boatntrain

David, absolutely superb!  I am attempting the same kit and have adopted your coining of "frustifaction" into my daily lexicon. I often refer to your photos for inspiration and as a benchmark. Thank you for sharing.

Bob M

On 5/30/2019 at 2:42 PM, David Lester said:

Hello All,

It seems I have been working and working with very little to show for it!

 

It's time to mount the top masts and then add their shrouds and stays, but a quirk of the Morgan is the lower and upper topsail yards on the fore and main masts are attached with metal brackets. That necessitates their being mounted to the masts before the masts can be mounted on the ship, which means a whole lot of rigging to add to the yards before anything can happen. There's a fair bit of chain rigging on this ship and it's had to deal with because you can't just snug it up by sliding the seizing; you pretty much have to get the length right from the beginning. 

 

You can see the metal brackets for the two yards in this photo:

 

 

While there are many benefits to adding as much rigging to the yards before mounting them, it creates a great deal of chaos, especially with the long lines. I have a bad habit of inadvertently getting glue on them somewhere along their length which I never notice until much later when it won't pass through a block and I have to get up, leave the room and walk around the block before I settle down again. But, I'm getting ahead of myself; that's all lying in wait for me. 😯

 

 

One tricky bit on this model is this piece of rigging:

 

 

It's a double iron block hanging below the two lower masts through which two chains pass.

 

 

The piece included in the kit is almost laughable. It's a small piece of sold white metal with no holes in it. It needs to be drilled through on each side in order to accept the chains. I did not anticipate being able to use it successfully and have spent a lot of time considering how best to replicate this part from scratch. I decided to try drilling it nevertheless and couldn't believe it, but I managed to get it to work - two through holes in each of the two pieces! (Paint touch up is needed on the yard as a result of dirty fingers from handling the chain.) 

 

So now, on to the topmast shrouds and stays.

 

Thanks again for looking in.

 

David

Hello all! Thank you so much for all of your replies. After reading your assessments, I feel more confident that it is some king of "anvil" for all of the reasons you provided. I think I am going to scratch build it as accurately as I can and add it to  the deck components on my Morgan. It will certainly be a good conversation starter. 

Hope everyone is well and staying safe.

Best regards, 

Bob Meli

Hello all. I hope everyone is staying safe. Thank goodness I have my hobby to pass the time and remain indoors. 

This is from a photo of the C. W. Morgan. I am trying to find out what the deck item next to the Tryworks is called and what it was used for. It has a rusty "T" shape metal fitting on top. It appears that it could have been an anvil but I am not certain.

Best wishes to all,

Thank you

Bob