Charles W Morgan Whaleboat by Salty Sea Dog - Artesania Latina - Scale 1:25 - POF - first wooden boat build - SMALL

[Shazmira]

Very sorry to hear of the loss of your father Buck. It must be hard, I would assume you are also now trying to take care of everything on his end as well as your own. I do hope your house in Kansas sells soon and you find the perfect place in Colorado, so you and your wife can be together again. Besto of luck my friend!

[Mirabell61]

very nicely built whaleboat Buck

reminds me of Mobby Dick film Scenes in the whaleboats.....

 

Nils

[trippwj]

It is, always, difficult to find the right words to share upon such a loss.  Please know, Buck, that our thoughts and prayers for you and your family are heartfelt and sincere. 

[themadchemist]

What an amazing life your father must have seen. At 93 that puts his birth around WW1. He saw the depression and the whole of the modern world evolve in a life time. I'm glad you had that small bit of time together before he past, it amazes me sometimes how things work that way. I know it wasn't enough time, but then it never is when the loss is so great. If the reflection of the father can be seen in the son , then I know what a noble individual your father was as I've seen his reflection in you.

 

I hope your reunited soon with your anchor. I see know offense in this analogy. Tammy is my anchor and my mirror and in such times our other halves are so important to helping us maintain equilibrium. Life for you must be quite a stormy sea of change at the moment. We pray for calmer waters to prevail and things to become more stable soon. Just know we're here as ship mates and your sorrow is ours. Be strong my friend and remember the joy as well as the sorrow. Losing someone close is never easy, thankfully we have memories that can sustain us through the sorrow.

 

I don't know which is better or worse, the loss or the preparing for it. As I see my and Tammy's parents health fail I can't help but panic. The only thing that sustains me is the knowledge of the fullness of life they have lived. I'm thankful for every moment we have together, but they will never be enough. It never is, but thats part of life. Know that if you need to talk I'm just a PM away, my heart is with you and my shoulder is your for leaning on. No greater gift exists in life then the gift of friendship. Thanks for being mine. Know I'm always here in return, its what friends are for in this ocean of chaos called life.

[md1400cs]

Buck,

 

Sorry to read your sad and inevitable post. Hmmm loosing parents is one of the very difficult truths in all of our lives. You, and your dad are lucky that you could share each other's love until he turned 93. A real gift many of us did not have. Good for you. (:-)

 

I hope that you settle back to a routine soon enough. Many of us do miss your posts and kind words. Take care, hope that you can get back to your hobby in the near future.

 

Regards, as always

 

MIchael

[Salty Sea Dog]

I am deeply moved by all the kindness you all have shown me. They say you can't choose your family, but if I could, you all would be in it. Thank you.
 

...If the reflection of the father can be seen in the son , then I know what a noble individual your father was as I've seen his reflection in you.
 

What an amazing and wonderful thing to say. You made me cry. Thank you my freind.

My Dad was born in 1920 and he did lead quite an amazing life. He served in the military in 3 wars; WW2, Korea and Vietnam. At Dad's service, we were honored when the brilliant Dr. Pete Mcquade placed a poster in the lobby he had made about Dad (click picture to enlarge):


Dad didn't get married and start a family until he was in his mid 30s after the Korean War. In Vietnam, his job was to brief General Westmoreland every day. Dad was injured in an accident there and was awarded the Purple Heart. He insisted that they take it back because he was not injured in combat. Dad had a sense of right and wrong and a compassion for others that I can only hope to aspire to.

At my wedding in 1986, Dad caught the garter and his then girlfriend Klara, caught the bouquet. They married that December. Hey, I actually had hair then!



Dad and Klara last Christmas.


I hope you don't mind me sharing about my Dad. Thanks again for your kind thoughts.

Edited August 10, 2014 by Salty Sea Dog

[NAZGÛL]

Thanks for sharing this fantastic story of your father. It moved me. You got his good looks btw.

 

/Matti

[Shazmira]

What a wonderful memorial to your dad's life and memory, made me tear up. Now I have to go find the movie and dvds of this show you are talking about and learn even more about your dad's extraordinary life. Your father looks to be quite the happy man in the photos you shared, I am betting if asked he would reply that he had a good life!

[themadchemist]

Strange that I've just happened to have watched 12 o'clock high in the last few months.

Twelve o'clock high is on youtube and some of the TV episodes also - movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSVZlvsa5t8

 

I've always noticed the first sign of a real hero is they never know or realize what they did was extraordinary. They only recall the brothers they lost in combat as the true heros. That selflessness is the reflection I spoke of seeing. It doesn't surprise me at all to learn your father was such a gracious individual. Thank you for sharing his story, I always have found real inspiration by looking at the lives others have selflessly lived, as our true meaning in life is really measured by what we do for others, in the face of adversity. Dieing for what we believe in is the greatest gift one can give, but many forget that living what we believe is nearly as significant, as it pays tribute to those lost for those causes. It makes that sacrifice paid meaningful.

 

Thanks Buck for the added information. Your father is well worth any amount of space required by MSW. I'm so glad fate (I prefer to call them synchronicities) brought you 2 together at the end. I've found life does some really unexpected things like that, and believe there is a reason for these small gifts.

[Salty Sea Dog]

Hi Robin,

Dad would absolutely have said that he had a good life. He used to always express how blessed and lucky he was.

[Senior ole salt]

Ahoy Buck.  I like the woody look to the model and the nipper idea to crimp the rudder gudgeon.

 

S.os

[Bugra]

Nothing to say much. A stunning work done here. Just great Buck. 

 

Congratulations. *jealous  

 

Bugra.

[Salty Sea Dog]

Hi everybody. Sorry for the really long delay in posting. I haven't been doing much modeling for some time now. Still working in Colorado waiting for the house to sell in Kansas so my wife and dogs can join me here. We looked into places to rent or lease-to-purchase here, but having 3 dogs puts a big limit on what is available. It's been nearly half a year now but we're very hopeful that next month our house will sell there and we can then buy here.

 

But let's get back to the boat! With all of my tools in storage I decided to work on the sail. I figured all I would need is some thread and a needle. No sweat, a couple of dollars tops. Umm. The cloth that came with my whaleboat kit was way too coarse. At scale it was more like a net than sail cloth! So I found some nice cloth that is about 72 threads per inch and bought a spool of thread. Less than 5 bucks - no biggie. In Model Expo's "To Build A Whaleboat" book, they show a method of making a sail where you simulate seams by folding a zig-zag pattern in the fabric. This is done by making closely spaced parallel lines at the sail's 'seams' and folding the fabric along the first line and then positioning the edge of that fold on top of the second line and then pressing it flat. This creates an overlap that looks pretty convincing. The book says to make the parallel lines 1/4" apart which results in a 1/8" overlap, but since that is for the New Bedford Whaleboat kit that is nearly twice the size as my kit, I made the lines 1/8" apart for overlaps that are 1/16" wide. A little white glue was put into the overlap with a toothpick before the final pressing to help hold it together for a very flat look. I have a little steel bar that I used as an 'iron' to press the creases and overlaps nice and crisp (no heat used).

 

Lines marked out and starting the 1st crease

 

Pressing the 1st crease

 

Folding the 1st crease to the 2nd line and gluing the overlap shut

 

Finished seam creases

 

 

So with all the seams pressed, I was ready to start stitching the seams. The book shows 2 parallel rows of stitches; one along each edge of the overlap. I made an extra practice seam on the opposite end of my sail cloth to try to get the hang of using a needle and thread. My wife is kind of excited that we may actually sit together and stitch some day! This is pretty tiny work and it needs to look good on both sides of the sail. My Optivisor sure would be handy for this, but it's in storage somewhere. My boss at work has let me borrow his magnifying head band that he uses for changing batteries in his watch collection. They really do help and I'm thankful.  Using the plastic lenses makes me appreciate even more the clarity of the optical glass lenses in the Optivisor. Can't recommend those enough!

 

So my sorry little practice sewing began and I quickly found out several things:

1) It's hard to make tiny stitches that look good on both sides.

2) Regular sewing thread is too big to look right at this scale.

3) Cheap household scissors do not cut thread very well.

4) Small thread that looks dark enough on a spool looks much lighter when used in small stitches.

5) You can spend a lot of money in a stitchery store, but they have some cool tools for this sort of work!

 

So here's part of my $40 haul at the stitchery store. The Inspira micro-tip embroidery scissors are a joy to use. The finger loops easily accommodate my Sasquatch fingers and they snip thread more cleanly than the cataract scissors from Model Expo. The Inspira scissors were only a little over $9 and you really need these! The special pencil allows you to mark fabric and the marks disappear after a few days. They can also be erased if you make a mistake. Regular pencil lead is hard to erase from fabric- I am going to have to do some careful washing once I finish stitching to get rid of some of my initial pencil markings. This marking pencil leaves a fat mark and I'm not sure how much I'll be using it. It's a bit pricey at about $20, but it comes with extra "lead" and a very cool twist to extend eraser. The folding stitch puller is handy for removing stitch mistakes, but is a tad large for the size stitches I'm making. I have mostly been using the tip of my needle to loosen and remove mistakes. It is a bit comforting to know that stitching mistakes are common enough that tools have been made to remove them!

 

 

 

So, here's some practice stitches. The stitches closest to the edge are done with regular sewing thread and they look very bulky to me. This polyester thread looked very thin on the spool, and I'm surprised how huge it looks on the sail. The next bit of stitches is still a bit bulky to my eye and the color disappears into to sail's color. I was surprised by that since the thread color has a nice contrast with the sail when its on the spool. This is Mettler brand No. 50 "silk finish" embroidery thread from the stitchery shop. The 3rd bit of stitches is using Mettler No. 60 "fine embroidery" thread and its size looks good to me. I'm thinking that the color is a tad too dark, but the next lighter color in brownish earthy tones that the store I got it from has is much lighter. In this thread size, most of the colors are very bright vibrant colors. I am going to look around a little more to see if I can find another color in that size of thread. This stitching is going to take a long time so I want to find a color I won't have 2nd thoughts about.

 

Three different thread sizes and colors.

 

 

Sorry for writing a book. Hope everyone is doing well. 

 

Best wishes,

 

 

 

 

 

[Shazmira]

Glad to see you are still alive and kicking! I undestand your pain on the house not selling yet, I am in the same boat myself, I have had 2 offers and actually thought I had it sold, then they couldn't get financing  , so back to waiting again.

 

I like your approach to the sail making, of your three samples above, I like the third one, the one on the right. I don't think it is too dark of thread myself, but if you want one that blends better then the color in the middle looks good to me.

 

have fun with the sewing endeavor!

[md1400cs]

Hi Buck,

 

Nice to see that you are back, good luck with your house and other things going on.....Sail looks excellent

 

Michael

[augie]

Good luck on the sail.  Glad to see you found a way to stimulate the economy in the 'fiber arts' store.

 

And best wishes on the house situation!

[Salty Sea Dog]

Hi Shaz! Hoping your house sells soon too. We had a showing today and my wife said they were really excited about the house. Fingers crossed! My heart sank when your Syren went astray.

 

Hi Michael! Thanks for the kind words. The crispness of the details you continue to get on your Wasa still boggles me!

 

Hi Augie! I think our wives already support the entire fiber arts industry without our help! Still playing catch up on the encyclopedia you call a build log! Your Confederacy is looking terrific btw!

[NAZGÛL]

Great to see you've got time to work on this again Buck! The sail looks great and I will look at this when I get to mine.

 

I hope you find a good house.

 

 

/Matti

[Bindy]

Hi there,

 

And thank you for the "book" and every piece of knowledge and experience you are sharing!

 

Good luck with your house sale, it must be very tough on you and the whole family including the four legged members haha.

[manannan]

Yes, Buck, that is exactly where an ax would be stowed for emergencies, in the event a"Nantucket sleigh ride" went wrong. A"sleigh ride' is when an enraged harpooned whale towed a whaleboat many miles at speeds that could reach 12 knots. When the whale tired, then the harpooner moved in for the kill.

Don't forget to include two tubs of line. One was the main tub, while the second was a spare. Other equipment were spare harpoons, marking flags, that were poles with a red flag that were driven into a dead whale, so that the mother ship could spot the dead floating whale from a distance. Don't forget a furled sail, bailing buckets, a fresh water cask, a loggerhead at the stern, where the line was wrapped when the boat was towed and a grapnel at the bow of the boat. A whale boat was usually equipped with five seats with stripes painted on the blade of each oar to indicate when the oar was to rowed.

A whale boat was made from rot resistant cedar only a !/2 inch thick. Six whalemen pulled the boat with oars from 14 to 18 feet long, that could propel the craft at a top speed of 6 knots.

The whale line was coiled in tubs near the centerboard, passed around a loggerhead at the stern, then strung forward through a chock at the bow, where it could be plaid out in the wake of a rampaging whale.

Hope this helps you in your build.

 

Montani semper liberi. Happy modeling to all and every one of you.

Crackers     

hey just want to say this is awesome thanks 

[NAZGÛL]

Buck, do a diorama of that!

 

 

/Matti

[Salty Sea Dog]

Hi Matti,

That would be pretty cool! The painting that Crackers posted really makes you wonder how anyone would think it was a good idea to hunt such huge creatures in a little boat. I don't know if my sculpting and painting abilities (or lack of!) could pull off a rendition that would do that scene justice. I wish I had your amazing painting skills!

 

Thanks for stopping by Lawrence, Bindy and manannan and Matti!

 

Best wishes,

Edited March 5, 2014 by Salty Sea Dog

[NAZGÛL]

Yeah it must've been horrific at times... Thanks mate, but it's your amazing detail work that's amazing!

 

 

/Matti

[@macbride]

buck,

 

just looked through your build log - beautiful work, very inspiring!!

sorry about the rough times life has dealt you.  I find that having my mind & hands occupied

helps time pass in a more positive way. 

Cheers from one tiny dog to another!

 

All the best,

 

Andy

[Mirabell61]

Hi everybody. Sorry for the really long delay in posting. I haven't been doing much modeling for some time now. Still working in Colorado waiting for the house to sell in Kansas so my wife and dogs can join me here. We looked into places to rent or lease-to-purchase here, but having 3 dogs puts a big limit on what is available. It's been nearly half a year now but we're very hopeful that next month our house will sell there and we can then buy here.

 

But let's get back to the boat! With all of my tools in storage I decided to work on the sail. I figured all I would need is some thread and a needle. No sweat, a couple of dollars tops. Umm. The cloth that came with my whaleboat kit was way too coarse. At scale it was more like a net than sail cloth! So I found some nice cloth that is about 72 threads per inch and bought a spool of thread. Less than 5 bucks - no biggie. In Model Expo's "To Build A Whaleboat" book, they show a method of making a sail where you simulate seams by folding a zig-zag pattern in the fabric. This is done by making closely spaced parallel lines at the sail's 'seams' and folding the fabric along the first line and then positioning the edge of that fold on top of the second line and then pressing it flat. This creates an overlap that looks pretty convincing. The book says to make the parallel lines 1/4" apart which results in a 1/8" overlap, but since that is for the New Bedford Whaleboat kit that is nearly twice the size as my kit, I made the lines 1/8" apart for overlaps that are 1/16" wide. A little white glue was put into the overlap with a toothpick before the final pressing to help hold it together for a very flat look. I have a little steel bar that I used as an 'iron' to press the creases and overlaps nice and crisp (no heat used).

 

Lines marked out and starting the 1st crease

Sail 1.jpeg

 

Pressing the 1st crease

Sail 2.jpeg

 

Folding the 1st crease to the 2nd line and gluing the overlap shut

Sail 3.jpeg

 

Finished seam creases

Sail 4.jpeg

 

 

So with all the seams pressed, I was ready to start stitching the seams. The book shows 2 parallel rows of stitches; one along each edge of the overlap. I made an extra practice seam on the opposite end of my sail cloth to try to get the hang of using a needle and thread. My wife is kind of excited that we may actually sit together and stitch some day! This is pretty tiny work and it needs to look good on both sides of the sail. My Optivisor sure would be handy for this, but it's in storage somewhere. My boss at work has let me borrow his magnifying head band that he uses for changing batteries in his watch collection. They really do help and I'm thankful.  Using the plastic lenses makes me appreciate even more the clarity of the optical glass lenses in the Optivisor. Can't recommend those enough!

 

So my sorry little practice sewing began and I quickly found out several things:

1) It's hard to make tiny stitches that look good on both sides.

2) Regular sewing thread is too big to look right at this scale.

3) Cheap household scissors do not cut thread very well.

4) Small thread that looks dark enough on a spool looks much lighter when used in small stitches.

5) You can spend a lot of money in a stitchery store, but they have some cool tools for this sort of work!

 

So here's part of my $40 haul at the stitchery store. The Inspira micro-tip embroidery scissors are a joy to use. The finger loops easily accommodate my Sasquatch fingers and they snip thread more cleanly than the cataract scissors from Model Expo. The Inspira scissors were only a little over $9 and you really need these! The special pencil allows you to mark fabric and the marks disappear after a few days. They can also be erased if you make a mistake. Regular pencil lead is hard to erase from fabric- I am going to have to do some careful washing once I finish stitching to get rid of some of my initial pencil markings. This marking pencil leaves a fat mark and I'm not sure how much I'll be using it. It's a bit pricey at about $20, but it comes with extra "lead" and a very cool twist to extend eraser. The folding stitch puller is handy for removing stitch mistakes, but is a tad large for the size stitches I'm making. I have mostly been using the tip of my needle to loosen and remove mistakes. It is a bit comforting to know that stitching mistakes are common enough that tools have been made to remove them!

 

Tools 1.jpeg

 

Tools 2.jpeg

 

So, here's some practice stitches. The stitches closest to the edge are done with regular sewing thread and they look very bulky to me. This polyester thread looked very thin on the spool, and I'm surprised how huge it looks on the sail. The next bit of stitches is still a bit bulky to my eye and the color disappears into to sail's color. I was surprised by that since the thread color has a nice contrast with the sail when its on the spool. This is Mettler brand No. 50 "silk finish" embroidery thread from the stitchery shop. The 3rd bit of stitches is using Mettler No. 60 "fine embroidery" thread and its size looks good to me. I'm thinking that the color is a tad too dark, but the next lighter color in brownish earthy tones that the store I got it from has is much lighter. In this thread size, most of the colors are very bright vibrant colors. I am going to look around a little more to see if I can find another color in that size of thread. This stitching is going to take a long time so I want to find a color I won't have 2nd thoughts about.

 

Three different thread sizes and colors.

Sail 5.jpeg

 

Sail 6.jpeg

 

Sorry for writing a book. Hope everyone is doing well. 

 

Best wishes,

 

 

 

Great lesson Buck,

 

thanks for sharing, it is a lovely boat you are presenting to all of us

 

Nils

[Salty Sea Dog]

Hi Andy!

Thanks for stopping by and for the kind words. The little dogs say hi, but the big one, well she gets a little jealous sometimes...

 

 

 

Hi Nils!

 

Thanks for the kind words!

[Salty Sea Dog]

Woo-hoo!! We have a house in Colorado now! It will probably take a month to unpack the 3 pods and get a dry dock established, but that's ok.

The view from the deck:

[Littlebob]

You have a great build going here, so many details in such a small area.

[augie]

Congrats!  Best of luck setting up the new digs.

[Salty Sea Dog]

Thanks Robert! That's a handsome dog in your avatar - Shepard mix?

 

Hi Augie! Hope you have been doing ok come hail and high water!