USS Constitution build II - 35 years later

Thanks, Jose.  Using a neutral white, which has a warm quality to it instead of a bright white.

Finished the Foremast.  Bit of a pain getting the skysail pole made; kept breaking when I got close to 1/16".  Ended up making individual pieces and just sanding down in the lathe when I got close to that.

Bob

Been working on the masts and yards. Since I have switched to wood, the plastic fighting top looked odd.  So I built a wooden one. I have a tutorial which I did at my shipbuilding club tonight, but I will spare you the details and just show the finished product.

I have a few of the yards as well.

That's all for now.  2 more masts and a bunch of yards to go.

Bob

Bob, you have certainly taken the Revell USS Constitution to a new level. By the time you are done you will be justified in dropping the name Revell from our build! Thanks for sharing your journey; it is a WOW! BTW, I am still plodding along with my OOB build.

Thanks, Shipwreck.

I already did this ship once in my early 20s, strictly OOB.  This time I wanted it to be special.  That, and I wanted my wife to let me display it without any sad comments this time (I still think secretly smiled when I had to scuttle the original).  She is overly supportive this time because she sees the amount of work I am putting into it, and is actually impressed by my workmanship.  Not in any hurry to get it done.  Do it right the first time - er, second time - and you won't have to do it again.  Although I don't show her all the stuff that hits the bin because I screwed something up.  She only gets to see the good stuff!

Bob

I've been looking at pictures of sailing ships in combat, and noticed that they all showed reduced sails, as I understand it to help prevent damage to the rest of their sails.

Try as I could, I could not tell if the rest of the sails were furled or put below from those paintings.

I was going to model my Constitution with furled sails, but since the kit came with open gunports, usually, as far as I can tell, mostly when prepped for battle, I decided to model her ready for battle with guns run out, ports open, and reduced sails.

I have some silk span on order for sail making, and HiS carriages for the spar deck.

I scratch built a Brodie stove, galley and water barrels for the gun deck, then covered them up when the spar deck went on. That's when I went back to your build and saw the open decks.

Rick,

Yes, I wanted to be able to see my work on the gun deck, so I cut three large "holes" in the spar deck that can be removed to show the workings below.  Plus I lit it all up with LEDs.

Bob

You did an awesome job. That build is a classic!!!

Nino

Geez Bob, where's the inkwell on the Commadores desk?

 

  Holy Smokes that is some detail.

Can you make the deck over the cabin removable? That is too good to hide

I love it. I could never do it, but I love this model ship. 

  THANKS BOB!

          Jim

 

I absolutely agree with Jim, this is one heck of a build Bob! 

I’ve added this thread to my favorites so that I can refer to it when I build the 1/96 United States that was given to me for free. Please the pictures and dialogue coming.

Steve

Thanks, Steve.

I can't really tell if I am giving too much info or not.  Or taking too many pictures.  But I will keep posting as long as I am still building.  I will try not to bore anyone by reposting similar builds, such as the masts and yards.  Not a whole lot of differences there in terms of useful build info.  But I will definitely get back into posting once the rigging starts.  And I am sure I will have plenty of questions once it does!  Nice to know that folks are still watching, as this is going on two years now.

Bob

Yes,  more info good.   Always keep searching. 

    If I had not continued research on the USS Monitor I would never have known that the top deck had multiple perforations overtop of 40 railroad type rails or had any idea where the 3 small viewing ports in the turret were located, or that there were holes in the gun port armored covers ("Stoppers") so that the long handle of the rammer and sponges could be used.

Yes.  Keep the info coming.  Someday some AMERICAN manufacturer might take all these accumulated facts and make a kit that Is A Replica.

   Love what you are doing.   You should make this a traveling display.  Lend it to local Libraries, Lions clubs, VFW's, etc.  It would certianly help to get the interest going to build model ships.

The Constitution...(Paper and Plastic.)

That may be the most important phrase on the planet.

     Jim.

Spent most of the summer creating websites for work, recording lectures, etc.  Finally have some free time and able to get back into the shop.  

THE HULL IS COMPLETE !

Only things left are the crew and hammock rails, which will be added AFTER the rigging is mostly complete (otherwise I will keep busting things up/off).

ON TO THE MASTS and FIXED RIGGING

Bob

I decided to try a little carving for the catheads.

Now to recreate it for the other side.  Luckily, it's darn near impossible to see them both at the same time, so I only have to get it close!  Also  dumped the cheap plastic (bendy) boomkins and scratch built new ones out of wood.  Much sturdier.

Bob

Nice Lions head!.

  I have been absent from your Constitution Thread for a bit.  My expectation is to re-read it all and copy those great tips that have worked so well for you.

 My excuse for missing your recent updates was an Ian Toll book, Six Frigates.  Wow, what a great book on the early history of our Country.  The Constitution figured prominently in it so, I'm back!

  Great work Bob.

       Jim.

I haven't read that.  Now I will have to.  I wonder if they have it in a "books on tape" or whatever they call it now so I can listen to it while I build?  Podcasts are fine, but there aren't any dedicated to shipbuilding.  I would be all over that!

GM are you listening?  You could do this and become REALLY famous!

Bob

Geez!

 This is turning into a work of ART !  Awesome my Friend!

Thanks, TB.  I was a little leery, but they turned out OK.  Most people might not even notice them, but I know they are there.

Bob

Nino

My excuse for missing your recent updates was an Ian Toll book, Six Frigates.  Wow, what a great book on the early history of our Country.  The Constitution figured prominently in it so, I'm back!

Working on finishing the yards for the fore mast.  All yards have been turned and wooden parts added (cleats, battens, etc.) and then painted black.

Working on the studding sail booms for the lower 3 yards.  Turning the booms is as easy as it gets - cut to the right length and then sand to the correct taper.  I found a tutorial online that showed how to create the boom irons.  They said to drill a small hole in a brass tubing of the correct diameter for the boom.  Easy enough. 

Then it said to place a wire in the hole and solder, then bend as needed.  Not so easy.  Difficult to keep the wire perpendicular to the tubing AND not have it stick too far into the tubing so you can't file it down.  So I modified the procedure a bit, using some jewelry pins.  These are fine wires with a flat head about 1/16" diameter.  Quite small.  So I filed opposite sides down to the wire to make it a "T".  I passed the wire through the inside of the tubing and secured it with a small dab of CA, making sure it was perpendicular to the tubing.  THEN I soldered it to the brass tubing.

Hope that tip is useful to others down the road.

Bob

Clever solution, Bob! I wish I had done this on my second build, but will certainly use it on my current one!

Jose

Jose,

Glad I could help out.

Bob

My grand daughter was showing my Connie to one of her friends and dropped it. Her friend stumbled trying to catch it before it hit the floor and stepped on it. The hull was broken.

I am starting the third Connie I had, salvaging the guns and carriages from the crushed hull. 

I learned how to load pics into a file on the pc (not being a pc person) and know how to e-mail them. In order to send them to FSM, exactly what address do I use and how do I get them into my build section?

Thanks for any tips you can give me. This one I will pic in FSM once I figure that out.

PS, this caused the shedding of many tears, and a delay while recuperating from the wreckage!

Got the bowsprit pre-rigged and installed.  Added the gammoning.  Solid as a rock - that bowsprit is in there great (until I snap it off by doing something stupid !).

Hope you all had a happy, and probably quiet, Thanksgiving.

Let the model buying for Christmas commence!

Bob

So my father-in-law had an interesting idea.  He said I should time-lapse the rigging.

So I set up a white sheet behind the bench, and at the end of every night that I actually work on the ship, I place the boat in the same spot and snap a few pictures.  When I finally finish it, I will have a cool montage of the stepping of masts, hoisting of yardarms, bending of the sails, and completion of the ship.

As of now, I only have 3 photos, so nothing to show yet.  I think it will look cool.  Our University did a similar thing by taking one photo every day at the same time to document the construction of our new research building.  Kind of cool to see an entire building go up in about 5 minutes.  Hopefully this will look equally as cool.

In the mean time, I will continue posting photos of the details of the daily work to document the intricacies of the build, and any other tidbits I may stumble upon as I go.  Today I had to scratch build a roller for the jibboom for the jibstay.  Took a couple tries, but I got something I was fairly proud of that actually works!

Pics to follow.

Bob

Luvspinball

So my father-in-law had an interesting idea.  He said I should time-lapse the rigging.

So I set up a white sheet behind the bench, and at the end of every night that I actually work on the ship, I place the boat in the same spot and snap a few pictures.  When I finally finish it, I will have a cool montage of the stepping of masts, hoisting of yardarms, bending of the sails, and completion of the ship.

That is a great idea, Bob. It will certainly help us that are struggling with the rigging!

Just remember that on the rigging I am NOT using the Revell plans.  I have 4 other references I am using to come up with what was as close to 1812 as I can estimate.  Every Captain had his own ideas about the running rigging, and many things have changed over the past 220 years.  You really can't go by what she looks like today or the most copied version from the 1927 restoration.  It has proved to be a little more difficult than just following along with Revell's simplified version of rigging.

And I am being totally anal about using the correct size wooden block and diameter of rope.  I have about a dozen sizes for standing rigging and another dozen for the running rigging.  I pulled from a few manufacturers to fill in odd sizes and to make it look like ropes had been replaced over time (slightly different tints of tan).

But, hey, if it helps anyone, then that is fantastic.  I just thought it would be cool to see her go from a hull to a finished fighting ship in a matter of minutes.

Bob

Sorry in advance for the long post.

Rigging has begun.  Started with the bobstays, bowsprit shrouds and martingales.  Finished up with most of the jibboom and flying jibboom guys.

Some intricate rigging in there, and I am inventing new ways (new to me, anyway) to try and do this all properly.  Seizing every bullseye and/or block.  Easy on the bench, a bit more tricky if the line is already on the ship.  Those that have to pass through thimbles or the dolphin strikers can't be "pre-rigged" at both ends.  Also hand looping between all the bullseyes with smaller rope so it looks authentic.  Bowsprit area is complete (for now).

That's it for now.   Bob

Nice work Bob.

be sure to wax your lines and plan for the big bugaboo on the forward spar, which is the fore stay will bend it upwards.

Good clean work.

I tried to answer your question about studding sails, i.e. I don't know.

Bill

Thanks Bill. 

I am trying to remember to wax my lines.  Got the block of beeswax sitting on the bench, but I am pretty sure I missed one or two.

Not sure what you mean about the forestay.  Forestay and fore preventer stay are rigged into huge bullseye on the forward rail.  Did you mean that they get in the way of the main spar?  Or were you referring to the topmast stay (and topgallant stay) which do attach to the bowsprit and jibboom and could pull it up?  Principle reason I went with wood masts and spars all around.  Much less prone to bending (the flimsy plastic from Revell just doesn't cut it).

As for the studding sails, all I really wanted to know is whether they were left in the outboard position, even if there were no studding sails attached.  I read somewhere that they were left in the outboard position once under sail, and not hauled back in or out everytime they wanted to change.  Will check with my master crew next Wednesday.  I am a member of the Midwest Model Shipwrights club, and the head of the NRG is also a member.  Lots of experienced builders there, so hopefully I can get an answer.  No rush, since I have a LOT of rigging to go before throwing yards up.

Bob

Yes, topmast stay.