Charles W. Morgan by David Lester - Model Shipways - 1/64th scale - FINISHED

[Heronguy]

Well done David.  Congratulations on another beauty.

 

[jwvolz]

Well done David. You finished her up beautifully!

[donrobinson]

Fantastic David, Congratulations

[David Lester]

Thank you for all the kind comments, everyone!

D

[John Ruy]

David,

I want to thank you for such a great build log with lots of close up photos. Your log in particular is already my go to reference as I get started on my own CWM. 
 

[frankr]

Good morning. I just received my Charles W Morgan from Model Shipways a few days ago. Beautiful work on your model by the way, really first class. I have a question. The instructions in my kit says to make the tryworks walls from wood sheeting and then paint the bricks on the surface. I don't think this would look very realistic. You constructed your tryworks of individual 'bricks', which looks amazingly realistic. Did your kit include the individual bricks or did you make them from wood strips. 

Regards

[stuglo]

Nice work. Deceptively difficult to build but the real thing is available which adds to the satisfaction.

[DocBlake]

1 hour ago, frankr said:

Good morning. I just received my Charles W Morgan from Model Shipways a few days ago. Beautiful work on your model by the way, really first class. I have a question. The instructions in my kit says to make the tryworks walls from wood sheeting and then paint the bricks on the surface. I don't think this would look very realistic. You constructed your tryworks of individual 'bricks', which looks amazingly realistic. Did your kit include the individual bricks or did you make them from wood strips. 

Regards

Go to post #42 in this thread.  Here is the article David refers to:   http://modelshipworldforum.com/resources/furniture/Tryworks_Building_Guide.pdf

[Blue Ensign]

Well done David, a fine looking model. 👍

 

B.E.

[tewatson]

Amazing craftsmanship.

 

Tom

 

[boatntrain]

On 5/30/2019 at 2:42 PM, David Lester said:

Hello All,

It seems I have been working and working with very little to show for it!

 

It's time to mount the top masts and then add their shrouds and stays, but a quirk of the Morgan is the lower and upper topsail yards on the fore and main masts are attached with metal brackets. That necessitates their being mounted to the masts before the masts can be mounted on the ship, which means a whole lot of rigging to add to the yards before anything can happen. There's a fair bit of chain rigging on this ship and it's had to deal with because you can't just snug it up by sliding the seizing; you pretty much have to get the length right from the beginning. 

 

You can see the metal brackets for the two yards in this photo:

 

 

While there are many benefits to adding as much rigging to the yards before mounting them, it creates a great deal of chaos, especially with the long lines. I have a bad habit of inadvertently getting glue on them somewhere along their length which I never notice until much later when it won't pass through a block and I have to get up, leave the room and walk around the block before I settle down again. But, I'm getting ahead of myself; that's all lying in wait for me. 😯

 

 

One tricky bit on this model is this piece of rigging:

 

 

It's a double iron block hanging below the two lower masts through which two chains pass.

 

 

The piece included in the kit is almost laughable. It's a small piece of sold white metal with no holes in it. It needs to be drilled through on each side in order to accept the chains. I did not anticipate being able to use it successfully and have spent a lot of time considering how best to replicate this part from scratch. I decided to try drilling it nevertheless and couldn't believe it, but I managed to get it to work - two through holes in each of the two pieces! (Paint touch up is needed on the yard as a result of dirty fingers from handling the chain.) 

 

So now, on to the topmast shrouds and stays.

 

Thanks again for looking in.

 

David

 

[boatntrain]

David, absolutely superb!  I am attempting the same kit and have adopted your coining of "frustifaction" into my daily lexicon. I often refer to your photos for inspiration and as a benchmark. Thank you for sharing.

Bob M

[David Lester]

Thanks Bob!

This was my favourite kit to do of all the ones I've done. I'm sure you'll enjoy doing it too.

My CWM now resides at my son's house.

Thanks again,

David

[b dylan]

Hello David

 

Beautiful model and details.

I would be interested to know what stain you used on the deck. I really like the look. Thanks.

[Larry Cowden]

On 8/20/2018 at 9:30 AM, David Lester said:

I just hope that when I'm finished it doesn't resemble William H. Macy as he appears in "Shameless!"

 

Thanks for checking in everyone. While it's still early days, I have to say that I'm very impressed with this kit so far. It's presenting plenty of challenge. I'm working on the planksheer, rails and stanchions and they're quite tricky, but at the same time the design of the kit is so good that it doesn't work against you. It's very satisfying and fun. Also, I can see that the kit provides lots of room for enhancement or upgrading which I hope to do to a certain degree. With so much reference material readily available that shouldn't prove to be a frustrating exercise.

 

David

Having just purchased this kit, I was wondering what your opinion was of the quality of materials and instructions. I judge you have a very positive opinion of this kit?

[Larry Cowden]

On 9/30/2018 at 7:14 PM, Richvee said:

I'm wondering if the bars were different colors through the renovations...??

Here they look black...

Here, ochre...

and here it's tough to tell

I'd say the choice is yours. I wouldn't think either would be "wrong" 

Personal opinion. I like the black for a little contrast. On a model I think it would make that detail "pop". 

As a professional photographer, I offer this input. Anytime you view something backlit as in your interior picture, those items will appear black due to the shadow effect! It won't matter what the actual color of that item is. The exterior view of those rods is the correct color they should be painted. If that is ochre, than use it.

[Larry Cowden]

On 11/14/2018 at 11:50 AM, David Lester said:

Good Morning,

I have a bit of progress to report. I've finished up quite a few details on the hull including the coppering as well as a couple of more pieces of the deck details. (All are just sitting on the deck for the photos - none is actually installed yet.)

 

There are a number of portholes etc that are not included in the kit, so I ordered a few different ones. It took a bit of research finding the right sizes but in the end I found some nice small ones - only 1.2mm - for the smallest openings and a couple of different bigger sizes for the others.

 

 

 

 

The oblong mooring chocks are a bit of a mystery to me. The plans indicate four of them on the starboard side and none on the port size, but the kit comes with six. So that's more than needed for the outboard side of the openings, but not enough for both the outboard and inboard sides of the openings. So I used the four kit supplied ones on the outboard side and then used new brass portholes which I bent into an oblong shape for the inboard side and it seems to work well enough. You can see them clearly below.

 

 

Stern details finished -

 

I always find finishing the decking to be a challenge. The basswood takes the stain so poorly that it's hard to get a nice consistent finish. I also like to try to simulate the grayed out look that decks usually have on the real ship. I'm fairly happy with the result I got this time, but don't ask me to duplicate it! It was a lengthy series of experimental steps. This time I used acrylic artists' paint.I started with a thinned mixture of black, white, dark brown and yellow, mixed to achieve a sort of taupe colour. I brushed it on and rubbed it down. Then there was miserable series of steps - adding more brown because it was too gray; adding more black because it was too brown; adding more white because it was too dark; adding more yellow because - well because it was the only colour left to add and then going through the whole process over and over again. When I was finally reasonably happy, I rubbed the whole thing down with steel wool which resulted in a very nice finish and a colour that I think looks ok.

 

(Also, while I'm on the topic of decking - this kit has no sub-decking. The decking planks are 1/16" thick and install directly on the bulkheads. If I was doing it again, I would buy 1/32" sheets and make a sub-deck and then install 1/32" planks over that. It would be much easier to get a good even surface and there would be no concerns about plank butts not lining up with the bulkheads.)

 

The bigger challenge though, was getting a crisp line along the top edge of the upper white stripe. This is the outboard edge of the top rail and according to the pictures I've seen, the white should only be on the vertical surface, not the horizontal surface. After many failed attempts at painting, I realized I would never get a good clean line where the white and black meet. The upper edge of that white line is highly visible and the least deviation jumped out at me.
 

I considered using a styrene strip which would give a good sharp line. I'm not opposed to using styrene in principal, but in this case it was just too front and centre so I abandoned that idea. In the end, I painted a piece of paper and applied that. I have some really nice black paper that I used to simulate small iron fittings etc. It's not as heavy as card stock, but heavier than regular paper. It painted beautifully, without any wrinkling. I cut narrow strips of it and glued it on and it solved the problem!

 

 

The pump handles are another kit mystery. They provide a small centre fitting, but then you are supposed to attached extended handles to it. I couldn't see any way to do that easily or nicely, so I discarded it and fabricated the whole part as one from brass -

 

So that's where I'm at so far. Next up is the tryworks, which looks like it will present some fresh challenges too.

 

This is one of the most enjoyable builds I have done yet, and if anyone is considering this kit, I would definitely recommend it.

 

Again, many thanks for comments and likes.

David

 

When using basswood as you experienced, it does not stain well. I strongly recommend you paint all such pieces with sanding sealer first. Then rub it down lightly with 220 grit! This seals the wood And allows an even application of stain.

[Tom in NC]

David

I know you’ve moved well beyond the CWM, but your terrific build log lingers on. I’ve been using it as my primary guide in building the same kit … and I have some questions if you’d be inclined to help me out. 
 

One in particular. You detailed the size and origins of the blocks you ordered from Syren and Bluejacket, but your list didn’t indicate whether they were single or double blocks, nor how many of each were needed. I’ve tried to discern that from the plans but am stumped.  I know it’s asking a lot, but if you could dredge that info up out of memory it would sure be appreciated.

 

I’ve been working on this project since March (6-8 hours a day) and am fast approaching the dreaded rigging stage. As you observed, the number of fittings that have to be installed on the masts and yards is formidable. 

 

I have especially appreciated your notes and pictures re how you did things along the way. This model requires a level of inventiveness beyond any I’ve done so far and your explanations re how you came up with workarounds have been extremely helpful in that regard.  Your superb work, along with that of Gerald Spargo has inspired me to create results far beyond my previous efforts. 
 

Once again, I love your build log and your photos. You are a super star when it comes to ship modeling. I can only hope my own results will be 1/2 as good as yours. 
 

Tom in NC

Tom Hoxie 

tomhoxie@aol.com

 

 

[Tom in NC]

David

 

Don’t know if you ever saw my question above but it finally occurred to me to look at the parts list and all the answers are right there. I feel pretty stupid. 
 

Now headed for Syren and Bluejacket. 

 

All best,

Tom in NC

[Jared]

You did a fantastic build!  

[David Lester]

Tom - sorry, I just came across your posts now. Not sure how I missed them. Thank you so much for your kind words. It seems to me that the blocks are an especially important feature on this model and I think an upgrade to Syren and BlueJacket is well worth it. Be sure to check out Tom Lauria on Youtube; he has some thoughts and tweaking the blocks which are interesting. Even if you don't do everything that Tom Lauria does, the BlueJacket ones will still need a bit of work in some cases. The beckets on the internally stropped blocks sometimes need drilling out, and they usually need a bit of filing, but they look and work great.

I've built a number of models now and the CWM was my favourite one to do - it's challenging, but not frustrating because the kit is well designed and it goes together well. The detail is amazing and so far as I can tell, it's very accurate. At least it seems to match the pictures of the real vessel very closely. I'm sure you must be enjoying it too.

 

Jared - thanks very much. I really appreciate it.

 

David

[Scott Mitchell]

https://www.charleswmorganmodel.com/ web page is gone, went down the day before yesterday. Was on part 3 of the boat build. Being a first time boat builder found it most helpful. I inherited it, hull was done and planks started on the sides. It was molded, so bleached it and planks came off. David you did an awesome build. Thank you posting you build.

Scott Mitchell

[Benjamin]

What size copper plating did you use?

[David Lester]

Benjamin - The plans indicate that the plates should be 7/32" x 3/4" so I used 1/4" copper tape. I can't remember if I cut them at 25/32" which would have given the same small overlap as the 1/4" width gives, or if I just kept it simple and cut them right at 3/4", still overlapped them slightly and didn't worry about it. I kinda think it was the latter. In any case a length somewhere around 3/4" should be ok. 

David 

[Fred Adams]

I just purchased the Morgan kit. Right now I'm working on the whaleship Essex, and on the Mayflower. The Charles Morgan is next on my list. I finished the hull, deck, deck furniture, small boats of ESSEX. Masts are next. I coppered and patinaed the hull. 

 

[David Lester]

Hi Fred,

I've built quite a few models over the past few years and have enjoyed all of them, but the Morgan was my favourite. It's a really great kit and there are many photos of details available on line, which is a great resource.

I hope you have as great a time with it as I did!

David