USF Independence 1814 by Glen McGuire – FINISHED - 1/500 - 1/500

[Keith Black]

1 hour ago, Glen McGuire said:

Unfortunately, the micro mesh won't get here till June.

 Did you order it off eBay because the eBay delivery is by April 18th? 

[Glen McGuire]

10 hours ago, Keith Black said:

Did you order it off eBay because the eBay delivery is by April 18th? 

I did.  But obviously I did not do enough searching last night.  I found one this morning with the April 18th delivery.  So I cancelled my previous order and placed a new one.   Thank you, Keith!! 

[Glen McGuire]

While I await the micro mesh order and ponder the fate of the hammock netting, work continues. 

 

For the quarter gallery, I added windows. a gold eagle, and a tiny bit of decorative paint.  I also added a ship boat storage platform to the center of the deck between the hammock rails.

 

The 2nd pic shows some decorative paint added to the prow and the 3rd pic shows the cathead and anchor assembly.     

[Keith Black]

 I see, you can carve a real nice eagle but a penguin, oh heck no.  The quarter gallery windows look great! 

 

 How's baby Bevo?

[Glen McGuire]

1 hour ago, Keith Black said:

I see, you can carve a real nice eagle but a penguin, oh heck no.

 

@Joe100 had a Churchill quote in a recent post that I wish I'd read when you and @gjdale wanted me to carve a penguin for that Aurora build.  Churchill said, "When all the sick and wounded have been tended, when all the impoverished and broken hearted homes have been restored, when every hospital is gorged with money, and every charitable subscription is closed, then and not until then will I concern myself with those penguins."  

 

 

Edited April 11, 2022 by Glen McGuire

[Glen McGuire]

1 hour ago, Keith Black said:

 How's baby Bevo?

 

Baby Bevo (Shiloh) is doing fantastic!  He's already sprouting little horn nubs!  Here he is with his momma. 

[Keith Black]

 Is Shiloh going to be part of the family or is there a dark side to Shiloh's future? 

[Glen McGuire]

55 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

Is Shiloh going to be part of the family or is there a dark side to Shiloh's future? 

 

He will be part of the family.  The only dark side for him comes at 8 months when he goes from bull to steer.  😀

Edited April 12, 2022 by Glen McGuire

[Glen McGuire]

On to the deck fittings.  Since I have no deck plans for the Independence, I'm making it Constitution-ish.  Based on what I've seen in Constitution build logs, the spar deck is not near as busy as the decks of my previous Aurora and Morgan builds (not counting the cannons anyway).  So besides the cannons, I'm outfitting the Independence with 3 vent pipes, a double captains wheel, a capstan, 4 gratings (with cannon balls of course), and 2 ship boats.

 

And I immediately ran into problems.  First, the barrels on my spar deck cannons did not stick out of the gun ports quite as far as the barrels on the middle and lower gun decks.  Those stick out about 1/32", so we're only talking 1/64".  But it was noticeable to me.  Ugh.  So I scrapped 14 of the cannons on the display side and rebuilt them with barrels of the proper length. 

 

The 2nd problem was my gratings.  This is the first time I've tried to actually make something resembling gratings at this scale.  I spent a lot of time building 4 of them using the same mesh that I'd used for the hammock netting, gluing it over a small black square for depth.  To my surprise, I thought they came out looking pretty good.  Unfortunately, I failed to consider how much of the deck would be taken up by the the cannon carriages.  As a result, the gratings were way too big.  Ugh again.  So I scrapped them and made smaller ones.   

 

For the capstan, I used one of those tiny little beads and stuck it on the end of a toothpick.

 

I know the cannon balls should be black.  But then they just get lost and are not even really visible.  So I'm using a bit of artistic license here because I want them to stand out just a bit.   

 

[gjdale]

There’s some serious wow factor developing there Glen!

[Glen McGuire]

Thank you, Grant!

[Glen McGuire]

The micro mesh that @Keith Black suggested arrived this weekend so it was time to decide on the fate of the hammock netting.  I really wanted the netting to work because I thought it made for a unique look.  I took the micro mesh and cut a small section out and gave it a very light dusting of black spray paint, then cut it into a couple of tiny strips.  Despite being stainless steel, it cut quite easily with small scissors.  I really like the way it turned out - way better than the mesh stuff I used earlier.  

 

So huge thanks to @Roger Pellett for pointing out that my original netting was far out of scale and to Keith for finding that micro mesh on eBay!  I never thought of ship modeling as a team sport, but I'm beginning to think it is!

 

Edited April 18, 2022 by Glen McGuire

[Keith Black]

 Glen, the replacement mesh looks more to scale and you did a nice job reworking the hammock nets.  

[Glen McGuire]

Moving off the deck now!  The next small challenge was the dolphin striker.  The sail plan drawing of the 1814 Independence shows it being split like the Constitution.  I like to build as much of the ship as possible out of wood, but for the split dolphin striker, I just could not put any little pieces of wood together that looked good and had any sturdiness.  So I soldered a couple of small pieces of wire.   Don't tell anyone I cheated!

 

Next up are the masts.  With each of these builds, I'm trying to improve on the last build by adding a little more detail and/or improve a component where I can.  I figure that's the fastest way to get better at this stuff.  So for the masts, I decided to try a first for me and make them 3-piece.  The overlapping sections add precious height to the overall structure when they are laid over, so I notched the ends where each section meets the one above it.  I am determined NOT to have to rework things to fit the ship inside the bottle when it's time.  I'm also trying a mass production of the mast tops. 

    

[Glen McGuire]

Masts completed and upper shrouds and ratlines added.  Pictures show the basic process.  I use standard Gutterman thread for the shrouds.  The ratlines are 72D 8/0 fly tying thread glued to the shrouds with Aleene's fabric glue and clipped close with cuticle trimmers. 

[gjdale]

Coming together nicely, Glen

[Glen McGuire]

Thanks, Grant.  But what I'm really excited about is the new listing under your "Current Builds".  Heading over there now!!! 

[Glen McGuire]

Y'all ever have those days where you just keep screwing things up?  Stepping the masts and adding the yards should have been a relatively simple job.  But no, I kept fumbling and stumbling and bumbling.  First, I measured some of the yard lengths wrong and had to make new ones.  Ugh.  Then I put the main mast yards on the fore mast.  Ugh.  Then I mixed up the gaff and boom on the mizzen mast and had to pull them off and reattach.  Ugh.

 

Finally decided I had to do stop for a while and do something different.  Something real simple - like put the button on the end of my cannon barrel (bottle).  I found a cabinet pull at Home Depot for $3 that sort of resembles a cannon button.  An old work boot was the perfect jig to hold bottle while the epoxy set. 

 

After that small victory, I was able to regroup and finish the masts, yards, and stays.  Sails are up next.  I'm going to try and do something different with them, so we will see how that turns out.

Edited April 27, 2022 by Glen McGuire

[gjdale]

I think we all have those days, Glen - some of us more frequently than we would like!

 

Ship's looking good - can't wait to see what you do with the sails.

 

[Keith Black]

 Having one of those myself today, Glen. I've got a tube of CA that no workie and has caused all sorts of problems. Have never had that happen before and it's the original blend, SG.

 

 Way to overcome the gotcha's, great recovery. She's really looking good!

 

 

Edited April 28, 2022 by Keith Black

[Glen McGuire]

2 hours ago, gjdale said:

I think we all have those days, Glen - some of us more frequently than we would like!

 

 

1 hour ago, Keith Black said:

 Having one of those myself today, Glen. I've got a tube of CA that no workie and has caused all sorts of problems. Have never had that happen before and it's the original blend, SG.

 

Thank you, Grant and Keith, for the commiseration!  Like the song says, some days are diamonds, some days are stones!  But I'd say any day working on a model is a pretty good day regardless!

[Glen McGuire]

Here's my attempt at a new manufacturing technique for the sails.  I wanted to get something resembling the first pic below, which is a painting of the razee version of the Independence.  For the sails in my previous bottle builds, I cut the sails out of muslin and glued on thread for bolt ropes and panel seams (2nd pic).  For this build, I wanted a better look for the bolt ropes.  Also, instead of highlighting the panel seams, I wanted the reef bands to be more prominent like they are in the razee painting. 

 

Sooooo.  I dug out the seldom used sewing machine from the bottom of the closet to see if I could overcome my pathetic sewing skills and make some better looking sails.  I tried a bunch of different things and finally settled on regular thread and a very narrow zigzag stitch for the bolt ropes and a straight stitch with fly tying thread for the reef bands.  I did ok at sewing straight lines but, as you can see, I had some difficulties turning a smooth curve in such a tight space for the bottom of the square sails.  They did not come out perfect, but I like them better than the glue-on thing I was doing before.           

[Glen McGuire]

Spent the last few days making the channels, stringing the lower shrouds, and attaching the lower ratlines.  Also, if you get close enough to your computer screen and squint hard enough, you can see 2 middle stanchions I added to the hammock netting on each side.

[Glen McGuire]

While impatiently waiting for the glue on the ratlines to dry, I went back to the cannon carriage and made a couple of single and double sheave blocks.  I'm trying to replicate the blocks in the first pic.

 

Edited May 4, 2022 by Glen McGuire

[Ian_Grant]

For a moment there I thought you were going to try to rig the guns on the ship....Haha...now that would be a real miracle...

[Keith Black]

47 minutes ago, Ian_Grant said:

For a moment there I thought you were going to try to rig the guns on the ship

Ian, I thought the same thing and I said to myself "is he nuts" 

 

 Glen, the Independence is looking great and those blocks are beautiful!

 

 A tip regarding parting the ratlines close to the shrouds. I use a diagonal wire cutter to snip thread and only use it for thread,  I have another pair for cutting wire. Because the the ratline ends are soaked in CA the cutter makes a nice clean cut and you can get real close to the shroud line. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Precision-Cutters-Diagonal-Cutting-Electronic/dp/B08TRNJZGQ/ref=sr_1_45?keywords=diagonal+pliers&qid=1651675625&sr=8-45

[Glen McGuire]

1 hour ago, Ian_Grant said:

For a moment there I thought you were going to try to rig the guns on the ship....Haha...now that would be a real miracle...

OMG!  That is funny!  I'd hand carve a herd of .5mm penguins before I'd try to rig those deck cannons!!!

[Keith Black]

1 minute ago, Glen McGuire said:

I'd hand carve a herd of .5mm penguins before I'd try to rig those deck cannons!!!

 i'm calling BS, you wouldn't carve no stinkin' penguin under any circumstance! 

[Glen McGuire]

3 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

 Glen, the Independence is looking great and those blocks are beautiful!

 

 A tip regarding parting the ratlines close to the shrouds. I use a diagonal wire cutter to snip thread and only use it for thread,  I have another pair for cutting wire. Because the the ratline ends are soaked in CA the cutter makes a nice clean cut and you can get real close to the shroud line. 

Thanks, Keith!  For cutting the ratlines, I do have a pair of those diagonal wire cutters which I used to use.  But I also read a while back about someone who was using cuticle trimmers for tiny, tight spaces.  I got a pair, tried them, and found they work even better on the super-thin fly tying thread.  They cut sharp and clean, even at the very tip, so they are easy to maneuver in the tiny spaces between the ratlines. 

 

I know my ratlines extend beyond the shrouds a hair, but that's my margin of error to make sure I don't screw up and snip the shrouds, which would lead to loud shouting/cursing/throwing things and probably a call from the neighbors!

[Keith Black]

 

2 hours ago, Glen McGuire said:

that's my margin of error to make sure I don't screw up and snip the shrouds, which would lead to loud shouting/cursing/throwing things and probably a call from the neighbors!

Buddy, I hear ya. If I parted a shroud line when trimming ratlines I'd probably jump out the window. That's such a catastrophic image it makes me shudder.  The cutters probabbly do work much better at my scale than yours, just trying to make your life easier. I tried fingernail clippers but the curved cutting edge kinda freaks me.