toms10

4 hours ago, Jack12477 said:

Great job Tom!  Sorry I have to miss this years New London, but real life interferes. 

Hi Jack

thanks for the compliments throughout my build log. Sorry you won’t be at the conference. I know how “real life” can get in the way.   See you at the he next one!

Tom

Well I guess it’s a wrap. I completed my Charles W. Morgan today. It has been an educational and fun 2 year journey. Thanks to everyone here on MSW for all the support. Not sure what my next build will be. I will take a break for a bit. I still have a 9000 piece puzzle of the Battle of Algiers. That will be a good project to take a break with. 
 

Here are some final pics. I need to figure out how to make an album and mark the build log finished. 

Happy modeling!
 

We the day finally came, all the sail rigging is complete. The only things left to do is rig the cutting stage, attach the davits and then rig the whaleboats to the davits. Sounds simple enough…..yeah right!😂🤪😜😁

The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter!  😁

Tom

Sails on the foremast installed and rigged except for the braces. Time to start on the main mast sails. Seems like there is always something cropping up to be done. I still have to install all the davits and whaleboats!  I don’t think this model will ever be completed! 🤪😂

I am hoping to finish in time for the Northeast Joint Conference ant the end of April. Allowing for life getting in the way it is going to be very close! 🤪😜😁

Tom

Hi Allen,

Yes you are correct. You need to have bare wood for the stain to soak into the wood. You can seal it afterwards with urethane or shellac if so desired. There is a product you can apply to wood before staining called a leveler. It is a watery substance that is intended to help level out the color when applied to wood with coarse or varying grain texture on large surfaces. I don’t think it is necessary with the types of wood we use and relatively small surface areas. 
Tom

All the fore-aft sails except the gaff and spanker sails are installed as well as a furled fore sail. I will continue with the fore mast yards and work my way aft. 

Tom

Finally got my first sail up along with the fore yard. All the hanging coils of rope waiting to be belayed will slowly start to disappear and become orderly…..I hope. 🤪

Tom

On 12/11/2023 at 12:03 PM, toms10 said:

Hi John

They are glued in place. I may cross tie them later just for appearance. 
Tom

John,

I ended up cross tying the battens just for appearance. I think the knot adds a bit of realism instead of just a flat intersection of the batten and the shroud. The port side is complete!  Only another 268 more to go on the starboard side but who is counting! 😂

Hope everyone has a great holiday season. 😁

Tom

Hi Brian,

I just cut off enough line to get from where the line starts to where it gets tied off and then add about another 1 1/2” for tying off to the belaying pin. 
 

One end is usually fixed to a block or eye, then run through whatever blocks are hanging under the tops, trees, etc. the loose end is just coiled up by wrapping it around my finger and then putting a small strip of the sticky note pad paper around it to kind of keep things organized. I also write down what line it is on the paper so I don’t have to go back and retrace which line is which. 
 

Tom

13 hours ago, John Ruy said:

Tom,

 

Nice job on those battens. They make for really neat Shrouds, but are certainly a Pain to tie. Did you glue yours in place or cross tie each one?

 

Hi John

They are glued in place. I may cross tie them later just for appearance. 
Tom

Managed to get all the lower rat lines

or should I say “rat slats” since these are wooden. The upper ones will be rope so I see many clove hitches in my future. 🤪😜. Actually at 1:96 scale, I think I will do some test lines to see if the knots will look too bulky. The rats will be done with .005” diameter thread to maintain scale but I don't want the knots to be the dominant feature. 
 

The picture is a bit cluttered in the background and there are coils of rope with labels hanging everywhere but you get the idea. 😁

Tom

I make mine out of silkspan. As mentioned earlier, material is a bit too much out of scale at most scales used especially if you are going to use a sewing machine for seams. 
 

There are some basic instructions on how I make them on my Leopard and currently in progress Morgan builds. Dre the links in my signature. 
 

Tom

Hi John

From what I read, I guess early on they used to carry the gasket ropes up with them when furling sails. I guess somebody got smart and just left them tied to either the yard or jackstay if there was one. 
Tom

Managed to get all the sails except for the main and fore course sails bent to their respective yards. Also made some gaskets and hung those from the jackstays just for some added detail. 
 

Here are pics of the fore sails. 

 

and a close up of one of the gaskets. 

Still have to do all the hanks on the stay sails and bend the top gaff and spanker sails to their yards. Seems like their is always something else to do when working with sails. 

Tom

Thanks Rick. Hope your family has a great Thanksgiving. 
Tom

Finished up the silkspan sails except for the main and for courses. Those two will be at least partially if not fully furled so as not to obscure the deck details. 

I used 3 layers of 00 (fine) silkspan which I believe is the thinnest. It measures about .002” thick. The center ply has lines drawn with a 3H pencil to simulate the cloth seams. The outer two layers  are painted with Liquitex spray paint (unbleached titanium). I sprayed one side of the center ply with ordinary spray adhesive and applied a painted piece to either the starboard side of the staysails or the aft side of a square sail then rolled it flat with a wallpaper roller. I then trimmed the painted ply to match the center ply. 

For the other side, I repeated the process except when trimming the excess, I left .060” all around. This excess flap will wrap over and hide a .010” copper wire that will be used to form the billowing shape. Just an ordinary fabric glue or 50/50 white glue works. 

I then glued all the various tablings using Liquitex matte medium.   Aft we all was done i went over the sail with a warm iron to flatten. 

Bolt ropes are then glued to the edges using fabric glue.  

I believe my build log for the Leopard has a more detailed explanation for making these sails. The only difference is the center ply on the Leopard is regular 20# copier paper. With this project at 1:96 scale, i wanted to make the sails as thin as possible to keep somewhat to scale. That is why I used silkspan for the center ply this time. 

I guess the next step is to bend the sails to their respective yards, then mount the yards. 
 

Happy Thanksgiving to my modeling friends in the US. Those outside the US have a great day as well. 
Happy modeling,

Tom

Very tragic news indeed. My deepest sympathies go out to Donna and the entire family. I never met Jim but it is easy to see that he was someone that made the world a better place. 
Tom

1 hour ago, TBlack said:

Tom,

You aren't the only one who can't say no to daughters. Besides, your work on those items is spot on; now all you have to do is walk her down the aisle!

Tom

Hi Tom

Somehow I think there is going to be more coming than just a walk. There’s always more. 😂

Tom

It’s been a while since I posted anything. I have managed to get some things done such as all the yards. I needed to take a couple of weeks to make 21 table centerpieces, 80 place card holders for table assignments, and a bride and groom’s table centerpiece for my daughter’s wedding in January. Why did I agree to doing all these things? Oh yeah, I have a hard time saying no to my daughters. Between cutting down birch trees and getting pine cones and everything else I didn’t think I would see my Morgan model ever again. 
 

Now that wedding stuff is complete, I’m back to modeling. Currently working on laying out the sails so I can attach to the yards and then install those assemblies to the masts. 
 

Here are some pics of my various projects. 

21 table centerpieces 

80 place card holders 

and finally the newlywed table centerpiece. 

Tom

I reached the standing rigging completion milestone. Well sort of. All the lines are attached but most of the back stays are not secured. This will give me a bit more room to get to the belaying pins. 

There are a lot of lines hanging from the blocks under the tops and trees  all coiled up and labeled. It is much easier to thread the blocks when the masts are off the model. It gets a bit scary looking now but since each line is labeled it is actually pretty easy. 
 

I also finished all the rigging on the bow sprit (I think).  Time to start thinking about the jib sails. 

And finally I put in the cutting tackle today. 

Next I need to start making and mounting sails to the yardarms. Then mount those to the masts. Should be a piece of cake!😂

Tom

Summer has been busy but I managed to get in a bit of rigging anyway. The fore and main top masts are in and shrouds are rigged. 

Also started on the bow sprit rigging. I finally got to use some of the super fine chain I made a while back. I think it does the job nicely at this scale. 

I am having fun with the rigging but I keep wishing I was back Sandals Southcoast in Jamaica. Maybe when I finish this ship I will sail her back there. 😜😂🤪

Tom

Finished making all the whaleboat components and started putting it all together.  There is a lot of stuff in these little boats!  I spent way more time than I guessed I would on these but I think they came out pretty good. 😁

I’ll finish up the other three and put them away for safe keeping until the end when I mount them to the Morgan. Now I can get back to working on the Morgan herself. 
 

Tom

I use the eraser trick or just a common pin and run it through each groove. Takes less than a minute. 
Tom

4 hours ago, hollowneck said:

Your small flotilla of Moby Dick chasing whaleboats look great, Good Job!

Don't forget the tholes on the boats (oarlocks).

Hi Ron

Thanks for the compliment. Yeah, oarlocks are on the list. Probably going to do some micro-brazing to make those.  I need to think about those a bit. I just finished making 35 lances.  Lookout Moby I’m coming for you. 😂😜🤪

Tom
 

5 hours ago, TBlack said:

Are the oars different lengths depending on where used on the boat?

Tom

Hi Tom

you are correct  

Tom