HIPEXEC

Question?:

Does anyone glue their deck guns permanently in position?

I had to pin the two deck guns on my Virginia Pilot Boat since they slid all around the deck whenever I touched the ship. I can only imagine with 22 deck guns, my deck will look a total mess.

I finished a prototype of a deck cannon. I'll study it for a while and if I still like it in a few days, I'll tackle 21 more. You all get to vote.

I'm starting deck gun production. I had to make most parts from scratch with a very poor drawing and photo to guide me. I'm still making the barrel mount rod from coiled wire. Thanks to you all, I now know how to straighten it out. After I get this proto type together, I'll work on wheel design. I'm studying many different photos and drawings of deck guns to come up with a design that I think will look good.

You're right David B. & Mike,

I cleaned up most of Constructo's cleats ( some were so bad they can't be cleaned up) and painted them. I'll let the paint dry while I'm snorkeling in Cancun.

Thanks

Goeff is right...I never stop thinking about my ship.

Progress in my shipyard is slowed while I try to fabricate, invent, purchase, or...... cleats, hammock stanchions, deck rails and cannons. Constructo drops the ball here and I only want stuff as good as what I see on all your ships. On top of this, my Admiral insists we leave this Arizona heat for a week, so we're heading for the beaches of Cancun. We'll be leaving Saturday.

I was going to leave them off also until I found out that that were an important part of the ship's defense during battle. They made bulwarks against shrapnel, splinters and small arms

Thanks for all the tips....now I'll have to start to work on them.

Well, they look great!

While I'm shopping for high quality parts, I'm starting deck gun production. Constructo does not show any block and tackle...only lines attaching the guns, so I'll have to design a more realistic set up. I'll be looking at all your gun rigs so I can copy them. Constructo give me a lot of raw wood that I have to cut to size. At least the barrels are made.

How did you make the actual hammocks you put into the hammock nets? They look great.

It's funny...Constructo provides excellent looking wood with a great wood layout for true beauty, but all the metal parts and little extras are of very poor quality. I do not want to put these on this ship. It's too nice to hang junk on it. I'll have to go shopping.

Beautiful work!

The quality of Constructo's stanchions and cleats is poor. The brass pin is their version of a rail stanchion. Pretty puny. The small cleat in my photo is constructo's cleat which is poor quality. There's too much over flash and the parting lines are terrible and difficult to file flat and even. The dark cleat came with my Artesiania Latina Swift and is excellent quality. Any ideas where I can get good accessories? 

Constructo gives me some pins with very large loops at the top to make handrails. I've never seem handrails with these very big loopes to hold rope much smaller. With this experiment I glued (CA) line to pins. I'm not sure I like this either.

Here's one of my experiments for hammock nets and stanchions. It's the strongest of all my experimenting since it stanchions are pinned deeply into the top rails. My other attempts were weak since the stanchions were just glued.

Augie, It didn't help that Nelson wore his full dress uniform with all decorations......kind of like a juicy target for snipers.

Anchor chain or line? Constructo shows I should use line to attach the anchor to the ship, while the USS Constitution in Boston has chain. I like the look of chain...what do you think? Of course I'll use line between the block and cathead.

I JUST READ THAT HAMMOCK NETS FULL OF HAMMOCKS WERE MORE THAN JUST A PLACE TO STORE HAMMOCKS. IN ACTION, THE HAMMOCKS PROVIDED ADDITIONAL BULWARKS TO STOP SPLINTERS, SMALL ARMS AND SHRAPNEL !

Great ladders! Don't be so picky...they look excellent.

I evened out the chains since the port chain had too many links. I added a brass grommet to simulate a reinforced hole in the hull where the chains enter the gun deck.

Still putting the two anchors together. Good old Constructo's lack of instructions gave me a small fit. The wooden cross piece on the anchors come in two halves. I dry fit them before gluing and they matched perfectly. I applied 10 second CA and put them together only to find out they weren't symmetrical and one of the cross pieces was glued showing a large seam! 10 second CA doesn't forgive that, so I had to file and sand the errant anchor to match its cousin.  Now I'm touching up the paint and will re-stain the wooden cross pieces. Then I'll fit chains and blocks and lines.

Bob, I have tried your tape idea before...and it seemed to work. I'm still holding off until I feel brave enough to drill that hull. I worked very, very hard to plank it as perfect as I could since I didn't want to fill and paint the hull. I definitely will use progressively larger drills. 

Thanks Bill. I'm looking for small fittings for the rudder chain where it enters the hull since I've just tacked the two ends for now. I had to create the rudder fitting from a left over hinge.

While I'm getting up the courage to drill into my hard-earned hull....I installed the rudder chain. Constructo misses the boat and only shows the chain as a safety chain. My research tells me it's that as well as emergency steering in case the topside steering is disabled. The chains run through the hull into the gun deck.