USF Confederacy by Augie & Moonbug - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:64

[Salty Sea Dog]

Awesome work Bug!!

[GLakie]

Hands down, the "home-made" wheel's definitely the way to go!  Very nice work Bug! 

[SawdustDave]

Nice work on the wheel Bug....well worth the effort.

Dave

[dgbot]

Looking good Moonbug.  I have learned another way to make a ships wheel.

David B

Edited February 15, 2016 by dgbot

[gjdale]

Okay Bug, I'm impressed!

[Sjors]

This is high class scratch!!!!!!

Well done Bug !

 

Sjors

[Canute]

Well done, Bug. That's a keeper idea.

[popeye the sailor]

love what your doing Bug........the wheel looks fabulous!   you did a great job of house keeping aboard ship........she's spotless  

[Moonbug]

   Thanks everyone for the comments and likes, I appreciate it.

 

    I'll try to do some work on her this week in the evenings, but this weekend I have my first business trip of the year, so I'll be heading to DC for the weekend and won't get to hang out in the shipyard. 

[riverboat]

Very.very nice!! work Bug..........

 

Frank

[Burroak]

Bug your doing a great job on the ship. Augie would be proud. Great job on the wheel.

 

Greg H.

[Moonbug]

Hello everyone!

 

     My sincerest apologies for the complete lack of updates and information.  My business travel schedule as of late is pretty brutal. I have two more trips this month (one tomorrow), and then three more in June.  Oy.  Top that off with organizing a giant party for my lovely wife's 40th Birthday last month and it's been a hectic 2016 thus far to say the least!

 

    At any rate, excuses aside - I have done a bit of work on the Confederacy in short spurts and starts when I've had a little availability.  Here's what I've been up to:

 

First - I finished up the ship's wheels and remounted them on the deck along with all the fixtures I removed to resurface and smooth out the deck.  That also meant re-mounting all the cannon.

 

 

To that end - even though the plans call for just four six pounders, I wanted to fill out the upper deck a bit more - so I ordered a few more cannon from Chuck and set to work added some guns and putting together some carriages.  Of course I referenced Augie's hard work so I could replicate as closely as possible.  Obviously I didn't want the additional guns to look any different from what he had on deck already.

 

 

Now, one part that threw me, and I couldn't find reference to in Augie's log - was how he created the knob/handle on the stool bed.  So I took a nail, added a glob of super glue, then painted it.  I don't think it's noticeably different from Augie's work, so I'm pleased with that.

 

 

 

Along with the 6 pounders, I also wanted to add a couple longer guns to the foremost cannon ports, even though those gun ports are closed. The open deck (starboard) side wasn't too difficult.

 

 

But on the Port side, that meant I'd have to tuck the cannons below decks, then attach the rigging to the sides of the ship below the deck.  It's was a little hairy in there... but I managed to pull it off after bouts of occasional profanity. 

 

 

All cleaned up, I think she looks pretty good.  Hopefully Mr. Augie's watching over and is pleased.  :-)  

 

Edited May 2, 2016 by Moonbug

[Jack12477]

Beautiful job Bug - looks fantastic. Augie will be proud.

[mtaylor]

Tedious to do but beautiful in the end.   Well done, Bug.   I agree with Jack and I'll add.. Augie would be smiling

[Kevin]

agreed Augie would be pleased to see the good work continued

[DBorgens]

Bug,

Just tripped over this log and am amazed at the work you are doing to complete Augie's Confederacy. How did you ever rig that last gun? You're making Augie proud up there. By the way, great photos.

 

Dave B

[Canute]

WOW, Bug. You're doing Augie proud. She's a beauty.

[texxn5]

I can only add the same accolades, and rest assured Augie is looking over your shoulder and giving you hints on how he wants it...great job Bug.....Augie is greatly missed here.

John

[popeye the sailor]

you've certainly excelled in your studies...your progress and enhancements look awesome!     the cannons came out looking very nice........and the refinished deck looks great too      nice to see you've made some progress                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

[SawdustDave]

Beautiful work Bug. The cannons look great.

[Moonbug]

Hello team!

 

   Got a question for the group regarding rigging the cannons.  The Confed directions call for gun tackles on either side of the cannon.

 

 

According to Augie's hand written notes in his folder, he didn't intend to rig these as he felt it made the deck a bit crowded. I'm a bit back and forth on this, but ultimately the decision is made a bit easier as it would be nearly impossible to add the side gun tackles to the cannons already mounted on the lower deck.  ;-)  

 

However - I like what our friend Sjors has done here with his Agamemnon and rear gun tackle.  

 

 

My question is - would that have been appropriate on the Confederacy?  I'm having some difficulty confirming one way or another.

 

Thoughts?

 

- Bug

Edited May 14, 2016 by Moonbug

[ofencer29350]

Normally, you standard cannon should be rig with a blomfield ring given his  year of construction

[lambsbk]

Any of the guns that were run out would have had a train tackle to heave them back in. The exception: carronades on pivot/swivel mounts would not. They had additional side tackle to maneuver the gun laterally. Hope that helps.

 

I know what Augie meant by "cluttered" deck. My gun deck on Constitution was getting pretty busy...I chose to leave off the train tackles though after I had put in the side tackles for that very reason.

[Kusawa2000]

I had researched that you have the hardware in place (eyebolts) but you don't need to have the rigging in place as they often didn't add the rigging until they needed the guns for battle. I personally don't put the rigging in place as I would agree with Aggy, it can make the deck a bit cluttered. I have attached a pic of Agamemnon as a example for you.

 

Mike Draper

[mtaylor]

Bug,

I'll toss another bit... the run-in tackle had hooks.  In action, these may have hooked or not.  At the very least, there were close at hand just in case they were needed.   It's not going to hurt to leave them off.   As there are no port lids on those ports, the guns may have just been left in the outboard position to allow more room the deck.  

[GuntherMT]

Looking great!

 

My personal opinion of what looks best is to fully rig the tackles except for the inhauls, which is something that depends heavily on deck space I believe.  There was simply not enough room on the deck of the AVS to place inhaul tackles because of the deck layout.   The big caveat here is that the blocks and ropes need to be appropriately sized, which often isn't the case with the stuff supplied in the kits.  I downsized all of my gun tackle (rope and blocks) to an appropriate size and I love the way the rigged guns look on models when done properly.

 

I agree with Mike that the eye-bolts should be placed regardless of whether you choose to add the inhauls or not.

[Moonbug]

Thanks everyone for your input - much to think about, I'll contemplate it a bit more, and consider how to go about tackling the cannons if I decide to go that route in some capacity.  I believe there is some benefit here of this being an Admiralty model, as it's purpose would be to display elements of the ship without necessarily incorporating every detail that a fully rigged replica would entail.  

 

Mark - The port lids are coming!  ;-)   That'll be one of those assembly line moments.  

 

In the meantime, yesterday I got a good bit of work done on the Transom.  It took a couple bumps and bruises along the way, and some of the paint had shipped off the figures, and created some blemishes on the black. Also - I wanted to touch up the window frames a bit.  Augie did such an awesome job with the window "glass" that I wanted to even out the finish and color of the frames to match the rest of the smooth look and feel of what he had going.  

 

The BAD new is - I jacked up the cove in the process (Sorry Augie!) so I had to rebuilt / reshape it.  WHAT A BEAST.  This gained me an entirely new appreciation for Chuck's laser cut parts!  *laff*  After much soaking, shaping, breaking, re-soaking and re-shaping, I finally got the cove repaired and replaced and stained to match.

 

 

The GOOD news is - this marked a small milestone in which I will now press on with new progress and moving forward with the build. Yay!  

 

Another business trip this week, but after that I should be able to put a few more hours in.

Edited May 15, 2016 by Moonbug

[src]

Looking good Bug.

As far as the gun rigging question, just my two cents, but if it was me I would follow with augies original intent. Again just my two cents.

Sam

[mtaylor]

Bug,

 

I know there's lids on the main gundeck but are they also on the fore and quarter decks?

[Moonbug]

Ah - I gotcha Mark. No, there aren't. Misunderstood where you were going b/c the main deck lids aren't installed yet.

 

-Bug