Der Alte Rentner

Having experienced several, 'gee, what do I do now'? moments myself, even this early in the build, I fully understand the need for breaks - long or short. Researching and problem solving are consuming way more time than I anticipated. As a consequence my posts will be fewer and further between as I wrestle with issues and decisions going forward. Right now, I'm debating whether or not to dismantle the transom elements because the topgallant rail will not adequately cover the overly thick transom assembly (planking/shims/frames/planking). I suppose I could simply make a wider rail, and just move on. But I'm obsessing over this little detail. The topgallant rail has quite the arc in it, yet the transom itself is fairly flat. I'm looking for photos of these details before I take saw and chisel to the stern. But I digress. Welcome back.

Okay, now I'm feeling like a slacker. Not only did you create wheel from scratch, you turned the spokes on a lathe, and somehow managed to drill straight holes for them in the wheel. I don't yet see the nave yet, but I'm sure you have a plan for that as well. I hunted down Jonathon's suggested wheel kit from Syrene Model Ship Company. That doesn't seem like much less work. I have a long way to go before I get to that part of the build, but I'll put my thinking cap on and see if I can't come up with an elegant solution to using the cast metal wheel that came with the kit. (While at the Syrene site, I saw the plans for the cannon carriage kit. Having seen the fine finish on the cannon itself, I'll be on the lookout for techniques - or sources, for alternatives there too. Thanks for being in the vanguard gentlemen..

Exactly what I noticed. That's why, like you, I look ahead as much as possible to try to spare myself the agony of the same mistakes, and why I peruse this website constantly in search of tips, techniques, and pitfalls to be avoided.

Excellent work. And thanks for sharing the information about the 3D tour. I'm definitely going to hunt this down. P.S. I'm still working on the gunports, and noticed an oversight in Bob Hunt's Practicum. There's no mention of the two just aft of bulkhead K. Since he had us install outer plank sheer elements there, I figured something was up. My first point of reference was the 3D Constitution exhibit at the museum's website you guided me to. Though there were no canons there, I did see the openings and netting with holes for the barrels. I went one step further and perused your build log for confirmation. Thanks for all the great pictures. I will draw inspiration from your sterling example.

Hello Unegawahya Bob Hunt's Practicum suggests applying acrylic polyurethane as you go. This then gets covered with acrylic paint later. I have jumped ahead quite a bit in the Practicum and have seen that Bob glues stuff on top of the painted surfaces. I assume you're doing the same. How well does the glue hold on a painted surface compared to the raw wood? Do you sand away the finish before gluing new parts to these surfaces? Also, I notice that your main rails look different from what the Bob Hunt Practicum shows (see below). Is there a reason you have no planking above the main rail? again, welcome back. Happy to have another build log to explore and exploit for tips and techniques. Best Der Alte (aka Peter)

Hi Jonathan, I'm new to the site, and relatively new to model ship building in general. Before starting the USS Constitution, I pored over Model Ship World looking for as much information as possible before committing to the project. Had I not learned of Bob Hunt's Practicum, I would not have attempted this at all. So, thanks for steering me to a resource that's helping me work through the build. I will look for Ken Forman's build to see if I can glean more useful information there. (Example: I'm hunting down pictures of the main rail today, trying to figure out if my gun port bulwarks are not too fat (plank+bulkhead extension+plank) to accommodate the main rail later. I just learned that Mr. Hunt had me cut off the tops of those extensions a tad early, opting to use toothpicks and a drill later to deal with the planking ABOVE the main rail. He certainly has some novel approaches to things..) As for the pdf's. I plan to print the entire build log when this project is finished. I started in Word, but soon learned that I could only post text and jpg files here at MSW. So, painful as it is, I maintain the log in Word, export it to PDF, and from there convert to jpg files to accommodate MSW. Believe me, I'd be happy to find a simpler method of posting the build log here. I am not familiar with ModelShipBuilder. If that site offers the possibility to make my life easier, that would be great. One reason I continue to work in Word is that I crop and edit the photos I use in the log. I don't want to photoshop every picture before posting, so the crop feature of Word is a time-saver and helps me put together a nicer looking log - again, because at some point I will print the whole thing and give it to my son along with the model. Thanks for your interest, and the great leads. Best Der Alte (aka Peter)

Since you have the Practicum, the instructions for the channel and chainplates are in Chapter 10.

You're working on the pull-out table on your desk? Holy Mackerel! By the way, Welcome back...

The Practicum confirms your observation of the "pics", 3/32"x 1/2". See below:

I'm doing exactly that. I've been out of the shop for a while dealing with family issues. As these are wrapping up, I'm getting back to work...

May I ask? How did you shape the bowsprit?

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?

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...

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