rafine

Thanks so much, Nils.

Bob

I'm with Rusty. The planking looks good, Ron.

Bob

Thanks so much, Ron and Ben. As always, your interest is appreciated.

Bob

Thanks, Grant and Paddy. Grant, I've always assumed that as a result of cumulative creep I would have to make some adjustment as all of the planking, internal and external, is completed. 

Bob

Very nicely done, Ben.

Bob

Paddy, you might try using spacers as I did. The spacing is either 1/4" or 1/8" and stripwood of those sizes provides an easy way to maintain proper spacing.

Bob

Thanks, Russ.

Rusty, I've been retired so long that I've forgotten about that (and a lot of other things as well).

Bob

Great looking anchors and buoys, Augie.

Bob

Thanks, Rusty. I owe the red heart to you. It's good to see that I'm not the only crazy person who gets up early to go online.

Bob

After returning from my trip, I did the deck and bulwark planking on the port side. The gun deck planking, like the lower deck, is holly with the caulking simulated by pencil on one edge and end of each plank. I then treenailed the deck planking. The bulwark planking is redheart. Before doing the bulwark planking, I lined the inside of the gun ports, also with redheart. No finish has been applied yet on either the deck or bulwark planking. I'm now repeating this process on the other side.

Bob

John, I used either Floquil or Pollyscale paints on the Morgan ( Pollyscale is the acrylic version of Floquil. I now use only Pollyscale.). The yellow is actually darker than it shows in the photos, although not as dark as yours. It's been some years and I don't recall the color that I used.

Bob

Nice work on the gangways, Grant.

Bob

Thanks, guys. 

Ken:  There were many questions about the plans. Remember that the model is taken from a model, not from plans of an actual ship. I made some changes where I thought them appropriate. One of those changes was to move the bulkhead aft slightly to make more room for the last gun. I omitted one door and one ladder because it just seemed too crowded for a ship of this size. The gun placement generally followed the plans, although I enlarged the gun ports which altered the spacing very slightly.

Bob

You're coming along great, John. I just got back from a trip and took some photos of my Morgan as I said I would. The pictures are not very good because I was having trouble with reflections from the glass case. I'm attaching the best of what I took. I hope they're of some use to you.

Bob

Edatwycliffe:  Thanks. Since I substituted all the wood, I never referred to the parts list. I got my dimensions from measuring the plans, but don't remember what size they were. I do recall that both hatches were done with the same size wood and that I made them with lap joints at the corners. The gratings were made from ME cherry grating strips whose size I don't recall, but I believe they matched the plan closely. I hope that helps.

Bob

Great to see you start to raise the frames. Looking good.

Bob

The guns look great, Rusty. I agree that 10 coats seems more than enough.

Bob

I'll jump on this bandwagon and say that you've done a beautiful job on the boat. Like you, I'm eager to see more rigging.

Bob

Thanks Ronald. The figurehead is the kit casting.

Bob

You're continuing to do a great job. I built mine long before I ever knew of MSW so there was no log. I never took any photos of it either. I still have the model and I'll try to take some pictures, but it's in a glass case and I don't know how they will come out.

Bob

You're coming along really nicely, John. I built the Morgan from the ME kit some years ago and it turns out really well if you stick with it. You will enjoy doing all the fittings,furniture and details.

Bob

Thanks, Rusty.

Bob

Thanks Russ, Grant and Pete. Like so many other tasks on the model, doing these items by hand is more tedious, but also very satisfying and even fun.

Bob

The gun deck framing is now installed, with it's hanging knees, pillars and waterways. No finish will be applied until after the deck planking is on. The knees were cut from boxwood sheet and shaped and fitted before the deck framing was installed, but were not mounted until afterwards. The pillars were made from boxwood strip. Because I don't have a lathe, I opted for a somewhat simplified shape that I could do with files and sandpaper. They were cut oversize and fitted and installed after the deck framing was in place. The waterways were made from redheart strip and nicely hide any gaps from the fitting of the knees. Prior to installing the deck framing, I also added a bit of deck planking to the lower deck to serve as a base for the ladder down from the gun deck.

The gun deck planking will be next up. As I said earlier, I've decided  to mount guns on both sides and will plank at least enough of the deck to support the guns. That probably won't be for a while, as we're going to be going north a few times to visit the kids and grandkids.

Bob

It's looking great, Grant. The brackets are wonderful.

Bob