USS Constitution by g8rfan99 - BlueJacket Shipcrafters - 1/98

[g8rfan]

For comparison, here is a pic of my eyebolt next to the 1/32" supplied eyebolt

[JSGerson]

I have not found any commercially made eyebolts smaller than 1/32", but at my scale of 1:76.8, that was good enough for most of my applications. Anything smaller, might be a waste of time and effort at 1:96 as they won't be easily discernable.  Also at 28 gauge, a few bends and the wire will probably break and getting thread through the eye will be a trick. We are close eyebolts/per gun in the count.  I get the following per gun:

• 4 - recoil rope (2 required per side)
• 2 (or 1 double) - pull-in tackle
• 1 - pull back tackle
• 5 - gun truck
• 2 - gun truck rings

OR you could do what many other builders have done - just install the recoil ropes for a simpler, cleaner look (read less eyebolts). I didn't because I am detail anal and wanted to create a more realistic mess.

 

Here are some drawings that might help in general.

 

[g8rfan]

Hey Jon,

 

Thanks for the feedback. I have definitely considered whether it is worth it to even bother. You are correct, at any distance at all, you can hardly recognize the eyebolts, but to me, the 1/32 just look "clunky" at this scale. The wire is surprisingly strong and fairly easy to work with. You can get away with 2-3 bends in the same place, but any more than that and yes, it will break. My last concern was the thread. As you pointed out, it may be a bit of a hassle trying to get it through these tiny holes, and the hooks are going to also need to be fabricated from wire thin enough to fit in the eyebolts. I'm going to make a few and see how hard this is before thinking about spending the time to make all these.

As for the count, thanks for the drawings. I didn't include the double eyebolts that go on the hanging knees. I made those up separately and am quite happy with how they turned out. I do like the look of the haul in/out tackle and so I wanted to include it. As you may have noticed form what little I've done so far, I am also a bit focused on the little details 

[g8rfan]

I spent a while searching some more for smaller eyebolts without much luck, so I set about making some. Using a small jig I crafted, I could make about 50 in an hour and a half. Not bad, but still a good bit of time. Then I simply posted the question here on MSW and got a great suggestion from @petervisser . Instead of trying to make an eyebolt with the typical shape, he simply twists wire around an appropriately sized needle. this gives an eye that is perfectly shaped and the right size. Of course, the shank is twisted and larger, but it doesn't matter as this will be buried in the wood and not visible, and actually gives a little more grip. This method is really fast and easy. I could make about 1/minute using 36 ga wire and a 24ga needle

[JSGerson]

As "easy" as it is to make eyebolts, it's the shear number of them that is required that makes it a pain to make. I make small parts like this on an as required basis, so I don't go nuts making very large quantitates. I bought a bag of one thousand 1/32" eyebolts on ebay from Model Expo some time ago that didn't last as long as I thought it would. It's amazing how useful those tiny items are for all sorts of things. Unfortunately for 1/96 scale builders, 1/32" eyebolts are still out of scale in many areas. Don't forget, you still need to blacken them as well, because paint will clog up the eyes.

 

Jon

[g8rfan]

Hey Jon,

You definitely hit that eyebolt on the head (or in the eye). It is amazing how many eyebolts are actually on this ship. To save my sanity, I will definitely take your advice. I plan to make enough to take care of the gun deck rigging and wait to do the spar deck when the time comes. For the rest, I can just make them as needed. I got you on blacking them. I did try painting the 1/32 ones at first, but as you pointed out, that does tend to clog up the eyes, even using an airbrush. Also, any that were touching would stick together and once separated, the brass would show. I got some Brass Black and thankfully it works well on the wire I'm using.

[g8rfan]

Well, I spent about an hour last night putting up a post of my recent work, only to find it wasn't here today. I'm guessing I must have forgotten to hit the submit button. Oh well, here goes again. After spending a while making a bunch of eyebolts for the gun deck, I realized I had forgotten a couple things on the outside hull, namely the boltheads around the gun ports (actually the backings for all the eyebolts i was getting ready to install). At first, I assumed these would be the same size as the bolt heads on the inner bulwarks, but after making a few comparative measurements on a few photos, it appears these are actually about 3.5" in diameter. At first I considered using pinheads, but these were a bit too large. Then I remembered the TichyTrain rivets and ordered some of the 0.035" size. The first time I tried to use these, I had a terrible time. If you try to cut them off one at a time, they tend to fly off like tidly-winks never to be found again, and even handling them with tweezers was not easy, if squeezed too tight or too close to the end of the tweezers, they again would fly off into the room somewhere. I found though that if I taped the entire piece to a piece of masking tape and cut them all at once with a sharp blade, the tape would hold them in place and allow me to pick them up one at a time fairly easily. I then simply inserted them into pre-drilled holes. I first tried using CA glue, but found that the glue did not want to adhere to the plastic, probably due to some mold release agent. Instead, I used slow curing two-part epoxy (J-B Weld) which worked really well. I just made a nice puddle of mixed epoxy and dipped the end of the rivet into this. Here's how things went, I left the rivets brown for the photo so they would be easier to see, but of course all this will be painted black

 

[g8rfan]

I also installed the sheaves at the aft end of the deck. At first I tried to fabricate these using the sandwich method, but at this scale, I had a hard time getting all the pieces lined up well. i was able to manage the ones at the top of the bulwark. For the ones further forward that are embedded in the wall, I chose to just use a solid piece of wood. I drilled holes where the lines would feed through and then used a very fine engraving bit on the Dremel to carve out between the holes. This at least made the pieces look more like a sheave and not just two holes.

 

[JSGerson]

You were smart. You didn't attempt install the hundreds if not thousands of pseudo bolt heads on the bulwarks at 1:96 scale. Robert Hunt's practicum used the rivets from Tichy Train Group for those boltheads which I thought were out of scale even on the 1:76.8 scale MS model. It's the reason I made mine smaller using a punch. However, it looks like plastic rivets were perfect for the larger eyebolt bolts showing on the hull. Well done.

 

Your sheaves worked out nicely as well. Both the hull boltheads and sheaves will meld into the hull and hide when they are painted black. The reason why I don't mind this is because I want the viewers to see more detail the more they look, and the closer they look. The viewers should not get bored.

 

Jon

[g8rfan]

Thanks alot Jon,

a few of my bolt heads are a little out of position, but from any distance at all, they all look the same. I'm totally with you on the details. I find alot of personal satisfaction putting them in and I know if anyone looks at this model, i will have the opportunity to invite them to look closer. I've been thinking alot about my next steps. Although originally, I planned to get started on the gun deck, I am now considering working on the stern, followed by the bow heads. Working on these structures, I am sure I will want to manipulate the entire ship at times, and it seems to me that having alot of stuff on the gun deck while handling the ship that way will not be a good idea. I've been dreading the stern, as it seems like an incredibly complicated assembly, but at some point, I know I have to do it, so it may as well be now. Stay tuned.

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[g8rfan]

Well it has been a while, but I have not been idle. I've spent a lot of time pondering how to do the stern. When I set out on this little adventure, I wanted to build the ship as she was in 1812 when she battled Guerriere. As most of you know, that comes with it's own set of issues, as I don't think anyone knows what she really looked like. The PE transom that comes with the kit is definitely not correct. It is a sort of blend of a few time frames, and although it would probably make things easier, I decided to not use this. When I started, I purchased the Revell 1/96 model as a reference. After looking at it (I believe based primarily on the Hull model), photos of the Hull model (thanks Jon) and the paintings by Corne, I finally decided to use the Hull model as my primary source.

Having finally settled on that little detail, I turned to the transom and tried to figure out how I was going to handle all the fine details. I thought about using the 3D printed transoms available on line ($$$$) but my wallet said no. The idea of making anything reasonable by hand was just not happening. I turned to the Revell model. I had hoped to sell this model once I was finished to recoup the cost, so I tried to see if I could make a mold of the transom. After several attempts at this, I've gotten close, but not as good as I had hoped. I'll probably try a couple more times, but at this point I think I may end up just using it and forgoing the later sell (at east as a complete model).

 

The kit supplied transom covers the entire stern, whereas the Revel transom (and the hull model) only cover a portion, with the topmost planking showing on either side. before I took the plunge and started working on the actual model, I thought I would make a mock up to see how everything was going to come together. I used a piece of 2x4 and after shaping and planking here is what I ended up with

 

The darkened areas are where the PE brass transom windows would have been and where my current transom timbers are located. After making a template of the Revell transom and placing it on the stern, I realized that the outer most frames are going to need a little modification. Next, I turned my attention to the quarter galleries. I've read that the bow is one of the hardest parts of building a ship, but for whatever reason, the galleries intimidate me a lot more. The kit supplies the galleries as a 5 piece puzzle made from cast metal. Everal other builders have lamented on how difficult it is to use these pieces and I won't waste time reiterating. I decided I would be better off building them from scratch. Fortunately, for a previous project, I had purchased a laser engraver. Nothing fancy, a little 5watt unit I got for less than $100. Using this and teh plans from the Museum website, I cut out the four major pieces that make up the galleries:

 

I also made up the "wings" where the transom hangs over the outside of the hull. (note self, do this before planking the stern).I only bothered doing one side, since if that works out the other side will simply be a repeat. The whole exercise was just to see what I could accomplish, learn where I was bound to make mistakes and not trash my model by having to rip everything off and start over again. The side was marked off where the gunports, gallery opening, gunport sill and gundeck would be. then I glued on pieces "A" and "B"

 

So far so good. My first realization was that I was going to need to resize these pieces just slightly to account for the planking on the inside of the transom piece. next was the finish piece on the bottom of the galleries. I could never quite figure out how this transitioned to the transom and the counter. The piece supplied by BJ is a little half moon shaped thing that I could never get to fit quite right. I wanted to use this piece, since it has the scalloping detail. After looking at a lot of other builds and the best angles I could get on the ship itself, I convinced myself that the counter on the stern doesn't end at the side of the hull, but actually extends a little and transitions up and into the transom, which provides a little filler piece for this bottom finish on the gallery. I had saved the pieces I cut off the original solid hull and used these to carve out the support for the bottom finish piece. Here's what I ended up with:

 

Of course, as it is, its just roughed in and would need a little filler and some sanding/smoothing, but overall I was pretty pleased with it. My question all of you (or anyone looking) is whether I am correct in how the finish piece terminates at the outside edge of the transom and the space in between  is covered by the "filler" piece?