The Charles W. Morgan was built in 1841 at the Hillman Brothers' Shipyard on the Acushnet River in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She cost $52,000 and was registered at 351 tons. During her 80 years of service, she caught and processed more whales than any other whaler in history. Her active days ended in 1921 with the decline of whale oil prices. The Charles W. Morgan was purchased for Mystic Seaport Museum in 1941, restored, and displayed there as a monument to the men who built and sailed her.

If the Charles W. Morgan kit were built true to the plans and instructions provided it would depict the whaler as she appeared between 1892 and 1908.

The models specifications are as follows;
Model Shipways Kit No. 2140
Skill Level...Advanced
Length...30-3/4"
Height...27-7/8"
Width...10-1/8"
Scale...3/16" = 1 ft. (1:64 )

Wooden Parts: Most wood supplied with this kit is basswood, there is no plywood in this kit. The precut wooden parts are all laser cut. You will find 16 sheets of laser cut parts in various thickness. 7 of these sheets will contain the small whale boats which is built in the bread-n-butter style. 1 of these sheets is cherry, amongst its various parts are the deck gratings which are very small. There are 6 different sizes of dowels, 21 different sizes of wood strips, plus additional wood sheets. The deadeyes and blocks are made from walnut and there are 3 different sizes of each; deadeyes, singe blocks, and double blocks. The frame work of the hull consist of 15 bulkheads, a two part center keel, a two part keel, sternpost, and stem. All of which is laser cut from solid wood so care must be taken so that the frame structure doesn't warp during construction. There is no false deck so the deck planks will be applied right over the bulkhead frames, again care must be taken so as not to end up with wavy planks since there will not be a solid backing to lay the planks on. The mast and spars are not pre tapered so you will have to shape them yourself. All the deck structures are built and planked from wood strips. If you would prefer not to build the deck structures this way then wood sheets are provided so they can be cut out instead. The hull is single planked so no second planking is supplied, but if you chose to add a second layer of planking, the instructions are included to do so.

Metal Fittings: All the metal fittings are either Britannia or brass. These include a lot of fittings; windlass barrel, billet head, stern eagle, bench vise, grindstone, chocks, cleats, tackle hooks, and line tubs, just to name a few. The fitting's aren't to bad, some of them will require some cleaning, also some of them will require being replaced, which for the most part, isn’t to hard to do as far as making your own. You get two different sizes of chains, bass wire, and one size of copper wire. 1/4" tape comes with the kit for coppering below the waterline, but it is to big as the correct scale is 7/32" not 1/4". You could either trim it down to size or replace it with the right size of tape.

Rigging: The rigging line comes in black and manila hemp. It is made from a cotton/poly mix. I will give you the sizes and stock no. cause you may want to order extra. There is no sail cloth provided and there are no actual sail plans, but if you are good at making them then you could do it with what they do show. No flags are provided so they will have to be made by following the instructions.

WP1218.... 0.008" Dia. Black
WP1210.... 0.021" Dia. Black
WP1211.... 0.028" Dia. Black
WP1215.... 0.040" Dia. Black
WP1241.... 0.008" Dia. Manila Hemp
WP1242.... 0.021" Dia. Manila Hemp

Instructions and Plans: The kit comes with a 40 page nicely detailed instruction manual. (English is the only language.) It doesn't have progress photos in it but has a lot on instructional diagrams instead. There are 6 sheets of very well done plans. Plans are as follows; 1.Laser Patterns, 2.P-O-B Hull, 3.Hull Plan, 4.Hull & Spar Details, 5.Rigging Profile, 6.Rigging Sections. The plans are designed so that you can take measurements straight from the plans and transfer them right over to the model.

Details: This kit offers a lot of detail and a lot of scratch building. With all the building required for this kit, coupled with all the available pictures of the actual ship, this build offers a lot possible approaches on how to build it. I myself am going with the weathered approach. Mine is more of a combination of what the Morgan looks like today, and also the look of still being an active working ship. As far as displaying you will need to get the base and pedestals yourself cause they are not provided in the kit.

This is my point of view of this kit so far. Despite all the hard work and scratch building that it takes to build this kit, it has been the most enjoyable kit that I have ever had the pleasure of working with. I also have some progress reports to go along with this, but since I’m still learning the layout of this forum, so I’m not sure if they should be posted here, or somewhere else within the forum.

Hi Gerald,
I see by your pics that you finished the copper bottom.
Did you use the copper tape included in the kit?
If so, what was your experience working with it?
Rick Yetter

Hi Rick,

I didn't use the tape provided with the kit as it was the wrong size. Instead I bought some extra copper tape of the 7/32" size, and cut them into individual plates 3/4" long. I started applying them at the stern/keel, working my way forward and upward to the waterline, overlapping as they should be. Your suppose to mark all the plate lines in pencil first, but I only marked the lines where the run of the plates changed course.

Once I finished, and was satisfied with the layout of the plates, I cleaned the coppering with Brasso and alcohol. After cleaning I applied two coats of satin polyurethane. I didn't steel wool it after-wards because the copper tape I used has a silver backing and it doesn't take much for it to show through. So instead I used ''Formby's- cleansing liquid'' to clean the finished copper, then I used ''Formby's- buffing cream'' to smooth out the roughness left behind by the polyurethane. Then I again cleaned it with alcohol.

This seemed to work quite well, the edges of the tape has stayed in place, as I hoped it would, and I have handled it quite often since, and have had no problems with fingerprints.

Regards,
Gerald :build:

Gerald,
Fantastic, your work on the Charles W. Morgan is very well done :thumbup: . The Morgan (Kit by AL) was my first ship, the project took a while I was biting off more than I could chew. I do not think the forum was on line at that time of my project but I could have really used it. The Charles Morgan is a wonderful ship to study :paper: , as you mentioned the original cost was $52,000 and you can add that she netted $56,000 on her first voyage. When she stopped sailing in 1921, her total proceeds were over $1,400,000; WOW :joy: what a ship. While visiting Mystic Seaport, a while ago I went on the Charles W. Morgan and learned even more. She has deck prisms all over to give light to the deck below and also very interesting in the original construction a steam engine was place in the bow area to operate the windlass for hoisting the anchor. Good idea but it set the sails on fire so it was quickly done away with and the ratchet mechanism was installed. This is necessary for you, get the book "The Charles W. Morgan" by John F. Leavitt, published by Mystic Seaport Museum, Inc., Mystic, Connecticut 06355. The book has intimate details of the ship, voyages, and crew; you will not be disappointed.

Charlie

Hi Charlie,

Thanks for the comment. I didn't know that book was even available. It would make for some interesting reading. Don't think it would help to much in the building part though, as I am much farther along than what the album shows. I have to wait to post more of the pictures that I have. But I'm still interested in reading it.

I can imagine how overwhelming this ship could be for a beginner, but you've obviously showed that it can be done.

Regards'
Gerald :build:

Gerald,
Thank you for you comments and support. In my photo album for the Charles W. Morgan I added the deck prism with info and a water color painting I purchased while at Mystic Seaport, hope you enjoy.
Charlie

Thanks Charlie,

I love that watercolor, nice painting, and also the Pride paintings. So, any idea what you would make a prism out of? Although they would be so small, that on the Morgan they would be pretty hard to see, but they would still be an interesting feature if added. MS supplied these for the Pride kit, I wonder why they didn't supply them for Morgan. :-k

Regards,
Gerald :build:

Hi Gerald,
I hope that you won't mind if I ask you questions about the Model Shipways Charles W Morgan kit.
I may make it my next build.
I'm inspired by your amazing work.
Rick

Hi Rick,

Thank you for the inspiring comment. I have no problem with trying to answer any question you may have. :=) I should go ahead and include some of my progress reports, as they may answer some of your questions ahead of time. I also wrote a How-To-Guide On Building the Tryworks, if anyone is interested.

Regards,
Gerald :build:

Building of the Hull Structure:

Now I did not take pictures of the building of the bulkheads or the planking of the hull. It was after this point that I started taking pictures. But, I will describe that part as best I can.

For the first part of the build I pretty much followed the kit instructions. Because this was going to be my first time of doing single planking on a hull, I wanted to make sure I did things right. I was a little worried, cause I was use to having a second layer to cover up my mistakes, in this kit there is no second layer. :yikes:

The bulkheads and center keel assembly went together quite well. Just need to do a small amount of sanding in the center slots to get some of them to fit correctly, but that was minor. I squared the bulkheads with some small squares that I have. I also placed wooden spacers in between the bulkheads for added strength and stability, as shown in http://shipmodeling.net/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1873/cat/632 . I had no problem with the keel being warped so the keel and the stern post fit nicely. I tapered the stem according to the plans and it also fit on nicely. After getting the framing built, I cut the rabbet into the stem, keel, and sternpost, using a #11 blade. For being the first time of cutting in rabbet, well, that’s exactly what it looked like, my first time. But, it worked out in the end. So all in all, I was quite happy with the way the framing went together straight out of the box. Oh, don’t forget to add the covers to the mast slots, very important.

Now, here is the part that gave me fits. There are 5 pieces that need to be carved and shaped. Four of them are the bow and stern filler blocks. I had to give these a few tries before coming up with an easier way of doing them. Instead of trying to shape the whole piece all at once, I cut the block wood into smaller pieces. Then piece-by-piece I got the filler blocks in place. The 5th piece is the counter block, this one wasn’t so hard, and I got lucky and succeeded my first try.

I also installed the planksheer and waterway at this stage. The planksheer was easy to install, the waterway need to be shaped at an angle prior to being installed. I used my block plane to this, by clamping the plane in my bench vise. Then I carefully drug the wood strip over the blade several times until I got the required angle. You can also see these here; http://shipmodeling.net/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1873/cat/632 . These two pieces I went ahead and added at this stage because it was going to add strength to the bulkhead tabs, therefore helping to prevent them from breaking off during the planking of the hull. The instruction also wants you to add the bulwark stanchions, knightheads, timberheads, and railing at this stage. But, I felt it to be safer to do that after planking the lower part of the hull up to the planksheer.

Notes:

When building this kit I do a lot of referring to actual photos of the Morgan.
Here is a link to the photos: http://www.modelshipwrights.net/World/Mystic%20Seaport/C_W_Morgan/index.htm

Also, there is to be quite a bit of scratch building to this kit. If, you plan to do more scratch building than what is required by the manual and plans, then be prepared to buy more wood.

Regards,
Gerald :build:

Wow Gerald,
Your descriptions are great. It really makes me want to get that kit down off my shelf!
I finally remembered where I saw your work before. I jumped over there and checked out your gallery again.
I hope someday I can do that kind of work.
The try-works are exceptional!
Rick

Thanks Rick,

My Photo Album here is now up to date to where I am at the present time with this build. I've got to tell you Rick, it's a lot of fun to build this kit.

Regards,
Gerald :build:

Hull Planking:

Planking the hull went a lot smoother than I thought it would. Using narrow basswood strips, cut down in length, made this process a lot easier than using full-length planks. The only full-length plank I used, was the Garboard Strake: (Plank adjacent to the keel.) This was the first plank that I installed. This is the plank that fits into the rabbet along the keel and the lower part of the stem & stern. I left this plank full length for added strength in this area. From the Garboard Strake on up to the Wale: (A heavy layer of strakes below the Sheer Strake) I cut the planks to the length required by the manual. I also followed the shifting pattern, as shown in the manual. This kit (as with most) requires tapering of the planks at the bow & stern. Not quite so much tapering at the stern, this area mostly required some careful shaping in order to get the planks to lay nicely at the connection of the Counter: ( Underside of the portion overhanging the stern.) This is how my stern area turned out: http://shipmodeling.net/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1867/cat/632

The bow area will require tapering. The way that worked for me was to dry fit the plank adjacent to the plank that it will be glued next to. I would start this at Amidships: (in or toward the middle part of a vessel.) and slowly run my fingers along the plank, making sure it was tight with the adjacent plank. It would soon come to a point that it was going to have to overlap. At this point I would mark the point of overlap with a pencil, and from that pencil line I would taper to the end, leaving the ends no smaller than 2 mil wide. I did have a little problem in this area, and had to use some filler to fix it: http://shipmodeling.net/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1866/cat/632

The wale on the Morgan is not your typical wale that protrudes outward from all the rest of the planks. This wale is actually part of the lower planks. The planks above the wale are thinner than the lower plank, therefore creating the wale. In http://shipmodeling.net/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1868/cat/632 You can clearly see the wale, plank sheer, and the top two rails. Then I planked from the wale up to the plank sheer using the thinner planks.

Next came the part of adding the stanchions. I took measurements from the plans for the height of the stanchions and installed them according to the manual, and then I installed the rails. The planks between the plank sheer and the rails are even thinner than the ones between the wale and the planksheer, so be careful. Once done it’ll be stronger than it looks.

Also at this time was the inboard planking of the ceiling planks. I ended up doing this twice. The first time I did the ceiling planks, they didn't turn out right, didn't have the curvature that it should have had. So, I sanded them down real thin and got the curvature that I wanted then re-planked over top of it. You can see the outcome of this in http://shipmodeling.net/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1872/cat/632
The manual gives full instructions on how to plank the hull using planking battens and belts, it just isn't the way that I did it. If anything that I write seems a little strange and out of context to the standard rules of ship modeling, then please bear with me, as these writings are based on how I built the Morgan, not on how someone else has or would have built it. I encourage everyone to search the Forum for different ways of proceeding with the various building aspects of ship modeling, as there are many number of ways explained throughout the Forum by many, many modelers.

Notes:

Sheer Strake: Upper line of planking on a hull.

I have given the meaning to several of the ship modeling terms above for those new to ship modeling. If there are terms use that you do not understand then please refer to the Glossary section in the Forum.

Regards,
Gerald :build:

Gerald,

The deck prism that I have is an exact reproduction of the same ones found on the Charles W. Morgan. The prisms are installed in the center of a deck plank and the large flat side mounted smooth with the deck. The prism has six sides, is four inches flat edge to parallel flat edge, and is five inched from the Deck surface (flat side) to point of the prism. They are made by pouring molten glass into a mould. When I was on the Morgan’s deck the prisms are not noticeable to the point that they would say, “Here I am” but as you walk around they become apparent, it is a great concept to give light to the deck below during the day and not using candles or lanterns.

Charlie

Hi Charlie,

Something like this. http://www.modelshipwrights.net/World/Mystic%20Seaport/C_W_Morgan/pages/Deck-Detail.htm

Regards,
Gerald :build:

The Niagara also had them. Pretty cool.

http://shipmodeling.net/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/432/size/big

http://shipmodeling.net/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/449/size/big

http://shipmodeling.net/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/443/size/big

The question is, were these on the original ships?

Dave

Well Dave, I'm not really sure. I'm guessing they were, but I don't know. I guess we'll see what Charlie says.

Gerald

Deck Planking :

Planking the deck went almost as well as the hull did. One thing that I may do differently the next time is add balsa wood in-between the bulkheads instead of just a small brace. The reason being, is that when planking the hull the curvature helps to hold the plank in the desired position because of the tension it provides, so one doesn't give it a lot of though. Planking the deck in the same manner of having nothing between the bulkheads nor a false deck, as most kits provide, is a different story. More care has to be taken to avoid low spots and to prevent the planking from running off course and becoming wavy. So therefore, I thing a solid surface for fastening the deck is the better way to go. It not only would be better for the deck, but would also provide more benefit to the hull planking as well. Another reason I say between the bulkheads is that if one were to substitute and put a false deck on top of a Model Shipways framing structure it would surely throw the scale of everything above the deck out of its scale height. Unless thinner planking were to be used on top of the false deck so the final outcome of the deck is no thicker than originally required. As such, I did eventually end up doing something similar to this, and it worked out great.

I cut the planks to a length so that they would reach the distance of 5 bulkheads, starting at the transom in the center along the center keel. The shift pattern that I used, was a continental variation of a three plank shift, as I was unable to determine the actual shift pattern on the real Morgan. This shift pattern is shown on page 99 of Wolfram zu Mondfelds book Historic Ship Models. After the planks were in place, I drilled two holes at the end of each plank, using the angled pattern shown in the pictures of the real Morgan. I then inserted small treenails that I made using a draw-plate. I would tell you the size of these holes and treenails, but I really don’t know the size of them. All I can say is that they are the size of a needle. http://shipmodeling.net/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1875/cat/632 I made some mistakes the first time I planked this deck. The fist mistake I made, was I thought I could use dark carpenters glue to simulate the deck caulking, did not work. The second was the finish, the color was off (Golden Pecan Stain), and I had to much of a sheen to it, http://shipmodeling.net/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1887/cat/632 , so I decided to re-plank the deck.

I sanded down the original deck to get rid of the finish that I had on it, and to the point that I felt it to be safe enough to add a thin layer of planks over top the original deck. To simulate the caulking this time, I used a #4B art pencil to darken only one side edge and one end of each plank. I applied the planks to the deck the same way as before. This corrected the caulking problem. The finish was done differently than before. I applied two light coats of Drift-Wood Stain to the deck, and once dry, I lightly steel-wooled it. I then used some earth-tone pastels to get the finishing effect that I now have on the deck. Worked out very well. http://shipmodeling.net/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1926/cat/632

I used three shades of my weathering pastels to help give it the look that it has. I used a mid-tone brown on the whole deck, then added a lighter-tone (almost orange in color) though the middle of each plank. The darker shade I used around all the edges of everything that's setting on the deck, and at the ends of each plank. Before I added any structures to the deck, I sprayed the deck with two coats of a matte finish. I also stained the waterways with water based walnut stain, once that dried I blended the mid-tone brown with it. When I'm finished with everything and ready for the masting, then I'll have to give it all another coat of matte finish to make sure the pastels stay in place, and don’t smudge.

Here is a diagram of the Plank Shift pattern that I used, this may not be historically correct, but it is what I used. http://shipmodeling.net/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/2163

Something else that could be done instead of adding a false deck or balsa-wood, would be to build the actual deck framing. After all, it would be much more correct with the framing.

Regards,
Gerald :build:

Hi Gerald:
Very impressed with your Morgan. I just started to build and have gotten a lot of valuable info from your posts and photos. I am interested in your "Tri-works" building guide. What is the availabliity? Also, the pastels that you mention for the deck - are they standard artist chalk pastels?
Pat

Hi Pat,

Thank you for your comment, and I'm glad my postings have been helpful. It's great to find someone else building the Morgan, it is a great building experience. The pastels I use are Earth Tone Soft Pastels that can be bought at an art store, "Alphacolor" http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.asp?MerchantID=RET01229&Action=Catalog&Type=Product&ID=60762 . These include reds, browns, yellows, and black. I also use "Doc O'Brien's Weathering Powders that I get through Micro-Mark, http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.asp?MerchantID=RET01229&Action=Catalog&Type=Product&ID=81632 .

As far as the "Try-Works" Building Guide, it is free to anyone to use, I have meant to put it on the site, and apparently I forgot to do so. #-o I will be posting the guide here very soon. Until I do get it posted, you can get to the guide here, http://forum.drydockmodels.com/viewtopic.php?p=29408#29408 I also have more information about how I use the pastels for weathering, that I need to get posted.

Regards,
Gerald :build:

Thanks Gerald.

You know, every time I look at your photos I find something I missed. I guess it has a lot to do with the particular element(s) I am currently working on. I did cut the rabbet tonight using an idea that came to me yesterday. I used a RotoZip with fences clamped at appropiate places for the straight cuts. I set the depth to 1/16" and cut very slowly. I have still to taper the stern from the bearding line to the rabbet, but do not anticipate any problem with it. Of course I have nothing to compare the outcome to, this being my first rabbet cutting, however, based on what I think it should look like I'm pleased with the result.

Your earlier response about tapering the stem falls in line with what I deduced from both the plans and reasoning.

It is very generous of you to supply the Tri-works building guide free of charge. I thank you very much. I'm sure I will have a bazillion questions as I proceed with the build. Is there any particular reason that you became interested in the Morgan?

Thanks, Pat

Fellow Shipmodelers,

Here is the first installment of the Building Guide of the Try-works.

To begin with, you get two thin sheets of basswood in the kit. Mostly I used the smallest sheet (1/32”x 2”x 24”) for most of the building that I did in this kit, and I have run out. For this reason I have made a slight change in the plan to help save you some of this sheet stock. I used the 1/32” (.75 mm) thick sheet for the entire base structure. The change I made is, instead of using this small sheet for the Floor Base; use the 1/16” (1.5 mm) thick sheet instead.

First of all cut all four sides, and four corner braces. Glue the four sides and the corner braces together, being sure to keep it square while it dries. After this is dry, cut the floor base to fit, and install it .5 mm below the top edge of the base. The reason is that this is half the thickness of the bricks, and we want the brick lying to start below the surface. The total size of the base should be a 45 x 45 mm square. You can either butt the joints together as in the diagram, or miter them; the choice is up to you.

Now that you have that finished, it’s time to cut the bricks. If I figured correctly, it took approximately 450 brick to build this. OK, this is the tricky part. The bricks are 1 x 2 x 4 mm; you do not get strips this size in the kit. So, what you need to do is take 1/16”x 3/32” strips and sand them down to the correct size. If you have built ships before, then you may have some extra strips that are already the correct size. To cut them to the length of (4 mm long) I used a chopper, you may not have one of these. So, you will need to set up some way of cutting these to length, and you have to make sure the edges are cut square. I’ve included a small indication of how to do this on the diagram. Once you have something in place, then, do not make any adjustments to it until the bricklaying is finished.

Card stock is to be used for spacing in-between the bricks. Have plenty on hand, because it doesn’t take long for the piece of card to get glue clogged up on it. The more glue that gets on the card, the wider the spaces become, we don’t want that to happen. Once the bricks are cut, the first ones to be laid in place are the bricks for the front row. Now the bricks will rise above the top edge of the base. For this front row, you will need to sand the bricks down flush with this edge. Now remember, the front row has a space between the baseboard and the brick. Once the front row is finished you can lay the first layer of brick around the inside of the base, right up against the baseboard. Do not sand these bricks flush. The back part of the base where it rises in height, does not get any bricks, it is left open for now.

That’s the end of the first installment. I’ll be happy to try and answer any questions you may have.

http://shipmodeling.net/photopost/showphoto4073.html

Regards,
Gerald :build:

Fellow Shipmodelers,

Here is second installment of the Building Guide of the Try-works.

Now that the base is complete, you can start laying the brick. For now we’ll only go up 7 brick high. The bricks are 2mm wide, so in order to get the spacing between the bricks, card-stock cut into 1 mm strips will be glued to the back half of the rows of brick, as shown in diagram #2, leaving a 1mm gap in front of it. These strips are only glued to the top surface, there is no need to leave the strips in the end spaces. Make sure the rows run straight up and down. Work on one row at a time, cause you may need to do some light sanding to make the brick flush on top, but they do not necessarily need to be flush on the outer surface. If it’s to perfect, then it won’t look realistic. Caution: You will find that as you build these walls, they become very weak, so be very, very careful.

http://shipmodeling.net/photopost/showphoto/photo/4072/cat/655.html

Pay attention to diagram #3 as you lay the front rows. From corner to door opening should be 13mm. The door openings should be 4 mm. Because of the oddness of size, I did not continue with the same bricklaying arrangement in-between the openings as I did on the outer sides. The diagram shows how I did this. Once you get row 7 finished, hopefully you’ll be very close to 9 mm high. Use a strip of 1/64”x1/16” brass that is supplied with the kit, and form them to fit in the doorway, top and sides only. The top of the strip should be flush with the 7th row of brick. After the brass strips are in place then lay another row of brick.

Now things begin to change slightly. As you can see in diagram #2, the next 3 rows of brick in the front, are 3 mm wide instead of 2 mm. The reason for this is that, the top four rows of brick step back 1 mm each successive row. We still need that 1 mm space in front, so we need to make these wider to accommodate for the stepping. You will also have to accommodate for this on the sides as well. The very top row will be normal.

http://shipmodeling.net/photopost/showphoto4071.html

Now we have to prepare for the top plate. On the inside of the walls there is to be a 1x2 mm strip glued to the second row of brick from the top. Make a mark from the inside surface of the back wall inward 3 mm. Place a 2x2 mm support brace at this mark. This is to support 2 different sections on the top. You should be able to lay a brick from the back wall to the middle of the support brace, and still have enough room left over to support the top plate. Once the braces are in place, use an old paintbrush and apply a coat of carpenters glue on the inside surface of the walls, make sure you don’t close up the outside gaps. After this dries, paint the inside lower half black. Believe me you’ll be glad you did this ahead of time. Now lay that top row of brick, on the support braces, being sure to space them. If done correctly, the holes for the smoke stacks will automatically be in place.

Cut the top plate to fit inside the remaining opening in the top. Use the 1/16” thick sheet of basswood for this, but don’t glue it in place yet. Next glue the cauldrons together, glue the 4 halves together, and then glue both cauldrons to each other. Turn the cauldrons upside down, and center them on the top plate. Trace around them to get the cutout line. Now, when you cut the opening in the top plate, try to cut it at an angle. So when the cauldrons are set inside the cutout, they won’t fall through. Once you get them to set together good, and then glue the cauldrons to the plate. If it will make you feel more secure, you can glue footpads to the floor base for the cauldrons to rest on when put in place, make sure you paint these black. When you’re ready, then glue the top plate in place. Now you add the trim pieces to the top. 1x1 mm trim sets on top of the brick around the top plate, and the back edge of the plate, and 1x2 mm trim on the back and sides of the back row of brick, as shown in the top view in diagram #3.

That is the basic structure of the Try-works. The next installment I’ll explain the metal work and the painting and finishing of it. I really hope I’m doing a good enough job of explaining this and that it is clear and understandable.

Regards,
Gerald :build:

Fellow Shipmodelers,

Here is the third and final installment of the Building Guide of the Tryworks.

Now you get to fill-in the gaps between the bricks. But, before you can do that, stain the baseboards walnut, and you need to paint the brick. I suggest using enamel paint for this. I used acrylic, what a mistake that was! But after you get the brick painted, and it is dry, use sparkling to fill-in the gaps, wipe off the excess, and let it thoroughly dry. After the Spackle is dry, paint the 1x2 mm trim around the top row of brick, black. Add the lid to the back duck pen, and either paint it or stain it.

Smoke stacks. You can either use the kit-supplied chimneys, or make them, but the choice is yours. The way that I made mine was to use .005 thick 36-gauge copper. Cut strips 42 mm long and at least 20 mm wide. These should go all the way to the floor base and still have about 21 mm sticking out the top. Wrap the copper around a strip of wood 1/8”x 3/16” (3x5 mm). Now this is not the best way to do this, but I glued this together with CA glue. The next thing is to cut 4 thin narrow 4 mm strips. One of these is wrapped around the stacks just above the bricks, and another one half way up. A note about the upper strip; if you want to make and include the basket that hangs in between the stacks, then you need to leave a gap big enough for the copper to fit between the stack and the trim. Do this to each stack. Now for the reason why CA glues is not the best way to go. The copper stacks are cleaned of any fingerprints, and thin heated over a flame to turn them a worn out black. The CA glue pops apart when it is heated, but if bent good enough, the stack will be fine, the trim pieces on the other hand will need to be re-glued. After you make the smokestacks set them aside for now.

Now lets do the fire doors. There’s not much to this, just drill holes in the door tabs for small wire to fit though. Cut a thin piece of wire long enough to be bent at the ends and fitted through the holes on the front of the Try-works, shown in diagram #3. Put the doors on the wire before bending both ends. Glue the wire into the holes, allowing it to stick out far enough for the doors to hang naturally. You can either have the doors open or closed.

Top Plate. You can either paint this area black, copper, or actually use copper as I did. If you chose to make you own chimneys, then I suggest applying real copper to the top plate. All you need to do is cut a piece of copper to lay on top of the plate, with the hole, cutout for the cauldrons. You should also make copper covers for the trim around the top plate. After you make these, blacken them the same as you did the chimneys, then glue them along with the chimneys, in place. Also add the corner strips to the baseboards.

Hmmmm....... that pesky little basket. This is made up of little strips of 1 mm copper. The best I can describe it is. Take a strip and bend it into a 4x4 mm square, this is the rim. Now make 3 pieces that will hang down from the rim, 4 mm deep, make them so they hook on to the square rim that you just made, spot glue them in place. Now take a strip about 30 mm long, run it through the inside of the rim, under the 3 basket pieces, then back up the other side. Get them adjusted, then glue. The long strip is then hooked into the gaps that were left in the trim of the chimneys. Use the finished photos in the gallery for visual guidance.

That’s it, the basic structure of the Try-works. Like I said before, I’ll be happy to try and answer any questions you may have, and good luck. :wink:

Regards,
Gerald :build: