Brucealanevans

It can be a surprise. I thought I was almost done with my CW Morgan, then it turned out making 5 whaleboats for hanging on the davits at the end took as much time as all the running rigging.

Finished with bulkhead faring. A lot of sanding. I was really quite diligent with this, probably more so than on the previous builds. Also put the shadowbox and its ribs in - again, a lot of sanding to bring it into line with the bulkheads. No surprises or issues thus far, but I'm about to start on the stern structure, the like of which I have not previously done. May not get going on this for a week or two with holiday and other projects. This will be a slow build.

Search hobby world USA for hobbyzone professional building slip. it was discussed quite a bit here a few years back. putting it together from diagram based instructions a bit of a PITA - you need to be very careful regarding part identification and orientation. Originated in Poland I think. there is a smaller one nowhere near as flexible.

Thanks. "More Options" staring me right in the face. Duh.

I've decided to dig into my stash and take out the oldest resident there: Model Shipways USF Confederacy. This is going to be a slow build, because I only have a couple of hours a day to devote to it; too many other kinds of projects going on. Since there are a very large number of both old and new build logs of the Confederacy, I'm not going to post a blow by blow description. Plan on periodic updates and asking advice for problems encountered since many have built this model. I was relieved to find the kit had the good plywood, and there was no warping despite its period of neglect. I dusted off the snazzy build board I bought primarily for this build once I determined that this big mother would fit. The building "board" is amazingly flexible once you figure out how to arrange all the bits depending on what you want to do. I just moved the model up from the base clamp once I finished placing the bulkheads, filler blocks, stern and bow fillers, and fitted balsa blocks at the bow. So, ready for faring. The board apparatus allows for rotation of the model, and some clamps (visible in the photo below) holds it rock steady together with the fore and aft clamps. I've got it turned to work on the starboard faring, and will start that soon. It looks like I will have plenty of clearance for constructing the stern pieces, and other than rotating from side to side I should be able to do all of the upper planking at least with the current positioning of the attachment points. Pretty neat. Planning pretty much an out of the box build, perhaps except replacing the cannon with Chuck's. I wish he still had replacement figurehead though. That's all for now.

OK maybe I'm missing something obvious, but when I click the gallery tab I see "recent" images but see no gallery specific search function or any way to switch to a list view. What obvious thing am I not seeing?

As I recall the rudders are missing or at least very hard to find in the instructions (no longer have). Worth investing in Kurt’s cd of his magazine series. (See further up here)

Going to take a break for a bit. The house is filling up with ships. I think I’ll eventually be diving to the bottom of my stack and take on the Confederacy. I need something that will take a while to do well and I’m still not anxious to take on a big rigging job. I do wish Chuck still had some of the nice figureheads....

Thanks to all for the likes and nice comments.

OK I think I'm done now. Maybe a bit of touch up paint but I'll wait for that till I have a case. Here are some pictures.

I like these because the small ones are very light and don’t cause any sag in the rigging.

8Pair Round Colored Single Hook Clip Test Probe for Electronic Testing (amazon description)

Yeah, just there to keep tension on the line while I adjusted the position of the stage by fussing with the lines in turn. They are for holding small electrical wires in contact - pushing a button in the end extrudes a small copper hook which retracts when button released. I use them to hold rigging line under tension when seizing.

Getting real close now. With the cargo and main deck people in place I could finally add the bull rails. It really helped to paint the whole set of wood strips (24") ahead of time. Then I could measure for each interval and cut 5 pieces off with a sharp x-acto chisel and immediately place them on/in the brackets, and then glue a bunch of them in place at one time. Put together and installed all the rigging for the stage. I used Syren Co. small hooks (the older black plastic ones I had from the Morgan build) which worked really well. I used epoxy for all of the cleats - learned my lesson from previous builds when cleats popped off using CA when tension applied. Adds a overnight wait but the security is worth it. Now trim the stage rigging, make and place a bunch of rope coils for that rigging and for the 2 sets of boat boom rigging. And some touch-up painting here and there and a bit of pastels weathering in a few places. Then .... finished.