usedtosail

Nice job on those channels, Rich.

Thanks Al and Patrick. Yes, I have so many pictures already, more than any previous whole build. These will make a nice record of what's been done and what may be hidden. Still thinking about the gun carriage color, but I have lots of time to decide. In between framing I have put together 5 of the 16 gun carriages that I need for the gun deck, although these are still pretty rough. There are a lot of steps for creating each carriage and more later when they are rigged. I have been working on the dummy gun ports. These will have the dummy barrels in them with the gun port lids closed. The main concern here is to have the barrels exactly in the center of the ports and at the same angle as the real cannon barrels. I first made up the tops, bottom and sides of the ports, using different widths of 1/8" strips. I glued these in so that the rear edges of the tops and bottoms held the backs at the correct angles. Each gun port was just a bit different. I then sanded the front edges flush to the bulkheads, making sure that there was a slight curve between bulkheads to match the fairness of the hull. This is especially important near the bow, where there is a sharp curve between bulkheads. Here are the sanded frames with the backs being glued in place: And here is a simple tool I made up to center the backs. It is just a thin piece of wood that is the same shape as the gun ports glued to a piece of dowel that is the same diameter as the dummy gun barrels. The dowel fits snugly in the hole in the backs, so I inserted the tool into the gun port and slid the back piece on from inside the hull and pushed it tight to the frames, after applying some glue around the edges of the back pieces. I held it in place while I removed the tool and placed the two clothes pin clamps in place. Here are the three ports at the bow. The one in the middle was the tricky one that needed thick tops and bottom frames to get the curve of the bow into them. The first ones I put on were too thin so it made the frame too flat. I also had to trim the back piece at an angle to fit close to the bulkhead. The front gun port needed some work too. This was actually added weeks ago when I framed the bow area. Unfortunately, the plans either were not right or I misinterpreted them. First off, in the current configuration this is not a gun port but an anchor port, but in 1812 this was a gun port from what I have read. On the plans it says that this opening is the same shape as the other gun ports, which is how I should have built it, but from the shape shown in the detailed plans, this opening comes out square. Also, the top and bottom of this port were too low in the detailed plans, so it did not line up with the other ports. So, I removed the top and bottom pieces and glued them in at the right heights, then used a file to widen the sides to the correct width. I am thinking that I will have the gun port lids on this front port but no cannon barrel sticking out, mainly because there is no room behind it to get a back piece in and to hedge my bets on what type of port this is. I did add a thin piece of wood as a backing just to block any light from coming in from behind. Speaking of light, I got to looking closer at the ends of the gun deck and realized that some of the other bulkheads may be seen through the openings. I first thought to just paint them all black, but then came up with a simpler solution, which was to just close up the ends with some black construction paper. I think this will look better in the long run. These are all pictures of the port side gun port frames. I am still working on the starboard side frames.

I have a Dremel and I bought a foot control that is just an on/off switch, so I use the speed control on the tool and the foot switch to start and stop. I don't think this set up will burn out the rheostat.

I agree with the others - excellent build so far, Steve.

Thanks Patrick. I am hoping she has a good waist too. Speaking of waist, here is the picture of the Hull model that shows both the open main hatch and the open bulwarks at the waist. CaptainSteve - I like your idea but I think that is a bit too ambitious for me this build. Someday I would like to build a true plank of frame like Dan and EdT are doing, but not this one, even a small portion. The guns on the gun deck will be visible somewhat through the gun ports, and the deck itself and bits near the centerline through the open hatch, like the picture above shows. That is, if I leave the ships boat off the hatch, which I may just do. I had thought about making the boat removable, but this beast is going to be inside a very large case which I will not be opening and closing. Someday, I would also like to make a model with an exploded deck view. I have seen some pictures of models with their spar decks suspended in the air on supports so you can see inside the gun deck. I think it is a cool way to display those details, so I may try my hand at that in a future build. Always have to leave something different to try in the future, right?

Sherry, I just caught up with your log. What a gorgeous ship you are building. And your carving skills are out of this world. One question - what did you use for the gold paint? It looks fantastic. Thanks.

Augie - Thanks for looking in. Your Confederacy is a really beautiful build. Geoff - I don't know about that. I am just trying to add a little more detail than some. Your Constitution build is a real inspiration for me and was one of the reason I decided to build it. It is fantastic. Tim - thanks and I hope it comes out the way I envision it. A problem I always seem to have is keeping something I had already done from getting messed up by further steps. I am hoping that doesn't happen when I add the rest of the details to the gun deck. A small update. I installed all of the knees on the gun deck walls, with vertical knees under the beam ends and diagonal knees in between. They look a little funny without the carlings in place, but once the spar deck is planked the tops of these knees won't be visible. I put some masking tape on the deck to protect it while gluing up the inside planks and the knees, and I managed not to get any glue on the deck (so far). When I removed the masking tape, some stain was lifted from some of the planks, but I was able to restain them and blend it into the rest of them. I painted the inside walls, knees, and inside the gun ports with an off white that I mixed up. I also managed not to get paint on the waterways or deck, at least not any that I was not able to wipe off before it dried. It really helped to paint that bottom plank before installing it. I also gave the deck, hatch coamings and gratings and waterway a coat of Tung oil. I know this may interfere with gluing details to the deck later, like guns, but I plan to pin all those down so they don't come loose later. I will also scrape the glue areas before gluing. Here is how the gun deck looks so far: I have been making up gun carriages as I wait for other things to dry. I have no idea what color these carriages should be. The carriages on the current ship are a pinkish-red, but I don't think that would have been the case in 1812. They could have been red like the British ships of the time, black, brown, yellow even, but I really don't know. I am open for suggestions from all you Connie experts out there. Thanks so much.

Just caught up with your log, Auggie. What a fantastic job you have done.

Looks good Mundie.

Thanks Patrick, Tim and dragzz. Tim - Thanks for the information. I made most of the diagonal knees the same size as the vertical knees. I did make three on each side a little longer for a longer span between gun ports. I was not able to get them to meet above the gun ports as they would have been really long, so I fit them so they looked OK to me. I have some pictures of them installed soon.

Thanks Patrick. I am happy with that solution, since they will be painted anyway. If I ever try to build a model in all natural wood someday, i will be in real trouble. I am going to add the vertical and diagonal knees to the gun deck walls. I am not sure if these were in the 1812 version, but here is what they look like on the current ship. There is a vertical knee under each beam and the diagonal knees meet between the beams, probably at a carling (if that is the right term). Since I won't have any carlings, I will just have them end under the spar deck planking. I made one from some 1/8" basswood sheet to use as a template for the rest: I made this template a little thinner than the knee I wanted, because I have found in the past that once I trace it, it gets fatter in the end, so by starting smaller, it should come out close to the right size. I used the template to trace the shape onto some basswood sheet that I cut close to the correct height. I traced these so the curved edge was always on the short side of the blank, so I could use the blank as a handle when sanding it. I cut off the excess with a razor knife, which left a nice triangular piece that I put aside to use to make the quoins for the gun deck cannons. I then used a Dremel sanding disk in the drill press to sand in the curves: I cleaned up the knee with small files and some sand paper. Then cut it away from the blank with the razor knife: I got into a good rhythm and was able to crank each one out about every couple of minutes, so it took less time than I thought it would. And here is how it will look as a vertical knee: The trick is getting them all to look similar, so here are the first 10 or so and I think they do look similar: And here are 33 of them, which is getting closer to the number I need, but not there yet. And the triangular waste pieces too. Tonight I will figure out exactly how many I need and finish making them, then start attaching them.

Nice fix for the galleries. She is looking great.

Nice tutorial on distressing those planks. I will have to try that sometime. Thanks.

That's a good idea. I plan to leave the main hatch will be open without any gratings, but a boat will be placed on top of the beams. I could make the boat removable though. I'll have to think on that one.

It may be flea surgery, but you seem to have mastered it. That rudder and hardware look great.

Thanks alde, I agree. Getting everything to fit together correctly over the course of many months, if not years, is a real trick and it scares the crap out of me sometimes, trying to anticipate it all. Thanks Steve. I just hope some of this will be visible when it is all put together. Even if not, the practice is invaluable and will help on future builds.

Thanks Rich. They work great for many things, don't they? And since they are wood they don't make marks like metal clamps can do.

I wanted to test fit the cannons I bought from Model Expo to make sure they fit in the gun ports, so I assembled one of them and did a quick test. These did not come with instructions, so I basically just fit a support piece between the two side pieces for this test cannon, but the real ones will have a small tapered piece and a front support piece instead. I also just used some 1/16" square wood for the axles, but will use wider pieces of wood in the final version. I made a jig to hold the side pieces up while I glued them to the axles. Here is the test cannon from the jig: I rounded the axles to fit the wheels and just slid the wheels onto them for now: When I put this cannon onto the gun deck I could see that it was about 1/8" too low. This made sense to me given that the bulkheads as supplied by ME are at the height of the gun deck after planking, but I had reduced the height of the bulkheads by 1/8" to account for the 1/16" of the gun deck support piece and the 1/16" deck planks. If I had just planked the deck without lowering the bulkheads, these cannons would fit fine or be close. My first idea was to add more height to the axles, but that would only get me another 1/16" or so without looking awful. I then looked at the supplied gun carriage sides and realised that I could cut them in half without hitting any of the notches, then I could add a 1/18" by 1/16" piece to make up the height difference. I did this for two sides and after sanding them they looked fine. I glued them up with the axles and support piece, added the wheels and this is how it came out: And here it is in one of the gun ports. It fits nicely and more importantly, the barrel comes out straight so I can (hopefully) line them up with the dummy cannons that will be in the other gun ports. Here is a comparison of the stock cannon (right) and the modified version (left): I was lucky to have some extra cannons to experiment with. At some point I will make up the 16 cannons that will be rigged on the gun deck, but I have a lot more work to do to get to that point.

Here are a couple of updates. I'll show the interior wall planking of the gun deck in this one and the experiments with the gun deck cannons in the next one. I planked the insides of the gun deck walls using the same 1/8" by 1/16" planks that I used for the deck planking. I started with two full length planks at the bottom of each side. I mixed up some off white paint and painted the bottom planks before installing them, although the color looks very similar to the basswood itself. Those clothes pins held the planks very nicely in place while the glue dried. I then cut three short planks for between each of the gun ports and glued them in. I made them slightly longer than the span between the gun ports and will clean up the gun port openings later. These plank ends will be flush with the gun port openings, where as the outside hull planks will leave a slight gap for the gun port lids to fit in. The next plank up was a full length plank, then I had to make shorter planks with either notches for the deck beam ends or cut to fit between the deck beam ends. I ended up gluing the upper planks directly to the edges of the planks below. I really did not need the little supports I added for these planks before, as they really didn't support them. I did add a thin strip from the outside onto these upper planks to tie the top three together to give them a little more strength. These strips will be hidden when the outer hull planking is added. I cleaned up the gun port openings from the outside using some small diamond files, after cutting some of the excess plank ends with an X-Acto knife. I still have a little more cleaning to do from the inside to get the corners more crisp. I only had to do a little sanding of the interior planks, which I did with a riffler file first, then taped some sandpaper to the end of it and used that for the final sanding. Here is how the starboard side interior looks so far.

That is looking very nice, Rich.

Great job Christi. She came out wonderfully.

Wow, I just read through your whole build. That is one sweet looking boat. I might have to add this one to the futures list. I really like your use of decals for the fine details. I noticed you were having trouble with the images for your decals. I recently came across a free program that works like Adobe Illustrator that lets you go from images to vectors and back to images, so you can make changes to the patterns like your circles. It is called Inkscape - I don't have the link in front of me but a google search should bring it up. Thanks for the great build log.

Patrick - yes they do look to be good quality. I am going to put one together this weekend to check the fit in the gun ports, so I'll see how good the wood is and how well the carriages fit together. Steve - ha ha. I was lucky to get third. Those other entries were all awesome. I am just glad it was a photo contest.

I ordered the cannon package from Model Expo for the gun deck cannons and they came in this week. I only need 16 real cannons for the piece of gun deck I am adding, but the whole package was cheaper than ordering 16 individual cannons, by a lot. Plus, I had two $10 gift certificates from the shipmodeling.net competition (2 third places). I figure I can use the extras for future models, maybe even a scratch build. Here is a comparison of the barrels with the dummy cannons for the other gun ports. They are close but not exactly the same. I have the option of turning the extra real barrels into dummy barrels, but I haven't made that decision yet. What do you think? I completed the gun ports for the real cannons on both sides and sanded the outsides flush with the bulkheads. I also did a little filing on the inside using a riffler file to make sure everything is flush for the inner planks. While doing that inside work, I realized I had a problem with the top of the inside walls, between the deck beams. There was no support for the planks that need to fit between the beams to close off the tops of the walls. After some thinking (probably too much) I came up with this solution, to glue small pieces of wood along each beam side that can support the ends of the planks. In this picture you can see them on the gun port on the right, and not the two on the left. Here is a view from the inside that shows how they will work. They are flush with the insides of the gun port frame at the bottom and with the outside of the spar deck waterway at the top. I am not sure if this is the exact angle they should be, but they are going to be very hard to see, if at all, and I could probably get away with just leaving this area unplanked, but what's the sport in that. Finally, I had to mix some paint for the insides of the gun deck walls and gun ports. I am using an off white that I mixed up from ME's Warm White and Cream. It is almost the same color as the basswood itself, but it adds a different texture to the wood. Here are the first planks for each side, which I pre-painted so I don't get paint on the waterway later. Next is to plank the inside walls of the gun deck.

Ok. I'll just sit here in the corner and wait. I am very patient.