USS Constitution by GGibson - Model Shipways - 1:76.8

[GGibson]

Nothing really to update on my Constitution build.  Since my last post, I have been assessing where the gun deck cannons will be placed in order to prepare for the cannon framework and, as a follow-up to Mustafa's critique after my last update, determining where exactly the new spar deck beams will be placed so I can get the old beam stubs out of the way.

 

What I have been working on, though, diligently over the past week or so is my annual Christmas tree hanging walnuts project.  Back when I was a young child, my father would carefully crack open walnuts, dig the walnut and other pieces out of the shell, place money back in the shell, glue it, put a hanging bow on it and paint it so it hung on the tree on Christmas Eve.  I carried on that tradition with my children and now with my grandchildren.  Every year I come up with some new combination of ribbon and walnut colors in order to identify whose walnuts are whose.  Most of the walnuts have some denomination of currency folded and stuffed inside them, but some just have a few pennies in them just to tease them. (Even the ones with currency in them also have a couple of dimes in them so they rattle when shaken.)  Here's a picture of one of them.

 

 

Each of the five grandkids have a dozen walnuts this year, so with five grandkids, that's... 60 walnuts!  It's a bit of an organizational challenge as I complete them all (and keep them identified for whose are whose!), but I do enjoy it and the kids all look forward to "Papa's Walnuts"!

 

Here's to a Happy Holiday season to all of my MSW friends! 

[tmj]

That's a very clever idea! I like it! 🙂 

[hamilton]

My grandfather would do exactly the same thing when we were kids - I was always mystified about where he found walnuts with money in them - a folded up Canadian 5-dollar bill...felt like a fortune at the time...Merry Christmas!

hamilton

[Der Alte Rentner]

What a wonderful Christmas tradition!  

 

Thanks for sharing, and of course,

Merry Christmas to you and yours as well.

 

Best

DAR

[mtbediz]

On 12/19/2025 at 1:34 AM, GGibson said:

What I have been working on, though, diligently over the past week or so is my annual Christmas tree hanging walnuts project.  Back when I was a young child, my father would carefully crack open walnuts, dig the walnut and other pieces out of the shell, place money back in the shell, glue it, put a hanging bow on it and paint it so it hung on the tree on Christmas Eve.  I carried on that tradition with my children and now with my grandchildren.  Every year I come up with some new combination of ribbon and walnut colors in order to identify whose walnuts are whose.  Most of the walnuts have some denomination of currency folded and stuffed inside them, but some just have a few pennies in them just to tease them. (Even the ones with currency in them also have a couple of dimes in them so they rattle when shaken.)  Here's a picture of one of them.

Life becomes more beautiful and meaningful when such traditions are kept alive.

 

Happy new year!

[GGibson]

First off, Happy New Year to all, especially those that have provided guidance and critique in the early stages of this Constitution build of mine.  Like many others around this past holiday season, I took a bit of a break from the shipyard, not doing much actual work on the ship, but I did take the opportunity to review and plan some critical “next steps”, as they will affect how I am able to continue forward in this build.  My thanks to Mustafa for pointing out his concerns regarding how I removed the spar deck beams and some potential hurdles I might face.

 

With that said, I did decide to cut back the spar deck beams back to the recently installed waterways strips.  I would have had considerable difficulty placing the gun deck bulwarks and the various horizontal and vertical knees.

 

    

 

By placing the scale-size gun deck plans onto the false gun deck, I am able to see where the cannons will be placed for the gunport framing, which I will be working on next.  I wanted at least one mock-up of the 24-pound gun deck cannons and carriages in order to also test the placement of the framing.  While I really wanted to test my skills at making my own carriages using my mill, I chickened out and decided to at least try using Syren’s 3D printed black resin cannon and carriage assembly.

 

   

 

The cannon length of 1-23/32” (42.84mm) converts in scale very close to the actual 10’-5 3/4” length.  After assembling the carriage and doing some painting, the cannon looks pretty decent!  In accordance with the US Navy Plan #35810 painting schedule, the gun carriages are painted a Venitian Red color.  So, I got a tube of Utrecht Venetian Red acrylic paint.  I like the color!  And it looks fairly accurate.  This mock-up does not yet have any of the bolts and eyebolts added to it for rigging purposes.

 

So, what's next?  I still have to paint the two deck’s waterways and then begin the gun deck framing work.

 

As always, thanks for the likes, comments and criticisms.

[TerryPat]

It's looking really nice!!

[mtbediz]

That was a good decision, Greg, you now have a much more comfortable workspace on the gun deck.

[mtbediz]

That was a good decision, Greg, you now have a much more comfortable workspace on the gun deck.

[GGibson]

3 hours ago, mtbediz said:

That was a good decision, Greg, you now have a much more comfortable workspace on the gun deck.

 

Thank you, Mustafa.  I appreciate the concern you raised.  It will definitely be easier to work with the gundeck level bulwarks, knees, etc.  I have also been taking note of where the new spar deck beams will be placed.  

 

Working now on painting the waterways and beginning to place the gundeck gun framing.  I am noticing that some of the cannon placements, according to the plans as they are laid onto the false deck, are very close to some bulwark extensions.  I want to look at some of you gentlemen's previous work to see how you addressed the framing spacings.

 

I have a busy "papa week" scheduled, so may not get back to shipyard until later in the week.  Again, Mustafa, thanks for the feedback.  Appreciate everyone's input! 

[Der Alte Rentner]

Hi Gregg,

Just checking in to see how the build goes, and would have left things alone with the "like" a couple of posts back, but noticed the new profile photo and had to comment.  Very nice. 

Enjoy your papa week.  

[GGibson]

2 hours ago, Der Alte Rentner said:

Just checking in to see how the build goes...  noticed the new profile photo and had to comment.  Very nice.  

 

Thanks, Peter!  Yeah, I had forgotten that my wife had taken this picture as we were waiting to take the Constitution tour that day.  As you can sort of tell in the background, it was a cloudy day that day, off and on drizzle, so much of the spar deck stuff was covered.  Bummer!  I'm tempted to take a 1-2 day quick-trip to Boston this spring just to get back on it on a clear day for good pictures.

 

As I mentioned somewhere, I'm starting the gundeck gun port framing now.  I measured and cut the bottom frames last night, so will glue those in today, I hope, before grandkids are over here.  Then work on finishing each of the gunport framings later in the week.

 

Thanks for checking in, sir!  Your ship is shaping up nicely!  You're getting to the fun rigging stuff now! 

[Der Alte Rentner]

1 hour ago, GGibson said:

... You're getting to the fun rigging stuff now! 

Are you sure about that being the fun stuff?  😁

Edited Monday at 08:56 PM by Der Alte Rentner

[GGibson]

Began working on the gun deck’s gunport framing by measuring and cutting each of the bottom frames.  I figured it was easier to measure them all (and marking them, accordingly) and make all the cuts rather than gluing individual bottom frames after each cut.

 

 

I will now work on securing the bottom gunport frames between each bulwark extension.  I do have a question, though, for those who have previously done this (I know you are listening… or at least I hope so!)  I cut these bottom frame pieces using a 1/16” x 7/32” stock strip.  Others have used 1/8” strips all around, I believe, in their gunport framing.  However, I think others with these same waterway measurements have then had concerns with their cannon positions being too low.

 

Here is where the 1/16” bottom frame will sit, using a 5/32” spacer between the waterway and the bottom frame.

 

 

And then, pulling out the spacer and positioning a cannon and carriage, you can see the height of the cannon barrel.  Assuming the 13/32” vertical spacing, it appears the cannon should end up being well centered.  Agreed?

 

     

 

     

 

I will plan on using 1/8” stock (or close to it) for the vertical sides and the top framing.  What are your thoughts on using the narrower 1/16” stock for the bottom frames?  Will I have issues with planking?

 

I appreciate input on what issues I might have.  It appears, though, that the cannon framing will be good.  Thanks for your comments.

[JSGerson]

I don't know if it's the camera angle or what, but the gun barrel appeals to me to be low and not centered vertically between the lower framing and the top framing. The gun barrel must dead centered in the gun port. I had this same problem. I thought I had compensated for the gun deck with planking, but my guns sat too low. I never figured out where I screwed up. When it came time to actually install the guns, I found that the laser cut gun carriages that came with the kit did not match the US Navy drawings. They were shorter in height than the US Navy's. That is the reason I scratch built the gun deck gun carriages. Once fabricated, the new US Navy based carriages raised the cannon barrels enough to be at the proper height.

 

Double check your measurements. Place a copy of the hull plans directly on your model to see if the gun ports line up. Maybe the gun deck planking will correct my perceived concern. Better safe than sorry.

 

Jon

Edited Wednesday at 03:33 PM by JSGerson

[GGibson]

5 minutes ago, JSGerson said:

I don't know if it's the camera angle or what, but the gun barrel appeals to me to be low and not centered vertically between the lower framing and the top framing.

 

Jon, thanks for your input!  And, as I was reading your response, I had an "a-ha!" moment.  When taking the picture with the carriage and cannon, I placed it directly on the false deck.  I need to allow for the gun deck planking, as well!  Duh...!!!

 

OK, let me make an adjustment with some planking under the cannons, I'll build out a complete gunport, and re-test the positioning.

 

I appreciate your time in responding, Jon!  Thank you, sir!

[JSGerson]

Glad to be of help

 

Jon

[GGibson]

OK, a follow-up to my request for assistance in reviewing my possible gun deck cannon positioning… and a shout-out to Jon Gerson for helping to remind me of my failure to account for gun deck planking (duh!) in my initial positioning review.

 

But first, I have been able to complete the painting of the gun deck’s waterway and planksheer.  I noted in the re-listing of the USN Plan #35810, Painting Schedule that appeared in BlueJacket’s guidebook by Laurence Arnot that, while the spar deck’s waterways were to be painted green, the gundeck’s waterways were dark lead in the 1812-1815 period.  Dark lead, as you can imagine, is defined as a dark grey color.  While I had a small supply of Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylic Neutral Gray, I was curious about this Dark Lead color and found some (of course) on the internet.

 

 

Upon receipt, I compared the two paints and, while my phone’s camera and the lighting may not do the comparison fair justice… can you see any difference?!?  OK, there is a bit, but the blue arrow is the Liquitex Neutral Gray and the red arrow is the Little Greene Dark Lead.  I chose the Little Greene Dark Lead for the gun deck waterways and planksheer.

 

 

I don’t think I mentioned it in any previous post, but I painted the spar deck waterways and planksheer using Liquitex Basic Acrylic Green Deep Permanent paint.  While I will undoubtedly do some touch-ups as I come across areas that need it, I think both deck’s waterways look good.

 

       

 

 

So, now to test the gun deck cannon positioning again.  In one of the starboard side locations, I built out the gunport framing.  Again, the bottom frame is 5/32” above the planksheer.  Each gunport frame will be 9/16” wide, and 13/32” tall from sill to header (thanks again to Jon for a nice diagram in his build log that appears to match my framing).  In this test framing, I did not build the vertical framing in the parallelogram shape, but the height distance remained at the required 13/32” height.  When I actually build out each gunport frame, I will use a 13/32” spacer block and the sides will be cut at proper angles, according.  With that said, here’s how a carriage and cannon look sitting on the gun deck planking and with the framing.

 

      

 

 

This positioning looks better than what it did previously.  Any other thoughts, recommendations and additional advice?

[JSGerson]

Much better!

 

Jon