USF Constitution by cookster - Model Shipways - kitbashed to 1812

[rafine]

It' all looking really great, Wes. A beautiful build.

 

Bob

[capnharv2]

Wes,

 

After looking at your build I almost want to start over!

 

You're doing a great job. You're also using Bob's practicum like I did. Use the things that I find useful but not follow it line for line.

 

Thanks,

 

Harvey

[cookster]

Thanks all!!  

Augie, the green could be a shade or 2 yellower and lighter, but, I think it will work, and once I add the deck that will help tone the green down some..  If I were in bright sunshine it look just right as is!

 

Bob, coming from you that's a real compliment!

 

Harvey, being a first time builder I could not have done this without Bob Hunt's practicum.  I know Bob H has issues, and I've experienced them as well, but there's no need to go into that here.  I've done a lot of things differently than Bob as anyone who's seen my build can tell, but it's a great guide for the inexperienced (like me).

Somehow I missed your build log, just found it, will be following along.  She's looking good!

Edited October 30, 2013 by cookster

[patrickmil]

Wes, the green looks perfect to me.

[cookster]

While waiting on the coats of green paint to dry I started on the main hatch coaming.  I cut the half lap joints on the router table.  Always use a sacrificial strip when cutting through dadoes to avoid chip out.  The ends were cut long as on the other coamings so I can trim them down flush later.

I also had to split the hatch gratings into their individual pieces.  I forgot to take a pic, but the main hatch grate comes as one big piece intended to be framed with only 4 sides, but I wanted to build the coaming with individual frames. (This is how Bob Hunt did it also).  I decided to only half lap the end and center frame, as half lapping all of them would require A LOT of setup time and trial and error to not screw up, so I will butt joint the rest.  This won't cause a problem although it won't look as good, but in this case it's worth not doing it.

I'm now adding the inner supports for the grates.  More pics to come...

[HIPEXEC]

Wes,

I'm going to copy what you did on the upper deck for my gunports. I already copied you for the below deck guns. Nice job and thanks for the good pics. Have you been finish sanding your planks as you go? They are very smooth.

Rich

Edited October 30, 2013 by Hipexec

[cookster]

Rich, good luck on your gunports.  As far as sanding planks, I sand in belts of 4 or 5.  Add a belt (4 or 5 rows), then sand it.  With basswood I sand with 80 to level things out, then 150, then 180.  It's only sanded to 180 so far, I'll sand further before the finish.  With a hardwood and a lot of material to remove (such as tapering the wales) you might need to start with something coarser.

[cookster]

Work continues on the main hatch coaming.

Putting it together.  Also here's the other side of the grates before being cut into individual pieces.

I made up the center beams with the grate supports as an assembly and will be cut to fit the individual openings.

 

[augie]

Nice work.  And yup, the green looks great!

[patrickmil]

Your main hatch combing looks great. It's going to look much nicer with separating all of those different panels.

[cookster]

Thanks Augie and Patrick!

 

Yes the hatches look much better as separate pieces.  I'm thinking of leaving a few out and installing ladders down to the gundeck, which means I'll have to scratch a few ladders.  No easy task without a "JimSaw", but I think I may have found another way to do it.  I need to check my ATOS book and see if I can find some ladder drawings and get some guestimate ladder dimensions...

[cookster]

Well I finally got the bullwarks green finished.  What a pain in the butt.....  The color wasn't the problem, it was the finish.  I used satin wipe on poly and for what ever reason the poly dried with a sheen I would call semi-gloss, not satin.  It's not the poly's fault, I tried it on several sample pieces (no paint though) and the sheen always came out very nice.  All I can figure is the poly over the floquil paint dries to a different sheen.

 

I was finally able to get the sheen I wanted (almost) by rubbing the poly down with a cotton swab just at is got tacky.  Not dry, not wet, just the right stage of tacky.  I'm still not 100% happy with it but it's as good as I'm gonna get it so it will have to do. Hopefully when the deck is planked, furniture added etc, it won't bother me as much.

 

I am looking forward to trying acrylics down the road for the gun carriages to see how that turns out...  Looking back I wish I had used dye, but I would've had to mix a custom color and I didn't want to do that.  Lesson learned....

[WackoWolf]

She is turning out very beautiful, nice clean work. Keep the pictures coming.

[augie]

Wes, I've run into that sheen problem myself with 'satin' poly.  One possible solution is an overcoat of clear flat lacquer.  Testors makes one in their Model Master series.  Of course you would need to test it over what you have first.  I found it 1/2 way through my Syren build and it made a tremendous difference.

[cookster]

Thank you Wacko!

 

Augie, I have some model master clear flat enamel and acrylic, but not any lacquer.  I did think of overcoating it with that, so I may experiment with it and see.  I guess one more coat of *something* won't hurt...

 

Thought your Syren log was gone (never mind, that was Chuck's - brain fart!) but I just found it, I'll take a look at what you did.  Thanks for the info!

Edited November 5, 2013 by cookster

[lambsbk]

Wes, I think the color and texture look superb. As I recall the current paint scheme on the Constitution is a semi-gloss slightly favoring the flat side. Nice work.

[cookster]

Thanks Dave!  I'm gonna try and give it a few days, maybe the sheen will grow on me.  It just seems in our "model scale" the sheen should be almost flat. Maybe I'll get used to it... or not 

 

Thanks for dropping by!

[ScottRC]

Looks really god, I also think the color looks good. 

[cookster]

I've started thinking how I want to build my carronades.  The kit supplied parts are out.  I could spend hours and hours on them and they'd still look bad.  Of all the things we build and put on our ships, I think the cannons/carronades are one of the things that draw people in (If they're rigged properly that is) so they have to look good!

 

So, I pretty much have decided to replace them.  Question is do I buy them or attempt to make them?  I've never been the type to go out and buy something ready made if I can do it myself, even if that means buying another tool or two (surprise??)  I've done a little price checking and seeing that I have 3 ships that need fitting out, that's about 80 guns at probably 5-6 bucks a pop - so figure 400-500 dollars just in cannons.  With that money I can buy a lathe and make my own, and whatever else I need along the way.  Sure there will be a learning curve, but I'm 95% sure I can do it.

So, guess I need to add a lathe to Santa's wish list.  Hmmm, Santa needs to plunder some pirate booty to pay for all this!  

Edited November 8, 2013 by cookster

[augie]

Oh boy.  Well, if you're as good with metal as you are with wood this should be a pleasure to watch.

 

By the way, love your economic justification.  And just think......if you can just squeeze out enough cash to lay in an HMS Victory kit your return on the lathe investment will be spectacular.

 

Good luck my friend.

[cookster]

Ya know, I'd like to build a Victory, but not sure my heart is in that particular ship.  It sure would be impressive though.  There's a 1/72 Victory out there that's 54" long.  THAT would be something!.  But, part of me wants to scratchbuild something one day, maybe in 1/48 scale.  I'm not really into POF though, POB would suit me fine, just have to find the right ship.  I do want to build an English ship though, so that narrows it down some....    The HMS Surprise is pretty interesting...  Ah well, I've got plenty of time to think on that one....

 

As far as metal work, I've done a lot of that too, but never in miniature.  I have a full size wood lathe and am pretty good with that,  but I've never used a metal lathe so I will have to learn.  But that's part of the fun, right?

[capnharv2]

Wes,

 

I'm trying to learn more about cannon turning on my U3. And, if my experience is indicative of my abilities (learning and all), I'm better off buying them. I've gone thru 6 feet of brass rod, and have 2 or 3 one inch long barrels to show for it. A lot of it is learning and some of it is the tool. But if I were to make cannon for my Constitution, or my Agamemnon, I'd be looking at a lot of frustration. Fortunately, you've got some metal turning experience (I had none).

 

Another option (from a Nautical Research Journal article) is to make a duplicator and turn them out of ebony. The author's point was that turning 40-50-60 barrels from brass can be very time consuming.

 

Another thing to help the carronades look better is to get some good blocks. The tackles are supposed to use 3/32" blocks, but the kit doesn't provide anything smaller than 1/8" blocks-and the kit blocks aren't that great. Chuck Passaro makes some really great 3/32" blocks (and has a thread on how to make them if you're so inclined).

 

Good luck and keep us posted. If you do turn them from brass, it would be nice to see how you approach the task.

 

Thanks,

 

Harvey

[cookster]

Harvey I did think of wood, and even styrene (Oh the horror!!)  I bought some brass and styrene rod to practice on my drill press using files and sandpaper - not very exact but it gets the idea across.  I did not think of ebony, but if used wood I'd probably get boxwood and dye it, or paint it.  I actually plan to use either the brass or styrene barrels from this test in my false gun ports.

 

If I may ask what lathe do you have?  Obviously I'll look at Sherline first, then work my way down to what I can afford.  As an aside, I still work on cars and other metal stuff so being able to turn full size items in steel or alum would be an added benefit.

 

And yes I plan to buy many of chucks blocks, I'm gonna need them.  I've seen several people make here their own, but not me,  gotta draw the line somewhere!!

[capnharv2]

Wes,

 

There are a couple of tutorials on cannon barrels here on the site. I've also seen them turned in a drill press. I just don't seem to get it. Maybe if I mess up another 6 ft of brass it will come to me. . .

 

I have a Unimat 3 lathe and mill. I really like it, and it will take me a long time to learn all the things it can do. I really like how compact it is. However, if I were to start over, with more space and money, I'd probably get a Sherline lathe and mill. They're a little larger and stiffer. The Unimat 3 lathe is okay, but the mill flexes a lot, and the mill doesn't have a fine feed adjustment in the Z-axis (that I can find). Also, the Sherline tools are still being made. They stopped making Unimats about 20 years ago.

 

I made the blocks for my cannon/carronades, but that was before Chuck came out with his tutorial (and subsequent company). I'm going to do all my rigging with Chuck's blocks.

 

Thanks,

 

Harvey

[cookster]

Main hatch coaming is finished, except for the trim around the outer edge.

 

 

 

Now, back to planking.  I put my steel rule back on the stops I glued on to maintain the center line.

 

 

I cut and fit the planks around the galley stack.  I chose to put a plank joint here so I could fit around the hatch coaming in two pieces instead of having to cut the entire gap in one section.

 

 

Next section of planking was the section between the galley hatch and the main hatch.  I wanted a plank joint here so I made it off the model on a section glued up.  Again this section was made long then trimmed to fit.

 

 

 

That was glued down, then I made up the section for the other side and glued it down.

 

 

 

Next the other end of the plank around the galley hatch was cut.  I cut the notch a little further away from where it should go so I could trim the end to get a tight fit.  I used a steel rule laid on several planks so the rule would lie steady, then used a #11 blade to cut the notch out.

 

 

 

The corner notch needed to be squared up with a triangular file.

 

Edited November 10, 2013 by cookster

[cookster]

I used my true sander to trim down the hatch end of the plank to get a tight fit at the hatch.

 

 

 

Added a few more planks...  And many more to go...

 

 

Edited November 10, 2013 by cookster

[augie]

Great Scott ----   I'm going back to my erector set.  This is just a pleasure to watch.

[cookster]

Thanks Augie, but your builds are just as impressive!  I haven't tied one knot, or rigged one gun, or stropped one block yet.  When I get to that point I may want to go back to Legos!

Edited November 10, 2013 by cookster

[lambsbk]

Absolutely gorgeous work Wes. I can only imagine what you and Augie can do with an erector set.

[cookster]

Thanks Dave!!  I actually built a couple Star Wars Legos a few years ago when my son was young, but I gotta admit as cool as they were I got bored with them, so I gave them to him and he finished them.  My son's the type that can have a few left over pieces and not mind as long as the Lego (or model) looked good to him.  Me?  I'll obsess over one missing part until I figure out where it goes....  That should tell me something but I won't admit to what it is!!