Tim Murphy

The worst blades are E-xato blades. Your lucky if they hold a edge for two cuts. Excel blades are better. I will look and try SM. Thanks for the info!
Tim

I cannot believe the detail that you have done on this ship. It is without question one of the best that I have seen done. You are a great teacher.

Moving right along.....or forward so to speak
 
You saw me build the capstan and I am using the red one....all I had to do was really make the two pawls.  I just used a strip of 3/64 x 3/64 boxwood.  I cut them to length.....shaped them as shown.   The arse end being rounded off.  I drilled a hole through that end so I could insert some black fishing line to simulate the bolt or pin on the pawl.  Painted them black with some weathering powder and glued them on.  Notice how I sanded the back of each pawl thinner so the part that engages the capstan is thicker.  Dont mind all the dust!!!

 
Then I continued forward adding beams ....lodging knees and hanging knees...
 
UNTIL I reached the area you see below.   The beam is permanently installed.  But the two columns are not.   These are just temporarily positioned.  Do not glue these two columns in yet.   Note how they were morticed into the coaming.   These two columns will need to be lined up perfectly with the Main jeer bits......and gallows.  The crank handle for the chain pumps will run through all of these elements and the need to be positioned only after the chain pumps are made.   That will come soon.   So just position them like this without glue.   

 
 
In fact....the next two (the last two) deck beams wont be added permanently yet either.   They will not be glued into position until after we have the chain pumps all finished and those crank handles installed.  But you will be testing with them while you build those elements...
 
For example....time to make the Main jeer bitts.   These actually sit directly under the forward most deck beam or breast beam.
 
They are laser cut and just like the columns, the uprights are etched on both sides for reference.   These are boxwood as well.   You will notice some heavy char on the sides of these because they are very thick at 3/16" thick.   Rather than just sand or file off the char from the sides of these, I scraped the char off first.   I used a number 11 blade.  That should remove most of it so whatever remains can be cleanly and easily sanded away.   Boxwood in this thickness requires much more laser power to cut through and thus more charring.   
 
Notice how the front and back of the uprights are flat without any dimension.  You have etched reference lines but you must still use some blades, chisels, files or whatever you are comfortable with....to mimic the profile laser cut on both sides.    These take some time to shape and do properly but they arent difficult.   As you can see they clean up beautifully and make some really nice jeer bits.  The two sheaves are all laser cut for you on both sides.....how nice is that???  You could round off the sheaves if you like for extra credit.
 

The jeer bitts were painted red and positioned beneath the Breast beam or that first qdeck beam.    Nothing is glued in yet....these are just tests in preparation for completing the chain pumps.  It rests right against the coaming behind it.   The cross beam is on the aft side.  But I will mention....
 
This is important,  the Breast beam is actually wider than all of the other deck beams.   Its 3/16" wide.   In addition, you must scrape a decorative molding and glue it the fore side of this beam.   The molding was scraped from a 3/32" x 1/32" boxwood strip.  Deck planking and margin planks will over hang this breast beam and look very nice.  I dont know if you can see or make out the molding on the beam.   But the jeer bitts are tested under it.   It is starting to look good now that more fittings are being added.   Next up the gallows which is almost the same as the jeer bitts but has a fancy top.  It is positioned just forward of the main mast.  Thats next!!!

A little farther away to see more of the hull at this stage....remember those two remaining deck beams are NOT glued in yet......
 

And farther away still as the fittings continue to be added...

 
 
 

Jerry, glad to see your reply. The two club websites would be; USSCMSG.org for the 
Constition guild. Also, mvsmc.org for the Merrimack (Newburyport) club.
Both web sites may be of benefit for you.
Also, try the shipmodelsocietyofnewjersey.org. They have a very good web site and they are worth taking a look at.
 Best of luck
Tim Murphy
 
 

Jerry, glad to see your reply. The two club websites would be; USSCMSG.org for the 
Constition guild. Also, mvsmc.org for the Merrimack (Newburyport) club.
Both web sites may be of benefit for you.
Also, try the shipmodelsocietyofnewjersey.org. They have a very good web site and they are worth taking a look at.
 Best of luck
Tim Murphy
 
 

Glad to see you have joined MSW. We are a bunch of people who like Ships of all types. You can learn quite a bit by roaming the branches of this site.
It seems that your in the Boston Area? Have you heard about the Constition Guild or the Merrimack Ship Model Club?
You have a group of ship model guy’s who can teach you and also give advice.
If you are interested I can send you the E- mail address of these two clubs so you could check them out. Good luck with your builds!
 
Tim Murphy 
 

Glad to see you have joined MSW. We are a bunch of people who like Ships of all types. You can learn quite a bit by roaming the branches of this site.
It seems that your in the Boston Area? Have you heard about the Constition Guild or the Merrimack Ship Model Club?
You have a group of ship model guy’s who can teach you and also give advice.
If you are interested I can send you the E- mail address of these two clubs so you could check them out. Good luck with your builds!
 
Tim Murphy 
 

Glad to see you have joined MSW. We are a bunch of people who like Ships of all types. You can learn quite a bit by roaming the branches of this site.
It seems that your in the Boston Area? Have you heard about the Constition Guild or the Merrimack Ship Model Club?
You have a group of ship model guy’s who can teach you and also give advice.
If you are interested I can send you the E- mail address of these two clubs so you could check them out. Good luck with your builds!
 
Tim Murphy 
 

I finished assembling frames 6
 

 
7
 

 
and most of frame 8
 

 
in the meantime I assembled the jig,
 

 
I then tried to assemble the keel parts, but found a production error, the parts are milled from both sides, and the two sides weren't correctly aligned.
 

 
It is possible to sand this down flat, but then the height of resulting keel part is too small. So I told Tom, and he right away sent a new part (Now this I call great customer service!)
 
With the new keel I now started dry fitting the frames in jig.
 

Moving forward...
 
Stanchions and railing around the companionway.   There are many ways to do this.  Contemporary examples show wood rails....metal stanchions etc.  You guys can choose once again.  Painted versions are either red black or white ...even a combination of those colors.  
 
I chose wood because I dont like messing with metal work.  I turned these using my dremel.  Just like I do when making belaying pins.   They are only about an inch long so you dont get any wobble in your dremel and it doesnt take much time to make.  You only need four of these.  Try your best to make them identical.   I started with a 1/16" x 1/16" boxwood strip.   I marked the breaks in shape in pencil on all fpur sides so I can see them as its spinning.   Its basically just the center thats rounded.  I leave the top and bottom square.  I also shape a small ball on the very top.  But you can make these as fancy as you wish.
 

Then I painted them black and cut the bottom of each away so they were all the proper height. I pegged them into the coaming using some 24 gauge wire.   The rails are just 1/32" x 1/32" boxwood strips painted black ahead of time.   The segments were cut to length and added between the stanchions.  I took care to get them level while not pushing the stanchions out of alignment.  They are just glued in with Tite-Bond.   Then I touched up the paint.   Its slow and methodical work.   You have to constantly check that each rail is level etc.   These pieces are thin so they dont look out of scale.  I see so many rails around a companionway that are so thick and out of scale.
 
Now to add more beams and knees as I move forward...
 

A really handsome model. She looks equal to many Constitution models that I have seen. I volunteer at the Constitution Museum.
BZ
Tim Murphy

A really handsome model. She looks equal to many Constitution models that I have seen. I volunteer at the Constitution Museum.
BZ
Tim Murphy

Just for your info. The copper plates that are used on the Constitution are about 14” x 39”.
They are very thin and the plates  are preped for nailing by using a machine that goes back
to 1856. The operator puts the plate on a sliding tray uses a hand crank to pass the plate
down the tray. Nails on the roller punches the plate.
The copper nails used are the size of furniture brads. About 7/8’s long the head about a 1/4”.
When they attach the plate to the hull they place the plate over felt paper which covers the
area of the hull which will be coppered

OK finally the guns are all done.....I just have to make one more eyebolt per gun carriage....for the inhaul.  I always forget those until I take pictures.

 
The corresponding eyebolts and split rings were added to the bulwarks.  They were made the same as those for the gun carriages.  I used 24 gauge black wire.  The split rings were the same also using a 41 drill bit to make them.
 
There are also eyebolts/split rings on deck for the carriages which were also made the same.  BUT, if you examine the plans there are also 8 larger rings which need to be added.  I added those at this time also.   Those were made from 22 gauge wire using a #31 drill bit.  You can see I forgot the one eyebolt on the back of each carriage....so I will add those at some point.  Man that was a lot of eyebolts and split rings to make....sheesh!!

Remember that I wont be rigging them so they will look just as you see them here.  But the beauty of not rigging them means that I dont have to glue them into position permanently yet.   I will wait in case removing them makes it easier to work on the other fittings in the next chapter.  But if you are going to rig them....this would be the time.  I will rig one just to explain how I do it but then I will take it all apart...
 
Also remember that you wont be able to rig 4 of the guns yet because the eyebolts are actually located in the hanging knees.  Those will be added early in the next chapter.   So no worries there.  Check the plans for those....
 

 
And the proverbial pic leaving the camera on deck facing aft showing all the guns....Next up I will rig that one cannon for you folks and start on chapter seven.
 

Michael, watched your lecture at the Ship Model Society of New Jersey. Incredible work, it was a pleasure to see your craftsmanship.

Michael, watched your lecture at the Ship Model Society of New Jersey. Incredible work, it was a pleasure to see your craftsmanship.

Michael, watched your lecture at the Ship Model Society of New Jersey. Incredible work, it was a pleasure to see your craftsmanship.

Michael, watched your lecture at the Ship Model Society of New Jersey. Incredible work, it was a pleasure to see your craftsmanship.

Hope we will see a sample of this new project at the North East Conference at New London.
This would be the high light of the Show.
Tim Murphy 

Have you used the Anatomy of the Ship (USS Constitution). It can be a great reference, 
especially on the rigging and other ship work.
Tim

Constitution has been restored to Her 1815 appearance. This is based on Her last drydock
period which was 2015 to 2017.
 
Tim

Your build on Winchelsea should be great based on what I see.
 Tim 

If you want current photos of the stern I could take them and send them to you.
Tim

I really like you model of the Constitution. Your hull an the motell copper is very nice.
You should be proud on what you have done. 
I volunteer at the Constitution Museum two days a week. Your model is equal to many
that I have seen!
Tim

This will be my build on this Mid Section Model