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k-mart

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  1. Snug Harbor Johnny, Thanks for the compliment. Yeah... I didn't notice that gap at top of the rudder until it was already attached. Its exactly as you described. The modern spade rudder would have the same contour of the sternpost. In the picture the gap is obvious... but from viewing distance... only a NRG member or model shipwright would ever pick up on that mistake. :-). I swore enough when hanging the rudder, that I'm calling it done. Not going to try and fix it.
  2. Quick update... Rudder just about done. Just need too add the chain. If you look close.. the eyebolts are already on the stern.
  3. Next I started the rudder. I'm going with the older, more square rudder than the current spade like rudder. Note sure when the switch was made, pre or post 1812.... I didn't see date in the plan / CD. I had roughed out the new rudder earlier... but I needed to make the pintles and gudgeons. Made a simple jig. piece of wood 3/16th wide... same as rudder rounded off one edge. Then just bent the brass strips over it. after a few tries.... was able to get them the right shape. Made 10 total. 5 for rudder, 5 for hull. Pintles were a bit harder to make. I've never really soldered before.... After a few attempts, I determined I either needed 4 hands to do this. Using pliers, one hand to hole gudgeon, one to hold the pintle, one to hold soldering iron and one to hold the solder wire itself. As that wont work... made another simple jig. Drilled a hole in a piece of scrape wood same diameter as pintle Put the brass wire in hole. clamp the gudgeon in proper position Now with two free hands.. can solder away. I put the soldering iron on the outside. and the solder on the inside of the wire. heat drew the solder right where it needed to go. Drilled a whole lotta tiny holes for the nails And a bunch of clean up. Next up... I'll finish coppering the rudder and then attach the hardware. Now a question , opinion from this esteemed group of modelers? Looking at other Connie build logs.... I've seen several variations on the rudder hardware color. 1) leave the brass natural color 2) copper sheet over the gudgeons or paint it copper to match 3) paint the brass black so its black gudgeons contrast against the copper platting. In the pics I've seen, they all look good. but I got a pick one before I continue. so I'll poll you guys.... option.... 1, 2 or 3?
  4. So another milestone reached. Coppering the bottom is done. I'm fairly happy how it came out. It was not as easy and there are some significant mistakes if you look closely enough. but from a viewing distance.. they are not obvious.
  5. Next update: Bottom Coppering under way. over two weekends, made significant progress.. From 0 to up to the first Gore line. I'm not doing individual plates. I mass produce about about 12 strips at a time. Working on both sides in parallels. 2 strakes on port then 2 on starboard. That will help keep them symmetrical. Each strip about 10" long. Need three strips for one strake bow to stern Made a simple jig for scoring the plates using my cutting mat.. just put in lines using masking tape on the mat, spaced for each plate. Then where to crore was all layed out. Jut lay strip on mat.... follow the marks. Each strip I score "gently" with a knife. to simulate individual planks. Took me a few practice trial runs to figure out right pressure to score but not cut the copper. Then use seamstress wheel to add all the nail heads. One I get into a rhythm takes me an hour to prepare the 12 strips. I wore medical latex gloves when doing all the copper work. minimized fingerprints on the copper. plus as the latex is smooth, you can use your fingers to really press the tape down flat.. especially the edges where they overlap. Used my waterline marker to mark where each gore line goes The tape near the waterline is the top gore that goes up to the black paint First four days of work It gets faster as you go along. I mass produced the strips a few at a time on the weekdays after work . Then I went from the above pic to all the rest of the way to the gore line this past weekend. (as the strips were all prepped in advance) Up to the first gore line Top view Bow: Camera + direct lighting make the plates look far more wrinkled then you notice with bare eyes from any distance Managed to get buy with only two fillers/stealer pieces . One in bow one at sten. Yes match on both sides. If you look close you can see both of them Overall, I think it came out decent. Viewed from the side.... The gore line looks nice and level with both table and waterline That's the roughed out future/final stand for her. So that's how she will sit when eventually finished. They screw into bottom of keel into a threaded fitting. It will take me at least a few more weekends ( probably a month) to finish up to the waterline. That's it for now. K
  6. Jon, your cathead. what size did you get? I see it on ebay... from same Chinese company. sizes listed are 1:48 1:48L, 1:75, 1:96. but they dont give measurements. Ugg they are now $15 + $7 shipping.....
  7. Making steady progress. not sure of their proper name but been working on the head boards.... that fits between the 4th rail and top rail. Decided to make them off ship and then place them in postion after there all made and painted. First.. used a contour guide and traced the shape of the area for the headboards on some heave computer paper. Edge glued enough planks together proper size of template. Template was close enough to use for both port and starboard. Just cut pieces a bit larger and trimmed to proper side size. Added stiffeners. Not the top and bottom edges of stiffeners need to be cut at angle in order to sit flush against the rails. This piece is angled outboard on the top edge. Added the top rail next. This needed to be steamed and bent in a jig. (Just slighly) in order to fit flat against the bow bulwarks and then curve up to the stem. While the curve isn't that much... there is not a lot of surface area to glue against. easier to steam the wood and not have to force it, soo as to not have stress on the glue joint. Cleanedd up head boards and test fit. Painted and glued it. I have also been working on the head gratings in parallels. They were fitted (but not glued) before putting the side boards in. just easier than trying in that tight area afterwards. Still need to stain to the right color and work on the head seats. I'll post pictures of those next time. I'm just about ready to declare the bow done (for now) Next up.... start the hull coppering. .
  8. Hey Jon, Just catching up on your log. You made some good progress. She is looking really good!! Were about the same place in our respective builds.... but seem to be reversing the order of steps with each other. 🙂 I'm just finishing up my stem / headrails. (Yes, that is a very difficult part. Harder than the stern. ) And about to start the coppering the bottom. I'm glad as you keep giving me ideas! Looking at you build , not sure if I want to tackle 2000+ individual plates. I'll re-read how you did it and look at few other builds before I decide how to do mine. Note when you get to it. Fr the white trim stripes on the headrails... I used 1/64" self adhesive architectural tape. It came out looking way better (and easier to apply) than if I tried in wood or styrene strips. Just an idea. Best KMart
  9. Jon, Thanks for those reference shots... They help a lot. I can see the bumkins as well. More update. Note: I plan to hold off on the final cap rail and those covering boards between the Top rail and the 4th rail. Eventually I'll get to the inner (green) bulk works, before I add the caprail. Will finish that last pieces of the headrail then. First I painted all the rails black. As you can see in the pic.... paint is really rough, even though rails were sanded prior to painting. I did wind up sanding the rails post paining with 200 grit (After pic was taken). White stripe still needs some touch up as well. Very hard to reach with the rails there. I decided to use 1/64 inch wide architecture tape for the stripes. Found it on Amazon. About $7 bucks for a single small roll. Only tape I found that small. Didn't want to try to glue anything on (wood or styrene strip) as I think they would be very hard to position. Tape lets me peal off and try again / reposition as needed until its positioned right. The question is how long will tape stay attached. (long term) I do plan to clear coat (matt) it when its done. Hopefully that helps Note 1/64 is real tiny. It wasn't as hard to work with as I expected, but its a good deal of eyestrain and close up work. Good magnifiers required! And its all against black so bright, direct lighting is needed to clearly see the edges of the rails. It turned out better than I had hoped for. Especially at the very end where they all converge. The bow ends of each rail is < 3/64" wide. With 1/64th tape you can still see distinct stripes (not overlapping) with a sliver of black between at the foremost end. Only have the Starboard side done so far. Alternated between the stripes and the carvings. First scanned the carvings onto the PC just in case I screw up the painting. Painted the carvings white first. then when back filled in the black. Its very slow going. Took several multi hour sessions and am still working on it. Will definatly need some touch up before there acceptable. II suck at freehand painting details.... Grrr. Final shot for this session. (carvings not glued in yet)
  10. Soo Next I'll paint all of the above black. Then I'll work on the boomkins. The pieces themselves don't appear hard to make. 60mm x 1/8" x 1/8" piece with some chambering at the end. My challenge is I cant find any good pictures or plans on positioning them. The Model Expo plans doesn't show any detail on this. I know it goes between 3rd and 4th rail. And between support #5 and #4. It terminates at the hull, where it meets stem. I can get the off hull angle x,z plane off the plans. My question is ... are the boomkins horizontal and parallel with the waterline.... OR do they angle up or down in the vertical (Y plane). I cant tell from any picture or diagram. Pictures I have of the real ship does not even have them on the ship. I Question #2. How do everyone paint their Headboard? its white scroll work over black. If I paint either the back or white first... I loose the marks for being able to paint the scrollwork.
  11. Way overdue for a post. Have been working on the bow, headrails. They are not easy. I remade each of the rail pairs at least 4 times before I got them acceptable. The "braces" for the rail were also difficult. besides getting the angle and positions right. They are small. So when you cut the notches out for the rails.. they break Soo starting with the hawse holes. Made the curved piece the hawse holes set in. Basically made of two pieces each. Because it sits over the wale , on the back side there are two levels in order to fit flat on the hull Carefully positioned and drilled the hawse holes. In order not to split the piece.. started with a pilot hole and gradually kept going with a larger bit. On the hull over the lowest rail My jury rigged clamps to add the 2nd rail And post clamps Next making supports for the third and fourth rails as well as the rails themselves This took me many attempts to get all these pieces right. Note the suppots kept breaking at the notches. To get around this... each peice is actually made of 3 pieces glued together. With the grain of each piece rotated. ie micro homemade plywood. each layer was 1/32 thick. so x3 is 3/32. Once sanded down.. its the proper 1/8 thickness. Supports on the hull Steamed Rail #3 and another crazy jig to bend the curve's in boy Y and Z axis Unbelievably.. it actually fits properly Whoo Hooo Basically repeated the process for the 4th rail From the bow. More or less symmetrical. The port side rails lowest two rails are symmetrical on the stem piece,,,, but the knees on the hull port side is a little low. I can live with it. It wont be obvious to most. wont notice it. (Still bugs me though) Overhead shot Adding the cross supports. I know there is also supposed to be a tie rod between the braces. I decided to leave them off. Really cant be seen once head gratings are on. And I didn't want to drill through the headrails.
  12. Progress on the headrails continues Have the upper, lower rails attached. Also fitted the hawse holes fittings. Yes, scuffed up the paint good from the clamps. Will repaint after all the rails are in place. Currently making Rails 3 and 4 In third picture, on fare left you can see the small opening cut for the cat head. This in needed now to determine location for 3 rail where it terminus supports the cathead. Happy 4th everyone!
  13. Ran across your build log. Got some great ideas from you. especially on how to build the headrails. Great work!!!!!
  14. So work slowly continues on the bow. Making the blocks that go on the hull where the Anchors rode (rope) goes into the hull. Hawse pipe block?? You would think this small piece of wood would be easy. But it wasn't. Getting the curve to match the hull curve isn't too bad. 1st challenge is this board straddles the top of the whale. The whale goes from raised to flush with the side f the hull as it approaches the bow. So in order to sit flat on the hull its actually two pieces laminated together. The inner piece sits flush on top of the whale. and tappers to nothing as it approaches the bow Second piece (top piece) is full height. Next challenge is the actual length. This is critical because it will determine where the 5th support is for the 3rd and 4th headrails and the corresponding cross brace that supports the gratings Because the plans are 2D. its not easy to really tell on plans the proper length of the piece The backside that fits the whale Cut and fit including the hole for the hawse cut the corresponding holes in the hull. Port attached. I finally judged the proper length (I hope) by using the relationship of the aft end of the board to the form most lower gun port. (on gundeck.) upper port is for accessing head Both sides seem to match Headrails 1 and 2 will butt the top and bottom edge of this board. Had already made the headrails, but I further cleaned them up. Further tapered them both width and depth as approach the top of the bow To bend them I put them in a closed Tupperware container with some water. Then microwave for 4 minutes. Basically steam them. Basswood actually bends fairly easy once steamed. I made a jig that has same curvature as the outside of the lower first rail Below is the lower rail #1 in the jig. Let it dry for a day or two and it will hold the shape And I'll end here for now. Have to go back to the day job. Hopefully more modeling next weekend. .
  15. Started the head rails. Only minor update this time. Spent more time figuring out how to make them than actually working on them. Decided to "try" to make each headrail as one solid piece instead of multiple. Need to fit that corner piece in square where hull meets the bow. and then bend the actual rail up to curve around the shape of the scrollwork. So basically fitting curves in 3 dimensions. And another challenge, the ends of the rails narrow in both width and thickness as it nears the top of the scrollwork Used this tool (don't know the name of it) to get the proper curves off the hull where the headrails meet the bow. Needed to take 4 measurements. 1 on each side, for both upper and lower rails Transferred curve's to paper. Combined that with the template on the plans for the headrail. Then rough cut them out on a piece of 1/8" basswood Cleaned them up a bit Next session, I'm make a jig, steam the long ends and bend them to match the curve of the scrollwork on bow
  16. Awesome build UsedtoSail. Congrats on finishing another inspirational build!!!
  17. Jon, thanks for the shield image. My amazon order of waterslide stars came in. I think these were intended for use with WW II Army vehicles models. But they worked out perfect for my need. So it took awhile . They were tiny. Even with magnifier headset and very small tweezers it was a challenge. But the results came out really well. I still need to coat it with Valejjo clear matt to seal the waterslides in. And a bunch of paint touch up is needed. Trim molding on Quarters in on as well.
  18. Used word to size the name on the back. After playing with point size and point spacing between characters... got it to match ones from pans. Also have the stern gun port locations/size shown Ports cut open. Lined up the location of the name. Then applied the 1/4 " self stick lettering following the printed template. Also added the curved horizontal piece under gun ports. Names not perfect but overall I'm pleased with how it came out. I have one last curved horizontal white strip that will curve to go just over the gun ports Then the Eagle. (Both are being painted now) My star decals are in the mail. The smaller stars should be interesting (err challenging to add) being sooo tiny 2mm Then final cleanup /paint touch up and stern and quarter galleries I'll call complete. *Note, Many versions of the stern have the baulistrauds? between the windows on both stern and quarter galleries. I was originally planning to add those. But now that I'm this far along and can actually see the stern and spacing... I think it would just look too crowded to put those it. I like the clean look without. So I'll leave those off. Probably not as accurate/authentic.... but at this scale, I think it looks better without. (an omission of a detail does not make it inaccurate. That's my story and I'm sticking to it 😉 ) *Note 2: Also in my constant googling / research . I did run across the HMS Trincomalee Definitely a lot of similarities to the the version of Connie's stern I'm going for.
  19. Hey Jon. I did check out how you did your Nameplate. got some ideas from it. Thanks. Question. You mentioned when you did the eagle on the transom, you have a file with a scale image of the shield on his chest that you can print out? Any chance I could borrow that file? I can make on my own via MS Visio but it will take a lot of trial and error.
  20. So started adding those bits to the stern and quarter galley. Will need to do a lot of paint touch up and removing some of the excess dry glue But she is starting to look like she is supposed to. Been trying to figure out how to lay out the top half of the stern. I think I figured it out. I think I'm going to put two more white (curved) horizontal pieces. Indicated by the read arrows Then I will open the stern ports. They are already framed in... just planked over at the moment. And Mine are spaced a bit further apart than the diagram. I don't have the skill to make all that scroll work. so I will omit those. Plus my stern is a bit tight, Not as high as in the pic so I don't think I'd have room for them anyhow. And I'll use the kit eagle which fits perfectly between my stern ports. For the stars... I found a sheet of various sized white stars wet transfer ebay (about $6). The kind used for plastic models. I'll have to experiment if it sticks to wood. But they look the right size 1/16" for the small and 1/8" for the larger. For the ship name.. I found a sheet of white alphabet stickers 1/4" high at Hobby Lobby $1. It looks perfect size and close enough to the right font. Trick will be keeping then straight and properly spaced. The stars and name I'll just have to practice a lot off ship before I attempt to put on stern.
  21. A quick update. Nothing exciting. Prepping the all the trim pieces for the stern / quarter galleries. This is a 1/16 x 1/32 glued to a piece 1/32 x 1/32 will be used for the three lowest horizontal pieces that go across the stern. (Above and below the ships name and then down under the rudder hole Jigs, and then steamed pieces for the round pieces port and starboard where the stars go Needed two, One for the inner piece and one for the outer. Jig for making trim around the quarter galleys All the random trim pieces being prepped/ painted.. etc. That's it for today. Need to give them all several coats of paint and let thoroughly dry for the week. Hopefully by next weekend I might be able to start attaching to stern.
  22. Jon, Sorry to hear of your eye and pacemaker issues. Best of luck hope all turns out well for both issues. Your Connie is looking good. I went through same exercise as you. All the other posts on Connie I saw they had the ports proud. Had planned to do same, but on my last visit to the real ship.. I saw they are indeed flush. So I enlarged the holes and made the flush as well. Also see you put in nails for the bolt heads near the gun ports. Was debating on adding those. but seeing yours I think I will add as well. I glad you progressed past me now on the hull work. I may need to copy some of your techniques on the stern stars and eagle shields. Have been trying to figure out how to do those stars.
  23. Bill, thank you. And thanks for your service. Papa " spent the first 20 years of my life living less than 10 miles from the USS Constitution and never once visited. Why not? I have no idea. For that matter, I was 15 before i even ventured into the City of Boston. " I lived about 30 ,miles from her when I was in MA. Made sure to visit at least 2x a year. Definitely worth the visit. She is inspiring. Pics and models don't do her justice. Now my update. you got to love a hobby that you can spend hours and hours at a time .. and the progress is just measured in gluing a few pieces together..... And people wonder my models take years and years to complete 1 model. lol. Installed the painted windows into the galleys and stern. I used micro Krystal Clear for the "glass" up close it looks to thick. but from any distance it looks decent. Didn't add Krystal to stern windows yet. Next up is some of the trim I'll start with the three lowest pieces that run the width of the stern. The laser cut kit pieces are 1/16 x 1/16. But that wont give the look as in the picture. And I think the kit supplied pieces looks too big/thick. I'm going to glue a strip of 1/32 x 1/32 to a 1/16 x 1/32. So the width stays 1/16 but Hight will be 1/16. For reference the window sashes are 1/32 wide. The remaining trim pieces I plan to use 1/32 wide. I have the strips for the lower pieces glued and drying now. hopefully I'll have time to paint them this week so I can install next weekend.
  24. Thanks Jon. I'm going to make sure my technique works on 4 lids first. Then I'll prep the remaining 26 but not install until later. Probably install them around same time as chain plates. Yes. going with black lids on outboard side. Bent the hinges. I think this will work well.
  25. Gun port: So the photo edge parts that came with kit for gunport lid hinges are just long enough to cover the lid. Fine if your going to have lids closed, but not long enough to have tabs to actually glue on open position. So I will try to make my own hinges. (non -functioning). I'll make them long enough that I can bend the ends and use to glue to gun port frames. I took 0.51 mm brass rod/ small hammer and anvil and pounded it flat. Cam out right thickness, width as the photo etched parts... just longer. cut them to length and then glued to the lids Started to paid them white. Painting with an airbrush (new to me). Also paining the stern windows frame.
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