Revell Constitution Build Log

Off to a really nice start with her Jayman.....Cheers mark

Nicely rendered OOB model crafting, jayman. Let me urge you to report back from your prolonged "shore leave" and show us how the project progressed. As I'm sure you have found, the more experience you gain, the more you improve.

Beautiful - another Constitutuion to follow !!

Interesting is your storage of the threads in the background. Smart idea !

Progress has been very slow. I am still working on the standing rigging. I do not like the appearance of my knots so I have been splicing and seizing where possible. I found out that I can do a false splice on line as small as .004".

So far, I am about half way through the shrouds on the port side of the fore mast.

I am sure that you could handle it. You could just do a simpler version w/ the glass beads. I found some really small crimping beads that I used on another model at Joann's in their jewelry making supply section. They're copper and you can squash them a little to get them to look more like a block as well as dunk them in blacken it if you wanted to instead of painting them. But it is your model after all is said and done. Keep up the good work. Looking forward to your next post.

Thank you arnie60 for your comments.

When I brought home this latest kit, I was ready to consign Revell's rigging thread to the scrap box. But, what a surprise. It was not half bad. So, I am using a combination of Revell and BJ and that is what is on my chart. There are different sizes for white and black and the Revell thick black is about .015 and BJ dosen't offer that size.

arnie60, you are in  a different league. I really admire your work. I was thinking of  doing the rigging on the carronades using 1/15 glass beads for the small blocks. But, I  think that would really be pushing my skill level.

Well Jayman, I have to say your progress is looking good. I couldn't help but notice your conversion chart in the background. Just an FYI, page 123 of your BJ manual has it all done for you. Like the way you lined up your cordage too. I just wish I had that much space to work in. [45'x 25"]

Shrouds are coming along nicely as well. Promises to be a fine piece of work by the time you have finished.

I am quite far behind you on mine. I am still working on the spar deck furniture and carronades. I decided I wanted to include the side tackle on the guns, and am beginning to regret it.

Mast allignment

Ships bell

Notch in mast so that it could be rotated forward

All of these should have been with previous post.

This should have been on my previous post.

Steps 25 & 26

Deadeyes and eyebolts.  I made up eyebolts out of twisted 12 gauge stranded electrical wire and substituted them for the plastic ones. The wire I am using here is made up of 19 strands of 25 gauge wire. 25 gauge is .0179 inches in diameter which would make it about 1.7 inches in scale. That may be a little large but they also must take the strain of the rigging lines.

I installed the channels and deadeyes. In installing the deadeyes, I clipped off the horizontal bar at the top of the deadeyes because I am going to use .030 rigging thread for the shrouds instead of the rat lines supplied with the kit.

Steps 27 - 30

I made up and fitted the bowsprit but I did not glue it in. A good thing. The tip of the bowsprit broke and I decided to make a new one.  This time, I put a wood dowel in the center of the bowsprit. I made up the jib boom and the flying jib boom from 1/8 wood dowel. In so doing, I followed the Blue Jacket specifications, which has the flying jib boom slightly longer than the kit.

Step 31

Anchor etc. installed.

Step 32

I did a trial fit of the masts. Look at how the masts rake forward instead of backward. That will require some work. I filed a notch in the mast where it went through the gun deck. This allowed the mast to rake back to the proper opposition.

Every ship has a bell.

My general plan is to build the model OOB with one major (and a few minor) exception. I plan to generally follow the Revell rigging plan but, in so doing, use scale rigging as provided in the Blue Jacket plan. (I too have purchased that valuable reference.) IMHO, the use of scale rigging is the one change that will give the greatest enhancement to the appearance of the model.

For instance, the Revell plan has the fore and main futtock shrouds attached at the channels whereas BJ has them inboard. I will follow the Revell plan but I will use the BJ .020 rigging line to represent the 6 inch line called for in the BJ plan.

However, there are times that the Revell plan will just not work and it will have to be changed. For instance, Revell has the jibboom guys tied off to the rail. That will not happen. BJ has them leading to the cathead and that is the plan I will use.

There are other times where both Revell and BJ agree but a change will still have to be made. An example would be when a line is tied off to a shroud or stay. I have not been successful in the past of doing this without pulling the shroud or stay out of alignment. In this case, I will look for something acceptable.

I will use the deadeyes and blocks provided in the kit. I got in to trouble in a previous build when I tried to rig deadeyes without having a good plan as to how to attach them to the channels. It was a mess. So I will avoid trouble by using the deadeyes in the kit.

I am going to try something to make the blocks look more realistic. I am going to snip off the molded strop and use rigging line tied in its place. I don't know if this will work, but I will give it a try.

I will use glass beads for thimbles instead of the blocks as called for in the Revell plan.

I recognize that my modeling skills are very limited. I am not in the same league as Force9 or Arnie60. I marvel at their accomplishments and imagination.  For my part, this build log may be as much what not to do as to what will work.

I plan to first make up and rig the lower masts first, working from bow to stern. Then do the topmast and then the top gallant. I intend to follow the Revell plan but will refer to Blue Jacket for line size.

The lower shrouds are installed on the fore mast. Following a suggestion in Blue Jacket, I will not seize them now and will leave the rat lines to be one of the last steps.

I have photos to post but I have not been able to copy them from photobucket. It is a most cumbersome process. You would think that they would make it easy but no, it requires a lot of editing and I have to leave soon.

GMorrison, your pin rail approach looks like it will work on the Cutty Sark too. I hope to build both!

You are moving along a whole lot faster than I am. Looking really good tho Jay.

I finally got Bluejacket to sell me their PE and I will be building the bow heads and rails from their kit pieces. I will also be placing netting rather than planking or canvas. I wanted the details up there not to be hidden. Waiting on parts to arrive.

And indirectly.....GM. what about pinning the rails w/ 3 or 4 short brass pins from the inside rather than drilling all the way through the hull? I would think using more than 2 pins would do the trick, but I have no experience in this, hence the question mark.

A word or three of warning, Jayman.

The pin rails themselves are very prone to popping off under tension. Putting those back on after rigging has made many a grown man break down like a baby.

It's time to take immediate and firm measures. A fairly easy but inaccurate fix is to drill and insert pins down through the rail into the deck. Glue firmly at each end and paint the little visible section bulwark color. Minimum two pins per rail.

The right way to do it is to drill from the exterior into the rail in a number of locations and glue in pins. You'll want to use steel as brass wire will bend.

Steps 10-11, The spar deck.

The belaying pins on the fore and main fife rails are very fragile and are not reliable for the securing of lines. I replaced the belaying pins with 1/4 inch brass belaying pins from Blue Jacket. I made up small twisted wire eyebolts to replace the large over scale eyebolts.

There is nothing easy here. I thought that all I would have to do is paint the boat cradles and drop them in place. Wrong. They all required additional fitting. And part number 59 is completely wrong. It does not fit the boat it supports. Part number 62 is a better fit. I had an extra one from my previous failed attempts.

Steps 12 - 16, The spar deck guns.

The gun barrels are painted Model Master gun metal acrylic. Is this a new color? The gun carriages are Testors flat red enamel. I could not find what I wanted so I settled on the flat red.

I used .040 diameter rigging thread for the breeching lines seized to the plastic eyebolts. I would seize the line to both eyeblots. Then I would wrap the line around the gun and hold it in place with a dap of CA glue. I would then glue the assembly to the deck and finally attach the eyebolts.

The .040 diameter  works out to about 12 inch in circumference, which is less than the 19 inch circumference cited by Blue Jacket. Asside from not being able to find any .060 rigging thread, I think that breeching lines of that size would over power the guns and not look very good.

I assembled the chase gun but I will not attach it unless and until I can figure out how to tie it down on a realistic manner. The Revell plan does not look good to me.

I installed the pin rails and added a couple of extra rails from my Constitution stash made up from my previous failed attempts.

Steps 17 - 21 The boats

It looks easy. A little paint and just glue the top to the bottom. Don't be deceived. Nothing is easy. There are fit problems with each boat. The brown is burnt sienna with Interlux interior satin varnish. The boats are lashed down but not glued in place because I am not really happy with them. I may build another set. After all, I have enough in my stash.

Steps 22 - 23 The bow head

This is another fit problem and it took a long time to complete.

I had to re-do the catheads. The Revell plan calls for 2 plastic eyebolts on each cathead. They are used for attaching 2 jib boom guys with two other guys tied off to the rail. The BJ (Blue Jacket) plan has all 4 guys attached to cathead. I will go with the BJ plan.

Instead of tying a deadeye assembly to the plastic eyebolt as called for in the Revell plan,  I twisted a piece of #16 wire on to the deadeye and inserted the end into a hole drilled in the cathead and sealed it with a dab of CA glue.

I built an X-Y table to use with my Dremel drill press. It worked out well helping to achieve an accuracy that would not be possible doing the job freehand. Still, it is a home-made device and can't achieve the results of a professional piece of equipment. And it was fun building the table.

Step 24 The cap rails.

Now it is a proven fact that Jay is clumsy. There is no way that this assembly would survive undamaged. The repair would be time consuming and it would probably not look very good. I am going to leave the rail for one of the last items.

Thanks Arnie,

I will check out your log. What makes these things warp? How did you take care of the problem? Hold that thought, I will look at your log first.

Thanks for the info on the rolling hitch.

Thanks David

It is going a little slow now but I may have something to post tomorrow.

You might want to check out my log "Right of passage". I had similar issues w/ the spar deck.

BTW I found that using a 'rolling' or 'clothesline' hitch works beautifully for clamping the way you did here. the knot allows you to keep cinching the loop tighter w/ out having to do the tourniquet thing you did here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taut-line_hitch

Good Stuff, Jay!  I like your template for placing the guns...very handy!

Thanks for the step-by-step...when I get to my Big Connie, I'll definitely refer to this thread!  Meanwhile, I'm enjoying your progress!

Step 6

The spar deck was badly warped, especially the center section. I reinforced it with a couple of strips of pine wood. Balsa wood would have been of little help. The pine helped but it did not take all of the warp out.

The rigging instructions call for tying a simulated dead eyes to a plastic ring bolts inserted in the deck. The ring bolts are fragile and prone to break and I plan to replace them where necessary with twisted stranded electrical wire. In this case, I used #10 stranded wire to wrap around the base of the dead eye and twisted it to form a tail. I inserted the tail through the deck and fastened it with CA glue after bending the tail so it could not pull out. I will use different sizes of wire depending on the required thickness of the eye.

Now there is the installation of the spar deck. There was still notable warpage of the spar deck, especially in the center section. The result was that the deck would rise above the water ways molded in the hull. I had to bring the deck down even with the hull.

I tried attaching tabs along the deck using scrap plastic strips. That helped but but there was a problem in that the deck was thicker than the mating surface on the hull. I build up the tabs using scrap 1/32 deck planking. Now it was too thick. I sanded the wood down to get the required fit.

I snaped the deck in place and could see that it would take quite a bit of pressure to have the deck mate up with the hull. So I used some .045 rigging thread inserted about every othe gun port to be tied off to apply tension to the process.

I used Testors plastic cement instead of CA because it would take longer to cure. And it was a good thing that I did that. The first time I tried to glue the deck in I could not get one section to fit and I had to take it apart, scrape off the glue and start all over. If I had used CA, I never would have been able to do that. I let it cure over night and, while it is not perfect, it is servicable.

Step 7

I attached the wheel before installing the deck. The wheel is glued in place and will not turn.

Step 8

Again there was a fit problem with the gallery stern. I first attached the gallery stern to the hull and then attached part 45 to the model.

Step 9

I did not install the eyebolts as instructed because I am going to assemble the guns frist, including the breeching tackle.

It is my hope that others will learn from my mistakes. If that is the case, then this should be very instructive as I have and will make many. It is also my hope that others will point out areas for improvement and the errors being made.

Step 5

I ended up using Testors enamel flat red for the gun carriages because I could not find anything in acrylic at my LHS. I used gun metal acrylic on the barrels.

I wanted the barrel to be in the center of the gun port so I made a tool to help with this. I would place the gun in the tool and run the gun out to its proper position.

Then, I removed the gun and scraped off the paint where the trucks (wheels) would go.

I applied a dab of CA glue on the four trucks and put them in position. It worked out OK.

I could not see using the line supplied with the kit for the breeching. So I drilled out holes for the ring bolts and made breeching tackle using .040 line. I seized the line to the ring bolts. Then I glued one end to the hull and put the breeching line around the cascabel. I secured that with a dab of CA and secured the other end to the hull.

This was partially successful. I should have secured the line around the cascabel before installing the gun in the ship. Oh well, next time. But I do have the cannonades to install. Also, I used the wrong size line. I don't know how I came up with that size. The 24 pounder had a breeching tackle of 9 inches in circumference. That would be about .030 in scale and I have some .027 line available.

(Measure once, cut twice. Measure twice, cut once.)

The covers were held in place with slide bolts and removed for battle. CDR Martin mentions this in his book. I could provide a reference if you would like.

Thank you David for your kind words.

The cups have amonia, window cleaner and water and are used for cleaning paint brushes. I mainly use acrylic paints and use them to keep my brushes clean. One rack has one of each and the other has one amonia, one water and 3 window cleaners. The cups are in every grocery store here and are sold mainly for Cuban coffee. One of those little cups equals about 4 regular cups.

Really they dismounted the port covers? I've not heard of that?

Step 3

The painting is rather conventional. There is a fit problem here. Make sure that the bulkheads will not interfere with the placement of the transome. I put a couple of figures in the cabin for the fun of it. The mate is trying to explain to the captain but he is not buying it.

Step 4 is ommited because gun port covers were shipped when the guns were run out. Thank heavens because half of those little things would end up being broken off before the model could be completed.

Transom looks good, Jay!  Tell me, what do you have in those little plastic paint cups lined up in your pic?

Step 2

Deck color has always been a problem for me. I tried a few variations on a scrap piece of plastic but I did not like them. So, when all else fails, follow instructions. The instructions called for tan. Well, tan it is. Model Masters acrylic tan. I'm not pleased with it, but it was the best I could come up with. The hatch coamings are white and the hatch gratings are painted with Model Masters leather. I like the leather color to simulate brown wood.

I joined the deck pieces together with a couple of strips of balsa. The only problem is that the aft piece is of a different thickness so I could not extend the balsa all the way aft. The deck was warped and the balsa helped to straighten it out.

I generally followed the instructions with the painting of the transome.

I did not rig the rudder to turn. I could care less about that.

I snapped but did not glue the deck in place.