• Beginning at 5:00AM PST (13:00 UTC) on Friday February 14th, all services in the Los Angeles, California, USA Data Center will be offline to perform a Data Center Migration. Due to the nature of this migration, we anticipate up to 24 hours of downtime to safely complete this work. Please be patient during this time and thank you for being a valuable member of our community.

Constructo 1799 Enterprise help

Bending Planks

Per the instructions “glue on the first planking strip”

How does one get the plank to fit a curve?

Look in the “how to books”, check “videos on the internet”?

Another “jig”. A two foot piece of PVC pipe sealed at the bottom with a plug and with a removable plug to seal the other end.
I Used the main deck cutout as a template to get the curve of the hull. Then transferred the curve to some 1 X 4 pieces.

12A9D2E8-71BF-42F4-992A-476FCA414B3B.jpeg4C63CAE9-1561-4FE6-8FAD-BCDC43FEC6F3.jpeg2CD7FB81-F56A-4278-82A4-C0DECCE5EE21.jpegEA564569-A1A6-4EC1-8D84-A3911FF60F45.jpeg

Step 1) fill the PVC pipe with hot water, add a small amount of Amonia. Leave it overnight.

Step 2) clamp the planks to template form and leave overnight.

Step 3) ready to mount on hull.

I did six planks at a time, since that’s all my template form would hold.
 
Last edited:
Ahoy Mr. Pathfinder,
I also struggle with planking, but one book that helped me tremendously is "Planking Techniques for Model Ship Builders" by Donald Dressel. This book is available on amazon for a reasonable price.
I hope this helps.
 
Hi Mike,

I do have that book. I also have "Ship Modeling Simplified" by Frank Mastini. Both those books have been a great help. I've also spent time searching the Internet.

I think I've made a few errors so far, but have managed to correct them.

It's a been a great learning experience so far.

Pathfinder
 
Books like the mentioned are helping, also Internet, Foren like ours also. At the end after some try and error every modeler have to find his way, how to do some of these work. After some ships everybody will find his/her preference, some techniques are working for you, some not.
Errors are necessary to improve. And every day we learn something new... thanks for sharing your experience
 
The keel, stem and stern post:

A minor error. “Measure and trim”.
I made a template from the plan to use as a reference for measurements.
I had no trouble fastening and gluing the stem and stern post.
BUT, I made an error measuring the keel. I scaled the dimensions off the template I had made, I cut the 4 X 4mm piece at 345mm. It should have been cut at 355mm. I noticed my error before I cut the false keel to the proper length. Fortunately I had only used a couple 18mm nails to mount the stern post.

4105CD51-3B1C-406A-A6C2-A56DA7A4607E.jpeg
 
The Keel Vise/Holder:

I am at the point of needing a method to hold the hull.

Searching the internet and leafing through the “how to” books I have, I found many variations of “Keel Vise/Holders”.

My solution.

08280389-7E08-42E2-A800-796E9573D45B.jpeg0EFAF39E-2742-4FDD-8762-1EFD0EA08536.jpeg4BAB4D82-0520-447C-A787-484F28E2F9D1.jpeg


One piece of L bracket trim is fastened to a section of the 1 X 4. The other piece of L bracket is held in place by the clamps.
 
Last edited:
GUN PORTS:

I’m waiting for a shipment of parts before I start the 2nd planking.

Looking at the plans I’ve not been able figure out how to transfer the gun port locations and dimensions to the hull.

My thought process is to use the cardboard template I made earlier, cover it with wax paper and trace the dimensions and location of the gun ports. Then tape the wax paper to the hull and use a #11 blade to scribe the gun ports into the planking.

E963CEEC-13A3-4EF9-ADF7-507A28A9854D.jpeg

This is the only part of the build that is worrisome.
 
Very interesting method of transferring the layout - I like it.
 
Mike & Donnie,

The “templates” I’ve made help. There aren’t enough references in the instruction manual for a lot of the build steps.

I copy the plan part I’m interested in, glue it to a piece of card stock and cut it out.

I think these will help as I build.

DCE7BCF1-3079-43C4-A7DE-E0F0DAFFBD37.jpeg887A85CD-9920-486B-B5E0-F54B5B9CCB96.jpegB91DC42E-68AB-48A2-9193-79016DD98CB8.jpeg

I used the deck template to spot the mast holes and capstan position
 
Last edited:
It is everytime good to have a permanent place for the modeling. And your teddies can help whenever necessary
 
Bill,

Yes, I have been on YouTube looking at model ship building videos. I’ve searched and found some for this model of the Enterprise. I’ve also searched the internet and downloaded photos of builds of the US Enterprise 1799 version.
I’ve studied photos of those builds and the various stages and compared my effort to those. As I’ve progressed I’ve noticed parts that I would do differently. Some of the terminology was unfamiliar and some of build steps seemed odd. My lack of experience with this type of modeling is also a factor. But I’ve learned that by asking questions, finding source material and TRIAL & ERROR Thatit can be done.
(That is after the OMG moment of opening the kit on the first day)
 
More Research:

I discovered this website http://shipmodelersassociation.org/includes/showArticlesByLetter.html?letter=full, looking for more information on the 1799 Enterprise.

I did the cannon/carronade build following the pictorial instructions supplied in the kit. Looking at the information on the above website I found that my lack of experience modeling this kind of warship stands out.

65DD6920-3159-46AE-9F8C-36D78FCE0A2B.jpeg



18A8B7B6-5310-48A6-8BFC-F4CF08BED563.jpeg


A small error but I think it’s correctable. There are only 14 carronades47CAF1DC-4556-4BEA-836B-9DF03C0975E9.jpeg9058FC69-2FB2-4B8E-903D-CF5AF3C8E4C6.jpeg

A fix for later in the build. I’m finding that each step of the build needs a little research before it’s started.
 
Last edited:
It is nice to have a place to build to keep everything in order. I like your nice and clean shop.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top