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JSGerson
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Everything posted by JSGerson
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Display Mount And now for something completely different: The display mount. If any of you can remember when I was building the keel, I made mounting provisions in the keel. Specifically, I incorporated two pieces of original wood from the actual ship into the keel. Within those pieces I inserted a brass tube to accept a pin from the pedestals that were to be mounted on the base board. Originally, I thought the pedestals were going to be screwed into place. I tried buying brass pedestals from Model Expo or any other model supplier, but none had a brass pedestal with ¼” slot for the keel. I don’t have a metal lathe nor the skills to use one, so that left wood as my most practical choice. As it would happen, I ran across wooden finials at Hobby Lobby which more of a crafts store than a hobby store. But it’s all I have within 35 miles of me. The advantage of these finials is they have a tenon which means I don’t need any screws, just glue.
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I haven’t started the quarter galleries yet, but you have given me some trepidations. Not only is it good to watch a professional model builder do their stuff, but I learn where the pit falls are by watching the less skilled builders (no slight intended) because they fall into the traps the experience builder doesn’t. In this case as you indicated, the quarter galleries have no straight lines or consistent angles. Even the laser cut pieces don’t seem to be perfect. My go-to expert for the USS Constitution build is Ken Forman (xKen), a professional model builder of wood and brass. I watched his build with awe and yet he too struggled with the quarter galleries. He built a beautiful pair of quarter galleries (post #69) only to realize later, he built them too high on the hull (post #199) which had to be ripped out and rebuilt. My congrats that you stuck it out and didn’t quit.
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See if these links to the USS Constitution Museum helps: https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/2015/08/25/modern-armament/ https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/2015/11/12/constitutions-guns-a-snapshot/ https://ussconstitutionmuseum.org/2016/03/17/1906-guns/
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I just discovered your build today and am glad to have you back and your build log to read. I think the last time I communicated with you, was over some errors in Mr. Hunt's practicum for the Rattlesnake. I think I drove you a bit crazy. You were so gracious, I felt guilty asking for the missing wood. I still have a lot of the wood I purchased and it is a pleasure to work with. I still can't cut a long piece of wood with your precision, and I use the Byrne's saw! Jon
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KirbysLunchBox, I can't wait for the paint job too, but that's still in the future...how far, I'm not quite sure. I.ve got to install the castings along the hull, as well as build the quarter galleries among other stuff I haven't thought about yet. There is an old truism: No matter what you have to do, you have to do something else first.
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The hull gun port “bolt heads are all installed. I had to make 350 pseudo bolts heads including ones I lost or were mis-formed. I didn’t take an overall picture because they would be difficult to see. The previously post close up give you an idea of what they look like.
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Thank you both Kirby and Tom, but you have to be juuuust a little bit nuts for this kind of detail.
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The pseudo bolts were applied using the same Min-Wax Polycrylic sealer used to seal the hull. A very thin layer of the sealer was applied to the appropriate hull area with a small brush. Using an X-acto knife with a fine drop of sealer on its tip, the knife, by just touching a brass “bolt head”, picks it up and transfers it to the hull. The pseudo bolts were pushed into position while the sealer was wet. The picture below shows the port side hull, gun deck level with the pseudo bolts installed. The spar deck and the complete Starboard side have yet to be done. By the time the hull is painted black, these “bolt heads” will practically disappear. So why bother? It may not be apparent to the casual observer why one model looks better than another, but I believe subconsciously the fine detail are perceived even if not overtly observed. So, the closer you look, the more you should see.
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Like I did bulwark bolt heads, I punch out hull pseudo bolts heads from 0.005” brass sheet with my Rivets Maker using a 1 mm punch in contrast to the 0.6 mm punch I used for the bulwarks. This was based on visual inspection of images of the real bolts. In other words, I made a wild *** guess.
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Gun Port Hull Bolts Before upper hull is painted, there are numerous accruements that I want to install first, such as scuppers, port windows, bolt heads, etc. They will all be painted black. If it can be avoided, don’t want to glue to painted surfaces. First up are the bolts that protrude from the hull around the gun ports. These are the bases of the ring bolts for the cannon rigging. These are NOT shown on the kit’s plans but can be seen on the actual ship. Based on the photos, I made a pattern to follow. The actual dimension vary slightly from gun port to gun port. Edit: I’ve added additional bolts (shown in red) to indicate that these bolts are only on the spar deck level. Why, I don’t know.
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Well, here is the hull smooth as a baby’s butt for copper plating, The smoother the surface, the easier it is to plate…or so I’ve read. The part of the hull that’s to be painted, a minimum of wood filler was used as the real ship does have a slightly bumpy surface.
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Great shots; I'm adding them to my photo library. The last time I visited the ship was just before her last restoration, Thanksgiving 2014. It felt good to visit her and my old stomping grounds. I grew up in the Boston area. I left in the late 70's.
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This is my second build using Mr. Hunt's practicum. The first time (Rattlesnake), I followed it almost religiously being a complete novice. After a while I noticed minor errors and omissions in the practicum. I believe he originally posted the practicum as he was building the model and was working with deadlines. Near the end, you could tell he was cutting corners. This was before I had discovered ModelShipWorld.com and other websites. To his credit, I could not have built that model or this one without his help and he did state that his methods were not necessarily the only/best way to do things. Therefore, on this build, I use his practicum as a skeletal framework guide. I check with other build logs and choose what I believe is the best sequence and methods for my skills. So like you, I have jumped around from section to section in his practicum using his guidance when and where needed. Right now I'm thinking of holding off painting and coppering until after I install the the stem ornamentations and quarter galleries or maybe not, I haven't decided. I do want to paint the upper hull before I work on the gun deck interior. First I have to touch up the spar deck hull walls a bit better.
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Beautifully done. Don't feel bad about the gun port positioning error, I did something similar on the spar deck gun ports when I was framing them out. It is easy to get confused when looking a bare framing. You can lose sight as to which side of the frame the opening is suppose to be. You and I are at the point in planking and I've got to say yours looks a whole lot nicer even though mine took a whole more time. At this point I suspect I'll be following you. I still have to complete the gun deck interior, a feature I elected to add, which you don't have to deal with.
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Thank you both Freezing Parrot and Boatsinc2000. Flattery will get you everywhere!
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And here is what it looked like after scraping and sanding. Still not satisfied yet.
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This what the hull looked like after putty application.
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The stuff sets up in about 30 minutes, but I would wait as a minimum of four or more hours just to be sure. It becomes hard but easy to sand. Then the areas were scraped and sanded. Because the putty shrinks slightly upon hardening, I used more than one coat in many areas and repeated the process and repeated again till satisfied. Here are the instruments of removal: scrapers, sanding sticks, files, and a sponge sanding block.
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I have spent considerable time cleaning up the imperfections on the hull planking. To fill in voids, dings, dips, valleys, etc. I used 3M Glazing Putty which was recommended by Ken Forman (xKen) to a question I asked when I was following his Constitution build log .
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Too many jokes about butt cracks...so I won't 😁
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The last hull plank has been installed. As I’ve mentioned before, this is only my second hull planking and it’s a lot better than my first (Rattlesnake). Here at least I think I knew what had to done. I came close but there was a bit more stealer joints used than I had planned for. A fine model builder and kit designer, Chuck Passaro once said that if you plan the planks right, you won’t need any stealers. Well, I needed them. That’s all a moot point because the hull has to be sanded, touched up to fill some voids, sealed, and prepped for copper plating, and painting, which will cover the planking imperfections from the critical eye.
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No problem posting a link to my log. I kinda wish you would maintain your log. Seeing how other builders deal with problems and the solutions they come up with is the main reason I read everyone else's logs. If it's real time (as opposed to milestones), we the readers, can offer immediate solutions or even better, prevent you from making mistakes. I've learn so much that way. Still, I look forward to all your future posts.
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Nice recovery on the planking; it's looking great now. What's better, is that the black paint and copper plating will completely cover up the planking lines and no one will ever know. I noticed that the bottom of the wale has not been blended into hull yet. Were you planning on doing that after the hull planking is completed? I did mine as I was it stalling it. My hull is almost fully planked. I've got about three rows left on the starboard side.
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Not done yet, but a quick thumbnail calculation works out to 300ft of 1/8" wide plank. That's a lot of glue too!
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It’s down to the last belt.
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