USS Constitution by Model Shipways. - First Build Log

[rturcic72]

Hey, rturic,
, I understand. I'm curious to see what happens next.

Cheers
Günther

I could do a couple things....1. I could sand it down to lighten it up and then apply a possible gray wash to offset it, 2. I can keep as is and put the rivets in the inner bulkheads and tape it off and paint to green, 3. I could paint it without treating it like a stain and skip the wiping, or 4. sand it down so I can get it as light as possible without going through the deck, lol...and

I didn`t stain the deck. I just varnished it. I am happy with the result.

Jack -
I think the varnish made it look great. I almost did the same thing, but for some reason the voice in my head said to go darker and maybe because in Bob's Practicum he went dark using the roofers brown and grimy black paints mixed and wiping it down and treating it like a stain. Because it looked really good being that dark, that's probably the catalyst for my decision. I think I'll do something tonight because I'm still waiting for the rivets to come in.

 

[rturcic72]

If I may give you some advice,
you have to decide whether you want to build it as it is currently on display, or whether you really want to build it for yourself.
But then you should also think that it's the most beautiful thing you've ever built and that's how it should look.

My personal approach would be to definitely sand down the deck to make it look clean. Then you have a new base and can decide whether to go lighter or darker and, above all, whether you want a nice, clean finish.....

Cheers
Günther

Thanks Gunther, I appreciate the advice...definitely gives me something to think about.

 

[rturcic72]

So, I finally decided to take some advice from the experienced folks, and glad that I did. I sanded everything down and then applied the earth brown, which was medium in color, not light, but not too dark. Then I applied a gray wash to it and that made a huge difference and pretty much exactly what I wanted. Then I sealed it with Minwax Polycrylic that was recommended in Hunt's Practicum. Together it brought out the definition of the deck with the weathered look as well. I am very pleased with how it turned out. Afterwards, I taped off the area and painted the interior bulkheads with green and now it looks even better. I did not take photos with the green touched up but will include them in the next batch. I decided to forego the rivets. I followed the directions and just had a difficult time getting them in. First, these rivets are super tiny. Second, after a while, my hands are not steady enough for manipulating something that tiny. Last night I started the main rails. I also had to order more planks 3/64 x 3/32 after running out, once again proof that the kit does not have enough wood for certain areas. Model Expo will send me a batch, and I also ordered some online because Model Expo can take up to a couple weeks and I don't want to wait that long, but at least I'll have extra. The wood should be here tomorrow, so in the meantime, I've been building the entire rail from the transom to the bow. The practicum skips over a lot in this section with the understanding that the modeler has enough knowledge and experience at this point to finish the rest on their own. I'm ok with this, if you can build the portion that is in the practicum, then you should be able to finish the rest of it. Otherwise, it's likely redundant anyway...

 

[rturcic72]

Oh, before I forget, I am reworking the hatch coamings. I originally stained them in a mahogany color, but I think it's too dark and too close to the color of the deck, so I will keep those light and varnish them. In most pictures they are all light and some have the tops light and the sides like a dark mahogany. Keeping them, light will better contrast the coamings and the deck.

 

[rturcic72]

As promised, the pics showing the deck being done and thr green bulkheads cleaned up. I'm happy with how it turned out. You can slap see I started the main rail and the prep work foe the extended bulkheads around the ship. My wood for the bulkheads comes in today after being delayed, so I did several steps ahead and only need to add the planks. After I fin8sh painting, then this chapter in the practicum will be complete...finally. OBTW, no one seems to sell square toothpicks anymore to meet the size prescribed in the practicum of 0.42. I ended up using my scraps and carving them out of the scraps. I mean it works...and just support for the planks going on top of the main rail and then the lips get popped off like the bulwarks earlier in the build.

 

[rturcic72]

Finally, I installed the rails. The wood size used for the main rail imo seems too narrow. This is an issue I've been seeing in my kit to the point that I've ordered wood online and the quality and amount seem much better. I don't know how often each kit is reviewed for updated or upgrades, but I think the wood really needs to be evaluated and updated. Anyway, I found a shortcut to the main rail and part of that is driven by the fact that the toothpicks used are not square. Many retailers have the standard round and if the square were 0.42 recommended for the rail in the practicum, I started trimming them down and then felt it was more of a pain to deal with. What I started to do was after installing the rail, I could edge glue two sets of planks, one painted black and the other green. I then trimmed them to the size needed and soaked some if they needed to be bent. I used a wood strip that was 1/32 x 3/32 and glued that instead in between each planks strip and then I would glue it in the center of the rail and that created the 1/32 lip on each side that you could actually see. This was way better than using toothpicks in between. So, I ended up cutting off the toothpicks and did it the new way and it met the 1/32 spacing prescribed by the practicum for each side of the rail.

 

[rturcic72]

I finally made it to planking the hull...well, until I realized how time consuming it really is, lol. I finished the wales and the gallery bottom blocks on the port side. It took several hours, more than I had anticipated. It was also a bit challenging because the size of the gallery blocks in the plans are slightly off, because the forward tip of the gallery starts at the 1/8 mark from the corner of the closest gunport...but nothing a filler couldn't fix. In fact, Bob had to do this as well that he noted in the practicum. I'll be continuing planking the hull the next few days before I send the next update. I did have to read the practicum like 7 times before I finally understood what Bob was saying about the planking. It was somewhat of an overkill, but this was one of the tougher areas to understand because he tended to jump back and forth between relationships for planking, the transom, and the gallery. Either way, once everything clicked, it wasn't boring because there's a lot of trimming and cutting the planks to meet the rules of planking and butting them and following the rules. I think I covered what I did...it seems like there's always something I find that I need to tweak or adjust.

 

[rturcic72]

The hull planking is coming along and I'm very satisfied with the gallery floor and the block underneath. As I'm glueing the planks, I would start sanding the other planks when the ones that were glued on are drying which I think just makes it easier and more efficient because I'm not a huge fan of sanding excessively at the very end. Doing it in chunks doesn't make it as painful.

Then, I realized something, actually a funny observation. Some of the experienced folks submitting their build logs really have some spectacular pictures showing every step, up close shots, etc. ...magazine quality shots. Sure, my pictures capture the before and after shots of each major section when following the practicum, but my pictures look nearly the same and in the same pattern...just simple overall shots, nothing fancy. I figure I explain in my narrative what is going on and the mistakes I made and how I adjusted to them with some type of solution is likely enough for anyone to get the idea of what is going on in the pictures, but again I find it funny that I'm shooting the same pictures but at different stages. Simplicity is good; maybe I should add some music and video to them for full effects, lol. My cat takes better selfies that I do...

 

[Namabiiru]

The hull planking is coming along and I'm very satisfied with the gallery floor and the block underneath. As I'm glueing the planks, I would start sanding the other planks when the ones that were glued on are drying which I think just makes it easier and more efficient because I'm not a huge fan of sanding excessively at the very end. Doing it in chunks doesn't make it as painful.

Then, I realized something, actually a funny observation. Some of the experienced folks submitting their build logs really have some spectacular pictures showing every step, up close shots, etc. ...magazine quality shots. Sure, my pictures capture the before and after shots of each major section when following the practicum, but my pictures look nearly the same and in the same pattern...just simple overall shots, nothing fancy. I figure I explain in my narrative what is going on and the mistakes I made and how I adjusted to them with some type of solution is likely enough for anyone to get the idea of what is going on in the pictures, but again I find it funny that I'm shooting the same pictures but at different stages. Simplicity is good; maybe I should add some music and video to them for full effects, lol. My cat takes better selfies that I do...

I do my build log pretty much the same way, so don’t feel alone in that regard

 

[rturcic72]

This is how far I've made it so far in planking the hull. After completing the wales on both sides, I started with the planking on the starboard side. I was sanding along the way while other planks were drying. While everything is smooth to the touch, it is an illusion in the light that you would think there are planks that are off, but really its mostly discoloration that makes it look like there is something wrong, lol. Having to taper planks at the bow and stern is the grueling part, especially with the stern having sharp turns. It does look messy, but I will fix that and clean up the stern area last. The practicum states this as well that the planks at the end of the stern were going to look messy and it was best to fix that last. The bow to me is also painful because it's not as easy to make it look nice because at least 15+ planks are 1/16, so while they bend up slightly indicates it is being done correctly. I already knew my bow filler block was sanded down a hair too much, so I've had to play around with the getting the plank into the rabbet and making that bend over the bow filler and bulkhead. Bob Hunt stated that there was no real need to soak the planks to bend from the bow, however; I have to disagree because I've had to bend pretty much all of the planks coming from the stem, otherwise my plank would break or crack each time. Anyway, this is definitely a very tedious and time-consuming task for the ship. As I go through this gauntlet, I became more satisfied as time progressed because it really started looking like a ship, plus being surprised that I made it this far, lol. I know I'm not the only one, but I am enjoying this new and humbling experience.

 

[rturcic72]

Continued with the starboard side hull planking. Very slow indeed with really measuring and bending planks at the bow and stern that took up the most time because of lost of trimming and sanding down the planks to fit properly.

 

[rturcic72]

I'm not overly concerned over areas that I've already painted because it's easy to repaint those areas. Once I finished the starboard side hull planks, I sanded everything down well and then added filler to fill in any tiny cracks or gaps. Ì didn't notice any uneveness across the hull which surprised me and everything appeared to feel nice and smoothsure I could pull this off being so new to assembling a model wooden ship, especially the Conny after the fact several experienced folks told me I picked one of the most challenging ships to build which I was completely unaware re of because I failed to do more adequate research. However, at this point, I've come to the realization that I do not regret my decision and pleasantly surprised that I'm still moving along in my journey and enjoying what the forum and comraderie has to offer.

 

[rturcic72]

I cleaned everything thing up and sealed it with polycrylic real well and I must say, it looks way better than I expected with the planks I guess you can say in the right direction and pattern. The polycrylic makes it pop out nice with a very clean look, so it's no longer ugly as it once was, especially when I compare it to a scratch builder that makes everything pristine. I'm definitely very happy with it and move on to the port side. Once that is sealed then I'll repaint what was already painted and the paint the rest of the hull. I'm waiting for my copper plated to come in as well, so in the meantime, they should be in this week just as I'm finishing the hull.

 

[Namabiiru]

I cleaned everything thing up and sealed it with polycrylic real well and I must say, it looks way better than I expected with the planks I guess you can say in the right direction and pattern. The polycrylic makes it pop out nice with a very clean look, so it's no longer ugly as it once was, especially when I compare it to a scratch builder that makes everything pristine. I'm definitely very happy with it and move on to the port side. Once that is sealed then I'll repaint what was already painted and the paint the rest of the hull. I'm waiting for my copper plated to come in as well, so in the meantime, they should be in this week just as I'm finishing the hull.

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Your hull looks great. Very clean job of planking!

 

[rturcic72]

Your hull looks great. Very clean job of planking!

Thanks! I was very surprised after the sanding and sealing that it didn't look like a worn-out broken toy, lol... It took about 5 days, at least 4 hours a day and that's just one side. I had about 36 rows and some change, but I also had some minor anomalies towards the end where the current planks were too thick and I used the thinner 1/8 planks, the same ones used for the transom, and that worked perfectly in one or two small areas near the bottom of the hull.

 

[rturcic72]

I finally finished planking the hull and definitely a test of patience and will. Did some minor wood fill and sanded everything down. Anything painted black alreaĥdy like the transom, but this is ok, it will be repainted anyway while I'm painting the rest of the hull. Again as before, I'm more than satisfied that it turned out better than expeced considering it was tougher than
M
NH



in I thought including super gluing my digits more times than I probably wanted. So, the polycrylic is drying and I'll paint the hull afterwards before starting the next chapter in the practicum.

 

[rturcic72]

Finally got into some painting of the hull. About 3 coats after sealing with the polycrylic. I got to the port and starboard galleries which are somewhat of a nightmare. So, there are two choices based on the practicum, use the laser cut windows provided in the kit or build your window frames from polystyrene strips from a recommend list and purchase them. For one thing, wood working at this level when the parts you are creating are so tiny that it can take an eternity when using that magnifying glass to try to glue everything together....that was not fun. The reason also for.those two choices is the fact that for many folks, work at the transom seem to differ for everyone because there is measurement difference and the plans and the manual say or show two different versions of the gallery. But really, everyone is going to add a filler to the gallery because it's off technically by 1/8 of an inch, everything I had to do at this point is tweak everything to make the gallery presentable. My biggest issue right now is that I used the windows in the kit and it went well for the port side. The starboard side is another story. Two of my windows broke, essentially disintegrated because the wood is extremely thin. Because I'm waiting for the styrene strips to coming I took so extremely thin wood stock somwthing like 1/32 x 1/32 and attempted to build out the frames of rht windows so that looked uniform. Only one kit window was OK for the starboard side, however I need to fix this and get all windows to be the same. The other issue I have is that the paint is not particularly the greatest for somwthing this tiny. Finding a white paint that would make the frames pop would be great. The next couple pictures shows how the port side looks decent and the starboard side looks demented because it's a mix of thicker frames versus thinner from thr kit on one sid
e and I definitely need to fix it.

 

[rturcic72]

Yep, here are the unident8cal galleries, lol. The polystyrene strips should make this better once I glue them correctly and make the measurements match.

 

[rturcic72]

Ok, so I finally fixed the gallery windows on both port and starboard sides. The polystyrene strips dod their magic as the practicum indicated. I am relieved now...

 

[rturcic72]

Finally finished the transom ornamentation painfully. Still getting used to working with very tiny pats with very tiny details. It's definitely not impossible, but time consuming if you haven't done is before. Now I'm going to do battle with the bow and stem ornamentation with the fancy cheek knees and rails...looking forward to re-reading the practicum as the pictures to me are not clear enough and have to read ahead to understand what it is supposed to look like. I'll have to go through the forums to see what others have done, or if they provide enough detail for me to fully understand.