USS CONSTITUTION by Brian Falke - BlueJacket Shipcrafters - Scale 1:96

[Brian Falke]

I have for the most part completed the interior planking.  Upon inspection I noticed that on the port side, the gun deck gun ports were 1/8" lower than the starboard gun ports.  That would be a foot which is significant difference.  First picture is the starboard side, the other, port.  The port side has 5 planks from the bottom of the spar deck gun ports to the top of the gun deck gun ports.  The starboard has 4.

 

Thankfully this was only limited to the gun ports on the aft section of the port side, 7 of them.  My dilemma was how can I move them up and would it look good.  Taking a deep breath, I cut a 1/8" section out of the top and sanded.

 

Then, I glued a 1/8" piece of oak to the bottom and sanded that smooth with the interior and exterior hull and the bottom of the gun port.

 

There, the gun port is now moved up the side by a foot, or 1/8".  Now to do the other 6...

[JSGerson]

Nice save. In your situation, I've would have handled it in the exact same manner. Out of curiosity, what kind of wood is your hull planking made of? It does present a unique visual pattern. Will it eventually be covered with a second layer of planking and/or paint and copper plate(?).

 

Jon

[Brian Falke]

2 hours ago, JSGerson said:

Nice save. In your situation, I've would have handled it in the exact same manner. Out of curiosity, what kind of wood is your hull planking made of? It does present a unique visual pattern. Will it eventually be covered with a second layer of planking and/or paint and copper plate(?).

 

Jon

Thanks Jon.  Yes, it took me a couple of weeks to come to this solution.  Just had to purchase some very fine tooth "keyhole" saw blades to accomplish.  As for the wood, it is white oak.  I am cutting, planning, and sanding each piece from stock white oak 6"x1" boards.  Yes, a lot of waste in the process, but that is what I do best...turn perfectly good pieces of lumber into saw dust  😀.   I will be painting as per the specs in the kit and will also copper plate the underwater hull.

[Brian Falke]

My next challenge after "raising" the gun ports was to square off all gun ports.  Those on the gun and spar deck.  The openings on the spar deck had a tendency to flare outward at the top of the gun port, and those on the gun deck had rounded corners and, if I tried to square the corner, it would round the side since I would put too much pressure toward forming the corner.  I knew that I needed to fill in the sides of the gun ports with plastic wood and sand them down square.  But, without a metal template, I would just be repeating what I already have.  I did find a metal template that has a 3/8" x 3/8" square and a 5/16" x 5/16" square (through Amazon) which would work perfectly to help square off the ports.

 

Using 80 grit adhesive backed sand paper strip attached to a mini-file, I would sand the side of the gun port until the sandpaper scraped the metal template.  I would then increase the grit to 220 and do the same, sanded until it scraped the metal template.  To form the corners, I used a triangle shaped file so I would not have to use extra pressure to get the file into the corner.  There are some minor touch-ups needed, but the shape is real close to being square.

 

[Brian Falke]

So....scratch all that I posted on on December 17th.  It is not working out as I had envisioned.  After checking the size of the gun port lids (.36" square) and looking at another Constitution build log, I changed course and lined the sill, header and sides with .02" planks.  This finished off the port and gave me acceptable corners.  Here is the finished port for the first one.