USS Constitution by usedtosail - FINISHED - Model Shipways - scale 1/76

[usedtosail]

For the open lower gun port lids, I decided to make some 90 degree brackets that look like the photoetched hinges. I used some 1/64" by 1/16" brass strip and filed the hinge shape in by hand, then thinned the width down to about 3/64"

 

 

I have only made 8 of the 32 I will need, but it was a good start.

 

I also experimented with some sail cloth I had left over from another build to try to simulate the canvas gun port covers at the stern ports. I used a hole punch to make the hole for the cannon barrel. I think with some fray check on the edges and maybe some paint they will do. What do you think?

 

[xken]

Tom, on your sail canvas; try a mixture of 50/50 white glue and water then soak the canvas with a brush and allow to dry on a piece of wax paper. Then punch it and you will get a cleaner cut. Keep up the great work you are doing, I am slowly following in your footsteps with my build. 

[usedtosail]

Thanks Ken, I will give that a try.

[Burroak]

I looked on the USS Constitution Museum website and couldn't find any reference to a cd.

[billt]

Greg, The CD can be found in their store under the book section.  I just checked and it is still available.

 

Bill

[Burroak]

Thank you Bill! I didn't think to look under books.

[billt]

You're welcome.  It wasn't an obvious place to put it but I remembered since I bought my copy last summer.

[usedtosail]

I am almost done with the head area. I glued the last plank in place just above the middle rail. I have a little clean up to do around the middle rails on both sides, then this area is done.

 

 

Work on all the various gun port lid configurations continues. I glued in the full port lids on the first two gun ports on each side. I added half the line to open them by threading the line into two holes at the bottom of the lids and tying knots behind the holes. I will add the second line when I add the eye brows over these gun ports. The supplied eye brows have holes in them for the line into the hull, so I am going to thread the line through the hole, glue it to the back of the eye brow, glue the eye brow on, then tie the line to the line on the lids.

 

 

 

Speaking of eye brows, I cleaned up four of them to go over these port, primed them and am painting them black. I am also painting the three starboard lids that will be closed around the dummy barrels white, after adding the hinges to the bottoms.

 

 

I blackened the hinge/brackets I made for the open half lids and glued them on, then painted the lids white. I want to try these out on the hull before I make all of them.

 

 

I have to really thank Ken for the suggestion to use 50/50 white glue on the sail cloth. I painted a swatch and let it dry overnight on some wax paper, then cut out the covers for the two starboard ports. I used a hole punch to cut the center hole, just applying pressure and rotating it by hand. It cut a nice clean hole.

 

 

 

 

I then applied medium CA glue to the dummy cannon barrels where they fit into the holes in the back of the gun ports, and white glue around the lip of the gun ports, and glued the barrels and cloth in at the same time.

 

 

I am enjoying making all these different port lids, especially doing a them in stages like this.

 

 

 

[usedtosail]

I touched up the paint around the head rails and planks and here is how it came out. I am pretty happy with the look.

 

 

 

 

 

What I was not happy about was the look of those canvas gun port covers, especially the way the edges showed. I tried a few things and came up with a solution that I like a lot. I pushed them into the gun ports, and they look as if they were fastened on the inside of the ports, which they may have been. Here is how they came out:

 

 

One small issue is that they are not glued in, only pressed in. The sail cloth with glue is pretty stiff so they have a spring to them that is holding them in place. I would hate to pull them out and try to get them back in place with some glue on the edges, but I may do that in the future. For now I am going to leave them as is.

 

As always, any suggestions are most welcome.

[Burroak]

I'm just thinking out loud. I wonder if you cut some 1/32 wood just slightly smaller than those sail cloth covers and then attached the sail cloth to it then somehow glued the 1/32 wood inside. I haven't tried this I was just trying to think of a way to do it. As I have said before your ship is great and I truly have learned a lot from watching your build log.

 

Greg H.

[usedtosail]

Greg, my first thought was to make a frame inside the rabbet, but the frame stuck out too much from the side with the cloth behind them. I would need a deeper rabbet around the gun ports. I didn't think about a frame inside the gun port, though. I may try that. Thanks.

[xken]

Tom, I see your test sailcloth after drying was fairly wrinkled. Try ironing the sailcloth with spray starch to smooth out the fabric and then brush on the 50/50 mixture. Then once dry on low heat on the iron smooth again.

Looking great keep up the great work you are doing!

[shipmodel]

Hi Tom - 

 

Just looked over this log and was quite impressed.  You are getting excellent results technically and artistically, and with full attention to historic accuracy. Bravo.

 

I am no Constitution expert, and I have not looked at any of the artwork that was mentioned, but I am wondering about those canvas gunport covers.  The reason for canvas rather than wood, I would think, was so the captain could roll them down a bit to get some air without having to open them fully, or at least halfway by removing the upper split cover.  In that case, would there have been a hole, or would the cannon be stowed inboard somewhere with a solid canvas curtain to cover the port?  

 

Just my brain spinning along.  If I am way off base, just ignore this.

 

Be well

 

Dan

[usedtosail]

Ken and Dan , thank you for the encouragement. It means a lot to me.

 

Ken, I'll have to look for the Admiral's iron to try that. It doesn't get used much these days.

 

Dan, here is one of the pictures I have been working off for the canvas covers. You can see a hole in the center with the gun sticking out. The others show the same thing.

 

 

 

In the text it says this:

 

The canvas covers in the captain’s great/forward cabin gun ports would have kept out

some water when sailing in general or light weather, but more important, would have

allowed diffused light to enter the cabin during all daylight hours, no matter the

weather. If the weather was really inclement, likely half ports could have been fitted

into the ports to secure them from heavy seas.

 

No mention if they could be rolled down, but with the gun there it might have been difficult. These guns may have been stowed inside, but I am depicting this just before battle with some of the guns run out so I am thinking they would maybe in this position.

[shipmodel]

Tom - 

 

Thanks for showing the artwork.  To my mind this does not look like a cannon muzzle, but perhaps a wooden framework that the canvas was mounted to.  The circle with outward rays was a common pattern for glass windows at the time.   It is very different from the artist's drawing of the cannon in the port on the right.  A wooden framework could also solve the problem of how to secure the canvas in the port since it did not have to roll down.  

 

The photo is of the reconstructed L'Hermione.

 

Dan

 

 

 

 

 

 

[usedtosail]

Oh, that picture is worth a lot. I totally misinterpreted the original. That said, here are the other two pictures referenced. The first one here looks just like the picture you sent with no gun. The bottom one looks like it has a gun in it. So I guess that hole would allow a gun to poke through. I  like the frame though and will attempt to recreate that look. Thank you very much.

 

[NenadM]

I like very much to see artistic approach. Great work

[shipmodel]

Tom - 

 

Looks like it could go either way.  Looking forward to seeing how it comes out.

 

Be well

 

Dan

[popeye the sailor]

dropped in here this morn for just a quick browse........didn't realize that I would be here all day!        I read your build from front to back Tom......and I must say,  what a super job you've done with the Connie!     lots of unbelievable detail....very nicely done.  hard to pick out any particular part......she'sall good!   now that I commented,  your build will be in my watch list.......won't have to stray anymore to find you      did your daughter move to Manchester?

[usedtosail]

Thank Nenad. I have taken great inspiration from your Cutty build.

 

Dan, I am going to try to replicate that framing but it may be beyond my abilities, especially that circle in the middle. I am going to reproduce it on the computer then print it out on some manila, and hopefully be able to cut out the middle sections. Then I can glue it to the stiffened sail cloth. We will see...

 

Popeye - I saw all your likes yesterday and could not believe you where going through it all at once. You should have been using your valuable time on all the models you have going at once  . Thank you though and I am glad to have you on board. My daughter is working at Dartmouth Hicthcock Hospital so she moved to Lebanon, NH. It is a good distance I think - not too far but not too close either. We are going up Saturday to help her buy her first car that will be in her name. She is very excited.

[thomaslambo]

Hi Tom,

 

Simply beautiful work/details (love the craftsmanship on the head area and rails) 

 

Congrats on the two year mark....building these ships is a long voyage to be sure  

[usedtosail]

Thanks Boyd. I am certainly in no hurry with this build and I enjoy looking ahead, but I can't look too far ahead or I get depressed. 

 

Work on the gun port lids continues. First, here are the two full port lids on each side with their draw lines installed to open them. I went with a modified version of the lines on the current Conny. I glued the top lines onto the back of the eye brows after threading them through the holes. I then glued the eye brows in place, and tied the other end of those lines to the lines running into the bottom corners of the lids.

 

 

 

The remaining eye brows (there has to be a better term for these, no?) are all going over half ports or canvas covered ports which do not have draw lines. So I first primed them, which involves a pickling step in white vinegar before painting with primer. I then filled the holes with wood filler and smoothed the filler out after it set for a few minutes.

 

 

When the filler was fully dry, I gave the parts two coats of black paint. Here they are with some of the half port lids currently being painted.

 

 

These are the remaining port lids for the starboard side and are ready to install. I already installed four of these on the starboard side. These use the L shaped hinge brackets I made which worked really well to support these half lids. They provide supports like shelf brackets while I was still able to glue the back edges of the ports to the hull. Between both attachments, these seem very sturdy. I will have pictures of these installed in a future post. I went ahead and made all of the hinge brackets for the port side and blackened them. I also cut all of the wood pieces for the port gun lids and have started adding the hinges to them and will start painting them soon.

 

I have been going back and forth on the canvas coverings for those gun ports near the galleries, as you can see by the previous posts. I tried making the frames last night from manila folder material, but could not get them to look good, especially the circular sections. I then tried some thin styrene strip, thinking I could use that for the straight sections of the frames and come up with something for the circle later. I removed one of the canvas covers from the model and glued styrene strips to the four edges to see how this might look as a frame before adding the diagonal pieces.

 

 

I placed it into the gun port opening and was not happy with the look at the joints of the frame pieces. I then thought to try turning the piece around with the frame on the inside of the port hidden by the canvas, fit into the rabbet around the port. I was really happy with this look, and removed all of the canvas covers and framed them this way. Here is how they came out and here is how they are going to stay. I think this is a nice compromise between what may have been and what I can make look have way decent. The edges look much better than the raw fabric edges that I first had.

 

 

 

I do really appreciate the suggestions so please keep them coming, even if I don't always follow them. They do push me to do better. 

 

[GLakie]

I like the final solution that you came up with for the canvas-covers Tom. She's looking better all the time. 

[popeye the sailor]

yea,  it's hard when there is conflicting info.........I think you made a good choice.

[popeye2sea]

BTW Tom, the "eyebrows" are called a rigol

 

Regards

[Burroak]

Tom your Conny is looking great my friend! Keep it up.

 

Greg H.

[usedtosail]

Thank you George, the Popeyes, and Greg, and the likes. 

 

Thanks Henry for the name of those things. Rigol sounds so much better. Do you know if these pieces were purely decorative or did they have some other purpose?

[Burroak]

Tom I read where the rigol or eyebrow was to help deflect water from running directly into the gunport.

 

Greg H.

[usedtosail]

That's what it looks like it does, so that makes sense.

[popeye2sea]

The definition of a rigol is a gutter.  So it does pretty much what it says; direct water away.