USS Constitution by g8rfan99 - BlueJacket Shipcrafters - 1/98

[g8rfan]

Hello MSW family. I am working on the BlueJacket, USS Constitution and have been at it since August of 2023. I've had a lot of experience with plastic models in my younger days, including Revell's Constitution, but never have built a wooden model like this. The kit was given to me as a gift from some well intended colleagues, who had no idea of the challenge. I have to say, the BlueJacket kit is definitely intended for the experienced modeler, as the "instruction" manual is very vague, and leaves a great deal up to the modeler. If it were not for the great build logs on this site and the help and advice that I have received from a few PM's here, I could never have gotten as far as I have. From those few folks I have talked to, all have encouraged me to start a build log, and I finally decided to do just that, if for no other reason than to get some great advice from all the extraordinary modelers here. I plan to post photos and some dialog to show my progress up to this point.

I'd like to send a shout out to those who have helped me so far, JSGerson, KurtH,  jfinan, ERS Rich, and of course, Mr. BlueJacket, Nic.

[g8rfan]

So, to start off, there was the shaping of the hull. I have to say, if I were going to choose a model for myself, I would go with a POF model. The shaping of a solid hull for me was more than just a challenge. First off, I was very surprised at the amount of wood that had to be removed from the "Precarved" hull. Making the templates was no big deal, but making sure they were perfectly perpendicular to the hull was a little different. To say I had a steep learning curve would be an understatement. Nevertheless, I managed. At first, I used a technique similar to what Avi  used, where I used a dremel to reduce the hull along the section lines with the idea of then removing the excess wood in between. I ended up digging too deep in some places and not enough in others, so switched to using a 1 1/4" drum sander on a drill in conjunction with a miniplane, sanding block and a rasp. I used the 1 1/4" drum sander, because the small dremel sanders seemed to cut in too deep, and the larger drum was easier to maintain a flat line. Automotive Bond was used to fill low spots and after about a month of work, this is what I came up with.

[g8rfan]

Based on a lot of discussions on this site, I decided to remove the preformed quarter gallery pieces. After getting the hull sanded perfectly smooth, I moved on to thinning the bulwarks. This is where I ran into my first issue. having not done anything to the inside of the hull, I found that the bulwarks were slightly higher on one side. I decided to go with the level of the gun deck as supplied, and build up the bulwarks where needed.  A chisel was used to remove most of the wood to get the proper inward angle, this was then "fine-tuned" by using sanding blocks fabricated using the hull templates as a guide

[KurtH]

Hats off to all who embark on this very challenging build.  I discovered too late in my build that the carved hull has a counter clockwise twist to it.  You might want to check to see of the sternpost and the stem will line up with each other properly when you install them.  You also might want to try fitting the PE transom-upper counter fascia to the stern  to be sure that the upper counter portion does not hang out into empty space.  Now would be a good time to add the necessary extra material to the stern if it does.

Best of luck with this build.  I will be following with great interest.

KurtH

Edited January 13 by KurtH

[schooner]

Your custom made sanding block for the bulwarks is very clever - I wish I would have thought of it for my similar, albeit smaller, solid hull ALFRED build. The Connie builds into a stunning model so hang in there.

Edited January 13 by schooner

[g8rfan]

Thank you both for the encouragement. At the pace I'm going, I imagine it will be several years before I reach the finish line. Kurt, I read through your build (a few times) and appreciate the heads up on the shape of the hull. I believe mine too had a little twist to it, which might explain why one side was higher than the other. Once I finished carving and shaping, everything seemed to line up. As for the transom, I was prepared for that thanks to you, and added some extra wood to compensate. I'm actually well into the build and will continue adding some photos and comentary until I get up to where I am, which is currently starting on the gundeck.

Based on a lot of discussions on this site, I decided to remove the preformed quarter gallery pieces. After getting the hull sanded perfectly smooth, I moved on to thinning the bulwarks. This is where I ran into my first issue. having not done anything to the inside of the hull, I found that the bulwarks were slightly higher on one side. I decided to go with the level of the gun deck as supplied, and build up the bulwarks where needed.  A chisel was used to remove most of the wood to get the proper inward angle, this was then "fine-tuned" by using sanding blocks fabricated using the hull templates as a guide

[g8rfan]

So, trying to figure out exactly how everything works here. Not sure why it duplicated the photo and previous text

[g8rfan]

After getting the hull shaped and the bulwarks thinned out properly, I used the profile plan suppplied in the kit to locate the gunports and the waist.. I used a scribing tool to mark the upper and lower lines of the gun ports to insure they were all level with the top of the bulwarks, then marked out where each port went. The holes were made by drilling a 5/16th hole in the center and then carving out the remaining wood with an exacto. I recall this being an exciting time for me, because after a month or so of sanding and carving, it now started to really look like the beginnings of a ship.

[g8rfan]

As you can see in the photo, I also carved out the spaces where ladders lead down to the Berth deck and marked out the all important centerline of the ship.. Next was fitting the keel, sternpost and stem. If you are wondering about the blue masking tape, I found out quickly that the very thin bulwarks are quite fragile and those little tabs will snap off easily.

[g8rfan]

Next came the planking. The outside hull was done first. I started at the top and worked my way down to where the copper sheathing would be and just feathered the planks into the hull at that point. I used Loctite wood glue for the most part, except at the bow, where I used CA to get a quick grab. The bow planks were steamed and shaped with a little jig that I made. Once I got far enough down that clothespins wouldn't reach, I used pins with a small piece of wood to hold the planks down. This obviously left a few holes here and there, but they all got covered up as I moved downward.

[g8rfan]

Once I finished planking the outside, I decided to go ahead and paint the outside before moving to the bulwark planking. I forget whose log I read that suggested India ink, but I decided to try it. Although this does a great job at preserving the wood grain appearance, I felt that it was just too dull a finish. To give it a little more of a shine, I sprayed it with a coat of satin polyurethane. I left the gun stripe for later. In preparation for coppering the hull, I sanded it once more down to 600 grit to get a super smooth finish, then sealed it up with gesso and sanded smooth again. Finally, it was painted copper to hide any gaps that might occur when coppering and given one last light sanding

[g8rfan]

Moving on to the bulwark planking, I spent a lot of time trying to decide how to add the bolt head details, something that I felt gives a nice finish to the look of the model even though at more than foot or two away, they are all but invisible. The "rivets" made by @JSGerson looked really good, but at 1/98th scale the 0.6mm would be equivalent to 2" and I felt would be too large. I tried using the plastic Tichy Train rivets, but these were impossible to handle. I also tried the glue drop method, but was never satisfied with the result. The drops tended to flatten out as they dried and it was very difficult to get uniform size drops. Finally, I came across the Archer 3D decals. These decals, designed for making rivets and bolt heads on plastic models, are 0.36mm in diameter, which is equivalent to 1.4" at scale - perfect.

 

The decals come with various spacings, which is probably great for those working with plastic models, but obviously I only needed one spacing. Unfortunately, this is all that Archer offers. In the end, I found that trying to apply more than two or three at a time was too difficult anyway and found it easier to apply one at a time. To help with alignment, i made a jig to draw a straight line the length of the 24" planks. The planks I used were 1/32 x 3/32. To get two evenly spaced lines, I glued a 1/32 strip of plastic to the edge of a board leaving just enough space to slide the plank under. This allowed me to mark a line that was 1/32" from the edge. Flip it around and do the same for the other side and I had two lines that were 1/32" apart

 

 

Now came the tedious part. I scored the decals between each dot so that they would come off individually, then cut into strips. To get the spacing correct, I photocopied the original decal sheet and taped this to the table to use as a guide. The decals are your basic slide off type, just get them wet and slide them off and onto the plank. Well, almost anyways. These decals are designed to be applied to a perfectly smooth plastic surface. The texture of the wood made them not want to stick. To fix this, I found that by wetting the wood it would provide enough surface tension to pull the decal down and allow them to slide enough for repositioning. Once I got the hang of it, I could finish two rows on a singly 24" plank in a little less than 2 hours. Once dried, MicroSol decal set was applied to get them to snug down. At this point they are still very easy to rub off. Once painted, they are fixed. I used an airbrush to apply the paint to preserve as much of the detail as I could

 

 

 

 

Considering the time needed to do this and the fact that the gundeck bulwarks would not be visible, I only did this for the spar deck

[g8rfan]

After finishing the inside planking, I decided to go ahead and copper the hull. Once again, I spent alot of time deciding how to make the nail impressions on the copper. I don't really like the look of the copper plates offered by BlueJacket. Too me, the holes appear too large and give the surface a bit too much texture. The sandpaper method used by @JSGerson was clever and seemed simple enough, but I wanted something with a little more pattern to it, even though again from any distance at all, it would hardly be noticeable. I tried making a stencil from the 3D decals used above to give me something to make an impression. This almost worked, but not quite. Finally, I got a friend who had a 3D printer to make some pieces for me that I could use to make a nice impression on copper foil tape. The tape that I used was 1/4", which I know is not quite to scale, but I felt it was close enough. The 3D printed stamps were 1/4" wide and 3" long with .4mm raised spots and a raised line to separate the individual plates (3/4" each). Here is the pattern used:

 

and here is the stamp

 

Under the stamp, you can see the jig I made to hold the copper tape. The stamp itself is glued to a popsicle stick. With the tape in place, the stamp could be positioned into the slot and pressed down to make an impression in the copper

 

 

 

 

[g8rfan]

The foil tape is only a few thousandths thick and conforms nicely as it is applied. The adhesive backing makes application very simple, and it is surprisingly strong. The times I need to remove a piece to reposition, it was not easy to remove and once removed the piece was unusable. At first I thought to apply these end to end and cut the lines between the plates. After doing this, I found that the cut pieces were essentially indistinguishable from the uncut pieces, so I stopped cutting them. I know that the plates are supposed to overlap, but in reality, the plates are pounded flat making the overlap unnoticeable and with this very thin foil, it was hardly discernable. In the end, I was satisfied with them being individually uncut. Since I was basically laying them four plates at a time, it was fairly easy to maintain the alignment. I started at the keel and worked my way up. About four rows up, it required the first gore strake and then about every other one. Before reaching the top, the dressing plates were applied. As I continued moving from the bottom up, I cut the pieces to butt up against the dressing. This didn't give a very clean line, and so I removed the bottom dressing. Knowing where this line would be, I cut the lower strakes to just fit under the bottom dressing. When finished, the bottom dressing was replaced, just overlapping the lower strakes and giving a nice clean line.

 

 

 

I know the method I used "cheated" a little, but I am quite happy with the result and it only took two weeks to complete the entire hull

[g8rfan]

This is essentially where I am now. Before moving on to the gundeck, I plan to put in all the outboard fittings like the airports and scuppers, etc. I realize everything above is lacking in alot of details, but I wanted to just give everyone a feel for how I got to where I am . Moving forward, I will definitely provide a little more info. It's taken me a little more than a year to get where I am. Being a total newbie, there has been a lot to learn and my activity has been a bit intermittent. I retired in April though, and now have plenty of time on my hands, so hopefully I can make a little quicker progress. Thanks again to all those who have answered my PM's till now, and for all the incredible build logs that have been posted. Without it, I would never be able to finish.

[KurtH]

You are off to a superb start!  Your solution to the coppering challenge is not only effective but, I suspect, less expensive than the BJ alternative as well.

[g8rfan]

  Yes, by far. 5 rolls of copper tape from Temu - $3.00 and I gave my freind $25 for printing the stamps even though he didn't want me to. 10 sets of plates from BJ - $290. Just a little bit of a savings.

[g8rfan]

So, I was going to get started on all the outer hull fittings, but decided to frame in the transom first. I made up a mock transom from bristol board to help make sure everything lined up well. The first thing I found was that the window sill was too low. This actually ended up helping me. In addition to being too low, I had forgotten to leave a curve in the back and had sanded it flat across. To fix these two things, I just added a 1/16th" thick piece to the window sill. To get the proper curve, I used the gun deck plan as a template. Also, before gluing it down, I cut out notches for the transom timbers. That was much easier to do on a flat piece of wood than trying to chisel out notches from the solid hull.

[schooner]

It's hard to believe this is your first wood ship model. I too have a background in plastic models but little of that experience helped with wood models except for painting. You are doing a superb job on a challenging kit.

[g8rfan]

Thanks Tim, I appreciate the support. No doubt, a wooden model is nothing like plastic. Even though there are a bunch of cast metal parts, most everything has to be fabricated. To add to it, BJ's "instructions" are more of a guide than step by step instructions. For me, that means alot of research as i go along. Still, it's fun learning new things and I do love a challenge. I just read through your Alfred log. Very impressive work and a beautiful ship. A bunch of things in the beginning I wish I had read several months ago, and alot of good ideas and tricks that I will certainly use moving forward.

 

I'm now moving on to the outside hull details, starting with the airports. the brass fitting supplied by BJ are nice, but they do not have the shield (eyebrow) over the top half as they are on the ship. I felt that this would be a nice detail and would also make the ports more visible once installed, When perfectly flat, they all but disappear. The supplied airports are 1/16" thick and 1/8" in diameter. To make the eyebrows, I cut some 36 gauge brass sheet into 5/64" strips and then cut pieces that would be long enough to fit around half of the airport. I used 1/8: brass tubing to bend these pieces to the proper curve and then glued them to the edge of the airports with CA glue. I'll have some photos shortly

[g8rfan]

So here a pic of the strip, cut and formed and then the finished airport:

 

[JSGerson]

Thanks for letting me know you had started a build log; I'll following along.

 

I was not aware of the Archer 3D decals so I did not consider them when figuring out how to make the pseudo bolt heads for the hull. Would I have used them had I known about them, I don't know. 

 

You mentioned that you felt like you were "cheating" when making the nail divots in the copper plates. You didn't. You created a tool to get the job done to your satisfaction. I thought hard about making a stamp for my nail divots but decided that the results of the stamp would have been too out of scale for my tastes. Even at full scale, the indentations are difficult to see. If I didn't make divots, the copper surface would have been smooth and shiny, and that would have been wrong. So, I tried the "sandpaper" technique to suggest to the viewer there was texture to the copper surface. You may have gotten away with the same technique if you had used finer sandpaper due to your smaller scale. In  the end, your copper plates will be the envy of many future builders.

 

Those airports you fabricated are fantastic. Just remember, the port frame lies flush to the hull surface and only the eyebrow protrudes. However, once they are painted black like the hull, they will still "disappear." They even do on my 1:76 model.

 

I look forward to your future posts

 

Jon

 

[g8rfan]

Thanks Jon, I'm glad you liked the copper, and with the detail work that you do, saying that anything I did was amazing is a welcome compliment.

I did remember to get the airports flush when installing them, here is how they look

 

Still need a little touch up paint and a couple need some filler around the edges where the hole wasn't very clean. Overall, happy with how they turned out. BTW, thanks for the details on the sea steps.

[g8rfan]

Next were the scuppers. BJ doesn't supply these with the kit, so they had to be fabricated. From Navy plan 25001.A, the overall length of the scuppers is 17" and the ends of the "oval" are 8 3/4". With a little math, that equates to an overall circumference of 44", which if stretched out to a circle, would have a diameter of 14". On scale that would be equal to 9/64th. I could not locate that diameter tubing locally and didn't really want to wait to order it, so I settled for 5/32, which after squashing and shaping wouldn't really make that much difference. The plan was to cut small rings from the tubing and squash them flat to give the desired shape. The ends of the oval are 8 3/4", which is close enough to 9", or 3/32 on scale. All I need to do was squash the tubing down to 3/32" width. After that, the edges were filed down leaving just the lower lip for the door, then cut the doors from brass sheet and attach with CA glue. Here's the sequence:

 

Here's a better pic showing the lower lip

 

 

After doing a couple of these, I realized the door was too large and should be the same diameter as the hole so that it fits into the lower lip. I removed the ones I had done and cut new ones. here's the final outcome:

 

 

One last mistake  When filing down the outside edges, I forgot to take into account that the port and starboard sides are mirror images. I made them all the same. A tiny detail that will probably never be noticed by anyone other than myself, and since I really didn't want to make half of them all over again, the doors on one side will be facing the wrong way. Oh well.