rturcic72

I'm sure your deadeyes are much better quality than what they give in the kit. I disintegrated several of them along the way, lol.

Mustafa, are you planning on rigging?

Alright, Chapter 10 ia now complete with all of the hull work. It was more detail than I expected and eventually made it through that milestone, but also getting used to constantly fabricating parts for the Conny. I'm not sure if it is like this with most wooden ship model kits. Fabricating tiny pieces is certainly a test of one sanity for sure. It took me a while to do the davits at the stern of the ship. Drilling like a million holes to cover rigging, several eyeballs, 5 wooden pieces per each of the 4 davits. Anyway, I was relieved when that was over and finished up the top gallant rail and a part of the main rail at the bow with a couple pieces in the front. Maybe I'm losing my mind, but I don't recall seeing any instructions in the practicum on that, and went through the practicum again and it talks about them, but then it would be followed up by Bob stating we'll worry about that later. We'll that later never came, lol...but I went back into the plans, and then looked at pictures in the forum and finished them that way. Now I get to go back to the deck and build that out before entering into the realm of rigging.

The copper wire was definitely more stable than the brass. If I were to attempt to double loop it, it would be hard to hold together in my opinion and probably break again. I was very surprised with how easy brass wire that gauge breaks, but the copper wire was perfect and filled in the groove in the deadeye. But once you paint everything black and being that tiny, you could never see if they are double wrapped or not, but the picture you show is actually a really good shot.

Everyone, my apologies for not releasing my post, somehow, I got sidetracked and forgot the send button. Anyway, here is the latest somewhat... While I'm working on the channels, deadeyes, and eye chains, etc. There are definitely some things I wish I knew before this part of the build. The practicum seems somewhat incomplete, but I think Bob Hunt expected us to figure this out based on what we've learned thus far throughout the course of the practicum. I read a lot, but if the reading gets very complicated to understand, if you show me a picture what it should look like, it will click in, and I can certainly get it done that way. The ship's plans also get complicated because some things seem to be off or missing altogether. Most builders can solder well or make a mess doing it. I can for the most part do well because before I became a Navy Officer, I started off Enlisted and flew as an Aircrewman and Rescue Swimmer, but also an Aviation Electrician's Mate. So, we fixed what we flew. Some areas that would have helped before I started, but I'm hoping new assembler/builder would know about this particular Conny kit, so they can make their own decision on what approach they want to take. For starters, choosing brass wire for the deadeyes was clearly not a very good idea, particularly the gauge of the wire. The wire does not twist well and breaks very easily. It does not conduct the soldering iron temperature very well and you find yourself taking forever to heat it up, let alone soldering the strip which is also bass. In other words, the choice of this to include in the kit totally sucks and was a poor choice. The wire is kept breaking on me as I tried to twist it onto the eyebolt. Solder does not adhere to brass very well at all, so trying to solder the brass wire around the eyebolt to the brass strip was a complete waste of time. My solution was to get some copper wire that was a slight gauge thicker than the brass. The copper wire was perfectly strong and easier to twist on and keep it there and finish it off with a pair of needle nose pliers to tighten it up against the deadeye and none of them broke. To solder the deadeye to the eyebolt strips, I used my magnifying stand that had clips and arms to hold each piece separately. you can tin each piece before soldering them together, however, tinning the strip being brass was just a waste of time and copper took to it immediately. The easiest way and the fastest way without making a mess and using as little of the surface area was to position the brass strip on top of the deadeye copper wire that was trimmed down to 3/32 and then place the soldering iron needle under the copper wire and use the flux core solder from the top. it would be instantaneous and no waiting to hear up like the brass wire. Doing it this way makes the smallest possible amount of solder to adhere to joining both pieces quickly because the solder immediately goes to the copper wire first and enough to cover it, and the strip of brass gets caught in the melting action and when you remove the soldering iron you'll find that the strip did connect and notice it isn't globby from the solder. This makes it ideal to fit in the grooves you created in the channel. This then leads into the channel portion and the grooves you created for the eyebolts and deadeyes, these need to at least 1/16 wide and deep for the copper wire and strip to sit in the groove comfortably before using the 1/16x1/16strip of wood across the channel over the eyebolts covering the soldered areas and enclose nicely. I recommend getting the eyebolts on the channel, closing it up and then painting them before gluing the channel onto the hull. Bob had given measurements for each of the eyebolt strips, and I found those as really unnecessary. Everything seemed to be the same distance and more even than making a couple of them vary in length. I also am not sure how those rivets even fit inside the eyebolt because it is just ridiculously tiny, and my hand is certainly not steady to try to go through the strips into the hull. I end up simulating to bolt top with globs of paint, however, even if I used the rivets and survived that ordeal, you can barely notice them unless you have your face up to the hull. It seems a bit unrealistic with .035 rivets to fit in like that. simulating them much easier, but barely noticeable to the naked eye. This is my take on this specific part of the build. I'll include pictures later today of at least one side that was completed. so, preparing the deadeyes and soldering them to the eyebolt strip began as like 2-3 per hour to 10-12 per hour...major difference here.

Moving along with the cannons, gunports, and outer hull and deck work. Cannons, curtains, and lower gunport doors were easy to work with, although it felt somewhat time consuming because you are working with 30 gunports. The pain really is dealing with the upper gunports because you have to create a micro miniature rope-like object connecting the upper gunport after you drill 2 holes using a #77 drill bit which is super tiny in itself and very easy to break. I'm on my fourth one now. My kit came with black annealed wire to simulate what would have been rope connected to the upper gun port to its respective top curtain. You definitely want to make sure that hole in the curtain is free and clear because that is one of three areas connecting the door. The two holes you drilled in the gunport door are the other two areas. As much as I enjoy seeing how nicely this is created in the practicum, creating something this tiny and trying to bend the wire into the holes is not so easy and certainly not as perfect in the pictures. In fact, it is so small that you never really see it unless you're right up staring at the gunports near your face. I finished slightly over half of them on the port side and touched up the white paint on the gun port doors as well.

Copper plating the hull was a lot more challenging than expected because I chose the plates over the copper tape. Several builders had choices, and from what I saw, did a pretty nice job with both choices, as well as dealing with size variations between copper tape, and different copper plates with sizes either on scale or very close to it. I found this to be very tedious as well, and learned soon that when cutting the plates, which is each individual plate, that you have to go back to each individual and make sure any existing left-over metal on each side has to be trimmed or cut off, otherwise you might be left with tiny gaps that are noticeable up close. When it came to the bow and stern, I found that to be quite the challenge because it is not like bending planks. I found myself having to cut or trim the copper plate to get into making my way to the bow and stern. I also had a chance to do a little experiment as well. I started with Hunt's Practicum and then followed what my gut told me halfway through. Going back to the variations in your choice of hull coppering material, one cannot be sure that if you follow the pattern in the practicum that it would work for all of the copper materials which I found out to be true. Because everyone's Conny might vary slightly after they had planked the ship, or based on the different copper plating sizes, etc. I was left with a very small gap that I would need to fill in. I could trim the plates to use them as if it were a filler like we did during planking, but I found that to be tough because if you cannot cut it the correct size, it will not look good and you might waste plates and not have enough to complete each side and each side takes ~1,024 plates for total of 2,048. You should be left with a very small amount of left-over plates. You may need to use plates to overlap the left-over areas to be covered so that it looks decent. If done correctly, any gaps you have should be towards the underside of the boat and there will be some at the bow and stern mainly because of the sharp turns. For copper tape users, it's easier to cut to fit. Ok, back to the experiment...what I did was initially try to cut the plates to try to fit inside the gap. I found that to be too hard because the plates are hard, and you need a knife or something to cut and trimming can be tougher because you now need to work with something much smaller. Anyway, I laid the tape over the area with the gap and then pressed it nice and hard where the rivets from the other plates could be seen through the copper tape. I then let it sit for an hour and then trimmed copper tape with an Exacto knife inside the gap. This actually worked out nice and made it look very neat and clean. Since the plates are not shiny, the copper tape is, so you can see a shiny line halfway under the hull. Now I'm debating whether to get a matte polyacrylic which would dull out the line to match it next to the copper plates around it, or a semi-gloss polyacrylic and apply it to the hull where the copper plating is which can act as a protectant on the plates as it did on the rest of the wooden parts of the ship. Does anyone know if brushing polyacrylic on the copper is a good or bad idea after the hull is complete? The pictures show that the portside is almost complete and progress thus far, and let folks know I'm still alive, lol. https://us-east-2-029060369-view.menlosecurity.com/c/0/i/aHR0cHM6Ly9zaGlwc29mc2NhbGUuY29tL3Nvc2ZvcnVtcy9hdHRhY2htZW50cy8yMDI1MDgwN18wNjEwNDYtMS1qcGcuNTM2NTcwLz9oYXNoPWFkZDY2ZWU3NTFmNGNjZjBjNDhkMWRlM2FiMmQ4NDAzhttps://us-east-2-029060369-view.menlosecurity.com/c/0/i/aHR0cHM6Ly9zaGlwc29mc2NhbGUuY29tL3Nvc2ZvcnVtcy9hdHRhY2htZW50cy8yMDI1MDgwN18wNjEwNTctMS1qcGcuNTM2NTcxLz9oYXNoPWFkZDY2ZWU3NTFmNGNjZjBjNDhkMWRlM2FiMmQ4NDAzhttps://us-east-2-029060369-view.menlosecurity.com/c/0/i/aHR0cHM6Ly9zaGlwc29mc2NhbGUuY29tL3Nvc2ZvcnVtcy9hdHRhY2htZW50cy8yMDI1MDgwN18wNjExMTItMS1qcGcuNTM2NTcyLz9oYXNoPWFkZDY2ZWU3NTFmNGNjZjBjNDhkMWRlM2FiMmQ4NDAz

Finally finished the cheek knees, rails, head rails, crew head, and planking the main head rail to the 2nd rail. Once again, the fine pen paint marks were extremely useful. I painted the head rail on the side all white and then after it dried, I used a small metal ruler and put it on the edge using the planks for support and uaes the fine pen black marker and ran the line straight down, and it not only looked straight, but actually looked good. Again, I think using fine tip marker paint pens are the way to go instead of the sticky glue and finger mess trying to get extremely small half round white polystyrene strips. Now I'm cleaning everything with a damp cloth and preparing to copper the hull and choo;se not to use t tape. In my opinion, there are only a few assemblers and builders that can make the ,, mm I tape look great but hands down the plates look much better and they come with a rivet scheme that is consistent for port and starboard side. I am adding polycrylic to the hull which will help with the adhesion of the copper plates. This past of the build may take me a couple weeks because there are a lot of copper plates. And last, but not least, the hawse pipes. I did notice that some folks cut little boards and glued them inside of the cheek knees and then drilled holes to insert the hawse pipes.

I guess I now understand fully why the cheeks knees and rails are painful for everyone. In Hunt's practicum, Bob states that although the plans show how the rails should or could be constructed with the timbers, they were found not be accurate and likely because everyone's bow may not be the same exact size or dimensions when compared to other Conny modeler/assembler. Personally, I found that I've had to make my timbers larger than what are in the plans and went through lots of pieces of wood to try to make the right fit in all dimensions for the 2nd and 3rd rails and the timbers. I'm finishing up timbers 4 and 5 on the port side and one I so that, then I'll complete the starboard side. I had made near duplicates of the timbers from the port side to closely match for the starboard side. I also made them larger that way I can trim it to that side because everyone will have variances in curvature of the rails. This has also been very time consuming because of trying to make a nice fit with the timbers because the "head" area with the grates and box like setup have to properly fit down the centerline on both sides on top of the timers on the inside of the rails. I did something different regarding the molding you find on the timbers. The practicum only offer that polystyrene is cut to border the shape like the rails themselves. I found an easier way instead of making a mess with the glue when building the 3rd and 2nd rail, by actually painting lines bordering the timbers. I recently found fine and ultra fine tip white paint pens. If you run the tip nice and easy, if you have a steady hand, it looks like you had used molding instead. You might see timbers 1,2, and 3 with the white lines painted on them. I found it much easier to do this without the mess and having black fine tip paint markers work well if you have to touchup a spot because you got out of the lines you were creating. I just about swear by these fine tip paint markers. That's how I was able to do all the fancy scroll work on the stem...

emeblers on the forum about using fine tip paint markers/pens. I took my time and it actually came out better than expected. What helped was the laser cut carving of the design that helped keep the paint between the lines. The printout of the flag to cut and paste onto the trailboard didn't work as advertised practicum. I took my time and managed to paint the flags on the trailboard...I can't remember the last time I had a steady hand to pull something like this off, lol. Anyway, the cheek knees worked out and along with the white striping using 0.80 half round polystyrene. It wasn't as painful as I initially thought, but nevertheless it worked out and feel it actually looks pretty good. Now it's off to the next set of rails.

My disappointment with the cheek knees and rails grows each day as I realize how flawed the plans and practicum are. Anything remotely close to being a template you can use for cutting the rails from woods are utterly useless and do not match in size and dimensions. It might be close, but not close enough...for sure... So, my strategy is using sheets of wood and drawing the design using a flexible measurement tape to measure the angles on the hull of my Conny and check them against the plans. I am following the builders that finished their builds and what their pieces look and then if they did it in multiple pieces then I will follow that because they all look good and a matter of preference for the technique used. If I have any disappointments on my journey so far, it will have to be the unclear and ambiguous instructions in the practicum related to the rails and the measurement inaccuracies when bounced against the plans. The rails on the plans are so narrowly cut that it is impossible to get the white striping with the .40 half round polystyrene strips or even using wire to do it because there is no room on the rail. A part of me is compelled to possibly build a thread for just this part of the Conny build from Model Shipways MS2040 kit. Getting the builders that survived this piece and having them add their advice and pictures, which most would be cut, and paste would be very helpful and beneficial with a one-stop-shop for tackling this nightmare for future builders on the forum.

Well then, I'm beginning to realize that the practicum is incomplete and inconsistent when it comes to the cheek knees and rails. The pattern to follow is certainly not the top right corner, but halfway down the page. The top right is only to see what it should look like. I followed those dimensions and realized it is not the correct size, so I've been experimenting with the 1/8 sheets, the 5/32 and the 1/4 inch. The 5/32 and 1/8 are nearly the same exact size, so it would be easier to used your 1/8 sheet to cut the curve and length with its knee separately. I dont think I agree with using the 1/4 sheet or doubling up on the 1/8 because the 1/4 will be trimmed down anyway and when your done it's back down or narrowed down to 1/8 or 5/32 anyway, so I'm not sure why Bob Hunt would do this because you can do this all on the 1/8 sheet for the rails. The 5/32×5/32 strips do well for the knees though. So. I cut out a 1/8 template of the trackboard and soaking four, 5 1/4 in 5/32 strips overnight so i can used my templatethe clamp to strips on it and clamp them down to conform to the right curves with the trailboard and the correct length because my original cuts were too short because I followed the practicum on this. Hunt even started the lesson with a pattern he drew and cut thats not even on the plans, so you're left guessing on the actual size. Ill continue pressing on, but i wish an update would be made with more detailed instructions at each step because the rails are considered the most difficult or most challenging at this stage of the build...so, I'll continue studying the 3-4 folks that have completed the Conny.

The most current update right now is that I'm about to begin making the cheek knees and rails. It is taking a little longer because the information from the Hunt Practicum and plans appear very limited and I've been studying what other builders have done to make these as best and close as possible. I will use the practicum as a baseline but follow and study what 3 of the builders that have survived this ordeal have done which does look pretty impressive. There is also some 3D thinking going into this instead of having to manipulate one piece of wood into three different directions, it looks like the best solution thus far is to build separate pieces, the ones that have to make their curve around the stem and headboard and then the base piece that starts at the hull and cathead. The last piece I'm debating is either using the polystyrene for the white striping, of another method, but first I want to make it past the head rails correctly so I can build out the rest of the frame from the bow, main rail, and stem. These rails seem to set the pace for the rest of it. Also, Model Expo finally sent me new grates for the deck coamings that I decided to rebuild and making them a good contrasting color to the deck. Originally, the ones I made originally seemed to dark and with a dark deck, wanted to lighten then up a bit which meant having to redo and re-stain them which I don't mind because these are not difficult to build. So, I'll be doing this also at the same time, so my next update could take a couple weeks based on the time I have available in my evenings after work.

Finally finished the transom ornamentation painfully. Still getting used to working with very tiny pats with very tiny details. It's definitely not impossible, but time consuming if you haven't done is before. Now I'm going to do battle with the bow and stem ornamentation with the fancy cheek knees and rails...looking forward to re-reading the practicum as the pictures to me are not clear enough and have to read ahead to understand what it is supposed to look like. I'll have to go through the forums to see what others have done, or if they provide enough detail for me to fully understand.