patrickmil
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Everything posted by patrickmil
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The details on your bow are looking great! -
Your Robert E Lee looks fantastic so far. The kit looks like it has some very nice materials in it too.
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CaptainSteve, I figured I'd drop in to see what you're putting together. Your launch framing looks great so far. The stains you have picked out look great too. Very nice work.
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Marcus, I am eagerly awaiting this book in the mail. I have heard from folks around here that it's very full of useful information. Thanks for clearing that up for me.
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CaptainSteve, I remember in your log when you did that. That was an outstanding idea by the way. We'll all keep our eyes peeled for when your log gets started up again.
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Popeye, I haven't seen anything painted in that period to suggest they were ever present early on. The Hull model doesn't even have any installed on it. John, that is purely a 1" belt sander. The disc sander is attached to the lather outside in the garage. The belt sander makes sawdust really quickly so I have to be careful to not remove too much wood when working with it. The spindle sander is working out great too; much slower removal of wood. Mike, I am much happier with my one piece keel. When I laminated and glued the sections together of what MS supplied I felt that it wasn't very sturdy at all.
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Rich, the windows and quarter galleries look great.
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Evan, that sure is a nice job with the air port covers. I like your decision to omit the gunport lids too. Unless I can find something that tells me otherwise I'm leaving them off too. It doesn't make any sense for a blue ocean going vessel not to have them, but nothing I've seen suggests they're there.
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Augie, the caprail on the transom looks incredible. The rest of the ship does too though. Even though today was the first day of spring, don't count on it buddy! Winter this year has been something else.
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Al, I'm still not 100% on the gunport lids. I agree that it would be strange to not have anything at all. I'm really anticipating what you see in the book your are expecting. I will have to carefully look over the pictures in that link. Thanks for sharing.
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Popeye, those masts look incredible. I really like seeing them in place on your Half Moon. Great pictures and even better progress. I spy a couple other builds on the table too. Are we in for some updates on those as well?
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Augie, I agree 100%. I don't purchase tools from there if I'm going to be using them quite a bit, and for hand tools I usually stick with much nicer brands that have history behind their names.
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Thanks Augie. I'm not sure if Harbor Freight Tools is in Colorado, but it's only $129 there. I don't know how I did any wood working before without it.
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Popeye and John, a dual build was not actually the plan, however, this is an interesting possibility as I am already remaking many of the kit parts for Connie. I do have two center keel pieces and cutting and finishing new bulkheads would not be too terribly hard with some new toys. If I officially decide to do so, I would start the other build in the scratch build forum. I don't think the hull sizes are that far off. From what I can tell without any heavy research, the ships have the same length and beam but the United States has a poop deck. On with my progress so far today. I managed to cut out the slots for the bulkheads. The slots need some fine tuning still. I also got the 1/16" sanded from the top of the center keel piece to make up for the planking to go on. Two new toys I have are a belt sander and a spindle sander. I live by the saying "Ask forgiveness rather than permission" so I purchase these today to facilitate efficient sawdust production. Next up will be the widening of the bulkhead slots and and construction of my building slip. If I get the time, I may post some more progress later.
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CaptainSteve, I just sent a PM to Popeye2sea. The references are so sketchy concerning her early career. Any answers will be so helpful. John, I've lived in Ohio nearly my whole life and bleed scarlet and gray. Next time you're out this way you'll have to give me a shout out. I can direct you to some of the better watering holes here.
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So this morning I decided to take some time pouring over images of paintings by Corne of Connie. The earliest known painting done in 1803 can be seen at this link: http://www.history.navy.mil/constitution/images/1803MFC2011Photo-L.jpg. This is helping quite a bit with some other questions I've had about the early years. It looks like she has a yellow stripe, yellow masts, yellow and white trim on the quarter galleries and a white Hercules up front. It also answers my question about gunports as there aren't any present. After looking at the Hull model I can see that his crew didn't include them on that either. I still haven't gotten further with nibbed decking though. The real deal, the model plans and the plans on the Navy's website all show unnibbed deck planking, but as she has gone through refits and repairs, I'm wondering if maybe she followed standard British practice with nibbed planking when she was built and this has vanished over time. If we go that route, then it makes me question her wales planking as well with what is shown in current plans and on the present Constitution. Please, please please.... some discussion would be awesome. I'm sure the chances are better for me to hit the lottery than to build her exactly like she was in 1797-98, but I'd like to do the best I can.
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Evan, As I was finishing up Niagara I had to start making some of my own hardware and I agree, they were very easy to make myself and in the end I liked the quality better.
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Evan, thanks for your reply. I was thinking that I would be using full lids but wanted to make sure. It's so confusing because all of the paintings of her are showing full lids but all the modern reference material don't really mention it.
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Another quick update tonight. Not too much done, but I did get to break in my scroll saw. It cuts greats and the variable speed is invaluable. What did I do? I cut out the overall keel frame piece. I also started transcribing some of the lines from the plan copies to the piece itself. You'll notice a small 1/16" strip of bare wood at the top of the piece. This will be cut off so make up for the 1/16" planking material as the plans had that line marked as the top of the gundeck. Tomorrow I am going to get the bulkhead slots cut and get the rest of my lines marked. Who knows... Maybe I'll get a little more done, but this is competing with other projects now that the weather has turned nice. I still have to cut and veneer two sets of cornhole boards with the block O for Ohio State. Oh, I also included a picture of some reference material that arrived today, It should be a good read. And I have some questions if anyone feels like fielding some answers. Were the gunport lids in two parts in 1797 like they are today? And from what I can tell, the deck planking wasn't nibbed into the waterways... Is this correct? I have also noticed some discrepancies between sources on the shape of the wales planking... Were they most likely straight planks back then? The admiral of this shipyard also thinks I should leave some exposed framing to see the gundeck... Any thoughts on this?
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Dave, that bug certainly has me thinking though. The USS United States had some memorable moments in the War of 1812. That would be a great starting scratch build. I think the only problem there would be the research.For the most part though, she looks just like the Connie with a poop deck. I would think the stern ornamentation would be close to Connie's. I don't recall reading about what her original figurehead would have been.
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Fella's I don't know why they break it up in three pieces as all three pieces are cut on the same sheet to begin with. Popeye, you have me thinking about the President or the United States now as a dual build, LOL.
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Tom, very nice progress with the gundeck. Are you putting any type of illumination into this to see some of the details you're planning on adding?
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Popeye, I like the new avatar. I wanted to precisely locate the plan lines onto the false keel. I can use the plans to provide tracing lines to directly inscribe the plan lines to the false keel. The cutout panels won't suffice for inscribing the lines and also because the false keel comes in three pieces. I didn't like how the pieces fit together when I put it together almost a year ago. I had bought another piece of ply but this ended up being warped and the reference lines weren't lining up as neatly as I would have liked. I'm happier with this effort so far as I really plan on pouring my soul into this model.
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That's a fantastic looking belfry and bell. Very realistic and a real compliment to your Vulture.
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Al, I will have to look for it on Amazon and order it. Thanks for the heads up on it. Just so you all don't think that I haven't been thinking about ship building, I have a small update. I went to my local Woodcraft store today and found a 1/4" sheet of birch plywood. I have to say that it doesn't have the grain I'd desire to plank with but the quality and rigidity make it perfect for a false keel. I also managed to pick up several blocks of decent boxwood to carve various fittings from. I haven't even cut into this wood yet and already I like it better than basswood. At any rate, I drew a straight line on the plywood and cut out some plan copies of the false keel and adhered them to the ply using rubber cement. Tomorrow I will have to break out the scroll saw and cut this big sucker out. As always, thanks for looking in and I appreciate any and all comments (including the critical ones).
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