Greif8

That is one good looking pony Nicola. The workmanship on the cockpit is top shelf. Ernest

Un travail remarquable! Great workmanship and attention to detail. I agree with Tome that the pilot figure is superb. Magnifique! Ernest

Superb build Dennis. I appreciate the history you wrote as well. Ernest

Very nice looking Hurricane Bonkin! Your weathering looks great! Ernest

Outstanding build in every respect Jim! I think you got the weathering just right and it makes the aircraft fool the eye for the real thing in the photos with a background. The background is very cool by the way. You also did a fine job painting the figure, it looks quite good. Ernest

Nicely built and very interesting - and little seen - paint scheme. I think it is wonderful! Ernest

Good looking Spitfire! Your macro photography is very sharp. Ernest

Very nice work BT! The P-51 looks great, as does the pilot and airfield base. Ernest

$225.00 is pretty steep; I have been interested in building a 1/32 Kate for sometime now and if the kit does not have any serious issues that make constructing it a massive chore I will have to think hard to plonk down the cash for it. Based on Brian's experienced comment though, it remains to be seen if the kit can be built without buzz killing issues. Ernest

Very small update today. I spent quite a bit of time cleaning up parts and doing several small sub-assemblies for the masts and bowsprit; not much of the work justifies boring people with photos though. These two pictures show the three rails for the fighting tops; the one for the mizzenmast fighting top has been cleaned up. The following picture shows the other two after a bunch of work. Many of the mast parts have flash and/or ejector pin marks so I spend a lot of time dealing with those. This is a more interesting photo. I have primed and airbrushed the lower masts, fighting tops and parts for the bowsprit. The fighting tops look to be a medium to dark brown in the paintings showing the fight between the Constitution and the Java. I opted for medium brown. THough I have sprayed the lower masts yellow ochre, they could just as well have been white, though they look more yellow ochre in the pictures I have looked at while researching the build. I am on firmer ground with the bowsprit as both the pictures and written documentation from the time period have the bowsprit and martingale (the two pronged part at the front of the bowsprit) white. Written documentation from the time period also confirms that the Jib Boom and Flying Jib Boom, as well as the masts above the lower portions, were left natural wood that was oiled to both lengthen their lifespan and to help show deterioration (how, I do not know). I sprayed the teo parts earth brown and oversparyed that color with tranparent yellow to simulate a faint oiled look. Here is a closer shot of the two parts. The Flying Jib Boom is the longer thinner piece and the Jib Boom the shorter, slightly thicker one. Pretty short update I know, but I did not want to bore you with a bunch of shots of parts before and after clean up. Ernest

IT LIVES!! After an extended time away from the build I am back at it. The large work project that has taken much of my time and energy is complete and my two son's interest in wargaming with me has waned a bit after a lot of playing over the last several months (which was a very nice interlude), I can now devote much more time to the build. I worked on the lower masts and bowsprit this past weekend and got the parts that I managed to work on during the fall installed on the hull. These parts have a great many ejection pin marks, both raised and indented, that had to be dealt with, and as most of you know this can be a time consuming task. It was probably due to the amount of time I have not been able to build for the last several months, but I actually enjoyed that job and found somewhat "zen like". At any rate, following are some photos of the progress. A shot of the lower foremast and its fighting top. As you can see, ejection pins marks abound; and it was the same story on the other two mast's fighting tops. I took care of them using a combination of punched disks and sanding. The lower masts had a few sink marks in a couple of spots and the usual seam lines to eridicate, but overall they did not represent any great problems to clean up. Photo of the starboard side channel with its molded chainplates, deadeyes and lines. I am satisfied with the painting I did on these, and think they blend well with the rest of the model. It is going to be a "fun" job threading the shroud lines through the upper deadeyes when the time comes but I think I can manage it. I practiced the task several times after the part had cured to the hull. Somewhat over exposed photo of the channels, deadeyes, etc. for the starboard main and mizzen masts. I have just dry fit the lower masts in this shot to see what adjustments will have to be made to get the right look for the rake of the masts. On the actual ship the foremast rake was not as visible as that of the main and mizzen masts, and the mizzenmast rake was the most pronounced of the three masts. I don't think I will have to adjust things much and I am glad I took the time to get the holes in the decks that the lower masts are inserted into aligned closely enough to avoid later problems. Captains could have the rake of the masts slightly altered when a ship was remasted to change the sailing characteristics and it is known that different captains of the Constitution did alter the rake of the masts during overhauls from time to time. Fore to aft view to check the sideways alignment, which is actually fairly good. The mizzenmast has a little play and I am going to have to put a small wedge in place to firm it up. The fore and mainmasts fit pretty tight and the alignment looks pretty close; only very minor adjustments will be required. That's a wrap for this update. I should be able to give pretty constant updates from here on out, with some short breaks from time to time to do some wargaming with my young men. I am glad to be back! Ernest

IT LIVES!! After an extended time away from the build I am back at it. The large work project that has taken much of my time and energy is complete and my two son's interest in wargaming with me has waned a bit after a lot of playing over the last several months (which was a very nice interlude), I can now devote much more time to the build. I worked on the lower masts and bowsprit this past weekend and got the parts that I managed to work on during the fall installed on the hull. These parts have a great many ejection pin marks, both raised and indented, that had to be dealt with, and as most of you know this can be a time consuming task. It was probably due to the amount of time I have not been able to build for the last several months, but I actually enjoyed that job and found somewhat "zen like". At any rate, following are some photos of the progress. A shot of the lower foremast and its fighting top. As you can see, ejection pins marks abound; and it was the same story on the other two mast's fighting tops. I took care of them using a combination of punched disks and sanding. The lower masts had a few sink marks in a couple of spots and the usual seam lines to eridicate, but overall they did not represent any great problems to clean up. Photo of the starboard side channel with its molded chainplates, deadeyes and lines. I am satisfied with the painting I did on these, and think they blend well with the rest of the model. It is going to be a "fun" job threading the shroud lines through the upper deadeyes when the time comes but I think I can manage it. I practiced the task several times after the part had cured to the hull. Somewhat over exposed photo of the channels, deadeyes, etc. for the starboard main and mizzen masts. I have just dry fit the lower masts in this shot to see what adjustments will have to be made to get the right look for the rake of the masts. On the actual ship the foremast rake was not as visible as that of the main and mizzen masts, and the mizzenmast rake was the most pronounced of the three masts. I don't think I will have to adjust things much and I am glad I took the time to get the holes in the decks that the lower masts are inserted into aligned closely enough to avoid later problems. Captains could have the rake of the masts slightly altered when a ship was remasted to change the sailing characteristics and it is known that different captains of the Constitution did alter the rake of the masts during overhauls from time to time. Fore to aft view to check the sideways alignment, which is actually fairly good. The mizzenmast has a little play and I am going to have to put a small wedge in place to firm it up. The fore and mainmasts fit pretty tight and the alignment looks pretty close; only very minor adjustments will be required. That's a wrap for this update. I should be able to give pretty constant updates from here on out, with some short breaks from time to time to do some wargaming with my young men. I am glad to be back! Ernest

I have visited Concorde F-BVFB at the Technical Museum Sinsheim which is just off the A6 Autobahn and near the town of Sinsheim. The aircraft is displayed on pylons about 30 meters off the ground with a covered walkway to it. You can go inside the aircraft and walk from the cockpit, that you can look into through a plexiglass partition, and back through the passenger area. There is a nice display in the museum that has the Rolls-Royce engines, and several other pieces of technology associated with the aircraft that are integrated into a display covering the Concorde's 50 year history. Pretty cool. Interestingly, the museum also has a Tupolev Tu-144 displayed next to the Concorde making for an interesting comparison. Ernest

Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF), still nothing to show, <sigh>. Work is interfering with bench time right now, so my build pace is very plodding, though the project I have been assigned to work on is fun in its own right. Rest assured that I am still plugging away on the build as time allows. Below will be TMI for many of you, so please feel free to ignore all of it! For those of you interested, I am currently researching and writing what in the military is called a "white paper". Though I have been retired from the U.S. Army for going on 5 years now, the work I currently do keeps me close to the military profession. I have been tasked to study what was known the 1914 Battle of the Ardennes and write a paper for review by the other historians that work in the same firm I do. The project will also include several Military Grid Reference System (MGRS) 1:50,000 map sections (in electronic form) made by the Army Map Service (AMS) between 1935-37, as these will show the battlefields close to how they looked in 1914. I will put graphics on the maps showing the course each of the battles took. I have spent a lot of time in various archives in both Germany and France over the past 6 weeks gathering primary source material and organizing it. Now I am at the writing stage of the project and anticipate the paper being 40-45 pages in length. After I am finished writing I will start work making the maps with graphics. When the entire project is complete, I will send it to my boss and the other historians for review. We will collectively make a decision whether to include what I am developing into our staff ride program. If approved for further development I will than spend 4-5 days on the ground where the battles took place finding locations that groups can be brought to so that a historian can explain what happened at a particulair phase of the battle for later discussion. This task is probably several months away if it is decided to move forward. I have selected four of the eight meeting engagements that occured on 22 August 1914 for development. For any of you that are interested in such things PM me and I will be happy to discuss which battles I picked and give you further details about them. Ernest

Hello friends, though I have not posted anything for a week, I have been working on the next step of the build. This is one of those phases that all of us know well; a lot of thinking about how do a decent job on a subject one is not overly knowledgable about. When I started this step I knew nothing about shrouds, chains, deadeyes and backstays that ignorance has really slowed things down while I got up to speed on the subject. My original plan was scuppered and I had to come up with another one, but I think I have it worked out now. Below are some shots of the progress with some comments. The starboard side parts. I ended up having to carefully scrape each of the lanyards (the ropes that run between the deadeyes) as everyone of them had some fine flash one both sides. I had previously cleaned up the chains (the parts at the bottom of each channel). Needless to say this took several bench sessions to accomplish and I am very happy that task is now receding in the build's rearview mirror! I took my time as there was a lot of opportunity to break something which I mostly avoided. In the end the parts turned out pretty decent. The deadeyes and sheer pole (the section just above the deadeyes) have two parts that are glued together. This leaves a join on the sheer pole that has to be filled. Below is one of the sections after the filler had dried and I sanded it smooth. The small openings are where the shrouds or backstays will be threaded through. A couple of the parts after I painted them black. You can't really see it well, but I managed to get all steps, gaps and join lines taken care of and all six parts look decent now. Detail painting underway, the first coat has been applied. I mixed colors to represent walnut for the deadeyes and hemp for the lanyards. I did not worry about trying to get a perfect match as both materials are natural and will vary in color somewhat as they weather. This step will take several bench sessions as there is a lot of paint work to do here. I think they will look good when finished though. Below is an example of how a shroud line will be run. I practiced this quite a bit as I will have to thread each of these line with the parts cemented on the ship. My wife watched me practicing and asked what I was doing. When I explained to her what the practice was for she grinned and said, "This sounds like one of those, Let's see how many bad words Ernest can say in one breath times!" Very cheeky my wife!! Photo of a page out of a book I bought that covers rigging. I want to do at least the end and middle seizing; I don't know if I can bring off the throat seizing at this scale. You can also see how the lanyard line is wrapped and threaded on the shroud line. I am still working out if I will be able to do this given that the deadeyes and lanyards are moulded plastic and I have to figure out a way to make an actual line look like it is integrated with the plastic one. Another photo from the book showing how the shrouds, deadeyes and ratlines should look as a whole. What I have not shown is the way the shroud lines are run, that will come later. Well that's where I am with the build and my plan of attack for this job. The backup plan is to use the kit shrouds/ratlines if it turns out I am not able to do a decent enough job making this assembly myself.

Hi Gary, if the wooden deadeyes were scaled more accurately I think I could have done it. And I just don't think the overscale deadeyes would have looked right. You are correct that it is a balance between getting the look you want and what can reasonably be done. Jep - thank you man! Ernest

Not much had happened at the bench since my last post. The more I looked at the 5mm deadeyes that are supposed to be for the shrouds and a couple of the backstays, the more I became convinced that they are oversized. This led me in search of - "what right looks like", and what a journey that has been. The bad news is that the deadeyes are indeed too big. The good news is twofold, first I can use some of the deadeyes for other rigging tasks as they are the correct size for those. The other part of the good news is that I have not mauled the kit parts to get them ready for the 5mm deadeyes and can use the parts with no issues. I could order some more 3.5mm deadeyes as those are very close to the correct size, but that would mean more time waiting for them; and of course more money spent on something that I can probably make look pretty good just using the kit parts. My plan of attack now is to install the kit parts that attach to the hull, but not the shrouds/ratlines that came with the kit. I think I can rig the shrouds and the ratlines to look decent, and hopefully better than the kit ones. I should be finished assembling the parts and attaching them to the hull this weekend and plan to start rigging the shrouds and backstays after the parts have cured. Stay tuned as this adventure continues! Ernest

Hi Mike, it makes me a bit dizzy to. As you will see in my next post I have had to go down somewhat of a rabbit hole to make sure I get this part of the build right. Hi Gary, you are more right on then you know! See my next post. Ernest

Hi friends, after a longer than expected pause, I am getting the build kick started. I have actually been at the bench for a few nights, but all that was spent either cleaning up parts or thinking through both how to integrate after-market stuff and the sequence to do that. Below are a few photos of where things stand, and I'll provide some commentary to go along with the photos to try and explain what I am doing during this phase of the build. I'll also be posting some more of the history of the USS Constitution in later threads as I have done earlier. The two photos below show the starboard side channels with the molded on deadeyes, chains and sheer poles. These parts (and their portside brothers) had a lot of flash and took a couple of nights to clean up. The deadeyes will be removed and replaced with some very nice walnut AM deadeyes. I plan to use the removed sections as guides to make sure I get the spacing right, though I have another plan if that does not work out. I will see if the sheer poles are salvagable to use. If they are not, I will make some out of Evergreen plastic. I plan to do the starboard side first and use the portside parts to help me angle the deadeyes correctly. Once I I have seperated the kit parts, I plan to clean up the joints and will then drill holes to insert the lower parts of the AM deadeyes. Before I do that though, I will have to paint the parts black. A few of the AM deadeyes with the AM photetch parts that are used for the deadeyes that will be inserted into the channel. I have test fitted one of the PE parts. The metal end will be glued into the slot that I will drill in the channel and than each one will be slightly bent inwards to the correct angle. Once all 48 of the lower deadeyes have been installed in the channels for the port and starboard channels, the channels will be glued in place on the hull. After the masts have been installed I will start rigging the shrouds and backstays. Shrouds are the lines that support the mast from the sides, and I am planning to rig them as they were on actual sailing ships. Most of the shrouds will then have ratlines threaded onto them, using several hundred half-hitch knots (looking forward to that - right!). Needless to say, this is all new modeling territory for me and I am trying not to cock it up, as our British friends would put it! So I am spending a lot more time sitting and thinking through how I want to approach each seperate sub-assembly than would be the case for say a WWI fighter. This final shot shows all the AM deadeye stuff. As you can see there are three sizes. Deadeyes are used in several different areas on the ship, for example around the bowsprit or on some of the forestays. This will all be a lot more work then using the kit parts and I am sure I am going to stumble in a couple of spots while I learn the right techniques for threading rigging and tensioning it, but I feel confident that I can bring it off in the end. I will be posrting pretty regular updates from here on out, but there is still a LONG way to go with this build. Hopefully you will enjoy the journey as much as I am. Ernest

Thank you guys! Gary and Mike - I felt a little crazy rigging the miniatures, but I had to admit they looked pretty nice when I finished them and I thought the rigging added to the overall look. My sons thought I was nuts as well, but they also thought the finished product(s) looked pretty sweet. Phil - thank you for the nice words. This is the Revell 1/96 injection molded kit. My dad and granddad were wooden ship modelers and they were very good at it. One of my goals with this build is to approach their level of craftsmanship. Jim - I mostly play hex and counter wargames, but as I said above I do dip my toe into miniatures with Post Captain, Federation Commander and Battletech. Do you play the the Flames of War WWII miniatures system? Ernest

Back at the bench (sort of)! Work on the big USS Constitution is still on hold, as I have been very happly surprised that both my sons 20 and 18 years of age have taken an interest in my other hobby - wargaming. I mostly play hex and counter type wargames, but I do enjoy and have a few miniature games, three of which my two young men have really gotten into. I have already builts a lot of minis over the years for two of the game systems - Battletech and Federation Commander, so we were able to jump into them right away. Battletech is a futuristic armor combat system set in the 31st century and Federation Commander is set in the Star Trek universe. I opted to concentrate on the Federation and Klingon Empire (classic sc-fi match up) and have quite a few miniature starships for both sides from frigates to battleships. The third game, Post Captain, is an Age of Sail game set in the time period 1760 - 1815. My sons convinced me to build several of the miniature kits that I have had in storage for years so that we could play the game, and that is what I have spent my bench time doing the past seven weeks. Below are a few photos of some of those minis. If any of you are interested I can snap some shots of the minis for Federation Commander and/or Battletech that I have made. Additionally, my older son finished his apprenticeship in the late spring this year and he has struck out on his own. My wife and I helped get him settled into his new apartment, which is about a 15-20 minute drive from our home. And until late last week the late summer early fall cycling weather was great and I put a ton of km's on the road bike. It looks like the boys are getting close to "full" on wargaming, and the weather is turning wet and colder (and the yearly time change is upon us which means less daylight for riding). I anticipate getting the Constitution build restarted late this month. Most of the "fleet" I have built for gaming with my sons. The ship in the right front foreground is none other then the USS Constitution. Behind her is a 38 gun British frigate. You can see just how much larger the big American 44 was than the standard British frigate. Behind them are some British and French 1st, 2nd and 3rd Rate Ships of the Line. "Squadron will form Line of Battle" The minis are pewter and brass. The hulls are complete on most of them (the transoms have to be mated with the rest of the hull on a few). The rigging is very thin gauge thread and I opted to rig all the ships with both standing and running rigging that can be done at this scale. I both airbrushed and hand painted the ships and the bases. A British squadron of a 1st, 2nd and two 3rd Rate Ships of the Line. I varied the shades of the sails and the hull painting to add interest while staying pretty close to how the ships probably looked in real life. British and French 74's "At Quarters" ready to engage. Both are at "Fighting Sail", this is very likely the configuration the big Constitution will be in. Close up of a British 74. Rigging these little ships was an interesting task to be sure. Due to the scale not all the rigging can be displayed, but I managed to do enough of it to capture the look I think. "Rule Britannia!" Ernest

Hi guys, thank you for the comments! I returned from vacation a couple of weeks ago but immediately got hammered with 3 short business trips in a row right after returning. I have also been teaching my oldest son how to play one of my favorite wargame series "La Bataille", which is a solid 10 on a 1-10 complexity scale. My evenings have been (enjoyably) spent with him at my gaming table. I think that we will probably spend the next couple of weeks playing and I will get the Constitution build restarted after we finish. I look forward to continuing the journey with all of you! Ernest

This will be the last update before I depart for 4 weeks of vacation. The build is transitioning from work on the hull, which is now complete to the start of work on the masts, bowsprit and standing rigging in the next phase. As this is a milestone in the build I think it is a good time to give a short overview of how the model got to this stage, with a few idle comments thrown in. Before that though I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to stop by and look at the progress, and for the many very kind and generous comments! I have had a lot of fun with the build thus far. Learning some new skills has been interesting and rewarding, and I have gotten some satisfaction in seeing some of those skills improve as the build has progressed. I don't want to sound sappy, but a great many fond memories have come to surface while working on the ship and those have certainly made this particulair project fairly meaningful for me. More than once I have listened to my dad's voice giving advice and instruction to my -then- 10 year old self as I worked alongside him when we built this ship together. I have given this kit my best efforts to build it to a high enough standard that my dad would give one of his -rightly- hard to come by compliments when it came to craftsmanship. How have I done thus far in that respect? I think my father would have given the build a fairly through apprasial, slowly nodded his head and quietly given me a "Well done." We will see if I can continue to (hopefully) impress his spirit during the next phase. So the hammock cranes have been populated with a total of 228 minature hammocks. One thing I am learning (perhaps re-learning) as I work on the Constitution is that there are A LOT of modelling tasks that require mass production of different sub-assemblies, with the goal of trying to get those parts to look alike but not identical. Believe it or not, I have actually enjoyed doing those things to meet that challenge. I will let all of you be the judge, along with dad, as to how well I have managed to do that. The below photos are not the best, as the lighting at my bench is not optimized for photography being far too stark, but I think you will get the gist of how the hammocks look in their cranes. I look forward to "seeing" all of you again when I return from vacation! Ernest

I made some progress making the hammocks. I did a fair amount of experimenting with different materials and methods until I found the one that I used to make the hammocks in the photos below. The material I used is a heavy duty type of shop towel. I have a lot of these that I use when maintaining bikes and the material turned out to be well suited for making hammocks at this scale. As you can see I first drew lines making rectangles 20mm x 15mm. Next I cut them out with a sharp pair of scissors ending up with a pile of miniature hammocks. The next step was to soak a piece in a 50/50 mix of water and white glue, squeeze it out and roll it lengthwise into a cylinder. I than folded it in half and super glued the two end together. After making the first batch of these I modified the method be adding some acrylic stain to the water/glue mix to tint it a canvas color. The "hammock" below is one of the first ones I made. The first batch waiting to be tinted a canvas color. And tinted. Hammocks in place in the Hammock Cranes. I will need to make circa 250 hammocks to fill all four cranes.

Thank you Mike! And thank you as well Gary, your recommendation to add a wash to the red on the boats was spot on! To answer your question, I do indeed mean the sleeping kind of hammocks. When the weather allowed the crew's hammocks would be stored in what were called "Hammock Cranes" so that they could air out. The were also stored in the cranes when I ship was preparing for battle as they provided some limited protection against splinters and musket balls. Ernest