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Hi Sam, If we were closer yes. I would worry with a smile, !! As the weather is good in the uk for the weekend we may have a bbq, you could jump on a plane. Lol guess we will have to settle for a coffee in october,
 
World record, hmm you could be right, but time is not important for greatness.

Sam,
 
Thoroughly enjoy going through your Enterprise build log. As I browse through projects picking up tips, finding a log like this one is like finding a treasure chest.
Your hull is absolutely beautiful.....love the color contrast.
Dave

Carl, I bought barrels sometime back, I forget where. I may try casting my own one day in the future. 
As far as take away, I do most of the cooking here which means she does most of the cleaning (SCORE!) Most likely it will be left overs and BBQ. I love to make a mess in the kitchen but HATE to clean it up and most take out food leaves me feeling kind of ill lately. Must be the lack of grease in my diet, what was I thinking marrying/living with a YOGA instructor??  
Sam

Rich, thanks for the kind words. The blond wood is boxwood from Hobby Mill. Lorcan (the cat) wasnt pleased with the material that came with the kit so she forced me to build my own.
 
Mark, thanks for the condolances, they really work their way in dont they? He was a package deal with the Future Admiral and ended up adopting me also. I am not sure who misses him more, my better half or the cat; they were best friends. Not that I dont miss him. 
 
A bit of progress these last few days. I finally rigged the gun ports. I am not totally satisfied with the knots and seizing. If I had rigged them before I mounted the transom like I planned I think i could have done a better job. I am going to accept them for now. once I have done some more rigging I might go back and have another go at them.
 

I started out with some tape to mark out the holes for the 'leather" tubes I made from rolled paper and painted
 
 

glued the rope into the tube and inserted into the hole. They dont look bad, but I think when I have some more experience I might revisit these. The seizing could be better but I had trouble getting in there to work, tight squeeze between the ring and the transom. A better way would have been to seize the cross rope to the rings and then mount to the transom. Another lesson for the future, Make a plan and stick to it to the best of your ability, dont alter it without a good reason.
 

Not bad at all from normal viewing distance.
 
Ok back to gun carriages.
 
Sam
 
 
 

My gawd!  I am just getting into this and have to remember that you guys were once newbies... it borders on intimidating.  I will stick with it, I can do it... one day.  For now, I am busy learning how to sand.
 
Wax on, wax off...

Sam:
The trucks look good. The rear trucks are always a little smaller than the forward trucks. Good work.
 
Russ

STOP-STOP-STOP
 
Mark, big mistake, you held the plans upsidedown !
 
I hope you get the message in time to fix it still ;-)
 
Hoping the best, Daniel

I have finally finished the capping of my bulwarks, this job took so much longer than anticipated, took some super close ups

Hi Sam,
 
Magnetron, oven, take-away, delivery service (depends on your taste aswell) ... However, so far you've been well on the way creating a production plant for carriages, what about the foundry ...?

Sam:
I have read that the larger trucks on the front of the carriage helped compensate for the deck camber.
 
Russ

Here is a second pass at the main deadeyes and chainplates. The chainplates are much better in that they are nearly right on the design width, about 3/64". The height of the deadeyes above the rail is good and they are just about equal in height. I think once the cap is in place and everything is painted, this approach will work. The key for me is to keep the chainplate width as close as possible to 3/64".
 
Russ
 
 

Enjoy your trip.
Admirals are funny about some things I have discovered. Mine is pretty easy going, just dont mess with her knitting!
You can remember 50% of the time? Whats your secret? I sometimes forget I have a garage....
Buy the admiral something nice while your away.
Sam

Carl, the masts dont bother me although maybe they should since I have never done one before. Actually the carriages are a bit of a chore, 14 repetitions. I don know that I will ever build anything much bigger than 20 guns, I dont do well with repetition. Which is why I spent so much time figuring out how to mass produce things like trucks, trying to make 60 round disks about .25" in diameter would have caused a subdural meltdown! 
The better half is going away for a few days this week leaving me alone with the animals and my build, there just might be some real progress by this time next Sunday. silly woman - good thing there is a dishwasher here.........
Sam

Thanks everybody! Its always appreciated.
 
Lory, thanks for dropping in. Yes we are/were all newbies. I still consider myself a newbie - this is my first build although its been 5 years in the building, lots of start and stop in my world. 
Absolutely stick with it! you mentioned sanding, do you have a build log up?
 
Russ, do you happen to know if the smaller wheels were simply to give additional elevation, or does it somehow help control recoil? I can see where the smaller wheels might place more weight in the rear causing the recoil to want to go through the deck instead of straight back.
 
Carl, I have had the lathe for a while now, its been at work. I brought it home a few months ago both to force the company to stop asking me to loan it to others and also to do my masts and spars. As you can see I havent got to those yet.  I keep finding other mini projects to extend my build time. I think I might be able to set a world record for prolonging a build. 
Sam

Enjoy your trip.
Admirals are funny about some things I have discovered. Mine is pretty easy going, just dont mess with her knitting!
You can remember 50% of the time? Whats your secret? I sometimes forget I have a garage....
Buy the admiral something nice while your away.
Sam

Not much I can add, sir. Very nice work!
 
I heard all this talk about wales so brought my harpoon...guess I better listen better next time!

You're right, Sam, it's great exercise for my 75 year old brain. Now, when I wind up standing in my garage, I can remember why I went there at least  half the time instead of never!

Carl, the masts dont bother me although maybe they should since I have never done one before. Actually the carriages are a bit of a chore, 14 repetitions. I don know that I will ever build anything much bigger than 20 guns, I dont do well with repetition. Which is why I spent so much time figuring out how to mass produce things like trucks, trying to make 60 round disks about .25" in diameter would have caused a subdural meltdown! 
The better half is going away for a few days this week leaving me alone with the animals and my build, there just might be some real progress by this time next Sunday. silly woman - good thing there is a dishwasher here.........
Sam

Woo Hoo! Assignment is done and now back to building. 
 
I discovered the other day my rear trucks are 0.020" oversized. Insert appropriately colorful Longshoreman vocabulary here. I almost said I will live with it but they are very close to the same size as the front trucks. I didnt want to make all new parts since I am getting low on Manzonia but didnt feel I would be able to cut them down cleanly by hand. What to do. What to do. Back to the wood lathe and make a new cutting tool........ I used the back side of the front cutter and now all I need to do is reverse the tool. With 1:51 being such on odd scale I most likely will never use this tool again but its there if I need it. I might work for 1:48. 
 
Then I needed a way to hold the truck firmly and centered to the tool. 
 
A couple of weeks ago I tried to make an arbor to spin the truck and cut a small chamfer on the edges. That failed when I discovered the #2 screws were the same size as the axels. I salvaged that and turned my trucks down. Some broke, more have an imprint os the hex head, but many of them are usable. I may still have to cut some new parts, but I wont have to replace all of them.
 
Sorry for the blown out back grounds on some of the pictures, I was shooting against a concrete driveway and was too lazy to set up a backdrop for this.
 
 
Making a new cutting tool

 
The finished tool

 
 
An arbor to hold the over sized trucks

 
In use

 
 
The result. Based on the drawings here at MSW, the new and improved trucks are 0.005" undersized, I can live with that.

 
Now to figure out a jig to make the bolts that hold the trucks together. Not sure if I can pull this one off since I dont have an indexing head. I have lots of scrap trucks to play with though.
 
Thats it for now,
Sam

I understand makeup tables are great finishing centers. Paint dryers, curling irons - errr plank benders, paint bushes, weathering powders..........
 
The bow looks great Rich. The seats are a great addition.
 
Think of the eduction your getting in problem solving and engineering with Constructo. Some places charge thousands of dollars for that, your getting it for the cost of a kit........ I'll go back to my corner now......
Sam

Carl, the masts dont bother me although maybe they should since I have never done one before. Actually the carriages are a bit of a chore, 14 repetitions. I don know that I will ever build anything much bigger than 20 guns, I dont do well with repetition. Which is why I spent so much time figuring out how to mass produce things like trucks, trying to make 60 round disks about .25" in diameter would have caused a subdural meltdown! 
The better half is going away for a few days this week leaving me alone with the animals and my build, there just might be some real progress by this time next Sunday. silly woman - good thing there is a dishwasher here.........
Sam

He was being careful not to damage the hull.  He can always replace the linen.  But not hte model.
David B

I gave the hull a second coat of varnish while I work on some miniature carpentry stuff. My Admiral had a major fit because  I did it on a bed, even though I covered the bed with towels.

Believe it or not....when I was taking out these 14 - 3/8" pieces from their envelope to put on my sticky tape workholding, the last one slipped out of the tweezer! It took me a half an hour of crawling to find it. It didn't land on the floor, but bounced of my leg into the recesses of one of the shelves under my workbench. All's well that ends well!
 
Now I shall mark exactly where each piece goes on the tape and begin the building process without chasing tiny falling parts.

The heads are installed. The men of the USS Constitution all shouted...."Hooray!"