Der Alte Rentner

Seems like I'm on my own.. Oh well, The build continues.

Greetings bthoe. I don't know how I missed your build until now, but I searched MSW for "bowsprit tenon" and that led me to your build log. Sorry about the bloodshed... I'm just starting out myself and have added your build to my watchlist. I see you haven't posted since Thanksgiving last year. Hope you're just collecting pictures to post soon.

May 29, 2024 update: Based on a comment by Bill Morrison yesterday, I'm amending this post to try to shed a little light on the issue I tried to explain below. The camber(?) is not symmetrical between port and starboard on a number of bulkheads. I discovered this by simply eyeballing the hull from fore and aft. The worst offenders were bulkheads A, C, D and P. By laying planks along the bulkheads, I was able to determine that bulkheads A and C needed to be trimmed back, and that bulkheads D and P needed material added to properly "fair" the deck. It the photo of the Constitution from above in post 170, you can clearly see the shims on top of bulkheads D and P. A closer look reveals the bulkheads that needed to be shaved or sanded back. Original post of July 7, 2023. (Man-oh-man, has it been almost a year???) Before I continue with my build, I have a question for any of you who have build Conny from this kit. The next step in the process is to glue the bulkheads onto the keel. I noticed that the some (?) bulkhead components have yet another flaw. See below: I don't plan to install a gun deck, so the fact that the flaw is repeated in what would be the gundeck (lower) cutout may not be an issue. However, when it'll get to be time to plank the spar deck, absent a fix now, the portside of the deck will be slightly lower than the starboard side. I see two options. One is also illustrated below, and the approach I am taking with bulkhead C. It occurs to me that I could also slightly taper slots in the offending pieces to allow for a little wiggle room to align the bulkhead so the deck edges line up with the closest neighbors. C would align with B and E, and so forth. Sorry, the photos are out of sequence. But I think third one (Bulkhead A) clearly illustrates the problem. (I now see the advantage to making the bulkheads from scratch, but it's probably less work to fix the poorly laser-cut parts than dust off my scroll saw.) Thoughts? Advice?

Thanks for getting rid of the duplicate build log. I noticed that the image quality in my posted photos, which were generated by Adobe from the pdf file I'm using personally to document my build, is not the greatest. This seems to be a limitation of Adobe's process of converting pdfs to jpgs. Are jpg files the only acceptable format for the build log posts? I prefer to put together several days of notes on my PC and maybe post to the build log once a week or so, but if I am going to post, it would be nice to submit higher resolution photos. Thanks again

2024 07-09: Note from my future self to anyone just starting the Model Shipways Constitution and planning on using the Hunt Practicum without a kit bash. At the end of this post, I've begun attaching bulkheads to the center keel set. I would like to advise you now to look waaaay ahead to chapters 4 and 5 of the Practicum to see what will be involved in planking the spar deck. Also look for XKen's build log (link below) here at the Model Ship World site. Why? Because I learned that some steps taken at the very beginning would have saved me considerable grief a year later. In the Hunt Practicum, you will be asked to taper the planks covering the spar deck. Now, not everyone posting here does that, and there's a case to be made that not doing so will make planking the deck much easier. If you're a stickler for sticking as close to the plans as possible and following the Hunt methodology, here are a couple of options you may wish to consider very early on: 1. Following in XKen's footsteps. In particular, the bit about building a plywood carrier deck to facilitate planking off the hull. There are quite a few advantages to doing the spar deck planking off the hull, not least of which is that you can much more easily achieve the tapered planking the plans really call for. (By the way, Hunt sort of cheats on this tapering at the foredeck.) (A tip for you now! In his build log, XKen failed to mention early on that you'll need to shave off the thickness of this plywood carrier from the top of the bulkheads before you affix them to the keel.) 2. If you don't want to mess around with the plywood carrier, then spend a little time examining the plans and develop a map of where the butt joints for the deck planks will be. If you want to understand what I'm talking about here, jump ahead to the latter part of page 8 and page 9 of this build log. Tapering long planks and scratching in fake butt joints sounds easy, but it's not. Once you know roughly where the butt joints will be, plan early on to put support pieces between the bulkheads. Again, see page 9. If perfect 20/20 hindsight, there are three things I would have done differently right from the start. First, I would have gotten some Baltic birch plywood and cut my own bulkheads, because the laser cut parts that come with the kit are simply the pits. Secondly, I would have built a plywood carrier for the decking ala XKen. And thirdly, I would have purchased better planking materials for the hull. I didn't realize until I finished planking the hull, that I would prefer not to paint the Constitution. The basswood material that comes with the kit is okay, if you're going to paint over it, but if you would like a nice natural wood finish, you may want to consider investing in alternative woods. Look at Hipexec's build log for the Constructo kit to see what I mean. Let me close this addendum with the best advice I can give you here at the start. Learn how to navigate this site, and at each stage of your build, consult as many build logs as you can to help you chart your own course. Here are (hopefully) the links to the build logs I found must beneficial to study: (I may have missed a couple, but this is a pretty good sampling to get you started). Good luck!

Yikes, I goofed. I don't know how I set this build log up in the wrong era. I couldn't see a way to move from one era to another, so I deleted everything I could. I'll try setting up the build log again tomorrow - hopefully in the right place. sorry...

I too congratulate you on a splendidly done model. I've been studying all the build log here before I get too far into the construction of my own Model Shipways Constitution hoping to learn from the best. I haven't found a nicer looking outcome. If you're still monitoring the site for feedback, do you have any advice for someone just starting out?

I too am delighted to find your build log. I just unpacked the MS kit and inventoried items yesterday. I've been poring over build logs like crazy looking for details on rabbets and fairing lines for a couple weeks now knowing that I'd not start the keep/bulkhead assembly until I had a concrete plan of attack. Your build to date addresses many of my questions and I'm taking notes. I am saddened to note that you haven't posted since April of 2020. I hope you're all right.

Are you planning to paint over the hull?

I'm taking notes.. Excellent work.

Feb 5, 2024 update: it's been 5 months since I responded to this post, and I've learned a lot since then. For one thing I now know what kit bashing means. At the time I assumed that bashing meant making unfavorable comments about, which is what I did below. In 2020 hindsight, let me State emphatically that I was mistaken about the instructions that came with the model shipways version of the kit. In retrospect the constructo instructions are vastly superior. Though both are useless for a novice like me. Had it not been for the Bob Hunt practicum, and all the build logs here at model ship world, I would not have gotten anywhere in my build. Now that I have some experience behind me, I'm actually looking forward to building the constructive kit after I finish the model shipways one. I love the natural finish of the Constructor kit and I would probably do something different in terms of planking the hull. But I will resurrect it when the model shipways Constitution is finished. Original post: Rich may not be, but I am. I've been poring over the plans and instructions for the Constructo kit, as well as studying Rich's build log. I've decided that I'd rather eat the cost of the Constructo kit and purchased the Model Shipways version instead. I just received their plans and they are a huge improvement over the set that came with Constructo. I'm still waiting for the kit, and know that it's been criticized for less than perfect instructions, but I've downloaded them and decided these too are vastly superior to the set provided by Constructo, which look pretty, but are virtually useless (IMHO). Congrats on having succeeded with a such a beautiful build Rich and overcoming so many obstacles handed to you by Constructo. And thanks for sharing your experience.

Not yet. I spent the better part of the last week poring over the instructions for the Constructo kit and reviewing Hipexec's build log. I'm really impressed with Hipexecs results but the deeper I dig into the details of the Constructo kit, the less impressed I am with it. As mentioned previously, I ordered the plans for the Model Shipways version. I'll have to study those in depth before deciding whether to continue with the kit I have or switch to Model Shipways. (I'm pretty sure already that I'll be switching boats in midstream). Once that decision is made, I'll launch my own build log. I imagine posting one has quite the motivational effect on the builder.

Wow, you are progressing quickly. I love seeing the details in the photos and marvel at the differences in approach between your plans and mine. Keep up the good work.

What a fantastic shortcut. I was planning on trying to cut a notch the entire length of both sides of the false keel, which would have required my making a couple of patterns and setting up a pattern bit on a routing table. This is SOOOO much easier! Thanks for the tip.

Excellent suggestion. I figured that out quickly today as I began working on the kit. I downloaded the instructions for Model Shipways kit to see how those differ from the instruction book that came with the Constructo kit. I also assembled a small library of material on planking. It's slowly sinking in. The Model Shipways instructions refer to their plans to find the location of the bearding and rabbet lines. I suppose I could purchase those. The scale is different, but I imagine I could deal with the scale conversion easily enough. It would probably be a good idea have those plans anyway as I've already found the Constructo plans deficient. Clearly, I have my work cut out for me. I can't remember where I read this in the last couple of days, but I'm going to follow the advice to treat each step as a project on its own. Thank you for your reply. Much appreciated. P.S. Scrolling through your photos I see you've done a nice job of fairing the frames, which will make planking much easier going forward. The Model Shipways instructions again refer their plans for bevel angles to transfer to the bulkheads. This is another deficit in the plans with my kit.

Greetings Mustafa! I too am beginning construction of the USS Constitution, though I'm starting with the Constructo kit. I've done little beyond opening the box and beginning the research. Someone else at this site completed the Constructo kit and I've read all 60 pages of his posts. The first question I had for him seems to have been answered by you. Do I add the keel, sternpost and stem at the beginning and plank afterwards? Or Plank and then somehow fit the keel, sternpost and stem? Before I even begin to glue the frames into the false keel, I want the make sure I have a rock-solid game plan for the planking. I will watch with interest as you progress with your build. Best of luck to you. Der Alte Rentner

Hello Rich, Your last post was almost three years ago, but it was your epic adventure with the Constructo version of the USS Constitution that drew me to the Model Ship World website. I purchased the kit about the time you were finishing up your new base, but it's been collecting dust at my (personal woodworking) shop until I cleared the decks to devote time, space and energy to the project. The time has come, and I am ready to eat start eating that elephant... Having built the Revel plastic kit oh so many moons ago, but having it go south at the very end - the tip of the bowsprit broke while I was doing the rigging, I've been wanting to give a wooden kit a try. Well, I opened the box this week, and started the planning process for the build. Having seen how skimpy the provided instructions were, and having done some preliminary research into planking, I immediately learned that I needed to know more about some of the obstacles you encountered in your build. I'm not clear on the rules at the site for discussion of models, so if a moderator throws a penalty flag on this first query, I would welcome learning how I would go about asking you questions as I embark on my own journey. Your pictures, and those in the kit's instructions, quite light in the details on how to attach the keel, sternpost and stern to your already planked hull. Seems to me that it makes more sense to attach the keel etc. before doing the planking. So, let me begin with a few questions relating specifically to planking: 1. If you had to do it over again, would you have substituted an easier wood to work with to do the first planking then covered that over with the finish veneer provided with the kit. (I'm not sure if yours came with this. There's a note included with my kit that says they included the veneer at the behest of builder's - presumably because of the difficulty working with the hardwood they provided for the primary planking.) 2. How did you carve out the planking at the bow to cleanly accommodate the Stem? 3. Again in retrospect, would you have affixed the stem, sternpost and keel at the beginning and carved out rabbets for bearding the planks flush with the keel etc. Here's hoping you're still perusing the site. and thanks in advance for any help or insight you can provide. Excellent finished project, by the way. Best Der Alte Rentner (the old retiree)