Danstream

Very nice build. I like the shades you applied on the camouflage colors. Well done, Dan,

To illustrate my comment, please have look of this vase where a ship is depicted (Ulysses and the sirens): https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/478976001 This vase is from the same date (c.a. 470-480 BC) of the claimed date of the model. Dan.

@ObviousNewbie, I am following with interest your build, being in the past interested in greek history and Homer poetry. I know that this is an unsolicited advise and I waited a lot before writing it. Please do not consider it if you think it is not worthwile. It is about the eye that you are going to paint/apply on the bow of your ship. It seems that you are going to place the eye with an inclination and with a 'cartoonish' style so to render a kind of 'angry' or 'menaceus' look. I do not think that this should be the case. Please look at documents of the time, like the mosaic above or the numerous pieces of pottery that can be found on the web and you will find that the eye is generally represented with a 'hieratic' look, without any particular expression. The eye was not meant to convey fear to enemies, like a nose art of an airplane, but rather to protect the ship, to give to the ship the sense of sight that would help to navigate and follow safely the proper routes. Best regards, Dan

Dear all, first of all, many thanks for all the help and suggestions that you forwarded to me. At this point, I owe you some clarifications, though. The kit provides decals for a Chinese aircraft with a metallic finish and for a Soviet one sporting a camouflage used during the Korean war. Not being interested in Chinese markings, I rather prefer to finish the model with Soviet markings, hence with a camo livery. Admittedly, a metallic finish might well be more iconic for this plane, however, I would like not to outsource new decals for the soviet markings. The provided decals are suitable for the scheme portrayed in the picture of the RC model posted above by @popeye the sailor. This is a two tones camouflage (sand-brown and green) with light blue for the under surface. The colors to be used are subject of hot discussions which can be found on the web and which I will summarize below. My complain about lack of period pictures was not related to the choice of a camouflage scheme, rather to the fact that I usually try to get ideas for the weathering from these pictures. Not having pictures to refer to, I will have to figure out a plausible weathering by myself. Sorry for the confusion that my post I might have generated. @Egilman, indeed, the model reproduces a Mig 15 'bis', which was an improved version introduced after the first appearance of this jet. Coming back to the Soviet camouflage, probably, the unavailability of period pictures is due to the fact that the Soviet intervention in the Korean war had not to be advertised and kept as far as possible secret. Hence few pictures were circulated. It is reported that Soviets did not have standardized tints and the aircraft were painted with colors obtained by mixing basic tints like yellow, red, brown, etc. Therefore, color definitions are indicative only and the exact tints are everyone's calls. If you are really interested on this topic, I suggest you the following articulated and very informative discussion led by a Russian guy, author of a book on the subject, contained in the following link: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234949599-mig-15-korean-war-camo-colours/ As far as the colors that I will use, my choice is with Tamiya acrylic paints and are: - XF-59 Desert Yellow - XF-13 J.A. Green, which is a rather 'simple' green - XF-23 Light Blue, which I will fade with some white. Again, thank you for your interest and help, kind regards, Dan.

Thanks Denis, Glad that you find it nice. I must say that the most enjoyable part is starting now. I did not find period pictures of this aircraft wearing a camouflage, hence I will have to improvise the weathering and keep it on a low profile. Warmest greetings, Dan.

Hi all, after quite some time, during which I worked on my ship model, I am now back to my Mig. I glued all the main parts of the airframe, included the fuselage portions, and spent time on inscribing the lost details. In particular, the joint between the fuselage parts needed few CA filling, sanding and scribing sessions. Then the details which need to be left unpainted were masked, the airframe was readied for the primer by degreasing it with alcohol. I sprayed a coat of Mr. Surfacer 1500 which went on nicely leaving a very smooth surface. To check the work on the re-scribed details, I applied some Tamiya black panel liner which revealed the lines and gave a more 3D appearance to the model. After few corrections, I sanded all the airframe with wet extra fine sand paper obtaining a very consistently smooth surface. Now the model starts to look like an aircraft. Few bits to add, the control surfaces, flaps and landing gear covers need also to be primed and camouflage painting can start. Best regards, Dan.

Hi, some small progress with my build, I finally attached all the posts to the inside of the bulwarks and started to work on the main cabin. This is a detail of the deck with the windlass posed in its place: I added pencil dots for the treenails and prepared the bulkhead of the poop cabin: Next, as said, I will have to figure out how to make the mid deck extension. Best regards, Dan.

Thanks Yves, I am glad that you like my build. It takes long for me to get appreciable progresses, partly because I am a slow builder and partly because of the customization I like to implement on this model. Best regards, Dan.

Hi all, I installed also the second large wale which turned out better than the first one (experience counts): This is how the wales meet at the bow once the keel is dry fitted: Then, I also started working on the main cabin deck. Below, the part supplied by the kit is shown. It will have to be slightly modified as indicated by pencil lines. I want to extend this deck forward so to cover part of the main deck approximately down to just before the main mast location. This design is exhibited by the Mayflower replica and is also what can be commonly observed in documentation about ships of the same period. Probably, this extension was a convenient way to extend the deck surfaces and increase the sheltered areas. I need to design the extended part and support it with beams. Meanwhile, I started to add stanchions that will support the beams and the still missing planking as well. I am adding stanchions not in a sequential order, populating gradually all the bulwark. Once finished, the pitch of the stanchions will be smaller that that in the photos. This is all for now, thanks for visiting and please, should you have suggestions on how to proceed, let me know them. Best regards, Dan.

I could not agree more, many times starting a job is the hardest part and waiting for the right moment could mean waiting for ever. In addition, if you make a mistake, probably you can remove the offended balsa block and replace it with a new one, By the way, what is the part you find most difficult, perhaps the poor definition of how the finished object should look like? Keep up the good work, Dan.

However, please note that Homer repeatedly refers to Greek ships as 'black-bellied', 'black benched', or simply having a 'black hull'. Clearly, Homeric ships are from an older age than the 480 B.C. quoted for this model, but perhaps the black color was an allusion to pitch being used to coat the bottoms of ships for water-tightness (there are discussions on this subject on the web with quoted references). At the same time, when Homer describes the method followed by Ulysses in building his ship to flee from Calypso, he basically describes the technique presented above by you in your intervention "... He bored all the pieces and fit them one to another, and then with pegs and lacings he joined it together ...". Hence, perhaps, the method of 'tenons and mortices' and the use of pitch (tar) to make the ship watertight could coexist at the same time. Best regards, Dan.

Been a while far from this forum and found the great progresses on your build and the great videos that I will keep as a reference. Waiting for your next instalment, Dan.

Hi all, after long time while I worked on other modeling projects, I am coming back to my Mayflower. I installed the upper wales and it took me several attempts to shape them satisfactorily. I pre-shaped them edgewise and out of their plane, as shown in one of the Chuck's tutorials. To follow the course of the other strakes, the wales had to be carefully bent in all planes using a hot iron. Then, I continued with the thin strakes that I also had to bend edgewise. After several strakes, another pair of wales will have to be prepared and glued on. I am considerably deviating from the original A.L. design, but I like this way better. Once the second wales will be on, portholes for the guns will be located in between. I realize that these are not terrific progresses, but as I said, because of my inexperience, it took me quite some time to shape the wales and the strakes correctly. That is all for now, best regards, Dan.

They are little beauties! Difficult to believe that they are made of paper. You did an outstanding job in assembling them from flat foils and shaping them into a truly 3D model! Indeed, they are also very graceful airplanes. Are they sealed with some sort of coating once finished? Congrats, Dan

@Egilman this is a truly impressive model! Assemblying and finishing look first class! Congrats, Dan.

It looks as quite an impressive model. Best regards, Dan.

Your B-24 looks very nice, with a good paintwork, as others have already said. I am also intrigued by your Flyer model. Is it a wood framework and fabric type? Giving the right sagging to the wings might be a challenge. Are you planning to start it in the next future? Greetings, Dan.

Hi all, some more important steps on assembling the airframe. The fuselage with wings and a tail (not glued yet). The fit of the wing roots is OK on the upper side but a bit disappointing on the other side: I resorted to fill the gaps with stretched sprue from the kit for a minimal disruption of the surface details: The P-51 drop tank in the background of the picture is waiting to become the new jet pipe to be installed inside the airframe, as anticipated in a post above. The tank was cut at the tapered end and its walls were sanded down to a suitable thickness. Supporting bracketry was improvised from styrene card: An annular gap was left between the pipe and the airframe as was seen in pictures: I also built some fictional tubing into the wheel bays for added detailing: Next, the main parts will be glued together and paintwork can begin. That's all for now, I need to restart working on my ship, so I am afraid that updates will be even slower if possible. Best regards, Dan.

Amazing and exquisite work on this diorama! The scale consistency is so good that I couldn't guess the real dimensions until when you put some real life object into the picture. And then, I discover how small is the size! Fine miniature, congrats, Dan.

Thanks for your comments. Looking at pictures (and at the parts of the model) the protruding part of the exhaust pipe is 2 inches maximum (in full scale), but, clearly, I will include it, just need to find a plastic tube of the right size, probably I will recycle a sectioned drop tank from the spare box. Cheers, Dan

Hi Ian, let you be tempted, but do not resist much. I find that building aircraft kits is very cool and relaxing (when things go right). Although, one modeller wrote once that building aircraft kits mainly consists in managing unexpected problems. 🙂 Anyhow, if it is the Mig 15 that attracts you, I suggest you make an informed choice between Trumpeter and Tamiya kits. And do not forget that lately also Bronco put on the market a kit of the same scale which seems very promising. Best regards, Dan.

I love this. I hope the A.L. kit lives up to expectations. Following with interest, regards, Dan

Quite a story behind each character. Not my field, but I am following and I am more and more curious. Nice work on the building. Kind regards, Dan.

Thanks @Ian B and @yvesvidal for your suggestions that were well appreciated! Indeed, I am considering some of the points you both have suggested and trying to write a common answer to you (that is serving also to clarify my ideas). Basically, I have three options: a) Having the configuration of the kit, i.e., engine installed on the fore half fuselage and the rear half dry mounted with the possibility of removing it any time as I wish to show the engine. b) Having the engine installed on the fore half fuselage and the rear half fuselage permanently posed on a scratch build trolley. c) Having fore and aft fuselage halves permanently assembled and posing the jet engine on a scratch build trolley. Option a), which would be perhaps the better one, looks to be difficult for the reasons I exposed above, i.e. the aft fuselage does not slide easily over the jet pipe and there is the risk of marring the paintwork of the engine. I will do some more tries, but I expect to likely be obliged to drop this option. Option b), suggested by Yves (thanks for the picture), might look quite cool, but in this case, the aft fuselage would need some improvements of its internal structure. Also the bulkhead of the fore fuselage which supports the engine would need improvements and the parts used to keep the fuselage halves together are really very obvious (square tabs into square slots) to be permanently in view. Lot of work would be needed and I am very slow a builder ... Option c), seems to me the most straightforward and a good compromise for finishing the build within a reasonable time. In addition, I would get a complete airframe showing the unbroken shape of the aircraft. Basically, in this case, I will end up with two separate models (the aircraft and its engine) and, to answer Ian, yes, I am thinking to add some tubing to make the compressor area appear 'busier' from few feet a distance. I will ponder the options a bit longer, but I am afraid that c) will be the most likely winner. Kind regards, Dan.

Your paper planes look amazing. I know, others have already said that, but this is just what it is. Best regards, Dan.