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

[Omega1234]

Nice!

[JerryTodd]

The cap rail at the bow was installed:

 

And I started making the blocks that will make the bulwarks.  Here they're just sitting on the deck near where they'll be installed, and a sketch of how they work:

 

[mtaylor]

She's looking more and more like a warship now, Jerry.   Lovely work.

[JerryTodd]

Waterways and scuppers installed

 

 

and all the bulwark blocks in place

[JerryTodd]

I don't think I'll have grating figured out in time for her next sail at the N.S. Savannah on May 17th, so I made a temporary hatch cover for the main hatch yesterday, and today made choke to hold the boats.  This is just so she'll look a little better on display.

 

I began installing the covering boards on the hammock rails, starting with the lower ones first, inboard and outboard.  Once these are set, I'll install the next panel up inboard.  I need to put some blocking and brass tubing in where the through blocks for the fore and main sheets come through the bulwark.  I'll also paint the insides before putting the outboard cover on.

 

 

 

They look a bit like feed troughs with stalls for farm animals at the moment.

Edited April 24, 2015 by JerryTodd

[Jorge Diaz O]

wow,congratulations

[JerryTodd]

Took off the clamps this morning.  The tube is the guide that routes the fores'l sheet below.  All this will get painted inside before I put on the outboard panel.

 

Edited April 25, 2015 by JerryTodd

[JerryTodd]

Continued on the hammock rails.  Would have gotten more done, but I only have so many clamps that will work.  All the lower panels are in, the inboard upper panels on the port side, and the outboard port side ones are fitted, ready to install.

 

 

[Omega1234]

Hi Jerry

 

I love that first shot of the bow! It really emphasises how shapely the hull is.

 

Great job!

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[JerryTodd]

I've heard Lenthall took some pointers from the merchant ship builders who had been building world class ships for a decade by 1854.  When Stad Amsterdam was in town I could almost see them side-by-side and see some of that clipper ship influence in Constellation.

 

A couple more sexy poses for ye 

 

     

Edited April 26, 2015 by JerryTodd

[Omega1234]

Hi Jerry

 

Sexy poses! It's almost bordering on 'boat porn' for us modellers! But, hey. I'm not complaining. Please keep the sexy poses coming because I'm definitely liking what I'm seeing.

 

Keep 'em coming.

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[captainbob]

Yes, that one in the water - WOO-HOO.

 

Bob

[JerryTodd]

Still three weeks to water time Bob.  I hope to get some very provocative poses then, and some video too.

 

Today though, I plugged along on the hammock rails.  I'm going ahead with closing up inboard and outboard sides, instead of leaving them open to paint inside.

 

The uncut panels are clamped in place and marked inside. Then they're cut, trimmed, beveled, and glued in place.


I put a coat of poly on the outside to harden the wood a little and scribed the vertical staving on.


The port side is all together, trimmed, and scribed. There's some little gaps to close up, then I'll actually poly rather than paint the insides.
Here the starboard outboard panel just got glued on.

Edited April 27, 2015 by JerryTodd

[JerryTodd]

Break time!

 

All the hammock rails are installed, puttied, sanded, scribed, and even given a coat of paint.

 

   

[mtaylor]

A well-deserved break with the adult beverage of choice....  Very well done, Jerry. 

[JerryTodd]

So,  I gave the deck a sanding and a coat of oil based poly.  This reacted with the marker ink in the deck seams making them bleed a bit.  It did give the deck a nice color though.

When the poly dried I gave the inboard side a coat of white, including the waterways.

 

 

[JerryTodd]

These hammock rails require a lot of work!

 

Yesterday I added the mainsheet fairleads through them, and polyurethaned inside each compartment.  I also extended the forward channels a bit.  I made them too narrow years ago when I put them on, they're the right depth now.

 

Today I added blocking to give the covers more glue surface and solidify the panels between the blocks.

 

 

The first layer of balsa went on all around, capping off the hammock rails at last.

 

     

 

And for kicks I sanded and polyed the deck again.

Edited April 30, 2015 by JerryTodd

[JerryTodd]

So, as I often do with this model, I've run into something of a dilemma.

 

Looking through my images with the intent of figuring out what color the tarps over the hammocks should be; black or white; I found no tarps.

 

The image shows the ship at various points in time pertinent to my depiction of her.

 

Top to bottom they are, chronologically:

1. Naples 1856 by deSimone (The painting my model is based on primarily)
2. Naples 1856ish maybe by Roux - often misIDed as the Levant (I leveled and flipped the image to correspond to the others)
3. Naples 1856ish another deSimone?
4. Naples 1862 by deSimone
5. Chesapeake 1871 earliest known photo

 

In each of these images there are no coverings over the hammocks.  In #3 and #4 she is underway, though in the harbor; in the other 3 she's at anchor.  Interestingly, the hammocks lean different ways in the images (remember #2 is mirrored).

 

I'm not aware of any other contemporary images of the ship other than an 1859 engraving where she's in dry-dock with nothing in the hammock rails, and an 1864 sketch, also in dry-dock.

 

At any rate, I suspected the tarps were black and now I'm thinking I need to show uncovered rolled hammocks instead.

 

PS:  There is one more contemporary image that depicts the ship after 1871.  There are no tarps, or even hammocks here.

Edited April 30, 2015 by JerryTodd

[mtaylor]

Hmm.... I wonder where the idea from tarps came from then?   And the supporting structure?  And no, I'm not ripping my completed Constellation apart to correct it.    

[JerryTodd]

Hammocks were covered with tarps probably as long as there were hammock nettings to store them in.  Constellation's hammock cranes were originally meant to be covered with "weather cloths"  ie: painted canvas tarpaulins outboard just as the original six frigate were originally designed with open bulwarks on their spar decks.

 

I'm not sure why the hammocks weren't covered in those images, and I'm not sure yet how I'm going to deal with it.  I kind of like the hammocks exposed, so I experimented with some hammock sized bits of cloth rolled and bent into a yoke.  They seemed awfully small and lead me to think they were put in in two rows inboard and outboard.  I could make a cap piece with the hammocks all protruding out of the top and cast several in resin.  I think that would bend and curve enough to take the shape of the rails, save a great deal of work, and be a little tougher than gluing a bunch of bumps on the rail cap piece.

 

Anyway....

 

The fixed bulwarks forward are shorter than they ought to be, so I started building them up.  First I epoxied a sheet of 1/16" bass to the inside.  When that was set-up I added another layer outboard and on top of the existing bulwark.  Once this sets overnight I'll add more layer to get it to the correct thickness, then trim it to size and shape.

 

 

 

I began installing eye's in the deck at the base of the masts according to the 1888 spar deck plan.  Most of these are brass screw-eyes, but the two that will anchor the main stay are eye-spikes set into the deck at an angle roughly 90° to the stay.  The forward and aft hatches also got three eyes each as shown in the plan.  The images are: mizzen, main, and fore and forward is to the left in each.  The brass rods standing nearby are for the bitts a rough-out version can be seen in the mizzen image.

 

   

Edited May 1, 2015 by JerryTodd

[JerryTodd]

I apparently misjudged the size of the hammocks - these buggars must have been used as tents ashore as well - they're big!

Kearsarge 1880's

[JerryTodd]

Finished making and installing the mizzen bitts.

 

 

Built up the bow bulwarks and padding the bowsprit hole.

 

   

[Omega1234]

Hi Jerry

 

She's coming along very nicely and the figurine gives a true indication of scale.

 

Nice!

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[JerryTodd]

Running around town a lot today, so I only managed a little bit of paint.

 

 

 

 

[JerryTodd]

Staring at the image of the Kearsarge I posted above, I realized the hammocks are not bent into a yoke, but simply rolled up into a sausage.  They're put in the hammock rails side-by-side, pretty willy-nilly from the looks of things.  An original US Navy hammock of the 1870's measured 39" (99cm) by 70" (178cm) so it's an easy guess at how long the rolls are.  Going back to the sausage analogy, they're stuffed with something; I can't figure any other reason a simple 3 foot wide canvas hammock would roll up to be THAT bulky - they're nearly as large as a man's torso!

 

I guess using elbow macaroni to represent the top of the "yoke" sticking out isn't going to work now.

 

I'm thinking making the portion of these things that stick out of the rails and glue them onto the cap piece I already have installed.  I can soak them with thinned resin to plasticize them and further fasten them down.

[mtaylor]

On the hammocks in the Kearsarge...  Blankets in there?   I thought I read somewhere about clothing being put in the roll, usually during inspections as opposed to having them on the berth deck.

 

There's more to this than meets the eye... it's obviously some sort of inspection, review, or visiting dignitary type thing.  Also the hammocks are as you say pretty willy-nilly and piled higher than the bulwarks almost to the point of falling overboard.  Obviously not the normal stowage.

 

Would the hammocks normally be rolled lengthwise and bent in half?  Or rolled width wise and stood on end? 

[JerryTodd]

There's obviously more there than just a hammock and it's rigging - blankets makes sense.  Sailors had their sea chests and sea bags to stow clothes in.  Each one has a man's name and his number stenciled on it.  They're not bent into the 'U' or yoke shape - I don't see that you could as fat as they are.  I initially thought they were 'bent' till I realized they were set into the rails in pairs, side-by-side.  Navy hammocks were 70" long, curled into a yoke would make these this about 3 foot square.

 

I think they are shoved in as deep as they will go.  If you cover them with a tarp and cinch it down snug, they would probably compress to within the height of the end boards.

[JerryTodd]

These bitts have a three pronged bronze crown on them.  I'll probably wind up painting them with the green patina normally seen on bronze, but for now I just colored them with a bronze metallic Sharpie.

 

     

 

Edited May 4, 2015 by JerryTodd

[Omega1234]

HimJerry

 

Those bitts look really good. The sailor standing next to one of them emphasises the fact that they must've been pretty substantial in size, especially given the sorts of strain that the rigging would've placed upon them.

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

Edited May 4, 2015 by Omega1234

[JerryTodd]

Today I focused on the catheads.  Relying on the 1888 spar deck plan to tell me where it was, the angle at which it projected from the ship, and how far out; I had to rely on photos to figure out it's steave.

The simplest and most accurate way to make the slots for the sheaves was to laminate it.  Fortunately, it worked out to being 7/16" square in 1:36 scale which was perfect to laminate 7 layers of 1/16" bass with 3 sheave slots.  I didn't put in working sheaves, but used slices of walnut 3/8" dowel glued in place instead.

 

 

 

For those of you following along with the possible idea of learning something - here's your chance - do this somewhere long before this during the construction.  In this case the catheads are set into the hull at 60° from horizontal right at the hull/cap rail seam, which means I could have simply sawed a notch for it with a razor saw and been done with it.  Now I had to bore a hole, and dig it out square keeping two angles correct.  Even if I hadn't set the catheads before now, the hole for it would have been there, ready for it.

 

As it turns out; slow careful work with a bur on the roto-tool got me to a good, snug fit.  Now all I have to do is make and fit the starboard cathead.

 

 

Edited May 5, 2015 by JerryTodd