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Glen McGuire

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Everything posted by Glen McGuire

  1. Glen McGuire
    I just finished one of these about a month ago. Definitely lots of fun, but I did manage to find some stress (self-induced) in the process! Enjoy the ride!
  2. Glen McGuire
    Oops. Realized I was not quite ready for the yards, etc. It was actually time to build the boat bearer and put all the deck fittings in place (where are the instructions for this?!) 😃 I’ve seen some models with 2 boat bearers (fore and mid-ship) and others with only 1 (mid-ship). I’m going with having only the 1 near mid-ship. I also realized I needed anchors, so I spent a ridiculous amount of time filing teeny anchors out of photo-etch brass sprues leftover from the Amati Hannah. In the last pic, the masts are not permanently installed, just put in place to see how the overall look is shaping up.
  3. Glen McGuire
    Thanks, Mike. Yes, thread for the white rails. I tried thin strips of wood, paint, tape, but none of those looked very good (more like I was not skilled enough to make them look good). So I decided to try white thread and was really happy with how it turned out. A little fuzzy on these close-up pics but looks much better when you are just looking at it with no magnification. To me, the white pinstriping is such a distinctive part of Morgan's look I wanted to try and get it right.
  4. Glen McGuire
    Other Morgan distinctions that I wanted to try and feature were the 2 white stars and gold eagle on the transom. I gave up on the “Charles W Morgan New Bedford” lettering. It was going to be way to small, but I hoped I could pull off the stars and eagle. For the stars, I used powerpoint and made 2 of the smallest stars the program would allow me to draw and placed them on a black background 7/16” apart. Then I printed it out, cut the strip, and affixed to the transom with white glue. For the eagle, I used some gold foil off more chocolate (those fake gold coins they put at the checkout counters so kids will grab them and throw them in the cart when parents aren’t looking). I cut it into a tiny shape somewhat resembling a flying eagle, and glued it on. The further away, the better it (and everything else) looks! Lastly, I coppered the lower half of the hull with tape and added some rope hanks to the inside of the bulwarks. Now it’s on to the yards, gaff, and boom and completing the masts.
  5. Glen McGuire
    Thanks, Mike. My Leavitt book on the Morgan finally arrived today. Great recommendation!
  6. Glen McGuire
    I’m finding this scratch building to be quite a challenge – even for a small simplified ship like my mini-Morgan! Without instructions or a kit, you gotta figure out what to do next, figure how the heck you’re gonna do it, and then figure out what the heck you’re gonna do it with! I can’t imagine doing this for a regular size ship model. I have new appreciation for what real scratch builders do. I spent the last couple of build sessions working on the masts. After collecting every size wooden rod I could scrounge up, I settled on handles from long wooden q-tips. They were the perfect diameter. For the hinge I used thin piano wire. I also cut the masts near the base at a 45 degree angle to give the bottom of the masts something to hit against (and provide a bit more stability) when I raise them inside the bottle. Below are pics of the mast on my bench hull, testing some things out - mainly to see if they fold down flat enough. Still got some room (~ 3/16”) for the sails!
  7. Glen McGuire
    I built a small stand to hold the ship while working on it. It certainly makes things easier. For this update I added a dolphin striker to the bowsprit, painted the top half of the hull, added a bit of gold from a Hershey’s chocolate wrapper to the tip of the knee (I had to eat quite a bit of chocolate to ensure I got that part just right. In fact, I may need to rework it some more). I will apply copper tape to the bottom half of the hull later. Next, I started work on the deck fittings. From left to right in the 2nd pic are the windlass and anchor chains, companionway, try house, hatch, skylight, and hurricane house. I was working on the shelter/boat bearer but decided I needed to wait. I’ve got to build out the mizzen mast first since the base of the mast will need room to clear the shelter when it is laid over to the stern. It doesn’t look like a lot of stuff, but the deck space is filling up fast. I don’t want to overcrowd the deck but I also want to include as many of the distinctive Morgan items as possible.
  8. Glen McGuire
    And you would be correct. Yes, I cut the bulwark opening for the gangway on the wrong side of the boat. As @BobG says “Measure once, cuss twice”. $#%&@#!!! $#%&@#!!! Fortunately, wood is more forgiving than I deserve. So I cut a new hole on the correct side and used it to fill the hole I cut on the incorrect side. Disaster averted. Or at least postponed.
  9. Glen McGuire
    Here’s the hull with bulwarks and bowsprit installed and the transom completed. And here is also where all of you that know anything about the Morgan are shaking your head going, “GEE WHIZ. THIS DUDE IS A MORON!”
  10. Glen McGuire
    After thinking about how to mount the bowsprit, I decided it was going to be too flimsy if I just glued the butt end to the bulwark opening in the bow. Especially since it’s going to have to absorb quite a bit of force when I have to raise the masts with all those sails. So I redid it. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture so I’ll try to describe what I did. I cut off about 1/8” off the top pole of the bowsprit leaving the bottom pole extending by itself. Then I drilled a hole in the bow so I could insert the bottom pole of the bowsprit into the hull. The result is that the top pole is glued flush against the little quarter deck and the bottom pole extends into and is glued into the hull. It is very sturdy now.
  11. Glen McGuire
    Installed the bulwarks and made the bowsprit and knee The thickness of the coffee stirrers made bending them a challenge for the bulwarks but I think it worked out ok.
  12. Glen McGuire
    Thanks, Mike. And if you were wondering why the number of views on your Morgan build log has probably doubled over the past week, it's me!
  13. Glen McGuire
    Based on the pictures I’ve seen of the Morgan, it looks like there is a little quarter deck on the bow. Not sure what it’s called but I added one.
  14. Glen McGuire
    Here’s the little deck planks cut and then installed. The planks are leftover timber from the Mamoli Alabama build.
  15. Glen McGuire
    Rather than do a rabbet cut to fit the bulwark in, I just cut the top layer smaller.
  16. Glen McGuire
    First things first – build the hull. Rather than try and carve from a solid block of wood, I took a page from the Amati Hannah kit and laminated strips before carving. I used of 4 layers of basswood (two 1” x 1/8”, one 1” x 3/32”, one 1” x 1 1/16”) along with a slew of 1/32” thick deck planks leftover from the Mamoli Alabama. For the bulwarks, I used coffee stirrers from the Corner Bakery that are 3/16” wide. The stirrers are a bit thick but I’m ok with that since I want them to be sturdy. The hull will be 1/8” less depth than my plans and will have no keel on the bottom since the ship will be afloat in fake water inside the bottle.
  17. Glen McGuire
    I don’t have the Morgan plans but I think ship in a bottle projects are more about an impression than an exact scale replica build, so I am figuring out basic dimensions based on pictures. I grabbed some pics off a few build logs, plopped them in powerpoint, drew some lines and made my measurements. Thank you to @Landlubber Mike, @John Ruy, and @David Lester for posting great build logs on this forum for the Morgan. Also, I found an incredible build log by a gentleman in Willis, Texas at https://www.charleswmorganmodel.com/. These will be my reference points for figuring out how to build this thing from scratch.
  18. Glen McGuire
    Below is the peach cider bottle next to the recently completed Amati Hannah. The good news is that the bottle opening is 1 3/16” vs 7/8” so I’ve got a little more wiggle room.
  19. Glen McGuire
    After finishing the Mamoli CSS Alabama and the Amati Hannah ship in a bottle, I have decided to dip my toe in the “dark side” as @Bob Cleek put it - the dark side being a scratch build. I don’t think I’m ready or skillful enough to do a large scratch model so I’m trying another ship in the bottle. The Hannah kit was a lot of fun. Hopefully this scratch effort will be even more so. After I finished the Hannah, a friend gave me a bottle for another ship in the bottle build. It’s a peach cider bottle that came from Fredericksburg, Texas (which is famous for its peaches). Fredericksburg is also the birthplace of Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz so it’s got some nautical ties. My friend’s name is Morgan so I thought I’d try to build the Charles W. Morgan whaler and float it on an ocean in the bottle. 3 tall masts, 9 yards, and 19 sails! Oh boy. This is either going to be an amazing build or an epic fail. Only 1 way to find out which. Here we go!
  20. Glen McGuire
    @Ras Ambrioso Ras, thank you for the kind words! I could not agree more with what you said about this forum. I have learned so much from so many amazing craftsmen in the short time I've been a member here. Plus the encouragement from everyone really helps you get thru the inevitable, difficult moments of the build.
  21. Glen McGuire
    @GrandpaPhil Thank you! And thanks for following along!
  22. Glen McGuire
    Thanks, Grant!
  23. Glen McGuire
    Thanks, Mike! Your build log was a HUGE help. Plus, I can't thank you enough for your thoughtful answers to my questions. You get half the credit for this!
  24. Glen McGuire
    Done! Here's the final product. I started this effort on 17 July, so about 2 months from beginning to end. Doing the Mamoli Alabama first, and all the lessons learned with that initial build, proved to be a big help with this one. Probably not the same in reverse! This was a lot of fun. I will likely try another. Maybe a scratch build (scary thought)? Thank you for all the help, suggestions, and encouragement along the way!
  25. Glen McGuire
    Home stretch on this project. For the base, I'm using a 4" x 9" x 3/4" piece of oak. I bevel cut the leading edge for the nameplate which is on order. My idea for the base was to incorporate some elements of model ship building into the presentation. So I took some leftover planking timbers from the Mamoli Alabama build and laid them out like deck planks. I carved a couple of small cradles for the bottle to rest on. Then I made a couple of bollards for the end. Finally, I made some belay pins/stands to rope the whole thing down.

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