Mayflower Galleon 1:100 (The pilgrims journey)

[RdK]

Hi there my friends!

No big news from my model, still stitching the last sails together and then will fix the anchors, but there is news from the REAL MAYFLOWER II which has been launched back into the water after a great restoration effort by the Mystic Seaport Museum.

Here is a short video of the event:

Mayflower II Launch Event 7. September 2019

Hope to be able to posting more from my build soon..!

Rgds,
RDK

[Michael Mash]

Excellent Mayflower video Radek.
Looking forward to more of your work.
Mike

[RdK]

Hi everyone!

As the 400 year anniversary of the landing of the Mayflower in Plymouth is getting near, as the original ship arrived around the 9th of November 1620, it is also time for my little pilgrims to finish their voyage, as well.

The autumn storms of real live seem to be over for me as my university studies are reaching an end - only one defence speech and the examination to make and that's it! Meaning I can again focus on my paper-modelling hobby.

So I took the card box with my stuff from the attic down and started to finish the sails and rigging. Meanwhile there is a nice video about 6.5 minutes long of the Mayflower 2 arriving back in Plymouth after its restoration.

You can see it here.

As to my model: Before I post any progress on the rigging (there is not much yet), here a small post about how I made the cannons:
They are to be so called minion cannons, about 7 feet (about 2.2 meters) in length. The last picture shows such a cannon on the Mayflower II.

Material & Methods

I used again a tiny (0.5mm) white card board for the cannon barrel, a copper wire to make some loops (less than half a mm) as you can see in Fig.1, and one of the thicker pins cut in smaller pieces for the trunnion piece of the cannon. In Fig. 2 you can see the process of first cut and bent the card into shape, then roll and glue together. Second was to attach the rings and imitate the muzzle swell with some drops of glue in the front. Third step was to drill a hole in the sides by hand and widen it enough so the pin can go through, to make the trunnion. And last step was to just color it black with my water-proof marker, which gave it a surprisingly metallic shine.

In my previous post #147 I mentioned that the port lid planks were made wrong as the inner planks were not perpendicular to the outer ones. I have changed that now. Then I attached the small metal loops on both sides and the rope; when outside, called span and inside it is called lanyard (Fig. 3). The hinges were made from the same thin card board and painted black with the marker as already described when making doors on the deck (post #9).

The next two photos show the lids on the model.

So much for now. The pilgrim's journey noticed land at the horizon! We can make it!!

-Radek

[frigate 264]

A wonderful job. I am speechless, amazed. I'm going to read it all over again, very carefully.

[RdK]

Hi there!

Gracias and thank you frigate 264, I like your builds very much! I take my hat off to you!

In my previous post #211 I mentioned the fore top sail halliard, and that it was missing... I realized that it was missing after searching thoroughly the plans of Waldemar Nowy but could not find the top sail halliard. What seems to look like the haliard, are indeed backstays (Pic.1), even though that sort of halliard is set on the Mayflower 2 (see Pic.2). And you can see it also in a small video on the Plymouth facebook homepage : This is the link. Should it not work or you have no facebook, here's another link. Just scroll down to the video that is 5:57min long (the 14th I think)...

So I went back to the nice book "Seventeenth century rigging" by R.C. Anderson that Ab gave me. By the way: Thanks again, Ab! This book is so making it more fun!!
...Anyways...
There I found a description of top sail haliards in different ways. The one we can see on the Mayflower 2 seems to be from around 1700s or later, so it is not the one I'd like to have on my model. In the book I found one from a description of a three-part tack from before 1700s or even before 1650s with a block in the top as seen in Pic. 3.

So I went and made that sort of haliard from some 3.5mm blocks sanded down to 3mm and some black and ochre thread (Pic.4 & 5). On the ship it looks like in the next two pictures (6 & 7).

The book describes the lower end of the rope being attached somewhere to the rail or side of the ship (as is the case on the Mayflower 2) but looking at the plans, I found the location for the fore top halliard, underneath the deck, where the fore sail haliard is attached also. So I led the thread through the lubber's hole in the fore top down the mast and mounted it in the hole of the deck (see Pic. 8 & 9).

The last two pictures show the model on my temporary working-desk and the sails, which I managed to finish sewing. The next is to shape the sails, make them dirty and prepare the yards. Afterwards the final rigging can take place.

So much for now. Hope to post more soon!

-Radek

[Michael Mash]

Wonderful to see your excellent work leading up to the 500 year anniversary.
I recently saw some information on television about the restoration of the Mayflower replica. It was a good presentation showing some of their work with the interior structures.
Mike

[shipbuild]

An RDK masterpiece !!

[abhovi]

Nice work Radek, I'm glad I provided you with the book.
I think the hems of the sails are far too wide, but I know your attitude towards making sails and indeed, you did all the stitches :-).
Congratulations.

[RdK]

Hi everyone!

@Mike: Yes, the restoration of the replica is worth watching. I looked up lots of material about the restoration on the internet. Very interesting and educative!

@shipbuild: An RdK clumsy-piece! Far from master-level, but I did not give up the hope...one day I will be able to construct a masterpiece...

@Ab: Yes, certainly the hems are too thick. As you know, the stitching of the sails was something I wanted to have in this model. However, I might reconsider for my next built and follow your approach.

Slow progress with the main sail...Material and Methods

I've managed to shape the main sail and the topsail. Then I prepared the main yard with all the blocks needed for the sheet, leech and bunt lines and attached the sail according to the schematic I found in Wolfram zu Mondfeld's book about historic ship models. Then I got creative and messed around with some oil paints and turpentine... (Pictures 1 to 5). The little shipwright Radék de la Sol de la Santa Cruz de Brazíl was over-watching the construction of the braces and topsail brace line blocks (Pic. 4). Soon he will be very busy himself with the Pirate Galleon Neptune!

After attaching the bunt lines, clew lines, braces and halliard I put the sail onto the ship, then hosted the main sail (Pic. 6)! You can see also the few patches I tried to make in a brighter cloth color this time (Pictures 7 and 8). It was a bit tricky to bring the sail into the right position and especially the parrel was causing me troubles...

In the rest of the pictures you can see the progress so far. I tried to achieve a slightly dirty, rustically looking old model with fully blown sails so that the main stay even cuts into the sail a bit...

Attaching the lines to the pins was much easier this time, however, the preparation of the yard, all the different blocks and still some of the tack and brace lines to make, it all takes more time than I anticipated... The pilgrims will be a bit late for the 400 year's anniversary...

So much for now. Enjoy!

-Radek

[Michael Mash]

Excellent Photos Radek.
Your Mayflower has authenticity.