JerryTodd

I was going to slap together a temporary trough to float the model in to determine what the weight the bulb on her fin would need to be, but I'm either up to my neck with other stuff or too worn out to motivate myself through the shop door. I finally put the model in the tub, in which she barely fit, and figured out the bulb will need to be 25 pounds (11kg) to sit about 1/2" below her painted water line. Adding the battery and some lead-shot bean-bags will trim her where I want her for sailing. I'm still up in the air on how to make the bulb; whether to melt and cast the lead, or cast the lead in epoxy. I'm leaning toward the epoxy casting, and have ordered the epoxy to do the job (and to do some other jobs like repair the pram). In either case it will be made in two halves and somewhat "wing" shaped; something like this model's, though Pride's fin is longer, wider? Meanwhile, the masts are back in and I've been playing with the sail controls again. I seized dress hook loops to the winch lines (red arrows) to attach the sheets and figure out how to keep everything neat and untangled.

Some years ago someone scanned the Macedonian figurehead at the US Naval Academy. A reproduction has since been made so the "original" will be kept indoors, and the repop up on the pedestal outside. They somehow found me and offered to 3D print one for my model for a mere $300. Mind you, that's a for a 2 inch tall figure from a job that they were paid to scan by the US Navy, and machine printed. I wouldn't get a file to print my own, just a plastic figure I would no doubt have to alter by hand to fit the model. I declined. I haven't given much thought to the figurehead, until I got my own 3D resin printer. Now years later, I contacted these fellas about getting an STL file, but they hemmed and hawed about not owning the copyright to sell the file, and not knowing who did. I figured the Naval Academy contracted them to scan it, so they must own it if these guys say they don't. Again, I'm in no hurry on this, so I didn't dig any deeper. I check now and then to see if the file will pop up on Thingiverse or somewhere for free, just-in-case, but instead found a nice scan of a bust of Alexander the Great from some museum in Europe. The more I compared this with the Navy's figurehead, the more I wondered why theirs looked like the actor Mike Pollard. It's my opinion that the "original" figurehead was "restored" after the fight with United States and probably a few times more after that by some Yank carpenter with a low opinion of British wood carving, winding up looking like it does. Further, it's alleged the figurehead was mounted on the new frigate built to replace the captured ship, though I've never been able to find anything but a fiddle-head in any image or document. I suppose the original figurehead was much nicer, and respectful of the subject than what we see in Annapolis today, so I'm going with the bust I found online for my model of the frigate. To test this plan, I altered the 3D file to scale it to size, remove it's pedestal, and make the wedge that fits into the notch on the head knee of the ship. The print didn't turn out so good, but it served it's purpose. Once I manage to make the trail-boards, scroll-work, and other details it has to inter-link with, I'll print a better quality version. This is to be a working, sailing, model, and with all that handling, somethings like this is bound to be damaged or lost at some point. The great thing about 3D printing some parts is I can easily replace it if damaged or lost for nearly free - unlike a one-time print for $300, and would have to make a mold from to have any chance at a replacement.

Johann Thank you so much for this thread and sharing your workmanship, talent, and eye for detail with us in your beautiful photography. It makes me very happy when I get a notification in my email that there's another post in this thread with new beautiful images of beautiful details to see.

Except I would be concerned that the stropp mit brassenblock could slip out over the sheet sheave when the yard is braced hard over. Notice it's inside the lift block in the drawing.

I produce wargames of Civil War battles, and that's had me a bit side tracked as well the last 6 or 7 months as I learned how to put them into software so people can play them online. http://uhlangames.us/

Not a lot going on in my shops for months now, at least, not for me; but I did get some equipment for Pride... The real Pride of Baltimore was a wet boat. It wasn't unusual for her decks to be awash in a seaway, and I figure the model will be no different, maybe more-so. To that end I decided to install a bilge-pump. I searched forums, Facebook, YouTube, and anywhere I could think of to get some idea which pump would be best for the job, and all I really learned was while there's a great deal of information on the Internet, a great deal of that is useless. I finally settled on the little impeller pump pictured, which should fit nicely deep in the model's bilges and pump out any excess. I think I'll also use the electronics set-up in the next pic provided by Dan Lewandowski over on the RCGroups forums a few years back.

I've been very busy and haven't done much of anything to any of my models. I managed to do a lot for a lot of other people, and not much for myself (hobby wise). I am officially retired since Frebruary, but don't be fooled into thinking that means you'll have more time for yourself, it seems it means just the opposite. Anyway, a friend got a Mariner 31ketch named Ashlinka, that needed some work, and I've been helping with that. We're about to replace the bowsprit with a new made one, and after that, what's left to do is pretty much cosmetic. I've still been searching for left-handed taps and dies, or even steel screw and nuts, to make the rigging-screws mentioned a while back, with no luck; so I've decided to make them "non-functional" and maybe even 3D print them. If that works out, I can get to some serious rigging. The ketch above is normally kept at a private dock on a creek just off the Chesapeake Bay near Baltimore, which is a great place to take Constellation and Pride of Baltimore out sailing.

The binnacle is placed forward of the wheel so the fellows standing at the wheel can see it. He/they stand aft of the wheel, beside the drum, and look over the wheel, down onto the binnacle. I did find the title "armed privateer" a little odd, as it implies the existence of "unarmed privateers" The Grecian is a very nice subject for a model, not only as a Baltimore Clipper schooner, but for that humpty-dumpty rail.

The jackstays on Constitution are iron, I doubt anyone served iron fittings.

Crows-feet faded out of style around 1800 or so. The tops were structured differently so they didn't require them any more. Quarter-boat davits were also coming into vogue around that time. Basic hinged straight posts at first, and getting more curved, or "davit" shaped" by the end of the first decade. By 1805 I doubt any of Nelson's ships had crows feet, and most had quarter-boat davits. Do you have access to the "Masting & Rigging of English Ships of War 1625-1860" It's an expensive book, but it's an invaluable source of information.

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.