usedtosail

It has been too long since the last log entry so here is one that shows the state of the work since then. I am still working on all four small boats, with all of them planked and in various states of finishing. The cutter is furthest along with the interior finished and the rail added. Gluing these rails down onto the small hulls is somewhat problematic since there is a distinct curve in the top hull planks. I used medium CA and clamped using slide clamps and strips of wood, but still ended up with some gaps under the rail. I filled these with wood filler and am now in the process of sanding that off and touching up the paint on the hull and stain on the rail. The jolly boat interior is finished and I have started painting the outside of the hull and the rudder white, just like the cutter. The other two boats are long and skinny. For these I am staining both the interior and exterior using walnut stain. Here is the whale boat with a coat of stain, which I really like how it came out. The floor boards are being glued down into the long boat and the figurehead is now attached to the stem. I used medium CA with a quick spray of accelerator to hold it in place, which worked very well. I also stropped some blocks with hooks to hold the three smaller boats to the aft and side davits. The two blocks with beckets and attached lines are for the jolly boat on the aft davits. The other blocks without beckets will be used as lower blocks on the side davits. There will be blocks with beckets attached to the side davits for the top tackle blocks. These blocks are from Model Expo, which they call Beautiful Blocks. They are not quite as nice as the blocks from Syren, which I will also be using on this model, but these are 3.5mm which falls between the 3 and 4 mm blocks from Syren, giving me more size choices. Also, these were available when I needed them as the Syren blocks were sold out. The hooks are PE, left over from one of the Vanguard models. They are too big for the cannon rigging, so I made my own for those, but these seem really good to me to hold the boats. Once I have all the boats completed I'll post a picture of them all.

Thanks DAR. I am glad that there are still some little gems in the log to help folks out. God knows I can't never remember all those little details now. Merry Christmas to you too and you are doing a great job on your Connie.

Tom, Those boxes are exactly what I use for storing wood strips. I got them from a business supply company (ULine I think). Anyway I did order about 50 of them and I really didn't think I would need all of them but since then I have used most of them.

I am working on all four supplied boats. The cutter is planked so I can start finishing that one and the other three are in various states of planking. These long thin clamps work great for holding the planks while bending them to fit and gluing them on.

I agree with you Andrew. It looks too crowded. I think that some of these deck components from the kit are over scale. Even more stuff on the deck now. Sky lights and boomkins added. I have the supports for the ships boat and the beam that other boats rest on, but I am waiting to add them until I put the boats on. I am currently planking the ships boat and have put the frame together for the gig. The two other boats will be started soon.

That figurehead looks great. Much better than my attempt.

I finished page J of the instructions which included finishing the depth winch and pumps and gluing them to the deck, along with the compass by the ships wheel. I also finished rigging the cannons, added some chain to the windlass, and added all the belaying pins. I have already started on page K of the instructions by gluing the deck house pieces together and starting the planking of them. I have blackened the supplied chain and added the two chains to the rudder.

Thank guys for the kind words. I will have to see how the boat turns out and how much it covers, but since it is such an integral part of the mission of this ship I would be reluctant to leave it off. I may even add some whaleboats too but that is some time off yet. Tom, I would not sell my copy of the AOS Beagle, but I would be willing to lend it to you when I am finished with this model and you are ready to start yours. I was away all last week but made some good progress before then and since I've been back. I assembled and rigged all the cannons. I am using the breaching rope and side tackle to hold the guns to the deck. I still have to finish the rigging on the back two smaller cannons. These are very close to the steps leading to the upper deck so I am in the process of making smaller side tackle for them. I also finished the main bitts and the hatches and glued them to the deck, and added all the blocks and eyebolts to the deck. I am finishing up the painting on the depth winch. I had trouble gluing those side brass pieces to the drum until I bent the bottoms of them to a 90 degree angle and glued those bends to the back of the drum. Now they are attached more securely. In the process I ended up loosing one but was able to duplicate it using some thin brass sheet. Next up are the pumps to finish up page J of the instructions.

I am using Model Expo's Bulwarks Red for my gun carriages.

So I had some time to add more belaying pins to the fore mast pin rail. I also added more to the main pin rail, just in case I need them there too. Thanks again Mowzer.

Thanks Mowzer. That's a great heads up. I had trouble like this with my previous model where they had over 30 lines going to one bitt rail. I do not want to deal with that again!

I wanted to add the gun tackles to the fore gun but couldn't figure out where the other end attached to until I saw @brunnels great build log for his Beagle, so I made up two tackles with 1/8" blocks with hooks and hooked them to the ring bolts. I am using Syren blocks (and cleats) for this model instead of the one size blocks and metal cleats supplied. I also glued the pin rail and pawls to the deck using two pins under the uprights. I finally finished the windlass and got that installed. The plans for the two handles are way off so I basically had to remake them. In the process the blackening was coming off so I painted them flat black. I first glued the handles into the ends of the barrel and slid the end blocks onto the other end of the handles, then glued the windlass supports to the deck and the end blocks to the bulwarks. I put a dowel in the fore mast hole to make sure the mast wasn't hitting anything on the deck, since everything is very close around the mast. This completes page I of the instructions so it is on to page J. I first cleaned the flash off all the white metal parts for this stage, cleaned them in acetone, primed them with Binn primer, and painted them with flat black enamel. I also cleaned the char off the wooden gun carriage parts. Instead of using brass rod for the axels, I made some wooden axels from 1/16" basswood strip. After cutting them to length I files the ends round and pushed the wheels on to finish the shaping. I had to file 1/16" notches into the bottoms of the carriage sides, and once the carriage sides and bottom are glued together, I will need to continue the 1/16" groove across the carriage bottoms to fit the axels. I plan to paint the carriages with bulwarks red paint when they are all glued together.

I installed the gun on the fore deck by gluing the eyebolts into the deck and I put a few small dots of CV glue under the ring. I also added all the other eyebolts, cleats, and blocks to the fore deck.

I have been working on the gun for the fore deck using mostly the kit supplied pieces. I am using smaller eyebolts with the kit supplied rings to make the ringbolts that hold the gun down. I added a short length of a brass screw under the back of the gun for the elevation screw instead of the eyebolt the instructions called for. Here is the gun with four lengths of line seized to the ringbolts. These will be tied to four ringbolts in the deck when the gun is installed. I have also started building the windlass, again using mostly the kit supplied pieces. One change I made is that the instructions show a loop at the barrel ends of the handles that go around a nub that sticks out of the ends of the barrel. I instead filed off the nubs and drilled holes in the ends of the barrel so I can leave the ends of the handles straight and glue them into the holes. I am now priming and painting the barrel and assembling the upright support pieces for the windlass.

Thank you Gregg. I am glad you are finding my Connie log useful. Your model is looking great. Here are some shots of my current progress. All six ladders are installed as well as all the pin rails on the bulwarks. A lot or work as been done on the poop deck, including the azimuth compass, some blocks, whale boat supports, cleats, eye bolts, and the rope railings. For supports I used larger eyebolts that I had which are still not as big as the supplied eyebolts, which look way out of scale to me. If you look closely you can just see the ships wheel under the poop deck. Thanks for looking in.