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Build log Revell 1/96 Constitution...or, a ship that could have been around in the early 1800's.

I was thinking about the main hatchway on the spar deck. I don't want to block it off completely, and with the boats stacked the way they are, there is precious little visual access to the goings-on's downstairs, but I feel it still needs something. There is a build on-line of the 1/196 connie where he used grating to completely fill in the hatch. A good idea that looks pretty solid but blocks off more than I'd like. The other idea I'm playing with is cargo netting loosely drooped across the opening from hooks on the hatch's underside that would prevent a falling sailor from hitting the deck below. Perhaps in this case using something like onion bag or other webbed material with a slightly larger weave than the tulle I'll be using for the hammock stations. I don't recall seeing the cargo net idea before though I'm sure it's been done, and I think it would be a nice detail....
 
Here's a mockup of what I'm planning. Note the seam on the barrel and wheels still to be removed.. Funny thing about the guns and for that fact the hull halves....it appears he used rubber cement? When I split the hull and a few barrels for clean up, the adhesive was quite flexible and stretched apart. hmmm. Anyhow. Starting with the recoil rope, I'm sure it's not exactly to scale but it looks ok. It's white kite string. I used a Palomino Tan craft paint loosely applied by brush followed by a rub all over with my fingers. looks ok. The eye bolts were made from silver wire, sprayed black and given a coat of matte clear, the rope is closely bent around the eye and ca'd in place. The rope is about 3 times the length of the cannon barrel leaving me plenty to play with and hopefully can be placed to hide the barrel part of the swivel. Hooks and eyebolts will be black. The black primer showing thru adds a nice touch of shadow detail. I'm trying to add some color diversity in the ropes to keep the eye busy. Not shown is the double block and rope for resetting the gun to firing position.
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Comments and observations welcome.
 
This is the first gun deck install done at the bow where no one will see. A little rough but working out the order of assembly and technique like putting the rope around the cannon end before cementing the cannon in place, and perhaps giving myself a little extra rope. Good practice for when I do the upper deck. Note the hooks are still Palomino Brown.

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Comments and observations welcome.
 
A couple of shots of the jig used to make the holes for gundeck upper eyebolt positions for the recoil ropes, left empty as they will be installed as a unit, and lower eyebolt holes for the training/aiming rope hooks. No vacuuming or cleanup here lol! Fear not, all will be spic and span before the spar deck permanently seals this bit from view for the life of the model. This is all cumulative practice for the spar deck.

The jig (shown earlier) in position in a gun port on the left. The positioning of the drilled eyebolt holes is shown in the gunport on the right

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Below is the jig showing proper jig orientation.
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Comments and observations welcome
 
Time flies when.... oh well, an hour here, 20 mins there....it all works out. Got the guns done on the gun deck. I had tripped on a few different build logs on the internet and liked the approach of fully rigging the only truly rigged things on the gun deck that actually get seen, the 12 to 14 cannons under the main hatch in the spar deck. Why not. This after I had gone thru the process of 'new wave' rigging with fishing swivels to simulate the otherwise ropes used to aim the gun. I rigged the recoil ropes with craft painted kite string. Just the gun port lids and ropes, the anchor rope and the 6 sail lines for later and I can button her up with the spar deck.

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Comments and observations welcome.
 
Thank you for the observation HH. My initial intentions were to more or less hide the swivel barrels under coils of excess rope to pull off the illusion but decided it wasn't necessary in its shadowy gun deck locale. I'm not planning on swivels for the spar deck.
 
Getting time in here and there. Summer's about gone so I'll have more time. I'm in the process of adding the cannon rigging to the gun deck. I've decided to keep the rigging to the 12 cannons visible through the main hatch.
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Comments and observations welcome.
 
Good to have you back. I'm enjoying the build. Splendid craftsmanship so far!
 
Many thanks for the shout out Kilo.
I mentioned that cannon port covers were a go for me. Revell put the holes in the hull for the ropes to raise/lower them, but I cringe at the thought of the rope wearing a trench in the woodwork over time on the real deal. To that end, I used small ferrules for guides. I found these on Amazon a couple of years ago when I was building Tommy Ivo's Showboat --a 4 engine exhibition 4wd drag racer --. in 1/25 scale. Thanks to Ken Foran for help with the fuel system. All 32 injectors are ferrules
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and they came in a small plastic container. I bought them on amazon, under 10 bucks ca and over 900 pieces in a variety of sizes

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I drilled a hole of appropriate diameter in the original rope opening. The hole incidentally is made the size of the barrel of the ferrule as the tip is flared and will seat itself well against the hull side

and here's what it looks like before paint touchup.

CSfXK8R.jpeg

a bit of a blur but that's my iphone focusing on other things in the vicinity. Oh well. It's a detail that may or may not have existed back when, but its ok with me. I'll make ring bolts for the door covers and life should be good.

Comments and observations welcome.
 
Farmboy said:
Many thanks for the shout out Kilo.
I mentioned that cannon port covers were a go for me. Revell put the holes in the hull for the ropes to raise/lower them, but I cringe at the thought of the rope wearing a trench in the woodwork over time on the real deal. To that end, I used small ferrules for guides. I found these on Amazon a couple of years ago when I was building Tommy Ivo's Showboat --a 4 engine exhibition 4wd drag racer --. in 1/25 scale. Thanks to Ken Foran for help with the fuel system. All 32 injectors are ferrules
WESekCV.jpeg


and they came in a small plastic container. I bought them on amazon, under 10 bucks ca and over 900 pieces in a variety of sizes

LLHxoty.jpeg


I drilled a hole of appropriate diameter in the original rope opening. The hole incidentally is made the size of the barrel of the ferrule as the tip is flared and will seat itself well against the hull side

and here's what it looks like before paint touchup.

CSfXK8R.jpeg

a bit of a blur but that's my iphone focusing on other things in the vicinity. Oh well. It's a detail that may or may not have existed back when, but its ok with me. I'll make ring bolts for the door covers and life should be good.

Comments and observations welcome.
Click to expand...
Clever boy! It's always interesting to meet a fellow practitioner of what the late Shep Paine called "creative gizmology." the application of everyday items for modelling purposes.
 
this is hi mag from my phone so there's obviously a little dusting to do but here's a section of the finished rope ferrules.

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Comments and observations welcome
 
This is an example of how the cannon port lid will look. I'll wait until I install the channels (I think that's the word) installed so I can match the angle of the port lids under them to those with nothing above them. This is a mockup, the eyes will be trimmed to sit flush to the face of the port door.
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Comments and observations welcome.
 
I was test fitting the channels on the ship and a common problem I've seen on a lot of builds (including my own) has to do with the chainplates. I guess they're called that no matter how they're made. Anyway, on the Connie kit, separating the one-piece channels and chain plates from their sprues more often than not results in a chainplate or two being too short, hanging in the air, or cemented to the hull wherever it fits. I had initially planned to replace the ones on this kit with wire, solder, etc... but solving the problem with a simple mod personally seemed more rewarding and a whole lot less work!

The shot below is from the port side main mast. The 4 center chainplates are short.

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I marked the offending ones with a pen to eliminate confusion, as I trimmed the short ends square and didn't want to shorten the wrong ones.

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After squaring off the offending pieces, I cut off a short (but overly long) piece of rod to allow for trimming to final shape. I used a drop of good old Testors tube glue as it gives me ample working time and it's a good solid join. As you can see, there's plenty of room (and flash) to trim....even use filler if needed.

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Placed in position for the mockup shot, It looks like the mods will work out fine. Five more channel assemblies to go! I'm going to try to finish them all before posting a proper shot. Probably out of sequence when I do, but them's the breaks.

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Comments and observations welcome.
 
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