USS Constitution by mtbediz - 1:76

[Der Alte Rentner]

On 3/19/2025 at 11:21 AM, GGibson said:

Dividing Attachment for MF 70 – PROXXON Inc   Nice to see how it can be used for making these measured cuts.

Oooh!  I have to get me one of those.

 

 

P.S.  Does anyone know what exactly triggers a new page here at MSW?  

Edited March 20 by Der Alte Rentner

[mtbediz]

3 hours ago, JSGerson said:

Coming along very nicely

 

Jon

Thank you Jon.

[mtbediz]

I made the deck planking for where the ship's wheel would sit and mounted it in place.

Edited Monday at 09:03 AM by mtbediz

[woodartist]

2 hours ago, mtbediz said:

made the planking for where the ship's wheel would sit and mounted it in place.

I absolutely love the precision of all that you do

[mtbediz]

3 hours ago, woodartist said:

I absolutely love the precision of all that you do

Thank you so much.

[JSGerson]

I assume that at some point you will wrap rope around the steering drum. That means the rope needs to pass through the deck. I didn't see any provisions for that. Should you rig the ship's wheel, here are some photos to help you do that.

[GGibson]

4 hours ago, JSGerson said:

I assume that at some point you will wrap rope around the steering drum. That means the rope needs to pass through the deck. I didn't see any provisions for that. Should you rig the ship's wheel, here are some photos to help you do that.

 

OK, so this was very interesting to me.  My apologies, Mustafa, for taking up this space in your build log. Your ship's wheel looks awesome in its place on the deck!  Great pictures, Jon.  So, I wondered where do those ropes wrapped around the drum go after they go through the spar deck?!?  Should we be able to see them somewhere on the gun deck, then?

 

Well, I did my own research (I've learned so much from you guys!), and found the plans on the USS Constitution Museum website related to the steering.  I saved these files as pdf's, and can't figure out how to show them as a picture here, but hopefully the pdf will open up ok.  It appears the cables go through the gun deck and then travel along the ceiling of the berth deck where they attach to the tiller and the rudder.  Very interesting! It appears that on the gun deck, they are going through some sort of conduit located in the Commodore's pantry (circled in red on the PDF), which is why we don't see it on the Museum's virtual tour website.  Jon may have been able to get in that area during his actual visit to the ship.

 

Anyways, I thought that was interesting, and thanks to Jon for pointing out the cable on the ship's wheel drum.  Again, this all looks fantastic on your Constitution, Mustafa!

 

Steering_Cables.pdf

 

 

Edited Saturday at 06:13 PM by GGibson

[JSGerson]

I have a lot of images of the Constitution, I mean a LOT of pictures. However strange it may sound, I do not have any images of the interior of the Commodore's pantry. I suspect, and this my opinion only, the Navy staff uses that small area for storage, something the public doesn't need to see. I have visited the ship at least 3 times, the last time was November 31, 2014 just before her last refit, but never got a private tour which would have allowed me to see things the general public did not have had access to. Had I joined the NRG sooner when they had one of their yearly conventions in Boston, I would have had that private tour. So sorry, no pictures of the interior of the pantry. I do have pictures of the tiller room where the steering cables hook up to the rudder should you want them.

 

Jon

[mtbediz]

14 hours ago, JSGerson said:

I assume that at some point you will wrap rope around the steering drum. That means the rope needs to pass through the deck. I didn't see any provisions for that. Should you rig the ship's wheel, here are some photos to help you do that.

Thank you so much for the pictures Jon.

[mtbediz]

10 hours ago, GGibson said:

 

OK, so this was very interesting to me.  My apologies, Mustafa, for taking up this space in your build log. Your ship's wheel looks awesome in its place on the deck!  Great pictures, Jon.  So, I wondered where do those ropes wrapped around the drum go after they go through the spar deck?!?  Should we be able to see them somewhere on the gun deck, then?

 

Well, I did my own research (I've learned so much from you guys!), and found the plans on the USS Constitution Museum website related to the steering.  I saved these files as pdf's, and can't figure out how to show them as a picture here, but hopefully the pdf will open up ok.  It appears the cables go through the gun deck and then travel along the ceiling of the berth deck where they attach to the tiller and the rudder.  Very interesting! It appears that on the gun deck, they are going through some sort of conduit located in the Commodore's pantry (circled in red on the PDF), which is why we don't see it on the Museum's virtual tour website.  Jon may have been able to get in that area during his actual visit to the ship.

 

Anyways, I thought that was interesting, and thanks to Jon for pointing out the cable on the ship's wheel drum.  Again, this all looks fantastic on your Constitution, Mustafa!

 

Steering_Cables.pdf 357.97 kB · 3 downloads

 

 

Thanks Greg. I was wondering where these ropes go and wanted to do a virtual tour to see them, but as you said, they go through the pantry.

[GGibson]

One more silly, stupid question before the end of my day, Mustafa.  Just so I understand how you are doing your awesome work.  You placed the decking under the ship's wheel and brought it back so it begins to surround the mizzen mast.  In order to do that, to have the decking rest solidly, I'm assuming you placed some type of "dummy" support beam between the fife rail and where the ship's wheel sits, somewhat like where I drew the red line in your picture below?  I will also assume you will also place decking, then, on the aft side of the mizzen mast, as well, to help support the mast and to have the mast base (can't think of its proper name now) sit on.

 

Again, apologize for taking up space on your build log, but I love to see how you are doing things with this exposed deck.  Thank you, sir! Carry on! 

 

 

[mtbediz]

1 hour ago, GGibson said:

I'm assuming you placed some type of "dummy" support beam between the fife rail and where the ship's wheel sits, somewhat like where I drew the red line in your picture below? 

Never hesitate to ask anything Greg. I'm here to answer questions.

 

Yes, I did exactly as you said and added a beam there. There are a lot of auxiliary beams on the original ship that I didn't add to my model anyway. And yes, I'll plank the aft side of the mizzen mast later.

Edited Sunday at 06:01 AM by mtbediz

[mtbediz]

I am working on captain's skylight. I prepared a hexagonal prism and a hexagonal-based conical prism from pear wood, adding details cut from 0.5 mm pear strips. I used black paint to represent the windows and made the window bars out of 0.5 mm brass wire. Finally, I finished it with a matte varnish."

Edited Tuesday at 04:03 AM by mtbediz

[JSGerson]

Compared to mine, your skylight is simpler to construct and just as visually effective if not more so. Excellence job in placing those horizonal brass bars. That was not easy to do. Breath wrong or have a slight hand tremor, and it's messed up. Well done.

 

Jon

[mtbediz]

Thank you Jon. 

For the aft skylight, I cut the base plate from 0.3 mm brass sheet and blackened it. I made the railing of the skylight from 0.7 mm brass wire, but I couldn't clean up the excess solder using my old files. So, I ordered a new set of files. I'll work on that later. Nothing is glued in place yet.
 

Edited Wednesday at 05:26 AM by mtbediz

[JSGerson]

Out of curiosity, how did you set up your soldering jig for the skylight railing?

 

Jon

[mtbediz]

11 hours ago, JSGerson said:

Out of curiosity, how did you set up your soldering jig for the skylight railing?

 

Jon

I didn't use a special jig for this. I just fixed the rail onto a flat surface with tape and soldered the stancions to it while holding them with my hand. By the way, I use soldering paste for soldering, so my hand is free and I can hold the stanchion with my hand.

Edited yesterday at 02:16 AM by mtbediz

[JSGerson]

Wow!

[mtbediz]

3 minutes ago, JSGerson said:

Wow!

I just edited my answer, if you read it again it might make sense.

[JSGerson]

Still, Wow!

[mtbediz]

I completed the binnacles and installed them in their places.

Edited 17 hours ago by mtbediz

[JSGerson]

Well done. I would have never have thought of fabricating the binnacles in that manner. Since I don't have a true drill press, just my Dremel drill stand and a Proxxon X-Y table, I'll have to give some thought as to how I could successfully accomplish the same thing as you (alignment issues) when the time comes . That is, if I ever finish these #$%^& canopy frames.🤬

 

Jon

[mtbediz]

4 hours ago, JSGerson said:

That is, if I ever finish these #$%^& canopy frames.🤬

So I made the right decision not to try to make the canopies your way.

[JSGerson]

I really wanted the canopy to have the center ornament that others had made. I committed myself and I will finish them before the decade is done🙃!

 

Jon

[GGibson]

2 hours ago, JSGerson said:

...and I will finish them before the decade is done

 

Why do I hear the Jeopardy theme in the background?!? 🤷‍♀️🤣

 

Awesome work by both of you gentlemen!  Inspiring!

[GGibson]

16 hours ago, mtbediz said:

I completed the binnacles and installed them in their places.

 

Great work on the binnacles, Mustafa!  Showing me all sorts of ways to use that mill! 👍🏆

 

I find it interesting that Model Shipways' USS Constitution Instruction Manual discusses the binnacle on page 23 and I'm assuming addresses it in the plans (although mt plans are still neatly folded in the Model Shipways book on the shelf), yet the binnacle is not on display in the online USSC Virtual Tour (actually you don't see the ship's wheel either, so maybe both were under repair when the virtual tour video was created) and you don't see the binnacle placed in the Spar Deck General Arrangement plans on the museum's Modeler Resources page. 🤷‍♀️

 

Love seeing all your spar deck details, Mustafa! 

[mtbediz]

1 hour ago, GGibson said:

 

Great work on the binnacles, Mustafa!  Showing me all sorts of ways to use that mill! 👍🏆

 

I find it interesting that Model Shipways' USS Constitution Instruction Manual discusses the binnacle on page 23 and I'm assuming addresses it in the plans (although mt plans are still neatly folded in the Model Shipways book on the shelf), yet the binnacle is not on display in the online USSC Virtual Tour (actually you don't see the ship's wheel either, so maybe both were under repair when the virtual tour video was created) and you don't see the binnacle placed in the Spar Deck General Arrangement plans on the museum's Modeler Resources page. 🤷‍♀️

 

Love seeing all your spar deck details, Mustafa! 

Thanks Greg. Life is pretty easy with that mill.