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

[Der Alte Rentner]

There wasn't enough of the 2 mm square stock supplied by Constructo to be able to complete the remaining two masts. So, this morning I used some of the ample 2x6 mm sapele stock they provided and made my own 2 mm square strips.

 

Also, while my jig did produce a decently chamferred product, I wanted a quicker process to chamfer an entire strip. So, I rigged my belt sander to accomplish the task.  This worked surprisingly well, or so I thought..

 

Readying the bandsaw to cut 2mm strips.

 

Pass 1

 

Pass 2

 

Sander setup

 

Chamferring done in two passes.

 

Two steps forward, one step back? This looked promising, but the second pass yielded inconsistent results, causing me to consider pulling these last two photos. 

 

I couldn't keep enough downward pressure on the sapele to get an even bevel on both sides on the sander. It did a nice job for one side, so I only needed one pass with the hand plane and jig.  I'll take that as a win. After beveling one side on an entire strip, I cut the material to length, clamped it into the jig and chamfered the second side by hand.  This netted very nice fits.

 

The admiralty is calling me back to home base. More next week..

 

 

 

Edited January 11 by Der Alte Rentner
Added photo

[Der Alte Rentner]

The hardest part is carving out the indentations for the mast cheeks. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two down.  One to go..

 

 

 

Edited Monday at 02:34 PM by Der Alte Rentner
Added photographs - round 2

[Ronald-V]

That looks really neat! And indeed complicated  

[mtbediz]

Perfect work Peter. She is going to be a very beautiful ship.

[GGibson]

Wow!  Nice work, Peter! 👍🏆

[Der Alte Rentner]

At last!  Chafing fish adorn all three masts.

 

 

I'm not quite ready to move on to what Gregg calls the fun stuff 😆.   I still have to do the mast bands, the fighting tops and the bowsprit. Then the hilarity should ensue.

 

 

[mtbediz]

4 hours ago, Der Alte Rentner said:

At last!  Chafing fish adorn all three masts.

 

 

I'm not quite ready to move on to what Gregg calls the fun stuff 😆.   I still have to do the mast bands, the fighting tops and the bowsprit. Then the hilarity should ensue.

 

 

Nice work on the chafing fish, Peter! Just a heads-up—the space between the main mast and the fife rail looks pretty tight in the photo. You’ll need room there for three stays coming off the mizzen mast, which get tied down to the deck with bullseyes. On my build, that gap was really small too, and I had a tough time securing the mizzen stays. Hopefully you haven’t glued the fife rails yet. Also, before you set the masts in place, it’s a good idea to get the eyebolts around them installed first.

Edited Tuesday at 03:33 AM by mtbediz

[Der Alte Rentner]

Thanks for the heads up, mustafa. I'm not worried because the Fife rails are not yet glued down. I was waiting for the right time to do so. Before I do,  I'll make sure they are where they belong, as well as the eyebolts on the deck.  I just staged the Fife rails for the photo.

 

Thanks again

Edited Tuesday at 04:26 PM by Der Alte Rentner

[Der Alte Rentner]

Turning my attention back to the fore mast, it was time to tackle the mast bands. I had some spacers at the bottom of the mast so that it would sit properly at three degrees to the spar deck, but to get the formed bands slid up the length of the mast, I had to remove those and replace them afterwards.

 

The brass material that came with the kit - 1/64" thick by 1/16" wide, held its shape quite nicely after wrapping it around the mast. So, I didn't have to go through gymnastics to get the bands made. I calculated the length of the brass strip for each of the two locations where these would be installed - at the bottom of the mast, and between the chafing fish at the top of the mast. After cutting the pieces to length, I bent them around a dowel of the same diameter as the mast, trimming with a belt sander and file as required to get a good fit.

 

 

I did make a jig to help space the bands along the mast.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I actually made the band spacer before I went into production on the bands, after I remembered that I couldn't slide the bands onto the mast with the wedges at the bottom. Just explaining why the picture below left shows the wedges..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I added back the wedges, applied a coat of poly, posted this log, and am now heading home. At the current rate of production, it'll be two more full days before I finish the main and mizzen masts.

 

 

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 10:15 PM by Der Alte Rentner

[Der Alte Rentner]

Two down.

 

 

That's the lot. (my apologies to those who have already seen and reacted to this post, but before I added this last photo.)

Edited Thursday at 06:44 PM by Der Alte Rentner
Added photo with mizzen mast

[Der Alte Rentner]

Interesting details on the planking for the fighting tops. They run broadside at the top vs fore and aft on the bottom - as shown in the photos in Jon's  post to Mustafa's log below:

 

Posted October 22, 2025

I can't speak for Mustafa's model but technically..

Jon

 

Checking Marquardt, I've confirmed that the planking does run as mentioned above.  Looking at this construction as a practical matter, I have to ask myself if it's even worthwhile to plank the fighting tops.  To keep things to scale, the rim around the entire top should be 1/8" top to bottom.  The rim seems to be flush with the planking on the  bottom of the fighting top and proud of the planking at the top of the fighting top.  The laser cut piece that came with the kit is 1/32" thick.  The math therefore suggests that the planking needs also to be 1/32" thick.  Three layers of 1/32" material adds up to 3/32" which would allow for the rim to be proud of the planking by 1/32".  

 

Because I'm not painting, material choices need to be considered.  I thought about using the sapele that came with the Constructo kit for the planking, but the edges tend to disappear when joined edge to edge.  I looked at HipExec's build log to see what colors the Constructo kit specified.  They provide a material that falls midway between the color of the sapele and basswood.  But I don't have that contrast anywhere else on Conny, so I should probably to consider binary choices.  Basswood planks, sapele rims?  Sapele planks, basswood rim?   The battens would have to be the contrasting color as well.

 

Decisions, decisions.  (I don't think I'll be finishing Conny by July - the three year anniversary of the start of the build.)

 

Here are parts of the scan of the Marquardt (Anatomy of the Ship) plans.  What is not clear is, if there's a third layer between the planking?  See item 30 - "deals overlap".   I think it's now merely academic, since I've already spent way too much time researching this.  I'll attempt the three layer with rim plan above.

 

 

 

Edited Friday at 08:05 PM by Der Alte Rentner

[JSGerson]

I don't know if this helps, but I checked one of my nautical dictionaries and the term "deal" means:

Fir wood, of similar thickness to plank.

So, I assume that "item 30 - "deals overlap," means where the 90 degrees planks overlap to each other.

 

Jon

[Der Alte Rentner]

15 minutes ago, JSGerson said:

I don't know if this helps, but I checked one of my nautical dictionaries and the term "deal" means:

Fir wood, of similar thickness to plank.

So, I assume that "item 30 - "deals overlap," means where the 90 degrees planks overlap to each other.

 

Jon

I'm not sure that helps.  I think I'm waaaay over thinking this.   🤯  

 

but, thanks.  

[Der Alte Rentner]

The more I thought about doing individual planking, the less I liked the idea for this application. So I resorted to a trick I used for the planking underneath the smokestack and on the three gun port lids at the transom.

 

Using 1/6 inch thick boxwood, I used the  pointy bit on the Proxxon mill simulate planking.  The rest is self-explanatory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can't say that I'm thrilled that the grain in the boxwood runs perpendicular to the fake planks on one side. Fortunately, this will be used for the bottom of the fighting tap, and no one should be looking up from the deck to see if the grain matches the planking. At least that's my hope. 😎🙏

 

My plan is to make a 1/32  inch thick rim out of boxwood for the sides and front, and to use 1/16" wide 1/32" thick sapele for the supports that radiate outward from the center. The back edge will be 1/8" wide and 1/16" thick boxwood. 

 

Finally, if I can get the 1/64" thick sapele to bend nicely, I'll wrap the outside edges in that.   Yep, that's the plan.  Let's see if theory become reality...  🤔

 

( this is the look I'm shooting for.)

 

Edited 5 hours ago by Der Alte Rentner
Added a photo, and corrected a typo.

[tmj]

Why not butt join two pieces together, with the grain running in the proper direction and use the butt joint as a seam? 

Edited 7 hours ago by tmj

[GGibson]

That's an innovative way to replicate planking, Peter!  👍

 

14 minutes ago, Der Alte Rentner said:

Fortunately, this will be used for the bottom of the fighting tap, and no one shoukd be looking up from the deck to see if the grain matches the planking. At least that's my hope. 😎🙏

 

Well then, just don't invite some of us over to the house when it's finished! 🤣🤣🤣😉

[Der Alte Rentner]

34 minutes ago, tmj said:

Why not butt join two pieces together, with the grain running in the proper direction and use the butt joint as a seam..

Butt joint what together?  

 

My original plan was to make 1/32" thick planks, which would have been butt jointed together and glued on the 1/32" kit supplied fighting top.  This was an easier way of getting to the same end, and, as I said, no one (but Gregg😆) will notice the grain on the bottom side of the fighting top.

Edited 7 hours ago by Der Alte Rentner

[tmj]

33 minutes ago, Der Alte Rentner said:

Butt joint what together? 

I was thinking that maybe the required decking was wider than your available material, and 'that' was why you made the planks running cross-grained. 

[Der Alte Rentner]

53 minutes ago, tmj said:

I was thinking that maybe the required decking was wider than your available material, and 'that' was why you made the planks running cross-grained. 

The grain running the wrong direction is a consequence of flipping the piece of boxwood I was working on over. I suppose I could have run the planking in the same direction on both sides, but the plans call for fore and aft orientation on the bottom and side to side on the top of the fighting top.