gieb8688

As this thoroughly enjoyable adventure comes to a close, I’ve got a lot of thank you’ing to do.  First of all, thanks to those directly above for your kind words.
 
I want to give a special thanks to @Keith Black for sending me Carson’s original post on MSW requesting assistance.  It has been a real pleasure working on the Constitution for these past 8 months.  I have loved every minute of it (except for the ratlines 🤪).  It almost makes me want to put down the bottles and do another regular ship model!  But we’ll see about that.
 
Next, I want to sincerely thank everyone in the MSW world that followed along on this build.  Your advice, tips, critiques, corrections, suggestions and good humor made my work better so much better.  So a huge thanks to @Knocklouder, @popeye2sea, @BANYAN, @Ian_Grant, @Coyote_6, @gjdale, @Paul Le Wol, @Bryan Woods, @Javelin, @FriedClams, @Landlubber Mike, @Canute, @SaltyScot, @Thukydides, @tmj, @hollowneck, @JacquesCousteau, @gsdpic, @lraymo, @PvG Aussie, @GrandpaPhil, @gieb8688, @Snug Harbor Johnny, @Bill Morrison, @Desertanimal, @vossiewulf, @ccoyle, @Marcus.K., @CiscoH, @KARAVOKIRIS, @Nearshore, @schooner, @Ryland Craze, @PaddyO, @SiriusVoyager, @DanB, @G.Frost, @eatcrow2, @Auger, @Paryzek, @Jolly Jo, @chris watton, @DanielD, @Zarkon.  Whether you were here for each post or just popped in every now and then to have a look, I greatly appreciated your company.  You helped to make the build that much more enjoyable.
 
Next, I want to thank @xken, @usedtosail, @robnbill, @KurtH for your superb build logs.  I relied on them greatly to help me understand the BlueJacket instructions and figure out some of the trickiest parts of the build.  Each of your versions of the Constitution are magnificent.
 
And finally, I want to thank Carson (a.k.a. @Robert in Austin) for entrusting me with a treasured family heirloom.  His father, Hollye, was a highly skilled ship modeler and I consider it a real honor that the family allowed me to complete his work.
 
 
I’ve posted a few pics below, but I believe it’s hard to capture the magnitude of the Constitution with a few snapshots.  So I tried making a drone-like video tour of the model.  It’s about 4 minutes long and you can view it here if you like.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLITokzun78
 
 
Here are the pics:

 
 
I was truly honored that Carson wanted to include my name along side his father's on the nameplate.



 
 
 

Well I know I haven't posted anything for quite a while, but I have not abandoned ship.  Attached are two (not terrific) photos of the PEGASUS as she stands right now.  Progress is being made, albeit somewhat slowly.
 

I'm back.  Haven't really gone anywhere, but progress has been a bit slow.  I have reached what I consider a milestone; all the standing rigging is done.  Finito.  Now I am starting to tackle the running rigging which will take me a considerable amount of time. 🙂
 

Another update at last. After being away for a couple of weeks and a couple of extremely busy visitor days at the museum, I've finally been able to get a little ore done. Now we have five yards crossed on the foremast - one more to go once I rig the upper topgallant. I've included an image looking along the well deck which shows a little of the scramble of unsecured rigging at this stage.
 
John
 

 

A major milestone in my eyes! Not only are the main staysails rigged, but the first square yard has been crossed. It's only sitting there at the moment. I hope to get all its rigging sorted out on Friday.
 
I might do a little more work on the shape of the main topmast staysail, but I'll wait until the well deck boats are on first so I can see how it would fit between the boats.
 
John
 

Another update. All the headsails are now completed, although I may re-run one of the fore topmast staysail sheets - we'll see. A start has been made on the main staysails, so it hopefully won't be too long before I can cross the first yard.  There are still quite a few other outstanding jobs to do other than rigging, however I'd like to get at least one yard crossed so that visitors can get more of an idea of where the model is going.
 
John
 

The final stage of construction of the model is the installation of lifebuoys and letters of the ship's name.

In the stowed position, this griping spar was either secured to the deck or to davits, as shown earlier.

This is a griping spar for securing boats in a position extended over the side of the vessel.

I think it could have happened like this.
To successfully take the boat overboard, this beam was lowered to the required level. At the same time, the beam remained connected to the davit and did not interfere with the work with the boat with its uncontrolled movements during the rocking of the ship.

Yes, I expected this question.  
In some cases, this griping spar  was attached for storage as I depicted in the model.

Lifeboats and workboats are installed in their designated places.
 
 

Yes, that's right. The boats will be covered from above. 

Lifeboats are custom-made using a 3D printer.

Thank you @Robert in Austin and @Ian_Grant for the comments!
 
I have finally completed what I consider a major milestone on this project - all shrouds and ratlines are finished!  That's roughly 3000 knots behind me.  WOOHOO!!! 
 
For the top gallant shrouds, the ends run through holes in the crosstrees.  For tying them off, the instructions gave an option of lashing them to futtock staves in the topmast shrouds or running them down and tying off to eyebolts inside the lower topmast deadeyes.  I chose the latter, which I've seen in several build logs and liked how it looked.  So the first step was to make futtock staves with eyelets for the ends of the shrouds to run through on their to the mast top.
 
 
 
Here's the main top gallant shrouds running through the crosstrees, tied off to the mast top.

 
 
Next, I added the royal shrouds.  To my great relief, they did not require ratlines!  

 
 
With the upper stuff out of the way, it was time to circle back to the futtock and bentinck shrouds.  The futtock shrouds have hooks on the ends that hang from the eyebolts underneath the mast tops (mast top eyebolts are visible in the pic above).  The hooks are stropped to bullseyes.  The futtock shroud is tied to the bullseye, lashed to the futtock stave and tied off to the Bentinck shroud ring.  Here's the hook/bullseye assembly along with the Bentinck shroud rings.
    

 
 
Here's the futtock shrouds highlighted in the first pic below.  The Bentinck shrouds run from the ring at the end of the futtock shrouds, cross each other to opposite sides of the ship, and tie off with lanyards to eyebolts on the deck as shown in the second pic.
 

 
 
 
And here she is with her full complement of shrouds.  Although I do need to get a larger piece of poster board as a backdrop.  That one works fine for my SIBs but is way too small for the Constitution! 

 
 
I seem to recall an old honky tonk song by Mac Davis called, "I Thought Happiness was Ratlines in my Rearview Mirror."  I'll be humming that tune for a while.  
 
Next up is the 30 or so stays, plus those little ladders mentioned in an earlier post.  But first, I'll be off for a couple of weeks to take several of my SIBs up to the USS Constitution Museum in Boston for their annual ship model show.  Inside the museum, there's a LARGE model of the Constitution that's gotta be 5 or 6 feet tall.  I'll be taking a ton of pictures of it to help me get through the rest of this Constitution project.
 

After a month of working on the Flying Dutchman and Black Pearl, it's back to the Constitution and the port side of the ratlines for the lower shrouds.  
 
Proof that one man's heaven as another man's hades!  I do not share Bob's affection for ratlines.  I queue up a bunch of music or a long podcast, put my head down, and grind thru it.  Many, many hours later, it's done!
    
 
 
 
Next up is the upper shrouds.  Of course that means more ratlines, but not near as many as on the lower shrouds.  I'm guessing about 1/3 the number of knots. 

850 knots down and 850 to go, on the lower shrouds anyway!  I haven't estimated a number for the uppers yet, but at least it won't be near as many.  I kept waiting for Bob to get here and help but I guess PFC Pile would not give him a weekend pass.  Mini-Dimples did show up to supervise.  Unfortunately, she was not much help.
  
 
 
 
As tedious as those ratlines are, the ship really starts coming to life visually when they are added.  For me, they are a defining aspect of the look and feel of the large age of sail ships.  My goal when I got back from Hawaii was to get the lower starboard side complete before I head out of town for Thanksgiving.  Mission accomplished!  After the holiday, I will take a break from the Constitution here and swing back over to the Flying Dutchman/Black Pearl SIB to have a go at making the whirlpool.  Yikes!!
 
Speaking of Thanksgiving, one of the things I'm thankful for is all of the incredible people that make up the MSW community.  As I've said many times before, y'all make all of my work better and so much more enjoyable.  Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!   
 
 

Group photo.

After polishing and adjusting the blade profile, the propeller took on a finished look.

The propeller is installed in its place together with the rudder.

This morning I accidentally caught the top mast, and almost snapped it. It’s weakened at the point where the 1mm hole is and is never going to hold when  I complete the rigging process!
when
I stopped sobbing and started to think of my options, which are these I think-
splint ?
some kind of support fabric?
re- do the top mast section, which could cause more damage in the process ( and having seen Glenn-UK’s post on HMS Sphinx I realise that the smart way is not to assemble the top mast at this stage!)
 
if anyone out there has advice,I would love to hear from you.
Couple of pics. attached, please don’t judge to harshly, I know I’m in the company of experts, but I only have my dining room table!
thanks I hope 
john
 
 

I've got 100s of other pictures documenting the build, but I'll close with pictures of how she sits now.  Following 3 years on the road in our RV, we finally bought a home in Loveland Colorado.  A corner of the basement is my "Navy Bar", where the finished model finally landed.

 

As promised, I finished planking the main deck.
Earlier I had mentioned that I was uncertain if the deck at the bow had a canvas or tarpaper cover.  I recently obtained a clear photo postcard of the J H Crawford’s sister boat the Paul L. The Paul L capsized in May 1910 after being unloaded of coal on only the starboard side.   It may be difficult to see here but the bow is clearly planked without canvas or tarpaper.  Contrast that with the canvas used on the hurricane deck

This is my early process on planking.  I added six access or storage hatches.  I built those up on a maple veneer base and then placed them. All the planking was 1/32 by 1/8 basswood. The holes in the decking are where the mid-deck stationaries will be placed. The orange dot will place a capstan.

The finished product. I included numerous slots in the deck for the stationaries, hog chain braces and bits.  This will be stronger than simply gluing them to the deck like I did on Thistle.


Next step is to begin building all of the “stuff” on the main deck.  This includes machinery, engine room crew quarters, and of course, the Scotch Marine Boiler.  Many thanks to Keith Black in his Lula build for finding a YouTube on an operating Scotch Marine boiler video. That will be a great help in building my boiler.

 

When I noticed the problem, the second layer on one side was CA glued on and I am not sure how to remove that.   I guess I could try to remove everything down to the bulkheads with aggressive sanding, but I am moving forward.   The hull was painted white today and I am waiting til morning to do some touch ups before I remove the painters tape so I can take one of those pictures that will show things better.
 
I have been very impressed with the quality of this model and I am sure there is more that I can learn.  This is my fourth model after having built a couple of midwest boats and the longboat from model shipways.  I have had problems learning experiences with each of them,   just steps on getting better.
 
Thanks for all the replies and DMs 

The follow up question is, "What can be done to resolve the issue?"