alde

Don't stress over your distress. At least you had planned on painting the interior. The floor boards and thwart risers will also cover any little goofs. Once the internal details start to go in it sure looks a lot like a boat. I am really impressed with this kit.

Your decks look great. I like the color.

Mundie, Good save but you may want to re-think your use of epoxie. Regular wood glue is much more forgiving, holds great and can be taken apart pretty easy. We have all had to take stuff apart but like CaptainSteve said, the wood glue comes apart really well with isopropyl. The 99% pure works great and won't cause the grain to lift. The 70% pure has 30% water and will raise the wood grain.

Tom, I am very sorry for the loss of your brother. You and he are in my thoughts.

CaptainSteve, That's a book I will have to look for. Bligh doesn't mention the condition of his boat at all in his log of the voyage, at least not as far as I have read. I am only half way through the book but it's quite a good read. You would have thought maintaining the only way of getting off the ship in the event of a sinking would be well maintained. I guess a warship is different in that respect. They had many more men to keep occupied on long voyages. Bligh only had something like 45 men in his crew compaired to 300 or so on a frigate size ship.

That sounds pretty painful Alde.  Good luck with your recovery

 

The interior and floors of your Bounty Launch do look great though!

It's not too painful Bindy. Recovery should be pretty quick. Besides, it gives me a reason to use my new mini table saw on a real project. Thanks for the kind words.

I did warn you about the short thwarts

 

Anyway she's looking beautiful. So clean, so neat, so sharp. Well done!

You sure did. It seems like a common problem. MS should make them too long to be fitted. I really don't think my hull sprung to a wider dimension.

Could you cut down the longest ones to make shorter thwarts?

With the belaying pin holes and such I could possibly get 2 by re-using the kit parts. I will do that if possible though.

It looks like I'm suffering "Short Thwart Syndrome". There is no squeezing the hull to fit the thwarts so we will have to make some new ones.Should be simple enough but I will have to pick up a sheet of basswood. It doesn't look like there is enough on the leftover part sheets. It looks like I will have to make all but the forward most and stern thwart.

I did stain the interior of the hull using Minwax Vermont Maple (water base) stain. I like the color for the interior of the boat and am pretty happy with the way it came out.

Al D.

Making some good headway there. I know what you mean about getting back to the Rat Race. There's never enough time for the fun stuff.

Looking good. Once you got started you started zipping along. It looks like you did a nice clean job on the rabbit.

Here are the latest pictures of my Bounty Launch project. I have installed the floors and they were a bit more of a challenge than I expected. They were not difficult by any means but I could not thing of a good way to clamp them so I went with the Super Glue method. I'm pretty happy with the results. Stain is next after a good going over to get rid of any glue spots and do a bit of sanding.

Thanks for looking,

Al D.

My heart goes out to you in the loss of your friend. 

Al D.

Outstanding job. You should be very proud of your model.

I saw your post this morning before work, Alde. And so I took the test-plank from above, broke it in three and have glued (i) the stained sides together, and (ii) the unstained sides. Will give it until tomorrow morning and get back to you regarding the results.

Steve, I picked up some water based stain yesterday and stained a couple of pieces of wood. After they dried for about 4 hours I glued them together using Elmers Wood Glue and clamped them for 3 hours. I gave the pieces a good pull and the wood splintered leaving slivers of one piece still glued to the other. It looks like they glue up just fine. I hope you find the same thing as you are pre-staining your planks.

Al D.

Patrick, Thank you for posting the link to the 1803 painting. It's full of information. Too bad we can't know for sure how accurate it is but it sure is a big piece of the puzzle. It's really interesting that it has no gunport lids at all. I can't imagine that a frigate of that period designed to operate in the open Atlantic not having them.

I have a book on the way that is an illistrated guid to the ship model collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The description specifically talked about Constitution models. I will let you know what it shows.

Here is a link to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts Constitution model. Some decent photos. It shows the figurehead and split Gunport Lids among other interesting details.

http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/u-s-frigate-constitution-38428

I like the color in you last photo. Maybe a touch more of the Golden Teak to lighten it up just a bit though. Of course that's only an opinion.

A question though. Is there any problem glueing stained parts? I know the stain penetrates the wood and is oil based. Can you just use regular wood glue?

When Constitution was built there were 5 other frigates commissioned with her. Would the stern decorations be similar on all the ships of a class? Were they influenced by the style of the time or the design of the actual builder? Would the Constellation, Philadelphia or United States be much different than Constitution?

There is probably less known about the other ships but it might be something interesting to explore.

Steve,

When I was bending the tween frames into the hull I found a technique that helped with the breakage problem. The ribs were soaked in water with a bit of amonia for 5 or 6 hours. When bending I would put the bottem end against the keel then slowely start bending very close to the keel and work my way up very slowley stopping for a few seconds every few mm or so. Once I felt the wood relax a bit I would move up the rib. If you try to force them down close to the center of the rib they will snap like the brittle little sticks they are.

Al D.

Thank you CaptainSteve. I was anxious to get the hull off the mold and I may have rushed that part but now that it's free I find myself slowing down and taking more care. It's hard to break from the habit of wanting to get things done but that doesn't work well with this hobby. I look down the road at some of the ships I would like to build and can see they could take a couple of years or more and they are kits. I would ultimatley like to scratch build a British Light Frigate or a Swan Class Sloop or something similar. The Model Shipways Constitution is in my sights though. It may not be the next one but after 2 or 3 smaller kits it may be time to jump in the deep end of kit building.

The Sheer Clamps have been installed and the Thwart Risers are clamped in place for forming. They will be installed tomorrow. No Treenails on this one for me. At this stage in my building experience I just want to get one under my belt. As I learn more and gain more confidence I will strive for more detail. Right now it's just learning the basics. I have to say that this is a whole lot more fun for me than plastic. 

Al D.

Patrick, you might also look for a book called "Six Frigates" by Ian W. Toll. It's an inexpensive book but a good read. You never know what tidbits you can find.

Patrick, I know that contemporary information for early US Navy ships is pretty thin. Have you found much in the way of early paintings? I am probably 5 years or more out from the time that I tackle Constitution but would like to build it in a Barbery Wars configuration. Yours will probably many times more difficult to find information on. I am always looking for information on her and if I find anything unusual I will pass it on.

Al D.

Ill be hanging out in the peanut gallery trying to learn something. It will be fun seeing an early configuration Constitution come together. The research will be almost as much fun as the build.

Al D.

We have a stain available here by Minwax called Weathered Oak. I tested it on some scrap and it's quite grey. Would the real boat have been built from oak? Wouldn't it have been well maintained while still on the ship and not look too weathered? That tropical sun and salt air probably would have been harsh on any wood. I may have to experiment with the Weathered Oak and some other colors on my launch. I didn't want to go too dark.

Is this Aussie Rules Football the game where they leave the injured players on the field and keep playing with no substutions? If it's the game I'm thinking of there is blood involved. The only sport I really follow is Ice Hockey.

That should be a great model. The latest Ships in Scale magazine has an article about the ship and it's history. It's great that you are close enough to the real thing to take pictures and get a feel for her. I was aboard her on a visit to Vancouver a few years ago.