JerryTodd

The thing that ruins model sails for me is the insistence that seams be stitched, because at the usual model scales, the stitching amounts to being cable as big as a man's arm and just looks cartoonish. When you look at photos of sails, what you see and interpret as "seams" are shadows - not stitches.

It's American and 20+ years later, but looks like the same principle

Like I said, my hulls are wood. I glass the outside to act as a wrap because the wood in in planks with a lot of seams and joints. Coating it will "waterproof" it but it's still wood and it will move, and seams can still open - the cloth helps with that. In the image the glassed hull sat for a long time in the garage with the temperature changes that entails, and a seam opened slightly, cracking the filler putty. The 4oz glass cloth helped retain the hull's integrity.

Most glass models don't LIVE in the water. They don't sit at docks for months on end, so while you may have issues with water intrusion (leaks), you're not looking at osmosis caused blistering and the like as seen on neglected yachts, especially with epoxy. My hulls are wood, covered with glass cloth in Polyester resin, and coated with poly resin inside, they're all over a decade old now and doing fine. My danger is any sort of through-hull like the rudder-post where water can get in to the wood. Any hole under the waterline is made larger, filled with epoxy, then made to size so all the hole exposes is epoxy. On an all-glass hull, that's not an issue, though is is best to coat the inside of any through-hull hole so water can seep into any cloth that didn't get fully saturated during construction - or you can get a blister and de-lamination. All that they were describing sounds like what I've been doing with my friend on his Mariner 32 ketch, grinding blisters; check the hull with meters till it's dry enough to putty the craters; apply three barrier coats, then bottom paint just before we launch. It's back-breaking work for someone in their 60's Was it a waste of time? Well, yeah, and worst, a waste of money, that stuff ain't cheap. But, what's done is done, and it won't hurt the model. Hopefully you'll build more models and will know you don't need to go through all that again. My hulls build logs are linked below...

I've been looking, but haven't found any at all under 3/16" Maybe I can sell some left handed screw eyes to pay for it, if I find some.

Are there left-handed micro taps and dies available - I have some turnbuckles to make.

Me, of course. Vic, I've been digging around the Library of Congress and National Archive sites, since they offer the highest resolution images.

I looked at a lot of period photos of ships with rigging, and I'm still looking, trying to get a handle on what I'm looking at. There's not a lot of clear images of these things, which are usually referred to as rigging-screws. A lot of Navy ships had deadeyes and lanyards, even steam ships built after Constellation. The design of these rigging screws (some people still refer to turnbuckles as rigging screws today) is sort of opposite of what we think of as turnbuckles. Where a turnbuckle usually has a central drum that may be open or closed, and opposite threaded ends with eyes or clevis'; these have forks at opposite ends of a central screw with opposing threads on either end. The ends of the shrouds have round thimbles seized in. In deSimone's painting the doubled part of the shroud, after wrapping the thimble is very short, but in every photo so far, it's normally long, maybe 3 feet, with 4 or 5 seizings. The first pic is a very rough sketch of what I think it is. Next is from a photo of the ship at Portsmouth New Hampshire about 1884. The last is from one of a pair of photos of midshipmen boarding for a summer cruise at Annapolis about 1888 or 1890. So far these are the only photos where I can actually see the things. Now I'm trying to determine how I'm gonna make these things. I need them functional and I'm sure 3D printed ones wouldn't hold up. Plus I think I need a slightly smaller version for the topmast shrouds.

I took down the print of Constellation at Naples in 1856 by Thomas deSimone to take better pictures and see where some details were I want to add to the hull, as this portrait is what I'm basing my model on. What caught my eye were the deadeyes and lanyards on the shrouds (topmast shrouds too), or actually, the lack of deadeyes and lanyards. (remember to click a pic to see it full size) I always wrote this off as deSimone just leaving out some details, like the lack of ratlines on the starboard side, or the thimbles on that side. I planned on doing deadeyes and lanyards as the ship has now, and in 1914 But the more I look, the more I think they aren't deadeyes and lanyards at all. deSimone paints deadeyes and lanyards on ships in other portraits, at least a more obvious impression of them, but never on Constellation and then in photos... The more I look, the more convinced I get that she had screws for her shrouds, lower and topmast, from the start and didn't get deadeyes and lanyards until about 1900-1901. Anyone have any ideas, or see something different?

It's just a painted canvas tarp, like a painter's drop cloth you can buy today at Lowes and such. They were used in homes then as well, in the dining room, kitchen, a runner in a hallway, bedrooms, anywhere you didn't want bare floors. They were also used in army officers tentage on campaign so you didn't have to walk on damp grass in your stocking feet. I made a couple over the years; one for my wife's tent when she went reenacting with me. Her's was a basic checker with 4 inch squares in dark red and cream colors.

The folks that got hold of the ship in Baltimore didn't start the rumor that it was the original frigate, modified; but they certainly ran with it; to the point of tampering with documents in the National Archives, forging some, and probably stealing some (there's several listed that can't be found such as her spar deck plan). Confronted by Chapelle, they seemed to be in a constant panic to come up with a story of the frigate becoming the sloop. In 1977, when I worked on the city's skipjack Minnie V, I was in the Constellation's shadow daily, and got to crawl around in her any time I wanted. I went to the central library and read The Constellation Question a few times. One day a tall thin fellow came to the boat asking for the skipper. When I told him he was away, he started asking me about Minnie's construction and then when he figured I was well enough versed, he asked if I knew about Constellation. I was aware of the debate. What did I think of it - I said the frame spacing was different between the two ships, and was consistent through this ship with the plan of the later, 1854, ship. That even if a section was added to lengthen her, that would not require changing the frame spacing in the entire ship for no apparent reason. What about the original material found in the ship? Eve was made from Adam's rib, that didn't make her Adam. There were a couple more thrusts by this guy wanting to have a technical argument with a kid (I'd just turned 17 at this time), that the kid parried which flustered the guy to the point that he just snorted something rude and stomped off. The Minnie's skipper came back, having run into the man on the way and gotten an earful about that insolent kid he had for a deckhand. He asked if I knew who the guy was; apparently it was Leon Polland. So, since a few bits of wood, in their minds, made the existing ship the original, I submit that since I have pieces of original live oak as the mast steps in my model of Constellation, that my ship too is the original frigate, altered to a sloop, and finally altered to a 5 foot model.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Hornblower was a midshipman on Indefatigable. He wouldn't have that coat or epaulets, and midshipmen carried a dirk (about a foot long blade) as a badge of rank), or a ship's cutlass in combat, not a sword.

Out in the sweatshop today I epoxied on the starboard hammocks using a variety of weights from about the shop. Ground off the outboard edge flush with the bulwark and glued on a 3/16"x1/16" bass strip to cover the seam, on the aft, starboard quarter at least, till I couldn't stand to be in the shop any longer.

Been away for a few days, so back into the sauna/shop to figure out how to translate those winch driven loops into sail control. I took pictures of the model to use to figure out how the sheets and such will need to run. This is a draft as some lines will need to run to fairleads in order to get the most efficient use of the loop's travel. The diagram also doesn't show the main topmast running backs stays or braces for the squares - yet. On the image below, the black spots are where the lines go through the deck. These places are where wood blocking and brass tubing needs to be installed for that. The first task is to work out where they actually will be with a combination of where the lines ran on the real boat combined with just holding the lines where they go on the model and making a mark. That means figuring out how I will handle the mainstay's operation. The main stay is a split-stay, port and starboard, that run forward to a block and tackle at the deck just forward of the foremast. When sailing, the windward one is taken up taught, and the lee one is loose (usually carried aft and tied to a main shroud). This way one stay is always working to support that highly raked mast. The line from the tackle leads aft so the winch can be used to make it taught. A length of flat braided line on a ring on deck was used to hold the stay taught as the line was transferred from the winch to a cleat on deck and made fast. I have to decide if I want it's thru-deck to be at the cleat, or forward at the tackle, as shown in the diagram. I'm leaning towards the thru-deck forward, as shown, but this is one of the things I'll have to jury rig to test and see what works best. The stays function on the model are mostly aesthetic as the masts are strong enough to sail without shrouds. They are also a signature detail, and an important part of the procedure when tacking a Baltimore Clipper. One set of fairleads below deck are the turning blocks for the steering cables. These are placed where they are to get the best use of the servo-arm's travel. Two of the temporary brace blocks I made for Constellation were used here. The eyes used here will be replaced with screw-eyes as in Constellation because the wire eyes I made aren't strong enough.

In 1981, Pride kept three casks for water forward of the cabin trunk, surrounding the hand pump which wasn't used. I found a "whiskey barrel" on Thingiverse I though to use, but it was modeled as a barrel with wooden banding, so I subdued the bands on the 3D model, covered them with "iron bands," resized the barrel to 40mm and printed three of them. Apparently resizing them made the ends too thin and they printed perfectly except for lacking any ends. I may use these as napkin holders, but most likely I'll glue some ends into them. I also wanted the flap on top represented, and the bands a little more pronounced. Editing the original file to fix the end walls wasn't working, so I made a new 3D model from scratch, and print three of these. Getting back to the sail controls, I got some braided polyester 1.5mm line for the loops and rigged them up. For tension on the loops, I used pre-made brass blocks on springs mounted on a screw-eye on a wood block on top of the fin trunk. The video is some of my running the loops back and forth waiting for a failure. The squeaking is coming from the idler pulleys, so I'll be putting some brass bushings in them. The aft winch is perfect, the little tab of blue tape runs from end to end as it should. The other winch needs a new drum (a crack in that home-made one keeps catching the line. That channel also needs to be reprogrammed in the transmitter as it's not making it's full 3.5 revolutions. pri20220715a.mp4 One loop will control the heads'ls and squares, the other will control the main-sheet, fores'l, main-stays, and main top-mast running back-stays. There were running backs stays on the foremast, but I don't need them to operate, nor do I need the main-stays and running backs to operate either, but those main stays are a signature item on a Baltimore Clipper, and a major part of the tacking process on Pride, so I want them to operate on the model.

A test run of the loops went pretty well, but I felt it needed some suspension in it, so I figured to put a pair of blocks connected by a spring to put tension in the system. A little more thinking and it seemed tensioning the two loops together like that wasn't a good idea, so I figured to mount a post on the fin trunk and hang the spring on that, keeping the two loops independent. I rigged up one loop and ran it back and forth hauling the weight of a can of spray paint up and down, and it seemed to be up to the task. I did wind up switching to a harder spring than I had started with. The tensioning blocks will use the same pulley used for the idlers, and I made some slab sides to hold them, then printed all that with a barrel I found on Thingiverse. The barrel is modeled with wood banding instead of iron, so I need to see if I can change that on the model. The circle on the end is the plug for a drain hole so it wont be filled with liquid resin trapped inside. Pride had three of these on their sides in front of the house blocking the hand-pump. There was sometimes a 55 gallon drum parked there as well, but I don't recall that being there when I was aboard - got look through the photos again. I ordered some braided line to use on the loops. What I have is too fat, and the rest is twisted line. I figure braided line will be less likely to kink than twisted line in this situation. I also need some #4 nuts and bolts for those blocks. Then it'll be time to plan all the fairleads. The main sheet is pretty straight-forward, though it won't be on an arm; I'll detail that arrangement when I get to it. The heads'ls and the squares will all on one loop, the fore and main on the other. I'm hoping the main-forestays and the running backstays will also be on the loop. I don't need them to sail the model, but they were a big part of the procedure for tacking and no one that sailed on this boat will soon forget that. I'll detail all that when I get there as well.

Pride also mounted a pair of 1 pounder swivel guns on the rail, port and starboard. Examining all the pictures I could find, these guns were basically scaled down versions of the 6 pounders; all the shapes match, bands, everything. That made my job much easier, I simply scaled down the 3D model 6 pounder barrel, made the iron fitting on the cascable, and put a stock on it. I made the yoke, and posed it all in the position you'd usually see the gun in, and printed two of them. I don't intend then to function or move. The pin of one of the yokes broke trying to free it from the supports, but I'll probably trim them both and use a brass pin instead. As this is a working RC model, there's a fair chance of these items getting broken or snapped off by a line snagging, or handing in general. The nice thing about 3D printing though, is the ability to print a replacement.

I sat down last night to modify Tim Bowman's Blomefield 18 pdr barrel to fit Pride, but removing the cascable ring, ER cartouche, and rearranging the barrel bands was more work than starting from scratch, so I started from scratch. Making a gun barrel in 3D is generally pretty straight forward, make a cylinder with a lot of segments and resize and move each segment to create bands, slope, etc. I had made a new carriage for Macedonian's guns and rearranged it here for Pride. Since these guns are basically static displays, I modeled them in one piece, rather than print the parts and assemble them. I think I spent about 3 hours making the barrel, and another hour redoing the carriage. I saved the STL file, started the print, and went to bed. When I got up this morning I was actually surprised to find they printed great. Cleaned them up and sat them on the boat to see how they look. I hoped the rings would be loose, like the anchor chain I made for Constellation, but it wasn't, so I'll probably replace the eye and ring with brass. Mini-Me (a photo from 1980 scaled to 1:20) and one of my "babies." When I was on Pride, I was put in charge of her guns. I was told they were my "babies" and I should take care of them. My experience with black-powder cannon was one reason I was hired, because the Yorktown Bicentennial was coming up and Pride was going to attend. Here's the real thing. This was all the rigging they had. No breaching, retrieving tackle, just training tackle. This is all the model will get as well, since it's a model of a particular boat as she was at a particular time, not how it was supposed to be.

I found a nice pulley wheel, sheave, whatever it ought to be called in this context, at Thingiverse, scaled it to 1 inch diameter and printed 4 of them. I mounted them on their blocks with #8 x 1" wood screws with a brass washer under each as a bearing. I cut slots in the forward tray so it'll have 3/8" of adjustment, fore-and-aft. With all that in place, I couldn't resist running some loops with some Nylon line. I need to get the radio gear together and charged up to do a real test. I have a little over 20 inches of travel. Some fancy block magic and I can get up to 40 inches.

The paint dry, things can be put in their places to check fit and alignments. Then on to the forward winch-tray. Reusing the blocks that were epoxied in for the rudder to sit on, I needed them taller and the angle change so the plane of this tray is level with the one aft. I also need them a little longer because this tray will get slots cut into it so I can adjust it fore-and-aft to set the tension on the loop, and so the screw that hold it are accessible through the hatch. The battery lays just aft of here as well, so I shaped the pieces like knees to over hang it a little while not interfering with access to it. The added pieces are glued to the old rudder-servo mounts, but not having a good way to clamp them, I put a couple of bugle-head screws in, which I think I'll leave in there, since they're epoxy coated. Here's a pic of the model with sub-deck laid in to show the access hatch openings as they'll be in the finished model. The little hatch forward will most likely get decked over when the time comes as it's not really for anything. The "engine room hatch" over the aft winch and the main hatch will be screwed down with rubber gaskets to prevent leakage since I expect this boat to be as wet as the real one was.

Pulled out the old servo-tray that sat on the centerboard-trunk, and reset the main-mast step. The step was raised about 1/8" as the main sat a little too low. I didn't know that the tray would be in the way, but it's neater and cleaner with it out, and may fool someone into thinking I know what I'm doing. The old motor bulkhead got extensions and some paint, and an old knee was reused to catch the forward end of the new aft servo tray. I won't have access to this bit that pokes out forward once the deck is on, so instead of screwing it to a knee I installed to catch it, there's a block above the knee that holds it down. Two screws into the bulkhead at the back holds it in the boat. If I need to remove the tray, I take out the two screws I can access through the hatch, and the front slips out. The little blocks on the wings will hold the idler-pulleys up at the right level to the other winch drum. Then there's that lovely yellow paint. I don't even remember getting yellow spray paint, but I can't paint everything red. The forward winch tray is mostly made, I have to figure out it's mounting, which will involve the old rudder servo-tray blocks the thing is sitting on in the pic, but it needs raising up and the angle corrected. It will also have some fore-and-aft movement to it so I can adjust the tension on the loops.

I pulled out the prop-shaft, cut back the stuffing box, and plugged it with epoxy. With that clear I made fitted a couple of beams where the rudder servo will go, made them into a frame, and epoxied it into the hull. I used a slow-set epoxy, so I couldn't do any more till it set-up. The steering will need a couple of turning blocks and fairleads to become functional. I placed some servos where the winches will go to do some measuring and it looks like I should get at least 22 inches (56cm) length of pull from each loop. That ought to be plenty to handle all these over-lapping sails.

Made holes in the edges of the tops for the topmast dead-eye strops to pass through to the futtock shrouds. The futtock shrouds will be brass rod that will attach at to mast to a futtock band, which in this case is a strip od styrene wrapped and glued around the mast just under the hounds, with eye pins inserted. I thought of making a metal band with eye soldered on, but I don't need it that elaborate. The tresle-trees also got some brass plates (blackened) for my topmast fids to rest on without damaging the wood. The middle portion of the pic below is the mainmast, the black line some of what I'll be using for the topmast shrouds and some other standing rigging, rove up and down just so I can see how it looks. A brass rod is also stuck in there to see how the futtocks will work out. I was out most of today and worked on the rope-walk when I got back, soldering leads and prepping DPDT switches. I finally had to take a break either because I was tired, or ran out of places to sit thing down. I think tomorrow the shop will need some straightening up before I can get back to anything else

I pulled everything out except the prop shaft and stuffing box (which is just a tube). My smallest allen-wrenches seem to have wandered off so I can't take off the prop and bushings yet. Once that's out of the way, I'll look at mounting the rudder servo and making new fairleads for the steering gear. The wood blocks forward are epoxied in, as are the block where the rudder servo was mounted, I'm leaving them in place unless they get in the way, since it'll be a chore taking them out with damaging the hull. The aircraft plywood servo tray just forward of the mainmast will come out as well. I edited in a new diagram that ought to be a little clearer to see the controls, hatch outlines, and steering lines. I'm thinking instead of running the control loops side-by-side, I'll put one winch aft, and the other forward so the control-loops work within each other. This should make dealing with the connections through the hatches easier, since the whole system will be narrower. I also got 50 pounds (22.7kg) of lead shot a few days ago, so I have to determine the size and shape of the bulb I need to cast. That will get bolted onto her removable fin and I think will be in the neighborhood of 20 pounds (9kg). Some shot in baggies will go in the hull for trim, I figure one in the bow and the other in the stern, each about a pound. Pride was on display at National Maritime Day on May 22nd. Here she is on the table with Cliodhna. Mark's schooner isn't a particular scale, but it's very close to Pride's 1:20.