usedtosail

That looks stunning, my friend. Nice work.

Yes it does, Art. I can see a tiny light at the end of what has been a very long, but very gratifying, tunnel.

Thanks Al and Popeye, and the likes. Popeye, making these ships look good standing still is hard enough for me, I can't think about making them move to. I do have a nephew that is into RC, so he brings his toys to the lake. It is fun watching him motor them around. He is into fast model boats. I continue rigging the spars, with the first of the yards now up. I started with the fore lower yard. I had tied the lashing between the sling on the yard and the sling that goes around the mast, and luckily I left the excess lashing on. This proved valuable in that I used it to temporarily tie the yard to the mast while I fished the lashing line around the mast and put the loose end through the loop on the other end. At that point I put a clamp on the sling line and untied the temporary line, and the yard was attached to the mast. Then I threaded the truss lines up through the top and through the blocks on the mast cap. I also threaded the tackle lines through the triple blocks on the yard and the triple blocks hanging from the mast, which I had put on earlier and set their height. Once everything was "wired up", I adjusted all the lines to get the yard to hang correctly, although this has been an ongoing process since I took these pictures. I then added the lift lines, after having to seize the lift and brace blocks around the yard. I had made these with loops that I could slip onto the yard arms, but I forgot to do it before putting the studding sail booms on, so they couldn't slip on anymore. It was not hard to seize them in place, though. Here is how the yard is looking as of this morning. I did a few more adjustments of the footropes and stirrups after I hung the yard to get them to look better than they did. I will add the clewline next but leave it loose until I add the sheet and tack later. I have the main yard ready to install next. I have also installed the spanker boom and finished rigging it and the gaff. Lots of lines on them pulling in different directions, but after many adjustments I am pretty happy with how they came out. I am making the larger size ropes (above .015" diameter), so all of these lower spars use a lot of it. I have found that by using the same thread with either 3 or 4 separate threads, I can make two sizes of rope that fit the bill for all of these lines. I had made the aluminum three line fixture for the rope walk a few months ago, but luckily I kept the wooden version I had replaced with it. I added a fourth eyebolt to the wooden one, so now I have one for three strand and one for four strand ropes. We are in the midst of a terrific wind and rain storm that is supposed to last into tomorrow. I hope we don't get snow too. Great weekend to all.

Thanks guys. Jonathan I have not thought much about how to transport the models, but I will document the process which should be in July or August. I am thinking of making a crate for the Constitution using the cradle that it is in now. Some of the other models I will transport in their cases, but those with cradles I will take out because in the past the cradles have proved to not provide enough support. I have been working on the running rigging at the bow, mostly the jib and flying jib lines - halyards, downhaul, tack, and sheets. They all meet at the block that would hold the top of the sail, and all are belayed at belaying pins. I have also been working on the spanker gaff and boom in the rear of the ship. I added the gaff using small beads for parrels, and rigged the peak and throat halyards. I haven't tied these to the belaying pins yet. I have also been getting the spanker boom ready to install. I added the lines for the topping lifts and the outhaul line with its associated tackle. I'll add the parrels and install it next. I have also added the sling and jeer lines to the three masts getting ready to mount the lower yards. I lashed the slings to the yards while they were still on the bench, so as soon as the lines with the triple blocks are all installed, these will be installed. Thanks for watching and have a good weekend.

Congratulations, Bob. She is a beauty.

Thanks Jonathan. I certainly have learned a lot from other logs. I know your ship will come out beautifully. Here are the pictures of the fore studding sail brackets on the real ship. These pictures were taken in 2008. First the whole fore channel, then close ups of the three brackets, starting at the front. Now for some important information from my shipyard - I have fired all the sail makers. I can't believe what they wanted me to add to the model. I was not happy with the way the mizzen topsail was coming out, so I made the decision to not add any sails, either full or furled, to the model. I would rather not have any then have them detract from the rest of the build. Now I can get on with hanging the yards, and maybe finish this ship this year. Which leads to the other important news. The shipyard, along with the rest of the house, will be moving this summer. My wife is retiring at the end of this month and I will retire in July/August. We are putting the house up for sale in June and moving up to Newfound Lake in NH once the house sells. I have to figure out how to move the ship without damaging it, as well as the other ships I have built. Also, I will have to pack up the workshop and set up a new one there. I already know where it will be going, so I have started making plans for setting it up this Fall. I will be a bit busy getting our house here cleaned out and ready to sell, so that may impede some progress on the build over the next 6 months or so. Progress continues with getting all the blocks, strops and slings ready to hang the yards. I have also started rigging the halyards for the jib and flying jib, tying the ends to the stays.

Well, that game didn't turn out like I wanted, but congrats to the Eagles. They played a heck of a game. And thanks for the likes, folks. I have been working on a few different things in parallel. First, I started to make the mizzen topsail. I figured I'd start with the smallest of the three topsails. I traced the pattern onto a piece of muslin, then cut out the reenforcement bands and glued them to the sail using fabric glue. I used a product called Fray Check on all the pieces before I glued them on. I put the sail under a piece of glass with some weights on it while the fabric glue dried. I then cut the sail out along the pattern lines and put more Fray Check along the edges. The bolt rope has a lot of loops in it for the various buntlines and leech lines. I am trying something that may or may not work for these. I am using a needle to put each loop into the bolt rope and then gluing them to the bolt rope. I am making the bolt rope as one piece, which I will then glue to the edge of the sail. I have the whole bolt rope done and will glue it on in sections starting tonight. We will see how this comes out. I did experiment with some scrap fabric and rope. I am using a liquid PSA which stays a bit tacky for this and it seems to hold the rope well to the sail. Once the glue dries on the loops, I trimmed the excess right up to the bolt rope, and I have had only one loop pull out. I also installed the lower fore studding sail boom brackets on the hull and fore channels. I used nails that I glued into the hull for the aft brackets, and eyebolts that I glued into the channel for the middle and fore brackets. I then lashed the booms to these brackets. [Sawdust Dave - here is a close up of the rigging for the boats that I just realized I had]. The plans are a bit unclear on what these brackets look like, but I had pictures of the ship that I took that show them very clearly. I can post those if folks are interested. I have also started to make the slings to hold the lower yards to the mast. I first made a bunch of small bullseyes from brass tubing to go into the loops. I then served a few lengths of line for the slings and started seizing loops into the them. I need to add furled sails to the lower yards before I install them, which I haven't started yet. Lot of stuff to do but it is getting there. Have a nice weekend folks.

Just beautiful. Well done.

I have added all the stirrups, horses, and Flemish horses to the yards. The last action was to hang weights from the stirrups and coat them and the horses with diluted white glue to get them to hang right. This is what that looked like: Even after doing this some of the stirrups on the larger yards, because the lines was fairly thick, still did not hang down straight enough, so for those I put a very small drop of white glue on the back of the yards just under the stirrups and held them with clothes pins until the glue dried. This worked pretty well so they hung straighter. Next steps for the yards is to add the jeers, slings, and blocks to hold them up. I cut some slices of brass tubing and blackened them to use as bullseyes on the slings for the lower yards. I spent the last couple of days making the brackets that hold the fore lower studding sail booms to the fore channels. I made all of them from brass strip and two sizes of eyebolts. These is how they looked after soldering the eyebolts in place then cleaning up the excess solder with files: This morning I blackened these and here is how they looked coming out of the blackening solution: I will install these after they have a long time to dry, probably tomorrow. I like how the solder blackens along with the brass, so they look evenly colored. I have also started to make the three topsails that I will be installing. These will be the only full sails, the rest will be furled. I bought some unbleached muslin to use as the sail material. My plan is to cut out the full sail, then glue on strips for the various reenforcing strips on the sails, so I bought some fabric glue too. I made templates of the three sails from Constitution plans from the CD. These are shown as half plans, so I scanned them, flipped them and printed out both sides, then cut and taped the two halves together to make the whole sail templates. I am starting with the mizzen sail to see how that comes out. I am off to a neighborhood Super Bowl party later, to watch the Patriot's win their sixth title, so that's it for today. Go Pats!

I wouldn't call it cheating - it is ingenious. Thanks.

Beautiful work on those yards, Bob. May I ask how you got such nice curves on the footropes? I am struggling with them on my current build now.

Nice work kmart on the gun port sills. If I may provide some guidance, those headers near the bow need to bow out in the middle so you have a nice curve of the planks there. Otherwise you will have a flat spot between the deadeyes. i can't tell from the third image above if there is enough curve on the header between the first and second gun bulkheads. Something I had to learn as I went.

Time for a weekly update. First, thank you for the likes. I have been mostly working on getting the jack stay lines and studding sail booms onto the topsail and topG yards, and the horses and stirrups on the lower and royal yards. Here are the completed yards and spars so far: And here are the others in progress: I made up all of the stirrups I will need for the rest of the yards. These are a doubled piece of line that I put around a drill bit and add a seizing to make a small loop: I think there are 24 of these in this picture, with 3 different size lines. Here I am using them on the main royal yard. The mizzen lower yard doesn't have any stirrups, so that is the other small yard. The three topG yards are shown in progress in this image too. I am hoping to finish up these yards soon so I can move on.

Had to laugh at all your medicine bottles. I also keep a good supply of them. One day my brother in laws were visiting and they saw them all and said it must take a lot of drugs to build these ships. They are not too far off, I think.

Looking good, Popeye. More cold weather on the way, but not as bad as last week, eh?

Thanks for the likes folks. More progress on the lower yards. I have successfully added the studding sail booms to the main and fore lower yards, after a little rework. I went to slip one of the fore studding sail booms into the inner bracket to use it to align the outer bracket, but it had a double bend in it like an S shape, which it did not have when I stained it. So, I had to make and finish a new one, which took a few days. It is all installed now. I took a bit of a short cut on the outer brackets, which on the real ship are two straight pieces that meet at a 90 degree angle. For mine, I just bent a single piece into a 90 degree angle. I have also been adding the horses and stirrups to these yards, and have started adding the jack stay to the main topsail yard. The mizzen lower yard, or crossjack yard, does not have a jack stay since it does not carry a sail. For the yards with jack stays, the stirrups are tied to the eyebolts and hang down the back of the yard. For the crossjack yard, I first made the stirrups as loops around the yard, but I didn't like how they hung down. So, I went a different route here by adding small nails to the back of the yard, leaving the heads above the yard slightly so I could tie the stirrups to the nails. I then pushed the nails further into the yard. Here is how it came out. I still need to shape the stirrups so they curve around the yard so the horses are hanging down, not straight back. A little white glue and some clothes pins should take care of that. Speaking of jack stays, the MS plans specifically say to only put jack stays on the fore and main lower and topsail yards. Since I plan to put a sail on the three topsail yards, I was wondering how to attach the mizzen topsail to that yard, which I figured would be to just loop lines around the yard to hold the sail. But, I have the plans from the 1929 restoration, which clearly show jack stays on all the yards except the crossjack yard. So, I am going to add a jackstay to the mizzen topsail yard and possibly the topgallant yard too. I am not putting jack stays on any of the royal yards as the eyebolts I have would look way too big. I will have furled sails on the topG yards and maybe the royal yards too, which would cover them anyway. I will have jackstays on the fore and main topG yards. Keep this in mind future Connie builders that the plans may be misleading here. I have also started planning for making the topsails and the furled sails. I have sail plans from the restoration that I have pulled each sail out from and scaled them to model scale, so I can make paper templates for each sail. This will be done in parallel with finishing the yards. Have a great weekend all.

It was pretty cold last week - hovering around 0 most of the week. Up to 40 degrees today, though.

Damn, why didn't I think of that Dave. I did use a small scroll saw and it was real pain taking the blade in and out for each layer.

I agree Popeye, a model this size with all the studding sails up would be very impressive. For me, a few sails is all I am going to add, though. I leave it as an exercise for future modelers to tackle that one. It has been a while since my last update. With the holidays and the extremely cold weather we have been having here I didn't get as much time in the work shop that I would have liked, but there has been some progress. I blackened the studding sail boom brackets with Birchwood Casey blackening solution, which did a great job even on the solder joints. Then I tackled the stropping of all the blocks I need for the yards, spanker boom, and gaff, which was a lot. It seems like I have been tying seizings for weeks, which I have been. These little jars contain between 6 to 10 jars, one jar for each yard. I then started adding the details to the spanker boom and gaff. This included the various blocks, some bands and eye bolts at the ends, and the stirrups and foot ropes on the boom. I also started adding details to the lower yards, starting with fore and main yards. I glued in all of the eyebolts for the jack stays, except for the eye bolts at each end. This was a little tedious but once I got into a rhythm it went pretty smoothly. I did have to clean out each hole with a drill in a pin vice, as the finishing process closed up the holes somewhat. The tool shown is a needle holder, which I have to say is the BEST tool I have used by a lot for working with these tiny eyebolts. They can be used like tweezers to grip them without them flying off around the room, but they also have a locking mechanism when you squeeze the handles together which holds them very tightly, so they don't want to twist when inserting into a hole, like they do with tweezers. This tool that I bought was one of the inexpensive versions you can get on Amazon or eBay (I forget where I got this one), which works great, but I may invest in a more expensive professional version since I like it so much. I have also used it for its intended purpose, when pushing needles through things like glue hardened strops on blocks. It works great for that too. Once all the eyebolts were in place, I seized a piece of line into another eyebolt and glued it into one of the end holes. I then threaded the jack stay line through each eyebolt. For the small blocks that fit on top of the yard, I had stropped them with small loops, which I threaded the jack stay line through at the right locations as I got to those points. When all the jack stay eyebolts were filled and all the blocks in place, I seized another eyebolt to the end of the line and glued that eyebolt into the other end hole. I left the seizing loose, and pulled the jack stay tight when the glue on the eyebolt was dry, then fixed the seizing in place. The two larger blocks on each yard were seized around the yard, as they hang underneath. You can see the inner studding sail boom brackets have also been added, so the next step is to line up the outer brackets, bend them so the booms will be at the right height, then glue them into the ends of the yards. Then the stirrups and foot ropes will be added, and I will move onto the crossjack and topsail yards.

Like Jon I just discovered your log. You are off to a great start.

Screw up club? See my build log. The good news is that by the second or third time I do something I am usually pretty happy with it.

Thanks Dan. Another term I was confused about. And thank you Geoff. I am enjoying working along side you as you rig your Conne too.

Sure Geoff, that's what I love about this site too. I am glad you were already thinking ahead. For the main stays, I didn't have trouble running them along side the fore mast since the pin rails are mostly behind the mast. I used some large eyebolts that I glued into the bulwarks on each side of the bow sprit using medium CA. I didn't have to put much tension on the stays so I don't fear that the eyebolts will pull out, unless of course I inadvertently hit them hard while rigging something else. The plans show a more elaborate fixture at the bows for these stays, but they are hard to see when the stays are in place. Whoops - I think you are asking about the main topmast stays. I also glued eyebolts into the deck at the bottom of the fore and main masts. They also seem to hold well in the deck. Threading the lanyards between the bulls eyes on the stays and the eyebolts was not as hard as I thought it would be.

Thanks for the likes, guys. I have stained all of the yards and stunning sail booms with oak stain, except for the yard arms, which will be painted black. The spanker gaff and driver boom will also be painted all black. While waiting for those to dry, which seems to take a few days, especially for the parts made from dowels, I have been making the stunning sail boom brackets that go on the fore and main lower, topsail, and topgallant yards. I am making these from brass tubing and round and square brass rod, and in the past I would have CA glued these together. But this time I was determined to make them correctly by soldering the parts together. Now, I have never been able to solder very well, so this was going to be quite a departure for me. What was different this time is that I had xKen's excellent instructions from his build log on how he made these, and I have been reading his Modeling in Brass book, which also has some great instructions for these kinds of parts. In the course of building these parts, I ended up using many different power and hand tools, so I will try to describe the process and tools that I used. The first task was to drill holes in the tubing for the rod, which I used the mill and sensitive drilling attachment with a very small center drill bit to do. I found that the mechanics vise on the mill was the perfect vise to hold the tubing without crushing it, and I used it for other operations too, like cutting the slices from the tube. After drilling the starter holes, I used a pin vise to enlarge the holes to fit the rod I was using, which was round for the inner brackets and square for the outer brackets. I then put the tube back into the vise and sliced off individual pieces using the jewelers saw shown in the above picture. This saw was fantastic for this operation, which I have always had trouble doing in the past. I have tried rolling the tubing under an X-Acto knife, but could never get it to stay in a single line all the way around the tubing. I have tried other saws too, without too much success. Also, in the past I never had a good way to hold the tubing steady while cutting, like I can in the mechanics vise. The next step was to assemble the pieces for the brackets and hold them down for soldering. The inner brackets were made with one larger piece of tubing in the center and two smaller pieces on the rods, then cut in half after soldering. Here is one of the ready for soldering (left) and the one on the right has already been soldered. . The soldering board is a piece of something that is very light but fire proof (although not burn proof as you can see from the burn marks from previous soldering efforts using silver solder and a butane torch). It is soft enough that those push pins go into it easily. I bought it from Micro Mark a while ago. For a soldering iron, I have tried to use cheap or old ones in the past that I had laying around, but then I bought this soldering station which I am coming to really like. It has both a soldering iron and a hot air blower, and you can set the temperature of each. I am using Stay Bright solder and flux, which I can't recommend enough. It melts at about 200 degrees C, so I set the soldering iron to 350. The flux is a liquid so one drop on each joint gets the job done, and once the part is hot, a light touch of the solder flows nicely into the joints. I have been trying to use other soft and hard solder that I had with very little success, until I tried the Stay Bright and flux. I still had some issues with too much solder getting into the small tubing, but I was able to drill these out with a pin vise, then ream them out with a pointed grinding bit in the Dremel tool. When I sliced off the tubing pieces, I made them oversize on each side of the hole. So, the next step was to thin the brackets to the correct thickness. To do that, I used this disk sander which I keep permanently on the work bench, mostly to square up wood parts before gluing. It worked great on the brass though too. You can see some of xKen's pictures from his build log that I am using as instructions in this picture too. To sand the parts thinner, I held them in a heliostat and carefully touched them to the sanding disk. The first few times I was leaving them on the disk too long and they would get hot enough to melt the solder. So I learned to use quick light touches and let the part cool between touches. Once thinned, I cleaned up the rest of the parts with files and they are now ready for blackening. The pieces with the square brass rod on the single loop are the end brackets. The ones in the last picture had not been thinned yet. These will be bent and inserted into holes in the ends of the yards later. I won't bend these until I have the inner brackets in place and I can gauge the height of these end brackets so the booms will be straight on the yards. There are metal strips on the yard arms that hold these end brackets, but because the yard arms will be painted black, I am going to use the same technique I used for the mast bands and wrap paper strips around the yard arms before painting them to simulate these metal bands. I could have tried making these out of brass strips, but I think I will quit while I am ahead. That is actually the next step after giving the yards and stunning sail booms a coat of wipe on poly, now that the stain is dry.

That's a great technique for the netting, Jesse.