USS Constitution Tribute Build

[TomcatKirby]

17 hours ago, LSP_Ron said:

HTH!

Thank you!  I may have inherited that from my father... to the stash!

[Greif8]

On 7/9/2023 at 2:36 AM, Uncarina said:

Go Ernest Go! I hadn’t realized Old Ironsides was so colorful.

 

Cheers,  Tom

 

On 7/10/2023 at 12:49 AM, LSP_Ron said:

Your doing a really nice job here.  If you want to attempt making your own ratlines I can send you info on how these are done.

 

On 7/10/2023 at 8:00 AM, MikeMaben said:

Lookin' good Ernie, nice organizing , I'd have lost half those parts into the twilight zone by now.

 

On 7/10/2023 at 3:17 PM, TomcatKirby said:

This is stunning work and inspiring me to get mine out!  A lot of GREAT work here, Ernie.

LSP_Ron I would love to see the ratline information.

 

 

23 hours ago, Alain Gadbois said:

Stunning build! 
This plastic kit is turning into a real beauty!

 

Alain

 

Thank you everyone for the compliments, you are all most kind!

 

Ron, thank you for the details concerning rigging the shrouds and making the ratlines, it is most helpful.  I do not plan to use the kit supplied shrouds and ratlines and I will be starting working on those tasks soon after I return from the short business trip I am currently on.  I will be working with the deadeyes first and I need to test if my plan for fixing the lower deadeye to the kit part upon which the kit deadeyes attach to.  I have a plan that I think will work but we shall see if theory works when out to the test!

 

Ernest

[Greif8]

Returned from my business trip last night and got in some bench time today, most of which was spent cleaning up parts and getting them ready to be painted.  I did finish securing the boats in their positions amidships on the waist beams.  As I said in a previous post I do not have any spare deadeyes to simulate one of the ways lines securing a boat would have been made tight.  A much less common way to do that was to use a single sheave block, and I do have a few of those spare.  Following is what I did.

 

First I made two seperate lines for each point to be secured using a hook at one end of each of those lines, and a stropped block at the end of the shorter line.  Below is a photo of one of the shorter lines.  The block has been stropped using a Reef Knot on one end so that the line is centered on the block.  The other end has a hook seized onto the line inside a small loop that simulates a becket.  I did not photograph the longer line as it just consists of a hook fixed to one end in the same manner as the shorter line; the other end of the line was left free.

 

Below is a somewhat overexposed photo with the oars reflecting badly due to the flash.  You can see that the boats have been secured by running the hook at the end of the lines through an eyelet; the longer line was than run through and doubled back in the block and then wrapped around itself to keep it from twisting free.  Though I could done a better job getting the fixing points aligned with each other better, I think this looks better then just tying off a single line on an eyelet at each end as the kit instructions call for.

 

The photo shows the Skiff nested in one of the larger Cutters.  It is secured using the same method as the other boats.  The "ropes" you can see alongside the boat in the picture simulates what is called a Rope Fender.  One of the uses of these things was to a cushion between the sides of the two boats to keep movement to a minimum thereby protecting both boats from damage and undue wear.  I made them by cutting three 15 cm lengths of spare breeching line, placing them together and braiding the lines.  The braided line was than doubled, twisted and cut to length to give a look somewhat close to a real rope fender; the pieces being fixed in place with diluted white glue.

  

This final photo shows how I tied off and wrapped the ends of the lines to fix them in place.

 

[Gazzas]

The lines look brilliant and add a lot to the scene.  Landlubbers like myself won't know that it's not legit.

[jeroen_R90S]

That looks really impressive! And,yes, I'm a landlubber too!

[Oldbaldguy]

Rope fenders!  Anybody besides me remember old school harbor tugs with gigantic bulbous rope fenders on the bow?  Are they even a thing any more?

[Greif8]

On 7/14/2023 at 11:47 PM, Gazzas said:

The lines look brilliant and add a lot to the scene.  Landlubbers like myself won't know that it's not legit.

 

On 7/16/2023 at 10:34 PM, jeroen_R90S said:

That looks really impressive! And,yes, I'm a landlubber too!

 

On 7/17/2023 at 12:52 AM, Oldbaldguy said:

Rope fenders!  Anybody besides me remember old school harbor tugs with gigantic bulbous rope fenders on the bow?  Are they even a thing any more?

 

Thank you guys!  

 

Ernest

[Greif8]

I have not posted an update for a bit over a week, though I have been plugging away on the build.  Most of what I have been doing is not worth taking pictures of as I am doing some trial and error stuff.  Also I couple of other things having been soaking up some of time lately; as we all know summer normally means less bench time and that has been the case for me the past couple of weeks.  However, I am just about finished with the hull and will very soon be working on the masts, bowsprit and beginning some of the standing rigging.  Below is where the build stands right now.

 

The cranes in the ship´s waist and the hammock cranes running along the tops of the bulwarks are done.  This turned out to be some very fiddly work as the parts are quite fragile and had to be handled very carefully while being worked on.  The end result turned out decently, but I admit this part of the build was stress inducing and I am glad I am finished with it!  Most of the "trial and error" I have been doing is figuring out how to make hammocks, as the ship is "At Quarters" and the hammocks would have been stowed in the hammock cranes.  After testing some different materials I think I have found one that will work; more on that in a later post.

 

Gaz (Gary) recommended that I do a wash on the ship´s boats to bring out some of the details.  An excellent recommendation as the boats look much better now.  Not only do the highlights and shadows show up nicely, but the wash toned down the red which was a little too bright. Thank you Gary!

 

[MikeMaben]

Wow , looking great Ernie  ...

 

Ahaaar ... Who's a landlubber then ...

[Gazzas]

It really looks awesome, Ernest.  I'd swear you could throw up the masts and call it done.   I have so little understanding of hammock racks and such.  When you say hammocks, are these the sleeping kind, or some nautical jargon for something else?  I had always figured the ones for sleeping would be below decks.

[Greif8]

On 7/23/2023 at 5:02 AM, MikeMaben said:

Wow , looking great Ernie  ...

 

Ahaaar ... Who's a landlubber then ...

 

On 7/23/2023 at 10:04 AM, Gazzas said:

It really looks awesome, Ernest.  I'd swear you could throw up the masts and call it done.   I have so little understanding of hammock racks and such.  When you say hammocks, are these the sleeping kind, or some nautical jargon for something else?  I had always figured the ones for sleeping would be below decks.

 

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

[Greif8]

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.  

 

Edited July 25, 2023 by Greif8

[Gazzas]

Thank you for the info about hammock cranes.  Honestly, drying them out was something that never even occurred to me.  Or using them for splinter protection, even.  They look irregular enough to be totally believable.  So much to learn about sailing and warring during this era.  I'm much more acquainted with muskets and pipe clay.

[Greif8]

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

Edited July 29, 2023 by Greif8

[denders]

Looking mighty fine, Ernest. Enjoy your vacation time.