usedtosail

Nice info on the barrels and ammo scuttles. Do you think those scuttles have always been in the spar deck or could they have been added in later refits of the Constitution?

Yeah George I do too. But, this will be about it for the gun deck. I am now thinking of leaving the ships boat off the hatch beams and show it along side the ship, so more of the gun deck can be seen. Maybe towed behind if that doesn't make the case even bigger than it needs to be now. We shall see...

As promised, here is an update on the small amount of work I have done in the last week or so. Firstly, I finished and installed the chain pumps on the gun deck. I made some supports for the ends of the pump handles using my little lathe. I am not sure how the ends would have been supported but this worked for me. I made the handles by bending some 28 gauge wire. In these pictures you can also see the monkey rail for the spar deck, which I have extended down into the gun deck for strength. This required square holes in the two uprights for the horizontal piece to slide into. I used a smaller drill then some small square files to enlarge the holes until the bar fit. As you can see it is a pretty tight fit around the main mast. But, I wanted to add a mast coat around the main mast hole, so I made one on the lathe. Again, I am not sure if there would be one on the gun deck. I also made some racks to hold cannon balls to go around the two hatches. I drilled holes in some strip wood using the XY table on the drill press and will fill them with the stainless steel ball bearings I blackened previously. Here is the mast coat being painted and the cannon ball racks being stained. Also in that picture is a coaming for the stove. I realized where I had ended the gun deck section in the front covers about 75% of the stove, so I decided to add a low res version of the stove so there would be something black there if it could be seen. I am using this picture of the current stove as a guide. Here are the stove pieces being assembled. I am only about half way done with the stove itself, but should have it done by the end of the week. I will probably add the pot holder too, just for fun. Outside of the workshop I am also working on the belaying pin plan. With my desire to use the U shaped rail and the monkey rail, I will not have as many belaying pins around the main mast as shown on the kit plans, by less than half. The Revell kit has belaying pins in the monkey rail, but the plans on the CD don't show holes for them and getting good holes through the bar seems a bit hard. So, I am going through an alternate belaying pin plan I found in the NRG Shop Notes II for the Constitution which shows less pins around the main mast. Also, I am planning only to show the three topsails on the finished model, which means I can eliminate the buntlines and leechlines for the other sails, which cuts down the number of pins I will need. I also will not be showing bowlines for any sails. I am still in the process of getting the final pins counts. I was also worried that I would not have as many pins on the bulwarks since I removed the bulwarks in the waist, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I think I will be OK with the 11 pins shown on the U shaped rail or maybe just need to add 1 or 2 more pins to that rail. I'll let you all know when I have it figured out. Thanks again for watching.

Very nice work on the beams. I am coming to the point where I have to make a few beams for the Connie, so this is a very timely tutorial. Thanks.

Oh, and thanks for the information Buick Nut. I just recently saw the President plans in one of Chappel's books, which is pretty compelling evidence for six windows across the transom, but it was easier for me to just make 5.

Thanks Boyd. I was hesitant about starting a build log because I still feel so new to this, too, but I really enjoy it now. I love that it is helping other builders like yourself, but I learned a lot from other build logs too, and still do. I have to say, your Bounty is coming along really nicely and I am going to be following along with your log because I can learn from you too. Your interior details are just amazing. For the rest, I should have an update tomorrow. I have been doing some work but have not had time to get the pictures off the camera.

Captain, I am glad my pictures can be of help. You are on the same track I was - many redos, reusing pieces of parts and adding new wood to them, etc. In the end, I liked the result and yours looks like they will do nicely. So far, I think this was the hardest part of the build, so hang in there and you will be through to more fun stuff.

Popeye, that is some magnificent work. I love the color scheme and the details you have added. Well done, sir.

Jeff - Thanks for looking in and all the likes. I'd say your Fair American is more than fair, although you can't fair too much on these ships . All of the planking is butt jointed on mine, so no overlaps. I am not sure I have seen overlapping planking before. The strip chooses the ship! - I love it! George is right - it is finding small enough balls for the cannon balls that is the issue. Ball bearings work great, especially stainless steel. And Bill's method of heating the balls before blackening works great, which is the method I used.

Hi George. Here is another link you might find useful, if you haven't already seen it : http://www.captainsclerk.info/ The Navy used to have the contents of the Constitution CD on a web page, but it seems to have been taken down.

Glad to be of help Jeff. Those clips really do come in handy. I just had a look at your Fair American build. You are off to a great start.

In the caption to the picture, it says the wale planks are 3/32" x 5/32", but it still doesn't make sense. My guess is that they are not wider, but thicker by 1/32" than the previous planks.

You will. Maybe the stuff on the CD will help you decide.

Your welcome George, There is some pretty interesting stuff included. Its fun to poke around on it.

Thanks George. The CD can be bought from the US Navy museam store web site - http://museumstore.navyhistory.org/CD-Constitution-Plans-p/618.htmor the Constituion museam web site - http://store.ussconstitutionmuseum.org/products/uss-constitution-plans-for-model-ship-builders-and-general-researchers.

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.

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.

Bill, so this is what you've been up to since the Connie. I had no idea. This is a nice step in the right direction. I have actually read the dissertation on this ship and found it fascinating. You are doing a great job on the framing. I hope to be able to scratch build some day and will use your gantry method for sure.

Well said, Ed.

Those are beautiful little mortars you have there, Matt.

I use the same approach to rigging (I am also a software developer, too). I make a spreadsheet of the rigging in the order that it is to be done in. This order changes as the rigging progresses, however, as I see what kind of tight spots are being created. One bit of advice I would add is to look at the many practicums that are available, especially those by Chuck Passaro. You can find these on the Model Expo web site for the Phantom and Sultana models, among others. I think he has some on the Syren web site too. The order that he uses is basically the same order I use, but tailored for whatever model I am working on. I usually still spend quite a bit of time filling out the spreadsheet, but it makes the rest of the rigging process so much easier.

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".

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.

And I will update my question and answer. The additional twisting of the individual strands did produce rope that did not want to unwind. I then experimented with making thicker rope from these thinner ropes, rotating them in the opposite direction. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, I was able to figure out the right weight and amount of twist to make decent rope. I am really pleased with this rope walk and look forward to making the ropes for the Constitution.

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.