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

[usedtosail]

Thanks popeye and for the likes. I just got back from a week at the lake vacation, so work will commence again on the Conny tonight.

[usedtosail]

Work continues on the hammocks, cranes, and netting. I finished adding hammocks to the the starboard fore cranes, and trimmed the netting, so the fore cranes are completed.

 

 

 

I have the lines threaded through the aft cranes and have started to fill the aft starboard cranes. I have some room to clamp these through the gun ports, which means I don't have to hold them until the glue sets. I am using wood glue to glue the Sculpey hammock sections to the rail, with the netting sandwiched between the hammock sections and the rail.

 

 

After I fill all the cranes, I brush some wood glue along the lines and netting, then trim the netting at the lines with some very sharp clippers. Here is the jig being used to make up sections of hammocks. It also lets me sand the bottoms level while still in the jig.

 

 

I still have a lot of hammocks to make but progress is being made, and I am able to start on other items like the stern davits in the mean time.

[rdestefano01]

just read this whole log, WOW....

[usedtosail]

Thank you rdestefano01. There is a lot there to go through, I realize. I should add a table of contents like some other build logs have, since it is getting pretty long.

[Modeler12]

Tom, what I also like about your log is that you are including lots of pictures and good descriptions of how you are going about your work.

The details are fantastic!

There are lots of innovative ideas that you incorporate. I like your hammocks, for example. But as I look closely, you have also done a marvelous job with the carronade rigging. I will have to go back in your log to refresh my memory.

 

Just curious, why did you give up sailing and what kind of boat did you have?  

[usedtosail]

Thanks very much Jay. I have used your build log for ideas and inspiration as well. I used to sail and race a 16' Hobie Cat. When we had kids I found it was better to get a small power boat, which I named "Usedtosail" because I was more used to sailing. I am on my third power boat now, a 22' Chaparral bow rider which I have had for 13 years. I had a Sunfish for a while when the kids got older but sold it. I would love to get a small sail boat like a Laser when I retire in a few years.

Edited September 2, 2016 by usedtosail

[Modeler12]

Likewise Tom. I also 'used to sail'.

When my wife and I were dating (more than 50 years ago) I had a Junior Folkboat in the SF Bay. We had a lot of fun and some great adventures with it, but my wife did not like to be in charge of the jib. So, we finally got rid of it. Since then I have had a couple small boats and crewed for friends. The avatar you see is when four of us chartered a boat in Phuket, Thailand, and cruised the Adaman Sea for ten days. I was the cook and bottle washer aboard, but did handle the boat from time to time.

[usedtosail]

That is a nice looking boat, Jay. It looks like a lot of fun.

 

I have gone ahead and added an index to the first post, so now I just need to keep it up to date as I add new stuff. At the rate I am going, that shouldn't be too hard.

[Bill Morrison]

You are doing an incredible job!  Most impressive!

 

Bill

[usedtosail]

Thank you Bill and the others for the likes.

 

I haven't provided an update lately, mostly because I am in the middle of a bunch of things - still making hammocks and filling the cranes, making anchors, and making the stern and quarter davits. I did complete the stern davits and added stanchions and lifelines to the open waist. So here are some pictures of where I am as of last night.

 

Starboard aft cranes filed with hammocks and the port side almost done:

 

 

 

Stern davits:

 

 

Anchors and Quarter Davits:

 

 

Waist Rail:

 

 

Complete side view:

 

 

Once I get the hammocks finished, I will make the ships boats, then start on the spars and rigging. I will hold off installing the anchors, quarter davits, or ships boats that go on the davits until after the rigging is complete.

[popeye the sailor]

looking great Tom.......very well done!      I also like that slip you have there.......home made?

[usedtosail]

How can you tell, Popeye?  Not one of my finest creations, but it does the job.

 

Thanks for the nice words, too.

[usedtosail]

I have finally finished with the hammocks and netting. I cleaned up the aft port side last night.

 

 

 

 

Now on to the ships boats. As an aside, while gathering up the ship boat parts I found the laser cut quarter davit brackets supplied with the kit. No where on the plans do they show these as laser cut that I could see, which is why I made them myself in the fist place. They do look better than the ones I made, so I may clean them up and paint them. It will be a while until I need them, though.

 

For the ships boats, I want two boats on the open hatch on cradles and one hanging from the stern davits. I do not want to put any on the quarter davits. In sources I read (Bainbridge's book, I think) it stated that in 1812 it didn't have whale boats, as they were bought in 1813. I will use the supplied gig whaleboat for the stern davits though, since I think the supplied parts will make a nice looking boat. I will also use the 36' cutter supplied parts for the bottom boat on the waist beams. For the top boat, I want a 28' cutter, so I shrunk the plans for the 36' cutter. After cutting out the centers of the 36' cutter pieces, I realized I could use these centers for most of the 28' cutter pieces.

 

 

 

I have one piece more than I do centers, but there was enough wood left on the laser cut board to make that last piece. It looks like the bow and stern pieces of the keel are to be carved out of the laser cut pieces at the same time as the hull is thinned down, but I may end up making these as separate parts and adding them to the keel. I am pretty sure I will have to do that on the 26' cutter because the tabs are pretty small on a few of them.

 

 

[Guest Tim I.]

Tom,

 

I am playing a little catch up, but your USSC is coming along well! I like the hammocks in the rail, well done!

 

- Tim

[CaptainSteve]

Your Constitution is looking better and better every time I visit, Tom. And your 1812 research will prove most useful. For the keel pieces on the boats, I just used a piece of 1mm x 1mm stock and fashioned them into shape.

[popeye the sailor]

using the cast off wood is a good idea,  but looks a bit shy in a few areas.   to be sure your making a  whole 'slice',   you could get some 3/16 - 1/8 flat stock.

     it can be found in basswood,  but Midwest sells birch flat stock,  if you prefer something other than basswood.

 

super job on the hammocks.........very nice progress  

[usedtosail]

Thanks guys. Popeye - those templates aren't centered or glued down yet to the wood pieces, so they fit much better than you see in that picture. The only part that is missing is the very ends of some of the tabs, which are only there to locate the slices while gluing. The bottom tabs I don't really care about as I will just center it after carving out the interiors of the glued u p slices. I do have sheets of basswood that I can use if I need to make any new slices.

[usedtosail]

Some progress since the last post. I managed to get all three boats roughly shaped inside and out. I did more shaping on the inside, and now I am in the process of adding the ribs to all three. They are very thin, so I am hoping that the ribs will give some support before doing the final fairing of the outsides. I will then paint them white, except for the rails, and then add the natural wood details of the interior. I soak the ribs and bend them with the electric plank bender in the picture, then place them inside the hull and clamp then while they dry. The next day or so, I then glue them in place and again clamp them in with clothes pins. Here are a bunch drying after bending, with some already glued in.

 

 

 

 

[usedtosail]

I am still adding ribs to the three boats, although all of the ribs are now in the large cutter. The others are taking more time because they are closer together so the width of the clamps limits the number I can put in at a time.

 

 

In between adding ribs, I attached the ships wheel to the deck.

 

 

I have also started constructing the bow sprit. It has a unique shape where the top is straight but the sides and bottom are tapered. This makes it a bit harder to shape on a lathe. My approach was to sand a flat into the bottom to get the taper, then hand sand the edges to start rounding them out, then put it in the lathe and sand it to finish rounding it out. I think this worked pretty well. I used the mill to shape the square section at the front, then the tenon for the cap. This has always been challenging to me to get these square sections to come out, well, square, but with the mill this was a lot easier.

 

 

 

 

I am working out how to make the stairs on the mill too and will show how I end up doing it in a future post.

[billt]

The ship is looking really good.  I like the shop space too!

[NenadM]

Fantasting work on boats. One of steps un front of me. Can you put some close-ups ?

[usedtosail]

Thanks all.

 

Bill, I was lucky that my wife let me take over half the finished part of the basement after the kids moved out. It seemed like lots of space at the time, but I have slowly filled it up.

 

Nenad - the boats are pretty ugly at the moment but I will take some close ups as I progress on them. I have the advantage of working at a much larger scale then you are, but I am sure yours will come out great based on the work you have done so far.

[usedtosail]

For my friend Nenad, here are some more,closer up, construction pictures of the ships boats.

 

Here is how they look after the ribs are all added:

 

 

I then use tape to mark the tops of the ribs, and trim them off with a scalpel:

 

 

Here is the larger cutter with the ribs trimmed:

 

 

 

I am now in the process of adding the keel pieces. The bow and stern pieces I cut out of sheet material and cut the curved in on the scroll saw:

 

 

 

Since these boat hulls will be painted I have used wood filler. The outsides have not yet been fully sanded. Once I prime them, I will probably need to do another round of filler and primer. I'll continue to document the process of making these as I go along.

[usedtosail]

Last night I focused on finishing the stairs for the bow sprit, since I had the mill all set up for it. It turns out I was not able to make them in one piece, because as I went higher on the wood blank, there was too much vibration of the wood. I was able to make them in two pieces, but it did take three attempts to make the second piece. The nice thing with this method was that if I messed up or didn't like how the steps were looking, I could just trim off the steps on the table saw and start again on the same wood blank.

 

 

 

 

Trimming the cut steps off on the blank was easy to do in the table saw, once I put the extension on the miter gauge so I could cut them off at the correct angle. I was afraid they would be very fragile once they were cut off, but they were not. I was able to clean them up with a small flat file and some sand paper, then trim them to length so they fit together nicely.

 

 

 

I then wrapped a piece of dowel with some sandpaper and put it in the vice, then slid the stairs along the dowel to sand in the curvature on the bottom to fit on the bow sprit dowel.

 

 

 

I am going to put these aside for now because I need to fit slots under one of the pieces to fit over the gammoning line, which I won't be putting on for a while. I don't want to cut the slots now and find out later they are the wrong size or out of place.

 

Here is the bow sprit cap in place, after filing the slot for the tenon to the correct angle. I have to hand it to Model Expo for how they provide this cap. In previous kits I have made the tops come with square holes that are cut straight through them, which is how a laser cutter is gong to cut them. When the caps need to be put on at an angle, if you file the angle into the holes they are now too big, which pretty much forces you to make new caps from scratch. This cap came with a rectangular, narrow hole which allowed me to file the angle into it and end up with exactly the right size hole.

 

 

I am home alone this weekend so I'll have more to show tomorrow.

[Burroak]

Great job Tom

[popeye the sailor]

bow spirit is looking really nice Tom......interesting take on making the stairs  

[usedtosail]

Thank you Greg and Popeye, and for the likes. I didn't make too much progress on Sunday but did have some time in the evenings this week, so some progress to report.

 

First the boats. I have been bending and installing the keel sections for the two small boats. I still have to sand these out but the raw pieces are in place.

 

 

Here is an ugly shot of the ribs, which have all been trimmed down. I am OK with the large cutter and the gig, but not with the small cutter. I am going to go ahead with painting and fitting out the interior of all three boats, but I may decide to leave off the small cutter if i don't like how it turns out.

 

 

On the bow sprit, I have made and installed the bees, fair lead, and jibboom support. I also filed out the hole for the jibboom on the cap.

 

 

This picture clearly shows a problem, however, in that the two holes in the cap are too close together, so I will not be able to get the jibboom to the same angle as the bow sprit. It looks like I am going the have to make a new cap from scratch anyway, but that is OK since I have a good pattern to use now. I have started building the jibboom too but so far I have the octagon section at the end done and the tab milled to fit into the slot on the bow sprit support piece. I still need to turn the rest of the dowel down on the lathe to get to the final diameters.

 

Other jobs planned for this weekend, so next progress report sometime mid to end next week. Maybe I'll have some paint on those boats by then, so I can start fitting out the interiors.

 

 

[Geoff Matson]

Looking great. The boats were a lot of fun. They were like little kits by themselves. Looking forward to more progress

[CaptainSteve]

Looking good, Tom. Don't worry too much about the cutter ... once you begin fitting it out with seats, oars and a spar or two, any errant ribs will be almost completely hidden.

[ronald305]

nice work on the Uss Constitution Tom

    may I aask what is AOS a brand name another kit

                             Ronald