g8rfan

Welcome back Brian. Looking forward to your future progress on this very interesting build

Hi Jim Coming along nicely. Glad the copper stamp worked well for you. Keep it up.

Well, this will be my last post for a while. My surgery is Thursday and after that, I'll be a one armed man for a month or so. Rudder construction has progressed. Of course, like everything, it became a little project in itself. The initial shape was cut from 3/16 sheet provided in the kit. I used my very old and cheap Dremel scroll saw. For a pretty basic little saw, it doesn't do a half bad job. I have a much nicer Duracraft saw that I acquired from my dad, but it is missing one of the blade holders and as it is an older m model as well, I can no longer get parts for it. Anyway, I cut the piece with just a little around the edges and then fine tuned it with files and sanding sticks. The aft edge was tapered as it is supposed to be. Then using AOS as a guide, I cut out the notches for the pintles. These are oversized and curved at the bottom to allow for the gudgeons to slip under the pintles. Finally, the forward edge was chamfered to allow for the movement of the rudder. In preparation for the coppering, I gave the whole thing a coat of Gesso and sanded it smooth with 150 grit sandpaper, then a applied another coat and sanded this down first with 220, then 320 grit to give a nice smooth surface for the copper tape. There were still a few deep scratches, but nothing to worry about. The copper plating was done just like the hull using the 3D printed stamp to provide the indentations for the nails. Once the copper was on, I painted the top portion. In hindsight, should have painted that first instead of having to be very careful on the edge of the copper. This should have been where I was done, but of course there was more yet to come. When I dry fitted the gudgeons and pintles to see how everything was going to look, there was still a significant gap of a bout 2.5mm between the rudder and sternpost. The rudder should really fit nice and flush. The isue was that even with the notches, the pintles still stuck out pretty far, and the same for the gudgeons. The notches I had cut accounted for the thickness of the actual pintle/gudgeon, but not the metal behind each. So, I set about creating slightly deeper notches to accommodate each. I didn't was to remove the copper that I had already applied, nor did I really was the openings on the rudder to be any deeper, so I only notched out the area where straps would go. To do this, I first had to very carefully cut away the copper covering the areas to be notched, then used a square file to make the notch. Of course, Murphy had to chime in one last time. When I started to notch the sternpost where the 12 foot mark is, I found that this was exactly where I had used a nail to attach the sternpost. So, I'll have to use a punch to set that nail deeper before making that notch. In the end, everything fit nicely and actually provided an added benefit, as now I had an exposed wood surface to glue to. When I dry fitted the pieces with the new notches, everything looked perfect, although I am going to have to bevel the edges of the gudgeons to get them to fit under the pintles. Now I'm just waiting for some additional pintles and gudgeons to arrive (thanks @KurtH for the generous offer) then I can finish it up. See you guys in a month

Welcome to the club Paul. I too am on my first wooden ship model. A lot of plastic in my younger days, but never a wooden one. So far lots of fun and new challenges. Like you, I also just recently retired. Hope you're enjoying life as much as I am. This is an awesome site with lots of info and great people. Glad you're here Frank

Hi Jon, Thanks for the heads up. When I first read this, my heart sunk just thinking about all the work I had put into getting these reshaped. You are right, just look at it wrong and this metal wants to break. After thinking about it a little while, I think I will be OK though. Unlike your wheel struts, these pintles will see very little load. The rudder weighs very hardly anything. Also, I'm sure there is alot more leverage being applied to those struts, whereas the pintles are more or less straight up and down. Here's hoping anyway. I suppose I could reinforce the whole thing by pinning the rudder to the sternpost. The pin would not be very visible. Of course that means the rudder won't swivel, but I doubt I will be moving it anyway. Cheers

Next, I got started on the rudder. As @KurtH pointed out in his build, the pintles and gudgeons that come with the kit are 1/8", whereas the rudder is supposed to be 3/16". I considered doing the same as Kurt and buying the 1/4" sets and modifying them, but I just couldn't bring myself to shell out $22 for something that should have come with the kit in the first place. I convinced myself that I could modify the ones that came with the kit. All that need to be done was straighten out the straps and bend them back with the proper width...right??. My first attempt with one of the gudgeons failed miserably. As soon as I tried to straighten the straps out, they broke. I tried again with one of the pintles, and this time, i was able to straighten them out with a little effort. After looking at it a bit closer, I realized that the problem was the gudgeons have a lot of extra metal at the end Prior to straightening out the pintle, I had filed away all the flash, which had actually thinned out the inside, making it easier to bend the straps out straight. With that in mind, I filed the inside edge of the gudgeons to about the same thickness as the pintless and also rounded the "shoulders" inside and out to facilitate the straightening. The, with some fine needle nose pliers and a set of flat, blunt nose pliers, I very carefully straightened out the straps. Once straight, I used the flat pliers to bend the straps back to the correct position. To ensure proper positioning, I drilled a hole in my work bench that I could put a pin through to hold the gudgeon, then positioned the pliers with a mark that I had made 3/32" from the center of the hole. Once I made the first bend, I checked on the rudder to make sure it was centered and then grabbed the other strap flush against the edge to make to second bend. Here's the series from crude piece to finish: A very tedious process. I had to work very slowly and carefully when making the bends, When straightening out the straps, it was critical that the pressure was applied evenly on both sides of the "elbow". The pintles were a little easier to bend, but alot more flash to remove. The actual pintle looked more like a wedge prior to filing down. Here's the progression: Unfortunately, after all this, I still have one broken gudgeon that I dont think I can repair, and I seem to have lost one of the pintles. guess I'll have to wait for replacements. Sadly, they wont get here before I have to have shoulder surgery next week. After that, I'm going to be out of commission for a while, so not much will be happening in the shipyard. I'll still be watching everyone else having fun.

The boomkins are installed. Since these are meant to be 10" square, i used the left over cast metal rails from the kit. I used the Navy plans from the museum website to get all the dimensions and shaped the boomkin accordingly using a very fine square file. The end was shaped first with the fancy little "knob", then all the edges were chamfered. To make the metal band around the end, I used the copper tape used for plating the hull. After cutting to 1/32" wide, I used two layers to give it some depth. Then drilled holes for the three eyebolts. As these are pretty small, I used the fish hook eyebolts and attached with CA glue. The boomkins were then installed going through the canvas on the false rail, but under the grating, as these are supposed to be attached to the underside of the grating support beams. A little creative thing of the boomkin ends was needed to get everything to fit properly. Finally came the supports. The Navy plans only called for one metal rod. Looking at the photos of the Isaac Hull model, there appear to be three supports, all made of rope. I ended up deciding on two, one rope tie down from the bottom eyebolt to the stem and the other a stiff rod (from .020" styrene) from the front of the boomkin to the cutwater. Here's what she ended up looking like

Thanks Phil That is a neat trick. Would never have thought of using a negative image

I still need to install the boomkins, but the bowheads are essentially complete. To make the false rail, which for this time period was supposed to be canvas, I used some fake leather upholstery material that I had left from another little project. The material comes with a cotton batten on the back, which is easily removed leaving a very thin layer of vinyl. Although it is supposed to be "leather", it is not too grainy and has just enough texture to look like canvas. I used the same template I had made earlier for forming the mainrail to cut the shape. After cutting the top rail to size, I made backing boards from 1/32x1/16 strips and attached these to the top rail. then the "canvas" was glued on and the whole thing glued into position In addition to the false rail, the grommets arrived. Since all this stuff comes from China now, they were of course metric. I got 2.5mm, which is essentially 1/10th of an inch or very close to 3/32. Based on everything I could find, this was pretty close to what I should have had. The holes were drilled where to impressions were from the Revell trailboard. I think these are actually too far apart, but to move them closer would have left some funny impressions, so I have to live with it. I left them brass for the photo, but of course, these will be painted. I also added eye bolts in all the places that the Revell instructions indicated. There were 8 on each side - three at the end of the trailboards, three for the bobstays and two lower down on the stem. Not sure if I'll actually need all these but they add some character anyway. lastly, I put on the draft marks. Not sure if anyone knows a good source for these, but I found them impossible to find. What I settled on was some decals for HO scale trains, which is very close (1/87). The Reading Railroad boxcars had a font that I felt looked appropriate. I found a set that had about a third of the numbers I needed already as two number combinations. For the rest, I had to cut out individual number and apply them one at a time, making sure to get them aligned properly. Once all were in place, I gave them a good coat of Micro-Sol to seal them to the wood and get rid of some of the shininess Once I get the boomkins in place, I think next I'll tackle to rudder, then finally get started on the gun deck.

Thanks Paul As much as I love making my own stuff, I don't think I could consistently makenumbers or letter that were 1mm in size. A good techni www he though that I will keep in mind for other things

That would be ideal, but I don't have a printer that will print in white. I have found train decals for boxcar that have nearly correct font. HO scale is 1/87 which is pretty close. Unfortunately it means cutting out individual numbers that are 1mm tall and applying them one at a time

Hello All, Does anyone know a good source for draft marking decals for ships. I need markings for the 1/96th scale USS Constitution I am currently building. All I have been able to find are ones in block letters like on a modern battleship. I need script numerals that are 1/16th" in size

Yes sir, that's what I meant. I do have a log going, in fact, just posted a little last night. Working on the bowhead at the moment. Ive got the Bluejacket 1/96 kit. Its my first wooden ship build (crazy, I know) so needless to say, Im on a very steep learning curve. But thanks to folks like yourself, I have plenty of great teachers. Please drop in.

Got the gratings finished. I thought about using the PE piece that came in the kit, but I didn't think that I could do a very good job painting brass to look like wood, so decided to try to make the grating using my laser engraver. I made a photocopy of the brass grating to use as a template and from that I made the image to use with the engraver using Office - Paint. The grating was cut from 1/32 basswood sheet. Wasn't sure how the holes were going to come out, but I was satisfied with the final outcome. To make the grating follow the curve of the mainrail a little better, I used my fine razor saw and cut the grating in sections where the grating supports were. I also decided to cut out the back to wrap around the stem instead of cutting the stem down. The plans in the museum files definitely show the bowsprit resting on the stem. Here's what I ended up with I put the cross pieces in where the rail supports were. These lined up nicely with the sections. After staining, I glued the gratings in place. Although still slightly above the mainrail, this did provide a nice gentle curve The angle of this photo makes the back section look tilted, but it is actually almost horizontal. The seats of ease provided in the kit were alos PE brass. Once again, I thought they would look better in real wood. Instead of making in pieces, I used a piece 1/8x7/16 stock. I used the plans provided in the kit for the dimensions. These were adapted from the Navy plan 452302. They showed a trough for the section alongside the hull, but made mine with seats. After photocopying the plan and sizing it to scale, I used a printed copy as a template. Carving the pieces out was a little tricky, as it wants to break when carving out the inside corner. A file was used for the final shaping. Holes were drilled in the appropriate places and after cleaning these up a little with a small rat tail file, the back end of a drill bit was used to make a small depressioin around each hole. I wanted the stain for these to be a little lighter than the grating, actually more of a yellow color, but I can't find anything close to that. In the end, they came out essentially the same color as the grating If anyone knows a good wood stain that has more of a yellow color, I would love to hear as it would be useful for all the fittings that should have a "bright" finish. I managed to cut out the gammoning hole where it was located on the trailboards. Wish I had done that prior to attaching everything, since as you can imagine, they were not perfectly aligned. I also started opening up the hawse holes. The kit does not supply anything for these, so I plan to plan to purchase some very small grommets. They are the perfect shape and come in many sizes. I know the anchor cable was 7" in diameter (22" in circumference). Based on that, I am presuming the openings were about 12", which would mean 1/8" grommets. if anyone can confirm that, it would be great, because I have not been able to find the actual dimensions.

Not sure why you're not seeing it, I'm definitely here.