Mundie

Great job!!! I’m building the same kit w Hunt’s practicum. I’ve only been working on it off/on for 9 yrs now. I did a few side projects, but I’m back on the Connie.. Keep up the good work!

So, I’ve been gone a while. Between Covid and my schedule- my ship has been docked for a while.. I completed a lot of the deck furniture.(nothing to hard) I’ve begun the mast. Pics / details soon to come. I did a side project during Covid quarantine building the body of a electric guitar from scratch. a sandwich of: coco bola hard maple Purple Heart maple hard maple w Schaller hardware.

Rigging the cannons I decided to loop the rope around the inner rigging. Most of the pictures I’ve seen of the ship use this method.. I’ve deviantex from blocks w 2 holes to blocks w one, on the inner rigging. Most of the pictures I’ve seen, the blocks are covered w rope anyway.

I decided to use 34 awg copper wire that’s coated black- and make the cannon rigging hooks.

The third pic above (white styrene) attach between the cannons- and rigging hooks are attached- I used styrene- drilled tiny holes- files edges- and squeezed the center w a small “rounded” pair of needle nose pliers to simulate the roundness of the actual rigging.

Ok, so I’ve started the deck furniture. I opted to use “Testers” paints for the wheel etc. I had a hard time deciding what color- you went w a brown. After looking at numerous other models, it seems it’s almost impossible to get a exact replication of the current state of the ship, so good enough is good enough:)...... I feel if I spent more time I could get a little better at the deck furniture, but I really want to keep rolling, and being inexperienced- I’ll take what I can get.. I’m currently rigging the cannons, patience is a virtue!!! I hope to finish the deck within the up coming months. I’ve been following Hunt’s practicing combined with build logs from this site and some ideas of my own- I’m having a good time and plan on building a high end electric guitar next.

What a awesome job!!!!!!

Hello, I’m building a Conny and Hunt’s practicum calls for “floquil rust” paint for the steering wheel. Does anyone know a good replacement since this paint has been “discontinued?”( I think- from my online shopping research) Thx

Ok, so I built deck cannons- not much to them, just glue and paint. I painted the wheels before attaching to the base- and touched up the cannons after they were glued up. The little handles required a pin vice bit. Then started on the dead eyes/chain plates. A little tricky- I used a 3-way alligator clip holder for the soldering of the wire twisted around the dead eye to the chain plate. I had to paint them twice because the paint didn't bond to the brass right away. I haven't decided how I'm going to go about attaching the bottom of the chain plate to the ship. I'm going to look at some other build logs before deciding if I'm sticking to Hunt's plans or deviating a bit. Any suggestions are welcome. Thx

Ok, finally!!! The smaller styrene definitely was easier to work w and looks pretty good.

I had to buy more black paint (MS4830) and while I had to wait I decided to finish up the cannons. I'll jump back and finish the rails this weekend. I tried to get the wire angles (came w kit) as close as possible to the true size, but it would risk breaking the lids- so I settled for what was more practical. I decided to have them open.

I wasn't happy w the way the styrene trim was working for the rails. So I decided to use a different size, I'm going to use .015X.020 (a tad thinner the the .030) instead is .015X.030- there is a big difference for the small scale of the application. So while waiting for the mail for the styrene, I started the cannon ports. I may shop around for different cannons. The painting of the hatches was a little tricky- I bought few micro paint brushes from a local crafts store- and they worked well. Tweezers where needed to attach the hinges. I purchased an "Exacto" kit when I began the model that included 3 micro drill bits that I used for the small holes on the top (white) hatches- the rope that holds the window open is attached through these holes- I plan on using the thin black wire that came w the kit.

I wasn't happy w the fitting of the 2nd rail relative to the timbers- the timbers needed to be a bit farther out to connect w the rail, so I just had to ad an extension piece on 2 of the center timber to add a 1/4". It worked out ok! The top rail and supports and planking was easy. Now I'm carefully adding the styrene trim. As tedious as it may be- I'm taking my time- I want this area to look good.

I wasn't happy w the way the 2nd

The timbers on the prints did not exactly line up with my model (Hunt's practicum mention this issue) so I just did my best to make them line up. I did both sides at the same time- placing both together and leaving the top point a little long in order to account for minor differences (one may be a few mm different then other (port/starboard). My Dremel came in very handy to fine tune the timbers- and I pretty much followed the prints to get the spacing and angle correct- the top lean a bit forward. The 3rd rail is tricky- it's taken some time, and I decided to make the 3rd rain after I installed the timbers. I hasn't worked out as perfect as I would have liked. I'm going to do a little fine tuning w the Dremel to the rail (in pic) and see if I'm happy w them- if not , I'm going to scrape it and start over- I want this to look smooth and blend w the rest of this part of the ship- and xtra hour or so isn't a big deal compared to not being happy w the look!

I'm back at it after a break. My work schedule is still making it difficult for me to find time to build. I bought some mini brushes to paint the design. I'm going to "fine tune" the top star w more detail. I was "afraid" of this part, but thank's to a Dremel, life is good? .015x.030 styrene was a little tricky, I just used clamps and did and inch or so at a time, the curves were a little tricky but it worked. More to come!

its not letting me upload pics that are only 850kb?? anyone?

My work schedule changed, and I've had limited time to commit to my ship. I did in fact find my digital camera that allows photos w resolution as low as 200 mb, so it will work very well with the limitations of the photo posting. I finished the coppering, I did this while watching football! cutting was easy. I marked of the length on my cutting mat, then would use the pounce wheel on lengths appx. 5", the I would cut each one with scissors, then pounce each one on the short side. (its important to know whice side gets the vertical pounce, for each side of the ship is different) I had to purchase a second roll of tape, it is the same exact type that came with the ship. A slight color difference in color existed, but both rolls look the same after the tape was exposed to air. I used Hunt"s practicum for guiding me on the lines needed for the tape to run even up and across the ship. I did the best I could and I"m happy with the way it turned out. The one big problem was the tape was "curling" in areas, and needed to be adressed. I'm not sure if the tape adhesive was just weak or the primer I used on the planking affected it.(I did not paint the haul) So after I completed the coppering, I CA glued each plate under the curl, and then lightly coated the entire haul with CA glue (yes the entire haul) I figure it should hold up for a century or more!!! LoL!!! There is a minimal amount of visual evidence this "coating" was done, and I am happy with the results. I almost completed the officers head, (just some fine tuning) and will touch up the paint after in finish the front of the ship, so I can do final paint touch up at the same time, the windows are a little off (not level with the rest of ship) but this being my first build, I"m satisfied, I know I can do better, I just don't want to spend too much time on perfection and keep rolling. I also almost completed the back of the ship. I used paper for the stars, using stars I printed from another build log on this site. I tried using styrene, but could not get them to my satisfaction. So, I simply painted the stars and CA glued them. I used the eagle that came with the kit, and printed the eagle that was included in Hunt's practicum, although I had to use "Word" for resizing until I got it right, I CA glued the flag the coated it with CA glue. I was not happy with the way the name plate turned out, so after many attempts I decided to paint a piece of paper with the white paint I used for the ship and the after sizing the word "Constitution" I ran the painted paper through the printer for a better color match, raw white from the paper without being painted was far too bright and looked off. The thin strips are styrene. More to come!!

Very cool Google Earth Tour of USS Constitution

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3725156,-71.0565752,3a,75y,133.73h,59.77t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sC_lucOrNkjgAAAQZN_qReQ!2e0

Nice to see the build going well.. You know maybe someone can help w this. I live 10 minutes from Baltimore's Inner Harbor. The "Constellation" is just sitting there waiting for me to take a ton a great photos.(I have a great DSLR Camera) but if I attempt to upload the photos, I will have to reduce the res so low I'm not sure if it's possible or worth it? Any suggestions?

Dave, I started the copper according to Hunt's practicum, although I deviate at times. The two "slots" on the bottom of the hull are for a custom stand I made and I will copper that spot as the very last project. The very bottom of the hull; I plan to just use two plates and have them overlap each other. I'm running out of copper and I will have to buy another roll of tape, and was expecting to, as stated in Hunt's practicum. I've been at a standstill because I'm doing some work around my house, but plan to finish the coppering by April 1st. Thanks for all the help everyone!!

Ok, I"m in the middle of coppering the hull and some of the tape does'nt want to stay down, Does anyone know a good "clear drying" glue I can use to secure the loose copper down? I would say it's only about 15% of the plates are "curling."