Brucealanevans

Well, I got tired waiting for the replacement piece to arrive, so I worked on the keel, stem, and bowpiece I removed from the incompletely lasered sheet and managed to bring them up to useable form. I still need the replacement piece for a number of other parts, some quite small, that were very poorly laser cut. But I won't need them for a while.
Keel was straight, and putting the bow and stem pieces on straightforward, as were constructing the bow and stem rabbets with shaped and glued on pieces as shown below.
I cemented the floor, and glued the keel to it.
 
Oh, Oh!
 
Although the keel was dead-flat, and I carefully aligned the bow and stern to the midline, I didn't realize that in adjusting those two spots, the drag on the middle of the keel from the glue kept it from perfectly following the adjustments. When I test fit the bulkheads, which need to meet the upper edge of the floor exactly, it became clear that although perfect at the bow and stern, the keel "bulged" to port by up to 1/16" midships. I contemplated the old alcohol reversal (on the keel, not me) but such an extensive area was involved I decided against.
This meant that most of the bulkheads had to be adjusted (sand one half, shim the other) to bring each bulkhead on port and starboard exactly to the upper edge of the floor (picture below).
 
A lot of extra work because I didn't either draw a line off center to align the keel with or check the port/starboard measurement before the glue set and the assembly was nudge-able. That's assuming few adjustments would have been required. At least now I know the alignment with the floor is perfect throughout. 
Oh well, it's all good now. Outer and inner faring of the bulkheads was done off the ship following the engraved line outboard and paralleling that inboard, which made the use of a small hand belt sander fixed in a vise possible and a relatively quick job resulted. I got facile with that tool making the Morgan's 7 whaleboats from lifts. 
 
Tomorrow I'll glue them on using the small machinist right-angles visible in the picture, and sand the edge of the floor to match the vertical curve of the bulkheads. The extra work should make the planking a lot easier!
 
 

With the Charles W Morgan safely in her case awaiting only a brass engraved nameplate before moving upstairs, it's time to start a new project (projects?).
Going to start with the gunboat Philadelphia which I've had on the shelf for some time. I need a break from 1/64 fully rigged ship so the Granado will wait for this project to be completed.  [note: Granado will wait a while longer]
I'm looking forward to (super)detailing a 1/24 build with minimal straight-forward rigging (at least compared to the Morgan).
I've ordered replacement blocks and line from Chuck, and gathered materials including the 6 part series on this build from Ships in Scale.
I'm not detailing in photos the box contents as they have been covered in a current build log and several fairly recent finished ones.
Will start construction next week. I've been at loose ends in the mornings as that has been my shipyard time through the (long) end of the Morgan build. There is a nice case awaiting this rather wide model (nearly 14 inches) that I had bought years ago for a Victory model I bought but did not build. As my house started to fill with MY completed models I decided to give that ship away to a friend who had admired it. I was tired of explaining to people that I had built the New Bedford Whaleboat, Picket Boat #1, and now the Charles W Morgan but NOT that one.
At the same time (now that I'm fully retired) I'm going to practice Byrnes saw, scroll saw, and mill skills to begin the Echo cross section on some ordered boxwood before I break into the wood included in the Admiralty Models package. These are things I've not done so need the practice for this entry into the shallow end of the scratch build pool.

Chuck: just in time for me to bow out of this topic ....
I think I'm done. Going to spend a couple of days just looking to make certain I'm happy with everything (everything that's modifiable at this point anyway) before she goes in the case and into the living room, and I officially mark this topic Finished. My wife has been gone for 3 weeks helping a daughter with a newborn halfway across the country so I've been working on this more than planned and finished "early".
I appreciate the followers and likes and hope this "something different" build was enjoyable to watch.
I'll take a break from the shipyard for a bit and work on some other things before beginning the Renaissance War Galley I just received from Daniel Dusek.
Here's a final set of pictures.
 

Chuck: just in time for me to bow out of this topic ....
I think I'm done. Going to spend a couple of days just looking to make certain I'm happy with everything (everything that's modifiable at this point anyway) before she goes in the case and into the living room, and I officially mark this topic Finished. My wife has been gone for 3 weeks helping a daughter with a newborn halfway across the country so I've been working on this more than planned and finished "early".
I appreciate the followers and likes and hope this "something different" build was enjoyable to watch.
I'll take a break from the shipyard for a bit and work on some other things before beginning the Renaissance War Galley I just received from Daniel Dusek.
Here's a final set of pictures.
 

Fascines (ad hoc additional protection for the crew) done and tied in place. A big step which took 3 days of work. When all was said and done I used the 1/32 square strips without rounding each one (of 160) off with a drawplate. The difference in appearance was minimal and I had just enough strips (each fascine contains 40) so breakage would have been problematic. Aged them with Micro Mark "Weather-It".
Tomorrow the top battens for the canopy frame go on.

Fascines (ad hoc additional protection for the crew) done and tied in place. A big step which took 3 days of work. When all was said and done I used the 1/32 square strips without rounding each one (of 160) off with a drawplate. The difference in appearance was minimal and I had just enough strips (each fascine contains 40) so breakage would have been problematic. Aged them with Micro Mark "Weather-It".
Tomorrow the top battens for the canopy frame go on.

I have finished all the deck detail now. Playing with placement - will fasten things down tomorrow and start on the fascines.
Making powder bags and hollowing out a third party barrel to accept them was the most tedious part of this.
I did use some third party boxwood buckets, but had to thin them down from the inside to get the thickness to some approximation of scale.
Turns out a black sharpie works great on the elevated "hoops" of commercial barrels, after "aging" them with a vinegar soak which removed the shiny finish. I wish the barrels were slightly bigger as they are a bit too small for quarter and half barrels at this scale, but just acceptable.

Put up the canopy frames and the racks for gunnery equipment for the swivels and the 9 pounders. The former rack was indicated on the Smithsonian plans but not the kit plans.
Making the gunnery equipment took as long as making and installing the canopy frames, but with the racks staring me in the face I went ahead with that equipment and installed them in the racks. I also put (not yet glued) a rammer/sponge and ladle/worm in the foredeck for the 12 pounder while I was in that production mode.
I have some detail (mainly chests, buckets, and barrels) to add to the deck that will be under the battens/rolled canopty/sweep rack and sweeps so will do that before moving on to the battens over the canopy frames. I think I will want to install the fascines prior to that as well to facilitate their lashings to the frames without obstruction.
All of the significant construction is now done - I can see the end in sight. Making the fascines will, however, be a real PITA. 160 1/32 x 1/32 strips await rounding with a drawplate and cutting, gathering, and binding into the fascines, several of which will need to be bent into curves prior to installation. Thankfully these are all specified well in the Smithsonian plans as well as how they are fastened.
 
I have humbly added a "kit bash" tag to this build log given the addition of sails and detailing.

Fore Rails up and anchors rigged with hawser, stop rope, lashing pendant and fish line.
The stop rope should have been larger diameter but I was out of .025 and was impatient. Bad model builder!

Thanks John, I appreciate that. One of the bits of fun working in this scale is the ability to push the envelope with detailing.
Downside: those Smithsonian plans were expensive, but I could not have done much of this without them and their wealth of detail. Not enough detail in the two books about the Philadelphia I got.

Back from a great Mediterranean cruise on the worlds largest ship with sails.
Back in the shipyard today -
Finished the stove. Bricks made with sculpy formed in the sheet the kit "bricks" of basswood were in. Modeling paste for mortar. Set up a charcoal fire in the stove. Suitably sloppy brick work!
Also added the pintels to the rudder.

Prior to staining the exterior, I've been working on placing the nails for the exterior planking. These were iron and clearly visible, as on the modern reconstruction.
Drilled all the holes with a pin vise, slightly widening the entrance with a sharp awl.
Placed short pieces of black mono-filament held with the needle nose pliers (tweezers don't work due to twisting or "snapping away" of the line piece) illustrated after dipping the end in a drop of CA. Then cut each nearly flush with the flush cutter illustrated. The second picture shows a row of holes, a row filled with the mono-filament pieces, and a row after clipping.
After some sanding with the grain of the planks the look is pretty good (last picture). They will be somewhat less prominent after staining of the exterior.

Finished the exterior planking and gave it a first sanding. Next is the ceiling interior planking.
Here are some photos of current status, placed on the unfinished stand.

Fascines (ad hoc additional protection for the crew) done and tied in place. A big step which took 3 days of work. When all was said and done I used the 1/32 square strips without rounding each one (of 160) off with a drawplate. The difference in appearance was minimal and I had just enough strips (each fascine contains 40) so breakage would have been problematic. Aged them with Micro Mark "Weather-It".
Tomorrow the top battens for the canopy frame go on.

Fascines (ad hoc additional protection for the crew) done and tied in place. A big step which took 3 days of work. When all was said and done I used the 1/32 square strips without rounding each one (of 160) off with a drawplate. The difference in appearance was minimal and I had just enough strips (each fascine contains 40) so breakage would have been problematic. Aged them with Micro Mark "Weather-It".
Tomorrow the top battens for the canopy frame go on.

Fascines (ad hoc additional protection for the crew) done and tied in place. A big step which took 3 days of work. When all was said and done I used the 1/32 square strips without rounding each one (of 160) off with a drawplate. The difference in appearance was minimal and I had just enough strips (each fascine contains 40) so breakage would have been problematic. Aged them with Micro Mark "Weather-It".
Tomorrow the top battens for the canopy frame go on.

I have finished all the deck detail now. Playing with placement - will fasten things down tomorrow and start on the fascines.
Making powder bags and hollowing out a third party barrel to accept them was the most tedious part of this.
I did use some third party boxwood buckets, but had to thin them down from the inside to get the thickness to some approximation of scale.
Turns out a black sharpie works great on the elevated "hoops" of commercial barrels, after "aging" them with a vinegar soak which removed the shiny finish. I wish the barrels were slightly bigger as they are a bit too small for quarter and half barrels at this scale, but just acceptable.

I have finished all the deck detail now. Playing with placement - will fasten things down tomorrow and start on the fascines.
Making powder bags and hollowing out a third party barrel to accept them was the most tedious part of this.
I did use some third party boxwood buckets, but had to thin them down from the inside to get the thickness to some approximation of scale.
Turns out a black sharpie works great on the elevated "hoops" of commercial barrels, after "aging" them with a vinegar soak which removed the shiny finish. I wish the barrels were slightly bigger as they are a bit too small for quarter and half barrels at this scale, but just acceptable.

Rigged and stepped the mainmast. It will have a boom at the bottom, but as this attaches only through toggles in the lower cringles and both the boom and its rigging protrude from the side a considerable distance likely to make the work to come difficult, I will be adding that last.
 

Added "nails" for the ceiling and decks with mono-filament line dipped in a touch of CA, inserted into pre-drilled holes, then clipped with a flush-cutter.
Stained the interior. To get the used-up look sanded the central "traffic" areas after the first coat of Minwax stain dried and applied another light coat.
Put in the knees and coaming with nails and bolts simulated. For the bolts cut out small circles with a punch from a card colored with magic marker, punched a small hole in the center with an awl, and slipped over a protruding piece of mono-filament line, glued down, and clipped the protruding line.
 
Now on the the repetitive job of nails for the exterior planking.

Finished the ceiling planking. Had a look at the Smithsonian plans which arrived afterwards, tho, and the interior planking was wider than the 1/4" (6 scale inches) the kit uses. Oh well.
Put the decks in - I cut the deck pieces into individual planks as I didn't like the scribed planking which ended up really highlighting the midline join between the port and starboard pieces. The cuts "lost" enough of the total width that I had to add a small piece to either side to make up the difference. Suggested by the Ships in Scale series. Also some fiddling due to the "drift" of the false keel amidships (see posts above).
All in all tho I'm pleased with how it looks at the moment.
Before I stain the interior I'm going to simulate the decking nails (they were iron nails, not trenails) with holes/black mono-filament line. Since I want to give those a light sanding I have to do it before I put the stain on.
I reinforced the place where the hausepipe hole goes through the exterior planking since those planks were not edge-glued. That's visible between the exterior planks and the ceiling near the bow in the pictures.
The arms chests are just placed on the deck in these pictures. I'll not glue those or the knees in until I've done the staining. I'll stain those pieces individually prior to gluing them in.
Having a lot of fun with the Smithsonian plans (I'd better since getting them was a real splurge) - a real wealth of detail for fitting this boat out.
Interestingly, also shows fascines - bundles of small diameter wood - hanging above the bulwarks to give sailors some additional protection. I'll have to decide if I'm going to include those.
 

Finished the exterior planking and gave it a first sanding. Next is the ceiling interior planking.
Here are some photos of current status, placed on the unfinished stand.

I thought I'd share the procedure that seems to work for me for spiling planks for this build, where the planks, due to the scale and the construction of the boat, are quite wide.
I fit a template made from card stock to the upper plank and then mark the laser tick for the bottom of the new plank at each bulkhead on the template. After drawing a smooth line with the help of ships curves through those points, I cut out the template and double check its fit.
I tape the template over an appropriate width plank and trace the edges, then cut outside the line with a knife and smoothly sand down until the line is just obliterated.
I'm soaking the plank and giving it the approximate curve passing it over the plank bender pictured so that it follows the curve of the boat quite closely, then clamp and let it dry. Once dry, some final fitting and sanding, knock off the upper inner edge with a sanding stick, and apply #2 pencil to one edge for the visible caulk. At that point the plank follows the ship and bulkheads quite closely so the clamping is mainly to make sure it's firmly against the plank above throughout its run.
Looks like I can do one strake (3 planks) each morning, and take a bit of time in the afternoon when its good and dry to glue it in place and clamp it so that I'm ready for another the next day.
At this rate (4 strakes each side below the wale) I should have the outside planked in a week or two.

Put up the canopy frames and the racks for gunnery equipment for the swivels and the 9 pounders. The former rack was indicated on the Smithsonian plans but not the kit plans.
Making the gunnery equipment took as long as making and installing the canopy frames, but with the racks staring me in the face I went ahead with that equipment and installed them in the racks. I also put (not yet glued) a rammer/sponge and ladle/worm in the foredeck for the 12 pounder while I was in that production mode.
I have some detail (mainly chests, buckets, and barrels) to add to the deck that will be under the battens/rolled canopty/sweep rack and sweeps so will do that before moving on to the battens over the canopy frames. I think I will want to install the fascines prior to that as well to facilitate their lashings to the frames without obstruction.
All of the significant construction is now done - I can see the end in sight. Making the fascines will, however, be a real PITA. 160 1/32 x 1/32 strips await rounding with a drawplate and cutting, gathering, and binding into the fascines, several of which will need to be bent into curves prior to installation. Thankfully these are all specified well in the Smithsonian plans as well as how they are fastened.
 
I have humbly added a "kit bash" tag to this build log given the addition of sails and detailing.

Put up the canopy frames and the racks for gunnery equipment for the swivels and the 9 pounders. The former rack was indicated on the Smithsonian plans but not the kit plans.
Making the gunnery equipment took as long as making and installing the canopy frames, but with the racks staring me in the face I went ahead with that equipment and installed them in the racks. I also put (not yet glued) a rammer/sponge and ladle/worm in the foredeck for the 12 pounder while I was in that production mode.
I have some detail (mainly chests, buckets, and barrels) to add to the deck that will be under the battens/rolled canopty/sweep rack and sweeps so will do that before moving on to the battens over the canopy frames. I think I will want to install the fascines prior to that as well to facilitate their lashings to the frames without obstruction.
All of the significant construction is now done - I can see the end in sight. Making the fascines will, however, be a real PITA. 160 1/32 x 1/32 strips await rounding with a drawplate and cutting, gathering, and binding into the fascines, several of which will need to be bent into curves prior to installation. Thankfully these are all specified well in the Smithsonian plans as well as how they are fastened.
 
I have humbly added a "kit bash" tag to this build log given the addition of sails and detailing.