Usgecko

Here is the 30 ft cutter completed:
 

 
And the 30 ft cutter with the 28 ft one completed earlier:
 

 
Are the outside of these cutters painted green (assuming i'm building the Constitution at the time shown in the Corne painting) and the inside red?

An update on progress so far.
 
Looking at the gun carriages for the gun deck I think I need to make a further adjustment to the shape of them.  From looking at photographs there seems to be an arc shape cut out betwwen the wheels of the gun carriage. 
 
On to progress.  I decided that the smaller ships boats were not to great in terms of detail so I decided to attempt to improve them.  I started with the 28 ft cutter (as it is described in Revell's instructions).  I found a couple of sources on the internet with plans and scratch built wood versions which is what I have attempted to replicate.
 
Here are the work in progress pictures as I tackled the work:
 

 

 

 

 
And here are some shots of the finished article:
 

 

 

 
I'm happy with the end result but I have created a lot of extra work for myself to do the other boats in a similar way.
 
I'm also not sure what to do at this stage about the pinnace (long boat) and the lack of it in the Revell kit.  I may have a go at scratch building it out of plastic.
 
All comments welcome!
 
Stuart

Here is the 30 ft cutter completed:
 

 
And the 30 ft cutter with the 28 ft one completed earlier:
 

 
Are the outside of these cutters painted green (assuming i'm building the Constitution at the time shown in the Corne painting) and the inside red?

An update on progress so far.
 
Looking at the gun carriages for the gun deck I think I need to make a further adjustment to the shape of them.  From looking at photographs there seems to be an arc shape cut out betwwen the wheels of the gun carriage. 
 
On to progress.  I decided that the smaller ships boats were not to great in terms of detail so I decided to attempt to improve them.  I started with the 28 ft cutter (as it is described in Revell's instructions).  I found a couple of sources on the internet with plans and scratch built wood versions which is what I have attempted to replicate.
 
Here are the work in progress pictures as I tackled the work:
 

 

 

 

 
And here are some shots of the finished article:
 

 

 

 
I'm happy with the end result but I have created a lot of extra work for myself to do the other boats in a similar way.
 
I'm also not sure what to do at this stage about the pinnace (long boat) and the lack of it in the Revell kit.  I may have a go at scratch building it out of plastic.
 
All comments welcome!
 
Stuart

An update on progress so far.
 
Looking at the gun carriages for the gun deck I think I need to make a further adjustment to the shape of them.  From looking at photographs there seems to be an arc shape cut out betwwen the wheels of the gun carriage. 
 
On to progress.  I decided that the smaller ships boats were not to great in terms of detail so I decided to attempt to improve them.  I started with the 28 ft cutter (as it is described in Revell's instructions).  I found a couple of sources on the internet with plans and scratch built wood versions which is what I have attempted to replicate.
 
Here are the work in progress pictures as I tackled the work:
 

 

 

 

 
And here are some shots of the finished article:
 

 

 

 
I'm happy with the end result but I have created a lot of extra work for myself to do the other boats in a similar way.
 
I'm also not sure what to do at this stage about the pinnace (long boat) and the lack of it in the Revell kit.  I may have a go at scratch building it out of plastic.
 
All comments welcome!
 
Stuart

I decided to use the 30 foor launch as a basis for the commodore's barge - also decided it was a little too short.
 
Cut a line using a scriber:
 

 
Then seperated the two parts and added some plastic to expand the length:
 

 

Here is the 30 ft cutter completed:
 

 
And the 30 ft cutter with the 28 ft one completed earlier:
 

 
Are the outside of these cutters painted green (assuming i'm building the Constitution at the time shown in the Corne painting) and the inside red?

An update on progress so far.
 
Looking at the gun carriages for the gun deck I think I need to make a further adjustment to the shape of them.  From looking at photographs there seems to be an arc shape cut out betwwen the wheels of the gun carriage. 
 
On to progress.  I decided that the smaller ships boats were not to great in terms of detail so I decided to attempt to improve them.  I started with the 28 ft cutter (as it is described in Revell's instructions).  I found a couple of sources on the internet with plans and scratch built wood versions which is what I have attempted to replicate.
 
Here are the work in progress pictures as I tackled the work:
 

 

 

 

 
And here are some shots of the finished article:
 

 

 

 
I'm happy with the end result but I have created a lot of extra work for myself to do the other boats in a similar way.
 
I'm also not sure what to do at this stage about the pinnace (long boat) and the lack of it in the Revell kit.  I may have a go at scratch building it out of plastic.
 
All comments welcome!
 
Stuart

An update on progress so far.
 
Looking at the gun carriages for the gun deck I think I need to make a further adjustment to the shape of them.  From looking at photographs there seems to be an arc shape cut out betwwen the wheels of the gun carriage. 
 
On to progress.  I decided that the smaller ships boats were not to great in terms of detail so I decided to attempt to improve them.  I started with the 28 ft cutter (as it is described in Revell's instructions).  I found a couple of sources on the internet with plans and scratch built wood versions which is what I have attempted to replicate.
 
Here are the work in progress pictures as I tackled the work:
 

 

 

 

 
And here are some shots of the finished article:
 

 

 

 
I'm happy with the end result but I have created a lot of extra work for myself to do the other boats in a similar way.
 
I'm also not sure what to do at this stage about the pinnace (long boat) and the lack of it in the Revell kit.  I may have a go at scratch building it out of plastic.
 
All comments welcome!
 
Stuart

Folks
 
I've been neglecting my build for many weeks... Late summer travel and life adventures.
 
I did manage to make my way to the Charlestown Navy Yard for an Old Ironsides fix. As many of you know, she'll enter the yard in early 2015 for an extensive three year restoration so this was a last chance to walk the decks for awhile.
 
I got some more photos of the correct carronade:

 
Also a good shot of the interlocking planking on the gun deck:

 
The kids are at an age where they can appreciate the interactive displays inside the Constitution museum. They were put to good work:
 
Hoisting livestock onboard:

Holystoning the deck:

And shortening sail:

 
They will make good topmen one day!
 
The bell that Constitution carried into the Guerriere battle was cast by Paul Revere and sadly destroyed. Here is the one requisitioned from the Guerriere:

 
And here is a shot of my favorite artifact in the museum - a hand drawn diagram by one of her lieutenants of the battle with Java. You have to find a little box on the wall and open the door:

Many folks don't realize that Java stern raked Constitution TWICE during the battle.
 
Here are some interesting detail shots from a series of paintings of the Java battle done by George Ropes Jr. - the deaf/mute apprentice of Michel Felice Corne. I hadn't seen these paintings before:
 


 
These also suggest a pale yellow stripe and five stern windows for those who care to ponder such things.
 
Altogether it was a great day in the Navy yard. The only disappointment was not being able to make Henry's acquaintance. I flubbed up the coordination with our rendezvous. The kids and I got caught up in the long queue inside the Bunker Hill monument... By the time we got down and over to the Navy yard the 1812 Marine detachment had decamped for the day and Henry wasn't able to hang back.
 
We've had brutal heat and humidity for much of the past few weeks here and it has only just now abated enough for me to venture back into the garage workshop. Fiddling with the 24-pdrs...
 
Thanks again to those who follow my build log.
 
Evan

Ok some pictures of my limited process so far.
 
Cannons:
 

 

 

 

 
The cannons really did need a lot of clean up.  The plastic appears to me slightly soft in consistency which made the clean up a little more difficult.  The have not been primed or painted yet.
 
The wheels on the gun carriages were often pretty poor.  The easist way for me to tidy them up was sand the "axle" off completely getting the wheel more flat, then I drilled a hole and used plastic rod for an axle.  The smaller carriages for the spar deck were especially poor and I ended up scratch building axles and wheels for all of them.
 

 

 
Here is the gun deck with the 3 parts joined togather:
 

 

 

 

 
As I mentioned in my first post - looking for suggestions on planking.
 
The two halves of the hull didn't match too closely along the keel (big gap).  I am hoping that by keeping the parts in tension like in this picture will make the eventual gluing of the parts easier with less stress on the join:
 

Ok some pictures of my limited process so far.
 
Cannons:
 

 

 

 

 
The cannons really did need a lot of clean up.  The plastic appears to me slightly soft in consistency which made the clean up a little more difficult.  The have not been primed or painted yet.
 
The wheels on the gun carriages were often pretty poor.  The easist way for me to tidy them up was sand the "axle" off completely getting the wheel more flat, then I drilled a hole and used plastic rod for an axle.  The smaller carriages for the spar deck were especially poor and I ended up scratch building axles and wheels for all of them.
 

 

 
Here is the gun deck with the 3 parts joined togather:
 

 

 

 

 
As I mentioned in my first post - looking for suggestions on planking.
 
The two halves of the hull didn't match too closely along the keel (big gap).  I am hoping that by keeping the parts in tension like in this picture will make the eventual gluing of the parts easier with less stress on the join: