Der Alte Rentner

I did.

I'm more concerned about the gap between the inner and outer bulwarks/planking. The gap between the inner and outer bulwark can vary as much as eighth of an inch, which will make the thickness between the bulwarks fatter in places, if I do nothing... Also, my waterways (and Bob's) are thinner top to bottom than the plan. I guess impact of that small difference will be negligible, and perhaps I can compensate for it by making the plank sheer that much thicker so that the end height of the main rail and location of the gun ports. Though I come from a machining background and, in general, am a stickler for detail, I may be able to not go overboard with this. Thanks for the feedback Best Peter (aka Der Alte Rentner)

Anyone out there following this, I've been looking at several build logs and other posts here and am now of the opinion that the instructions in Bob Hunt's Practicum differ from the plan. On pages 89 and 91 in my build above, I showed Bob Hunt's solution for the forward sections of the Waterway, and I showed an exerpt from the plans. I observed that the plans show the stock has a square cross-section, whereas the Practicum specifies material that has a flatter and more rectangular cross-section. I'm guessing the plans are correct. I'm debating whether to pull the waterways off and remake them. Does anyone have any thoughts? Also, the bulkhead extensions are a bit of a nightmare. As I anticipate the planking phase, I'm wondering how much imperfection can be hidden between the inboard and outboard planking. I'm referring mostly to the spar deck area - worst areas are stem and stern. Some of those laser-cut extensions are really off - either too far outboard or having atrocious angles. If they need to be a uniform thickness prior to planking, I guess I'll be shimming, shaving, sanding for many days. For all the discussion on planking here at MSW, I've seen almost nothing on fairing techniques that deal with misshapen bulkhead extensions. again, thoughts? suggestions?

Is it just me, or do the shrouds look awfully thick?

ATTN! Mr. Peabody is back.. Once again, I'm revisiting this post from the future to warn anyone following the Bob Hunt Practicum to pay particularly close attention to the waterways. Disregard Hunt's instructions and follow the plan below. I noticed in 2023 that the waterways, as constructed by Mr. Hunt were too wide between the bulwarks and the spar deck planking, but didn't realize how much this would effect the installation of the spar deck carronades (Chapter 11, page 41 in the Practicum) until I started constructing them. If you want your carronades to poke through the spar deck gunports, keep the waterways as narrow as possible now! There will be other warnings about this a smidge later in this timeline, but I suggest you check out my post from March 1, 2025 starting with post 522:

Because you had a liquid cooled PC, I'm going to guess that you built that one yourself, which would put you into the advanced user class when it comes to PCs, which has me scratching my head as to why you're having this issue. I built my own PC about three years ago and have Windows 11 and Office 365 running. The software itself does not run in the cloud. You can test this by disconnecting from the internet and trying to use Word, Outlook, or Excel. If you can run the programs, then only the data is in the cloud. Even that is most likely a user setup issue. I don't have a single file in the cloud, though when I'm asked to back up something like a new Word document or Excel spreadsheet, office will try to get me to do so in the cloud. I just select my own destination folder on one of my local hard drives. My wife uses Outlook in the cloud; I do not, choosing to sync my PC with my phone using a program pair called Companion Link and Deja Office. That might be the one exception I can think of for why you might be tied to the cloud, though even my wife can work offline in Outlook. This does not compute... When you open something like Word, or Excel and try to open one of your files, what happens? Can't you point to one of your drives to open a file? If the online that you trust is a good one, call their support people and tell them you don't want your data in the cloud. They should be able to steer you in the right direction. If not, I'd love to know why they say you can't... I don't know if your build log is the best place to address this, if you want to take this discussion offline, contact me via the message option here at MSW.

Sorry Sjors, haste makes waste. There will be no hurrying on my part. Good luck juggling between your three builds (Victory, Duyfkin and Conny), I couldn't do that and not go crazy...

August 5, 2024 update from my future self. Yes campers, I borrowed Mr. Peabody's Way Back Machine again to warn you about a possible complication with these last two transom frame members. I suggest you look ahead to Hunt's chapter 7, specifically section 7.2.4 - Making The Windows. He ends up making his own Windows because the construction at this point of the build was not properly thought through, in my humble opinion. The problem is that the angle of the stern most part of the gallery windows needs to be pretty much the same as the angle of this transom frame to the counter/gallery base below. The window frame angle is 16-degrees, whereas the transom to base angle I ended up with is 23-degrees. I now have to find a solution to this oversight that will permit me to use the laser-cut windows. Looking around the model ship world Constitution build logs, I see that this is a common issue. Builders have different solutions, Hunt's was to build new windows out of styrene. Others simply pinch the pilasters and don't concern themselves to make the aft end of the window frame parallel to the transom.. If you want to use the laser cut windows that come with the model ship ways kit, you may want to adjust these two frames accordingly now. To illustrate the issue: Note the 7-degree difference. Shim underneath to bring frame parallel to the stern transom. Fail! Most likely solution for me - shim behind window. I can live with a less than perfectly parallel pilaster. Heck. Even the Bostonian USS Constitution doesn't sport perfectly parallel pilaster. .. just a heads up if accuracy is important to you. ================================ Original post follows:

There are no premade parts for the knighthead or timbers 2 through 5. You have to make all of them from scratch,

Yikes, are going to try to cut out the notches with the bow filler blocks already glued into the hull? That will be fun indeed! Here's something I thought about doing myself, though didn't, but will suggest as a possible plan B. It doesn't seem entirely necessary to carve out the notches in the filler blocks, except maybe to keep the orientation of the timbers on track. You could try making the timbers (and knighthead) 1/8" shorter at the bottom and just gluing these directly to the top of the blocks. As for the orientation? this can still be achieved by use of the notches in the spar deck framing pieces. It's just a thought. I'm really curious to hear about how you dealt with the notches. As for going back several times. Take a look at my build log for proof that you are not alone in this. I made the starboard stern filler block no less than 4 times...

Sjors, I was looking at your pictures of the bow framing. Did you leave out frame #4? This frame extends up from where frame #3 ends and sits outboard of frame #3 in the same slot. You are working from the kit, yes? Do your plans not show these frames?

June 23, 2024 update and caveat! I'm currently working on Hunt's chapter 4 and beginning the process of planking the spar deck. A detail that perhaps should have been obvious here, in the construction of the bow framework, should be mentioned. The height of the spar deck framing piece should probably be the same as the height of bulkhead A. Perhaps another way to phrase this is, the top surface of the spar deck framing piece should probably be flush with the top surface of bulkhead A. Also, I suggest making the aft end of this piece at least an eight of an inch wider. In fact, I think I would advice just squaring this off thusly: This way, when you do have to run planks between bulkhead A and this spar deck framing piece, you won't have to add additional framing between bulkhead A and the arched cutout. At the very least, make sure that your waterway does not completely cover the aft end of this piece. When you fabricate your water way, look carefully at the plans. I believe I erred using the dimensions spelled out by Hunt, resulting in too wide a section, especially at the bow where it meets the bowsprit. Here's what I'm dealing with. I believe following the plan will result in the profile suggested in the red. So, adjust your water way construction accordingly. That is not to say I didn't screw up by not noticing the difference between Hunt's construction and mine. Here's Hunt's structure as shown in Chapter 2: Note there's still a ledge to support the spar deck planking, whereas, mine is buried under the waterway.

I wouldn't glue in the transom just yet... Temporarily affix it with double sided tape while you're tweaking the shape of the stern blocks. You'll be using double sided tape to make your next cuts on the blocks anyway. If you're happy with the result of your shaping, glue away. I found the shaping of these pieces difficult and tedious. If you use the templates as a guide (see my build log) or Chapter one of the Bob Hunt Practicum, you'll get pretty close to the correct shape. I have a feeling that you and I will be applying a bit of putty and doing some detail sanding about the time the planking phase rolls around.

Congrats on a gorgeous build! No disrespect intended, but I hope I don't follow in your 17-year old footsteps. (I'll settle for any number less that 7). Just curious about the painting aspects of the project. I'm a looooong way from getting to that point in my Constitution build, but before I put any kind of finish on any of the wood, I want to know as much as possible about the best ways to go about the process. I've done some research at MSW and found the discussion area on the subject of Painting, Finishing and Weathering Products and Techniques. I'm still working my way through that, as well as Bob Hunt's Practicum on the Constitution. Bob Hunt uses water-based poly, but the discussion section at MSW seems to frown on the use of water-based finishes all together. So, may I ask? What techniques and products did you use on the FLY? I've been a woodworker hobbyist for decades and have only rarely veered from using oil base paints/finishes. Thanks Der Alte (aka Peter) P.S. Having seen the natural finish on the Constructo kit by Hipexec, if I do a decent job on the planking, I may opt for the natural finish and not paint at all.

I'm still putting together the build log for my next post, but given that I just replied to woodartist about the problem I dealt with retroactively above with a method to prevent the same mistake going forward, I'm adding this bit of detail now. I clamp a piece of wood to the top of the newly added bulkhead and also to the previously added bulkhead. The slat forces the deck into alignment with neighboring bulkhead segments. Though not pictured here, I do check the distance between bulkheads to make sure they are parallel to one another. In this case they were spot on and needed no tweaking. If they are not parallel, I clamp a block to the bulkhead and to the false keel to make sure the bulkhead and spine are perpendicular.

P.S. One advantage of uploading photos directly to the site, vs my technique of uploading jpg files of my personal build log in pdf format, is that one can zoom in quite nicely. I just noticed that the stick I used to keep the deck aligned when adding bulkhead H to the false keel is one of my sandpaper sticks - 100 grit side facing up.

Had I spent some time on my own build log yesterday, I might have saved you some grief. Here's my solution to deck faces aligning. As for how to fix bulkhead O. I think cutting it out is fraught with risk. Make yourself a sandpaper file (glue some 80 or 100 grit sandpaper onto a stick), and work down the high deck area. You may have to glue a strip of basswood onto the edges of the bulkhead, but since those edges will likely be faired soon, you might get lucky and not have to do anything. Check how the edges of bulkheads N, O and P line up. If you do need to add material now, you don't have to be too fussy. The edges will be sanded down anyway, so use glue and pins to attach wood strips and sand away when it comes time to fair the bulkheads. Coincidentally, I left off with bulkhead N myself yesterday. I'm using Titebond wood glue instead of messing around with 5-minute epoxy - man what a pain it is to make that stuff and use it quickly enough to make adjustments. With the technique below, I haven't had to worry about reference marks. I do check the distances between the last bulkhead attached and the one I'm just gluing in. If the bulkheads aren't parallel, I adjust the set of the new bulkhead by clamping a perfectly rectangular block (with beveled edge to avoid having the block glued to either component) against the spine and the bulkhead. So far, I have had to do very little of that. It'll be a few days before I post again. While the bulkhead assembly creeps along, I'm working on making those bow knightheads and timberheads. Now T H O S E are a headache!

I've noticed the same thing and therefore am checking as many sources as I can going forward. The Practicum is a great leg up over going at Conny with nothing other than the plans provided with the kit and the build logs here by such as yourself provide broader perspective as well as inspiration. Thanks Der Alte (aka Peter)

Our woodworking shops must be outfitted with different tools. I too just finished this dowelling task, but went a different route. I used my drill press, and for a couple of holes. I actually used a hand drill.. I'm following your build too now. (I think I'll leave the small boat building for last however).