DCooper
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Everything posted by DCooper
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Sorry for your mishap but it's great to see you are back at the workbench. I'm sure that in the end you'll never see the effects of the hot knife. I love those nippers. I have two pairs that I use all the time. Easy to just nip off some strip styrene and then sand to finished size. Hope you are having fun. Dan
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Progress; Aft riding bit Insitu, Not much progress for a days work but then I build slowly. I'm working on the fore bit now and it should go quicker now I know what I'm doing. I've started to paint the copper plating on the hull. Looks way shiny now but I'll add some washes to tone it down. Thanks for looking in. Dan
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Great news about the tour! You'll come back all reved up and ready to go. Dan
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Thank you so much for the references you have used. I found the one in your post on line and I had missed the plan in ATOS (page 49) Which is the bees knees. Now I can proceed I too am painfully learning to document what I am doing as I have now forgotten exactly which paints I used to finish my carriages. I should have taken notes as to colours and materials used as I can see this will be a much longer build than I am accustomed to. Much appreciate the help. Dan
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Great to see you have the kit in hand. Good luck and don't rush. For replacement eyebolts I have been using the cut off ends fine fish hooks from KMart or Target. Much stronger than the plastic ones from the kit. Remember to have fun. Dan
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lambsbk-- There are so many little details I want to add but I feel I am going to have to begin to simplify things that won't been seen directly or I'll never finish. I was working on the stove and realised that I'd spent three hours messing about with adding details that would never be seen by anyone once the upper deck was put on. Still it will be a nice big black hulk in the right place. Steve-- Thanks! I did try out a similar idea at first but I wanted to try out ideas on how to rig some blocks before I use those tiny 3/32 inch blocks on the cannonades. So much that is different in building ships as opposed to the planes I usually build. The build so far has been fun and very rewarding. I am learning a lot from looking about and trying new techniques. Thanks again for your encouraging comments. Dan
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I like what you have done with your riding bit. Nice proportions and the little angled bracket is super. What plans are you working to? I have the Anatomy book but it only shows the bits in plan view without any details. Have a happy and safe trip and take plenty of pictures. Dan
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Progress; Not having the funds for overseas shipping of the Bluejacket photo etch sheet I thought I'd break out the styrene and have a bash. Not all that accurate but once painted very dark grey and shaded it will at least give a presence of the stove being there. The flue has been left long so that I can cut it down to fit the upper deck. I have the Marquardt book of plans so I'm thinking of putting in the riding bits as I think you could see them through the gun ports. I'll slap on some paint tonight and see if I have any hefty sized styrene for the bits. Thanks for looking in. Dan Added some paint.
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Thank you Daniel for taking the time and effort to share your knowledge and craftsmanship. I am always inspired and invigorated when I read your posts. Bravo!!! Dan
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Progress; Decided to play about with some blocks. I tried out the 3/32 ones I purchased overseas but they were too small for my fumble fingers and didn't work with the kit line. Had some time this morning so trekked out to beautiful hobby shop and bought some proper line, some 5mm blocks and brass pins. The 5mm blocks turned out to be a bit too big but the bigger size allowed me to get a start. I have chopped approx 1mm off the length of these blocks ( should have bought some 4mm and 3mm blocks to play with...). The finish here is rough and very naive but I can get in some much needed practice before I have to work in more exposed areas. Equal parts fun and frustration, but I'm beginning to get some idea of what not to do. The new better line is a joy to work with but I think I will need to experiment with waxing it as it is a bit fuzzy. I both line in sizes from 0.1 to 1.5 mm and boy what a difference having the different sizes to work with makes. I can see that I'll be replacing all of the line from the kit. I'm learning that it is much faster to do batches of parts one step at a time rather than hand finish each part one at a time. The pins may be a touch too big as well but look much better than the moulded ones from the kit. Learning fast that what I think looks scale isn't necessarily so. texxn5-- Thank you for your encouraging comments. I'm learning more and more from this forum everyday. Scary how little knowledge I have of sailing ships. I very much like to paint and hopefully I won't tart the ship up too much. Great to see completed kits to get a sense of just how beautiful they can be. Marcus.K--I'm heartened you like my little efforts. I hope to keep this going in the right direction. I have had so much help from the folks on this forum already. Thanks to all for dropping in for a look.
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Your caboose came out great. cannons are looking particularly fine. I'm sure you will work out mountings for the breeching line. I used eyelets cut from ends of small fish hooks, inexpensive, available and easy. I should have drilled the holes for them before I joined the jul together but managed to drill them after using a battery powered Dremel. Great to see you progress LR--I hope you tackle the Constitution. Great kit which with some care builds nicely. Heaps of nice folk here to help you a long. Jump right in and have a ball! Dan
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Progress; Painting the hull goes on apace but I've started to mess about with the cannon. Feeling my way through and learning as I go. If I ever get this ship finished the next will be way easier. I'm pretty sure none of this will be seen on the finished model but at least if I stuff up now it won't show too badly. I've cobbled together a little work station to seize the ends of the breaching line. I have elected to go with two pieces so I can thread it through the loops on the side of the carriages. I think the next ones I do will join below the end of the canon to better hide the joint. All the eyelets are cut down fish hooks which are nice and bronze coloured so blend in better. Maso-- Glad you like the cradle but I did it that way because I had those bits to hand. I use something similar with my large scale planes. I wish I could figure out some way of clamping the hull to the cradle at times. At least the kit isn't just sitting on the bench top. lambsbk-- I hear you. My 'best friend' a big tomcat named Smudge is banded because he likes to 'help' too much and is no respecter of the no cats ON the workbench policy. Thanks for looking in. Dan
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It's all in the details Evan. Superb rudder detail. I am very appreciative of the extra effort you go to. You not only show what you are doing but how and more importantly why you are doing it. I was wondering though why the extra projection at the top of the rubber. Does an eye bolt go there for some sort of chain? I've seen that on other ships. I don't know it's function. From your post it seems as a viable alternative would be to sand off all the detail and add copper clad then some details in styrene. Thanks for sharing. Dan
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Man, I gotta see how that turns out. I have a second kit too and so might be able to use the smaller Revell blocks where they aren't so visible. I await with great expectation. Dan
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Welcome Jasseji! we can't have too many USS Constitution builds going. Your program of works looks most impressive. I look forwards to how your build progresses. Dan
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Nice, now repeat 30 plus times Look really great, by looking over yours I see I need to fix a few things I missed out on my cannon. Are you going to make a jig up so that you can measure and fit all the breaching lines before you install your cannon? What have you planed for the rest of the gear? I've just ordered some 3/32 single and double blocks from admin Chuck http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/273-mass-producing-rigging-blocks-with-a-mill/ for about $60. This should allow for some goof ups. Great progress thank for sharing. Dan
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mathewp & John-- Thank you both for you comments, glad you like what i'm doing. Progress, sort of... While putting in the gun deck I have managed to leave some nasty gaps. I didn't take enough care in working out how the hull thickening I did would effect the fit of the gun deck parts. (This is the good side.) After kicking myself for my stupidity I got to thinking how I was going to fill those gaps and not mess up the deck proper. Enter the smallest caulking gun I could make from bits on hand. I had bought this small syringe at a local shop on a whim not having any idea how it might come in handy. Filled with Valejo plastic putty it acts just like a tiny caulking gun to squirt the putty into the gap. A damp cotton bud wiped away most of the excess. Not a perfect fix but better than nothing. I have started to paint in some shadow on the two bays on the right and it will look okay once tarted up. I have started to put in the eyebolts for the gun rigging using the cut off ends of the smallest fish hooks I could find. Cheap a 95 cents for 20. I should have taken much more care when I thickened up the hull but sometimes you learn as you go along. Thanks for looking in. Dan
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Installed gun deck looks great and your clamping system is robust and ingenious. I am very impressed with the depth of colour you have achieved on the deck, outstanding. I am enjoying your build immensely! Thanks for sharing. Dan
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Excellent work on the quarter galleries. I spent hours trying to clean up and thin the ones on my build and they don't look as good as your replacements. I would be interested in knowing what material you have in mind for glazing the windows. I have been playing about with plain white glue as a film but it never dries quite evenly. Inspirational as always. Thanks for sharing. Dan
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Thank you for your encouraging comments JPJ. I'll be watching out for your build log. 1/96th seems a nice scale to work in. Large enough to see some nice details but small enough to not take up too much display space. Not to mention I can see the parts and my fumble fingers aren't chasing tiny little slivers of plastic all about. Progress; Just blocking in colours and starting to get some shading started. No doubt I'll have to do a heap of touch ups as I go along due to all the handling the hull will get during construction. It's nice to get a sense of what the ship will look like in the end. I have opted for a 1812 post yellow ochre painted stripe colour scheme. I'm not 100 percent sure this is all right but it does look good to my eye. I have also gone with removable gun port lids rather than the kits hinged lids. Once again not sure this is right but looks like the contemporary paintings that I've seen. I am going to stay with only black, white, green, red and yellow ochre as the only colours. Raw wood will be in differing shades of brown/grey. I have been working on the hull internals and working out how to put some kind of supports for mounting pedestals. Need to purchase some blocks to rig the main guns and pins for the belaying rails. lots of fun so far and it's such a nice size kit to work on. My wife was super nice to me and while out antique shopping picked up a second Constitution kit for $40!!! Who knows how long it sat in a musty old antique shop but it is complete and unstarted. I'm a pretty lucky guy to have a wife that both likes and supports my hobby. Thanks for stopping in for a look. Dan
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Progress; I have finished the internals for one side of the hull and got some paint work started. I pushed the shadows a bit hard as I thought that they would get lost once the deck is in place. This is what I was after with the deck just set in place. Started some other little bits and now need to buckle down and do all this again on the other side of the hull. I want to get the eyebolts in for the gun rigging and work some more on the gun deck. Getting that installed is my main goal right now. Thanks for looking. Dan
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I started this kit last year to rekindle the fun I had as a young teen building this kit in the mid 70's. I usually build 1/32 scale aircraft and 1/6th figures and I apologise ahead of time for any howling mistakes I make with history or nautical practice. I have been inspired by the many great builds on this forum. Much of what I have done I have shamelessly borrowed from others here and for that I thank you all. The build so far, State of play; Not much to look at but a bit done to get this far. I wanted to thicken the hull sides so used what I had read in Force9's log to add styrene to the inner hull. While I'm at it I have added some styrene rod bolts as well. There should be many more but I had to trade off accuracy for sanity. The gun deck was joined and re-scribed as per Force9 and I reworked the gratings as on my kit they where a mess. First gunport on the bow was filled and made good. A start has been made on the main armament. I'm trying my hand at resin casting the barrels so I don't have to clean all those seams. ( I notice that I have some more details to add to these as I need to add some more eyebolts and a other bits.) This last photo is where I'm working now. I want to finish the bolts and internal structure on the gun deck so I can install same and get the rest of the hull together. Thanks for stopping in for a look and as always constructive criticism is always appreciated. Dan
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