Mayflower by Tigersteve - Model Shipways

[Tigersteve]

I redid the metal rings around the gratings because they were loose and drilled the mast holes. Finally, the bulkhead template install is in progress. It’s not as easy as I thought. It took a couple of glue sessions to secure the first template. I’m making some supports so I can clamp down the next template properly. 
Steve

Edited February 20 by Tigersteve

[Tigersteve]

Bulkhead templates are secured to the hull. I’m glad to have this step finished. 
Steve

[Tigersteve]

Over a month of fiddling with creating these bow pieces. I used Stuntflyer’s advice of soaking in hot water to create the severe curves. A couple rounds of bending were required. A hairdryer was used as well. Glad to move on from here!

Steve

Edited April 16 by Tigersteve

[Tigersteve]

Behold the stern completed. When creating the windows, I did not cut the 1/16” framing tape down to 1/32”. At the time I did not think it would make much of a difference, but at this scale it does! After the windows were mounted on the ship I added 1/32” x 1/16” wood strips on the top and bottom to create a thinner reveal of the white tape around the windows. This helped. 
 

The knees were created in cherry as shown in the photo. As with many parts of the project, I figured the stern would be easy. I was proved wrong, as I had to make many adjustments to accomplish acceptable results.

 

I am learning not to linger too long on a particular part of the project, only redoing things that look out of place or inconsistent with the rest of the ship. 
Steve

Edited April 27 by Tigersteve

[Tigersteve]

Been working on the stem parts for a while. I used my scroll saw finally. Definitely have a lot to learn. Took a while to sand the edges to the correct shape. I used a 1/16” x 3/32” strip to check the size of the notches. They will need to fit these strips later on in the project. 
Steve

Edited August 15 by Tigersteve

[Tigersteve]

The stem, keel, and stern post have been installed. Some wood filler was added after these were installed to seal any gaps. Before working on the bulwark stanchions, I added the waterways along the sides of the forecastle, poop deck, and upper deck. I will photograph the waterways after I compete the stanchions. 
Steve

[Tigersteve]

Completing the forecastle stanchions and pre-planking was tedious and required planning and concentration. I’ll outline what I did to assist those few building this kit. I started by sanding and applying Wipe On Poly to the 1/16” x 3/32” strips. I measured 1” sections and cut them using the mini chop saw that I used earlier in this project.

 

The corner stanchions were installed first so I could plan the spacing of the rest of the stanchions. I created tick-strips out of scrap basswood to mark even spacing for the appropriate number of stanchions as shown on the plans. Make sure you check the plans carefully here. Pin rails will be mounted later to specific stanchions. 
 

I taped the tick-strips to the deck so I had visible reference points while installing. This was absolutely necessary to line up the stanchions. Using spacers did not work for me here so I adjusted them by eye. I remounted several along the way. It took several days to figure out this method. 
 

The pre-planking was prepared and sanded before cutting to length. These were not treated with WOP as they will be painted later on. I installed the fore and aft pieces first. This helped when mounting the side pieces. See photos for this and the method I used to bend these pieces. Hot water then bending as shown. 
 

Excess lengths were cut using a sprue cutter. I tried a rotary tool first, but this was a mistake. Sanding sticks were used to polish the rest. I will round the stanchions after the rest are installed on the poop and upper deck. I hope these methods provide useful to others. 
Steve 

Edited 19 hours ago by Tigersteve