yvesvidal

Colin, This is a gorgeous Build and you are doing terrific. I love the vast amount of pictures that you publish. How much I wish such a kit would be made available in the USA.... I would jump on it. The existing cross-sections at 1/96 scale are too small to present much interest, but 1/72 scale for the Victory is starting to be a nice model. Please keep us entertained and ....drooling (for me). Thanks Yves

Very impressive hull, Jack. Yes, the assembly joints are indeed very precise. This is equivalent to a high quality plastic kit model. Yves

Exactly my point. Where are the pictures? This thread has too much talking and not enough depictions.... Yves

What an amazing display of talents and masterpieces!!!!!! I certainly hope most of these models end up in museums for the posterity and next generations to enjoy. Yves

Jack, This is really nice. I wonder how many ships and kits do you build in parallel? I know you are building the The Twelve Apostles, Le Soleil Royal, you had a cross section at one time and who knows what else..... I suppose these weekly kits allow you to pursue multiple projects at the same time, as they provide only a small amount of work to be done, each week. This Soleil Royal is going to be stunning once finished. Yves

Jack, I looked at the instructions link that you gave us, and realized that De Agostini intersperses tedious tasks with little assemblies such as the Guns or anchors. This is very smart and will keep the builders motivated. It is nice to put together a hull, but it is also very pleasant to work on smaller things that can be completed quickly. It is a nice change of pace. By the way, the instructions are top notch, when compared with any kits available on the market. Yves

Jack, This project is indeed mighty.... I am surprised by the precision of the cuts and the perfection and the constant thickness of the wood. That is not a small thing to accept when thousands of kits are being produced and distributed on a weekly basis. This way, you never get the same batch of wood as opposed to other manufacturers who are laser cutting all the frames from the same sheet of wood. It reminds me of the work that Chris Watton is doing for Amati, for which he is exploring new building techniques, using MDF particle boards. The goal there is exact reproducibility and perfection of the cuts. Very interesting, to say the least. Yves

Exciting stuff. Very unusual. Yves

This is gorgeous. Excellent idea and great details. Another modeller on this forum even designed a checker board like planking for the cabin. Yves

Jack, Thank you for correcting me. I am pleasantly surprised by the overall good quality of the cuts and wood pieces. Yves

Nice project Jack. You seem to love these kit serials.... 1/100 is too small for me, but I bet the ship will be massive with so many guns and decks. This DeAgostini must have a lot of laser cutting machines.... Please, make sure you update this Build Log once a week. Thanks Yves

Beautiful model and very interesting Build Log. I wonder how the construction compares with the Model Shipways kit. You definitely went through the arduous way, by following Mr. Hunt practicum and using Hahn' plans. I like the fact that you implemented a checker board planking in the rear cabin. It is unlikely to find this kind of feature on an American privateer ship, which was built in a more spartan way...but why not. It definitely adds a lot of beauty and refinement to the model. The only other American model where I saw that feature is the Confederacy (Model Shipways). Don't feel bad about your mistakes, we all do some and they teach us some tricks. Yves

Absolutely amazing!!!!! It feels like being back in time on one of these 74 cannons ship. Who knows, quite a few of us with a passion for ships, may have had past lives as a sailor, captain or simply a mate on one of these vessels. How do you do the caulking between the planks on the deck? It is very realistic. Yves

Craig, Beautiful hull. Hey, you are catching up with me real fast now. Once the clamps are glued, the hull will be stiffer and your wife can kick it without risks Yves

Continuing our review of the Constructo Mayflower kit: More of the parts provided with the kit. Here, we have plastic, wood and metal. I like the ladders parts being pre-cut as it is always difficult to make a good looking ladder with that many rungs. I also like the presence of barrels, pails and other small parts to decorate the decks. The use of the belaying pins is somewhat left to the wish of the modeler, as many historians have demonstrated that lines were not attached to these pins until the second part of the 17th Century. If building Mayflower II, then the pins will be useful. The gun ports provided in the kit are made of metal: What a strange idea. These are definitely parts that will be discarded. Finally, some wooden parts, brass wires, metal cast anchors and another useless set of doors and windows made of metal. Again, these will be discarded and replaced by wood panels. That concludes our pictorial tour of the Mayflower Constructo kit in the scale of 1/64th. My personal take on this kit (and it is just an opinion) is that it is a good kit if you can find it cheap. For $300.00 which is the traditional price seen in the USA for this imported kit, it is not worth it. If you can find this kit for a third or half of the value, it starts to be a good compromise. The instructions are, let's put it plainly, BAD and POOR. The new color pictorial edited by Constructo may help a little bit, but overall the manuals are not what someone can expect of a kit in the 21st Century. The wood made of up to five different varieties of "precious" woods is a nice proposal and is all in favor of Constructo. Special care will have to be deployed when bending strips as these woods are stiffer and less flexible than the traditional basswood. I personally do not like the dark colors and will replace some of the strips with basswood when building the kit. Spanish culture enjoys dark and massive wood pieces. One has only to look at Spanish furniture to understand that attraction for dark panels and models. In this case, some planking of the hull could be substituted with basswood or some other lighter color woods to make the model more attractive. Same goes with the deck planking. The details and historical accuracy of the kit can be argued. I am not an expert and will not even venture on how prototypical the kit is as compared to the real Mayflower. There are probably not too many people who could claim to be an authority in that domain. I would say that the kit offered by Model Shipways is much more realistic and prototypical than the Constructo kit, because it depicts an existing ship: the Mayflower II. Mayflower II is most likely the best attempt at replicating the legendary Mayflower ship that allowed the first pilgrims to come to America. Mayflower II was built in England by experts and historians and we know how precise and thorough British people are with their past and History. At the end of the day and with the kit in your hands, what can you do? You can build it the way Constructo designed it and end up with a very nice and romantic model, made of dark woods and fictitious features or you can use the kit as a platform to build the Mayflower II at the scale of 1/64th, replace some of the dark strips with basswood and use the precious Practicum written by Chuck Passaro and generously provided by Model Shipways to complete your kit and turn it into the exact model of a real ship. And this is exactly what I will do. Thank you for your attention. Yves

Folks, I was exploring what are the options for building a Mayflower at the scale of 1/64th. The Model Shipways with the excellent practicum by Chuck passaro would have been the perfect candidate but it is unfortunately, built at a less than standard scale of 1/76th or something around that. I like my ships to be all of the same scale so that comparisons can be made and proportions appreciated. Finding a Mayflower at the scale of 1/65th or 1/64th was only leaving me with two choices: Artesania Latina or Constructo which may in fact be the same kit, since both are built in Spain. The Artesania Latina kit is rather expensive in the USA and although procurement in Europe would not have been too much of a problem, I stumbled across a kit on E-Bay for less than $100 and decided to give it a try. The top of the big box is presented above. The box is much bigger than the Model Shipways box and that could be explained by the fact that the model is slightly bigger, but much more logically by the way the parts are presented inside: A large plastic tray with compartments, presents all the detail parts in a neat and attractive way. There are wood, metal, and plastic parts in that kit, which may be an heresy for some of us. In full honesty having blocks and belaying pins made of plastic can be a great time saver in the overall construction of the kit. Besides, one can always fabricate or procure the blocks and pins from wood and accessories suppliers. The Mayflower does not need to be presented and a nice replica (Mayflower - II) rests in the harbor of Plymouth Massachusetts. I remember seeing this ship some 20 years ago, while living in Boston and I was sincerely impressed by the courage and desperation that must have fueled these immigrants to start such a long and dangerous trip across the oceans and to an unknown land, on such a small vessel. And small is that vessel when you see it with your own eyes, and docked next to you. The Mayflower II was built by William Baker in England in 1955 as he tried to replicate as faithfully as possible, a vessel which plans or detailed information no longer exist. Mayflower II was later on sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and given to the Mayflower Historical Society. In that regard the interpretation of Mayflower by Constructo and Model Shipways are quite different in color, decoration, and arrangement of the transom and bulwarks among many other things. The following picture shows an exquisite model based on the Constructo kit made by a skilled Canadian modeler: The interpretation of Model Shipways is presented below: One can see quite a few differences between the two models. The Model Shipways kit designed by Chuck Passaro is based on Mayflower II, and therefore is perfectly exact as it replicates the .... replica. The model designed by Constructo is probably more based on what could have been the Mayflower and brings elements of "marine romanticism" that may not be completely accurate. The most notably different parts are the transom in which the Constructo version is romanticizing the vision of a vessel of the 17th century, with a lantern, two flower emblems and large round windows on the transom. The presence of guns is also a matter for discussion as Mayflower was first and foremost a merchant vessel before the "big adventure" to the new continent. Knowing how packed that vessel was with 102 crews on board, supplies to rebuild a new community, food supplies and live stock, once can wonder where they could have found space for guns and ammunition. Below is the Constructo vision of the transom: ......versus the more stern and probably realistic version of Model Shipways: Let's move to the Documentation side. Constructo provides two sheets for the plans and one flimsy manual translated in 5 different languages for the European and North American markets. Besides a list of parts, the assembly instructions are almost non-existent. When you compare their manual with the fantastic Practicum provided by Model Shipways, once can understand why European kits are so difficult and the perfect recipe for discouraging new modelers. The Constructo Mayflower is not that difficult to put together but the quality of the instructions and the lack of details of the plans, make the construction a true challenge for the neophyte. As far as I am concerned, I will simply ignore the Constructo instructions and build the kit as recommended by Chuck Passaro. My kit did not include a color pictorial describing the various phases of the construction. Newer kits may have it and these additional pictures may help the beginner modelers. However, no explanations or directions provided by Constructo comes even close to the excellent practicum published by Model Shipways. The following pictures attempt at showing the two sheets provided in the Constructo kit: One question jumped to my mind: How can you do a decent and realistic rigging job with the plan above? Constructo provides five different sizes and colors of lines and thread as well as these nicely detailed (although made of plastic) blocks. They also provide the fabric to make your own sails. However, the lack of instructions and directions will be a repelling factor for a lot of builders, and most likely a large number of kits will never be completed by lack of proper instructions. It is a pity. Again, the Practicum from Model Shipways comes to the rescue as it offers all the detailed information to turn that model into a very realistic and accurate model. Let's review the parts provided in the kit: The bulkheads and the keel are pre-cut with what looks like water jets. This technology allows some precision and prevents the burning of the wood often found in laser cut kits. The parts are for the most part made of plywood (3 plies), with some precious wood of darker colors. Unfortunately, there are no sheet to compare the cuts with the plans and one will have to spend some time fairing carefully the hull before planking it. The decks and some other parts of the masts are die-cut, making them relatively difficult to detach. A sharp blade will finish the poor job of the factory. A base is even provided in the kit, to display the ship. The wood provided in the kit allows for double planking of the hull. It is nice to have different varieties of wood and colors. It is a nice departure from the basswood trend used by some model manufacturers. Overall the quality is nice and special care and a lot of heat and moisture will be necessary to bend the Bokapi wood strips for the hull. Various wooden parts are provided in the kit, including a pre-shaped boat. Most parts are already cut and (apparently) ready to be glued. Nice brass parts and plastic blocks are provided in the kit. The presence of guns is a question as I do not believe they belong to the Mayflower during its trip to religious freedom. Yves

Chris, What would be great would be to have a picture of the Victory Hull that you are building with a human reference next to it: a hand or a person holding it. I think it would provide a perspective that is missing from the pictures you gave us. Thanks Yves

I bet it must be heavy with that skeleton made of MDF boards. It will be interesting to place the Syren next to the Victory model, since they are at the same scale. Yves Yves

Chris, It is good to see you again in this forum after such long hiatus. Your Victory looks fantastic and you have made some incredible progress. Is it still the model that we saw before with bulkheads and internal decks made of thin composite boards? Would you mind posting additional pictures of the kit under construction? Thanks in advance. Yves

Meredith, Unfortunately you have the old (or incorrect) types. There was a thread on the new caronnades: http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/680-model-shipways-syren-the-new-carronades-have-arrived/?hl=syren You can request the new castings from Model Expo. They should send them to you free of charge. Yves

WOW!!! I am sure it feels good to have reached that stage. Congratulations. Yves

Meredith, You are up to a very good start. Your model looks really nice and well built. I can see that you need multiple kits in parallel to keep you busy and satisfied. I do not know what you can find in Australia as far as varnish and wood stain, but if you can use Minwax products, the Golden Hue and the Wipe on Poly will give you that nice and warm color visible on Chuck's models. The Wipe-On-Poly will also seal the wood and help it receive wood stain in a more harmonious way. Keep us posted about your progress. I love seeing Build Logs of the Syren, as my kit is waiting in a closet.... No time to get to it. Yves

Jpett, This planking work is stunning. This is very serious competition with Chuck Passaro and some of the best masters! Congratulations. Yves

Roger, Superb model. I assume it is done at the scale of 1/48th. Your workmanship is exceptional and the final result is stunning, although classic and museum like. Bravo! Yves

Wonderful. I love sailing and seeing a model of a Swan is always a treat, as you do not meet the real thing very often on the sea (at least on the East Coast). Yves