JSGerson

Gun Deck Gun Carriage Fabrication
First, I did some research with the 1907 US Navy plan No 14939 (sheet No.:3103) 24 Pdr Gun and Gun Carriage to determine the proper carriage dimensions. This revealed that I needed as a minimum a piece of wood 15/16” wide x 5/16” tall to create the carriage sides. The plan was to cut the carriage profile into the wood block such that I could cut 1/16” slices from it like a loaf of bread creating the sides of the carriage. 44 sides at 1/16” thick required a length of wood almost 3” long.
 
I chose boxwood for this task because it will hold a clean-cut edge and is not as fragile as basswood. However, because I did not have a piece of boxwood of those dimensions, I had to laminate two pieces of 1¼” wide x ¼” thick wood together to get the required height. I could have cut the wood stock 3” in length to make one laminate block, but that would have meant that the resulting carriage sides were cut cross grain. I wanted the side made with the wood grain requiring rip cuts.
 
From the 1¼” x ¼” wood stock, I cut six 1½” length pieces to make three laminated stacks a ½” thick. Then this was cut down to 3/8” thick. The scale size image of the gun carriage was rubber cemented to the 1½” face (with the grain) resulting in excess wood on either side of the image. That was left for support when cutting the profile with the Byrnes saw. The process worked as indicated in the schematic and photo below. Shown are two sides that were sliced off with the excess support material removed in comparison to the original gun carriage kit.

Gun Port Gutters
I am not sure what the structure above the gun ports are officially called. The kit refers to them as “carved boards,” the practicum refers to them as “curtains”, and I’ve read on other build logs as being called “eyebrows.” Then there is the question, what are they made of. The kit drawing states they were a “decorative carved surface” while the practicum states were a “wrinkled canvas.” My first impression was that they were painted copper sheeting. In any case, the purpose of them was to shed water away from the guns port openings. In other words, a gutter. Luckly the kit provided these structures as nicely cast metal parts. All I had to do was paint and apply them to the hull.

Installing the two outer doors was easy enough, just glue them in place. The center lids were to be partially open which would reduce the gluing surface, so a piece of wood was added to the edge of those half lids to establish the lid ajar angle and a gluing surface. After the lids were secured in their final positions, the loose line attached to the sliding ring was glued into position. Initially, holes were drilled into the transom to accept the pull cords, but was just easier to glue the end of the thread at the hole with no one being wiser.

The front of the lids with the hinges attached were painted black, while the center port lids additionally had their backs painted white because they could possibly be partially visible. Then the eyebolts with their rings were inserted into the top lids. Finally, black thread was attached to the first ring in the door while the loose end was threaded through a ring tied to another thread. Finally, the loose end was tied to the remaining bolt ring on the door. As near as I could tell, the pull line was not tied to the line that went from eyebolt to eyebolt, but to a ring that could slide back and forth. This would always provide even tension to both door rings.

The kit does provide the 1/32” eyebolts, but I didn’t know which part of the kit they were intended for. The practicum doesn’t use them because Mr. Hunt used styrene to simulate the cord lines. I used mine that I bought as a bag of 100, years ago from Model Expo. They have come in handy many times. In addition to the eye bolts, I noticed that cord used to open the port doors is not simply tied to the eye bolts directly but have additional rings and accoutrements. Because I believe even my 1/32” eyebolts are still oversized out of scale even at this size, trying to emulate the rigging exactly was out of the question, but I wanted to suggest it. I made 1/32” rings from brass wire (the diameter of a #77 drill) in the typical way by wrapping the wire around a standard stick pin to create a length of coil, and then the coil was sliced up its length to create the rings, which were then blackened. The rings were then inserted into the eyes of the bolts.

To ensure that the double lids are flush with each other, a backing was added which the top and bottom lids were glued to. Obviously, the backing won’t be seen when the port lids are installed. Then the photo etched hinges were glued on’

The last connection from the chain was to the anchor iron. I needed to make a link that would be thin enough to pass through the last link in the chain and strong enough for the anchor iron. The photographs show an extra-long link as the last link on the chain connecting to a shackle bolted to the rudder iron. This was how I would make the transition.
 
The long links were made from thin brass wire and the “shackles” were made from a typical staple found in any common stapler. It was a little thicker but would pass through the long link as well as the eyebolt on the rudder iron. A staple is tough, malleable, and easy to manipulate. The components were formed by bending the metal to shape and then blackened. The staple did not blacken very well. But it removed the shine from the metal. The chain and eyebolts were then “simply” inserted into the predrilled holes just under the transom. Well, not so simple. I had to re-drill the holes because my well measured spacing of the eyebolts didn’t match the well measured holes in the hull. If I had to do it over again, I would have added a couple of more links per eyebolt.
 
Finally, the “shackle” was attached to the rudder iron and the long link connected to the shackle,

Once I got the first one installed, I tried to install the second. I emphasize the word “tried” because I couldn’t get the two pintles to slip into their respective gudgeons at the same time. Just a thousandth of an inch off in any direction, and they wouldn’t fit. If I did get them to fit, the angle of the whole rudder was off. I must have ripped off these two gudgeons and straps at least a half dozen times or more. However, once I finally got them to fit, the remainder of the strap and gudgeons fell into place relatively easily. I emphasize. “relatively”.

Gudgeon Hinges Installation
Now it was time to install the straps and gudgeons to the hull. This was not as easy as I thought it would be. The plan was to install the topmost one and then one by one, the next in order using the rudder as my guide. Since I had the model upside down, I was working from the bottom up, but I had a devil of a time. The highest strap (on the bottom) had the most radical bends. I rough shaped the strap bends just to position them onto the hull.

Thinking about this more, even if the joint had held, how do I fasten the rings? If I solder the rings on, I risked unsoldering the nail head (I didn’t have different temperature solders). Gluing with either CA or epoxy was iffy at best due to the miniscule gluing surface areas.
 
I opted for another method. Instead of a metal shaft. I used boxwood. This time I used a small brass head nail. I drilled a hole in the center of the strap and pushed the nail through it from the backside pointing aft. This was silver soldered into place. The shaft was made from a piece of boxwood for strength and ease of shaping the round cross section forward and vertical flat aft. Two holes were drilled on either side of the tail for the eventual ring bolts. An additional hole was drilled at the forward end along the axis to accept the shaft of the soldered nail. Still, the wood piece was very difficult to hold and carve, so I did not get the precise shape I wanted. The CA glued nail will provide a solid connection and structural strength. Finally, the eyebolts were cut to length, and inserted into the aft hole with CA glue. The whole component was painted black, and CA glued into place on the rudder. Using wood in lieu of metal is just fine. It’s painted black and no one will be able to discern the material it’s made of.

I didn’t like the idea of styrene as it just felt wrong and the final construct, I believed, would be too flimsy to support the rudder chains properly. Other builders merged the straps gripping the rudder together and just extended them to where the rings attached. Some builders used a square cross section brass tube to support the rings. The problem I felt was that the straps had to support an extrusion that extended 90° from the aft end of the rudder beginning with a round cross section and morphing into a flat vertical tail where the two rings are attached.
 
I initially tried to use my limited silver solder skills with a flat head nail. I placed the 1/16” diameter nail in my Dremel to spin like a lathe. With a file, I tapered the nail shaft down a bit away from the nail head using photographs as my guide. Then I cut the tip off the nail leaving the nail head and shaft at the proper length. Using the file again, the aft end was flattened vertically to accept the eventual chain rings. Finally, I silver soldered the nail head to the center of a length of 3/32” wide strip of brass.
 
I had hoped the nail head would give me enough surface area for a strong solid joint. Then I could wrap the length of the brass strip around the back edge of the rudder so the nail shaft would protrude aft. At this point I still hadn’t figured out how to attach the rings. This became a moot point when I tried to wrap the solder part onto the rudder, so I would know how much I had to trim the straps. The soldered joint broke apart and the nail fell off.

In preparation for the fabrication of the guns’ train tackle and breeching lines, a jig was made to facilitate the fabrication of those lines off-ship. Because the kit obviously does not have any supplies for the gun-deck guns’ rigging, 3/32” single blocks, 1/8” double blocks, 0.018” and 0.030” scale rope was ordered from Syren Ship Model Co. Those should arrive next week.

The recoil rope is wrapped around the spherical nob or button at the back of the gun, but there does not seem to be a consistent method used on the Constitution (see first image below). Once more I removed all the tackle because I should have done this before I threaded the rope through to gun’s rings. I chose the simplest method to attach the recoil rope on the gun button as seen below. This assures I could make each side of the rope equal length., Once more, the rope was threaded through the vertical ring and pinned to the bulwark. With the recoil rope now installed properly, the remainder of the tackle re-hooked once again. The gun jig proved its worth. I would have hated to have learned the sequence while trying to do this on the model. Now I’ve got two guns rigged and sitting on the model. The rope positions are not finalized nor is anything glued into their final position. I want these loose until I build the beams supporting the spar deck with its stations, not to mention the furniture I’ve already fabricated. There are a lot of moving parts that must fit, and I want the flexibility to adjust them if needed. Only 20 more to rig.

I took Usetosail’s suggestion and used the 1/32” eyebolts to make the hooks so they look like mtbediz’s results. They were then blackened (not shown).

The recoil rope is wrapped around the spherical nob or button at the back of the gun, but there does not seem to be a consistent method used on the Constitution (see first image below). Once more I removed all the tackle because I should have done this before I threaded the rope through to gun’s rings. I chose the simplest method to attach the recoil rope on the gun button as seen below. This assures I could make each side of the rope equal length., Once more, the rope was threaded through the vertical ring and pinned to the bulwark. With the recoil rope now installed properly, the remainder of the tackle re-hooked once again. The gun jig proved its worth. I would have hated to have learned the sequence while trying to do this on the model. Now I’ve got two guns rigged and sitting on the model. The rope positions are not finalized nor is anything glued into their final position. I want these loose until I build the beams supporting the spar deck with its stations, not to mention the furniture I’ve already fabricated. There are a lot of moving parts that must fit, and I want the flexibility to adjust them if needed. Only 20 more to rig.

The triple seized looped ends of the recoil rope were attached to bulwark with pins that drop through two eyebolts attached to the bulwarks with the rope loop in between. The pins were created by shortening nails (typically used for nailing planking to bulkheads, seen in the above image). Nails were used because of their nail heads. A piece of rod would just fall through the eyebolts. Those nails had to be filed just a bit narrower for them to fit through the bulwark’s eyebolts. All of this work was done on the protype in the jig.

All the tackle was removed because I found it much easier to thread the recoil rope first when I could hold on to the flopping vertical ring for threading the recoil rope. After a little trial and error, I passed a piece of thread through the ring then through the rope end loop and back through the ring again. After a little coaxing, I was able to pull the loop through the ring with the thread. Rope just does not want to be pushed. Then the tackle lines were rebooked on.

When I tried to thread the recoil rope through the vertical rings on the carriage, it wasn’t as easy as it seemed. The triple seized looped ends of the rope didn’t fit through the vertical ring. Note, in the image below, the initial recoil rope was made too long and was subsequently trimmed down.

 

Initially I had difficulty threading the rope through the block sheaves. I’m pretty certain that the holes that were originally drilled into the Syren blocks were of the correct size for the scale, but the scale rope was definitely not going to fit. I first re-drilled the holes to match the size of the rope diameter. Then I applied CA glue to the tip of the rope to hardenite it into a needle point. I eventually got one rope through the single block sheave, but it took a lot of time, patience, and tenacity. So, I increased the sheave holes size twice more before I got a reasonable result. The holes may not be to scale, but no one will notice. In the first picture below, the 3/32 single blocks were for illustration purposes hooked to the bulwarks but eventually were attached to the carriage and the double blocks to the bulwark in the second image.

The blocks were stained with Minwax Gunstock 231, then the hooks were attached to blocks. Because of the small scale, wrapping the miniature rope around the block and seizing it was slow.

I took Usetosail’s suggestion and used the 1/32” eyebolts to make the hooks so they look like mtbediz’s results. They were then blackened (not shown).

The recoil rope is wrapped around the spherical nob or button at the back of the gun, but there does not seem to be a consistent method used on the Constitution (see first image below). Once more I removed all the tackle because I should have done this before I threaded the rope through to gun’s rings. I chose the simplest method to attach the recoil rope on the gun button as seen below. This assures I could make each side of the rope equal length., Once more, the rope was threaded through the vertical ring and pinned to the bulwark. With the recoil rope now installed properly, the remainder of the tackle re-hooked once again. The gun jig proved its worth. I would have hated to have learned the sequence while trying to do this on the model. Now I’ve got two guns rigged and sitting on the model. The rope positions are not finalized nor is anything glued into their final position. I want these loose until I build the beams supporting the spar deck with its stations, not to mention the furniture I’ve already fabricated. There are a lot of moving parts that must fit, and I want the flexibility to adjust them if needed. Only 20 more to rig.

Der Alte Rentner: I didn't know I was a muse! I thought I was just an old fart😁

The recoil rope is wrapped around the spherical nob or button at the back of the gun, but there does not seem to be a consistent method used on the Constitution (see first image below). Once more I removed all the tackle because I should have done this before I threaded the rope through to gun’s rings. I chose the simplest method to attach the recoil rope on the gun button as seen below. This assures I could make each side of the rope equal length., Once more, the rope was threaded through the vertical ring and pinned to the bulwark. With the recoil rope now installed properly, the remainder of the tackle re-hooked once again. The gun jig proved its worth. I would have hated to have learned the sequence while trying to do this on the model. Now I’ve got two guns rigged and sitting on the model. The rope positions are not finalized nor is anything glued into their final position. I want these loose until I build the beams supporting the spar deck with its stations, not to mention the furniture I’ve already fabricated. There are a lot of moving parts that must fit, and I want the flexibility to adjust them if needed. Only 20 more to rig.

The recoil rope is wrapped around the spherical nob or button at the back of the gun, but there does not seem to be a consistent method used on the Constitution (see first image below). Once more I removed all the tackle because I should have done this before I threaded the rope through to gun’s rings. I chose the simplest method to attach the recoil rope on the gun button as seen below. This assures I could make each side of the rope equal length., Once more, the rope was threaded through the vertical ring and pinned to the bulwark. With the recoil rope now installed properly, the remainder of the tackle re-hooked once again. The gun jig proved its worth. I would have hated to have learned the sequence while trying to do this on the model. Now I’ve got two guns rigged and sitting on the model. The rope positions are not finalized nor is anything glued into their final position. I want these loose until I build the beams supporting the spar deck with its stations, not to mention the furniture I’ve already fabricated. There are a lot of moving parts that must fit, and I want the flexibility to adjust them if needed. Only 20 more to rig.