Geoff Matson

Great job and congratulations on a great model. I look forward to your next project.

Hello Larry, welcome to MSW. One thing about the constitution that I think most modelers don't realize is how long it takes to build her. The build will be a major commitment on your part. You basically have a box of wood and strings. I have been working on and off for over eight years now. You are looking at a model that will be over four feet long and over three feet tall. Once the major build of the model is finished you are looking at a large rigging job. You will have three full masts to ring and also a bowsprit. The great part of building the Constitution is most of the steps are like mini kits in themselves. The ships boats are great mini kits, the cannons are the same thing. Your modeling skills will be challenged when you come to coppering the hull. For me the Constitution has been a great experience so far. I started out by building Model Shipways Armed Virginia Sloop. Great build to warm up with and only one mast to rig. 😀 The best thing you can do is look at the build logs on MSW and see how the other modelers have done. Just remember to have fun and learn.

Great job. Lots of nice detail and at a small scale.

It is always great to have another Constitution build start up. Welcome, and I look forward to your posts.

Here is my latest update. Having the open hearts in place on the bowsprit made attaching the bobstays a lot easier. I attached them from the top down.

I have my open hearts made and placed on the bowsprit. It worked out adding them now and not having to fight with the bobstays in the way. The thin line running to the foremast is just a place holder for now. Now that I have this done, I will go back and finish the bobstays.

I am now working on the bobstays. I had already rigged the bobstay collars on the bowsprit. i like to do as much rigging off of the model as I can. Again I will let the pictures do the talking. Once I was happy that all would work out as planned, I discovered a potential problem. All the bobstay rigging would be in the way of rigging the fore stay hearts. I decided to stop at this point and work on the forestay hearts.

Well, I ran into a planning problem I did not think of. I need to install the chain gammoning to the bowsprit. I checked some of the other build logs and came up with a plan. The main problem was how to get the chain thru the two small holes in the stem. ( I should have wondered what went there ) So, I will let the pictures show how I did it.

Welcome to the group. I agree with Ken. Your skills will increase as you build and figure things out. Just go slow and really plan things out. Most importantly, remember to have fun. There are plenty of good build logs to look at. I would recommend reading them before you start.

Glad you are back.

Here is my progress for the week. All the lower shrouds are finished. Some were easy and other parts really kicked my butt, but I got them finished.

Here is my latest progress. I have finished the lower main mast shrouds. Things are going well. I have posted two pictures. One has all the threads attached before trimming and the other is the finished product. Now it is on the to the mizzen mast shrouds.

If you want to stick with plastic check out https://evergreenscalemodels.com/ They should have what you would need. Hope this helps.

jfinan: The kit supplies you with a roll of copper tape. It is up to you figure out what to do with it. Since I started the kit years ago I went with the ponce wheel and tape. I think the ponce wheel is over kill. If I were to do it over I would just do the plain blank plates. At a scale of 1/76 I don't think you would see the bolts. But at the time I thought it looked cool. In the future I am going to try and stay with 1/4 inch scale. That way I think the details will look more realistic. Thanks for the interest.

Great job! It is great to see one of the Conny's being finished.