USS Constellation - 1797

Good Evening fellow modelers! It's time for an update on my mostly scratchbuilt 1797 Constellation. Planking is finished! I'm a sports nut, and there are soooo many distractions that kept me from doing one row of planking at a time. Here are a few pictures of the finished planking job. I will say upfront that the hull will be coppered and painted, so you see some filler "splotches" that are indeed smooth.
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An update so soon! I used the kit provided base to make a temporary cradle for the hull while I make a waterline. Using my blown-up plans from Chapelle, I figured out the distance of the waterline to be 18mm below the low point of the gun deck around frame #4 of the plans (1:85ish scale). Below is my waterline tool, which is a 3/4" thick piece of wood supporting a 3/4" x 3/4" block. I ordered a garbage can hinge from AMZN and wood screwed it to the square block. The hinge is really stiff and will not move as you move the tool around the hull. I zip-tied a 0.5mm mechanical pencil to the long hinge end and, viola! There's my waterline marker. Photos below...
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I have finished coppering the hull. It took about 2 weeks. I'm pretty satisfied with the result, although I would choose to use a different product next time. I got this from EBay:

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I started at the sternpost of the keel and worked my way fore and up, overlaying about 0.5 to 1.0mm. I found it was best to work for half an hour, then get up and stretch the back.

Here's the finished product:
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Next, I will work on the bow, figuring out how the bowsprit mast fits into the fore. From the Chapelle plans, it looks like there is a forward bitt, in between which the spritmast keyholes....

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Here is what I'm working with in terms of the bulwarks:

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I'll have to figure out the angle that the sprit mast emerges from the spar deck but it looks like I'll be drilling a hole through the peak of the bows to accommodate the mast.
 
hello...I have also started to build the US Constellation Frigate 1797 Artesania Latina and I even have a journal about it... but the only problem is that the plans are not detailed enough... the pictures are black and white so they cannot be distinguished... some parts do not have part numbers... how can I get more detailed plans...
 
KAYA61 said:
hello...I have also started to build the US Constellation Frigate 1797 Artesania Latina and I even have a journal about it... but the only problem is that the plans are not detailed enough... the pictures are black and white so they cannot be distinguished... some parts do not have part numbers... how can I get more detailed plans...
Click to expand...
Hello Kaya - just to be clear, are you scratch building the 1797 version? Or are you building the AL kit version, which I actually from 1852. Two different ships, and I am scratch building the 1797 version using some of the AL kit parts. If you are building the 1852 version, I cannot be of much help. The newer version is in Baltimore and there may be pictures available. Best of luck!!

Jaybird
 
thank you... not from scratch... i bought the kit from artesiena latina... it says 1797 on it. but as far as i learned, it is actually said to be the 1852 version... i tried to research the differences between them but i couldn't find much information...
 
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