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

[usedtosail]

Thanks again. And once again I have changed my mind and decided NOT to add the crows feet. I am just not comfortable adding them to the Constitution, since the Hull model does not show them. 

 

I have been working on the collars for the masts and thought I'd show how I made them. I started by serving a piece of line, then seized small loops into each end, so I could make two collars at a time.

I then folded the line around a bullseye and got the lengths of the legs so they had a decent gap when wrapped around the mast.

I then seized a small loop into the other leg:

Then I seized the bullseye into the center of the collar:

After everything was trimmed, I tied a lashing line to one of the small loops and lashed the collar around the mast. I did not use a rose lashing, in case you were wondering. Here are some results:

I have finished up the mast tops with all the various eyebolts and blocks, so I am finally ready to start adding the lower masts to the hull.

[vossiewulf]

Hey Tom can you come over and do the rigging for my LN? I think you could knock it out in an afternoon. I'll totally pay for the soda and chips

[usedtosail]

Sorry vossie, if I didn't have a whole ship load of rigging to do on my own model, I'd take you up on the offer. I do love soda and chips, though. I have a sister that lives on the other side of the Bay  that I could visit too. Maybe see the birthplace of my hero, Tom Brady while in your town. Humm, then there is always a side trip to Napa. Clos Pegase and St. Clement are two of my favorites. This could be fun...

 

California dreaming in the aftermath of a blizzard. I did have a snow day yesterday, so had some time to get the masts set. Here they are installed with the trestle trees glued on. I added the belaying pins to the mizzen pin rack, and the boarding pikes to the main and fore mast rakes. I made those from straight pins that I blackened after cutting off the heads.

 

This morning I glued the mast tops to the trestle and crosstrees. I put the topmast and caps in place temporarily when I installed the trestle trees, so I could get the topmasts straight to the lower masts by adjusting the position of the crosstrees.

 

Making the pendants and shrouds is next.

[popeye the sailor]

really nice work Tom   glad to hear you made it through the storm OK.    we had no snow left on the ground up here...........glad I didn't have to work    very nice progress.....good to see her masted.  top came out great!

[vossiewulf]

7 hours ago, usedtosail said:

Sorry vossie, if I didn't have a whole ship load of rigging to do on my own model, I'd take you up on the offer. I do love soda and chips, though. I have a sister that lives on the other side of the Bay  that I could visit too. Maybe see the birthplace of my hero, Tom Brady while in your town. Humm, then there is always a side trip to Napa. Clos Pegase and St. Clement are two of my favorites. This could be fun...

 

There ya go, win-win for everyone! And it was about 80 outside yesterday

 

Back in reality, very nice progress and she looks great.

[SawdustDave]

Hi Tom:
Thanks for the many tips throughout your detailed postings.... especially this section dealing with gun rigging, as I am having a heck of a time with getting blocks and rigging to look right considering the scale of the blocks and the rigging line.  Wish those were my gun rigging photos seen here.
Keep up the beautiful work my friend.

 

Dave

[SawdustDave]

Tom:

I have struggled with the configuration of the spar deck bulwarks and hope you or some of the historians can clear up for me.  More specifically, I'm talking about the height of the bulwarks above the aft eight gun ports as well as the forward three gun ports.

Here is a photo showing the issue I'm sure you will be familiar with.

I can only imagine that the increase in the height of these bulwarks occurred at some time in her numerous referbs....
Anyone?

[usedtosail]

Thanks Popeye and Vossie. Hopefully we'll see some warmth soon.

 

Dave, I am sure your gun rigging will turn out great. My first attempts are now buried in the gun deck so they won't be seen.

 

I have started on the shroud rigging. i am using rope from Syren for these, as I was having trouble making rope this large that looked good for long lengths. The Syren rope is a joy to work with, but I have found that with lot of handling it starts to unwind, so I keep a piece of tape on all the loose ends now. I started with the fore mast pendents, which need a thimble in the loops. I made these from some brass tubing, cutting off small lengths. I used the pliers in the picture to flare the tube and they worked great. Chuck recommended this tool and I am glad that I bought it, as I had tried other ways with little success. After blackening the thimbles, I seized them into some served line to make the pendants.

Since I took this picture, I removed them and turned another seizing around the cut part of the line, making it look more like a splice.

 

I made the swifter and all of the shroud pairs for the fore mast and added them to the mast. The swifter is served the whole length and I seized a double block into the ends and stropped triple blocks with hooks to go on the rings on the channels. The gang of lines at the mast head is pretty thick and just fits under the chock for the jeers on the mast. I think as i tighten up the shrouds I can get them to sit down more too.

I also started seizing the deadeyes to the shrouds. I'm using a throat seizing just above the deadeye and regular seizings above that. This is the first time I have tried doing the throat seizings and I am happy with the look, but I find tightening them can be a challenge. I make them loose, then pull on the loose end of the shroud while pushing on the seizing with tweezers eventually gets them tight. At that point I clamp the loose end to the shroud and add the middle seizing to hold it in place. I made a crude jig from some manila folder and straight pins, to hold the deadeyes at the right height while I seize the shroud to them, as you can see in this picture.

I did have to reattach a couple of pin rails, as the force of the clothes pin on them was too much. They were still attached to the bulwarks by the locating pins i had in them, but they could move enough that I didn't trust it, so I removed them, drilled out the locator holes and glued them back in. It was a little tricky but not as bad as it would be after the shrouds are finished. I now hold the jig to the channel with two pins through bottom deadeyes into the card.

 

Finally, here is the 2.0 version of the crank for the Syren serving machine. My first version didn't hold up to the use I have been giving it lately and was coming loose, so I removed it and made this one. I used a piece of threaded rod in a hole in the wood crank that I tapped for it. The cherry held the threads very well, but I decided to add nuts to hold it too. There are two pieces of tubing on the rod. The inner one allows me to tighten the nut tight to it, and the outer one is a little shorter so it can rotate easily. I super glued the rod into the hole and the nuts to the rod so they wouldn't loosen.

Lots more rigging to come...

[usedtosail]

Yes Dave, the bulwarks were extended in the mid? 1800's and have remained that way ever since. The waist area was closed in too with bulwarks, but those were removed in 2007 or so. 

[SawdustDave]

Thanks for that info Tom.  As much as I am enjoying this build.... especially being able to get so much help from so many friends familiar with her.... I must confess the many versions can be quite confusing to a "non-historian" such as myself.

Beautiful work on the tops.

 

Love the rope maker.... I may finally break down and give it a go after all these years.

Dave

[JSGerson]

From the US Constitution CD of navy plans, see if this file helps on those bukwarks

10068001 - Gun Deck & Inside of Bulwarkse.pdf

[popeye the sailor]

progress looks good Tom....interesting jig for the dead eyes.   I recently made a wire one....want to make a couple more in different sizes  

[usedtosail]

Thanks Dave. Yes, the different versions of the ship are confusing. The serving machine from Syren works great, but the finger crank hurts after a while, which is why I added a hand crank. For rope making I have a different machine.

 

JS, do you know the date of those plans? They show the lower bulwarks on the quarter deck and fore deck, but the waist is closed in. So that is yet another configuration.

 

Thanks Popeye. I usually use a piece of wire to hold the deadeyes, but with so many shrouds on this model the angle between the first and last shroud changes a lot, so I would need a different wire for each deadeye to keep them at the same height, or at least each group of deadeyes, so that is why I made the card.

 

 

[JSGerson]

Not only do I not know when that plan was drawn, I don't know where I originally found. I thought I got from the CD the Constitution museum was selling, but it's not on there or on the 2001 version of the CD. At one time, the US Navy had a lot of their plans on their website, but no more. I must have gotten it there before they took down their archive pages.

 

The only clue I have is the name G F Campbell written on the very bottom right hand corner of the document. The only G.F. Campbell I could find was the author of "China Tea Clipper" and "The Neophyte Shipmodeller`s Jackstay."

 

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful

 

Jon

[usedtosail]

That's OK Jon. I downloaded all those plans off the web site when they were available and have been using some of them for this build. I didn't remember seeing that one before, but I did find it in the set of plans I have. My guess is that it is from the 1930's.

[usedtosail]

The mast rigging continues. I have been working mostly the fore mast shrouds over the weekend, and they are pretty much done now. I made the line for the lanyards in my rope walk, but the shrouds themselves are .045 line from Syren. The lanyards are not tightened down yet. I still have to add another seizing on the shrouds above the two that are already there. I am pretty happy with the alignment of the deadeyes, although I did have to redo the seizings on a couple.

 

I am working on the fore stays because I need them to offset the pull of the shrouds on the mast, especially those back ones. I experimented with different ways to make the mice I need for the them. I started with Sculpey but couldn't get the hole big enough for the large line to go through without the mouse collapsing or disintegrating. I ended up making them from dowels on the lathe, which came out pretty nicely and was not very hard to do. I made all six mice I need for the lower stays, and painted them black. I also ended up making new closed hearts for the fore stays because the laser cut supplied ones fell apart as I was cleaning the char off them. I like the new ones better because I was able to cut a groove around the outside for the stay line. You can see them in the little jar lid on the box after I stained them.

After I tried the mice on the fore stay line, they looked a little wooden to me, so I put them in the serving machine and wrapped them in line. I think they look much better now.

For comparison, here is an actual mouse from the Constitution on a stay (not sure which one this is).

 

You can see that the lines go more front to back than around it, but what the heck. You can also see how the serving looks on these large lines. Here are the fore stays around the top of the mast. I did not have the closed hearts seized to these lines when I took these pictures, but they are now.

I also started making the pendants and shrouds for the main mast. In making the pendants, I tried something I haven't before, and that is wrapping line around the bottom of the loop around the thimbles in the serving machine, which made them look more like a splice to me. I actually did this to one of the fore mast pendants too, but that was done by hand and not in the machine. I like the look of these now better than i did before. It always seemed to me that the seizing was too far from the thimble. This method covers the gap nicely.

You can see another modification I made to the serving machine, which is just an alligator clip with a snug fit into the tube the line goes through. I am finding many uses for this clip, including being able to hold line very close to the end so I can serve almost a complete length. I made the mistake a few times of cutting a length of line to almost the exact length, which didn't leave enough to wrap around the nails on the outside of the machine to serve its length. This solves that problem by letting me hold the end of the line in the clip. Another thing I found was that WD-40 makes the serving machine so much quieter and easy to turn. I didn't want to use it on the nice cherry wood, but it was really squeaking so I bit the bullet and sprayed a little on. What a difference! My wife still says I look like Rumpelstiltskin when I am using the serving machine. 

 

OK, last picture, here are the pendants and first shrouds on the main mast. Lots more to do there.

 

[rwiederrich]

Fantastic work Tom...love your Connie build......The rigging is the best and I'm really looking forward to your work.

 

Rob

[shipmodel]

Hi Tom - 

 

Your Connie is coming together nicely.  Really good work on the tops.

 

And now, welcome to the wonderful world of rigging.  This takes a completely different set of skills from the woodwork, etc. that goes into building a hull.  This is more like learning to knit, or embroider.  Best of success with the craft.  I have been doing it for 30 or so years, and I am still learning and experimenting.

 

For example, I have found that when I have a deadeye that is a little too high or low, I unlace the lanyard and spin it around before relacing.  In one direction the shroud will unwind and lengthen, in the other, it will tighten and shorten.  If you do that with two or so of the most out of line ones the deadeyes on your foremast will straighten right out.  Don't worry that the upper deadeyes may end up at an angle, the sheer pole that you will be setting up later will take care of that.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Dan

 

[popeye the sailor]

good to see your at the rigging stage......tedious.....but fun and rewarding at the same time    the shrouds look great!

[usedtosail]

Thanks Rob. So far this is the best rigging I have done to date. I am really taking my time.

 

Dan, thanks too, and what a great tip! I had never thought to do that. I can see that one paying off soon.

 

Popeye, thanks. It is tedious but I like it a lot. Lots to go but it is all good.

 

And thanks for all who hit the like button too.

[Fright]

Great attention to detail. Fine job!!!

[robnbill]

Also, not to second guess you, but I believe that the AOS has the crows feet shown on it. You are correct in the assumption that it could have. I think it almost certainly had them when it left the yards. However, the early 1800's saw the demise of the use of them. So you could go ether way. They look cool and were certainly part of the ship. Whether they were still on board by the period you are targeting is anyone's guess.

[usedtosail]

Thanks Robert.

 

Bill, you know I was looking in AOS the other day and saw them and had to stop and think, but I came to the same conclusion as you. It could have had them in 1812 or not have. I am sticking with not including them, but I hope to build a model in the future that has them because they do look cool.

[usedtosail]

Here's some status for the week. I was away last weekend cleaning out the stuff from my father's basement, so all of this work was done after work during the week. He lived in the house over 50 years, so you can imagine what he accumulated. Found some good stuff to save though, and some good memories. My son and nephews chipped in big time to help me out so we filled up a 20 yard dumpster in about 5 hours.

 

I finished up the fore mast shrouds and stays last week, and here is how they came out.

 

This week I was focused on the main shrouds. I have all of the dead eyes seized and the lanyards in place. I will finish them off after the main stays are added, so I can adjust any tension that needs it.

Starboard side:

Port side:

 

I am now noticing that the last dead eye is a little higher than the others, so I need to correct it. I also see from Ed Tochi's log that I should probably have put the shear poles in before tying off the fore shroud lanyards. Good thing they are not glued in place yet, so I can loosen them up to put the poles in without too much trouble.

 

My goal this weekend, after those fixes, is to get the main stays made and installed and maybe finish off the main shrouds. We will see...

 

 

[popeye the sailor]

really nice progress Tom  

[usedtosail]

Thanks for all the likes. I really appreciate them.

 

In spite of some gorgeous weather this weekend, which the admiral and I did enjoy, I managed to get a lot done.

 

It started with making and adding the shear poles to the fore mast shrouds. To make them, I used the thinnest brass rod that came with the kit, which I measured to be about .013" diameter. It took me a while to find a good setup in the serving machine that would hold up for the length of the serving, but I finally came up with this arrangement of clamps which worked well. The trick was to bend the rod at the ends so the clamps could grab them while being clipped around the nails on the serving machine, which prevented them from floundering around when the crank was turned. Of course this only works with full size rods. I did manage to serve a few short pieces by hand, but I wouldn't want to do a long piece that way.

I found serving over brass to be a lot harder than serving over line. The serving line wanted to slip so I kept having to stop and bunch it back up with some tweezers. There were still a few shiny spots when I finished but I will touch up any of those that show with some black paint, as well as the trimmed ends of the rods.

 

I tied these shear poles to the shrouds by starting with a loop with a slip knot which I tightened to hold the shroud to the shear pole, then two more half hitches in the same diagonal as the loop, then three more half hitched in the opposite diagonal, finished off with a tiny drop of glue. When all the shrouds were tied, I found I needed to also add some glue to the ends of the pole at the outside knots to keep the poles from slipping in the last knots. The last thing I wanted to happen was the pole slip out of those knots. You can see I also used xken's technique to place a strip of wood between the lanyards to lessen the twist on the dead eyes.

There is also a short pole that goes just above the block in the swifter to the first shroud, which I did the same way. After I trimmed the loose ends of all the ties, I retied the deadeye lanyards to the shrouds above the poles. I used a combination of half hitches and loops to tie them. Further along in the build I will finish off the lanyards by seizing the ends to the shrouds.

I finished adding all the lanyards to the main mast shrouds, and made one of the main stays. After I was satisfied with it I made the other main stay, but it was late last night so I don't have a picture yet. Here is the first one in place.

Next up is to add the shear poles to the main mast, then start on the mizzen shrouds.

 

[shipmodel]

Hi Tom - 

 

Your rigging is coming right along.  Nice and clean.

 

Will you be leaving the deadeye lanyards that pale grey color?  I think that it is close to the color of those on the present ship, rigged with new rope, but may be a bit too light if you are trying to show her in early service.

 

Also, and I know this is a bit of a nit to pick, but the correct spelling of your fitting is 'sheer pole', not 'shear pole'.  The first refers to the curves of a ship's hull, the latter to a sharp, clean cut.  Somehow they seem to get confused with each other from time to time.  Only one letter, but there is a large difference, for example, between a house and a mouse.

 

Keep up the good work

 

Dan

[usedtosail]

Thanks Dan. The lanyards are actually tan, not grey. I have always done these as running rigging. I have been following the discussion in Ed Tosci's Young America build on this subject and can maybe be convinced to use darker line for these. How dark would they be do you think? Not black but maybe a dark brown? At this point I am not sure i want to go back and replace them all though. Yes, you are right about shear/sheer. I was not sure and picked the wrong one to use.

[rwiederrich]

Hi Tom...This subject has become a thorn to some and I do not mention it to make it so for you.  I posted a picture of the new Connie re-rig (and they used black rope for the lanyards) in Ed Tosci's Young America Log.  And from all that I have gathered over my 40 years of building ship models..my research tells me that the lanyard though it is used to cinch up the shrouds and backstays it is more standing rigging then running.  Some modelers think of the lanyard as running rigging such as a line through a block for sail control and thus rig them with running rigging.  They are more then that...but an adjustable part of the standing rigging...which was tarred(In many fashions and with many concoctions).  Tarring a lanyard does not prevent it from being tightened as in the fashion that was common place at the time with block and tackle(Drawing are present in Ed's log. Hemp running rigging turned grey.....now apply staining tar and it becomes even darker....even black.  I'm shure the tar or treatment was not gobbed on, but painted on with respect to the notion the  shrouds and backstays will at some point need tightening.

 

Deadeyes are NOT pulley's...they are a simple locking means to cinch or tighten opposing line/structures.  Then they are seized together to prevent twisting and movement.

One last note.....if the riggers of the Connie thought through deduction and historical application that the Connie re-rig lanyards had to be black..don't you think they did so informed?

 

Your Connie is magnificent.....thanks for posting her.

 

Rob

[shipmodel]

Hi Tom - 

 

Rob is right - deadeyes can be defined as a movable part of the standing rigging.  Other similar items would be the lacing between hearts that hold the stays to their collars.  As such, they would not move much, but still have to move a little to allow them to be unlaced and tensioned.  My understanding of true Stockholm tar is that once dry it would waterproof the line, but not be movable. To protect these few movable lines, I believe that they used an oil formulation that would protect the line from salt water, but still be flexible.  

 

Some of the additional confusion came in when deadeyes were used to tension steel cable shrouds.  These did not stretch much at all, so they did not have to be re-tightened.  Deadeye lanyards here could be permanently set up and tarred.  Modeling books of the early 20th century incorporated what they saw, and not what might have been appropriate for the ship in its' time, and this misinformation was perpetuated.   

 

As for color - after looking over a number of reproduction and restored ships, all I can say for sure is that the colors vary pretty widely.  I have always opted for a dark brown shade, a bit lighter than the black of the shrouds, but still a far cry from the tan of the running rigging.  As always, though, the artistic choices are up to you.

 

If you do choose to go darker, you should be OK with painting the lanyards with a Minwax stain.  Try a few to see the color and intensity that you like.  A 50/50 mix of Natural and Early American works for me.

 

Dan