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

[Shnokey]

Great choice on the 5 window design. This was from Marquardt's book - cut with my CNC machine. 

 

 

[usedtosail]

Wow, I go away for a couple of days and miss a bunch of traffic on my own build log .

 

Evan - thanks for providing the information regarding the CD to Patrick. I ended up downloading all of the material from the site so I have it on my computer not on a CD. I went through and renamed the drawings so I can find things easier, although there is an index of sorts.

 

Shnokey - that is a great looking transom, and very much what I was thinking. I don't have a CNC machine, but will try to do something like that by hand, although not in relief. Is that a furnished captain's quarters on the other side of the windows? Just fabulous.

 

Patrick - no worries. Make yours as similar as you like. It is very flattering to me. Maybe we can exchange some ideas as we go. It would be a lot easier to build to the AOS book, but as others have pointed out it may not be very accurate. The plans and photos on the CD (or web site) are very different but to me may be more accurate for the 1812 period, although as Evan pointed out they are from the 1920's.

[patrickmil]

Tom, I'm thinking of going to around the 1797-ish period with my build. I have no doubt that AOTS has many inaccuracies in it. I have also had my doubts about Corne's paintings though. It seems like there are some things missing or added from painting to painting. 

[usedtosail]

So true, Patrick. Sounds interesting. I know I have seen descriptions of some of the differences between 1797 and 1812, but I don't remember where.

[usedtosail]

OK, where did we leave off? Oh yeah, getting the hatches from the gun deck to the berth deck more accurate. Here is a snippet of the plan that I was referring to from the CD and Constitution web site:

 

 

So, I updated the gun deck template to this configuration. I was able to tweak these to use three of the large hatch gratings from the kit that would have gone over the main hatch, but since I am leaving that one open, I can use them here. I had to add some more boxing between the bulkheads to accommodate the new ladder location, which I painted black. I then used the templates to cut out the gun deck base, which I made in two pieces to fit around the spar deck beam ends. I cut them to length first, then cut the edges along the waterways and sanded them to get a nice fit. Once I was happy with the fit along the waterways of the two pieces, I cut them to meet at the centerline:

 

 

Now it was time to cut out the hatch openings. To mark the hatch locations, I placed the base pieces and the templates into the hull, then drilled small holes at the corners of the hatches and where they met the centerline:

 

 

I took the deck pieces out of the hull, drew lines between the holes, and cut the hatch openings out with an X-Acto knife. I gave the edges a little sanding, too:

 

 

 

I wanted to make the hatch coamings for these so that when I plank the deck I can get a good fit at these openings. To support these coamings, I glued some tabs around the hatch openings, avoiding the bulkheads and center keel:

 

 

 

 

 

.

Edited March 26, 2014 by usedtosail

[usedtosail]

For the hatch coamings, I chose some strip wood that was high enough to fit above the deck base and deck planking height. For each hatch, I cut four pieces which all fit to the corners, then used a razor saw to cut lap joints into the corners. I made sure the lengths on the opposite sides were the same so they would be square, then glued them up using magnets and Legos to hold them square.

 

 

 

 

Tonight I will add the center pieces.

[patrickmil]

Tom, very nice progress with the gundeck. Are you putting any type of illumination into this to see some of the details you're planning on adding?

[usedtosail]

Thanks Patrick. I do not have plans for lighting these interior spaces. Most of this will be hidden by the boats over the main hatch, but I am doing it as a learning experience and practise mostly.

[alde]

When Constitution was built there were 5 other frigates commissioned with her. Would the stern decorations be similar on all the ships of a class? Were they influenced by the style of the time or the design of the actual builder? Would the Constellation, Philadelphia or United States be much different than Constitution?

 

There is probably less known about the other ships but it might be something interesting to explore.

[usedtosail]

That is a good question, Alde. I really have no idea. I know these were built in different ship yards along the East coast, so that may have influenced the final outcomes. I haven't seen much detail on these other sister ships to the Constitution.

[usedtosail]

It is with a heavy heart that I am dedicating the rest of this build to my younger brother, who passed away yesterday after a year's fight with lung cancer. Not only do I find this hobby extremely enjoyable, it is good therapy as well.

 

RIP Matt.

Edited March 22, 2014 by usedtosail

[patrickmil]

Tom, I'm very sorry to hear of your loss. My thoughts and prayers are with your family.

[usedtosail]

Thanks Patrick. It's nice to have such good friends here.

 

I did manage to get some work done last week and this weekend, so I might as well bring you all up to date.

 

First, here are the hatches to the berth deck completed with the gratings. I used three of the large gratings from the spar deck main hatch cover, which I cut apart. That hatch cover is not needed since the main hatch will be left open with the deck beams showing. I was quite pleased how these gratings cleaned up. This is actually the back side of them, which looked a lot better than the front side. The holes look round on the front side but square on the back.

 

 

I stained these hatches with oak stain, which you can see in some later pictures.

 

I then started planking the gun deck sections. I first pined a plank down the center as a reference, then put in spacers for another plank width on each side. I then cut and glued in one row of planks against those spacers on each side. These will be the starting planks that all the rest will be based on, so I made sure they were very straight and square. I left a plank on each side of the center plank so that when I put the two planked sections together later, I will have three plank widths to use to make sure there are no gaps in the center of the deck. We will see how this works out later. I drew lines at each of the bulkhead locations for the ends of the planks. I did move the location of the one bulkhead that is very close to its neighbor to be more centered between its neighbors, which is how I will show the deck beams for the spar deck. I have no idea why ME put those two bulkheads so close to each other, unless it has to do with the location of the main hatch (I am at work right now so I don't have the plans in front of me).

 

 

 

 

Here are some pictures of the planking process and the finished hatch coamings and grates:

 

 

 

Here is the port side deck section planked, before scraping and sanding. I used a black Sharpie on one edge of each plank as I installed them. I also used a three butt shift pattern. The planks lengths hit every three bulkheads and were nominally 20 cm long. This turns out to be a little long for this scale (~50 feet), but I didn't want to use planks that were shorter. The instructions for the hull planking say to use planks that are 4 bulkheads in length, but that would have been way too long.

 

 

If you look closely around the hatch openings, you will see that I used wider planks that I cut down away from the hatch but left a little wider around the edge of the hatch. This is similar to what I have seen around gun ports on hull plankings, especially on Chuck's models. If I didn't do this I would have had a very narrow plank along the hatches, which I didn't want. I am not sure if this is authentic, but to me it looks better than a very thin plank.

 

 Here is the deck planking after an initial scraping and sanding, but I have not added the treenails yet.

 

 

And again for symmetry, here is the starboard deck section being planked. You can see how the Sharpie looks before finishing. I do have to be careful not to get any on the plank surface, but if I do, I can turn the plank over and use the other side.

 

 

Next is to come up with a way to hold these sections tight to the deck beams when I glue them down. I am also doing some trials for treenails, which with these narrow planks could be challenging.

Edited March 26, 2014 by usedtosail

[patrickmil]

Tom, your progress looks great. I have a question for you as I'm too impatient to wait for the books in the mail. Connie's original 1795 plans show no open waste. This would provide enough gunports for the 60 guns she originally had. The 1803 painting shows the open waste. Do you have any research that shows when the open waste was constructed?

[usedtosail]

Sorry Patrick, I don't. I would not count my research on this ship very deep. I have read the AOS book and looked over the plans on the Constitution site. Pretty much everything else came from build logs on this site. I made myself a series of notes as I read them but I did not keep track of which ones came from which sites.

 

Given that, I already know that I am not making an authentic 1812 version. The gun port lids for one. As you have found, they either had full or no gun port lids in 1812. Because I am not building the whole gun deck, I want to use the dummy cannon barrels in those gun ports that won't have a real cannon. These need to have the closed split gun port lids to look good, otherwise you will see too much of the boxing behind them. My other option is to just put a closed full gun port lid on these, but I like the look of the split ones and I want to show all of the cannons sticking out of the gun deck. I hope this isn't too blasphemous, especially on such a well documented ship. Well, really I am surprised how much interpretation is still being done on it.

[alde]

Tom, I am very sorry for the loss of your brother. You and he are in my thoughts.

[usedtosail]

Thank you Alde.

[42rocker]

Sorry to read about the loss of your brother. Thoughts and Prayers to you and yours and his family.

 

Your good work is showing on your build. Remember and enjoy the build and let it always bring back good thoughts of your brother.

 

Later Tim

[usedtosail]

Thanks Tim for your very kind words.

 

I finished up the bulk of the gun deck planking last night, except for the three planks that will go down the center over the seam of the two pieces. First, here is the starboard side piece after planking and a first scraping/sanding, but before trimming the edges.

 

 

After the edges were trimmed and it fit into the hull, here is the two pieces together, after filing out the hatch openings to fit the finished coamings.

 

 

Now for the treenails. I taped the two sides down on the work table. I had added alignment marks so I could get them to line up outside of the hull. I then used some masking tape to mark each line of butt joints, and drilled one #74 hole in the planks that did not have a joint at that beam. I then took the tape off and drill two holes at each butt joint, one on each side of the joint. I also drilled holes at the ends of the planks at the hatch openings. I did not drill holes at the plank ends on the edges of the deck pieces, as the beam locations at each end are actually just off the pieces.

 

 

When all the holes were drilled, I filled them with oak putty, which is different than wood filler. It is more oily and stays pliable. It looks horrible when it first goes on though:

 

 

Here is the putty I am using:

 

 

I then scraped and sanded the excess putty off. I don't leave it sit on the wood too long, as I think it might stain it after a while. The putty stays in the holes nicely though, which is why I like it better than filler. I then gave the decks a final sanding with medium then fine sandpaper. The first picture is with flash and the second is natural lighting which shows a little more detail:

 

 

 

I then pre-stained the decks, after wiping them with a tack cloth. Here is how they look with just the pre-stain:

 

 

After 15 minutes, I wiped off the excess pre-stain and gave them a coat of oak stain:

 

 

I am happy with the way they came out, and will use this same finish on the spar deck when I plank that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[patrickmil]

Tom, the treenails look great! That's just the perfect amount of detail.

[alde]

Your decks look great. I like the color.

[usedtosail]

Thanks Patrick and Alde.

 

I glued the two deck sections into the hull tonight. I was able to wedge some clamps along the outside edge to hold it down and used weights along the centerline to get the decks to follow the slight curve of the gun deck roundup from side to side. I glued the port piece first, then after a few hours I glued the starboard piece. I had to use a few more clamps on the starboard side. I put some wood strips under the weights so I wouldn't scratch the finish. Those jars are filled with lead flashing.

 

 

 

Tomorrow I will fill in the center planks, then it is off to frame the gun ports. I will have 8 real guns and 8 dummy guns on each side.

[CaptainSteve]

Great work, Tom !! Truly brilliant !! You're fast becoming a living practicum (complete with pictures).

[usedtosail]

Thanks Steve. I hope someone will find this useful. I have to say I have almost as much enjoyment writing about what I have done as I do doing it. It helps me remember what I did when I have to do it again, or in some cases what not to do or what to do better. I am getting to the point in life that I have to write down everything anyway  just to remember it. I actually keep a more detailed build log for my builds in a Word document that I refer back to often.

[usedtosail]

After I took the weights off the deck pieces, one side was sticking up a little at the center line, so I fixed it by drilling some holes through the false deck into the center keel and pushing in some small nails. These will be hidden by the center deck planks.

 

 

Once I had the deck pieces flush, I cut the remaining deck planks to fill the center gap. I sanded the three pieces in each gap until they fit in the space. My hunch was right to make the gap three pieces instead of just one, as the widths all looked consistent this way. If I had to sand just one plank, it would probably have looked too thin. I marked the edges of these planks with the Sharpie and glued them in. After they dried, I sanded them down flush with the rest of the deck, drilled and filled holes for their treenails, gave them a final sanding, and stained them. I then gave the whole deck another coat of stain to blend it all in. Here they are before I sanded them down flush. The finished deck can be seen in later pictures in this post.

 

 

I started cutting the boards that will make up the tops of the gun ports with the real cannons on the gun deck. I am using the bottom of the waterway as a reference and measured down from it to find the locations of the bottoms of the top boards, using a strip of wood of the correct height as a measuring device. I also used a wood strip to measure down from the waterway to the top of the board. I cut out the boards, sanded them to fit, then used the smaller wood strip measuring device to position them the correct distance from the waterway.

 

 

 

For the bottoms of the gun ports, I need to have the inside and outside beveled to match the angle of the bulkheads. The outside I can sand in later, but there is no way to get to the inside, so I beveled the inside edges of these pieces before I glued them in. I used a block of wood that I made to the shape of the gun ports to distance the bottom pieces from the top.

 

 

 

Here you can see how the bottom pieces are flush with the inside bulkheads:

 

 

 

Wow, there is already a lot of dust on the deck. Sorry for the out of focus pictures. I need more practice taking pictures with one hand.

 

Here is one side of top and bottom gun port framing. I have to wait to finish the other side as you can see that I broke off one of the bulwark supports (again!). I almost lost this one, but found it later on the floor. I am reinforcing them as I glue them back in, probably to no avail.

 

 

 

I will be offline for a few days so no updates until next week.

[patrickmil]

Tom, great fix with the deck halves. The gunport framing looks great and I'm anxious to see some planking installed. You've been doing incredible work.

[usedtosail]

Thanks Patrick. Outside hull planking is a little ways off yet. The next planking will be the inside walls of the gun deck section, which will be right after these gun ports are framed.

[usedtosail]

I ordered the cannon package from Model Expo for the gun deck cannons and they came in this week. I only need 16 real cannons for the piece of gun deck I am adding, but the whole package was cheaper than ordering 16 individual cannons, by a lot. Plus, I had two $10 gift certificates from the shipmodeling.net competition (2 third places).

 

 

I figure I can use the extras for future models, maybe even a scratch build. Here is a comparison of the barrels with the dummy cannons for the other gun ports. They are close but not exactly the same. I have the option of turning the extra real barrels into dummy barrels, but I haven't made that decision yet. What do you think?

 

 

I completed the gun ports for the real cannons on both sides and sanded the outsides flush with the bulkheads. I also did a little filing on the inside using a riffler file to make sure everything is flush for the inner planks.

 

 

While doing that inside work, I realized I had a problem with the top of the inside walls, between the deck beams. There was no support for the planks that need to fit between the beams to close off the tops of the walls. After some thinking (probably too much) I came up with this solution, to glue small pieces of wood along each beam side that can support the ends of the planks. In this picture you can see them on the gun port on the right, and not the two on the left.

 

 

Here is a view from the inside that shows how they will work.

 

 

They are flush with the insides of the gun port frame at the bottom and with the outside of the spar deck waterway at the top. I am not sure if this is the exact angle they should be, but they are going to be very hard to see, if at all, and I could probably get away with just leaving this area unplanked, but what's the sport in that.

 

Finally, I had to mix some paint for the insides of the gun deck walls and gun ports. I am using an off white that I mixed up from ME's Warm White and Cream. It is almost the same color as the basswood itself, but it adds a different texture to the wood. Here are the first planks for each side, which I pre-painted so I don't get paint on the waterway later.

 

 

Next is to plank the inside walls of the gun deck.

 

[patrickmil]

Tom, I hadn't thought of support issues with the inner planking. Good solution. The cannons you got in the separate packs seem like better quality as far as the white metal goes. I didn't see the typical heavy flash on it. Maybe that's what I'll have to resort to when I get to that stage.

[CaptainSteve]

Plus, I had two $10 gift certificates from the shipmodeling.net competition (2 third places).

 

What do you think?

 

 

What do I think ?!?!

How the heck did you ONLY end up with third place, is what I be thinkin' ???

 

Arrr ....

Edited April 4, 2014 by CaptainSteve