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

[popeye the sailor]

sweet look'in ship's wheel Bug...........Chuck has a sweet little kit there     

[riverboat]

Real nice work Bug........

 

Frank

[Sjors]

Building high class !!!!!!!!!

Very, very nice Bug !!!

 

Sjors

[DBorgens]

Keep raising the bar!!! You're certainly succeeding.

Enjoying your posts.

 

Dave B

[Moonbug]

Thanks for the looks and likes everyone, it's much appreciated, sincerely. 

 

 I've got another trip this weekend. So, knowing I wouldn't really get any 'days off' over the weekend, I decided to procrastinate some of my work during the week and head down to the shipyard and get some things done.

 

 Next up, the cheeks, hawse holes and trailboards.  Before I got started I did some fitting and measure, and prepping the figurehead etc.  

The first problem I ran into was paint color.  The rear decorations and etchings of the ship were done is straight "wood" color from Testor's Model Master line.  Although it looked good, it is considerably darker than the natural stained color of the hull, etc.  I liked this very much, as it made the details on the transom really pop.  However, when we get to the bow of the ship and painting those etchings and even the figure head that dark - it just didn't look right.

 

 

  After some experimenting, I was able to come up with a pretty good color with about a 60/40 mixture of "House Cream" and "English Oak".   Of course that meant repainting all the etching and window frames and details on the transom.

 

I was NOT looking forward to this... but necessary is necessary and I spend three days with a size 0 brush while my eyes crossed and my fingers cramped.  ;p

 

 

As a side note - I had to add a good coat of primer to the figurehead to get it to take the paint.  Remember, we swapped out the metal figurehead with the plastic molded one. 

 

 

Next up, the cheeks.  Very light sanding to get rid of the char, then a bit of reshaping to get them to fit to the bow snuggly.

 

 

No alternatives for the photo etched carved strips, so they required some careful painting.  I fitted them first to get an idea of what part of the bow needed to painted black, then did more painting.

 

 

The instructions call for some etching along the cheeks my gauging out lines on the sides, then smoothing them out.  But I found this little tool in my stash and thought it'd look pretty cool.  Overall, I like the way it came out with the etching attached.

 

 

Same process for the upper cheeks.  Some delicate sanding to get everything to look pretty seemless.  And I dry fitted the figure head to make it all work out.  You'll notice here that the gap between the figurehead's foot and the lower cheek extension is a bit too wide, so I redid the lower piece to get it closer.  That took some fiddling with the metal etch carving pieces, etc.

 

 

My next problem occurred when I dry fitted the hawseholes and trailboards.  The directions call for four pieces shaped to fit the bow of the ship.  But, after only three, I was running out of room quickly.  And bear in mind, I BARELY sanded the backsides of the cheeks. Just enough to get rid of the char and adjust the "roundness" to fit the bow ok.  Oy.

This wasn't going to do.  So i stuck with three, and fitted the bolster.  NO CHANCE any of this was going to fit.  

 

 

My first solution was to create and inset in which the bolster would fit.  After a number of different attempts, this failed miserably.

 

 

So, my final solution was to just have ONE layer of the trailboards and fit the bolster and drill out the hawseholes.  Overall, I think it's definitely passable.  All of the basswood is treated the same as the rest of the trip with a layer of wood conditioner, stain in Miniwax "Natural" then I'll add a layer of lacquer.  Ultimately, this as made the etching and wood pretty close to the same color.

 

Edited July 22, 2016 by Moonbug

[Sjors]

Yep,

 

Amazing !!!!!!!

 

Sjors

[mtaylor]

Sweet work, Sean.   Have a safe trip.

[Salty Sea Dog]

Very nice!

[src]

Well done! I see the right person was chosen to complete this for Augie, he is looking down and saying "You got me smilin' Bug"

 

Sam

[popeye the sailor]

such wonderful progress Bug........the bow looks really ship shape.   the decorations add so much to the overall detail.   not sure if you ran this through your mind,  but could you have scratch made the Hawseholes using thinner wood?    they look to be 1/16 thick........perhaps 1/32...or even 1/64 would have given you the layered look you desired.   the only reason I mention this,  is for information......not a critique..........in the event that someone out there runs into the same problem.  I could see you were bummed that this couldn't be done........this popped into my head as soon as I read your lament.   I thought I'd simply throw it out there    I would never distract from the work your doing on this build..........the change of the paint color alone,  made a huge difference in the looks of the bow.......as well as the stern.   :im Not Worthy:

 

I am  'soooooo" convinced!  

[Moonbug]

   Thanks for the likes and comments everyone, much appreciated. 

 

  Popeye - Critique or not, it's all welcome comments.  :-)   That's what MSW is for as far as I'm concerned!   I did in fact go down that route a bit, but didn't have a ton of luck with it. I tried sanding down the trailboards as much as possible, and the bolster is already about 1/16 - and any thinner just looked a bit unrealistic.  In the end, it worked - but was not as "clean" as using the single layer.  Could've been my stubby fingers. I probably would have had better luck there using boxwood instead of the basswood though, as obviously it thins out much nicer.  But then I'd have been faced with differing shades of wood and etching, etc.

 

  I think - were I to do it again - I would probably do a combination of making the cheeks themselves a little thicker than what came with the kit, then the trailboards and bolster thinner as well. 

 

- Bug

[Guest ir3ausley]

I've been away for a long time but had to come back and see the progress. Beautiful work as usual.

 

ir3

[Blue Pilot]

Truly beautiful work!

[Moonbug]

Thanks Ir3 and Mark, much appreciated.

 

  I took a Friday off and decided to hang in the shipyard most of the day, so got a fair amount done.

  

   First, I duplicated the cheeks and trailboards and finished the Starboard side.

 

 

   I then got to work on the main head rails.  A couple challenges here - obviously the port and starboard sides of the bow aren't exact, so I needed to measure the head rails to fit, rather than specific measurements.  In order to accomplish this, I installed the head beam first, so I had something to give me a frame of reference.  

 

   

    After thinning the head rails and tapering them as instructed, I encountered a problem at the fore deck of the ship along the rails. A gap.  

 

 

Now, I wasn't sure if I should taper the head rail, or if I should taper the ship.  My solution, was to add a little bit of filler, then sand it to fit nicely.

 

 

   Once each head rail was glued to the foredeck, I then glued it to the main beam.  

 

 

Finally, having those in place gave me a chance to shape and bend it slightly before gluing it to the out near my mascot.

 

 

Edited July 30, 2016 by Moonbug

[src]

Well done Bug,

Sam

[Moonbug]

     Thanks Sam,  I appreciate it.

 

     I Continued to work on the Head Timbers this weekend.  

 

     And wow - what a giant pain in the keister!   Obviously, the bow of the ship is not perfectly symmetrical, but I figured if I used the supplied paper templates, I could get close with the timbers and then make some minor adjustments.

 

   Not so much.  Basically - it came down to just trial and error trying to get them to fit on either side of the head rail.  Here are my scraps of cutting, sanding, fitting,  and failing.    

 

 

 

     I'm not completely satisfied with the outcome here, so I'm going to feel out the middle rail and see how it looks, along with exploring options with filling in the little gaps to make everything nice and snug.    If that doesn't pan out, maybe I'll just scrap it all, and try again.  We shall see.

 

Edited August 1, 2016 by Moonbug

[riverboat]

Wow!!.... looks pretty darn good to me.... nice work Bug...

 

Frank

[src]

Nicely done.

I have wondered for a while now. What is the purpose of the head rail? Does it give stability to the stem? It does not seem stout enought to do much to my non-engineers eyes

Sam

[Moonbug]

 Thanks Frank - we are always a bit more discerning of our own work, aren't we?   

 

I'm not entirely sure of the historical reason Sam, but my assumption would be just to provide solid support for the head grating and give sailors a way to service the stem, bowsprit gammoning, and other parts of the bow.

 

  Maybe some of our other, more knowledgeable esteemed colleagues have a better answer. 

 

- Bug

[mtaylor]

The headrail may be a holdover from the spritsail times.  With the spritsail there were belaying points using the rails.  It also gives a sailor something to hold onto in rough seas when heading to the head or bowsprit.   

 

I'm just very impressed with the quality of work you're doing, Sean.

[HIPEXEC]

Wow! Amazing detail!

[Salty Sea Dog]

It looks pretty symmetrical in the pics but I'm especially impressed with the crispness and fit of all the pieces! Great job Bug!

[Moonbug]

Thanks for the extra info Mark, and the kind words. Also, thanks Rich and Buck, I appreciate the sentiments.

 

Gotta trudge through another work week before I can get back to the shipyard.

 

-Bug

[popeye the sailor]

looks pretty darn good to me too Bug     .....lots of parts that had to be made.  I like the decorative detail you put into the outer rails.......are you putting some of that frieze work on there too?  gonna look sweet if you do  

 

sadly,  back to work for me as well.......>sigh<.........didn't get as much table time,  as I would have liked.    very glad to see you did though  

[Cathead]

Just now catching up on this build, and will add my amateur 2 cents that you're doing a wonderful thing, and a wonderful job. Thanks for being an inspiration.

[Moonbug]

Thanks Cathead, I appreciate the sentiment.    

Unfortunately my plans to get into the shipyard this weekend were foiled by the "honey-do" list and the Olympics.  ;-)  But perhaps I'll be able to sneak in this weekend.

[Moonbug]

   So, the last couple weekends have been a tough part of the build for me.   Going from the support beams to the middle rail was a tough bit.  Although the guidance warns against permanently putting the mid rail into position until everything is fitted - that didn't work for me. I had to glue the mid rail in before I could measure anything out.

 

 

   I started with the cathead knee, carving out a spot for it along the side of the ship and making an adjustment where the bottom meets hull.  

 

 

    However, I ultimately changed my methodology, and use the middle portion that links to the mid rail to the cathead knee as my focal point. I shaped and shaped and shaped some more to fit it along the hull, then notched out a spot against the hull where it would hopefully meet the cathead knee with as little deviation as possible.

 

 

   Here's a good comparison of how the parts started, and the degree to which they needed to be shaped. 

 

 

  Once everything was aligned, it became a sanding fest with a very small amount at a time until everything could get smoothed out.  I also added a bit of glue to the cracks of the moulding so that as I sanded, the sawdust would get caught in the cracks and fill in the gaps as much as possible. 

 

 

It was also important to sanded the moulding along the shape of the hull so the final product is the same width consistently throughout the bow.  In the end, it was a bit of funky tweaking, and each of the pieces has a very slightly different shade to it based on the grains and the sanding. But overall, it smoothed out pretty well I think.

 

 

Finally, I added the pre-stain and the stain, then touched up the decorative trim. Although the instructions only show the decoration to the base of the middle rail, I thought it more prudent to continue it the length of the middle rail.

 

 

I still have to add the half beam at the base of the bow, but I am pretty pleased with the end result.  Now to spend the next couple of weeks doing the port side...  Ugh.

 

- Bug

Edited August 14, 2016 by Moonbug

[gjdale]

Nice work Bug. Tedious, but the end result is worth the effort!

[rdestefano01]

Im 36 years old from charlestown MA, home of the Constitution. I can see the masts from my window. Anyway im new to model ship building and im yet to buy my first model ( im going to atempt the 1:48 Surprise from AL). This is the best build log. I just spent 2 hours reading it all. One word..WOW. Hopefully some day...

[popeye the sailor]

now.....that looks SWEET Bug!!!   wonderfully done!   finger's crossed the other side is just as good