homer

Hollowneck / Ron  your ship display platforms are absolutely beautiful! I looked at your gallery and was very impressed. You are very talented. I'm currently working on the CW Morgan and plan on doing some inlay work when I make the display board - still some time off. If you ever made notations on your display board build process I'd love to see them. Take care. Homer/Ron

A single pic of my rat board knots. Still have a lot of knots to tie! 

So, I should probably upload some of the completed served shroud lines with attached deadeyes. I ran the completed shroud lines around the masts and through the Fore and Main Tops down to the lower attached deadeyes. Then what I do is cut off a length of lanyard. I tie a knot at one end and I harden the tip of the other end with CA. Once hardened I cut a sharp angle on the thread so I can "thread" it through the deadeyes by hand. Once the deadeyes are all rigged up, using tweezers I pull the line taught getting the deadeyes in line and making sure the masts are all straight. While I didn't see this done on pics of the real Morgan (so not sure why I actually did this) but I pull the line up behind the deadeye and push it through the top of the deadeye and served line to the front. I then wrap it around the shroud and use a cow hitch to tie it off. I put a tiny drop of white glue on the knot (drys clear and doesn't crack like CA) that will hold all in place. And, if you mess up or want to change something... like I did, you can pull things apart without destroying everything! 
 
After I installed my lanyards I kept looking at pics that John took of the Morgan. I personally felt like I used too thin of line for the lanyards. I kept looking at how they tied the line off above the deadeye (cow hitch) and it just looked like fairly thick rope. So, I decided to remove all the lanyards and use a thicker twine that I had laying around. I like the way it looks but retrospectively, it now may be just a tad too thick!. Oh well. 
 
Then I really got a wild hair and decided to use some of that Doc O'Brien's Dusting Powders to give the deadeyes and lanyards some character. As you may recall, I aged much of the deck items and wanted to also do something with the deadeyes and lanyards. So far I only did this to the Foremast lanyards and also a few of the ratline boards )I added a couple just for fun even though I'm not really at that step). I was also able to practice a bit tying the ratline boards. So anyway, the jury is still out on the powder/ aging stuff. I might try to wash some of it off but do want some light aging...maybe just not as much as I have added. I'm open to suggestions! 
 
 

Next I began attaching the deadeye to one end of the served shroud line. I do know that some model ship builders attach the pre-served line to the deadeye and then begin serving it along with the rest of the shroud line. But, I wanted my deadeyes to have "served" line wrapped around them. So I attached the line after serving it. I would place the served shroud line around the deadeye pulling it up about 5 to 7mm past. I would use an alligator clip to hold it in place and then take a thin piece of thread and tie it in place just to hold its position. Then I would attach it back on the serving machine to serve over the now attached deadeye and double shroud line. I would cut part of the extra line if there were too much left.
 
Here's a HINT that I didn't figure out until nearly done with the shroud lines on the Foremast and Main mast... when you wrap the shroud line around the deadeye, tie it off "behind" the shroud line, kind of a twist in the line so the extra part is not to the side. Why, because when you do the final serve / attach the deadeye you don't want the shroud to look too thick just above the deadeye. If you pull the line behind and then do the final serving, your shroud will appear narrow. Obviously, when you overlap the deadeye you're going to have double the line. If you place it and tie it off behind the shroud before you do the final serving, it will look much better. Hope I explained this without making it real confusing! I'm kind of tired and probably not articulating this very well.
 
Here are some pics of my unfortunate too thick shrouds just above the deadeyes. I suppose if you wrapped the deadeye with unserved line you wouldn't have this problem. But, you better be really precise when doing the same on the other side. I wanted my deadeyes to be somewhat in line. I made a jig with pins that will attach to the lower deadeye fixed to the chain plate and hold the top deadeye in established place so I can pull the shroud line taught around the upper deadeye before attaching it in place. I then remove it and return it to the serving machine for the final wrap. I've seen this done several ways so you have to let me know if I'm doing it wrong!  
 
 

Next I started serving the Foremast and Main mast shrouds. I did purchase the electrical ad-on to the serving machine but since it was my first time using it I wanted to turn it by hand to get the feel for it.  I'm not sure if what I did was a no-no but after threading the thin cotton line onto the pre-served shroud line I brushed a very light white glue watered down onto the pre-served shroud before turning it. I did this just in case I goofed up while turning the machine, the line wouldn't come unwound. It seemed to work very well for me and when the time came to adjust the length of the served line, it never came unwound. I should add that it also remained pretty soft and easy to handle and bend / loop. Here are a few pics of that:
 
 

Chuck, I am always amazed looking at your work. You truly are talented. Thanks for everything you do!! 

Chuck, I am always amazed looking at your work. You truly are talented. Thanks for everything you do!! 

Chuck, I am always amazed looking at your work. You truly are talented. Thanks for everything you do!! 

A single pic of my rat board knots. Still have a lot of knots to tie! 

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 

I almost forgot ... a few weeks ago someone was talking about making a more sturdy working stand for the ship while under construction. I initially made my finished display stand shortly after coppering the hull. But, during construction I tend to drip this and that and scratch it all up. Usually, I just refinish it after the build and before the ship is placed in it's display cabinet that I build. 
 
But this new working stand idea intrigued me. I took an old show box and cut it down to size opening the ends to a half circle. Then wrapped the ship in shrink wrap or plastic wrap so it doesn't get anything on it. I then set the ship on the box and shot that expanding foam, you can buy at Home Depot, into the corners. It filled it all the way up and after it hardens I trimmed it down and now have a perfect fitting stand!  

I've been moving a bit slow on the Morgan build and haven't been able to give it as much time as I'd like. I've laid the deck planks, installed the pin rails and pins, cheek knees, head rails, billet head and have begun working on the deck fittings and the bowsprit. I will upload pics of the work completed to date. 
 
 
 

My compliments. Very nice work. 

My compliments. Very nice work. 

Thanks CaptainSteve, Mark, Buck, Sam, Bob and everyone for the likes and words of encouragement.
 
Here's a small mock up of the treenail patterns. The left side is #2 with bamboo plugs and the right is #3 that I just punched the holes with a ,5mm lead pencil. More time will be spent on the final product to get the holes evenly spaced. I'm liking #2 as several of you thought so as well. But #3 doesn't look to bad either. Any thoughts?
 

Thanks Buck, Nils and for all the likes.
 
I finished up with the planking above the waterline as well as the planksheer on the fore and aft decks. Now comes the process of planking the decks. I took a bit of time also on getting the transom fine tuned a little better, it looked a little wonky.
 

Hollowneck / Ron  your ship display platforms are absolutely beautiful! I looked at your gallery and was very impressed. You are very talented. I'm currently working on the CW Morgan and plan on doing some inlay work when I make the display board - still some time off. If you ever made notations on your display board build process I'd love to see them. Take care. Homer/Ron

Hollowneck / Ron  your ship display platforms are absolutely beautiful! I looked at your gallery and was very impressed. You are very talented. I'm currently working on the CW Morgan and plan on doing some inlay work when I make the display board - still some time off. If you ever made notations on your display board build process I'd love to see them. Take care. Homer/Ron

Thank you for the great tutorial! Great minds think alike ... Wefalck! 

Looking great Bruce! I also bought Syren blocks for the ship but haven't rigged the blubber tackle yet. I've been moving rather slowly on the ship the last few months. Take care. Ron

Torbogdan, thats a nice hull for a first timer. I hope you find that you like shipmodeling and that you'll remember your first mistakes. I had  saying in art class. "if I had known it was gonna turn out this well. I would have used better paper"  Bill in Idaho

So, I should probably upload some of the completed served shroud lines with attached deadeyes. I ran the completed shroud lines around the masts and through the Fore and Main Tops down to the lower attached deadeyes. Then what I do is cut off a length of lanyard. I tie a knot at one end and I harden the tip of the other end with CA. Once hardened I cut a sharp angle on the thread so I can "thread" it through the deadeyes by hand. Once the deadeyes are all rigged up, using tweezers I pull the line taught getting the deadeyes in line and making sure the masts are all straight. While I didn't see this done on pics of the real Morgan (so not sure why I actually did this) but I pull the line up behind the deadeye and push it through the top of the deadeye and served line to the front. I then wrap it around the shroud and use a cow hitch to tie it off. I put a tiny drop of white glue on the knot (drys clear and doesn't crack like CA) that will hold all in place. And, if you mess up or want to change something... like I did, you can pull things apart without destroying everything! 
 
After I installed my lanyards I kept looking at pics that John took of the Morgan. I personally felt like I used too thin of line for the lanyards. I kept looking at how they tied the line off above the deadeye (cow hitch) and it just looked like fairly thick rope. So, I decided to remove all the lanyards and use a thicker twine that I had laying around. I like the way it looks but retrospectively, it now may be just a tad too thick!. Oh well. 
 
Then I really got a wild hair and decided to use some of that Doc O'Brien's Dusting Powders to give the deadeyes and lanyards some character. As you may recall, I aged much of the deck items and wanted to also do something with the deadeyes and lanyards. So far I only did this to the Foremast lanyards and also a few of the ratline boards )I added a couple just for fun even though I'm not really at that step). I was also able to practice a bit tying the ratline boards. So anyway, the jury is still out on the powder/ aging stuff. I might try to wash some of it off but do want some light aging...maybe just not as much as I have added. I'm open to suggestions! 
 
 

Next I began attaching the deadeye to one end of the served shroud line. I do know that some model ship builders attach the pre-served line to the deadeye and then begin serving it along with the rest of the shroud line. But, I wanted my deadeyes to have "served" line wrapped around them. So I attached the line after serving it. I would place the served shroud line around the deadeye pulling it up about 5 to 7mm past. I would use an alligator clip to hold it in place and then take a thin piece of thread and tie it in place just to hold its position. Then I would attach it back on the serving machine to serve over the now attached deadeye and double shroud line. I would cut part of the extra line if there were too much left.
 
Here's a HINT that I didn't figure out until nearly done with the shroud lines on the Foremast and Main mast... when you wrap the shroud line around the deadeye, tie it off "behind" the shroud line, kind of a twist in the line so the extra part is not to the side. Why, because when you do the final serve / attach the deadeye you don't want the shroud to look too thick just above the deadeye. If you pull the line behind and then do the final serving, your shroud will appear narrow. Obviously, when you overlap the deadeye you're going to have double the line. If you place it and tie it off behind the shroud before you do the final serving, it will look much better. Hope I explained this without making it real confusing! I'm kind of tired and probably not articulating this very well.
 
Here are some pics of my unfortunate too thick shrouds just above the deadeyes. I suppose if you wrapped the deadeye with unserved line you wouldn't have this problem. But, you better be really precise when doing the same on the other side. I wanted my deadeyes to be somewhat in line. I made a jig with pins that will attach to the lower deadeye fixed to the chain plate and hold the top deadeye in established place so I can pull the shroud line taught around the upper deadeye before attaching it in place. I then remove it and return it to the serving machine for the final wrap. I've seen this done several ways so you have to let me know if I'm doing it wrong!  
 
 

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 

So, I should probably upload some of the completed served shroud lines with attached deadeyes. I ran the completed shroud lines around the masts and through the Fore and Main Tops down to the lower attached deadeyes. Then what I do is cut off a length of lanyard. I tie a knot at one end and I harden the tip of the other end with CA. Once hardened I cut a sharp angle on the thread so I can "thread" it through the deadeyes by hand. Once the deadeyes are all rigged up, using tweezers I pull the line taught getting the deadeyes in line and making sure the masts are all straight. While I didn't see this done on pics of the real Morgan (so not sure why I actually did this) but I pull the line up behind the deadeye and push it through the top of the deadeye and served line to the front. I then wrap it around the shroud and use a cow hitch to tie it off. I put a tiny drop of white glue on the knot (drys clear and doesn't crack like CA) that will hold all in place. And, if you mess up or want to change something... like I did, you can pull things apart without destroying everything! 
 
After I installed my lanyards I kept looking at pics that John took of the Morgan. I personally felt like I used too thin of line for the lanyards. I kept looking at how they tied the line off above the deadeye (cow hitch) and it just looked like fairly thick rope. So, I decided to remove all the lanyards and use a thicker twine that I had laying around. I like the way it looks but retrospectively, it now may be just a tad too thick!. Oh well. 
 
Then I really got a wild hair and decided to use some of that Doc O'Brien's Dusting Powders to give the deadeyes and lanyards some character. As you may recall, I aged much of the deck items and wanted to also do something with the deadeyes and lanyards. So far I only did this to the Foremast lanyards and also a few of the ratline boards )I added a couple just for fun even though I'm not really at that step). I was also able to practice a bit tying the ratline boards. So anyway, the jury is still out on the powder/ aging stuff. I might try to wash some of it off but do want some light aging...maybe just not as much as I have added. I'm open to suggestions!