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Posted
2 minutes ago, JSGerson said:

Below are a few of the items my sister created. These are NOT photographs, but paintings.

 

Amazing paintings, Jon.  She is quite talented! 🏆🏆

Gregg

 

Current Projects:                                                             Completed Projects:                                                                 Waiting for Shipyard Clearance:

USS Constitution 1:76.8 - Model Shipways                    Norwegian Sailing Pram 1:12 - Model Shipways                    Yacht America Schooner 1851 1:64 - Model Shipways

                                                                                              Muscongus Bay Lobster Smack 1:24 - Model Shipways       RMS Titanic 1:300 - OcCre (May now never get to it)

                                                                                              H.M. Schooner Ballahoo 1:64 - Caldercraft

                                                                                              Bluenose 1921 1:64 - Model Shipways

                                                                                              Santa Maria Caravelle 1:48 - Ships of Pavel Nikitin

Posted
20 hours ago, mtbediz said:

Your attention to detail is truly admirable. As for me, I just don’t have the patience to wrestle with tiny details, and I tend to dodge them whenever I can. :)

I could not have said it better myself, Mustafa. And I am 100% in your camp. Go for it Jon, I'll be watching from the sidelines..

Posted

Hi Jon,

The skylight and canopy look awesome. As usual, your ability to creatively tackle these little details is remarkable and inspiring. The talent for detail obviously runs in your family. Your sister's paintings are amazing. If you had not said so, I would have thought they were photos. Pretty incredible.

Posted

Yes, I'm pretty much in awe of my sister too.

 

Jon

Current Build: Model Shipways USS Frigate Constitution
 
Past Builds:    Bob Hunt's kitbash of the Mamoli Rattlesnake

                         Model Shipways Typical Ship’s Boat for the Rattlesnake

                         Mini-Mamoli solid hull British Schooner Evergreen
                         Model Airways Albatros D.Va - 1917, The Red Baron's Forgotten Fighter

 
​Member: Nautical Research Guild

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

In order to install the captain’s skylight and its railing, requires that I start planking the aft section of the spar deck. It’s been a while since I last planked the gun deck, so I reviewed the practicum on deck planking. It reminded me that I had to stagger the planking joints about ¾” apart in the adjacent rows. And where the two planks butt up against each other requires that there be a support beam below the joint. It was then that I realized I had a big support gap above the dining room area. I originally left this area devoid of beams because it wouldn’t be seen as it was to be completely covered with planking. However, it turns out that I did need them to support the butt joints.

 

I don’t throw anything away while building a model. I still had the last two remaining support beams I originally cut off the bulkheads way back when. I needed these because they had the deck camber I needed. To use them, the vertical support was cut off and the width adjusted to fit under the spar deck waterway. I just had enough room to maneuver them into position and glued them into place with WellBond.

IMG_2860.JPG

IMG_2861.JPG

IMG_2862.JPG

Current Build: Model Shipways USS Frigate Constitution
 
Past Builds:    Bob Hunt's kitbash of the Mamoli Rattlesnake

                         Model Shipways Typical Ship’s Boat for the Rattlesnake

                         Mini-Mamoli solid hull British Schooner Evergreen
                         Model Airways Albatros D.Va - 1917, The Red Baron's Forgotten Fighter

 
​Member: Nautical Research Guild

Posted

The MS plans show the planks tapering towards the stern on the spar deck, with the planks from 3/32” wide to the transom at 1/16” wide. The model’s far aft area of the stern is to be fully planked. I started the taper of the planks per the practicum, from the most aft hatchway.

 

Unlike the gun deck, the spar deck does not have a plywood sub-surface for planks to rest and adhered to. If I had not opted to create the gun deck, it would have. Still, the planking is relatively easy to do although I had to make minor adjustments as the support beams were not always at the proper height as I thought they should be. Also, in order to provide as much viewing space to the gun deck below as possible, I wanted to plank the minimum number of strakes to support the carronades. To determine that, I finally took out one set of 3-D printed 1812 styled USS Constitution carronades I bought from Model Monkey a number of years ago to use as a measuring stick. These are the vertical angle, screw adjustment, type. Just to reiterate, because the 1927 restoration version (with the wedge adjustment) on the actual ship are known to be historically incorrect, all the carronades on my model are to be of the more accurate 1812 style.

 

After I removed the excess spruce from the raw 3-D printed carronade, something didn’t look right. Looking at the available US Navy plans for the 1812 carronade and carriage which matched the few 1812 style carronades on the actual ship, there were some glaring differences to the Model Monkey versions. The sled (the part that slides back and forth on the skid) was perfect. The skid, however, was much narrower. Also, the pivot base on the nose of the skid was fastened to the bottom of the skid. According to Karl Heinz Marquardt’s book “The 44-Gun Frigate USS Constitution ‘Old Ironsides,” their diagram matched the Model Monkey’s version with one exception. The pivot plate was fastened to the top of the skid, to rest on the sill of the gun port (which the actual ship’s carronades do). No way was this lower pivot plate going to work on my model. So, there are three separate versions of what is supposed to be the 1812 carronade:

  • 1812 version carronades installed on the actual ship now
  • Marquardt’s, diagram
  • Model Monkey 3-D printed version

and this doesn’t include the carronades installed during the 1927 restoration. Is everything clear as mud!!?? So, the conclusion is: NOBODY knows for certain what the carronades looked like in 1812! Therefore, as Captain of this might ship, I’m going to make the Command Decision to use the carronades I purchased from Model Monkey and modified the pivoting base…unless I change my mind. Now back to planking.

Carronade Differences - 1812.png

Model Monkey Carronades.png

IMG_2875.JPG

Current Build: Model Shipways USS Frigate Constitution
 
Past Builds:    Bob Hunt's kitbash of the Mamoli Rattlesnake

                         Model Shipways Typical Ship’s Boat for the Rattlesnake

                         Mini-Mamoli solid hull British Schooner Evergreen
                         Model Airways Albatros D.Va - 1917, The Red Baron's Forgotten Fighter

 
​Member: Nautical Research Guild

Posted

I started planking the center of the spar deck, starting from the capstan opening and working my way back to the stern until it filled in to the width of the hatchways. Then I applied the planks against the waterways, starting from the stern and working forward. The stern was fully planked to just forward of the captain’s dining area, then the plank voids will allow the gun deck to be visible. The forward areas are yet to be planked.

IMG_2870.JPG

IMG_2871.JPG

IMG_2872.JPG

IMG_2873.JPG

IMG_2874.JPG

Current Build: Model Shipways USS Frigate Constitution
 
Past Builds:    Bob Hunt's kitbash of the Mamoli Rattlesnake

                         Model Shipways Typical Ship’s Boat for the Rattlesnake

                         Mini-Mamoli solid hull British Schooner Evergreen
                         Model Airways Albatros D.Va - 1917, The Red Baron's Forgotten Fighter

 
​Member: Nautical Research Guild

Posted

In your leaving the spa deck open to permit viewing the the gun deck below, is the intention to leave the planking, and I apologize for not having a better word for this, ragged?

 

Screenshot_20250718_093748_DuckDuckGo.thumb.jpg.e77b3dc0312cb9dcaa1ff84fc339d110.jpg

 

As far as the carronades are concerned,  the beauty of the selection you made is that you bypass the obstacle of the overly wide waterways. Unlike mine, your guns will actually poke through the gun ports.

 

Good choice!

 

Posted

Hey, Jon!  Your aft planking is looking great!  It is interesting to see how you gentlemen are planking the spar deck in order to best expose the details of the gun deck.  And I am also very interested in how you are using your Model Monkey carronades.  I recall the conversation we were having back in January on Peter's build log regarding these Model Monkey 3-D carronades (starting at Post #427, FYI).  At the time, we were discussing the possibility of cutting/separating the cannon and screw adjustment mechanism part from the carriage base, so that the carriage base would be made from wood.  I even purchased a half dozen of the 3-D printed carronades to examine ahead of time.  But it sounds like you are just going to use the full 3-D printed carronade piece on your ship?  Anxious to see how it comes out!  Thanks for the update, Jon!

Gregg

 

Current Projects:                                                             Completed Projects:                                                                 Waiting for Shipyard Clearance:

USS Constitution 1:76.8 - Model Shipways                    Norwegian Sailing Pram 1:12 - Model Shipways                    Yacht America Schooner 1851 1:64 - Model Shipways

                                                                                              Muscongus Bay Lobster Smack 1:24 - Model Shipways       RMS Titanic 1:300 - OcCre (May now never get to it)

                                                                                              H.M. Schooner Ballahoo 1:64 - Caldercraft

                                                                                              Bluenose 1921 1:64 - Model Shipways

                                                                                              Santa Maria Caravelle 1:48 - Ships of Pavel Nikitin

Posted

Peter, raggedness of the planks is deliberate. If I made clean cuts, it may look like the clean cut openings were part of the design of the ship to an ignorant (read "lack of knowledge," not "intelligence") layman. By making them ragged, I wanted to give the illusion that the deck was broken open to see inside. You may also seen that I did the same thing with the cut beams on the starboard side waist.

 

Gregg, the jury is still out as to whether or not I fabricate the carriages. My heart says make the wooden carriages, but the practical side of me just paint the carronade and maybe get a better effect. I think I have one or two extra carronade to experiment with. In either case I still have to rig them. Maybe one or the other is easier to do, I don't know yet.

 

Jon

Current Build: Model Shipways USS Frigate Constitution
 
Past Builds:    Bob Hunt's kitbash of the Mamoli Rattlesnake

                         Model Shipways Typical Ship’s Boat for the Rattlesnake

                         Mini-Mamoli solid hull British Schooner Evergreen
                         Model Airways Albatros D.Va - 1917, The Red Baron's Forgotten Fighter

 
​Member: Nautical Research Guild

Posted
38 minutes ago, JSGerson said:

Peter, raggedness of the planks is deliberate.... I wanted to give the illusion that the deck was broken open to see inside.

 

Gregg, the jury is still out as to whether or not I fabricate the carriages.... I think I have one or two extra carronade to experiment with.... I don't know yet.

 

Jon, I love that display technique!! Very unique way to expose the details on the gun deck!  

 

Yeah, the intent of buying a handful from Model Monkey to start with was to experiment with dissection.  So, I'll mess with them sometime.  I have plenty of time before I get to that point.  I will. of course, being watching your process with great interest.  Carry on, sir! 👍🏆

Gregg

 

Current Projects:                                                             Completed Projects:                                                                 Waiting for Shipyard Clearance:

USS Constitution 1:76.8 - Model Shipways                    Norwegian Sailing Pram 1:12 - Model Shipways                    Yacht America Schooner 1851 1:64 - Model Shipways

                                                                                              Muscongus Bay Lobster Smack 1:24 - Model Shipways       RMS Titanic 1:300 - OcCre (May now never get to it)

                                                                                              H.M. Schooner Ballahoo 1:64 - Caldercraft

                                                                                              Bluenose 1921 1:64 - Model Shipways

                                                                                              Santa Maria Caravelle 1:48 - Ships of Pavel Nikitin

Posted
8 hours ago, JSGerson said:

If I made clean cuts, it may look like the clean cut openings were part of the design of the ship to an ignorant (read "lack of knowledge," not "intelligence") layman. By making them ragged, I wanted to give the illusion that the deck was broken open to see inside. You may also seen that I did the same thing with the cut beams on the starboard side waist.

Yes, this is the right approach. In my Essex model, I frequently encountered this question: "Well, didn't the sailors fall through these gaps?" :)

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