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

[SawdustDave]

Did anybody else notice the gallery windows behind the billet head in Dave's picture? Looks like the are painted on.

That's such an old photo Kirby.... taken by Leslie Jones in 1927....I kinda doubt it's been doctored over the years. 

Edited January 4, 2017 by SawdustDave

[KirbysLunchBox]

I am sure that it is correct. I just wonder if it ever had glass before its current state.

[SawdustDave]

Beak painted ....

 

All bulkheads fitted to the former with careful measurements taken to insure precise spacing at the outer edges and top surface alignment from bow to stern.
Next task of fairing the edges and creating bow and stern filler blocks.

Also, I finished the starboard side carvings and painted the whole beak flat black.  Then used a straight razor blade to scrape the top surface of the carvings clean, leaving the black background.

Then added the delicate double trim rails above and below the carvings and painted them flat black.

After three coats of acrylic white, mostly applied with a tooth pic, completed the beak by painting out the red/white/blue shield....again, acrylic paint applied with very sharp tooth pic. 

 

[Omega1234]

Hi Dave

 

Wow! Looks very smart!

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[JesseLee]

Wow Dave! I would love to be there to watch you go through this process of carving/scraping/painting. Very nice work!

 

Jesse

[SawdustDave]

Thanks for the nice words Jesse, but I'm afraid watching the process would be about as entertaining as watching grass grow.  Very slow process indeed for sure.  

Here's another tip for wood carvers.....
After doing the rough carving, and then "refining" the detail to the point that it is beginning to appear fairly acceptable.... take two or three close-up photos of the piece using different angles and light reflections.
Then use the photos to mark areas of the carving you want to re-visit and work on, either to clean up or change the shape.
Then take some more photos, and go through the same process again.

Point is, the human eye simply will not pick up on the type of imperfections nearly as well as the camera.
I must have taken a thousand pics of the carvings I created for the SOS project.

Cheers.   

Edited January 6, 2017 by SawdustDave

[Mundie]

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3725156,-71.0565752,3a,75y,133.73h,59.77t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sC_lucOrNkjgAAAQZN_qReQ!2e0

[Mundie]

Very cool Google Earth Tour of USS Constitution

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

G'day Dave

Amazing work on the beak painting.

At toothpick as a brush! It must have taken you hours...... Who said it wasn't fun waiting for the paint to dry? Do you know that you can buy a single hair paint brush? It might be easier than a toothpick.

 

Brilliant Google tour of the the Constitution.

Havagooday

Greg

[SawdustDave]

I should explain the tooth pick Greg.... sorry to mislead.....

I do have a very fine brush, which was used for the first two coats of white acrylic. Then after allowing the paint on my pallet to set up and become somewhat thicker, I used a sharpened tooth pick to apply a raised layer in those fat areas of the scroll work where I wanted more relief detail.

In other words, the thick paint was "piled up" and then pressed into subtle shapes with the tooth pick.

Kind of tedious, but the result was not bad in that it did add a subtle dimension to those flat spots.

[Tigersteve]

The paint work looks very clean. I like it.

Steve

[SawdustDave]

Filler blocks - bow and stern....

No attempt to show any step-by-step log regarding the creation of these filler blocks.  For that, I refer all builders to visit Tom's (usedtosail) impeccable documentation of the process (never mess with perfection).

 

Three quick shots taken this morning after finishing up the fairing of all the bulkheads and shaping the fore and aft filler blocks.

Note, I did choose to glue up the three stern filler blocks so I could work on them off ship.... dry fitting and marking them several times as I slowly achieved acceptable shape and fit.

 

 

Loved Tom's woodworker approach to notching the bow filler blocks..... sure did make a clean job of that task.

 

Edited January 8, 2017 by SawdustDave

[BANYAN]

Nice work Dave and thanks for the pointer to Tom's work, but to find it please? 

 

cheers

 

Pat

Edited January 8, 2017 by BANYAN

[CaptainSteve]

Pat,

 

Tom's log starts here. He has a very useful index log which jumps to various sections of his build.

[SawdustDave]

Hi Pat!

What CapSteve said....

Thanks Cap

[BANYAN]

Thanks Steve and Dave

[SawdustDave]

Working on the stern framing.... I ran into this little surprise regarding the plan patterns.  I'm curious to know if it's just me, or did any of you Connie builders run into the same issue.

 

When you lay one of the frame patterns over the profile of the assembled frames (as seen below), you find that a full 1/4" has to be removed from the length of the frame in order to align the aft edges flush with the stern filler edge.

This caused me considerable heartburn yesterday as I went into a scramble of checking and re-checking the width of my stern filler against the plans, then checking my frame parts against the plans, and checking Tom's build log to assure me I was interpreting the plan sheets properly.

 

.
 

[usedtosail]

Dave,

 

I did not have this problem. Check the length of your stern filler block to the templates on the plans. In the picture above the filler block looks too short. The back edge of the transom frame should be flush with the back end of the filler block, which is not what your diagram shows above either.

[CaptainSteve]

Dave,

Interesting that you should mention this. I am having all sorts of problems with this section, also. Indeed, I am planning on posing an almost identical question in my own log very soon. My problem, however, relates more to the relationship between the transom and filler blocks, as I have re-cut those stern frames to allow for the modifications I am making to the kit.

[SawdustDave]

Tom' response further confuses my old brain..... easy to do.

I created the posting above by taking the frame pattern directly from the plan sheet and transposing it directly over the profile of the assembled stern taken from the plans.

Note that my stern filler block is a perfect match to the plans.....AND..... by taking off the 1/4" the transom frames I get a flush fit with the back edge of the filler block just as you stated.

It's not nice to mess with old people's minds. Hehehehe

 

BTW....for all you snowbirds who play golf..... we have mid 70's and sunny here in NC today. January golf! YES!

Edited January 12, 2017 by SawdustDave

[usedtosail]

Hummm. If it works for you, go for it. I just didn't have that problem.

[usedtosail]

OK, now that I am home I looked at the plans and I think I see the problem. If I measure the width of the template for the stern filler piece from the plans it is 1 5/8" wide at the center.

 

 

If you measure the length of the filler piece on the side view part of the plans it is only 1 1/2" wide. I think this may be showing the length of the filler piece at the sides which is shorter than the middle, but it is misleading (really it is wrong)

 

 

I think that is where the 1/4" or so is coming from. If you make the filler piece using the template you should not have to remove the 1/4" from the transom frames.

 

BTW - I used the free volume of the Launk Street Shipyard tutorial for this part of the build, which helped me a lot getting started. I am not sure if it is still available on line.

[SawdustDave]

Glad I brought this issue up, as it did cause me major heartburn.  That profile diagram of the stern assembly caused me to make the counter block too narrow, as noted by Tom in his analysis of my problem.

 

Thankfully, I will be able to fix the problem with considerable woodworking techniques, requiring complete rip out of all the framing I had finished over the last three days.

 

I'm sure this will not be the last, nor the worst mistake I will make with this project..... life of the scratch builder.

Thanks Tom.

[usedtosail]

You are welcome Dave. The plans leave much to be desired. For instance, some drawings on the plans are not symmetrical port to starboard when they are supposed to be, so keep an eye out for this. 

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

G'day Dave

It's seems that with Tom's help your little heartburn has been fixed.

Goodonyoutom

Greg

[skifflake]

Hi Dave:  I will also be following. Looking forward......

[Geoff Matson]

Hello Dave;

 

I may be able to help you. Here is a picture from my build. The stern counter block is very important to get right. A lot of the future build depends on getting this right. I also am building the Conny with help from Bob Hunt's practicum. 

 

 

The top of the counter is wider than the bottom

 

The hole is for the rudder to go through

 

The shape of the counter gave me lots of trouble but I worked it out. Hope this helps

Edited January 14, 2017 by Geoff Matson

[SawdustDave]

Transom re-framed....

 

Three days later.... a little over twenty hours of ripping out and fixing this very important part of the model.

Here we are back to the same point.....

 

First, the transom frames are now well aligned with the widened filler block.

Also, the frame-to-frame alignment has been fared left to right and top to bottom.

Finally, the six window openings measure precisely to the plan sheets.
 

 

 

 

 

 

[BANYAN]

Seems you have resolved it quite nicely Dave; good bones = good body they say

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

G'day Dave

With all your efforts and heartburn, the stern and transom look incredible.

I sure it's a relief to you! A great job and congratulations on a brain numbing job!

Havagooday my friend

Greg