USS Constitution by Modeler12 - Cross-Section - Bow Area

[GLakie]

Nice!!  Modular construction and lighted too!!  Definitely a unique approach. 

[Modeler12]

George, the LEDs are not my idea to start with. About a year or so ago there was some discussion about using them inside models and I used them on a couple windmills. (see below).

To install them you have to plan ahead and provide the leads and power supply. In my case I will be using a small transformer that plugs into a wall outlet, has a tiny switch and thin wires to the LED. It is a matter of locating them and feeding the leads well in advance so they don't interfere with the rest.
Beside the 'light room', I want to add at least one more on the berth and gun deck. But I want to hide them from direct viewing.

[GLakie]

Oh, I haven't spotted a lighted cross-section here in any postings yet Jay. Is there another forum you found the idea in? I do know about whole models being lighted though. 

[Modeler12]

Oh, I haven't spotted a lighted cross-section here in any postings yet Jay. Is there another forum you found the idea in? I do know about whole models being lighted though. 

No, I did not get the idea from another cross section, George. But I have seen the little micro LEDs used for lanterns and even a candle stick. I will leave my options open but do need to include the wiring through the keel and later through the display base.

One reason I have not completely finished the frames and keel is just so I can think about other additions and the possible interference of some of those added parts.

[GLakie]

Thanks Jay!  It's still going to be interesting to watch coming together. 

[mtaylor]

Jay,

 

You can dim the lights with a resistor or if you want a variable brightness, use a potentiometer. 

 

George,

 

My Constellation has LED lighting. 

[GLakie]

I've seen your Constellation Mark, and those LED's set her off beautifully. But what I haven't seen are lighted areas in a cross-section, probably because of the difficulty in hiding the wiring in a visually open area like a cross-section. 

[Modeler12]

Mark, I am using LEDs that require only 3 volts, which is almost the minimum voltage needed to make them work. The little transformer that came with them puts out the 3 volts. Hence, adding a resistor or pot to reduce the voltage will not work for me.

 

Painting the LED does reduce the brightness, although the white paint I used makes the color somewhat tan looking (which I think is fine for a lantern or candle light). You can also add color such as the red one where I used a red marking pen. Red paint would have reduced the brightness. I am toying with the idea of using something like this inside the oven (yet to come).

Below is the comparison looking from the side and head-on.

  

 

George, In my case the cross section will be 'finished' along the port side and I can hide the wires inside the walls and behind the beams and below the deck planking, if necessary.

Edited June 4, 2015 by Modeler12

[cwboland]

Jay,

 

Just catching up on your log. Great idea to paint the LEDs to reduce the overall light output

[Modeler12]

Just catching up on your log. Great idea to paint the LEDs to reduce the overall light output

Hi Carl,

Here are a couple more ideas that work with those LEDs.

 

I painted the red with some more acrylic paint, but it still had that crown effect. So I sanded off the dome on this particular item and added another touch of paint on top. It worked and now it looks more uniform. If, however, you want to 'spot light' something you can do that with the 'dome'.

 

I am really intrigued about what you can do with these little guys.

[AntonyUK]

Hi Jay.

You are coming along very nicely with your cross section.

 

I did a little project that covers flickering light to simulate oil or candle lights.

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/2806-flickering-lights/?hl=flickering

Works well and a couple of others have used it.

Sounds hard to do but it's a piece of cake to do.. Even with no electronics knowledge.

 

Regards Antony.

[Modeler12]

Thanks Anthony, I will have to digest this and give it a try.

The LEDs I bought also are available as 'flashing' which I assume is not the same as 'flickering'. They probably have a small capacitor that charges and discharges are set intervals. I like your idea of flickering for the fire in the stove, for example.

The size I started with is the 1.8 mm, but I may get some of the smaller chips. I have tried the nano and pico sizes a year or so ago, but found the light output be too small. For a real candle, though, it would be nice.

 

[mtaylor]

Sounds like you're on top of it Jay.   Will you be running the wiring through the deck beams?  I'm really curious how you're doing this.. fascinating.......

[Modeler12]

Sounds like you're on top of it Jay.   Will you be running the wiring through the deck beams?  I'm really curious how you're doing this.. fascinating.......

At this point, Mark, I am thinking of having the wires come through the keel and then up along the port side where the hull is planked in and outboard. Since the section will be visible primarily from the aft side, the wires can be attached to the forward part of a beam (if necessary) where it can then go up to what ever deck it is supposed to go to.

The light room is easy since it will be low and at the center. A light on the berth deck can be behind one of the large knees on the port side and others 'to be determined' (the stove comes to mind).

 

Right now I am putting the finishing touches on the full size Connie and taking care of a few items on the 'honey do list'. So the section will take a back seat for a while.

Edited June 7, 2015 by Modeler12

[Modeler12]

Now that the full size model is finished, it is time to get back to the cross section.

 

When I planked the orlop deck I had some trouble applying pressure to the sides of the planks and get a nice tight fit. For the berth deck I decided to make some wedge clamps. 

I took a piece of 1/8 x 1/5 aluminum bar and cut it into six inch sections. The jaws are made of oak, slotted to accept the aluminum bars. The short jaw is epoxied, the sliding jaw has a longer slot to take the tapered wedge as shown below.

I found that having the wedge on the inside as shown gives me better control of pressure and adjustments. But I can go either way. I also added some sandpaper to the jaws for extra bite.

Now I can proceed with the planking of this deck.

Edited June 10, 2015 by Modeler12

[GLakie]

I like your solution for clamping those planks Jay!  Ingenious clamps you made. Gonna have to log that one into my list as well. 

[JSGerson]

I like those clamps. What method did you use to slot the oak jaws?

[Modeler12]

I like those clamps. What method did you use to slot the oak jaws?

JS I do have a small milling machine and that helped  

I had toyed with the idea of using wooden dowel for the shafts, but that would cause the whole thing to rotate and wobble.

I suppose you could drill a series of holes and file the slots to fit a rectangular bar.

I just made the clamps today, tried them briefly, but the proof of the pudding will be in actual use.

I am sure that a screw, rather than the wedge, would be better and give you more control. But this was a couple hours project.

 

One more comment about the 'wedge'. I used some blood-wood that was 1/8 inch thick and had to taper each one to fit the sliding jaws. Hence, I tied a thread to the wedge and jaw so they would stay together.

I may give some thought about modifying this  . . . . . .

[Modeler12]

Here are a few more planks with the wedge clamps in place; along with two metal spring clamps at the ends and a clothes-pin near the center.

 

Things do get crowded and this is only a dry fit.

The problem is that all those plank joints need extra work compared with using six inch long pieces. Each joint needs to be adjusted for spacing and also more clamping (they don't want to follow a straight line).

The picture does not show this clearly and maybe I can show that in more detail later on.

Mind you, this needs to be glued down, sanded, blackened, etc.

Any way, it is an interesting exercise.

[Modeler12]

Hi Jay.

You are coming along very nicely with your cross section.

 

I did a little project that covers flickering light to simulate oil or candle lights.

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/2806-flickering-lights/?hl=flickering

Works well and a couple of others have used it.

Sounds hard to do but it's a piece of cake to do.. Even with no electronics knowledge.

 

Regards Antony.

Hi Antony, 

The place where I bought the LEDs also makes a flickering type for less than $4.00. I think I'll get a couple to try for the fire-place I have in mind.

http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/flickering-led.html

[Modeler12]

There are three types of 'knees' on the berth deck. They are all heavy and bulky to take the brunt of the heavy cannons on the deck above. The most obvious knee is the C-shaped part that fits between the top beam and deck. The other two are called 'hanging' and 'lodging' knees (the latter is near the top in the second picture). 

  

 

I made eight of the the C-shaped knees, as shown below. A 1/2 inch Forstner drill bit gives a nice, clean hole and then it was a matter of band-sawing and filing to get the contour. The height is 0.9 inches (70" full scale) and the length 0.8 inches. The thickness is slightly less than that of the beams (0.015 inches). The height of these parts will determine where the gun-deck beams will be located. The left sides will be fitted to the contour of the inboard hull shape.

 

[GLakie]

Great looking C-knee you've made Jay. I like that method you used. Thanks for explaining. 

[Modeler12]

Thanks George.

I just realized that I need to make a few more because the eight I have will be on the port side.

To show the construction on the starboard side I should use at least three more. Too many and it becomes too crowded and hard to see things inside. The same applies to the other knees.

[Modeler12]

The lodging knees are a bit more complicated. Because of the beam spacing, the horizontal sizes vary. Plus because of the hull shape, one leg of the knee tilts as an angle which also varies depending on location.

 

I laid out the design of each on a piece of boxwood (0.015 inch thick) and drilled 1/2 diameter holes like I did on the standard knees. Notice how the location of the holes, the angles of the lower edges and the horizontal spacing all vary. For the angles I used the drawing on page 72/73 of Marquardt's book.

Then it was a matter of cutting the knees and sanding them to contour.

Below are the two knees butted together. They are up-side-down and the back side of the standard knee still needs to be shaped to the hull contour and clearances for the waterways, for example. Like in the picture above with the two boys sitting on the knee, the short legs are pretty close of the same size for both pieces. This particular knee goes between the two beams just aft of the fore-mast.

 

Oops! The lodging knees I just made really belong inside the berth deck structure. What the photograph with the boys shows are the lodging knees of the gun deck. The parts I made are fine but they need to be located in the right level. Hence my second photo above of the up-side-down view is wrong. Here is what it should look like:  

 

Edited June 13, 2015 by Modeler12

[AntonyUK]

Hi Jay.

 

Wow looking nice and I like your idea's with producing the Knees ETC.

Looking forward to your next build post.

 

Regards Antony.

[Modeler12]

OK, Antony, you asked for it and here is the next step.
 

Each of the lodging knees has to be filed to fit between the beams. Then it has to have a groove for the ledges, deep enough so the top surface of the ledge is flush with the top of the beam. Since the beam thickness changes as I go fore, the depth of the groove also changes. Hence, I have to do each one separate. All of this is a loose fit because the exact location is yet to be determined. 

 

The same process will be used later for the lodging knees in the orlop and gun decks.

[Modeler12]

Here are the seven knees temporarily fitted between the beams. Towards the bow the ledges have not yet been cut and fitted. Easy.

The way I cut the grooves for the ledges is on my milling machine.

Rather than using the heavy cast iron clamps, I made mine from some scrap wood.

The end cutter is 1/16 inch diameter, the width of the ledge material.

I also decided to not put the lodging knees along the port side. They would be hard to see with the deck planking on top. Instead I will use them for the orlop deck (along the starboard side).

Edited June 14, 2015 by Modeler12

[mtaylor]

Super nifty work, Jay.  I like the wood for the clamps idea as it probably keeps the wood from getting nicked up.

 

Edit:  I like that idea so much.. I hope you don't mind if I use it.

Edited June 15, 2015 by mtaylor

[Modeler12]

Super nifty work, Jay.  I like the wood for the clamps idea as it probably keeps the wood from getting nicked up.

 

Edit:  I like that idea so much.. I hope you don't mind if I use it.

Mark, go at it. 

At first I thought to add a strip of sandpaper to the underside of the clamp to give it some more bite. But I found that was not necessary. The nut and leverage was more than enough to give a solid hold to the work piece.

Of course, I am working with tiny pieces.

And again, as you well know with the mill and clamps, you want to have the clamp piece supported a bit higher at the tail end and the stud close to the work piece.

 

One more comment. I have a piece of plywood on the bed with two bolts holding it down. This has come handy for several operations such as drilling the hatch cover holes    and notching the carlings. It also gives me a bit more assurance that I don't run into the bed by accident. I tried to align the front edge pretty close along the x-axis for reference.

[mtaylor]

I do the same thing with the plywood base on the bed.   It not only protects the bed, it protects the bits.   Now to find the time to make some wood clamps.. or wait until I need them...