JSGerson

I thought it was an optical illusion but your comment about using the ponce wheel directly on the hull seems to confirm it - your "rivets" are inverted. The models I've seen in other build logs seem to show raised rivets like those on the bulwarks. I like yours better. Looking at the actual ship, where the "rivets" are applied, the copper seems to be pulled in towards the hull creating a dimple, which is what one would expect Nice work!
 
Jonathan

I thought it was an optical illusion but your comment about using the ponce wheel directly on the hull seems to confirm it - your "rivets" are inverted. The models I've seen in other build logs seem to show raised rivets like those on the bulwarks. I like yours better. Looking at the actual ship, where the "rivets" are applied, the copper seems to be pulled in towards the hull creating a dimple, which is what one would expect Nice work!
 
Jonathan

I thought it was an optical illusion but your comment about using the ponce wheel directly on the hull seems to confirm it - your "rivets" are inverted. The models I've seen in other build logs seem to show raised rivets like those on the bulwarks. I like yours better. Looking at the actual ship, where the "rivets" are applied, the copper seems to be pulled in towards the hull creating a dimple, which is what one would expect Nice work!
 
Jonathan

I thought it was an optical illusion but your comment about using the ponce wheel directly on the hull seems to confirm it - your "rivets" are inverted. The models I've seen in other build logs seem to show raised rivets like those on the bulwarks. I like yours better. Looking at the actual ship, where the "rivets" are applied, the copper seems to be pulled in towards the hull creating a dimple, which is what one would expect Nice work!
 
Jonathan

Thanks for dropping by Ken (xKen). Buying a milling machine will remain on my wish list for now. As I have mentioned, all of the woodwork on this build is complete and I won't start the Frigate Constitution until I've completed my Rattlesnake - I don't need any more diversions to its completion, I go slow enough. That gives me time to figure out exactly what I need vs what I want; the two, contrary to popular belief, are not necessarily the same.
 
Jonathan

Ken - Well it's either there or where my socks disappear to 8-)

Finally, a coat of Wipe-On-Poly was applied to the completed yards and booms. On a final point, a milestone has been reached – All of the wood working on this model is now complete (as far as I know). All that is left is the remaining rigging which continues with the yards, off the model.

The boom also has a cleat, a sheave, chocks, and a couple of eyebolts that needed to be installed. The gaff just had an eyebolt and cleats. Having made cleats for the Gallows Bits a while back I can tell you they are a pain in the butt and I wasn’t really happy with the way they looked. Chuck Passaro of Syren Ship Model Co. solved that problem with his laser cut cleats blanks. Using the 5mm cleat blank, I added a pin and finished the carving it (smoothing and rounding off the edges). Because this cleat already had a very small gluing surface, and it was going on a curved surface, a mechanical connection was required. After all, a line was to be tied to it and I didn’t want it to be pulled off. BTY, with the pin in place, holding the cleat was made carving it a little easier. Once a hole was positioned and drilled on the underside of the boom, the pin was trimmed to a shorter length and inserted and glued into place.

I started with the Boom and Graff because their jaws looked interesting. The Mamoli kit provided cast metal jaws but I had gone this far with fabricating my own parts, I wasn’t about to stop making stuff here. The jaws were constructed from a couple of pieces of walnut tapered slightly to match the ends of the boom/gaff. Once the white glue set overnight to make sure I had a real solid connection, they were carved to match the drawings on Hahn’s plans. The Practicum stated that Mr. Hunt used lead tape for the three straps that went around jaws. I didn’t have any so I used narrow paper strips colored black using a Sharpie pen. Holes were drilled through the tips of the jaws for the parrals which will be constructed and installed a bit later.

As mentioned earlier, I used the Hahn yard diameter dimensions notated at regular intervals along the length of the yards and booms on his plans. Because Hahn’s plans were drawn at ¼ scale or1:48 the numerical dimensions were reduced by 74% to get them to 3/16 scale or 1:64 of the kit. You might see my hand written notations above Hahn’s in the second image below.
 
All the yards and booms were made using the simple jig I used before on the masts to hold the square cut pieces so than the corner edges could be trimmed and rounded or left alone as needed. The only tool used was a file. I am not that skilled in using a plane or other bladed tool to trim the wood on these slender and delicate pieces. I can control a file a lot easier because it trims off a lot less material at a time. All the wooded pieces that remain to be constructed and added to the yards and booms are the various chocks, sling cleats, and jaws. The rest is all rigging…as far as I know.

The first thing that happened was the outhaul rigging on the spritsail topsail yard came apart just as I started to rig its blocks. The white glue did not hold and because the threads were all trimmed off, there wasn’t much left to hold on to. Trying to reattach the outhaul while the yard was on the model was a b*tch.
 
I then checked the blocks on the eyelets and they too fell apart when I applied a little tug– all that effort, poof. Screw it, I went back to CA glue which I know holds. I only use a very fine amount. Let’s see what else happened - a couple of eyelets pulled out of the hull and Spritsail yard (used too little glue), I got tangled up in the rigging near the tip of the jib boom and tied things together that should not have, learned to speak that would make a pirate blush (luckily I’m not married so was anyone around to offend and my cat didn’t understand me or maybe just didn’t care), and did I mentioned that I was involved in a fender bender (rear ended at a traffic light – no one hurt, just damage to my car).
 
But I finally got it done save for finalizing the haul line tie-offs.

Let me stop here for a moment and talk about glue. I had been using a very fine drop of CA glue on my knots but per a lot of build logs and builders of high respect, the recommendation was to use 1:1 diluted white glue because it didn’t stiffen or discolor the thread. So I started to use the diluted white glue.
I made and installed the rigging on the spritsail topsail yard, the blocks attached to eyelets that are to be attached to the hull for the spritsail topsail yard stays, as well as the tackle for the stays. Then the trouble began.
 
I was having difficulty working with the fine rope trying to tie the eyelets to the blocks so that the knots wouldn’t large and/or bulky. These too took multiple tries before I could complete them. OK, I completed all the parts and was ready to assemble the rigging.

Therefore the first thing to make was that rigging. The sling that held the yard to the jib boom  used a finer rope and was smaller and more delicate than the one on the spritsail yard. I must have made at least three slings trying to make the loops small enough and yet still functional and most importantly the proper length. First I made it too long, then too short; the difference was only millimeters. It finally got hung.

That being said, here is the state of the model as she now stands.

Status
 
My last log entry was posted a few days before Thanksgiving. Then I left for my annual trip to my Sister home in colonial New England where it not uncommon to see signs on homes stating they were built in the early 1700’s. It’s just outside of Hartford CT but very picturesque. Her house is only 35 years old, but that’s another story. Anyways, I spent the week there so no work was done on the model. Last week I returned home and thought I was all set to start work on the Spritsail Topsail Yard when I decided to check the rigging list provided by my Mamoli kit. And low and behold I discovered that I had forgotten to install the main and fore masts Topgallant stays which are very similar to the topmast backstays. So here it is, the beginning of a new week, the stays were constructed and installed, and now I am preparing to visit Mom in Florida (where else) for a week. She’s 97 and she’s got a bunch of “honey do’s” for me. I don’t know how much I’ll get accomplished this week on the model before I leave.
 
There was one other item that also took a day of my time. About 10 years or so ago, I bought a metal work bench. It had a clean metal work surface, drawers, and a peg board to hang tools and stuff. I added the power and lights. It work great and it would still work great today if I didn’t have so much stuff on it now. It’s gotten so bad that I have to clear a small spot very time in order to do anything. The model has to be on the coffee table because there is no room. Fed up, I finally bought a wooden work bench from Harbor Freight (a China store) for $135 - cheap. It weighs about 100 lbs so it’s solid. The instructions to assemble it were easy to follow, all the holes lined up, and all the hardware fit and worked. I couldn’t have asked for more. The two benches were placed in an L-shaped configuration and the work lamp can swing to either bench. This should make things a bit easier, at least until I started accumulating stuff again.

Thanks for dropping by Ken (xKen). Buying a milling machine will remain on my wish list for now. As I have mentioned, all of the woodwork on this build is complete and I won't start the Frigate Constitution until I've completed my Rattlesnake - I don't need any more diversions to its completion, I go slow enough. That gives me time to figure out exactly what I need vs what I want; the two, contrary to popular belief, are not necessarily the same.
 
Jonathan

Thank you for the detailed "How To" lesson on hull plating. I will add this to my library of building techniques to use when I build my own Conny.
 
Jonathan

Finally, a coat of Wipe-On-Poly was applied to the completed yards and booms. On a final point, a milestone has been reached – All of the wood working on this model is now complete (as far as I know). All that is left is the remaining rigging which continues with the yards, off the model.

The 42 chocks were next. They were made in 6 steps per chock. Yes, this was tedious and exacting work although that actual process didn’t eat up too much – 2 to 3 minutes per chock or 1½ - 2 hrs total once you got into the rhythm. I usually stopped after 6 chocks to apply them to the yard to break the monotony. Using white glue, they were applied to the appropriate positions on the various yards.
Measure 3/32” from the end of a 1/16” square piece of stock walnut and make a pencil mark File a corner off leaving about 1/64” (eyeballed) from the adjacent corner and the pencil mark with a flat file File the resulting surface to get an inward curve with a round face file Round off the two corners of the inward curve to the 1/64” faces Cut the chock off from the stock at the pencil mark using a miter box. From experience, I have found that using a knife does not always produce a square cut. File a groove on the bottom of the chuck so it will sit comfortable on the round surface of the yard or leave flat when placing it on flat surfaces of the yard Note: for some of the smaller diameter yards, 1/16” x 3/64” stock walnut was used
 
PSA: If you every drop a chock onto a messy work bench (like mine) or on the floor and you can’t find it in a few minutes, let it go because it’s gone man, it’s just gone. Make a new one; it’s faster than looking for the lost one.

The boom also has a cleat, a sheave, chocks, and a couple of eyebolts that needed to be installed. The gaff just had an eyebolt and cleats. Having made cleats for the Gallows Bits a while back I can tell you they are a pain in the butt and I wasn’t really happy with the way they looked. Chuck Passaro of Syren Ship Model Co. solved that problem with his laser cut cleats blanks. Using the 5mm cleat blank, I added a pin and finished the carving it (smoothing and rounding off the edges). Because this cleat already had a very small gluing surface, and it was going on a curved surface, a mechanical connection was required. After all, a line was to be tied to it and I didn’t want it to be pulled off. BTY, with the pin in place, holding the cleat was made carving it a little easier. Once a hole was positioned and drilled on the underside of the boom, the pin was trimmed to a shorter length and inserted and glued into place.

I started with the Boom and Graff because their jaws looked interesting. The Mamoli kit provided cast metal jaws but I had gone this far with fabricating my own parts, I wasn’t about to stop making stuff here. The jaws were constructed from a couple of pieces of walnut tapered slightly to match the ends of the boom/gaff. Once the white glue set overnight to make sure I had a real solid connection, they were carved to match the drawings on Hahn’s plans. The Practicum stated that Mr. Hunt used lead tape for the three straps that went around jaws. I didn’t have any so I used narrow paper strips colored black using a Sharpie pen. Holes were drilled through the tips of the jaws for the parrals which will be constructed and installed a bit later.

As mentioned earlier, I used the Hahn yard diameter dimensions notated at regular intervals along the length of the yards and booms on his plans. Because Hahn’s plans were drawn at ¼ scale or1:48 the numerical dimensions were reduced by 74% to get them to 3/16 scale or 1:64 of the kit. You might see my hand written notations above Hahn’s in the second image below.
 
All the yards and booms were made using the simple jig I used before on the masts to hold the square cut pieces so than the corner edges could be trimmed and rounded or left alone as needed. The only tool used was a file. I am not that skilled in using a plane or other bladed tool to trim the wood on these slender and delicate pieces. I can control a file a lot easier because it trims off a lot less material at a time. All the wooded pieces that remain to be constructed and added to the yards and booms are the various chocks, sling cleats, and jaws. The rest is all rigging…as far as I know.

Thank you for the detailed "How To" lesson on hull plating. I will add this to my library of building techniques to use when I build my own Conny.
 
Jonathan

Thank you for the detailed "How To" lesson on hull plating. I will add this to my library of building techniques to use when I build my own Conny.
 
Jonathan

Thank you for the detailed "How To" lesson on hull plating. I will add this to my library of building techniques to use when I build my own Conny.
 
Jonathan