patrickmil

Hello to all! I hope everybody is staying safe and enjoying the remaining days of summer. I want to thank everybody for taking the time to look in, comment, and/or hit the like button. I finished painting the hull and my boiler and present the following pictures. I coated the boiler in primer to give the black paint better adherence and then used Tamiya weathering powders to provide a tiny bit of highlight to the rivets and seams and finally clear coated the whole thing. The hull has many coats of primer. I lost count after five. So as not to have such a stark white color, I used a shade of ivory instead of white. It looks more pleasing to my eyes. Sorry for the picture quality. Besides only having my phone to take pictures, I also share my desk with work and other model kits. The finished boiler Overall shot of the hull bottom Up front shot of the hull right-side-up I hope you all like. Please feel free to let me know what you think! Thanks, Patrick

Hi Tom, Your Niagara is looking great and you've done an outstanding job with her "teeth". I completely respect your position on the pins and was only asking out of curiosity. I look forward to seeing more of your work! Thanks, Patrick

Eric and Brian, I really appreciate the positive reinforcement! Thanks for hanging in with me despite the snail's pace with this kit. Thanks, Patrick

Hi John, I appreciate your feedback! The glue dots were done using a piece of Tamiya tape with little tick marks and in some places done by eye after a glass (or two) of bourbon to steady my hand. Thanks, Patrick

Good morning Model Ship World! Thanks to all for looking in and for the likes! Brian, one of these days I will be getting back to my Constitution by Model Shipways, but after finishing Niagara, it was just too much ship! I definitely appreciate your compliment. Getting to the build and what I've been doing... I've been priming, sanding, filling in spots, sanding, priming again, filling fewer spots, sanding, priming again... I think you all get the general idea. I should have pics of a finished hull soon after a little more work. Needless to say, the filling and sanding routine has been tedious, but I'm almost there. To help provide a modicum of variety in tasks, I decided to jump on the Chaperon's boiler. I built up the basic boiler, added tiny nails for the boiler door handles where I believe the coal would have been shoveled into, and finally added the white metal bits. I wasn't too impressed with the overall look of the wooden boiler, even before I primed and painted it. It just did not look "metal" enough. So I stripped off the white metal bits and came up with my own solution to give it that "metal" look since I believe these monsters were made from cast iron. I had some aluminum ducting tape that I cut into various size "plates" and strips and applied these using a soft wooden stick to burnish the foil down on the wooden boiler. Once I was satisfied with that I wanted to go a bit further and apply its "rivets". I tested using tiny drops of wood glue applied with a toothpick. After drying, I was very satisfied with the feel of these "rivets". Is this by any means accurate? I highly doubt it! Does it look better in my opinion? Resounding YES! Will anybody be able to see much of this once it's buried? I also doubt that. At least I will know. Hopefully my pictures below will help explain what I did. Testing of glue drops on some spare aluminum strips on scrap wood Top, overall shot of boiler with beginnings of simulated cast iron plates Front shot of boiler showing coal doors with handles Another front shot of boiler covered in metal and glue droplets Overall shot of boiler with metal and glue droplets Next up should be more progress on the hull and the finished boiler after priming and painting. As always, please let me know what you think, whether it's criticism or validating my half-cocked ideas. Thanks all and stay safe!

Hi Tom, Your build has been outstanding so far! I'm tagging along to see this to the end. I may have missed it in your build log, but are you planning on blackening the belaying pins or are you keeping them brass?

Hi Ron, Looking through your build log brings back fond memories of putting my Niagara together. You've done a fantastic job so far. I'm anxious to see more!

Hello All, Wow! It's been over two weeks since I last posted on here. First things first; thanks to all for the likes, views, and comments. I'm glad to have you aboard on my build log, Brian! I've been checking your build log out along with others. The planking on this kit is definitely easier than a typical, sea-faring, sailing vessel so I chose not to take pictures or comment on my planking progress. The only semi-challenging aspects of it were applying chamfers to plank edges and side-bending the planks for a better planking job that I've had in any of my past builds. I brushed PVA on the insides of the planks once I was done with the planking. Another day to cure properly and I can begin the rigorous sanding for a smooth hull. On to the pictures! Port bow, definitely needs some sanding Starboard bow, also needs some sanding Aft, of course, some sanding required Port aft, just showing off the planking as I'm pretty happy with how it turned out Best I can do with an overall view, and again, some sanding definitely needed Thanks to all in advance for looking in. I'm always open to comments, questions, and criticism.

Hi Brian, I'd be lying if I said I hadn't looked in on this build previously. Great work and an outstanding build! If I get to half as decent as your Chaperon, I will consider myself lucky. I've seen some discussion regarding the main desk being painted red. Did you keep yours natural out of preference or because the instructions don't mention painting it? Thank you!

Hi Brian, Thanks for your response!

Thanks for your response Kurt! I was sort of planning on doing that with the deck layout as I laid down each and every plank. I don't think 1/32" strips will add too much thickness but also should allow the deck plank butt joints to be visible.

Outstanding job on this build! Question for you as I get nearer to installing the main deck, how did you work with the unsightly seams between the fore and aft deck pieces? Are they visible on the finished model given the boiler room and other structures? I'm planning on planking over these decks with 1/32" strips but I'm wondering if all that work is necessary.

Did I mention that this would be a slow build? Thanks to all for the likes and views! I got some planking done finally. The picture shows 6 planks on the starboard side and only four planks on the port side. I'm chugging along slowly but surely. I'm working carefully to bevel the planks where they butt up to other planks to ensure smooth planking and tight seams. I'm using the thumbtacks because with this build, I wanted to use only PVA and not CA glue.

Hello All, First of all, I hope all of the Dads in the US had a good Father's Day weekend. Secondly, Thanks for the comments, views, and likes. I finally managed to get all of the bulkheads attached and am working on getting the stringers and fillers installed. I'm enjoying this kit immensely so far, albeit I haven't accomplished that much yet. Without further ado, here are the pictures of my progress. An overall shot of the hull as it stands today. A closer shot of the skeletal stern and the rear filler blocks A picture of the bow waiting on filler blocks. And finally, a close up picture of the bow filler blocks Thanks in advance for looking in on my journey. Patrick

Hello Mike! I'm another Buckeye in the Columbus area. Glad to see you join!

@Eric, I appreciate your following along. I've been reading enough of the other build logs from the likes of Mike Dowling, mbp521, and Brucealanevans for some ideas and tips that go out of the general scope of the instructions. @Micheal, thanks for following along. I'm glad to be back with some inspiration. @Jorge Hedges, thanks for your thumbs up! I don't have an update yet as I'm still gluing on bulkheads. As I stated in my opening remark, this will be a slow going build. I do appreciate the commentary though!

Hello All, It's been a while since I've posted anything on here. I last left off with lofty goals for the USS Constitution by Model Shipways. Well, you could say that life got in the way with job changes, family, pets, etc. But that wasn't it. My goals for the USS Constitution were fairly large goals and were a little over my skill set and eventually I lost the desire and inspiration to continue working on her. Since then, I've been putting together plastic model airplanes and tanks. My favorite so far has been between Tamiya's 1/32 Corsair and 1/32 Mosquito. All along though, I have been checking in here to see what others have been doing and I got the itch a couple of months ago while sitting (some call it working) at home. I decided that the Chaperon would be a nice reintroduction to scale ship modeling and better yet, was able to purchase the kit through Model Expo for a pretty reasonable $239. I won't bore you all with the kit contents. Others have already shown off this kit much better than I ever could. I have made my start by gluing the keel parts and a single bulkhead on so far. Please bear with me as this will be slow going progress. While I don't mind recommendations and/or criticism, my goal here is not exact historical accuracy, but rather enjoying putting together a model ship again. Here's the keel parts all glued together And here's the first bulkhead glued on using a slab of granite for a perfectly flat surface and the age-old Lego squaring method Thanks in advance for looking!

Very nice Sjors!

Great looking deck Sal! The planking is very clean.

The stern decor looks great so far Tom.

Bob, your standing rigging is outstanding! Fantastic work.

Thanks for the likes and comments to all. CaptainSteve, I will scan those in and send them to you. If you guessed eight windows then you were absolutely correct. I'm going with the configuration that Cmdr Martin describes in A Most Fortunate Ship. There is a good picture of the stern in Anatomy of the Ship and I have a drawing of the stern that was made by William Bass. Bass's drawings don't match up exactly with what is in AOTS and are supposed to be a more authentic representation of what she would have looked like, but the drawing doesn't apply easily to the the back of Connie either. I will making more of a hybrid of the AOTS and Bass's drawing.

Evan, I'm left with thoughts that can't be put into words. Your paint job is incredible! Such clean lines on a raised detail plastic model were always rumored to be a thing of myth. I'm glad you went with a yellow stripe. I wish when they refit Connie, they would bring her back to her very first years (the 1812 period is okay too I guess ). It's so hard to get an idea of what she really looked like from old paintings and speculation, but I think you hit the nail on the head.

Frank, you have never told us that you sold your soul to the devil. Achieving realistic weathering results like you've done is incredibly hard. I'm speechless. The hull and deck are completely amazing to the point that she looks like she was just pulled from duty and put in dry dock for refit!

Augie, your Confederacy is amazing. I have to agree with others; I think you should be scratch building with your quality of work. WOW!