usedtosail

Bob, I am glad I found your log. The schooner looks really nice so far. I am looking forward to following along.

The sails look great.

Stern filler blocks: The first one of these took me much longer than I thought it would, but the second one was a lot faster. Isn't that how it always goes. I first glued up two blanks to use for these. Instead of the 2" wide block that came with the kit, I used a a 1" piece of basswood that I had and glued on a 1/4" piece at the top, just to reduce the amount of waste. I then made templates form the plans and traced the edges onto the different sides of the blank. I cut the side profile with a coping saw, then taped the pieces back together and cut the S shaped back profile on the scroll saw. This took a while since my little scroll saw and thin blades didn't want to follow the lines nicely. But, I eventually got it cut out. I then used the belt and disk sander to square up the top and side edges so they fit flush to the last bulkhead and the keel. I used them to remove a lot of the material in the middle of the blank, and I also used my Dremel tool in the workstation with a sanding drum to get into the tighter curves. I finished up with a rounded file and some sanding blocks, and used the profile templates I made form the plans to check the overall shape of the block. I got the overall shape but the top edges were too small compared to the transom filler. Instead of remaking a whole new piece, I cut about 1/2" off the top of the blank and glued on two 1/4" pieces that were wider. After they dried, I sanded them to fit the existing shape of the blank but left the tops a bit wider than the template. It was at this point that I realized that I had left the underside of the transom filler piece too long, since the stern filler piece did not fit all the way to the back edge. I flipped the hull over and held it in a keel klamper, then used a sanding block to sand the back edge of the transom filler back to the correct length. I left about a 1/16” flat area so the planking can end nicely into the transom filler. I found it much easier fitting these filler pieces with the hull upside down. I then used the disk and belt sander to sand down the added top pieces to match the templates and flow into the original filler piece. I had to remove material in the middle of the filler to match the profile templates. For this I used the sanding disk in the Dremel tool in the workstation. I left the drum above the base so I could get the piece under the disk if I needed to. I ended up with a nice general fit, but then I worked the edges some more with sanding blocks and the rounded file to get the edges to flow into the bulkhead R and the rabbet along the stern post. I ended up increasing the rabbet depth some with an X-Acto chisel so a 1/16” plank would fit nicely into the rabbet. When I had a good fit, I gave the whole piece a final sanding with medium and fine sandpaper. I was very happy with the way this filler piece turned out, but it took about 6 hours for make it. The second one was a lot easier. I bought a few tools to make this process a little easier for this and the remaining filler pieces, which included heavier scroll saw blades with larger teeth and a small hand saw. I found this saw at Home Depot and it worked really well: I used the hand saw to start the cut of the excess off the side profile, then the coping saw to finish it. I drew the side profile on both sides of the blank this time so I could check that I was not cutting off too much on either side. I taped the cut off pieces back on and cut the back S profile with the scroll saw with the new blades, which worked much better, especially after I increased the speed of the saw. I then sanded the edges to the template lines. I again removed the center material with the Dremel sanding drum set up, and finished off with the sanding blocks and file. The rabbet on the starboard side was in good shape so I did not need to so anything with it. This side only took me 1.5 hours, and the two piece seem to match very well. I'll give them a final sanding along the edges when I fair the hull. You can see that the tips got pretty thin and ended up breaking off, but there is plenty of support from the bulkhead at those points, so I didn't bother to replace the tips. The pieces are not glued in yet, but will be soon. Lots of saw dust created to make these two fillers, but it was pretty fun overall.

Adding the bulkheads: This was pretty straight forward. I had made these Lego corners for a previous build, but they were about half as tall as I needed for this one. A quick trip to the attic to find more of my son's Legos and I had what I needed. And here they are all attached. Overall, this process took a few days as I was only adding them two at a time and letting them dry a few hours before the next two. The deck beams seem to have a nice run to them without any high or low spots. I know the sides of the bulkheads still need some fairing, which I will get to soon. While this was going on, I started making the transom filler block. I used the supplied basswood block and cut out the templates from a copy of the plans, which I glued onto the top and bottom. I then used a disk sander to thin the block down and rough in the shape, then a variety of sanding blocks to get it close to the final shape. I drilled the rudder hole, which is at a slight angle, by holding the filler piece in an adjustable vise and setting the angle to match the stern post angle, then hand drilling a series of small to large holes, finishing the hole with a couple of rat tail files. I used the raw kit supplied rudder to test the fit, so I left it a little tight, since the rudder stock will be sanded round later. I test fit the transom filler piece to the stern, using the center line on the plans to line up with the center line of the last bulkhead. Getting the piece to be aligned horizontally was a bit of a challenge, but I used the transom pieces as guides, so that when they were level all the way across that was the right angle for the filler. I had to reduce the thickness of the filler a bit more and may still take some off before adding the transom pieces. I glued it on with white glue but did not find a good way to clamp it, so I held it in place until the glue was tacky. I am working on the two filler pieces that sit under this piece and will have pictures when I finish them.

Wow. I love all that metal work. It looks fantastic.

To continue on dealing with the gun deck, I set up my Dremel tool in the Workstation with a sanding drum to sand down the area on the bulkheads to be removed. This set up let me quickly switch bulkhead sides and change bulkheads by raising the Dremel tool. There is a hole in the base of the workstation that allows the drum to fit into, so I could get the whole width of the bulkhead in one shot. The drum doesn't fit in the corners, so after doing what I could with the Dremel, I put the bulkheads in a vise and used a razor saw to cut out the material in the corners. I then used a flat file to clean up the cuts. When I had all of the bulkheads cut, I stacked them together and aligned the top rails, then used a flat file to get the cuts even. Here is the before picture: And here is the after. I think I could do more clean up but I don't want to remove too much, so I am going to wait until the final sanding after removing the center posts for any additional material removal. Finally, to remove the material on the hull former, I just used a razor saw to cut close to the lines, then a sanding block to finish off the cuts so they were all straight. I had to deepen the notch for the main mast, which I did with some careful chiselling. Well, not really so careful, but the pieces broke off cleanly and I was able to cut the notch out with a razor saw at that point and glue the two side pieces back in. For plywood, this stuff splits pretty easily. The next task will be to carefully glue the bulkheads to the hull former.

I finished cleaning up all of the bulkheads and here is how they look (unglued) in the hull former: As I mentioned earlier, I am going to attempt an 1812-ish version for this model, since taking a hard model and making it harder just seems like the right thing to do . So I want to have the main hatch open with beams across, instead of the closed hatches that are on the ship now. This one decision led to many others. Since the hatch will be open, the gun deck will need to be added since it should be visible when looking into the hatch, even though there will be a boat or two on the beams. And if the gun deck is seen, it has to have real cannons (not the dummy barrels), which should be fully rigged. So that means I need to buy the cannon set from Model Expo since I need about 12 cannons in the area that can be seen from the hatch. Other things could be seen too, like the chain pumps and hatches leading down to the berth deck, so these will be added too. Diagonal knees - sure. Deck planking and treenails - sure. Rivets on the walls - probably not (I have to draw the line somewhere). I am going to use 1/16" thick planks for the gun deck planking, but I also want to put them on a basswood sheet backing, which will be another 1/16". Since the bulkheads are cut at the top of the gun deck, I need to remove 1/8" from those that will be seen from the main hatch, which are E through L. I measured down 1/8" from the cut out and marked the line to be cut to. I am going to leave the center supports and spar deck beams in place for now until I add the spar deck waterway. I will cut these out in place and clean up the center of the bulkheads so there is a smooth run of the gun deck across them, before installing the gun deck. Since the top of the hull former is at the same level in this area, I also need to cut it down by 1/8", so I marked it too: In the next post, I will show how I cut these areas out.

You can still get 70mm film rolls on eBay, but you would have to strip the emulsion off. Photographic fixer will do that

I decided to build a new building board that would hold the keel more rigidly and straight. I cut a 1/4" by 24" by 6" basswood board in half and screwed one piece to a larger board. I then put three slots in the other board and screwed it down on the larger board. The slots let me adjust the width of the keel slot and to tighten it to the keel. I have been cleaning up the bulkheads and adding the bevels to them. I have about half of them done so far. It takes about 15 minutes to do each one so it is taking so time. So far, the fairing looks pretty good, although I have not adjusted them for squareness to the keel yet. They are just slid into the keel for now and not glued in yet.

They look great.

One last entry just to show the model in its new home, on the mantle in our lake condo in New Hampshire: My kids provide me with the moose themed items on Father's Day. I am running out of places to put them.

Thanks Steve Bob and Jay. I am with you all as I have already had the plans copied at Staples. This lets me cut out sections and use them as templates. One\ the bulkhead plans, there are two lines on one side, one for the fairing line and one for the edge of the bulkhead. The asymmetry I am seeing is in the bulkhead edges on each side. I found another one last night that was off, too. Thanks for the heads up on the copper tape. I have an extra roll that I bought a few years ago, but I will have to see how they match up in patina.

More progress on the keel. Here is the stern post being glued to the former. I used a rubber band to hold it while drying, after making sure it was centered. I then sanded and fit the three bottom keel pieces between the stem and the stern post. Lots of clamps to hold them together while the glue dried. Then I filled the holes in the keel pieces that are there to help align the two halves when gluing them together, and also used a little filler on the joints. I sanded the joints flat, then drew lines on the stem and stern post for the extent of the tapering. I used a #22 X-Acto blade and a sanding block to add the tapers. I think they came out pretty well. I was a little concerned because I messed this step up on the Bounty Launch and was never happy with the way the stem looked. I have started checking the bulkheads for symmetry. I found one that is a bit small compared to the plans, but the plans are also not symmetrical. I am going to add some strips of wood to the edge of that bulkhead and sand it down during the fairing process. The other bulkheads that I have checked look pretty good. I have four more to go. I am also adding the reference lines and tapering lines as I go.

I am very sorry to hear this Mick. Hopefully you can get some building in to take your mind off other things.

Work on the keel continues. I glued the three pieces of the keel former together using epoxy, with some weights to hold them flat. Those jars contain rolled up pieces of lead sheeting. I then carved the rabbet into the bottom edge. I used a #22 X-Acto blade and an X-Acto chisel blade. I cleaned up the rabbet after carving with a small sanding block. I enlarged the holes in the stem to slots for the rope gammoning by drilling holes in the other end of the slot and cleaning them out with small files. They came out a little wider than I wanted, but should be OK once they are trimmed by the cheeks or head rail (whatever that piece is that follows the curve of the stem under the bow sprit) and have rope in them. I sanded the inside edge of the stem to fit on the keel former without gaps, then glued it in place with white glue. I used some clamps to hold them together and some weights to keep everything flat. There is some scrap wood under both piece to keep them level, too. In the mean time, I am still going through all the Constitution build logs and other materials, making lots of notes. I still have many decisions to make going forward, but I am starting to get a pretty good idea of where I want this build to take me. There is so much information here that is really making this job so much easier than it could be, and so many good ideas and ways to tackle the different parts of the build. Again, I thank all those who have come before me on this path.

I too am glad to see you back, Bob. I am just getting started building this model, so I will probably have lots of questions as I go along. I hope you don't mind. I would love to have mine come out half as good as yours.

Much nicer than the supplied parts

Thanks guys. Every time I go to the dentist I think about looking into these, but with this information I can forget about it now. I bought a strong pair of readers that work really well for me better than the flip up magnifiers.

Thank you all for your encouragement. I wouldn't dream of tackling something this complex without knowing I can rely on you all for guidance and support. I have been comparing the supplied plans with the AOS Constitution and started to note some of the differences, although the deck details in the AOS are not as detailed as I would like. I fear that I may end up adding details from the current configuration that weren't there in the 1812 version, but hopefully that won't happen too much. This week's progress. I cut the keel and stem pieces from the laser cut sheet and glued the halves together. I used just about all the clamps I had that would work on these pieces. I then cleaned up the three keel former pieces and some of the other pieces. I used a sanding block on its side to keep the edges square. I have since ordered a True Sander to do this right, so I am waiting for that to arrive before cleaning the other keel pieces. I copied the plans for the three keel former pieces and glued them to some manila folder material. I will use these to transfer the bearding and other reference lines to the wood. One difference between the 1812 version and the current version is that in 1812, the ship had rope gammoning, not chain as it does today. So, in order to use rope on the model, I need to expand the holes in the stem to slots. I have marked them on the stem but have not cut them out yet. Here is my favorite picture of the stem - looks like a dinosaur to me Thanks again for the encouragement and support.

Besides the kit instructions, I plan to use the Anatomy of the Ship book for the Constitution as an additional guide. I used the AOS Beagle book to build that model and I really liked the extra information and details in these books. I am going to try to build the Constitution in its 1812 configuration, as others have done on this site. In fact, those other build logs (Cookster, CaptainSteve, Jeff Toma, and others) have been a huge inspiration for me and I know the information in them will be a huge help. I plan to add some sails to the build, and my first thought was to go with a look like in this picture, when see sailed in Boston Harbor in August 2012 for the 1812 anniversary. I believe our own popeye2sea (Henry) was on it when this picture was taken. Now I am thinking of adding some fore and aft sails too, but I am not sure on that yet.

Some more content pictures: Some photo etched brass parts: I organized the blocks, deadeyes, and bulls eyes in these small containers: For the wood strips, I used these plastic golf bag tubes that I got from my father. I had originally planned to use these to organize all the extra wood strips I had in the workshop, but I had to go to something that could handle more strips, which you can see in the picture after this one. I was pretty amazed that the strips just in this kit filled up these tubes. What I use now to organize my wood supply in the shop:

I am about to start the Model Expo Constitution. I have had the kit on the shelf for about a year, but I was waiting to finish the Bounty Launch. I only looked in the box once since I received it, and did not realize how many pieces parts there are for this one. I have to say I am a little intimidated now that I have started going through everything. Well, here goes... Before I get to the pictures, I have come back to add an Index to this build log. Hull Construction: Keel Bulkheads Stern Filler Blocks Bow Filler Blocks Transom Framing Gun Deck Framing Gun Deck Planking Gun Deck Gun Port Framing Gun Deck Knees Spar Deck Gun Port Framing Upper Hull Planking Transom Planking Lower Hull Planking Bulwark Planking and Rivets Painting the Hull Copper Plating Rudder Transom Details Quarter Galleries Gun Port Lids Bumpkins Channels Deck Details: Gun Deck Cannon Rigging Gun Deck Chain Pumps, Stove, Riding Bitts Spar Deck Beams Spar Deck Hatches Mast Pin Rails Spar Deck Planking Rails Cat Heads Head Rails and Trail Boards Carronades Ships Wheel Bulwark Pin Rails Binnacles Capstan Hammocks and Cranes Anchors and Davits Ships Boats Masts and Rigging: Chain Plates Bow Sprit Lower Masts Upper Masts Mast Tops Lower Shrouds and Stays Ratlines Topmasts Bentinck Shrouds Topmast Shrouds and Stays Flying Jibboom TopG Shrouds and Stays TopG Jacob's Ladders Royal Shrouds and Stays Yards Studding Sail Booms Sails Running Rigging Short Interlude Running Rigging II Quarter and Aft Davits Anchors Flags Completed Model Display Case Now, some pictures of the contents: Eight pages of plans: A lot of wood pieces: Looks like they upgraded some older parts: Copper foil for the hull, blocks, cast metal parts, etc:

Flaws? What flaws? I don't see any. The detail you have added to these boats is incredible.

Those treenails are sweet. I like the color differences of the wood on the interior, too.

Thanks Bedford. I have not started the Constitution yet. I have a little more research to do first. I'll start a build log for it when I get going on it.