Constellation 1856 by JerryTodd - 1:36 scale - RADIO - First Class Sloop of War

[captainbob]

Sorry about the pool and wind but it looks like it was a good time.

 

Bob

Edited May 20, 2014 by Cap'n'Bob

[lambsbk]

Ah ha...I have seen the Savannah. She used to be anchored at Patriots Point here in Charleston. I kinda' wondered what happened to her.

[JerryTodd]

Yes lambsbk, the very same ship.  She apparently wasn't bringing in enough money and they decided to rid themselves of her.  The city of Savannah had little money or interest either, so she wound up here in Baltimore.

[lambsbk]

I am glad Baltimore had both.

 

Dave

[JerryTodd]

Several posts from #21 through #28 back when the gun ports, stern moldings, paint, and coppering were covered, lost their attached images.  I reloaded all of them, and everything looks to be back in order.

 

Looks like Constellation will be getting wet again; I'm taking her and Pride to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum's Model Expo on May 31st.

Edited May 26, 2014 by JerryTodd

[dgbot]

Have a lot of fun.

David B

[captainbob]

I hope for good wind and a larger pool.

 

Bob

[JerryTodd]

Spent Saturday at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum's Model Boat Expo.  This was now my second event of this sort, two weeks after the first, as well as my second visit to the museum since my first in 1979 when I went there aboard the barkentine Gazela Primeiro.  All three models went, and I even got a little pop-up gazebo tent, knowing it was going to be quite sunny.

 

Macedonian got quite a bit of attention, to my surprise.  Being able to see how she was constructed got a lot of questions about what was used, how it was glued, etc.  If I do this any more I think I'll adopt the theme "Don't be afraid to scratch build" as that was what seemed to impress people most - that these were not kits and were built, for the most part, of scrap wood, and materials from the local lumber/hardware stores.

 

Pride didn't sail, though she very much wanted too.  I don't have ballast attached to her fin, or her steering set-up as yet, so I took her solely for display.  She was very well received because of being a Baltimore Clipper and the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, which is a major theme running at the museum right now.

 

It was blowing 10-13 mph and gusting a bit as it whipped around the building upwind of us, so I wasn't too sure about putting Constellation in the water, not to mention how crowded with obstacles the pool was, but a friend from another forum put his Ram schooner in and didn't seem to have any trouble, so I went for it.

 

On the pool the wind didn't seem to blow as strong, but it was very flukey and was often doing something different at either end of the pool.  none-the-less, Stella made through and actually sailed a bit, though she would often get caught aback just as it was getting fun.

 

I did install a test rig in Constellation to try out a new idea for handling sails with double sheets, like heads'l, etc.  I'll delve more into that in some detail later.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 4, 2014 by JerryTodd

[captainbob]

What a nice pool.  I’m sure everyone had a great time.

 

Bob

[dgbot]

I am glad you had a good time. 

David B

[JerryTodd]

Pools are nice and safe, but Constellation was meant for more open water.  It's her third time sailing and I've yet to get a nice steady breeze and the room to see her really sail.

 

Edited July 16, 2014 by JerryTodd

[JerryTodd]

A couple of design developments will be incorporated into Constellation, and the other models regarding sail control.

 

The sheet on the driver/spanker is normally run to quarter-blocks in the waterways, to give that appearance the sheet will be done as shown below:

 

 

The equipment tray with the servos and electronics mounted on it will be reworked to incorporate sliding brace winch servos.  These servos will slide on rods against spring to maintain the tension required on the braces while allowing for the changing geometry.  With tension control and fair-leads mounted in a compact unit, the spring posts and other separate line controls won't be needed.  It will also make servicing and adjustment easier.

 

 

Constellation's three heads'ls all have to travel over stays.  The below set-up will allow slacking the lee sheet before hauling the other sheet over, much how it's actually done, and using only one servo/channel.  The arm that actuates the port and starboard sheet-arms of the heads'ls will itself control the driver sheet directly.

 

 

Providing it works    this will be my standard set-up in all three models and Gazela.

Edited August 21, 2016 by JerryTodd

[mtaylor]

Oh...Gazela... my bad.  For some reason I read that as Godzilla and had a bizarre image of sails on the beast.   

 

Interesting method, Jerry.  Which ship will be your test bed?

[JerryTodd]

Actually Our nick name for Gazela Primeiro WAS Godzilla Primeval - though she was always my favorite.

 

Here's a vid of Dan testing the sliding servo out.  (seems he deleted them from YouTube, so I edited them out here)  He has the system installed on his Syren and Tim Bowman (who printed my guns for Macedonian) is using it in his brig Scorpion.

I'll be installing these in Constellation first, but the arm thing's going into Pride sooner - I'm eager to get that in operation in case another "expo" comes up.

Edited July 8, 2016 by JerryTodd

[dgbot]

So far it seems you are on the right track.  Have you thought about adding extra sails on your Contellation.

David B

[JerryTodd]

The very first post in this thread contains the model's sail plan; she'll carry some 17 sails.  Many sails can be removed, brailed up, and even furled depending on the conditions.  Stuns'l yards will be fitted, but I don't plan to include the sails.

 

Her sails and their names are listed in this diagram:

 

 

Her "test rig" is her maneuvering suit, or her battle sails and based a bit on this image of her by De Simone in 1862:

 

 

BTW: The winches will directly control the braces of the fore course and tops'l yards; the main course and tops'l yards, and the crossjack.  The mizzen tops'l yard will be slaved to the crossjack.  The rest of the yards will be pulled by the tension of their sails' leeches and their braces will simple run free

Edited December 4, 2014 by JerryTodd

[JerryTodd]

The servo tray was dismantled and parts like screw inserts salvaged from it today in prep for making a new one to support the sliding brace winches and semaphore arm heads'l sheeter.

The new assembly will fit easily through the main hatch and be easier to access, adjust, and maintain than the previous set-up as the new one doesn't extend up under the deck.

The two winches "face" aft because all the braces come through the deck aft of the mainmast.

 

  Plan for new servo tray set-up

 

  3D model of new set-up

 

  The old servo tray.

  disassembled.

 

The electronics; fuses, connectors, etc;  actually won't change at all, all I have to do is attached the existing wiring harness to the new servo tray.

 

I'll actually be making two of these, Macedonian will be getting exactly the same thing.

 

Another experiment I tried today was self-tending bowlines.  These couple of sail trials showed that bowlines would probably add a a lot to the models upwind ability.  I was trying to figure out how to operate them when, just for giggles I gave this idea a try on the model.  The bowlines attach to the sail in the normal manner and are run to a block forward.  Instead of going to a pin on deck, the line turns back and attaches to the yard's opposite end, ie starboard bowline attaches to the yard on the port side,  The yard then pulls the bowline as it's braced.  The line is adjusted to be just slack with the yards squared.  The geometry of the thing causes the line to tighten on the windward side as the looard side remains slack.  These will be relatively thin light colored lines, so while they'll add to the complexity of the rig's appearance, it won't be so obvious to the casual observer that something is not quite prototypical.

 

Edited June 11, 2014 by JerryTodd

[JerryTodd]

I cut the angle aluminum into pieces about 2-1/8" wide, 1-5/8" tall, with a foot about 3/4".  Half of them got a 1/2" hole for the servo plug/cord to pass through.  All of them got a pair of 3/16" holes 1-3/8" apart and 1-3/8" up for the rods.  A pair of holes were drilled in the foot for the mounting screws.  The rods will be retained between the brackets with a pin.  I tried to find some small hitch pins, but they didn't have any small enough, so I'll use a bit of 1/16" rod or cotter pins.

 

 

 

All this plus the sail-arm servo and it's semaphore arms will get mounted on a plywood "tray" 3/8" thick and 7" x 8".  The brackets will be about 5" apart with the mounting foot on the inside.  Two of these trays will be made, the other one will be  for Macedonian.  This will easily fit in through either model's main hatch and is much more compact and self-contained than my original set-up.

 

 

Right now, I'm waiting for the Delrin plastic to arrive to make the blocks that slide on the rods.  I also need to make the fair-leads that guide the braces onto their section of the winch drums.  The braces lead aft, out of the winches since they come through the deck at, or aft of the main mast.  This tray will be mounted right in front of the main mast.

Edited July 2, 2014 by JerryTodd

[JerryTodd]

The two control units with 2 sliding winches and a sail-arm servo each.

 

Ivan reveals how massive these thing actually were! 

 

 

Still waiting for the Delrin to make the mounting blocks, and I have yet to make the fairleads for the winches.

[JerryTodd]

My initial plan for operating the sails wa back in post #16.

The plan's generally the same except that the winches that will control the braces will slide fore-n-aft against springs to maintain tension on the braces, and these mechanisms will be mounted side-by-side instead of in tandem.  The original plan had the braces going to springs mounted on posts forward to get tension.

 

Today the Delrin plastic arrived and I got right down to making the mounting blocks for the winch servos.  My shop's still a shambles and I haven't a clue where all my clamps got off to, but I finally got 8 of the little beggars made, plus two screw-ups.

 

If you opt to try this system, make a jig for drilling the holes, precision makes a big difference with this, any thing that rubs and doesn't slide effortlessly will be a big problem under sail.

 

The springs I was initially going to use felt too hard, enough to bow the yard, or even possibly break it, so I opted for two much weaker but shorter springs.  I only had 8 of these, so I only put them on one side of each winch slide.  We'll see when I get to testing how this will work out.

 

Next up I'll make the fairleads for each servo, which looks like it'll mount to one of the mounting blocks and lean out slightly to clear the end of the winch drum, which is the diameter of a compact disc.

 

Edited July 6, 2014 by JerryTodd

[JerryTodd]

Added the fairlead plates Friday.  They're made from the same aluminum angle the end brackets were cut from.  They're attached to the Delrin slide block on one end of the servo with 2 #4 x 1/2" panhead screws, nipped off to 1/4"

 

(In the diagram you may have noticed the winch servos are reversed, that is the spindle is closer to one end of the servo than the other, and in the drawing it's shown at the wrong end, not making the best use of the space available - they are mounted correctly on the actualy unit.)

 

 

 

BTW: For those of you on Facebook, there's a Scale Sail RC group for Facebookers interested in the scale modeling aspects of RC sailing.

Edited May 19, 2015 by JerryTodd

[JerryTodd]

Painted the "trays" the servos are mounted on for both Constellation and Macedonian.  The servos were remounted and cotter pins installed to hold the slide rods in place.  Constellation's will get it's fuses, and other electrical items mounted, and holes drilled for it's mounting screws.  The guide holes in the fairlead plates aren't drilled yet,  I'm still trying to find the winch drums I made a while back to be sure the holes line up properly.

 

Edited December 4, 2014 by JerryTodd

[JerryTodd]

In reassembling the wiring and such, and testing everything before fastening it down, one of the winch servos just ran and ran.  Assuming it was the servo, I swapped it out with another one and found the problem was I didn't have the plug seated and the signal line wasn't connected.  That's one $45 servo still good, but it also demonstrated the ease of swapping out a servo with this set up:

 

 

Unplug the servo; take off the winch drum; loosen 4 mounting screws, and out it comes.

 

So, here's the servo tray with the wiring installed:

 

 

[JerryTodd]

I decided to make a spar before I forgot how. 

 

While the shop's still a wreck, and she sits on a cabinet behind the couch, she's too high to fit under the ceiling with her new main t'gallant pole aloft, and has to crouch like she's lying over to a strong breeze.

 

The doubling and truck got painted white, but I still have to make the cap, and of course, the fore and mizzen t'gallant masts.

 

   

Edited July 27, 2014 by JerryTodd

[dgbot]

That is a tight fit.  Well done.

David B

[JerryTodd]

Yesterday I made the mizzen t'gallant, a day or two before that the fore t'gallant.  Everything's painted, including the tip of the flying jib-boom, which has been bare wood for years now

 

   

 

   

[mtaylor]

Getting closer to getting her in water, Jerry.  Nice progress.

[dgbot]

It will look to nice to put it in the water.

David B

[JerryTodd]

Fella's, she's been in the water a few times now, next time she gets wet she'll have t'gallants and another jib set.

 

What I'm trying to get close to though is closing up the deck - that's a major milestone, because there's a lot I can't do until that step is taken.  To that end I have to get the brass tubing fairleads that lead the sheets and braces through the deck installed - some of that needs to happen in conjunction with installation of portions of the sub-deck.  The sub deck's underside  will be painted with epoxy both to seal it and to glue it to the deck beams.  There will be a removable section of deck under the pivot guns both fore and aft.  The hatch aft gives me access to the rudder head and it's servo, the one forward gives access to the jib sheets.

 

 

Anyway; once the subdeck is down I can lay the deck planking; which, BTW will be set down in 1 hour epoxy with blackening in it, and probably will be made of stained bass wood.  After scraping the deck and sealing it, I can add waterways, cap rail, deck furniture, hatch coamings, and then the bulwarks

Which will be made up something like this; 

 

Real rigging can then commence.  For that I have to rebuild my ropewalk which was damaged in the flood as well cobble together a functional servicing rig.  Remember my scale is 1:36 and this model sails, so my line has a few demands on it static models don't impart.   I have a quantity of Dacron Polyester sail thread from a sail-maker's supply and have walked out some very nice line up to the diameters Constellation (and Macedonian) will need - the main stay is about 5/32" diameter, but I have a couple of miles more to make in various diameters to even get seriously started.  Dacron line is really nice stuff too - not the slightest hint of fuzz! 

 

I also have a bit more than half of the chain plates to manufacture, and all the deadeye strops.

 

 

In a nutshell, there's a long way to go, but there you have a basic outline of what's ahead and in what order.

Edited December 4, 2014 by JerryTodd

[mtaylor]

Well... I meant water with the full compliment of sails and R/C gear.

 

Mast steps appear to be plywood.