niwotwill

Great idea! 

Stay Well and Stay Safe

Will 

Andrew what a great catch and recovery. The planking looks great and seeing the results of your efforts tells me to follow you method of planking. Thanks for your tip about not using a straight taper and following the planking pattern instead of the straight taper. It looks really good before sanding.

Stay Well and Stay Safe

Will 

Completed the companionway and binnacle and haven't glued them to the deck. I'm trying to decide to wait until the long guns and steering are complete and rigged. It seems that it makes more sense to have the deck empty while doing the rigging, not sure so i'll wait until the cannons and wheel are done to get a clear picture of how much room there will be left. My kit didn't have the cannons so I bought Chucks cannons and carriages. I got one done ready for painting and tomorrow i'll put the other carriage together. I need to research if breech rings are required or was the breech line around the cannons end ball.

Completed companionway and binnacle

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Will 

Looks great I like the natural drooping hang on the foot ropes. The stirrups look fantastic.  The wire is a great idea to hold the shape while drying. 👋

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Will 

Hope all goes as planned and a good as new in a timely fashion.

All my best

Stay Well and Stay Safe

Will 

Welcome to MSW and enjoy the ride. I learned from doing the Grand Banks Dory and take a break from a larger model. One of the things I learned was to save my sawdust and mix it with glue as a filler paste (David Antscherls hint) and I have started using it almost daily.

Again Welcome aboard

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Will 

Well Rookie I built the same model a couple of years ago and found some the same problems. I bought my kit from garage sale on eBay. The blocks of wood left me cold so I decided i'd scratch build everything from the deck up. My research found that Mystic Seaport library and research have many drawings of the Morgan so I bought them. I have the hurricane house, skylight, aft cover, tryworks, tryworks cover (which the original had), forward head and the winch. I built my tryworks out of sculpey making my own bricks as the drawing had the coarses spelled out. 

I put in a couple photos for reference

Hurricane House, skylight and wheel

My first attempt at being a  brick mason

Almost finished just fitting out the whale boats.

Let me know if I can be of help It does make a great model being larger the Model Shipways although the Model Shipways is a better kit.

Some things to think about

Original plans

Model Shipways plans (your can purchase them)

A website with wonderful description and photos of a Model Shipways version. https://www.charleswmorganmodel.com

NRG home page resources tab then resources for ship modelers articles and how toos has great instructions for tryworks

Again pm if I can be of any help

Stay Well and Stay Safe

Will 

completed companionway only need to mount doors (stain drying) handles then glue to the deck and not sure if I should put ladder in before glueing the companionway and coaming. Any ideas will help. Started the binnacle cut up parts and stained then assembled the basic structure. Spent the day and it sure doesn't seem like much was done with the time spent staining & glueing.

I had purchased Chucks long gun carriages awhile back and since the is next after the binnacle I opened the bag and started the assembly. Never worked on laser cut Alaskan Yellow Cedar but it has a very sharp line. No stuttering steps in the cuts. Kit is going together smoothly and I think it will look good painted. More to come

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Will

I think you are right about the spaces Maury. It doesn't look as if the glue joints at the keel will withstand the sanding vibrations. Do you have the drawings that are included in the Model Shipways model? Just thinking it might be worth taking off the frames and fairing per the drawings if you have them. Just a thought. The framing is really nice you're coming along very quickly. I'm waiting to see how you build the transom. (solid or built up)

Congratulations it looking very nice.

Stay Well and Stay Safe

Will 

Bill

I found what you are looking for:

NRG home page resources page articles and how too furniture and you will see the document you want.

Also I made my tryworks bricks out of sculpey red color and then backed them. I did not highlight the mortar as I thought it was to much and did not represent the actual ship.

Tryworks photo

I also built the tryworks shelter from Mystic Seaport library and research department.

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Will 

I ordered the original try works drawings from Mystic Seaport Library and research department. They have all the dimensions and brick coarses in fact  everything you need to build the try works. I have the drawing if you are interested pm me and I sent it to you.

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Will 

Another day and more parts made. I wasn't happy with the whelps spacing so I ripped it apart and started again. The good news is the kit had extra whelps as a couple didn't come off cleanly. I cleaned up the whelps and started again but trying to get the spacing and parallelism was driving me crazy is I gave up and cheated.

I took the 1/4" rod and put it in the rotating vice mounted on the mill an cut 8 .010 deep grooves using a 1/8" cutter. This gave me a flat equal distant parallel surfaces onto glue the whelps.

Whelps done I could then glue everything up and stain the capstan and move on to the companionway and ladder. I decided to use the Basswood on the companionway just for uniformity. I cut up the wood for the companionway sides and glued them together using brown glue to highlight the seams. The ladder was pretty straight forward as I used the plans for a template. I scored the sides where the step mount with a knife and then filed a triangular groove using the score. The ends of the steps were lightly sanded to a 45 degree angle slipping into the groove. Pretty happy with the result for my first ladder.

Quick photo of the finished coaming, grid, capstan, ladder and one side of the companionway.

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Will 

Great idea of the sacrificial wood backup. What kind of glue did you use? That Artesania Micro Scraper is a great looking tool, all this time I've been filing shapes onto hacksaw blades. Cannot tell you how many skinned knuckles that has caused.

Looking really good Maury, looking real good

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Will 

Spent the day assembling the capstan after cleaning the char from the pieces. Tomorrow I'll finish the wedges and sand preparation for staining.

Have the top piece painted and just need the final coat of paint before glueing the whole assembly together. The wedges are another matter that will have to be made and fit individually and I do this after I complete the prep sanding prior to staining.

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Will  

OOPS! on the last post I mentioned using Holly for the capstan planking but I used Alaskan Yellow Cedar for the capstan planking. I got confused as I was sorting wood for the Emma C. Berry next in line and Holly will be used for the deck planking. Sorry about that, my bad.

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Will  

You're almost to the fun part where the model really starts to take shape so all the detail work done here will show when planked. Its looking good keep up the post it will be good for those that follow. Nice work.

Stay Well and Stay Safe

Will  

Spent the day making the coaming, cannon ball rails, planking for the capstan, and grate got everything done for staining tomorrow. To make the cannon ball rests I used a burr in the mill and bored a depth 1/3rd of the ball diameter.

These are the finished ball rails

Glued the the coaming together and then softened the outside edges with a 5 degree bevel . (hard to see but it does soften the piece) I used holly for the capstan planking to match the deck planking which is also holly. Glued the 6 pieces together and sanded to fit the coaming and the surface of the decking. Assembled the grating and sanded to fit the opening and carefully glued to bottom with diluted white glue. 

Dry fit everything together ready for staining and glueing

A few small gaps the are filled when the assembly is pushed together. Staining tomorrow and start the capstan, companionway, and ladder. Probably next week to complete.

Stay Well and Stay Safe

Will 

Its looking real good and the planking remember this is a working boat for 155 years and not a pretty boy yacht. I like the planking don't clean it up too much. Did you follow the instructions on what planks to leave off? 

Stay Well and Stay Safe

Will 

Started with the aft grate and companionway measuring the plans and then measuring the furnished 1/16" x 1/8" strip. Measured print dimensions were not very practical sizes so I then measured the strip and found it to be undersized not much but enough to cause issues. Then I used the print as a pattern and cut the coaming  and lap joints. It seemed to work nicely so I dry fit them and then overlaid the coaming upon the grating. Major surprise the grating opening is 10 x 13 grating ribs so I'm going this direction. Reading Chucks caution about staining before glueing seems to be problematic because of the deck radius and softening the coaming sides  would require sanding after staining. Looking at the plans and dry fit parts I think if you carefully glue all the residue will be under the whole assembly so tomorrow i'll start assembly. 

Using the cutting mat as a square reference the coaming appears to be square and ready for tomorrow.

Stay Well and Stay Safe

Will 

Yeeha!!! on to chapter 12. Got all the carronades rigged and the deck looks better now on to filling the rest of the deck.

On to fun stuff CONSTRUCTION

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Will 

The iron bands make the spars. The small deviation adds the detail making them visually stunning. Great work what did you use for the bands?

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Will 

Just started following and admiring your work sofar. I have an ECB on the shelf and will start in the next month or so and your log will be a big help.

Stay Well and Stay Safe

Will 

She's looking good. The lashing rail and tiller add a lot of interest to deck can't wait to see the paint. Great method using the 5 minute epoxy on the whelps, I'll put that in my memory box for future use.

Stay Well and Stay Safe

Will 

Gotta watch out for places like Lee Valley they have so much stuff that I need/want, but a good set of chisels are a great investment. Its even fun to sharpen them between usages. Oh the yard and gaff look great also.

Stay Well and Stay Safe

Will 

Coming along nicely. Pictures really help show the squareness of everything. Great idea making a sanding sled I'll be making mine before I start remaking my Washington frames.

Stay Well and Stay Safe

Will