USS Constitution by usedtosail - FINISHED - Model Shipways - scale 1/76

[usedtosail]

Thanks George and Tim, and the likes.

 

I finished adding the styrene trim strips to both quarter galleries. I glued most of them with CA glue, using strips of masking tape to hold them, but about half the time the strip would come up when I removed the masking tape.

 

 

I then switched to Hypo cement for these styrene strips, and what a difference. These stayed down after holding them for a few seconds, so no tape was needed. They seem much more secure too. I then used masking tape to extend the tops of the pilasters into the roof block and painted these areas white. I was going to use wood for these extensions but I did not like the way they were raised from the rest of the quarter gallery. Here is the completed port side QG:

 

 

 

I also decided not to extend the white stripe on the side of the hull to the quarter galleries, so they will not extend past the last gun port. I would be open to other opinions on this point, though.

 

Here is the starboard side, which I am still painting the pilaster extensions:

 

 

While that paint is drying, I have started to rig the cannons on the gun deck. I first made a jig to help assemble each cannon before placing them on the gun deck. I have a piece of wood that is the height of the cannon at the gun port, so I can set each cannon up at the same angle. I also have a hole in the base that I can use to drill a hole underneath the carriage for a pin that will go into the deck for each one. I can also use it to judge the size of the breaching rope as I make them. I am using rope I made with the ME rope walk for the breaching lines, which is pretty easy to work with, except that it wants to unravel. I use CA on each end, which also helps me thread it through the ring bolts on the ends and on the carriages. I first seize a ring bolt to one end, then thread the other end through both ring bolts on the carriage, then seize another ring bolt to the other end. I then open up the strands in the middle and slip them over the cascabel of the barrel. I may be making these ropes a little too short, but I will see how they look after I install a couple on the gun deck. here is the jig with a couple of guns in the works:

 

 

I only have 16 of these guns to rig, but working up against the walls of the gun deck will be interesting. I'll have updates of that as I go along.

[GLakie]

Nice work on those galleries Tom! I also like the barrel-height jig. As far as the stripe goes, I've always seen it extended to the galleries, but of course, that would be your call to make.

 

Cheers

[usedtosail]

Nope, that is exactly what I needed to hear, George. I will be extending them now. I think I was being a bit lazy.

[usedtosail]

OK George, first thing I did last night was mask off the area behind the last gun ports for the white strip. Each side got a first coat. This was after I removed the masking tape on the starboard side for the pilaster extensions.

 

 

Then it was back to those first two cannons for the gun deck. The girl got her first two teeth tonight. I glued the barrels and quoins to the carriages in the little jig I made, then added caps over the trunnions using black paper strips. I glued the guns into place using CA on the pins and white glue under the wheels. I am really happy how well those pins hold the guns in place, as I don't have to worry about them coming loose as I work around them. It is a little tricky getting them in place and flat to the deck, but some gentle bending of the pin gets the job done. Once in place, I drilled holes for the eye bolts on the ends of the breaching ropes and for eye bolts for the side and training tackles. The eye bolts on the breaching ropes were pretty hard to get into the holes, as they are short and wanted to twist in the tweezers. But after many attempts I was able to get them glued in. The other eye bolts were much easier to glue into place as they didn't have any line on them yet. I was then able to hook the tackles to these eye bolts and those on the carriages. This also took some practice as it was hard to keep enough tension on the tackle after the first hook was place while trying to get the second hook in place. Again, after a number of tries it got easier. Once the tackle was tightened the hooks stayed in place nicely. This is the first time I have made these tackles up before installing them and I found it much easier than trying to thread the tackle lines with the blocks already in place. I was also happy to see that I had enough distance between the blocks on the tackles, which was helped by adding the eye bolts towards the center of the area between the gun ports, which is how they are on the real ship today. I was also happy that the angle of the two barrels look about the same. Hopefully this will continue as I put the rest of them in place.

 

 

 

 

I still have to figure out how I want to finish those tackle lines, but I have some ideas I want to try out first. Two down, 14 yet to go.

[GLakie]

She looks fantastic Tom. Good method you've developed for rigging the cannon. Gonna have to remember that for when I start mine. Every month brings me that much closer, but I always get the "itch" every time I check on yours. 

 

Cheers

[usedtosail]

Thanks George. I can't wait for you to start either.

 

Well. here is the white stripe terminated at the quarter galleries. I am glad you got me to do this.

 

 

Assembling and rigging the gun deck cannons continues. Here are the first two, completed with rope coils.

 

 

I made up this jig to make the flat rope coils. I wanted them more oval shaped than round, so I used some brass rod to get the shape. I make the coils so they are close to the top of the rods to make it easier to get them off. I am using Dullcote lacquer to fix the shape of the coils, which is mostly successful. The coils do hold the shape but it takes a small bit of CA to hold them together. These coils are only a couple of turns because I would think the tackle lines wouldn't be really long.

 

 

And here is the present state. I still have to secure the breaching lines on the two right hand cannons and then add the tackles.

 

 

It is too nice a day here to go back into the basement, so maybe later tonight I will get back to it.

[GLakie]

She's getting her teeth and looking fantastic Tom! I like that rope-coil jig.  

 

Cheers

Edited April 12, 2015 by GLakie

[usedtosail]

Well, some trouble in the ship yard last night. I did manage to get all of the port side cannons installed and rigged, with just a few loose ends to cut off and rope coils to add tonight. I ran out of breaching rope for the starboard side guns, so I thought I would just whip up another length using the ME rope walk. Well, after much frustration the rope walk basically disintegrated. There was so much play in the gears that they kept binding and finally the handle just broke off. I tried taking it apart to see if I could get the gears to mesh better, but to no avail. I now have a choice to make. I can use some other rope I made that is not quite the same as the breaching lines on the port side, but looks similar, or I can wait. I did just order some rope from Chuck, so I can at least wait to see if that matches better than what I have. I also have an inquiry into Domanoff for his Prosak vertical rope walk, which looks pretty good. I was wondering if anyone has tried to use his rope walk horizontally, like the ME one. I could use the other end from the ME rope walk, which works fine, with it. I am thinking that even if this doesn't work, I can still use the Prosak as it was intended. Then again, I could just buy my rope from Chuck, but I kind of like making it too. Decisions, decisions...

 

I also have to be very careful around the hull now, because if I accidentally bump one of those cannon barrels it will most likely come loose from the carriage. Not a big deal now that I have access to them from above, but once I plank the spar deck it is going to be very difficult to get at them through the gun ports. I am wondering if I should have pinned the barrels to the carriages when I assembled them. Have people done this? It would require drilling a hole into the barrel from underneath, which shouldn't be hard since it is soft metal. I may try this for the starboard side guns.

[GLakie]

Chuck makes some really nice rope by all accounts, and I know he has sizes that pretty much match this scale, because a while back, I made a list of all the rope needed to completely replace all the supplied rope in the kit, and he has it.

[CaptainSteve]

Tom,

Not only will your Connie be as beautiful as the real thing, if you add the pins it seems she will be as strong !!

Edited April 15, 2015 by CaptainSteve

[usedtosail]

George I am pretty excited to see the ropes from Chuck. I am hoping his smaller ropes will look better when in blocks, as the stuff I have is kind of stiff and wants to stick out away from the blocks.

 

Steve - I don't know about that strong, but hopefully it will lessen the oops factors as I proceed.

 

Last night I did find some rope I had from an older kit that matches what I made really well, so I am using that for the starboard side breaching lines. Firstly, I tied up the loose ends (literally?) on the port side last night, so here ii is with all the rope coils installed:

 

 

From the outside, I am pretty happy with the alignment of the guns. The head on shot shows some reflection from deep inside the gun barrels that doesn't show up in real life:

 

 

 

I was able to drill into the underside of the barrels. I made a starter hole with a pin vise then put one of the barrels into my drill press vise and drilled deeper. This worked great except that these barrels are so soft that the vice kind of crushed the details on the sides of the barrel, so for the second barrel I drilled the whole hole by hand. I glued a piece of wire into that hole and will make a corresponding hole in the quoin for the other end. I suppose I should also pin the quoins down to the carriage, which I can do when installing them by just drilling through the quoin and the carriage base and putting a piece of wire through the holes. You can also see in this picture the how the line I found for the breaching ropes (right) compares to the line I made (left).

 

 

I am glad I can continue with the guns, but there is still many other pieces that I can work on if I had to wait. I ordered the line from Chuck yesterday and it has shipped today, so I would not have had to wait too long. That is great service. I also ended up ordering the rope walk to play with, but since that is coming from Russia I have a feeling it will take a little longer.

[GLakie]

She looks great with more teeth in her. That is a good idea pinning the cannon to the carriages. Less chance of them breaking off during all the handling that's to come yet. Were you thinking about pinning the carriages to the decks as well?

 

Cheers

[usedtosail]

Yes George, I pinned the port carriages to the deck and will be doing that on this side too. You can't see it in that last picture because the quoin is covering the pin.

[usedtosail]

Just a quick update. I assembled the first two cannons for the starboard side gun deck last night, pinning everything, and it worked great. I first used a barrel without a pin to locate the position of the quoin, then drilled a hole through the quoin and the carriage and put a piece of 28 gauge wire through with some CA on it, as well as CA on the underside of the quoin. I then put some pencil lead on the end of the pin in the barrel and used it to mark the location for a hole in the quoin for the barrel pin. I drilled that hole and glued the barrel in place with CA on the carriage at the trunnion cut outs, the barrel pin, and the underside of the barrel where it rests on the quoin. After the glue dried, this was a very solid assembly. I added the paper brackets and glued them onto the gun deck. Now I wish I had made the port side cannons this way. I will certainly use this method for all future cannon on this and following builds.

[GLakie]

Happy Birthday Tom! Hope it's a safe and happy one! 

 

Cheers

[Guest Tim I.]

Happy Birthday Tom!

 

- Tim

[CaptainSteve]

Happy Birthday, Tom !!!

 

(Did someone mention fairy-bread ??)

[usedtosail]

Thanks guys. BTW, its Nenads birthday today too.

 

I just got back from a week vacation in the San Francisco bay area, so no updates this week. We had a great time. Spent the second half of the week in wine country. Have some bottles being shipped to me here, now that MA is finally allowing shipments of alcohol.

[usedtosail]

Nothing new to show on the Constitution. Installing and rigging the starboard side gun deck guns continues, but it looks just like the port side, so no new pictures.

 

I do have a couple of new toys, er tools, in the workshop, thanks to my very generous Admiral. The first is a new rope walk from Dormanoff. As I mentioned previously, I wanted to try using this horizontally like the ME rope walk, using the back end of the ME rope walk. Like this:

 

 

 

 

I have to say it worked well in this configuration, pretty much just like the ME set up but with less work. I still had to manually crank the other end after the threads were tensioned, but that went pretty quickly. In the first photo you can see some samples of Chuck's rope from Syrene, which is what i am using as a goal. My rope is not there yet, and still wants to unwind if left to itself.

 

I then tried the new rope walk in the vertical position with a weight on the other end, like it is intended. It worked really well this way, too. The resulting rope looks better to me than the horizontally produced rope, but still wants to unwind. It is easier to set up in this configuration, too, so I think this is the way I will use it in the future.

 

The other new tool is on the bench but I haven't used it yet. This is the Byrnes thickness sander. There have been a couple of times in the Connie build where I could have used it, so I should have a chance to try it out soon.

 

 

It does look good next to the other power tools, hee hee...

 

 

I'll get some pics of the cannons when they are fully rigged, I promise.

[GLakie]

Congrats on the power tool additions Tom! With that rope, have you tried hardening the rope over night? I noticed with Jim's ropewalk and others I've found on the web, that they all put weights on, or tension it, over night to help with unwinding. 

 

Cheers

[usedtosail]

I haven't tried that George, but I will give it a go. Chuck hardens his by stretching it after it is made while still on the rope walk. Also, putting enough tension on the individual strands before twisting them together seems to be the trick to keeping rope wound. Looks like I have more experimenting to do.

[GLakie]

Haven't tried it yet myself either, but in Jim's instruction manual, he mentions it. My trials probably won't begin until late fall or early winter, right after I finally start my build. Getting the "itch" again. 

[usedtosail]

George, you were correct. After more experimentation last night, I was able to make some nice rope that did not want to untwist. I twisted the individual strands longer than pulled the rope to harden it after it twisted up. I then got brave and tried to make thicker rope from the thinner ropes. The first attempt was a disaster, as I did not twist the individual strand enough. The second attempt, after having to remake the individual ropes again, was better, but still did not look good.

 

 

I quit for the night and this morning I tried it again using a heavier weight. This was a success. I made these ropes with white thread, so I stained them brown by soaking them for a minute in brown shoe polish, wiping off the excess, and letting them dry.

 

 

OK, since I was taking pictures I figured I'd show where I was with the starboard guns. I did more rigging of them after the rope making experiments yesterday and today.

 

[GLakie]

She looks sweet with some teeth in her Tom! From what I've been reading in other builds, the size of the blocks, called for in the plans for the carriages was too big, but yours seem to be the right size, scale-wise. What size did you end up going with? 

 

Cheers

[usedtosail]

Thanks George. I started with 1/8" double blocks and filed/sanded them down to roughly 3/32" I already had 3/32" single blocks, so I used them for the other side of the tackle. At this scale, 6" blocks would be 5/64".

[usedtosail]

Thanks for the likes.

 

I finally finished installing and rigging the starboard side gun deck guns. It's not that it was time consuming, I just didn't have the time to work on them lately. Lots of stuff going on outside the workshop, including my son's college graduation this weekend and getting the lake house ready for summer. But, I have some time this week to work on her.

 

Here are the starboard side guns, from inside and outside.

 

 

 

And here are all the guns on the gun deck.

 

 

 

 

Now for some self criticism. I have always had a problem with the breaching ropes looking realistic, as they want to stick out from the sides of the carriages. Here is what I think looks very realistic, from Lukasvdb's Le-Superbe build.

 

 

For one thing, these breaching ropes are longer and drape nicely on the deck. I think they are probably made with nicer rope too that is more flexible than the nylon stuff I made. I may try to do the breaching ropes on the spar deck this way, using cotton thread to make the breach ropes instead of nylon.

 

The next task is to add the chain pumps that I made earlier to the gun deck. I have also started to think about making this U shaped main rail, which is not what is on the ship today. I found the plans for it on the Constitution CD, so I have everything I need to build it. I thought the legs for this would go all the way down to the gun deck or below, but the plans only show them going 12" into the spar deck. I am going to make the lower monkey rail in front of the U shaped main pin rail go all the way to the gun deck though.

 

 

I am getting to the fun stuff now.

 

 

[Guest Tim I.]

Looking good Tom.

 

- Tim

[Lukasvdb]

Looking very good Tom! Thanks for referring to my build, I appreciate it

 

 

I hope this helps: the rope I use is from caldercraft, 0,5mm and after supergluing it to the deck (as it is the lower deck I did not attach these to rings in the hull) I put some revell modeling glue on the rope itself. It is already quite flexible in itself but with glue you can do anything you want with it. Just hold it in place and wait until it's dry. I just put something on the rope to hold it down. It can be quite messy but if you don't use too much glue it could be all right. If any glue is spilled you can always cover it with some matt varnish and it will be gone you can not see that there is glue on the rope in the end! I am doing some experimenting with this, see my latest pictures for an effort to make more realistic breaching ropes!

 

Oh and for a measure, I cut pieces of rope by taking 5 times the length of the gunbarrel.

 

Grtz,

Lukas.

Edited May 12, 2015 by Lukasvdb

[usedtosail]

Thanks Tim and Lukas.

 

Lukas thanks for the description of your work. I came across your build log when I was about half way through with these guns and it just blew me away how realistic yours looked. I figured they were glued to the deck and I will try that approach on the spar deck guns. Weighting them down is good to know too.

[GLakie]

Nice job on the guns Tom! She's coming together now. You mentioned the Constitution CD. I've yet to find that during my browsing. Where should I look for it?

 

Cheers