Mayflower Galleon 1:100 (The pilgrims journey)

[RdK]

Hi @ all!

After finding my way into the model business again and seeing all those wonderful paper models here I started my new project in paper, not in balsa wood like my last one (Koga Elbląska 1:100). This time I try a bigger vessel, the Mayflower. The size of the model will be about the same like my cog, just a little bit taller...

First I wanted to do it from the Maly Modelarz 03/2001. But I got this plans from my brother which are more accurate from 1976 by 'Waldemar Nowy' (Gdańsk/Poland). Originally this plans are 1:50 but I do not have so much space here (the Finnish apartments are really small! :p ) so I scaled them down to 1:100. Now I do not know about the copyrights with this old plans if I am allowed to post them here for a download. Does anybody has an Idea about it (plans older than 30 years)?

Anyway... So I started. I assume this is called 'scratch built' because I have to do all the parts by myself based on the plans. After careful consideration and studying the plans with a little thinking help in form of beer I made the first parts for the hull frame.

Here two pics for the start, more is about to follow as soon as I have time for the posting.

Regards,
Radek

[RdK]

Ok... The pilgrims need to have a good vessel so I decided to use not only paper and carton. Still I hope to use other materials as less as possible.

Material:
The main material I will use here is c.a. 1mm carton from frozen pizza boxes (I got a lot of it ), 2mm carton from my wife's puzzle box, balsa wood (1mm, 1.5mm, 2mm, 4mm), and I still need to buy some card (maybe something like 200g/cm2 or more) and of course the self adhesive foil which resembles wood. Actually, seeing this wonderful creations one can make with this foil encouraged me to try it out by myself. The glue I use is PA and some kind of water based Finnish universal glue "ERi K E E P E R". But I think I can throw the latter one away...

First steps:
At first I made a quick tryout with the 1mm carton to get an overview about the hull, board planks, position of decks and cannons (see first picture).
Then I decided to make the center part of the frame out of balsa wood because the keel is 3mm thick (two 1.5mm plates glued together). Here I used this 'Eri keeper' and after my wife told me it is water based it was already too late and the plates banded into a slight curve. However, the other parts were made of the 2mm thick carton and keep the whole frame more or less in good shape. The gun deck was made out of 1mm carton.
Now, was it the beer or my inexperience with "scratch builds", I don't know, but somehow I decided to make three of the frames exactly there where the cannons are supposed to be. But actually, afterwards I was quite happy, because carton is not wood, and therefore not so stable and the frames keep the gunports in place...
I also experimented a little bit with the wood resembling foil and made a little 'test deck'. The last picture show the result before and after 'altering treatment'. I used brown oil paint for this purpose.

Here are some pictures so far.
That's it for now, at the moment I work on the gunports (decided to make them in wooden appearance since this was originally a trading vessel and not a war ship) and think about the next steps...

Regards,
Radek

[Michael Mash]

Hello Radek,
I have never seen anyone build the Mayflower. And a "scratch" build makes it required reading. It will be instructive to watch the techniques and materials you use. It's off to a good start.
Mike

[Ron40]

I agree with Michael this will be an instructive build. I look
forward to forthcoming posts. A very good choice for a
model The Mayflower....Ron

[Torakaze-222]

Oh man! Cool to see the Mayflower get built this way. Thanks for doing this.

[treadhead1952]

Excellent start to an ambitious build, looking forward to your progress.

[RdK]

CYANOACRYLATE (CA)
is the glue I use, not any PA...sry for the confusion...

Regards,
Radek

[RdK]

The first thing I learned by making a model from plans is that the side view shows the position of the decks not in the center of the longitudinal axis but on the very side of the ship.
A deck is not straight from larboard to starboard but curved, so the water can flow towards the wateway and off the ship (similar to roads and streets on land). In order to make a center frame part that would fit the deck there, I needed to adjust it. The first two pics show what I mean. Hope this clarify things a little bit...

The third pic shows a 1mm gap because of the part for the stern that will be mounted there made out of a 1mm thick carton. Generally all the frame parts needed to be trimmed about 1mm on their sides because of the plank covering. So the lateral parts of the frames do not end where the longitudinal one ends at the keel but 1mm above. Still the keel will be attached to the bottom edge.

Just some thoughts that arose during this part of the build...

Regards,
Radek

[RdK]

Finally some time to share with you the progress on the Mayflower...

While thinking about how to make a nice hull I decided to spend the time with a little bit of work on the self adhesive foil. So I made some walls and doors... The first three pics show my results, altered with black/brown oil paint. The following four pics show how I made the hinges for the doors:
4) cut out with scissors and scalpel, color black (waterproofed marker), the left hand one is a ready one,
5) bend one part with the tweezer,
6) form the hinge on the NOT sharp edge of a box cutter,
7) make imitations of nails with the tip of a compass.

Then after some sleepless nights I got the idea how to make a more or less smooth hull...... A "old" technique I used once as a kid to form nice convex parts out of carton came into my mind...Pictures 8) to 13) should explain how I use this technique to make the parts for the hull. Of course back then I had no mouse pad and used a little iron sphere instead of a stone.

I decided to make only one hull - as smooth as possible - without any additional material (balsa wood sanded into a nice smooth shape, insulating foam,... etc) since I don't want to have a too big mess in my living room (the mess is already big enough..). Nevertheless, no smoothness without sanding...

While so fascinated about my "old" way of forming rounded parts I totally forgot that one of the frames was not in the right size ! I made a mistake earlier and forgot about it totally (Picture 14)... After removing the two hull parts and correcting the frame I used the same parts again, which ended up in some disastrous dents !! Well....I thought: "..this is a paper model so if some parts are not good enough, hey I got enough pizza boxes!" But it was unnecessary work with removing the parts from the hull frame again...

Until now I was able to finish the hull on the lower starboard side.

[RdK]

And here some pics of the progress on the hull...

Unfortunately the battery of my digicam went empty so I will post more pics tomorrow...

Regards,
Radek