USF Constellation 1797 by Jparsley - Artesania Latina - 1:85 scale

[Jparsley]

Sorry for my confusion

[Jparsley]

Second round lol

Edited March 26, 2015 by Jparsley

[CPS_skybolt]

Looking good

[Jparsley]

Thank you any hints or criticism is appreciated

[mtaylor]

So far, so good as the saying goes..    Is the steering wheel glued down?  If not, it needs to be rotated 90 degrees.   You might want to give some thought to how you're going to install and rig the guns before going much further.   The AL instructions are not the best but ideally, the guns almost need to go in before the catwalks otherwise you cant get to them.  

[Jparsley]

No the upper decks are only nailed down for now and the wheel was just sat on the get an idea where they go thank you for the input please let me know if anything else looks goofy

[Jparsley]

Starting the hard part I can honestly say this has been the hardest part

Edited March 30, 2015 by Jparsley

[Jparsley]

Ok here we go First layer done hopefully correctly She was a fun one to do Lots of learning involved

Edited April 3, 2015 by Jparsley

[Jparsley]

She's taking shape the bow keel was a pain it needed modification to fit but she's looking good to me any ideas guys

[Jparsley]

My little admiral decided I was making her a party barge and decorated her boat

[Jparsley]

Ok from last post my daughter needed her own boat to play with so here it is I made a dinghy for a dingy girl Hope it looks good to yall she's not impressed but she is only 4 yrs old

[Jparsley]

Not much to add as life's been a little busy just not in the building department Started on the second layer of the hull and waiting for my blackening agent to get here would really like to have black cannons and eye boots for the gun rigging any ideas also was thinking of using a dark red mahogany stain on the walnut planking any ideas how that would turn out? Any suggestions would be helpful thanks guys

[mtaylor]

Take some of your scrap walnut, mount on scrap board like you would do planking.  Put your finish on it and see what it looks like.  If it's not to your liking, try the stain and see what it looks like with the finish on top.   Putting on an oil like tung or Danish, or one of the poly finishes will chnge the way the wood looks.

[Jparsley]

Thanks mtaylor for the input I'll give it a try

[Jparsley]

Ok guys after hours and hours of thought reading and planning I'm almost positive that I'm not doing the best job but it's looking to me to be shaping up into a fair rendition of what a ship should look like any thoughts?

[Jparsley]

Anyone have a good suggestion on color of stain for dark wood on this girl

[Jparsley]

Sorry guys nothing new to add I have had company in for the last week so building has been on stand by hoping to get all the planking finished by the weekend a little nervous about cutting out the gun ports if anyone has any recommendations on how to do it safely and to ease nerves please oh please let me know a lot of time and effort to do the best planking I could just to cut holes in it scares me lol hopefully after the planking is done and the ports are cut I can get a lot assembled since I've been working on a lot of the deck furniture on the side maybe she will start looking like a ship soon

[mtaylor]

Do the ports slowly.  Don't get into a rush.  Measure 5 or 6 times before cutting instead of the usual two (  ).   Mark the ports.  Use an awl or sharp nail and mark the wood inside the port.  Give your self some meat to file/sand.  Then drill out the holes using a dermal.  Connect the holes and file/sand to shape.  Tedious work but rewarding.

 

As for stain.. you'll have to test and test some more.  I just planked mine with the factory wood. and poly'ed it.

[Jparsley]

This is where she is at now hopefully I'll start the painful process of ports this weekend thanks for the advice mtaylor

[trippwj]

Looking nice - also love the dinghy for the mini-admiral!

[Jparsley]

Thank you trip she likes it too

[Jparsley]

Ok hull is planked and lightly sanded trying to place gun ports but slow going since the measurements in the plans aren't accurate having to make modifications but here's how the hulls looking

[Jack12477]

Since this is an AL kit with the double planking of walnut wood I usually just put a coat of poly on mine - brings out the color nicely.

[Jparsley]

Thanks jack

[Jparsley]

Ok guys my nerves are on end my hands are shaky and my eyes are tearing cutting into a perfectly good hull just to stick a gun in a hole Actually after I cut my first two holes I feel I have a technique lets just hope she turns out nicely here's what I have at the moment

[mtaylor]

Just keep going slow and easy.   Don't rush.   Looking good to my eye.  As a side note, you've made if farther than some of the other builds of this ship that I've seen.  She's not an easy build.

[Jparsley]

Thanks a lot mtaylor You seem to be my biggest helper and supporter on here Glad your liking her What make her so hard since she is my first it's all kinda nerve racking

[mtaylor]

I think what makes this kit hard is the instructions and some of the workmanship on parts.  You are coming up on a gotcha' and I suggest you look at the other guys logs.  The cannon on the gundeck.... if  you put on the catwalks first, it's very difficult to rig them.  So you'll want to give some though on how the rigging and how much rigging you want to do.

[Jparsley]

Yeah I kinda ran into that unfortunately the catwalks are already glued down thank goodness the fore and aft decks weren't Gives me a little room to play if I'm not mistaken I measured out my gun ports off the full size picture on the plans and a couple of them hit right on the framing so I've had to shift things around slightly the instructions suck not sure what I'm going to do with the aft cabin peices I've thought about trying my hand at a little scratch building and see if I can make some not sure yet

[Jparsley]

Ok my nerves are settling Getting my ports cut Playing with my guns Sorry for the quality of the pictures but here they are anyways