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

[gerty]

Very nice work Tom  - look forward to following along.

[usedtosail]

Thanks Gerty, welcome to the build.

 

Everything is now painted and I have started the assembly of the guns. For the cannonade bases, I first installed the brackets that will hold them to the gun port sills. I made up a little jig to help me get them all the same distance from the front of the bases.

 

 

I could have made it more elaborate by adding guide pieces to the sides of the brackets but this worked pretty well as is. I decided to add a small block of wood in the slots of the bases, so that I could put a wire pin through the sled, base, and into the deck, to hold the whole assembly in place.

 

 

I also made a replica of the area around the spar deck gun ports to help in the assembly and rigging, like I did for the gun deck guns. Assembly of the long guns and cannonades is next up.

[usedtosail]

Sorry for the long time between updates, but I have been busy with work and school vacation last week.

 

I have started assembling and rigging the spar deck guns. I am starting with the two long guns and four carronades at the bow, to see how these will look with all the rigging before continuing on with the guns after the waist. I assembled and rigged the two long guns first, since these were very similar to the guns on the gun deck. 

 

 

I still have to tighten up the side tackles and secure the ends to the deck.

 

I then drilled holes through the carronade sleds and bases, into the deck, and secured a piece of wire to hold them in place. I then assembled one carronade, first by seizing a ring bolt to the end of a piece of line for the breeching rope, threading that line through the ring bolts on the sled and the ring on the barrel, then seizing another ring bolt to the other end. I then glued a brass screw in the hole I drilled into the casabel, and glued the head of the screw and the barrel trunnions to the sled. I finished it off by gluing small strips of black paper over the trunnions. Here it is placed on deck. I am in the process of making the four tackles needed to rig it.

 

 

 

I have started to assemble the second carronade and the production line of stropping hooks to blocks for the tackles. Here are all the gun carriages on deck ready to be assembled and rigged.

 

 

 

[Guest Tim I.]

Tom,

 

I am playing catch up on your log again. Great work, your USSC is turning out great!

 

- Tim

[alde]

That's a bunch of guns to rig. By the time you are done you will sure be an expert. Looks great.

[usedtosail]

Thanks Tim and Al, and for the likes. I finished assembling and rigging the four carronades on the fore part of the spar deck, before the waist. I first just put one set of side tackles on to make sure I would have enough room for two on each side without it looking too crowded. I glued these tackle lines to the deck and trimmed them, to get them out of the way.

 

 

 

You can see that for the two carronades right next to the open waist, I had to add the eyebolts into the planksheer since there is no bulwark there. Now the side tackles wouldn't be there most of the time, but in hindsight I probably should have moved that gun port a bit forward so I had more bulwark on that side. Oh well, can't change it now.

 

I then added the outer sets of side tackles. I was able to fit them all in, so I am pleased with the result. I have glued these second tackle lines to the deck but have not trimmed them yet. I also still have to add the rope coils, so I started the production line for those. 20 carronades, four side tackles each, four rope coils each = a butt load of work left to do  . 

 

 

Here is the view from outside the hull. I still have some paint touch up to do on the carronade barrels, inside and outside the hull.

 

Edited March 3, 2016 by usedtosail

[Burroak]

Tom your doing a beautiful job as always!

 

Greg H.

[GLakie]

Looking good Tom! It's got to be some pretty tedious/repetitive work on all these cannon!   

[_SalD_]

I feel your pain Tom.  Cannonade tackles coming along nicely.

[David Lester]

Hi Tom,

I've been following your build log and really enjoying it. It looks like you're just a little bit ahead of me with my project, so I'll be watching with interest. It's looking great.

David 

[usedtosail]

Thanks Greg.

 

Thanks George. I am trying to break up the repetition by assembling and rigging 4 carronades at a time. That way I have a variety of tasks for each one before repeating on the next group.

 

Sal, your Syren is looking great. Ratlines are another of those repetitive tasks that you can't wait to be finished with. Yours are looking great.

 

Welcome David. Thanks for the compliment. Do you have any pictures of your build? I would love to see them. Are you following the kit or making changes/additions as you go?

[David Lester]

Hi Tom,

Yes, I have pictures; I posted a new build log yesterday which you should be able to find. I'm not making changes, just following the build in the usual way. I'm using the Bob Hunt practicum. As I'm fairly new to this (this is my second model - Armed Virginia Sloop was first) I'd be lost without it. I've found two big benefits to it - the first is it lays out a sequence. While the included instructions with this kit are nearly useless, all the information you need is actually right there on the plans but it's not evident to me  what's the best approach. The practicum suggests a logical order and helps me interpret the plans. The other benefit I found is that it has boosted my confidence and I imagine that after I have a couple of builds under my belt I should be able to approach a set of plans and figure out how to proceed on my own.

 

David

[JSGerson]

David, if I might Interject into your conversation, I too am a fan of Robert Hunt's practicums. They have a lot of useful stuff and I could not have built, let alone started building my Rattlesnake (my first square rigger build) without it. Just be aware that Bob is human and not perfect (he has a lot of idiosyncrasies that others might attest to) and therefore his practicums (at least the Rattlesnake's) have errors which I have pointed out in my log. Some of his dimensions were wrong as well as some of his building sequences were not fully thought out (my opinion). Double check everything and get second opinions on how to accomplish things from other build logs. He does state in the Rattlesnake practicum that there maybe better ways of doing things. I look forward to following your build log as the Conny is my planned second build and using his practicum.

[usedtosail]

David, I just had a chance to look at  your log, and you are doing a fantastic job. I started with the first chapter of the Hunt practicum which did help me out to get started. Keep up the good work, but as JS says use it with a grain of salt.

[texxn5]

Hi Tom, I can't believe I'm just finding your build log. I started at the beginning also and wound up spending most all of the day going through it. It is a gorgeous build of a very difficult project. I finished the Revell plastic 1/96 before I built my Morgan, but always have wanted to build the MS one. Someday, before I get too old to do this one I might make an attempt. I might do the Niagara next, and you're Carrondades solved some future problems I was contemplating. Keep it up and I'm dragging up a late chair and following along. I've had Henry's tour also and that is a real inspiring and motivating force to build this ship. Great work!

John

[usedtosail]

Thanks John. Welcome to the build. Sorry if you had other plans for the day. I hope you do decide to build this model someday as it will keep you busy and is very satisfying. The Niagara looks like a nice model too. 

[texxn5]

Hi Tom, thanks. Yeah, I had other plans before reading your log - but tomorrow is another day, especially when my day was consumed by your fantastic build log and work. Part of my problem is having the room for another big ship....

John

[usedtosail]

Ah yes, where to put this beast. Luckily both my kids have moved out so I have access to more room in the house, but that is only temporary until we retire and sell the house. I'll ether find a place in the new house or give it away. Maybe my son will have a house of his own by then.

[texxn5]

Yeah, that would be ideal. We've retired, and downsized so there is no more room, and if we downsize again it will be to a 5th wheel. I don't have any kids, and Diane's have no interest. So I've got my 2 cars and some ship models to deal with and no one wants any of them...lol.

[usedtosail]

I just made an edit on post 792 - it turns out the boarding steps are at the aft end of the waist not the fore end, so my carronade tackles would not be in the way of the boarding steps. There is enough bulwarks at the aft end of the waist for those tackle lines to be attached so I don't need to put those into the plank sheer.

[usedtosail]

We stayed home this weekend so I had a lot of time to spend working on the carronade rigging.

 

I have been making rope coils for the deck three at a time in the little jig I built when I was rigging the gun deck guns. I had enough to add them to the starboard side guns that are before the waist and a few on the port side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have to make these very flat to fit under the side tackles on the carronades.

 

I have also assembled more carronades on the deck behind the waist and some of them are in various stages of rigging.

 

 

Doing these four at a time has been helpful to relieve the monotony factor, but there is still a lot of seizing of blocks that needs to be down for the side tackles.

 

[Edit] - Boy there is a lot of dust on that deck. I am going to have to do something about that.

Edited March 7, 2016 by usedtosail

[texxn5]

Looking really good. Moving right along with this.

[David Lester]

Looking good Tom -  only 22 of them - should take no time at all!

 

Dust and other flaws don't seem to show up in real life, but they sure do in pictures. I think the secret to dust control is to never photograph your model.

 

David

[usedtosail]

Thanks John and David, and the likes.

 

The carronade assembly and rigging are completed. Here are the last four with the first set of side tackles installed.

 

 

 

 

And here are the last eight sets of side tackle blocks and the assembled side tackles.  I am glad to be done with these for now. I did change the way I make these about half way through the carronade rigging. When I seize the single blocks, I first tie a simple overhand knot around the block. This is set with a tiny bit of CA, since I do not want this to come undone when pressure is applied. I then use the excess to tie a longer piece of line to the block to use as the tackle line. I was also using CA to hold this knot, but this is a real knot and not a half knot, so to speak, so I switched to using the Dullcote Lacquer to hold these instead of CA. This eliminated making the end of the tackle line stiff at the block, so the resulting tackle lines on the model look better. So, my rule going forward for the rest of the ship rigging is to use lacquer on real knots and only use CA on half knots, if there are any left of those.

 

 

 

And here the outer side tackles are installed on the last carronades. I still need to trim the ends off the deck and add rope coils. I have rope coils on almost all of the port side guns, but still need a lot on the starboard side. I still need to make a lot of these, so I will be adding them in batches as I move on to other deck furniture on the spar deck, like the wheels and capstan.

 

 

 

 

BTW - I tried cleaning the deck to get the dust off, but it looks like it didn't do much based on these pictures. You don't see this dust in real life, but I bet with the right light I would. Any suggestions on how to get rid of it?

[David Lester]

Hi Tom

I find that photographing models is pretty like photographing anything else. For example, I believe myself to be incredibly good looing in real life, but always look like hell in pictures.  Nothing but flaws and imperfections. By what can I do? I guess I can take comfort in small mercies and be glad that despite my frequent and protracted periods of inactivity, I never appear as though I actually need to be dusted in my pictures!

 

But seriously, I don't know what the answer to the dust issue is but your model is looking good nevertheless.

 

David

[GLakie]

The spar deck looks more complete with all her carronades in place Tom. Nice work!   Maybe a soft-bristle paint brush slightly dampened with just water for the rest of the dust?  

[usedtosail]

Thanks David. I have the same problem being photographed. 

 

Thanks too George. My initial attempt was a damp Q-Tip, but I think that just moved the dust around. I may try some type of solvent, but I don't do want to loosen any glue.

[alde]

Looks great Tom. You might try wads of painters tack cloth with tweezers. The tack cloth picks up dust like a magnet.

[usedtosail]

Thanks Al. I like your suggestion of the tack cloth. I do have them and use them before finishing but had not thought of them for cleaning up. I'll let you all know how it worked.

[popeye the sailor]

nice update Tom.......them guns look mighty fine      when I'm not working on my ships,  I usually drape a cloth {cut up tee shirts and stuff} over them and that keeps them protected to some degree.   I use a bushy painter's brush  {artist's.....not house}.....and spray a little furniture polish on it {wipe the excess}.

     start from the bow and work to the stern with strokes towards the center {with all the guns you have on deck}   if it gets too cruddy.......stop,  spray,  wipe again...and continue.