USS Constitution by Der Alte Rentner - Model Shipways - 1/76

[Der Alte Rentner]

Center 11 rows done.  After the next two go in, I'll carve out the openings for the three hatches aft of the main hatch.

 

Slow going, and I have to remeasure to update the spreadsheet for the next 10 rows.  

 

Edited July 19 by Der Alte Rentner
Typo

[Der Alte Rentner]

I have the process down.  I make five planks at a time using my tapering fixture, which turns out pretty consistent results.  I made the planks long enough to fit the entire span between the main hatch and the transom, with a smidge to spare. These are then cut into segments to fit the plan.

 

For each new pair of zones (5 planks per zone), I redo the measurements and recalculate the widths at the butt joint intersections.  So far, no fine tuning with sand paper has been required.

 

 

 

I'm set for the next 10 planks, but ran out of shop time today. Off to church.. 

[Der Alte Rentner]

The switch to boxwood made carving out the three aft hatches quite difficult.  I broke several Xacto blades in the effort, and I was disappointed to see the planking fore of the companionway/skylight hatch splinter.  I hope that an application of wood putty later will hide the worst of it.  Oh well, from here on in, it's all planking, all the time, until the deck is covered.

 

 

In restospect, it would have been easier, and cleaner, to plank around those hatches; or to shave a sixteenth off the bottom of those hatches and, when the time comes, to simply glue the them on top of the planking.

 

I have been able to take the short cut if not needing to fabricate three to four short segments per row of planking aft of the main hatch.  That saved some time, as did being able to quickly make tapered planks with my fixture.

 

 

 

 

I also stopped messing with wood glue along the lengths of these planks.  Instead, I used small drops of CA glue roughly every quarter inch.  And, I glued the long planks in two steps working to the rear from the main hatch.  I glued half the plank in step one, and bent the remaining part of the plank to place glue on the substrate to finish the job.

 

Calling it a day

 

 

Edited July 23 by Der Alte Rentner
Added content and photos

[Der Alte Rentner]

I'm sooooooo ready to be done with planking..

 

 

By the way, I'm not tapering planks forward of the main hatch. That is helping (slightly) to speed things along - and is in keeping with the Hunt practicum.  

Edited July 26 by Der Alte Rentner
Added comment.

[Der Alte Rentner]

On the home stretch.

 

[Der Alte Rentner]

At last!  

 

 

 

 

 

[JSGerson]

Very neat...nice job!!

 

Jon

[GGibson]

Great job, Peter!  Challenge accepted and completed well! 🏆

[mtbediz]

Very good result Peter.

[Der Alte Rentner]

Thank you Gregg, Jon and Mustafa.  

 

I'm very happy with the result and am looking forward to doing something (anything!) else.  Galleries? Cannons? 

 

For now, I'll treat myself to a double ration of grog. 😁

 

 

[JJUSNRET]

A real work of art!  Well Done!

[Der Alte Rentner]

The Practicum makes a big deal out of "the height from the top of the side piece we already installed to the bottom of the roof piece."

 

According to Hunt, if I measure this space on the kit plans, it's supposed to measure 25/32".  That's not what I see in my copy of the plans, either on page 4

 

 

or the quarter Gallery details on page 5.

 

 

The distance that I measure is 3/64" less than the 25/32" that Hunt says it should be.

 

Does it matter?

[GGibson]

Not much input here, Peter, but is it because the pieces are actually placed at an angle, so their lengths are slightly longer than what appears on a two-dimensional plan?  First thing I thought of.

[Der Alte Rentner]

I don't think that's the issue Gregg.  Furthermore, as I dive deeper into the details in the Practicum on this, I'm discovering more issues associated with the galleries.

 

Hunt crafted his windows out of styrene because the slant on the window frame of the laser cut pieces was different than that of the stern transom.  That prompted me to check the angle of my stern transom.  Sure enough, the transom is 9-degrees steeper than the window.  Funny.  Hunt's advice is to not make the galleries to fit the windows, rather make the windows fit the gallery.

 

Comparing Hunt's photos to the plans, I think the reason his measurement is greater is because he may have left out two components to the gallery roof - the "roof cap" and the "flat".  These are the two 1/16" thick panels above and below the "roof block".  Were that not in the plan, then sliding my wooden gauge up would account for the difference (more or less).

 

 

I've learned that haste is waste.  I'm going to follow the plan, and not Hunt's practicum on the gallery build.  And I think I will try to make a 9-degree shim to place on top of the side piece so that the laser cut windows can indeed be used.  Really?  Build 6 ea. styrene windows? I think not!

 

Thanks for chiming in Gregg.

 

Edited August 4 by Der Alte Rentner

[JSGerson]

As you have discovered, the quarter galleries are tricky, very tricky. There are no plans for the true shape of the individual windows and each window is different. The laser cut windows supplied by the kit are useless as they are from the elevation view and do not take into account the perspective distortions of all of the curved surfaces. I have the US Navy plans of the galleries, and they were just as confusing. The practicum does one thing right however. Mr. Hunt's end result for the shape of the windows is the best that I've have found. I made numerous attempts in constructing the windows out of wood (not styrene) and finally had to accept what I did as barely acceptable.

 

Take your time, make mock-ups, and don't lose patience.  

 

Jon

[Der Alte Rentner]

2 hours ago, JSGerson said:

Take your time, make mock-ups, and don't lose patience. 

I intend to do exactly that.

 

Problem illustrated: 

7-degree difference between aft edge of window and leading edge of transom.

 

 

My first thought on correcting the error.

Fail!

 

 

The most likely solution.  I can live with slightly less than parallel pilaster.

 

 

Turns out that even the Constitution actual has less than perfectly parallel pilasters.

 

 

It's interesting to see how different build logs address this.  But I have my direction.

 

Thanks for your feedback Jon.

[Der Alte Rentner]

Nuts!  Close, but no cigar.  Exaggerated transom angle is now interfering with the roof structure of the gallery. I'm going to have to lengthen it at least a quarter inch at the bottom edge, so to mitigate what looks to portend a rather extreme angle by the forward Gallery window. Back to the drawing board..

 

 

[Der Alte Rentner]

Cheer up Gregg.

 

I achieved a much better result on my 2nd attempt.

 

[Wawona59]

On 6/21/2024 at 9:06 AM, Der Alte Rentner said:

In reviewing XKen's build log, I read that he used "black glue" to simulate caulking between deck planks on the spar deck.  I can't believe he would have used CA glue, which is all I can find online on a search.  Does anyone know of a regular wood glue in black?  Or did he just add black dye to something like Elmer's glue or Titebond?  Thoughts?

I've had good results using Elmers Carpenter's Wood Glue for dark woods.  It's brown when it is wet but when it dries it's almost black.  No mixing anything.  Just right out of the bottle.

hope this helps.

 

[Der Alte Rentner]

I'm taking a different approach to sills and headers.  (Nothing is glued in yet.  Double sided tape is holding the roof cap, roof carving, flat, top part of header, and bottom part of header in place.)

 

 

And I'm going to try a different approach for the windows too. I'm leaning towards making a curved filler block shaped to fit this opening, and afixing the windows to the filler block. We'll see how that goes..

 

 

Edited August 7 by Der Alte Rentner
Added content

[GGibson]

1 hour ago, Der Alte Rentner said:

Cheer up Gregg.

 

I achieved a much better result on my 2nd attempt.

 

Yay!  Looks great! 🏆

[JSGerson]

All of the horizontal elements should be parallel to the sill. The "vertical" elements however are NOT parallel (and not even vertical for that matter) but point to a vanishing point above the window while taking into account the windows are slanted innards towards the top and curve around the gallery. Something like the vanishing point in a perspective drawing by Salvador Dali. Simple, piece of cake!! 🤪

 

Good Luck!!!

[GGibson]

28 minutes ago, JSGerson said:

All of the horizontal elements should be parallel to the sill. The "vertical" elements however are NOT parallel (and not even vertical for that matter) but point to a vanishing point above the window while taking into account the windows are slanted innards towards the top and curve around the gallery. Something like the vanishing point in a perspective drawing by Salvador Dali.

 

Oh, well, yeah....!  Now it makes perfect sense! <shrug> 🤣🤣

[Der Alte Rentner]

3 hours ago, GGibson said:

4 hours ago, JSGerson said:

All of the horizontal elements should be parallel to the sill. The "vertical" elements however are NOT parallel (and not even vertical for that matter) but point to a vanishing point above the window while taking into account the windows are slanted innards towards the top and curve around the gallery. Something like the vanishing point in a perspective drawing by Salvador Dali.

 

Oh, well, yeah....!  Now it makes perfect sense! <shrug> 🤣🤣

 

Having taken drafting in high school and drawing classes at a Community College in the lead up to my retirement, I have some perspective on perspective and actually understand the point  Jon is trying to make. 

 

I didn't upload the photo, but I am pretty far along with the filler block, which has me reconsidering the use of those pre-fab parts.  I just don't like the way they fit.  So, I may be constructing windows of my own after all.  I'm taking a few days off to ponder my existence.  Rest assured, I will not be "vanishing" at this point.  😁

 

Back in a few...

[Der Alte Rentner]

I found a few hours this morning to get to the shipyard and did some retro-fitting, and hopefully finished up the components of the starboard gallery. My plan is to pull the filler block out of the center, mark where the windows and plasters should be, then (sigh) fabricate both.  I have been toying with the notion of painting the windows on. We'll see how that goes..

 

Resuming my hiatus.  Back in a few.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 10 by Der Alte Rentner
Typos. What else..

[GGibson]

If you don't mind me calling it this, Peter... Great recovery work!  Looking nice! 👍🏆

[Der Alte Rentner]

18 hours ago, GGibson said:

If you don't mind me calling it this, Peter... Great recovery work!  Looking nice!

Thank you Gregg.  I consider that a great compliment coming from you. 

 

After seeing all the examples of gallery construction I could find at MSW, I think I might be the only one ever to attempt this particular approach.  Hmm, will I henceforth be known as "the Filler Block guy".  😁

 

I took a second lap through other's build logs this morning and took particular note of Unegawahya's workmanship. I wish he'd included some detail about his construction methods, but man, oh man! did he nail this.  

 

 

 

Edited August 12 by Der Alte Rentner
added content from Unegawahya's build log.

[Geoff Matson]

I really enjoy all the different approaches we as modelers come up with to solve all these construction process. And they all work and come out great. What a world we live in as modelers. We all seem to think outside the box. Great job

[Der Alte Rentner]

I was more or less on autopilot on Wednesday. The photo I forgot to include, is the one where I drew the window frame and pilaster patterns on the piece of paper, which I subsequently taped back on to the filler block to guide my work on the pilasters.

 

They are a little proud of the sills right now, but I'll sand everything flush after I build the window frames. 

 

I'm thinking that perhaps I should not have glued the pilasters to the filler block. I guess I'm now committed to using paint or something else behind the window panes that will follow.

 

Black paint, white paint, or mylar? for underneath whatever clear film I decide on for the panes themselves..

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 17 by Der Alte Rentner

[GGibson]

Looks great, Peter!  If I am following your query correctly, will the window frames themselves be painted black?  So, you are referring to the "window glass" portion of the window construction?  I'd vote for white, then.  Good contrast, and with the clear film coverage you place on top of that, it will look nicest, IMO.

 

Awesome work, sir! Carry on! 👍