Brucealanevans

I haven't posted progress because the foremast was just duplication of the mainmast yards, and I also took a week or so away to recharge. Having said that, I must be learning something from this process since the foremast went easier (altho the belay points were also more accessible, which helped.
Certainly doing the Morgan for my first truly rigged ship turned out to be a real challenge. Some bits don't bear real close inspection, some lines had to be spiced, etc. etc.
At any rate, the running rigging is now done except for the braces and placing rope coils. I expect that to take me a week or perhaps two. Then the Morgan goes into it's case in the living room while I build the whaleboats. Unless I add the cutting stage first.

I haven't posted progress because the foremast was just duplication of the mainmast yards, and I also took a week or so away to recharge. Having said that, I must be learning something from this process since the foremast went easier (altho the belay points were also more accessible, which helped.
Certainly doing the Morgan for my first truly rigged ship turned out to be a real challenge. Some bits don't bear real close inspection, some lines had to be spiced, etc. etc.
At any rate, the running rigging is now done except for the braces and placing rope coils. I expect that to take me a week or perhaps two. Then the Morgan goes into it's case in the living room while I build the whaleboats. Unless I add the cutting stage first.

I haven't posted progress because the foremast was just duplication of the mainmast yards, and I also took a week or so away to recharge. Having said that, I must be learning something from this process since the foremast went easier (altho the belay points were also more accessible, which helped.
Certainly doing the Morgan for my first truly rigged ship turned out to be a real challenge. Some bits don't bear real close inspection, some lines had to be spiced, etc. etc.
At any rate, the running rigging is now done except for the braces and placing rope coils. I expect that to take me a week or perhaps two. Then the Morgan goes into it's case in the living room while I build the whaleboats. Unless I add the cutting stage first.

I haven't posted progress because the foremast was just duplication of the mainmast yards, and I also took a week or so away to recharge. Having said that, I must be learning something from this process since the foremast went easier (altho the belay points were also more accessible, which helped.
Certainly doing the Morgan for my first truly rigged ship turned out to be a real challenge. Some bits don't bear real close inspection, some lines had to be spiced, etc. etc.
At any rate, the running rigging is now done except for the braces and placing rope coils. I expect that to take me a week or perhaps two. Then the Morgan goes into it's case in the living room while I build the whaleboats. Unless I add the cutting stage first.

Thanks so much Albert, Joe, B.E. and Thomas for the generous comments and thanks also to the "likes". I still find rigging to be one of the most enjoyable and satisfying aspects of any build.
 
Bob

Finished hoisting the Main Topgallant yard (sail furled) and all the attendant running rigging except for the braces.
Now I put the ship up and away, and begin working on the foremast yards. Hopefully the experience of the main yards and the trouble spots due to not recognizing things best done before anything is mounted will stand me in good stead, as this will be essentially a repeat of the mainmast yards. I will repeat the same mixture of set and furled sails on the foremast.
For simplicity sake and my sanity, I have not set/rigged for the staysails. Apparently the main staysails were often not set, but I probably should have set the mizzen staysails - will, however, leave well enough alone.
Learning a lot, and rigging my next full ship - likely Grenado - will hopefully benefit from the experience.

A stressful and disappointing morning in the shipyard ....
All I had to do today was tie off two topsail clew lines and add a couple blocks and the static lift.
Unfortunately, tying off the two lines was very difficult due, again, to access to the belay points. In manipulating a 6" tweezers through a maze of obstacles, I managed to tie them off at the cost of breaking off a couple of lower main yard blocks when putting unintentional pressure on the main lower yard and "plucking" several foremast stays to the extent that they are now slack. Very unsightly.
I repaired the broken ties to the blocks and restrung things, but lost the perfect 90 degree placement of all the yards whose lines are already tensioned and tied off. I still don't know exactly what I'm going to do about the stretched and slack fore-stays, but I think I'm going to have to walk away for a few days. I was hoping to get the last top-gallant yard up before taking a break, but that's not going to happen.
Ups and Downs; lots of "next time I'll do it THAT way", etc.

Was interested but some of the experiences related in the amazon reviews (US) were downright scary!
Will keep using a hairdryer.

Was interested but some of the experiences related in the amazon reviews (US) were downright scary!
Will keep using a hairdryer.

Ok, got the toy: http://www.proxxon.com/en/micromot/27060.php
 

 
Thanks everybody for the comments, now making a straight and correctly angled edges is soo easy! 
And it will definitely help with making a keel parts that tightly fit together

I hate to order another copy in the hope that the inserts are in it.
If you can send me a copy of the elevation illustration, that would be great.
I PM'd you my address, in case you are able to.
Have a good holiday.
Bruce

Well I began working on the spars, starting with the lower main yard.
Oof - I was afraid I'd really hit the wall on this one. Where you look at the plans and what you've already put together and what you've mounted and say to self "how in the world am I going to be able to do that?"
Lessons learned in working slowly past that low point:
 
Look at the plans again and again and again. Note everywhere there is a block attached and do it with the spar in hand so that a nice seized end is possible. I ended up with too many ugly tie in place knots.
 
Look at the plans again and again to make certain every eyebolt is in place while the area is accessible. If it's going to be hard to get to tie a loop of line through it for later. When I was building the mast I saw that the eyebolt for the chain from which the yard hangs was going to be poorly accessible due to the cheeks so I put a loop of line through it and was able to tie the end of the chain to it using that line when the yard was mounted. It would have been better to attach a length of chain to it right away before mounting.
 
For blocks that will be hard to get to - and maybe for all blocks - go ahead and measure and put the final line through them before mounting. You will end up with a nest of lines to manage but the alternative of trying to get the line through the blocks when things are mounted is, at least for me, extremely difficult. I have snapped off and repaired 4 (!) davits while rigging this yard because of this. I'm gradually learning to be very aware of how I withdraw my arms/hands and tweezers from a tight place after rigging something. When mounting blocks to eyes either before or after confounding bits of construction, remember to check carefully whether the block needs to have the "origin" line stropped to it. I had to remove a couple of blocks are re-rig them because I missed this.
 
I've rigged a furled sail for this yard and didn't leave "ears" that were quite long enough. This reduced the visual prettiness of the main sheets.
 
Aside from that a couple of challenges of the model itself:
 
The chain block (attaches to the underside of the yard and passes the upper main yard's sheets from a sheave on the ends of the main lower yard down towards the deck for belaying) in the kit is a simple piece of solid metal. I couldn't do anything with that so I had to fabricate one that would not only pass the chains but allow them to be adjusted. Unfortunately my skill level is not such that I was able to do this in scale so the chain blocks for the main and fore lower yards are too big. Oh well, looks OK to me.
 
The lower mainsail sheet passes through a sheave in the hull outside to inside and ties off to a pin that is nearly inaccessible due to the shelter roof. It goes up to the block at the corner of the sail - on the yard in my furled sail - and back down to an eye on the rail near the sheave. There would be no way for me to adjust and tighten this line at the belaying pin. Using a right angle forceps with tiny remove action jaws I was able to snag a loop onto the underside of the pin and twist it over the top and pull it tight with a tweezer. Then I rigged the line "in reverse" and will adjust and tighten it at the eyebolt which is accessible.
 
None of the lines have been tied off yet. There are so many with partially opposed actions that adjusting them is going to be a bit of a challenge. I just finished the last line - the main yard lifts - this morning and I think I'll let things sit for a day or two before I tied them all off.
 
Overall this one yard has been much more work and anxiety than I had ever anticipated. Hopefully with lessons learned the next one will be easier. I'm going to have one or two upper sails set on the main and fore masts - we'll see how that works. There is a barely accessible eye just under the main top for a block that is part of the lower foremast brace. I'm already concerned about being able to rig that without further destruction.
 
I'm using silkspan painted with dilute yellow woodglue and a bit of ochre paint after drawing the panel seams with a sharp white pencil. I fold the seams around a line (about 3 mm overlap) and glue them with fabric glue while drawing out a small loop at each corner and tying it off.
 
This kit is much more of a challenge than I expected when starting it. I'm learning a lot to apply to my next build if I ever finish this one.

I wish I had done this, Maze of ropes and spars is right.

Rob
My Morgan (build log in progress) is the first fully rigged ship I've attempted. Been working on it for 3 years. With more time now that I'm retired (I'm 67). The end of the running rigging is in sight!
It is a challenging build with a lot of scratch work but I've learned a lot, and if the result is not contest worthy it (so far) is certainly "living room" worthy and I love just looking at it. I'm glad I took the challenge. Have fun and consult John's (texxn5) build log and his website at.charleswmorganmodel.com. Saved me multiple times.from errors.
Bruce

A stressful and disappointing morning in the shipyard ....
All I had to do today was tie off two topsail clew lines and add a couple blocks and the static lift.
Unfortunately, tying off the two lines was very difficult due, again, to access to the belay points. In manipulating a 6" tweezers through a maze of obstacles, I managed to tie them off at the cost of breaking off a couple of lower main yard blocks when putting unintentional pressure on the main lower yard and "plucking" several foremast stays to the extent that they are now slack. Very unsightly.
I repaired the broken ties to the blocks and restrung things, but lost the perfect 90 degree placement of all the yards whose lines are already tensioned and tied off. I still don't know exactly what I'm going to do about the stretched and slack fore-stays, but I think I'm going to have to walk away for a few days. I was hoping to get the last top-gallant yard up before taking a break, but that's not going to happen.
Ups and Downs; lots of "next time I'll do it THAT way", etc.

Finished hoisting the Main Topgallant yard (sail furled) and all the attendant running rigging except for the braces.
Now I put the ship up and away, and begin working on the foremast yards. Hopefully the experience of the main yards and the trouble spots due to not recognizing things best done before anything is mounted will stand me in good stead, as this will be essentially a repeat of the mainmast yards. I will repeat the same mixture of set and furled sails on the foremast.
For simplicity sake and my sanity, I have not set/rigged for the staysails. Apparently the main staysails were often not set, but I probably should have set the mizzen staysails - will, however, leave well enough alone.
Learning a lot, and rigging my next full ship - likely Grenado - will hopefully benefit from the experience.

Back at work intermittenly in the shipyard for a few weeks. Put the chainplates/deadeyes in place and constructed and rigged up the bowsprit and boom to the extent that can be done prior to getting the masts in place for the forestays.
It's been a bit of a setback for me. After the Bedford Whaleboat and Picket Boat #1 I've gotten acceptably good at scale woodwork, but given that those models - my first wooden builds - had only minimal rigging, I'm back as a beginner again. So with each bit I do, I'm figuring out the best approach. That leads to rigging four lines, and then looking at the first and seeing only how I could have done it better.
Anyway, here's the current state of the build. Ready to begin working on the masts.

Finished the Hull today - a real landmark.
Further work will have to wait.
Closing the shipyard due to numerous responsibilities which have been piling up. Need to wrap up several projects before retiring, and have to prepare for an take a subspecialty exam in Clinical Informatics in October.
Probably will open back up after I take the exam in October, beginning with deadeyes, chainplate, etc.
Here are summary pictures of where things are now.

Several days of work to produce the bits of the blubber tackle and mount/rig it all.
Anyone building this model is strongly advised to get high quality blocks for this bit, especially the two large double blocks that hold the hooks. It's front and center when you look at her, so it should look its best. I used Syren Shipyard block sets from Chuck - they look great!
Thanks for the "likes"
(I know the anchor chains and the blubber tackle lines shouldn't both be hooked up to the windlass at the same time, but I took the liberty for visual effect anyway!)

So I've been working on the shrouds for the lower level masts. Serving those lines was a real patience-practice, and after serving they were stiff and a bit of a pain to work with.
For the "full size" deadeyes for the fore and main mast shrouds, I made a couple simple jigs from a piece of scrap wood and four fine metal wire pieces to hold the two deadeyes the correct distance apart while I determined the length of the end without a deadeye attached. This worked pretty well. For the mizzen and its smaller deadeyes, I just eyeballed it with acceptable results.
I think next, as per John's advice on his website, I'll make and mount the various bits of cutting in tackle, before I continue with the standing rigging.
As always, my eyes always go immediately to what I could have done better!
Here's what it looks like now:

At a bit of a standstill waiting for replacement mast dowels (don't ask how I could mistake rounded for squared from the plans). I realized if I wanted to have furled sails on the model, I'd need to figure out the jibs prior to rigging the forestays.
So I started researching on this site and experimenting.
Made (cut down) jibs from two thicknesses of silkspan painted with white glue/a bit of ochre paint/water after drawing the seams on one of the inside surfaces of the sandwich. The seams don't show well in the pictures, but they're appropriately understated but visible if you look. If I decide to have some of the sails only partially furled they should look good
 

 
Then after drying, turned a small seam with thread inside drawn out a the corners for attachment. Added rings  (there are 10 of them) made from black coated copper wire and mounted the whole on a block with a copper rod thru the rings to keep things aligned while I re-wetted and folded the sail.
I'm reasonably pleased with this - the package should be smaller once it's bound down. Probably about half the diameter it is at present.  I'll finish the other and mount them when I do the forestays. I think just the two.
Suspect the spanker/gaff at the mizzen might be more of a challenge.
 

 
I've made a decision to go with sails (furled) so I guess I also will be acquiring yet another display case. We're going to run out of room to put ships if I'm not careful, but given the speed with which I'm working not likely to be a problem.

Gone on a family trip for a while, and I always have trouble motivating myself to beaver away on a repetitive job - in this case building the whaleboat stations as I finish off the standing rigging and prepare for the running rigging.
I finished the 3 portside stations.
 
I now - but not earlier - appreciate the precision with which the positional interplay of the channels, deadeyes/chainplates, shelter platform supports, and the components of the whaleboat stations need to be carefully worked out very early on. Because of even minor variances, I have had more than a little trouble with the davits and lashing posts and their rigging interfering with the shrouds and deadeyes. Consequently, I have some distortions and/or twisting I'm just going to have to put up with on the finished model. This is one of my big takeaways from this - my first really challenging build. I was a bit cavalier in placing the channels and the chainplate holes in the channels at that point. Well, build and learn.
Eyeballing the starboard side, I think the 2 stations there will be less of a problem, especially as I am now forewarned about the clearances I will require.
 
Here are a few photos of the port side stations with the blocks and hooks rigged. I used Syren Co. laser cut black hooks - I like the way they look.

OK, so the whaleboat stations are a lot more work than I was anticipating.
I've finished the aft port station, and have the approach figured out, so hopefully the rest will go more quickly.
The cut-outs, painting, and crane construction are all done for the other 2 port stations.
I've used black laser cut rigging hooks from Syren for the boat hooks.
Drilling 2 sets of 3 adjacent holes in the 1/8" ends of the davits to simulate 3 sheaves was fun.
The hinges for the cranes were done with 2 eyebolts in the crane edge and 2 right angle steel wire "pintles" in the lashing posts, with more steel wire used to make the rigid supports to hold the cranes perpendicular to the hull.
 
Although he's looking away at the moment the captain is keeping an eye on things!

Minor sidestep to add the foot ropes and netting to the bowsprit.
The foot ropes (at least the stirrups) should have been added prior to all the other rigging that gets in the way.
I had to use steel wire for the stirrups for ease of mounting thru all the existing rigging. Looks ok except for the size of the "eye".
Now work on the davits.

Big day - finished the standing rigging on the Morgan.
Not perfect, learned as I went along.
Put the furled jibs (decided to skip the fore staysails) on as they fasten by rings to the foremast stays.
 
Three tools illustrated.
The scissors is expensive but great: cuts any line no matter how fine, and so close to the knot as your trembling hands can manage. I like the reach it gives too. I've tried a number of scissors including the supposed operative spring scissors - all of them frequently push the line at an angle between the blades, especially with a fine line. I tried a very good nail clipper but it was too hard for me to work in close quarters.
The illustrated tweezer is my "go to" - perfect tips allow picking up tiny thread, and the curve is great for tying knots or positioning.
The wooden handled spring clamp (meant for resistance soldering - holding work) is great for holding line around a deadeye or bullseye to allow it to be tied off. Once tied I stiffen the doubled line near the deadeye with a bit of CA and seize by hand - quick and easy.
 
Next on to the whaleboat stations, but I think a few days working on other projects I've been ignoring to reach this Morgan threshold the last few weeks.