USS Constitution by lambsbk – Revell – 1/96 - PLASTIC – With Fiber Optics

[lambsbk]

Thanks Michael. I was on board her last year. Awesome ship.

[HIPEXEC]

Beautiful gun rigging...great rope coils!

[Brenticus]

This may sound weird, but (keeping in mind the entire thing is AMAZING) your TIIINY little pieces of furniture in the great cabin BLEW ME AWAY.  That's the extra mile and then some!

[CIWS01]

When looking at how incredibly small these Cannon and Carriages are, it is amazing the level of detail you achieve. The hard effort is paying huge dividends. The ropes look so natural in your set up, amazing.

[lambsbk]

They were treated with plastruct liquid cement gently and then pressed gently into position while wet. The plastruct is clear for the most part and gave the small ropes a 'gravity' look. It also partially cements the rope to the model. It works well (at least on plastic). This was a suggestion brought to me by another forum member (kimathm).

 

PS: sorry for the lack of progress on the build lately...the admiral has me on another project: but back to yard will be soon I hope.

[Usgecko]

I started my Connie build log last month.

 

Was really interested to see the use of fiber optics. I am partway through a build of Minicraft's 350 scales Titanic with fiber optics in it. I think it's well worth the effort - your work is another source of inspiration!

 

stuart

Edited October 8, 2014 by Usgecko

[texxn5]

Hello my friend, sorry for delays in making contact, got real busy lately. Glad to see you're working on the Conny again. Thanks for visiting my page and website. What do you think? Hope you and Fran are doing well. We might make the East Coast again next year for our trip. Just checking in...more later.

[lambsbk]

...Just a note to let people know I am still alive...

 

Life has gotten in the way of hobbies. Fran broke her ankle. My free time (if any) has changed as a result. It will be a few months before we are back to normal. I WAS working on a a model of the FROG room which I had hoped to convert and add a modeling area for the Connie build. A model was needed so Fran can move the furniture and not hurt MY back. Since it is modeling (i.e. model ship building area) related I will post a pick of that progress later.

 

PS: I know you guys have well wishes and they are appreciated so much. Just give me a PM if you have a question. Thanks.

 

Dave

Edited November 4, 2014 by lambsbk

[augie]

Take care of the Admiral.....one day she'll return it, in spades.

 

We'll all be here when you get back to work!

[lambsbk]

She already has and still is Augie. Thank you.

[texxn5]

Hi Dave, our prayers are out for Fran, hope she's doing ok. Gee, you get to be a nurse, that's an interesting concept...just kidding of course. Hope you guys are doing ok. Maybe you'll get to stay home a little more and get to work on your Conny. I made a section for my Conny in my website. Perhaps you could come up with about 8-9 pictures that I could feature your gun deck in my Gallery page. Your detail is like no other. Take care my friend, and God Bless!

[texxn5]

Diane & I want to wish you , Fran and your family a very Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving...we hope Fran is getting better...ankles can really be bad, so hope she's ok..

[lambsbk]

John: I sent you a PM.

[Kilo66]

 John;

 I hope all has gone well for you and your wife since you last posted here and I look forward to the day when you can pick up the thread where you left off. You've done some fine model shipwright work and your log has been most instructive. Best wishes,

 Ray

[lambsbk]

Thanks Ray. Actually my wife gets out of the cast in 3 days - yeah. Life will slowly get back to normal and then back to the shipyard - I really am anxious to resume.

 

Dave

[lambsbk]

Well. At long last the ship yard is open again (i.e. life has slowed down a little again). I made a few small steps of progress. I have continued on the fore and main tack and sheet lines. As mentioned previously - these probably were not originally secured on the gun deck but that is where Revell has them and I don't know the detail well enough to bring them up to the spar deck (where they should in all likelihood have been routed). I used a coil on deck to stow the excess line on the fore tack. I used a coil loop on the main tack. I think I like the coiled loop better and will keep on using this configuration for the rest of the lines on the gun and spar decks. It did give me grief though. My CA glue just did not grab the way it used to 6 months ago. Time for some new stuff.

 

Coil on deck

 

Looped coils

 

[augie]

Good to see her, and have you, back!

[popeye the sailor]

hey Dave.....good to see your back!      I think Revell  shows them knotted and cemented in place through holes in the hull.   you went above and beyond to make them look functional 

[lambsbk]

I decided to work on the elm pumps this week. The prototype is below. It still needs a little tweaking  and shaping but you can get the idea.

 

Once again Blue Jacket brass came to the design rescue as I used the hammock crane bracket to form the pump arm bracket.

 

All the parts except the pump tampion.

 

This is the result before reshaping.

 

[lambsbk]

There will be 4 total. I still have to research exactly where to place them.

[texxn5]

Hi Dave, just getting a chance to catch up on your log. Good to see you back in the shipyard. Glad all is going well for you guys finally.

Take care my friend,

John

[lambsbk]

Placing the pumps has been challenging - only because references are few (at least those I could find). Marquardt's AOTS has a small pic on pg. 79. I almost missed it - but it does show their location.

You would think that the Marquardt and Revell plans would be close but the hatches are different. I used the only solid reference point between the two, the main mast diameter, and mapped out the locations on the Revell deck.

The pumps are not glued in these pics but I think I am happy with their placement. I put the pump handles closest to the main mast over the outlet of the chain pumps. It does work and saves space. Both items that would have been important. These locations also are generally clear of the respective gun actions.

[shiloh]

If you haven't glued those pumps in yet, might think about the handles being inboard and stowed with the handles up, out of harms way. No reference but were I placing the real pumps, that is how I would do it. You are doing great on this model, when I start the same build I will be following your steps closely.

jud

Edited July 15, 2015 by shiloh

[lambsbk]

No. Not glued yet Jud. I will reposition and see how they look. Is inboard positioning standard?

 

Dave

[shiloh]

Don't know, but the pump handles would be out of the way and if the pumps were needed, those doing the pumping would not be interfering with the other things going on around them.

jud

[lambsbk]

I have looked over quite a few build logs. It seems that almost everyone has the elm pumps angled somewhat so I have turned them just a bit to fit into the current deck configuration and give them some angulation. Now elm pumps 2.0.

 

 

...of course: they are still not yet glued in prep for Elm Pumps 3.0!

Edited July 17, 2015 by lambsbk

[lambsbk]

I have been putting so much effort into this gun deck that I find it increasingly troublesome to think of shutting it completely in...I did not believe I would feel this way and in fact previously had no misgivings about it at all. I think seeing the final result is giving me these misgivings. So now, at this stage in the build no less, I am musing ways to expose this deck somehow. Kimathm (on this forum) had suggested re-doing the deck in clear plastic. The thought was a possibility with styrene. Although the entire deck seems a bit much I am seriously thinking of working a piece up and replacing the fore portion of the Revell spar deck. That area has a lot of gun deck furniture and could probably be shaped. That would expose the camboose, cable bitts, and more. A manger might have to be worked up and maybe even a messenger cable. Thinking...   Thinking...

 

Dave

[youngtiger1]

Dave, it has been a while since I login here but I followed all your updates and I you are doing great. I believe this will be by far the best Constitution model out of a plastic kit. Oh and your rope work is awesome!

 

Mike

[augie]

I share your pain in covering up the gun deck.  My Confederacy is similar and Chuck's design calls for leaving off (completely) sections of the quarter and fore decks.  I know Sam's Essex design (MS) does pretty much the same thing.  They each have full deck beams however.  

 

Be interested to see what you come up with.

[lambsbk]

@youngtiger. Thanks for the kudos. I do disagree though. There are so many fine plastic Connies on this and other sites. I know you are following some of them as well. My build is an amalgam of other builds with my ideas added. The final result will be unique but I will never be able to claim it was all mine.

 

@ Augie. The clear deck, if it works, would only expose the underlying gun deck. I could not show the beam structure (I don't think) without defeating the purpose of clarifying the deck. That will have to wait for my next build. Evan (force9) is doing a fantastic job of showing these beams.