To Constitution and beyond ...

[dafi]

Until now, the bottleneck in rigging the guns were the blocks: There were almost no small ones, and if there were, they were often difficult in appearance or quality.

Recently, I have test rigged my smallest self-printed blocks times and noticed that fine thin and steady surgeon hands are needed, including good visual reinforcements And I realized that suddenly I am the bottleneck ...

Here the measure of things was the thinnest rope I needed in 1:100, 0.2 mm diameter. Something for the filigran ones among us

Now the pragmatist in me came out again. According to the old literature I need for the guns in 1:100 / 1:98 the diameter off 0,3- 0,4 mm for the ropes for the lanjards of the side- and back tackles. The 0.4 mm rope is also a common thickness for Gondesen and other suppliers in the aftermarket. So a block combination on this rope thickness is required, and also a good method in which this is done quickly and with good visual results.

It has cost me a few attempts, meanwhile I have found the right variant for myself.

First a normal classical knot to tie the hook in ...

... then the whole thing tightened to the back, in order to make the hook sit well in the middle ...

... spreading the ends again and ...

... put the block of choice ready.

Then clamped the hook between my fingers, used a toothpick to make a drop of super glue in the middle on the knot of the hook and centered the block on it.

Don't let go of the hook now, but detached it would look like this.

This is just the positioning guide to superglue the groove on the side with the toothpick on one side and pull the rope well over it.

Do not grab the glued area, but pull on the free end. This works quite well without the whole thing forming an inseparable bond with the builder.
Then glue the groove on the other side, pull the rope over it accordingly and make sure that the pull is even and the hook hangs centrally over the block.

Then glue the bottom of the block with the toothpick and pull the ends against each other, cut off the excess diagonally, and press the two slanted ends against each other with tweezers or pliers, securing again with glue if necessary.

And then you already have it in your hand, the rigged double block

If you want you can strop the bridge between hook block a little bit, but I noticed that it doesn't help that much, so I made it easy for myself here.

By the way, here is my first attempt, you can still see it somehow crooked, and the one after that, you can see, practice makes perfect ;-)

With the single block it is the same, thread hook on the rope, knot, pull back, spread, hook between the fingers, glue in the middle, block on it to secure, glue the side and pull rope over it, glue the other side and pull over it, and now the difference, on the bottom a knot and secured with glue.

Then the free end stropped up, glued and cut tight ...

... and the pair of block is ready

And the other two pairs came together quite quickly, so I soon had a set of three ready for my gun setup.

And as I said, no other tools or jigs were needed than a toothpick as a super glue applicator, I only used a pair of self-clamping tweezers on my bench vice to srop on the free end of the single block.

All the best, DAniel

 

[Uwek]

Hallo Daniel,

amazing small and amazing good

Many Thanks for showing us

 

[europapete]

Awesome Dan, a nice simple way of doing this. Well done.

 

[Uwek]

Welcome to the Jungle!

Attentive observers had already discovered the hull of the USS Constitution in my shrubbery for some time.

But who now expects a FITZCARALDOOOO downhill is wrong for the time being, it actually goes on in a civilised way

The kit has been lying around for quite a while, as it is really great in many aspects, such as the hull, but in others it does not fully meet its own claims, especially with regard to the guns.

What could be more obvious than to choose these guns after the purchase of a new printer and to program them in a contemporary correct way. The results were promising ...

... and with a little colour quite convincing ...

... especially compared to the originals from the kit

Grandpa, what big fingers you have

Hallo my friend Daniel alias @dafi
we wish you all the BEST and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY

 

[Jimsky]

Happy Birthday, Daniel!

 

[kirill4]

Oh!!! Daniel!
Happy ,Happy Birthday, Wish You All The Best!!!

 

[europapete]

Happy Birthday Dan! Regards, Pete in RI

 

[dafi]

Thank you all

Very appreciated!

XXXDAn

 

[shota70]

Happy Birthday, Daniel! wish you all the best and happiness!
Working with such a scale is already challenging, you are doing a great job rigging the cannons. well done

 

[dafi]

Thank you all!

In between all the X-Mess preparations, I actually managed to get down to business again

Status:

First it was about taking the measurements.

That means at the back the blocks must not overlap ...

... and the front position determines the length of the lanyard

And always the anxious question about the side rigging. After the shot in the retracted position and enough rope for 3 to 5 men to pull, yes there is quite a bit of rope left when the piece is run out again.

But if no one pulls the ropes, it isd mostely displayed directly as running into coils lying on the deck. That has two flaws: First, so the gun can move by itself and slide inward. In addition, the rope is shown mostly in a stretched position that would never be able to run smoothly into the coils, as it obeys gravity that pulls it.

So if no sailor is at hand and secures the free ends, the rope should be secured to the gun, the tackle or the ship's side. On my Vic I had made a half hitch around the aft end of the side tackles, Boudriot shows the "amarage simple" around the cascable. The first attempt went wrong, as at Boudriot there was no splice over the cascable as the breechline goes through the gun carriage, and there it worked well. After some research I found a reference, where the lanyard was led under the eye splice of the breech.

So the free end around the cascable, some turns as required ...

as

... and the rest as a bunch neatly arranged on one of the hooks.

So everything should be neatly tidied up and secured.

XXXDAn

 

[dafi]

And seen from deck´s height it would look like this ...

... scnr ;-)

XXXDAn

 

[Uwek]

your ship is moving on the waves ...... nice idea with the gimmick
and very good work

 

[dafi]

In addition to the figurehead of the Victory, I also made some progress with the battle station of the Constitution. First attached the eyebolts for the carronade's gun rig.

To determine the length of the tackles I again documented the different positions.

In the last two pictures, it can be seen that the hooks for the tackles are too close to each other to work effectively because the angle is too tight. That's why two more eyebolts are needed further out.

While this position is technically possible, I think it is a special case that can be well achieved with handspikes if needed.

To tie the breechline, I built a small rigging aid. Hammered in two nails spaced at width of the eyebolts and fixed the carronade in maximum aft position. Then tied the two rope eyes, nice and tight around the nails.

After tying the eye, just pulled them out over the top of the nail, bent the rings up from the eyebolts on the bulwark, removed them, slid them through the eye of the rope, bent them closed again a bit, and reattached them to the bulwark in the eyebolt.

Looks like this then

XXXDAn

 

[shota70]

Dear Dafi
wonderful work on the figurehead of the Victory, it's looks beautiful, well done my dear friend

 

[dafi]

Thank you Shota! Also the others for the likes

Then attached the hammock cranes with the netting.

Mounted the white net in the cardboard frame and first primed it with white and then colored it slightly brown.

Then inserted two strips of paper as a convenient insertion aid and inserted the net with a wooden core.

Then on the outside, fixed the net with super glue at points, widened the core so that the net fits well on the inside of the holders, and also fixed the back side of the net at points. Then removed the core, glued the net well to the top rope and trimmed everything well with the pointed scissors.

After that, some more trimming was done and next comes the hammocks.

XXXDAn

 

[Will @ Trilogy]

beautiful work. Simply magnificent but being new to the site I have a few questions so here goes:
1) who are you?
2) A modeler or/and a manufacture of parts
3} USS Constitution scale?
4} What kit?
And I'm sure I'll have more questions as I follow along.

 

[dafi]

Hello Will,

1 - simply a dafi
2 - I am a modeller in first place. That is why I like to research and try out. If stuff prooves to be good, i sell the parts too.
3 + 4 - This small trial is preparation for the Revell Conny 1:98

All the best, Daniel

 

[dafi]

The dimensions of the hammocks are well known. The diameter of the rolled sausage also can be seen in contemporary drawings. Even if they were sometimes thicker, because blankets were still rolled in, I choose the thinner version without additional content. Contemporary sources show 7 to 9 laces. Some say like the 7 oceans, on Bray's sketches you can see the variant with 9.

The mats were rolled of Fimo, the laces rolled in by means of a special comb. Since the holders are very low, I first tried the straight variant.

I found the bent variant better, as it is also historically documented in many cases.

After that, a bit of 50 shades of beige , plus some ink for shadows and depth and the lacing in the visible area represented with thin yarn and it all fits so far for me.

XXXDAn

 

[Uwek]

The bent variant is looking much better
I like your new "miniature" very much
Hope to see it also in real during our event in May

 

[Will @ Trilogy]

Thank you Dafi. I too like the bent hammocks for their shape and density that would help defend against flying wood.