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.
 
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