usedtosail

Thanks George, Steve, Jay, and Gerty, and the likes. I really appreciate the feedback. I does make this more fun knowing people are watching, but it is a bit terrifying at times too I was able to get the top strips trimmed and the bottom strips made and glued on. These had to be curved too to fit the bottom of the quarter gallery backs and joined to the top strips at the ends. A little wood filler was used at the joints and inside one of the top strips, but I was able to sand it all out without too much damage to the stern decorations. In fact, the only damage inflicted was at one point I noticed one of the points of a star sitting on the very edge of the workbench. I knew if it fell on the floor I would never find it and would have to make a new star to match the other one. I put a small drop of glue where the point should be and VERY gingerly picked up the point and managed to get it back into position without dropping it. Whew! It blended back into the rest of the star too. I will prime and paint these strips before adding the quarter galleries.

Cheating? Na! I call it brilliant. I am glad your wife is home and feeling better.

Thanks Steve, Tim and George, and the likes. I finished the rudder chains on the other side, which went a lot faster. I was going to fill the air ports with white glue to make the clear plugs, but found this Micro Klear stuff, so I filled them from the back using a small paint brush that has some sort of swab on the end. I let these sit upside down while the stuff dried. It is a bit runny, so if I put them right side up the stuff would ooze out. Since I put it in the back, it would harden enough before it traversed the length of the port. I let them dry overnight and they were nice an clear the next day. So then I had to make the two strips that cover the ends of the quarter gallery backs. I should have made these at lot earlier, like the instructions say, and certainly before I added the stern decorations. I am really concerned about messing them up now. Oh well. I had to trim larger strips down to size for these trim pieces and then soak and bend them to fit. The upper bend is really tight, so I worked on that one first, which took about three resoakings to finally get it so I could fit the strip all the way inside the curve. Then I bent the second curve, which goes the other way, which was a bit challenging to not take out the too much of the first curve in the process. I finally got each piece close and while they were still supple, I glued the top curve in place with CA and held it until it dried. I could not use clamps because of the stern decorations. I then added CA to the bottom curve and held that part in place. Overall I think they came out well, but I still need to trim them and add the bottom pieces, which are straight. Then I have to sand the edges of these to be flush with the transom without hitting any of the stern decorations. We shall see how successful that will be. I guess I haven't said this in a while, but any feedback, especially criticisms are always welcome. Thanks.

I added the decorations to the transom. I used CA glue for the metal eagle and wood glue for the Sculpey stars and figures. I was surprised how well the figures held up in handling them. I did bake these for 2 hours instead of 90 minutes, which did seem to make them stronger and I think the gold paint also helped. I was afraid of breaking off those thin arms, especially when holding them down until the glue dried, but they all stayed together. I decided not to add the small star under the eagle as it looked to big and crowded. I like the level of decoration on the hull now. I have one side of the rudder chain installed and still need to do the other side. I have to add these as separate pieces of chain because the links are so small I can't get the wire to fit between them when linked, so I have to have open links on the ends of each piece. it is a bit fiddly but after about an hour I got the one side done. I had to get out the big magnifiers to see the ends of those chain pieces. I have to put the three eye bolts on the other side of the transom for the rudder chain, which I will do tonight, but I will have to finish the chain later in the week. That means I get to start the quarter galleries tonight too.

Hi Popeye. Beautiful work on the AG. I have a question. What does the decal program give you that you couldn't get by just designing your decals in some other program and printing them on decal paper? I just bought some decal paper but have not tried it yet, so I am curious to see if I need to buy the program too. Thanks.

From Chemistry class many years ago - AAA (Always Add Acid)

Thanks Patrick. I am continuing to work on individual details for the transom decorations, but my Sculpey skills are no where near where they should be. I did manage to get one figure to come out half way decent and when I painted it with gold it covered a multitude of sins, so to speak. I am still not convinced I can get this glued to the transom without breaking it though. You can also see the eagle that came with the kit, cleaned up and painted, and one star that I am not completely happy with. I have made new starts and figures, but have not cooked them yet. I am going to do that tonight. I am hoping to get at least one other star from this batch and a few usable figures. We will see. I was able to get a name board made using the dry transfer lettering. My first attempt was to use the spacing of the letters on the template I made, but after a few I could tell they were going to be too far apart and not spaced right, as the font was quite different. I then made a new template on the computer using a font much closer to the dry lettering font. I adjusted the spacing in Powerpoint until it looked good to me, which was 3 or 4 times the normal spacing. The thing that looks like a name plate just under the transom image is actually an image of what I wanted it to look like: I then taped the actual wood that I had painted black (after scraping off the few letters I put on in my first attempt and touched up the black paint) under the image. I then used the image of the name board to line the letters up horizontally, and made sure that each letter was aligned vertically on the board, using the rows of letters on the dry transfer sheet. I started with the middle letters and worked toward each end. After every 4 or so letters, I burnished them using the cover sheet provided so that they were well stuck down and would not get damaged as the did the rest of the letters. When all the letters were on, I gave it a final burnishing and a coat of Dullcote lacquer. I trimmed the ends of the name board using a hole punch to cut out each corner, then touched up the black paint. There is some waviness of the letters that I can see in that image, but it really doesn't look bad from even a little further away. I have a lot of letters left, so I may try making another one. We will see. I am always trying to think many moves ahead and adding the details for the gun deck will be coming soon. I have been reading The Fully Framed Model Vol 1 book and just got to the part where he shows the main bits coming down from the upper deck to the gun deck. It made me stop and think that maybe I need to add this detail, so I looked at the MS plans and in the AOS book but neither showed the bits, which are really part of the main fife rail, extending down into the gun deck. I was thinking about the ship today and remembered that Google maps has the ship mapped out, so I went to that site and looked. Sure enough, the two front supports for the main fife rail are extended to the gun deck, so that is what I will do when I get to that part. I am glad I realized this now before I finished up the gun deck. The fore bits also extend down, but that is outside the part of the gun deck that I am modeling.

Your build is sooo clean. The masts and standing rigging look terrific.

Ha ha ha Bill. In this case they would find some old teacher papers of my wife's. But that would have been kind of interesting to put some relevant info on the floppy before I cut it up. I like the way you included your build log and plans in the table that holds your Constitution.

Thanks everyone. Geoff, check here to see what I used for the glass in the windows: http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/4679-the-kit-bashers-guide-to-the-galaxy/page-12#entry295464

Wow, that is impressive. The rigging looks great.

Just a small update from the weekend's activities. To add the large arches to the transom, I first glued a copy of the transom plan to some manilla folder, then cut it out along the top arch to use as a template. I taped this to the transom, then glued down the trim piece, starting at the middle and working outward. When I had most of it glued down, I removed the template and cut the ends to fit into the side trim. When this was dry, I cut the template back to the lower arch and did the same thing for that trim piece. I then made up the columns that I put along and between the windows. These were made from three separate pieces of wood that I primed and painted white. The two end piece were cut and the inside corners rounded off with a sanding block. The thinner center pieces were scored with a razor blade scraper before I painted them. I glued the end pieces on first, then cut the middle pieces to fit tight to them. I have primed and painted the eagle, including the shield, but forgot to take a picture of it. I have also started working with the Sculpey to create the stars and figures. So far, I think I can get that technique to work.

Thanks for all the likes. Patrick, Sal, and Wes, thank you too. and I am really enjoying following your builds as well. I have learned much from them all. Wes, your build was an inspiration to get me to build the Constitution.

Here is something I picked up on this site for making window glass. First off, I have to apologize to the modeler who came up with this. I saw it on this site but can't remember from whom. Dig around behind your computer tables and look for these old "floppy" disks. If you crack them open, the disk itself is a black plastic, that makes great windows. It is opaque, so if like me you have nothing behind the windows to show, it does a great job of hiding the emptiness. It is very thin so it doesn't take up much space in the openings, and it cuts very easily with a scalpel or X-Acto knife. Plus, it is shiny so it looks like glass. And, it doesn't fog from CA glue like acetate does.

Nice spanker set up you have there, RIch.

Looking great, Patrick.

Thanks again, J. This looks like a straight forward procedure. I just wanted to make sure I had all the supplies I would need, but it is no problem getting them separately.

Thanks J. I will try that if the dry transfer doesn't work out. What decaling kit did you use? Your Rattlesnake looks great. I have to spend some time going through your log.

What about the guy (and it WASN'T me) who used his own urine to weather his copper plates.

Good morning all. Work on the transom continues. By the way, I am adding the transom details now because I think it is easier to work on the transom with the hull upside down. When the transom is finished, I will work on the quarter galleries, but I am not sure if the hull needs to be upside down for them. They are next to make sure they flow into the transom correctly. Then I will be turning the hull right side up and rigging the guns on the gun deck. After that step, I will be very reluctant to turn the hull upside down again. I looked at the supplied eagle stern decoration that came with the kit and decided I like it, so I have incorporated it into the transom design. Here is what I envision for the transom. The figures and stars I will try to make out of Sculpey. If that doesn't work, I don't have a back up plan yet. For the name, I will make a thin board that I will paint black, then use white dry transfer lettering for the name. If that proves too problematic, I will try printing out the name and gluing it to the board. We will see. BTW, I used the computer equivalent of cutting small bits of paper designs out and gluing them together to get the final design. It works for me but it sure doesn't stand up to graphic design standards. I gave the window frames a few coats of thinned white paint. For the backing I would usually use clear acetate which I glue on with Hypo cement to prevent fogging. In another build log, and I really can't remember who's (so I apologize now if you are reading this log), to open up an old floppy disk and use the black, shiny material inside. This stuff is great. It blocks the view of the interior, which is good because there is none at the stern, is shiny to look like glass, and doesn't fog with CA glue. I cut oversize pieces of this material and glued them to the back of the window frames, then used a scalpel to trim the edges. It is thin enough so that it hardly pushed the frames out of the openings, so I could leave it go all the way to the edges of the window frames. I then glued the window frames into the openings, again using CA. And for the Captain, here is how it looks right side up at this point. I then started adding some of the trim strips. I am using white styrene strips for the trim, as others have done on their Connie builds. This stuff works great. I had to make two pretty extreme bends for trim behind the quarter galleries, so I used some push pins on a piece of balsa wood. I carefully bent the strips making sure the center was flush to the board, then gently heated the strips with a hair dryer until I could tell they where pliable, then let them cool overnight. When I removed them from the board, they held their shape nicely. One had a bit of a point at the top, so I put it back into the jig and reheated it to get the point out. The first strip I glued on was across the bottom of the windows. I started at the middle and worked out toward the edges, gluing in sections. I wanted to make sure the strip was tight to the bottom of the window frames. I was happy to see this still came out to be a straight line. I then had to glue those two bent strips to the transom. I first put a strip of masking tape on the transom to mark the tops of these arches, then glued the top of each arch, holding the strip while the glue dried so that they stayed flush to the transom. I then worked on each side of the arch, making sure they were at the right angles and tried to keep both sides of the transom the same. I left the ends long while gluing then trimmed them to the lower strip when the glue dried. I then added the strip across the tops of the windows. I cut one end to flow into the arch, but left the other end long while gluing. I also added the strip under the name. I still have to trim the ends of a few of these strips but you can see what they look like so far. One observation I have using styrene is that you really have to wait for the CA to dry, as it seems to take longer than it does on wood for some reason. The styrene does present a nice crisp edge, though, and it is very easy to bend.

Thanks everyone. Steve, I wish I had the precision for these to be interchangeable but alas they are not. Each one was custom built to the size of the specific opening. I'll get a picture of them right side up so you can leave your laptop on the table

Good advise George. This is not an easy model to build. That said, we will help you as much as we can.

I don't know what the control block is. The piece you show is the transom filler piece. See post http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/5003-uss-constitution-by-usedtosail-model-shipways/?p=158328 in my build log where I shape this piece from templates made from the plans.

Beautiful work, Sal.

Thanks Tim. That gluing jig I got from Micro Mark a few years ago, which I find really useful. At first I was not too thrilled with it becuase the magnets are a pain to use, but then I started using the Lego blocks with it which made a huge difference.