JSGerson

That's what this site is all about...helping others. Jon

In Xken's Niagara log he said: So yes. he mixed his own. Jon

I don't think he ever finished it. He did just enough to show how this things could/should be done. Have you noticed, there are no pictures of him rigging the model either once the masts were made. He had too many other models he was working on. Still, without his help, I never would have started my model. Jon

I have not had the opportunity to buy wood from Modelers' Sawmill as I have plenty of stock wood. The point I was trying to bring out that HobbyMills was referenced by Mr. Hunt's practicum for Model Shipways USS Constitution supplemental wood packages . Since HobbyMills is no longer in business, I don't know if Mr. Hunt's practicum has been amended to replace HobbyMills as a wood suppler for the packages. Geoff - Thanks for the kudos Jon

Gregg, glad to have you as a reader!

The final touches of adding the arrestor to the stack, eye bolts, shot racks, and painting will be done later, as the main purpose of this exercise was to get the hatchways completed for dry fit up to ensure proper alignment of the spar deck support beams. BTW, the MS plans state that the shot racks on the forward hatchways were not installed in the 1997 restoration. I will install them because I believe they originally existed when the ship was militarily active. Also, I will not install the support beams under the main hatchway that pass under the grating openings. This was where the ship’s supplies were loaded into the holds. Even though she is technically an “active” commissioned warship, these recent modifications, I believe, were made to make the ship more of a museum piece, structurally sound, and for the welfare and safety of tourists. My model is based on the 2015-17 restoration but is not a total replica of that restoration. Still to come are the forward hatchways and the main gratings. [Looking at the stack mouth after I posted these images, I realized the casting had the spark arrestor, but I mistook it for a stack mouth flange. There is no mouth flange, so I will probably remove it when I go to attach my arrestor.]

This was a tricky bit. Ideally, I would have drilled a hole on either side of the arrestor plate, inserted some fine diameter rods into the holes and soldered them in place. The immediate problem is that I don’t have a fine drill bit that can drill into metal, even a soft metal like brass. I opted to cut a slit in lieu of holes and hoped the solder would fill in the gaps. I cut 0.005” thick brass place to the oval shape and cut two pieces of 0.018” dia. music wire to length. Using silver solder paste with a butane torch, these were soldered as shown below. It worked like a charm until I tried to remove it from the wood block, and it fell apart. It took numerous attempts and a slightly different, more robust setup, till it held together. The excess solder was then filed off.

The third hatchway is part of the stove stack. The grating was framed as the others, but the chimney platform section is 1/32” lower with seven 3/32” x 1/32” boxwood planks. The planks are supported just like the grating with an inside ledge. In actuality, the stack passes through the platform to the stove below. My first thought was to recreate the stack using brass tubing, but the stack is oval in cross section, and it tapers towards the top. Even if I had a metal lathe, which I don’t, I have no idea how I would/could fabricate a hollow stack of that shape. The kit’s casting is pretty accurate, so I went with it. Until I removed the kit’s cast stack from the kit box, I thought it would sit flat upon the platform. But the cast piece has a substantial plug/protrusion that requires an oval hole in the slats. If I were to cut/drill a hole through the slats, the platform would collapse. Therefore, I glued a piece of 1/32” plywood under the slats for support. Because this a solid cast part, I drilled out the stack’s mouth just enough to give the illusion the stack pipe was hollow. Of course, just to make things more interesting, the plug is not circular but oval in cross section, and the stack’s base flange is supposed to be recessed into the platform. I decided that the recessed flange was a bit much. A lot of work for not much visual gain and a high probability I could really mess up and have a “re-do” on my hands. The drilling of the plug hole went smoothly. Using successive larger bits, a pilot hole was expanded to the proper width and then filed to get the proper oval shape. A couple of planks tried to come loose but the slight damage was covered up by the stack’s base flange. The next item fabricated for the stack was the spark arrester in front of the stack mouth. It sits very close to the mouth and blocks a direct view inside the mouth enabling my hollow stack illusion.

I next chose to make the bowsprit hatchway. This was almost identical to the first one except its sides extended along the bowsprit. Because the sides butted up against the bow waterway, it had to be tapered to fit. In addition, where the hatchway frame extended around the bowsprit, the top covering was cutout to allow the bowsprit to pass through into the deck. I made a blank out of 1/32” plywood to be fitted and painted later.

Starting with the small grating frame just forward of the foremast, whose grating supplied by the MS kit measures 15/32” x 13/32”, I cut the 7/32” x 3/32” boxwood stock as follows: 2 pieces: 21/32” lengthwise 2 pieces: 13/32” beam wise These pieces were placed around the grating, framing it with butt joints and glued (not the grating). Then the 5/32” x 1/32” boxwood stock was cut as follows: 2 pieces: 15/32” lengthwise 2 pieces: 11/32” beam wise These were placed inside the and at the bottom of the glued frame. This left the 1/16” ledge at the top for the grating to rest on. Finally, the 3/32” x 1/32” boxwood stock was cut as follows to create a mitered joint, just for looks. 2 pieces: 24/32” lengthwise 2 pieces: 20/32” beam wise The top edge was beveled to a 45° angle and the ends mitered before final assembly.

The first hatch to fabricate is the smallest, the simplest, and the easiest. I’ll use this experience to make the others. Mr. Hunt has chosen to use lap joints which I believe add more difficulty to the task. It is my opinion that the method used by Mr. Hunt is too complicated requiring you fabricate rabbets and dados. These may be fun to make for a skilled woodworker, but I do not have the tools nor have reached that precision skill level. Although a lap joint adds strength to the joints, I don’t believe the added strength is warranted as no stress will be applied to the frames. I am using a simpler butt joint method and if I don’t mess up, the end product will look exactly like Mr. Hunt’s in the end (no pun intended).

These hatches are one of the items in the supplemental wood package. Mr. Hunt mentions that the MS kit does not have certain sizes of wood stock for the hatches, and you must fabricate your own. The supplemental wood package supplied the proper sizes in boxwood. The basic hatch frames consist of three pieces of wood. Outside: 3/32” H x 1/32” W Center: 7/32” H x 3/32” W Inside: 5/32” H x 1/32” W When assembled you get the cross section shown below. Something like my diagram I believe would have been more helpful in the practicum than his Figures F4.3.1-1 and F4.3.1-2. I’m not knocking the practicum, I could not have started, let alone built this model without it; just some constructive criticism.

I should mention here that at the time I purchased the MS kit back in 2016 or 2017, I also purchased a supplemental wood kit from HobbyMills (a company Mr. Hunt worked with and recommended) which substituted boxwood (among other wood choices) for certain elements of the MS kit’s basswood. Unfortunately, HobbyMills is no longer in business as the owner retired, so getting the supplemental wood packages from them now is impossible. Check with Mr. Hunt to see if he lined up another suppler. USS_Constitution_Wood_Supplement - HobbyMill.pdf

This brings to light that some or all my support knees may not be positioned properly. I may have to fudge a bunch more. Because the main grating on the spar deck (under the pinnace) will be partially opened to allow viewing of the gun deck, the supporting beams below it must be aligned with the grating’s cross beams precisely. For that reason, I will pause installing the additional gun deck bitts and previously fabricated furniture (i.e., capstan, pumps, casks, etc.) until I have fabricated the spar deck hatchways and gratings. They will be dry fitted to ensure the key beams below are properly positioned. Where to begin? I had several false starts trying to figure out how to fabricate the various grating using Robert Hunt’s practicum. Per section 4.2.2 Hatch Coaming Framework of the practicum, I installed the framing supports for the bowsprit hatch and foremast hatch just aft of it. These supports will allow the hatchways to be dry fitted.

To install the wood column at the forward end of the furthest aft gun deck hatchway, the spar deck beam had to be installed directly overhead of that column so it could support the beam. This beam is also supported at its ends by knee braces previously attached to the bulwarks which the gun riggings are now attached. Unfortunately, when the beam was dry fitted on the knees, the beam did not center directly over the column. It was about a beam’s width aft off. To dismantle and reposition the knees meant removing the gun rigging as well. I could do that or fudge it. Because where the knees and the beam ends join will be hidden when the partial spar deck is installed, the beam was moved forward just enough to get it centered over the column, just not sitting directly on the knees.

If you don't need to make the rudder move, make your own pseudo hinges and pin the rudder to to the post. Or, if you do want the moveable rudder, that will take some skill and creativeness to make your own working gudgeons and pintles. My MS model is a larger scale (1:76.8) and I made the working rudder with some effort. I don't know if I would have tried it at 1:96. Jon

Well, creating the remaining six stairwell hand ropes did go quicker, just not quick. Because I had to use PVC glue both to allow me time to position properly the 24 stanchions and as a filler material at the base of some of the stanchions, I had to wait at least an hour or so before I could move on to the next steps. During that wait I couldn’t touch the model for fear of upsetting the drying setup and process. If I had done this sooner (which I did) but more robust (which it wasn’t), this installation could have been much simpler to do. There is still a bunch of stuff that needs to be installed on the gun deck but requires the installation of more spar deck beams and those beams must be in the proper position to line up with stuff on the gun deck. It’s almost like which comes first, the chicken or the egg. So, I be installing both gun deck and spar deck items alternately.

I cheated on mine by printing the panels, but then again, I don't expect them to be readily seen. Yours however, are wonderful and will probably be more visible. Well done! Jon

Very nice! You are going to have a great looking model when you are done. One thing caught my eye, If you plan on installing the spar deck capstan stove pipe before you install the spar deck, make sure you leave space under them for the spar deck planks to fit. Oh, one other thing, It appears your anchor rope is tied (instead of wrapped) around the riding bitts. There is no way the anchor rope can be pulled in either direction to raise or lower the anchor. The riding bitts apply friction to the rope to maintain control of the ropes movement. The way you have it shown, the rope can't even be untied if it were on the actual ship. Jon

Here is the US Navy1931 Spar Deck Arrangement Drawing (in two parts) for your reference. Jon

When I responded to you, I checked Cookster's site and saw that there were a lot of images missing and those were the images I was referring to. You want the images for anything subsequent to his last relevant posting which was post #261 (Sep 8, 2014). I checked today to see what pictures were missing that you needed and to my surprise, the only images now missing, were on the first page of his log. If you want those, I can still send them to you. I don't have any more relevant images after his post #261 (Sep 8, 2014) which you stated you downloaded. Sorry for the misunderstanding. Jon

Read your post about following Cookster, and his comment about is log being broken, I just want to let you know that I have all of his images that he posted. When I follow a build log dealing with the Constitution, I don't just read it, I copy the log and store it on my computer. BTW, I did the same thing when I was building my Rattlesnake. I don't trust the internet to keep websites forever or maintain original addresses. I've seen websites crash and lose everything (e.g., ModelShipWorld and ModelShipBuilder). So even though Cookster himself seems to have vanished in a puff of smoke and his log is starting to slowly disintegrate (images have disappeared), I have a copy of his log and all of the associated images. Should you need images from his log, just let me know. Jon

The stanchions were stung together with 0.12” (.30mm) black rope prior to installation so that I wouldn’t have to thread them on the model. Mustafa used tan rope which I must admit looks great, but the real ship uses black rope; but it doesn’t have the visual impact like the tan. So be it. It was slow, tedious, tricky, and time consuming That one stairwell down, six to go. Hopefully these will get installed quicker.

If you look closely at Mustafa’s model. His stanchions fit into holes drilled into the top of the hatchway walls. For what ever reason, the walls on my hatchways ended up being too narrow to drill holes for the stanchion poles. To support the stanchions, I decided to use brass brackets on the inside corners of the hatchway. Hopefully these would provide sufficient physical support and glueing surface to hold the stanchions in place. Making the brackets was simple but installing them was a little tricky. Due to the installed beams, the most forward hatchway was the most difficult to access. My fingers were too fat to fit between the beams, so I had to do everything with tweezers. I couldn’t use CA glue because I couldn’t get the bracket into position, hold it there, at the same time applying minute drops of CA glue. PVA glue allowed me to stick the bracket in close vicinity of where it needed to be and maneuver it into the proper position (still not easy). Once it dried, then I could add more glue for proper strength. Once the brackets were in place, then the stanchion could be set into them. This was a time-consuming process because I had to wait for the glue to dry solid before I moved on to the next step. I also made a stairway plug to prevent anything from falling to the hatchway, like a loose bracket. Once anything fell in, there was no way I could get it out. It was a black hole.

What to do? So, for my second attempt, I messaged Mustafa (mtbediz), the man who inspired me to do this over again. He very graciously gave all the details which I followed with some minor modifications. First, He used exclusively 0.8 mm brass wire, but I stuck with the 0.81mm music wire for the stanchion for reasons mentioned above. He used a short piece of 0.81mm brass wire to create the rope tab. I used a short piece of 0.64mm brass wire which was cut and formed into a U-shape like he did. It was trimmed so the ends were even and placed near the top of the music wire piece like a flag with the open ends of the brass wire touching the music wire. Mustafa used lead solder paste (I believe) to fill the interior of the “flag” and secured the two pieces of wire in place with metal weights. I had silver solder paste but found mine wasn’t sticky enough to stay in place when I tried to fill the “flag” void (paste too old?). As a result, I used soldering flux and silver solder wire. The surface tension of the flux held everything in position. It was backed up with a bolt so it wouldn’t move during the heating process. To heat the assembly so the solder would melt, Mustafa used a heat gun which I don’t have. I used a mini-butane torch which worked quite nicely. The excess solder was filed off and a hole was drilled through the solder without any problems. The stanchion were painted black, threaded with miniature rope.