USS Constitution by JSGerson - Model Shipways Kit No. MS2040

[JSGerson]

After studying the photographs long and hard, the practicum, and other build logs, I’ve concluded that this going to be a bitch. The problem I see is that there is not a straight line anywhere, the plans provide no explanation as to how to fabricate the bow rails. The practicum does try to show how its to done, but for my skills, I needed more details. What I did realize is that I needed to install the catheads now because the head rails tie into them.

Catheads

If I were following the practicum religiously, which I’m not obviously, the cathead would have already been installed by this time. I had planned to install them when I started to work on the spar deck. The kit provided the basic raw cathead shapes which I used to ensure that I made the cathead hull openings the proper size earlier on in the build.

 

At the outside ends of the catheads, there is a triple sheave. Mr. Hunt in his practicum simulated these sheaves in the kit provided catheads by drilling two holes per sheave at the outer end of the catheads and carved a groove between each pair to give them the appearance of the imbedded pulleys.

 

The catheads do not extend out from the hull horizontally, but at an upward angle. This requires that the triple sheeves openings at the end of the cathead must be drilled at angle, so they are vertical when installed. Drilling six holes perfectly parallel at an angle for each cathead is beyond my skill set or available tools at my disposal. Instead, I made the holes by layering 1/32” and 1/64” birch plywood using the plan below. I chose to alternate two thicknesses of plywood because the final cathead must be 3/16” wide. Seven pieces of 1/32” plywood is too much. With the addition of glue, the combo plywood assembly worked out exactly 3/16”.

[JSGerson]

Using the kit supplied raw shape catheads, stock 1/32” and 1/64” birch plywood was cut to size, 4 pieces of 1/32” and 3 pieces of 1/64”. with one end sliced 60° to the long sides. Also, the 1/64” pieces were also sized ½” shorter length than the 1/32” pieces. The pieces were assembled, clamped, and glued with wood glue. Temporary 1/64” spacers were added to maintain separation during gluing.

[JSGerson]

I waited 24 hours to make sure the glue dried solid. The kit supplied catheads were traced onto the assemblies and the location of the pulleys were located and drilled. I did check the kit’s cathead shape against the US Navy plans and they are a close match. The spacers were removed after the holes were drilled. Wood plugs, which would become the pseudo pulleys were then inserted into the holes, glued with CA glue and the ends cut flush. Finally, caps were glued onto the ends of the sheaves to complete the assembly. Using my drill stand mounted Dremel rotary tool with a drum sander bit, I shaped the raw pieces. The finished catheads looked almost identical to the kit supplied pieces, but these now had sheeves and pseudo pulleys.

[JSGerson]

Cathead Hardware

For such a small structural piece, the cathead has a lot of hardware. All the double blocks and hearts are attached to the cathead with eyebolts and shackle connections. For the model, simple eyebolts were used due to scale.

h-Bracket

I don’t know the technical term for this, but I’m calling it an “h”-bracket due to it being shaped like an “h.” I used a typical picture hanger nail and bent the pointed tip 90°, flattened, and thinned the bend portion. This was then cut off. A piece of brass plate was cut a bit larger than the final bracket size for ease of handling and a hole was drilled to accept the fabricated right-angle piece. These were silver soldered together so that the flattened nail tip was parallel to the plate leaving a fine gap between the two. The excess brass plated was trimmed to size. The actual size of the bracket was based on its relative size as compared to the cathead beam as were all the pieces of hardware. I did not have dimensions for these pieces.

[JSGerson]

Hearts

The actual hearts are partial filled in and have 3 grooves. At this scale, it is not practical to make nor likely to be seen by a casual viewer once the parts are paint black, hence a simple open heart was fabricated. They were made by slicing 3/32” dia. brass tubes to create rings. The rings were placed on a mandrel for ease of handling and a circumferential groove was filed. Brass wire was used to strop the hearts because the actual hearts were stropped with metal. This was done by wrapping the wire around the ring and securing it to the eyebolt.

[JSGerson]

Cathead Double Blocks

I got lucky on the double blocks. A friend of mine, a model train buff, was given a bunch of old ship fittings way back when. Because he knew I made wooden model boats, he gave them to me. Among the gems were vintage A.J. Fisher pre-stropped blocks which were the perfect size for the catheads. For all I know they may be 50yrs. - 60yrs. old. All I had to do was attach them to the eyebolts.

[JSGerson]

Cathead Assembly

The only parts left were the cathead sculptures. I know my limitations, and sculpture is not one of my talents. Taking a shot in the dark, I Googled “model Cathead carving” and found just what needed at AliExpress.com. It’s not an exact match, but it’s a whole lot better that I could have fabricated. It’s close enough for this scale. It takes a while to ship it from China but to be fair, I did this last year in anticipation of this, so I had the parts in hand waiting for my use.

[JSGerson]

The parts (except the carvings) were assembled, and everything was painted black as per the actual ship photos. The carvings were painted gold with enamel paint for a shiny appearance.

[JSGerson]

The carvings were trimmed to fit the ends of the catheads and glued on. The catheads were finally installed into position on the model.

[JSGerson]

Draught Marks

Maybe it’s procrastination or trepidation of the head rails, but I decided to hold off on the head rails one more time because I thought it would be a bit easier to add the draught numbers on the bow at this time, I’ll hold off on the stern until I’ve added the hardware to support the rudder.

As I looked over most of the models of the Constitution built by others, the one thing they have in common, they did NOT add the white draught numbers which are really quite prominent for the last 100 years or so.

[JSGerson]

I had a good idea why this was so, and even contacted Robert Hunt to find out why he didn’t add them. He confirmed what I assumed; they are too small to paint on the models at 3/32”. Why not make decals? Also, a simple answer, no home computer can print white because they don’t use white ink. My next thought was to use white vinyl lettering, but I couldn’t find any made at that small size. My last choice was dry transfer lettering. They do make small enough sizes although not in the exact font used in the present-day configuration: Engravers MT. However, it would be very difficult to align them properly directly on the hull with no flat smooth surfaces.

But I had an idea, why not combine decals with dry transfers? When I bought the dry transfers for the ship’s nameplate a while back, I also purchased Woodland Scenics R.R. Roman Numbers White # DT510 which came with 1/16”, 3/32”, 1/8”, and 3/16” sized fonts. At this scale the difference in fonts from the actual one would not be noticed. I had to buy three sheets in order to have enough of the proper digits.  As you can see from the image below, the font size I was using is on the very bottom of the sheet.

[JSGerson]

The MS Plan showing the bow and stern draught numbers were scanned to capture them. These were then imported into PowerPoint (my only drawing program) and properly sized the clipped images so they would print at the correct size., These were then copied and flipped vertically so I ended up with port and starboard of the bow and stern numbers.

 

Note: I used the alignment function of PowerPoint to distribute the marks evenly vertically. As it turned out they did not match up exactly with the vertical number spacing on the drawings. Although my spacing will be correct, you can’t see any real difference.

 

Once satisfied, line guide marks (wide upside down “T”) were overlaid onto the numbers to indicate vertical spacing and the curve. You might just make them out in the image below. It’s only the guide marks I need to print. They were to be used to guide me in the application of the dry transfers. Using the guide marks, the dry transfers were to be applied to the decal paper then sprayed the decal bonder. I had no idea what the bonder would do the dry transfers or whether the dry transfers would lift off the decal paper once the decal was dipped into water.

[JSGerson]

Because I have not seen this process done by anyone before, I did an experiment first. Using lettering left over from the ship’s nameplate, letters instead of numbers, I follow the above plan. I used a strip of copper, partially painted red and black painted wood as my test subject. What I discovered is that it worked, however you had to be very careful and meticulous burnishing the transfers.  Because it’s white lettering on white decal paper, it is very difficult to ensure a proper transfer as seen in the image below. I believe there is colored decal paper (light blue I think) which would have made this process a bit easier, but I didn’t have any. The guide marks were essential. Although my marks were fine red and they did seem to disappear once the decal was applied to the surface, I changed them to grey guide mark for safety.

[JSGerson]

As I feared, applying the transfers to the decal paper was a bitch. I had to use my headband magnifier just to see the digits, the guide marks almost disappeared when trying to find them looking through the transfer sheet, and of course I’m applying white numbers on white decal paper. To add a little more apprehensiveness, I could not afford too many mistakes because I had a limited number of transfers and mistakes were made.

Once the port and starboard decals were made, the bonding spray was applied and set aside to dry thoroughly. These were then dipped in water and applied to the hull. The process worked, but my alignments were not as perfect as I would have liked due to the difficulties I mentioned above. Micro-Coat Flat was then applied to remove the sheen and blend the decal into the background. From about a foot away, the numbers are almost too small to be read, so the imperfections are not too noticeable.

[JSGerson]

The Head Rails – Trailboard Rails

Using one of MS kit’s precut 1/32” thick trailboards as a template, two 1/8” thick trailboard bases were cut and carved from basswood stock. Next, four strips of 1/8” wide x 3/16” thick basswood stock were cut a bit longer than required for the upper and lower trailboard rails. The extra lengths facilitated the carving and bending. The rails tapered from 1/8” to 1/32” at the forward tip of the trailboard. Once the tapering was carved, they were soaked in water for a day and bent using the heating iron method. Then wetted again, they were clamped to the trailboards so that they would conform to their curves and final shapes when they dried.

[JSGerson]

Most builders who documented their builds, created their trail boards from two pieces of wood using the profile in the plans. I couldn’t quite wrap my head what the final shape was supposed to look like or how to insure I had the proper dimensions. The rails bend in all three spatial dimensions. Also, I didn’t trust that my model truly matched the plans, so I used my as-built model and the photographs of the actual ship as my guides. The result was that instead of two pieces, I ended up with three (not counting fudge factor pieces): The rail on the stem, the hull, and the transitional curve between the two, which for me was the key piece.

 

The angle where the trailboard meets the hull was measured using a profile gauge which was original transferred onto a piece of card stock to make a preliminary template which you can see in the first image below. Once I assured myself this would work, the process was repeated on 1/8” thick piece of stock basswood. A parallel line was drawn to it as well a parallel line to the basswood edge which would eventually represent the hull’ A curve was drawn representing the outer edge of the rail as it transitions from the stem to the hull. Satisfied, the process was repeated an additional three times so that a total of four transitions pieces were created: the upper and lower rails for each side of the hull. Based on the photographs, the upper transitional curves were a bit smaller than the bottom ones. Additionally, the hawser opens were constructed using the precast white metal parts from the kit. The back side (shown on the right accounts for the wale being proud of the hull. You’ll notice, my openings as seen from the front butt up against each other per the image from the actual ship and not the plans. In the image, the hawser assemblies have not been trimmed to their final dimensions at this point. Once installed, the hawser holes will be extended into the hull so that the anchor lines will be able to pass through them. The hull trailboard rails have not been constructed yet at this point.

[JSGerson]

After numerous false starts, restarts, hesitations, and wasting time, I got the pieces partially glued together all the while measuring, remeasuring, checking and rechecking and still I had to do a bit of fudging to get it to this stage.

 

I discovered from photos of the underside of the trailboard taken during the 2015-17 restoration, there was a “support shelf” (my term) that is not shown on the kit plans or installed by anyone else that I could find sufficient details on. I did not find a US Navy plan of the trailboard rail construction. The last image shows two pieces of 3/64” x 3/16” basswood stock per side that will be used to create the “support shelf.”

[k-mart]

Hey Jon,     Just catching up on your log.    You made some good progress.   She is looking really good!!

Were about the same place in our respective builds.... but  seem to be reversing the order of steps with each other.  🙂      I'm just finishing up my stem / headrails.  (Yes, that is a very difficult part.   Harder than the stern. )     And about to start the coppering the bottom.   I'm glad as you keep giving me ideas!

 

Looking at you build , not sure if I want to tackle 2000+ individual plates.  I'll re-read how you did it and look at  few other builds before I decide how to do mine.     

Note when you get to it.  Fr the  white trim stripes on the headrails... I used 1/64"  self adhesive architectural tape.   It came out looking way better (and easier to apply) than if  I tried in wood or styrene strips.    Just an idea.

 

Best 

KMart

 

   

[JSGerson]

It's a mutual admiration society between us because I did take your idea for the architectural tape and bought some to do my pin striping which by the way is more accurate than using 1/32" styrene or wood. The MS plans shows the detail as 1/32" half rounds strips or about 2 1/2" full scale proud of the rail.  But if you look at all the current images, those strips are flat and hardly rise above the rail surface. Good call. I'm still trying to figure how to form the fiddle head with the star a bit more realistic than what shows on the kit's laser cut part. Yours is spot on to what the kit shows. I'm a bit anal and am trying to do a bit more. So far, not much luck.  If I fail, I'll try to make mine, look like yours. I'll be taking a break this week, visiting with my sister for Thanksgiving in Windsor Connecticut, a colonial section of Hartford. Have a good holiday.

 

Jon

[k-mart]

On 9/24/2022 at 3:26 PM, JSGerson said:

The parts (except the carvings) were assembled, and everything was painted black as per the actual ship photos. The carvings were painted gold with enamel paint for a shiny appearance.

Jon,  your cathead.   what size did you get?    I see it on ebay... from same Chinese company.  sizes listed are 1:48    1:48L,  1:75,   1:96.   but they dont give measurements.     Ugg they are now $15 + $7 shipping.....

[JSGerson]

Hi KMart, sorry I didn't get back to you earlier but I was out of town for a week visiting my sister for Thanksgiving and today I'm catching up on emails and such. The cathead figurine I bought is about 1/4" square which was based on the the laser cut cathead supplied by the kit and verified by the US Navy plans. The US Navy plans show the face of the "cat" to be 15 1/2" wide or 0.202" at 1:76.8 scale. At 1:75 scale, it's 0.206", so 1:75 is the scale you need to buy. Sorry about the price change.

 

Jon

[JSGerson]

It’s been almost 2 months since my last update. I’ve been busy working on the model, but that’s not to say I accomplished much.in the first month. Again, with the false starts, restarts, hesitations, and wasting time, I did manage to fabricate and install the “support shelf” to the underside of the bottom trailboard rail. The rails themselves still were not installed at this time so I would have more freedom to work on the scroll board off ship.

[JSGerson]

What’s been keeping me up all night is trying to figure out how to fabricate the carvings on the scroll board. I studied how other builders performed this task and it varied from using styrene (practicum), just painting the design, building up solder on a brass plate and carving the soft solder, etc. The carvings are basically flat and slightly proud of the base surface, so they do have some 3D dimension, which for me ruled out just painting the designs. Making the carvings out styrene as the practicum shows, bothered me because it was not wood, it’s too thick for the scale, and the styrene becomes very delicate when attempting to make fine detail cuts. xKen (post 322), who made his carvings out of brass plate and solder did a beautiful job, but the result I felt was out of scale in height above the base. I felt it was too thick. So, I finally chose 1/64” thick boxwood for most of the carvings. The photo below shows the flatness of the carvings, and any surface carvings are minimal, and shallow. At this scale they would be lost when the carvings are painted.

[JSGerson]

Being my anal self, instead of using the kit supplied pattern for the carvings, I used the US Navy’s plans.

• 27498 - Billet Head sh1
• 30155001 - Bow Scroll Board

I cut the paper patterns of the scroll board and rubber cemented them onto the 1/64” boxwood. So, I wouldn’t lose my way, I shaded in the scroll work with a pencil. Then using very, very fine etching bits (cone, ball, and rod) in my rotary tool, I cut the patterns out of the wood. All the unshaded areas were removed. The images below show the process and are just rough dry fits.

[JSGerson]

The colored shield image was provided for a decal in the practicum, but good as they were, I decided to see if I couldn’t make my own from an actual image (shown below). The colors of this image were weather faded, so I had to use the computer to make the colors pristine. The image was cropped and reduced to scale size to create a decal. The wood shield piece had to be painted totally white before the decal could be applied.

[JSGerson]

That was the easy part. The fiddlehead was a bit more complicated. If you look at the actual ship’s fiddlehead below, it is a highly complex sculpture. I made several attempts to simulate the fiddlehead spiral using wood, styrene, and finally brass. I finally I settled on 1/32” x 1/32” brass rod. It could be bent into a very tight spiral without breaking, it was the right thickness, and I could make spiral open so the black background would show through. The last two images are the first rough shapes. You can see that I left a round opening for the central white star in a black circle.

[JSGerson]

I also felt that the practicum’s styrene fiddlehead star was too big, another reason I didn’t follow the practicum for this detail. The star was made on the computer and printed on white paper. I thought about a decal, but the whole circle is only 3/32” in diameter and it had to be applied to a 3/32” diameter dowel. Because the star is white, the end of the dowel would have to be white, and the decal would provide the black markings to render the star image.  Maneuvering a decal that small was going to be a bitch, so I chose to glue the paper to the dowel. It would then be cut off to a final height of about 5/64”.

 

The images below show the brass spiral painted white (still needs a bit of touchup) and the paper white star and black background loosely in position for demonstration purposes.

[JSGerson]

The scroll boards spirals and stars were glued to the scroll board.

 

The last element of the scroll board is the carved section right where the scroll board meets the hull as you can see is images below of the actual ship. This piece is actually attached to the hull and the scroll board and not just on the scroll board as the kit and practicum would have you install it. Therefore, that’s the way I fabricated and installed it. The short piece is mounted on a piece of 1/32” piece of wood. With one end one the scroll board and the other to be attached to the hull.

[JSGerson]

Based on kmart’s  idea (post 146), of the white architectural pinstriping tape, it is a lot easier to use than trying to work with very fragile narrow wood strip which must bend to the contour of the rails. 1/64” and 1/32” tape was purchased for the pinstriping of the bow. Only the 1/64” tape was used to pinstripe the trailboard. Additional white paint was used on the scroll work at the tip of the fiddlehead. Lucky, you can’t see all the imperfections that you do see in the magnified images.

[JSGerson]

Finally, the trailboards where glued into place. Then the hawsers were painted black and glued into position. Using my normal cordless drill with an 1/8” bit, the two openings in each howser were drill out into the interior of the model so that the future anchor chain and rope can pass through.

 

The final touches were the white star and the braid on the front of the fiddlehead. The braid was made by twisting two strands of brass wire tightly, and then cutting the resulting piece to length. Two holes were drilled into the fiddlehead for each end of the braid to be inserted. Before the insertion, the braid was paint white. I should note that the thickness of my fiddlehead turned out to be thicker than the US Nay plans call for. Had I been aware much earlier on, the stem would have been tapered. But it is what it is.