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Charles W Morgan by Brucealanevans - FINISHED - Model Shipways


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Big day - finished the standing rigging on the Morgan.

Not perfect, learned as I went along.

Put the furled jibs (decided to skip the fore staysails) on as they fasten by rings to the foremast stays.

 

Three tools illustrated.

The scissors is expensive but great: cuts any line no matter how fine, and so close to the knot as your trembling hands can manage. I like the reach it gives too. I've tried a number of scissors including the supposed operative spring scissors - all of them frequently push the line at an angle between the blades, especially with a fine line. I tried a very good nail clipper but it was too hard for me to work in close quarters.

The illustrated tweezer is my "go to" - perfect tips allow picking up tiny thread, and the curve is great for tying knots or positioning.

The wooden handled spring clamp (meant for resistance soldering - holding work) is great for holding line around a deadeye or bullseye to allow it to be tied off. Once tied I stiffen the doubled line near the deadeye with a bit of CA and seize by hand - quick and easy.

 

Next on to the whaleboat stations, but I think a few days working on other projects I've been ignoring to reach this Morgan threshold the last few weeks.

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Edited by Bruce Evans
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Bruce, you are doing a great job! Pics are beautiful. 

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Minor sidestep to add the foot ropes and netting to the bowsprit.

The foot ropes (at least the stirrups) should have been added prior to all the other rigging that gets in the way.

I had to use steel wire for the stirrups for ease of mounting thru all the existing rigging. Looks ok except for the size of the "eye".

Now work on the davits.

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Edited by Bruce Evans
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Bruce,

 

Beautiful work indeed. And also as Scoot posted your sails up front are awesome. Well done.

Edited by md1400cs

Michael

Current buildSovereign of the Seas 1/78 Sergal

Under the table:

Golden Hind - C Mamoli    Oseberg - Billings 720 - Drakkar - Amati

Completed:   

Santa Maria-Mantua --

Vasa-Corel -

Santisima Trinidad cross section OcCre 1/90th

Gallery :    Santa Maria - Vasa

 

 

 

 

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Great work Bruce, your Morgan is a real inspiration!  Once I source some wood, I should be able to get back to mine.  Love the furled sails, very nice touch!

Mike

 

Current Wooden builds:  Amati/Victory Pegasus  MS Charles W. Morgan  Euromodel La Renommèe  

 

Plastic builds:    SB2U-1 Vindicator 1/48  Five Star Yaeyama 1/700  Pit Road Asashio and Akashi 1/700 diorama  Walrus 1/48 and Albatross 1/700  Special Hobby Buffalo 1/32  Eduard Sikorsky JRS-1 1/72  IJN Notoro 1/700  Akitsu Maru 1/700

 

Completed builds :  Caldercraft Brig Badger   Amati Hannah - Ship in Bottle  Pit Road Hatsuzakura 1/700   Hasegawa Shimakaze 1:350

F4B-4 and P-6E 1/72  Accurate Miniatures F3F-1/F3F-2 1/48  Tamiya F4F-4 Wildcat built as FM-1 1/48  Special Hobby Buffalo 1/48

Citroen 2CV 1/24 - Airfix and Tamiya  Entex Morgan 3-wheeler 1/16

 

Terminated build:  HMS Lyme (based on Corel Unicorn)  

 

On the shelf:  Euromodel Friedrich Wilhelm zu Pferde; Caldercraft Victory; too many plastic ship, plane and car kits

 

Future potential scratch builds:  HMS Lyme (from NMM plans); Le Gros Ventre (from Ancre monographs), Dutch ship from Ab Hoving book, HMS Sussex from McCardle book, Philadelphia gunboat (Smithsonian plans)

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  • 2 weeks later...

OK, so the whaleboat stations are a lot more work than I was anticipating.

I've finished the aft port station, and have the approach figured out, so hopefully the rest will go more quickly.

The cut-outs, painting, and crane construction are all done for the other 2 port stations.

I've used black laser cut rigging hooks from Syren for the boat hooks.

Drilling 2 sets of 3 adjacent holes in the 1/8" ends of the davits to simulate 3 sheaves was fun.

The hinges for the cranes were done with 2 eyebolts in the crane edge and 2 right angle steel wire "pintles" in the lashing posts, with more steel wire used to make the rigid supports to hold the cranes perpendicular to the hull.

 

Although he's looking away at the moment the captain is keeping an eye on things!

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Edited by Bruce Evans
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  • 3 weeks later...

Gone on a family trip for a while, and I always have trouble motivating myself to beaver away on a repetitive job - in this case building the whaleboat stations as I finish off the standing rigging and prepare for the running rigging.

I finished the 3 portside stations.

 

I now - but not earlier - appreciate the precision with which the positional interplay of the channels, deadeyes/chainplates, shelter platform supports, and the components of the whaleboat stations need to be carefully worked out very early on. Because of even minor variances, I have had more than a little trouble with the davits and lashing posts and their rigging interfering with the shrouds and deadeyes. Consequently, I have some distortions and/or twisting I'm just going to have to put up with on the finished model. This is one of my big takeaways from this - my first really challenging build. I was a bit cavalier in placing the channels and the chainplate holes in the channels at that point. Well, build and learn.

Eyeballing the starboard side, I think the 2 stations there will be less of a problem, especially as I am now forewarned about the clearances I will require.

 

Here are a few photos of the port side stations with the blocks and hooks rigged. I used Syren Co. laser cut black hooks - I like the way they look.

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Edited by Bruce Evans
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Notwithstanding your misgivings Bruce, you're doing a wonderful job on her. No matter how many I build, I always find myself saying at some point, " I sure wish I had thought of that earlier".

 

Bob

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Yup. I just looked and I'm going to have the same problem with davit and lashing posts placement. So frustrating. 

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Looking really nice Bruce. I'm sure you'll work through those whaleboat stations. 

 

Looking forward to your take on the whaleboats themselves. 

Joe Volz

 

 

Current build:

Model Shipways "Benjamin W. Latham"

 

 

Completed  builds on MSW:

Caldercraft HMS "Cruizer   Caldercraft HMBV "Granado"   Model Shipways "Prince De Neufchatel"

 

 

 

 

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I'm going to do the whaleboats after I finish the running rigging.

The amount of equipment to include I each isn't clear to me. Mast/sail and oars for sure, but I don't think the line tubs, pointy things , and so on were put into the boats until they were getting ready to launch.

Anyone know?

Maybe I'll have one partially lowered and fully equipped.

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Sounds correct. There were racks for the harpoons and such and I'm sure they were stored there to prevent loss in rough seas. 

 

One whaleboat mounted on the base next to the ship, fully equipped, would look nice. 

Joe Volz

 

 

Current build:

Model Shipways "Benjamin W. Latham"

 

 

Completed  builds on MSW:

Caldercraft HMS "Cruizer   Caldercraft HMBV "Granado"   Model Shipways "Prince De Neufchatel"

 

 

 

 

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One thing I continuously learn is that despite our best intentions our eyes are constantly drawn to the things that can (should) have been done better. Note the most aft shroud/deadeye on the mainmast above that was too close to the forward "roof" support to line up without twisting, as just one example. Also a hurried and to my current standard not acceptable job of mounting the rudder and its hinges and supports.

I just hope with each subsequent build, if I'm around long enough, to build to a higher and higher standard - I'm comfortable just competing with myself rather that some of the true craftsmen on this forum!

The Confederacy is waiting on my "to build" shelf just waiting for my expertise to justify it. Will probably do the gunboat Philadelphia first when I finish the Morgan.

Fully retire in 2 weeks (!) one of which is vacation, so plan on spending a few hours nearly every morning in the shipyard, so hope to finish the Morgan this year.

Spoken like the true perfectionist.  It's a condition with which I too am afflicted.  But your perfectionism shows wonderfully!  As I looked through your photos, the attention to the most minute detail is what stood out most to me.  Beautiful work, Bruce!  :)

Julie

 

First and only build: Endeavour - 1934 American's Cup, UK Challenger, J-Class - Amati 1:35

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Thanks much

I find the details draw my eyes - it's what got me going on this hobby to begin with.

My wife, who is a (typical) surgeon, says she'd never put up with the fiddly bits. Horses for courses I guess. (She has other strengths!)

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  • 1 month later...

I've finished the running rigging for the Mizzen. Thought it was nearly perfect until I snapped the boom lines with a wandering elbow while tying off the final jackspar lift line. The repair is OK, but the nice symmetry and nice tight lines I had prior are, well, not so perfect now.

Earlier, I had notice that I forgot to install the cleats on the inside rim of the aft rail that needed to go on before the hurricane house was roofed. I had just stuck them on the top of the rail but every time I looked at the aft view it irritated me as the two cleats pretty much obstructed the view into the hurricane house showing the wheel, the lifesaver, and other details.

I finally just cut them off to force myself to figure out a way to glue them to the inside edge of the rail through the small opening. I ended up putting a pin head into the base of two wooden cleats, drilling small holes through the rail from the outside, and after covering the pin with medium CA guiding them into the hole from the inside with an angled tweezer, then turning them 90 degrees before the glue set. Not perfect, but better than before especially once the boom lines were tied off to those cleats.

 

I put in all the lines to handle the spanker, including head and foot uphauls/outhauls and downhauls/inhauls, as well as the brails for gathering the sail into its current configuration. Since I am not setting the gaff sail I simplified the rigging there.

 

Next I'll start on the mainmast yards completing them off the ship. Will have to figure out how and to what level of detail to handle the sail rigging since they all will have furled sails. I may take a bit of a break to put together my HobbyZone shipyard building board for a change of pace and to get ready for the next ship.

 

Current plan when running rigging is complete is to add the cutting stage which will complete the model except for the whaleboats. I'll likely start the next ship then (probably Grenado) and work on the whaleboats on and off at that time. I don't want them to detract from the model so I don't think I want to sit down and make all 7 without something else to work on to keep from rushing the repetitive work involved.

 

Here are a few pictures.                                                                 -

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Edited by Bruce Evans
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  • 4 weeks later...

Well I began working on the spars, starting with the lower main yard.

Oof - I was afraid I'd really hit the wall on this one. Where you look at the plans and what you've already put together and what you've mounted and say to self "how in the world am I going to be able to do that?"

Lessons learned in working slowly past that low point:

 

Look at the plans again and again and again. Note everywhere there is a block attached and do it with the spar in hand so that a nice seized end is possible. I ended up with too many ugly tie in place knots.

 

Look at the plans again and again to make certain every eyebolt is in place while the area is accessible. If it's going to be hard to get to tie a loop of line through it for later. When I was building the mast I saw that the eyebolt for the chain from which the yard hangs was going to be poorly accessible due to the cheeks so I put a loop of line through it and was able to tie the end of the chain to it using that line when the yard was mounted. It would have been better to attach a length of chain to it right away before mounting.

 

For blocks that will be hard to get to - and maybe for all blocks - go ahead and measure and put the final line through them before mounting. You will end up with a nest of lines to manage but the alternative of trying to get the line through the blocks when things are mounted is, at least for me, extremely difficult. I have snapped off and repaired 4 (!) davits while rigging this yard because of this. I'm gradually learning to be very aware of how I withdraw my arms/hands and tweezers from a tight place after rigging something. When mounting blocks to eyes either before or after confounding bits of construction, remember to check carefully whether the block needs to have the "origin" line stropped to it. I had to remove a couple of blocks are re-rig them because I missed this.

 

I've rigged a furled sail for this yard and didn't leave "ears" that were quite long enough. This reduced the visual prettiness of the main sheets.

 

Aside from that a couple of challenges of the model itself:

 

The chain block (attaches to the underside of the yard and passes the upper main yard's sheets from a sheave on the ends of the main lower yard down towards the deck for belaying) in the kit is a simple piece of solid metal. I couldn't do anything with that so I had to fabricate one that would not only pass the chains but allow them to be adjusted. Unfortunately my skill level is not such that I was able to do this in scale so the chain blocks for the main and fore lower yards are too big. Oh well, looks OK to me.

 

The lower mainsail sheet passes through a sheave in the hull outside to inside and ties off to a pin that is nearly inaccessible due to the shelter roof. It goes up to the block at the corner of the sail - on the yard in my furled sail - and back down to an eye on the rail near the sheave. There would be no way for me to adjust and tighten this line at the belaying pin. Using a right angle forceps with tiny remove action jaws I was able to snag a loop onto the underside of the pin and twist it over the top and pull it tight with a tweezer. Then I rigged the line "in reverse" and will adjust and tighten it at the eyebolt which is accessible.

 

None of the lines have been tied off yet. There are so many with partially opposed actions that adjusting them is going to be a bit of a challenge. I just finished the last line - the main yard lifts - this morning and I think I'll let things sit for a day or two before I tied them all off.

 

Overall this one yard has been much more work and anxiety than I had ever anticipated. Hopefully with lessons learned the next one will be easier. I'm going to have one or two upper sails set on the main and fore masts - we'll see how that works. There is a barely accessible eye just under the main top for a block that is part of the lower foremast brace. I'm already concerned about being able to rig that without further destruction.

 

I'm using silkspan painted with dilute yellow woodglue and a bit of ochre paint after drawing the panel seams with a sharp white pencil. I fold the seams around a line (about 3 mm overlap) and glue them with fabric glue while drawing out a small loop at each corner and tying it off.

 

This kit is much more of a challenge than I expected when starting it. I'm learning a lot to apply to my next build if I ever finish this one.

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Edited by Bruce Evans
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Just catching up --- Brilliant work 

Michael

Current buildSovereign of the Seas 1/78 Sergal

Under the table:

Golden Hind - C Mamoli    Oseberg - Billings 720 - Drakkar - Amati

Completed:   

Santa Maria-Mantua --

Vasa-Corel -

Santisima Trinidad cross section OcCre 1/90th

Gallery :    Santa Maria - Vasa

 

 

 

 

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You're doing a wonderful job Bruce! I had to take a break for a while. My wife and I bought another house around the corner so we've been packing and the moving truck gets here on the 12th! Then unpacking and getting all set up. It could be close to a month before I get started on the Morgan again. But, watching your build is inspirational. Ron

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Thanks al.

Working on the 2nd yard now.

All blocks and hanging chain attached.

This yard wil have a sail set. I bent the sail to the jackstay this morning. I poked holes in the upper seam and reinforced them by poking a pointed probe with some CA on it. Since the holes are below the line embedded in the seam it's strong enough and the mounting went well once I figured out how to rig the running line to the sail and jackstay.

Now the foot ropes/stirrups, topsail sheet, and buntlines to attach.

This yard wii be mounted today!

Pictures coming.

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Er ....

Maybe not today. One of my blocks was wrong and the topsail sheet - a combination of chain and rope - was more fiddly than anticipated. Got those done and the stirrups up. Run some lines tomorrow and up she goes.

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Edited by Bruce Evans
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The lower topsail is now up and rigged except for the braces which I'll add later (like the Lower main yard).

It turns out the hardest thing is tying off the lines, especially on the pins that are along the sides - they're hard to get to, I'm working at a distance, and I simply can't make the nice loops to tie them off authentically and pretty. Hopefully rope coils will hide a multitude of ugly ties.

The next yard up will also have the sail set, and the top sail will be furled.

I'm not fitting the fifth yard since as far as I can tell that was not rigged when two lookout stations were fitted.

The good news is each successive yard moving up is less complicated.

(Until I get to the foremast lower yard).

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Edited by Bruce Evans
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Hey, Bruce, thanks for taking the time to write up your detailed observations. I don't know when or if I'll tackle a kit like this, but I learn just from reading others' work. It's appreciated. And, of course, nice work.

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