USS Constitution by Unegawahya - Model Shipways - scale 1:76

[Unegawahya]

On 9/4/2023 at 12:14 PM, Der Alte Rentner said:

Hello Unegawahya

Bob Hunt's Practicum suggests applying acrylic polyurethane as you go.  This then gets covered with acrylic paint later.  I have jumped ahead quite a bit in the Practicum and have seen that Bob glues stuff on top of the painted surfaces.  I assume you're doing the same.  How well does the glue hold on a painted surface compared to the raw wood?  Do you sand away the finish before gluing new parts to these surfaces?

 

Also,  I notice that your main rails look different from what the Bob Hunt Practicum shows (see below).

Is there a reason you have no planking above the main rail?  

 

again, welcome back.  Happy to have another build log to explore and exploit for tips and techniques.

Best

Der Alte (aka Peter)

Hi Peter,

I actually have not polyurethaned much accept for my decks after staining. I actually like the way the acrylic paint brings out some of the details in the wood when painted.
Also, when I find somewhere that I’ve painted and forgot to add something first I almost always prep the area. This usually means removing the paint or scoring the area. 
by build also looks different from other builds because I’ve done a lot of customization to my kit. This includes adding the full gun deck, cabins, and lowering the main rails. I’m doing my best to make my Constitution look as she did in 2015 when the 3D tour was made.

[Unegawahya]

Im definitely starting to get excited about getting my spar deck done! My fife rails are done and I’m extremely glad that I just made all of my stanchions completely from scratch!

Edited September 6, 2023 by Unegawahya

[Der Alte Rentner]

Excellent work.  And thanks for sharing the information about the 3D tour.  I'm definitely going to hunt this down.

 

P.S. I'm still working on the gunports, and noticed an oversight in Bob Hunt's Practicum. There's no mention of the two just aft of bulkhead K. Since he had us install outer plank sheer elements there, I figured something was up.  My first point of reference was the 3D Constitution exhibit at the museum's website you guided me to.  Though there were no canons there, I did see the openings and netting with holes for the barrels.  I went one step further and perused your build log for confirmation.  

 

Thanks for all the great pictures.  I will draw inspiration from your sterling example.

Edited September 7, 2023 by Der Alte Rentner
added more commentary

[Unegawahya]

On 9/6/2023 at 4:16 PM, Der Alte Rentner said:

Excellent work.  And thanks for sharing the information about the 3D tour.  I'm definitely going to hunt this down.

 

P.S. I'm still working on the gunports, and noticed an oversight in Bob Hunt's Practicum. There's no mention of the two just aft of bulkhead K. Since he had us install outer plank sheer elements there, I figured something was up.  My first point of reference was the 3D Constitution exhibit at the museum's website you guided me to.  Though there were no canons there, I did see the openings and netting with holes for the barrels.  I went one step further and perused your build log for confirmation.  

 

Thanks for all the great pictures.  I will draw inspiration from your sterling example.

The two port and starboard aft most guns, in the Commodores Cabin are probably omitted because with the guns it a tight space and during battle the bulkheads are usually removed. With this tight of a space and including the chairs, table, and side board, a lot of it will be lost to sight when the ship is complete. I added mine from the plans from the US Navy.  I did enjoy adding them, but rigging those gun as a chore! I also opted for more of a simple table and chairs.

[Unegawahya]

Since my last update, I’ve managed to get my spar deck capstan done and installed. All of the laser cut peace’s from the kit made making it a quick and easy job. The only thin that was interesting was removing the laser burn from the wood parts. 
I also did a little experiment in bending wood to make a new ships wheel. In the end after some trial and error I was able to curl my 1/8x1/32” basswood around a 3/4” socket to get close to the diameter for a wood ships wheel. So far I’m happier with the results than I originally thought I would be. 
Hopefully I’ll be able to get some work done more on my wheels Monday when I’m back at home.

[JSGerson]

I'm impressed with your ship's wheel. How long did you have to soak in (I assume water) the basswood to get it flexible enough to wrap it around the 3/4" socket? How did you drill the holes for the spokes without breaking the narrow rings and so precisely? I repeat, very impressive. 

 

I too plan on substituting wooden wheels for the kit supplied cast metal one, but instead of a total scratch build which I wasn't sure I could pull off, I bought a couple of ship wheel kits from Syren Ship Model Co. last year or so which are substantially more complicated that your elegant method. We'll see what happens.

 

Jon

[Der Alte Rentner]

14 hours ago, Unegawahya said:

I was able to curl my 1/8x1/32” basswood around a 3/4” socket to get close to the diameter for a wood ships wheel.

Okay, now I'm feeling like a slacker.  Not only did you create wheel from scratch, you turned the spokes on a lathe, and somehow managed to drill straight holes for them in the wheel.  I don't yet see the nave yet, but I'm sure you have a plan for that as well.  I hunted down Jonathon's 

suggested wheel kit from Syrene Model Ship Company.  That doesn't seem like much less work.  I have a long way to go before I get to that part of the build, but I'll put my thinking cap on and see if I can't come up with an elegant solution to using the cast metal wheel that came with the kit.  (While at the Syrene site, I saw the plans for the cannon carriage kit.  Having seen the fine finish on the cannon itself, I'll be on the lookout for techniques - or sources, for alternatives there too. 

 

Thanks for being in the vanguard gentlemen..

[woodartist]

i read your build log religiously and never start the next section until I have read your log. I do not have a computer in my shop so I print pictures from your log almost daily. Thanks for putting in the time and effort to do the log!!

[Unegawahya]

On 9/10/2023 at 12:58 PM, Der Alte Rentner said:

Okay, now I'm feeling like a slacker.  Not only did you create wheel from scratch, you turned the spokes on a lathe, and somehow managed to drill straight holes for them in the wheel.  I don't yet see the nave yet, but I'm sure you have a plan for that as well.  I hunted down Jonathon's 

suggested wheel kit from Syrene Model Ship Company.  That doesn't seem like much less work.  I have a long way to go before I get to that part of the build, but I'll put my thinking cap on and see if I can't come up with an elegant solution to using the cast metal wheel that came with the kit.  (While at the Syrene site, I saw the plans for the cannon carriage kit.  Having seen the fine finish on the cannon itself, I'll be on the lookout for techniques - or sources, for alternatives there too. 

 

Thanks for being in the vanguard gentlemen..

The way I drilled the holes as close to the center is, I made all my marks first. Then I uses a needle awl to make a pilot hole to start. Then I started with three sizes smaller than I needed the hole. Once the first holes were done I went up in each size drill bit. Each time I drilled the holes I also made shire that the drill wasn’t walking to one side or the other.

to make all the spindles I made a master spindle to model all of the next ones off. Unfortunately I don’t have a actual lathe so I had to use my fingers to turn the spindles using different files to shape.

[Unegawahya]

On 9/10/2023 at 11:09 AM, JSGerson said:

I'm impressed with your ship's wheel. How long did you have to soak in (I assume water) the basswood to get it flexible enough to wrap it around the 3/4" socket? How did you drill the holes for the spokes without breaking the narrow rings and so precisely? I repeat, very impressive. 

 

I too plan on substituting wooden wheels for the kit supplied cast metal one, but instead of a total scratch build which I wasn't sure I could pull off, I bought a couple of ship wheel kits from Syren Ship Model Co. last year or so which are substantially more complicated that your elegant method. We'll see what happens.

 

Jon

Thank you! I really appreciate your kind words! This is technically my third all wood kit but I’ve been building plastic models and stick and tissue planes for about 28 years!

 

I made three attempts to make my wheels. The first two I used too thick wood and I could not get the tight bend.

I finally decided to use use 1/32 mx1/16” basswood. From here I boiled one stick that was about 24” for about 15-20 minutes. Then I curled the wood around a small spray can. Once the wood dried for about 6 hours I boiled it again. After I boiled the second time I taped about an inch of the wood to the socket and the rolled to wood to the socket on the counter. Doing this I still had one split in the wood, but it gave me enough material to have a little extra leftover. After I got it secured to my socket I let it dry completely overnight.

To form the wheel I layered two more layers on the first. Each layer was offset by one third of the wheel.

To make the holes for the spokes I used the cast wheel from the kit to get a good even positioning around the wheel. The I used a needle awl to make a small pilot hole and started with a three sizes smaller drill bit. Each time I drilled the holes I checked for center and took my time. I went up each size to make sure that I didn’t get to close to the sides.

The spindles I had to use my fingers and different files to lethe them. Making the spindles has so far taken the longest of everything. 

[Unegawahya]

On 9/11/2023 at 1:02 PM, woodartist said:

i read your build log religiously and never start the next section until I have read your log. I do not have a computer in my shop so I print pictures from your log almost daily. Thanks for putting in the time and effort to do the log!!

You are very welcome! I love to help as much as I can and thank you!

[JSGerson]

Magnificent work!

 

I was however, confused by your statement: "To form the wheel I layered two more layers on the first. Each layer was offset by one third of the wheel." Offset how? I'm not sure what you mean.

 

As for not having a lathe, I don't think you need one for this delicate work. I use my cordless Dremel variable speed rotary tool for the small delicate stuff,. With just a file on the spinning material, you can produce some amazing things. It's how I made the cleats from a nail I used in the seat of ease area.

 

Jon

[Unegawahya]

1 hour ago, JSGerson said:

Magnificent work!

 

I was however, confused by your statement: "To form the wheel I layered two more layers on the first. Each layer was offset by one third of the wheel." Offset how? I'm not sure what you mean.

 

As for not having a lathe, I don't think you need one for this delicate work. I use my cordless Dremel variable speed rotary tool for the small delicate stuff,. With just a file on the spinning material, you can produce some amazing things. It's how I made the cleats from a nail I used in the seat of ease area.

 

Jon

Sorry about that! I was trying to explain that I put the seams from each layer apart by about a third of the circumference of the wheel. 
I need to fix the handles on this wheel. I made them close to the cast size and they’re about two times too big!

[Unegawahya]

So I had gotten both of my wheels done yesterday just to realize that all of the handles were too long. After trying to shorten them and breaking several I just had to remake all 20 of them. I’m just happy that I was able to speed up my turning process. I now have both joined together!

[LyleK1]

This will be my next build... your log and pictures are on the top of my list for reference.

Very nice!

[Unegawahya]

3 hours ago, LyleK1 said:

This will be my next build... your log and pictures are on the top of my list for reference.

Very nice!

Thank you very much. 
just keep in mind I’ve also modified my kit at lot to make her look like she did in 2015 when the 3D tour was made. I also modified in the complete gun deck and cabins.

[JSGerson]

I'm fascinated by your ship's wheel fabrication as you can tell from my comments, so continuing on this theme, how did you fabricate the section between the wheels? It appears that the dowel between the wheels is built up somehow in the image. I haven't looked at the plans or the practicum at this point as to how they wanted this done so I don't know if you are following them or you did something else.

 

Jon

[Unegawahya]

2 hours ago, JSGerson said:

I'm fascinated by your ship's wheel fabrication as you can tell from my comments, so continuing on this theme, how did you fabricate the section between the wheels? It appears that the dowel between the wheels is built up somehow in the image. I haven't looked at the plans or the practicum at this point as to how they wanted this done so I don't know if you are following them or you did something else.

 

Jon

On my wheel I had a hard time drilling out the two wheel hubs for the wheels, I had just decided to to make them completely separate. In the end this turned out to maybe not be such a good idea because now I had to make everything close to square and I used a toothpick as a center shaft to keep everything together. The toothpick allowed me to glue the ends of the wheel to keep everything together. I was worried about that because I wanted everything to accept stain somewhat evenly. To that end all of my spindles and hubs have a small interference fit. The only part of the wheels that are glued are the rims and the small spots on the very ends that will be covered by the stands. Once I stain the wheel I was thinking of using a test peace of wood and drilling all the small wholes and inserting small brass wires. If this doesn’t work on the test peace I may just try to paint them on.

I referenced all of my sizes and shapes from the Model Shipways plans and unfortunately I still can’t find the wheel in the instructions accept for a picture on page 33 of the actual wheel. I also referenced the Navy plans.

 

Unfortunately, after looking I have been unable to find Bobs Practicum.

[JSGerson]

I checked the practicum for you and Bob used the kit's metal wheels but fabricated the the stand and "barrel" (the spindle in between the two wheels out of styrene because the laser cut wood that came with the kit was too fragile. Not what I wanted to do. I did some digging in my own library which you can see in the photos below and a CAD drawing of the wheels (don't remembers where I found it).

Should you need something, just ask.

Jon

Constitution Double Ships Wheel.pdf

[Unegawahya]

1 hour ago, JSGerson said:

I checked the practicum for you and Bob used the kit's metal wheels but fabricated the the stand and "barrel" (the spindle in between the two wheels out of styrene because the laser cut wood that came with the kit was too fragile. Not what I wanted to do. I did some digging in my own library which you can see in the photos below and a CAD drawing of the wheels (don't remembers where I found it).

Should you need something, just ask.

Jon

Constitution Double Ships Wheel.pdf 83.52 kB · 2 downloads

From your pictures and looking back at the blueprints, I’m going to try to rebuild the center of my wheel.

[JSGerson]

I suppose that is good and bad. It was not my intent to instigate a "do over," but if it does provide you the satisfaction of a job well done in the end, then I'm happy. I know how it feels because I've been down this road before.

 

Jon

[Unegawahya]

10 minutes ago, JSGerson said:

I suppose that is good and bad. It was not my intent to instigate a "do over," but if it does provide you the satisfaction of a job well done in the end, then I'm happy. I know how it feels because I've been down this road before.

 

Jon

Thank you! 
I wasn’t 100% happy with the way it looked. I think I’ll like it more if I fix the center drum. I’m just glad the spokes are all interference fit and they’re not glued!

[Unegawahya]

To start thins off, after sleeping on it I was not a fan of the way the barrel of my wheel looked for my USS Constitution. So today I backtracked and rebuilt the barrel today.
I started with a 1/8” dowel and used 1/16” sticks to cover the dowel. (This took me two try’s) 
Luckily my new barrel turned out to be exactly 20mm in circumference which made it easy to mark the 10 holes. I used modeling tape with the marking to line up and poked small pilot holes to use my hand drill on.
I got the stands finished tonight and now I just need to stain everything.

[Der Alte Rentner]

Outstanding!  Now, can you be hired to make another?  I can pick it up on my way to Las Vegas in early October.. 

[Unegawahya]

14 minutes ago, Der Alte Rentner said:

Outstanding!  Now, can you be hired to make another?  I can pick it up on my way to Las Vegas in early October.. 

Than you!

I would have to think in that. But, it’s a maybe.

it would take about half of the time it took me to make mine.

[Der Alte Rentner]

On 9/15/2023 at 3:31 PM, Unegawahya said:

Than you!

I would have to think in that. But, it’s a maybe.

it would take about half of the time it took me to make mine.

 You don't have to think too hard, I was only kidding. However…

[JSGerson]

Here is what I did. I did not follow the Practicum. 

 

Jon

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

  'Nice ship's wheels.  'Saw recently that a ten spoked wheel is needed for OcCre's Endurance (another fine build).

[Der Alte Rentner]

4 hours ago, JSGerson said:

Here is what I did. I did not follow the Practicum. 

 

Jon

 

Holy cow!  Talk about service!!

 

I followed the link to that part of your build.  Ironically, the question was seeking an answer for may have been answered in the last photo of your sequence, where you mounted the inboard end of it directly onto the waterway- not onto the deck. The photos of the catheads you fabricated look to have the same configuration as the laser-cut pieces that came with the kit, so I assume you left those alone and carved into the waterway to fit the cathead.  Yes?

 

Thank you kind sir.  I guess my post will be anticlimactic now.  I was tweaking the photos and will indeed post, but since nothing is glued in place yet, I may revisit the topic before I go much further.  I'll have to buy the lion's heads.  Thanks for that lead also!

 

Best Der Alte Rentner (aka Peter)

[Unegawahya]

I was able to get the bases for my two Binnacles done. I just need to work on the tops!