English Merchantman Mayflower 1620 by RRLittle - FINISHED - Life-Like - Plastic - 1:250

[rschissler]

That looks really nice!  It's amazing how small it is.

[RRLittle]

That looks really nice!  It's amazing how small it is.

Ironically, this is larger than the usual scale I build in! The eyes age, needing to go larger, even if a little. Thank you.

[RRLittle]

5th December - 

Work is slow right now, doing what I can when I am able. The braces for the main mast yards are up. Due to my shaky hands, the process took longer than anticipated. Also, my main camera is still down, so this image's quality is not the greatest. Monday things should improve. 

 

Cheers,

 - Robert

 

[RRLittle]

Here is a shot of the mizzen sail and some of its rigging to give one an idea of how small this model really is. 

 

[RRLittle]

The mizzen tackle proved to be a challenge. Here, I failed, once more, to heed my own advice; work inside to outside, bottom to top. Failing to do that, I found myself having to work around rigging. It was tedious.

 

 

It was completed, but took far longer than expected. As a result of my poor planning, I decided that some additional rigging details were going to be omitted altogether, though I don't think their absence has made too much of an impact.

 

[RRLittle]

The bowlines were made from 32 gauge brass wire, built up separately, and carefully installed in place.

 

 

Finally, the sheets and mainsail tacks were added. This completed the bulk of the running rigging. As you can tell, by this point, my other camera was back up and running as well. 

 

[RRLittle]

Another shot with the completed rigging. 

 

[Thunder]

Great model, very well executed. These little pyro kits are ace!

[RRLittle]

Meant to include this shot earlier. This is the bowsprit rigging while it was underway. To help keep the lines taut, I used these new miniature clothes pegs. They are fairly inexpensive for a large number of them. Highly recommended as an addition to your tool set. 

 

[RRLittle]

The last items on the ship itself that needed attention were the anchors. The kit includes a simple one that lacks stocks. Another anchor was cut from styrene sheet, a brass ring was added, and they were painted and weathered before colored cardstock stocks were added. This should give an idea of how small they are; this was shot through a large desk loupe. The scale is in inches. The scratch built anchor is on the right. 

 

[RRLittle]

The anchors were carefully rigged as per the original Anderson/Pritchard design, tied to the fore ratlines. Two flags were made from cigarette paper (note; I'm a nonsmoker) with colors added with colored pens. Fine line was looped around the flagstaffs on the fore and main mast, and the flags glued into place, after pre-shaping them. 

All that remains in this shot is the nameplate on the now painted stand. The model itself is now finished. Construction time was estimated to be over 100 hours.