kmart

This was from google And this is "White oak planking" If you were to put hardwood floor in your house today So leaving mine bare, just matte clear coat seems to be the safest option at the moment Open to suggestions.

My plan for the spar deck was to use minmax golden oak stain. (oil based.) I made multiple test pieces. Basically glued leftover strips into small section... including butt ends and edge to edge. Scraped and then sanded them down with 220 grit. Basically the same as the planking on the model. Watched many utube videos by minwax on the propre application and techniques Treated with MinWax Pre stain wood conditioner and then stained. Did bout 5 separate attempts. Never got it to look even close to acceptable. Always splotchy. not a uniform color. Not sure if it was due to residual glue on the wood. (I did scrap and sand to bare wood) played with time of pre stain and stain on wood before wiping it off. All No joy. Still deciding how I want to move forward on the deck. Wont do anything until i test it successfully off the model Don't want to screw up the decks at this point. I'm considering leaving it bare or just matte clear coat polyurethane. Google did indicate some references that at some point early in her life...the deck was light color. ( It is "White oak" after all)

Gregg, I used bass wood that came in the kit. but then milled more, (as there wasn't nearly enough. Stuck with more basswood.

Found these by HISModels. Set of the flags and streamers for Connie circa 1812 and the right scale. Made specifically for the Model Shipways kit. He also has versions to scaled to the Revell 1/96.

Spar Deck planking is finished Needs some cleaned up a bit then will be ready for some stain. Will use golden oak , same as on gun deck

Jon, you think Id say no to good ref pics; Would be great if you shared. Just post on my log so everyone interested to get as well. Thanks Much!

Oh, and i saw this pop up in one of the facebook groups I follow. Good picture of the last time they catted the anchor. The post staid this was recent pic, but looking at how everyone is dressed... and its B&W... I'm guessing this is very old picture. The one guy standing on the anchor and it doesn't even move/tilt at all.

Der Alte, I did check out you logs. I see exactly what your talking about with the tapered planks. If I had seen that earlier. I would have tapered aft at least. As it is I'm far enough along... too late to re-do it. That said. I am have been progressing along. I'm ~75% of the way done. All the hatches are trimmed in (not shown in pic) maybe next time. Runs staying true so far. I did mess up some of the shift pattern. I sure you guys can find it. Port side, aft of the main hatch... There are two runs where the butts don't have the required 3 planks between. The open main hatched messed me up when figuring where the next butt was. Not too worried... Once all the deck fittings and guns in... no one will ever notice. (but it will bug me.) Now I am hoping that after the deck is sanded down and stained, the stain can seep into the plank edges and joins just enough to make it darker that the top of surface the deck. And accent the joints. That's what i did on the gun deck and it came out good. Well see.

Sorry Old Coasty and Thomas for delayed response. Have checked this log since I finished it a few years back. Thanks for the likes. Sure ask any questions you have. Do you both have build logs going that I can follow? Best Ken

Errr are the deck planks supposed to be tapered? I didn't realize that, I thought they stayed the same width entire run of the deck. Kind of late now... will complete mine as planned. But you have me curious. Can you elabare on how / where they would be tapered? Any pics would be helpful Thanks K

And one more... looking forward to following Gregg's build.

Bthoe, Just stumbled onto you log. (A bit late to as your been working on it a few years now) Your build it looking good! Will follow along as you progress. I'm also building ME Connie as well. (My interpretation of 1812 version) My build log is out there. Best KMart

Great work on your cathedral. They look awesome!

Planking in progress. So far the runs are staying nice and straight Almost 1/2 way done. Started fitting in the hatchways. (Not glued) Looking down the main Hatch I did go back and forth on whether to put in the waterway and plank sheer first and then plank up to the waterway OR Plank all the way to the bulwarks. Then put waterway sitting on top of planks. I chose to go the later method. My reasoning is this. I will be staining the deck. and painting the waterway bulwark green. For me, it would be nearly impossible to not get stain on waterway or green on the deck... or at least keep a clean edge. This way I can stain the deck with no worries. Paint the waterway green before gluing them down. And if I feather the waterway down to very thin. no one will see that its actually sitting on the planks That's the plan. But first, I figure it will take me a couple of weeks to finish the rest of the planks. Thats it for now. K

Time for next update. Not tons to show. Based on last Discussion I did buy the blueprints from Bluejacket. I already had the bluejacket Manual/booklet I'll base most on my mast and rigging from Bluejacket. So yes sky poles! but that's a ways off yet. Summary from last post I did finish the lower deck. All cannons with minimal rigging Replaced the Anchor rode with a more properly scaled line Yes, wrapped it around the ridding bits. not knotted. (Thanks Jon) All the deck supports were cleaned up and glued in. (same as last picture above Started planking the spar deck first ran a strip of wood, bow to stern right on centerline. Nailed it down This will be a guide to start the first few runs of the planking I will use a 4 shift pattern Each plank is 120mm long Shifts at 30, 60, 90 120mm Because I work in IT and over think everything... Used Microsoft Visio to lay out all the planks on the computer first My MS Visio layout of the planks By my math, need 6x 120mm planks per run. roughly 56 planks wide. So 336 planks need. Based on that I sawed up all the planks on mini table saw 1/16" x 3/32" That took awile Roughly about 1/3 of the planks I milled First 4 runs of planks

As always, you all are leading me in the right direction. I will go with the Arnot book as my primary source. (fortunately I already have it) I sent out a bunch of emails trying to track down where i can buy the corresponding plans. (Bluejacket, Taubman, USSCMSG) Hopefully I can find a source to buy from without spending a fortune on plans. I'll keep you posted if i find a source.

Thanks all for the looks, likes and feedback. Capt Steve. very long time since I've heard from you! Hope you are well. Jon, only you and people on MSW would ever notice what you called out. lol --Yes anchor rode is currently tied on ridding bits. (How did you even see that in the picture?) That's temporary. I'm going to replace it with better cordage for the anchor rode. It wont be tied when finished. -- yes accounting for height of spar deck planks when working on the spar deck fittings including the charley Nobel. Next post will be coming Soon. Preview: Gun deck is basically done. Spar deck "supports" (not planking) is done Spar deck beams where open grating is done Bowsprit and Jibboom made (not finished but close) Working on all the spar deck fittings (All the gratings/ Gangways etc) Question for all you Connie Modelers. What Mast and Rigging version are you guys going with? 1812 or Current? The Model Expo plans has the current modern rig. Only have main, Top mast and Top Galleon. Missing the Royals and Skypoles. And the modern Main, Top and top Galleon seem to be different lengths than 1812 I have the following books that show 1812 versions that I've been staring at for days trying to figure it all out and cross reference. Bluejacket manual by Arnot and Chapelle's "The American Sailing Navy" Anatomy of the Ship Constitution by Marquardt I'm still a long way from masting, but I want to rough out Fore, Main and Mizzen masts before I close up the gun deck. Get the heal of the masts fitted properly in the gun deck and have the spar deck where they pass through.

Also been working on the other Gun deck fittings Stove.... Again, as it will be barely seen under the deck... I didn't add a whole lot of detail to it. Stove pipe I left long. will cut it down to proper height after I install the spar deck. BTW, being new to soldering.. I think It came out well. By eye the diameter seems to large, but its same diameter as the kit supplied piece. Ridding bits Double Capstan. Not the kit supplies pieces only for the Spar deck. So I made identical pieces and made it the proper double. They do separate so I can install. Again more micro soldering to get the copper band on the top of each. Will stain and then gloss varnish to get the riding bits and capstans looking like bright work. Couple of shots of them installed. Note that's the kit stove pipe. Not mine. Might go with the kit one... I think it looks more accurate then mine. Prepping the 4 stairs that go from the gun deck down to the lower deck I had created the Channels earlier in the build. I've now attached them and added some black Lots more soldering practice preparing the chain plates I studied a bunch of other peoples build to get ideas on how to make these before I got a method down that works for me. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the process. I'll try to describe. Hopefully it makes sense without pics. First.... I used the kit supplied photo etched parts. Before cutting them free... I pulled out the tinyest nails I have in my spare parts boxes. I re-drilled out all the holes on the chain plates and their smaller support pieces. My impression as it would be very difficult to open theses holes up after they are detached. Made sure the nails would fit through the holes. I don't want to fight this later when nailing them into the hull. Then I cut the parts all free. Next I nailed a small put a small pin in a block of hardwood. You can put the deadeye on this pin through one of the holes in the deadeye. That basically holds the deadeye stationary for the next steps. On the chainplate, I use a razor blade to fold the end over to make a very small U at the end opposite of the hole. --- | --------------------------------------0 Next I cut a length of 24 gauge copper core wire. ~ 2" long. using small pliers to I wrap the wire around the deadeye once and cross the wires once at the bottom. Remember , the deadeye is held stable by that pin while you wrap that wire around it. Take the u end in the chainplate and hook the two ends of the copper wire where they cross.. so both ends of the wire pass through the U. The bottom of the U is now pinned between the ends of the wire and the deadeye. Put a drop of solder at the opening part of the U soldering the u to the wire. Trim off the ends of the wire. That's its. The deadeyes even spin so I can later adjust their position. Repeat 65 more times. ( Side note... Because I'm going for an 1812 build, I compared a few different references to determine how many and what size deadeyes, chains and eyes I needed. The MS plans are based on the current rigging not the 1812. I can share the configuration I chose if people are interested in that. ) Production line of deadeyes.... Large, Medium, Small and Eyes Testing them out That almost brings my log current to where my build is. By my next posting (hopefully without the long delay in postings again) I hope to report on the finished gun deck. Then I'll go over how I'll support the Spar deck. I'm not doing the full beams (again as they wont be seen at ) so I have my own unique method. We'll see how it works out. I'll cover that next time. Best K

The 30 gun deck cannons took awhile. Just about done with them Decided not to blacken the ringbolts. Also only going to simulate the breach line. not all the gun rigging. As it will all be covered up with the spar deck, I'll only detail enough that can be seen by peaking through the gunports Gun #1 All thirty By eye, they are all centered in their gunports and have the same elevation .... Came out better then I hoped for. Oh and yes.. Got the upper gunport lids attached as well. Painting top and bottoms of the gunports (top and bottom lids) wasn't bad. but getting the white edges was ugly. plenty of black marks on the edges if you look close. I was going back and forth on weather to rig the lifts on the upper ports. I made a few attempts and didn't like the results. I figured .. no one would be able to see the lifts when the lid is in the up position so I left them off. After I glued them all on, now I regret not rigging them. Gun breech lines not glued to sides yet. I put a simple overhand know at the ends. Will touch the knot with glue and then stick to side in the right position. Again just simulating... as no one will be able to see them once spar deck is on. I have no idea how others manage to attach ring bolts into the side of the bulwarks and then rig them in proper. I'm beyond impressed for those who can do that. Even at this larger scale... rigging them in that small space is way to small for my paws to manage. You need to have surgeon level skills.... Nice view looking from the stern The modified trucks on the cannon works great. They have plenty of surface area that it glues down securely to the deck. 15 guns mounted. 15 more to go.

Hello all. Thanks for the interest in my build. OK, I have been delinquent in posting updates. My bad. I have been lurking and watching your logs for inspiration! And I have been making progress on my build. I'll post some pics and commentary shortly. But as a tease: Areas I've done some work on: (all in various stages of progress, none complete yet) Gun deck cannons Ship stove and chimney Channels Dead eyes and chain plates Fixed a major screwup on the bottom copper Upper gun port lids Gun deck riding bits boomkins Support for the Spar deck

Starting to work on Guns for gundeck. So need to make 30 of them . I am going to use the ME cannon set. Not the dummy barrels that cam with the kit. Fairly common issue is the cannon carriage is to short. Without modification the barrel it will sit too low in the gun port. My solution was to replace the dowel axels with a taller pieces of basswood to raise the overall height. The wheels will just glue right on to these pieces flush with the deck. The wheels themselves will hide most of the piece. So they wont be as obvious. In some of my past builds, I've had canons break loose. The tiny wheels/trucks just don't have enough surface area connecting the deck to stay stuck. I tiny bump and they break loose. Typically this after deck is closed up and I can no longer access to fix. With these pieces, there will be a lot more surface area on the bottom piece's to glue to the deck. Mass producing the carriages Testing them on the ship For the wheels themselves, still want to show the nub of the axis. Trying to clean, enlarge the hole to fit the axes will split the wheel. Soo ill try using toothpicks. Glue the wheel on Saw off the pointy end flush with wheel. That's the side that will be glue to the new piece of wood/axil. On the center side of the toothpick, I'll cut short length after the wheel to simulate the end of a axil Once the carriages are done. 30x4 = 120 wheels to make. Geesh. Then I'll start looking at rigging. At a minimal I'll rig the breech's on all of them. I'll do more excessive rigging on the 8 cannons that can be seen though the open grating on the spar deck. As I'm aiming for an 1812 version of the ship, I'm leaving waist hatches off.

Gregg, Definity encourage you to join the Connie Club. The ship itself as a subject is a work of art. The Model Expo kit is great. And there are multiple build logs as great reference material. Jon's is a great log. Also look up usedtosail finished build log. Its effectively a full blown practicum. But its not for the faint of heart and definitely not a race. I also started my build in 2017. At my current rate.. I'll need more than a few years to complete. Having Jon at roughly the same build phase has been great encouragement to keep me progressing and a great reference/ideas.. We might have leap frogged each other a few times. 🙂 Yup Jon... I cant believe its been almost a year since my last post. But the break was needed, and I'm glad to to get back to the shipyard. I'll post my progress on my guns shortly. I'm not super detailing them as you did. I'm just using the stock ME canons/carriages. (Not the dummy from the kit but the full cannon set.) I came up with a different way to modify the carriages to make them the proper height. Haven't decided how much rigging ill give them yet.

Jon.... Wow,, Just Wow. I took a bit of Hiatus from my Connie build. Come back to find you've been going crazy with your awesome build. Progressed well past where I'm at. It will take me awhile just to go through your log and catch up. I'm working on my gun deck now. Just started assembling the guns. So really interested in you log entries on that section. KenM

Your moving right along at a great pace. She is looking really nice.

Looking great. Like how you made the rails. I may copy that techneque when i get to that step. Question for you. What brand of paint and color did you use for gun carrages. I have the me paint set and the carrage red. But it looks to bright. The color you used looks better