USS Constitution by Glen McGuire - BlueJacket Bicentennial Edition - 1/96 - Repair and Complete Construction

[Glen McGuire]

I spent the weekend doing yard work.  But I wasn't pushing the lawn mower in our 100 degree heat like I should have been.  Instead, I was hunched over the drill lathe making all the yards and yardarms for Connie.  That consists of 15 yards, 16 yard arms, a gaff and a spanker boom.  

 

Here's everything laid out on the mast/yard plan after the tapering process which was followed by adding the center battens, the parrel cleats, and the yardarm cleats.

 

 

Next, I carved out the jaws for the spanker boom and gaff.

 

 

Here's the completed spanker boom and gaff.

 

 

 

Here's a closeup of the main yard.

 

 

 

And here's the whole 9 yards (haha 🙄). 

  

 

 

 

I think that's a fair amount of progress for a little over a week, so I'm going to give Connie a short rest and head back over to the Flying Dutchman/Black Pearl SIB.

Edited October 14 by Glen McGuire

[Ian_Grant]

35 minutes ago, Glen McGuire said:

 "  I spent the weekend doing yard work.  "

HaHaHa!

[Keith Black]

 That's a lot of work done in short order, Glen. Spar after spar after spar becomes pretty boring but populating them isn't for whatever reason. I think it's the repeated tapering. They look spot on, congratulations on getting that part of the project completed. 

[Glen McGuire]

1 hour ago, Keith Black said:

Spar after spar after spar becomes pretty boring but populating them isn't for whatever reason. I think it's the repeated tapering.

The biggest challenge for me was making those dang 8 battens that go around the middle of most of the yards.  Trying to make each set of 8 exactly the right width to fit evenly around spars of varying diameters cost me some brain cells.  But to my surprise, they all ended up fitting pretty well in the end.      

[gjdale]

Well done on sparring with all those yards Glen. You should treat yourself to a spa(r) bath!

[Keith Black]

 

31 minutes ago, gjdale said:

Well done on sparring with all those yards Glen. You should treat yourself to a spa(r) bath!

 Grant, Grant, Grant. 

Edited October 14 by Keith Black

[Glen McGuire]

39 minutes ago, gjdale said:

Well done on sparring with all those yards Glen. You should treat yourself to a spa(r) bath!

Where's a site moderator when you need one?   😃

[FriedClams]

Very nice progress, Glen - and the “yard work” is looking great!

 

On 10/9/2024 at 11:09 PM, Glen McGuire said:

strips of 1mm x 1mm basswood and boiled them for 10 minutes before putting them in piece of high tech bending equipment

 

Nice - does it run on batteries or is it one of those new fangled gravity units?

 

Gary

[Glen McGuire]

16 hours ago, FriedClams said:

Nice - does it run on batteries or is it one of those new fangled gravity units?

Gravity and brute force!  The only way to go!!    

 

And glad to have you on board, Gary!  Thanks for joining!

Edited October 20 by Glen McGuire

[Bill Morrison]

You are doing great work so far.  however. there are several small that I need to make.  The first concerns the width of the white band; it is simply too tall for the Constitution (not Connie). That said, the gunport lids are also too tall.  I would begin by repainting the band. the gunports should be okay.  The ship itself has never been nicknamed "Connie".  Also, the Spar Deck carronades (short range but firing a heavy ball) are not cannonades, which are a light weight but long barreled cannon.  Anyway, I'm not nit-picking, just trying to be helpful.  Again, you're doing a great job!

 

Bill

Quote

 

 

[Glen McGuire]

@Bill Morrison   Thank you for the comments, Bill.  If you read my first post on this build log, you will understand that this is not my ship.  I am merely completing the model for a family that recently lost their father who was the original builder.  Since the family would like the model as a tribute to their father, I do not want to change any of his original work if I don’t have to.  I want there to be as much of him in the completed ship as possible.  Are there some things I might have done differently were it my ship?  Sure.  As an example, I would have painted the masts solid white instead of having black bands.  But my assumption is that the original builder had a reason for the black bands.  Maybe it was his signature style or maybe he just liked the way it looked.  Not sure, but I don’t want to change something like that because if I did, in my mind I would be making it my ship instead of his.  The same goes for the height of the white band.  

 

Regarding the gunport lids, I measured the upper and lower pieces and they actually fit the opening perfectly.  So it may just be some bad photography on my part that makes them look too tall.  

 

As for the spar deck cannonades not being cannonades, you got me on that one!  I had to read the armament part of the kit instructions 3 times to realize it was saying “carronade” instead of “cannonade”!  My mind kept seeing cannonade.  So thank you for the correction on that terminology.

 

Thanks again for the comments, Bill.  I appreciate you looking in.
 

[Bill Morrison]

4 hours ago, Glen McGuire said:

@Bill Morrison   Thank you for the comments, Bill.  If you read my first post on this build log, you will understand that this is not my ship.  I am merely completing the model for a family that recently lost their father who was the original builder.  Since the family would like the model as a tribute to their father, I do not want to change any of his original work if I don’t have to.  I want there to be as much of him in the completed ship as possible.  Are there some things I might have done differently were it my ship?  Sure.  As an example, I would have painted the masts solid white instead of having black bands.  But my assumption is that the original builder had a reason for the black bands.  Maybe it was his signature style or maybe he just liked the way it looked.  Not sure, but I don’t want to change something like that because if I did, in my mind I would be making it my ship instead of his.  The same goes for the height of the white band.  

 

Regarding the gunport lids, I measured the upper and lower pieces and they actually fit the opening perfectly.  So it may just be some bad photography on my part that makes them look too tall.  

 

As for the spar deck cannonades not being cannonades, you got me on that one!  I had to read the armament part of the kit instructions 3 times to realize it was saying “carronade” instead of “cannonade”!  My mind kept seeing cannonade.  So thank you for the correction on that terminology.

 

Thanks again for the comments, Bill.  I appreciate you looking in.
 

I appreciate your comments!  Thank you! You explained yourself clearly and cheerfully.

 

Bill

[Glen McGuire]

Switching shipyards back to the Constitution and time to start rigging the masts.  First up, I made the running pendants.  I'm not exactly sure what the purpose of these are as they appear to just hang from the mast unused.  Nevertheless, they are going on.

 

 

 

After fixing the runner pendants in place, I started adding the shroud pairs.  The kit instructions recommend working bow to stern, alternating starboard to port.  Nothing too difficult, but when I finished with the foremast, I noticed the lines did not hang very straight.  They had prominent creases. 

  

 

 

 

I'm using shroud line from the original kit, which is 20 plus years old.  The line is wrapped tightly around a cardboard square and has been sitting like that for a long time.  Plus, the line feels heavily waxed which is probably why the creases hold their shape so well when unwound.

 

 

 

Unfortunately, I didn't notice this and realize the possible consequences until I'd already seized the shroud pairs to the foremast.  Since I didn't want to cut them all off and start over, I decided to see if I could literally iron out the creases.  I did a test on a foot-long piece of line pressing the thread with 6-7 passes and a few puffs of steam.  It worked very well. so time to try it on the installed shrouds.  The challenge would be not having an ironing board.  I have no pictures of the process since it took both hands, but what I did was grab a shroud pair, stretch it out horizontally and press the iron against the line as best I could with nothing to press it against.  To my surprise (and thrill) it worked nicely.  You can see in the pic below how much straighter they hang.  Hopefully that will make aligning the deadeyes easier when I tie them off.

 

 

Here's where I'm at now with all lower shroud pairs in place.

 

 

 

 

[Ian_Grant]

Hi Glen; FYI usual practice is to hang long weighted lengths of thread for shrouds on the wall to stretch them out. For days. When rigging them, they can then be pulled nice and straight without too much tension.

Edited October 29 by Ian_Grant

[Glen McGuire]

5 hours ago, Ian_Grant said:

For days.

OMG!  That sounds like it requires patience, which makes it totally out of the question for me!  😃

Edited October 29 by Glen McGuire

[popeye2sea]

On 10/29/2024 at 8:40 AM, Glen McGuire said:

Switching shipyards back to the Constitution and time to start rigging the masts.  First up, I made the running pendants.  I'm not exactly sure what the purpose of these are as they appear to just hang from the mast unused.  Nevertheless, they are going on.

 

 

 

 

These are called mast tackle pendants. They are fitted first over the masthead because they are initially used to heave taut the shrouds when setting up the deadeye laniards.  Thereafter, they are employed using heavy tackles to hoist gear and cargo aboard the ship.

 

Regards,

 

Henry

[Glen McGuire]

41 minutes ago, popeye2sea said:

These are called mast tackle pendants. They are fitted first over the masthead because they are initially used to heave taut the shrouds when setting up the deadeye laniards.  Thereafter, they are employed using heavy tackles to hoist gear and cargo aboard the ship.

Thanks for the explanation, Henry!  Now it makes sense to me.

[GrandpaPhil]

On 10/29/2024 at 3:03 PM, Glen McGuire said:

OMG!  That sounds like it requires patience, which makes it totally out of the question for me!  😃

Just put those penguins to work:

[Glen McGuire]

1 hour ago, GrandpaPhil said:

Just put those penguins to work:

Oh no, no, no.  Phil.  Not you too!  You've been hanging around @Keith Black for too long!  🐧🐧🐧

[Glen McGuire]

I got the deadeyes on the foremast tied off.  The bottom row of deadeyes were already attached to the channel by the previous builder.  That meant for me it was just a matter of lashing the top row of deadeyes to the shrouds and then stringing the lanyards.  It seems like every builder on MSW has a different jig for aligning the top row of deadeyes.  I wanted to keep up the tradition. so here's what I came up with.  A rectangular piece of basswood with an alignment strip glued horizontally.  Legs on each end fit over the ends of the channels to hold it in place.  I use a couple of straight pins to hold the deadeye in position while I attach the shroud. 

 

 

After attaching all the shrouds to the deadeyes, I threaded the lanyards and "hand-tightened" them equally to check my deadeye alignment.  Not too bad.

 

 

Here's a question for the group - should I tighten all 9 lanyards on one side and then move to the other side or should I alternate back and forth, doing 1 on the starboard side followed immediately by the opposite one on the port side, then back to the starboard side, etc... ?

 

 

Edited Thursday at 05:35 PM by Glen McGuire

[Knocklouder]

Very nice job on the deadeyes, I would alternate back and fourth, so they stay even on both sides. Great job my freind.            Bob   M.

[Keith Black]

2 hours ago, Glen McGuire said:

should I tighten all 9 lanyards on one side and then move to the other side or should I alternate back and forth, doing 1 on the starboard side followed immediately by the opposite one on the port side, then back to the starboard side, etc... ?

Glen, you nailed the lanyard lengths.

 

 I agree with Bob, alternate. Better safe than sorry. 

[BANYAN]

5 hours ago, Glen McGuire said:

Here's a question for the group - should I tighten all 9 lanyards

You're making great progress Glen.  My experience has been to bring all the shrouds equally taut (alternating as suggested but I did the fore and after ones first then worked to the middle.  The big trick/tip though, from my experience limited as it is, is to not tie off these permanently.  Leave a tail so that you can readjust these towards the end of your rigging.  After you work all the stays and other rigging, plus with changing humidity etc, you may find the shrouds may need a final tweak.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[popeye2sea]

Building on what Pat just said, I would start with the rearmost shroud on each side. With the greatest angle to the mast it has the most influence on the position of the mast. Then do the foremost, followed by the middle. You just have to make sure that all the shroud pairs are laying fair at the masthead. It will be hard to readjust after the rear shrouds are set up since they are on top of all the others.

 

Regards,

 

Henry

[Glen McGuire]

Thank you, Bob, Keith, Pat, and Henry.  Just to make sure I'm clear on the recommended steps, they are:  

1.  Snug up all the shrouds equally taut but don't tie them off.

2.  When snugging up the shrouds, start with rear-most then forward-most, back to rear, etc finishing in the middle.

3.  Also, when snugging up the shrouds, alternate starboard to port for each shroud.

4.  Add stays and other rigging.

5.  Do final tweak on shrouds for final alignment, then tie each shroud off permanently.