Imai/Ertl Big Mayflower, Hull done

Gene1 - Great work on your ships and great attention to detail !!! When is your armada setting sail? 

I got off sailing ships for a while & have been building Trumpeter's Indianapolis. It has really turned out nice & I should have it finished in a week. I am also doing the 1/350 I 58, the Jap sub that sunk the Indy. It was something to hear today that they have found & photographed the Indy in 18,000' of water in the Phllipine Sea . We were really scared when we heard about it on the radio & thought it was my brother's ship, the BB Indiana.

   I will not be building anymore 1/350 kits as the photoetch is to fragile & small for my old hands. I got this one about done, but it was hard. I did buy Revell's new 1/144 Corvette kit & will do it next. It is a good size for me. I will post the Indy & the I 58 sub as soon as they are done.

A couple more pictures with the anchors on.

Sure enjoyed this model.

Her are acouple more of one of my train layouts from 30 years ago & a 1911 Indy car I scratch built a few years sgo. Iy is the Marmon Wasp the 1911 winner. They never made a kit of it. It is 1/24.

built 7 layouts over the years , several small & 3 big.

Hi Kirill4, I read & studied your post & realized that my main & fore sails are 1/2 furled & there is no place I can find to tie the tack rope. Please keep trying to help me as my limited ship knowledge has doapeared with age, plus my ability to tie knots. I do love building models & have been doing it since Pearl Harbor in WW2. 

   I would love to see St. Petersburg as my daughter lives in St. Petersburg Florida, Here is a wooden big Constittution I built in 1983.

I just lost some other picture I sent to you.      Gene

Good day,

Dear gene1, I would be a happy man to reach age of yours , and second, in this age to be adle to work with models ... and make them so nice and accurate as You did!

This is fantastic for me ,each time I look at your built sailing vessels model -Great !!!

Regarding my remarks abt tacks - pls refer to this https://cloud.mail.ru/public/JU7C/bVhk9VrXn 

this is the link for downloading ,if You don't have this book - start from page 157... 

and on this pictures of GH you can see how it could looks on the model..." target="">

Thanks Steve, that is nice, but don't look close where I can't mask. Your models are beautiful & the painting looks perfect. None of us are close to Kirill4. Boy what a master. 

Thanks Crackers, but I have been building too many lately. About 15 or so in the last year & a half. I have all my older large wood models  & riverboats in cases, but these got ahead of me.

It's time to take off building & clean some of my wreckage up. Model desk & surroundings & spray booth. What a mess. I have always been a messy model builder. When it gets so thick I have to stop & clean up, which is now. 

Hi Kirill4, I have got to say to start with after looking at your last model pictures & others, I think you are the greatest ship model builder ever. I even saw the Crabtree collection & talked to him at the Mariner's Museum in Virginia back in the 1950's. 

    You will have to explain to me about the lines to add & I appreciate that. I am 86 & haven't built sailing ships in nearly 40 years. I was on fighter planes & mainly HO train layouts for a long time.  I do have a lot of ship books & my brother was a Battleship sailor in WW2. He only knew big & little boats with motors.

   Thanks again for you comments & it is great to hear from you.      Gene

The MAYFLOWER model looks so neat and crisp. Be sure to enclose the model with a glass case to protect it from dust and cobwebs.

  Happy modeling  Crackers

Good day gene1,

She looks nice!!! :))) nice model You built!

a few small remarks - may be there is sence to add tack ropes to the main and fore sails?( should be approx as thick as shrouds) and anchors ... or they were not included in the kit? and bowsprit gammoning ?... these parts/ or their abcense quite visiable on the model...

Gene,

Beautiful! I never tire looking at your models sir. I wish I could produce anything close to yours or as fast.

Steve

gene

I love seeing your work gene , wish I could paint like that , you are amazing my friend .

steve5

 I just did this set of pictures & lost them, so I will do them in 2 sets now. This is the nearly finished Mayflower. I need to correct some things & add anchors. It is not David K, Steve5, or Kirill, but just as much fun.

 It might look like Disneyland, but it is as much fun.

 I am replying to myself, but I guess that is ok. I am about to finish the Mayflower & I've got to say that it is one of the nicest & easiest sailing ship models you can build. It has been a joy. The Airfix Golden Hind was a real nice one too, They were a little bigger than what I have been building, but not that big.

I am doing the last of the rigging , & thank goodness for CA glue or I would be stopped if I had to tie a knot. I still have to do the anchors & I will post some final pictures.

Steve, I remember reading some of his posts, but I never saw the pictures you sent. Thanks. I get a little (lot) garish with my colors, but it is fun. My Mayflower is really turning out nice, for me, & has been a beautiful ship to buildI am working on the 2 sets of top shrouds now & have the lower sail & a lot of rigging done.

                                                                       Gene

Gene,

Thanks for the advice on the shaking hands, and Don too. It has been a bear trying to paint and doing 1/350 PE! 

Anyway, I would highly suggest checking out Rod Millard's threads. He posted one a few years ago on his Imai Catalan Ship. He is the master in my humble opinion of staining Imai ships as well as others. He was my inspiration to try oils on my ships. I tried to link his posts here on FSM but got an error message. However, here are his ships on modelwarships.com. Take a look and I think you will be impressed. He uses a different stain but for the life of me I can only remember that it started with a Z.

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/users/Rod-Millard/user-index.html

Hope this helps,

Steve

Don, MinWax I think, is the best stain made & it should be the best for this. I use MinWax Gunstock stain on all my ship bases. My son & son in law both make them for me. My son has done all my last ones . They are really pretty. I use lacquer spray sanding sealer & at least 3 coats of gloss spray lacquer on them.  I think I have built most of 16 in the last year & a half. I've only had the bad shaky hand for the last 3 or 4.

  Tanker talked about staining the Spanish Galleon & I have it's twin the Pirate Ship by Imia. I will stain it. I think  will try some different colors on the inside of the hull. I have a bunch of it . 

A friend of mine uses stains a lot on period hulls. I think me mentioned Minwax among others.  They look great. I have not tried it yet, but intend to some day.

  Tanker, I had read that about stains on Imia. What kind of stain did you use, tube oil or like Min Wax ? I use tube oil wash a lot on my ships & even the sails but it is over paint. Will masking tape take it off?

 The Imia kit let me build differently. I was able to glue the hull halves together & put in my 1x2 shaped wood for screws & then put the decks in. It gives a lot stronger hull that way.

  David K has been the master on building & especially on painting & Steve5 is coming right along too. I have seen some of the best ever too. 

Gene;

 I will have to agree with you . I used the Imai Kits many years ago as the basis for client builds .They supplied the model and I got to build them .You are right stating the obvious . These are kick butt kits !

 Did you know or have you tried ? The plastic the hulls are made from can and will take regular wood stains ? I tried it on the Spanish galleon that Imai had . Wow ! It worked great ! You shake , Well you got to prove it to me ! .   T.B.

Steve, the trick to the shaky hands is stay away from fine close painting as much as possible. Airbrushing still goe great & most hand painting is ok. I hold my hand on the desk to calm it down & do the fine stuff. Masking is a big help. I use Tamiya tape & a metal ruler on a sheet of glass & gut the tape into thinstrips , about 1/8" wide. 

   I have the sails painted ,sewed on the spars & then stained with raw umber , very thin. I also brush burnt umber in the recessed places & then when dry, clean up with Q tips. When all is dry I dullcote the whole ship.

   I have the 2 main shrouds on & they went on easy & tight. I have most of my standing rigging on. I cheat with that as I pre drill a hole , to size, & run the standing rigging thru them. It is real easy to leave one end loose & tighten when needed.

  I looked at the Trumpeter kit , by reading, & the Imia kit is beautiful. Goes together like a dream & fits perfect everywhere. 

   Don, I answered you on the regular email & lost it I guess. 

I find my shaky hands depend on the task I am doing.  The more frequent the task, the less problem I have.  I find the more tired I am, the more time I have been working on a project at one sitting, the worse it gets.  So for intricate tasks, I have a limited working time. I either need to quit and take a break, or do some task that doesn't require the fine motor skills.

Gene,

That is one beautiful ship. I know about shaky hands now because of the nerve damage to my right hand, but it does not look like it has slowed you down one bit. You give me hope! 

I had picked up the Trumpeter Mayflower thinking that it was a repop of the Imai kit. Unfortunately, after looking at it and dry fitting the hull, decks and masts, I found that the masts were undersized. The hull and the stern were exact replicas of yours but the masts were only about 2/3 the height they needed to be.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing the rest of your fine model.

Steve

 Bill, I really do have a shaky right hand & it surprises me I can still paint as good as i do. Thats why when I take pictures all my mistakes show up & I try to fix them. I developed a head shake 30 years ago, like Sandra O'Connell ,the Justice had.

 The doctor said it is just a pain, no problem just old. It make driknking full glasses with my right hand hard to do. I can't carry my wife's wine & my Scotch at the same time & that is important. For some reason it doesn't bother shooting at all. I just talk about it because I imagine a lot of old guys get it, but you can still build models 

   I just mounted a beautiful Oak base on the Mayflower & put the masts on with the blocks attached.  I really did figure out a lot better way to use the rigging tool & they are not that hard to make after you have done a few good ones. All those little things i put in with the tool pictures are what really help.

It looks really nice Gene.

Fox, let me know if I can help you on the rigging tool.  Like Bill said, I just kept on it & made it work.Individual glueing with 15 second glue & a wire glue applier really help. Cutting a razor saw into on side of grooves really is the answer & then putting a small piece of tape over every 4 or so ratlines too. Just a 1/32 or so cut.

   I also wrap the ratlines different than they tell you. 

 If  you need to call me & maybe I can explain it better. PM me for a number.