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

[patrickmil]

Very nice work Tom. The extensions for your bulwarks look to be right on target. Do you plan on planking the hull as your next step?

[usedtosail]

Thanks Pete and Patrick.

 

Before I can start planking, I need to finish the spar deck gun ports, Then I am going to try to add the through hull shieves, then paint the insides of the gun ports, then the planking can start. I will probably plank the outside hull down from the bulwarks to the wales, around all the gun ports., then the transom, then up from the keel. We will see how that plan holds up.

[usedtosail]

Some progress from over the weekend. I have been dealing with family issues since then.

 

So, I needed to frame the spar deck gun ports, which I could have done the same as the gun deck gun ports except that the tops of these will be framed by the rail. One way I could have gone was to add vertical frames at the sides and horizontal frames between the bulwark extensions and these vertical frames, but only on the parts of the bulwarks that will be planked over. This seems too complicated and fragile, so I went with a simpiler (at least to me) solution - solid pieces that will be planked over in the parts of the bulwarks that are not gun ports. These are sanded to have the same shape as the bulwark extensions so each side of the gun port will look the same. They are glued to the plank sheer on the bottom and the bulwark extension on one side, so they are pretty solidly attached.

 

 

 

I let these dry overnight, then sanded them flush with the bulkheads on the outside. When I installed them, I made sure that they were flush with the inside, so I did not have to sand them (much) on the inside.

 

 

 

As you will see in the next post, this method also helped out with the next step.

[usedtosail]

I had planned to add the four through the bulwark sieves, but again had to think about how to frame them and hold them in place before planking the bulwarks. The solid pieces solved this problem by giving me a solid surface to mill out to hold them.

 

I milled the port and starboard pieces at the same time so i had a better chance that would come out the same. I first marked the pieces:

 

 

Then put them in the drill press vise, which I angled so that the slot corresponded to the X direction of the XY table. I have both pieces in the vice back to back so I could cut them at the same time. I drilled a series of holes along the slot:

 

 

Then used a small end mill bit to square up the slot:

 

 

And finished with a small square file:

 

 

To make the sieve, I sliced the end of a dowel into very thin slices that I glued between two thin pieces of wood. The wood is wide enough to be oversized, even when these pieces are planked on both sides, so I can sand them flush to the planking later. I blackened the edges of the dowel pieces with a black Sharpie.

 

 

 

I then sanded the short edges and the top and bottoms of the sieves to fit into the slots:

 

 

I'll add these later after I have glued these solid pieces in and sanded them flush with the bulwarks.

 

So, I glued the two starboard side pieces in, as seen here:

 

 

But, I had forgotten to add the notch for the stern bumpkins, and I did not leave enough room for it on the first pieces. I remade those two rear pieces with the sieve slot a little more forward and the notch for the bumpkin, which I made by just drilling out a hole and squaring it up with the square file.

 

 

Now I just need to repeat adding the plank sheer and solid pieces to the port side.

 

 

 

 

[pete48]

Hi Tom , Looks great nice detail work

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[patrickmil]

Tom, the progress is looking great!

[usedtosail]

Thanks Pete and Patrick, and all the Likes.

 

Moving to the port side, I added the plank sheer and the solid pieces between the gun ports on the spar deck, and sanded everything flush to the bulkheads. I tried to make sure the profiles on each side of the gun ports are the same so they will look symmetrical. I am going to install the through bulwark sieves and paint the insides of the gun ports, then it will be ready for planking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[patrickmil]

Tom, great progress as always. I'm looking to play a little catch up to you. I'm so far behind. The great part about that though is I can just follow in your footsteps.       

[Mirabell61]

beautiful build Tom,

 

Looks like this is going to be a great model..

 

Nils

[usedtosail]

Thanks Nils and Patrick. Patrick, I have a feeling you will pass me soon enough and yours will look much nicer at this stage. I feel that, although most of what I have done will be covered with planking, it should look better than it does. It is nothing like the great POF models that have been / are being built.

[usedtosail]

OK, now the frame is really all set to start planking, which will have to wait a few days as I will be away this weekend.

 

I painted the insides of all the gun ports and around the outsides of them too, although only the gun deck ports really needed this for the recessed planking that will go around them. Despite the great research and discussion that is going on in some of the other Conny build logs regarding lack of lids in 1812, I want to add the gun port lids so that I can close off the ports with the dummy cannons. So, I will be leaving a recess around the ports for the lids to fit in.

 

 

I was most concerned about the paint around the inside edges of the gun deck ports, since I had already painted the inner planks. I was quite pleased with the results, with not too much touching up of the off white paint needed.

 

 

Finally, I was finally able to trim the bulwark extensions to almost the real height. I left them a little long to sand down to the planking later. I also trimmed the transom extensions at the same time, although I left them a little taller.

 

 

Hopefully, the next update will show some planks on her.

[jwvolz]

Very, very nice work Tom.

[pete48]

Looking good Tom , Nice work, The deck looks fantastic

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[patrickmil]

Tom, I'm excited to see the planking go on. I feel like all the pictures I've seen show the gunports in red, what made you decide to go with black?

Edited May 16, 2014 by patrickmil

[HIPEXEC]

Very nice work!

[usedtosail]

Thanks Guys.

 

Patrick - the reason I went with black was aesthetics, I guess. Since the spar deck inner planking will be green, and the gun deck inner planking is off white, having red inside the gun ports just didn't seem right. So, I went with black as on the current ship.

[patrickmil]

Tom, the black on the gunports looks great. 

[usedtosail]

Finally some outside planking going on. I am starting with the easy part, the outer plank sheer and planks to the main rail. I installed the plank sheer in a couple of pieces, with a single piece wrapped around the bow. I first soaked and bent it around the bow and then glued it after it had dried in place. In these pictures the plank sheer is being glued on except the bow, which is being bent and drying.

 

 

 

At this point I realized that I had not added the back pieces for the quarter galleries, so I dug the laser cut top pieces out and made the two bottom pieces. I bevelled the edges of these to fit together at the angle of the knuckle in the transom. As I was dry fitting them, I came to the conclusion that the bulwarks were too high at the transom. I used a steel ruler to extend the tops of the solid pieces along the sides to the transom and and marked this as the top. The backs fit perfectly then, but I had to trim off some of the last bulwark pieces at the transom, which I was able to do with a razor saw and some sanding. I then just had to extend the slot for the stern bumpkins. The rear sieves are now much closer to the top rail, but looking back on the plans and pictures of the actual ship, they are just under the rail, so it is all good.

 

I needed a way to secure the gallery backs so they would be flush with the transom and stay at the right height while the glue dried, so I clamped a couple of planks to the transom that I could clamp the backs to. Here are the backs being glued in place:

 

 

 

 

The bottom pieces I just held in place while the glue tacked up.

 

Here are more planks being applied between the spar deck gun ports. This shot has almost all of the clothes pin clamps I have being utilized:

 

 

For the pieces that I need to curve around the bow, using the model itself was not satisfactory as there is no solid piece across the bow curve at this level, so the next piece I bent came out too flat in the front. I was going to make a solid block the same shape as the bow, but just happened to see a set up yesterday in Hipexec's build log (thanks Rich) that was much easier, using push pins to define the shape and hold the planks. I had some balsa sheet that I used as the base and traced the bow from the plans to it, then added push pins to hold a soaked plank:

 

 

We will see tonight how well this matches the actual bow, but it should be close.

 

[pete48]

Looking good Tom, nice work

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[usedtosail]

I have managed to get most of the port side outer bulwarks planked. The area between the second gun ports across the bow is still being worked. But, I was able last night to sand the planks flush (almost) with the sides and bottom of the gunports. I have left a little material there to sand off when I do the inside bulwark planking.

 

 

 

When I sanded down the through hull sieves, the piece of dowel I had on the inside started to be sanded, so no longer looked round. I had made these too wide. So, I popped them out and made new ones, using a smaller diameter dowel inside. I also didn't like the old ones because I didn't completely frame them on the sides, so I took the opportunity to add those side pieces to these. Here they are installed in the slots and sanded flush.

 

 

 

I am going to have to use some wood filler on these planks, but not too much. I think the bow planks will need more, as getting them to line up nicely along the sharp curve was a pain. Should have pictures of that area soon.

[usedtosail]

I finished planking the port side outer bulwarks. I set a compass to the height of the bulwarks above the plank sheer and drew lines across the sections. In most cases, I had to remove about a half a plank width, so I carefully used a razor saw to cut off most of the excess, then sanded the tops fair so the main rail pieces will run smoothly. I thought at one point I would have to lower the sieves, but I had just enough clearance for them when sanded. I left the planks at the curve of the bow as is until after the starboard side outer bulwarks are planked. I was able to sand these bow planks smooth without any big gaps, so I am pretty happy with the planking so far. I was also happy that the sides of the spar deck gun ports all have pretty much the same shape and width. Here is how the port side came out. The starboard side is still just the inner support pieces in these pictures.

 

 

 

Now to repeat on the starboard side, and hope that the two sides come out similar.

[usedtosail]

More pictures of clothes pin clamps doing their thing.

 

As I was planking the starboard outer bulwarks, I also started making and installing the inner plank sheer pieces, first on the port side, then on the starboard side. The starboard bulwark planking was done exactly like the port side and the two sides are coming out pretty similar, especially around the fixtures like the through hull sieves. I'll have pictures of the finished bulwarks later.

 

I soaked and heat bent two pieces of square basswood for the inner plank sheer across the bow. Here I am gluing in the port side piece and the starboard side piece is clamped in place wet to dry. You can see a piece of wood I clamped at the very bow so the ends of the two pieces made that last bit of curve. Before gluing these in place, I sanded the inside edge to match the angle of the bulwarks in the bow.

 

 

Here is the port stern plank sheer piece glued in place. I placed scarf joints at the ends of all the inner plank sheer pieces, except right at the bow. These pieces will either be cut away at the bow or covered by the bow sprit.

 

 

The clamps at the stern are holding the last layer of planks on the starboard bulwarks.

 

 

After I installed the plank sheer pieces across the bow, I thought the waterways underneath them were too wide. I made the water way pieces from sheet stock and was not sure how much the plank sheer would cover them once installed at the angle of the bulwarks at the bow. I summoned up the courage to take a sanding disk on a Dremel extension to the sides of the water ways while in place to make them narrower. I first sanded them down, then cleaned up the sides with an X-Acto knife, riffler files, and a sanding stick. When I was happy with the width and sides, I filed the bevel back into the top and side using a riffler file. Here is how they came out, which you can compare to the first photo in this post.

 

 

As I was checking the sides using some deck planks, I saw that the forward ends of the planks would be unsupported behind the first bulkhead. There are pieces between the first bulkhead and the bow that the ends of the planks can rest on, but not along the sides behind it. I didn't see anything in the instructions to add supports for the plank ends, but I think I better add some. What have other builders of this kit done in this area of the deck?

 

Here is the plank sheer across the open waist on the port side. I had to make a decision here how to cover the top of the hull planking in this area. I had a couple of options that came to mind. One was to make the plank sheer wider in this area to cover the opening with one piece. I was going to go this way, but then thought about the color scheme in this area, The plank sheer will be the green color like the rest of the inner bulwarks, but the outer section i thought would look funny if it was green too. I think the outer section will be better black, as the rest of the hull, with a groove cut into the outer edge. So, I decided to make these as two pieces so I can paint them separately. I won't be adding the outer piece until after the outer hull is planked and faired, as it will be proud of the hull by a bit. If anyone has an idea of how this area might have looked in the 1812 era, please let me know. The only other reference I have is the AOS book on one of the cross sections in the waist area, but that looks more like a trim piece than a waterway and plank sheer.

 

 

In between this planking and other work on the hull I have been making gun carriages for the gun deck cannons. I have all but one of them made to a point that they are roughly in shape, but need some clean up and painting. Here is the jig I use to assemble them, which basically holds the sides in place on the rectangular axles. I add the end and inner pieces while the glue is still wet on the sides, then remove it from the jig before the glue totally dries so I don't glue it into the jig. When the glue is completely dry, I file the ends of the axles that stick out from the frame round for the wheels. The wheels are just pushed on for now and not glued on yet, and the axles still need to be trimmed once the wheels are in place.

 

 

Here are the carriages made so far.

 

 

I am finished with the bulwarks planking and will now start planking down to and around the gun deck gun ports.

 

 

[pete48]

looks good Tom, The gun Carriages look Great, Fantastic work

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[HIPEXEC]

Love those clamps...your Admiral can hang out laundry in between clamps. I also like your use of thumb tacks to bend planks.

[usedtosail]

Thanks Pete and Rich.

 

Rich - I learned the thumb tacks idea from your build log. It works great. It's been a long time wince the Admiral hung clothes in the yard. Now she just pushes the dryer button.

[usedtosail]

As promised, pictures of the completed outer bulwarks. The inside planking for these will come later.

 

 

 

 

Here is a view of the reworked spar deck water ways and plank sheer.

 

 

So now I have started planking around the gun deck gun ports. I first calculated how many planks would fit below the plank sheer to the plank above the gun ports, leaving a 1/32" space all the way around them. If I use all 3/32" wide planks, I will have about a half plank above the gun ports, but if I use 1/8" wide planks for two of them and sand them down to about 7/64", they will fit nicely and still look about even. So with that figured out, I was able to add a plank above some of the central gun ports. I found a group where I could place a plank of a good length without having the ends right at a gun port, which wouldn't seem right to me.

 

 

I made a little tool to help get the gaps consistent, which is just a piece of wood that fits into the gun port with a piece of 1/32" wood glued to it.

 

 

I measure one gun port at a time, starting in the center and work my way to the ends. As I measure each port, I clamp the plank at that port, then go back and check that the plank didn't move after all the clamps are on. I also made sure the ends were at the correct height so that the adjacent planks can line up with the adjacent gun ports with a smooth run of the planks.

 

After the two upper planks were added, I added two planks below the gun ports, using the same method, just different style clamps.

 

 

 

 

The planking material for this hull is so narrow, it is going to take a long time to plank it. I'll try not to bore you all with too many updates once I get into the more routine planking, if there is such a thing.

 

[pete48]

Tom, The planking is the fun part

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[usedtosail]

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy all aspects of building, including planking. This is just a bigger job than I have had so far. I'm just glad this is single planked and will be painted/coppered over.

[usedtosail]

BTW, Pete, I love the natural wood of your models. I hope to aspire to that level of craftsmanship someday.

[HIPEXEC]

I see you used the thumb tacks correctly. When I first tried them, I let the wood touch the metal instead of the plastic part of the tack and had to dump the pieces because the metal made black marks on the wood.