Your boats are good, building houses we used to say, "Paint hides a lot of sins!" So does sanding.
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USS Constitution by Model Shipways. - First Build Log
Just started the rigging portion of the build with building the masts. First off, I had made a near fatal mistake when I realized I used the wrong size dowel for the Fore and Main masts. Thank God I had enough wooden dowels to fix this. This wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be either. The pictures show just the masts built up and not glue into the deck as there is more prep work to be done before that happens, so I tried my best to prop them up in the pictures so they don't look too lopsided. The lower,main, and top gallant masts are glued together. I also realized after the fact that I had painted the masts white top to bottom except black for the fids to simulate iron. In the practicum Bob painted only certain sections white and the rest in natural wood. I think I'm going to keep them as is. They look good either way, unless this is really what they look like and have some historical value to them. Shaving the dowels down to different sizes and section along the mast by hand was a little tough. I also snapped a few dowels as well and often. I knew they were delicate to work with, but they were a lot more delicate than I expected. Now, drilling a #75 hole in the tressletrees in the top gallant baffles me. According to the practicum, they are rigging points. How the hell am I supposed to fit thread in such a tiny, and I mean tiny hole like that? There's just no way...if the lines we're rigging are supposed to be taught, than I curious as to how many more pieces I can break along the way just rigging lines that look nice and tight??? Well, I guess we'll see how the spanker mast and bowsprit turns out, especially the bowsprit which looked somewhat complicated to build...I'll be relieved when I finally finish this ship. The fact that you get a box of wood with some laser cut parts to save time that you essentially have to build, cut, and carve by hand is not what I expected because that would be considered a combination of bashing and scratch building. I don't regret doing any of that, but I had no idea how much of it is really made by hand.
Building four ship's boats as you have done is going the extra mile! She carried a longboat, cutters, whaleboats, and a gig from what I could find. Which boats are these? I ask because it looks like they have flat bottoms and no keel so seemed unusual. There are detailed drawings on the Connie website of many things, including some of the boats that you and other folks might find useful. An example in pdf is below.
Modeler Resources - USS Constitution Museum
ussconstitutionmuseum.org
Allan you are correct. I have both rounded and flat. I kept some of the extra flatness for the small boats because I kept sanding holes into them and having to fill them back up. It still has the gigs, whaleboats, etc.
So, I've been carving out the yardarms, top and royal gallants and of course ot takes a little time by hand. Its funny the details and hardware that goes onto the yards and then realized after you paint it black, you can't really notice anything, so I found that somewhat amusing. There is one observation though that I'm unsure of and that's the studying sail booms. In Hunt's Practicum, he builds these outbonly for the Fore and Main Topsail and Topgallant only. I've noticed that I haven't seen these added to anyone's Conny...or maybe I've missed one somewhere in the logs. Do any of the scratch builders have thoughts on this? Personally, I just see them as extensions of the arm and nothing more...essentially wooden extension to the yards...even the box that my kit came does not show them. Am I missing something here? I will say I actually enjoyed making the bowsprit. At first I thought the instructions were intimidating, but came out pretty well...
I had a similar issue when rigging my guns. At my scale, the blocks for rigging the tackle are 2mm, with holes that are .015" (#79 drill). I developed a method using UV resin that works well. Many people will stiffen the end of a line with CA to make it easier to poke through a small hole. I find that adds thickness to the line making it even more difficult to get through a very small hole.
With my method, I wet the end of the line with UV resin. Squeeze off any excess with a paper towel. Before exposing to the UV light, I twist the line tightly. By twisting, it tightens up the thread actually decreasing the diaper. While tight, expose to the UV to harden the resin. Finally, I trim off the end with a sharp pair of scissors to give it a nice point. This gives the thread a nice stiff end that is much easier to fit through those tiny holes. Worked very well for me
I'm old and slow anyway...,lol
I am adding studding sail booms, and I know Mustafa is as well (Mtbedz1). Since the builds at the other site have vanished, I can't say if others have or have not added them.
Great, thanks for pointing that out. I did see Mustafa's when i went back thru the log last night. The practicum makes only some of them, so I'll add them. I'm having fun making hand string games with the rigging lines. Looks like a bunch of spaghetti hanging off the masts, but eventually will turn into something. I wonder how many builders actually seized every single line, lol...lot's of time spent trying to make it look right, lol...
Jon,
Once again, you are a Godsend. Dinner and drinks are on me should we ever be in the same neck of the woods at the same time.
Thank you for your selfless dedication.
Taking a page from your book, I will be copying everything I'll need to reference going forward to add to my growing database.
(it's quite inspirational and motivating having a slideshow of the photos in these builds play on the big screen TV at the shipyard.)
I cannot believe how impressed I am with the scratch and bashing builders...the talent is just amazing. Looking at xKen's and Mustafa's builds just gives me some great ideas on doing things differently whether its a technique or building something from a different perspective, etc. When they say make the ship your owe, its true...all details and key elements are all there and even with slight differences and nuances each build has or brings to the table, you definitely know and recognize it as the Constitution regardless.
Of course, I didn't pay attention and overlooked the fact that I needed to seize ten 3/32 deadeyes to the ends of the topmast shrouds, and making sure those were about 7/8 in. to the mast top. But then I realized that either Bob made a mistake, or the kit is short 3/32 deadeyes...so, I have 1/8 deadeyes that would work. Its about 15 short based on the supply list, but know I would have to order more because of the mast top that requires at least 10 deadeyes added on for each mast top. I know Bob tries hard to make sure everything is to scale, but I prefer at least 1/8 because the 3/32 are super tiny and when getting ready to lash them it's not going to be fun running the thread through microscopic holes and it's not like I have the steadiest hands, lol. Building this magnificent ship definitely tests one's patience and perhaps almost pushes someone over the edge . I'm surprised I made it this far for my first wooden ship not knowing how difficult it was until a few experienced builders told me about that. On top of carving, cutting, and sanding by hand which I had expected, it ends up you having to fabricate a lot of parts...way more than I expected. I guess I'm beginning to understand kit bashing or scratch build is the way to go. If the plans are written well, that's all you need. The scratch building in the forum are just amazing at using precision and details. Maybe I should have taken wood shop back in highschool which was popular in the 80s. The machine tools and skills I've seen totally blows me away. I'm carving out the wheel while the scratch builder calculated everything and viola...its done and perfect and an hour later In still sand it down with a stick so the shape is what its supposed to be . But, at the end of the day, it's all worth it.
Ha! This made me laugh. "I'm carving out the wheel while the scratch builder calculated everything and viola...its done and perfect"
Like you, I'm a first-time wooden ship model builder using the Hunt Practicum as my starting point. Unlike you, I did take Woodshop and machine shop in high school and follow that up with a apprenticing for my uncle as a tool and die maker (for a few years). Even with that background, I found myself sorely tested with the deficiency in the plans that came with the model shipways kit and the less than the hoped for thoroughness of the Practicum.
Nothing about this projects has yielded a voila, perfect, I'm done! moment.
And even so, if someone were to come up with a much improved version of The Constitution plans over the model shipwaste kit - in the same or larger scale, I would build from scratch in a heartbeat.
Hang in there. You're doing just fine.
PS. I too have been shorted a number of different materials in the MS kit. I have swapped out some of their components with aftermarket items, specifically blocks and dead eyes, from syren model ship company.
Like you, I'm a first-time wooden ship model builder using the Hunt Practicum as my starting point. Unlike you, I did take Woodshop and machine shop in high school and follow that up with a apprenticing for my uncle as a tool and die maker (for a few years). Even with that background, I found myself sorely tested with the deficiency in the plans that came with the model shipways kit and the less than the hoped for thoroughness of the Practicum.
Nothing about this projects has yielded a voila, perfect, I'm done! moment.
And even so, if someone were to come up with a much improved version of The Constitution plans over the model shipwaste kit - in the same or larger scale, I would build from scratch in a heartbeat.
Hang in there. You're doing just fine.
PS. I too have been shorted a number of different materials in the MS kit. I have swapped out some of their components with aftermarket items, specifically blocks and dead eyes, from syren model ship company.
Peter, As you have noted, my efforts have paid off and all it cost was a little extra time, patience...and a little editing. I delete any extraneous or irrelevant chit chat, correct some grammar and spelling to improve reading and although I incorporate the images into the MSWord document, they are cropped to show the point of the image if necessary or just to fit on the page. People have a tendency to have tunnel vision and don't pay attention to all the space outside the visual interest which is what I crop out. But, I also save the full images separately so I haven't lost anything.
In addition to that, I may take excerpts from the logs and add to to my "how to" folder by subject matter. If I do this as the I check various logs, it's just a little bit at a time so it's easy.
Jon
I totally agree with you. Bob seems to rush the Rigging practicum. It's hard to get his videos to work. And, I guess it makes aense somewhat because there is an expectation that you've built the first half, you should have learned or acquired some skills along the way. I would update the kit of course with the correct number of parts, but the scale part I think 1-2 sizes up or down because it not easy to pick up and only used once you've expended the size asked for. It probably would have been easier lashing the deadeyes and then seize the end to the shrouds. If the deadeyes were supposed to be 7/8 in. apart, I think its easier to adjust the shroud lines because the lashing is then fixed and guaranteed...Anyway, the practicum helps, but I noticed he skips over a bunch of tiny details that I see scratch builders are adding small features around the ship and masts.