The Modelbau forum is excellent and very sharp - one member suggests a more yellow tone to the lower hull, and asked why the wales were not black. I think the yellower tone would look right, and explained that I saw wales both painted and unpainted in contemporary sources. Since this ship is a common merchantman, I've kept it toned down a bit. I think I'll use black wales on my Airfix Pelican, however . .
I've been away on business the past two weeks so little (actually no) work has been done. But I did pick up a copy of Anderson's "Seventeenth Century Rigging" at a local hobby shop, which while focusing on Rate era ships, does have a lot to say about earlier vessels. He's also chatty, and a good read, which makes a nice counterpart to Mr. Lavery, whose work on the Susan Constant I'm using as the final word on rigging for this era.
As this project progresses, the Airfix Pelican is waiting in the wings, and I'm looking forward to the challenges of building her to come hopefully close to Revell's beautiful standards with the Mayflower kit.
Plastic is a great material, ganz spass for gebauen.
Jim