DCooper

Great start and some interesting pointers on how to build this kit.  Looking forward to your progress and wondering if this might be a a good second kit for me.  I will be watching intently to see how you go.  Thanks for taking the time to ducument your build.
 
 
Dan 

Well, after something of a break, and with colder weather I have resurrected my building efforts.
Wanted to get my head back into it by working on something fairly small so I decided to scratch build the Brodie stove.  Somewhat pointless maybe because I will never really see it when it's installed!

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

Some fun things I did while taking an occasional break from rigging shrouds and sheerpoles . . . 
 
Previously I installed three jackstay collars on the mast. Now I added the fourth, just above the fighting top.


The bell and its bracket are Britannia metal.  The instructions suggest polishing the bell, but I left it as is, thinking I probably can’t improve much on its shine.  The bracket required quite a bit of bending to get it to fit right, and then I painted it black.  I used some heavy string for the lanyard, and dipped it in diluted white glue to stiffen it and keep it from unraveling. The instructions direct drilling a hole inside the top of the bell’s cone, gluing an eyebolt in, and affixing the lanyard to the eyebolt.  I simply turned the bell upside down, dripped a large drop of thick CA into what was now the bottom of the cone, and stuck one end of the lanyard into the glue, holding it long enough to dry. Then I glued the bell to the bracket, drilled a hole in the mast for the pin that is part of the bracket, and dry fit the whole thing in place for the picture below.  I don’t think I’ll glue it in place until the rigging is complete.

Next I painted about 30 (instead of the 50 suggested by the instructions) belaying pins with Tamiya’s Flat Earth.  With a small drop of CA, I glued pins into all the holes where the plans show something will be belayed, plus a handful of additional holes.  The belaying rail has two rows of holes on its fore/aft arms, but I fear that pins that close together will be very difficult to belay to, and I left the inner rows of holes empty. The hole in the mast for the bell assembly is visible in this photo.

The boarding pike racks consist of a thicker, upper rack with holes in it, and two thinner racks (one with holes, one without) to be glued together as the bottom rack. The pikes themselves are made from pieces of 1/16” brass rod.  The instructions suggest hammering the tip of each flat, then trimming it to form something like the tip of an arrow.  No doubt in my mind that had I gotten my hammer out, I would have I would have i) missed the target entirely, ii) flattened more of the rod than intended, iii) flattened a thumb or finger, and iv) on rare occasions gotten it right. 🤪 I used a Dremel tool instead, slowly rotating the rod between my thumb and forefinger, while holding it against the spinning Dremel bit. With a little trial and error I get most of them right. The instructions suggest painting the tips shiny silver, but I left them bare, which is pretty shiny as is, and the fact that they are brass instead of the color of some other metal is hardly noticeable.
 
I assembled the racks and pikes with a jig I made with the placeholder mast stub used earlier in the build, along with some double sided Scotch tape. I stuck a strip of wood to the tape on the “mast” for alignment, then stuck the brackets on. I slid each pike through the upper bracket, then applied a tiny drop of thick CA to the bottom of the pike and slipped it into its hole in the lower bracket.  I then applied some diluted white glue to the bottom of the upper bracket and the pikes . . . of the various kinds of glue I use, diluted white seems to be the least visible when dry.  After everything had dried, I carefully peeled the whole assembly off the jig and glued it to the side of the real mast.



Meanwhile, work continues, slowly, on the futtock and bentinck shrouds.

I had a bit of time to work with needle and thread
.
 
 

 
Still very rough but a whole lot less green.  I learned a bit and it was getting easier as I went along.  So that's progress I guess.

Thanks for looking in.

So, Seven years.

Sure doesn't seem that long ago....

This one has sat in pride of place in one of my cabinets unfinished all these years.  I get her out from time to time and to dust and clean her.  But I have always been put off working on her as the oars needed making next and I'm not good at making multiples of subassemblies.  I either mess them up or ( ominous foreshadowing ) don't make them all the same.  Well with retirement nearing and the grey hairs multiplying I thought I'd just get on with it.  So here's the results.
 
 

Do you see my mistake?  I was so happy they all came out the same size and shape then blew it in the painting.



I think I can burry my sins where you can't see it on the model so all is not lost.  
The next step is making a little jig out of brass to help me cut and file all the notches for the oars and to make sure they are all the same size.  I'm terrified that I'll mess up the spacing but can't wait another seven years to work up the courage. So once more into the breach. 

I would like to ask if anyone has some suggestions about trying to save the sails provided in this kit.  They have a horrible dark green rope all around their perimeter which apart from looking dreadful doesn't suit my paint scheme.  I was thinking I could remove and replace it with some heavy neutral coloured line.  There is a good video on Youtube showing how to hand sew it on.  Based on watch that a few times I think I could just manage it.  Thoughts or suggestions welcomed.

Here's what came in the box.


I'm also looking at the booms and what not left to do.  I was thinking of replacing the cast yoke with a wooden one.  Ideas or suggestions on how to do that?  Lots of things left to do but nice to have a little more progress on the little Jolly boat.  She's one of my favourite of all my models built.

Thanks for looking in.
 
Dan

In parallel, I continued with the periphery of the guns. A first test of the blocks was still a bit too big, but the brown drybrushing did as expected a good job.



Therefore the whole thing was redaone a little smaller. Surely another 20% smaller is possible. Note the one double block in the "C" of "Cent" 🙂


And then the question, are they also rigable?



Oh yes we can! Here again the dimensions of the smallest, scale was my thinnest rope in 1:100:



Thereupon tried some sizes ...



... and the 3 hottest candidates on the model.





I then reworked the rigged version with the smallest blocks a bit. Looking at the picture ...



... and realized, crap, the lanyard is twisted. I did not see that in the original, despite strong magnifying glass.

So the whole thing decuddled and it fits much better.









XXXDAn

Progress;
 

 

 
Banished to the shed again so made good use of my time.  Much scraping and sanding and a touch of filler.  Still a bit rougher than I would like but better than I had originally thought possible.  Should have sanded the inside face of the planks before I attached them as they are very rough but can't do much about it now.  ( Next time...) 
 
Jay - Thanks for the support!
 
Amfibius - Like what you are doing with the Launch and excited to see how it goes together.  Hope you like my little efforts.
 
I'll let this harden off overnight and see what I can get up too tomorrow.  Much fun sanding away while listening to the Boxing Day Test.  More adventures to come but this part was the one that had me most worried.  So it is nice to have it in the bag.
 
Thanks for stopping by to have a look.
 
Dan

Progress;
 

 

 
Not great and certainly not correct practice but less one little fill plank, done.  Learned a lot by doing.  Funny how actually working with the materials makes such a difference to understanding what people are saying when the write tutorials.  If only I had correctly set out the top two planks I would have had room to use all full planks.  But that's what happens when you are learning.  Lot of sanding and a bit of filler and I think the hull will look okay.  A coat of paint should help hide some sins too.  I would do much differently next time but such is life.  
 
Off to bed soon so Santa can come.  
 
Thanks for looking in.
 
Dan

Thank you Eduard, watch this space, who knows 😉
 
Meanwhile the hopefully final version of the long guns came out of the printer. All the important details are in place, including the cap square key and the coins's handling cord .
 
 
 

Also, the supports are now all in such a way that the part almost falls out by itself after printing and hardly any rework is needed.

If you cut out the coin and the stool bed, the gun can also be secured well over the port.
 
 

But other positions also are possible 😉
 

Parallel to that I cut planks, glued them on self adhesive foil ...
 

... and sprayed it black. More about this soon.
 

Then the grain structure of the decks was smoothed with sandpaper ...
 

... and I marked the approximate position of the deck beams underneath.
 

Even if the position of the passages to the orlop deck do not quite match the plans, the concept could be transferred. These beam lines form the alignment of the plank joints, as these had to be nailed into something, as in between the beams the nails would have hung in thin air 😉

Best regards, DAniel

And since then, I've been itching to put these parts onto the deck. Since I still have to do some research on my Vic, I simply used this compulsory break and lifted the pretty girl onto the tinkering table.

First I glued the three deck parts together and reinforced them.
 


Funnily enough, the middle part is 1 mm thicker, so the other sides had to be relined.
 


Then cut off the rim for the positioning of the guns ...
 


... removed the gratings ...
 


... and the stubs for the ropes had to be cut off as well.
 


Then, while trying to fit the deck, I noticed that the supports were much too far apart and the deck sagged in several places. So I put a small batten atop the supports for alinement and added some extra supports. I dry fitted once more and noticed that the deck did not sit properly. This is probably because the hull is curved at this point and thus the supports were at an angle. But a quick re-pinching quickly eliminated this and the deck could be laid flat.
 


Then the exciting moment, the guns were put on deck ...
 


... and they are sitting nicely in the middle of the port

 


It remains exciting.

Best regards, DAniel

Thanks guys!  In the meantime, a project is underway with the mating of the Constitution's lower half of the transom and the new scratch built USS US:
 


 

I have read some of the documentation about the differences in the transom.  I'm not sure I know enough about the current consensus on the arrangement and number of windows to really make an educated guess on what I will build. I have seen the paintings that tell different stories!
 
This also brings me to another issue I am faced with: my kit actually provided me with the "CONSTITUTION" transom, so I have at very least a custom-built transom (or heavily modified) to even fit the parts together in a way that approach the USS U.S.
 
From the best I can tell, the rest of the kit is correctly packaged as USS United States.
 
 

Do you have another angle of the quarter galleries?
 
They look a lot like the Constitution model and not the United States..
But it might be the angle of your pictures..
 

Hello again Model Ship World forum - 
 
I was planning on doing another Bluejacket Shipcrafters model after completing the Revenue Cutter and Spray kits last year.  My wife came across this older kit of the USS United State frigate in a garage sale, and picked it up.  I must admit I was not as excited about it initially (because of it being plastic), but after researching some nice versions that others have made with this kit, decided to make it the next one on the bench!  
 
I have been working on it for a few months now, so I am going back to January images to start piecing together the build...to get back to current.  
 
Here's the first few set up pictures, and painting out the hull - - 
 

Well I think I can now declare the hull FINISHED! 
 
With a couple of caveats. First, as mentioned in a previous post, I’m doing the tedious job of securing the netting for the hammock rails in stages, and I am not gluing them in place on the bulwarks until the end of the build. Similarly I’m also leaving one gangway headboard on each side for the end of the build, since it needs to be glued on end with nothing to support it, and I don’t want to snag them either while rigging the mast.
 
I did manage to finish the other side of the hammock netting, so I am halfway through that job. Hard to see in the photo, but I think I did a better job this time cutting the netting so as not to leave ends sticking up in mid air.

 
One gangway headboard on each side is glued to the end of the bulwark.  That was easy.  Also easy . . . a few eyebots and thread, and I had a handrail to go with the sea steps previously installed.  In the photo you can see where the other headboard is to be installed and how fragile an installation that will be.  I’ll probably pin it to make it a little more secure.  
 
In the picture below you can also see the trim I molded and glued in place.   The mold shaping tool I mentioned previously worked very well, and was easier to use than last time because the American dimensioned trim pieces were very close to a metric dimension used by the tool.

 
One more incomplete project . . .  in the process of turning everything upside down and planking the hull I managed to dislodge a few of the teeth in Connie’s grin (ie some barrels).  I haven’t gotten around to gluing them back in yet, and I will probably wait until I have installed the mast, so I can look inside and see where its bottom meets the mast step.
 
Finally, I realized that the bentinck shrouds will one day be secured to eyebolts installed months ago in the middle of the spar deck waterways.  Installed before the cannons were tied in place and became all but completely hidden from view.  Obviously hooking the shrouds to those eyebolts isn’t going to get any easier, so I better do it now.  The shroud is seized to a bullseye, which is lashed (with a lanyard) to another bullseye which is seized to a hook.  Sounds easy enough, but I discovered that my seizing skills are a bit rusty (“skill” being not necessarily the right word in my case), and there was more than one do over along the way but I eventually got it done.  I left the lanyard untied, since I assume that is what I will adjust someday to get the shroud appropriately taut.

 
Hooking the shroud assembly to the eyebolt was not as difficult as I feared; got it done on about the third or fourth try. But once I took a look at how it will eventually look I decided was not happy with the running rigging thread I had used for the lanyard . . . too thick and seemed too light in color.

 
I mentioned previously that I have been taking a few looks at UsedToSail’s build log of the full ship Constitution, and in it there is a interesting discussion about the lanyards used with deadeyes and bullseyes.  They are basically part of the standing rigging, but they are intended to be adjusted occasionally, certainly not frequently.  Adjustable standing rigging.  On the current ship, the deadeyes, the bullseyes and the lanyards are all black, but as mentioned previously I subconsciously decided to leave my deadeyes natural (dark brown).  Someone in that discussion suggested making the lanyards dark brown and mentioned having used dark stain to color lighter thread for that purpose. Not having any dark brown thread, I decided to give that a try . . . another do over. I found some thread of a more acceptable thickness, but after staining it’s a little shiny, which I don’t like (not as bad though as in the pictures below). So in my mind the jury is still out on what thread I will use for lanyards (maybe just black). I may make a trip to a fabric store one day to find some thread that is manufactured in a color I like. In any event, I think yet another do over is called for.  At least I’m finding hooking it to the eyebolt to be easier than I feared.


 
Finally I decided to coil the end of one of the cannon tackles and hang it from the nearby pinrail.  And just for fun I hung another coil on the opposite side, where there are no cannons.



 
So on to the mast, which looks like quite a project.  I have decided to take a bit of a break before moving on, probably a few weeks worth, as I spend some time on other things that need to be done and study ahead in the instructions to familiarize myself with the upcoming build. One thing that has me perplexed already is how the other end of the bentinck shrouds are secured to the futtock shrouds . . . . I'm having difficulty understanding the written instructions and something about the pictures just doesn't look right.  
 

Started on the main and topsail yards.
 

 
Fitted the main top, still rough, needs some more work.
 

 
Finished the rudder. I got the idea to hammer over the ends of the nails from a picture of a larger Philadelphia model I had seen, but these are out of scale. 
 

 
Soon I will be rigging the shrouds and forestay!

Touched up the gunwales. Started sanding the mainmast, and dry fitted the brass mast ring and the stern railings. 
 

Have started blackening and placing the brass fittings on the gun carriages. Trying to determine whether it will be easier to rig them directly to the boat, or assemble the gun rigging away from the boat… 
 

 
Going to start on the gunwales soon, I may paint them black. 
 
Thanks for the encouragement and the book recommendation @Roger Pellett

I had assumed my kit was missing a pair of metal anchors, but I have just realized in this kit that the anchors are assembled from wood. I am tempted to cannibalize the anchors from my Vasa build, since they are almost the perfect size.
 

 
Either that, or I may not include the anchors at all, since the anchors would only be hauled up while the boat was under sail.

Got some 5/32” eyelets for the hawseholes, and some zinc coated .177 caliber BBs to imitate the cannonballs for the 12 pounder. Both were blackened with Birchwood Casey Brass Black.
 

Gunwales painted black, got the inspiration from another modeler, and I think it’s a good combination. They’re only dryfitted now, and I need to finish painting and touching up.
 

I redid the coils on the previously rigged carronade and completed all but one of the tackles and coils on the one I hadn’t done previously.  A few words about rope coils . . . like real rope, rigging thread has a natural twist to it which can be taken advantage of.  And like real rope, if you give the thread a half twist (after figuring out which way to twist it) as you make each loop, it makes a pretty neat coil.  I’m a big fan of diluted white school glue for securing rigging -- it saturates the thread, looks like a mess while wet, but pretty much disappears as it dries, and holds everything in place nicely.  After applying quite a bit of it, I’ll take a small piece of paper towel, torn or folded to a point, and use it to wick away larger drops of glue.  Then I’ll use the butt end of a drill bit, or something similar to hold it down flat against the deck while it dries.  In the pictures below you’ll see that I decided to hang one coil from a pin rack.  I haven’t completed that job yet because I ordered some wooden belaying pins to replace the brass ones that come with the kit (why paint brass when you can just use wood?), and they haven’t arrived yet.



 
Taking occasional breaks from tackle rigging, I finished up the rest of the deck furniture.  The gangway boarding steps went together easily, except that I had to add a shim so that the risers would meet the waterway.


 
The fife rail was next.  I had to add a couple of shims where the rails meet the bits, so that the fit would be relatively tight.  On close inspection the scratch-made stanchions could be straighter, and two of them were a tiny bit too short, so I had to hide a couple of shims on top of them under the rail, but neither problem is very obvious.  There are holes in the deck for nine white eyebolts around the white mast surround  As far as I can tell nothing will be attached to them, and I don't usually think of such things being painted white, but looking at the real ship (thanks to Google Maps), there they are, painted white and not used for anything. So they became part of my build. At least a couple of them need a tiny dab of touchup paint.  There is a hole in the deck where an ammo scuttle needs to be installed, but I am still awaiting paint I ordered for it.




 
Finally I added a couple of posts on the gun deck forward where I decided not to put in stairs.

 
That more or less completes the decks and the ship's interior, so I get to move on to the outside of the hull.  An exciting milestone!

I already mentioned the next steps, now the next step was the rest of the entry port. Here, too, it is wonderful to see what else is still possible 🙂
But first define the size correctly and I realised that most entry ports on models are a bit too small, because they mostly align on the top edge with the gun ports besides. So I added a little more air at the top ...
 

 
... and provide them with a frame for the passage.
 

 
The scrollwork is presenting itself beautifully, note them in comparison with my epidermal ridges!
 

 

 
And what is even more important, even in this size well paintable, for this I tried different heights in some printer's rounds, but I think now it fits 🙂
 

 

 
Enjoy!
 
XXXDAn
 
 

Thank you all 🙂
 
I think it makes the difference that I am a model maker transferring my knowledge into the printing opposed to many programmers transferring their knowledge into model making. It really helps that I produced all the parts by hand first, as it gives a feeling about the needed details and also on how things have to be altered, like what detail has to be emphasized in what way to appear "real" on the model. If I do the programming strictly by the plans, it only looks half as good 🙂
 
The mast are not an option, even though they would need it badly, but the resin is much too brittle for that. I think the art of model making is also to know, which is the most appropriate material for a job, in this case it is by my experience a rework of the steel reinforced kit masts with redone iron hoops or a complete replacement with wooden masts.
 
All the best, Daniel