usedtosail

Thanks Dave. Yes, the different versions of the ship are confusing. The serving machine from Syren works great, but the finger crank hurts after a while, which is why I added a hand crank. For rope making I have a different machine. JS, do you know the date of those plans? They show the lower bulwarks on the quarter deck and fore deck, but the waist is closed in. So that is yet another configuration. Thanks Popeye. I usually use a piece of wire to hold the deadeyes, but with so many shrouds on this model the angle between the first and last shroud changes a lot, so I would need a different wire for each deadeye to keep them at the same height, or at least each group of deadeyes, so that is why I made the card.

Yes Dave, the bulwarks were extended in the mid? 1800's and have remained that way ever since. The waist area was closed in too with bulwarks, but those were removed in 2007 or so.

Thanks Popeye and Vossie. Hopefully we'll see some warmth soon. Dave, I am sure your gun rigging will turn out great. My first attempts are now buried in the gun deck so they won't be seen. I have started on the shroud rigging. i am using rope from Syren for these, as I was having trouble making rope this large that looked good for long lengths. The Syren rope is a joy to work with, but I have found that with lot of handling it starts to unwind, so I keep a piece of tape on all the loose ends now. I started with the fore mast pendents, which need a thimble in the loops. I made these from some brass tubing, cutting off small lengths. I used the pliers in the picture to flare the tube and they worked great. Chuck recommended this tool and I am glad that I bought it, as I had tried other ways with little success. After blackening the thimbles, I seized them into some served line to make the pendants. Since I took this picture, I removed them and turned another seizing around the cut part of the line, making it look more like a splice. I made the swifter and all of the shroud pairs for the fore mast and added them to the mast. The swifter is served the whole length and I seized a double block into the ends and stropped triple blocks with hooks to go on the rings on the channels. The gang of lines at the mast head is pretty thick and just fits under the chock for the jeers on the mast. I think as i tighten up the shrouds I can get them to sit down more too. I also started seizing the deadeyes to the shrouds. I'm using a throat seizing just above the deadeye and regular seizings above that. This is the first time I have tried doing the throat seizings and I am happy with the look, but I find tightening them can be a challenge. I make them loose, then pull on the loose end of the shroud while pushing on the seizing with tweezers eventually gets them tight. At that point I clamp the loose end to the shroud and add the middle seizing to hold it in place. I made a crude jig from some manila folder and straight pins, to hold the deadeyes at the right height while I seize the shroud to them, as you can see in this picture. I did have to reattach a couple of pin rails, as the force of the clothes pin on them was too much. They were still attached to the bulwarks by the locating pins i had in them, but they could move enough that I didn't trust it, so I removed them, drilled out the locator holes and glued them back in. It was a little tricky but not as bad as it would be after the shrouds are finished. I now hold the jig to the channel with two pins through bottom deadeyes into the card. Finally, here is the 2.0 version of the crank for the Syren serving machine. My first version didn't hold up to the use I have been giving it lately and was coming loose, so I removed it and made this one. I used a piece of threaded rod in a hole in the wood crank that I tapped for it. The cherry held the threads very well, but I decided to add nuts to hold it too. There are two pieces of tubing on the rod. The inner one allows me to tighten the nut tight to it, and the outer one is a little shorter so it can rotate easily. I super glued the rod into the hole and the nuts to the rod so they wouldn't loosen. Lots more rigging to come...

Great work on the ratlines. Your shrouds look nice and straight still, which to me is the hardest part.

Sorry vossie, if I didn't have a whole ship load of rigging to do on my own model, I'd take you up on the offer. I do love soda and chips, though. I have a sister that lives on the other side of the Bay that I could visit too. Maybe see the birthplace of my hero, Tom Brady while in your town. Humm, then there is always a side trip to Napa. Clos Pegase and St. Clement are two of my favorites. This could be fun... California dreaming in the aftermath of a blizzard. I did have a snow day yesterday, so had some time to get the masts set. Here they are installed with the trestle trees glued on. I added the belaying pins to the mizzen pin rack, and the boarding pikes to the main and fore mast rakes. I made those from straight pins that I blackened after cutting off the heads. This morning I glued the mast tops to the trestle and crosstrees. I put the topmast and caps in place temporarily when I installed the trestle trees, so I could get the topmasts straight to the lower masts by adjusting the position of the crosstrees. Making the pendants and shrouds is next.

I think some of this char goes all the way through! - Ha ha. I hate char. I hate the way it smells and how it makes my fingers feel after sanding it. I feel your pain, Rich!

Happy Birthday, Frank.

Thanks again. And once again I have changed my mind and decided NOT to add the crows feet. I am just not comfortable adding them to the Constitution, since the Hull model does not show them. I have been working on the collars for the masts and thought I'd show how I made them. I started by serving a piece of line, then seized small loops into each end, so I could make two collars at a time. I then folded the line around a bullseye and got the lengths of the legs so they had a decent gap when wrapped around the mast. I then seized a small loop into the other leg: Then I seized the bullseye into the center of the collar: After everything was trimmed, I tied a lashing line to one of the small loops and lashed the collar around the mast. I did not use a rose lashing, in case you were wondering. Here are some results: I have finished up the mast tops with all the various eyebolts and blocks, so I am finally ready to start adding the lower masts to the hull.

Ah, I see I am not the only one with soldering issues. Good luck on your next attempt.

Man, you picked the wrong week to quite smoking....

Those shrouds and deadeyes look great. No yards yet for me, just the masts and mast pieces so far. I am amazed that you can use a lathe for serving. I have enough trouble using a serving machine. Well done.

Great looking yards, Geoff. Can I ask how you made the jackstays? They look like small eyebolts with a brass rod through them? Did you solder the rod in place? Thanks

Very nice Cathead. I will be trying this in the future.

Beautiful ships boats, David.

I loved your Andrea Dorea build, Dan, so I am really looking forward to this one too.

I feel your pain, Vossie, literally. Haven't had one in a few years, and not looking forward to the next time. Hang in there and it will pass (sorry).

Thanks guys. Actually, some exciting things have been going on so I am not too upset about lack of progress. Last weekend we moved my daughter into her first home. She bought a nice condo which is so much better than the apartment she was in. Of course, I have been working off her to do list last weekend and she already has a pretty big one for next weekend. We stayed home this weekend because I needed a break. Been able to work on the Connie but the basement is pretty cold today, so have to work in shifts. This morning I am making the collars for the fore the main masts. Dan, I am so glad you reminded me about the crows feet. They would have been a feature of the ship in the 1812 era, so I should add them, right? At the beginning of the build I wasn't sure but now I have to decide. So you have convinced me by your reminder to add them. I will drill the holes for the them before adding the tops. I think they will make a nice addition to the model. UNLESS - someone tells me they wouldn't have been on the ship at that time. And no sadly I will not be attending the conference in New London this year. I have yet to make it to one and I am so close, but that weekend is always birthday weekend here - we have 5 birthdays in my wife's family that fall within that week, including myself and my two kids. Big family party every year on that Saturday. Here are the pictures I promised. Here are the topmast tops in progress. I made copies of the plans at each scale for the six different topmast and topG tops, then cut them out as templates for the curved pieces, which I cut out of sheet stock. The notches on the trestle trees I cut on the mill. Here are the topG tops after staining them. These are pretty small and fragile. And here are all the rest of the tops and various mast parts after painting. On the mast caps, you can see the metal sheaves on the ends that I made out of brass sheet and some brass nails. The hooks on the topmast tops I made from wire. There is netting under the mast top rails, which is just brown tulle glued to the stanchions. The bottom row are the bullseyes I made, the fids, and the traveler rings. Here's a close up of the tops and caps. Finally for you other Connie builders, when I was adding the head details I forgot to add these bullseyes and eyebolts for the jib stays. It was a little harder to add them now, but not too bad. I'll have more progress to show later of the mast collars. Thanks again all. You make this fun.

Thank you TI, Rob, Vossie, and Greg. And for those who hit the like button. It has been a while since I updated this log. I have been doing many small jobs that just seem to keep taking my time from the larger ones, but I am getting close to start rigging. I have finished building the mast tops, topmast tops, and topGallant tops and painted and/or stained them. I still need to add the blocks and other bits of hardware to them so they will be ready to install. I tried using heat to bend the crosstrees for the topG masts, but they were so short it didn't work out well. I ended up cutting them from sheet stock and finished shaping them with files. I will have pictures of them tomorrow, as I forgot to bring them with me today. I made fids for the topmasts and topG masts using square brass rod that I blackened. I also blackened the travellers I made for the jibbooms and gave them a coat of Dullcote lacquer so hopefully the black won't rub off too much onto the stained jibbooms. I did give the stained parts of the masts and booms a coat of wipe on poly, too. I started to make collars for the bullseyes that go on the fore and main masts for the stays, but only had 1 1/8" bullseye left, so I found some dowel and started making more from it on the lathe. None have come out great yet, but I am getting the process down better so I should have some better ones soon. Sorry for no pictures, but I'll get some up here soon.

Nice job on the shrouds and pendants. I am just slightly behind you and will be adding the shrouds shortly.

Good idea using pins for the canon balls Dave. I have a few loose ball bearings inside my gun deck which are impossible to recapture.

My first post to the new site - how exciting! I continue working on the masts and mast tops. I test fit the tressle/crosstrees to the masts and adjusted the cheeks so they sit square. I had to file out some of the tresstle trees on the main mast to get them to fit over the bands on the black parts of the lower masts. I also test fit the spanker mast to the mizzen mast and made some adjustments. For the topmast fids, I bought some 1/16" square brass rod that I cut to length and will blacken. I had to file out the square holes to get them to fit, but they look better than wood to me. For the topG masts fids, I filed down some smaller round brass bar to a square shape. I made the rails for the mast tops. The plans say to use 1/32" square wood for the rail and the supports, but if you have ever worked with that small basswood, you know it can break by just looking at it so I didn't want something that fragile. I started turning down some dowels to a smaller diameter, but in the end decided to just use round brass rod for the supports and 1/16" square basswood for the rail. These will all get painted white with the tops, but I won't permanently attach them to later in the build. The supports are glued into the rail but not into the top yet. I used the mill to cut the slots for the topmast deadeyes along the sides of the tops. I needed to support the tops from underneath so the bottom planks weren't pushed out by the mill bit, and I used a wood strip to clamp the the top without damaging it. The only problem I had was that I milled five slots into all the tops, but the mizzen top should have only 4, since the rigging plans show it with only 4 deadeyes. Luckily I caught this after only milling one side, so I was able to fill the extra hole and put 4 slots into the other side. Since these will be painted, this little mistake will be covered up (shhhh). I am going to start making the topG crosstrees. These look interesting to make because they are bent, and they are all a different size. I reproduced copies of the plans for these at all the different sizes and will use those to guide the bending. I bought one of those hot air soldering stations, so I will try bending with just heat using it for these. Stay tuned for that. It is interesting with the new site that there is no longer a Preview post button. It looks like what you see in the editor is what you get. These pictures look huge here, but we will see how they look when I post this. (Edit - they still look huge in the post. I wonder if there is a way to scale these?) Have a nice weekend everyone.

Look also for stained glass supplies. They use copper tape for wrapping glass pieces before soldering them together.

Thanks Popeye. With all these snow days I was able to put some quality time into the build this weekend, and still had time to take the admiral out for a Valentines Day dinner on Saturday night, between storms. I have been planking the mast tops, both the upper and lower sides. It was a little tricky around the hole for the jeer lines, but I think I finally have them all. I have to clean up some planking on the mizzen top but the glue was still drying when I took the pictures. I have also been painting the masts, coats, and caps. Three coats of either black or white. White for the lower masts, trestle and cross trees, and tops is next up. The topmasts, mast coats, and caps are all ready to go, although I need to add some hardware to the caps. I made the two metal rollers that go on the backs of the fore and main caps from some brass strip that I bent into a U shape, and drilled holes in the bottom of the U for a nail to hold it to the cap, and two holes in the sides for a piece of wire to fit in. These are really small so I did not get any pictures while making them. I will say that I used the mill to drill the holes and it was a whole lot easier than the drill press. I only broke 1 bit in the process and that was my fault.

That's good Rich. I guess it looks flatter in the picture. Great progress.

Hi Rich. Nice work on those sills. One thing you might want to be aware of is a problem I had with the sills on the Constitution. If you look at the first picture above, the third sill back from the bow is a straight line between the bulkheads, which is how I first did mine. But when I planked along this, there was a very defined flat spot in the planking between those bulkheads. I ended up replacing the sill with a curved piece that following the curve of the hull better and the planking looked much better. You might want to do that on a few of the forward sills.