Old Ironsides - Revisiting the classic Revell 1/96 kit

I like that attitude. 

Using toothpicks is kind of limited and the ship is a little big for that, but making big toothpicks out of basswood is pretty easy.

I like to start with a square stock piece, say 3/16" square. I draw the taper on two sides and sand to it. Then draw it again on those two sides and sand the other way. Then sand the corners to make an octagon in section, and then draw sand in your hand to make it round.

I much prefer that to birch dowels, which are hard, and seldom straight.

I have two hulls and while waiting for the wood decks, decided to do the second hull to see how it would compare, plastic deck against the wooden deck. Probably no contest!

I dug into my n scale railroad stuff and came up with Model Masters "Rust". (This is used on model rails as there is no such thing as bright and shiny rails on a railroad, even when newly laid.)

The plastic deck is "ok" in rust, looks less like plastic. It takes two coats. The seams are not so noticeable and could be made even less noticeable with the old tars doing some repair work...sitting on the seams. May use a wash on the decks...probably the same for the spar deck.

Both of the plastic decks on my two hulls do have camber, barely noticeable but there.

I am reading "A most Fortunate Ship" by Tyrone Martin. He claims that one of the Constitution's boats was painted green, one called the "Cutter" but the plans do not show which one was the cutter.

The book also states that the gun ports were solid but on the kit they are hinged, probably to faciltate attaching them , and stored when in battle but not where stored, used mostly when running at sea. They were probably left off in port to aid ventilation. So the decision has to be made to use or not use.

Both hulls are together and transoms painted. During the War of 1812, The Constitution had both a white and yellow ochre gun stripe, depending on who the Captain was, so one hull has white and one has the yellow ochre.

The boats are asembled for both ships and the oars are lashed into the boats. I am starting on the masts while waiting for the wood decks.

I went to our local hobby store, and they carry the blocks in scale in packets of 12, and other accessories so it will be possible to purchase what I need as I go along instead of getting the whole Blue Jacket kit all at once...limited budget, you know. They also have the rigging rope already parafined! In the appropriate sizes!

Now it's time for a Guiness!

I dug up a lighting kit for my Pennsy passenger cars (n scale RR). I plan on attaching this to the underside of  the spar deck, to see how it looks. I mounted a battery pack from an old flashlight in the hull, and have the feed line going up through the brass pedestal mounts....hate that kit mounting fiasco...the on/off switch is in the cherry wood base I will be using. I am using the resistors from my passenger cars so this should work out ok

Still waiting for the wood deck from HiS. If the lighting works out on the plastic deck hull I'll use it on the wooden deck hull.

The battery pack in the hull isn't going to work out.

The transoms were hard to fit on both hulls. I took some seran wrap and stretched it over the stern tightly and it showed just where to trim the spar deck for a better transom fit. I filed down the hull and spar deck accordingly. Now we'll see how that will work out.

I am not going to use the gun port covers.

Regarding the guns, where were the swab buckets carried. and the swabs? In the field artillery they were mounted on the carriages. Same for the powder buckets?

Having the batteries external is better. 

Mostly laying on the deck, where it can be used when the gun is run back. Powder and shot would be stacked up around the hatches where it gets brought up from the magazines.

Either use an external battery pack or buy a cheap 5V DC transformer you can plug into an outlet.  Either way, run the wires up through the mounts to your board or the master wires.

Good luck!  Keep us apprised.

Gun deck caisons are painted, first coat, a brown/red. Second coat tomorrow if I'm in the mood.

I have a friend who did an awesome job on a 1/96 Constitution years ago, She used brass cannon. They didn't look quite right, looks like the barrels are shorter, and she painted hers black. So what the heck, for 90 bucks saved I'll use the kit cannons. A little more time with flashing and sanding and painting, but they seem to fit better scale wise.

She made her own rat lines, came out awesome so I'm trying to con her into doing mine. We had a Guiness together then settled in for some kibitzing. I hope it doesn't take too many Guinesses to get her to do mine. She's old Navy.

After messing with the transoms both went on with no trouble. It's easier to see the flashing on the transoms if you hold them over a white poster paper...and use a magnifier. No putty was needed.

I had to buy some sanding sticks. I used my wife's nail files and she freaked out....geez! 

Yes I don't see the point of buying brass cannon to represent something that's iron, painted black.

You'll be able to do your own shrouds and ratlines when the time comes.

We used to fill hollow flagpoles with sand to help keep them from bending in high winds...just thrashing around for ideas to strenghten the masts. Sand is too course for the masts though it works well on flag poles.

Wooden dowels seems to be the best bet so far

Still waiting for my HiS decking. Meanwhile all the caissons (carriages in the Navy?) have been painted, a reddish brown, and gun barrels assembled and painted a satin black...neither flat black nor glossy black looked quite right on the barrels.

When in port would the guns have been in the firing position, or inboard? I am not using the gun ports, and will have her with furled sails ready to go.

hourglass sand is about as fine as you can get.  would have to drill a hole at the top of the mast to get it in though.

Or brass rod. Sand won't do much. In the case of the flagpole, which I haven't heard of before but does make sense- it would keep the tube from buckling.But it would not keep the plastic mast from flexing.

I don't know about the guns, but a good argument could be made that they would be run out in port, to make more room on the gun deck for moving stuff around, pitching hammocks, working on gear.

Things don't always go as planned. I ordered a wooden deck from scale models and was informed they were out of stock, so I ordered another from HiS.

Both arrived today.

Another beef...why, when you are using a paint stick for the scroll work does it always seem to run dry half way through? That happened on both transoms, does anyone believe in jinxes?

Now that I have two hulls and both will have wooden decks, I will do one then if I feel like it, do the other. Has anyone used those decks before? They are awfully thin, though they do look good.

I purchased the HiS deck, but did not like how thin it was.  My plastic deck was badly warped and I was afraid the imperfections would show through the thin deck.  So I made my own out of 1/8" stock and glued to .030 styrene for the bottom deck.  Used two layers of .015 styrene so I could get the arch in the deck.

Bob

P.S.  All paint sticks are built with AI that senses the exact half-way point of ANY painting project.  That way you have to use two of them.

No warpage on either decks on my two kits. I know heat will cause the plastic to warp, and  I have a sneaky feeling some warpage is due to hobby shop storage, or modeler storage near a heat source. I ran stringers length wise under my plastic deck, just in case.

I am using the scale deck instead of HiS with a coat of orange laquer, reduced.

The masts will be yellow ochre to match the gun stripe. The scroll work is white and will stay that way.

I think I'll repaint the transom windows red with white.

The masts will be reinforced with brass tubing.

Going to go with the wooden deck, so the plastic deck hull will be for spare parts. Any spares not needed will be up for grabs if anyone needs them.

The gun carriages are finished with barrels mounted, and wheels painted black (whew!)

The gun stripe is yellow ochre as will be the lower masts. The bulwarks are a medium green.

The ships boats are asembled and the one that will be mounted on the stern is a light green. The rest are off white.

I used plastruck H beams under the gun deck (more n scale rr stuff) to hopefully prevent any future warpage as that wood deck is maybe as thick as poster paper...but it does look good.

I have replaced the kit rope for the rigging with sewing thread, some of it  a dull silverish color as exposed hemp rope would silver a lot like wood does...just have to be sure that silvered rigging will be in the proper location. It seems that the sewing thread will be easier to handle...practicing clovis knots. Bought some of those wire needle threaders too, for threading the rope lines.

The hull is the easiest part. We'll have to see how many Guinesses it takes to do all the rigging.

Planning on furled sails.

I have to figure out how to post pics in this forum. Not exactly computer savvy. I'm lucky I can turn this thing on!

I was playing around with the gun deck and suddenly realized I made a mistake on my 70"s rendition. I had the guns in the outboard position on that model (battle position I suppose), and at that time had them rigged snug against the bulwarks. They looked good. But I just realized that if they are going to be in the inboard position, then you have to allow extra rope to allow them to be moved back. How far into the ship would they be moved back? You would need room to swab and do maintenance. Also did the crews use chock blocks to help secure them?

I am planning on having some inboard being worked on, maintenance, training, etc with about 8 of the crew around them. Might do the same on the spar deck too.

Rick,

See if this helps:

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/feedback_help_and_testing/f/43/t/173158.aspx

Rick Sr

I have to figure out how to post pics in this forum. Not exactly computer savvy. I'm lucky I can turn this thing on!

I was playing around with the gun deck and suddenly realized I made a mistake on my 70"s rendition. I had the guns in the outboard position on that model (battle position I suppose), and at that time had them rigged snug against the bulwarks. They looked good. But I just realized that if they are going to be in the inboard position, then you have to allow extra rope to allow them to be moved back. How far into the ship would they be moved back? You would need room to swab and do maintenance. Also did the crews use chock blocks to help secure them?

I am planning on having some inboard being worked on, maintenance, training, etc with about 8 of the crew around them. Might do the same on the spar deck too.

 

Then there's the carriage tackle. It is set up to run the gun both out and back in. You'll not often see models that include the tackle to run the gun in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=201&v=mQSBxQiLSyQ&feature=emb_title

Notice the size of the crew. There would be more than a dozen, plus a midshipman commanding the gun.

It's just a signal charge and she obviously doesn't place the shot into the barrel so as not to destroy a tourist bus on the dock, but you get the idea.

Having the guns run out does make the deck are much more useful. One disadvantage is that the weight would increase the moment arm of force causing the ship to roll in weather. My guess would be that the guns were run in and secured and the port covers fittied for heavy weather but otherwise run out to some degree and the ports opened and stashed away for ventilation.

I was going through my n scale things and came across a 12 inch lathe I had forgotten about. I purchased it about 20 years ago...it sure pays not to throw stuff out! Per your suggestion, I am going to turn some bass wood spars and see what happens. At worst they should be better than those plastic limp nodes the kit came with.

In both of the kits I have on hand, there are two colors of thread for the rigging. There are supposed to be three sizes of each, but all three spools of the two colors are the same size...small. And they look like nylon.

When I did my Constitution in 1974, the stays were all the larger size thread. The upper stays were medium. My  current instructions are copyrighted @ 1987, for the two kits I now have.

The threads were large, medium and small, per the instructions. I suppose that was "adequate".

Maybe Blue Jacket?

Any one have any ideas?

Hi Rick,

There are actually several different sizes of rope for the rigging of a ship at this scale if you intend to go truly custom as opposed to OOB, Syren is my absolute go to for rigging, (https://www.syrenshipmodelcompany.com/miniature-rope.php) as well as for riggingng blocks, just simply unmatched for quality. You might want to also consider purchasing Blue Jackets instructions for their wooden kit at this scale as they give not only an excellent breakdown of the various lines used but also the rigging blocks and tons of other useful guidance that will make the Revell kit stand out. Joitika (http://www.jotika-ltd.com/Pages/1024768/Fitting_SfitA.htm) is also another outstanding resource for upgrading your build, I purchased all my eyelets as well as my belaying pins in brass from them and was extremely pleased.

Dan

Buying the Blue Jacket book, drawings etc. is an excellent idea.

Ive done that with Revell’s America kit and I don’t Know what I would have done without it. 

Of course it makes me wish I had bought the BJ kit...

Thanks. Contacting Syren now

Thanks, peeking at BlueJacket and Syren and Jaikita.com. 

Dude,

I don't build ships, but this is one heck of an interesting build  You are doing a great job. I wish that there were more pics.

I remember building this kit when I was a kid. Everthing went okay until it was time to do the rigging. What a disaster that was. The masts got bent from overtightening the rigging. I never quite finished the model and the cat eventually put it out of its misery.

I am very interested in how you are going to do the rigging.

Those are all good suppliers.

Here's the thing. From any of those three, the rope will run you in the hundreds. If you want to do that, the blocks need to be upgraded as well. $$.

Please buy your rope in stages. See how that goes.

GMorrison

Those are all good suppliers.

Here's the thing. From any of those three, the rope will run you in the hundreds. If you want to do that, the blocks need to be upgraded as well. $$.

Please buy your rope in stages. See how that goes.

 

Even if you don't order the BJ plans, you can still go to there website and print a PDF breakdown of all the blocks and sizes needed, as well as and most importantly, the various size ropes needed, it is an excellent reference for when you reach the rigging stage.

Dan

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