USS Constitution by TomCulb - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:76.8 - cross-section

[Tomculb]

As far as I know this is the first log on this site for Model Shipways’ cross section of the USS Constitution.  I bought the kit last summer, when I think it was pretty newly released, and when I was about midway through my Spray build. I have never done a cross section, and I was attracted to the novelty (for me), the detail, and the fact that I wouldn’t be spending many months simply building a hull. So far I am not in the least disappointed.

 

Upon opening the relatively small densely packed box I soon realized this was not going to be a simple, quick build.

 

There are five sheets of plans (although only two are really plans; the smaller three show the location of  the hundreds of laser cut parts as laid out on their sheets of wood as well as some photo-etched brass fittings).  The two plan sheets are three feet by almost four feet (that’s a two foot ruler in the photo of them laid out on my floor). I found a couple poster hangers  on Amazon and hung them on the wall to better view them.  The fittings are extensive, as is the number of laser cut wood parts.  The only thing that seems underwhelming in volume is the number of wood strips and dowels, but that kind of makes sense for a cross section.  

 

The really amazing thing for me are the instructions.  Almost 100 pages, with an average of 3 or more color photos per page!  As with most Model Shipways kits, the instructions can be downloaded as a pdf from their website, which makes choosing an appropriate build a lot easier.  With instructions this voluminous, it is helpful to have them on a computer and able to be searched, if there is a specific issue you want to look ahead about (as I mention below).  

 

First step is to cut out the three frames, or what I might have called ribs, which are the skeleton of this part of the hull. The laser cut pieces are securely attached with a minimum of tabs, and the laser cutting is sharp, precise and complete -- well done.  All three parts are attached to a building stand, that will be cut off later in the build. Two lengthwise pieces connect those stand parts, and the slots all need to be sanded so they fit.  I made those connections quite tight, as they will not be disassembled for quite some time. Eight additional crosswise laser cut pieces (identified as spacers) are provided to connect the frames and to keep them a precise distance apart at the level of each deck. These will be moved around a bit from time to time during the build, and I sanded their slots so they are a little looser.  The instructions assign six of them to what seems like a random distribution among the orlop, gun and spar decks (there is also a berthing deck, which for some reason gets none of these spacers). Interestingly, I haven’t found anywhere in the instructions or the plans where the deck names are expressly identified, but it is pretty easy to figure out by looking ahead at the pictures in the instructions (orlop, berthing, gun and spar, from bilge to sunshine).

 

Assembling and gluing the keel (which needs a rabbet cut in it), the keelson pieces, and the keelson cap is all quite straightforward. The instructions suggest, and the pictures show, writing “B” on the bow end of the keel to assure that it is properly installed. That struck me as a bit odd, until I realized that the three frames vary fairly significantly in shape and that things are not symmetrical for and aft.  No big deal as to the keel, but a good habit to get into when dealing with other pieces later in the build.  The slot in the frames for the keel is a loose fit, and I used a couple of rubber bands to press the keel up against the frame when gluing it in place (careful to glue it to the frame and not to the building stand).

 

A mast step is then made out of a 1½” length piece of the remaining ¼” x ½” strip.  To avoid chewing up the soft basswood with a large bit, I drilled the ¼” hole for the mast by starting with a ⅛” bit and working my way up to ¼” with the three or four intermediate bits I own. I then chamfered the hole with a Dremel tool.  Note that I did not cut the mast step off of the ¼” x ½” strip until I had finished all of this -- it’s nice to have something to hang on to when working on a piece like this.

 

Limbers (I had to look up the nautical definition) on either side of the keelson cap are shaped from ¼” square strips.  Here the change in shape of the hull fore and aft makes shaping them a little like shaping a propeller.  The instructions complicate that quite a bit by having the limbers slope up to the base of the mast foot where the two intersect, but the plans show the mast foot simply continuing straight down on each side to intersect with the limbers.  In one of the photos below I tried to draw in red what the instructions direct. I chose to follow the plans instead, and added a 1/16” strip to the bottom of each side of the mast step to fill the gap between it and the limber below.

[thibaultron]

I'll be following your build! I have this kit on order, thought I may not build the full mast, due to the height.

[Tomculb]

Ron, I had a similar thought about not building the full mast, or maybe taking a break to do something different part way through the mast build.  That looks like it will be quite a project.

[Tomculb]

The most challenging step to date was installing what the instructions refer to as the hold walls (hold floor might be a better description, but they do run from the keel to the ceiling above). The are laser cut pieces, with laser etched details (individual planks and trenails). As the instructions warn, they are cut a little large and must be trimmed to fit.  The challenge comes in part from the compound bending that must occur to fit -- they obviously curve upward running from the keel to the intersection with the deck above, but they also curve upward running from bow to stern. The Catch 22 is that it must be fit in place to know how much to trim and where, and you’ll never be able to fit it in place until you do the trimming. I boldly cut the first plank off along the keel, and found that was maybe a milometer too much at the bow and not quite enough at the stern (a small notch where it meets the deck above took care of the latter problem).  

 

The instructions suggest dampening the wood some to make it take the necessary shape a little more easily.  There are many theories expressed on these boards about wood bending, but what I have usually found to be the most effective is the school of thought which says it is heat which makes wood more pliable, and that water merely helps spread the heat into the interior of the wood.  I have an old modeling iron purchased years ago to apply Monocoat to RC gliders, and I was able to slide it in between the frames, but just barely.  Whether it helped is harder to say. In any event a lot of clamping got it all in place and glued down.

 

You'll see where I did some stain testing on the underside of the deck.

 

It all came together pretty well for the portside piece (right side of the picture since you’re looking aft). I was not happy with the way I did the starboard side, since I did not get the deck all the way down against the bottom of the frame and the side of the limber at the stern, something I didn’t notice until the glue had set. Fortunately that gaffe doesn’t show as badly as I feared it would, and by the time I cover it with ballast gravel and barrels, and put the orlop deck in place, not much of the work I’ve done will be visible at all.

 

As mentioned before there is quite a bit of laser etched detail in these pieces, and the instructions suggest using two coats of well-diluted paint so as not to obscure that detail.  I did as instructed, and did not apply a primer coat. On application much of the detail disappeared, but within a few moments the wood absorbed the paint and the detail reappeared.

 

Three center-lined posts and diagonal planks provided additional detail, which will probably be largely hidden by the barrels and the deck above.

 

 

Next installment . . . . ballast and barrels.

 

[GuntherMT]

Looks like you got those pieces in there quite nicely.  For applying heat to a large or difficult to get to part in the future, give Chuck's method a try and use a cheap blow-dryer (or heat gun) and just blow hot air over the entire piece!

[BobG]

I'm really glad to you are building this cross-section, Tom. I've been looking at it for a while and will be following along closely.

[Tomculb]

Like most others I imagine, I have never had to install gravel on a build before, so adding the ship’s ballast was a new experience.  Following the instructions I used painters tape to block off both ends of the hold.  I went one step further and put wax paper on the tape to make it easier to pull away from the gravel when finished . . . in retrospect probably not necessary.  The instructions say to take a “small amount” of the gravel, soak it in diluted white school glue, then pour it into the hold.  I used about 1/3rd glue and 2/3rds water, soaked about a quarter of the gravel in it for a moment or two, and used a plastic spoon to dish up portions of the gravel, being careful to drain off the excess glue.  I then poured the gravel where needed around the keelson and mast step, using a plastic spatula to rearrange and level (somewhat) the gravel.  I set everything aside to work on something else, then about five minutes later noticed that there was a pool of diluted glue gathering below each end of the building stand, on my self-healing mat!  Fortunately I mopped it up before it made a permanent mess of the mat, and I moved everything to a large piece of wax paper.  The assembly continued to ooze sloppy glue for another 30 minutes or so but eventually stopped. I let things dry overnight, then pulled off the tape and everything held in place.  Just to add a bit of security, I painted a coat of clear matte polyurethane over all the gravel.  An hour later I turned the whole thing upside down, and all but three or four tiny rocks stayed put!

 

I put “small amount” in quotes above since reading the instructions, I realized that they said nothing about following up with more small amounts. I decided the initial amount was all I needed, but in retrospect I might have tapered the gravel pile toward the stern (as instructed) a bit less. Not a big deal though since so little of the hold is visible when the barrels and orlop deck are in place.

 

I set up a barrel factory some time ago -- the work being somewhat tedious, I wanted to break it into smaller segments.  I drilled pieces of wire into one end of each barrel so I had something to hold on to, gave them a coat of matte polyurethane (to avoid ink bleeding), and blackened the iron rings with a felt pen.

 

Installing them was a little more difficult than I expected, in part because the gravel bed isn’t as level as it should be, and in part because I put a dab of gap-filling CA glue on the barrel, and found as I tried to put in place I either dropped it, or it immediately rolled out of place, spreading glue everywhere.  When I put the dab of glue in the rocks instead, and held the barrel in place for several seconds, things went a lot better. The frames and spacers create a bit of a challenge sometimes -- I often find myself thinking it's like trying to work on something through the bars of a bird cage. 😊

 

Jumping ahead a bit I have installed the deck and sidewalls for the orlop deck, and worked a bit on mast alignment, but I don't have time at the moment to add any narration.  I have added the photos below (bow and stern views) to show how little of the hold detail is really visible once the orlop deck is installed. As I have thought about it, I seriously doubt the barrels on the real ship are neatly arranged in rows every other rib.  More realistically, but unnecessary in the model, the entire hold should probably be full of barrels.

 

Orlop deck and sidewalls, and mast alignment, will be in my next installment, which won’t be for several weeks, as other interests and activities will pull me away from the shipyard for a while.

 

[Tomculb]

I’m back in the shipyard and can report on my work on the orlop deck level.  The instructions suggest using Model Shipways English Oak stain. I have an 8 ounce can of Minwax Golden Oak stain (which will probably last me a lifetime), which I used and liked on my Spray build, and I used that instead.  I first applied a coat of stain conditioner, which is supposed to assure a uniform color when the stain is applied, but it didn’t seem to have much effect. The end result is not too bad though (better than the picture below once thoroughly dry), especially since the lower decks will only be partially visible.  As with the hold, I used a diluted white paint on the walls, thin enough to let the etched detail show through.  I have chosen to use actual planks for the deck on other builds, but the detail on this is good enough that it has overcome my bias against pre-printed sheets for decking. 

 

The lower mast is a 7/16” diameter by 16” long dowel. The kit also supplies another dowel about half that length to use as a placeholder while installing the decks and the pieces which surround the dowel on each deck.  The instructions have you taper the lower 4” of the placeholder dowel to 3/8”, then carve and sand a 45 degree chamfer leading to a ¼” locating pin to fit in the already installed mast step.  That seemed like a lot of work for a placeholder, and being lazy, I simply found a screw with a head diameter slightly less than ¼”, and screwed it into the bottom of the untapered dowel.  I figure that if a dowel without taper fits through the holes in all the decks, then surely a tapered non-placeholder dowel will fit with just enough wiggle room to assure that it is exactly vertical cross wise and has the desired rake aft.

 

Just to be sure I could align the mast vertically, I spent some time with a small level and a small T-square lining everything up when I first dry fit, then glued, the orlop deck in place.  In the process I discovered that part of the middle rib frame is cut slightly out of shape. As laser cut, each one has a brace across the top that will be later removed.  Unlike the other two, the brace that is part of the middle rib frame is not exactly horizontal.  That could have led to an unhappy result if I had used that brace as my reference to place the mast vertically.

 

[Tomculb]

At each deck level the place where the deck meets the sidewall is covered by a waterway (in the instructions referred to as a “stringer” at the orlop deck but everywhere else, including all decks in the plans, referred to as a “waterway”). Sanding the sidewalls to fit between the deck and the ribs above and then gluing them in place to the inside of the ribs, I wasn’t very careful about how the sidewall met (or didn’t meet) the deck, figuring gaps would be covered by the waterway.  The waterways are supplied as curved laser-cut pieces (which need to be bevelled lengthwise to fit), and when I cut the two out for this deck, I discovered that due to my lack of care, the curve for the waterway was much greater than the curve where the deck and sidewall met.  The discrepancy was great enough that the laser cut pieces simply wouldn’t work.

 

 

So I cut a 1/16th” by 3/16th” strip and beveled it lengthwise with a Dremel to fit between the deck and the sidewall.  Only problem was that I occasionally let the Dremel run off the end I wasn’t holding at the time, accidentally shaving off the corners resulting in a pointed end, which wouldn’t do at all. So I cut two new strips, about half an inch longer than needed, beveled them (again making a mess of the ends), painted them dark green, glued them in place, and cut off the excess.

 

 

Also laser-cut are three “mast surrounds”, which not surprisingly surround the mast on the orlop, berthing and gun decks.  As instructed, I shaped them and painted them the same dark green as the waterways.  I slipped one of them onto the placeholder mast and slid it down to deck level, but I decided not to glue it in place just yet.

 

I like to occasionally read a few pages ahead in the instructions to see what is coming up, and doing that I noticed a picture with the next deck glued in place and with a post midships on the orlop deck.  The instructions don’t say anything about putting any posts at that deck level (unlike the posts in the hold) and the pictures don’t show a post there until the berthing deck is in place a few pages later.  But the plans show 3 posts down the center line of the orlop deck. 

 

Reading ahead, the instructions get interesting.  They say to shape 13 posts (or “stanchions” as they are referred to) from a 1/8th” dowel, then install 8 of them between the berthing deck and the beams above, and to set aside “the remaining four” to be installed on the gun deck.  I pulled out my trusty HP 12C calculator and confirmed my suspicion that that left one unaccounted for.  But even more puzzling reading ahead in the instructions about the gun deck (and doing a search in the digital version of the instructions), there is nothing said about installing four (or five) posts (or stanchions) on any other deck at all.  The plans are more helpful, showing 3 posts on the gun deck, in addition to the 3 on the orlop deck. Adding those to the 8 shown in a picture of the berthing deck, it looks like I’ll need 14 of these things.

 

I don’t own a lathe, but I fashioned a reasonable facsimile of one with my drill and a block of wood which conveniently has a lot of holes in it. I then shaped three of them for this deck, stained them with the same stains I used for the posts in the hold below, and set them aside to be glued in place later. That would be 3 down and 11 to go.

 

[Matt D]

That’s looking very good, Tom.  How well does the glue hold the gravel and barrels in place?  

[Tomculb]

Thanks Matt.  The glue held the gravel quite well.  I turned everything upside down after the glue had dried, and only 2 or 3 individual stones fell out.  Just to be sure, and probably unnecessary, I added a coat of matte polyurethane.  As for the barrels, just last week two of them came loose and I pulled them out.  Something of a blessing in disguise because it enabled me to see where the placeholder mast met the mast base, and I discovered I was not getting the screw I put in the end of the mast into the hole.  I think I will leave those barrels out until I install the mast permanently, just so I can view what's going on in there.

[Tomculb]

On to the berthing deck (not “birthing” as I incorrectly typed at first). 

 

The first step for this deck and the other two above it is to paint, then install laser-cut deck framing pieces between and flush with the beams and sides of the rib pieces.  The instructions suggest using an iron or hair dryer to make the framing pieces conform to the gentle arc of the beams, warning not to use water. But the needed curve is gentle enough that the heat struck me as totally unnecessary.  But unlike framing a hull, there is nothing to bend these framing pieces around.  Perhaps the heat is intended to pre-bend the framing pieces before fitting them between the deck beams, but for whatever reason I didn’t try that. Bending them and gluing them in place proved to be a bit of a challenge . . . what seemed to work best was to first glue one in place at the middle with a drop of two of glue, then once that glue was dry, bend them and glue them at the outer edges.  I did not worry about securing them with a lot of glue since the deck pieces will eventually be glued to the tops of these framing pieces and the tops of the ribs.

 

As I did with the orlop deck, I used my Dremell to enlarge the mast hole a bit, so I’ll have some wiggle room for making a final adjustment to the mast alignment when the mast is ready to be installed, many months from now.

 

Once I had the framing pieces glued in place, I felt I could safely install two of the posts on the orlop deck; the third (at the aft end) would have to await installation of the two ladders back there. The instruction’s pictures of these posts on the orlop deck show the base of each pole painted green, so I did that on mine.  The posts on the berthing deck and the gun deck are shown stained but unpainted, so I guess I will do that too.  I intentionally cut these posts about 1 mm too long so I could sand them down to a tight fit.  The one in the middle was a bit tricky to get in place given the tight space to work with. You’ll definitely want to do this before gluing the berthing deck in place, so you can work through the numerous holes in the berthing deck framing.  With some long tweezers I eventually got it situated the way I wanted, then applied a very small drop of instant drying CA glue at each end of the post to provide some assurance that it will stay put.

 

On the orlop deck, the instructions have you install the deck and the sidewalls, then shape, paint and glue the waterways in place, covering where the deck and sidewalls meet.  On the other decks, they have you glue the waterways in place first, then install the deck and walls, so that the edges of each butt up against the shaped edges of the waterways.  This approach is consistent with what the plans show for all the decks, including the orlop.  Shaping the starboard waterway went quite easily. The port one was more of a challenge, as the curve of the laser-cut waterway was significantly greater than the curve of the three ribs to which it is to be glued.  I ended up cutting a notch in that waterway for the middle rib, which I neglected to get a picture of. Once shaped and painted, I glued them in place, with the berthing deck loosely in place for fitting purposes, then removed for the next steps.

 

I next assembled the hatch framing for the stairway, with two laser cut pieces dubbed lower and upper hatch frames.  What is odd is that the interior of the upper hatch frame is filled with a grate, attached to the frame with one small tab.  Most of the pictures in the instructions show the grate removed, but one shows it with the grate in place, blocking access to the ladder coming up from the orlop deck. Perhaps that denial of access was secured by a lock because the grog was stored below?  In any case, I removed (and saved) the grates.

 

Short steps need to be built with laser cut pieces on either end of the hatch.  The tiny riser pieces were very difficult to accurately place . . . take a deep breath and they blew off the table, sneeze and then blew across the room.  Also, the risers are laser etched to show the location of each step.  Unfortunately the laser etching goes three quarters of the way through the 1/32” piece, leaving only a few fibers of wood holding it together.  Two of the four risers broke, but I was able to glue them back together with a drop of instant drying CA.

 

The instructions suggest staining the upper hatch frame and the steps (and looking  ahead a lot of other things) with “Natural” stain, which leaves them too light IMHO.  I mixed one part Golden Oak with four parts Natural, and got a color I liked.  In the photos, though, it’s hard to distinguish the colors of these fixtures from the color of the deck, but not so in real life.

 

The pump assembly went together easily.  The rods needed to be cut back a bit to fit below where the gun deck will be above.

 

The instructions tell you to glue the hatch and pump assemblies to the deck, then glue the deck in place. I did that with the hatch but not the pump, because I wasn’t at all sure I could get the deck in place with the pump rods sticking up -- those rods stick up slightly higher than the bottoms of the beams and deck framing above.  After the deck was glued and drying, I used long tweezers to place the pump assembly, getting it lined up properly with two of the four pipes dry fitted in place.  Then I lifted the pump assembly, put a small dab of glue beneath it, and lowered it back onto the deck.

Edit added 7/10 . . . I strongly suggest gluing this pump assembly and the two green flanges to the deck later, after gluing the bilge pump pipes in place. See my early July posts below. The bent pipes can be worked through holes in the relatively thin deck pretty easily, but add the thickness of the pump assembly and flanges, and it becomes much more difficult.  Both are easy to add later, if done before gluing the gun deck framing in place. 

 

Next . . . real ladders, 8 more posts, and sidewalls.

 

Edited July 10, 2021 by Tomculb
Information learned later that would have been nice to know at this stage in the build

[Tomculb]

After having some difficulty putting together the steps on either side of the hatch frame, I approached building a couple of ladders with some trepidation.  To my pleasant surprise, it went quite well.

 

Unlike the similar marking on the hatchway risers, the laser scribed marks for the ladder steps only grazed the surface, and the risers were easily handled without breaking them.  I made a bit of a jig, actually only a floor and a wall, and that helped in gluing the first couple of steps to one riser.  But when I glued the other riser to the steps, I discovered that I did not get the two risers exactly even with each other, so I added an end piece to the jig. Fortunately the riser unevenness on one ladder isn't noticeable. 

 

 

Once dried and stained, I glued the ladders in place, with the pointed end of the risers leaning against the hatch frame and the diagonal end resting on the orlop deck.  Then I added the remaining post with the green base.

 

The sidewalls needed a little bit of trimming (as the instructions warned) to tightly fit between the waterways below and the deck beams above; only a couple minutes of sanding and they snapped in place nicely.

 

Next I painted the gun deck framing pieces, and discovered a bit of a puzzlement.  Unlike the just finished berthing deck below, and the spar deck above, the aft framing piece encloses the space for the stairway hatch, such that the hatch is separated from the end of the model by both a beam and a frame. The plans show the same thing. Which makes me wonder if the narrower hatch will be wide enough for two stairways.  The framing won’t get glued in place for a while yet, so I’ll have some time to consider whether I want to cut that frame out or not. 

 

Now beginning to work on all the knees that support the gun deck above. . .

[GaryKap]

Hi TomCulb -

I am also building this model of the USS Constitution cross-section.  I am currently rigging the main yard (page 82 of the instructions).  From my experience  - definitely DO NOT remove that part of the frame that you have circled above.  The ladders will fit just fine.   You are doing a great job on your build and an excellent job documenting your progress.  I found this to be one of the most enjoyable ship models that I have built to date.  I hope you find the same to be true.  In a future post or posts I will offer some suggestions that may be helpful.

 

I see that you live in Spokane.  In the early '90's I lived in Couer d'Alene.  Beautiful country.

 

<<Gary>>

[Tomculb]

Thanks Gary for the kind words and special thanks for the advice about not removing that beam.  Probably saved me much heartache!

 

Yes, the Inland Northwest is a great part of the country.  Only problem is, relative to the 90s, it's not much of a secret anymore.  🙂

[Tomculb]

For some reason there are gaps between the top of the orlop deck sidewalls and the bottom of the berthing deck waterways. The instructions suggest filling them with ¼“ x¼“ strips, noting that once glued in place they would need to be trimmed to make room for the hull planking.  A ¼“ by 1/16” plank made a lot more sense to me, these planks being a continuation of the 1/16” thick sidewalls, and they clearly wouldn’t interfere with the hull planks. But after cutting and painting these four planks, I discovered they are very difficult to properly place, since there is nothing to hold on to.  A ¼“ x¼“ piece would be a lot easier to hang onto.  I solved that problem by gluing a ⅛” square handle on the back of each one, which worked quite well, and the handles will clear any hull planking, without any trimming.

 

Project knees . . . gotta give that gun deck above a lot of support. On each side there are five standard knees (those which rest on the deck), three hanging knees, and seven diagonal knees, for a total of 30 of these things counting both sides (fortunately all laser-cut).  It took me a while to discern from the instruction photos exactly what goes where, and the plans don’t show them, but I think I got it right. Working your way aft, it’s standard (under a beam), hanging, standard, standard (under the middle beam), hanging, standard, hanging and standard (under the aft beam). Note that the standard knees under the beams have a notch cut in them to fit the frames, while the other standard knees do not.

 

 

Given the fact that my big clumsy fingers don’t work well in tight spaces, I decided to start with the knees under the middle beam and work my way toward each end. I’m glad I did.  

 

The laser-cut standard knees don’t fit well, especially lining up with the waterways (in part due to the fact that my waterways don’t exactly match each other). With quite a bit of shaving and carving, and the addition of a few shims, I got them to fit reasonably well.  Probably overkill since once the gun deck is installed above, it will be difficult to see any of this handiwork. Nevertheless it was fun, and good practice for the knees at either end, where the fit will be pretty visible.

 

The instructions seem to contemplate putting all the vertical knees in first, then adding the diagonal ones between them.  I think it’s a better idea to install a diagonal knee after each vertical knee is glued in, as you work your way fore and aft from the middle beam.  The more knees that are in there, the harder it is to get at the interior spaces into which the diagonal knees need to be installed.  

 

The instructions note that the diagonal knees come in two sizes, but they don’t say anything about where the four larger ones are to be placed.  It seemed pretty obvious to me though that they belong in the two spaces forward of the middle beam.

 

Two more vertical and two more diagonal knees and each side, and I'll be finished with the knee project (on this deck anyway). 😊

[GaryKap]

Hi Tom -

Your build log will be a wonderful guide for future builders of this kit.  I also had trouble figuring out the "knees" and your photos would have been of help to me.   For me, the instructions are sometimes lacking and the sentence structure difficult to follow.  I relied more on the pdf electronic version than the printed version - partly because the photos were clearer and could be enlarged.  Happily, most of the parts fit together well.  One item that deserves special attention will be the gun port frames (page 38 of the instructions).  Make sure the gun port openings on the gun deck and spar deck line up EXACTLY with the openings in the hull exterior wall gun port openings.  Chance of error is in the fore and aft alignment of these parts.  Even small differences will make it more difficult to set the gun port frames.  The instructions have you assembling the gun port frames completely and then inserting them into the gun port openings.  I could not do this and opted to install them piece by piece;  first the outer frames and then the inner frames.

 

Keep up the good work.  I look forward to seeing your progress.

 

<<Gary>>

[schooner]

Tom,

 

This is a really interesting kit and your quality of work is excellent!

 

I was interested to see that the kit provides detailed deck framing. Have you considered leaving off the main deck planking on one side (the side away from the viewers would be best) from the centerline to the waterway so all that detail (and some of the berth deck details) could be visible? 

 

Keep up the good work - I'm looking forward to the rest of this build.

[Tomculb]

Gary, I really appreciate your sage advice and the advantage of learning from your experience.  And it never occurred to me that the pdf version of the instructions would have better quality photos . . . thanks for sharing that discovery.

 

Tim, your idea of leaving off half of each of the next two decks is an intriguing one.  I'll have to give that some thought.  As I have mentioned previously in this log, detail in the middle of the decks (other than the spar deck) will be largely difficult or impossible to see otherwise.

 

[Tomculb]

Sometimes life gets in the way of model building, and sometimes life throws a curveball at you, but my absence from the shipyard these past several weeks has all been good -- fun travel, one of the kids visiting, outdoor activities prior to the heatwave, etc -- and for that I am very grateful.

 

I finished installing the knees that help hold up the weight of the gun deck, and shaped and installed 8 posts, which I doubt add any structural support but provide something to hang on to. My homemade lathe (electric drill shown in my posting back the middle of May) worked pretty well, but I found that if my impatience led me to press too hard on the file, the dowel broke.  Same thing if I tried to shape more than three at a time.

 

The instructions next have you cut, reshape, paint and dry-fit 6 pump pipes, before installing the gun deck framing and planking.  Maybe it’s just me, but I found the instructions and pictures to be less than clear as to exactly where and how these pipes are to fit in.  Eventually with the pipes and pump assemblies in hand, I think I figured it out. Hopefully the following explanation and pictures will be helpful to others.

 

The pipe is supposed to run from the gravel in the bilge, up through the orlop deck, to end at the berthing deck framing. The pump has a flange which is supposed to lie flat on the gun deck, with a lower extension or pipe that runs down through the berthing deck to meet the pipe at the bottom of the berthing deck framing.  It has a pin at the end that is supposed to fit in a hole (really an indentation) at the upper end of the pipe.

 

Several modifications need to be made to make all this happen.  First the pipe needs to be shortened by about ¾ of an inch. Then it needs to be re-bent to accommodate the misalignment of the holes in the berthing deck and the orlop deck.  And the pin at the bottom of the pump extension needs to be cut back to about 1/16th of an inch, so that it fits in the indentation in the pipe. 

 

In the first picture below you can see pre- and (incomplete) post-modification pipe and pump. In the second picture, the pipe is still too long, because the pump flange is about ⅛” above the dry-fitted gun deck. But rather than cut the pipe a little more, I’ll try bending it a little more so that it is not quite perpendicular below the orlop deck, allowing its lower end to extend to the gravel rather than rest on top of the mast base (the level of the gravel being a little lower than the level of the mast base). After all, its purpose is to suck water out of the bilge, hopefully before the water is deep enough to submerge the mast base. 

 

I’m hoping that once one pipe is properly cut and bent, it will serve as a prototype for the other five.

 

Of course once the missing barrels are glued back in place, the bottom of the pipe could end in midair and no one would ever be able to tell the difference!

 

[Tomculb]

After writing the above post last night but before posting it a few minutes ago, I found that bending the pipe further made it much more difficult to force it through the hole in the berthing deck, and trying to do so I managed to pop off the green flange on both forward holes.  I also noticed that if I lower the pipe enough for the pump to rest on the gun deck as it is supposed to, the top of the pipe ends up well below the berthing deck and there is nothing to glue it to to keep it in place. So I will keep it long enough to glue to the berthing deck, then cut the pipe part of the pump so that the pump itself lies as it is supposed to on the deck above, which will mean cutting it slightly above the pin.  That’s OK since I’ll glue the green flange back on the berthing deck and I’ll be able to glue the pump extension to it.  Clear as mud?

 

So far I’ve been fitting the pipes through the forward holes.  This will be much more difficult when I’m working with the middle and aft pipes, because the ladders and the berthing deck pipe assembly will be in the way.  A challenge yet to be addressed . . .

[Tomculb]

Bilge pump pipes . . . As mentioned in my last post, I ran into problems getting the pipes to bend sufficiently to end in the gravel but not so much that they could not be passed through the holes in the decks.  In the process I accidentally popped off both green flanges over the forward holes.  Having the flanges out of the picture made things quite a bit easier.  I therefor intentionally pried off the pump assembly, because its flanges were also causing problems.  Cutting and shaping the pipes was a lot easier if they only had to pass through the decks and not the flanges too. 

 

In the process I decided that getting the pipes into the gravel, instead of ending on top of the mast step and keelson, was more than I cared to tackle.  

 

I had ordered some copper paint from Model Expo.  What arrived was not at all what I would call copper.  Looks more like metallic maroon to me.  Fortunately I had some copper paint I used a few years ago for the hull of my yacht America build, and when I opened the container I was delighted to find that it hadn’t dried up.  I think I used something from Model Masters called dark copper, to which I added something to make it even a little darker (flat black??) but I don’t remember.  In any event, it was a lot better than what I got from Model Expo.

 

I cut the pipes so they would just reach the holes in the berthing deck.  Those holes are quite a bit larger than the pipes, so I wrapped some masking tape around the top of each pipe to fill the gap.  Once in place I put a drop or so of medium viscosity CA in each hole to keep the pipes in place.

 

In the first picture below you can see one pipe with the masking tape, one with a test painting of the old copper paint I found, and a scrap piece with the Model Expo “copper” paint. The second and third pictures are views of the pipes installed, looking through the orlop deck.  Fourth is the tops of the pipes seen in the holes, looking from above the berthing deck. The flanges will work well to receive the ends of the pipe extensions which are part of the pump pieces, assuming they are cut to the right length. Last picture (a little out of focus for some reason) shows the flanges and pump assembly glued back in place, along with the middle post, which I had accidentally dislodged through careless use of long tweezers. I also straightened and reglued the post which is leaning a bit in one of the pictures below.

 

Finally, I went back and edited my post in May describing installation of the berthing deck and suggesting that flanges and pump assembly not be glued onto the deck until this stage in the build.  Alternatively, and maybe better, install the pump pipes just after gluing the berthing deck in place. 

 

 

[Tomculb]

I am still thinking about Tim's ("Schooner") suggestion to leave half of the deck planking off to reveal detail on the deck below.  My thinking now is to install all of the gun deck planking, then do the half plank only on the spar deck, since most of the below decks detail is on the gun deck.  No final decision yet though.

[Tomculb]

Something else . . . I have not glued any of the mast surrounds in place.  My thinking is that I can loose fit them in place as I slide the real mast through all the decks the final time, after I'm comfortable with the rake and vertical alignment of the mast.  Once the mast is in place, I might at that time use tweezers to slide each surround up an inch, add a drop of glue to the bottom, then let it slide back down to the deck.  Or maybe I won't glue them at all.  After all, once the mast installation is final, the surrounds aren't going anywhere.

[JeffT]

That's what I did on my connie.

[GaryKap]

Hi Tom -

Your model is looking very nice.  A couple of thoughts.  First, a reminder.  Make sure all of the pieces/parts (pump parts, cannon, fife rail etc.) are securely glued down in the appropriate places.  Remember that the hull needs to be upside down for an extended period of time while you are coppering and stuff can work loose (speaking from experience).  At that point it is MUCH more difficult to return a wandering part to its proper location.  This comment does not aim so much at the mast surrounds)

Second, the idea of only half planking the spar deck.  I considered that too, but in the end I decided against doing it for three reasons.  The complex deck framing for the spar deck would obstruct much of your view of the gun deck.  It would be more difficult to place the carronades, and all the other stuff on the spar deck without decking to provide the proper spacing.  And a third reason...I simplified the rigging on the long guns of the gun deck and that might have been more visible if the spar deck was not planked.  I will be interested to see what you decide to do.  

<<Gary>>

Edited July 20, 2021 by GaryKap
clarification

[Tomculb]

Hi Gary, your tips and advice are always greatly appreciated.  Keep them coming!

 

I'm not sure why I suggested that I might not glue the mast surrounds in place.  As I have mentioned before, I have enlarged the mast hole in every deck framing and planking piece so that the mast can be moved just a bit when it comes time to determine vertical alignment and rake.  I don't expect to do that until the hull is complete and I'm working with the full length lower mast.  Then when I'm satisfied that the mast alignment is right, I will glue the mast surrounds to their respective decks, eliminating any wiggle room and holding the mast firmly in place.

 

I'm still thinking about the spar deck planking.  If I leave one side off, I won't install the carronades on that side.  I might also cut away some of the deck framing, trying to do it in a way that the complete framing can be visualized but not seen. I would also try to cut the planking piece in such a way that it is under the hatchways, the mast surround and the fife rail stanchions but otherwise is cut back to near the centerline, along the lines of the picture below.  But with all of that, will there be enough detail visible below to make it worth all the effort?  I too will be interested to see what I decide to do. 😊

Edited July 24, 2021 by Tomculb
corrected typo

[Tomculb]

Since my post a couple of weeks ago, most of what I have done has been to do for the gun deck what I did before for the berthing deck -- paint and glue the framing;  shape, paint green and glue the waterways; stain, glue together, trim and glue the deck planking in place; and assemble, paint and stain, and glue the hatchway framing in place.

 

The deck planking had some surprises . . . there was a small gap between it and the waterways, so I glued a 1/32” strip to each side of the planking.  That done, I found I had to do a little bit of sanding at one end of one side, and I still had a bit of a gap on both sides of the other end.  I painted a narrow strip of black on the framing adjacent to the waterway to make those gaps a little less obvious and decided that would be good enough. The picture with the clamps below is pre-glue and pre-black paint.

 

A couple of things are worth mentioning regarding the hatchway steps.  First, the steps come in two lengths.  The longer one is supposed to be glued on top of the risers, and the shorter one glued between the risers, as one of the photo captions in the instructions clearly says.  I overlooked that when doing the berthing deck steps, glued both steps between the risers, and the end result looks a little sloppy as a result.  I might someday redo those steps.  Second, I mentioned previously that the risers are marked to show the location of the lower step, but the mark is laser cut almost all the way through the riser.  I broke two risers trying to assemble the steps and a third one trying to glue the assembled steps in place. Next time around I think I will leave the laser cut risers alone and simply cut some appropriately sized trapezoid pieces from a 1/32” strip.  

 

I mentioned earlier in the build that the instructions refer to eight poles on the berthing deck (two on the centerline and three on each side closer to the knees), and the accompanying photo shows the same thing.  But the plans show an additional pole on the centerline, somewhat aft of the forward pole, and later photos in the instructions show the additional pole. So I shaped another pole and glued it in place (with some difficulty) after the gun deck framing was glued in; without the framing there is nothing above to glue the pole to. Gluing it in place would have been easier if I had not installed the forward pole until after gluing this additional pole in place. 

 

Meanwhile I had painted the pump assemblies and the round flanges that get slid onto them below the gun deck, and cut them to the right length so they would fit nicely into the green berthing deck flanges and the flanges that are part of the green pump assembly on that deck. In the photos below they are dry fitted in place, without the additional flanges.  Looking ahead at rigging the long guns, I decided that the fewer things in the way on the gun deck at that stage the better.  The pumps can be glued in place after the long guns are rigged. And I think I’ll wait to install the berthing-deck- to-gun-deck ladders until after the pumps are glued in.

 

I have painted the gun deck sidewalls white. Next steps are to glue those in place, install some knees, then get to work on those cannons.

 

[Tomculb]

Gary, a minor question . . . as I'm putting eyebolts in the sidewalls before gluing the latter in place, I'm finding discrepancies between the instructions and its pictures on the one hand, and the plans and pre-drilled holes in the sidewalls on the other hand. Following the former would require drilling holes for an additional eyebolt on each side of each gunport, eyebolts which as far as I can tell will never be used. I'm inclined to follow the plans and just put eyebolts in the pre-drilled holes, and I don't think that will leave me needing two more eyebolts to be installed later (and with much difficulty, wishing I had installed them now).  Am I missing something? 

[GaryKap]

Hi Tom -

With this ship model, the closer you look, the more "discrepancies" you will find between the plans, the photos and the instructions.  I can't fully answer your question.  For the long guns, I only rigged the breeching lines because I figured they would be not very visible in the finished model.  (I did fully rig the carronades though).  So it depends on how fully you are going to rig the long guns.  The drawings at the bottom of Plan Sheet 2 are most helpful.  I was able to use the provided brass hooks for the breeching lines on the long guns but gave up with the carronades and simply tied the rigging lines to the eyebolts. 

<<Gary>>