usedtosail

Tim, I don't know who first came up with those clamps but when I first saw them I thought they were brilliant, and they do work so well. I made up some of the smaller size, but don't use them very often as the holding power is a lot less. I haven't tried the very large ones, but they could be useful in some situations too.

In post #2 of this build log I showed how I have been storing the various wood strips for this project (in golf club tubes), as well as the storage bucket for the other wood strips I have in the workshop. I was not really happy with either of these methods so I started a little research project for a better way to sort and store wood strips. I wanted to store the wood on its side, not upright and be able to get at it easily. My constraints were space and cost. I cleared out a shelf I could use for the storage rack and I wanted to keep this project under $50. I came up with two options for something I could build - one using PVC pipe, something like this: and the other a series of trays, sort of like a stack of 2 foot long draw inserts for silverware. I priced out the PVC pipe I would need and it came out to $90, so that option was out. Then I thought of cardboard mailing tubes, so I priced them out and they did come in under $50, but I would still need to make a wood frame for them. I also was not sure if open ended tubes would be the best way to store these strips. For example, how would this work with partial strips that were less than a foot long? I kept coming back to the tray approach, but realized how much work that would be to make. While looking for the mailing tubes, I came across these 2" square by 25" long mailing boxes, and knew I had found the solution: With a little modification, I had trays that would hold the 24" wood strips nicely: I could get 50 of these for 69 cents each and just stack them on top of each other. I cut a portion of the top off each one, about 16 inches, which lets me get the full strips into the box. It can hold partial strips and I can use the end of the box to write the dimensions of the strips in the box. This was a problem with the PVD approach, as I could not figure out a good way to mark the tubes for contents. I made up enough for the Constitution strips first, and in a few boxes there are multiple dimensions, where the kit only supplied a few strips for those sizes.. Others have only one size in them. I then went ahead and built enough to hold all my surplus wood strips, and still have room on the shelf for more of these: I still have a bunch of boxes left over for future expansion and since they are not folded yet they are easy to store too. I thought about gluing the boxes up into trays, but have left them as individual boxes as it is very easy to pull a single box from the bottom of the pile like a draw. I think this rack will work out nicely for me. When I was finished i was reminded of the wand shop in the Harry Potter movies. I just hope these boxes don't start flying off the shelf by themselves.

No worries, Tim. I am glad to host this kind of discussion and information sharing, which makes this site so valuable. Some obligatory progress photos. I got the two rows of planks on below the gun port sills, so I can now start on the wale planks for this side. I apparently had not finished sanding the upper planks on this side before I turned the hull around to plank the port side wales, so I spent the last couple of days filling and sanding these upper planks. I still have to sand the two rows of planks I just put on before starting the wales. While I have been waiting for planks to dry, I have been working a couple of side projects, which I will show in the next couple of posts.

Hi Pete. I love those logos. What kind of glue did you use to glue the vellum to the hull? Thanks.

OK, as promised here is a picture of all the gun barrels we have been discussing: The three on the right are the kit supplied barrels, from left to right are the carronade, dummy, and long gun barrels. The barrel on the left is one from the extra gun deck guns that can be ordered from Model Expo. As you can see they are all about the same quality and the long gun and gun deck gun barrels are the same. I am still undecided about adding the two long guns to the spar deck.

Yep, I only looked at the two bags on the right, so I have the two long guns too. I thought there were more guns than just the carronades for the spar deck. The barrels in the add on cannons look about the same in quality to the ones supplied in the kit.

Hum, I didn't see the long 24's but maybe I overlooked them. I'll look closer tonight and let you know.

"Yes winter is just around the corner,..." What! It is still summer here in the Northern Hemisphere. Snow in summer is just unreal. How far north are you Michael?

Tim, thanks for that information. You are a fountain of knowledge on this ship and I much appreciate it. George, simple is good, but I'll bet you will add a lot of detail once you get going. I agree that wood building is so satisfying, but can be frustrating at times too. Trying to get the planking to look nice and even is frustrating me at the moment. I checked back into the kit supplied parts last night, and the only armament supplied are the carronades for the spar deck and the dummy gun barrels for the gun deck, so no cannons for the spar deck. Tonight I will take a picture or two of the three barrels (carraonade and dummy from the kit, and cannon from the cannon package), so you guys can see what is available from Model Expo and how they compare to each other. Wes, Thank you. I got the idea for the gun deck from this forum and figured I'd see how far I could go. It was not a big decision because I figured I could always cover it up if it didn't come out right. So far, I am happy with it although keeping it clean while hull planking is a bit of a challenge. Also, I have to figure out how to mask it when I go to paint this monster.

Welcome George. You make a very good point concerning accuracy. In my case, the majority of guns on the spar deck will be carronades which came with the kit, which are quite a bit different than the gun deck guns. I think there are a couple of regular cannons that came with the kit for the spar deck and these are probably the same as the gun deck guns, so there is where the inaccuracy may show.. The gun deck guns are a mixture of the dummy cannon barrels that came with the kit and the Model Expo gun kits that they sell separately. The barrels on these are close to the same as the dummy barrels, and should be OK for 24 pounders. I don't know Chuck's schedule for the Syren guns.

Yes, the castings in these are a bit rough too, as are the castings that came with the kit. I think they can be cleaned up with some work, though. The carriages needed a lot of modification so that these cannon barrels would match the elevation of the dummy cannon barrels, since i am using both. it wasn't too bad since I am only using 16 of these "real" cannons, though.

Yes Tim, I bought that set a while ago. It really is a good deal compared to buying the guns individually. Even without filling the whole gun deck with these guns it was still a lot cheaper then if I just bought the guns I need.

Wow, I guess I haven't updated this in a while. I gave the port side wale planks an initial sanding before moving onto the starboard side. I thinned down the bottom three wale planks so the wales will flow into the rest of the hull planking. I also thinned the wale planks at the stem to be flush with the planks above. I will sand these all some more when I do the final sanding of the whole hull before painting and coppering. I turned the hull around and started adding the two remaining planks between the gun ports and the wales on this side. It took me over a month to get the port side where it is from this point, but hopefully I will have more time to work the starboard side so it won't take as long. We will see...

That is an excellent rigging job. I had the same problem with the belaying pins on the rail. Good solution. Rope coils are one of those things that take time and practice to get to look right. After 6 models I am still not there, but I have a feeling yours will look great.

So true, Scott. Welcome back Wes. Sorry for your loss. I need more inspiration from your fabulous build.

I don't think so Mundie. I think that was just how they were drafted.

Thanks Rich for the tips on the hammock nets. They look great. I will use that same method when I get to them (in a year or two or three).

You are welcome Richard. And if you ever need to loosen CA glue, acetone works well.

Oh my, that looks very delicate at this stage.

Nice hammock stanchions and rope coils.

Thanks Wayne. That description fits the references.

The Age of Fighting Sail, C. S. Forester - War of 1812. One reference was to chopping the topgallant forcastle up with axes to lighten the ship, so I know it was not a stay. I don't have the book here with me, but I could find the specific reference later.

I saw this term referenced twice in a book I just finished. Is it a second level on the forecastle? The reference was to British ships in the 1814 era.

Did you try isopropyl alcohol? It should loosen the wood glue. But, wood filler works too. Nice progress so far.

Model Shipways provides one of the kits. You can get it in the US from Model Expo. I think they ship to Australia, too, but it is probably expensive. I think OcCre provides the other kit, and I know they are quite different. For instance, the OcCre kit has a bowsprit and the MS kit does not.