USS Constitution build II - 35 years later

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

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!

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

Geez!

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

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

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 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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Bob, 

Spectacular scratch build work on the bowsprit and foremast! I love your attention to detail. Curious, what shade of white are you painting your masts? And what type of wood are you using?

Jose

Finished turning the spritsail yard and moved on to lower foremast.

On to the lowere mainmast.

Bob

Here is how the new bowsprit and jibs look painted up and fitted to the bow.

Working on the foremast next.

Bob

Been awhile.  The Covid19 thing is really messing with my ***.  Quite busy doing online lectures and meetings.  But I digress.  On to the cool stuff.

I was very unhappy with the look of the bowsprit.  Just didn't look right when comparing to the real ship.  I had to make new booms since the old ones were warped, but even that didn't help.  So I went to the museum plans and printed out the bowsprit and jibbooms to scale.  Sure enough, the bowsprit is over an inch too short.  Jibboom was correct, but flying jibboom was also short by 1/2".  So I went to my stash of dowels and pulled out the lathe.  I was going to need to start turning upper masts and spars anyway, so I thought I would "practice" with the bowsprit (since I did have a nice hybrid one already made; you can see it in the background of image 4).  Below are the pics of how it turned out.

Cheers,

Bob

Bob,

I just had time to go through this most excellent WIP. You are doing a great job on this venerable old kit. I’ll be following along now and can’t wait to see what’s next.

Steve

Rob,

Yes, I did the string thing with the lower masts in; thought I mentioned it in a previous post.  With the proper sized deadeyes, it is really not an issue though, except for the mizzen mast.  But thanks for the heads up; and the compliments.

Bob

Looks fantastic.  In all of your modifications did you account for the accurate angulation and rake of the shrouds from the new location of the adjusted deadeyes?  A quick test with the lower mast in place and piece of black thread held along the shroud path from top to deadeye...will give you a good clue as to weather the chain plates align with the shrouds.

Other then that possible issue...the mod and scratch work look good....you're moving along nicely and soon you will be setting masts and rigging shrouds.

Rob

Been busy with the starboard channels, links and chainplates. First, Revell did NOT do a good job placing cannons, since there is virtually no room to put deadeyes and links that don't interfere with either the spar or gun deck cannons. The worst offender is the foremast, where the cannons form a zig-zag pattern. Main mast was pretty good, then back to a big offset for the mizzen channel.  I started with the main mast to get my techniques for making the deadeye strops and links.  I used copper wire so I could solder them together (for strength).  I used the proper size 5mm deadeyes (Revell's are woefully undersized) and marked the channels.  Since the channels were fitted with pins, I could test fit as often as I wanted to insure proper placement and alignment.  Mizzen channel was next (not too bad), and finally the biggest challenge - the foremast.  The foremast channel took me 3 builds to get it looking proper, with decent spacing of the deadeyes and room for the carronades to shoot.  All were finally painted black after mounting.  On to the port side.

Bob

Rob,

Thanks again for the complement.  Means a lot to me.    Back to the bench!

Bob

I'm glad I could be of assistance.  Techical and historical Accuracy is important, if not moreso than the modelers skill.  And your skill is commendable.

Rob

Thanks Rob!  You are the best, and a fountain of nautical knowledge.

Bob