USS Constitution by g8rfan99 - BlueJacket Shipcrafters - 1/98

[g8rfan]

Hello all, back again. So since the decision was made to stick with the Hull/Revell model, at least for the most part, I took the leap and opened up the bulwarks from where the catheads protrude, back to the first gun port.

 

 

The cast metal tailboards supplied in the kit didn't have as fine a detail as the ones on the Revell model, so once again, I set about making a mold and casting new pieces. I thought I would show a little more of the process this time. First, the trailboards had to be enclosed to give a cavity to make the mold. I used modelling clay to build this up. I planned to tilt the hull so that the end of the stem was at nearly the same height as the end of the trailboard, that way, I didn't have to make such a deep mold

 

care has to be taken to make sure every little hole is sealed up from the back. Then, the two part silicone is mixed and poured in. The silicone sets up in about 45 minutes, but I let it sit overnight to make sure it is fully cured. Once cured, the mold peels away easily and cleanly.

Then I once again used automotive Bondo to make the new piece. Although the Bondo is fairly fluid initially, you still have to work it into all the little details to make sure there are no air bubbles. The Bondo sets up in about 5 minutes, so you have to work quicckly, and then again, I let it cure overnight before removing.

Finally, the piece was thinned down so that it could be fit properly against the stem and hull.

 

Next up, painting the trailboards and fabricating the catheads

 

 

 

[yankee clipper]

Impressive results, very nice.

[g8rfan]

Thanks Clipper, appreciate you stopping by. Here's the first finished trailboard

[Flyfisher]

I like your style of mixing media to create such a finely crafted piece 

[g8rfan]

And then there were two.

 

Before attaching these, I plan to get the cat heads done and installed. Thanks Jim, glad you like my approach.

 

[JSGerson]

looks like your image did not upload properly. Give it another try

 

Jon

[g8rfan]

Sorry Jon, How's this

[g8rfan]

Progress is being made, slow but sure. As with all the other challenges of this model, the catheads were no different. I wanted to fabricate these with the triple sheaves in the end. The idea was to use a laminate method like that used by @JSGerson (post#661). The problem is, at my scale, it meant the layers to make the holes were going to be very thin. There was also a problem with the dimensions. The catheads are meant to be 15 inches thick, which at scale would be 5/32 (10/64). There was no easy way to divide that up so that the spacing was even. My solution to the latter problem was to make them just slightly smaller than they were supposed be. With 9/64ths, I could make the outside edges 1/32 each and the internal spacing evenly split into 5x1/64

 

For most of the pieces I used 1/32 basswood sheet and used a laser engraver (one of my favorite toys) to cut out the shapes. Since I didn't have 1/64 wood sheet, I used poster board, which conveniently is exactly 1/64th of an inch thick. To make the holes for the sheaves, I used a file to thin two of the sections down to 1/64, thus leaving a 1/64th opening. These thinned out gaps were filed at a 60 degree angle to match the end of the cathead. Once installed, this gives a vertical hole. The third hole was made using the 1/64 poster beard, which was cut to match the filed down sections of 1//32 wood. Of course filing the 1/32 wood down to give uniform depth and size was tricky, however, I came up with a pretty good solution. I used the holes left behind in the posterboard from where I had cut out the 1/64 pieces. By placing the wood pieces in the matching holes, I could simply file down until the file was flush with the poster board, and marked the poster board for reference so I could keep the file properly angled.

 

Since I'm making the bow as she appeared in 1812, the lower rail will not curve up into the cathead as she does now. Instead it fairs into the hull and the catheads are supported by independent knees. These were also cut out and assembled in the same manner to give an overall thickness of 9/64. Once all the pieces were cut and filed, they were glued together using wood glue. Here's how they turned out:

 

 

Next, I'll drill a hole through the sheaves and install a piece of dowel to act as the internal pulley. lastly they'll get some light sanding to remove the burn marks from the laser and to polish up the shape and a coat of paint before putting on all the hardware.

 

[g8rfan]

I've been working on the hardware that goes on the catheads. Many folks seem happy to just put the eyebolts on, but these are there to attach three hearts and two double blocks. Tiny little additions, but one of those details that I felt worth adding.  Using some photos received from our resident photo guru @JSGerson (thanks Jon) I estimated the size of the hearts needed were 1/16 and the double blocks were 3/32. Thankfully, he kit includes some 3/32 double blocks, but the hearts needed to be fabricated. I already had some tiny little jewelry crimp couplings, which are basically short little pieces of brass tubing - alot easier than trying to cut them myself. For the stropping  around the heart, I used 28 gauge wire. These are attached to eyebolts on the cathead by means of a shackle, not a ring. I thought about a few ways to simulate that and finally came up with what I thought was a decent solution. After figuring out roughly how much wire was needed for the circumference of the heart, I then flattened out the wire on both ends. After wrapping the heart, this left the two flat ends sticking up to go on either side of the eyebolt. For a moment, I actually thought about trying to drill a hole through the "shackle" in which to put a pin but then came to my senses and decided to just glue these to either side of the eyebolt. I could have probably left the center open, since at this scale, it is hardly noticeable, but then decided to fill in the center with epoxy putty and using a very fine drill bit, opened up the top half to give it more of the look of an actual heart.

The double blocks were also stropped with 28 gauge wire, but since these weren't round, I could never get the flat ends to come together properly and look like they should. After trying a few different things, I finally ended up stropping the block as tightly as possible and cutting the top of flush. Then, using a flattened piece of wire that was shaped in a "U", I VERY carefully soldered it to the top. Since the blocks supplied in the kit are made of cast Brittania metal, you can imagine how careful this operation needs to be. Too much heat and the top half of the part will just melt. At first, i used the same stainless wire used for the stropping to make the "U", but I found that this became very brittle after being pounded flat and did not take the solder that well. I changed to copper and found it to be much better to work with. It is far more malleable and solders easily. Also, it conducts heat much better and so I could touch the soldering iron to the copper instead of having to get so close to the actual part. that made it easier to keep from melting the part. Although great care had to be taken, the solder does have the advantage of being much stronger than glue. Here is the final result. They look a little crude, but once they get a coat of paint, i think they will look pretty good:

 

Of course, the eyebolts here are going to be pretty tiny as well. I had talked before about making some very small eyebolts, and what I came up with was pretty decent, but someone else on this site had suggested fish hooks. Sure enough, these come in unbeleivably small sizes and are perfect. I've ordered some #24 fly hooks and waiting for those to arrive. Once they do, Ill be able to put everything together and paint it all at once

[g8rfan]

Just so everyone can see what I'm working toward, I thought I would share the photo I got from Jon. It shows the hearts and the double blocks

[JSGerson]

Don't forget the other two photos I sent of the aft side of the cathead which shows additional hardware.

 

Jon

[g8rfan]

r Thanks Jon

As far as I can tell, there is just an eyebolt and the nuts for the bolts from the other side unless I'm missing something? Is there something in the shadow there close to the hull?

 

I did forget to include the stop cleat on the other side, what you called an "H" bracket

 

[g8rfan]

Actually, now that I look a little closer, there is a cleat that is perpendicular to the top of the cat head just in from of the "hump"

[g8rfan]

At least it looks like a cleat, I'm not real sure.

[JSGerson]

This may help

[g8rfan]

Thanks Jon, that's perfect. Not sure I will bother with the free standing sheave on top. At my scale, it won't be much more than a pin head

[JSGerson]

I used an 1/32" eyebolt for than and skipped half cleat thing on the top as well as too small to fabricate.

 

Jon

[g8rfan]

Thanks Jon, I decided to skip the top cleat and the free standing sheave as well. I had been waiting on some #24 fish hooks to arrive to use as eyebolts. They finally got here and they are perfect. These things are tiny. The wire is .014" which makes the "eye" just slightly smaller than 1/64th. For comparison, here's a photo next to the 1/32 eyebolts provided by BJ

 

With fish hooks in hand, I went about assembling everything. As I did, I got a little crazy. If you look at the photos above, you will see that the copper I used to make the "shackles" on the double blocks was a little thicker than the wire on the hearts. I decided to at least give a try at putting a hole through these and using a pin to attach them. I was successful on three out of four, so three of my blocks actually move freely. Everything else is glued fast with CA glue.

I made up the cleat for the side using flattened copper wire. I bent a piece to make a little "J" shape and soldered this on to a flat piece. After snipping it down to size and using a very fine file to tidy up the solder, here is what I ended up with

 

before attaching it, I actually thinned out the bottom edge a little more with a file. Finally, for the aft side, I used copper foil tape to make the square nut. I layered the foil to four thicknesses to give it some depth. I tried to make the little round nub that sticks out, but that was simply too small. The eye bolt on this side is a bit larger than the ones that connect the hearts and blocks on the other side, so instead of the fish hooks, I used one of my home made eyebolts, which are smaller than the 1/32 ones but bigger than the fish hooks. After getting everything on the catheads, this is what I got

 

I just dry fitted one to get the photo, and for those paying attention, it is on the wrong side, but of course I will be sure to correct that when I permanently install them, which I will do once I get a coat of paint on them. All in all I was pretty pleased with the outcome. I'm ready to move on to the bowhead now.

 

[JSGerson]

I would never have thought of using fishhooks to create eyebolts; it's a great idea. You did a great job especially at your smaller scale. I'm curious, did the BJ kit provide a cathead face sculpture for the end of the cathead? I didn't see you address this item. If BJ didn't and you can't fabricate one, check online to see if you can buy something. As a last resort, you could just paint the flat end with gold paint. At a foot away, I don't think many would even notice it's a flat surface.

 

Jon

[KurtH]

My BJ kit did supply a Britannia metal cast of the Lion face.  However, it is square rather than rectangular as is the current sculpture

 

[g8rfan]

Hi guys,

Yes, the kit does come with the carving. I was going to attach this after painting. I'll probably have to trim it a little to get it to fit properly, but hopefully not too much

[g8rfan]

So, the catheads are all nice and painted and got their faces. Once in place, I checked the distance from the tip of the bowhead knee to the outside edge of each and they were within 1mm of each other. Good enough for me.

 

 

I was ready to move on to the bow heads and immediately ran into a problem. I started to attach the trailboards, but when I first positioned them I realized that the tip of the knee was much larger than the billethead. Not trusting myself, I went back and checked other buillds, photos and the plans and the "core" of the billethead definitely should not be sticking out

I thought perhaps I had just made a mistake cutting the knee out in the first place, but when I went back and checked the template, it was perfect. and when I laid the trailboard on the template, it also seemed oversized.:

 

Finally, I thought that perhaps it was the size of the trailboard, since this was a copy made from the Revell model, but when I compared it to the cast metal one from the BJ kit, they were essentially identical. It is interesting that the template in the BJ instructions has an internal outline (dotted line) that basically fits the profile of the billethead. They make no mention of this or trimming to fit, so before I just went ahead and removed the excess wood, I thought I would ask for some opinions. Kurt, since you also had the BJ kit, did you run into this same issue?

 

 

 

[JSGerson]

Here are some pictures of the Isaac Hull model with the same trailboard as you are working on. Does this help you any?

 

Jon

[g8rfan]

Thanks Jon

Very helpful. Clearly, the billet head is smooth across the top and nothing should be sticking out. It is interesting that on this model, the billet head is much narrower - about half the width of the trail board. Not much I'm going to be able to do about that, I'll just have to go with what I have. Also, the top rail is basically flush with the top of the billet head, unlike the current configuration where it is clearly lower than the top of the billet head. Since the knee is already cut and has a rest for the top rail, I'll probably just stick with that as well. I'll certainly trim up the knee so that the billet head is smooth and even all the way around

[g8rfan]

I got the trailboards attached and although they still need a little refining, they look good. Meanwhile I was looking ahead to the head rails. The BJ kit supplies Brittania metal strips for this. The metal strips are nice in that they can easily be bent to shape, however, they are 3/32" square. At this scale, that would make them 9 inches thick which to me seems way too large. Jon do you (or anyone else out there) know what the true dimensions of the head rails are?

[GGibson]

30 minutes ago, g8rfan said:

Jon do you (or anyone else out there) know what the true dimensions of the head rails are?

 

g8rfan, obviously wait for Jon's confirmation and forgive me for taking a shot at this, but over the year or so that I've been following Jon's Constitution build, he has taught me a lot, including where to find some of the plans on the USS Constitution Museum website.

 

25175-DeckFraming.pdf

 

As I am just beginning my build, I am not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for, but on both pages 1 & 2 of the deck framing plans (Plan #25175), it shows a rail at the stem with a 5 1/2" width.  Is this our head rails?  Getting it down to your 1:98 scale, that's 0.056" or 1.43mm?  Sounds more realistic than the 9" you mention.

 

Your build looks great, sir!  Pleased to be able to follow your progress.

Edited Tuesday at 03:40 AM by GGibson

[JSGerson]

Quote

Jon do you (or anyone else out there) know what the true dimensions of the head rails are?

I struggled with the headrails like everyone else. And it's disappointing and shocking, just shocking that I do not have any US Navy plans showing their dimensions and believe me, I looked for them. I resorted to using the method shown in Hunt's practicum to fabricate them. Sorry to disappoint all of you.

 

Jon

[GGibson]

15 minutes ago, JSGerson said:

...shocking, just shocking that I do not have any US Navy plans showing their dimensions...

 

So I am curious... what is the piece that I was pointing to?  Doing my best to learn all the intricate details.  Sorry and thanks, gents.

[JSGerson]

Gregg, your US Navy plan shows the plan view of some of the rails. What I was looking for was elevation and detail views. According to the BlueJacket's instruction booklet (yes, I've got a copy of that, no less a signed copy by the author Laurence Arnot himself!) Page 46 which states, "When CONSTITUTION's bowheads were restored as described, there were no plans and each component had to be templated in place on the ship." I would assume those templates would have been recorded somewhere, but they have not been made public to the best of my knowledge.

 

Jon

[g8rfan]

Good morning fellas! Jon, I am truly shocked. I thought you had plans for EVERYTHING  You seemed to have worked through it just fine.

 

Gregg, welcome, glad you joined in. Thank you very much for the compliment and thanks for the link to the plans. I'm well aware of the museum website, but missed this. I guess the title of "Deck Framing" threw me off. Anyway, it's just what I was looking for and confirms that the rails are much thinner than what is provided by the BJ kit. I had guessed that they would be something closer to 5-6 inches. The question now is whether to try to thin out the metal strips provided, or make something from wood. At 1/16th", I may be able to bend the wood to make the false rail, but the aft curve is pretty substantial. Also, the metal strips do not have any moulding detail, so I would need to carve that in or add strips of some sort.