Charles W Morgan by Brucealanevans - FINISHED - Model Shipways

[Brucealanevans]

Finished the shelter/boat bearer except for the roof.

I put some tools in the racks although they'll be hard to see once the roof is on - tried to keep them in scale.

Edited June 13, 2015 by Bruce Evans

[Brucealanevans]

After more than 1 1/2 years at this, I'm approaching being done with the hull.

Put on the shelter roof last night.

Next is the rail/pump area around the mainmast, and then a few random things like the grinding wheel, some barrels, and a careful review of the plan sheet to make certain all of the deck eyebolts, cleats, etc. are in place.

Likely will need to take a break before beginning rigging/masts as real life intrudes again.

Oh well, by this time next year I'll be retired or, at the worst, part time; more time to play either way!

Edited June 14, 2015 by Bruce Evans

[Brucealanevans]

As I finish the hull, I thought I'd pass along some helpful things I learned. No claim of originiality; I picked these up here and there, including some from posts on this site.

Firstly regarding work area: a large piece of tempered glass on the work surface is very helpful - keeps things flat, paint and glue can be easily cleaned off with a single edge razor blade, CA glued pieces don't stick well.

I use a cutting mat on top of it, offset so I can use the most appropriate surface without a lot of shifting around.

Edited June 14, 2015 by Bruce Evans

[Brucealanevans]

Secondly, double-sided tape is your friend.

I regularly put a couple of pieces down on the cutting mat to keep things from moving when trimming wood sheets, etc.

Also useful for holding wood in alignment when gluing side to edge (constructing deck houses) or end to end (as for coamings).

In either case, some heavy right angle irons, together with the visible lines on the cutting mat, keep the vertical alignment in place.

These angle irons were from Micro-Mark.

Edited June 14, 2015 by Bruce Evans

[Brucealanevans]

For coamings, bases of deck houses, edge trim (like on the shelter top) mitered corners look great.

This micro miter box (Micro-Mark again) does a great job creating mitered corners for small pieces of wood.

We all (or at least I) are gear crazy and buy more tools than are good for us, but this one is definitely a keeper with a model like the Morgan, which once the bulkheads and keel are assembled, is basically a scratch built kit aside from the metal castings and a few laser cut wood pieces.

Edited June 14, 2015 by Bruce Evans

[Brucealanevans]

I bought a set of dental picks, and the main use has been applying glue.

It is easy to get glue just where you want it - along an edge, in a hole, etc.

Also immediately useful to remove any excess glue squeezed out and potentially visible.

I always have a small square of waxed paper taped to my glass work surface, and on that a large drop of CA will stay useable for hours.

(note, no kids in my house )

For wood glue, I put some on a 3 x 5 card - useable for 5-10 minutes only.

Edited June 14, 2015 by Bruce Evans

[Brucealanevans]

OK, this was an extravagance that I indulged for my 66th birthday;

A Proxxon drill press and a x-y micrometer adjustment table.

Usefull for precisely drilling spaced and straight lines of holes. (You have to spend some time with right angles to precisely mount the table onto the press' work surface)

Can be used to mill (in 2 dimensions) with milling bits, but that is somewhat hard with the soft and easily split along the grain basswood of the Morgan kit.

If I were starting again, I would buy something harder and closer grained for some pieces -

Definitely the slats for the skylight - even with the tool I could not drill the number of holes/cm that were required for the full complement of horizontal rods without the slat splitting. I had to reduce the number of rods to complete the piece.

Edited June 14, 2015 by Bruce Evans

[Brucealanevans]

This, my third wood model, was the one in which I vowed no brass would be visible if the piece wasn't supposed to be brass.

I used and was satisfied with Blacken-It, but that has become unavailable.

Casey's Brass Blackener works, but seems to rub off a bit to easily and I ended up touching up with black paint a lot.

These products are what I'm using currently.

The cleaner to soak pieces to remove grease and finger prints, then into the appropriate solution to blacken.

The pewter blackener works well on brittania metal (I used it for my anchors for example). Both from Blue Jacket.

The other "steel" blackening solution (Presto Black Concentrate) I found on the Internet, and is diluted 1:10 for use. Works well on steel (I have used some steel wire in the model) and brass (as long as it's not coated like much of the brass or copper wire for jewelry is). Once VERY dry, I coat with a matt acrylic.

Edited June 14, 2015 by Bruce Evans

[Brucealanevans]

It is worth investing in at least one very good tweezer, that is kept carefully away from potential damaging gunk when a cheap workhorse tweezer (on the left) will to for holding or placing pieces. Watchmaker type tweezers work great; I have two - this (on the right, protective case above) - is one of them.

I will say that as an old guy, putting one small thing inside another small thing is sometimes a real challenge. For instance, for the small anchor fastening chain, I had to get a small cross bar (steel wire fine gauge) into and through one link in the smallest guage chain in the kit.

Could not have done it without a piece of equipment I would never buy, but that fell into my lap.

My wife is a surgeon and had an old set of surgical loupes (glasses with two magnifiers built in, one on each lens) that she had to replace. It turned out our interpupillary distances are close enough to identical to allow me to use these for very, very close work when reading glasses alone won't work.

Edited June 15, 2015 by Bruce Evans

[texxn5]

Looks very nice Bruce. Good pointers as for tools and accessories needed to build these things. Sometimes it does become necessary to take a break especially when real life issues show their ugly heads. I've had to do that a few times. We look forward to seeing you back in the shipyard soon.

John

[Scoot]

Can't argue with experience. They sound like good practical solutions worth sharing.

Thanks.

 

Scoot

[Brucealanevans]

Finished the Hull today - a real landmark.

Further work will have to wait.

Closing the shipyard due to numerous responsibilities which have been piling up. Need to wrap up several projects before retiring, and have to prepare for an take a subspecialty exam in Clinical Informatics in October.

Probably will open back up after I take the exam in October, beginning with deadeyes, chainplate, etc.

Here are summary pictures of where things are now.

Edited June 20, 2015 by Bruce Evans

[texxn5]

Looks great Bruce. This is a major milestone indeed. We all have to take a break every now and then. I'm currently on Lake Ontario in Sodus Bay, NY. We'll be stopping by to see the Morgan again sometime next month. I just saw the Brig Niagra in Erie, Pa last week. I'll be working on the whaleboats and remaining yards on my trip and be back to work on the ship in September or so. This is a very nice build....keep up the good work.

John

[jwvolz]

Looks fantastic Bruce. 

[Guest Tim I.]

Great work!

 

- Tim

[Brucealanevans]

Well, worked hard on real world work most of the weekend.

Found myself with a couple of hours of free time, so I sneaked into the shipyard and added some trywork tool details.

I put a oil ladle and a scraps strainer on their respective sides of the tryworks, and added a "station" for the mincing knife work creating the "bible leaves" from strips of blubber and skin which would be pitched into the pot, which was done on a plank over a tub, or so my references told me.

I guess I need some small, limited projects to work on from time to time without getting sucked into a big thing like deadeyes, chainplate, shrouds, and so on.

I'll add a few barrels and buckets. I also ordered some s-scale people, to play with trying to whip them into shape to be crew with some modification and creative micro-painting. We'll see.

Edited June 28, 2015 by Bruce Evans

[texxn5]

Nice tools.....that's the fun part of this build is to make any and all kinds of tools for the details. I really enjoyed doing this kind of thing...and it looks cool too...

John

[homer]

Hi Bruce, Please accept my compliments on a wonderful build. I reference your uploads and John's pretty often as I'm behind you on my build. Yesterday I installed the rudder and today working on the steering wheel, associated blocks and the other items with the wheel. I already built the sky light  and may use it but it got a tad taller than it should be. So it's off scale and I'm hoping to build another after the "x" / "Y" table for the drill press arrives. The fine brass wire that came with the kit doesn't work well and I ended up using some very thin eyelets shafts after cutting off the eyelet! But, even the smallest I could find was still a bit too large. I'm not sure where I can find a thinner more stable rod. I've looked on-line and haven't found one small enough. 

 

Anyway, I really like your figures and will add some to my build as I did with my Bounty build. Good luck on your exam and keep posting as you all show me the way!!!!  Take care. Ron 

[Brucealanevans]

I used a very thin stiff steel wire for the skylight rods. Got it at a hobby store catering mostly to powered airplane models. Even so, using the drill press with an x-y table I had to reduce the number of rods due to the slats splitting with the holes any closer together. .

If I were to do it again I'd get some harder wood for the slats - the basswood just doesn't cut it.

Edited September 8, 2015 by Bruce Evans

[Brucealanevans]

Some crew now on board . . .

They're not cemented in case they get in the way later.

Edited September 14, 2015 by Bruce Evans

[texxn5]

Looking very nice Bruce. Looks like you'll be rigging very soon.

[Blue Ensign]

Fine job Bruce and excellent detailing, a great looking 'Morgan'

 

B.E.

[md1400cs]

Bruce,

 

Yea a real beautiful build. Your attention to details is amazing ( I may have already posted that Hmmmm?)

 

Cheers,

 

Michael

[SkerryAmp]

Bruce, your CW is coming right along and right along very nicely.   I have recently gained an appreciation for that ship and will be taking it on myself at some point.  Great to have a few logs to go by when I do and yours will be one of them for certain =)

 

Nice work!

[texxn5]

Hi Bruce, hope I answered your questions on my build log here on MSW. Thanks again for the business....enjoy.

John

 

I'll keep you posted on the Drawplate...I think it will be important.

[Brucealanevans]

Back at work intermittenly in the shipyard for a few weeks. Put the chainplates/deadeyes in place and constructed and rigged up the bowsprit and boom to the extent that can be done prior to getting the masts in place for the forestays.

It's been a bit of a setback for me. After the Bedford Whaleboat and Picket Boat #1 I've gotten acceptably good at scale woodwork, but given that those models - my first wooden builds - had only minimal rigging, I'm back as a beginner again. So with each bit I do, I'm figuring out the best approach. That leads to rigging four lines, and then looking at the first and seeing only how I could have done it better.

Anyway, here's the current state of the build. Ready to begin working on the masts.

Edited November 11, 2015 by Bruce Evans

[homer]

Bruce, your work is superb. I'm currently working on the upper and lower channels. However, still well behind both you and John. I really like your figurines and have been keeping an eye out. I think they are about "S" gage size? For my Bounty, if I recall I bought some plastic german tank guys and filed and painted them to become sailors! I'm still working on deck structures but wanted to set the channels in place before I finish building the deck covers. Take care. Ron 

[dgbot]

I just finished going through your log Bruce and your work on you Morgan is good.  Too bad I cannot see it up close.  I have seen many model of over the years and yours ranks up there.  Your set backs and overcoming them are an inspiration for everybody.

David B 

[Brucealanevans]

The figures are S scale. These were meant for railroad layouts. No uniforms necessary on the Morgan!

Edited November 11, 2015 by Bruce Evans

[rafine]

Your work on the Morgan is terrific, Bruce. You seem to be doing just fine with the rigging, and I'm certain that it will only get better as you move on.

 

Bob