Mayflower by David Lester - FINISHED - Model Shipways - Scale 1:76

[Baker]

Congrats,  a very nice model  👍

[Shipyard sid]

Greetings David !!

                       Excellent work. Only just restarted mine yesterday after seeing your finished model. I will finish a few rails on the deck and then return to the hull which should give me more incentive and reference from your build ..Yes, very impressive build, well done .Regards DAVID

[David Lester]

Hi David,

By all means keep working on your Mayflower. I just checked your build log again and it's in great shape. I think you'll find it comes together quite quickly. Looking forward to following your progress.

Thanks,

David

 

 

[72Nova]

One of the nicest Mayflower builds I've seen and love the use of the acrylics on the wood....Excellent!!!

 

Michael D.

[Ian_Grant]

Dave, your model is very very nice! Sorry to be so late to your log.

 

By the way, my mom and dad retired to Cobourg, away from Bramalea thank God, and what a pretty little town to be in! We all loved the beach and the ice cream place beside it. I used to cycle a loop up to Rice Lake and back when visiting; the descent back to Cobourg was always exhilarating!

[James G]

Hi David. What a beautiful build! I’ll be saving this log as I have this model sitting in my stash. My wife is a Mayflower descendant (William Brewster) and I’ve promised to complete this for her office. Thank you for sharing. A result that is truly inspirational!

[David Lester]

13 hours ago, Dave_E said:

OUTSTANDING Dave! Really nice ship! 😀 What's next?

Thanks for comments, Dave; much appreciated.

 

Half an hour ago, I would have said for sure my Agamemnon, but I have just been called by an old high school/university friend asking if I would build his Amati Shamrock V for him. It has been sitting on his shelf untouched for many years. I'm going to have a good look at the kit this afternoon, so we shall see.

[David Lester]

Thanks everyone for the nice comments. I really appreciate them. This was really just a diversion for me; I built it for a friend as a gift for her dad, but it turned out to be a very enjoyable project.

James - good luck with your Mayflower; that's very interesting that your wife is a descendant. I think there were only about 100 or so passengers on the ship. It's wonderful to be able to trace the family line that far back, but even more so with such a rich history. You definitely need to be displaying this model!

 

Ian - Glad to hear you and your mom and dad are liking Cobourg. You're more ambitious than I am; I have never biked to Rice Lake. I've lived in Cobourg all my life and it really is a great place. We live right downtown within easy walking distance of the beach and waterfront etc. I really wish I had been around at the turn of the last century when it was known as "Newport North." It was filled with mansions just like Newport RI which were the summer homes of wealthy American families. Sadly, unlike Newport, almost all of them have been demolished over the years. Essentially there are only three left, and not surprisingly they're smaller ones. Two of them are vacant and all but derelict, but one of them is still owner occupied and sits on four acres on Lake Ontario. It has been used in many movies and TV shows. In fact if you want to see it, it's featured in the new Netflix movie "The Luckiest Girl in the World." Not really a great movie, but great scenes of both the interior and exterior of this mansion.

When I was a kid, my best friend's family lived in this house and I spent almost as much time there as at home. Since I grew up in an 1100 sq. ft. 1950's clapboard bungalow, this mansion was mesmerizing to me; filled with antique furniture, Persian rugs, toy soldiers, solar topees, an actual tiger skin rug, military mementos, scale models of the Tower of London and the London Zoo and a seemingly endless variety of exotic things. It was equal parts Addams Family and Viceroy of India. But most importantly it was also filled with ship models which my friend's dad built. He could see how fascinated I was with them, and he patiently went over them with me in great detail. I credit this experience with why I am still so interested in them. Anyway, sorry for this little digression.

 

Thanks again everyone for the comments and likes.

David

Edited October 14, 2022 by David Lester

[Ian_Grant]

I know the buildings you mean; I've pedaled past the one on the lake many times. It's a shame the one on #2 near Abbott isn't being used for something. It looked so much better when someone repainted the front years ago but they apparently couldn't continue (red tape from council?).

Still a great place to be though.

 

*End of digression*

[Jeff T]

Great job with your Mayflower!

[Landlubber Mike]

Really well done Dave!  One of the best Mayflowers I have seen.  Congratulations!

[David Lester]

Thanks Mike - the people I made it for picked it up this morning and they seemed very happy with it. They had been looking at the ones you can buy in gift stores, so they were surprised and pleased by the level of detail that this kind of model has.

 

I packed it up in a box with styrofoam, so it will travel safely.

 

They had asked me what I wanted to build it for them and I said only the cost of buying the kit and stand. I didn't want anything for building it. In fact it was a treat having the joy of building it and not having to worry about where to put it. They did bring me a gift however - a $100 gift certificate to the LCBO (provincial liquor store) so this was a win-win experience all around.

 

Thanks again,

David

[Altduck]

1 hour ago, David Lester said:

They did bring me a gift however - a $100 gift certificate to the LCBO (provincial liquor store) so this was a win-win experience all around.

Extra Grog Rations all around.

🤪

[Tim W]

On 6/11/2022 at 12:27 PM, David Lester said:

I expected to be now concentrating on my Agamemnon, but it seems the ship modelling gods had something else in store for me. I have been asked by someone to build a Mayflower for them.

 

This is not a model that I would have chosen for myself, as I'm not particularly interested in 17th century vessels. My favourites are late 18th century. Nevertheless I'm happy enough to build it for someone else. Keeps me off the streets.

 

There are several Mayflowers available, but I settled on the Model Shipways version, as I tend to like their kits generally and Chuck Passaro designed this one, so it seemed to me to be the best option.

 

I don't tend to complain too much about cast metal parts. Usually I find they can be made to be acceptable with a little filing, paint etc. But I don't think I've ever seen anything as bad as these cast metal crow's nests that came with the kit. In the instructions, it shows wooden components which appear to be quite acceptable and which I assume is how the kit originally shipped. However, I was surprised by what I found which look like something my grandmother would have baked tarts in. These just won't do.

 

Not only do they look horrendous, but I don't know how I would be able to use them. It's difficult to see in the picture, but there is almost no lip or overhang on the upper rim, yet it's necessary to mount deadeyes and futtock shrouds. I just don't see how I could do that. Also, much of this ship has a natural finish, so painting these things to blend in would be almost impossible.

 

So rather than starting at the beginning, I decided to get this problem behind me first and I set out to design and build something that I could live with.

Here is what I have come up with:

 

I simplified them slightly. The plans show 16 brackets of about 1/32" wide. I was having quite a bit of trouble with that, so I reduced the number to 12 and made them 1/16" and I found that worked better for me and still looks ok.

 

The crow's nests on the replica Mayflower II have closed sides, and I believe it was the idea for this model too. However, I'm going to leave them open. I experimented with closing them in and wasn't happy with the look. Also, all of the other kit versions of the Mayflower have open sides, as do many other ships of this period.

 

There isn't a lot of glue surface on the upper ring and there's going to be a bit of tension on it, so I added four pieces of brass rod that run through to the bottom, which should give it a bit more structural integrity. You can see one of them in the picture above, but I don't think they will show up when all the bits and pieces are in place.

 

So, now I can relax, knowing that I have that little problem solved and go back to the beginning.

 

David

 

 

Dave, My crows nests are finished.  They look like the might be a bit thick (scalewise)but I think they will be OK once installed