1/96 RVL Constitution Build, reference and source guide.

I have already assembled up to laying in the Gun Deck.  I put my Gun Deck in 3 pieces, I found doing this helped me get the Scaledecks AM wood deck to fit better.  I first air brushed the deck with a light coat of MM Wood #4673. This really helped the planking details of the Scale deck stand out.  I used regular elmers type water based white glue to adhere Scale deck, this allowed me a bit of time to work with. Easy clean up with a water moistened Q-tip and finger.  

I am not going to do alot of extra detailing on gun deck since most of it will not show. I have already built all my cannons, there like doing another build. There was a lot of flash to clean up. I used MM British Crimson #4609 for carriages. This seemed to closely match the color I seen in pics/paintings. 

Livit,

      My Comfy Chair and and refreshments are ready.  I will take my place in line to Watch & Learn.

     If anything goes wrong or missing, I have a complete set of extra parts except for the hull halves. Let me know if you need anything. 

     I worked for IBM for many years and had the VA,  both the Hospital and Administration sites, as my Account for many years here in Philly.  Great Folks. They(YOU)  are to be commended for the support of our Vets.

       Nino.

Tks Nino, being a DAV myself makes my job at the VA very rewarding at times. I work in the background on the Federal Law Enforcement side of the VA Hospital. I am at times occassionally involved in suicide prevention, which is a very big deal with the VA now "Finally' !

I got all the cannons glued onto gun deck and one side tied in.  After getting the first 3 cannons tied down, I got a rythym going and it went along quickly.

I have run into my first issue. The cannons are not staying adhered, just a slight bump and they come loose. I had no problems tying down the first side shortly after gluing down the cannons. Now the other side after setting a few days before I could get back to tying them are coming loose way to easily. I originally used regular testors model glue and have now tried some tamiya thin and its not helping. Any suggestions here would be appreciated. Glad this has happened on the gun deck and not the main deck, the regluing is showing. Thinking about trying some thick CA, what do yall think ?    Dale

sometimes I have lightly sanded the bottom of the wheels , just to get a slight flat area for the glue to grab onto , and yes thick ca , could help .

Steve I did lightly sand the wheels, but maybe not quit enough.  I had not taken an possible plastic to wood veneer having an adhesion issue. Least learning this now :)  

In addition to  sanding the bottoms of wheels on carriages, I dimple through the paint with a small drill bit and pin vise, at each wheel location,  to get through the paint and into the plastic.  Drill about 1/32 into the plastic to get an even better bond than the flat plastic.

When you need to drill that many holes it pays to make a jig from a piece of cardboard or thin plastic- mark the location of the carraige wheels and drill through the piece, then use it to drill through the holes at each carraige location.

Don thank you ! That is an excellent tip.  I am in process of making a couple of templates/jigs now. 

Shipwreck, you could do more tying down. But since the Gundeck is going to get for the most covered up, I was trying to keep it very basic. I will be doing more realistic looking rigging of the guns on the main decks.  I am not sure of the manufacturing process of the Wood veneer Scaledeck, but it has to be stained or painted to get the really nice detailing it has. At least this has happened now before I had it all covered up, what a PITA that would of been. Plus, this is a lesson learned for the next builder.

Shipwreck, I have to correct myself in what I said about tying down the guns. I had originally attached the rope to cannon and pin with some slack for recoil. Since it is not going to show anyways I took out that slack and if you do your wrap of pin and cannon to the bottom (rope overlapping below pins) then it does apply a bit of down force.

I am still shopping for new laptop. Should have one by friday or saturday, then I will get to posting pics soon there after.   Dale

http://www.navy.mil/ah_online/constitution/  very interesting USS Constitution virtual tour.

I had gotten some 1.5mm cannon balls from Modelexpo.  They to me, appear to be way too small for any of the cannons or Carronades, on my Connie.  My math is not the best, but from what I could figure out the 24 pounders cannon balls in 1/96 scale should be around 1.68 mm. Is my math way off ?

Your right! Trying to get the cannons to stay in place is a PITA! What I wound up doing was drilling a very small hole in each one and pushing very thin wire down through the hole  and into the deck with CA on it. That along with a spot of glue on the wheels will keep it in place. It is time consuming but it works and they wont fall off. You can get different thicknesses of thin wire at Hobby Lobby. I keep three thicknesses on hand.

Mark, thats an excellent tip. I had not thought about pinning them.

I was advised that my math was correct and those are the right size cannon balls. Going to thicken them up a bit with a few coats of paint.

Got my first order of the Syren rigging line. I am impressed, this line is very nice !

I'm glad you talked about the syren line because that's what I want to use.The pictures of it look great. I am on my 3rd-yes 3rd 96 Constitution. Haven't started it yet,my first one got demolished in the basement from a basketball and my second one has been sitting there half done because I don't like the way it looks so instead of trying to fix it which would almost be impossible I bought another one on sale. I plan on getting wood decks,cloth sails,wood blocks and new rigging line and I'm going to finish it come hell or high water. About 6months ago I finished the 1\196 version and had a blast doing it.Please send some pictures of your build I would love to see them!

Dale, get some 560 white canopy glue. That  is what I use mostly as it is strong. I glue all my deck furniture, decks, cannons & as much as possible with it. You can clean excess off with a wet Qtip., but it is waterproof when dry. I thought you said you used it.

Somewhere I picked up a chart about ball and bore diameters. According to that, a 24 lb ball is 5.68 inches.

That's 1.49 mm or 0.059 inches at scale.

Pinning them is a very good idea.

I got my new PC today, so should be able to start posting pics in the next day or so.

Mark, I will be using the syren line for the first time, hopefully this evening. Along with the 3 sizes I listed in the first post are almost exactly what revell provides in kit. I have also been told that one size smaller is really nice to have when doing your upper most riggings.  Eventually I will be able to provide how much will be needed for completion. I am going to attempt to use as much of the rigging hardware OOB. But I have replaced the eyebolts with brass and still debating on a few other things.

Gene, I do use the 256. I use it on knots, windows and anything I am going to be able to leave for a day or so. I had not even thought about using it on the cannons.

Bill, thanks for verification. That math had me scratching my head, which dont help the hairloss situation any. 

Syren rigging line is pre-waxed. Should I still use more bees wax on it ? Glad to see yall here....tks.... Dale

Hey Livit,

that's a great subject on the knots! What do you guys use after tying a knot? I have in the past used a pinhead of CA but the only thing is it looks like you used CA and it looks terrible. I've tried several things that doesn't dry as fast and but nothing works like CA,everything else you have to let it dry overnight. Let me know how the syren works out,I'm about to buy some not only because   it looks great but I believe its not fuzzy like the line that comes in the kit and it would be nice not to have to run every line through bees wax before applying.

This is first post with new PC. All that updating took awhile !

Mark, the Syren line is not fuzzy at all. It looks just like miniature rope, not sewing thread :)....  I used Tamiyal extra thin for tying in my gundeck cannons. It is almost as fast setting as CA, but does not have the sheen that CA does. That was with the line that came with the kit, not sure yet how its going to work on the Syren waxed line. 

Good photos couple post more. Finally !

I'll try the  tamiya thin and let you know how it turned out -thanks

Cant  see the photos

Tks Mark, trying to use google pics and not having much luck. Maybe someone will tell me  what I am doing wrong. 

Using the xtra thin Tamiya on the Syren rigging line works, but the Syren line absorbs faster and spreads, so you have more line that is a bit stiff. I am still happy with the results. 

Finally able to get pics posted tks to a member downunder. This is what I've got so far. Like I had previously mentioned "nothing that fancy or an amazing build" just basic plus a bit.

I have a bit of touch up painting to do on gun deck, tie down some mast bits to gun deck and install captains quarters. Which again I am not getting fancy on. I brush painted most of it, except copper on hull and a varying darkness coat of MM wood on the gundeck prior to adhering the wood scale deck, that brought out the details a bit more. In my mind, I cannot see the white on the gun deck walls being perfect. What image I get is like the white washed fence in the Tom Sawyer movie, I cannot see it having that airbrushed look.  I am sure the spar deck had a bit more attention to detail being done to it. 

Mate,

Your last two images dont display correctly, make sure you select "copy image address" and not "copy image".

Tks again, that should of fixed them.   Dale