First Class Sloop of War Constellation by Jerry Todd - 1:36 scale - Radio

[JerryTodd]

I want to sail her next to the real one, and I'm shooting for August, on the anniversary of her launch.  The real test will be having some method of transporting, launching, and retrieving her ready in time.  I can't get a vehicle close to the launch site there, and there's bulkheads, a floating pier with a gangway, and various other challenges to getting her in the water there.

 

I'm really considering getting one of those kit trailers from Harbor Frieght or someplace and building a box on it to put two, or maybe three models in it fully rigged.

 

Here's a video of the Stad Amsterdam model, of a similar size with just such a trailer (starting at 0:47):

 

 

The sliding servo, talked about starting a few posts ago, worked great, as did the semaphore-arm heads'l sheeter.  She also handled the wind very well.  It gusted up over 15 a few times and she hardly heeled more than a strake or two of copper to it, even while grounded broadside-to with nothing to do but heel, and shy of a few pounds of ballast.

 

Just last night I started cutting the disks to make her new winch drums (a temporary wood and card version was used last Sunday). The new set I made some time ago vanished in my moving, so I'm finally giving in to fate and making a new set.  Since I'm going this route, I'll probably add space for the fore and mains'l tacks so she can set her coarses.  I'll detail why I'm concerned more with tacks than sheets on the coarses later.

Edited May 29, 2015 by JerryTodd

[Omega1234]

Hi Jerry

 

 

If you could sail your Connie with the real thing, that'd be a once in a lifetime honour. I hope that you're able to make it.

 

By the way, the trailer in the video looks like the perfect solution for you. I'd be going for it, if I was you.

 

All the best!

 

Patrick

Edited May 19, 2015 by Omega1234

[JerryTodd]

I started cutting out parts for a new set of winch drums.  I still haven't found the last "new set" I had made.



I clipped on the coarses to make measurements and figure out if I wanted to control the tacks by adding a new portion to the winch drums for them.



In the meantime...  I started working on making the fold-down bulwarks forward.  Starting with a card-stock template...



I made an upper and lower plate and glued 1/16" sheet bass to it.



I framed it inside and covered the inboard side with basswood sheet.

 

It's built as a single unit, but I can separate the panels with a jeweler's saw.  That will depend on whether I'm willing to tackle the hinges.  I'm thinking of just opening one panel forward, and several aft - but unless I concoct some hinges, these will be fixed open.

[JerryTodd]

I opted to install the drop bulwarks here as a single unit.  I'm considering opening the aft-most panel on the port side, and will have several open and the gun trained back aft.  I guesstimated the size of the hinges based on the photo below and of the actual hinge I was shown at the ship.

 

 

 

I printed them on card-stock and glued them inside the panels along with a eyebolt.

 

 

I also cut the notch for the catting tackle lead in one panel.

 

 

Then it got some paint.

 

 

 

The formast winch drum was bolted together, but the picture came out badly, so I'll get into that more tomorrow.

[JerryTodd]

The foremast winch drum, as promised.  The rods will be trimmed back after I figure out the section for the fores'l tacks.

Further back I detailed making the first set of drums from wood with CD's for flanges.  These are 1/8" styrene with some sort of thin sheet plastic with a texture on one side.  The fore mast winch will control the fore and fore tops'l yards.  There's two drums per yard, one for the port brace and one for the starboard brace, so there's four drums and 5 flanges separating them.  As the drum turns it takes up on one side and pays out on the other.  Adding the fore tack will mean adding two more drums and flanges.

 

The main mast drum has a third set of disks for the mizzen's crossjack and adding a set for the mains'l tacks will make it 8 drums and 9 flanges tall.  Because this pulling to one side concerns me a bit, I'm thinking or adding a bearing under the drum on the side where the braces come out, ie: the direction of pull, to prop up the stack.

 

 

The ends of the bulwark were trimmed back to allow for the end boards of the hammock rail and fixed bulwark

 

 

The cradle was rebuilt to allow the ballast keel to lay under the model.

 

   

[captainbob]

I've always preferred the drum to the arm, it doesn't work as fast but there's no need for speed in changing the set of the sails.

 

Bob

[JerryTodd]

The drums have two disks for each controlled yard plus the flanges in-between.  Adding two more for the coarse tacks will make the main/mizzen drum 8 disks high, and the foremast drum 6 disks high.  I was a little concerned with the braces all pulling to one direction against the servo's spindle, so I got the idea of adding a bearing block to the fairlead plate that the bottom of the drum would slide against.  The block is Delrin plastic and at that angle the bottom of the drum touches only a relieved corner of the block.

   

 

What's pictured is Macedonian's servo tray, but the experiment being a sucess, I'll wrangle it into Constellation's set-up in due time.

[JerryTodd]

The fore mast winch drum is getting close to done - I need to cut the slots for threading the braces and it'll be complete.



The main/mizzen drum is underway.  The threaded rod isn't thread over it's full length, only for about 1-1/2" at either end, so I need to tap the threads further along to get the length of rod I need for the now taller winch drum.



Drilling stack of plastic is aggravating at best, so I quit before I took the hammer to it and worked on something else.  In this case I traced a photo in Paint Shop Pro that I took of the ship's original end-boards that were mounted in her entry ports.
I scanned one of the end-boards I made from basswood and resized the tracing to fit it.

 

I printed them on the color laser and glued them onto the basswood pieces.  Here they are sitting in place on the model.  They need a couple of coats of poly on them yet.

[Omega1234]

Coming along, nicely Jerry!

[dgbot]

I am learning quite a bit about what is going on with RC Jerry.

David B

[JerryTodd]

The purpose of this log is so folks can learn from my mistakes,

 

and occasional successes.

[JerryTodd]

After all that work to get her ready for Port Fest, it took some effort to get up the gumption to take it all down - but down it had to come. 

 

After getting some specs for the fore and main course tacks, and making the extra disks for the winch drums, I pulled the servo tray out of the boat.  Both drums are complete, parts wise, but I still need to cut slots in the drum disks for threading the braces into the center of each stack.

 

 

 

Today the rig came down so I can move her about and open the door again.

 

 

A good portion of today was spent, after planting tomato plants; in tracking down a fault in the wiring of one of the winch servos, which wasn't responding to input.  I got a "servo-stretcher" which I'll use to increase the travel of the fore-n-aft servo that controls the heads'ls and driver from 90° to 180°.  I rigged it up to test and set it when I realized the foremast winch wasn't working.  Using a meter set for continuity and a pair of needles stuck in the wiring, I could not find a fault anywhere, and the servo worked fine on another channel.  I was about to conclude the problem was a bad channel on the receiver when I rmembered that I had fiddled with some of transmitter settings trying to slow down the heads'l servo.  I apparently slowed the wrong channel down to nothing.  Resetting that to 100% solved the problem, though I still haven't managed to slow down the heads'l servo.

 

Again, learn from my mistakes. 

Edited May 28, 2015 by JerryTodd

[JerryTodd]

Well, it's not the best video ever made, but it may be of interest to some RC square-rigger nerds 

 

 

You may note that the Semaphore Sheeter only travels a total of 90° in the video, that's upgraded to 180° now with the "Servo-Stretcher."

Edited May 28, 2015 by JerryTodd

[lambsbk]

Very nice video Jerry. And it certainly interests us non-RCer's as well. Fascinating seeing her sail. So whats next? I suppose you could mount more canon and that could take care of the competition.

Edited May 28, 2015 by lambsbk

[JerryTodd]

If I could come up with a multi-shot system for the pivots, I'd jump on it - but I'm not interested in a single-shot system where I have to bring the boat in and reload it each time.

 

I'm going to get the hull detailed and get controls in order - I can always toss the rig together if something comes up. 

The hull needs:

• the rest of the folding bulwarks made
• the scroll work trailboards on the head
• pin-rails, including turning the posts for the ones behind the fore and main masts
• eyebrows over the gun-ports
• boarding steps
• gratings
• glass in the skylight
• rails on the deck for the guns, new/reworked gun slides
• Chain-plates
• stern boomkin repaired - schooner knocked it off last sail
• ships wheel made - which is a matter of making the 20 spokes.
• Capstan made
• davits and the rest of the boats
• galley stack
• weather cloths on the head

I think that's it, not including rigging

[Omega1234]

Hi Jerry

 

That's some pretty impressive winch work you've got there!  I also must say, that I reckon she looked damn fine on the water....in fact, I reckon she owned the whole stage.

 

Nicely done.

 

One thing with the video-there was no sound.  Were your dulcet tones meant to be on the vid?

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[captainbob]

Great job, I really like your jib servo control arms, very clever I'll have to remember that one.

 

Bob

[JerryTodd]

I cut the sound on the vid because it was mostly the radio playing in the background - Baltimore radio, even the so-called "classic rock" station sucks.  Next time I'll put in a Stan Rogers or Gordon Bok CD.  In the sailing portion there was some guy on a loud-speaker introducing Helen Bentley to the crowd.  I have a hard time finding decent music that YouTube won't block for copyright, so I just leave it out.

[JerryTodd]

End boards at the bow

 

 

Fairlead for the fore-tack

 

 

 

Mizzen spencer step cleaned up, painted, and installed

 

 

 

and an experiment.  I finally found my engraver again while digging through the shop looking for something else.  I used it to trace the scroll-work of the trailboard into some pine.  I pressed some modeling clay onto it to see what sort of impression it would make.  I think it may do the job.  I'd frame around the carving and pour resin into it to take the engraving and form a backboard that would get attached to the stem knee of the model.

 

Edited July 8, 2016 by JerryTodd

[JerryTodd]

Spent some time at the post awful picking op a package that allegedly couldn't be delivered on May 14 because no one was home to sign for it - despite being in the garage with the door open and waving at the carrier when he drove up.  He also didn't leave any notice in the box, and I had to contact the shipper to find out it's been sitting at the post awful for two weeks.

 

This isn't the sort of thing I ought to work on after an aggravating morning, but I used the trip to go and get some brass and just got immersed in trying to figure this out.

 

If you're wondering, it's the mizzen tops'l yard parrell collar thing

 

   

 

 

[mtaylor]

Looks to me like it was the best thing you could have done after that kind of morning.  A bit of focus and distraction.   And that is some nice brass work.

[captainbob]

Nice brass work on that collar.

 

Bob

[JerryTodd]

It's back to the rear of the stove again.

 

I have to build a Revell 1:144 Fletcher kit into the Uss Evans to replace the old Lindberg model I slapped together back in 1981.  There's a section for this on my site and I might start one here once I get a bit further into it.

 

[JerryTodd]

Well, busting my bottom the get Constellation rigged for sailing in open water at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum Model Expo this weekend and the event's been cancelled because of a tropical storm coming up the coast.  I think I'll continue on prepping her and maybe take her down to Annapolis in a couple of weeks and sail her on the Severn.

[yancovitch]

haha   watching this ...giving me the itch again.......super control of the heads......too much for me to have handled...i just let them flop around .......hope yer other build goes well!!

[JerryTodd]

I bought this "Mighty Mite" 4" tablesaw from Harbor Freight a while back with the intention of building a box around it, make setting the blade height easier and more accurate, and use it specifically for things like making hatch gratings.

 

Ok, well I never got to all that, yet, but I decided I needed to give hatch gratings a try.   The only time I've made them before I drilled holes in a sheet and squared the holes with a nail ground square.  That was ok for the two or three gratings I needed then, but I want to make nice gratings for Constellation, Pride, and Macedonian.

 

For my first try I used 1/16" bass (lime).  Glued some strips into a block, and cut the slots on the bandsaw with a stop to keep the cut from going too deep.  With my finest blade the bandsaw still knocked teeth out of the "comb."  That's when I pulled down the Harbor Freight Mighty Mite.  (so "mighty" it binds cutting balsa).

 

I cut a set of "combs" by marking the table with a Sharpie and cutting by eye.  That didn't turn out too awful, though I did loose a lot of "teeth."

 

Next I made a jig by gluing a 1/16" square strip to some card and taped it all down with the strip about 3/32 left of the blade and the blade set 1/8" above the table.  Then I cut some pine scraps into 5" strips 1/4" wide, glued them all together with PVA, and sanded the block on all 8 sides.

 

The first cut is with the end of the block against the strip.  Then that cut is placed on the strip for the second cut, and so on until the whole block is notched.

 

 

 

I tossed the block into some alcohol to dissolve the PVA

 

and then separated the "combs"

 

I cut the combs in half so they were about 2-1/2" long

 

The first grate, I dipped in some oak stain and cut down to fit the Pride's lazerette hatch, so it's getting used.

 

So, I'm going to see if I can find a better blade for the Mighty Mite, and add some sacrificial wood on the block of strips so the tear-out won't destroy the last strip or two.  The pine seemed to be a little better than the bass, except the bass was much easier to get into strips.  If I sandwich the bass between some pine, that may reinforce it enough to not wind up with so much waste. 

 

There's a lot more gratings to make, Constellation's main hatch gets 28 of them all about 2" x 2-1/2", so this has to get to assembly line grade but quick.

[Timmo]

That example's looking good Jerry

[captainbob]

Nice demonstration.  If you find a better blade let us know.

 

Bob

[tlevine]

Consider slitting saw blades.  They come in various thicknesses to match the thickness of your grating.  Here are two companies I have purchased from in the past.  http://www.thurstonmfg.com/and http://www.malcosaw.com/  I think you can also pick them up on EBay.  Be sure you specify the correct diameter and center hole size.

[JerryTodd]

Soaking the strips in alcohol softened the wood, which I should know because that's how I make sail hoops. I didn't allow enough time for them to dry and being spongy made them hard to put together, and more prone to damage while doing it.

 

I managed to save enough to make gratings for the two ammunition hatches behind the pivot guns, but the remaining parts were just to damaged from handling to use.  These still need to be sized to fit.



So, I went back to bass because I have a bunch of 1/16" x 1/4" x 48" strips on hand. I cut one strip into 17 pieces to make the galley hatch grating. This time, instead of gluing them their whole length, I only glued them together at the ends and added on a couple of extra strips to take the eventual tear-out the saw would cause.

This worked out much better. Instead of soaking them, I cut off the glued ends. It was quicker setting up. Didn't have to wait for them to dry after soaking. The cuts were more precise and consistent, which made putting them together a lot easier, which meant less damage from trying to manhandle them into place.

With a little sanding, here's the galley hatch grating, it'll get stained and sealed before it's glued in place.
 

So, now I can glue up some strips this way, cut the grooves, and put them aside until I need a hatch grating. I still have 32 to make for Constellation, 28 of them in the main hatch; and one more for Pride.

 

Why are the attached images so big of late - they used to show in the message much smaller, now they seem to display full size.

Edited August 26, 2016 by JerryTodd