Landlubber Mike

Ken, I'm planning on using natural woods and stains in lieu of paints on my builds. Take a look at my Pegasus log, where I just applied General Finishes Black Stain - it covers like a paint, but isn't bulky like a paint. The General Finishes "Ebony Dye" is another alternative which is a bit thinner than the GF Black Stain. Minwax has a product that I think people have used. I didn't think the coverage was as good and uniform, but I didn't use a sanding sealer and was trying it out on plywood and dowels that I had.

Elijah, thanks for looking in on my Morgan log. I just read through your Phantom log and have to say I'm really excited for you - it's really great to see younger folks get into the hobby. I did some plastic models with my dad when I was around your age, which I really enjoyed. Like most people, I wish I had started ship modeling earlier. You learn a lot through the hobby - about ships, construction techniques, and things like patience, persistence and drive to build the best model you can You're off to a really fantastic start, and are taking a lot of important, critical steps now that will pay dividends down the road. If I look back at my own modeling time, there are stages were I spend 75% of the time researching, reviewing plans and other prep work, and only 25% (if that) on the actual construction. So, take your time, and ask lots of questions. Most of all, just have fun! Oh, and congratulations on your new baby brother! That's wonderful news

Mama mia, wow, you are a master! Amazing work on a gorgeous ship that us mortals can aspire to

Thanks John, I really appreciate it! I've been studying your build log and website log quite a bit, it's been very helpful, thank you! I'm excited to finally start on this gorgeous ship. Hopefully mine comes out half as nice as yours Actually, quick question for you - on the knight heads and stanchions, how did you know how tall to make them? The plans aren't particularly clear, but maybe I need more coffee.

Billet Head The Morgan has a billet head at the end of the stem. It's a pretty intricately carved piece - here is a picture of it: The Mystic Seaport blog on the Morgan restoration also has a nice post on the billet head in case you are interested: http://www.mysticseaport.org/news/2013/the-billet-head/ The kit adds a cast billet head part, as you can see here. It's got a little stub that fits into a notch into the kit stem: It's not really that bad, but I think some of the details can be improved on So, I think I'm going to try and carve the billet head. I didn't add a notch into the stem at this time, as I think a better course would be to pin it to the stem so that the joint lines are much cleaner. An observation - from the picture above, it looks like the shape of the Morgan's current stem is a bit different from the kit's stem. I forget the time period the kit is from, but it looks like the shape is clearly different. Also, you can barely make out the seam lines on the pieces making up the stem. Rather than attempt to build a stem from various parts, I think I'll lightly scribe lines on the stem to represent those joint lines. Thanks for looking in!

One benefit of getting a blizzard dumping two feet of snow is that I was cooped up in the house and managed to get some work in on my builds. On the Morgan, the next step is to prep the center keel by adding the rabbet and gluing on the keel pieces and stem. I'll probably add the stern post after the hull has been planked to help get a clean line into the stern post. I mentioned earlier that I'm going to avoid paint to the extent possible on this build. The nice thing about the Morgan is that the color scheme is very simple - black, white, and ochre. For black, I'll use pear stained black. White I'm still thinking about - either holly or possibly maple, or, if necessary, I will use a white stain from General Finishes. The ochre areas will be boxwood. The deck is a grayish color - I have some weathering finishes that I will try out on various woods to see what might work the best. I'm realizing that this is going to be a little complicated - for example, you don't plank the midship bulwarks. The bulwarks are essentially the inside face of the first outer hull planking. So, I'll probably need to use boxwood for the upper hull planking, then add a second layer of planking using pear. Thankfully there are a lot of detailed logs out there like John's so that I can have a better sense as to things. First thing to do was to recreate the stem out of pear, since the stem is black. I was a bit worried about using up so much wood in case I needed multiple attempts, so I considered cutting the stem in half and only creating the upper half in pear. I decided to just go for it because the kit stem isn't a very tight fit against the kit keel, and figured a one-piece stem would be stronger bond. I'm happy to report that I managed to get it right on the first try (usually doesn't happen). I traced the kit stem on a piece of pear, cut it out on my scroll saw, then used sanding blocks and my Byrnes disc sander to clean up some of the lines. I was using 5mm pear which was slightly thicker than the kit's stem, so a few passes in my Byrnes thickness sander and I was good to go. By the way, the keel is very fragile. I have no idea how this piece broke off I wish they had used something stronger like plywood or MDF.

Greg raises a good point - I think we get so focused on perfecting the tiny details that we forget that when the model is complete, the eye most likely won't catch very minor imperfections. Maybe one thing if you are entering a competition and having masters pour over your model with magnifying glasses, but for most of our purposes, I would think that these would ultimately be hidden. Remember, once it's in a case, most people won't be viewing it from 6-12" away

Martin, I hear you on clumsiness and ignorance. Hopefully after two more kits (Pegasus and Morgan), I'll be ready for the Lyme. I also have the Euromodel FWZP on the shelf, so maybe I build that with the Lyme sometime in the future (at the rate I build, that will be 10 years from now). Crackers, see, I was hoping that by building the Lyme, nobody could point out what are sure to be many mistakes. Now that I hear you have the plans, I'm going to really have to up my game, thanks! Good thing I scrapped the earlier kit-based build!

Hi Mark, thanks for commiserating my friend. I actually thought of you when shutting this one down The lines are different, so I will have to take them off the plans. What I plan on doing is first going through the Pegasus hull construction, then the Morgan hull construction, which requires some scratch building as you set the hull (and other things) up. I'm learning a ton from the Pegasus, and I imagine I'll learn even more from the Morgan. So when I start back up on the Lyme, I hope to be a little more knowledgeable and have a decent game plan. On the question of 1:75 versus 1:64, the kit is in 1:75, so I took the NMM plans of 1:48 and converted them to 1:75. I also copied a set at 1:48. 1:75 is a bit of an add scale, so I could change to 1:64. I kinda like the idea of trying it at 1:48, but that would require a lot of wood and space. I have some time to think about it.

Mark, hang in there my friend. Looks like you've got a good solution in the works, so just stay with it. I was scolded by my wife for using a few choice words last night taking three tries to make various planks for my upper hull planking, so we've all been there. Just looked up domkop - maybe I should add some foreign words to my arsenal. Either that, or I can just call myself "cabbage head" or "pudding head," as my girls would get a kick out of that.

Hey Joe, thanks for looking in. Sorry to hear about the framing - I can only guess at your frustration. One thing to consider is that Model Expo I think will replace parts? Maybe you can fix the framing that way?

Looks really great to me Jason! The boxwood and finish look really nice. I took the same "Frankenstein" approach on my Pegasus. If you're going to cover it up with copper plates, why bother using good wood? I have a love-hate relationship with walnut. I think it looks gorgeous when it is oiled, but working with it at this scale is tough given how splintery it is. I was really glad to get through the lower hull planking. I needed a mental health break after The upper hull planking so far seems to be a little easier, at least on the Pegasus, where I haven't needed to spile. Lots of custom planks to be cut around the gunports and sweep ports though.

I bought the Dewalt that people recommend off of someone on Craigslist, basically brand new, stand, light and extra blades, for less than half of what it was retail. I saw a lot of scroll saws on Craigslist when I was looking - I think lots of dads out there buy them to do a project with their kids, then have no other use for them.

Nice work Scoot, looking very solid. Just out of curiosity, have you thought about whether you are going to single plank your build, or double plank it? The instructions say you can plank with 0.5mm planks as a second planking. I am thinking of doing that for the lower planking, particularly to get a nice smooth hull, but the upper planking I might single plank. Looking closely at the Morgan, it looks like the upper hull planking has planks beveled at the edges - I don't think 0.5mm planks are thick enough to bevel to get that effect, so I might single plank the upper hull.

Hi Scoot, thanks for looking in. It's great that more people are working on the Morgan right now. When I bought the kit a couple of years ago, I think John (texxn5) was the only one with an active log. Now there are a bunch of people either finished or on the home stretch, or starting their builds like us and Joe V. Will be nice having someone working alongside me as I work through the build.

Scoot, really nice work so far. I like your approach to the rabbet and attaching the keel pieces to the center keel, I might have to do the same on my Morgan. One thing I haven't decided is whether to attach the stem on at this time, or after the planking is added. The benefit of adding the stem now is that it is easy to align it perfectly with the keel. Others suggest adding it after the planking to help get a clean planking line. I'm leaning towards adding it now, as that worked out pretty well on my Pegasus.

Old Man, of the kits I've started so far, for the keel and bulkheads, Caldercraft and Corel used plywood, Amati used MDF, and Model Shipways used basswood for the keel and I think plywood for the bulkheads. Use whatever is flat and will provide a good solid skeleton for your build. I don't think you can go wrong with plywood or MDF. Just make sure that it's pretty solid without any flex. The Corel bulkheads, for example, I found had too much flex, particularly at the tops of the bulkhead extensions. Even if whatever material you use has more flex than you would prefer, there are steps you can take to minimize any twisting of the hull - filler blocks, braces between bulkheads, etc. help a lot. I used braces on my Corel Unicorn and the bulkheads and hull were very solid. The bulkhead extensions, however, still had quite a bit of flex though.

The key is to have something that isn't warped, and won't warp. A junk piece can work just as well as a new piece - you won't see it anyway.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the kit. The plans and instructions are really well done. The wood that comes with the kit is mostly basswood and beech dowels, though the bulkheads might be in plywood. I wonder about using basswood for the keel, and will probably consider strengthening the hull in some areas to keep it straight. The wood though seems to be of very nice quality. The cast parts are, well, cast parts and I'll probably look to improve on them. The nice thing about this kit is that the plans contemplate that the builder will scratch build some parts. I think that will be a lot of fun. Plus, there are lots of metal tools and implements, so I will probably have to bug my buddy Ian for metalworking tips. Not too much progress thus far. The center keel is in two pieces, so after marking the bulkhead lines and the orientation line from the plans (a very nice touch on the kit to ensure proper alignment), I glued the two pieces last night on a piece of MDF covered with plastic wrap and with heavy weights to ensure that it remained straight.

Build Log Table of Contents [to come]

Now that I've shelved my HMS Lyme for the time being to build it as a future scratch build, I decided to start the Charles Morgan by Model Shipways. I won't get into the politics of whaling, and by building this model I don't mean to glorify that industry, but the ship is a beautiful vessel with a lot of history. It was built in 1841 and made 37 voyages, processing more whales than any other ship in history. It was purchased for Mystic Seaport in 1941, where it currently resides as part of the museum. A couple of summers ago I went to a wedding in Connecticut and took a side trip one day to visit Mystic Seaport and the Morgan with my family. My daughter had a great time going on the "pirate ship." It's well worth a visit if you can get out there, with other ships also as part of the collection. I'm particularly excited to build a model of a ship that I had the privilege of visiting. I was able to take a lot of pictures, which I'll show from time to time on this log (like the ones on this post). My plans for the build: The MS kit is based on the configuration of 1892-1908. I have the Leavitt book on the Morgan, and like the Constitution, the Morgan has gone through various configurations at the stern. I'll probably build the kit based on the kit's configuration, but I might do a little research to see if there is another that I prefer. At one time fake gunports were pointed along its sides which is not a look I want to replicate on this build. Like the Pegasus, I'm planning to paint with wood by either using natural woods or using stains in lieu of paints. The Morgan is primarily black with white accents, the bulkwarks and deck structures ochre, and the deck somewhat grayish. At one time I thought about using African Blackwood for the black areas, but was quoted a price of close to $700 for wood to make the build. A bit pricey, so I think I'm going to go with pear stained black for the black areas. I still need to think about the white areas - I might use holly, or in the alternative, I found a white stain by General Finishes that isn't too garish and covers wood and metal very nicely. The ochre areas will be in boxwood, and for the deck, I have one stain that will give that grayish look - but I might try some of the weathering applications out there to see things come out. My goal is to hopefully show the Morgan in a more weathered state - a little rust on the iron parts, oxidized hull coppering, etc. I also plan to display the model in full sail. There are a number of other great logs out there from which I will shameless borrow from - Texxn5 (John), Bruce Evans, Gerald Spargo, Joe V, Udo K, Scoot and Homer -- among other logs using other kits. They set the bar up high which is a good challenge for me to do the best I can do. In case you are interested, the Morgan underwent a big restoration project a few years ago. There is a real in-depth blog on the Mystic Seaport website which details with great pictures all the work that went into the restoration. It's amazing how these ships were built in the absence of power equipment: http://www.mysticseaport.org/morganblog/ Thanks for looking in!

As Mark said, a lot of plywood in hobby sizes seems to be warped. I bought some to replace my Unicorn keel - first from Micromark which was really warped (to their credit, they refunded me my purchase cost) and then a packet of five pieces from a second retailer and most of those pieces were warped as well. When I re-start my Lyme as a scratch build, I'm going to think about MDF. I don't think it suffers any warp issues, and is incredibly solid. MDF was used in my Pegasus kit, and it was great. The only thing I would mention about MDF is that it is very hard to sand yet at the same time can flake if you try to chisel it.

Lavery has a nice discussion of the tiller and ship's wheel history and development. Lots of discussion on various developers and their approaches to the tiller and sweep. If you can't make it to the library, let me know and I can see how to get you the information you need.

Ian, wow, that tiller cover came out fantastic. Brilliant way to incorporate it into the flag locker construction. Looks perfect! On the tiller sweep, I'm afraid I don't know much about these things. I don't think the Pegasus had a sweep. I just took a peek at Lavery - there is a diagram very similar to the last one you posted above, in the discussion on page 23 regarding the steering on smaller vessels (specifically, Lavery refers to "small 6th Rates and many sloops"). The top down view is almost identical to your diagram, and the profile picture accompanying it shows the tiller above the deck. There is no tackle on the sweep, and probably no rollers, so I bet in that case, the sweep was intended to support tiller and not the ropes. Dafi had some discussion on the tiller sweep here, but I think it was below deck as well. Might be worth a look: http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/8770-thinking-things-throu-the-gunroom-gunner´s-room/

Well guys, I've decided to close this build log down and build the Lyme as a complete scratch build. Yesterday afternoon, I had the Lyme plans from the NMM copied and reduced to 1:75, and a set of originals and the 1:75 scale plans laminated. Later that evening, I spent five or so hours comparing the build and the Corel plans against the Lyme plans - a long night that ended in much disappointment. I was pretty encouraged in the beginning that the middle part of the ship was fairly consistent with the Lyme plans. Then I moved to the bow, and realized that the shape of the bow (using the kit keel), and the stem I had scratched earlier, was different from the Lyme bow. The kit's bow is pretty angular, whereas the Lyme's bow was more square. So, I figured I would be replacing the stem and stem post anyway, and would just have to figure out a way to modify the shape of the bow. Not too bad.... Things took a nasty turn when I went to measure the height of the upper deck off of the bottom of the keel. I knew the sweep of the decks in the kit were too high at the stern and so I was hoping that all I had to do was change the angle at the stern and possibly the stem and that was it. So, it would be pretty easy to measure up from the keel on the plans, and take some material from the bulkheads as need be. Big problem though - the height of the Corel kit is a lot higher than what the Lyme plans and even Chapman's plans suggest! I'm not talking by a few millimeters, but as much as 20mm+ from the keel to the bottom of the gunports in some places! With that discrepancy, I don't think I can fix things. It's going to be hard to measure up from the keel, as I don't have a solid reference point to measure from. That, with all the other work I would have to do to modify the kit, I've come to the realization that it would be a lot easier in the long run to build from scratch using the Lyme plans. I have the tools, and it shouldn't be too hard to cut a new keel and bulkheads from plywood. I already cut a new keel one to replace the badly warped one from the kit, so I have a little experience. So a lot of frustration right now, but in the long run, I think this would be the better course. I'll shut this log down and start a new one on the Scratch forum once I get started. I really love the look of the Lyme, and after all the research I've done, it would be a shame not to build it. I'm considering whether to build the Lyme in 1:75 or 1:48 - at 1:75, it's a pretty sizable model at around 3 feet in overall length. At 1:48, I'd have the opportunity to add a lot of cool detail but the model would push 4 feet in length. While figuring this out, in the meantime, I think I'm going to start the Charles Morgan as a parallel build to my Pegasus. I like having another model to turn to when I get fatigue or burn out and need a mental break. Stay tuned! Eventually I'll start a Lyme class build