Force9

It is a sure sign from the Goddess of Model Ships that she wanted you to include a more detailed foremast and platform than the one represented in your first effort... Looks like you'll be even more satisfied with the result once all is said and done! Evan

Folks - The omission of the port covers is often a hot topic across the various forums. Suffice to say that I am basing my build on the Corne paintings and the Hull model - both of which omit the covers. As Marcus points out, the Hull model does show covers on the forward most openings: I'll do something similar. Presumably this was done to keep the bow area dry in plunging seas. Note also that these are full covers - not the half covers that we know Preble had added during his tenure. It is hard to determine if the ports were EVER rigged as standard practice during the war years. We see a log entry in January 1814 that suggests the ports weren't rigged even in rough seas: "The ship rolling deep but easy and taking in a good deal of water at her gun deck ports..." -- Lat. 10-39N, Long. 40-50W Other contemporary sources including the excellent Thomas Birch paintings of the Guerriere battle and United States vs Macedonian show no ports on any of the combatants: At the very least, it'll save me some work and I won't have all those vulnerable lids that easily break off during rigging! Evan

Mort - I too find it odd that there have not been many Bluejacket Connie builds across this and other forums. It may be that the smaller scale combined with the very high price tag is the ultimate deterrent. It is also based on a carved hull, which might turn some folks off... Arguably, the two most accurate kits for her 1812 representation are the Revell 1/96 and the Bluejacket 1/96 - both at the extreme ends of the price scale. I've elected to build the Revell kit to get a War of 1812 version, but I've ordered some of the nice Bluejacket components to enhance my build. Perhaps the best of both worlds... Hopefully we will see your effort posted on MSW in the near future. Evan

Folks - I thought I'd turn some attention to the half hulls... Up next was the tedious task of filling in the holes for the port covers. I won't be fitting gun port covers on my build. I filled them in with .040 x .040 Evergreen strips cut oversized for ease. I then came along next day and snipped them cleanly along the edge. I'll cover with filler and sand flat before painting: I also decided to improve the air ports along the berth deck. The Revell kit comes moulded with some small oval ports, but the credible sources suggest small scuttles instead. Note the air ports in the Corne painting: Chappelle notes in his American Sailing Navy book that " the frigates were all fitted with air scuttles on the berth deck... The scuttles had solid covers hinged at the fore side..." We know from Constitution's log dated September 1810 that the air ports were added: "Caulking gun deck -- cutting air ports for the berth deck." I simply glued some .010 x .080 strip over the existing ovals and added some of the small Jotika eyelets as hinges. Tough to properly represent the hinges at this scale, hopefully these will look fine after primer and paint: All fun stuff. Evan

Marcus - At this scale, the PE eyelets aren't going to look 2D, but I agree that some PE components often do look too flat. I didn't worry too much about the gap in the split rings... I'll just spin them until they aren't visible if that is necessary. Most of them don't show any meaningful gap at this scale. Evan

I don't think any references to split lids appear until the Preble era...

Marcus - Regarding the ringbolts... I used a combination of the small Jotika PE eyebolts and the 3/32 split rings available from Model Expo: Slightly pull apart the split rings with the blade of a hobby knife and insert the PE eyelet, then squeeze the split ring back together with your tweezers. I was particularly bad at this in the beginning - I think it took four or five minutes to do each of the first five or so, but then I found my rhythm and I clipped along at a fair pace. All were dipped in a quick bath of acetone and then spent a few minutes in a pool of Blacken-It for color. I cringe at what others will think of this... The truth is that creating your own eyelets and split rings is an easy exercise and can save a needless expenditure of hard earned cash. Pour a glass of your favorite beverage and settle down in front of your TV and before you know it you'll have dozens of each. I happened to have a stash of the split rings at hand from a fire sale years ago and I've got tons of the Jotika PE eyelets after having stocked up for my Heller Victory build (since suspended in favor of Constitution) and I thought the small time savings was worth it to regain momentum on my build. Hope that helps. Evan

Hello Patrick! Wonderful to see another Connie in the mix and your work on the Niagara indicates that this will be a terrific build to watch. Modifying the kit to reflect her earliest period is ambitious... You'll need to do some serious research. I don't know much about her earliest configuration, but I suspect you'll not need to find turned brass carronades... The ship was originally fitted with 18 pounders on the spar deck and the carronades came along later... I'll pull up a chair and settle in to watch your build progress... Evan

Folks - The CD is available thru the USS Constitution museum or the online Navy museum store. Most of the content, however, is available online at the official US Navy tour site: http://www.history.navy.mil/USSCTour/frDrawings.html The drawings are mostly relevant to the 1925 restoration, but there are some good documents that highlight some of the differences across the years - particularly the 1812 configuration vs the modern restoration. it is widely acknowledged that the modern version of the ship is not accurate for the War of 1812 period and steps are gradually being taken across the more recent refits to move the ship back to her glory years appearance. The midship waist was corrected in the last go around and the bow (or stern?) is due to be corrected in the next refit beginning in 2015. Unfortunately, as these changes go into effect, the MS model will get more and more out of whack and folks will really need to accept it as only representing the 1925 restoration. The AOTS book has some terrific drawings - especially regarding some of the ship's details - but keep in mind that much of Marquardt's assumptions are not accurate for her glory years. He seems not to have been aware of the Hull model, for example, which would've given better insight into some of the wartime configurations. Commander Martin determined conclusively that the skylights were not present until long after the War of 1812 among other erroneous details included in the AOTS version. Commander Martin's book "A Most Fortunate Ship" is a must have and I'd also recommend the rather expensive "Constitution - All Sails Up and Flying" by Olof Eriksen, which has a terrific and well researched presentation of her 1815 rig. Hope that link helps Evan

A terrific collection of the fine art of ship modeling - and your Victory stands rightly among them. Thank you for sharing with all of us. Bravo! Evan

Tom, Popeye, Marcus... Thank you for your very kind remarks! Much appreciated. I should comment further on some of my color choices... The chain pump color is NOT authentic. In fact, I have no idea how these were painted in August 1812. Likely colors would be black, red, white, or natural wood. I wanted these pumps to stand out - but not too much. I ruled out red since nothing else on that deck was red. Black seemed too much - the anchor, camboose, and gun barrels already would show enough black on this deck. Wood would blend too much with everything nearby and they'd disappear... White was too blah... I had mixed up some roof red and roof brown to make a mahogany color for possible use for the captain quarters panelling. I decided not to go that route, so I re-purposed that color for the pumps. Seemed like a good compromise - a neutral color that still stood out enough to make the pumps interesting. Certainly NOT how they were painted during her battle with Guerriere... purely artistic license on my part. Also - the Revell instructions specify the gratings to be painted black. This is likely because of the Hull model. But that artifact only shows black gratings on the spar deck - the gun deck still shows the gratings in natural wood: I elected to avoid black for the gratings on this deck... I'll have to give it careful consideration for the spar deck. The camboose and anchor were both primed and then airbrushed with Vallejo Air "Gun Grey". Next came a thin coat of MicroLux "Engine Black". Lastly, I used a fine sand paper to expose the underlying gun grey along some of the edges and corners. The brick tray under the camboose was first airbrushed with MicroLux "roof red". Individual bricks were then picked out with either gray, black, or a mix of black/red using a small brush. Lastly I re-scribed the lines between the bricks to expose the white styrene underneath. Thanks again to all who follow along. Evan

Thank you all for the compliments! It felt good to dust off the old air brush and get out the sable brushes. I suppose I could elaborate a bit on the wood effect... The forums are full of terrific examples with detailed explanations - most of which have eleventy six steps ending with "simple"! I'll add my method to the pile... Real wood has tonal depth... I need to replicate that using different layers of color. Firstly, I always prime everything. No matter what. I used a rattle can of Tamiya gray primer, but I'm not too particular about the brand I use. The Vallejo Air paints are terrific. No need for a dope like me to carefully replicate multiple blends of colors to pass properly through my cheap airbrush. The other nice thing is that the good folks over at MicroMark commissioned Vallejo to produce "MicroLux" acrylic versions of the most popular Floquil railroad colors that were going to disappear shortly. Many of these colors lend themselves nicely to period sailing ships. Several of the most used colors are made available in the larger 2oz bottles. For all of the wood elements I start with a foundation coat of Vallejo Air "Aged White" applied with an airbrush. This gives the piece the underlying bright tone. At this point it would be normal to switch over to an oil based paint to add the next layer of wood tone. In this case I was able to use Vallejo Air "Wood" applied with a brush. No need to switch over to smelly oils and thinners with much more onerous cleanup. Since it is pre-mixed airbrush paint, The Vallejo Air paint will go on nice and thin and I can layer it up to get a good medium tone while still allowing the underlying bright tone to show through. The next layer was Vallejo air "wood" mixed with a bit of MicroLux Air "Roof Brown". I just did one thin coat with a brush to give a final, deeper tone. The last step is the critical part... There have been many great ideas that have moved the human race forward through time. The wheel was a nice start... steam engines... the first airplane... landing on the moon. Penicillin was good too. But the guys in the white lab coats at Vallejo really made a contribution when they came up with this stuff: Acrylic wash that can be applied over acrylic paint. No smell, no need to mix paint and thinner... water clean up. This stuff belongs in the pantheon of great human achievements. As a final step, I smear this sepia wash over everything and immediately wipe it off with a soft cloth or cotton swab. Pretty similar to using a stain with wood. This final step imparts a nice woody sheen across everything and helps the colors blend. I should note that with Acrylics, I always allow the paint to dry overnight before adding the next layer. I did, however, wait only 20 minutes or so to add more paint within the same medium color layer whenever I was trying to deepen the tone. See - "Simple"! The deck was done similarly, but with only two layers. I varied the colors on the second layer between Vallejo Air Wood mixed with Aged White, sepia wash, and dark wash. I did add a bit of Vallejo Air "Earth" to the Aged White on the first layer just to give the entire deck a slightly deeper tone. A dark gray .03mm pen was used for the lines between the planks. Thanks again to everyone for following along. Evan

Paint! Folks - Apologies for the long gap between updates - I just got caught up in the flow and haven't paused to add to my log. It may be hard to believe, but I've actually begun to smear some paint over some of the plastic... I've got the gun deck and associated furniture mostly done with a few minor touch ups needed here and there: Spare Anchor: Camboose: Capstan: Chain Pumps: I was a Floquil paint guy in the past, alas, we know how that has gone. I'm now trying Vallejo paint and I'm becoming a big fan. Thanks for looking in Evan

Jim - thanks for the guidance on the belaying pins... I may need to acquire another set since I will use more pin rails than the Revell kit specifies. Folks - I am making steady progress on painting the gun deck - nearly complete. I may as well wait a bit longer to show everything all at once... Stay tuned! Thx Evan

Hello Jay... No self-respecting topman would climb thru the lubbers hole - they'd clamber to the tops from the ratlines. They'd likely only ascend on the weather side so that the natural forces would press them against the shrouds. Have a look at this contemporary painting of the crew going aloft to shorten sail for battle: I am enjoying your build very much and have a keen interest in your rigging details. Evan

Very, very nicely done!

Hallo Marcus The Constitution's small brake pumps led down to cisterns on the orlop deck (below the waterline) that were fed from pipes to the outer hull. I am not familiar with the AOTS Essex layout, but Chapelle has a layout drawing showing the chain and brake pumps in the traditional position - nothing that far up in the bow. I suppose such a configuration would be useful for cleaning the muddy anchor cable as it came inboard, but I would think it would be difficult to draw directly from a pipe led outside on the bow... I would think at least a small cistern would be needed. Very interesting! Evan

For those who may not have seen this on the Constitution Museum website: Old Ironsides endured the "Polar Vortex" along with much of the USA...

Christian - Thank you for popping in to have a look at my Constitution. I remember admiring your beautiful work on HMS Fly earlier last year... Is that project still active? Perhaps on hold for now? Evan

Dan - She's a beauty! Very fast work as well - you may yet make the morning tide! Looks like a fun project Evan

Marcus... I am not familiar with any references that show a lantern mounted on the transom of an American heavy frigate... I have seen some instances of the smaller frigates (Essex, etc.) having a stern lantern.

Hello Lambsbk! I very much admire the effort you and others have done to add lighting to your Constitution, but I've decided against taking that approach for now... I'm going to focus my Units of Effort on getting the other details in place so that I can start to paint (finally)! Hope you've enjoyed the Holidays and are making progress with rigging all those guns... Hallo Marcus I hope you and your family had a great Christmastime and have a great new year! Thank you for the compliments... I followed the guidance of Olof Eriksen for the placement of the spare bower anchor. On page 136 of his terrific book he suggests that the spare bower can be placed in any of three locations - the fore channels with the stock in place, tied to the spar deck between the main hatch and the galley stove funnel with the stock removed and tied to the shank, or on the gun deck below the skids with the stock removed and tied to the shank. I went with the latter. His research is based in large part on the Brady Kedge Anchor book and Midshipmen Anderson's journal. There are references in Constitution's log of the sheet anchor being unstocked and stored in the hold. http://www.history.navy.mil/USSCTour/manuals/ConstitutionAnchors&Stowage.pdf I look forward to following your CWM in the near future Thanks for looking in on my build Cheers Evan

Cheers Rick - thanks for your continued interest... Do I see the Philadelphia from the American History Museum in your avatar? A bit more of the build: I took to heart Blue Ensign's advice and replaced the galley stack with something a bit more in scale: I added a bit of "animation" by rotating the top half - the idea being that the lower portion is fixed and the upper can be turned with the handles to accommodate any prevailing breeze: I've also added the drainage plugs to the chain pumps: One bugaboo that I remember from my MK1 version, done all those decades ago, was that the spar deck came up a bit short to the transom. I elected to add a small strip to the end to make up the potential gap. I started with a strip underneath to form a ledge, then added a .60x.80 strip on top. After a bit of filler and sanding I extended the deck planks with my scribe tool to blend it all together. It would be possible to hide this gap by covering it with a waterway extended in front of the transom, but my understanding is that waterways were never added across the stern section. Those who are very familiar with this kit will note that I've added the boom traveller to the spar deck (I'll remove the one molded to the transom rail). The Hull model clearly shows the traveller where the Revell kit has it, but that positioning has always bugged me... It may also be why the kit has the spanker boom so high up on the trysail mast. Olof Eriksen has a similar beef with this and his research suggests that the builders of the Hull model took a shortcut with their approach and it should've been put down on the deck to match standard practice. I'm going with that version... Finally, I've begun to slap together the berth deck section that will be exposed below the open hatch on the gun deck. I've elected to suspend the section from under the gun deck rather than glue ledges against the inner hull and span the entire width. More details on this later... Thanks again for tuning in! Evan

Hello Rommoz... Looks like you have a very comprehensive approach in mind for your build. I'm sure the money you saved on the original purchase will go towards scads of after market styrene, rope, wood, etc. I'm sure you will enjoy enhancing this wonderful kit - I know I have! Fill free to ping those of us who've gone before (altho at the rate I'm going you're sure to pass me!) and we'll do our best to lend helpful insight. I will enjoy following along... Evan

Very nicely done! The crank handles look terrific and everything is nicely proportioned.