Group,
I've been working on a Chinese kit I purchased on eBay that is true POF of the Mayflower. It uses sister framing rather than the single futtock framing shown in the drawings in the book Mayflower II, but is still a fun build and results in a very nice looking model.
The kit does not come with planking for the lower hull and the upper hull is covered with a thin piece of etched walnut plywood. There are different versions of this kit. This particular kit costs $430.00 with free shipping. The more expensive version has stripwood for the lower hull.
The lower decks in the model are planked individually, on plank strip at a time. I'm not sure what kind of wood it is. It has that yellow brown color of boxwood and no visible grain but I know it isn't boxwood simply by its texture. It's kind of stringy, not as hard as boxwood, but provides a nice contrast to the cherry frames.
The one difficulty I've had is the thinness of the frames. In the upper area, they're only 1/8" x 1/8" and can easily be broken off if you're not extremely careful with your hands as you work on framing the decks inside.
Also, the inside deck framing is not historically correct. There's no beam shelf. All of the beams are glued to the sides of hanging knees so the ends of the beams will be visible from a profile point of view. I decided to just go with the standard method of framing them since they're not so visible from above.
After the first two lower decks, the kit switches over to one solid piece of deck with the individual planks etched in it. The deck below it has one area at the bow that is this way which you will see in the photos due to the difference in color.
So far I've been pleased with the kit. It's meant to be displayed in the admiralty fashion with only the lower portion of the masts and the lower shrouds. Here is a photo of what the finished model should look like.
I've been working on a Chinese kit I purchased on eBay that is true POF of the Mayflower. It uses sister framing rather than the single futtock framing shown in the drawings in the book Mayflower II, but is still a fun build and results in a very nice looking model.
The kit does not come with planking for the lower hull and the upper hull is covered with a thin piece of etched walnut plywood. There are different versions of this kit. This particular kit costs $430.00 with free shipping. The more expensive version has stripwood for the lower hull.
The lower decks in the model are planked individually, on plank strip at a time. I'm not sure what kind of wood it is. It has that yellow brown color of boxwood and no visible grain but I know it isn't boxwood simply by its texture. It's kind of stringy, not as hard as boxwood, but provides a nice contrast to the cherry frames.
The one difficulty I've had is the thinness of the frames. In the upper area, they're only 1/8" x 1/8" and can easily be broken off if you're not extremely careful with your hands as you work on framing the decks inside.
Also, the inside deck framing is not historically correct. There's no beam shelf. All of the beams are glued to the sides of hanging knees so the ends of the beams will be visible from a profile point of view. I decided to just go with the standard method of framing them since they're not so visible from above.
After the first two lower decks, the kit switches over to one solid piece of deck with the individual planks etched in it. The deck below it has one area at the bow that is this way which you will see in the photos due to the difference in color.
So far I've been pleased with the kit. It's meant to be displayed in the admiralty fashion with only the lower portion of the masts and the lower shrouds. Here is a photo of what the finished model should look like.
