maturin52

An excellent idea, Don. A bead of CA along the joint would do fine a job of locking everything in place once it's all squared, trimmed, and beveled.
 
Yes, kmart, that's the correct Maturin. I used to date a lady in Boston, we visited the Constitution together a few times, and she gifted me with several volumes of  O'Brian's wonderful series. The current Admiral graciously picked up the tradition, and I now own a complete set all 21 novels is sumptuous hard-cover editions.
 
 

Stern filler blocks:
 
The first one of these took me much longer than I thought it would, but the second one was a lot faster. Isn't that how it always goes.
 
I first glued up two blanks to use for these. Instead of the 2" wide block that came with the kit, I used a a 1" piece of basswood that I had and glued on a 1/4" piece at the top, just to reduce the amount of waste.
 

 
I then made templates form the plans and traced the edges onto the different sides of the blank.
 

 
I cut the side profile with a coping saw, then taped the pieces back together and cut the S shaped back profile on the scroll saw. This took a while since my little scroll saw and thin blades didn't want to follow the lines nicely. But, I eventually got it cut out.
 

 

 
I then used the belt and disk sander to square up the top and side edges so they fit flush to the last bulkhead and the keel.  I used them to remove a lot of the material in the middle of the blank, and I also used my Dremel tool in the workstation with a sanding drum to get into the tighter curves. I finished up with a rounded file and some sanding blocks, and used the profile templates I made form the plans to check the overall shape of the block. I got the overall shape but the top edges were too small compared to the transom filler. Instead of remaking a whole new piece, I cut about 1/2" off the top of the blank and glued on two 1/4" pieces that were wider. After they dried, I sanded them to fit the existing shape of the blank but left the tops a bit wider than the template.
 
It was at this point that I realized that I had left the underside of the transom filler piece too long, since the stern filler piece did not fit all the way to the back edge. I flipped the hull over and held it in a keel klamper, then used a sanding block to sand the back edge of the transom filler back to the correct length. I left about a 1/16” flat area so the planking can end nicely into the transom filler. I found it much easier fitting these filler pieces with the hull upside down.  I then used the disk and belt sander to sand down the added top pieces to match the templates and flow into the original filler piece. I had to remove material in the middle of the filler to match the profile templates. For this I used the sanding disk in the Dremel tool in the workstation. I left the drum above the base so I could get the piece under the disk if I needed to.
 

 

 

 
I ended up with a nice general fit, but then I worked the edges some more with sanding blocks and the rounded file to get the edges to flow into the bulkhead R and the rabbet along the stern post. I ended up increasing the rabbet depth some with an X-Acto chisel so a 1/16” plank would fit nicely into the rabbet. When I had a good fit, I gave the whole piece a final sanding with medium and fine sandpaper. I was very happy with the way this filler piece turned out, but it took about 6 hours for make it.
 
The second one was a lot easier. I bought a few tools to make this process a little easier for this and the remaining filler pieces, which included heavier scroll saw blades with larger teeth and a small hand saw. I found this saw at Home Depot and it worked really well:
 

 
I used the hand saw to start the cut of the excess off the side profile, then the coping saw to finish it. I drew the side profile on both sides of the blank this time so I could check that I was not cutting off too much on either side. I taped the cut off pieces back on and cut the back S profile with the scroll saw with the new blades, which worked much better, especially after I increased the speed of the saw.
 

 
I then sanded the edges to the template lines. I again removed the center material with the Dremel sanding drum set up, and finished off with the sanding blocks and file. The rabbet on the starboard side was in good shape so I did not need to so anything with it. This side only took me 1.5 hours, and the two piece seem to match very well. I'll give them a final sanding along the edges when I fair the hull. You can see that the tips got pretty thin and ended up breaking off, but there is plenty of support from the bulkhead at those points, so I didn't bother to replace the tips. The pieces are not glued in yet, but will be soon.
 

 
Lots of saw dust created to make these two fillers, but it was pretty fun overall.  

The center keel is finished, and I'm working on installing the frames. The wooden pieces match the plans wonderfully, and are well constructed.  They can be removed from their backing with reasonable effort, and with little danger of breaking. I haven't found any warping yet and, so far, have just been dry fitting the parts for fit and alignment. They fit perfectly, lining up well with the 'bearding line' cut earlier. In fact, I may have a little difficulty in removing a few of them for gluing. I'm sort of thinking that if they fit that well without glue, glue may not be needed. We'll see.

The center keel is finished, and I'm working on installing the frames. The wooden pieces match the plans wonderfully, and are well constructed.  They can be removed from their backing with reasonable effort, and with little danger of breaking. I haven't found any warping yet and, so far, have just been dry fitting the parts for fit and alignment. They fit perfectly, lining up well with the 'bearding line' cut earlier. In fact, I may have a little difficulty in removing a few of them for gluing. I'm sort of thinking that if they fit that well without glue, glue may not be needed. We'll see.

The center keel is finished, and I'm working on installing the frames. The wooden pieces match the plans wonderfully, and are well constructed.  They can be removed from their backing with reasonable effort, and with little danger of breaking. I haven't found any warping yet and, so far, have just been dry fitting the parts for fit and alignment. They fit perfectly, lining up well with the 'bearding line' cut earlier. In fact, I may have a little difficulty in removing a few of them for gluing. I'm sort of thinking that if they fit that well without glue, glue may not be needed. We'll see.

The center keel is finished, and I'm working on installing the frames. The wooden pieces match the plans wonderfully, and are well constructed.  They can be removed from their backing with reasonable effort, and with little danger of breaking. I haven't found any warping yet and, so far, have just been dry fitting the parts for fit and alignment. They fit perfectly, lining up well with the 'bearding line' cut earlier. In fact, I may have a little difficulty in removing a few of them for gluing. I'm sort of thinking that if they fit that well without glue, glue may not be needed. We'll see.

So, work is underway. From reading the instructions, it is clear that close adherence to the prints is going to be critical for a good result. I expect inaccuracies and carelessness at this early stage will multiply in consequence as the project progress. Since I have little trust in my measuring and drawing skills, I wanted to devise a way to transfer reference lines from the schematic to the actual parts in question. The plan I came up with seems to be working well. In the first picture, I tape a piece of tracing paper to the plans and copy the needed features to the paper. Next, I pin the tracing paper to the part being worked on and use a tracing wheel to transfer the lines to the wood, filling them in with pencil after marking. As picture 3 shows.... Viola... reference lines successful copied from my plans to my Center Keel sections!

It is daunting. But I have time, patience, and more time. One step at a time!
 

So, work is underway. From reading the instructions, it is clear that close adherence to the prints is going to be critical for a good result. I expect inaccuracies and carelessness at this early stage will multiply in consequence as the project progress. Since I have little trust in my measuring and drawing skills, I wanted to devise a way to transfer reference lines from the schematic to the actual parts in question. The plan I came up with seems to be working well. In the first picture, I tape a piece of tracing paper to the plans and copy the needed features to the paper. Next, I pin the tracing paper to the part being worked on and use a tracing wheel to transfer the lines to the wood, filling them in with pencil after marking. As picture 3 shows.... Viola... reference lines successful copied from my plans to my Center Keel sections!

So, work is underway. From reading the instructions, it is clear that close adherence to the prints is going to be critical for a good result. I expect inaccuracies and carelessness at this early stage will multiply in consequence as the project progress. Since I have little trust in my measuring and drawing skills, I wanted to devise a way to transfer reference lines from the schematic to the actual parts in question. The plan I came up with seems to be working well. In the first picture, I tape a piece of tracing paper to the plans and copy the needed features to the paper. Next, I pin the tracing paper to the part being worked on and use a tracing wheel to transfer the lines to the wood, filling them in with pencil after marking. As picture 3 shows.... Viola... reference lines successful copied from my plans to my Center Keel sections!

Well, here goes. This will be my 3rd build log on this site, the previous ones being the King of the Mississippi and the Bounty. Both of those projects were Atesania Latina kits. While I enjoyed building them, I did feel that the instructions left much to be desired. I was only able to complete the Bounty thanks to the full-scale plans and to the excellent advice, support, and direction found on this site. Anyway.... the USS Constitution!
The Admiral gave me the Anatomy of the Ship book last Christmas, as I have been planning this as my next project for some time. The box arrived a week ago and I've commandeered my pool table as a good spot to spread everything out and check for damaged, missing, or warped parts. As far as I can tell, everything is in the box that is supposed to be there, though there does appear to be some discrepancy between exactly which sheets contain exactly which parts. This will the subject of some investigation over the next day or so, but I suspect it is only the result of some changes and additions to the supplied parts since the contents list was written nearly 20 years ago. I've already decided on one likely deviation from the supplied instructions, based on what I've seen in Captain Al's 'Mayflower' work. The Constitution kit does provide a fair amount of balsa filler blocks, but I am going to augment what was provided with enough filler blocks to give complete gluing surfaces to both the bow and stern curves. At least, that's my current plan. Here a few shots of the sorted contents of the kit...

So, work is underway. From reading the instructions, it is clear that close adherence to the prints is going to be critical for a good result. I expect inaccuracies and carelessness at this early stage will multiply in consequence as the project progress. Since I have little trust in my measuring and drawing skills, I wanted to devise a way to transfer reference lines from the schematic to the actual parts in question. The plan I came up with seems to be working well. In the first picture, I tape a piece of tracing paper to the plans and copy the needed features to the paper. Next, I pin the tracing paper to the part being worked on and use a tracing wheel to transfer the lines to the wood, filling them in with pencil after marking. As picture 3 shows.... Viola... reference lines successful copied from my plans to my Center Keel sections!

So, work is underway. From reading the instructions, it is clear that close adherence to the prints is going to be critical for a good result. I expect inaccuracies and carelessness at this early stage will multiply in consequence as the project progress. Since I have little trust in my measuring and drawing skills, I wanted to devise a way to transfer reference lines from the schematic to the actual parts in question. The plan I came up with seems to be working well. In the first picture, I tape a piece of tracing paper to the plans and copy the needed features to the paper. Next, I pin the tracing paper to the part being worked on and use a tracing wheel to transfer the lines to the wood, filling them in with pencil after marking. As picture 3 shows.... Viola... reference lines successful copied from my plans to my Center Keel sections!

Well, here goes. This will be my 3rd build log on this site, the previous ones being the King of the Mississippi and the Bounty. Both of those projects were Atesania Latina kits. While I enjoyed building them, I did feel that the instructions left much to be desired. I was only able to complete the Bounty thanks to the full-scale plans and to the excellent advice, support, and direction found on this site. Anyway.... the USS Constitution!
The Admiral gave me the Anatomy of the Ship book last Christmas, as I have been planning this as my next project for some time. The box arrived a week ago and I've commandeered my pool table as a good spot to spread everything out and check for damaged, missing, or warped parts. As far as I can tell, everything is in the box that is supposed to be there, though there does appear to be some discrepancy between exactly which sheets contain exactly which parts. This will the subject of some investigation over the next day or so, but I suspect it is only the result of some changes and additions to the supplied parts since the contents list was written nearly 20 years ago. I've already decided on one likely deviation from the supplied instructions, based on what I've seen in Captain Al's 'Mayflower' work. The Constitution kit does provide a fair amount of balsa filler blocks, but I am going to augment what was provided with enough filler blocks to give complete gluing surfaces to both the bow and stern curves. At least, that's my current plan. Here a few shots of the sorted contents of the kit...

Well, here goes. This will be my 3rd build log on this site, the previous ones being the King of the Mississippi and the Bounty. Both of those projects were Atesania Latina kits. While I enjoyed building them, I did feel that the instructions left much to be desired. I was only able to complete the Bounty thanks to the full-scale plans and to the excellent advice, support, and direction found on this site. Anyway.... the USS Constitution!
The Admiral gave me the Anatomy of the Ship book last Christmas, as I have been planning this as my next project for some time. The box arrived a week ago and I've commandeered my pool table as a good spot to spread everything out and check for damaged, missing, or warped parts. As far as I can tell, everything is in the box that is supposed to be there, though there does appear to be some discrepancy between exactly which sheets contain exactly which parts. This will the subject of some investigation over the next day or so, but I suspect it is only the result of some changes and additions to the supplied parts since the contents list was written nearly 20 years ago. I've already decided on one likely deviation from the supplied instructions, based on what I've seen in Captain Al's 'Mayflower' work. The Constitution kit does provide a fair amount of balsa filler blocks, but I am going to augment what was provided with enough filler blocks to give complete gluing surfaces to both the bow and stern curves. At least, that's my current plan. Here a few shots of the sorted contents of the kit...

Well, here goes. This will be my 3rd build log on this site, the previous ones being the King of the Mississippi and the Bounty. Both of those projects were Atesania Latina kits. While I enjoyed building them, I did feel that the instructions left much to be desired. I was only able to complete the Bounty thanks to the full-scale plans and to the excellent advice, support, and direction found on this site. Anyway.... the USS Constitution!
The Admiral gave me the Anatomy of the Ship book last Christmas, as I have been planning this as my next project for some time. The box arrived a week ago and I've commandeered my pool table as a good spot to spread everything out and check for damaged, missing, or warped parts. As far as I can tell, everything is in the box that is supposed to be there, though there does appear to be some discrepancy between exactly which sheets contain exactly which parts. This will the subject of some investigation over the next day or so, but I suspect it is only the result of some changes and additions to the supplied parts since the contents list was written nearly 20 years ago. I've already decided on one likely deviation from the supplied instructions, based on what I've seen in Captain Al's 'Mayflower' work. The Constitution kit does provide a fair amount of balsa filler blocks, but I am going to augment what was provided with enough filler blocks to give complete gluing surfaces to both the bow and stern curves. At least, that's my current plan. Here a few shots of the sorted contents of the kit...

Well, here goes. This will be my 3rd build log on this site, the previous ones being the King of the Mississippi and the Bounty. Both of those projects were Atesania Latina kits. While I enjoyed building them, I did feel that the instructions left much to be desired. I was only able to complete the Bounty thanks to the full-scale plans and to the excellent advice, support, and direction found on this site. Anyway.... the USS Constitution!
The Admiral gave me the Anatomy of the Ship book last Christmas, as I have been planning this as my next project for some time. The box arrived a week ago and I've commandeered my pool table as a good spot to spread everything out and check for damaged, missing, or warped parts. As far as I can tell, everything is in the box that is supposed to be there, though there does appear to be some discrepancy between exactly which sheets contain exactly which parts. This will the subject of some investigation over the next day or so, but I suspect it is only the result of some changes and additions to the supplied parts since the contents list was written nearly 20 years ago. I've already decided on one likely deviation from the supplied instructions, based on what I've seen in Captain Al's 'Mayflower' work. The Constitution kit does provide a fair amount of balsa filler blocks, but I am going to augment what was provided with enough filler blocks to give complete gluing surfaces to both the bow and stern curves. At least, that's my current plan. Here a few shots of the sorted contents of the kit...

Well, here goes. This will be my 3rd build log on this site, the previous ones being the King of the Mississippi and the Bounty. Both of those projects were Atesania Latina kits. While I enjoyed building them, I did feel that the instructions left much to be desired. I was only able to complete the Bounty thanks to the full-scale plans and to the excellent advice, support, and direction found on this site. Anyway.... the USS Constitution!
The Admiral gave me the Anatomy of the Ship book last Christmas, as I have been planning this as my next project for some time. The box arrived a week ago and I've commandeered my pool table as a good spot to spread everything out and check for damaged, missing, or warped parts. As far as I can tell, everything is in the box that is supposed to be there, though there does appear to be some discrepancy between exactly which sheets contain exactly which parts. This will the subject of some investigation over the next day or so, but I suspect it is only the result of some changes and additions to the supplied parts since the contents list was written nearly 20 years ago. I've already decided on one likely deviation from the supplied instructions, based on what I've seen in Captain Al's 'Mayflower' work. The Constitution kit does provide a fair amount of balsa filler blocks, but I am going to augment what was provided with enough filler blocks to give complete gluing surfaces to both the bow and stern curves. At least, that's my current plan. Here a few shots of the sorted contents of the kit...

Well, here goes. This will be my 3rd build log on this site, the previous ones being the King of the Mississippi and the Bounty. Both of those projects were Atesania Latina kits. While I enjoyed building them, I did feel that the instructions left much to be desired. I was only able to complete the Bounty thanks to the full-scale plans and to the excellent advice, support, and direction found on this site. Anyway.... the USS Constitution!
The Admiral gave me the Anatomy of the Ship book last Christmas, as I have been planning this as my next project for some time. The box arrived a week ago and I've commandeered my pool table as a good spot to spread everything out and check for damaged, missing, or warped parts. As far as I can tell, everything is in the box that is supposed to be there, though there does appear to be some discrepancy between exactly which sheets contain exactly which parts. This will the subject of some investigation over the next day or so, but I suspect it is only the result of some changes and additions to the supplied parts since the contents list was written nearly 20 years ago. I've already decided on one likely deviation from the supplied instructions, based on what I've seen in Captain Al's 'Mayflower' work. The Constitution kit does provide a fair amount of balsa filler blocks, but I am going to augment what was provided with enough filler blocks to give complete gluing surfaces to both the bow and stern curves. At least, that's my current plan. Here a few shots of the sorted contents of the kit...

Well, it's been a little over a year and a half, but today, I finished my Bounty. Pictures to follow.

Well, it's been a little over a year and a half, but today, I finished my Bounty. Pictures to follow.

I just wanted to pop in and offer my heartfelt congratulations and admiration for your completed build.  As a newbie its even more impressive that you made it happen.  It looks great and you should be proud.

Guys,
 
Apologies for not replying sooner. I've been away for the weekend.
 
Thank you so much for your comments and input. It's much appreciated.
 
Captain Al, I've just been looking at your gallery photos. She looks stunning! You've done an amazing job. Are you planning to add the sails at any point or are you leaving her as is?
 
Boyd, your build log is one of the main inspirations that gave me confidence to take on this model so I'm thrilled that you're following my log. I'm sure I'll be pestering you with plenty of questions along the way! I'm genuinely looking forward to seeing the progress you've made since your last update, especially the planking.
 
Anthony, thanks you for your kind words and for following my build log. 

Here is a quick snap of the Bounty as she now stands. Only the foresl's left to go. And of course, a great deal of finicky cleanup and tweaking. My next ship will be built without sails. I begin to feel that this one getting 'cluttered.'

Al, I'm looking forward to following this log. Your Bounty build was of great assistance to me, and has immensely improved to outcome of my own Bounty build. I'm still working on the Bounty, but I'm within a week or two of the end. I have just received my next kit. Like you, I decided to go with a Model Shipways kit; in my case, the USS Constitution. I've been aboard the Connie in Boston several times, and she has a special place in the nautical area of my heart. (I took a woman there on a first date, once - long story). Anyway, I am fed up with AL's lousy instructions, but with what was included in the Constitution box and the addition of the Anatomy of the Ship book that the Admiral gave me for Christmas, I think I'll be good. I hope to close out my Bounty log soon and open a new one for Old Ironsides. The Artesania Latina instructions for the Bounty's rigging are a joke. I've had to be very creative, and I'm sure very inaccurate in my work, but I'm determined.