CaptMorgan

Many of you are curious about this photo.   Its floating around the forums without an explanation.  I brought my Medway Longboat to the New London show last week where it was photographed..   You may not be able to see it right away but yes I changed this Medway English longboat to be an American boat.   This model was used in the movie that I worked on last year which I talked about a while back.   I changed the flag and the nameplate on the model.  They wanted it to be American and have the Character's Name on the model.  They were going to slowly pan across it for the movie and wanted Ed Harris' character name very visible etc.
 
To my Surprise after spending a bunch time with him trying to teach him how to fake being a ship modeler,   Ed Harris signed the model.  But of course not the base....Black sharpie right across the hull.   No fixing that!!!  So rather than put the model back to its original English origin and remove the nameplates, I decided to just leave it as is.  It will make for a nice conversation piece.   The movie is supposed to come out in July I believe....It was about 10 degrees out the day he signed it.  The workshop was set up in the garage of the set.  I have no idea how they acted as if it wasnt freezing all the time.  I suppose that is why he is considered such a great actor.
 
Starring Ed Harris, Dustan Hoffman, Bill Murray, Gabrielle Union, Jenifer Coolidge, Pete Davidson and a bunch of others you would certainly know.   We shall see how the movie turned out!!!   At least I have a memento for the wonderful experience.
 

Bulwark planking has finally been completed.  It really wasnt too bad.   You just have to keep plugging away and while making careful cuts between those ports.   All the cracks, gaps and dents were filled and sanded in preparation for painting.
 
The second layer of spirketting was added as well to finish off the bulwarks below the ports.  The top edge was softened or even rounded off.  I dont like to leave a hard edge here.  I used a 1/32" strip the same shape and size as the first layer.  I took the shapes from the plans because this wide 1/2" strip needs to be tapered like the first layer and shaped before you glue it on.  Every model will have slight differences so it will take some time to get it right.     Then the top of the sills were very carefully sanded and the cracks filled there as well.   I was careful not to sand into the top of the spirketting which would ruin the nice continuous run along its top edge.  You can see how bad port sills look now but the surfaces are now smooth and once painted will look really nice.  
 

Before I paint however I needed to add the 4 fixed blocks on the inside of the bulwarks.  On Winnie, I had used laser cut fixed blocks the same thickness as the planking.   You would glue them to the framing before planking and then plank around them.  I went a different way this time.  I just planked the entire interior bulwarks and then just drilled the fixed blocks through from the outboard side.   Then I sanded them clean and reamed them a bit with a round file.  To finish off these simulated fixed blocks I took a very small "V" gauge chisel and made a small simulated sheave slot between the two holes.   Since the bulwarks will be painted this seemed like the better way to go.  You can see the two fixed blocks below at the bow on the starboard side.  I used a sharpened pencil to color the sheave to simulate a more appropriate color.   
 
I have also hi-lighted in this photo how I planked the bow inboard.   I first glued a 1/4" x 3/64" strip down the inboard side below the bowsprit hole.   See the red arrow.  This allows me to push the planking strakes up against it which for me makes the process easier and neater.  There were two more strakes to add on each side of this to plank the bow inboard.   The cracks were filled and it was all sanded smooth for painting.
 

 
Here is a photo showing the aft portion of the bulwarks planked and ready for painting as well.  Note the two fixed blocks here as well. 
 

The one last thing you might notice is that I did in fact add the margin plank all along the bulwarks.  This is 1/4" wide and 3/64" thick.   It finishes it off neatly.   You dont have to add this yet but I find it easier to paint the bulwarks when I have a nice right angle to paint down to.   Hopefully I wont bugger it up and get red paint all over the margin planks.  But if you find it easier to paint the bulwarks first without making a mess then fell free to do it that way.
 
At the bow,  the margin planks on each side were cut from a 3/64" thick sheet of yellow cedar.   I used the plans and planking template provided.  I cut it out and used that paper template as a starting point.   After seeing what I needed to adjust for a tight fit, I transferred this shape to the wood sheet and cut it out with a sharp #11 blade.  If you look at the photo again you can see my first attempt which I discarded.  It didnt fit as nicely as I wanted.   So I made more adjustments and cut another.   You would be best served to buy a few extra 3/64" thick sheets of Yellow cedar for stuff like this.   Every model will be slightly different and you will want to go through this exercise as well for a good fit.   
 

 
I am ready now for painting....the bulwarks will be carefully painted red over the weekend.  Depending on my honey-do list.
 
 

Thank you gentlemen for your likes and comments.
 
Here is a small update on the hair brackets and cheeks. I thought I would paint them blue with a yellow facing. It seemed like a good idea but it didn't work out - and sanding the paint off was a bit of a disaster. Chuck very kindly sent me replacements.
 
I didn't entirely follow the building order set out in the instructions. After ages of fiddling about trying to line things up I settled on starting with the upper hair bracket and using that as a datum point as it were.
 



I painted the friezes off the model.

 
And this is how they came out. I painted my initials (JFH) on the starboard hair bracket - just behind the figurehead's upper arm - for a bit of fun. 
 


And here is the port side. Some tidying up of the scruffy paint work required but otherwise I'm happy with the outcome.
 
 


All the best 
Fred
 
 
 
 
 
 

Im not sure…i will check though.  Its a ton of work to set up.  Let me see what the guys think about it as well…meaning the mods and admin.

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve
 

more....

Just a small update...
 
I was eager to get started with the planking of the bulwarks.   There is no trick for this.  Its just a grind of cutting and shaping planks to fit between the ports.   Its a slow process and you must be very neat and keep the cuts around the ports straight etc.
 
The planking is all 3/64" thick.   Just as I did with the Winnie, the two strakes below the the ports (the spirketting) were added first.  The spirketting is normally thicker than the planks above it and stands proud.  I have always accomplished this by planking the spirketting in two layers.  It still amazes me how few kit mfgs even show this feature.  You dont have to do it this way if you dont want to.  You could just use 1/16" or even 5/64" thick planking and do it one layer.   Its up to you.  I will add the second layer of spirketting once the entire side has been planked.  I will use a .025" thick second layer.  
 
Having said this...some notes are in order.   The top of the spirketting is lined up perfectly flush with the bottom of the gun ports and sweep ports.   This is great if you happened to get lucky and they all line up perfectly.   I dont care who is making the model, this is pretty impossible to do.   Even the most skilled builders will need to tweak the bottom sills of each port so they line up perfectly with the top edge of spirketting.  This will become very apparent after you run your planking strip down the inboard bulwarks.   I was very lucky in that most of the ports only needed some minor tweaking.   Some were just a hair too high.  Less than 1/64".   So I used a sharp chisel to  make the ports sits flush along the top of the spirketting.  you can see that in the photo below.  The ports will need a lot of paint touch up which was expected.  Whatever you do,  do not notch out your spirketting to accommodate a port.  Try and keep the top edge of the spirketting a nice continuous run without notching it.  Should one of your ports sit too low...I recommend instead that you add a sliver of wood on top of the port sill to raise it up in line with the spirketting.
 
I hope that makes sense.
 
See below...notice how I did not use any pencil to simulate the seams between each strake.   In fact, just the opposite.   I am painting the bulwarks red so this allowed me to take a small shortcut.  You may want to consider it as well.  I dont want any seams to show at all.  In fact I didnt even have to use two individual strakes for the spirketting.   If you look towards the fcastle bulwark planking you can see the area I havent planked yet.  I used one wide strip of 3/64" thick cedar instead of using two narrower strakes as is typical.  I believe it was around 1/2" wide.  Probably slightly wider on the aft portion.   
 
Then because we know the sweep ports are 3/16" high,  a 3/16" strip was used next and cut between the ports and sweeps.   I was careful to be very neat with these cuts.
 
Finally the remaining planking above the sweep ports would normally consist of two more strakes.   Because I am painting the bulwarks, I once again used ONE wider strip of 3/64" thick cedar so I could quickly fill in those areas in one pass.  It should paint up very nicely.  This reduced the number of neatly cut ends to all those strakes between the ports.   There are fewer seams to keep neat as well.   The photo almost looks like a solid hull because there are few seams showing between strakes.  
 
Now if you are NOT going to paint the bulwarks red....this means you will have to use individual narrow strakes.  It will take many more cuts and trial fittings...repeat and repeat again.  That is your choice.  I will take more pics after the second layer of spirketting is added and after the bulwarks are painted red.  The bow area will be planked with narrower strakes just as they should be.  It will be easier to bend those.   But once the bulwarks are painted red nobody will be able to tell how many strakes you actually used.   So you must make a decision ...to paint or not to paint.  Essentially you can plank what's remaining of the bulwarks with just three rows cedar strips.   The wood package comes with your typical 3/16", 7/32", 1/4" and 9/32" wide planking strips that are narrow, so you will need to buy some 3/64" sheets should you want to plank your bulwarks like I have done here.  Then you can cut some 1/2" wide strips instead.   But only if you will be painting the bulwarks red.
 
 
 
 

As always, thanks for the likes.  I do appreciate you all following along.  After all the metal work of making the chain plates, backstay plates, eye bolts, and deadeye strops, I decided I'd work on a relatively straight forward sub assembly.  I went ahead and installed the rudder, and gudgeons and pintels (I had shaped the rudder itself a couple of months ago).  I used Chuck's mini kit for those.  You have a choice in the mini kit of .010" thick paperboard material or .028" thick plywood.  I opted for the thicker plywood and sanded it down to .018" thick.  By my eye that's a good compromise.  I used .020" diameter styrene rod for the bolts.  Yes, yes, I know it's probably sacrilege among purists to use plastic on a wooden ship build.  Haha.  But since the bolt heads are covered in paint I chose the easier to cut and work with styrene rather than metal wire.  Everything was painted with black paint and then once mounted I taped the simulated metal straps off and applied rust brown weathering powder. I haven't glued the rudder on yet.  I'll do that at a later date after I drill the final hole to mount the tiller (I did drill a small pilot/locator hole though).  That said, the rudder sits correctly straight and true with the pintels snugged down into the gudgeons.
 
On a related note, I received the last few packages of blocks I'll need for the build, and a serving machine, from Chuck this week.  If I'm inventorying correctly, I think that may be the last stuff I need to complete the build.
 
Erik

The swivel gun mounts:
 







 

I wonder if the Wipe on Poly will make the wood darker.... Sometimes, it does that on very light wood, such as maple.
 
Yves

Looks really nice Steve. I've put a coat of WOP on mine. I feel it helps keep it clean. 
 
 
It does add a little depth to the wood but not a lot. I do put light a coat on and wipe it off right away. That seem to help retain the natural color.

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve
 

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve
 

Hello everyone:
Just a quick update.  I got the stem tapered for the figurehead and also have the rabbet installed.  
Moving on to assemble the front apron all the little wedges for that.  
Little steps...
Steve
      

The knees wont be seen so they will be omitted.  Its easy enough for folks to add should they want to.  Thats a benefit of having Davids book while building the kit.  But it will really complicate and make adding all of those ledges take forever.  And all for something that will never be seen.  I think most folks will be relieved not to make them.
 
the contemporary model doesnt have them either.  My guess is for the very same reason.  
 
It also reduces the cost and time to manufacture the kit quite a bit. I did add them on the fcastle however because the ends of the knees will be slightly visible in the open area left unplanked.  So once the gun deck is planked…the casual viewer will actually assume you did add all of those knees for the entire model.  LOL
 
I will take a picture with the planking templates in position.  You will see what I am talking about pretty clearly. The same is true of all the ledges down the center line.  They will not be seen either.  The contemporary model also omits these..whats the point really.

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve
 

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve
 

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve
 

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve
 

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve
 

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve
 

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve
 

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve
 

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve