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The Bitter End

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Everything posted by The Bitter End

  1. The Bitter End
    Not a terribly exciting or informative post today... I took a break from marking up the false keel as I needed to produce the hull planking to see what thickness I could consistently produce. I then churned out about 600 planks of 4.5mm x 1.5mm and will sand them back to their correct thickness as I need them. Because they are cut from raw trunks, there is a lot of wastage, so there will be a fair amount of culling happening. While I was in the "big" workshop, I also cut some pear wood planks of 6.7mm on the table saw and simply traced the outline of the provided keel components onto those planks, being sure to avoid any knots and major inconsistencies in the wood. I then cut close to the line with my 1970s delta Rockwell 14 inch bandsaw with a blunt bent blade and then sanded back to the line on the belt sander and with a Drexel. This has produced reasonable results and with a bit of tweaking one can get a nice neat fit on the false keel. I hope all this extra work pays off. It is not that obvious in the photos, but the pear really is a beautiful wood once it has been given a little bit of attention It is probably worth repeating the warning that the parts provided in my kit were very fragile and broke exceptionally easily. The kit I have is apparently at least 15 years old, which may have played a role in this fragility. These parts still obviously need cleaning up and fitting, but here are the rough cuts
  2. The Bitter End
    Thanks again for this information. I have been looking at the plans in your link, and they certainly are excellent food for thought. It is interesting to see the evolution of this vessel over her long history. Perhaps you can answer a question for me with your greater access to information. I have the original deck planking at 40ft by 7 inches length and width (thickness is not so relevant for me in this case. This scales to 2.3mm or 1/11" does that sound correct to you?
  3. The Bitter End
    Hi Gregg! I am happy to have you tagging along, please keep an eye out for mistakes for me. I am also following these builds, I am truly amazed by the quality of the workmanship that exists on this forum. I hope you start your log soon, and we can struggle along together. Regards Haiko
  4. The Bitter End
    Hi Jon Firstly, thank you for your input. That set of drawings of the stem definitely help. I ended up making the stem from a single piece of pear wood, but I think I will cheat a bit and carve these divisions into the wood. The images of the constitution you reference on used to sail's log are absolutely beautiful, and this is exactly the style that I am aiming for. Achieving this is another story. I would really appreciate your offer of additional drawings, it would be amazing if you could send them my way. Thanks again Haiko
  5. The Bitter End
    I hope it stays that way, without your build log I would be completely lost too!
  6. The Bitter End
    In principle, I do agree entirely. My motivation for making the stem from scratch is that I am leaving the model unpainted, and a pear wood stem should be easier on the eyes than the basswood one provided. I also want to do it in sections to increase the chances that I can get the stem out of as uniform a piece of wood as possible, a challenging task with all the tiny knots in these trees. I am still talking a big game about doing this, but It may not happen. The pear wood I have is presenting some significant challenges due to the incredibly cold winters and very hot summers where these trees grew, creating a very uneven wood density across the grain and this is exaggerated by the fact that they were farmed to bear fruit and not produce timber, so there are plenty of knits to contend with....that being said please keep the opinions coming, I give them all serious consideration
  7. The Bitter End
    I have removed all clamps and sanded and scraped off all the excess glue and char. Nothing too notable about this process but it is worth mentioning that the wood provided in the kit is very delicate so it breaks easily and can easily be over sanded, especially at the edges, as a result I have had 2 glue back 2 broken sections indicated below as well as put in a bit of a filler strip where I had removed too much material during sanding. I have also simply photocopied the plans to transfer the bearding lines to the false keel, My intention is to do this using carbon paper, but I will still have to see if this actually works. If anyone has any tips or pointers at this point on how to go about double planking the hull, any help would be very welcome. When I transfer the bearding line I am working from the assumption that I will have to raise the bearding line by the thickness of the additional layer of planking that I will be adding....so far that is all that I have on the subject. The rest of the day was spent cutting more pear wood in preparation for milling. Hopefully I am not being over ambitious.\ On an unrelated note, I have been looking for plans for the keel stem so that I might make my replacement stem in pieces as it would have been made in reality. I found plans from 1929, but they are significantly different from the provided stem pieces that I cannot really make use of them. I am not sure if that is because the kit plans are incorrect or if the 1929 plans are just a modern version of the stem, but I am at a loss. If anyone has any suggestions or access to plans for a stem or era appropriate stem, I would jump at the opportunity.
  8. The Bitter End
    I have finally begun this build process in earnest. I began With opening up the box and going through all the parts, removing the small items from their packaging and transferring them to my small parts organizers. I make use of these units which have small sub boxes with individual lids, which I absolutely love. https://share.temu.com/vMlcL3WUfmA (Please let me know if this link breaks forum rules and I will remove it). Next was a quick stock take and parts inspection. It has been mentioned in other builds, but Utmost care must be taken when removing parts from their frames, I managed to break a keel section before it was even properly out of the box. I will spare you all another set of photo of the box contents, which consist of vast quantities of bass wood and a multitude of bits and pieces. For now, I have packed everything back in the box and just removed the 8 sheets which contain hull frame sections. I will begin by removing the central keel sections with an Exacto knife and number 11 surgical blade(I bought about a million of them for next to nothing, so I might as well use them). It is surprisingly hard to remove these sections without doing any damage. I intend to leave the hull unpainted and planked in a second layer of pear wood, so I will make the visible keel sections from scratch using the same. The keel sections below have been removed for use as templates for scratch making these parts (Hopefully) Moving on to doing the glue-up on the portions which won't be visible once the hull is planked. I am doing the glue-up with titebond original. Alignment was done by gently hammering a standard toothpick into the alignment holes of the sections and then sanding them flush (hot tip - you can save money by breaking the toothpick in half and using 1 toothpick for both holes ) I then placed the sections between 2 sheets of wax paper and pressing them between various boards that were floating around the kitchen. That is it for now while I wait for the glue to dry and figure out how to make the keel sections T.B.E. EDIT! I lifted the weights after an hour or so to clear any squeeze out with a scalpel before it completely dries... and noticed that the warping of the bass wood caused the seams to open on 2 of the pieces. I therefore forced some glue into these gaps and re clamped with office clips. The lesson here is so either be more aggressive with the weight on a flat press or go with clips from the beginning.
  9. The Bitter End
    Hi again Herr Renter! I am actually doing the strips on a table saw believe it or not, it produces pretty good results, but I will certainly try and get them neatened up with a drum sander as you suggest. I have also only cut about 30% of the hull planking that I need, so I might attempt the next batch on the bandsaw. I'll be spending the morning in the woodpile with a chainsaw tomorrow, so I should have more wood to experiment on during the week if my schedule allows it. I decided to get started on the hull this evening so...here we go....
  10. The Bitter End
    Thanks for the advice and welcome. I will definitely do exactly that, I think I will need as much time as possible to figure out how to get those planks as thin as I can.
  11. The Bitter End
    I guess this I have finally begun work on my Constitution....in a way I have decided that I will be double planking the Hull. I prefer the unpainted look to best showcase the unique element of this hobby, which is hull construction from individual planks. I also have access to several thousand Pear trees, which present a bit of a challenge, but I am excited to approach it. It was suggested to me by @Der Alte Rentner that I simply fill in between the frames and do a single planking over this(a great suggestion which will definitely save many hours of work) but I think I need the planking practice and I have the supplied timber from the kit, so I will plank the hull as per the kit instructions and then plank over it with my pear wood planks...hopefully. If anyone has any advice on what to be careful with in this process, I would be most grateful. I realise that I am making the hull thicker than was planned for in the kit, so I'm anticipating some issues. My research allowed me to settle on planks of 40ft by 12 inches(160mmx4.2mm at scale). This requires a staggering 95 running meters of planking by my calculations (assuming no wastage). The process requires me to cut out the straightest section of the tree with a chainsaw, while avoiding sections with nails (nails are used on these trees to tie open branches to aid fruit bearing). I then rough cut the trunks to square on the bandsaw, square off 2 sides on the planer, rip 5mm planks on the table saw and then tun these planks into 2.5mm strips on the table saw with a thin strip jig built for the purpose. I then need to thickness down to 4.2mmx1.5mm (a process which I haven't quite figured out yet.
  12. The Bitter End
    Finally finished. Please accept my apologies for the very similar photos to my last post. It has been really interesting to go back over the model in the cleaning process and see the choices and mistakes that I made at the beginning of the build which I would have approached so differently now that I have completed my first model. If anyone sees anything which can be improve or if anyone wants any specific information on any part of this build or the techniques used please let me know. Thank you again to everyone who supported and assisted me in this multi year journey. It has only been a pleasure.On to the next one!
  13. The Bitter End
    Good morning! I will put together a series of photos on this jig. You are absolutely right about the kerf size, I use a 2.5mm kerf aluminum cutting blade(they have a slightly different tooth profile which seems to work a little better) with a high tooth count. I agree that this is unfortunately very wasteful but I have access to almost unlimited quantities of pear wood as I live in a pear farming area and farm pears myself. I know you can get blades with a narrow kerf from some specialist wood working suppliers but I am yet to see one with my own eyes. Here is more or less the thinnest full size blade I could find. https://www.amazon.com/Micro-Kerf40-Melamine-Table-Mitre-Blade/dp/B00J8UM8O4 Kind regards TBE
  14. The Bitter End
    Good evening everyone! I am about to start a uss constitution build from model shipways and I am not entirely happy with the basswood planking provided. I would therefore like to cut my own planking from pear wood that I have a startling abundance of. Does anyone know what the maximum hull plank length and width would have been on the original constitution? I have come across many different values ranging from 22 ft up to 60ft(which seems a bit excessive) and widths around 12 inches. I would appreciate any input before I embark on the rather challenging task of ripping all this timber on a full sized table saw. Ps. For anyone who is interested I made a very effective thin strip jig which produces surprisingly consistent planking at tiny scales on a full sized table saw. I would be happy to share the design if there is enough interest Regarss TBE
  15. The Bitter End
    Good Morning Marcus I think you may be right about the kit being an accurate representation of the 1927 layout, I do foresee this being a problem and an adventure to try and get as close as possible to how she originally looked. My "research" so far has only been reading scraps of information here and there, browsing through the constitution museum database and drawings, scrolling through logs and even asking AI for some information. I have been working on Pegasus, so I have not yet had a chance to really get into proper research. I would be enormously grateful if you would point me in the right direction on any of this information, as one can easily get led astray with bad sources. I look forward to having your input as I struggle along! TBE
  16. The Bitter End
    Good Morning Aliluke Thank you for the compliment. I really tried to go for a more muted colour scheme, more as I I imagine a vessel would have looked after some years at sea as opposed to the day she was launched. I have infact muted the colours even more in some places, I hope you will take a look when I post again with the hopefully finished model. I took a look at your log and that is absolutely beautiful work. I wish I had seen your stern galleries when I started my build! I guess I will have to copy you on the next one Ill be sure to keep an eye on that progress. TBE
  17. The Bitter End
    Good Morning Marcus I was thinking about this very thing just before you sent this message. I think "the most accurate kit" is a bit of marketing gymnastics. It's more or less a big box of planks with some vague suggestions about what to do with them. From everything I have seen, this is going to translate to something quite close to a scratch build with a huge amount of modification. If you take a glance at my Pegasus you will see that there was fairly little that wasn't somewhat modified and if I could rebuild that kit I would have done far more. I am going to do my best to do the kit some sort of justice, but I can't make any promises just yet. If you happen to have any suggestions or see me going the wrong way, please let me know! Kind regards Haiko
  18. The Bitter End
    Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to my attempt to redeem myself. Please jump ahead to post 16 to avoid the preamble and see the actual start of the build. After having begun a Build log for my HMS Pegasus in 2019 with great enthusiasm, life got in the way (everything from the daily challenges of being a farmer right the way through to falling through a warehouse roof and spending a long time recovering). This left a gaping hole in my progress log. My intention is to begin this Constitution build and record every annoying step from beginning to end. I like to think that it might help some of the modellers on here who are also beginners with a limited collection of tools and experience (Pegasus was my first build and is still not quite finished as I am waiting for parts). I do enter into this build with a fair amount of apprehension. Literally, the first word of this log brings up a question, the first of many. Should I be referring to this vessel as the Constitution or the USS constitution? My intention is to build her as she was in 1797 at which point she would have been the (frigate) Constitution... I think. Everything I have read about this kit tells me it will be a huge challenge, but I am hoping that with the help of the kind people on this forum and the bottomless well of knowledge contained within its build logs, I will be able to create something worthy of a glass box. I have already had incredible help from @Der Alte Rentner so I am feeling cautiously optimistic. My first big challenge is a decision on how to approach the hull, I think I will go with double planking. Due to my location and budget it is almost impossible to get hold of planking strips for the second planking that are worthy of creating an unpainted and coppered hull, so I have decided that I will cut pear wood planking from the pile of pear trees destined for the fireplace. This in itself is a pretty big challenge, but I have managed to extract some decent stock from the trunks, and my early trials with ripping planks has lead me to believe I can cut stock with success. This does however lead me to wonder what the correct size stock to rip is? What I have read in terms of plank length is anything between 22ft and 60ft(values which seem too low and too high to me) and 12 inches wide. I have sort of decided to go with plank lengths of 35ftx12inches(+- 150mmx4mm at scale). If anyone has any suggestions on correct dimensions, please let me know!! This also leads me to another minor point. I created a little Excel spreadsheet to convert imperial measurements both from the plans and information from the original ship to metric scale measurements. It is pretty simple but if anyone happens to need something like that I will happily send it through. I think I will try and create a model that is structurally as true as possible to the 1797 Constitution, but with a paint scheme that is more like the Belle Poule(which I believe was based on the constitution). Largely natural wood, perhaps a little staining and black paint with some ochre highlights. I like a somewhat more muted final outcome, and I can't bring myself to paint or copper over the hundreds of hours it takes to produce a decent double planked hull. Taking a look at what is still an incomplete Pegasus model(as of 20 October 2025) on my other log will give you an idea of the style I like I guess I should attach a photo of some sort to this post, so for now I will simply be a closed constitution box containing many man many hours of work. Hopefully it is complete, I bought it for around 250 dollars off Facebook marketplace. I look forward to sharing this journey with you all. Kind regards Haiko(The_bitter_ end)
  19. The Bitter End
    Good Morning Bob!! I am so sorry for my very delayed response. The farming season has begun, early mornings and late nights have played havoc. Thank you for your kind message. It is good to be back and I can't wait to finish her up and start my constitution build! Kindest regards, Haiko
  20. The Bitter End
  21. The Bitter End
    This is an embarrassingly delayed post but better late than never! I stil have a fairly long way to go on this build but I would like to take the opportunity to thank @chris watton and @Blue Ensign for their help and patience with me in choosing a ships boat. This is the 28ft pinnace from vanguard models that I made some minor modifications to. These gentlemen answered numerous questions with patience and kindness that is hard to find these days. As for the build as a whole, I absolutely could not have gotten this far without the help of Blue Ensign. I have shamelessly stolen every step of the way and followed every step of his outstanding log, even going so far as to message him directly where I had additional questions(which he always seemed happy to answer). As for the build and progress so far, I have made several mistakes and there are lots of loose ends(literal and figurative). Getting parts has been a nightmare and today marked the very end of my 0.1mm thread, this has however resulted in a whole new layer of creativity, finding alternatives has been a journey in itself. The photos included are largely an overview of my attempts, please ignore the clips hanging off the model and absolutely ignore the dust. I live on a farm in south africa surrounded by dirt roads. I will give her a proper clean before she goes into a case, at this point its a slightly pointless exercise. Please feel free to give any feedback, this has been a great learning process and I hope to continue to grow. Thank you all for your help so far and here's to the next few months! TBE
  22. The Bitter End
    This is an incredibly kind thing to say and I appreciate the praise. I think your log is perfect for me because your work is beautiful and precise while going over every detail. This pegasus was my first build so I have plenty to learn and your log has already started to help. I hope to start my constitution in the next few months and I will be much more diligent about posting every step and hopefully something in there serves to help you too. I will post an update on my progress this evening. Please feel free to criticize and comment, that seems to be the only real way to learn. Thanks again! TBE
  23. The Bitter End
    Good Morning/evening/afternoon! I am still steadily chilling away at this model and will be sure to post more updated photos soon. I fell 11 meters through the roof of my workshop which put a bit of a hitch in my proverbial giddiyup for a while and life has generally been too busy to allow for serious modeling. I have hoever been making some progress and I hope to be moving onto my next model(The USS constitution is already on the shelf waiting). I have however in the interim picked up a bit of a problem. It turns out that I am short on at least 50 of the 3mm deadeyes that were meant to come with the kit(I stole 8 2.5mm deadeyes from my constitution kit in desperation) as well as some of the thinner rigging rope. I did contact amati to let them know that they had packed an incomplete kit but they simply sent me an invoice for 75 euros for the full value of replacement parts and shipping and accused me of having made up that the kit was shipped incomplete. When I gave a negative review on their website they simply deleted it. This leads me to my question. does anyone know where I might find deadeyes and rigging thread at a reasonable price where shipping wont cost me 5 times more than the actual product. I have looked high and low without success. All the best! TBE
  24. The Bitter End
    Good Morning Blue I would firstly like to thank you once again for this incredible build log. It has genuinely been a source of joy for me. It has lead me down a path of learning on my first build which goes far beyond just copying instructions on plans like building a puzzle. This was always what I was looking for in this hobby and you have helped me to find it. This leads me to my more specific question. In the quoted post you do the rigging for what I assume is the lower main mast yard, you then say that that is your sample and that you will be doing all 10. does this mean that all 10 yards are rigged with blocks in an identical manner(I assume not), and if not then do I just follow the block rigging instructions which are on the plans provided by Amati for the rest of the yards? Any guidance on this would be great. Kid Regards Haiko
  25. The Bitter End
    Hi Again BE Thanks for the input. It is always helpful. As a matter of interest, why did you decide to go with blue instead of black? I took a look at your list of sources. I was hoping for something more detailed but I realise that is an enormous ask. I will just have to order things one at a time as I come across them in your blog and need them.

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