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JerryTodd

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Everything posted by JerryTodd

  1. JerryTodd
    I can't say I've done anything for myself in the past year. Aside from purchasing a 3D printer and making some guns for Macedonian I haven't touched a model since Constellation's sailing in May 19. When I can find the time (and energy) to focus on it, I'm trying to find and learn some CAD software enough to make files to print; figures, parts, fittings, decorations, etc. Some aren't too difficult but some feel like they're beyond my skills. In the case of Constellation, the items I'd like to 3D print include, stanchions for the pin rails at the base of the masts, new pivot gun carriages with all the details included, binnacles, some 30 figures or so of 1850's sailors, Marines, and officers, fittings for the ships boats, maybe some shells for rigging blocks, and the decorative carvings on the bow. Using some old free software I used to make WWI aircraft with for an old flight sim/game called Anim8tor, I've been tediously trying my hand at the bow carvings. It's not going as I hoped which is why I'm trying to find software a bit more capable than this. Anim8tor is also difficult to get files scaled correctly as it's not really meant for that purpose. Trying to get closer to this... (click the pics to see them in detail) Obviously, I have a long long way to go. Macedonian's bow, stern, and quarter galleries, by comparison, are covered in carvings, filigree, columns, and the like, so getting the knack of this will go a long way in getting the details for that model moving forward as well. A big selling point for this, besides getting such detail I'm not able to get otherwise, is the reproducibility of the parts. These being operating models, there's always a risk of Macedonian's figurehead being knocked off and lost to some Rock Fish while sailing in the Chesapeake, and this way I can simply print another to replace it. If anyone has gone through this process and has some advise to offer, I'd appreciate not having to reinvent the wheel.
  2. JerryTodd
    Sorry, I just saw you last post yesterday, and only now had time to sit and type something. Since I used to be working on something from the same general time frame, I've found your log very interesting - I say used to be because I haven't had time to cut the grass much less work on anything for me. When I do get to cut the grass, it'll be so far along that Green Peace will be out there protesting my destruction of the rain forest. Anyway, I'd like to see your other projects
  3. JerryTodd
    My models lower mast stay in place, the topmast, t'gallant, etc, are held up by fids just as the actually vessel was, and the rig collapses down Addendum: how the topmasts are fidded on Constellation
  4. JerryTodd
    Altered the 3D model of the Blomefield pattern 18 pounders; raised the ER cartouche relief a little so it's easier to see, and widened the trunions, but the still print a bit misshapen. Again, back in May 19; all three models on display at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.
  5. JerryTodd
    She did go for a swim last May. If work or this virus don't kill me, I hope to get the hull presentable this year; paint etc. As I intend to have the gundeck detailed, there'll be more to her than Constellation, but with that experience, a little easier - I hope.
  6. JerryTodd
    It's got all the banding it's supposed to have
  7. JerryTodd
    It's there, but is much less pronounced with thinner layers and not being round like what comes from a nozzle. It has a silk texture, like butterfly wings a bit like looking at a phonograph record at a low angle.
  8. JerryTodd
    Since May the job has kept me away from my hobbies, or just too worn out to get anything done - I'm too old for this $#!+. But it has allowed me to splurge a little on something for myself, in the form of a 3D printer. I looked around for a long time, trying to make heads or tails of all the constantly changing stuff out there. I decided to go with a resin vat type because it offered better quality, more detailed prints than the filament types, and I'm not concerned with printing large items, but mostly parts for models. I got an Elegoo Mars for under $250 on Amazon after a few weeks of research narrowing it down. YouTube is chock full of reviews for this, and other printers of this type. My first print on the machine were 9 more carronades from the file the original set I had printed in 2012 came from, supplied by Tim Bowman who also sent me files for the 18 pounder Blomefields, carriages, and slides. You can't see the print in progress until near the end - and then only if it's a long enough item - to see how things are going, so it's a pretty nerve-racking process, especially the first time. Even when they're done they're covered in resin, hiding any details. After cleaning them in alcohol I was pleased as punch to find they were every bit as good as the 2012 prints. The slides didn't come out as well. One of the 6 I printed failed to release and looked like a Star Trek transporter accident, the other five were great on top, but the underside looked somewhat melted. I can fix them, so they're usable, but I need to learn more to get them to come out right. I built a wheel in 3D modeling software for a 4 foot RC schooner from scratch, but it's printing too thin to be of use, and it's underside isn't right, just like the carronade slides. While I fiddle with getting this wheel right, I'm working on the 3D models for <i>Constellation's</i> trail-boards, and Mac's figurehead.
  9. JerryTodd
    If you glass the hull, and resin it inside, you can build it of nearly anything you like, even cardboard. I gave some thought to building an Essex class (actually Ticonderoga) boat in 1:96 scale and if I hadn't come to my senses, I would have built the framing of 15/32" ply covered in 1/8" luan (doorskin), and wood strips for the rounded bits. Covered all that with 4oz glass cloth and poly resin outside, and a couple of coats of just resin inside. I build all my hulls this way, but a slab sided steel ship allows using sheet goods How I build My Hulls
  10. JerryTodd
    He's seen it in person Tim
  11. JerryTodd
    As someone that's worked on these boats, you've done a beautiful job capturing one; albeit, a little cleaner than I remember
  12. JerryTodd
    Beautiful! Love the video too. :)
  13. JerryTodd
    Pride got out of the house and put on display at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum on Saturday, and at Baltimore's National Maritime Day Port Expo on Sunday. Both events were slow, so I decided to get some pics of the model in the pool, when she started sailing along...
  14. JerryTodd
    I rented a UHaul trailer to transport the model to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum on Saturday and Baltimore's Maritime Day Port Expo on Sunday. Visitor turn out wasn't very good at either event despite the great weather. There wasn't good access to the Miles River for a model like Constellation, but I gave it a go none-the-less... The wind was all over the place because of the docked boats, and it was tight between the piers, but she sailed. At Baltimore it was very windy, so the models just stayed on the tables.
  15. JerryTodd
    She had the 10 inch pivots when she left Boston in 1859 to post to the Africa Station, but the captain decided she felt top heavy, so they took the guns off and took on more ballast. No mention of taking off the circles. She returned from Africa and got the 20 and 30 pound Parrots in place of the shell guns. I doubt the circles were touched. She went to the Med in 62 and the pivot guns are mentioned during that trip, When she returned in 1864, she became a receiving ship in Norfolk and the pivots may have been removed then or her next refit in 1871. The only spardeck drawing in the National Archives is from the 1886 refit, and there's no trace of gun circles or any guns on it at all.
  16. JerryTodd
    Working in fits and starts, as usual, I installed one of 6 pinrails on the bulwark. This was made from 1/8" aircraft plywood. I'll have to come back to that. Then I put on the "iron" deck rings for the pivot guns. They're made from 1/32nd styrene and CAed to the deck. The pattern of these rings on Constellation is debatable. The museum folks say it was just a single circle for each gun, but in tracking them down, I've found no data yet for Constelation and most other ships have something more than a single circle, especially larger vessels. Since these tracks are often referred to as "gun circles," I think the museum folks interpreted that as a single circle. I opted to model something a bit more complex along the lines of the diagram in the Navy's 1852 manual: Preparation of Vessels of War for Battle. Bow circles... Stern circles...
  17. JerryTodd
    I have a blocked fairlead that some epoxy got into. I put some acetone in it, but I haven't been able to clear it yet. Mean while I set the sails, and brushed and vacuumed the winter shop dust off.
  18. JerryTodd
    A nice 60° today, and after working of other people's stuff, I got some time on Constellation... Installed the trucks on each mast, made from slices of a mahogany dowel. Also finished installing the hooks on the mizzen t'gallant and royal as described back in #373
  19. JerryTodd
    There's a mountain of "little" things that need to get done, such as; gunport eyebrows, boarding steps, galley stack, bow carvings, cat head cats, and the ship's wheel, just to mention a few. Well, the ship's wheel can almost come of the list... I've been trying to turn spokes for the wheel, with no success. There's 20 of them needed and making one is maddening enough, much less replicating it 19 more times. Then I have Macedonian's wheels, and hopefully another single for Gazela Primeiro - that's a LOT of spokes! So I cheated, at least if feels like I have, but hey, maybe down the road I'll figure this out, but until then, this works. I asked Model Monkey via Shapeways if he'd scale one of his ship's wheels to 1:36 scale, just the wheel. He did, and I bought 4 of them; 2 for Constellation and two for Macedonian. A few days later I had them in my fat fingers... They need a helm, or wheel-stand, which I felt I could make without ordering then in 3D - which is still quite expensive. These are mahogany. The curved braces are laminated 1/32" thick strips from a kit, the upright from some scrap left from a musical instrument a friend built. The drum is a bit of mahogany dowell, also left from a kit, with a bit of brass rod as an axle. A bit of paint and some clear-coat and it's just about done. I was going to make it operate when the rudder was moved, but I'm afraid it's too fragile to be spun back and force all the time, the servo moves a bit faster than "scale speed," so I just wrapped some line around the drum and fed it through the deck. The helm is held to the deck with some round-headed wood screws. I lost a spoke handle while painting, but I have some brass belaying pins that are a good match and will replace it with one of those. That's pretty much what cancelled making it operate.
  20. JerryTodd
    I don't see that they have CV joints specifically, but when I look for joints I usually look first at Dumas.
  21. JerryTodd
    Are you putting on the fishing weight?
  22. JerryTodd
    I'm looking at making the stuns'l boom hardware on the yards. The end cap and post, referred to by Luce as a Pacific-Iron, isn't to difficult, but the iron that sockets onto it is another matter. Sometime back I saved an image I found where someone made them, but I don't recall who, what model, scale, etc, but they are exactly what I need to make, though I have no idea how. I could make a master and cast it in resin (I need 12 of them), but I don't think that would have the strength, so it's going to be a sheet brass and rod affair. (3d printing is so far above my income bracket as to not even be considered). I have an idea of shaping a long narrow strip of brass or copper sheet and soldering it at the "post" between the socket and the hoop. I could solder a bit of rod as the roller or even use some tube and run a pin through it. looking at the bottom of the fitting
  23. JerryTodd
    Regarding my obsession with that thing the main tops'l brace ties to, I found the following in the 1891 edition of Luce's Seamanship. Main-topsail Braces. Standing part hooks to an iron traveler, which moves up and down the mizzen topmast to shift the strain lower down as it becomes greater (if the mizzen-topsail is reefed or taken in), thence to the yard and down to hanging blocks on the mizzen-mast, about half way between the top and the deck. Earlier edition's of Luce's I have PDF's of (1863, 1868, 1877) have the braces hitched to the mizzen topmast head and seized to the stay-collar, or they might lead through thimbles at the mizzen topmast head and down to the chains, but says many ships now do the above. At any rate, there's some documentation verifying what I was seeing in the photos. Personally, I like the thimble to the chains set-up myself, as it would give me a really nice way to incorporate a way to make adjustments, but that's not what the ship had, so... Until I get a better notion of what was this part actually looked like, I made a jib-hank looking thing for the time being. I also put eye's into the mizzen mast for mounting the "span-blocks" here shown with brass blocks temporarily installed. Here's a link to an exciting minute-and-a-half of video showing the tops'ls braced by two separate winches - except the mizzen which wasn't rigged yet. Please excuse the main canting and such, it's actually not fully hoisted there.
  24. JerryTodd
    When the sliding winches went in, so did a structure that looks like a riding bit, or a hitching post that served as a fairlead bar for the braces. Each winch has a fairlead plate attached to it to guide the braces onto the correct winch drum, but if the braces diverge as they leave the winch, it'll prevent the winch servo from sliding fore-and-aft to maintain tension on the braces. This fairlead bar directs the braces straight aft to prevent that binding. Initially that "bar" was wood with eyes on top. That was replaced with a metal bar with holes. Today the metal was replaced with a plastic strip cut from the edge of a cutting board. The foremast braces make a hard turn right here and I may install a couple of blocks for them instead of relying on going through a hole. Original wood bar.. Metal bar... New plastic bar with fore tops'l yard braces run through.
  25. JerryTodd
    I've been using some brass frame blocks for brace blocks on the yards, they aren't the correct style for the ship, but I needed functional blocks on the braces. I also only have so many of them, so to free a few up for duty below deck, I made up 6 functional wood-shell blocks for the braces. They're ok, and they work, but I don't care for how they turned out. I used some white cedar for the shell, which is too soft and open-grained. I have some branches from a fruit tree, though I don't know what fruit, and I'm going to try and mill some of it to use for blocks. Till then, these will do.

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