EJ_L

Your ship is looking good. I had to chuckle when you described the canon flying off and becoming lost in the carpeting. In my basement where I have my model table set up I have an old piece of shag carpeting that I use a rug over the cold concrete floor. I cannot count the number of lost pieces that have done that very thing when I cut them off spurs or just pop out of my tweezers and disappear. About once a year I will shake out the carpet and I collect dozens of tiny blocks, eye bolts, cleats and many other small parts from my model train stuff. Over the years this has led to my spare parts drawers being an interesting collection of formally lost parts that have been reclaimed long after the project they were for has been completed. I have to say also that I commend your bravery for taking on such a small scale. The smallest I have done is a 1:160 scale Bounty and it didn't have nearly the detail yours does. My current build is 1:100 and I have done the Constitution at 1:96. Most of the ships I have worked on have been around this area. You are doing a great job with the scale of ship you are building. I look forward to seeing it progress.

Great video Mark, Thank you for sharing that. I will be checking out his other videos as well.

Thanks for the compliments. As for the gun ports, they are not too bad. The dummy ports on the lower deck can be placed wherever they are needed to make the ship look right. The upper decks gun ports I haven't done much with yet as I have not gotten that far but, I'm not too worried as I have plenty of space to make minor adjustments if needed. That being said, I do not know how accurate these plans are. I have been searching for more information on this ship to try to confirm accuracy and have only had very limited luck so far. More often I find conflicting information that is forcing me to make best guess decisions. A more pressing issue to me has been the appearance of the stern as stated earlier in this blog. I have seen two different designs of it and although the overall look is the same, there are noticeable differences.

I've been busy over the last couple of weeks. Fairing up the ship and installing "dummy" blocks for the canon barrels that are on decks that do not get built. Also I have had to add extra filler blocks at the bow to help with the planking. None of this was unexpected as I've done it on all my past ships but it does make for a lot of work. I also went ahead and planked the upper gun deck first. Getting it installed helped with aligning the lower gun decks canon blocks as well as helping to square up all the ribs. I also figured it would be easier to plank before the hull closes it in. On the stern, I have been in a debate on what it looks like. I have seen two different images of it repeatedly. One shows it completely flat from the keel up with only the balcony extending over the rudder and the other, which is also the way the instructions with this kit shows, as having the cabins jut out over the rudder and the balcony come out further still. I think I am going to build it the second way mostly because I think I like the way it looks better and that is the way my stern is shaping up. However, if anyone knows the correct design please let me know and I will be glad to make the necessary changes. With regards to the planking. I intend to make this a double planked hull mostly because I know my planking skills are not where I would like them to be for a single planking. Also, since the second plank layer is really just a veneer, I like having the 1st layer to help support the second. One day I hope to become good enough to only plank the hull once but until then this is good practice. So without further ado, here are some pictures to show how the build is going.

I have had a productive though slow couple of days. I have found that many of the cut ribs in the kit have needed a lot of trimming to make them fit the keel. The keel also has proven to be a problem as it was warped and my stern and bow when sighting down the length of the ship were pointing in opposite directions. After installing the false lower gun deck that helped bring them closer to alignment but it was still off. I have had to run a brace to bring the ship the rest of the way in. I will have to add some blocks to secure the ribs to the correct alignment permanently. On another note, years ago my dad came across these plastic bench vises by Black & Decker. I didn't know what I would use them for but while working on a ship and needing something to hold it by the keel I remembered I had it in a box under my table. It's been the a great device for ship building as it holds the ship securely while not leaving marks since the jaws are plastic. The vise body can rotate in 3 dimensions to allow me to position the ship any way needed. Also it has clips that can be inserted into the jaws that allow me to mount the ship upside down when it is time for planking the bottom. I will show that when I get to the planking. Another one of those items that I'm glad I held onto. Never know what will prove useful or when.

This is always a tough question and I agree that it is largely the individuals choice. Painting can make a more dramatic appearance and can show off the country and era of the ship better but there is a beauty in natural wood colors as well. Another option is dyed wood. This can get pricier to buy and very time consuming to do your self but it adds an interesting element in that you can get the color desired while keeping the wood grain texture. I personally like this approach but as a warning, getting the colors the desired shade can be tricky.

Great work. Building a ship completely from scratch is currently beyond my skill set. I hope to some day and seeing builds like yours teaches me a lot on how to go about doing it.

Yes, the primary wood is Tanganyika and Walnut and Pear wood. There is also some Mahogany and Maple as well as bass wood for supports and blocking. There is a good chance I will be either replacing or adding to some of the kit wood from my own selection depending upon how much I like the appearance. The lanterns are plastic but not the worst I have seen. I will look around though to see if I can find some better looking pieces. There are a few items I am already looking at replacing for better quality. Overall the kit isn't that bad. I have worked with far worse.

I must say that this topic has my interest peaked as I'm just starting a new build and will have to deal with these issues soon. I am going to have to try spiling on this build and see how that works out. It sounds like that is the way to go. Thank you all for this great discussion.

Looking good. The Constitution was the first ship I built when I decided to try modeling ships. Before that my only experience with watercraft was a model of a Bass Tracker. I went all out and picked the Revell 1:96 scale version though. You probably went smarter with the smaller scale and simp,er version as it does allow for additional details but won't overwhelm you in the overall scope. The sheer size and time required to build a ship can become overwhelming. I hope you find it very enjoyable and I look forward to seeing it progress.

Thank you and yes it is. The picture on the box lid hardly does her justice. I have been collecting pictures of her for some time now in hopes that I will be able to capture the detail better.

So my Christmas gift to myself finally showed up today. As my wife has gone back to school for her Masters degree, this is my keep out of trouble project for the next couple of years. I have been waiting to build this ship for a while now. This will be my most challenging build to date and I'm looking forward to it. I love the beauty in the ships of the 17th century and hope I can do this ship justice. I have not found many build logs for this ship so I am also hoping that I can create a nice log for others to enjoy as well. I am always looking for ways to improve my skills and as this project progresses please feel free to give me any tips you may have. I want to give her my best. So without further ado, I'm going to get started. In theses first few pictures I am just unpacking the kit. There is a very nice build log for this ship on this site but it is the Mantua kit where this is the Corel. So far I can see a lot of similarities between these two kits as well as a few differences. There is an instruction book and several sets of drawings but I have a feeling after skimming through them that I will be doing a lot of research and figuring it out on my own. In my experiences, this is more of the rule than exception which I actually enjoy. This adds the challenge to building model ships that puts this hobby above standard model building. It creates the feel of really building the ship and not just following a series of steps. As I'm looking through the bags of pieces I can already see that although everything is usable as is, I will be trying to scratch build many of the pre-made parts. The canon bodies and gun port lids jump out at me as examples of this.

I'm getting ready to start building the la Couronne so I may give this a try and attempt to make some of my own details. That part is still a long way out but I will post pictures when I get around to trying it. Thanks for the idea!

What you had started already looked amazing that I'm sure the second time around will be even better. I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures as this ship comes along.

I agree that the best power tools are the ones you will use. I have many full sized tools in my shop that I am working on building modifiers to allow me to use them to work with smaller pieces. I am going to try this way first before buying minitures. Personally I would recommend power sanders, disc sander especially. With the small thin woods that are used for ship building a few quick passes on a sander can do a lot of good. This combined with a small hand held sander such as a dremmel or similar tools are the primary power tools I use. Most of my cutting I still try to do by hand although with my next build, I want to try for greater detail and so that will probably change.

Michael, Beautiful ship! I'm going to be starting my own La Couronne build after the first of the new year and have been greatly inspired by your work. Very clean and great attention to detail. Makes me excited to start my build. Thank you for sharing.