U.S.S. CONSTITUTION, 1:82 SCALE, "OLD IRONSIDES"

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May 1, 2015
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774
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Location
Las Vegas, NV
This build is dedicated to Geoff Wilson Aussie48

Ahoy Shipmates,
I bought this model three years ago and never started because I was too afraid of making a mess of the planking. Now hear I am bashing this kit like, OK, what's next.
With the help of Capt. Mike41we intend to make this plank on bulkhead model a Plank on Frame memorial to a great Shipmate.
Enough sweet talk he Hardys, on with the build log.
box.jpg
USS Constitution was one of six frigates authorized for construction by an act of Congress in 1794. Joshua Humphreys designed them to be the Navy's capital ships. Larger and more heavily armed than the standard run of frigate, Constitution and her sisters were formidable opponents even for some ships of the line.

U.S.S. Constitution (Old Iron Sides)

Description
Three-masted, sailing wooden warship of the frigate class rated to carry 44 guns. One of the six frigates authorized in 1794 to form the new United States Navy.



General Characteristics
Primary Function:

USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world. Nicknamed Old Ironsides in the War of 1812, USS Constitution is interpreted today to the 1812 era.

Builder:

Col. George Claghorne, Edmund Hartt's Shipyard, Boston, MA

Date Deployed:
Launch Date: October 21, 1797; First Sail Date: July 22, 1798

Unit Cost:
$302,718 (1797 dollars).

Propulsion:
1812 Propulsion: 48 sails , over 44,000 square feet of sail, equal to over 1 acre of canvas

Length:

length overall 305 feet (93 meters); 207 feet (63.1 meters), billet head to taffrail; 175 feet at waterline (53.3 meters)

Height:
Main mast, from the spar (upper) deck to the top of the mast, is 172 feet (54.4 meters) today

Beam:

43.5 feet (13.3 meters)

Displacement:
1,900+ tons


Draft:

1812 Draft: 24 feet aft, when fully loaded (7.3 meters); Draft Today: 22.5 feet aft (6.9 meters)

Speed:

1812 Speed: 13+ knots (approx. 15 miles per hour, 24 km. per hour)

Crew:

1812 Crew: 450 including 55 Marines and 30 boys (1797); Crew Today: 3 officers, 85+ enlisted U.S. Navy men and women

Armament:

1812 Armament: Spar Deck: 24, 32-pound carronades, 4 - 8 man crew, range of fire approx. 400 yards;
1, 18-pound bow chaser; Gun Deck: 30, 24-pound long guns, 7-14 man crew, range of fire approx. 1,200 yards

Landing/Attack Craft:

1812 Boats: Used for transporting officers and crew between ship and shore for communication purposes, landing parties, transporting goods and services for the ship, and shore leave.
-36ft Launch (1)
-28ft whaleboat (2)
-27ft and 28ft cutters (4)
-Gig (1)

Homeport:

Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston National Historical Park

One of the things Geoff liked about SOS was the friendliness of the members of this club and of how everyone is ready to help if they can. I said at first I was stopping all my other projects and devoting all my time to "Connie" until she is finished. One project I was working on was a Gantry ship-way build system.
Capt Mike Shared his build system with the club a while back and I thought I would build one.

I went to Home Depot ready to pay for an 8 x 4 foot piece of Melamine board at $30 + per board. The friendly Salesman at Home Depot hooked me up with a piece that required one cut to fit my needs.
Armed with a piece of melamine board 48" x 20" I found a carpentry Shop that turned out to be a Carpentry School. They happily put the perfectly spaced router cuts 6 inches from center-line.

gantry.JPG

I then glued two T-tracks in and secured them with wood screws.


IMG_2159.JPG
IMG_2160.JPG
That's all I have for now. More to follow.IMG_2160.JPGbox.jpggantry.JPGIMG_2159.JPGIMG_2160.JPG
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi, Dave, Zolly and Uwe,
Thanks for visiting my build log. Yes Dave this is a Constructo kit. I just sent Mike41 a copy of all the bulkheads so he can draw the profile of the ship and draw the frames. I'm very excited to get started ship building.
 
I am doing a little design work for Stgmike on this build and will be posting changes and modifications to the drawing that came included in the kit.

Created new primary drawing Constitution-82, reference drawings are various scales editing file at printed drawing scale 1:1

Used photos of 10 bulkheads to generate a body plan only need to interpolate 33 more frames. Started the keel assembly 3/13/18 adding a few more joints to the stem/apron than the kit provided. The keel assembly and frames will be made from European Beech-wood. I will be posting design changes to the model as I finish the different sections.

The current plan is to replace the keel assembly, replace bulkheads with 43 frames, add partial framing for the gun deck and full framing for the main deck. We are trying to use as much material from the kit as possible for the rest of the build. I expect we will up grade some of the stuff as required.

Mike
 
Ahoy Shipmates,
A little progress to show. As I said in the past I am building a gantry from the plans that are in Tosti's book Naiad.

IMG_2161.JPG

I cut the pieces for the Sliding Gantry from European Beech Wood.

IMG_2162.JPG

I glued the pieces together with the intention of following that with wood screws. I got carried away with my drill and cracked one of the uprights so I scraped that idea.

This is post the repair job.

IMG_2163.JPG

More to follow.
 
Ahoy Shipmates,
The crew of my ship yard are back at work. They have finished the building board (Gantry) and it is now ready to lay the keel.
There are several attachments for the gantry but I will fabricate them as the need arises.


Capt Mike41 has also been hard a work helping with the bashing of this kit as chief architectural engineer. Mike sent me the plan for the first frame #4.
I printed the plan and cut out each part of the frame and glued it to a pre-milled piece of Beech Wood.IMG_2165.JPG

IMG_2166.JPG

These pieces were then cut with my band saw, and rough sanded with a spindle sander. I also received plan for frame #20.
IMG_2173.JPG
IMG_2175.JPG

using the same technique as I used on The BCSB I fabricated the first frame.

Frame -04 BH7.JPG
IMG_2170.JPG
and frame #20
IMG_2177.JPGIMG_2178.JPG

I learned a new technique for assembling the frames I hope to share that in my next installment.
The next installment will be about the keel.
Thanks for visiting my build log
 
Now the permanent works starts...... good progress.
I can see, that you leave meat on the futtocks etc. during your cutting with the saw,
And afterwards you trim most of the meat with your sander.
Are you using the this sander also for the joint area between futtocks close to each other, means the contact area?
Just realized on the first photo the book about the Naiad...... is this book worth the money? I think in the meantime there is also published the second part.....
 
Now the permanent works starts...... good progress.
I can see, that you leave meat on the futtocks etc. during your cutting with the saw,
And afterwards you trim most of the meat with your sander.
Are you using the this sander also for the joint area between futtocks close to each other, means the contact area?
Just realized on the first photo the book about the Naiad...... is this book worth the money? I think in the meantime there is also published the second part.....
Ahoy Cpt Uwe, Thank you for visiting my build log. Yes I used a disc sander onthe butting edges that dosn't appear to be working that well. Fortunately I came across a video on how to fit the futtocks together that I hope will be a profound improvement.
I think Tosti's book Naiad is well worth it and Vol II also.
 
Mike did an excellent job on the full and half frames. Using plan 1 drawing from Constructo I traced an outline for the keel and used illustrations from the book Old Ironsides by Thomas Gillmer established the height of the keel. The plan shows 10 bulkheads and using the dimension between the fore and aft bulkheads equally spaced the frames. Mike sent me photo copies of the bulkheads, I traced them using AutoCAD and verified the bulkhead top dimension with Mike. Using the bulkhead tracings and the keel plan I stacked the tracings for a body plan. I used the body plan to draw the firs two frames Mike has built and am working on the rest of the frames.
Any comments or suggestions are welcome, this is the most extreme modification I have made to a kit, also the most interesting.
Mike Keel Assembly.jpgPlan sheet 1.jpg
 
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