DanO

I relate the appearance of USS Constitution to one who has made many visits to a plastic surgeon over the years. The insides do not change but the outward appearance has. I believe that there is much more historical data which has been lost vs. that which is available. I enjoy the debate and there seems to be many views on how she looked at different peiods of her life basedon paintings to period models.
 
Like any other military piece she was improved to make her stronger to create a true fighting machine. Paintings are the product of the imagination of the artist and the, now aged models of the past, such as that which sits in a place of honor in the Peabody Essex museum are based on memory rather than actual plans giving the builder free mind to exibit their own interpretation.
 
I do not claim to be a historian nor expert concerning this valiant ship but just my humble opinion
 
Dan Doyle

I relate the appearance of USS Constitution to one who has made many visits to a plastic surgeon over the years. The insides do not change but the outward appearance has. I believe that there is much more historical data which has been lost vs. that which is available. I enjoy the debate and there seems to be many views on how she looked at different peiods of her life basedon paintings to period models.
 
Like any other military piece she was improved to make her stronger to create a true fighting machine. Paintings are the product of the imagination of the artist and the, now aged models of the past, such as that which sits in a place of honor in the Peabody Essex museum are based on memory rather than actual plans giving the builder free mind to exibit their own interpretation.
 
I do not claim to be a historian nor expert concerning this valiant ship but just my humble opinion
 
Dan Doyle

Tom,
 
You are doing a fantastic job on your construction and to add a portion of the additional deck is one that shows your expertice at model building and quest to and desire to share your knowledge of Conny.
 
Thank you for sharing your build which I am sure many will us a a guide to create their own.
 
Dan Doyle
 
PS: I had friends in North Reading which is a fine town. I grew up in Lowell

Bruce,
 
You have taken a pile of wood and metal and turned it into a masterpiece. There are few who have this ability and applaud you for your accomplishment

I have found, and your photos show, that it is not just a matter of taking the wood out of the box and gluing it together. It is more of a science from the standpoint of creating the tools to insure allingment and integretiy of the build.
 
Thanks for sharing
Dan

Joe I look forward to seeing your progress with this build. If I remember correctly that the kit was originaly a solid hull.
 
Be well
Dan

Ok some pictures of my limited process so far.
 
Cannons:
 

 

 

 

 
The cannons really did need a lot of clean up.  The plastic appears to me slightly soft in consistency which made the clean up a little more difficult.  The have not been primed or painted yet.
 
The wheels on the gun carriages were often pretty poor.  The easist way for me to tidy them up was sand the "axle" off completely getting the wheel more flat, then I drilled a hole and used plastic rod for an axle.  The smaller carriages for the spar deck were especially poor and I ended up scratch building axles and wheels for all of them.
 

 

 
Here is the gun deck with the 3 parts joined togather:
 

 

 

 

 
As I mentioned in my first post - looking for suggestions on planking.
 
The two halves of the hull didn't match too closely along the keel (big gap).  I am hoping that by keeping the parts in tension like in this picture will make the eventual gluing of the parts easier with less stress on the join:
 

Today I completed the hammock crane installation. After completing the netting on all the frames I built and installed end boards. I also decided to try adding some hammocks to see how it looked. I had not planned on putting hammocks on the ship. I calculated the scaled down size of the hammocks, this ended up being 15mm x 10mm after rounding. I used the paper hand towels that are strong and cloth like. I dyed the cloth with a stain made up of tea and coffee. A minute in this solution and I could wring it out, rinse it and dry it. This gave me the color I was looking for. 
 
I cut a few hammocks out and rolled them using the beeswax/turpentine mixture to make it hold it's shape and cut down on fuzzies. After rolling a few, I tried them out on the ship. I did not want to lay them down. I tried standing them on end and did not like that. I bent them in a U and placed them in the rack with the bend up (or U upside down). This was a look I liked. So I started a batch process to cut, roll and roll all the hammocks I would need. This was approximately 260. I placed them from the forward and aft closed ends toward the waist. When I reached the waist, I bound the last hammock with thin thread and glued it in place. This makes the most visible hammocks look bound like the hammocks would have been. The beeswax/turpentine mixture will stiffen up the hammocks as the turpentine evaporates. They will also lighten up slightly as the dry.
 
During breaks on the hammocks, I installed the netting on the remaining fighting tops.
 
At this point, I still need to build the three mast rings and mount the gallery ship's boat davits. Then I will return to the rigging in earnest. I will use breaks on the rigging to build the three remaining ship's boats. Thee are a few photos below showing the progress.
 
 
 
 

My name is Geoff and I have been building the MS Constitution. I basically followed Bob Hunts practicum. I am now ready to begin the masting and rigging part. I am very impressed with the other Constitution build logs and look forward to see them all develope Here are a few pictures of my progress so far. Thanks Geoff