Charles W Morgan by Glen McGuire - FINISHED - 1/400 – BOTTLE – 1/400

[Glen McGuire]

Thanks, Mark.  Yes, definitely going to be a "sea display".  I like the idea of some whale boats in the water.  I'm pretty sure I have room to mount whale boats on 1 side of the ship and fit it inside the bottle neck.  So maybe I mount those on the display side and have the ones from the other side in the water.  Hmmmmmm. 

[Glen McGuire]

Finished up the lower shrouds and ratlines today which meant it was time for the first big test!  Would all this stuff fit inside the neck of the bottle when I mashed everything down or did I go overboard loading up the ship with all those sails, yards, fittings, etc.?

Well……it worked!!  But just barely.  I gently (and not so gently) cajoled it a little over halfway in, which was enough to get the thickest part of the ship past the thinnest part of the neck.  Then I pulled the whole thing back out, remounted on the stand, and raised the masts.  Thankfully, everything returned to original form pretty well!  Relief is a word not near strong enough to describe how I’m feeling.

 

Pics below show before the squeeze, during, and after.

Now it's on to the whale boats!     
 

[Scott Mitchell]

A great build you did.

[Glen McGuire]

Thank you, Scott!

[Landlubber Mike]

Looks fantastic!

[Glen McGuire]

Thanks, Mike!  The thing I've learned quickly about these SIB projects is that you can feel good about your progress, but you're always nervous till the very end when the boat is safely in the bottle!

[Glen McGuire]

For the whale boats, I’m doing a 2-piece lamination using 1/16” thick basswood strips.  I’m not that great at wood carving so instead of having to carve out the inside of a single piece of wood and try to get the depth even, I can just cut a hole in the top layer and glue it to the bottom layer. 

[Glen McGuire]

I cut all the whale boats out and sanded them into their final shape to await painting.  Next was figuring out the davits.  I finally settled on thin copper wire since it’s easy to bend into the right shape (and I also had plenty in my garage).  I glued them to the side of the ship and painted them 3 different colors (ochre above the bulwark and then black and white below to blend in with the hull color and pinstripes.  I’ve seen this in pics of the real ship and some models.      

[Landlubber Mike]

Very clever!  The Model Shipways kit similarly uses the bread and butter method, but I think there they have something like seven slices of bread.  Looks great!

Edited November 2, 2021 by Landlubber Mike

[Glen McGuire]

Thanks, Mike!  But dang it, I just realized I think I need a 3rd whale boat and another set of davits on the port side (which will be my display side).  Does your kit have 3 boats on the port side and 2 on the starboard?

[Landlubber Mike]

I just checked since I thought I remembered there were seven whale boats.  See page 23 of the instructions:

 

https://modelexpo-online.com/assets/images/documents/MS2140_Charles_W_Morgan_Instructions.pdf

 

Five hang from davits, with three on the port side, two on the starboard side.  The other two hang upside down on the amidships shelter.  I can't seem to copy pictures from the MS website, but there are good photos of how their kit subject looks:

 

https://modelexpo-online.com/Model-Shipways-CHARLES-MORGAN-WHALE-BARK-164-SCALE_p_1026.html

 

I don't recall from the Leavitt book whether the number of whaleboats changed during the ship's history.  

 

 

[Glen McGuire]

Thanks for the confirmation, Mike.  Gotta build 1 more whale boat.  Fortunately it should not take too long since I've already made about 20 of them counting ones that did not make the cut and ended up in the trash!

[Glen McGuire]

Whale boats on a stick!  Gluing them to bamboo skewers turned out to be a good way to hold the tiny things while I painted them.  The 2 that are upside down are the ones that will lay on the boat bearer shelter mid-ship.  I took this pic before I realized I needed to build 1 more so there's actually a total of 7.        

[Glen McGuire]

The last step in the construction of the ship was attaching the whale boats and adding the lines that secure them to the davits and boat bearer.  

With that accomplished, I believe the ship is complete.  @Landlubber Mike (or anyone else familiar with the Morgan) – if you can see anything that I have overlooked please let me know.  My goal was to build something that was easily identifiable as the Morgan even at this small scale.

Good news/bad news.  Even with all the whale boats attached, the ship fits nicely width-wise into the neck of the bottle.  But vertical-wise it is extremely tight.  I’m not 100% sure I can push it in without breaking something.  It's close!  

After I put the ocean into the bottle, I will spend some time trying find a way to compress things vertically just a bit more.  I don’t need much.
 

[Landlubber Mike]

Looks great to me Glen.  Good luck getting it into the bottle - fingers and toes crossed here for you  

[mtaylor]

Looks good, Glen.  I'll keep my fingers crossed for you too.

[Glen McGuire]

For the ocean, I’m doing the same thing I did for the Amati Hannah kit.  I blend 2 different shade of thick blue acrylic paint and also mix in some medium gloss gel.  I really like the consistency of the acrylic paint.  It’s impossible to make it smooth inside the bottle so no matter how you work it, you get all these natural surface irregularities much like a real ocean.  The gloss gel adds a shiny reflection of light off the edges of the paint surface which gives it a look like sunlight reflecting off water.  My mixture is pretty much 1-1-1.  The 2nd pic shows the tools I use to push the paint around once it’s inside the bottle.  

[Glen McGuire]

The 1st pic below shows how I got the paint inside the bottle.  The 2nd pic shows the base in place and a little whale tail I found.  Hopefully the whale tail does not get in the way when I try to maneuver the ship to the base.  If it does, I may have to find a little harpoon and do a bit of whaling myself!

The downside of having such a thick layer of acrylic paint is that it takes a looooong time to dry.  It will be a few days before it’s solid and ready for the ship squeeze.

 
The moment of truth is almost here!  Thanks @mtaylor and @Landlubber Mike for crossing fingers and toes and everything else!   
 

[Scott Mitchell]

I'm working on a Charles Morgan build now. Your doing a awesome build, looks like a Morgan. Waiting for the paint to dry.

[Glen McGuire]

Thank you, Scott.  I found your Morgan build log last week and started following it.  I've gotta say, your work on the deck fittings is just remarkable - the tryworks in particular.  Little rectangles of sandpaper for bricks?  Wow.  Using a dremel wheel for the knife stone?  That is just cool.  And I don't think I've seen anything like the way you've aged everything.  Tremendous work.            

[Landlubber Mike]

Looking great Glen!  Moment of truth coming soon!  Good luck!

[Glen McGuire]

While the paint was drying I found one area where I thought I could squeeze things down just a fraction.  The mast top of the main mast and the eyebolt holding the lower main mast shrouds were both hitting on the lower part of the mizzen mast when I folded everything down.  So I took out a scalpel and shaved maybe 1/32" off the mizzen mast.  I hoped this would be enough to get the ship in the bottle just a bit easier.  After the touchup paint dried it would be game time!    

[Glen McGuire]

And time for the moment of truth!  As I was arranging things to make a go at inserting the ship, an old Merle Haggard song came on the radio.  I hoped it was not an omen for what was about to happen.   The song was, "Tonight, the Bottle Let Me Down".   

 

I swabbed some 60 minute epoxy on the base, mashed the masts down, and started carefully pushing the ship into the bottle.  My shaving of the mizzen mast definitely helped as the ship seemed to go thru just a tiny bit easier than my practice runs.  Although on my last push, I heard a little "pop".  Not sure what it was but I could not see anything major that looked broken.

 

Once I got the whole ship thru the neck, I had a heck of a time controlling it.  I turned the ship in all sorts of wrong angles and directions trying to get it on the base.  At one point, it fell sideways off my insertion tool.  Luckily it fell into the ocean and not onto any part of the wet epoxy that was on the base.  I managed to work the ship back into the neck of the bottle where I regrouped and made another run at it. 

 

The 3rd (or was it 4th or 5th) time was the charm!  I finally dropped it on the base in good alignment.  As it turns out, my base is a bit too large.  You can see a sliver of the base in the pic below if you look at the center of the hull.  I think I can put some more ocean along the side to cover that up after everything dries.

 

I will let things rest overnight and then raise the masts tomorrow.  Hopefully everything will still be in good shape.  Please don't uncross those fingers just yet!!!

   

Edited November 10, 2021 by Glen McGuire

[Glen McGuire]

UGH!!!  Unfortunately that little pop I heard when I gave the ship a final nudge thru the narrowest part of the bottle’s neck was not something minor.  It was the sound of the foremast snapping.  The glue joint connecting the overlap of the upper foremast with the lower foremast gave out.  Now the mast looks like it took a wayward but lucky shot from a cannon ball.  

 

I was so sure the mainmast was the reason it was such a tight fit that I completely overlooked the foremast.  Dang!  Yet another lesson learned.  

 

On the bright side, at least it was the foremast and not the main or mizzen - easier to reach and attempt an inside-the-bottle repair.   

I think all the rigging will help hold the upper mast in place when I try and glue it back to the lower mast.  The biggest challenges I see are:

1 - getting some glue on the break point without getting it all over the sails and stays (the stays need to run cleanly thru the tiny holes in the masts). 

2 - the lower half of the mast is hinged and folds back at the slightest touch.  I need it to be secure when I apply glue and press the upper mast against it.

 

Time to roll up the sleeves and get after it.
 

[Landlubber Mike]

Oh man Glen, it was going so well that when I got to the last post, my heart sank.  Good luck on the repair, sounds like you’ve got a good plan for it.  Fingers still crossed over here!

 

[mtaylor]

Good luck on the repair.   Such a tiny space seems to me impossible to work in. 

[Glen McGuire]

All the good vibes from Landlubber Mike, Mark, Keith, and Ian really helped.  As awful as things looked, the repair was actually a snap!  Wait, poor choice of words there.  That word should be banned from MSW.  😃

 

For the fix, I was able snake a line of thread around the lower foremast (1st pic) to hold it in place.  Next, I used the bent end of a coat hanger to dab some 60 minute epoxy on the break point (2nd pic).  My aim was good as I managed to get the glue exactly where I needed instead of on the sails, rigging, etc.  

 
Finally, I turned the bottle upright to get gravity on my side and, holding my breath, used a bamboo skewer to carefully push the upper mast down against the lower mast.  Amazingly, it pretty much dropped into place.  Resisting the temptation to muck with it trying for perfection, I called it good and stopped for the night to let the epoxy set (3rd pic).  

 

Thanks for all the encouragement and positive energy!
 

Edited November 12, 2021 by Glen McGuire

[Glen McGuire]

After sitting overnight, the fix looks like it worked pretty well.  HUGE sigh of relief!  

However, I’ve still got a bit of minor repair work to do.  The forward davit on the middle whale boat came loose.  Also, one end of one of the lines from the dolphin striker popped off.

I will tidy those things up and get to working on the display base.  Home stretch!
 

Edited November 12, 2021 by Glen McGuire

[Ian_Grant]

Your CWM looks great!  Nice job, love the whale tail too.

[Glen McGuire]

Thank you, Ian!