SkerryAmp

I finished up the hatch coamings, giving them a second coat of oak stain, which evened the color out some more. Here is how they came out, along with the kit supplied smoke stack.
 

 
I then test fit them to the supports I added previously. I have to make the supports for the rear one a little closer together as  it is balanced right on the edge.
 

 

 
Next up was the fore mast pin rail. I am using the kit supplied rail which has a lot of holes in it for belaying pins. I am not going to fill all the holes with pins, though. I thought that I would end up making my own rail, as this one looked kind of flimsy, but it stayed together through all the sanding and handling, so it gets to be used. I made the five supports for the rail on the lathe, using square stock which I rounded in the center. I then used the drill press to drill the holes for the simulated sheaves. I could only get two sets of sheaves on each support instead of the three shown on the plans, but at least there is something there.
 

 

 
To attach the rail to the supports, I wanted some sort of mechanical connection because the last thing I want to have happen is for the rail to come loose during rigging. I thought of pins but then saw these nails with a nice small head, so I experimented with drilling holes through the rail and into the support for the rails. You can see the pieces I experimented with in the top of the last picture. This looked pretty sturdy even without any glue, but my method was to drill the five holes in the rail, making sure they were centered in each area of the rail, then drill holes in the tops of the supports, but not for the full length of the nail. I then put wood glue on the top of the supports and CA on the nail shafts and placed them together, then gently tapped the nails home with a small hammer. I am hoping to be able to cover the nail heads with rope coils, or at least a little brown paint to blend them in. But the important part is that the rail is very well connected now to the supports.
 
I had previously made the bitts for the fore rail when I made them for the main rail, but they did not work out for the fore rail, as the sheaves were right where the fore rail attaches to them. So, I made two more using the plans from the kit, with a single sheave in the middle. Here they are dry fit with the rail. I used wire in the bottom of these through holes in the support around the mast to hold them in place. These will be planked around when I do the planking, but the rail supports will sit on the planking. I did add wire to the two outer supports and the middle support to help attach these to the deck when I get to that point.
 

 
I then made an attempt at the snatch blocks on either side of the bitts. These are a bit too thick, I think, so I will try thinning them down in place after the glue dries or rebuild these thinner.
 

 
No work in the workshop over the holiday weekend, but I will be back at it next week.
 
 

Thanks to George and Steve for the encouragement, and the likes. They all mean a lot.
 
I finished building all the remaining hatch coamings for the spar deck, using the supplied gratings. There is a good side to those gratings where the holes are nice and square, whereas the other side is not so good. Of course, the first few grates I installed I put in the wrong way and had to replace them later. Luckily I had a lot of grating material to work with since I did not use it for the main hatch.
 

 
And here they are after the first coat of oak stain. I was going to use some Pre-Stain on them before I stained them but my Pre-Stain had about 1/4 inch of what looked like foam rubber on top of it, so I didn't want to risk using it. They did come out a bit blotchy so I am hoping a second coat will help, maybe with some sanding before.
 

 
One of those coamings includes the platform for the galley smoke stack. I cleaned up the supplied metal stack with some files and sand paper. I was not sure if it would come out well because the metal had some pitting on it, but after priming and a first coat of weathered black paint, I am liking it.
 

 
Finally for today, I wanted to show off my new favorite sanding tool. I found this in a hardware store in New Hampshire. it has hook and loop on the block and the paper and comes with three grades of paper, so I can change paper instantly.
 

 
The true sander also was used quite a bit in making the coamings, especially to keep the edges of the grates and other wood filler pieces square.
 
 
 

George, you must be chomping at the bit to get started. I can't wait to follow along. So you are going for the as launched look? That should look really nice.
 
More progress on the spar deck furniture. First off, here is the completed main hatch coaming. i like how it came out.
 

 

 

 
I have been working on the other hatch coamings and started with the one around the bow sprit. I decided to go with the grating on it and here is how it came out. I have a little more sanding to do on it before staining it.
 

 

 

 
I used a 1/8" end mill bit in the drill press to cut the groove around the top. Once this was set up, it worked really well. I have left it set up so I can do all of the hatch coamings in the same style. I used a small round file in the groove to give it a more rounded profile.
 
I cut out the individual pieces for those other coamings and used the same set up in the table saw for all of them to cut the lap joints. These pieces are just laying on each other for now. I still have to clean up the lap joints and glue them together. Most of these will have gratings on them, but the first hatch behind the main mast will be open with a ladder running down to the gun deck. This opening is over the part of the gun deck that I added, so it will provide another view port into the gun deck. It was almost as if I planned it that way  (but I didn't; just got lucky)
 

 

 
A few chores and Father's Day activities this weekend, but should have some quality time in the shop too.
 
Happy Father's Day to all you Dad's out there.

Thanks George and Tim, and the likes.
 
I made up the bottom strips for the main hatch coaming from some square wood strips, using lap joints at the ends. The cross beams that I bent to the old frames stayed at the right curve after I removed the clamps. I stained the coaming pieces and glued them onto the carlings and cross beams, using lots of clothes pin clamps to keep them tight to the carlings. I glued the starboard side piece on first, then after it dried, I glued the other three pieces on.
 

 
Here is how they came out. You can also see the monkey rail and main bitts in this picture too.
 

 
I then cut some smaller strips to place on top of these, which will be flush with the inside edges. I stained them last night but have not attached them yet. Here is a preview of how they will (should?) look.
 

 
I have also been adding supports to the beams and edges for the other spar deck coamings and planking. I have never planked a deck that wasn't on a solid surface, so I wanted to make sure I have solid supports for all the beam ends. I am going to be planking around the coamings like I did on the gun deck, so needed to have supports to glue these to before planking.
 

 

 
I have the deck arrangement of hatches I want for the spar deck, so I will be building those coamings next. I am also thinking of adding a rectangular sky light to the stern end of the deck, as in the AOS, and not the octagon shaped one that is on the ship now. Although, somewhere I read that the 1812 version did not have any skylights, but I didn't write down the source of that. The hatches will be the same as on the current ship, except for the larger main hatch. I am not sure if I will put the grating behind the bow sprit or leave that a solid piece of wood. I am leaning toward using a grating though.
 
What do folks think of this deck arrangement plan? Thanks.
 
 

Thanks again George, and also thank you folks who have hit the Like button.
 
So, after some deep thought (OK maybe not so deep) I decided to add whole beams at the ends of the main hatch coamings, mainly because these need to have the same deck round up as the other beams, which means the coamings will need to sit on something curved. So, I made two more beams using sheet wood, then separated the beams into those that will be stained, which are the ones that are seen in the hatch, and those that will be planked over. I stained the center of the stained beams, then masked off the ends. I then painted the ends of those beams and the whole length of the other beams on three sides with off white paint, to match the paint I used on the gun deck sides. I did not paint the tops of any of these beams, as they will be planked over. When the paint dried, I installed all of the beams. I adjusted them for height so I was able to not have to do any fairing once the beams were installed.
 

 
I then added the beam supports under all these beams. I had made these up a while ago on the lathe from dowel, but I made a few more just in case. I have never had good results trying to stain dowel, so I mixed up some paint to try and match the oak stain, and painted all of the supports.
 

 
When they dried, I trimmed them to fit under each beam, two supports per beam. I was originally going to add them at the junctions of the beams and the carlings, but since this hatch is so wide they would have been too close to the guns. So, I moved them inboard a bit. I also did not put any under the two extra beams I added because they would have been right behind a gun. it was a bit tricky getting them to line up and be straight in all directions, and I had to remove and reglue a few before I was satisfied with them.
 

 
After this I added all of the carlings, which I also painted on three sides with off white paint, and I attached the monkey rail to the beam behind the main mast. I had to add two supports behind it to get it the right distance from the main mast. It was still in clamps last night so no picture of that yet. I also soaked two lengths of 1/8" square basswood and clamped them to two of the old beams to get them to the round up for the ends of the hatch coamings. They may spring back too much, but if they do I will bend them to a greater curve tonight.

I got into a groove last night so made a bunch of progress. I finished shaping each beam and clamped them in place so I could draw a centerline on each one. Now I have a reference point for adding the carlings to support the hatch coamings.
 

 
I then marked the locations of the carlings by measuring out from the centerline, and used a 1/8" end mill bit in the drill press to cut the slots for them. I set the depth of the cut by placing the bit so it just touched the beam, then set the depth stop of the drill press to .09". I could then just replace each beam in the vice so it was just touching the end mill and line up the bit using the XY table. I had to switch the beams to the other side of vice for the opposite cuts, and I found it was faster to just loosen the bolts holding the vice to the XY table and move the vise then to rotate the table all the way over. I did two beams at a time this way so there was less switching from side to side.
 

 
I then used a small chisel to square off the backs of the cuts as best I could and clamped the beams back into place. I cut smaller pieces of wood for the carlings and fit them in the slots. Here they are in place but nothing is glued down yet.
 

 

 
Not as good as you masters of POF are doing, but since these joints will be planked over I am OK with them. I will have to work on my technique if I do ever try my hand at open POF construction, though. These pictures give you an idea of the size of the hatch I am adding, which is quite a bit wider than the hatch on the current ship and ME plans. This hatch size came out of the AOS book.
 
I still have to work out how to support then front and back coaming pieces of the hatch, as these are between frames. I will probably add another piece, like a long ledge, between the carlings between those beams, with a little extra toward the front and back to support the ends of the deck planks there. I also have to figure out how I want to finish these beams. I am thinking of painting all of the beam sections that will be planked over off white on the sides and underneath to match the paint on the gun deck side planks (ceiling?), and stain the sections that will be exposed in the open hatch with oak stain. The order of construction and staining/painting still needs to be worked out.
 

Thanks Steve and George, and for the likes, too.
 
I finished up the gun deck last night, for real this time, unless I mess it up with the work going on above it. I made new coaming sides for the bigger stove, stained them and glued them in. I added more to the front of the stove, painted it black and glued it into the coaming, them glued the riding bitts back in. One side of the bitts kept coming up from the deck, so I came up with an on the spot clamping technique that worked a treat.
 

 
So here is the new stove arrangement with the chimney the right distance from the fore mast, so the spar deck hatch will be in the right place.
 

 
And for completeness, the pump area with the ammo scuttle covers in place.
 

 
I then started on the spar deck beams that will go over this whole area. My first attempt was to cut out a single beam, using the old beams that I cut out over a year ago as a template. I traced it onto a piece of 3/16" basswood sheet, then cut it out with the scroll saw. I sanded the top to final shape, then attempted to use the thickness sander to get the underside to its final shape. I found that because the piece is curved, any little movement up and down caused the thickness to change, so it was coming out too thin is places. I decided that since i just got the thickness sander I am going to need more practice with flat strips before I attempt curved ones. So plan B was to roughly cut out all the beams on the scroll saw and lightly glue them together side by side.
 

 
When that was dry, I sanded the tops together using the belt sander, and the undersides using a large sanding disk in the drill press.
 

 
I then soaked the block in alcohol for about an hour and separated the beams. On a couple I had to wedge an X-Acto knife blade into the ends to get them started. As you can see, they were still a little rough.
 

 
I then cut them to length, using the old beams as templates. Here are the old beams, and the beam extensions that I left on the bulwarks to hold up the new beams.
 

 

 

 
I cut these a little long so I could sand them into a good fit. I don't want to have to do a lot of sanding of the beams once they are in place because I don't know how to keep the dust from getting onto the gun deck, so I am trying to fair them as much as possible off the model before attaching them. I still did not like the way the undersides looked, so I took some sandpaper and placed it on top of one of the old beams and clamped them into a vice, then sanded the underside of each beam. This worked pretty well and the beams looked much better. The next picture has a new beam on top of the sandpaper being sanded.
 

 

 
Here are some of the beams in place before I sanded the ends.
 

 
Still more work to do but they are getting there.

Here are some pictures of the progress so far on the gun deck. I thought I was almost done, but read on...
 
I made up the stove, aft riding bitts, and main topsail sheet bitts.
 

 

 

 
There were all finished with oak stain. As you can see, one is cut off a little short, so I made two more so I have the fore bitts too. I drilled six holes for the simulated sieves and connected them with an awl. They are only 3/16" wide so too small for me anyway, to make from thin layers.
 
I also made  up the ammo scupper covers, using slices of dowel that I cut with the Byrnes saw. I added a small strip across the top, which is used to open them on the real ship, and painted them with Testers Brass enamel paint. I have to say that these metal colored paints like the gold and brass really cover nicely, as opposed from the ME brass paint that doesn't cover well at all.
 

 

 
I added the pot holder to the stove using some black wire and a bent eyebolt as a hook. Here are pictures with the riding bitt, stove and coaming in place.
 

 

 

 
The problem is that the stove is too far forward for the chinmey to line up with the hatch and stove pipe on the spar deck, so I am going to remove them, remake the coaming, and add a box to the front of the stove. It would have good to check this BEFORE I made them, and certainly before I glued them in place! Sheech...
 
You can also see the cannon ball racks in place with the cannon balls. Here are pictures of the updated pumps with a straight wire between the pumps around the main mast.
 

 

 
After I clean up the stove situation next week, I will be started to make the new deck beams. I kept the old beam sections that I cut off over a year ago and will use them as templates for the new beams. I am going to be cutting these from basswood sheet, and will shape them up in the new thickness sander I got for my birthday. I can't wait to play with that new toy.
 
Have a great weekend, all.

As promised, here is an update on the small amount of work I have done in the last week or so.
 
Firstly, I finished and installed the chain pumps on the gun deck. I made some supports for the ends of the pump handles using my little lathe. I am not sure how the ends would have been supported but this worked for me. I made the handles by bending some 28 gauge wire. In these pictures you can also see the monkey rail for the spar deck, which I have extended down into the gun deck for strength. This required square holes in the two uprights for the horizontal piece to slide into. I used a smaller drill then some small square files to enlarge the holes until the bar fit.
 

 

 

 
As you can see it is a pretty tight fit around the main mast. But, I wanted to add a mast coat around the main mast hole, so I made one on the lathe. Again, I am not sure if there would be one on the gun deck. I also made some racks to hold cannon balls to go around the two hatches. I drilled holes in some strip wood using the XY table on the drill press and will fill them with the stainless steel ball bearings I blackened previously. Here is the mast coat being painted and the cannon ball racks being stained.
 

 
Also in that picture is a coaming for the stove. I realized where I had ended the gun deck section in the front covers about 75% of the stove, so I decided to add a low res version of the stove so there would be something black there if it could be seen. I am using this picture of the current stove as a guide.
 

 
Here are the stove pieces being assembled. I am only about half way done with the stove itself, but should have it done by the end of the week. I will probably add the pot holder too, just for fun.
 

 

 
Outside of the workshop I am also working on the belaying pin plan. With my desire to use the U shaped rail and the monkey rail, I will not have as many belaying pins around the main mast as shown on the kit plans, by less than half. The Revell kit has belaying pins in the monkey rail, but the plans on the CD don't show holes for them and getting good holes through the bar seems a bit hard. So, I am going through an alternate belaying pin plan I found in the NRG Shop Notes II for the Constitution which shows less pins around the main mast. Also, I am planning only to show the three topsails on the finished model, which means I can eliminate the buntlines and leechlines for the other sails, which cuts down the number of pins I will need. I also will not be showing bowlines for any sails. I am still in the process of getting the final pins counts. I was also worried that I would not have as many pins on the bulwarks since I removed the bulwarks in the waist, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I think I will be OK with the 11 pins shown on the U shaped rail or maybe just need to add 1 or 2 more pins to that rail. I'll let you all know when I have it figured out.
 
Thanks again for watching.
 
 

Thanks for the likes.
 
I finally finished installing and rigging the starboard side gun deck guns. It's not that it was time consuming, I just didn't have the time to work on them lately. Lots of stuff going on outside the workshop, including my son's college graduation this weekend and getting the lake house ready for summer. But, I have some time this week to work on her.
 
Here are the starboard side guns, from inside and outside.
 

 

 
And here are all the guns on the gun deck.
 

 

 

 
Now for some self criticism. I have always had a problem with the breaching ropes looking realistic, as they want to stick out from the sides of the carriages. Here is what I think looks very realistic, from Lukasvdb's Le-Superbe build.
 

 
For one thing, these breaching ropes are longer and drape nicely on the deck. I think they are probably made with nicer rope too that is more flexible than the nylon stuff I made. I may try to do the breaching ropes on the spar deck this way, using cotton thread to make the breach ropes instead of nylon.
 
The next task is to add the chain pumps that I made earlier to the gun deck. I have also started to think about making this U shaped main rail, which is not what is on the ship today. I found the plans for it on the Constitution CD, so I have everything I need to build it. I thought the legs for this would go all the way down to the gun deck or below, but the plans only show them going 12" into the spar deck. I am going to make the lower monkey rail in front of the U shaped main pin rail go all the way to the gun deck though.
 

 
I am getting to the fun stuff now.
 
 

George, you were correct. After more experimentation last night, I was able to make some nice rope that did not want to untwist. I twisted the individual strands longer than pulled the rope to harden it after it twisted up. I then got brave and tried to make thicker rope from the thinner ropes. The first attempt was a disaster, as I did not twist the individual strand enough. The second attempt, after having to remake the individual ropes again, was better, but still did not look good.
 

 
I quit for the night and this morning I tried it again using a heavier weight. This was a success. I made these ropes with white thread, so I stained them brown by soaking them for a minute in brown shoe polish, wiping off the excess, and letting them dry.
 

 
OK, since I was taking pictures I figured I'd show where I was with the starboard guns. I did more rigging of them after the rope making experiments yesterday and today.
 

Nothing new to show on the Constitution. Installing and rigging the starboard side gun deck guns continues, but it looks just like the port side, so no new pictures.
 
I do have a couple of new toys, er tools, in the workshop, thanks to my very generous Admiral. The first is a new rope walk from Dormanoff. As I mentioned previously, I wanted to try using this horizontally like the ME rope walk, using the back end of the ME rope walk. Like this:
 

 

 

 
I have to say it worked well in this configuration, pretty much just like the ME set up but with less work. I still had to manually crank the other end after the threads were tensioned, but that went pretty quickly. In the first photo you can see some samples of Chuck's rope from Syrene, which is what i am using as a goal. My rope is not there yet, and still wants to unwind if left to itself.
 
I then tried the new rope walk in the vertical position with a weight on the other end, like it is intended. It worked really well this way, too. The resulting rope looks better to me than the horizontally produced rope, but still wants to unwind. It is easier to set up in this configuration, too, so I think this is the way I will use it in the future.
 
The other new tool is on the bench but I haven't used it yet. This is the Byrnes thickness sander. There have been a couple of times in the Connie build where I could have used it, so I should have a chance to try it out soon.
 

 
It does look good next to the other power tools, hee hee...
 

 
I'll get some pics of the cannons when they are fully rigged, I promise.

George I am pretty excited to see the ropes from Chuck. I am hoping his smaller ropes will look better when in blocks, as the stuff I have is kind of stiff and wants to stick out away from the blocks.
 
Steve - I don't know about that strong, but hopefully it will lessen the oops factors as I proceed.
 
Last night I did find some rope I had from an older kit that matches what I made really well, so I am using that for the starboard side breaching lines. Firstly, I tied up the loose ends (literally?) on the port side last night, so here ii is with all the rope coils installed:
 

 
From the outside, I am pretty happy with the alignment of the guns. The head on shot shows some reflection from deep inside the gun barrels that doesn't show up in real life:
 

 

 
I was able to drill into the underside of the barrels. I made a starter hole with a pin vise then put one of the barrels into my drill press vise and drilled deeper. This worked great except that these barrels are so soft that the vice kind of crushed the details on the sides of the barrel, so for the second barrel I drilled the whole hole by hand. I glued a piece of wire into that hole and will make a corresponding hole in the quoin for the other end. I suppose I should also pin the quoins down to the carriage, which I can do when installing them by just drilling through the quoin and the carriage base and putting a piece of wire through the holes. You can also see in this picture the how the line I found for the breaching ropes (right) compares to the line I made (left).
 

 
I am glad I can continue with the guns, but there is still many other pieces that I can work on if I had to wait. I ordered the line from Chuck yesterday and it has shipped today, so I would not have had to wait too long. That is great service. I also ended up ordering the rope walk to play with, but since that is coming from Russia I have a feeling it will take a little longer.

Thanks George. I can't wait for you to start either.
 
Well. here is the white stripe terminated at the quarter galleries. I am glad you got me to do this.
 

 
Assembling and rigging the gun deck cannons continues. Here are the first two, completed with rope coils.
 

 
I made up this jig to make the flat rope coils. I wanted them more oval shaped than round, so I used some brass rod to get the shape. I make the coils so they are close to the top of the rods to make it easier to get them off. I am using Dullcote lacquer to fix the shape of the coils, which is mostly successful. The coils do hold the shape but it takes a small bit of CA to hold them together. These coils are only a couple of turns because I would think the tackle lines wouldn't be really long.
 

 
And here is the present state. I still have to secure the breaching lines on the two right hand cannons and then add the tackles.
 

 
It is too nice a day here to go back into the basement, so maybe later tonight I will get back to it.

OK George, first thing I did last night was mask off the area behind the last gun ports for the white strip. Each side got a first coat. This was after I removed the masking tape on the starboard side for the pilaster extensions.
 

 
Then it was back to those first two cannons for the gun deck. The girl got her first two teeth tonight. I glued the barrels and quoins to the carriages in the little jig I made, then added caps over the trunnions using black paper strips. I glued the guns into place using CA on the pins and white glue under the wheels. I am really happy how well those pins hold the guns in place, as I don't have to worry about them coming loose as I work around them. It is a little tricky getting them in place and flat to the deck, but some gentle bending of the pin gets the job done. Once in place, I drilled holes for the eye bolts on the ends of the breaching ropes and for eye bolts for the side and training tackles. The eye bolts on the breaching ropes were pretty hard to get into the holes, as they are short and wanted to twist in the tweezers. But after many attempts I was able to get them glued in. The other eye bolts were much easier to glue into place as they didn't have any line on them yet. I was then able to hook the tackles to these eye bolts and those on the carriages. This also took some practice as it was hard to keep enough tension on the tackle after the first hook was place while trying to get the second hook in place. Again, after a number of tries it got easier. Once the tackle was tightened the hooks stayed in place nicely. This is the first time I have made these tackles up before installing them and I found it much easier than trying to thread the tackle lines with the blocks already in place. I was also happy to see that I had enough distance between the blocks on the tackles, which was helped by adding the eye bolts towards the center of the area between the gun ports, which is how they are on the real ship today. I was also happy that the angle of the two barrels look about the same. Hopefully this will continue as I put the rest of them in place.
 

 

 

 
I still have to figure out how I want to finish those tackle lines, but I have some ideas I want to try out first. Two down, 14 yet to go.

Thanks George and Tim, and the likes.
 
I finished adding the styrene trim strips to both quarter galleries. I glued most of them with CA glue, using strips of masking tape to hold them, but about half the time the strip would come up when I removed the masking tape.
 

 
I then switched to Hypo cement for these styrene strips, and what a difference. These stayed down after holding them for a few seconds, so no tape was needed. They seem much more secure too. I then used masking tape to extend the tops of the pilasters into the roof block and painted these areas white. I was going to use wood for these extensions but I did not like the way they were raised from the rest of the quarter gallery. Here is the completed port side QG:
 

 

 
I also decided not to extend the white stripe on the side of the hull to the quarter galleries, so they will not extend past the last gun port. I would be open to other opinions on this point, though.
 
Here is the starboard side, which I am still painting the pilaster extensions:
 

 
While that paint is drying, I have started to rig the cannons on the gun deck. I first made a jig to help assemble each cannon before placing them on the gun deck. I have a piece of wood that is the height of the cannon at the gun port, so I can set each cannon up at the same angle. I also have a hole in the base that I can use to drill a hole underneath the carriage for a pin that will go into the deck for each one. I can also use it to judge the size of the breaching rope as I make them. I am using rope I made with the ME rope walk for the breaching lines, which is pretty easy to work with, except that it wants to unravel. I use CA on each end, which also helps me thread it through the ring bolts on the ends and on the carriages. I first seize a ring bolt to one end, then thread the other end through both ring bolts on the carriage, then seize another ring bolt to the other end. I then open up the strands in the middle and slip them over the cascabel of the barrel. I may be making these ropes a little too short, but I will see how they look after I install a couple on the gun deck. here is the jig with a couple of guns in the works:
 

 
I only have 16 of these guns to rig, but working up against the walls of the gun deck will be interesting. I'll have updates of that as I go along.

Thanks Tim, George, Rich and Steve, and the likes.
 
We were away last weekend and a few work related activities this week, so only a small amount of progress this week. I added all the pilasters to both quarter galleries, then focused on the port side gallery. I was able to use the supplied middle window, but I ended up making a new window for the rear one. I used the same method I used for the transom windows, first gluing the window frame strips to some paper, then making the mullions on the table saw and gluing them to the outer frame, then sanding off the paper when it was all dry. Here are the two windows dry fit in place before painting.
 

 
I painted  them white and also painted the roof caps black with white sides. I first tried doing this free hand, but ended up cutting masking tape to the curve and using it to paint the white portion. Here are the windows and the cap in place on the port side, after gluing and trimming the floppy disk material to the backs of the windows.
 

 
I started adding some styrene strips for trim on the pilasters and underneath between the bottom block and the faring piece. I am matching these up to the two trim strips on the transom. I am also going to try adding a strip along the tops and bottoms of the windows after they are all installed. I started making the front window using the same method.
 

 

 
Finally, I made up a ladder to go into the hatch on the gun deck. I usually make these by hand by marking the locations of the stairs on the sides then filing out the slots for them. This time, I used the Byrnes saw to make the slots, using the miter gauge to change the angles very precisely from one side to the other. I made this task much easier and the ladder went together very easily.
 

 
I have to do a little work on my daughters car, but then I can get back to the workshop later today, so more progress coming soon.
 

More progress on the quarter galleries, but first - I knew it was going to happen!
 

 
The Sculpey stars were just too fragile. So, I experimented with some 1/16" sheet walnut that I had and was able to make two new stars using wood, which I like much better. I was able to taper the legs like they should be and thin them down to about 3/64".
 

 

 
One of the figure's heads also went missing, but I was able to replace it with a small piece of wood I had left over from the transom trim, after painting it gold.
 
I installed the roof and bottom blocks after giving them a few coats of primer and black paint. After they were installed I started measuring for the headers and sills, and realized the angle at the front between them was too severe. This was caused by the transom being more angled then shown on the plans. Well, I am not going to redo the transom at this point, so I trimmed back the bottom block. I first tried removing it with alcohol, but it would not budge and I didn't want to ruin other pieces in the process, so I took a very sharp scalpel and carved them back in the front. I then used a sanding stick to clean them up.
 

 
You can see there was a little collateral damage to the hull where the front of this piece used to be, but a little filler and paint will take care of that. Now two of the three the supplied windows will work in the opening. The front window is still off in terms of angle, so I will most likely make up new windows to use instead for those.
 
I made up the header and sills for the windows and one trim piece of the top. There should be another trim piece for the bottom. but there is not room for it, so I am leaving it out. I think the gap between the roof block and bottom block is a little too small, but the pieces had to line up with the knuckle in the transom at the bottom and the back of the quarter gallery at the top. I painted the headers, sills, and trim piece and glued them in place, and cleaned up the paint on the bottom block and hull.
 

 

 
I also filed and sanded the fairing pieces into shape, but don't have a picture of them yet. I made them more angled than the current ship has, but they are more like the picture in Chapelle’s book of the 44 gun frigate plans. I painted these last night so I will glue them next. After that I will make the pilasters between the windows and fit the supplied windows, then make the new ones. I am also going to try to adjust the location of the white stripe in front of the quarter galleries.
 
 

Thanks Steve, Tim and George, and the likes.
 
I finished the rudder chains on the other side, which went a lot faster.
 

 
I was going to fill the air ports with white glue to make the clear plugs, but found this Micro Klear stuff, so I filled them from the back using a small paint brush that has some sort of swab on the end. I let these sit upside down while the stuff dried. It is a bit runny, so if I put them right side up the stuff would ooze out. Since I put it in the back, it would harden enough before it traversed the length of the port.
 

 
I let them dry overnight and they were nice an clear the next day.
 

 
So then I had to make the two strips that cover the ends of the quarter gallery backs. I should have made these at lot earlier, like the instructions say, and certainly before I added the stern decorations. I am really concerned about messing them up now. Oh well. I had to trim larger strips down to size for these trim pieces and then soak and bend them to fit. The upper bend is really tight, so I worked on that one first, which took about three resoakings to finally get it so I could fit the strip all the way inside the curve. Then I bent the second curve, which goes the other way, which was a bit challenging to not take out the too much of the first curve in the process. I finally got each piece close and while they were still supple, I glued the top curve in place with CA and held it until it dried. I could not use clamps because of the stern decorations. I then added CA to the bottom curve and held that part in place. Overall I think they came out well, but I still need to trim them and add the bottom pieces, which are straight. Then I have to sand the edges of these to be flush with the transom without hitting any of the stern decorations. We shall see how successful that will be.
 

 
I guess I haven't said this in a while, but any feedback, especially criticisms are always welcome. Thanks.

I added the decorations to the transom. I used CA glue for the metal eagle and wood glue for the Sculpey stars and figures. I was surprised how well the figures held up in handling them. I did bake these for 2 hours instead of 90 minutes, which did seem to make them stronger and I think the gold paint also helped. I was afraid of breaking off those thin arms, especially when holding them down until the glue dried, but they all stayed together. I decided not to add the small star under the eagle as it looked to big and crowded. I like the level of decoration on the hull now.
 

 
I have one side of the rudder chain installed and still need to do the other side. I have to add these as separate pieces of chain because the links are so small I can't get the wire to fit between them when linked, so I have  to have open links on the ends of each piece. it is a bit fiddly but after about an hour I got the one side done. I had to get out the big magnifiers to see the ends of those chain pieces.
 

 
I have to put the three eye bolts on the other side of the transom for the rudder chain, which I will do tonight, but I will have to finish the chain later in the week. That means I get to start the quarter galleries tonight too.

Thanks Patrick. I am continuing to work on individual details for the transom decorations, but my Sculpey skills are no where near where they should be. I did manage to get one figure to come out half way decent and when I painted it with gold it covered a multitude of sins, so to speak. I am still not convinced I can get this glued to the transom without breaking it though.
 

 
You can also see the eagle that came with the kit, cleaned up and painted, and one star that I am not completely happy with. I have made new starts and figures, but have not cooked them yet. I am going to do that tonight.
 

 
I am hoping to get at least one other star from this batch and a few usable figures. We will see.
 
I was able to get a name board made using the dry transfer lettering. My first attempt was to use the spacing of the letters on the template I made, but after a few I could tell they were going to be too far apart and not spaced right, as the font was quite different. I then made a new template on the computer using a font much closer to the dry lettering font. I adjusted the spacing in Powerpoint until it looked good to me, which was 3 or 4 times the normal spacing. The thing that looks like a name plate just under the transom image is actually an image of what I wanted it to look like:
 

 
I then taped the actual wood that I had painted black (after scraping off the few letters I put on in my first attempt and touched up the black paint) under the image. I then used the image of the name board to line the letters up horizontally, and made sure that each letter was aligned vertically on the board, using the rows of letters on the dry transfer sheet. I started with the middle letters and worked toward each end. After every 4 or so letters, I burnished them using the cover sheet provided so that they were well stuck down and would not get damaged as the did the rest of the letters. When all the letters were on, I gave it a final burnishing and a coat of Dullcote lacquer. I trimmed the ends of the name board using a hole punch to cut out each corner, then touched up the black paint.
 

 
There is some waviness of the letters that I can see in that image, but it really doesn't look bad from even a little further away. I have a lot of letters left, so I may try making another one. We will see.
 
I am always trying to think many moves ahead and adding the details for the gun deck will be coming soon. I have been reading The Fully Framed Model Vol 1 book and just got to the part where he shows the main bits coming down from the upper deck to the gun deck. It made me stop and think that maybe I need to add this detail, so I looked at the MS plans and in the AOS book but neither showed the bits, which are really part of the main fife rail, extending down into the gun deck. I was thinking about the ship today and remembered that Google maps has the ship mapped out, so I went to that site and looked. Sure enough, the two front supports for the main fife rail are extended to the gun deck, so that is what I will do when I get to that part. I am glad I realized this now before I finished up the gun deck. The fore bits also extend down, but that is outside the part of the gun deck that I am modeling.
 
 

Just a small update from the weekend's activities. To add the large arches to the transom, I first glued a copy of the transom plan to some manilla folder, then cut it out along the top arch to use as a template. I taped this to the transom, then glued down the trim piece, starting at the middle and working outward. When I had most of it glued down, I removed the template and cut the ends to fit into the side trim.
 

 
When this was dry, I cut the template back to the lower arch and did the same thing for that trim piece.
 

 
I then made up the columns that I put along and between the windows. These were made from three separate pieces of wood that I primed and painted white. The two end piece were cut and the inside corners rounded off with a sanding block. The thinner center pieces were scored with a razor blade scraper before I painted them. I glued the end pieces on first, then cut the middle pieces to fit tight to them.
 

 
I have primed and painted the eagle, including the shield, but forgot to take a picture of it. I have also started working with the Sculpey to create the stars and figures. So far, I think I can get that technique to work.

Good morning all. Work on the transom continues. By the way, I am adding the transom details now because I think it is easier to work on the transom with the hull upside down. When the transom is finished, I will work on the quarter galleries, but I am not sure if the hull needs to be upside down for them. They are next to make sure they flow into the transom correctly. Then I will be turning the hull right side up and rigging the guns on the gun deck. After that step, I will be very reluctant to turn the hull upside down again.
 
I looked at the supplied eagle stern decoration that came with the kit and decided I like it, so I have incorporated it into the transom design. Here is what I envision for the transom. The figures and stars I will try to make out of Sculpey. If that doesn't work, I don't have a back up plan yet. For the name, I will make a thin board that I will paint black, then use white dry transfer lettering for the name. If that proves too problematic, I will try printing out the name and gluing it to the board. We will see.
 

 
BTW, I used the computer equivalent of cutting small bits of paper designs out and gluing them together to get the final design. It works for me but it sure doesn't stand up to graphic design standards.
 
I gave the window frames a few coats of thinned white paint. For the backing I would usually use clear acetate which I glue on with Hypo cement to prevent fogging. In another build log, and I really can't remember who's (so I apologize now if you are reading this log), to open up an old floppy disk and use the black, shiny material inside. This stuff is great. It blocks the view of the interior, which is good because there is none at the stern, is shiny to look like glass, and doesn't fog with CA glue. I cut oversize pieces of this material and glued them to the back of the window frames, then used a scalpel to trim the edges. It is thin enough so that it hardly pushed the frames out of the openings, so I could leave it go all the way to the edges of the window frames.
 

 
I then glued the window frames into the openings, again using CA.
 

 
And for the Captain, here is how it looks right side up at this point.
 

 

 
I then started adding some of the trim strips. I am using white styrene strips for the trim, as others have done on their Connie builds. This stuff works great. I had to make two pretty extreme bends for trim behind the quarter galleries, so I used some push pins on a piece of balsa wood. I carefully bent the strips making sure the center was flush to the board, then gently heated the strips with a hair dryer until I could tell they where pliable, then let them cool overnight.
 

 
When I removed them from the board, they held their shape nicely. One had a bit of a point at the top, so I put it back into the jig and reheated it to get the point out.
 
The first strip I glued on was across the bottom of the windows. I started at the middle and worked out toward the edges, gluing in sections. I wanted to make sure the strip was tight to the bottom of the window frames. I was happy to see this still came out to be a straight line. I then had to glue those two bent strips to the transom. I first put a strip of masking tape on the transom to mark the tops of these arches, then glued the top of each arch, holding the strip while the glue dried so that they stayed flush to the transom. I then worked on each side of the arch, making sure they were at the right angles and tried to keep both sides of the transom the same. I left the ends long while gluing then trimmed them to the lower strip when the glue dried. I then added the strip across the tops of the windows. I cut one end to flow into the arch, but left the other end long while gluing. I also added the strip under the name. I still have to trim the ends of a few of these strips but you can see what they look like so far.
 

 
One observation I have using styrene is that you really have to wait for the CA to dry, as it seems to take longer than it does on wood for some reason. The styrene does present a nice crisp edge, though, and it is very easy to bend.
 

Here is the remade mullion of the correct size:
 

 
I trimmed the ends off the mullions and fit it into the window opening, then glued it in. After it dried, I removed the paper from the back of the window, which was easy because it was only glued to the outer frame and I could scrape off any excess glue with an X-Acto knife. I then sanded the front and back by sliding the window over a sheet of sand paper, medium on both sides and fine on the front. And here it is in the opening:
 

 
Here is the first window I made:
 

 
And the rest so far:
 

 

 
I am finishing up the last window now. I am going to paint these white to match the white trim that I will be putting on the transom. I am pretty please with how these came out, as I have had trouble making similar pieces in the past. The paper backing was the trick for me for these, so I figured I'd share the technique.

Thanks guys. Luckily Captain it was only five pintles and gudgeons. The sixth strap is just on the rudder itself so it was breeze to install.
 
Onto the transom. I started by making the window frames and mullions (I think that is what the inner frames are called?). I decided to make the outer frames from 1/16" square wood, as I knew I would have problems using 1/32". I did use 1/32 by 1/16" for the mullions though. I hope the outer frames don't look too thick. I took pictures through the whole process to document how I made them which I will provide here.
 
Since I am completely going away from the plans for the transom, I started by making manila templates of each window opening. I made sure that these were a good fit and did not leave gaps in the openings.
 

 
I then cut the four outer frames and fit them into the window opening.
 

 

 
I then traced the template onto a piece of paper and cut it out to use as a plan for the window. I cut the top flush with the top edge so that I could push this up to the edge of the metal tray that I used to glue these up. This tray comes with magnets to hold parts while gluing and a lip all the way around to push parts up to. I like to use Lego pieces in the tray because they have nicer square edges than the magnets. I removed the outer frame pieces from the opening and put them in the tray on top of the plan. I then glued each piece to the next and to the paper itself. This helped me get the frames square and held them together better for the next steps.
 

 
While that was drying, I made the mullions. I first traced the template of the window opening onto a piece of paper and divided the sides into thirds. (I bet a bunch of you are screaming at this point - Tom stop! That isn't right!).
 

 
I then transferred those positions to four pieces of wood for the inner frames.
 

 
For the first window. I filed notches half way through the strips at those locations, so that they would fit together like a grating. For the rest of the windows, I got brave and used the Brynes saw with a slitting disk to make the notches, which turned out to be a much better way to go. I am using that saw more and more now that I can see what it can do.
 

 
I used a metal clip as a holder for the strips and held two at a time, which ensured that the notches would be the same for both pieces. I set the fence the correct distance from the blade and made sure the two ends were even to run along the fence. I also made sure the strips were flat to the saw table and not the clip riding on the table.
 
OK, here is how it came out after gluing them together.
 

 
I put that aside to dry and took the outer frame off the gluing jig, trimmed the excess paper from edges, and fit it to the opening. I had to do a little sanding of the edges to get a nice fit, but this is where the paper backing really helped hold it together as I sanded. And here it is in the opening.
 

 
And here is where all you guys screaming above were waiting for. I went to fit the mullions to the outer frame and said _ Oh s**t !
 

 
I forgot to allow for the outer frame when dividing the window opening into thirds.
 
So, I added the size of the outer frames to the paper and then divided the remaining area into thirds and remade the mullions. Now, this would not be so bad, except I did the same thing on the second window! Duh!
 
Continued in the next post...