HIPEXEC

I'm almost though laying the new floors in my house and still managed to make some progress with my model. I'm trying to rectify the mistake of the wrong angle on the transom by retrofitting the whole gallery. I've fabricated a lower frame to hold the pre-cut window provided by Constructo (this happens to be the tarnished one that Construct says they will replace. I'll have to fabricate fore and aft spacers to compensate for the wrong angle. The window will be final installed when I get the replacement. While I was fiddling with this project, I managed to break an upper gunport. Like Wes told me, It glued back just fine.

Ship's construction  on hold account of home construction project. I'm working on the whole stern area whenever I get a minute. I had to re-build one of the window frames on account of a mis-alignment.  

I'm building a Conny, so I'll be watching your build with great interest.

Rich

Important all Constructo model builders. Now that I've rectified all the errors made way back when, let me alert all future Constructo builders.

When mounting the false stern piece to the false keel, double check the correct angle with the plan. I glued mine to the pre-cut angle and didn't check the drawing and when I got around to finishing the stern area, the angle is off by at least 2 to 4 degrees. That screws up many things that I have already fixed or will have to fix at a great amount of time consuming work.

Can't wait to see your progress.

Rich

I decided to check the symmetry of my hand carved gallery replacements, so I took a bird's eye photo. Not bad!

Port side gallery rough planked top to bottom. I'm taking the grandkids on a spring break vacation until next weekend, so all ship building will be suspended on account of I'm the only shipyard worker. 

Starboard gallery rough planked top to bottom. I'll plank the port side next, then clean up the rough edges.

Looks great! I thought the stern would be a piece of cake, but it's just as tedious as planking. Lots of angles and curves to deal with.

Rich

90 % of the transom is planked. Now I'm starting to plank the starboard gallery or castle. It's tricky. After all of that is planked, I'll have to clean it all up. It's full of jagged edges and small spaces with some glue spots. Hard to do all these bends and curves without all this.

Artesiana Virginia Pilot Boat 1805 was my first build. It's a great starter since it requires all the disciplines you'll need for more complex ships. You're getting so much advise here....how are you going to wade through all of it? Good luck.

Rich

I'm going to copy your jig method when it comes time to rig my guns.

Thanks,

Rich

I'm half way through planking the transom.

Constructo said they will send me a replacement for the damaged part...I take back what I said about them.

I e-mailed Constructos distributor in Spain a few days ago. I got their name from Phils Hobby Shop where I bought the model. I'm going to buy "Flitz" as recommended by Augie. I found it on Ebay for fast shipping. I hope I don't need any more parts!

I used some "Brasso" I had to clean up the tarnished brass piece. It's not a bad clean-up. I'll look into Augie's stuff. too.

By the way, Constructo's distributor hasn't answered my e-mails as of yet? Not very good support. In fact no support.

I just finished tapering my transition plank from 1.5 mm on one edge to 0.5 mm on the other edge. I just glued it in.

Looking forward to watching your build. Good luck!

Rich

I made a tapered plank to transition from the added stern piece I made to add to the original stern. I also glued on the stern post so I can plank up to it for a neater stern when it's done.

I've glued all the gallery pieces on today. Tomorrow I'll start veneer planking the whole end of the ship.

Here we go again!

I opened the plastic bag containing the transom & bowsprit decorations and they are bent, stained with some kind of dried liquid spots, the black contrast background is gone, so it's just brass on brass, missing stars, and to top it off, the angle on the windows is a few degrees off from my build....and my build is right off the built in angle the kit came with. Go figure!?

Great job. Much better than my Swift.

This was my first build and I learned a lot from it. I salvaged and covered up most of mistakes and it sits on my desk. I can't wait to watch your build log. Good luck.

Rich

It is with great apprehension that I am in the process of gluing all the parts I fabricated on this aft gallery. I'll have no one to blame but me if it goes wrong.....here goes!!

I used my trusty Dremel again to rough in the tops for the aft galleries or castles. I've included in the photos the pieces Constructo provided to to that job. It seems I would have had to build these parts up with a layer or layers, so making my own seems a better way to go.

By the way...I researched what goes on in these aft galleries. It turns out that's where the ship's captain's quarters are and in one of those protruding wings resides his toilet. I wonder for the sake of realism I should make a hole in the bottom of the wing  where this toilet opened to the sea?