Charter33

A quick update - the figurehead castings together with the Cat-Head decorations have now been painted.

With my phone contantly set to Google images, many touch ups and endless alterations, I'm now calling these ready for eventual fitting. At one stage I was reduced to using the proverbial one-hair paint brush.....

Right - on with the Cat-Heads.....

Cheers,

Graham

Yes Shipman, with hand built cars like the Morgan every car is pretty much a prototype and idiosyncrasies are in-built.  As for bought in components, our car was BMW powered, but can't fault power or handling. Wet weather is not the best environment for a Moggy, love to own one but a lottery win would be required first. A biker too, 850 Norton Commando, so very familiar with the joys of riding in wet trousers or with a frozen 'tash' 🥶😄

Oh, they are still making them, in fact they re-launched a ground up re-design last year  - fabulous!

Hand on heart the Morgan factory tour in Malvern is by far the best that I have ever been privileged to experience, with the Biggin Hill Spitfire factory and the MacCallum Distillery tours close second.

I have not (yet!) had the pleasure of driving the three wheeler, but when Covid scuppered plans to celebrate 40 years of marriage in Asia the Admiral and I decided to tour the Lake District in this beast, the new plus 4, hired directly from the factory....

Totally impractical for a torrential late October week in Cumbria, but so much fun!!! We never had the chance to drop the hood, yet alone hit the 'sport  mode' button, but on the journey back to the factory I floored the accelerator to overtake a lorry and went from 65mph to just under a ton in the blink of an eye..... I'm normally a very cautious driver - honest!  

There was a 'one take' drone flight through the Morgan factory site on their website recently that's well worth watching......

Cheers,

Graham

Shaping the knights was very straight forward, as was adding the brass dowels that strengthen them when fitted to the deck.

For the boomkins it was time to get on the old Hobbymat lathe. Two over length pieces of 4 mm dowel were first turned down to 3 mm dia. for a short distance at one end to fit snuggly into a short length of 4 mm brass tube. This was to prevent the wood being crushed in the chuck. A 2.5 mm brass ring, clipped off some eyebolts, was glued to the 'narrow' end to help stop the wood splitting when supported by a revolving centre in the tailstock and to give a reference to how much the dowel needed to be reduced.

Mounted in the lathe, with the cross slide removed.......

the taper was achieved using abrasive paper over a piece of scrap acrylic.........

...carefully using a thumb as a travelling steady.

With the Knightheads temporarily located it was a straight forward job to line up the boomkins to mark the angle that they needed to be trimmed to. Once cut. re-enforced with a brass dowel and sanded they were glued to the outer knighthead surfaces. When the glue had set the assemblies were removed and painted.

One final fitting, together with the blacked handrails, and then all these components will be put into safe storage until later.

Catsheads next - but looking at that last picture I think it's time for a bit of 'housekeeping' on the work bench first ......

Cheers,

Graham.

Stunning attention to detail, as ever, Robert! Brilliant....

Hi,

Thank you for your generous comments.

Whenever brass needs blacking I always use 'Birchwood Casey Brass Black'. Once you crack the way to prep the brass first it's pretty straight forward.

It works best on brass, however although I've also managed to get good results in copper too.(the copper content is what the chemicals reacted with I believe).

The carrinades supplied with the kit differ from the other guns. While the latter are brass and the solution will do the trick, the two Carronades are white metal castings. They were therefore painted. I used Jotika's acrylic 'Matt (metal) Black'  They produce the Caldercraft kit.

Hope this answers your question.

Cheers,

Graham.

Thanks Robert - much appreciated....

It's been quite a journey but the main bow structure is now complete.

Rather than paint the ply sides of the timber heads yellow and then glue a 2 mm strip painted blue on top, I elected to make these decorative strips 3 mm wide, paint them blue and then use 2 mm masking tape up the centre. The unmasked edge areas were then painted yellow. Once a bit of stock strip had been prepared it was cut to size, the ends were painted, and the frame effect was complete. This flatter decoration method seems to match the real thing a little better.

Temporarily fitting the two gratings was a great help in working out how the timber heads needed bevelling. The instructions say to line the aft edge of the gratings with 2 mm sq. flexible beech. There was no mention of the need to taper these to match the curve of the deck so I made the decision to go ahead  and do this....

Next stage is to produce the stanchions and hand rails from 0.7 mm brass wire. No drawings provided in the plans so it was necessary to glean the shape from on-line photographs.

Once dry fitted and then 'blacked' these will be stored safely until later to prevent damage while other tasks are carried out.

Knightheads and Boomkins await......

Cheers,

Graham.

Thanks for the 'likes'! Hope you find  the find the planking cradle works for you, Gray - it was my solution to trying to make driving in the pins when first planking a bit less awkward.

A quick up-date - comparing the main bow rails supplied in the kit with the full size example on the original currently undergoing renovation in Portsmouth there appears to be, once again, some finer details omitted. 

The scale versions have a rebate machined along the lower edge which actually have a moulding in real life. To replicate this I decides to try and add some decorative lines. After playing around with a variety of copper wires stripped out of electrical cables I finally went for some soft solder - easy to shape and fix in place with

C A glue.

Bare solder in place with masking tape over the black painted sections............

All painted and ready for installation.........

Getting there.....slowly.....

Cheers,

Graham.

Thank you for your likes and comments - always much appreciated......

Following the manual's instruction to be sure to dry fit the components that make up the bow it quickly became apparent that my modification to the bow main rail inner timberhead was not going to be fit for purpose and would have to go. 

New replacements were made and fitted at an angle based on Longridge's plan and Robert's excellent work.

The end pieces of the fiferail were then re-instated fitting into slots cut in the new posts. These modification were done in tandem with the construction of the hawse area. 

With the bow curved rails now glued into place the hair brackets and lower bow cheek rails were carefully carved to match the curve of the hull and fitted. Additional 4 x 1 strengthening planks were pre-bent and glued between these, a feature not actually mentioned in the instructions, and then, after much shaping to achieve appropriate inside and outside curves, the hawse hole balisters were added and the hawse holes drilled. 

These pieces were then painted........

Away from the 'shipyard' for a few days now........ but somehow the figurehead castings have hidden themselves in the luggage together with various paints and brushes.......😏

Cheers,

Graham.

Hi,

I was having the same issue too.

It was solved when I downloaded Rob Durant's free picture sizer software. Very helpful video not only explains why the rotation problem occurs, but goes on to clearly explain how to download and then use the program. You can find the link in 'The Captain's Cabin' in the 'How to use the MSW forum'. A very quick and easy fix. 

Good luck!

Graham.

Started the initial stages of the bow - I've been looking forward to this iconic aspect of the ship, and as Robert points out, a truly beautiful area to be working on.

There's a lot going on and after reading and re-reading the instructions a couple of times I think I just about understand what's going on 🤔.

Researching images of the bows one omission in the kit appears to be the decorative moulding detail on the bow curved rails, the hair brackets and lower bow cheek rails and the rails. I am trying to add the impression of these together with the distinctive scroll at the top of the rear bow curved rails.

Scrolls first.........

 After sharpening up the lower corner where the stem meets the rounded head with a scalpel a 0.75 mm hole was drilled through the scroll's centre. This was the bevelled by hand with a countersink bit.

To replicate the scroll's centre I mounted small brass lace making pins in a Dremel and worked the pin head with a combination of needle files and a scalpel blade while rotating it at a slow speed.

Cut back to about 3 mm long these were CA glued into place.

The next challenge was to work out how to produce the appearance of the mouldings. Producing a micro 'scratch stock' tool was asking a bit too much so I made a tool from scrap walnut and those brass pins that basically rubbed a groove parallel to an edge.....

The 2 mm flexible beech needed a simple jig to support it .......

Finished components....

First fitting in conjunction with the timber heads trying to work out the right lines etc.

and temporarily again, but now painted. 

A long way to go, lots of shaping, and many questions still to resolve. I'm guessing that the bow main rails have been made over long and will need trimming to fit behind the bow curved rails, and that the curved rail with the scroll head is mounted very slightly in from the back edge of the stem? Mmm.. think I need to read that 'note' paragraph just above the two pictures on page 30 of the instruction manual again....and again! 🤪

Cheers,

Graham.

Firstly - a huge thank you to Rob Durant! I was close to abandoning all hope of attaching photographs to my build log, having spent (wasted..) so much time trying to resolve the 'random rotation' of images issue. Rob, your re-sizing app is just what I needed, and your clear and explicit video guide has helped an aging ICT dyslectic 'grumpy old man' regain his sanity..... Cheers!!!

The Beakhead now has the gun port lids fitted. I added the tubes for the rigging lines to run through using 0.8 mm dia. black insulation stripped off an internal wire of a redundant phone charger cable. Once broached with a sewing needle the 0.1 dia. rope could just slide through. The prospect of sourcing pairs of tubes for all the other gun port lids this way doesn't bare thinking about so I have followed Robert's advice and purchased thin walled 1.00 mm brass tubing from CMB in readiness for those once the time eventually comes.

Construction of the two carronades was pretty straight forward. A couple of points to note - the bottom plate of the carriages needs to be painted black, not yellow as indicated in the instructions. The rings for the breach rope are quite distinctive on the original guns so I replaced the eyelets suggested with my own version. Sourcing brass strip from one of the frames of P.E. components.......

..... ends were radiused prior to drilling, rings fitted, cut to length......

and finally blacked.

The ends of the barrels where bored by hand and, while the tools were to hand, I hollowed out the front of the chimney, a task I had forgotten to do.

The various tackles etc. took a few attempts get right.  Much time viewing images on-line led to in this outcome.

Before beginning to work on the bow structure I decided to check the fit of the bowsprite using a short piece of ash that I'd turned to the right diameter, originally to check the alinement of mast holes and mast sleeves.

It was a good job I did...... and some attention with carving chisels, scalpel and finally an 11 mm drill wrapped with 320 grit abrasive paper was required. With the fit now sorted it was clear that the transition through the deck was a bit poor with noticeable gaps. This was corrected by replacing the four central planks and re-cutting the elliptical hole.

Cheers,

Graham.

Well.....

Just how I managed to get so far with the beakhead without realising that the roundhouse tops needed to be trimmed back to be flush with the walls is a mystery to me.... I could pretend it hadn't happened, but decided to flag it up so that others might avoid doing the same. Suffice to say that that a few minutes work with number 11 scalpel blade and a needle file had the problem sorted and after a remedial paint job - all sorted. The pilasters have now been fitted...... 

... doors fitted, and the gun ports prepared and awaiting rigging  before they too are added.

Cheers,

Graham.

Hi,

With the pilasters formed, dry fitted and painted .......

...... I moved on to the roundhouse windows while the paint dried. I decided to glaze the brass frames. First step was to make a punch to cut the acetate sheet. An off-cut of 4mm brass tube was bevelled to produce a cutting edge. A light tap with a hammer did the job using a piece of card for an anvil.

The discs press fitted nicely ....

The etched brass frames have a small step on the back so the existing holes I had drilled in each roundhouse were opened out to 

dia. 3.75mm (no.24 drill). A light application of PVA around the holes and the frames were pressed into place - not quite as easy as that sounds! Then a quick touch up with the blue paint.

Cheers,

Graham.

Hi,

Good to hear from you both.

Mort - thank you for your welcome back - it really is great to be in a position to once again contribute to this build log, although it did take a little while to get back up to speed!

Robert - your build log continues to be my 'go to' thread when things get tricky - such an impressive resource. It seems we share a couple of things other than building the same model purchased from the same retailer (CMB). I've just spotted that you use an identical orange Anglepoise lamp to illuminate your work bench as I do, and I too have also recently been 'elevated' to the illustrious role of a grandparent. Puts a whole new perspective to things....

Progress today..... first step was to add the Cat-tails

followed by the Beakhead capping assembly. I had an issue here with the bow main rail inner timberhead pieces. The instructions seemed straight forward, but combined with the plans it appeared a bit ambiguous and vague. Perhaps it's old age creeping up on me but things didn't add up. I have a feeling I may not be the only builder to have been in this position. I ended up falling back on my copy of John McKay's 'The Ships Anatomy' and of even more help, Longridge's 'Anatomy of Nelson's Ships'. The two parts provided in the kit were discarded and replaced with a slightly longer version. 

The rest of the bulkhead timbers and fiferail assembly went together without any problems.

After an initial coat of paint.........

the pre-painted length of brass profile was glued beneath the plank sheer, and the front section of the upper gun deck was planked using the black cotton caulking technique used with all previous planking. The photograph shows them prior to cleaning up and matt varnishing.

Off to find a jubilee clip and an appropriate socket spanner to shape the roundhouse pilasters (thanks for the tip Robert!)

Cheers,

Graham.

Some progress to share.......and a new laptop to help with the process too......

After removing the dust sheet that has been protecting the hull while in storage (for far too long!) work has continued with fitting out the quarter deck. 

The Barricade assembly and waist ladders are now in place and the rigging openings have been lined. The main companionway and the one to the Admiral's Dining cabin were straight forward to construct and fit as were the binnacle and ship's wheel.

After digging out the various jigs I made to help with the gun carriages and their associated tackles and breaching ropes on the previous deck, and re-reading my build log to remind me how to use them 😕..... the 12 quarter deck cannon and two forecastle guns were assembled and then fitted into place.

Good to be back at the work bench.

Cheers,

Graham.

CMB = Cornwall Model Boats.

In the UK especially, but not exclusively, a 'go to' source for model boat kits, model making tools and, from personal experience, spares  and supplies for when things don't go according to plan and you need to dig yourself out of a hole.....! 

(no, I have no connection with them, other than as a satisfied customer,  grateful that they are a reliable company, there when I need them...) 

Magnificent work Robert,,,,,,

Hi James,

From just over the A30 Surrey boarder in chilly Berkshire welcome to the site - a great place for assistance should you ever need it which ever model you decide to go for.

Cheers,

Graham.

Hi Ronald,

Steaming should help. As Mark explained, wetting the wood and then applying heat from a curling tool, or similar, will change the water in the plank to steam and this is what enables the fibres to move to a curved/bent shape. I've also achieved good results heating wet planks with a small travel iron. 

Graham 

I'd start by soaking the  strip for about 5 minutes and see how that goes. Always a good idea to pre-drill before driving in the pins, but do it after the strip has been bent and has dried out.

If the planks are only a year old they should be fine.

Looking forward to hearing how you get on.

Graham.

Hi Ronald,

The construction method that this kit uses is expecting an awful lot from the planking strips. That bend at the end appears very exteme. I see that you have tried crimping and heat, but have you tried soaking the planks in hot water? This often makes wood more pliable. Might be worth soaking a strip, gently pressing it around the bulkhead (or even a similarly shaped object) and leaving it to dry overnight. Once 'pre-formed' it may be less of a strain to glue in place.

You also mention that you got these strips some time ago. Sometimes wood can get more brittle with age.

Hope you find a workable solution to this problem.

Good luck!

Hi Mike,

The best answer to your question probably depends on the reason behind why you need to harden the wood.

If you want to achieve a silky smooth surface that sands well enough to enable you to get a good quality surface to subsequently apply a painted finish to you will probably find that a good quality sanding sealer will do the job. 

If you're trying to toughen the wood to improve impact resistance you could try applying something that will give a good depth of penetration and bind the wood fibres together such as a wash of watered down PVA wood glue.

I think that I'd only resort to polyester or epoxy resins if I was hoping to achieve a waterproof finish, but here again it would depend on the size of the area being treated for reasons of cost if nothing else.

Wood varnishes, polyurethane and acrylic, will also improve surface hardness and reduce damage from scuffing and knocks etc.

Hope this helps....

Cheers,

Graham

As ever, thorough research immaculately executed!

Keep up the good work -

I'll be dusting off my copy of Longridge's book, that's for sure!

Superb - please keep reporting on your progress with this impressive project.... looking forward to seeing the final outcome!