USS Constitution by robnbill (Bill) - FINISHED - Mamoli - 1:93 kit - First Build - Bashed

[HIPEXEC]

I see you even installed Jacob's ladders to the very top of each mast....More ratlines!

[robnbill]

Actually i made the Jacobs ladders off the ship then rigged them onto the masts. Iit was much easier to make them n a jig. There is one hard rung at the top to keep the ladder in shape. Otherwise the sides collapsed once they were pulled tight since the top is tied to the mast tip. A hard rung at the top then i used the same threads as my ratlines. Once it was completed i looped the top over the mast, drill holes im the cross trees and pulled the ends through and glued them.

 

These weren't on the plans but were certainly part of the ship. Otherwise, there ws no way to get to the top.

[robnbill]

Progress on the Connie has been made. I am down to 7 pairs of running lines then I will need to make the coils and install them around the ship. I have completely exhausted the line I received from Mamoli in the sizes required. I have an order on the way from Syren Ship Model Co, (thanks Chuck). As soon as it arrives I will be able to complete the rigging. 

 

I am liking the way the ship is looking. Mamoli's instructions for the rigging has been pretty good. Once I learned how they were denoting everything, it has been pretty smooth. Here are a couple of shots of the ship as it sits on the bench today. I think tomorrow I will start working on the ship's boats since I can't do any more rigging other than installing a few blocks, until I receive the new rope.

[fletch944t]

Master.... we are not worthy.....

[robnbill]

I spent a bit of time reviewing the remaining rigging to be done. I noticed on the lower two spars of the mizzen there was an error in the plans. The detailed spar construction drawings had the outermost lower block positioned about halfway out the spar. That is the way I constructed them. However the detailed rigging diagram shows the same blocks on the ends of the spar. Just like the other spars. Looking at the AOS it also supports the block on the end of the spar so I will cut off the 4 blocks and re-rig them at the ends.

 

Since there are a few people building the Mamoli Connie, I through I would post this. Chances are this has been corrected in later versions of the plans, but just in case, look for it if you see the mizzen spars with the lower block positioned away from the ends.

[jwvolz]

Looking very nice Bill. Excellent work on the rigging. 

[robnbill]

FYI, I decided to use my downtime from the rigging to document the process to decode the Mamoli plans. I posted it in the rigging section on this forum. It is located at http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/9150-readingdecoding-mamoli-rigging-charts/. I thought others might find this a bit useful. I break down the process to figure out what they are asking to do in the rigging. 

 

 

[robnbill]

Thanks Joe and everyone for all the likes. 

[patrickmil]

This is a completely outstanding build of a beautiful ship.

[robnbill]

YEAH! I completed the rigging yesterday morning. I received the new line from Chuck on the 24th and was able to continue to work on the ship's rigging. I did run short on the single blocks, I need 4 more so I used some walnut strips, and made them. Today I started working on the coils. I was able to complete the coils on the port side and those on the fife rails for the fore and main masts. I used a jig similar to that others have used on the side working the wraps between two nails. Then I touch each end with CA and slide them off the nails. I cut one end off on the back side and so the other end to loop around the other end and create the loop for hanging the coil off the belaying pin. It took a few tries but I managed to get a system down that created coils in the shape I liked them. Tomorrow I will continue to work on the coils. I also replaced three of the deadeyes for the main and mizzen. They had twisted and were not as neat as I liked. I planned on relaxing them so I spent a bit of time today and redid them.

 

I did not take any new photos since the ship does not look much different than it did the last photos. Once I complete the coils, I will install the side davits. At that point, I will move the ship out of the shop so I can make the three remaining ships boats. I do not want to make any sawdust around the ship with the rigging in place.

 

So when I move the ship, I will set it up with a light background and take some better photos.

 

I also found a site called table legs.com that I plan on ordering the legs for the case from. I want to have fluted legs, I wheel I could build them, I would rather spend the time on the ships boats or working on the Eagle. So the end is in site! Woo Hoo!

[robnbill]

Today I finished adding all the coils to the rigging and started working the davits. I have debated back and forth over using the Mamoli supplied davits which are metal or make my own ones from wood. While I was cleaning up the metal ones fate and my clumsiness decided the issue. I dropped one of the metal davits and it shattered when it hit the floor.

 

So I pulled out the AOS and am using a modified approach to the davits. I understand that during the Connie's career she had both curved and straight davits. The straight ones would need to be at quite and angle for the ships boats to hang clear of the sides and rigging so I am making davits with a slight curve. I will pin the bottom to either a wire bracket or a bracket I will solder up with brass sheets. I am already liking the davits more than I did the metal ones.

 

I am adding the features to the davits based upon the AOS, so the same ship's cleats, foot ladders, etc. I will take photos tomorrow of the progress.

[robnbill]

I spent the day fashioning the new davits. I cut the 4 davits out of a piece of mahogany I had and after shaping them to match each other I started fashioning the attachments to each. These were the stairs up the top, and the two cleats as well as 4 rings for the end.

 

You can see in this first photo, the broken metal davit, davit and cleat blanks, two of the roughly assembled davits. To fashion the stairs I glued short lengths of a small square strip. These extended over each side of the davits. Once the glue dried, I sanded these flush to the side and reduced the height of them to the stair depth, then cut the angles for the treads.

 

For the cleats I glued the strips together then did a rough shaping before gluing them to the blank. Once the glue dried, I did the final shaping of the cleats. 

 

 

 

 

To mount the davits I created brackets from brass sheets and soldered them together. Prior to soldering them I drilled the holes for the davit mounting pins. Once soldered I cleaned them up with a file and did the final shaping with needle nose pliers.

 

I washed them all in acetone to remove the soldering oils, then stained them in a blackening solution. Once dry I also covered the sides with a light coat of the black paint to even the color.

 

 

Then I inserted a pin through the brackets and davits and epoxied the pin ends on the brackets.

 

 

 

Tomorrow I will mount the brackets to the ship. Instead of the are bar that the Mamoli plans have between each pair of davits, I plan on rigging a line per the AOS. This line mounts to rings forward and aft of the brackets along the same elevation as the brackets. Then it runs to the outboard rings of each davit. Another line mounts to the inboard rings of the davits and ties them together. This should create a firm frame. The upper rings will be rigged to a black set holding the entire assembly at the proper height.

 

The full davit would have sheaves built into the end but given the scale, I decided to attach a double block to a ring underneath each of the davits. These will be rigged to single blocks with hooks to attach the ships boats to.

Edited December 29, 2014 by robnbill

[CaptainSteve]

Beautiful job, Bill !!!

[robnbill]

Today I finished adding the quarter davits to the ship. This means that nothing else needs to be attached to it other than hanging the three ships boats. I hung the davits by pinning the bottom to a bracket I made out of brass. Once I marked where the bracket would be I carefully scrapped all the paint off down to the bare hull. I roughened up the back of the brackets with course sandpaper, then used thick CA to attach them to the hull.

 

I strung the davit lifts per the AOS. At least my interpretation of the AOS. Overall I am pretty happy with the way they came out.

 

I ordered the legs and inlays for the case. It will take a few weeks to arrive so hopefully, I will be done with the ships boats and ready for them.

 

As promised, once I completed adding the davits to the hull, I brought the ship upstairs to get some photos in a better light. Here they are. I will do this once agin once I build and hang the ships boats. Sorry to post so many. She is a proud ship.

 

 

[fletch944t]

Pretty phenomenal Bill. Congratulations on a wonderful build. The only decision left is what your next build is going to be.

 

Fletch

Edited December 29, 2014 by Captain Silver Beard Jones

[GLakie]

She turned out real nice Bill. Definitely not an easy build, but you did a fine job. You SHOULD be proud. 

 

Cheers and have a Happy New Year

[robnbill]

Pretty phenomenal Bill. Congratulations on a wonderful build. The only decision left is what your next build is going to be.

 

Fletch

Thanks. As far as the next ship. that is already decided. I will be doing a scratch build of the Brig Eagle. I have already developed the plans in DeltaCAD and actually was able to get input from the professor at Texas A&M on them. It will still be a bit since I need to scratch build the ships boats then build the case. Probably February before I start her.

Edited December 29, 2014 by robnbill

[Force9]

Very nice work Bill... If you hustle on those boats, she can sail on the next tide!

[mort stoll]

Well done sailor, well done.

 

Mort

[Landlubber Mike]

Gorgeous work Bill, congratulations!  Nice end of year present   Looking forward to your next build!

Edited December 30, 2014 by Landlubber Mike

[GuntherMT]

Wonderful work.  Congratulations.

[CaptainSteve]

 ... Sorry to post so many.

 

Not enough !!!

We want more !!!

[patrickmil]

Nice work Bill! 

[usedtosail]

Really nice Bill. Have fun with the boats, table and case.

[HIPEXEC]

Bill,

Constructo's instructions for the top mast rigging is completely lacking in detail. How do you attach the upper shrouds to the top mast? There's nothing there.

[robnbill]

The Mamoli plans have some detail drawings on how they attach on the lower end, but I was left to my own on the upper attachment. Since there are three upper shrouds, I opted to double one my cinching it in the middle with a small knot, and the aft mot just a small loop to attach it to the mast. These are stopped  by blocks attached near the top of the mast. I chose knowing here because there was a plethora of lines that terminate on the upper mast and it is a small area so I did not want to bulk it up with serving lines.The lower ends are run through the cross tree and attached to the futtock shrouds. The plans showed their lower ends terminating on the shores. I added a stave across then terminated them there. I also ran the rat liners up the sides similar to that done on the lower shrouds. 

 

The two photos show the lower shrouds after the shrouds were installed and once again after the remaining rigging was installed. You can also see in the after photo the jacobs ladder I installed since this was the only access the crew had to the upper spars. These were not part of the Mamoli plans. 

 

Ip hope this helps. If you have nay other questions, don't hesitate to ask.

[HIPEXEC]

Bill,

Thanks...this is what I will do. I'm still puzzled about attaching the lines at the top? Just a knot seems wrong. Oh well?

[robnbill]

You could serve it around the mast top, but, these will all be covered by all the other lines attached at that point. Also keep in mind too much bulk will cause the other lines attached over it to fall oddly. Your call.

Edited January 1, 2015 by robnbill

[robnbill]

For the three ships boats in the quarter gallery and stern, I am building three whaleboats. I may opt to build the third boat as a gig (with a flat stern) but I need to build at least two boats to start. I pulled the drawings from the AOS into CAD and reconciled them and cleaned them up to use in the construction. I took a plastic cutting board from an Xacto set, and after roughing up the sides with sandpaper, I used superglue to attach the form lines on the sheet to the plastic. Then I carefully cut these out on the scroll saw. I added extensions to raise the forms and allowed me to have a flat surface for the base of the forms. 

 

Here is a copy of the plans and the form layouts. The layouts print on 8.5 x 11 and are to scale for the 1:93 ship.

 

 

Once the forms were cut out and sanded smooth I placed them on the plans to see what the thickness of spacers were required. I took strips of walnut and oak and made laminated strips slightly larger than I needed. These I placed between the frames over the plan and gradually sanded each down until the correct thickness was achieved.

 

I removed the endmost two frames from each end and glued the remainder to a block.I assured the alignment of the forms by placing a 1mm strip (the thickness of the keel) through the keel slots on each form. Once the glue was set I sanded and trued the forms in place. This beveled the forms correctly.

 

After the mold was correctly beveled I moved to the keel assembly. I cut the keel form from the plans. I also cut the rough keel stem and stern pieces from a 1mm strip of walnut. These were glued together. To enforce the joint between the stern, stem and keel pieces I glues small strips of paper on each side right over the joint. I glued the keel plans to the rough keel assembly and sanded it down to the correct shape.

 

I sandwiched two thick strips together with a paper between and cut the bow and stern shapes per the plans. I sanded these into the rough bevels required before gluing each to the assembly. After a trial fit into the mold, I completed truing each of the ends to the hull.

 

 

I tested adding the ribs to the mold forms before planking. However the connection between the ribs and the keel were too weak to support the planking. So I went to plan B.

 

 I was very concerned the planks would adhere to the forms so I removed the keel and coated the mold with the beeswax mixture I used in the rigging. I shaped and glued the garboard planks on each side. Since the hull will be clinker, I cleaned the planks and keel assembly with sanding paper and rifflers.  After each garboard plank was attached I carefully pried the keel out of the form. 

 

You can see below the result of the garboard strakes being attached.

 

 

I also have a photo of my current mold with the Mamoli blank in front of it. Given how poorly the Mamoli plans follow the outline of the whaleboats these look more like canoe blanks.

 

 

 

This is all I completed today. Tomorrow I will continue to plank the hull. I am happy with the form so far. I know I could complete the boat with the planks butted. However, I really want to do this clinker style. I will know tomorrow whether I will have the skills to do this. If not, they will be butted.

 

The inlay strips for the case arrived today as well. These will be simply black white black striping that will be inlayed around the base of the ship.

 

Edited January 3, 2015 by robnbill

[robnbill]

Today I completed the planking for the first of the whaleboats. I cut the strips of walnut, then applied a thin bead of thick CA and used the bending iron to bend and stick the plank to the hull. I would alternate sides as I applied strips. After gluing all the strips in place, I used rifflers, the Xacto #11 blade, and wood chisels to clean up the glue squeeze out. The wood chisels worked really well getting into the corners of the planks and the rifflers cleaned up the keel assembly. These boats are painted.

 

I took a 2x2 strip of Basswood and cut lengths that would fit the ribs. Then used a wide chisel to split it twice. Usually I could get two sometimes three pieces of usable rib material with this method. I used thick CA to glue the ribs into the stations (every other rib). Then used the Facto blade to clean up and trim the ribs to be consistent.

 

The planking bowed the sides out quite a bit more than they should be so I have the boat in a clamp overnight pulling in the sides. Then tomorrow I will add the remaining ribs, clean that up, then paint the interior white. Since the decking and much of the boat furniture will be stained or a different color, now is the time to get to the interior sides and ribs.

 

Below are some photos after the planking was finished, but before the cleanup.