USS Constitution by SawdustDave - FINISHED - 1:60th Scale

[Piet]

Yep, count me in as well in the screw up club. Nice work on your build Dave.

Gwen and I wish you and your family a merry Christmas and very good and healthy 2018.

 

Cheers,

[SawdustDave]

Spar Deck Guns Installed....

Although still much to do before moving on and celebrating, the guns are all installed with partial rigging.  

Now working on the short tackle rigging seen here....

Note, I had to find a way to attach the bulwark hooks since I had made a strategic mistake by adding the belaying rings as I was building the bulwarks.  

The biggest problem being that the pin rails are blocking any possible access to several rings.
My solution - instead of using tiny hooks to attach the blocks, I went with a length of black beading lines which can be pulled through the rings, securing each with a touch of CA gel, and then snipped off.
Seen here, the top photo shows the assembly, and the bottom photo shows the tackle sets after wrapping.  Note the measurement jig used to control the exact length of each tackle set.

 

And here is the installed tackle....

Obviously, I have not began fitting the rope coils, which will be the last task to polish off the guns.
Also note that I have not begun working on the out haul tackle for the eight guns not affected by the cut away sections.

Edited December 29, 2017 by SawdustDave

[MEDDO]

Nice milestone.  Those look great.

[JSGerson]

I like the look of the exposed gun deck. It's something like I did on my Rattlesnake. I'll be following your lead for this part on my Conny build, but at 76.8 scale. That should be interesting.

[michael mott]

Looks Good a nice solution to the pin rail issue.

 

Michael

[SawdustDave]

Ran out of the 3/32" tackle blocks and now waiting for Chuck's order to arrive.
Meantime, after three days of making rope coils for the deck and gluing them in place last night I opened the shop with nothing to do in terms of gun rigging progress.

PS - This was the first time I have made a jig for creating rope coils for the deck (have always used masking tape to create the coils).... 

The jig I made with clear plastic disks and with a nail through the center worked great.

 

Meantime, I decided to begin building the Pinnace.  This little "Model-within-a-model" project should keep me occupied for a while.... nor to mention the three other launches to be built.

Dave

Edited January 2, 2018 by SawdustDave

[JSGerson]

Those boats are fun little projects. I did mine first as an appetizer for the main course, the ship itself. Even though the MS kit's plans were very close to the US Navy plans (CD from the museum), I used the US Navy plans directly when ever I could.

 

Jon

[SawdustDave]

7 minutes ago, JSGerson said:

Those boats are fun little projects. I did mine first as an appetizer for the main course, the ship itself. Even though the MS kit's plans were very close to the US Navy plans (CD from the museum), I used the US Navy plans directly when ever I could.

 

Jon

I agree Jon.  I have always considered the ship’s launches to be my personal favorite modeling tasks.  Thank you for providing your amazing build log, which is my “go-to” reference.... along with the US Navy plan sheets I too am working with.

Very excited to begin this stage.

Dave

[SawdustDave]

I guess this is just a celebration posting of the fact that the rigging of all the spar deck guns is now complete.... except for the train tackle, which I'll have to come back to because I ran out of blocks and have to wait for Chuck to ship.
Excuse the lighting of the full deck photo.....

Note the difference in the size of the rope used on the gun deck cannons seen through the cutaway vs the smaller rope used on the spar deck guns.  Not much we can do about that now.

Happy to finally break away from gun rigging and return to working on the Pinnace.  

Edited January 8, 2018 by SawdustDave

[SawdustDave]

Cutting out the layered b&b launch parts....

Wishing I had not sold my little scroll saw.... now needed to cut out the interior sides of these layers with no opening to access them with my band saw blade.

Solution..... 
See part marked B4 below....Scored each one deeply with an Xacto blade and broke them apart.  Important to make the clean break occur down the center of the two tabs.   By breaking them apart with the grain of the wood, they can easily be glued back together without any loss of width.

aaa

 

[usedtosail]

Damn, why didn't I think of that Dave. I did use a small scroll saw and it was real pain taking the blade in and out for each layer.

[SawdustDave]

4 minutes ago, usedtosail said:

Damn, why didn't I think of that Dave. I did use a small scroll saw and it was real pain taking the blade in and out for each layer.

Tom.... It could be that the very thought of intentionally breaking a kit part goes against a modelers instinct.  We take such care to NOT break fragile components.

 

Must admit I first gave a valiant try with rotary bits and got very unsatisfactory results.

 

BTW - How cold are you these days?  Thought about you many times over the last week.

Cheers

[JSGerson]

May I suggest that (if you haven't done so already) that you do NOT glue the bottom layer to the rest of the stack. This will allow you carve the interior of the hull a whole lot easier. Once that is done, then attach the bottom layer.

 

Jon

[Roger Pellett]

An easier and more accurate method for making open boats is to make and carve them inside and out in halves.  The two half hull shells can then be glued and pinned to a central keel piece.

 

Roger

[SawdustDave]

11 minutes ago, Roger Pellett said:

An easier and more accurate method for making open boats is to make and carve them inside and out in halves.  The two half hull shells can then be glued and pinned to a central keel piece.

Actually, that is how I have made all of my previous launches Roger.... and you may be right, but I decided to give B&B a shot.

33 minutes ago, JSGerson said:

May I suggest that (if you haven't done so already) that you do NOT glue the bottom layer to the rest of the stack. This will allow you carve the interior of the hull a whole lot easier. Once that is done, then attach the bottom layer.

Thanks Jon.... I picked up on that suggestion from your build log.

Dave

[usedtosail]

It was pretty cold last week - hovering around 0 most of the week. Up to 40 degrees today, though.

[SawdustDave]

High 50's here..... kept the shipyard door open all day.  Nice.

[SawdustDave]

Shaping the launch hulls - I started to make the little calipers suggested by the downloaded kit instructions, but decided to make a simple modification to my trusty old micrometer instead.  Took about 5 minutes.... and works perfectly.

[DonnRW]

Dave, I am sorry that I am so late to the party, but I just discovered you. While I have never attempted a scratch build, and I may never (kits are a big enough challenge for me), I am so amazed and impressed with your patience, craftsmanship, and ingenuity! Relative to your worldwide group of followers, we are almost next door neighbors (Raleigh area). Thank you for sharing your skills with the rest of us. 

 

Donn

[SawdustDave]

16 hours ago, DonnRW said:

Dave, I am sorry that I am so late to the party, but I just discovered you. While I have never attempted a scratch build, and I may never (kits are a big enough challenge for me), I am so amazed and impressed with your patience, craftsmanship, and ingenuity! Relative to your worldwide group of followers, we are almost next door neighbors (Raleigh area). Thank you for sharing your skills with the rest of us. 

 

Donn

Welcome aboard Donn.... and thanks for all those nice words.
Raleigh.... less than two hour drive to exit 22 from I-95.  Open invitation to visit any time.
Dave

[DonnRW]

2 hours ago, SawdustDave said:

Welcome aboard Donn.... and thanks for all those nice words.
Raleigh.... less than two hour drive to exit 22 from I-95.  Open invitation to visit any time.
Dave

Dave, I may take you up on your kind offer to visit and bring a fellow builder. We are relatively inexperienced but enthusiastic.  

 

Donn

 

[SawdustDave]

1 hour ago, DonnRW said:

Dave, I may take you up on your kind offer to visit and bring a fellow builder. We are relatively inexperienced but enthusiastic.  

 

Donn

 

Would be thrilled to have you and your friend.  Need to find more friends from the surrounding area that may be interested in forming a “tall ship” modelers club....monthly or quarterly meetings.  

You might know, the only active groups around here are strictly plastic (IPMS)..... military planes, tanks, etc.

Dave

 

Edited January 15, 2018 by SawdustDave

[JSGerson]

Quote

Would be thrilled to have you and your friend.  Need to find more friends from the surrounding area that may be interested in forming a “tall ship” modelers club....monthly or quarterly meetings.  

I live in Aiken SC, about 3 hours away or so from Lumberton. It would be nice to have a local group of fellow wooden model enthusiasts.

 

Jon

[SawdustDave]

Excellent Jon.... Don’t know how we could best reach out for members in a broad area, but sure would enjoy pulling something together.

Any thoughts.... Anybody.

Dave

[JSGerson]

Try contacting Chuck. He's the best one to know since he runs the website.

[SawdustDave]

31 minutes ago, JSGerson said:

Try contacting Chuck. He's the best one to know since he runs the website.

Can’t imagine anything Chuck could do to help us with establishing a NC / SC regional ship modelers club.  Thinking maybe a couple of adds in some strategic newspapers for starter.

[mtaylor]

57 minutes ago, SawdustDave said:

Can’t imagine anything Chuck could do to help us with establishing a NC / SC regional ship modelers club.  Thinking maybe a couple of adds in some strategic newspapers for starter.

Start by posting here on MSW, Dave.  There is a forum for clubs and maybe put a "teaser" in your signature.

[JSGerson]

I was thinking that he could show us how to broadcast through the website, if it was possible.

[DonnRW]

On 1/15/2018 at 2:40 PM, SawdustDave said:

Would be thrilled to have you and your friend.  Need to find more friends from the surrounding area that may be interested in forming a “tall ship” modelers club....monthly or quarterly meetings.  

You might know, the only active groups around here are strictly plastic (IPMS)..... military planes, tanks, etc.

Dave

 

Dave, I have been surprised at the seeming lack of model boat builders in the Triangle area. There appears to be significant interest in model planes (flying clubs), but nothing much with ships. Personally, I am also interested in woodworking (furniture); in fact I hope to be in a new house this spring, which will include a bigger shop area. As for shipbuilding, I would thoroughly enjoy any opportunity to interact with fellow modelers. I hope to be contacting you soon about visiting.

 

Donn

[SawdustDave]

Keep your “feelers” out Donn, for potential members in the area.  Is there a retailer in the area specializing in scale model kits?