David Lester

Doesn't sound so bad, Dave. It's hard to beat a good panda steak! David

I realize that this will seem like a stupid question to many of you, but it's one that I haven't been able to discover the answer to on my own. I'll soon be starting the hammock netting on my Constitution. In the Bob Hunt practicum he shows the netting as two separate pieces, each one running along one side of the double stanchions. However in some pictures in various build logs, it appears as though the netting might in fact be one continuous piece, running along one row of stanchions, then across the bottom (just above the rail) and then up along the other row of stanchions. But I haven't been able to find a definitive picture one way or the other. It's not clear to me from the kit's plans either. Can anyone shed some light on this for me? Many thanks, David

Hi Jon, I've been buying a lot of my bits and pieces, including these nails from Cast Your Anchor in Toronto. www.castyouranchorhobby.com. They have a pretty decent inventory and I like the fact that they give very detailed descriptions of the sizes of things. While their website is well laid out and descriptive, it never seems to work all that well if I try to order through it, so I always phone. You always deal with Sandra and she's great. If I get the answering machine she always calls back. Even though they're based in Toronto, most of their customers are in the US so they price in US dollars. I'm not sure how they charge for US shipping, but here for small items they just pop them in an envelop, stick a stamp on it and mail it without any extra charge. It's pretty hard to do better. David

Don, you're unstoppable! I'm looking forward to this build because Pegasus is what I am planning to build myself after my Rattlesnake after my as yet unfinished Constitution. Displaying them is a concern. My Constitution is going to my daughter's office, so that's the big one dealt with and we'll see about the others. David

Beautiful decking! David

Hi Dave, I like you're idea of pinning the gun carriage. Looks like it works well. David

Very nice Ken! David

That's looking great Tom! David

Hello All, It's been a while since I last posted or even worked on my model. There are just too many outdoor demands on my time and it never feels right holed up in my basement when the weather is absolutely glorious. Nevertheless I have a little progress to report. I have almost finished the chainplates. The biggest problem I had with them was getting their length correct, but I developed a little system that worked well enough. Working one channel at a time, I pinned them in place temporarily and let them protrude up through the holes in the channel. (This of course brings me to my frequent complaint about all those little brass nails they include in the kit for no reason that's apparent to me. On this build I actually need little nails to attach the chainplates, but the ones included in the kit are about three times too big to fit the holes in the chainplates. I had to buy new ones. They're about the size of a #75 drill. Why do they do these things?) Working one chainplate at a time, I snipped it off flush with the top of the channel and then removed it. I then snipped about 1/16" more off of it and then soldered on the deadeye. I slipped them back into position, let them hang loose and painted them below the channel before attaching them permanently. Once all are in place, I'm painting the channel and deadeyes and touching up black and white paint where necessary. I'm also planning ahead for the netting along the railing. I had bought some tulle at a fabric store some time ago, but I'm beginning to think the little diamond openings are too big for the scale. I don't know whether tulle comes in different "gauges" or not. (At any rate, gauge is certainly not a word to use at a fabric store; I got a very odd look.) Today I took a stroll through a dollar store to see if I could find anything else that might work. I did find two different cheap black mesh zippered bags which I can cut up. One also seems a bit too big, but the other looks like it might be ok. I'm going to experiment with all three. That's all until next time. We're told to expect beautiful weather right through the weekend and then plenty of rain on Monday, so maybe I'll be able to have indoor recess all day! David

Hi Dave, That is one gorgeous model. Bob's design is first rate and your building is exemplary. I'm anxious to try this Jax Pewter Black, and I discovered I can buy it in Toronto! I had been using gun bluing but it isn't very satisfactory - it tends to rub off and just makes a mess of everything, (well actually, mostly my fingers, which in turn make a mess of everything) so I've been painting things black instead. I'll get some ordered today. David

Hi Dave, Just a suggestion, but instead of the picture you added to the wall, how about a picture of the Patrick Henry containing a picture of the Patrick Henry, containing a picture of the Patrick Henry.... and so on All kidding aside, that's a really beautiful model. David

Hi Mike, Check out Cast Your Anchor (www.castyouranchorhobby.com) They have walnut and boxwood belaying pins in several sizes and give very precise measurements - length, diameter and length above the rail. They're really great to deal with too. David

Hi Everyone, Thanks Tim for your comments. I don't have too much progress to report at this time. I've been working away very slowly. There are too many outdoor maintenance demands on my time now that the warm weather has arrived. What little modeling I have been doing has been very frustrating. I seem to be in some kind of hellish loop where everything I touch turns to *#@! I'm still working on deck and upper hull details and it has become downright sisyphean. Why do anything once, when you can do it twice or three times over? Right? Those little components called the horse blocks have really tried my patience and only after I had both of them glued in place did I decide to rip them out and start over. I notice in Bob Hunt's practicum that he omits them. In fact he doesn't even refer to them and I now understand why. At first I thought he forgot them but now I believe he chose to "forget" them. (The latter, of course, is a time honoured technique and one that I have frequently employed to my advantage throughout my life) I'm currently soldering the chainplates for the starboard side and here my skills seem to be getting worse with practice with several attempts needed for just about every one of them. (You've heard about the carpenter who cut the board twice and it was still too short, well I literally did that in one case!) I don't really have much new to show in pictures at this point and sorry for all this kvetching, but as soon as I have evidence of progress I'll get some new pictures up. It won't be until next week at least as we have a very big weekend coming up. My wife Nancy is retiring. She's an ordained minister in the United Church of Canada (a liberal denomination, similar to the United Church of Christ in the US) and they have a big dinner and special services planned for her and we have relatives coming from far and wide so it will be chaos around here for a few days. It should be a great weekend though. Perhaps with a little break and my preoccupation with the upcoming weekend over, I will return to the Constitution next week with fresh eyes and more nimble fingers and get past this Groundhog Day loop that I'm currently in. David

That looks amazing Dave. David

Hi Matt, I wouldn't sweat the fairing on this model too much. The MS Constitution is only my second build, so I'm hardly an expert, but I found that there wasn't really that much fairing required, certainly not when compared to my MS Armed Virginia Sloop which is a much smaller model. I think it's because the model is so large that the majority of the bulkheads through the central portion of the hull need minimal attention. I agree that the plywood bulkheads are a nightmare to sand. They were solid basswood on the AVS and were very nice to work with. I haven't built a kit by another manufacturer yet, so I can't legitimately comment on the quality of MS kits when compared to others, but from what I gather reading many different build logs is that none of them is perfect. I have a Mamoli kit waiting in the wings, so I'm looking forward to finding out how building it compares. David

Hi Tom, I believe the channels should be 1/2" deep. I used 3/32" x 1/2" stock and tapered it to 1/16" at the outer edge, leaving it at 3/32" against the hull. It's very hard to find, but there is a little illustration showing it on page 7 of the plans. It's just up and to the right of the centre of the page. I had to shape a slight contour on the inside edge of the fore channels to get them to sit tightly against the hull, and I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to find that the two contours were not perfect matches for each other - close, but not identical. They certainly seem to be secure enough without supports once the chain plates are added. Hope that's of some help. David

Hi Again, I may have just answered my own question. I took a closer look at the plans and it shows the metal strap which holds the davit to the upper bracket to be long enough and with enough "slack" to allow the davit to pivot away from the hull whereas the practicum shows the metal strap to be short holding the davit tight against the hull which causes the problem I outlined in my earlier posting. I think this longer metal strap might be the correct solution without having to reinvent the upper bracket. In any case, I'll wait until I have the mizzen shrouds in place before I install the davits, that way I can better gauge how far away from the hull the davits need to be. Anyway, I'm still very interested to hear your take on this. Thanks again, David

Hi Ken, I have a question about the quarter davits (yours look great by the way.) I've been getting mine ready to install and it appears to me if they are mounted upright against the hull of the ship as the plans show and the spar is installed across the top of them, that it will interfere with the mizzen shrouds. Does it look that way to you too? Is there a potential problem here and is there a good way to deal with it. In the Bob Hunt practicum, he just left the spar off which appears to be one approach. In the pictures below which I took when I visited the ship a couple of years ago, the spar is in place, but the davits are pivoted outward with quite a different arrangement where the kit supplied upper bracket would be. Of course I realize that the Constitution as I toured it is a different version in many respects than the model, but if I followed the model plans to the letter, I'm pretty sure the problem will present itself. I see two possible solutions, the first being to leave the spar off as Bob did or to pivot the davits away from the hull and change the upper bracket. I would be interested to know how you plan to deal with this little issue. Many thanks in advance for your thoughts. David

Wow, if I was from Newfoundland and saw only that first picture, I'd say "that's some shockin' b'y!" It looks good in the end though Don and that's what matters. Looks like it will be a terrific base for the planking. David

Hi Frank, You're doing really beautiful work and I'm enjoying watching your progress. I am still just getting comfortable with POB kits so I am greatly impressed with the complexity of a scratch build POF model. David

Hi John, I've seen different build logs for models that employ those pre-cut plywood panels for the gunport area of the hull and they always look to me as though they're a bit tricky to bend and position correctly. It must feel good to have that particular task finished. Your gunport liners look great. David

Great work on the capstan, and have a great party on Sunday. Those family milestones are very important. David

Hi Matt, My experience with the two MS kits I've had is that you can literally throw the so-called instruction booklet away. (However I don't believe that's the case with MS models where Chuck Passaro has written the instructions.)Pretty much everything you need seems to be in the plans, but as a very inexperienced modeler, the problem for me is how to read the plans and what is the best order in which to do things. This is where I have relied on my Bob Hunt practicums. I know there are two schools of thought on his courses, but from my point of view they have been fabulous. The primary advantages for me have been following the logical sequence they outline and confidence building. There are many elements that are common to all POB models and with a couple of builds under my belt following Bob's practicums, I feel quite confident that I could tackle almost any POB model on my own now and get a half decent result. I know I couldn't have otherwise. So while I'd like to take credit for the idea of holding off on installing the topgallant rail, really, I must give credit where credit is due and tell you that it's Bob's suggestion and it's proved to be a good one. I also learned that once that copper is in place you need to get the model in a stand or cradle right away and not move it any more than you have to as the copper plating is very fragile. You are doing a beautiful job and braver than I would have been. David

Hi Matt, Everything is looking pretty good to me.(I'm not expert of course, but I think it's looking good.) You mentioned the topgallant rail. Do you mean the actual rail itself, because if you do, you might want to consider adding it at a much later point. I still haven't added mine and I've almost finished all the upper hull details and deck details. I have found that the model undergoes quite a bit of manhandling up until this point and I was concerned about bashing it too much, which almost certainly would have been the case if it were in place. It's going to be the very last thing I do before adding the horse blocks, davits and anchors. Just a thought. David

Matt, that looks like a great way to address the bolt/rivet issue, but it's a big job to undertake and once started, it pretty much has to be finished. It's a subtle detail on the actual ship and needs to be subtle on the model too. It looks as this should achieve that effect. It also looks as though you've hit on a good colour for the bulwarks. The green on the ship is actually quite a bluish green rather than a bright Kelly green. Yours looks pretty close to the real thing. What are you using? I'm sure I broke every rule in the book by buying sample sized containers of house paint from a hardware store. But it seemed like an acceptable approach for this bit of the model as I knew there would be a fair bit of experimenting. My options for model paint are either order on line and wait for it to arrive or drive about 45 minutes away - neither of which seemed practical when I knew there would be multiple stabs at it, and there were because with every attempt to match it, it seemed to come out too turquoise. I'm happy enough with my final colour, but it's not quite a dead match. I don't recall now where I stumbled across that link to the Google maps tour of the ship, but I'm glad you're finding it helpful. You can really zero in on many different details. I use is almost constantly. We toured the ship a couple of years ago and I took some pictures, but they're not particularly helpful as I didn't take them with modeling in mind so they seem to never show what I need to know. David