Mayflower
Hi folks!
It's been a while! Unfortunately having to work for a living is being an inconvenience.
This is the Revell 1/72 Mayflower kit from back in the 16th century, 120 years before the actual Mayflower set sail. Or at least that's how it felt to build...
My data base tells me it was new tool in 1966, and nothing has changed since then except the box art.
Needless to say this one was a challenge compared to the modern kits I have become accustomed to.
It is also the first boat I have built, and an unusual subject for my taste, but there is a story to it so bear with me.
My Dad originally bought this kit when I was roughly ten years old.
I remember I bought my first kit around then, it was a 1/72 F-117. I put it together without any paint or anything, it probably looked pretty terrible to be fair, but the trips to the model shop must have gave my Dad the model bug again and he bought this Mayflower kit.
I don't know if it looked a bit too impossible or maybe life just got in the way, but it ended up going in the attic where it was to remain for twenty five years.
I managed to steal it a few years back when they moved house and waited for a good enough excuse to start building it. And that excuse came in the form of a global pandemic!
I built it gradually around my other projects throughout the lockdowns, and it gave me many a head ache to be fair! But I finished it in the end and got a custom case built. I left it it in my parents house for them to find when they got back from holiday, and I think my Dad likes it because it has stayed on display in the living room. Mother probably hates it... and I'm sure I'll have to repair it in the future when she tries to dust it...
If I was to be totally honest, if it wasn't for Covid-19 I think Mayflower would have been doomed to spend at least another twenty five years in my attic, and then many other attics after my time. But here it is anyway.
Cheers!
No matter how old we get Mom is still a model's nemesis isn't she.
Great work and a great article, looks really nice, and your Dad's gotta be happy with both you and it. Bet he didn't expect to see this done.
I have a Revell English Man O'War I started as a kid. Since it looks to have plenty of the heavier anchor rope I've stolen a little for 1/35 armor projects, probably shouldn't have done that but I think there's still enough of it left.
I grew up on Revell catalogs, and I think I remember seeing this kit in the how-to sections. The interrupted striping reminded me of that. I seem to remember a hand pulling a short strip of masking tape off to reveal this. These Revell kits were like the ultimate in those days and still look great now in the right hands, like yours.
Maybe you can dust it yourself when you visit, probably easier than repairing it!
Beautiful job.
Cheers mate, thank you!
I think the cats were responsible for destroying most of my early models.
The painted stirpes were one of the most time consuming parts of the build. I used strips of masking tape, but each layer had to be left to cure overnight. The painting as a whole took a few months in the end.
Cheers.
Great work and I'm sure it means a lot to your dad.
Cheers Tom, thanks mate!
It got me out of buying a xmas present anyway!
Certainly something a little different from you, Richard, congratulations for getting it finished, definitely liked. Now for something a little more modern?
Cheers George, yes indeed. I have a harrier in the booth as we speak!
I built this same kit back in the early seventies when I was a kid. Yours looks much better than what I remember mine looked like. Nice work.
Thanks mate, cheers!
It's not an easy build!
You've done a great job on an ancient kit!
Thanks Robert, much appreciated!
Great work, Richard. Ship modeling is challenging. Especially replicating wooden ships in plastic. Yours turned out fantastic.
Thanks very much mate. I'll maybe try something more modern if I build another boat.
You delivered a very nice looking ship to your parents, Richard.
A very hard build but you managed it exceptionally.
Cheers mate, thanks very much!
Getting it there in the car was also a challenge!
🙂 ... Greetings ... 🙂 :
A very well done model Richard.
For sure it makes for a well conversation piece as well as helping the young members of your family to grasp visually an image of the Mayflower in their history class.
Putting it on a display case is a good idea and gives it more importance and character.
Cheers mate!
Although there are no younger members... if I had children I wouldn't have the time to build things like this.
Great work on the kit, and I am sure that your dad appreciated the kit more than you can know. I think you did a great job, and the display case really may save it from Mom's swiffer!
I also noticed your three Buddas. I keep a similar little statuette in my model room. Not Buddas but monkeys.
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
Thanks very much, cheers!
Although the buddhas are my mothers, that sort of thing doesn't interest me.
I keep a pet scorpion in my model room instead!
This looks spectacular, Richard!
It's really great that you dusted it off and put it together.
Kind of just come full circle.
Your Mayflower looks gorgeous in the display box, by the little statue.
Thanks very much mate, cheers!
Well done, a great story and a fantastic build. It looks just wonderful in the display case!
Cheers Paul, thanks very much!
Now that’s a model seldom seen. You’ve done an inspiring job with it. Nice case too. Museum quality as they say.
My Mother viewed the models I built in teenage days as nothing but dust collectors and wrecked quite a few with her wandering feather duster. Good thing you came up with that case.
Cheers mate!
Yes, it was a combination of the duster and the cats which wrecked all my early attempts!
Wow! That looks fantastic - I never would have thought that was that old kit! I received one of those as a grade-school kid, probably as a Christmas present, and it sat under my bed as we moved across the country (Air Force brat). It always intimidated me, and I never built it, and finally got rid of it sometime during early high school years. You really made something nice out of that old thing!
Yeah mate, It's a hard build! I opened the box a few times and thought... nah, another time!
Thanks very much!
Great blast from the past Richard, thanks for posting.
Cheers Tom, thanks mate!
When I first saw this kit it was fully assembled and on display in the window of a model shop in the seaside resort of Morecambe on England’s west coast, where my family and I were holidaying at the time. I bought the kit on impulse, there was just something about it that captivated me. At the time I fully had the intention of building the model myself to try and emulate the fine example that I’d seen in the shop window…….however the holiday ended and the realities of bringing up a young family and having to work for a living (often abroad) resulted in the kit being left to gather dust (for over a quarter of a century)!
I'd long given up hope of seeing the kit that I had bought actually built, so you can imagine my surprise and delight when I returned home from my last holiday to find the kit expertly assembled and on display in my living room! As some of the previous comments have suggested, it means a lot to me, I’m now the proud owner of the ‘Mayflower’…..and a very proud dad!
Thanks Richard!
Well I wouldn't say expertly assembled... but cheers!
Glad you liked it!