jfinan Posted May 31, 2018 #1 Posted May 31, 2018 I'm at the very first stage of the build of Blue Jacket's Constitution build. Unlike Model Shipway's plank on bulkhead construction seen here in other builds, I opted for this semi-solid hull build. I say "semi" as although the focus is not on hull construction but on detail in the gun and spar decks. Despite having some experience with Blue Jacket ( i built the Portland several years ago) I have already had a few questions swiftly answered by the good folks at Blue Jacket. This is far from a "cut it out and glue it together" build. I'm looking forward to the challenge. Stay tuned. Ryland Craze, Fernando E, DanO and 6 others 9 Quote
coxswain Posted May 31, 2018 #2 Posted May 31, 2018 Well I'm here - in spirit if not in body - meaning I'll be watching with great interest even though I won't be any help, not being possessed of any useful knowledge myself.......Just curious, would this be the older or newer version of the kit? Steve M etubino, Fright and jfinan 3 Quote
Fright Posted May 31, 2018 #3 Posted May 31, 2018 Aye... have fun with this new adventure. I'll be followin' your build with this one. Cheers! jfinan, coxswain and mort stoll 3 Quote Robert O
David Lester Posted May 31, 2018 #4 Posted May 31, 2018 Hi Jim, I'm really pleased you're doing a build log for this model and I'll be following along with great interest. David jfinan, coxswain, mort stoll and 1 other 4 Quote Current Build - St. Roch, Billing Boats; HMS Agamemnon, Caldercraft (on hold) Previous Builds - Armed Virginia Sloop, Model Shipways; Constitution, Model Shipways; Rattlesnake, Mamoli; Virginia Privateer, Marine Model Co, restoration; Prince de Neufchatel, Model Shipways; Charles W. Morgan, Model Shipways; Pride of Baltimore II, Model Shipways, Bluenose, Model Shipways (x2); Niagara, Model Shipways; Mayfower, Model Shipways; Shamrock V, Amati; HMS Pegasus, Victory/Amati
jfinan Posted June 1, 2018 Author #5 Posted June 1, 2018 Day 2. Is this where I continue on with my build progress? I'm a newbie to MSW. Anyhow, I've created a profile template from the full-scale plans. You can see from the pic out of the box the hull is a little off at the stern. Better too big than too small. Once shaped correctly the hull will be marked for 37 station templates (see second pic) whose soul purpose is to check those compound curves. I see some fine sanding in my future. I'm beginning to doubt I'm putting this submission in the right place. Help! russ, Ryland Craze, CaptainSteve and 5 others 8 Quote
Fright Posted June 1, 2018 #6 Posted June 1, 2018 Jfinan - I think you've got the hang of it and this is the spot for your build photos. Keep up with the good work and I'm watching your build. I'm almost 2 years out now on my 1:96 Connie by Revell but also working on a Bluenose that's almost complete. Take your time and don't be afraid to ask questions or for advice. Someone in here will come to your rescue. Other modelers have helped me along my path. Smooth sailing and look forward to many more photos. Cheers! coxswain, Bill Morrison and jfinan 3 Quote Robert O
jfinan Posted June 6, 2018 Author #7 Posted June 6, 2018 Day 3. A block of wood is screwed to the hull to allow mounting in the vice. A little carving and a whole lot of sanding. My "go-to" tools for this work are the Black and Decker RTX with a small Dremel carving bit, and a Dremel Multi-Max for sanding. After some minor filling I'll hand sand with fine and super-fine paper. Right hand to sand; left hand to check. coxswain, Richard Griffith, Fright and 6 others 9 Quote
Tom E Posted June 6, 2018 #8 Posted June 6, 2018 So happy to see a Bluejacket Connie! I've always been impressed with their kits. It's on my "wish list". Looks great! Tom E Fright and jfinan 2 Quote
MrBlueJacket Posted June 7, 2018 #9 Posted June 7, 2018 Looking good, Jim! jfinan, pythagoras, coxswain and 1 other 4 Quote
jfinan Posted June 7, 2018 Author #10 Posted June 7, 2018 With any ship, it's always a momentous occasion when the keel is laid. No turning back now! As you can see from this pic, the other absolutely essential tool with this type of kit construction is a dependable scroll saw. Now....more sanding..... mort stoll, David Lester, CaptainSteve and 11 others 14 Quote
Fright Posted June 7, 2018 #11 Posted June 7, 2018 Really nice work on the hull and keel. She is off to a wonderful start! jfinan and mort stoll 2 Quote Robert O
usedtosail Posted June 7, 2018 #12 Posted June 7, 2018 Jim, the hull looks great. I look forward to following your progress, especially to see the differences between the Blue Jacket and MS models. jfinan and Fright 2 Quote - Tom - Current Build: Stay Tuned Completed: Vanguard Speedy, Vanguard Duchess of Kingston, Stove Project, Ships Wheel Project, NRG Capstan Project, Billings Half Moon, Dumas Chris Craft 1938 27' Triple Cockpit Barrel Back, Panart Santa Lucia , Model Shipways Constitution , MS Bounty Launch , HMS Beagle Member: Nautical Research Guild
jfinan Posted June 10, 2018 Author #13 Posted June 10, 2018 (edited) Drawing in the water line: First a small tick mark is placed vertically 22 scale feet from the keel at the stern and 20 scale feet at the bow. A rig is built to hold the marker then the hull cradle is "adjusted" so that when the marker rig is firmly seated the marks line up at both ends. The hull cradle is a "borrow" from a Bluenose I I build years ago. The line is drawn sliding the marker rig around the hull on a very smooth surface. Ta-da! I hope the rest of it is this easy! Probably not! Edited June 10, 2018 by jfinan coxswain, Richard Griffith, J11 and 7 others 10 Quote
jfinan Posted June 14, 2018 Author #14 Posted June 14, 2018 With the hull cleaned up I thought it was time to build a work cradle: The wood at the transom is cut out. Later a photo etched plate fits here: I've started to thin out the interior of the bulwarks. Fairly easy task near the cap rail but I'm a bit stymied as how to thin out the interior down at the gun deck. The bottom is three eighths of an inch further in than the top. That's a lot of carving out. Anybody got a simple solution or suggested tool for this task? coxswain, Fernando E, etubino and 7 others 10 Quote
Pete Jaquith Posted June 14, 2018 #15 Posted June 14, 2018 (edited) Jfinan, I have attached pictures of this stage in my Newsboy build here in MSW. I used sharp gouges to carve vertically and remove excessive bulwark material. A dial caliper was used to monitor thickness. Pete Edited June 14, 2018 by Pete Jaquith Geoff Matson, Ryland Craze, CPS_skybolt and 6 others 9 Quote Pete Jaquith Shipbuilder
jfinan Posted June 14, 2018 Author #16 Posted June 14, 2018 Thanks, Pete, for your input and the pics. I need a set of decent carving tools, especially that dial caliper!! I ended up using a Dremel with a small saw blade marked with masking tape at 3/8" and ran it horizontally along the gun deck. That set my depth. Now I'm using the dremel vertically to give me a rough cut. I see a lot of sanding in my future. I wish I had serious carving skills like you! Bill Morrison 1 Quote
MrBlueJacket Posted June 15, 2018 #17 Posted June 15, 2018 Some people prefer to remove the bulwarks altogether and inset a piece of ply. That's how the Mary Taylor is built. Bill Morrison, Tom E, jfinan and 2 others 5 Quote
Pete Jaquith Posted June 15, 2018 #18 Posted June 15, 2018 Jfinan, Once you have removed the bulk of the bulwark material, flexible sanding sticks (from the beauty salon) are very helpful in finishing the inner surface. Pete jfinan, Scallywag, Tom E and 2 others 5 Quote Pete Jaquith Shipbuilder
jfinan Posted June 18, 2018 Author #19 Posted June 18, 2018 Several days later and the bulwarks are now at the correct dimensions. I acquired calipers to monitor the work. The pencil marks are in for the spar deck gun ports. Fright, CaptainSteve, Kenneth Powell and 7 others 10 Quote
jfinan Posted June 24, 2018 Author #20 Posted June 24, 2018 The gun ports are cut out and partially lined. While doing this work I couldn't help but wonder why it's so easy to cut a round hole and so difficult to cut a square hole. No mortise cutters in my neck of the woods. CPS_skybolt, J11, Blue Pilot and 16 others 19 Quote
Fright Posted June 25, 2018 #21 Posted June 25, 2018 Really a nice job on cutting out the ports! Your kit is shaping up nicely!!! CPS_skybolt and jfinan 2 Quote Robert O
jfinan Posted July 22, 2018 Author #22 Posted July 22, 2018 After a short hiatus I'm back to work on the Constitution. As it's a solid hull one can go ahead and simply paint but I have opted to add actual planking down to the water line and copper plates thereafter. I've learned the hard way on a previous kit not to attempt to stain after gluing as stain will not penetrate any glue errors. As seen in the pic I have stained the planks with black ink prior to installation. If I was to paint them I would lose the wood detail so stain was the answer. Bill Morrison, J11, mort stoll and 6 others 9 Quote
CPS_skybolt Posted July 24, 2018 #23 Posted July 24, 2018 (edited) I like your work jfinan. Your work on the bulwarks was excellent. I didn't do near as well with them on my BlueJacket model. With all the mistakes I made it still turned into a beautiful model. I never was happy with the bow vertical supports. I could never figure them out so I winged it. I used decals I made for the fine striping. I made decals for the cannon barrels ends since there are no holes. I still do not know if I got the stern quarter galleries stools right. My BlueJacket reference pictures were terrible. Edited July 24, 2018 by CPS_skybolt Quote
jfinan Posted July 24, 2018 Author #24 Posted July 24, 2018 11 hours ago, CPS_skybolt said: I like your work jfinan. Your work on the bulwarks was excellent. I didn't do near as well with them on my BlueJacket model. With all the mistakes I made it still turned into a beautiful model. I never was happy with the bow vertical supports. I could never figure them out so I winged it. I used decals I made for the fine striping. I made decals for the cannon barrels ends since there are no holes. I still do not know if I got the stern quarter galleries stools right. My BlueJacket reference pictures were terrible. Thanks CPS_skybolt for your note. I'll have to watch out for those vertical supports. I agree with you completely regarding those galleries. Even with lots of Google images as reference it's very difficult to ascertain the final shape of them given the five pieces involved. Bending the parts so the edges match up AND fit snugly to the hull is a bit of a monster. I love a challenge but I kinda wish BlueJacket manufactured those as one piece and in the final shape. I'm sure Nic and company have good reason for doing it as is. As a partial solution I've made a cardstock template of the transom and temporarily glued it in place just to give me some sort of reference. Did you opt for the hull planking? I love the "authentic"look. See below: Pete Jaquith, CPS_skybolt, GrandpaPhil and 9 others 12 Quote
Pete Jaquith Posted July 25, 2018 #25 Posted July 25, 2018 jfinan, Very nice build. I like your approach to planking a solid hull (POS). This is my approach as illustrated in my Topsail Schooner "Eagle" and Brigantine "Newsboy" builds. Tom E and Bill Morrison 2 Quote Pete Jaquith Shipbuilder
CPS_skybolt Posted July 25, 2018 #26 Posted July 25, 2018 (edited) Ref. " Did you opt for the hull planking? I love the "authentic"look. See below: " Yes, I put the planking on. However, I sanded them smooth and lost the definition of the individual planks. Another mistake I made was to put the copper on the hull with CA glue. This caused some discoloring so I had to paint the copper to cover the discolor. Not a good effect. Edited July 25, 2018 by CPS_skybolt Bill Morrison and Blue Pilot 2 Quote
CPS_skybolt Posted July 25, 2018 #27 Posted July 25, 2018 Jfinan, Just found the best reference for the stern quarter galleries stools . coxswain, J11, Bill Morrison and 1 other 4 Quote
jfinan Posted July 26, 2018 Author #28 Posted July 26, 2018 21 hours ago, CPS_skybolt said: Ref. " Did you opt for the hull planking? I love the "authentic"look. See below: " Yes, I put the planking on. However, I sanded them smooth and lost the definition of the individual planks. Another mistake I made was to put the copper on the hull with CA glue. This caused some discoloring so I had to paint the copper to cover the discolor. Not a good effect. One nice lookin' boat! Good note about sanding. I have a small amount of sanding to do and will be careful to not go so far as to lose definition. I'm glad I got your warning about using CA glue on the copper. Blue Jacket recommends using Weldbond Universal. I think the surface will have to be made non-porous first. A sealer of some kind? Bill Morrison and Blue Pilot 2 Quote
jfinan Posted July 26, 2018 Author #29 Posted July 26, 2018 20 hours ago, CPS_skybolt said: Jfinan, Just found the best reference for the stern quarter galleries stools . Thanks for this. I've seen this shot from the last large restoration. I've CA assembled the five parts that make up one of the quarter galleys but it will take some bending and prodding to have it fit flush to the hull and transom. A little added lumber might be required...similar to the picture! Bill Morrison 1 Quote
jfinan Posted July 27, 2018 Author #30 Posted July 27, 2018 The decision to plank the hull necessitated me jumping ahead to deal with the two quarter galleries made up of five castings each. I shaped them, prepped the glue surfaces, taped the backs then added CA glue to the seams. Tricky bit of business. I thought about reaming out the windows.....but then I shook my head and sobered up. Bill Morrison, mort stoll, J11 and 2 others 5 Quote
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