Professor

Your off to a great start. I'm glad I have a front seat on this one. I have had the kit in my closet for a couple of years too. I don't have the nerve to start it yet though.
 
By the way, I grew up in East Boston and could see Constitution's masts from my bedroom window. I visited the ship as often as I could.

I've now made up, mounted and rigged the fore top mast.This included the shrouds, two stays and a backstay.The topmast stay runs through a bee block at the bowsprit and then to a tackle hooked to the bow.The jib stay runs through  a traveler at the jibboom and then to a tackle hooked to the bowsprit cap.
 
Next will be the fore topgallant and royal mast.
 
Bob

After nearly 5 years and many hours in the workshop, my Constitution is completed. In the course of building her I lost my brother and my father, so this build has been dedicated to them. I hope they were following along wherever they are. I really had fun building this kit and for $300 or so that I spent on it I sure got my money's worth. I am going to leave this build log open, as I plan to take some glamor shots of the model soon, as well as build a case for it when the weather warms up again next year. In the mean time I will build a poster board cover to keep the dust off it. Here are some quick shots I took of the completed model.





I really appreciate those of you who have been following this build, especially the comments and advice. I could not have built this without the logs of those who came before me or started after me and finished before me (yes, I'm talking to you Ken). I hope this build log will be helpful for current and future builders of this great kit. Thank you all.

I know the feeling all too well, Doug. I can only pass along the old joke about the famous sculptor who, when asked how he managed to create such exquisite mythological figures, replied, "Well, I start out with sharp tools and the best Italian marble, then remove everything that doesn't look like a goddess." Hang in there!
 I've built the Prince twice now, though that was many years ago, and it has always been a personal favorite subject. I wish now that I had bought an extra. I'd love to have another go at building this sleek privateer but the few offerings I could find on the net were prohibitively priced. Guess I'll have to settle for being a "voyeur shipwright" and enjoy watching your progress from afar.

Thanks again Al, Popeye, and GMO2. Welcome Hal.
 
I made up the three ladders over the weekend using the jig shown here. Along with the post to hold the loop at the top of the ladder, there are two eye bolts that the ladder lines are threaded through and the lines clamped. I could have also tied the lines around the eye bolts, but the clamps made it easier to get the ladder off the jig. I was going to put plastic over the graph paper, so the glue would not stick the ladder to the jig, but the ladder was held just off the surface so no glue got to the graph paper. The jig worked really well to align the rungs and hold them while the glue dried.
I stained the rungs with oak stain and hung the ladder on the fore topG mast.
If you look closely at the above picture, you will see a block sticking through the rungs near the bottom of the ladder. The main topG stay was formerly in that block, so I had to remove it, put the ladder in place, then replace the stay. No big deal, but I should have known the order and held off on the stay. It is back in place now, but I took the picture before I added it back, and before I trimmed the loose ends of the ladder lines. I kept those lines really long, which helped when I had to seize them to the eyebolts at the back of the trestle trees. I threaded the line through the eye bolt, then left it very loose, which meant that I could put the seizings on well a way from the mast, then slide them into place while tightening the lines, and fix them when the ladder was at the proper tension. I have to stain the other two ladders and add them to the main and mizzen masts. I can also now start on the fore royal shrouds, back stays, and stay.

Nice going, Doug. I hope you don't mind terribly if I steal your jig design when working on my schooner "Atlantic" model. Following foreign language or badly translated instructions can be a real bear. As you seem to have discovered a few posts ago, Google translator is frequently less than spot-on in its renderings too. In fact it often reminds me of the old Monty Python skit in which a guide book translates requests for directions into such nonsequitors as "Please fondle my bum" or the famous "My hovercraft is full of eels!"

No kidding, David. It's not exactly cheap but it certainly is way less expensive than another hobby I have enjoyed, building custom M1911 pistols. As the old saying goes, "It's all relative..."

No kidding, David. It's not exactly cheap but it certainly is way less expensive than another hobby I have enjoyed, building custom M1911 pistols. As the old saying goes, "It's all relative..."

Well I am back from a week's vacation in St. Lucia. What a beautiful island. The trip was a Christmas present to our two kids, as one last vacation together before they start their own families. It was great!
 
But, now it's time to get back to work. I finished up the main shrouds and have added the mizzen shrouds. Here is how the main shrouds and deadeyes came out:

And the mizzen so far. I still have to add the sheer poles and tie everything off.

And here is some overall shots so far. The masts are in good alignment so far.

As always, thanks for the interest, comments and the likes.

Lots of the same stuff. I finished the Main Mast Yards. Not much different from the fore Mast Yards.
 
 


 
I have everything on the yards that I want prior to hanging them on the mast. Now onto the Mizzen Mast

Here's some status for the week. I was away last weekend cleaning out the stuff from my father's basement, so all of this work was done after work during the week. He lived in the house over 50 years, so you can imagine what he accumulated. Found some good stuff to save though, and some good memories. My son and nephews chipped in big time to help me out so we filled up a 20 yard dumpster in about 5 hours.
 
I finished up the fore mast shrouds and stays last week, and here is how they came out.


 
This week I was focused on the main shrouds. I have all of the dead eyes seized and the lanyards in place. I will finish them off after the main stays are added, so I can adjust any tension that needs it.
Starboard side:



Port side:
 


I am now noticing that the last dead eye is a little higher than the others, so I need to correct it. I also see from Ed Tochi's log that I should probably have put the shear poles in before tying off the fore shroud lanyards. Good thing they are not glued in place yet, so I can loosen them up to put the poles in without too much trouble.
 
My goal this weekend, after those fixes, is to get the main stays made and installed and maybe finish off the main shrouds. We will see...
 
 

Bill, allow me if I may to add my belated praise. Your cabinetry is superb, as indeed is your model shipwright presentation. The log was well written and I rather like that you retained a bound copy. Altogether, a beautifully executed project. Sierra Hotel.
 One question: what did you think of the Mamoli plans and instruction manual? I have heard conflicting opinions of their value, On the one hand, some say the plans are at least in part spurious and the instructions virtually unusable; one chap described them as having been written "by an Italian grade school boy who had heard English being spoken once." Others grade the manual from "quite adequate" to "well thought out" or "excellent, despite somewhat fractured English." Of the plans, I have heard opinions running the gamut from "serviceable"  to "the best Constitution plans available in any scale, period." I am planning a 1/96 scale scratchbuild of Constitution, with one one side intact and the other largely cut away to show off her innards. Among other references, I have acquired the Model Shipways plans (which seem to be the gold standard) and those from Bluejacket Shipcrafters, each with its respective instruction manual. I'd be interested to know how the Mamoli paperwork compares, in your opinion.
 Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2017. Happy modeling, mate.
 "Professor" Ray

The mast rigging continues. I have been working mostly the fore mast shrouds over the weekend, and they are pretty much done now. I made the line for the lanyards in my rope walk, but the shrouds themselves are .045 line from Syren. The lanyards are not tightened down yet. I still have to add another seizing on the shrouds above the two that are already there. I am pretty happy with the alignment of the deadeyes, although I did have to redo the seizings on a couple.
 


I am working on the fore stays because I need them to offset the pull of the shrouds on the mast, especially those back ones. I experimented with different ways to make the mice I need for the them. I started with Sculpey but couldn't get the hole big enough for the large line to go through without the mouse collapsing or disintegrating. I ended up making them from dowels on the lathe, which came out pretty nicely and was not very hard to do. I made all six mice I need for the lower stays, and painted them black. I also ended up making new closed hearts for the fore stays because the laser cut supplied ones fell apart as I was cleaning the char off them. I like the new ones better because I was able to cut a groove around the outside for the stay line. You can see them in the little jar lid on the box after I stained them.

After I tried the mice on the fore stay line, they looked a little wooden to me, so I put them in the serving machine and wrapped them in line. I think they look much better now.

For comparison, here is an actual mouse from the Constitution on a stay (not sure which one this is).
 

You can see that the lines go more front to back than around it, but what the heck. You can also see how the serving looks on these large lines. Here are the fore stays around the top of the mast. I did not have the closed hearts seized to these lines when I took these pictures, but they are now.

I also started making the pendants and shrouds for the main mast. In making the pendants, I tried something I haven't before, and that is wrapping line around the bottom of the loop around the thimbles in the serving machine, which made them look more like a splice to me. I actually did this to one of the fore mast pendants too, but that was done by hand and not in the machine. I like the look of these now better than i did before. It always seemed to me that the seizing was too far from the thimble. This method covers the gap nicely.

You can see another modification I made to the serving machine, which is just an alligator clip with a snug fit into the tube the line goes through. I am finding many uses for this clip, including being able to hold line very close to the end so I can serve almost a complete length. I made the mistake a few times of cutting a length of line to almost the exact length, which didn't leave enough to wrap around the nails on the outside of the machine to serve its length. This solves that problem by letting me hold the end of the line in the clip. Another thing I found was that WD-40 makes the serving machine so much quieter and easy to turn. I didn't want to use it on the nice cherry wood, but it was really squeaking so I bit the bullet and sprayed a little on. What a difference! My wife still says I look like Rumpelstiltskin when I am using the serving machine. 
 
OK, last picture, here are the pendants and first shrouds on the main mast. Lots more to do there.
 

Hey guys, I'm back again. I have been working on the stern and have come to working on the windows, and I'm happy to say that they are complete. They're not installed yet, the photo is just test fitting with a little rubber cement to hold it in place. The inner "tic-tac-toe" frames are made out of ebony, the outer window frames are mahogany like the rest of the ship. Ebony will also be used for the wales when I get to that point. So here we go...
 
Every inner window frame was cut all at once with a little jig that you can see on the right in the first picture. That let me measure only once, and keep all pieces identical for all seven windows across the back. The outer mahogany frames were cut individually for sizing to match the stern timbers. The rest is pretty straight forward for the assembly of them. The side windows I've got to figure out because there are no plans for those.

Well Jeff something or the other is up my sleeve...that's for sure...
I've worked extensively with plain white paper.  I've used simple yellow food coloring mixed in isopropyl alcohol 90%...and I've used brown India ink also diluted in alcohol.  Once sprayed(Misted) on the sail it colors the sail as well as ages it.
 
I don't have very many images of the process..except one image I found of a sail I did representing an extremely weathered patched old sail..hanging to dry.
 
I was replicating the Portuguese Ferriera(aka..Cutty Sark) when she was laid up in some old backwater for years...rotting away.  Her sails were very bad off.
 
I tried to mimic the extremely wrinkled weathered drying sail...much like these sails drying on this clipper.  But much worse off.
 
Rob  

I spent a bit of time adding the futtock shrouds.....More work to tidy them up.and get them ready for the deadeyes.

Nice going, Doug. I hope you don't mind terribly if I steal your jig design when working on my schooner "Atlantic" model. Following foreign language or badly translated instructions can be a real bear. As you seem to have discovered a few posts ago, Google translator is frequently less than spot-on in its renderings too. In fact it often reminds me of the old Monty Python skit in which a guide book translates requests for directions into such nonsequitors as "Please fondle my bum" or the famous "My hovercraft is full of eels!"

Hey guys, been a while since I posted anything on my build, but I've been working on it quite regularly. I haven't been all that good at taking pictures of the progress though, sorry. So it's framed up, faired, keelson in place, and most of a strake of the lower deck clamps in for support while I faired the outside of the hull. Now I've started the stern. I think it's coming together ok. As always, let me know if you guys see anything amiss that I can improve upon.
 
Thanks,
Randy

MUCHAS gracias, amigo.

MUCHAS gracias, amigo.

I know the feeling all too well, Doug. I can only pass along the old joke about the famous sculptor who, when asked how he managed to create such exquisite mythological figures, replied, "Well, I start out with sharp tools and the best Italian marble, then remove everything that doesn't look like a goddess." Hang in there!
 I've built the Prince twice now, though that was many years ago, and it has always been a personal favorite subject. I wish now that I had bought an extra. I'd love to have another go at building this sleek privateer but the few offerings I could find on the net were prohibitively priced. Guess I'll have to settle for being a "voyeur shipwright" and enjoy watching your progress from afar.

I know the feeling all too well, Doug. I can only pass along the old joke about the famous sculptor who, when asked how he managed to create such exquisite mythological figures, replied, "Well, I start out with sharp tools and the best Italian marble, then remove everything that doesn't look like a goddess." Hang in there!
 I've built the Prince twice now, though that was many years ago, and it has always been a personal favorite subject. I wish now that I had bought an extra. I'd love to have another go at building this sleek privateer but the few offerings I could find on the net were prohibitively priced. Guess I'll have to settle for being a "voyeur shipwright" and enjoy watching your progress from afar.

These might be a little clearer

A couple of more showing Braces.

Thanks to all for all your help and support....I'm walking around today realizing, there's nothing else to do.....(well, still a few lines to tighten, and touch ups)...strange feeling...I've never seen this one finished in person before...