Landlubber Mike

Hang in there! Be safe!

Great work Tom. I have the same Winfield book and thought about doing a model on it. Your log is very inspirational!

I prefer the RB guns too. For what it's worth, I am replacing my Pegasus guns with the RB guns, not only for better scale but better looks.

Looks fantastic Peter! That's quite a lot of progress. I'll be following along with much interest!

Nice work! I use those same clamps. I prefer them over some of the others I've bought over the years.

I've been using ebony for my Morgan and have had no problems with gluing. I haven't found the dust to be problematic either - I just am very careful to wipe it down after working with it, which I probably should be doing with all woods. Ebony is gorgeous - the various ways of ebonizing pear and other woods don't really come close.

Great work BE. I loved the Proxxon mini-lathe. It made work on my Badger's masts and spars so much easier. I ended up selling it and upgrading to a Sherline (which I haven't used yet), but I'm sorta regretting it given how easy it was to work with the Proxxon (and I wonder if I'll ever use the Sherline to turn metal).

Looks really good! Impressive that this is your first build, very nicely done!

This is an amazing build Ken, incredible job you're doing. I echo what Pete said - even for those of us not working on this kit, we are all learning and getting inspiration from your log.

Nice job Gary. That looks like a really well-thought out kit. The little touches to help builders properly assemble the kit are very nice indeed.

Happy belated birthday Eamonn! Really nice work on the Ballahoo and other model!

Looking really great Al. Love your guitar too by the way, it's a real beauty. You're very talented!

That came out really nicely Martin. Very nice touch! I might have to shamelessly steal that from you when I turn back to my Pegasus...

Very nice Russ! So cool that you are making models of ships local to your area.

Looking great Vince! Are you using the kit wood, or are you using other woods? I have a couple of Euromodel kits and just wondering what Euromodel builders are doing on their builds, as the wood in my kits looks pretty good.

Beautiful work Bob!

Beautiful, the profile moulding is a really nice touch.

Great job BE. Ditto on what all the guys above me said. Subtle treenails add nice character and detail to the model without overwhelming it.

Thanks David, I've been considering that option as well. I have a lot of letters to get right, and I can just see getting to the last one and having to start over. I think the Morgan is a great subject to model. It's a nice break from all the warship kits that are out there, and there's lots of interesting details you can add to the ship if you choose. Plus, the actual ship is still around which you can visit or at least see lots of pictures out there. As for the kit, the plans are very well done (at least I think so far) and the instruction manual is good. I've compared the plans to pictures of the ship, and the plans appear to be very spot on, even down to the planking. I'm not a fan of MS' use of basswood for the keel and bulkheads, as I think MDF provides a much better structure. But, taking the time to put bracing blocks between the bulkheads, everything has remained square and without any flex. The cast pieces generally aren't bad, but when you see how people here on MSW improve detail pieces like those, they seem a bit lacking (but how much can one expect from white metal castings). So all in all, I'd definitely recommend the kit. Even though I'm replacing all the visible wood, I don't hold that against the kit.

Thanks Timmo. I'll try some experiments. The copper plates in the Pegasus kit seem to do well with the personal fluids method based on a Fly kit on here. The Model Expo tape less so. Maybe the latter has a coating of some sort. Sorry for the interruption Joe!

Thanks Joe, that's really helpful. I'll have to experiment a bit and see if I can replicate the green oxidized look.

Joe, was fun going through your build log again. Really nice work you're doing there, and I love how you're personalizing and customizing the kit in enhancing it. Really nice job! Just out of curiousity, when working with the tape, are you applying it in strips and marking the tape to give the appearance of separate plates? Or are you cutting the tape into separate plates and applying them individually? One other question if you don't mind - I'm planning to try to personal fluid method for my Pegasus (won't eat asparagus that day). Have you ever tried weathering the tape to get an oxidized green appearance? I'm hoping to get that look for my Morgan, but am new to coppering. Thanks in advance!

Thanks Alde. Looks like we have unanimity here Joe, thanks very much. The nameplate came out fantastic! I actually ordered dry transfer letters from Woodland Scenics which arrived yesterday. I not only have to do the nameplate, but also there is small lettering of the ship's name on the log rail near the stem. In both cases, I was planning to add the lettering to the wood pieces before installing them on the ship - would seem to be impossible to do it otherwise.

Martin and Jason, thanks so much for weighing in. I really appreciate the thoughts! That was my thinking, but being less experienced in this area, I wasn't sure if I was off base or not. Even better that I won't have to spend more money for ebony sheets since I think I should hopefully have just enough to plank to the higher water line and to the stern (which uses curved planks, and therefore uses up more wood). Also simplifies the second planking since, as I mentioned, I think I can get away with feathering the first planking into the second planking, rather than fully adding a second planking, and I don't need to spile as many planks.

It's been a little slow going, but I've planked the next section of the hull (the area between the plankshear and the wale) with ebony. So far, so good, no issues really. I decided to complete the second planking at this stage, because the wale on this ship isn't a separately defined row of planks - instead it's just thicker planks from the top of the wale down. For the next section, I'll be using a thicker first planking, which I'll sand back to the thickness of the planking above, and then add the ebony second planking so that there is a clear definition. I won't be planking the rest of the hull in ebony because I'll be coppering the hull. So, at some point below the copper line, I'll probably just feather the ebony planks into the first planking rather than add a second planking to the entire hull. We'll see how it looks, as I can always throw on a second planking, not caring what it looks like since it will be covered anyway. Speaking of the copper line, the plans how two levels for the copper line. A higher line which seems to be the historical line, and a lower line from the 1983 restoration (which appears to still be the copper line for the ship currently): Most models of the Morgan that I've seen go with the lower line. A benefit of the higher line is that the hull would need a lot less ebony for the planking - I think midships there are only three or four strakes above the copper line. On the other hand, I wonder if the higher copper line would overwhelm the ship. I think I have enough ebony sheets for the higher line, but not the lower line, so I might just go with the higher line. I'm curious what others think. The first picture is of a model with the lower line. The next few are with the higher line. I really like the oxidized green copper look of the second model below - I'm wondering if i can achieve that with the copper tape that came with the kit.