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usedtosail

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Everything posted by usedtosail

  1. usedtosail
    Some progress since the last post. I managed to get all three boats roughly shaped inside and out. I did more shaping on the inside, and now I am in the process of adding the ribs to all three. They are very thin, so I am hoping that the ribs will give some support before doing the final fairing of the outsides. I will then paint them white, except for the rails, and then add the natural wood details of the interior. I soak the ribs and bend them with the electric plank bender in the picture, then place them inside the hull and clamp then while they dry. The next day or so, I then glue them in place and again clamp them in with clothes pins. Here are a bunch drying after bending, with some already glued in.
  2. usedtosail
    Wow, that will make these even more complicated. Great work on these brass rails Ken. They really add a lot of detail.
  3. usedtosail
    Thanks guys. Popeye - those templates aren't centered or glued down yet to the wood pieces, so they fit much better than you see in that picture. The only part that is missing is the very ends of some of the tabs, which are only there to locate the slices while gluing. The bottom tabs I don't really care about as I will just center it after carving out the interiors of the glued u p slices. I do have sheets of basswood that I can use if I need to make any new slices.
  4. usedtosail
    I have finally finished with the hammocks and netting. I cleaned up the aft port side last night. Now on to the ships boats. As an aside, while gathering up the ship boat parts I found the laser cut quarter davit brackets supplied with the kit. No where on the plans do they show these as laser cut that I could see, which is why I made them myself in the fist place. They do look better than the ones I made, so I may clean them up and paint them. It will be a while until I need them, though. For the ships boats, I want two boats on the open hatch on cradles and one hanging from the stern davits. I do not want to put any on the quarter davits. In sources I read (Bainbridge's book, I think) it stated that in 1812 it didn't have whale boats, as they were bought in 1813. I will use the supplied gig whaleboat for the stern davits though, since I think the supplied parts will make a nice looking boat. I will also use the 36' cutter supplied parts for the bottom boat on the waist beams. For the top boat, I want a 28' cutter, so I shrunk the plans for the 36' cutter. After cutting out the centers of the 36' cutter pieces, I realized I could use these centers for most of the 28' cutter pieces. I have one piece more than I do centers, but there was enough wood left on the laser cut board to make that last piece. It looks like the bow and stern pieces of the keel are to be carved out of the laser cut pieces at the same time as the hull is thinned down, but I may end up making these as separate parts and adding them to the keel. I am pretty sure I will have to do that on the 26' cutter because the tabs are pretty small on a few of them.
  5. usedtosail
    Popeye, that fore deck looks amazing.
  6. usedtosail
    How can you tell, Popeye? Not one of my finest creations, but it does the job. Thanks for the nice words, too.
  7. usedtosail
    Thank you Bill and the others for the likes. I haven't provided an update lately, mostly because I am in the middle of a bunch of things - still making hammocks and filling the cranes, making anchors, and making the stern and quarter davits. I did complete the stern davits and added stanchions and lifelines to the open waist. So here are some pictures of where I am as of last night. Starboard aft cranes filed with hammocks and the port side almost done: Stern davits: Anchors and Quarter Davits: Waist Rail: Complete side view: Once I get the hammocks finished, I will make the ships boats, then start on the spars and rigging. I will hold off installing the anchors, quarter davits, or ships boats that go on the davits until after the rigging is complete.
  8. usedtosail
    I enlarged the holes with a drill bit while they were still on the brass sprue, which worked well for me. I like the way you tucked the end of the chain plate into the notch with the deadeye stropping.
  9. usedtosail
    Nice work on the chain plates and deadeyes Ken. If you are like me, you will be happy when these are finished.
  10. usedtosail
    That is a nice looking boat, Jay. It looks like a lot of fun. I have gone ahead and added an index to the first post, so now I just need to keep it up to date as I add new stuff. At the rate I am going, that shouldn't be too hard.
  11. usedtosail
    Thanks very much Jay. I have used your build log for ideas and inspiration as well. I used to sail and race a 16' Hobie Cat. When we had kids I found it was better to get a small power boat, which I named "Usedtosail" because I was more used to sailing. I am on my third power boat now, a 22' Chaparral bow rider which I have had for 13 years. I had a Sunfish for a while when the kids got older but sold it. I would love to get a small sail boat like a Laser when I retire in a few years.
  12. usedtosail
    That is a nice mod to your sander Jay.
  13. usedtosail
    Thank you rdestefano01. There is a lot there to go through, I realize. I should add a table of contents like some other build logs have, since it is getting pretty long.
  14. usedtosail
    What do you think they mean when they talk about the "gangways" on the Constitution? Wasn't it always a single spar deck? Is there some other meaning for gangway? Thanks.
  15. usedtosail
    Work continues on the hammocks, cranes, and netting. I finished adding hammocks to the the starboard fore cranes, and trimmed the netting, so the fore cranes are completed. I have the lines threaded through the aft cranes and have started to fill the aft starboard cranes. I have some room to clamp these through the gun ports, which means I don't have to hold them until the glue sets. I am using wood glue to glue the Sculpey hammock sections to the rail, with the netting sandwiched between the hammock sections and the rail. After I fill all the cranes, I brush some wood glue along the lines and netting, then trim the netting at the lines with some very sharp clippers. Here is the jig being used to make up sections of hammocks. It also lets me sand the bottoms level while still in the jig. I still have a lot of hammocks to make but progress is being made, and I am able to start on other items like the stern davits in the mean time.
  16. usedtosail
    Thanks popeye and for the likes. I just got back from a week at the lake vacation, so work will commence again on the Conny tonight.
  17. usedtosail
    Your daughter is looking at some fine schools. Good luck with the dental work.
  18. usedtosail
    I am no professional and did a minimum of research. Since it was a toss up 5 or 6 I went with 5. Like Captain Steve says, its a personal choice.
  19. usedtosail
    Thanks for the likes, guys, I trimmed the netting on the fore port hammock cranes, which was a little difficult to avoid not cutting the line. Overall I am happy with the way these look, so last night I made up over 100 more hammocks, which will allow me to complete the fore starboard side and start on the aft cranes.
  20. usedtosail
    Yeah, Jay no room for a gun there. Still working on the hammocks and cranes. I have the port fore side cranes filled with hammocks and netting. I just need to finish trimming off the netting above the rope. I used white glue to glue the hammocks and netting to the rail, and the netting to the line. This worked really well. I'll have pictures when I get the netting trimmed. I have to make a new batch of hammocks from Sculpey as I used mostly all that made for this one set of cranes. Speaking of pictures, I hope you don't mind me taking a detour on the build log to show you probably the most amazing sunset I have ever seen. I took these at our condo on Newfound Lake in New Hampshire last week. And here is me, my daughter, and my lovely wife, so you can put a face to the name. And this just cracked me up when I saw this guy and his dog paddeling by. It was very serene. Enjoy.
  21. usedtosail
    A small update regarding the hammocks and hammock cranes. I have been gluing up groups of 6 hammocks to go between the cranes. It looks like I will need about 8 of these sections to fill each side in the front cranes. I drilled holes and glued in the fore cranes after carefully cutting them out of the sprue, cleaning and blackening them. I had to open up the holes with a #80 drill bit in a pin vise after blackening as the process closed them up some. This would have been a lot easier if I had done it before installing them, but I was able to hold a small piece of wood behind each crane and drill the holes open while they were in place. I threaded .008 thread through the cranes and tied them to the tiny eye bolts on the hammock boards. This took a little bit of time as I had to keep applying thin CA glue to the end of the thread and trimming it at an angle, to get the thread through the tiny holes. I had to cut the end after just about every hole. Getting the thread through the tiny eye bolts was actually the easy part. I have dry fit some netting and hammocks into the starboard side cranes, but they need to be glued down to look right. They are a bit inconsistent too, which I am not crazy about. It remains to be seen if I use them at all, or only some, or fill them all in. Lots more to experiment with. I have also been thinking about the lines that will go across the open waist. I was going to try to make stanchions for these but didn't have a good method. I decided that it would be better to buy some instead, so I ordered some from Billings. We will see how they look but I am pretty sure they will look better than anything I can make.
  22. usedtosail
    Thanks Jay. I am following your lead on this model as yours came out so well. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I am modeling the 1812 configuration as much as I can. I am using these conclusions from the Naval historical command regarding port lids: In conclusion, in compliance with the mission of the Naval History & Heritage Command Detachment Boston which includes in part, “ensur[ing] material compliance and documentation with the historic requirements of [Constitution], maintaining [the ship] as close to its 1812 configuration as possible,” 19 [emphasis added by author] the gun port lids of USS Constitution should be as follows: 1. Adapt the half ports presently found on Constitution: A. Retrofit the upper half port so that the lid is completely removable, but so that it can be secured in the port with bolts (see suggested illustration below, showing a type of port lid bolt)20 B. Retrofit the lower half port lid so that the lid drops to 90° and projects outward from the hull of the ship Substitute two single gun port doors on each of the two forward-most ports in the bows of Constitution Retrofit the two aftermost ports, at the captain’s great/forward cabin with canvas, as per the sail plans and artwork depicting such configurations on Constitution, Congress, and President As you can see, the two forward most ports had single doors according to this research, so that is what I built. I have also added the canvas covers on the rear ports. If you look close you can see that there are no top lids on the open gun ports, as these would have been removed.
  23. usedtosail
    I can't believe both those boats came from the same parentage. You are a master at modification, my friend. Great job!
  24. usedtosail
    I just saw those on the Model Expo plans recently. I think they said they held life lines. I am not sure in what era they were added to the ship though.
  25. usedtosail
    Thanks for the likes everyone. First off, here is a picture of the first batch of hammocks. These are made from an off white Sculpey material rolled out to about 1/16" thick, cut to 1/2" length and folded in half. While they were baking, I made a jig to make it easier to hold them together during gluing. I am making them in 3/4" sections of 6 hammocks each, which will fit between each crane. I glued the first group together upside down, so when they are dry I can sand the bottoms level with the jig to even them out. My hope is that the tops will be level when I take them out. I also drilled holes into the hammock boards to take those tiny eye bolts that I made. The boards off the model were a lot easier to do then the ones already installed. I lost quite a few in the process, especially adding them to the boards already on the ship, but I had made enough spares to finish without having to make any more.

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