that are smaller than they should be but not for those that are larger and give us a "poke in the eye." It's always better to err on the side of subtlety. When miniaturists undertake to portray a subject with the level of detail found in a ship model, the smaller the scale the more the modeler must be an "impressionist" rather than a "realist." 
 
I've found that scale and historical accuracy should always take precedence over all else. If you do the research on scantlings for your vessel, you'll likely find that the stopping in its deck seams was narrower than a half inch. In most vessels other than naval warships maintained "Bristol fashion" with regularly holy-stoned decks, the decks will be quite dark, discolored by weathering, dirt, and the drips of pine tar and paint falling from aloft and tracked by the sticky bare feet of sailors climbing in tarred rigging softened by the hot sun.) Indeed, the deck of a working whaler would appear uniformly black from the grease spread by the rendering of blubber. The appearance of a ship's deck from a scale distance (i.e. if one were observing the prototype vessel from a full-scale distance) will very often lack the details of plank seams and fastening plugs or trunnels that so many modelers seem so determined to portray in miniature when in real life they'd be invisible or nearly so. Needless to say, carvel-hung hull plank seams wouldn't be discernable when viewed from the usual distant scale viewing distance because they were always finished fair and painted over. They weren't intended to be seen. Hull seams might become more apparent over time as the hull "worked" and became "tired," but even then they were painted over and would not show seams of contrasting paint color. 
 
Of course, there are modeling styles that deviate from what the eye would see of the prototype vessel. The most common of these would be the "as built" framed models whose purpose is to accurately portray timbering details and are finished "bright" (unpainted) as some of the Admiralty Board models seen in the higher quality maritime museum collections. Even in these often-unplanked open-framed models, where plank seams and fastenings may be shown, proper scale may well dictate that such details are nearly invisible or only very subtly suggested. In the finest 1:48 scale museum pieces, unfinished pearwood deck planking is sometimes merely drawn with a pencil line the width of a human hair, omitting plank ends or fastenings of any kind. The viewer's eyes see only the barest suggestion of "planking" with no hint of fastenings or plank butts, but their brain correctly says "planked decks." It is this "tricking the eye" that produces the illusion of reality in fine scale models. Overscale details such as prominent fastenings and plugs, particularly when set where no shipwright ever would have put them, too close to the plank edge or even a single fastening in a plank end, and shiny polished "real copper" plates with tacks having rounded heads two scale inches in diameter giving the overall effect of a terminal case of acne, may demonstrate the modeler's dedication and patience, but to no good effect beyond that.
 
I post this opinion not to criticize any particular modeler's efforts, but rather as an exhortation in the interests of "better modeling." We often see a  less experienced modeler proudly posting work in this forum which exhibits out-of-scale and inaccurate details, often after obviously spending a tremendous amount of time creating them. At that point, it's too late to comment gracefully on such flaws and so nobody mentions them, directly at least. Alternately, when newer modelers ask questions regarding their intentions to pursue such errors, experienced modelers circumspectly express their opinions in suggested alternative courses of action in order to avoid causing offense or hurt feelings. The result of this, together with the marketing gimmicks of some kit manufacturers ("Over 1,000 parts... includes real copper plates!") seems to only perpetuate these mistakes. So I offer these comments only generally to those who may wish to consider them. For those who might ask, "So what makes you an expert?" I can only answer, "Because these are all mistakes I've made myself!"
 
Tom Lauria, a master modeler who has an excellent collection of YouTube videos on ship modeling, has a good video entitled Scale and the Compelling Impression. I highly recommend it!
 
 
 
 
 

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

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

Try David Grann's newest book "The Wager"- an amazing story about the HMS Wager. Grann's research is impressive and his writing style is accessible. This led me to read his earlier books all of which are equally compelling.

Hello All,
Well, it appears that I have finished the Mayflower more quickly than I had anticipated. I'm afraid I haven't given many updates on the rigging, but really, there would be very little to be gained by anyone. This is a small model and the rigging couldn't be more straightforward. It was just a matter of working through it until suddenly it seemed to be done!
 






 
So, I have a few thoughts on this model. I think I mentioned at the beginning of this build log that I was building this model on commission for someone who wants the Mayflower specifically. I don't believe I would have chosen this kit otherwise, because it's not the era or type of ship that particularly interests me, but nevertheless, it was a really enjoyable kit to build and it makes up into a very attractive and eye-catching model.
 
I think this is a kit that deserves much more interest than it seems to attract on the forum. It has a lot going for it - it doesn't break the bank to buy it, it's not so big that it's difficult to display, it isn't too difficult and the instructions are foolproof. This would be an ideal kit for someone fairly new to the hobby; perhaps a second build for example.
 
It was designed by Chuck Passaro and his instructions are excellent; among the best I've come across. With most Model Shipways kits, you can essentially throw the instruction book away and spend all your time deciphering the plans - especially for the rigging. In this case, it was not nearly as necessary to refer to the plans because the instructions were that complete and clear.
 
I found this to be a fun change of pace and now with it behind me, I will return to my much bigger challenge, which has been on hold for a few months - the Agamemnon
 

 
 
 

Good Morning,
I've been working on the rigging and here is the halyard for the main yard tie.
 
On rare occasions, I've been known to demonstrate forethought and I'm happy to report that this was one of those occasions. I threaded the lanyard through the ram's head block and the knight before I glued the knight in place! It would have been much more difficult to do after the knight was in place. Then with the line loosely in place, I glued the knight to the deck and snugged up the lanyard.


I notice that as I get older, it's taking less and less to delight me!
 
David

Apparently, all of the deadeyes on the original Mayflower were elongated ones, which they appear to have used on the Mayflower II as well. It's the ones on the main and fore stays that I was referring to; they're quite a bit bigger and have five holes, like in this picture below. I didn't even contemplate making the smaller elongated ones for the shrouds from scratch. But I did experiment with the larger five-hole ones for the stays, but as I mentioned abandoned that plan.
 
There don't seem to be many options to buy such deadeyes either. I haven't seen any of the five-hole ones anywhere. Both Cornwall Model Boats and Ages of Sail have some three-hole ones, but they're too triangular and don't look quite right for the Mayflower. Bluejacket does have elongated three-hole deadeyes, which look pretty good. I could have used them, but instead I just chose to use the kit supplied ones all around.
David

Hi All -
Standing rigging is finished:




For the deadeyes on the fore and main stays, the kit provides large standard three-hole deadeyes, but the instructions indicate that five-hole deadeyes with a tear drop shape would be correct and suggests making them. I tried that but had trouble getting them to look good enough. No matter what, they still looked too rough to my eye, so in the end I opted to use the less correct, but better looking standard deadeyes.
 
I did add serving to the lines in the usual places. I wasn't completely sure it it's correct for a ship of this period, but the pictures of the Mayflower II replica appear to have it and I had the the serving machine and decided to include it.
 
I made a mouse from wood for each of the stays. I always find them pretty easy to do. I drill a hole about 1/4" deep into the end of a small dowel and then shape the mouse on the dowel with an xacto knife and sand it smooth. Then I just cut it off the dowel. 
 
Now it's on to the ratlines:

Thanks again for your comments and "likes."
David
 

Good Morning -
I'm into the rigging in earnest now. In the past I have always tended to start with the bowsprit and work my way to the stern. The instructions for this kit however suggest installing the bowsprit and then moving the the mizzen mast and working forward, so I decided to try that and see how I like it. So far, so good.
 
The instructions suggest starting with the mizzen shrouds and then adding the mizzen stay before adding the lower main shrouds, so that's what I did. The logic makes sense - this way you can fix the stay to the main mast without the main shrouds getting in the way.
 
One problem I did encounter however is due to how small and flexible the mizzen mast is. It isn't very robust. In order to get the slack out of the lanyard on the stay where it meets the main mast, it tended to pull the mizzen mast too far forward and, of course, there is no backstay on the mizzen mast to counteract this. I ended up undoing all the lanyards on the mizzen shrouds, securing the lanyard on the stay where I was happy with it and then redoing the shrouds, starting with the aftmost one and pulling it taut, then finally, the other two shrouds. This seemed to solve the problem and the mizzen mast is now stable and in (more or less) the right position.
 


Moving on to the main mast, the instructions suggest first adding the tackles before doing the shrouds -
 

The main tackles are now in place and next up are the main shrouds. I don't anticipate the same problem with the main stay as I had with the mizzen as there is back pressure on the main mast and it's considerable more robust than the mizzen.
That's all for now.
David
 
 

Good Morning Everyone,
I've been hopping all over the place, working away at various bits and pieces.
 
I finished planking the hull and had quite a bit of trouble getting a satisfactory finish on that basswood planking. What I have is far from perfect, but I think it will be acceptable. I'm banking on most of its flaws being hidden once all the details are added. I've attached the wales and started in on the decorative painting. I know it's looking rough at this point -




I also started in on some of the spars. There aren't too many of them for this vessel and they are all pretty straightforward. In addition to the wooldings on the lower masts, the instructions call for "wood hoops" around the masts; immediately above and below the wooldings. It suggested using strips cut from a manila file folder. I tried that and a couple of other types of paper as well, but I just couldn't get them painted to blend in with the mast. They always looked too distracting, so I have opted to omit them.
 
I'm not exactly sure what the correct method of attaching the wooldings is, but I chose to seize them to the mast, just as you would when seizing a line. It works really well and gives a very tidy result, even at the points where the line enters and exits the seizing. A small dab of glue at each point is all it takes to hold them in place -
 



The decorative moldings proved to be more time consuming than I would have guessed. There are several different ones - natural colour, white, red, green/white and red/white.
 
For the green/white and red/white ones, I painted them all white first, then added masking tape and painted the green and red portions. While this worked really well, it was pretty tiresome and in retrospect, I'm not sure that it wouldn't have been faster and perhaps with as good a result to have painted the red and green bits by eye and without the masking tape -




I've been working on the gun port lids, although I won't add them to the hull until almost the very end. My initial though was to show them closed which you can see in one of the photos above. However, my thinking changed for a couple of reasons. I'm building this model specifically for someone and I think it likely that they will find the model to be more interesting if the gun ports are open and secondly, as the flaws in my hull finish became apparent, I decided that the gun port details would be one more thing to attract the eye and help distract from the hull finish. I don't know if there is any validity to this line of reasoning, but I'm hoping there is -
 
I'm using a single piece of fine wire to secure each one to the hull, with a hole drilled between the two layers of the lid. the metal straps are ones I found in my stash of supplies.
The one in the picture is just in place temporarily to see if it works and it seems to work just fine. I'll add some glue as well when I'm ready to actually install them.
 



Most of the deck details are now in place - the railings, which were straightforward to build as well as the capstan, the pumps, the knights, ladders and hatches. This kit has some very poorly cast parts, including the capstan and the knights, so I made those from wood. I forgot to take a picture of the capstan before I installed it, but you can get a glimpse of it in one of the photos below.
 
The knights have sheaves in them. You would think that it would be very easy to drill two rows of three sheave holes in straight lines and evenly spaced, wouldn't you? I don't have a drill press or mill and I'm working in basswood, so it proved to be very difficult for me to do. My oddball solution was to take a triple block from my supplies and build the knight around it. It looks a lot better than my other poor attempts.
 
There are no pumps included in the kit at all, so these had to be scratch built. The instructions suggest taking a 3/16" dowel and flattening it so that it has eight sides. Again, without a mill, this is pretty hard to do free hand, so I opted to start with a smaller dowel, (1/8" I think it was) and apply strips to it. This also allowed me to more easily create the large depression in the top, by extending the strips above the top of the dowel. It would have been almost impossible for me to drill a large diameter hole in the top of the dowel without a drill press. The bracket holding the handle is 1/16" thick, and I found it impossible to cut a groove in it to hold a 1/32" handle, so I pawed through my supplies and found a billet of material thinner than 1/32" and I found it not too hard to cut a groove to accept this thinner material. (I sometimes wonder why I hang on to so many old billets, but it's surprising how often they come in handy.)
 



 
So that's where I'm at so far. Next up is applying the moldings to the hull and painting the decorative mayflower on the stern. The kit includes a cast piece, but I don't think I'm going to use it, but rather paint the decorations directly onto the stern.
 
This is not exactly on topic, but I thought I'd share it anyway. I tend to keep a very messy workspace and I've come to accept the fact that that will never change. However, I do find it annoying when I accumulate a number of various pieces of wood strips which I have retrieved from my storage area. Before I know it I have a variety of sizes all mixed up with my tools and I can't tell what I've got. I sometimes find myself heading back to my storage for a new 2' piece to cut a small bit off of, when I actually have plenty of small bits all mixed up with other sizes and my various tools.
 
So, in an effort to help with this problem, I'm trying this idea. I bought some mailing tubes and cut them in half lengthwise to make troughs and then joined them together with masking tape. It's probably a bit too soon to tell how well this will really work, but so far it's promising. To the left in the picture below is my usual utter chaos. but at least I can see at a glance what wood I currently have out.

 
Thanks again for checking it.
David
 
 
 
 

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
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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

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Try David Grann's newest book "The Wager"- an amazing story about the HMS Wager. Grann's research is impressive and his writing style is accessible. This led me to read his earlier books all of which are equally compelling.