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Posted

Got the holes drilled for the masts. I did it using my drill press and a digital level indicator. Much to my releif, they all turned out just right, with the proper rake and all plumb to the centerline. Here's a photo with a few dowels in place

20250916_142619.thumb.jpg.cd4773fde5be2a15d40a50a143d485e1.jpg

Frank

 

Current Build: USS Constitution  1/96  by BlueJacket

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/37845-uss-constitution-by-g8rfan99-bluejacket-shipcrafters-198/ 

Posted

Moving on to the deck planking, I did a bit of experimenting with the stain. As mentioned, I plan to use the scribed decking supplied in the kit.

I've looked at alot of photos of the gun deck, as well as the virtual tour the museum has to get a feel for the color. Of course, lighting and viewing angle has significant effect on what the color appears to be. I finally decided to use a photo that @JSGerson posted (#256) that has a pretty direct view with apparently good light. After some experimenting, I found that I could replicate this fairly closely by first applying a liberal coat of Minwax Natural, allowing it to dry overnight. I followed that with Minwax Colonial Maple, which has a fairly red tint to it, but fairly light. After letting that dry for a few hours, I finally applied a light coat of Minwax English Chestnut, quickly wiping away any excess. Here's the result, with a side by side comparison of the photo that Jon posted

 

20250916_142858.thumb.jpg.cfc2ca8233d29e9869c35432daebc602.jpg 

20250916_142916.thumb.jpg.a14b2eca6bd004d709da98afd545f828.jpgGundeckcolorcomparison.thumb.jpg.a508c5a20dbd58a8ee72267816ef3b62.jpg

Frank

 

Current Build: USS Constitution  1/96  by BlueJacket

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/37845-uss-constitution-by-g8rfan99-bluejacket-shipcrafters-198/ 

Posted

Before really diving into the gun deck, I decided to go back and read through the BJ instructions once again. They make mention of two sheaves - the mainsheet and foresheet sheaves, which are located about midship. The position of these sheaves is only shown in the sail plan, which until now, I had not even looked at. Both sheaves are at gun deck level and I presume are only necessary if one plans to have sails on the ship. To be honest, I'm still not totally sure I want to tackle the challenge of putting sails up, but I figure I might want to put these sheaves in place just in case. As you all know, I'm a total newbie and know absolutely nothing about sailing ships, so I am asking advice from those of you who know a lot more. Are these sheaves really necessary? They are not present (that I can tell) on the current ship, and I hate the idea of cutting more holes into the side of the hull unless I have to. Any input will be greatly appreciated.

Frank

 

Current Build: USS Constitution  1/96  by BlueJacket

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/37845-uss-constitution-by-g8rfan99-bluejacket-shipcrafters-198/ 

Posted (edited)
Quote

The position of these sheaves is only shown in the sail plan, which until now, I had not even looked at. Both sheaves are at gun deck level and I presume are only necessary if one plans to have sails on the ship. To be honest, I'm still not totally sure I want to tackle the challenge of putting sails up, but I figure I might want to put these sheaves in place just in case.

I got curious by your statement, "Both sheaves are at gun deck level..." According to Model Shipway's plans (see attached) , there are 4 (1927 version) sheaves per side in the spar deck bulwarks, not the gun deck. I believe you misspoked. The question as whether to include them or not to me at least, is a question of scale. At 1:96 they will disappear as they are black on black and very small. If it is a question of accuracy, yes I would put them in, just by drilling a couple of holes and a groove between them to simulate the sheaves. The sheaves are there whether or not the ship is rigged for sails; it's part of the hull.

 

The same argument could be made about the bow and stern boomkins. They are used only for the sail rigging. My model won't have sails, but I have added boomkins to the bow so far in my build. This is only my opinion, I like detail. It is what separates one model from another.

 

I hope this helps

 

Jon

Sheaves.png

Edited by JSGerson

Current Build: Model Shipways USS Frigate Constitution
 
Past Builds:    Bob Hunt's kitbash of the Mamoli Rattlesnake

                         Model Shipways Typical Ship’s Boat for the Rattlesnake

                         Mini-Mamoli solid hull British Schooner Evergreen
                         Model Airways Albatros D.Va - 1917, The Red Baron's Forgotten Fighter

 
​Member: Nautical Research Guild

Posted

Thanks Jon,

You make a very good point about the accuracy of the ship, regardless of whether these are to be used or not. I too included the bumpkins at the bow, if for no other reason, that they are a very visual part of the ship as she appeared in 1812, and whether I use them or not, they are there. I have already installed the two aft sheaves, one of which is the mainsheet sheave and that one I have already placed at spar deck level. Considering this one is already there, it makes sense for me to include the foresheet sheave at mid ship. Now for the big question - where. The BJ plans clearly show them being in the gundeck area (see here, outlined in red)

20250923_172813.thumb.jpg.eb3e0a5d3d81c31f693abb8fbfd66bdc.jpg

The dotted lines indicate where the decks are. I checked the Revell model and they included two small holes, also gundeck level, for these two sheaves. I know that both BJ and Revell based their kits on her 1812 appearance, so maybe that is where the discrepancy is. Do you know the era that the MS plans are based on?

Frank

 

Current Build: USS Constitution  1/96  by BlueJacket

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/37845-uss-constitution-by-g8rfan99-bluejacket-shipcrafters-198/ 

Posted

The MS plans are based on the 1927-31 renovation with some more recent details scattered about. What makes this renovation unique is that it added the top gallant rail, which has since been removed in more recent renovations. I checked Marguardt's AOS book on the USS Constitution and the 1812 configuration. Surprisingly, it showed no sheaves. Sheaves did appear in later configurations of the hull that he presented.

 

As an aside, I can't believe/understand why sheaves would be on the gun deck. You're in the midst of battle, the command is to move the sails. You are going to have run down a ladder to another deck to pull on ropes and get your subsequent commands relayed to you through one or more people with the noise of a battle in a confined space? Doesn't make sense to me.

 

To be sure, I would DM MrBlueJacket for clarification/explanation. He  will respond to you.

 

Jon

1812 Hull.png

Current Build: Model Shipways USS Frigate Constitution
 
Past Builds:    Bob Hunt's kitbash of the Mamoli Rattlesnake

                         Model Shipways Typical Ship’s Boat for the Rattlesnake

                         Mini-Mamoli solid hull British Schooner Evergreen
                         Model Airways Albatros D.Va - 1917, The Red Baron's Forgotten Fighter

 
​Member: Nautical Research Guild

Posted (edited)

A thought regarding the sheaves running through to the gun deck for the Sheet and Tack lines on the courses. In battle, most ships would go to battle sails configuration - this means the courses (mainsail and foresail) would be clewed up for the majority of the battle. It would reduce the chance of sparks hitting the sails and starting a fire, but give enough sails to move as needed. So not much would be done with the courses during battle.  Of course (no pun intended) there were exceptions - the british fleet came into Trafalgar at full sails including stuns'ls because of the light winds.

Edited by Jose Gonzales
Posted

Hello Jose,

Thanks for the input. You make a pretty good argument for how they would be used (or not used) in battle, but it still seems odd to put them there in the first place. I've been studying it a bit more and the only rationale I can come up with is the fact that they are located where the waist is and no there is no spardeck bulwark there. That would also assume that the angle and position of the shave must have been important.

 

By the way, I have read your FSM build log. Did you finish the ship? You had a great build going

Frank

 

Current Build: USS Constitution  1/96  by BlueJacket

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/37845-uss-constitution-by-g8rfan99-bluejacket-shipcrafters-198/ 

Posted

Hi,

 

Our Constitution is based on 3 years' research by Larry Arnot, including interviews with Constitution Commander Tyrone G. Martin (Ret). Larry also scoured the log books from that period as well. Our kit has been deemed the most accurate representation of that period by the USS Constitution Museum.

 

I also agree with Jose Gonzales about the lower sails being put up out of the way in battle.

 

Best regards,

Nic

 

Posted

Thanks Nic, I appreciate you getting back to me. No doubt that BJ did their homework on this, and the kit well represents the ship as she was in 1812. To add to it all, I recalled that I had actually asked Jon about this very thing back at the beginning of the year (my memory is not what it used to be). He had shown the Campbell plans of the Gundeck bulwarks in his posts and they clearly show a mainsheet sheave:

GunDeckBulwarksbyCampbell.jpg.79e179509ed18e9e8df33afb17e37337.jpg

Considering Nic's comments and those of Jose, I'm going to stick to the plans and put the sheaves on the gundeck as indicated. 

Frank

 

Current Build: USS Constitution  1/96  by BlueJacket

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/37845-uss-constitution-by-g8rfan99-bluejacket-shipcrafters-198/ 

Posted

e I was waiting to decide where to put these sheaves, I went ahead and assembled them. Although it might have been easier to just drill a couple holes and carve out a groove, I had already made these for the aft end of the ship, so I wanted to do it right here. Having paid a little more attention to the instruction manual, it turns out BJ actually includes some tiny little sheaves made from Brittania metal. Of course, they had some significant flash and needed to be cleaned up a bit before using. As with the aft sheaves, I assembled these as a kind of "sandwich" that will slip into the holes. I used some wood strips that were the thickness of the bulwarks and thinned them down to 0,020". These were then cut to 1/4" long pieces.  To make the axle of the sheave, I filed down a toothpick. Everything was then glued together layer by layer with CA glue. Here is the assembly:

 

20250924_095906.thumb.jpg.3934172cc3a466c858304f5c09c6228e.jpg20250924_100856.thumb.jpg.dae50bd281a5abf8c0afb522551fc234.jpg20250924_103608.thumb.jpg.aeabc20ef0b63bbe23d3e489a53ca18b.jpg20250926_214305.thumb.jpg.d9ee0976681f36072b442156bb556210.jpg

 

Now I just need to cut some small, perfectly sized holes into the hull. piece of cake....right?

 

 

Frank

 

Current Build: USS Constitution  1/96  by BlueJacket

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/37845-uss-constitution-by-g8rfan99-bluejacket-shipcrafters-198/ 

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Well, it's been quite a while since my last post, but I'm back. I finished up the sheaves and got them installed in the gun deck bulwarks. The holes were made by drilling two small holes next to each other then used a #11 xacto blade to carve out in between them. Finally, the hole was enlarged and squared up using a couple different jewelers files. I managed to get a pretty tight fit for each

20250928_193132.thumb.jpg.ecf38e18545ec4738c59e2d8af7a3cf0.jpg20250928_194742.thumb.jpg.4c52ff4153437ca8aefb42c495dbdab5.jpg20250928_194808.thumb.jpg.ac6e6767b7da97f60d3456c2c45120ba.jpg

 

Now to actually move on to the gun deck

Frank

 

Current Build: USS Constitution  1/96  by BlueJacket

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/37845-uss-constitution-by-g8rfan99-bluejacket-shipcrafters-198/ 

Posted

I decided to start off with the hatches. Of course this brought in a bunch of questions regarding the proper layout for the time period. After looking over several different plans, I finally decided to stick with the arrangement shown in John Lord's 1931 plan (#24423). This is the arrangement provided in the kit, and BJ insists that their kit is an accurate representation of her 1812 appearance. To fabricate the hatch coamings, i wanted to use a hard wood, since it would hold a crisp edge better. The wood I chose was Persimmon. I know everyone out there is thinking - why? Persimmon is actually a great wood. As hardwoods go, it is one of the hardest. This can make it a little difficult to work with, but at our scale, since the pieces are actually quite thin, cutting is not a problem. Also, it has a very small, tight grain, which looks good for scale. Mostly it has a nice light color, although sometime the heartwood can be darker. Lastly, I have an abundance of it here on my property, so it costs me nothing but time. I've never milled any scale lumber before, so this was going to be yet another learning curve, but I have plans for the spardek that will require me to do so and this will give me some experience. Here's what the wood looks like:

20251001_102536.thumb.jpg.5b00ac39b10dc5f8c63e0de688371f2f.jpg20250929_110735.thumb.jpg.f55db08c453711ad54896982b3fbd09b.jpg

Frank

 

Current Build: USS Constitution  1/96  by BlueJacket

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/37845-uss-constitution-by-g8rfan99-bluejacket-shipcrafters-198/ 

Posted

As much as I wish I had one, I do not have a Byrnes saw. I do have a cheap little mini table saw that does a decent job cutting thinner pieces of wood. I used my big boy table saw to first get the wood down to manageable strips. With a good table saw, it's not difficult to get down to 1/16". The draw back of course is that you are wasting more wood than the piece you create. Once I had my strips, I used my mini saw to cut to smaller strips without wasting so much wood. However, even here, I have limitations on how thin I can get. Ultimately, I was going to need a thickness sander. According to the dimensions in the 1931 plans, the hatches were made of 2x2 slats and the visible part of the hatch coamings were either 4X16" or 8x16". Since I wanted to make the hatches out of wood and not use the PE brass in the kit, I was going to need to get down to 0.020". I didn't really want to spend the money on a fancy sander, so I decided to make one and came up with a very simple, but quite effective solution.

On my mini table, it also has a belt sander on the side. My solution was to mount an arm under the belt sander that could be raised or lowered to change how far it was from the drum. I started by making a base to mount the saw on. This was made from two pieces of 3/4" laminated plywood that was slightly wider than the saw including the sanding belt. The top piece of the base was then cut so that it was just the width of the saw casing. The cut off piece then became the arm to be raised and lowered. At the front edge of the base, A hole was drilled all the way across to accept a long bolt, which became the pivot for the arm. Finally, at the other end of the arm under the drum, I inserted a furniture insert nut into the base. I made a thumb screw by cutting out a small disc of wood (hole saw) and screwing it onto a bolt that could be screwed into the furniture insert. By turning the thumb screw, the bolt moves in and out of the insert, thus raising or lowering the arm. Here is what it looks like

20251008_162705.thumb.jpg.12493facef26610ce07f7112abdf1b1d.jpg

20251008_162840.thumb.jpg.3455faa50f9e5e327e9f1ba9144048b9.jpg20251008_162724.thumb.jpg.51a389480b392c51e7d6624eeaa86575.jpg

 

It is a very simple design, and it does have its limitations, but it works great. Of course, the belt is only 1" wide, so it is limited to pieces of about 7/8" max, but I was able to accurately thin down to 0.020"

20251007_111448.thumb.jpg.656dc05274b4422f15e69b2265774777.jpg20251007_111514.thumb.jpg.ebee2582950709ff53df85384adb528c.jpg20251007_111543.thumb.jpg.78565474d9e1a3fe22aad01aeaf28415.jpg

 

Frank

 

Current Build: USS Constitution  1/96  by BlueJacket

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/37845-uss-constitution-by-g8rfan99-bluejacket-shipcrafters-198/ 

Posted

Main Hatch

I had planned to use my laser engraver to cut the grates. This worked pretty well on basswood, but apparently with the hardwood it was a little more difficult to cut. To burn completely through, it scorched the remaining wood too much and didn't look very good, even at .020" thickness. By dropping the power down considerably, I could get marks that from even a short distance away look like holes, even though they are not truly. According to the 1931 plans, the coamings are 161/2" tall. All the cross pieces are 4", except the very center which is 8". After getting all the wood sized to the proper thickness and cut into strips, I cut all the individual pieces. Sometime ago, I had made a little carpenters T. I used this to keep the pieces square and straight as I assembled them. The gratings were used as spacers and not actually glued in yet. Although I prefer to use PVA when gluing wood, I needed a quick grab here because it is pretty difficult keeping all these tiny pieces positioned correctly. I opted for CA instead. Here's a photo during assembly

20251008_121630.thumb.jpg.158f49d34c55a23c3fbde1599a9771da.jpg

Frank

 

Current Build: USS Constitution  1/96  by BlueJacket

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/37845-uss-constitution-by-g8rfan99-bluejacket-shipcrafters-198/ 

Posted

All the pieces came together nicely and everything fits well. Unlike the current hatch coaming, which have a skirt that goes around and comes up about 2/3 the side, the plans from 1931 show only a slight curve at the bottom where it meets the deck. At this scale, that is a bit difficult to replicate, but I wanted something there. I cut some very thin strips from the remaining .020" material I had and used this to put a slight piece of molding all around the base. With a sanding stick, I then sanded that little piece of molding to give it a little chamfer.

 

20251009_213901.thumb.jpg.4e763a510b2abe87fab8717665ddb48c.jpg20251009_214037.thumb.jpg.59962292f83335a3a0d6c328f27d14b0.jpg

 

and here it is with the gratings dry fitted. I'll get these glued in and then put some stain on it all

20251010_094104.thumb.jpg.490ae301552bfeb6c00861625e8ce6fd.jpg

 

Frank

 

Current Build: USS Constitution  1/96  by BlueJacket

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/37845-uss-constitution-by-g8rfan99-bluejacket-shipcrafters-198/ 

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