homer

Pics of the anchor

I'm currently working on Artesania Latina's Bluenose II. I apologize if this was covered previously. If so, please direct me to the correct post. I have been running my rat line thru bees wax before attaching to shrouds. I have begun using a bit less of the wax and also running the cord thru my fingers. However, the black cord (in my opinion) just looks waxy and I have been noticing tiny wax particles that need to be cleaned from the ship's deck and other parts. I typically clean everything once the build has been completed. Should I NOT be waxing the ratlines? Should I be using a different type of wax? What do others use to have a more professional appearance?? Any help would be appreciated! Thanks. Ron  

More pics: I had to remake the two small boats. The one on the right I ended up tossing out. The white metal parts I used my Dremel with polishing wheel and I also used 000 Steel Wool. It made quite the mess. I painted and used clear lacquer so they hopefully don't discolor. I then ran the wires for the Bow Sprit. I could not neatly wrap the wires at the ends without my hands moving all over the place and hitting completed items. Sometimes I spend more time fixing things I break than building! So, I made metal "zip ties". I used a nail being held in a vise and wrapped it seven or eight times with the wire. Oh, I first rub wax on the nail then wrap it. Then, i use CA glue and immediately pop the zip ties off the nail before it all sets up. I used these to secure the the metal line on the Bow Sprit. I must not have taken close up pics of this but maybe you can see it by looking at other pics. I also made the anchor items and installed them. 
 

 

 

At the risk of being more of an idiot than I normally am ... I attach a pic of the deck structures with the grid tops, some open. Here's my mistake and hopefully you don't make the same one! I kept looking to see how others made the grid / bar structures at the top of the buildings. I have made similar and in fact, on my CW Morgan. However, these cut pieces were so light and with my shaking hands 🙂 I couldn't for the life of me lay and then glue them in any orderly way. I literally spent two full days messing with these until I came up with what is pictured there now. I wasn't happy with it. But, it was the best I could do under my current circumstances! Then, about three days later guess what I found... The roof bar structures in the supply tray that is given to you by AL. Erghhhhh... I was so angry. I'm not going to change them. At least not yet. It's my work. I put it together and it is what it is! 
 

More pics as I bring the build log up to date. As you will note, as I got further into the build I flattened out the shine look and painted Corel's gold pieces to flat black. Unfortunately, the bulwarks and deck gratings were not to scale. Pulling it apart would have made matters worse. This is when I decided to either throw the thing in the trash or continue building and use the ship build as something to practice on. 
 
This is what I have done and will finish it up. I am currently working on the upper rat lines and from this point will post pics as I go. There are not very many builds of the Greyhound out there so this is one of the reasons I'll swallow my pride and keep posting!
 
Again, while it is a poorly designed kit with inadequate and sub par build docs and wood, The full blame rests with me. I could have and should have researched the build further, bashed the kit, ordered better wood and replaced Corel's poor quality castings with my own builds. While this kit isn't Corel's best work, they do have some excellent kits and I have some waiting on the shelf to be built. What I don't understand is why Corel doesn't temporarily pull this product and make the appropriate adjustments. None the less, if you buy the kit from a good vendor such as ModelExpo they will stand behind the product and replace parts. Course, they will replace the parts with the same poor quality parts from Corel. 
 
I shouldn't be so hard on Corel. I am interested in what other members think about their products. 

Pics of the anchor

It looks like my last uploads were of the deck housings and shelter cover. I've constructed the foremast, main mast and mizzen but have only completed, painted and installed the lower first sections. Hopefully I took some build pics of these. I take a lot of pics and then have to name them and change them from 1-2 meg to something around 500 to 700K so they are easy to upload into the NRG site. 
 
Of note, the metal spider bands were a bit loose on the Foremast and Main Mast. I added / glued very thin shims and then sanded them down so they aren't too noticeable. At John's recommendation I used a business card tried down and painted for the futtock band. I took tin snips and cut the truss iron piece from a piece of tin. Then installed and painted it. Before I go any further I'll see if I can find / post some pics of this work.
 
I just found a few pics and guess what... I forgot to install the cheeks on the Main Mast! Guess I know what the next thing I'll be doing. Ron 

Hi Anna! excellent job on the models. Can't wait to see what you will build next. You'll find everyone on the site is very friendly and helpful. 

Hi Anna! excellent job on the models. Can't wait to see what you will build next. You'll find everyone on the site is very friendly and helpful. 

Hi Anna! excellent job on the models. Can't wait to see what you will build next. You'll find everyone on the site is very friendly and helpful. 

HI Bruce! The Morgan in it's case looks beautiful. My wife and I live in the San Diego area and just a few minutes ago got home from visiting the San Diego County Fair. I went specifically to see the ship displays and current builds from the San Diego Ship Modelers' Guild. Their representative (one of their board members) was actually working on his "Philadelphia Gunboat" behind their glass partition. I had a chance to speak at length with him. The Gunboat really is a nice looking model and I will watch your build as it progresses. I'm just starting to feel the model build bug since our move six months ago now. Geesh, the time really gets away from you fast. Before I jump back in on my Morgan, which I need to finish up already ... I thought I'd get my hands back into modeling shape by knocking out Chuck's 18th century Longboat. I'm about 1/4 the way into it and have to say it's probably more detailed than I thought! Compliments to Chuck on his design. Anyway, take care and have a good 4th. Ron 

There is a heck of a lot of scratch work involved in the Morgan build. 
I've learned a lot in the 3+ years I've been working on it. 
The best decision was to fabricate the rendering furnace from individual "bricks". There's a PDF around the site somewhere with useful instructions. 
Took a while but the appearance is really worth it. Working on oars now - drawing 1/32 square boxwood strips through Modelworks drawplate down to scale width. Works a treat. I can even create the handle on these little tiny dowels by carefully working the end for 1/8 inch into 4-5 smaller yet drawplate holes. 

Nice work Mike!!! 

Nice work Mike!!! 

Bruce, you won't believe what I did this Saturday. Probably should not have been working on the ship because my focus wasn't there. I was putting on the lanyard to the mizzen top gallant backstay and the holes in the deadeye attached to the stay needed to be cleaned out or made a tad bit larger. Not thinking I grabbed my Dremel with a slightly larger bit and held the deadeye in my left hand and attempted to run the drill bit through one of the holes. Bad Idea!
 
Somehow the deadeye got lose, started spinning around the bit and before I could turn off the Dremel, had wound up the entire backstay and my only saving grace was that the backstay snapped where it was attached to the mizzen top mast! It could have pulled the whole thing and snapped the mast in half. That would have been a terrible set back. I was so thankful that only the stay rope snapped! Yikes.  Ron

Thanks Mike! I too actually like the look of natural wood rather than painting. I'm still new at this and the Morgan is the first ship that I've built that has a "lot" of painted wood, or should I say all! I'm not very good at the painting and there's nothing worse than seeing paint build up on poorly sanded parts (of which I do have!). The staining powders are also something new to me. I'm beginning to get anxious about finishing the Morgan and starting with another ship. I have many in dry dock, probably more than I'll be abel to build in my lifetime. I think I might build Chuck's Syren next. I really like the look of the ship and he is perhaps one of the most talented builder / designers I've seen. 
 
I can't wait to see your Morgan pics!!!! Take care. Ron 

HI Mike, I just happened upon your build. I can't wait to see how the stains have worked for you. I'm still learning and the Morgan has been the most challenging build for me. I regret not installing mounting nuts so that I could mount the ship with pedestals. I will on my next build!
 
Hope everything is okay. It's been since Feb. since your last update. I'll have to check your build to see if you have been working more on the Victory. Best regards. Ron 

Mine (Syren) arrived a few days ago! But, it's in dry dock for now. It will be another year (I think) before I'm done with the Charles Morgan. I got a good buy at Model Expo with no shipping, almost half off the kit and it was a special buy that came with the kit's paints. Although, they forgot to send the paints. Nothing a quick e-mail to Frank at Model Expo didn't clear up. They're already in the mail! I've got about half dozen ships in dry dock. I retire in three years or so and look forward to spending more time with the builds. I've got a long way to go but I can see my skill set has gotten better with each kit. I'll be watching your build. Have fun!  Ron 

Absolutely beautiful!! 

Nice work Mike!!! 

Just a where are you update! I didn't disappear. Unpacking after the move and getting bogged down at work has kept me from the shipyard! Hopefully back soon! 

Hi Bruce, Your work continues to impress. I need to get back to working on my Morgan. My wife and I turned our house into income property and bought a new one a few blocks away, early last month. Hence, between all the paperwork, packing and recent move two weeks ago I haven't been able to spend any time on the ship. I'm sitting in Maui at the moment on a pre-planned vacation so I guess I shouldn't be complaining! Return home early next week then back to the unpacking and set up of my hobby desk, etc.! So, it will probably be another few weeks (hopefully not too much longer) before I get back to it. 
 
I did want to check your progress and it is superb.  Ron 

I've finished the running rigging for the Mizzen. Thought it was nearly perfect until I snapped the boom lines with a wandering elbow while tying off the final jackspar lift line. The repair is OK, but the nice symmetry and nice tight lines I had prior are, well, not so perfect now.
Earlier, I had notice that I forgot to install the cleats on the inside rim of the aft rail that needed to go on before the hurricane house was roofed. I had just stuck them on the top of the rail but every time I looked at the aft view it irritated me as the two cleats pretty much obstructed the view into the hurricane house showing the wheel, the lifesaver, and other details.
I finally just cut them off to force myself to figure out a way to glue them to the inside edge of the rail through the small opening. I ended up putting a pin head into the base of two wooden cleats, drilling small holes through the rail from the outside, and after covering the pin with medium CA guiding them into the hole from the inside with an angled tweezer, then turning them 90 degrees before the glue set. Not perfect, but better than before especially once the boom lines were tied off to those cleats.
 
I put in all the lines to handle the spanker, including head and foot uphauls/outhauls and downhauls/inhauls, as well as the brails for gathering the sail into its current configuration. Since I am not setting the gaff sail I simplified the rigging there.
 
Next I'll start on the mainmast yards completing them off the ship. Will have to figure out how and to what level of detail to handle the sail rigging since they all will have furled sails. I may take a bit of a break to put together my HobbyZone shipyard building board for a change of pace and to get ready for the next ship.
 
Current plan when running rigging is complete is to add the cutting stage which will complete the model except for the whaleboats. I'll likely start the next ship then (probably Grenado) and work on the whaleboats on and off at that time. I don't want them to detract from the model so I don't think I want to sit down and make all 7 without something else to work on to keep from rushing the repetitive work involved.
 
Here are a few pictures.                                                                 -

I'm not a big fan of the use of basswood for the keel and bulkheads.  There is too much flex to the skeletal structure of the hull, and plywood, or better yet, MDF would be preferable.  To ensure that the keel and bulkheads stayed square, I inserted scrap pieces of plywood in between the bulkheads which not only keeps everything square, but also makes the skeleton very rigid.  I highly recommend taking this extra step.  It's too bad more kits didn't use the dowel approach used by MarisStella's kits - the dowels seems to be a very precise and easy method to ensure everything stays in alignment.
 
As I mentioned earlier, I decided to take a completely "paint with wood" approach, and will be using ebony for the black areas, holly for the white, and yellowheart for the ochre (I might have to use paint on the tryworks, but I'm exploring alternatives there).  I was originally going to go with African Blackwood for the black areas, but I couldn't find a supplier for thin milled wood stock and didn't want to buy a bandsaw.  On recommendation of MWB, I was able to source ebony from www.inlaybanding.com in the sizes I needed.
 
I replaced the portion of the stem above the waterline with an ebony piece.  It was a shame to remove half of the stem that I cut out in pear, but I want the "black" color to be consistent throughout the build.  This was my first time working with ebony, and it really wasn't that bad.  I used my scroll saw to cut the stem piece, and touched it up using my Byrnes disc sander for the outside curves and my Dremel in the workstation as a poor man's spindle sander for the inside curves.  The stem tapers, so I used a sanding block to accomplish that.  I was very careful and used a dust mask and constantly vacuumed up any dust (which I should probably do with all woods).  All in all, I didn't find it all that hard to work with.  Bending it might be a different story, but aside from being careful with the dust and the fact that it is a very dense wood so sanding by hand was a little more of a workout, I had fun working with it.  When sanded with fine grade sandpaper, it takes on a beautiful, almost glass like finish. 
 
The stem came out pretty nicely - I think using ebony for the full build will make for a very unique model:
 

 

 
 
Ebony against the white holly I received from Jeff is very striking.  I was thinking about using yellowheart for the ochre areas, and possibly maple (stained a light grey to match the actual ship) for the deck.  I knew holly had very little grain, but ebony almost looks painted.  So, I'm wondering how using yellowheart, which has a lot of grain and some figure, will look against the ebony and holly.  I might switch it to boxwood, but am curious if anyone has any thoughts on the look of grainy versus non-grainy woods together.
 
Thanks for looking in!
 

While taking a break from my Pegasus (burnout from planking) and the La Renommee (thinking about color scheme), I turned back to the Morgan and made a little progress.  First up was creating the counter block, which took quite a long time.  It's a complicated piece that is not rectangular in the sense of having 90 degree corners.  Instead, the top of the block needs to account for the deck camber, the sides need to taper inward on a slight angle, and the aft side is rounded with an offset section for the name board.  I know folks (including me) complain about kits using gunport strips, but the benefit of the gunport strips is incredibly helpful in pre-determining the counter and tuck of the planks into it.
 
The stern/counter area can ruin an otherwise nice model if not done correctly, so I always have a bit of angst when working on this section of the model.  After a few hours or work though, I'm pretty happy with the final product.  I'll need to do a little touch up when it's attached to the hull, and I can work out any other issues with filler and the first planking.  The one area in particular that I need to figure out is the bottom corners on the aft side.  The plans show a rounding, but I think I'll understand better after running some test planks to that section along with the fashion pieces.  
 
Anywhere, here are the pictures of where I ended up in case other builders have questions on how the counter block should be constructed :