mtaylor

I think that which company depends on the company. The owner of AL who now does this, is located in Vietnam... but again, the floor and several a day. China has become too pricey for these guys.

Hi Tom, Good to see you getting started. I just noticed in the pics... hang onto the plastic parts boxes as they are useful for other builds. There's a few other Constellation builds (and more builders who never did a build log) to give you some help.

Matt, When in doubt, Google is our friend... http://www.vasamuseet.se/en/ There's lots of good info on that site. Also, do a quick search in the kit forum for Vasa, Wasa and Wasan. There's several very heavily research builds going on. This build has quite a few pictures from the museum: http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/1815-wasan-1628-by-nazgul-billing-boats-vasa-175/

Broken dishwasher? We'll just have to take our cups with us to the Aggie build. Maybe do a bit sweeping up of the popcorn off the floor, dust a few things...

I don't think the Germans intentionally did suicide runs although on all sides were probably the "last ditch effort" type of individuals. What we many times in the old films of a plane crashing into a ship (and not a Japanese pilot) is most likely a damaged plane with with a wounded or dead pilot. There's many shots of planes making the gun/bombing run and then crashing on the other side of the ship so the wounded or dead pilot seems reasonable. In the battle you're depicting, is this historical or fictional? If fictional... crash away if it's what you want.

In any case, we better not argue. Royal Caroline was a yacht but if the Admiral says "galleon"... a galleon it is. I have my marching orders and David has his. :D

Beautiful work, Gary. I have a deep appreciation for your statement about the stern being everything. I hope you get some spend some more time in the shipyard as I've always found that it's great therapy after a long stretch at work.

But Aldo, there's still 9 left to sell. I noted that he/she sold one of them. For a good laugh, go look at the Constitution and Cutty Sark they're selling. Looks like the same model with a different paint job.

Sjors, We're all looking over your shoulder and it's really crowded behind you. Your ship is looking super, my friend.

Sam, Aiming point (where the bullet flights would meet/cross) was normally 300 yards. You might see some pieces flying. As recall there's a ton of Youtube videos, look for "Victory at Sea". You'll see the tiny flashes from the armor (armour) piercing incendiary rounds hitting and some debris being tossed. The debris is probably rounds on the ship going off as some of the ordnance for the AA guns would be in ready box near the gun.

Looks good from here. The only thing I can see that needs "tweaking" is that on the crosstrees, you have two long beams running port (left) to starboard (right). You have two small beams running fore and aft. Those two small ones should probably be a bit longer so that they stick out like a pair of horns.

As a past victim of Murphy and "crap happens"... welcome to the club. We're a vast club and meet everyday on MSW.

I agree with Joe... Very well done.

Wayne, Given that there's Federal agencies including the Smithsonian involved and, as I recall, some criminal investigations that have never been closed, the denials don't surprise me.

Richard, The framing material is 3/16". Since the frame are built up from two layers of material, the frames will finish at 3/8".

Juhu, AL got the hull right... they even built in the hog that the ship had back then. They also got it right in the sense that their model reflects what was floating in the harbor at the time and also what plans were available at the time. However... what was floating in the harbor was a fiction and fraud foisted on an unsuspecting public. A good starting place is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Constellation_(1854) And more indepth is here: http://www.navsea.navy.mil/nswc/carderock/pub/cnsm/faq/faq_13.aspx particularly the link to: "Fouled Anchors".

Richard, Check some other places also.. like AbeBooks.. Are they the same ISBN number? If so, they are the same and later version is a reprint.

Thanks for the likes and comments. Hi Bill, The frames are <cough> a bit <cough> rough at this point. I'm using 100 grit paper but will go to maybe a 120(?) or a tad finer for the final of all final fairings. I tell myself I'm done and then go back and hit it again.. <sigh> I want the glue to hold the planks on and using something 400 just doesn't leave enough tooth. If I were doing an "admiralty style", there would be no rough edges or gouges allowed and I'd probably just now be getting the second or third frame into place.

Amazing. These will be the icing on the cake, Wefalck.

Mike, I've used the Amati quite a bit as well as the Billings. The AL is pure crap. The old Billings was nice but the newer stuff leaves a lot to be desired. So.. while the Amati is nice (and it varies depending on the day it seems) it's also a bit kinked due to the way it comes wrapped on the cards. Chuck's is best I've ever seen. I've not seen the Morope but heard many things good and some bad. The price and fact it unravels made me not want to use it. ChuckRope really is excellent rope and I'll be using it. Now to figure out how much I'll need...

Nice work Augie. I'm with Sjors... where does this forest grow?

The damage from a 30 caliber (about what the Germans used) would be infinitesimal at best. Even the 20/30mm cannon they used might not show. As for how far apart would depend on the angle of attack and drift on part of the aircraft. Holding a tight group on the ground with a machine gun is hard but flying in at a couple hundred miles an hour, in a dive, with wind and a moving target.... unlikely. Now if the attack is just above the waves and the pilot was trying to hit and correct his flight path for say, a gun mount, you might at this scale, see peeled paint and some raggedness of the metal.. Try it on some scrap plastic and see what you can do and what it looks like. Also, look for some pictures of the ships at Pearl Harbor or other after battle pics and use them as your guide.

Battle of the Stern - Opening Salvos Reread the plans at least 10 times and compared them to the salvaged stern section from V 1.0... realized I can do a lot better and also figured out where the errors crept in. Then reviewed Hahn's article from the NRJ on her. The pictures were unclear and perhaps I missed something first time through. So... scanned the article and adjusted the pics... yep. whiffed it. Scan of a a scan of a printed magazine with retouched photos... <hangs head since he knows better> So, I started with some deconstruction by removing the stern post. That done, took some basswood and worked on the filler piece. The pics seem to show one curve (which I used for V 1.0) and plans show a different curve. Originally, I figured Hahn found something and did the filler differently then the drawing and I followed that. Wrong!!!! It was the pic. I followed the drawing this time. Much happier. Also, worked on the first transom frame. A lot happier even though it took the second try to get it right. These are "rough faired" for now. I'll go back and finish shaping when the second transom is installed.

Good looking wood, Mike. I'm happy to hear that you finally got what you wanted. That Lumberyard pear doesn't look at all like Swiss Pear. It looks more like regular unsteamed (or unSwissed if you like) pear.

Daniel, You always seem to ask the tough questions... I gave this some thought since 1) the plans are flat sectional plans and thus no detail as to how these were done 2) much wasn't written down as it was "common knowledge" and... 3) the builders and sailors were practical men who seemed to take the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) principle to heart. Ok.. here's my musings. Having two sets of dales seems counter-productive since if the lower pump set was open, no water would reach the top. I notice that most of the plans (but not the photos you show) have only one set shown on the upper deck. I've read that most 1st and 2nd rates had pressure pumps for these function which drew in sea water from under the ship. But, these weren't pressure pumps that could be used for fire-fighting or washing the decks, the water came from the deep down in the hull... probably very yucky. So... back to the original thought that it's counter-productive to have both sets of dales open... Well, there's no sign that there were two chains or two tubes inside one tube. If it had been two tubes, I think it would have been shown on the draughts. Could it have been in case of battle damage? Probably not, since anything taking out the upper cistern would damage the chain. Back to brain work. Your premise that double the men could operate the pumps, but what would be the advantage to have 4 cisterns down low and only 2 up top (unless there were 4 up top, but they would be shown, right? Then not battle damage. Maybe exhaustion. Double the men wouldn't mean double the water being pumped but it is hard work to crank the pumps. My thought would be that it allowed the men to be rotated as exhaustion set in. Use the lower deck crew and switch to the upper deck crew without stopping the pumps. I read somewhere that starting the pumps moving was when many times things went to hell... the chain broke, jumped off the sprocket, etc. so it makes sense in a logical sort of way, to keep that chain moving. Stopping the pump to change out the pumpers would be asking for Murphy to jump in and break something. I'll go with this for now until someone versed in the research (Hi Druxey ) slaps some sense into me and has the correct answer. Edit... hmm... my reasoning falls to the wayside when I see that there's only one top set of cisterns and not two. I did mention I was musing out loud, right? However, the lower set are connected by the cranks.. Which creates another set of headaches in that crew up top is only half as great as the crew at the lower... Very strange on there only being one set on the upper vs. two sets on the lower.....