Danstream

Kolderstok, in the Netherland, sell a type of similar design: https://kolderstok.com/en/collections/gereedschap/products/elektrische-plankenbuiger I have not used yet, just seen it on their site. Dan.

@Bob Cleek thanks for your clear and realistic explanation. Things are (or were) exactly as you said also in aircraft construction where I have some background. I smile when I read about confrontational discussions based on measurements taken directly from assembly drawings. As you said, the only reliable measures in drawings are the ones reported in writing. Thanks and best regards, Dan.

Just discovered this build of yours, I just ventured in this section of scratch builds. I started to read it from the beginning and it is a mine of information and inspiration. I will learn a lot from it. I will ask more when you are back on it. Glad to know that you defeated the virus. Greetings, Dan.

Hi all, some updates on my build, still working on the unfinished hull. I planked the deck of the small bow platform: On the stern, having added few strakes, I recreated the 'step' of the transom that now needs to be shaped round: I am also trying to add tapered strakes to recover the shape of the upper edge that needs to curve upwards. The actual required curve was lost when I applied the planking: I will need to add another tapered strake for obtaining a nice, smooth bending up of the upper edge that will guide the wale to be glued before starting the second planking. On the main deck, I added the gratings with their framing. The grating provided with the kit, in my opinion, had too large holes for this scale, hence I outsourced the gratings from Kolderstok with much smaller holes. After assembling and sanding them, I sprayed them with a light coat of Tamiya XF-59 (desert yellow). I have plenty of these Tamiya paints because of my activity with aircraft kits. Finally, this is how I have arranged the first planking on the transom 'step'. Still plenty of work to do to finish the hull. Thanks for dropping by and best regards, Dan.

Very sharp and nice work, Lapinas. I would think that the most scary part is over. Dan.

Hi Dan, decks with treenails look very good. It was worth the effort. Best regards, Dan.

Very sharp and precise work! It looks good overall and in the close-ups. Did you have to bend the walnut strips sideway for the second planking? If yes, how did you do that? Congrats for your splendid work, Cheers, Dan.

Hi all, I have worked on the bow platform, finishing the hull planking and adding the furnished bulkhead. I made also the hole that will accommodate the bowsprit. I drilled it with my Dremel and brought it to the final size with sandpaper wrapped around a dowel. Next, I will plank the small deck of the platform. I am thinking of not using the bulwarks made of plywood provided with the kit, but rather I will extend upwards the planking of the hull. On the stern, I mounted the transom bulkhead which was modified as shown earlier. I framed the window cutouts to make a rabbet which the transparent panels will sit in. Best regards, Dan.

Hi Allen, I believe that for a model, where load carrying considerations are irrelevant, having more frames is important for ensuring that the final shape is geometrically good, which means that the surface is smooth with no discontinuities. A sufficient number of frames must be present in areas where the geometry changes steeply and where the surface is highly 3D, i.e. bow and stern areas. In the middle, it depends on how stiff are the strips you are going to use for planking. In my case, I would have liked more frames because when I lied down my strips, I could notice the position of the frames by the way the strips changed their direction. Eventually, I mostly corrected that by sanding the hull afterwards, but this implies that my planking probably ended up having a small thickness at the frames location, which might be not an ideal situation. Not having enough experience, unfortunately I neglected this problem beforehand (together with several other ones) . However, after all this long note (sorry for that), I think that to decide whether you want to apply more frames in a particular area, you could try pressing down one of your strips across several frames and check whether you can distinguish any unnatural change of direction at the locations where the strip touches the frames. Just my 5 cents opinion. Best regards, Dan.

Hi Gregory, it is my intention to drill a hole, because in the plans there is none. But I cannot believe that the mast is just butted against the bulkhead, there is no tenon. In addition, one of my original questions was whether you would see more plausible to cut into the bulkhead or into the bow platform. The latter seems more plausible to me. I have seen many other models where the mast pierces the platform only or both.

'Anelli con Gambo' means 'eyebolt', or a stem (gambo) ending with a ring (anello).

Hi Bill, in Italian (I am Italian), on a technical drawing, this means that you have a component which has the same denomination of another one and to distinguish the two you add 'bis' to the number (which, as said before, means 'second time'). You might go on with 'ter', 'quater', etc. Just for curiosity, these are numeral adverbs from Latin. Some times this is done deliberately (because maybe the components are identical, but on different positions) or because you realize that you have to squeeze another denomination number in between adjacent numbers. Best regards, Dan.

Hi Gregory, This is a snapshot of the plan. According to it, there is not any hole to be done. Regards, Dan.

Hi all, I am building my first wooden model and I would like to ask few questions about how to install the bowsprit on my model, which is a Mayflower from Artesania Latina. The instructions are not helpful in this respect. I have just completed the first planking and I am doing the decks. - Assuming that the angle shown in the A.L. drawings is correct, which method do you use to keep the drill bit at the wanted inclination? - How do you start the drilling? - Does the bowsprit mast hole cut also into the front bulkhead or stays only on the bow deck? - Once the hole is done, do you simply glue the mast in it or you pin it at its base and make the final adjustments by tensioning the cables? Thanks for any advice you might have on any of the above points. Best regards, Dan.

Good progress, impressive construction jig. It looks a quite fine and accurate design, as it can be already seen from the arrangement of the frames and of the decks. My kit is instead disappointing as far as accuracy and design. Looking forward to see more. Best regards, Dan.

Wow, Dan, this looks like a real chore. I hope you will be soon through it. Looking forward to see the final result. Best regards, Dan.

Awesome mosaic work on that platform. Everything looks perfect. Regards, Dan.

Hi all, I just finished to plank the main deck using the wood provided in the kit. This is the final result: I have not included any treenail yet. Probably I will skip them, I do not want to bite more than I can chew. The fore bulkhead: and the aft one with the base of the capstan which I scratch built: I departed from the design suggested in the kit for finishing the bulkheads, trying to get a look more in line with the epoch of the ship. Now, I need to figure out whether I have to apply a protective varnish and which one. Best regards, Dan.

I like your model and the way you are painting it, but I cannot help noticing that weathering excessively the decks of your ship might be detractive to the look of the ship. Crew of His Majesty Navy, like the ones of other navies, made a point of pride keeping the decks always clean and in good order. There were practical reasons at the origin of that. Every day the decks were cleaned and rubbed extensively and as a consequence, they looked clean and quite uniformly bleached by the abrasive action and by the sun. However, this is not a criticism, but just an observation. Best regards, Dan.

Very good! An airbrush is a wonderful tool, but let me tell you a last piece of advice, if I may. It requires some practicing and experimenting before obtaining satisfactorily results. Please note that the cumulative time you will spend using it on your model is very short and surely not enough to learn how to use it at best. Make some free trials before on pieces of cardboard experimenting the effects of varying parameters (mainly thinner/paint mix ratio and pressure) and later on try to simulate the desired effect that you are going to obtain on the model. In this way, you can accumulate a sensible number of training hours before you feel ready to attack your model. You might feel wasting your time doing so, but believe me, you will not. You might enjoy also this learning steps. Good luck and best regards, Dan.

I own a Badger 150 since about 10 years and it has been always a good and reliable airbrush (it is an US brand which is known to provide a good customer support especially in the US) which I extensively have been using for plastic aircraft modelling. It works with a suction cup (a cup hanging below the airbrush). It is a double action type (i.e. you can regulate the quantity of paint and the air flow), which at the beginning you might not really need. Badger provides also a model (I think it called Badger 100, you might want to check on their web site) with a single action which you might consider. For use for naval modeling you might be fine with a medium tip or even a large one, depending on the use. The cup can be replaced with a fairly large glass container that it might be appropriate for airbrushing large areas. Recently I bought an Haarde & Steenbeck airbrush (a German brand) which I like really a lot, but it is more expensive and has a gravity feed (cup on top of the airbrush) good for fine works, however it might be not that good for naval modeling because of the small quantity of paint that it can hold in its cup. To have a good overview about the different types of airbrushes with their pros and cons, I strongly recommend you to look for videos posted on you tube by Paul Budzik, who extensively and very clearly explains all you might want to know about airbrushes (he has many other videos also about other modelling subjects, so you have to select the ones about airbrushes). One thing that I found to be of paramount importance is the availability of good air supply. Unfortunately this is another expensive piece of equipment. I have a compressor which is quite reasonable (bought from Revell about ten years ago) with a fair air tank (the air tank provides a constant air flow). One quality of the compressor is also its noise level that might be important if you live in a flat with a family. The cheapest models are the ones working with a membrane which do not have a tank, but I never tried them. You might think of starting with cans of compressed air, but you will soon realize their inadequacy for the job. In fact, to clean properly the airbrush you need a large quantity of air that the cans cannot provide satisfactorily (unless you buy many of them, but they are not cheap and after you bought a dozen of them you might have spent the same money to buy a small compressor). Other modelers are happy of using large cylinders of compressed CO2 which are cheap, but I cannot comment on them because I never used them. There might be many other aspects that I have omitted, but if you have further questions, please do not hesitate to ask. Best regards, Dan.

Surely an impressive model, Sferoida. Lot of details to look at. Love the brightly colored parts. Best regards, Dan.

Very nice level of details. Dan.

Hi all, having the planking of the hull in a reasonably completed status, I started furnishing the main deck area. I started with the bulkhead of the forecastle. Differently from what supplied with the kit, I scratch built a separate wall made of very thin plywood lined with walnut strips. Having a separate part, allowed me to detail it more comfortably on my workbench. The kit provides mahogany wood for lining the model, but I did not like it for this type of ship. It would be great for a luxurious speedboat, but not for an old cargo ship. Hence, I purchased some walnut strips that I found to be more appropriate. I found strange that the maximum scale height of the door that I could fit within the bulkhead is only 1.30 m (4.3 feet). Hence I made the top of the door slightly arched so to fit the maximum height possible. I made a two-panels door (the A.L. design suggests a door with only one panel) that likely could let more air and light into the forecastle, where the galley was probably located. I sourced the handles from my LHS (Amati parts). The iron strips are made of styrene strips which I have plenty of (I used to build plastic kit models). This is how it looks once painted and assembled: Then, I framed the cut-out of the deck. I painted an additional length black because I wanted to have a longer aperture. I have seen other builds and other period ships that show an opening of the deck larger than that proposed by A.L. design. I think that it is very likely that the Mayflower, being born as a cargo ship, had a large opening for loading goods. Then I framed the opening making the step which the gratings will sit on and, after the deck planking is finished, I will add another finishing frame around it. Then I started planking the main deck with the strips provided in the kit. I like the contrast between the clear deck and the darker walnut. That is all for now, I will be busy for a while detailing also the other decks. Best regards, Dan.

Hi all, worked a bit on finishing off the shape of the stern. I added two dummy lids for two cannons firing from the stern that A.L. did not contemplate, but they are present in the Plymouth replica and in other ships of the time. The dummy lids will help me to define better the cutouts in the planking. After planking, filing and sanding, I obtained this: I am pleased with the shape that finally emerged. There are still some final touches to do, but the basic shaping is done. Perhaps the fillet between the belly of the hull and the vertical fin should have a smaller radius. I am now working on the main deck. Best regards, Dan.