USS Constitution by mtbediz - 1:76

[mtbediz]

2 hours ago, JSGerson said:

I did a similar method only I didn't have a mill cutter lying around, so I used my Byrnes Saw. You made that process look so easy. neat, and clean. Well done! Out of curiosity, where did you get your brass cannon barrels from and what size did you get?

 

Jon

The scale of my model is 1:76. Actually, I needed slightly larger cannons, but this is the closest cannon I could find in Turkey. It was possible to buy larger sizes abroad, but since it would cost me a lot, I decided to use them.

The length of the cannon is 43 mm.

Edited December 31, 2023 by mtbediz

[JSGerson]

Just so you know for comparison, The MS kit provides 37mm long guns and 23mm carronades. How accurate they are to the actual guns at scale, I don't know. Speaking of guns, the actual ship does not have her original guns but replicas mostly installed in 1927.  By 1897 on her 100th birthday, she no longer carried any guns. The carronades that most likely represented the ones used in the War of 1812 (an 1808 design) are the ones with a screw adjustment for raising and lowering the barrel. These replicas were installed in 1981. The ones using a wedge for that purpose are of the 1840 era and are more technically called gunnades. As I understand it, the idea is to eventually replace the gunnades with the more accurate carronades sometime in the future. 

 

Just thought you might want to know, Jon.

[mtbediz]

6 hours ago, JSGerson said:

Just so you know for comparison, The MS kit provides 37mm long guns and 23mm carronades. How accurate they are to the actual guns at scale, I don't know. Speaking of guns, the actual ship does not have her original guns but replicas mostly installed in 1927.  By 1897 on her 100th birthday, she no longer carried any guns. The carronades that most likely represented the ones used in the War of 1812 (an 1808 design) are the ones with a screw adjustment for raising and lowering the barrel. These replicas were installed in 1981. The ones using a wedge for that purpose are of the 1840 era and are more technically called gunnades. As I understand it, the idea is to eventually replace the gunnades with the more accurate carronades sometime in the future. 

 

Just thought you might want to know, Jon.

Thanks for the useful information Jon. I actually don't know the length of the original guns either. I just wanted the tip of the guns to be a little further out from the gun ports. Happy new year.

Edited January 1 by mtbediz

[mtbediz]

I am adding the cuoins, transoms and breast pieces of the carriages.

Edited January 3 by mtbediz

[GGibson]

Great work on these cannons, Mustafa!  Giving me another justification to add a micro mill to my own shipyard tools!  If I ever get to this Constitution build, I may ask you about sharing that jig detail... very nice!

 

What brand of mill machine are you using, Mustafa? 

Edited January 2 by GGibson

[mtbediz]

7 hours ago, GGibson said:

Great work on these cannons, Mustafa!  Giving me another justification to add a micro mill to my own shipyard tools!  If I ever get to this Constitution build, I may ask you about sharing that jig detail... very nice!

 

What brand of mill machine are you using, Mustafa? 

Thanks Greg. The micro mill is a tool that every modeler should have. Thanks to it, I can do many tasks faster and more accurately. I am using Proxxon MF70. An excellent machine, I recommend it.

Edited January 3 by mtbediz

[GGibson]

45 minutes ago, mtbediz said:

I am using Proxxon MF70. An excellent machine, I recommend it.

 

Yep, that's the one I have read about most and am seriously looking at getting it.  Thanks for sharing what it can do! 👍

[Dr PR]

Mustafa,

 

Nice work! The Constitution has a special place in the hearts of us US Navy folk.

 

I too have been lusting after the Proxon MF70!

 

There is a trick I use to simplify the making of many identical gun carriage sides (cheeks) or any other similar parts without using a table saw (I don't have a table saw!).

 

I cut a long piece of wood to the right height and thickness of the carriage sides. Then I cut off pieces that are a bit longer than the carriage sides. I line up all of these rectangular pieces side by side and clamp them together. Then I file the ends flat and glue a strip of wood across each end. This produces a single "block" of many identical side pieces that can be milled as a single piece.

 

Then I milled the block, cutting each feature of the carriage sides in all the pieces in a single pass, just as you did with your milling machine. After all the cuts were made I milled off the glued-on end pieces to free up all the individual carriage sides. This also cut the side pieces to the correct length.

 

This produces carriage sides with the wood grain running the length of the pieces instead of across the parts. You can see a stack of side pieces as they came out of the mill (after the glued-on end pieces were cut away) at the upper left of the left photo, and some assembled carriages in the right photo.

 

 

 

[mtbediz]

12 hours ago, Dr PR said:

Mustafa,

 

Nice work! The Constitution has a special place in the hearts of us US Navy folk.

 

I too have been lusting after the Proxon MF70!

 

There is a trick I use to simplify the making of many identical gun carriage sides (cheeks) or any other similar parts without using a table saw (I don't have a table saw!).

 

I cut a long piece of wood to the right height and thickness of the carriage sides. Then I cut off pieces that are a bit longer than the carriage sides. I line up all of these rectangular pieces side by side and clamp them together. Then I file the ends flat and glue a strip of wood across each end. This produces a single "block" of many identical side pieces that can be milled as a single piece.

 

Then I milled the block, cutting each feature of the carriage sides in all the pieces in a single pass, just as you did with your milling machine. After all the cuts were made I milled off the glued-on end pieces to free up all the individual carriage sides. This also cut the side pieces to the correct length.

 

This produces carriage sides with the wood grain running the length of the pieces instead of across the parts. You can see a stack of side pieces as they came out of the mill (after the glued-on end pieces were cut away) at the upper left of the left photo, and some assembled carriages in the right photo.

 

 

 

Hello Phil, thank you for sharing your technique. Good technique and nice result.

[mtbediz]

I have started making the wheels for gun carriages. 

Edited January 6 by mtbediz

[GGibson]

Nice work, Mustafa! How did you make the wheels and axles?

[mtbediz]

On 1/5/2024 at 6:49 PM, GGibson said:

Nice work, Mustafa! How did you make the wheels and axles?

Thank you Greg. 

 

First, I cut the wheels from a dowel to the appropriate thickness with a table saw, then from a smaller dowel, I cut the pieces representing the axle extensions and glued them to the center of the wheels with CA. I glue these wheels I prepared to the carriage axles. Lazy job

Edited January 12 by mtbediz

[GGibson]

9 hours ago, mtbediz said:

First, I cut the wheels from a dowel to the appropriate thickness with a table saw, then from a thinner dowel, I cut the pieces representing the axle extensions...

 

Ahh, sure, of course!  Dowels make sense.  Sometimes I forget the scale we are working with when I see certain wood pieces. They look bigger in pictures!   <doh> 🤣👍

[mtbediz]

I have started painting of the gun carriages. I mixed red and yellow paints 50-50. 

 

Some friends may find the color of the carriages wrong (pinkish), but I tried to capture the color in the photos taken on the real ship. I think the paint on the carriages on the real ship has also faded over time or the photos taken may not reflect the real color.

 

Despite everything, since these cannons will be under the spar deck anyway, the color will not stand out too much.

Edited January 11 by mtbediz

[JSGerson]

I think you hit the color perfectly. Nice job!

 

Jon

[mtbediz]

7 hours ago, JSGerson said:

I think you hit the color perfectly. Nice job!

 

Jon

Thank you Jon. It means a lot to me that this is coming from you.

Edited January 12 by mtbediz

[mtbediz]

I made a jig to test the gun rigging. By the way I make my ropes with my homemade ropewalk. 

[Geoff Matson]

I like how neat and crisp all your cannons look. Nice work on your home made ropewalk. The line looks great. You are making great progress. I  enjoy following your progress. 

[mtbediz]

8 hours ago, Geoff Matson said:

I like how neat and crisp all your cannons look. Nice work on your home made ropewalk. The line looks great. You are making great progress. I  enjoy following your progress. 

Thank you for your interest Geoff. 

[mtbediz]

This is how the cannons on the gun deck will be seen in the end. Gun tackles will be added after the spar deck beam support knees are installed because gun tackle hooks will be attached to the eye bolts on the knees.

Edited January 17 by mtbediz

[TurkSailor]

Süper! Türkiye'de birini görmek çok güzel.

 

Very detailed build, I stumbled across your Santa Maria build with the extra details and just had to see what you were currently working on.

 

[mtbediz]

On 1/18/2024 at 11:39 AM, TurkSailor said:

Süper! Türkiye'de birini görmek çok güzel.

 

Very detailed build, I stumbled across your Santa Maria build with the extra details and just had to see what you were currently working on.

 

Ben de burada sizi gördüğüme sevindim. 

 

I have just seen the Felucca boat you completed. Even though it was your first built, I found it very successful. Do you have any other builds currently ongoing?

[mtbediz]

All cannons were mounted on the gun carriages and varnished. The next task will be rigging of the cannons.

[Der Alte Rentner]

Man-oh-man,  The hull is gorgeous.  Maybe I'll rethink this painting thing after all.  (Will you be taking the Summer off again, so I have the hope of maybe catching up? 😁)

 

 

Edited January 24 by Der Alte Rentner

[mtbediz]

On 1/24/2024 at 7:26 PM, Der Alte Rentner said:

Man-oh-man,  The hull is gorgeous.  Maybe I'll rethink this painting thing after all.  (Will you be taking the Summer off again, so I have the hope of maybe catching up? 😁)

 

 

Since I will have a lot of detail to do on the gun deck, you can easily beat me even if I don't go on summer vacation.

[mtbediz]

I am attaching the breech ropes to the gun carriages. I'm almost half done. On the other hand, I'm producing rope, eyebolts and eyebolts with ring. That's why the progress is slow.

[JSGerson]

You call that slow? You're not slow. I'M slow. You started after me and you're almost surpassing me! I've working on this model since 2017, now that's SLOW!😁😅🤣

[GGibson]

2 hours ago, mtbediz said:

I am attaching the breech ropes to the gun carriages. I'm almost half done. On the other hand, I'm producing rope, eyebolts and eyebolts with ring. That's why the progress is slow.

 

1 hour ago, JSGerson said:

You call that slow? You're not slow. I'M slow. You started after me and you're almost surpassing me! I've working on this model since 2017, now that's SLOW!😁😅🤣

 

Really awesome, meticulous work, Mustafa!  Very impressive!

 

I'm lovin' watching both of your build logs!  The Constitution may still be on my "add to the shipyard" wish list, so I am enjoying reading your build logs and learning so much!  And as I have said both publicly and to myself countless times as I slowly work on my own Bluenose and see others working ahead of me, it's not a race, but it's all about the journey! 👍🏆

[TurkSailor]

On 1/19/2024 at 10:46 AM, mtbediz said:

Ben de burada sizi gördüğüme sevindim. 

 

I have just seen the Felucca boat you completed. Even though it was your first built, I found it very successful. Do you have any other builds currently ongoing?

İkinci çocuğum doğduktan sonra yeniden başlıyorum...

 

I have a Fifie by Amati currently in progress. I will start a log on here at some point.

I'd love to scratch build like you do one day. Next time I am in Istanbul I will see if I can find some plans of Osmanlı ships. I'd like my first scratch built ship to be special.

 

This hobby is so fulfilling, and so demanding of skill in order to achieve a truly masterful model.

[Der Alte Rentner]

On 1/26/2024 at 4:02 AM, mtbediz said:

Since I will have a lot of detail to do on the gun deck, you can easily beat me even if I don't go on summer vacation.

Ha!  Somehow I doubt that.  But thank you for the encouraging words.