JSGerson

Just found your build log today. There is some real good stuff here so I'll be following you with great anticipation of more good stuff.

Jon

Just discovered your build log. I look forward to following your progress as I am a few months behind you.

Jon

Those boats are fun little projects. I did mine first as an appetizer for the main course, the ship itself. Even though the MS kit's plans were very close to the US Navy plans (CD from the museum), I used the US Navy plans directly when ever I could.

Jon

At this point, the stern counter and the filler blocks were glued into place. Any final sanding adjustments still must be made.

For the last bit of carving, I used the sanding disk, the rotary tool with a sanding drum, files, and sandpaper.

I don't know about anyone else, but I was getting an error message and could not log on for three days. Finally, somehow, everything is back.

Stern Filler Blocks

The stern filler blocks have a lot of curves and compound curves at that. Again, using the kit plans as templates, the appropriate template was rubber cemented to the appropriate sides of the raw basswood blocks. Using my vintage Dremel scroll saw of almost 40 yrs. old, the S-curve cuts were made. To make those cuts, my saw took about ten minutes each block. I don’t know if it was the thickness of the blocks, the fact basswood was being cut, the saw itself, or all of the above, but it got done.

For those of you who are interested, the saw is a Cat. 572, Deluxe Moto-Shop 15”. The picture I got off the internet shown below, is a good representation of mine. I was just too lazy to set up a shot to get a portrait of mine.

I like the look of the exposed gun deck. It's something like I did on my Rattlesnake. I'll be following your lead for this part on my Conny build, but at 76.8 scale. That should be interesting.

zappto - thanks for joining the group

The top surface is slightly rounded, dropping down at the sides. I used a sandpaper block to create the curve.

The aft edge has a slight rounded profile in the plan view which was create by carefully following the lines on the template.

The aft edge is also angled in at about 50 degrees which as it turns out is the maximum my disk sander will handle. By keeping the wood flush to the plate and slowly feeding it into the spinning sanding disk using lines I drew on the sides as guides, a nice edge was obtained.

Finally, the aft edge has a rounded bottom corner but an angled top corner. This was created with the sandpaper block.

At this point, I got a very pleasant surprise, when I placed the completed transom filler block and dry fitted it on the stern post, it fit like a glove on the very first try. That doesn’t happen very often.

There is a rudder post hole which must be drilled at a slight angle parallel to the stern post. This is easier done now, before the aft edge is created. I found that if I taped a bamboo skewer to the forward edge I got the right pitch for the hole. Using my Dremel drill stand, I drilled a pilot hole with consecutively larger drill bits until I used the largest bit that would fit in the rotary tool. The resulting hole was still smaller than the required 5/16” diameter I needed. This was done using a full-size hand held electric drill with the 5/16” bit. I would have used a drill stand if I had one of the proper size, but the pilot hole did its job.

Transom Filler Block

Using the kit plans as a template, the plan view was pasted with rubber cement onto a piece of basswood supplied by the kit for this piece. The transom filler block was cut out using the Byrnes saw.

The bulkheads were installed one by one using a set of heavy angle irons I got from Micro-Mark when I started my Rattlesnake. After I took this picture, I rotated the angle iron onto its side, so I could clamp to both the bulkhead and the keel. I just forgot to take another photo.

Continuing with the keel modification, the three masthead notches were extended 3/32” to compensate for the gun deck modification. Technically this did not have to be done because once the plywood and decking are installed and mast hole are drilled, the length of mast notches should match the original length of the notch cavity. I just wanted additional strength. I just have to remember to extend the base mast lengths by 3/32”.

You have no idea how big the Screw-Up Club is!! I'm a lifetime member too.

Oh, I'm really sorry. The good news is that 99.999% of the people who will see your model won't even take notice and won't know what a quoin is let alone whether it is correctly depicted. Ours is a lonely art, only you and God know what is right or wrong in our models.

Jon

Dave, what you say about that cannon pictured is true...except the cannonades (which are not accurate to the style of 1812) are a bit different. They have the groove in the quoin.

Just to make things a bit more confusing

Jon

Tom, talk about flying blind, when I started my Rattlesnake, I didn't even know online build logs existed. I stumbled upon the the Hunt practicums, and without that, I would never have even contemplated building a square rigged ship model. Now I have a wealth of info for the Constitution. The fact that I can see what others have done right and especially what they did wrong and the resulting consequences, really teaches you. So OK, you were flying blind, but as you learned, so did the rest of us who followed your work. Thank you for documenting it.

Thanks also for the Lego offer, but as I said, my nephews and their kids have more Legos then they know what to do with. If I need any, that's where I'll have them sent from.

Meddo, you're probable right, but I was a deprived child, I never had any. All I had was the Gilbert Erector set. My three nephews had generous parents (my sister and husband) and they built not just buildings, but complete cities with all the required (and unrequired) roads, vehicles, figures, and other accessories and still had buckets (literally) full leftover unused. They gave them to their kids who are now enjoying them, supplemented with the latest stuff of course. Unfortunately they live in Seattle and Connecticut; I live in South Carolina. Sigh.

Tom - I used your build log to guide me through this stage of the kit bash process. If I had paid more attention, I would have cut the spar deck supports off after I removed the excess wood from the gun deck support like you did. You were able to use the spar deck supports to align the bulkheads when stacked together to smooth them all out. I had to use the spar deck support stubs; a bit more difficult. I still have to deepen the mast notches. I won't be able to use Lego blocks like you did to align the bulkheads on the keel since I don't have any. I'm a life long bachelor, so no kids, but I have other tools. Between you and xKen and a number of other builders, I should have a nice guided tour of how to supplement Robert Hunt's practicum.

Job well done!

The Plunge

Being the “I think I can do anything provided I have something to follow” guy, and since there are a lot of great build logs out there, I took the deep plunge into the unknown (for me at least) and decided I did not like the concept of dummy cannons. I wanted a full set of “real guns” on my model. That meant to accommodate a layer of 1/32” plywood base and 1/16” decking planks, I had to remove from the bullheads as well as the keel 3/32” of material. Making a mistake here affects just about the whole build.

Now what is the point of adding a full set of cannons to the gun deck if you cannot see them? That means I will have to provide some mechanism so that one can see, at least in part, the gun deck and that also means I will have to populate that deck with all the details one would expect to see. I just made this project juuuuust a wee bit more challenging.

The spar deck cross beam supports of the bulkheads had to be removed. First because the bulkheads are made of plywood and was charred in the initial laser cutting process. Second, access will be needed to the gun deck for the installation of all decking, guns, and details. Third, because I assume that some of the replacement cross beams will be exposed and will need to be more realistic.

The 3/32” lines were drawn along the top of the gun deck cross beam support of the bulkheads as well as the top of the keel bulkhead with a compass set to 3/32”. This was done because both the beams and the longitudinal length of the deck are curved. Using a ruler would have messed up the sweeping curves.

The cross and vertical supports were cut off first using a fine tooth saw. The stubs of the cross support were left in place so that the replacement cross beams could easily be re- attached. Using my rotary tool as a drum sander, most of the now excess wood above the 3/32” line was removed from the bulkheads. The areas in the corners where the drum could not reach were removed using the fine tooth saw and files. The wood on the keel was removed using just the hand saw.

Bulkhead Preparation

The first thing I thought I should do was add the bevels to the edges of the bulkheads as shown in the Hunt practicum. I cut out the patterns of each bulkhead from copies I made of the plans. For those bullheads that had a bevel, the pattern showed the bevel on the right side only. By flipping the pattern over, I was able to trace the bevel lines onto both sides of the bulkhead. Now as many of us Conny builders have discovered, neither the laser cut bullheads, nor the drawings are exactly symmetrically cut or drawn, and nor do they necessarily exactly match each other. For this reason, I chose not to add the bevels before they are fastened to the keel. The bevel lines I drew will only be used as a guide and the bevels themselves will created once the bulkheads are in their final position and glued into place.

Cpt Jack Sparrow - I look forward to watching you build your Connie. 

Dave (DocBlake) - Good to hear from you again. It was nice to finally meet you at the St. Petersburg NRG convention; just sorry we didn't really get a chance to chat very much.

I've learned my lesson with Mr. Hunt's practicums: they are a great guide, as I could not have done my Rattlesnake without it, but don't follow them word for word. The choices he makes may not be the ones you would make. I have some wonderful build logs to follow now and I hope to glean the best from all of them, including Mr. Hunt's.

Jon

I've never heard of the nautical term coxcomb (alternate spelling - cockscomb) before. I did a search for the term and the only nautical definition I found was:

A serrated cleat once fitted to the yards of a square-rigged ship and used when the sail was being reefed

I could not find any other details or images.

Jon

Once the oak was glued into the keel pieces, a 3/32” hole was drilled through. The keel pieces were ready to be glued to the keel bulkhead. First, I glued together the stern post to the aft keel section and the stem to the forward keel section. Then these two sections were glued to the keel bulkhead. This left a gap in the center for the last keel section. This was done this way to ensure that any errors in my cutting of the keel pieces and replacing them with the oak pieces would appear in the center of the model.  Then the last piece, the center section keel was glued into place. And, as it turned out, my cutting precision left a little bit to be desired.  There were gaps on either side of the center keel section which had to be filled in and sanded.

I went back to the pedestal holes and drilled the holes, so they continued into the keel bulkhead. Now they were ready to have the brass 3/32” tubes inserted. I see a lot of model displays with the ship model supported by keel pedestals. I just don’t trust that the screw/bolt going up the thin keel is strong enough to support a heavy model if there are any lateral loads (bumped table, transporting, etc.). I also didn’t want a cradle support (like my Rattlesnake) because the model would be  loose. I plan on using a pedestal with outriggers (like a mini cradle) so that any lateral load will be supported by the model’s hull. Bob Hunt’s practicum shows his model supported with pins protruding from the model’s keel into the pedestals. He wanted to be able to remove the model from the stand as he worked on it. I liked that idea, but reversed the pins. I can still remove the model to work on it without having to protect the pins sticking out of the model since they will be embedded in the pedestals. At the completion of the build I will have the option of gluing the model to the pins for a permanent display.