SkerryAmp

I finished planking the port side outer bulwarks. I set a compass to the height of the bulwarks above the plank sheer and drew lines across the sections. In most cases, I had to remove about a half a plank width, so I carefully used a razor saw to cut off most of the excess, then sanded the tops fair so the main rail pieces will run smoothly. I thought at one point I would have to lower the sieves, but I had just enough clearance for them when sanded. I left the planks at the curve of the bow as is until after the starboard side outer bulwarks are planked. I was able to sand these bow planks smooth without any big gaps, so I am pretty happy with the planking so far. I was also happy that the sides of the spar deck gun ports all have pretty much the same shape and width. Here is how the port side came out. The starboard side is still just the inner support pieces in these pictures.
 

 

 
Now to repeat on the starboard side, and hope that the two sides come out similar.

I have managed to get most of the port side outer bulwarks planked. The area between the second gun ports across the bow is still being worked. But, I was able last night to sand the planks flush (almost) with the sides and bottom of the gunports. I have left a little material there to sand off when I do the inside bulwark planking.
 

 

 
When I sanded down the through hull sieves, the piece of dowel I had on the inside started to be sanded, so no longer looked round. I had made these too wide. So, I popped them out and made new ones, using a smaller diameter dowel inside. I also didn't like the old ones because I didn't completely frame them on the sides, so I took the opportunity to add those side pieces to these. Here they are installed in the slots and sanded flush.
 
 

 
I am going to have to use some wood filler on these planks, but not too much. I think the bow planks will need more, as getting them to line up nicely along the sharp curve was a pain. Should have pictures of that area soon.

Finally some outside planking going on. I am starting with the easy part, the outer plank sheer and planks to the main rail. I installed the plank sheer in a couple of pieces, with a single piece wrapped around the bow. I first soaked and bent it around the bow and then glued it after it had dried in place. In these pictures the plank sheer is being glued on except the bow, which is being bent and drying.
 

 

 
At this point I realized that I had not added the back pieces for the quarter galleries, so I dug the laser cut top pieces out and made the two bottom pieces. I bevelled the edges of these to fit together at the angle of the knuckle in the transom. As I was dry fitting them, I came to the conclusion that the bulwarks were too high at the transom. I used a steel ruler to extend the tops of the solid pieces along the sides to the transom and and marked this as the top. The backs fit perfectly then, but I had to trim off some of the last bulwark pieces at the transom, which I was able to do with a razor saw and some sanding. I then just had to extend the slot for the stern bumpkins. The rear sieves are now much closer to the top rail, but looking back on the plans and pictures of the actual ship, they are just under the rail, so it is all good.
 
I needed a way to secure the gallery backs so they would be flush with the transom and stay at the right height while the glue dried, so I clamped a couple of planks to the transom that I could clamp the backs to. Here are the backs being glued in place:
 

 

 

 
The bottom pieces I just held in place while the glue tacked up.
 
Here are more planks being applied between the spar deck gun ports. This shot has almost all of the clothes pin clamps I have being utilized:
 

 
For the pieces that I need to curve around the bow, using the model itself was not satisfactory as there is no solid piece across the bow curve at this level, so the next piece I bent came out too flat in the front. I was going to make a solid block the same shape as the bow, but just happened to see a set up yesterday in Hipexec's build log (thanks Rich) that was much easier, using push pins to define the shape and hold the planks. I had some balsa sheet that I used as the base and traced the bow from the plans to it, then added push pins to hold a soaked plank:
 

 
We will see tonight how well this matches the actual bow, but it should be close.
 

OK, now the frame is really all set to start planking, which will have to wait a few days as I will be away this weekend.
 
I painted the insides of all the gun ports and around the outsides of them too, although only the gun deck ports really needed this for the recessed planking that will go around them. Despite the great research and discussion that is going on in some of the other Conny build logs regarding lack of lids in 1812, I want to add the gun port lids so that I can close off the ports with the dummy cannons. So, I will be leaving a recess around the ports for the lids to fit in.
 

 
I was most concerned about the paint around the inside edges of the gun deck ports, since I had already painted the inner planks. I was quite pleased with the results, with not too much touching up of the off white paint needed.
 

 
Finally, I was finally able to trim the bulwark extensions to almost the real height. I left them a little long to sand down to the planking later. I also trimmed the transom extensions at the same time, although I left them a little taller.
 

 
Hopefully, the next update will show some planks on her.

Thanks Pete and Patrick, and all the Likes.
 
Moving to the port side, I added the plank sheer and the solid pieces between the gun ports on the spar deck, and sanded everything flush to the bulkheads. I tried to make sure the profiles on each side of the gun ports are the same so they will look symmetrical. I am going to install the through bulwark sieves and paint the insides of the gun ports, then it will be ready for planking.
 

 

 

 

 
 
 

I had planned to add the four through the bulwark sieves, but again had to think about how to frame them and hold them in place before planking the bulwarks. The solid pieces solved this problem by giving me a solid surface to mill out to hold them.
 
I milled the port and starboard pieces at the same time so i had a better chance that would come out the same. I first marked the pieces:
 

 
Then put them in the drill press vise, which I angled so that the slot corresponded to the X direction of the XY table. I have both pieces in the vice back to back so I could cut them at the same time. I drilled a series of holes along the slot:
 

 
Then used a small end mill bit to square up the slot:
 

 
And finished with a small square file:
 

 
To make the sieve, I sliced the end of a dowel into very thin slices that I glued between two thin pieces of wood. The wood is wide enough to be oversized, even when these pieces are planked on both sides, so I can sand them flush to the planking later. I blackened the edges of the dowel pieces with a black Sharpie.
 

 

 
I then sanded the short edges and the top and bottoms of the sieves to fit into the slots:
 

 
I'll add these later after I have glued these solid pieces in and sanded them flush with the bulwarks.
 
So, I glued the two starboard side pieces in, as seen here:
 

 
But, I had forgotten to add the notch for the stern bumpkins, and I did not leave enough room for it on the first pieces. I remade those two rear pieces with the sieve slot a little more forward and the notch for the bumpkin, which I made by just drilling out a hole and squaring it up with the square file.
 

 
Now I just need to repeat adding the plank sheer and solid pieces to the port side.
 
 
 
 

Some progress from over the weekend. I have been dealing with family issues since then.
 
So, I needed to frame the spar deck gun ports, which I could have done the same as the gun deck gun ports except that the tops of these will be framed by the rail. One way I could have gone was to add vertical frames at the sides and horizontal frames between the bulwark extensions and these vertical frames, but only on the parts of the bulwarks that will be planked over. This seems too complicated and fragile, so I went with a simpiler (at least to me) solution - solid pieces that will be planked over in the parts of the bulwarks that are not gun ports. These are sanded to have the same shape as the bulwark extensions so each side of the gun port will look the same. They are glued to the plank sheer on the bottom and the bulwark extension on one side, so they are pretty solidly attached.
 

 

 
I let these dry overnight, then sanded them flush with the bulkheads on the outside. When I installed them, I made sure that they were flush with the inside, so I did not have to sand them (much) on the inside.
 

 

 
As you will see in the next post, this method also helped out with the next step.

Now some updates to show. I finished the dummy gun ports on both sides and have sanded them flush to the bulkheads.
 

 
Now I could turn my attention to the spar deck gun port framing, which will get me very close to start planking. Since I am showing the open waist, I needed to add new bulkhead extensions at the ends of the forward and rear bulwarks, which do not line up with existing bulkheads. I marked these out on the tops of the gun port framing, as these will be the bases for these extensions, which will also be glued to the back of the spar deck waterway.
 

 
I then needed to make the extensions, but they are not shown on the plans directly, but they are indirectly in the shapes of the bulkheads.
 

 
I found the sheet that contained the bulkheads closest to these new locations and used them to trace the shape of these extension pieces onto some basswood strips, then cut/sanded them to shape. I used the cut out to test the shape.
 

 
I glued these in place, using a batten to hold at the right position to the rest of the extensions.
 

 
I then did some fairing of these and the neighboring extensions.
 

 
I made all four of these but so far have only added them to the starboard side. These will be used for ends of the bulwark planking and will also support the trail boards.
 
I then added the plank sheer pieces between the bulkhead extensions which will be the bottoms of the spar deck gun ports. These have not been sanded flush with the bulkheads yet. I did not have to add these between bulkheads that will not have gun ports.
 

 

 

 
I am glad there were not any gun ports at the bow because there the plank sheer needs to curve. It would have been very difficult to match the curves in these between pieces and the inner plank sheer pieces. Once these bottom frames are ready, I will add the sides of the gun ports. The tops will be the main rail when that is put on. I will have to add horizontal support pieces next to the gun ports to support the vertical gun port sides, but these will be planked over when I plank the bulwarks.
 
 

Thanks Al and Patrick. Yes, I have so many pictures already, more than any previous whole build. These will make a nice record of what's been done and what may be hidden. Still thinking about the gun carriage color, but I have lots of time to decide. In between framing I have put together 5 of the 16 gun carriages that I need for the gun deck, although these are still pretty rough. There are a lot of steps for creating each carriage and more later when they are rigged.
 
I have been working on the dummy gun ports. These will have the dummy barrels in them with the gun port lids closed. The main concern here is to have the barrels exactly in the center of the ports and at the same angle as the real cannon barrels. I first made up the tops, bottom and sides of the ports, using different widths of 1/8" strips. I glued these in so that the rear edges of the tops and bottoms held the backs at the correct angles. Each gun port was just a bit different. I then sanded the front edges flush to the bulkheads, making sure that there was a slight curve between bulkheads to match the fairness of the hull. This is especially important near the bow, where there is a sharp curve between bulkheads.
 
Here are the sanded frames with the backs being glued in place:
 

 
And here is a simple tool I made up to center the backs. It is just a thin piece of wood that is the same shape as the gun ports glued to a piece of dowel that is the same diameter as the dummy gun barrels. The dowel fits snugly in the hole in the backs, so I inserted the tool into the gun port and slid the back piece on from inside the hull and pushed it tight to the frames, after applying some glue around the edges of the back pieces. I held it in place while I removed the tool and placed the two clothes pin clamps in place.
 

 
Here are the three ports at the bow. The one in the middle was the tricky one that needed thick tops and bottom frames to get the curve of the bow into them. The first ones I put on were too thin so it made the frame too flat. I also had to trim the back piece at an angle to fit close to the bulkhead. The front gun port needed some work too. This was actually added weeks ago when I framed the bow area. Unfortunately, the plans either were not right or I misinterpreted them. First off, in the current configuration this is not a gun port but an anchor port, but in 1812 this was a gun port from what I have read. On the plans it says that this opening is the same shape as the other gun ports, which is how I should have built it, but from the shape shown in the detailed plans, this opening comes out square. Also, the top and bottom of this port were too low in the detailed plans, so it did not line up with the other ports. So, I removed the top and bottom pieces and glued them in at the right heights, then used a file to widen the sides to the correct width. I am thinking that I will have the gun port lids on this front port but no cannon barrel sticking out, mainly because there is no room behind it to get a back piece in and to hedge my bets on what type of port this is. I did add a thin piece of wood as a backing just to block any light from coming in from behind.
 

 
Speaking of light, I got to looking closer at the ends of the gun deck and realized that some of the other bulkheads may be seen through the openings. I first thought to just paint them all black, but then came up with a simpler solution, which was to just close up the ends with some black construction paper. I think this will look better in the long run.
 

 
These are all pictures of the port side gun port frames. I am still working on the starboard side frames.
 

Augie - Thanks for looking in. Your Confederacy is a really beautiful build.
 
Geoff - I don't know about that. I am just trying to add a little more detail than some. Your Constitution build is a real inspiration for me and was one of the reason I decided to build it. It is fantastic.
 
Tim - thanks and I hope it comes out the way I envision it. A problem I always seem to have is keeping something I had already done from getting messed up by further steps. I am hoping that doesn't happen when I add the rest of the details to the gun deck.
 
A small update. I installed all of the knees on the gun deck walls, with vertical knees under the beam ends and diagonal knees in between. They look a little funny without the carlings in place, but once the spar deck is planked the tops of these knees won't be visible. I put some masking tape on the deck to protect it while gluing up the inside planks and the knees, and I managed not to get any glue on the deck (so far).
 

 
When I removed the masking tape, some stain was lifted from some of the planks, but I was able to restain them and blend it into the rest of them. I painted the inside walls, knees, and inside the gun ports with an off white that I mixed up. I also managed not to get paint on the waterways or deck, at least not any that I was not able to wipe off before it dried. It really helped to paint that bottom plank before installing it. I also gave the deck, hatch coamings and gratings and waterway a coat of Tung oil. I know this may interfere with gluing details to the deck later, like guns, but I plan to pin all those down so they don't come loose later. I will also scrape the glue areas before gluing. Here  is how the gun deck looks so far:
 

 
I have been making up gun carriages as I wait for other things to dry.  I have no idea what color these carriages should be. The carriages on the current ship are a pinkish-red, but I don't think that would have been the case in 1812. They could have been red like the British ships of the time, black, brown, yellow even, but I really don't know. I am open for suggestions from all you Connie experts out there.
 
Thanks so much.

Thanks Patrick. I am happy with that solution, since they will be painted anyway. If I ever try to build a model in all natural wood someday, i will be in real trouble. 
 
I am going to add the vertical and diagonal knees to the gun deck walls. I am not sure if these were in the 1812 version, but here is what they look like on the current ship. There is a vertical knee under each beam and the diagonal knees meet between the beams, probably at a carling (if that is the right term). Since I won't have any carlings, I will just have them end under the spar deck planking.
 

 
I made one from some 1/8" basswood sheet to use as a template for the rest:
 

 
I made this template a little thinner than the knee I wanted, because I have found in the past that once I trace it, it gets fatter in the end, so by starting smaller, it should come out close to the right size. I used the template to trace the shape onto some basswood sheet that I cut close to the correct height.
 

 
I traced these so the curved edge was always on the short side of the blank, so I could use the blank as a handle when sanding it. I cut off the excess with a razor knife, which left a nice triangular piece that I put aside to use to make the quoins for the gun deck cannons.
 

 
I then used a Dremel sanding disk in the drill press to sand in the curves:
 

 
I cleaned up the knee with small files and some sand paper.
 

 
Then cut it away from the blank with the razor knife:
 

 
I got into a good rhythm and was able to crank each one out about every couple of minutes, so it took less time than I thought it would. And here is how it will look as a vertical knee:
 

 
The trick is getting them all to look similar, so here are the first 10 or so and I think they do look similar:
 

 
And here are 33 of them, which is getting closer to the number I need, but not there yet. And the triangular waste pieces too.
 

 
Tonight I will figure out exactly how many I need and finish making them, then start attaching them.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I wanted to test fit the cannons I bought from Model Expo to make sure they fit in the gun ports, so I assembled one of them and did a quick test. These did not come with instructions, so I basically just fit a support piece between the two side pieces for this test cannon, but the real ones will have a small tapered piece and a front support piece instead. I also just used some 1/16" square wood for the axles, but will use wider pieces of wood in the final version. I made a jig to hold the side pieces up while I glued them to the axles. Here is the test cannon from the jig:
 

 

 
I rounded the axles to fit the wheels and just slid the wheels onto them for now:
 

 
When I put this cannon onto the gun deck I could see that it was about 1/8" too low. This made sense to me given that the bulkheads as supplied by ME are at the height of the gun deck after planking, but I had reduced the height of the bulkheads by 1/8" to account for the 1/16" of the gun deck support piece and the 1/16" deck planks. If I had just planked the deck without lowering the bulkheads, these cannons would fit fine or be close.
 

 
My first idea was to add more height to the axles, but that would only get me another 1/16" or so without looking awful. I then looked at the supplied gun carriage sides and realised that I could cut them in half without hitting any of the notches, then I could add a 1/18" by 1/16" piece to make up the height difference. I did this for two sides and after sanding them they looked fine.
 

 
I glued them up with the axles and support piece, added the wheels and this is how it came out:
 

 
And here it is in one of the gun ports. It fits nicely and more importantly, the barrel comes out straight so I can (hopefully) line them up with the dummy cannons that will be in the other gun ports.
 

 
Here is a comparison of the stock cannon (right) and the modified version (left):
 

 
I was lucky to have some extra cannons to experiment with. At some point I will make up the 16 cannons that will be rigged on the gun deck, but I have a lot more work to do to get to that point.

Here are a couple of updates. I'll show the interior wall planking of the gun deck in this one and the experiments with the gun deck cannons in the next one.
 
I planked the insides of the gun deck walls using the same 1/8" by 1/16" planks that I used for the deck planking. I started with two full length planks at the bottom of each side. I mixed up some off white paint and painted the bottom planks before installing them, although the color looks very similar to the basswood itself.
 

 

 
Those clothes pins held the planks very nicely in place while the glue dried.
 
I then cut three short planks for between each of the gun ports and glued them in. I made them slightly longer than the span between the gun ports and will clean up the gun port openings later. These plank ends will be flush with the gun port openings, where as the outside hull planks will leave a slight gap for the gun port lids to fit in.
 

 
The next plank up was a full length plank, then I had to make shorter planks with either notches for the deck beam ends or cut to fit between the deck beam ends.
 

 
I ended up gluing the upper planks directly to the edges of the planks below. I really did not need the little supports I added for these planks before, as they really didn't support them. I did add a thin strip from the outside onto these upper planks to tie the top three together to give them a little more strength. These strips will be hidden when the outer hull planking is added. I cleaned up the gun port openings from the outside using some small diamond files, after cutting some of the excess plank ends with an X-Acto knife. I still have a little more cleaning to do from the inside to get the corners more crisp. I only had to do a little sanding of the interior planks, which I did with a riffler file first, then taped some sandpaper to the end of it and used that for the final sanding. Here is how the starboard side interior looks so far.
 

 

 

I ordered the cannon package from Model Expo for the gun deck cannons and they came in this week. I only need 16 real cannons for the piece of gun deck I am adding, but the whole package was cheaper than ordering 16 individual cannons, by a lot. Plus, I had two $10 gift certificates from the shipmodeling.net competition (2 third places).
 

 
I figure I can use the extras for future models, maybe even a scratch build. Here is a comparison of the barrels with the dummy cannons for the other gun ports. They are close but not exactly the same. I have the option of turning the extra real barrels into dummy barrels, but I haven't made that decision yet. What do you think?
 

 
I completed the gun ports for the real cannons on both sides and sanded the outsides flush with the bulkheads. I also did a little filing on the inside using a riffler file to make sure everything is flush for the inner planks.
 

 
While doing that inside work, I realized I had a problem with the top of the inside walls, between the deck beams. There was no support for the planks that need to fit between the beams to close off the tops of the walls. After some thinking (probably too much) I came up with this solution, to glue small pieces of wood along each beam side that can support the ends of the planks. In this picture you can see them on the gun port on the right, and not the two on the left.
 

 
Here is a view from the inside that shows how they will work.
 

 
They are flush with the insides of the gun port frame at the bottom and with the outside of the spar deck waterway at the top. I am not sure if this is the exact angle they should be, but they are going to be very hard to see, if at all, and I could probably get away with just leaving this area unplanked, but what's the sport in that.
 
Finally, I had to mix some paint for the insides of the gun deck walls and gun ports. I am using an off white that I mixed up from ME's Warm White and Cream. It is almost the same color as the basswood itself, but it adds a different texture to the wood. Here are the first planks for each side, which I pre-painted so I don't get paint on the waterway later.
 

 
Next is to plank the inside walls of the gun deck.
 

After I took the weights off the deck pieces, one side was sticking up a little at the center line, so I fixed it by drilling some holes through the false deck into the center keel and pushing in some small nails. These will be hidden by the center deck planks.
 

 
Once I had the deck pieces flush, I cut the remaining deck planks to fill the center gap. I sanded the three pieces in each gap until they fit in the space. My hunch was right to make the gap three pieces instead of just one, as the widths all looked consistent this way. If I had to sand just one plank, it would probably have looked too thin. I marked the edges of these planks with the Sharpie and glued them in. After they dried, I sanded them down flush with the rest of the deck, drilled and filled holes for their treenails, gave them a final sanding, and stained them. I then gave the whole deck another coat of stain to blend it all in. Here they are before I sanded them down flush. The finished deck can be seen in later pictures in this post.
 

 
I started cutting the boards that will make up the tops of the gun ports with the real cannons on the gun deck. I am using the bottom of the waterway as a reference and measured down from it to find the locations of the bottoms of the top boards, using a strip of wood of the correct height as a measuring device. I also used a wood strip to measure down from the waterway to the top of the board. I cut out the boards, sanded them to fit, then used the smaller wood strip measuring device to position them the correct distance from the waterway.
 

 

 
For the bottoms of the gun ports, I need to have the inside and outside beveled to match the angle of the bulkheads. The outside I can sand in later, but there is no way to get to the inside, so I beveled the inside edges of these pieces before I glued them in. I used a block of wood that I made to the shape of the gun ports to distance the bottom pieces from the top.
 

 

 
Here you can see how the bottom pieces are flush with the inside bulkheads:
 

 

 
Wow, there is already a lot of dust on the deck. Sorry for the out of focus pictures. I need more practice taking pictures with one hand.
 
Here is one side of top and bottom gun port framing. I have to wait to finish the other side as you can see that I broke off one of the bulwark supports (again!). I almost lost this one, but found it later on the floor. I am reinforcing them as I glue them back in, probably to no avail.
 

 

 
I will be offline for a few days so no updates until next week.

Thanks Patrick and Alde.
 
I glued the two deck sections into the hull tonight. I was able to wedge some clamps along the outside edge to hold it down and used weights along the centerline to get the decks to follow the slight curve of the gun deck roundup from side to side. I glued the port piece first, then after a few hours I glued the starboard piece. I had to use a few more clamps on the starboard side. I put some wood strips under the weights so I wouldn't scratch the finish. Those jars are filled with lead flashing.
 

 

 
Tomorrow I will fill in the center planks, then it is off to frame the gun ports. I will have 8 real guns and 8 dummy guns on each side.

Thanks Tim for your very kind words.
 
I finished up the bulk of the gun deck planking last night, except for the three planks that will go down the center over the seam of the two pieces. First, here is the starboard side piece after planking and a first scraping/sanding, but before trimming the edges.
 

 
After the edges were trimmed and it fit into the hull, here is the two pieces together, after filing out the hatch openings to fit the finished coamings.
 

 
Now for the treenails. I taped the two sides down on the work table. I had added alignment marks so I could get them to line up outside of the hull. I then used some masking tape to mark each line of butt joints, and drilled one #74 hole in the planks that did not have a joint at that beam. I then took the tape off and drill two holes at each butt joint, one on each side of the joint. I also drilled holes at the ends of the planks at the hatch openings. I did not drill holes at the plank ends on the edges of the deck pieces, as the beam locations at each end are actually just off the pieces.
 

 
When all the holes were drilled, I filled them with oak putty, which is different than wood filler. It is more oily and stays pliable. It looks horrible when it first goes on though:
 

 
Here is the putty I am using:
 

 
I then scraped and sanded the excess putty off. I don't leave it sit on the wood too long, as I think it might stain it after a while. The putty stays in the holes nicely though, which is why I like it better than filler. I then gave the decks a final sanding with medium then fine sandpaper. The first picture is with flash and the second is natural lighting which shows a little more detail:
 

 

 
I then pre-stained the decks, after wiping them with a tack cloth. Here is how they look with just the pre-stain:
 

 
After 15 minutes, I wiped off the excess pre-stain and gave them a coat of oak stain:
 

 
I am happy with the way they came out, and will use this same finish on the spar deck when I plank that.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thanks Patrick. It's nice to have such good friends here.
 
I did manage to get some work done last week and this weekend, so I might as well bring you all up to date.
 
First, here are the hatches to the berth deck completed with the gratings. I used three of the large gratings from the spar deck main hatch cover, which I cut apart. That hatch cover is not needed since the main hatch will be left open with the deck beams showing. I was quite pleased how these gratings cleaned up. This is actually the back side of them, which looked a lot better than the front side. The holes look round on the front side but square on the back.
 

 
I stained these hatches with oak stain, which you can see in some later pictures.
 
I then started planking the gun deck sections. I first pined a plank down the center as a reference, then put in spacers for another plank width on each side. I then cut and glued in one row of planks against those spacers on each side. These will be the starting planks that all the rest will be based on, so I made sure they were very straight and square. I left a plank on each side of the center plank so that when I put the two planked sections together later, I will have three plank widths to use to make sure there are no gaps in the center of the deck. We will see how this works out later. I drew lines at each of the bulkhead locations for the ends of the planks. I did move the location of the one bulkhead that is very close to its neighbor to be more centered between its neighbors, which is how I will show the deck beams for the spar deck. I have no idea why ME put those two bulkheads so close to each other, unless it has to do with the location of the main hatch (I am at work right now so I don't have the plans in front of me).
 

 

 
 
Here are some pictures of the planking process and the finished hatch coamings and grates:
 

 

 
Here is the port side deck section planked, before scraping and sanding. I used a black Sharpie on one edge of each plank as I installed them. I also used a three butt shift pattern. The planks lengths hit every three bulkheads and were nominally 20 cm long. This turns out to be a little long for this scale (~50 feet), but I didn't want to use planks that were shorter. The instructions for the hull planking say to use planks that are 4 bulkheads in length, but that would have been way too long.
 

 
If you look closely around the hatch openings, you will see that I used wider planks that I cut down away from the hatch but left a little wider around the edge of the hatch. This is similar to what I have seen around gun ports on hull plankings, especially on Chuck's models. If I didn't do this I would have had a very narrow plank along the hatches, which I didn't want. I am not sure if this is authentic, but to me it looks better than a very thin plank.
 
 Here is the deck planking after an initial scraping and sanding, but I have not added the treenails yet.
 

 
And again for symmetry, here is the starboard deck section being planked. You can see how the Sharpie looks before finishing. I do have to be careful not to get any on the plank surface, but if I do, I can turn the plank over and use the other side.
 

 
Next is to come up with a way to hold these sections tight to the deck beams when I glue them down. I am also doing some trials for treenails, which with these narrow planks could be challenging.

For the hatch coamings, I chose some strip wood that was high enough to fit above the deck base and deck planking height. For each hatch, I cut four pieces which all fit to the corners, then used a razor saw to cut lap joints into the corners. I made sure the lengths on the opposite sides were the same so they would be square, then glued them up using magnets and Legos to hold them square.
 

 

 

 
Tonight I will add the center pieces.

OK, where did we leave off? Oh yeah, getting the hatches from the gun deck to the berth deck more accurate. Here is a snippet of the plan that I was referring to from the CD and Constitution web site:
 

 
So, I updated the gun deck template to this configuration. I was able to tweak these to use three of the large hatch gratings from the kit that would have gone over the main hatch, but since I am leaving that one open, I can use them here. I had to add some more boxing between the bulkheads to accommodate the new ladder location, which I painted black. I then used the templates to cut out the gun deck base, which I made in two pieces to fit around the spar deck beam ends. I cut them to length first, then cut the edges along the waterways and sanded them to get a nice fit. Once I was happy with the fit along the waterways of the two pieces, I cut them to meet at the centerline:
 

 
Now it was time to cut out the hatch openings. To mark the hatch locations, I placed the base pieces and the templates into the hull, then drilled small holes at the corners of the hatches and where they met the centerline:
 

 
I took the deck pieces out of the hull, drew lines between the holes, and cut the hatch openings out with an X-Acto knife. I gave the edges a little sanding, too:
 

 

 
I wanted to make the hatch coamings for these so that when I plank the deck I can get a good fit at these openings. To support these coamings, I glued some tabs around the hatch openings, avoiding the bulkheads and center keel:
 

 

 
 
 
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Thanks Steve. I am excited to be able to add this level of detail, especially on a model of this size, even if most of it will not be that visible.
 
I glued in the gun deck waterways after staining them with golden oak:
 

 
And here are the spar deck waterways. They add support for the bulwark extensions, which is why I waited until they were glued in before cutting the bulkheads:
 

 
I then made a template for the gun deck base, which I will be cutting out of 1/16" basswood sheet. I need to make this base in two pieces because I wouldn't be able to get one piece past the beam stubs. I will cover the seam with the center plank. I used a compass to trace the curve of the gun deck waterways onto some manila folder:
 

 
I then marked the locations of the two hatches that lead down into the berth deck. I took these from the AOS, but later I looked at the plans on the Constitution CD, which are a little different. I will be modifying them to match those plans. I did box in a few places where I was going to add ladders, but not all these will be used now. I will paint these boxes black to hide them.
 

 

 
Thanks for the interest and the Likes.

Thanks Patrick and Tim, and all the likes.
 
Tim, those pictures are great. That stern looks very much like the Hull model. I will look at those closely as I design the stern on mine.
 
OK, so tonight was the big surgery to remove the spar deck beams in the main hatch area. I am going to leave the hatch open, which means I need to add a gun deck. I removed the beams by first cutting the center supports at the bottom using an X-Acto saw blade.
 

 
I then cut the deck beams using a razor saw to start and the X-Acto saw to finish the cuts. I cut these on an angle so that I can mate the new deck beams to these stumps later. These joints will be hidden under the deck planking so won't be seen (at least won't be seen easily).
 

 
I marked each of the removed sections and put them aside to use as templates later for the new deck beams. Since these new beams will be showing, I will make them from solid wood, not the plywood of these beams.
 

 
I ground the stumps left from the center supports using a sanding disk in the Dremel.
 

 
Here is the area with the deck beams all removed.
 

 
I soaked the starboard side gun deck waterway which I made when I was making the spar deck waterways, and clamped it in place to bend. The clamps on the other side are two bulkheads that I had to re-glue to the spar deck waterway, whcih came loose during the sawing process.
 

 
Once the waterways are both in, I plan to make a false gun deck from some basswood sheet, which I will plank. I made these waterways higher than those on the spar deck to compensate for the additional height of the false deck. I feel better now that the major surgery is finished and I look forward to working on the gun deck.

Well, the soaked and bent waterways held their shape just fine. I did add a strip to the corner of the transom for the ends to fit in, so I re-soaked them and stuck them out the transom to get more curve in the stern.
 

 
I also soaked and bent the other side pieces to the bulwark supports.
 

 
While those were drying, I made up two templates from manila folder for the two bow waterways. 
 

 
I used the templates to cut these waterways out from some basswood sheet material, which is actually excess laser cut pieces from the kit. I glued these to some thinner sheets after getting them to shape inside and out, to get them to the same height as the other waterway pieces.
 
I also made the waterways for the gun deck, using the one piece I had left from the kit and another that I had. These will go on when I can get into that area more easily.
 
I cut the miter joints into the transom waterway and the ends of the two side pieces, and scarf joints in the other ends. I cut some of the scarf joints on the drill press with the end mill, but the two in front I had to do by hand. They came out the same in either case, not great, but OK since the pieces will be painted. I will need to practice a lot more before attempting these for wood that is to be left natural.
 
I then started gluing the waterways in. Here are the two starboard side pieces being glued in. Being able to clamp that stern section so it was tight to the transom filler was a huge relief, as otherwise I don't know how I would have gotten that area to stay down.
 

 

 
After I took this picture I could see that the middle sections were not being held down tight enough, so I broke out the bigger clamps. Why I didn't start with these I don't know, as they were perfect in not leaving any marks on the wood.
 

 
And to be fair, here are the port side pieces being glued in.
 

 
And finally, the bow sections being glued in.
 

 
OK, here we go on the kit bashing part. I removed the bulwark supports to show the open waist area, and I have marked the deck beams that I will remove to add the gun deck. The beams will be replaced later with new beams made from basswood strips, as they will be shown in the open main hatch.
 

 

 
Tomorrow, I will remove the marked deck beams. I sure hope this works.
 
 
 
 
 

I finished up the stern framing by adding the bottoms to the chase ports. Since it will be a while before I will be planking the hull, I decided to add some battens to each side, to stabilize the bulkheads:
 

 

 
I sanded the stern framing flush:
 

 
Here is a view down the batten to check for fairness:
 

 
I then started preparing the waterways. I used my disk sander to sand in the bevel along the bulwark supports:
 

 
Then I put this crazy set up together to sand in the 45 degree bezel on the top and front of the waterway. It is the Dremel with a sanding drum in the Dremel workstation at a 45 degree angle, with the True Sander underneath so I could use it's fence. I put a finger board in there to hold the strip against the fence. All in all, I probably would have been better just to sand these by hand, but once I started putting stuff together it was fun to see if it would work. I didn't sand in the whole bevel, but enough to get it started. I then put the strip in my vice and set the vice to 45 degrees and planed and sanded it to the final bevel with a sanding block. This method worked but the Dremel put some pits in the face that I was able to sand out. That's why I didn't do the whole bevel this way.
 

 

 

 
I made up the side waterways in two sections and I will connect them with a scrap joint, I think. I have enough overlap that if it doesn't work the first time, I can try again. I soaked the two back sections for about 30 minutes, then clamped them in place to dry. I need to add a post on the inside of the transom so I have an edge to connect these to, as well as the inside bulwark planking. There is nothing on the plans to indicate this, so I am not sure how the inside planking is otherwise supposed to end at the transom. You can't see it, but there is a small block of wood between those large clamps and the waterway to push them over, but I don't think it is enough yet. I may have to resoak and do this again.
 

 

 
I'll see tonight how well these held the shape and how much more shaping they may need.
 
 

This week I have been working in the stern framing. I have the outer transom support pieces in and faired, and added the two deck beams. I left the middle one long so that I could hold it down to the curve of the deck using rubber bands (or as they say here in New England - elastics)
 

 

 
I sanded these down to be flush with the support pieces, then started framing the stern windows. I added pieces for the top and bottom frames, then added the side frames. I first used thin (1/16" thick) pieces on the top and bottom frames, but since they were only edge glued to the supports they were not very sturdy (you can see a few of these in the above picture). I replaced them with thicker pieces that I could glue to the transom filler piece on the bottom, but the top pieces are still only edge glued, but the edge is bigger. In these pictures I have just glued in the side frames and they are all clamped and drying. The top frames can be seen above the clamps.
 

 
You can see in this picture that I left the frames a little proud of the support pieces, so that I can sand them flush later. I will use the planking that will go onto the outside of the transom to make a recess around each window and then build the window frames to fit into those recesses. That's the current plan, anyway.
 

 
I still have to add the bottom frames for the chase ports on the spar deck level. The top frame will be the taffrail. The windows are on the gun deck level.