USS Constitution by g8rfan99 - BlueJacket Shipcrafters - 1/98

[JSGerson]

Quote

Of course I'm already thinking of how I'm going to make any of this visible once the spar deck is in place

I too built the gun deck with a bunch of details. I made them somewhat visible by removing some of the main hatchways, spar deck planking, and beam supports. However, even with openings, a lot of the gun deck details are still obscured. Only me and the man upstairs know they are there. The image below shows the present state of my model.

 

Jon

[g8rfan]

She's a fine looking ship Jon. I'm definitely considering leaving off some of the spar deck, not sure I'll do both sides. I know most of what I do on the gun deck will only be known by me and God, but I will have some photos to show and it's the enjoyment of doing it....right?!

[JSGerson]

For me, the enjoyment is in the journey and this model has a multitudes of side trips, some seen by others, others not so much. Once the project is finished and on display, the fun, for the most part ends. My journey so far. is 8 years and still running😁!

 

Jon

[g8rfan]

I've slowly been working on the Captain's quarters. I got all the windows cut out of the doors and installed the styles for screens. I used .020" round styrene and painted them using Vallejo Air "wood" paint. This was trickier than I thought because the styles had to be just the right length. For the door knobs I used Tichy Train rivets, .020" and a touch of gold paint. Here's a pic of the forward bulkhead and the inside of the aft cabin

 

 

I had wanted to have some of the doors open, but there is such little clearance at the top, I decided this would be too difficult/ Next, I started on some of the furniture. The beds were cut out using the laser. The wood I used for these was maple veneer, which is .020" thick. In hindsight, I wish I had stuck with the persimmon. The maple is a bit softer and didn't seem to hold its edges well. Still it turned out pretty nice. If you look close in the photos, you can see the filigree carving in the footboard of the bed. I painted the bed covers grey thinking they probably would have been simple wool blankets. The dressers were actually multi components. The body was a solid piece of wood to which I glued the back board and the drawer faces, which again were cut with the laser. All the furniture was stained using VallejoAir "Mahogany". Although this is paint, it is so thin that it actually goes on like a stain. The last piece was the rudder box. This also was cut out using the maple veneer and the laser. I cut a block of wood using stock basswood and then attached the sides, top and the raised panels individually. I bought some HO scale furniture for the table and chairs in the forward cabin, but they're not painted yet. Also working on the sideboard. All that is yet to come

 

 

 

 

[Coyote_6]

That furniture is amazing!  Well done!!

[JSGerson]

Beautifully done!

 

Jon 

[g8rfan]

Thanks guys, greatly appreciated. I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. Thanks also to all the likes and smileys.

[Flyfisher]

Wow! Beautiful work on such a small scale. 
Lovin’ the detail 

Jim

[g8rfan]

A few more details to show. I purchased a set of 3D printed table and chairs. The detail on these things is absolutely amazing. Certainly nothing that could be done by hand at this scale

Of course I couldn't help but throw a few nautical maps on the table. I thought about getting a 3D print of the sideboard, but turned out that was going to cost quite a bit for someting that was hardly going to be visible. So I set about making one myself. The result wasn't too bad. I took aphoto prior to staining to show the details a little better

Unfortunately, after making this lovely little piece, I found that my calculations were off a little and the piece sat about 2mm too tall. So I had to trim off the feet and shorten the mirror just a little. Again, since this will be barely visible in the end, no one will know the difference. After staining, I had hoped the door details would show through, but with the dark mahogany color, the black lines were  barely noticeable, so I cut out some raised panels and drawer faces to add to the front. To make the mirror, I used aluminum tape, the kind they use on AC duct work. Here's the final look

 

It looks a little empty just sitting there, so I'll have to think of something to set on top of it. 

Here's a couple photos of the forward cabin with furniture in place. Naturally I had to bring some life to it and so I put some characters in as well. The captain is looking at the map, which by the way is a shrunk down copy of the east coast around Martha's Vineyard in the early 1800's.

 

And of course since I was having fun painting little people, I figured I need to have someone in one of the most important places on the ship

 

 

At least now, people looking at the model will know what those little "L" shaped pieces are for. 

I figured before I get the rest of the deck too filled up and busy, I better take care of the gunports and knees while I still have room. I got started installing all the eyebolts needed for the gun tackle. The 1/32 eyebolts supplied in the kit are way out of scale, so I used #16 fly hooks. These are actually still a little bigger than they should be (0.016" hole), but anything smaller will be difficult to attach anything to. I had originally planned to use two eyebolts, one on top the other, with a pin for the breaching lines, but quickly realized this was not going to work as everything gets too bulky and it will be impossible to try to tie to. I'm going to have to think about that one a little bit.

 

[JSGerson]

Well done! And I love your sense of humor. I bet you have the only model of the USS Constitution demonstrating the use of the "seats of ease."🤣

 

Jon

[g8rfan]

Thanks Jon, its the first I've seen. I figure if you're going to build something like this, you have to have fun with it.

 

I think I figured a good solution to the breaching lines. The instruction manual that came with the kit gave the following diagram of a "typical" configuration for the 24 pound guns. It shows the breaching line attached to the bulwarks with an eyebolt and ring. That's not the current configuration but certainly plausible and much easier to do, so that is what I'm planning

[Knocklouder]

Nice work, I definitely got a belly laugh when I saw your sailor demonstration the seat of ease. Great stuff   

Bob  M.

[JSGerson]

I have completed the gun deck on my model and followed the photos of the real ship for fastening the ropes and tackles to the bulwarks. I am doing the same thing for the spar deck now. It was a little tricky to attach the recoil ropes between two eyebolts and adding a pin to lock them in place, but I made it work. If you are going to seize your block and tackle directly to the bulwark eyebolts, DO NOT attach the eyebolts to the bulwark first. It will be a b*tch seizing the lines to the eyebolts on the model. Seize the lines to the eyebolts off-ship, then insert the eyebolt with the attached tackle into bulwark. Personally, IMHO, I believe the use of hooks would have been more practical on the ship for quick and easy replacement when it was required.

 

Jon

[g8rfan]

Thanks Bob, glad you enjoyed the humor.

Jon, I'm right there with you. I thought about the process of tying off to an eyebolt that was already on the bulwarks and agree it would be far more than difficult. Best to attach the breaching lines and then insert the eyebolt. I plan to build a mock up to get everything just right prior to installation. I'm still sticking with the eyebolt/ring configuration. At 1/76 scale, the double eyebolt can be pulled off, but at my scale, to make it work and look  good, you would have to be close to actual scale and that is just not possible. It will hardly be visible anyway, so I'm going to settle. looking forward to doing the guns, although with 30 of them, I know it is a lot of work ahead of me.