Marcus.K.

Wow that´s amazing!
 
But will you keep both Labels.
That way she will lay all her life "clambed" in between those white "icebergs" to lar- and starboard??
 
Anyway - at least these are not labels of that satanic perdition called "RUM" so many sailors ruined their bodies and souls with ....

wow - I am fascinated following this interesting "little" project. 
 
A really phantastic bottle-ship, very well presented.
 
Looking forward to see it in place! 

Wow that´s amazing!
 
But will you keep both Labels.
That way she will lay all her life "clambed" in between those white "icebergs" to lar- and starboard??
 
Anyway - at least these are not labels of that satanic perdition called "RUM" so many sailors ruined their bodies and souls with ....

Wow that´s amazing!
 
But will you keep both Labels.
That way she will lay all her life "clambed" in between those white "icebergs" to lar- and starboard??
 
Anyway - at least these are not labels of that satanic perdition called "RUM" so many sailors ruined their bodies and souls with ....

Wow that´s amazing!
 
But will you keep both Labels.
That way she will lay all her life "clambed" in between those white "icebergs" to lar- and starboard??
 
Anyway - at least these are not labels of that satanic perdition called "RUM" so many sailors ruined their bodies and souls with ....

Wow that´s amazing!
 
But will you keep both Labels.
That way she will lay all her life "clambed" in between those white "icebergs" to lar- and starboard??
 
Anyway - at least these are not labels of that satanic perdition called "RUM" so many sailors ruined their bodies and souls with ....

Wow that´s amazing!
 
But will you keep both Labels.
That way she will lay all her life "clambed" in between those white "icebergs" to lar- and starboard??
 
Anyway - at least these are not labels of that satanic perdition called "RUM" so many sailors ruined their bodies and souls with ....

wow - I am fascinated following this interesting "little" project. 
 
A really phantastic bottle-ship, very well presented.
 
Looking forward to see it in place! 

wow - I am fascinated following this interesting "little" project. 
 
A really phantastic bottle-ship, very well presented.
 
Looking forward to see it in place! 

wow - I am fascinated following this interesting "little" project. 
 
A really phantastic bottle-ship, very well presented.
 
Looking forward to see it in place! 

wow - I am fascinated following this interesting "little" project. 
 
A really phantastic bottle-ship, very well presented.
 
Looking forward to see it in place! 

wow - I am fascinated following this interesting "little" project. 
 
A really phantastic bottle-ship, very well presented.
 
Looking forward to see it in place! 

wow - I am fascinated following this interesting "little" project. 
 
A really phantastic bottle-ship, very well presented.
 
Looking forward to see it in place! 

Hello again.  I started this log back on November 1, 2011, and I think I've managed to salvage most of it.  I have all the photos, and will re-build the log as best I can.
 
Having been through catastrophic data losses before (professionally), I know the feeling the moderators must have and completely sympathize.  Re-boots and recovery are always difficult, but the "can-do" attitude of everyone here and the overwhelming friendly atmosphere obviously hasn't been lost.  For that, I am thankful.
 
Here's the last photo I took (some progress made since then, but not photographed).  I will start the log from the beginning when I have more time.
 
Andy.

Hello Evans,
 
have not been here for a very long time! Beautiful progress!!! .. and wonderful paintings in the Museum you shared with us. Thanks for that!
 
Would you tell us which kind (seize) of eyebolts you used? .. and the deadeyes - from which company are those? They look really phantastic !
 
Of course I very much like your approach with the rigging. Is the block visible on the Hull Model also used by Erkisson?

Ahoy...

Apologies for the long interlude... Had some computer issues and had to upgrade my system to get back on track.

I have made some progress on cleats, dead eyes and such and will post some pictures soon. In the meantime, I had a nice visit last week to the US Naval Academy museum... They have the other set of the Michel Felice Corne paintings of the Constitution vs Guerriere battle that were commissioned by Captain Hull. These are exquisite and I think I stared at them for at least 30 minutes:

The series is hung in a bit of a jumble, but very visible.








Here are some details of the stern. The ventilation ports under the counter are clearly visible - I'm glad I added those to my version.




Rigging detail:



Here is a detailed view from the Corne painting of the Tripoli campaign:


The basement of the museum contains the gift store and the model maintenance workshop. It turns out that if you stare through the viewing window long enough (it helps to have a forlorn puppy dog expression as well) someone in the workshop will take pity and invite you inside for a tour. Jack was extremely generous with his time and showed me all the projects and some of the terrific tools - including a very nice rope serving set up and a clever/inexpensive micro-torch he built for detailed solder work.

At some point I mentioned my own "learner's" project on the Revell Constitution and I was invited into the Curator's office to have a look at a "small Constitution" model kept on top of a file cabinet.





It should be readily apparent that this is no ordinary model. In fact, this is a Donald McNarry masterpiece showing Constitution's early appearance. The pictures don't give a true perception of the small scale... I'd think it is 1/192 or thereabouts (less than half the length of my project) and each element is executed with unfathomable detail. The guns, boats, wire rigging, etc. are all incredible. I urged The curator to find a way to get it on the display floor, but he explained that there is not much room in the current display area for all of the incredible models in the museum collection. Gawd only knows what the thing is worth - especially after the passing of Mr. McNarry.

The museum is a true treasure trove of American history. The collections include the original "Don't Give Up The Ship" flag, the actual table (and tablecloth) used for the Japanese surrender on board the USS Missouri (it was a mess table quickly adapted for use after the beautiful wooden table provided by the British turned out to be too small for the surrender documents), and the spur that snapped off the boot of John Wilkes Booth when he leaped off the balcony and got caught on the flag bunting - breaking his ankle on the landing.

Folks should make the effort to visit Annapolis if at all possible - well worth the side trip from DC!

I'll post some more project pictures later this week to catch everyone up on my progress.

Thanks
Evan

So... A couple of comedians!    Don't people remember that she was called "Old Ironsides"???!! - She never absorbed any damage!  Everything bounced off!!!  Well, at least it all bounced off for my model.
 
 
Here is the latest...
 
It is amazing how many holes need to be drilled into a sailing ship model!  I've been busy with the mini spiral drill and #76 bit for the past few weekends.
 
It is also amazing to uncover the various nuances that go into these builds.  I've been drilling the many small holes for the Jotika eyelets that will be installed around the interior of the gun ports.  
 
Most references indicate the breeching terminating on a ring bolt positioned near the trucks in line with the bottom of the gun port.  The outhaul tackle, however, is often shown leading at an angle to an eyelet positioned about midway between the two guns.  It would seem to me to be more efficient if this tackle ran more parallel to the gun barrel - no waste in lateral effort when hauling on the tackle.  That would seem to be the arrangement on most of the contemporary ship models... An eyebolt for the outhaul tackle positioned about midway up on the gun port and near the opening.  The ring bolt for the breeching rope positioned directly below in line with the bottom of the port.
 
We can also see this type of set up on the remarkable War of 1812 wrecks of the Hamilton and Scourge that lie preserved at the bottom of Lake Ontario. Both were swamped by a sudden squall and lost at the same time.  (Actually the wrecks were once remarkably well preserved but have now become encrusted with an invasive species of mussel):
 

The boarding cutlasses are very cool.
 
Here is the approach I took:

 
None of these eyelets are glued in... Just a sample of positioning.  I'll blacken them and glue the upper eyelets, but I'll attach the lower ring bolts to the breeching rope when I rig the cannon off the ship before attaching these to the bulwarks.
 
Evan

Cheers Frank and Popeye!
 
Folks -
 
I've reached that point in the build where there is nothing more I can do to delay the inevitable... I have to start accounting for the rigging and making sure that I've incorporated the necessary end points into the half hulls before I start to glue it all together.  
 
I consulted the usual suspects:
 
1. The Revell rigging plans
2. The Bluejacket kit manual and rigging plans - Larry Arnot/Tyrone Martin
3. AOTS USS Constitution - Karl Heinz Marquardt
4. CONSTITUTION - All Sails Up and Flying - Olof Eriksen
5. The Charles Ware 1817 Sail plan (National Archives)
6. The "Hull" model in the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) collection.
 
I've been poring over these different representations of the rigging layout of Old Ironsides for many months and have started to form some sort of plan.  For the most part I will follow the guidance of Olof Eriksen, but fall back on the Bluejacket plans in some cases.  Eriksen's work is focused on her 1815 configuration, so I'll try to insert some 1812 era modifications wherever appropriate - mostly using the Hull model for corrections.  Ultimately this is all going to involve a fair bit of guesswork and intuition tempered by the realities imposed by the Revell model itself. In some cases the molding of the hull will impose limitations that are more than I'm willing to modify - I'll just roll with what is there.
 
Here is my first compromise:
 

 

 
Some may recall that I eliminated the chesstree included in the kit and filled in the holes at the gun deck level that originally allowed for the Fore Sheet and Main Tack to enter and get tied off within... I just feel that by 1812 these lines would've been led to the spar deck to allow for better control and coordination.  Eriksen shows the Fore Sheet entering thru a sheave in the spar deck bulwark just forward of the last carronade before the break in the bulwark at the waist.  The Revell kit does not have much of a bulwark at that point.  I couldn't widen it because the "entry port" is situated here with the cleats/steps leading up the side.  I was not willing to move that stuff over with all that scratch building... Marquardt offers a solution.  He shows a sheave added on the waist for the Fore Sheet to pass thru and tie off to a cleat mounted nearby on the deck.  Do I think this is historically accurate?  Nah... But it suits my purpose.
 
The first eyebolt near the sheave is the tie off for the Fore Sheet.  The eyebolt mounted forward on the waist near the fo'c's'le bulwark will eventually have a block mounted for the Main Tack to lead inboard. I still need to drill the hole just aft of the fore channel for the Main Tack tie off point.
 
Here is the sheave I cut into the spar deck bulwark for the Main Sheet:
 

 
I mounted a cleat on the inside to tie off the Main Sheet:

 
More to come shortly
 
Thanks for the interest
 
Evan

I have enjoyed following your adjustments of this venerable kit. I note, though, that it has been quite a while since the last log entry. Has this fascinating build been indefinitely relegated to the "someday..." catagory?

thanks for your interest Kilo......it has been a bit harder lately.   there have been lags in building that I didn't anticipate on......usually I'm a one-armed paper hanger!      then there's my imagination.........that always seems to get the best of me......and that accounts for the cornucopia of builds that I have established.  would you believe........I have my second build of the Cutty Sark sitting in the hallway.....all I need to do is repair a few lines from the move we did to get here,  and do the braces and studding sails,  to finish her.  she's been in the hallway since 2009!  some knucklehead brought me a wooden kit.........and I've been a spinning top ever since!
    I do thank you for the poke......does make me smile that there is an interest in her.   I have the wooden deck clamped to their plastic counterparts,  so they don't lose their shape........I didn't like what happened to them after the last break in the build    this does give me time to see what some of the other fine builders are doing with their Connie builds......some of these features apply to the United States,  even though Revell chose not to add them in.  At the moment,  the top spins around the Andrea Gail....moving quite well and with no signs of stopping.   but as anyone knows,  poking a spinning top,  can cause it to go in another direction     you never know,  my friend.  thanks for looking in and the good word! 

Here are all the lower deck guns in position
 

 
I have added gunport lifts...
 

 
...and 3mm eyelets to each gunport lid.
 

 
I have also uprated the knees on the poop deck
 

 
Finally, here is the Brodie Stove, sitting on its bed of tiles inbetween the boatswain and carpenters cabins, made from the unused parts for the original galley.
 

 
That's about it for now. Thanks to all that have liked my posts
 
 

As far as the decks, I assembled them as on piece to fill the seams evenly and to set the correct deck camber, however, going this route calls for some planning and set up of the hull halves. It was not a problem to assemble the lower deck and hull halves at the same time, but had to leave the upper hull halves unglued so that the halves could flex enough to accept the upper deck.  This was a problem for me since I tied all my lower guns up so I have to assemble the lower deck and hull all at once. 

Permission granted to come aboard, Sir?
 
Looking forward to see more ...

This is my first large ship build and indeed my first model of any kind I have built for 30 years or so, as a teenager I spent most of my money on plastic military vehicle kits and model railways, but that's a long time ago now !

I've been lurking on this forum for several months, entranced by the marvellous modelling skills displayed and eventually decided I would have a go myself and so as a Christmas present to myself I bought the Revell Constitution kit.
 

 
I went for an old issue of the kit as the current ones are supposedly not as crisply moulded and some reports have it that the plastic used is not as good. The kit I got is the version without sails and from a flyer in the instruction books dates from 1971.
 



 
As this kit has been God know where for over 40 years it was nice to find it in good condition, the only deficiencies I have found are that there are 3 halfs of carronades missing and the supplied Ratlines have seen better days - not that that is much of an issue as I was planning on making my own anyway.
 

As it's my first attempt at a ship I intend to do it pretty much out of the box, I will be thickening the gun ports (not sure about thickening the upper bulwarks yet) and I may have a go at making a new capstan. I also see no need to do much modelling of things that you won't see in the finished model so I'll not be fitting out the gun deck with oven, capstan, fully rigged guns etc, as you are not going to see them once the upper deck and ships boats are in place then I can happily leave them out.

The lack of two carronades as mentioned above doesn't seem too much of an issue, I can just use 30 guns on the gun deck and leave the bridle ports shut - I appreciate many American modellers will be removing the bridle ports anyway as they were apparently not present in 1812, but I'll just leave them shut - even the Revell box art shows them shut !
This will leave me with two spare cannons that I can then have fully rigged on the upper deck replacing the front two carronades, Revell already have a bow chaser cannon that seems to just be sitting there awkwardly on the deck, so adding another couple of cannon next to it will not look too out of place.

The main issue I have at the start is what to do about the 3-piece decks ? I don't fancy sanding them down and rescribing the planking, but I do want to hide the joints as much as possible, so I think assembling the decks into single pieces before installing them is a must.

Anyway, to work...

First thing I did was order 2mm x 4mm Evergreen strip for the gun port thickening. While this was in transit I tidied up all the carriages for cannons and carronades, hours of filing and scraping to remove flash and mould lines.
 

Then it was onto thickening the gunports, as I'm fitting gun port lids there was no need to thicken the top of gunports as you won't be able to see them, and I have left the bridle ports as I am going to show those shut.
I still need to remove the fixings for the breech ropes and put in some Evergeen in their place so I can add ringbolts to hold the ropes, not sure yet whether I will be ordering some of the Jotika ring bolts or twisting my own from wire, but whichever I use the Styrene strip will be drilled to glue them into - the breech ropes of the middle guns apparently can be seen in the finished model.
 

Now I have to decide about thickening the upper bulwarks - I don't fancy trying to model 80 or so rivets in between each carronade port, but putting plain styrene in might look a bit 'flat' compared to the rest of the kit moulding even though the thicker bulwarks would look better.
I have time to decide about it while I put all those cannon halves together and clean them up before painting !

Ahoy...
 
Sorry folks for the very long gap between updates... Had to call a timeout for the holidays and some business travel.
 
I've been fiddling with guns a bit in the background, but I also managed to lay down some black on the hull.  I had several flavors of Vallejo Black in my collection: Grimy Black (too greenish), Engine Black (too much sheen), and regular "Black".  I went with the latter - it lays down very flat and has a nice neutral tone.
 
Still much to tune up and I have kept some of the masking in place until I paint the red linings of the spar deck ports, but here are some quick views:
 

 

 

 

 
 
The final appearance of the yellow stripe took some thought and compromise... The Corne paintings show the stripe in line with the edges of the gun ports and finishing with a scalloped end after the most forward gun port:
 

 
This is the path to choose if you're paying strict adherence to the Corne paintings.  I have to admit, however, that I do like the wider stripe shown in the Thomas Birch painting of the Guerriere fight:
 

 
This gives the ship a more robust look and sets off the gun ports nicely.  I do think, however, that it would be too big a leap from the Corne paintings.  The 1803 painting done by Corne for Commodore Preble provides a very nice compromise:
 

 
This shows the stripe in line with the upper edge of the gun ports and extending just a bit below the bottom edge.  This version also includes the scalloped front end.  (of course, this has led some people to think that Corne copied this older version when making the 1812 series for Isaac Hull... I don't think so.  Too many other differences and it seems likely that Corne had access to the ship during her late 1812 refit to make newer sketches and notes). Exercising a bit more artistic license, I've elected to use this for my model.
 
Here is how I approached the scalloped front of the stripe:
 
I rummaged around in my collection of spare washers and found one small enough for the purpose.  After laying down two strips of Tamiya tape, I traced the outline of the washer with a hobby knife.  I then transferred the tape to the model and masked off the rest of the stripe before laying down the black paint.
 

 

 
Thanks again to everyone who follows along (and shows great patience between my updates!)
 
Evan