toms10

Jetwrench, Thanks for all the insight. I am currently planking the decks so I have a long way to go but it is a great help to know what is coming up and what to watch for. I am short about 10 belaying pins from what the parts list says. I am not sure I will need them all as I have not checked out that part of the instructions yet. I will probably order the 8mm one from Model Expo along with some deadeyes, blocks (other pieces that came up just short in the count) and such. I also have to make 8 brass cannon wheels. Luckily I am an engineer in a manufacturing plant that has many toolmakers... calling in some favors . The info on the pedestals is good to have. As for the cast metal aft cabins, I was thinking about making them out of thin plywood and maybe using somthing like the deck planking to cover it along with some 1/16 square walnut for trim. The other thought is to make templates of the hull curves out of a piece of manilla folder and transfer the lines to the castings and put the dremel to use. It is not easy but maybe you can match the curves. I did want to put sails on... after all, what is a sailing ship without sails? I was thinking of partially furling up some of the main sails so as not to hide all the rigging. Maybe all of them, the jury is still out. I have heard on other posts about the rigging line amounts being short. This is very scary. With the cost of thread why not just add an extra spool to the kit. Trying to match it after you rigged most of it is probably impossible. I planned on buying my own supply but I am not sure how much to buy. The diameter is marked on the spools but not the length. Do you know how much you bought of each and where did you get it? I plan on practicing seizing before I actually start the rigging. I have a strong woodworking background but I need to work on knots... I was never in the Boy Scouts. Tom

Okay, so I put together the keel and bulkheads. I made a fixture to keep the keel vertical. The "L" shaped blocks are made square so I can use the side face as a stop for a bulkhead to keep it perpendicular to the keel. Starting at one end, I slid the keel through the guides until the bulkhead slot was flush with the side of the "L" block. After verifying everything is square, pull the bulkhead out, apply glue, reinsert and verify. I did catch a situation that might have caused a problem when installing the aft mast. Bulkhead #16 was cut with center area hollowed out. This was probably done to shorten the length of the plywood blank for all the laser cut bulkheads. A smaller and narrower bulkhead was cut out inside this area. The issue is that this created a gap between the mast support blocks. This gap is right where the mast will be located. The picture in the instructions shows the bulkhead without the hollowed out area. I ended up improvising by inserting a scrap piece from the plywood used for the bulkheads. Now it is a solid block. The same issue happened with bulkhead #6 however, the foremast is not positioned in this gap. It is totally in the support blocks. The attached PDF shows what I am talking about. Good thing I went through the instructions a couple of times to get an idea of what's coming. Presentation1.pdf As I saw mentioned on another post, there will be an issue about installing a few cannons on the the lower deck if I follow the instructions and put the all the decks on first. If I do that I will need to rig a cannon that is under the deck overhang. I can't find my shrink ray gun so I will have to figure out another solution. Next step is to plank and install the partial lower decks.

Hello MSW. I am starting my AL Constellation kit I purchased from a fellow MSW member. As a newbie, I followed many of the build logs for a while and found them to be full of great ideas and advice. Hopefully, someone will benefit in the same way from mine. Cutting to the chase, I opened the box and did a parts list inventory... which took way longer than I anticipated. The way AL set up the parts list was "interesting" with regards to all the strips of wood. Instead of having a list of what should be in the box, i.e. 30 strips of this and 40 strips of that, you need to go through all 446 parts. Each part that was made from the various wood strips was listed with its approximate finished size. So if you needed 10 pieces of a part that were 30mm long you would have to measure off 300mm from one of the supplied strips. Unless you want to spend days checking everything it is a virtually impossible task. I would imagine someone at AL has already done this so why not supply a general what's in the box list along with the detailed list already given? I didn't bother checking the wooden strips, just the individual pieces. There were a few items that came up slightly short in the count like some deadeyes, blocks, belaying pins and some other minor things that can be picked up on-line or at a local hobby shop. What did surprise me is that there were no chains at all for the anchor and stern decor. No biggie, picked that up at a dept. store. Here is what was inside. Reviewing the instructions, it is a good thing I have an engineering background. They are somewhat vague but there are a lot of pics to go by. Then probably the most important part of the kit... the bubble wrap. I plan on taping it to the wall behind my chair so when I bang my forehead into the wall for doing something stupid it won't hurt so much!! My next step will be to set up my work area and create a fixture to squarely secure the keel while I start the framing (bulkheads). As with any project, if the frame is not right, the rest will follow as such.

Hello frenchguy. Good to see you getting back to something you obviously enjoy. I am also planning my winter hibernation activities. It has decades since I built models but I want to get started again. This might not be the right place to bring it up but I noticed in another post you mentioned you had an AL Constellation kit for sale. Do you still have it? Look for a PM that I recently sent you. I have been scouring all the build logs and this site is a treasure of information and help. Looking forward to following many of them and "working" with all the helpful members in the future. Enjoy your build! Tom