xken

Completed installation of the foremast and main mast stay rigging which required a bit of serving of the lines using thread and my lathe setup. Here are the anchor points based upon the plans and replica ship references. For the lower stays I used .045" line  and the upper stays were .035".

 

 

 

 
I thought it best to rig the mast stays first in case there was any movement of the masts that would impact the shrouds so now the ratlines can be added along with the fairlead bars.
The bars are lashed to the shrouds and here is an image of the first set so now I get to practice more lashing. 
 

 
Now to more lashing.
 
 
 

Jon, not really a diorama, just figures for a sense of scale and something for the grandsons to enjoy when they get older.
After cleaning up the figures the next thing I decided to do was drill holes in the hands of the two crewmen to be able to feed the ropes through. I used a .024" dill bit and angled carefully into the hands. The one with his hand on his chest required drilling form both top and bottom to create a tunnel for the rope. Here is the test fit of the rope.

 
Next came my first attempt at painting any kind of figures. I checked for the uniform colors of the period and here are the results; I used a gold marker stick to do the gold hat trim and buttons on the jacket. 
 

 

 
Here are the crew glued in place at their different activities.
 
 

 

 

 
This shows the overall bow section with the one man climbing the ratlines.

 
Simultaneously, while waiting for paint to dry on the figures I made the various flags and pennant for the main mast. First I flipped the artwork in Photoshop and then printed a copy on T-shirt transfer paper for Staples. I then carefully cut out each flag unit and folded them down the center lines making sure that the artwork aligned front and rear. Each was then added to the edge of the white fabric and carefully with the iron set on "Cotton" ironed each flag in place both on the front and the rear. All were ironed in place making sure they were hot enough for the ink to transfer and then allowed to cool before removing the backing paper. I cut them out along the inside edge of the black outline which I added in the artwork to differentiate the flag white from fabric white. Each flag was glued in place using thickened CA along the contact edge and allowed to set. Flags were then moistened with water on both sides and carefully formed slightly. Here are the results.
 

 

 

 

 
Next onto the last detail the cathead faces.    
 

Jonathan, it is easy just requires patience and the right tools. For example I cannot imagine building this ship without my lathe and mill setup.
Michael thanks and second Michael, if I had known grand kids were so much fun I would have had them first. 
 
I have completed the basic fabrication of all the yards and  booms identified on the plans with respective ironwork. When I got to the smaller yards I had to change to 3/32" rings soldered with .020" rod for the correct scale. The inner rings were soldered together with no post necessary due to size and end rings rod was just bent to fit the hole in the end strap.
 
I also used 3/32" tube to align the rings to the yards end to end as shown below. 
 

 

 

 

 
Here is a family portrait of the yards, studding sail booms and studding sail yards.
 

 
Now I will start rigging the yards do do as much as possible prior to mounting to the masts. I am also going to add a removable 1/32" locating pin to the center of the yard to index into the mast to aid in rigging.
 
I understand that the studding sail yards were attached to their respective sail and rigged to a block at the end of the studding sail boom.
 
Now for the magic question that I have searched for to no avail..."How are the studding sail booms rigged? I have no reference on the plans, or the Anatomy book on how these were rigged even though the plans show two holes drilled at 90 degrees in the inboard ends. Does anyone know how these were rigged or lashed or moved trough the rings on the yards, I cannot imagine that these were moved by hand?
 
I am hoping someone with more rigging knowledge or reference sources than I can help. 
 
 

Finished up all the yards with all the jackstays and used 28 gauge brass wire stretched and indexed through the jackstays. Then cut, tapered and stained the studding sail booms and yards. Not sure if I will need the yards because I think they may be attached to the sails themselves. 
I then made the first set of studding sail booms hardware. The brass rings needed to be both drilled and then turned down to the sizes need from rod. The inside ring was located and glued in place first so that the end rings could be sized and located using the booms themselves. The following pictures show the process. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Now that I have the first set sorted out on to making the rest. These will be stained/painted black once all are completed. 

Geoff, thanks but you should not slow down your build. 
 
I have been doing more yard work and have moved on. However, I took time to set up my x-y-z table using my lather motor to drill jackstay .020" holes after my bulk pack of jack stays arrived from M.E. I am using  a .020" micro drill bit which I found out quickly have no lateral strength and break extremely easily; hence supporting the end of the yard is a must. I made a quick support using a scrap piece of block and drilled a hole to slip on the end of the yard and shimmed with mixing sticks for different sizes of yards. I also realized that the vise has to be set off to one end to compensate for the travel of the table. This set up also will function as a mill with the lathe motor attached. The transfer of the motor takes less than a minute from one set up to the other. Now down the road to sneak another motor passed the admiral. Here are a couple of pictures of the set up.
 

Holes below drilled on 3/16" centers per the plans.

One thing that amazed me was how much more precise the collet set up is over a drill press at these small sizes. Now to find a source for end mills this small.
 
 
 

Jonathan,
After my experience on the Niagara making one piece yards from dowel the challenge was getting a clean transition from the center hex section to the tapers. I was not happy with the results and decided to do it this way instead with perfect transitions and is much faster to build. Of course having a lathe and a combination slide is required.
 
As for jackstays yes the stretched wire passes trough the eyebolt. Here is a link to the bulk pack needed from ME. http://www.modelexpo-online.com/product.asp?ITEMNO=MS0429B
 
Much easier to buy them than make them and they are great for other eyebolt applications as well like on the ends of the yards and saddles. 
After the holes are drilled I start in the middle of the yard and insert the jackstay after dipping the end into a small puddle of Gorilla glue which is a 20 second set so it allows for positioning using a small rod for visual aligning with the yard. I just work towards the ends adding one at a time. Also on bright yards blacken them first before using. 
 
Here is a quick picture for you.

I spent Memorial Day weekend helping the wife at her Art show so not too much building; however I did start some yard work. I started with the Royals and worked my way up in size. Here is a sequence of pictures showing various building steps. On the larger yards I build in sections to have a better transition from round to the hexagon center sections. One step on the larger yards I did change was once the center square was planned to size and ends drilled I then press fit the round sections, clamped them in my vise and drilled the jack stay holes starting from the center and working out drilling to the center depth so that once turned the holes would be in place. Much easier to index and drill while still round before cutting the tapers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Now back to the larger remaining yards and waiting for more jack stays to come from Model Expo.

Since I am still a rookie at ship building and still learning I thought I would go the extra step and learn about Crowfeet. It did take a little research but thanks to a post by Johnathan I was able to crack the code and sequence to rig them through the 10 holes at the fighting top. I did find that there are at least two different ways to rig them and this version does not have a line coming from the top of the euphroe to the top. Once done it was well worth the effort and really adds a nice detail for the eyes to explore.
 

 

 

 
Now to do the foremast.
 

Dan, Thank you for your kind words and do hope you get back to your Constitution soon.
 
Tom, there may be a solution in the near future for those !*#@! ratlines if all goes well.
 
I finished up the lateral lines on the bowsprit which was a little fun sorting out. Here is a picture of it completed.
 

 
While waiting for glue to set on lines I painted and located all the small belaying pins in their appropriate locations. For those following I would recommend doing these before stepping the masts. Why I did not recognize this myself is beyond me. 

 
One of the things I am doing is to make ropes as needed in the sizes needed as I go since I have space constraints. I modified the MS rope walk to be able to use a hand drill for rope turning and actually enjoy the rope making process now that I have it down pat. Here is a picture of the modifications and set up that works very slick especially with the socket drive.
 

 
Next I have moved on to the royal and top gallant stay lines; nothing real exciting but just pay attention to not pull the royals out of alignment when tying off at the eyebolts. They flex very easily. The eyebolts were made using the 26 gauge black beading wire.
 

 

Now to finish up the foremast stays.

Thank you all for your kind words and I am just glad to share what I can. I moved on and finished up the starboard side created the artwork for the shields and printed out two sets; one in color and one in gray scale which was used as a pattern to cut brass shields to mount the colored set on. Once out of the printer I sprayed them with an initial light coat of Clear Satin and then a second wet coat. This sets the ink and also makes the paper stiffer for easier cutting out.
 
While waiting for paint steps to dry I mounted the carved sections in place very carefully using CA applied with a broken jeweler's saw blade a drop at a time. When glue built up on the teeth I just broke the end off for a new set of saw teeth. Once the sections were glued in place then the shields were added.
 
After all the glues were set both boards were sprayed with Clear Satin for a uniform finish.m When dry then press fir in place. I will let them season for a while before permanently gluing in place.
 
Here are a couple a couple of pictures. The port side closeup and then a starboard side stand off. She now has a face.
 

 

 
Now to fiquire out the bow and stern bumpkins and work on the outer hull details.
 
I thought I would just share this for any who wish to follow later or try their hand at this technique.
 

 
 

Kits that I have designed to date are: Mountain Buckboard; Allerton Steam Pumper; Ladder Wagon; Hearse; Armed Longboat; USS Constitution Cross Section; Jail Wagon; Fokker EIV; Oberusel 14 Cylinder Rotary Engine; Wolsey Eight Cylinder “Viper” Engine; SE5a British Fighter; Beer Wagon; Horse Harness (pulling); Horse Hitches for Wagons- 1 Horse; 2 Horse; 4 Horse. They said that they have plenty more in the lineup; I will be 76 next month so who knows how many more. The BeerWagon and some others are at the Nuremberg International Toy Fair, Germany.   
Life is good.....I get paid to do my hobby what more can one ask for.
Amongst all of this I did these personal projects: the Niagara; USS Constitution; Maersk Detroit (WIP); Dirty Dozen; and 1961 Showboat a pet project. A couple of stained glass windows for local church.
Here are just a sampling of them.
 

awesome looking model!..............so clean and well detailed!  sweet! 🤩

Revell. I’ve got a copy in the stash.

I remember building the plastic kit back then; forget the brand.

Wow nice build Ken!

That's just awesome Ken. A work of art. Hot-rodding a Buick of any kind was always a challenge because just about any high performance item that wasn't stock had to be custom machined. Of course, back in the day when this particular dragster was built, most all high performance items were custom machined. This was a car I wish I had seen live and in person but I don't think it ever raced in my hometown area. Ivo probably did match races with it as a headline featured race on tours. That's how I saw a lot of the old famous dragsters, at match races.
 

Your work always amazes me.  When I look at this model I feel that I am looking at the actual dragster.

A definite jaw dropper, what a piece of excellent craftmanship, fantastic.
 
Cheers Rob

Fantastic model. scale?

Holy Cow!!!!!!!!!!!!! NICE!!!!!!

Fantastic job, Ken, and what a great subject.
I was lucky enough to see this beast run.  Tommy sold it to a guy (name long forgotten) who put a Buick station wagon body on and VIOLA! - instant funny car.  It was a crowd pleaser.  I have some 8mm film of it somewhere, now that you have reminded me.
Again, good job.
👍

What a great build, Ken.  I remember seeing that beast a couple times back in the day at local drag strips.   Not something I would want to drive but still... a showstopper.   I also saw his twin engine rail a few times. 

The deck has been painted with clear urethane and set aside for later use. Now I have started the planking of the hull. For me this is a similar process I have done before with airplane fuselages and wings and attention to detail and understanding what is happening to each piece will result in tight fits and thus minimal use of filler. Unfortunately, the thicknesses of the wood strips does vary that will require additional filler at certain places rather than excess sanding resulting in flat spots.
 
Before starting I made a hull holder that clamps into my panavise and adjustable. I used the scrap 1/4" wood from the laser cut sheet. Not fancy but very effective and saved some money.
Here is an overall view for the benefit of others that may build this ship in the future and save money.

 
I used the mast holes with the parts being cut to a loose press fit. I salvaged the machine screws and wing nuts from the fair a frame unit. Here is a close up of the fit to the mast holes.

 
Here are a couple of pictures of the hull planking at the center section. I followed the instructions and used the lengths recommended and they are working very well. For the tapering I am using my mini wood plane and the widths on the plans for the bow and stern and adjusting as needed. I am into the second belt at this point.

 
Here is a close up, my goal is the minimal use of filler. However there are varying thicknesses within the wood strips that you may see in the pictures.

 
Back to planking.
 
Ken

After fitting and a little fussing the second strake was glued to deck edge with the black glue and 1/4" masking tape to hold in place.

 
Here the deck with sanded starkes is final fitted with a slight press fit.

 
Here is the deck stained with Golden Oak and now drying before being clear coated.

 
Now to sort out the hull planking.
 
Ken 

George, it worked very well for my first attempt and I have learned a few things for the next time I do this.
Here is the rough sanded deck plank sheet. A few of the butt cuts I did not cut quite deep enough or I did not plunge the blade evenly as seen in the red circle. These were easily fixed with another carefully placed blade cut and a dab of black glue filler.

 
Here is the full 24" long sheet ready to cut to shape using the pattern, both the perimeter and mast holes.

 
Located the pattern on the sheet and made sure it was square to the sheet before tracing the perimeter and hole locations. I used a steel block to weigh it down to avoid shifting. This is one of those where you need a third arm.

 
This shows the sheet cut and fit to the ship's deck area. Keep in mind that the next step will be to locate the two strakes down each side and cut the deck sheet to receive them. And then glue them in place as well.

 
Here is a close up showing the nice fit I got using the pattern and then some careful trimming and sanding. Even a blind pig gets lucky now and then. I just hope I do not screw it up adding the strakes.

 
Now to see what it looks like when it is eventually stained.
Ken