WIP: 1:96 USS Constitution
- Thread starter Chrome
- Start date
If only school would have focussed on the cool stuff! ;D I'm glad we're entertaining.
Uuuuuuuuuuuuupdate time!
My router has gone haywire so my internet access is pretty limited for the time being but I guess that mainly means less distractions and more ship building. Sadly it means less looking for reference material as well.
The weekend has been a bit busy so the visible progress isn't enormous but there's been quite a bit of work nonetheless. The weekend began with painting the details on the bow and the cabin details on the stern with Astronomican grey and painting the gun port edges with the same red used in the window frames, Mechrite Red. I'm deliberately using muted colours due to a slight plan forming in the back of my head, time will tell if it reaches full maturity but there's a big chance that it will, I'm liking it more and more.
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After that I masked the wood area of the hull next to the copper to avoid the next layer of copper to spill out over it while being applied. This was to represent the edge of the copper are that spends more time above the water line than below.
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And this was nothing more than once again applying a layer of Hashut Copper, following the already set line of copper plates on the hull.
My router has gone haywire so my internet access is pretty limited for the time being but I guess that mainly means less distractions and more ship building. Sadly it means less looking for reference material as well.
The weekend has been a bit busy so the visible progress isn't enormous but there's been quite a bit of work nonetheless. The weekend began with painting the details on the bow and the cabin details on the stern with Astronomican grey and painting the gun port edges with the same red used in the window frames, Mechrite Red. I'm deliberately using muted colours due to a slight plan forming in the back of my head, time will tell if it reaches full maturity but there's a big chance that it will, I'm liking it more and more.
View attachment 15573
View attachment 15574
After that I masked the wood area of the hull next to the copper to avoid the next layer of copper to spill out over it while being applied. This was to represent the edge of the copper are that spends more time above the water line than below.
View attachment 15575
View attachment 15576
And this was nothing more than once again applying a layer of Hashut Copper, following the already set line of copper plates on the hull.
Got these delivered yesterday. Suffice to say, the place smells heavenly right now.
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Blackadder
Active member
Okay I looked at this image, logged out looked at it again later, and now a third time and I'm still rather clueless as to what you are showing? My best guess is the foot of a sail. If so I made a complete suite of sails for my wood model out of varnished "man sized tissue" paper and off white thread and flat floss. I don't want to hijack your thread with images from my own model but I can offer some if you are interested.
The exceedingly circumspect Blacksparrow
The exceedingly circumspect Blacksparrow
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You're very welcome to post pictures, I'm not in a state to do so atm, seems to have caught something that's interfering with my stomach and it's giving me headaches and the shakes. No painting done for the moment.
Those sheets are beeswax.
I'm gonna use it to cover the rigging lines to make them keep their shape longer and to keep some of the dust away.
Blackadder
Active member
It's an old ship modeling technique to wax the rigging to keep it from slackening in humidity but I was unfamiliar with bee's wax in that form. Usually (meaning, 'once upon a time' that is the thread was drawn through a block of wax.
BTW I did a google search and found this on a German shipmodelbuilding forum:
http://www.wettringer-modellbauforum.de/forum/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=24803&pageNo=3&4f1f2e7e
the thread was drawn through a block of wax.BTW I did a google search and found this on a German shipmodelbuilding forum:
http://www.wettringer-modellbauforum.de/forum/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=24803&pageNo=3&4f1f2e7e
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It's an old ship modeling technique to wax the rigging to keep it from slackening in humidity but I was unfamiliar with bee's wax in that form. Usually (meaning, 'once upon a time' that is
That's exactly the technique I'm going to be using, I just got the wax in sheet form, it's in a block now.
(I got the wax from a friend whose mother keeps a bee's farm and she had a few sheets lying about.)
Blackadder
Active member
This is the commonly accepted stern elevation of the original Constitution stern. verified by my 1924 edition of Shipmodelbuilders assistant.
Therefore the quarter gallery window lites on the 96 scale Revell model are suspect to say the least.
Just to make it clear I stopped my erroneous pursuit of the definitive Constitution model until I thoroughly researched the subject.
Therefore the quarter gallery window lites on the 96 scale Revell model are suspect to say the least.
Just to make it clear I stopped my erroneous pursuit of the definitive Constitution model until I thoroughly researched the subject.
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Once again it has come to this... Update time!
Research has been done, decisions based on vaguely empirical research have been made and so has some slight progress.
I started out with experimenting with water effects to make windows:
I'm quite pleased with the result so I'll be incorporating that into the build instead of the tacky strip of plastic. This'll hide the details inside which is a bit of a minus but then again it'll add a bit more realism to the build as a whole and I've decided that that feels more important in the end.
The backing links got a bit of colour, Boltgun Metal and after that a sepia wash using Seraphim Sepia to tone down the metallic look, give it a slightly aged feel and generally tie them to the appearance of the hull.
After some closer studies of Corné's paintings I changed the stern paintjob slightly, I removed the red areas around the windows and went over a few more areas with Astronomican Grey which also got a sepia wash to add depth and shadows. highlights will come later.
The rest of the captain's cabin got the same treatment but with added red around the windows.
And lastly the gun deck has gotten a layer of Tausept Ochre and a drybrush of Scorched Brown. I'm not going to try to fix the seams on this deck since it won't be visible when I'm done with my plans, I'm leaving that kind of work for the upper decks when needed.
And now it's time to get ready for work. But it's less than five hours this shift so I'll soon be back home with my precious again.
See you on the other side!
Research has been done, decisions based on vaguely empirical research have been made and so has some slight progress.
I started out with experimenting with water effects to make windows:
I'm quite pleased with the result so I'll be incorporating that into the build instead of the tacky strip of plastic. This'll hide the details inside which is a bit of a minus but then again it'll add a bit more realism to the build as a whole and I've decided that that feels more important in the end.
The backing links got a bit of colour, Boltgun Metal and after that a sepia wash using Seraphim Sepia to tone down the metallic look, give it a slightly aged feel and generally tie them to the appearance of the hull.
After some closer studies of Corné's paintings I changed the stern paintjob slightly, I removed the red areas around the windows and went over a few more areas with Astronomican Grey which also got a sepia wash to add depth and shadows. highlights will come later.
The rest of the captain's cabin got the same treatment but with added red around the windows.
And lastly the gun deck has gotten a layer of Tausept Ochre and a drybrush of Scorched Brown. I'm not going to try to fix the seams on this deck since it won't be visible when I'm done with my plans, I'm leaving that kind of work for the upper decks when needed.
And now it's time to get ready for work. But it's less than five hours this shift so I'll soon be back home with my precious again.
See you on the other side!
This Saturday morning has been everything it should be. Wonderful weather and I'm in that slow but still productive mood, just the perfect combo to just sit down with a nice drink, some music, curtains open and build away.
And the result this far this morning is this:
Sadly I got in a flow so I forgot to record the various paints I used when doing the paintings but the walls are a base of Scorched brown drybrushed with Graveyard Earth as I have made my standard for dark wood on this build, with the addition of a drybrush of Tausept Ochre on the elaborate border along the ceiling.
Now, this won't exactly be visible when the windows are done and the cabin is closed so you can call it a recreational intermission if you want, unless your intention is to show the insides of the cabin this won't be necessary.
But it was great fun and I'll add a bit more detail to the cabin just because I can.
And the result this far this morning is this:
Sadly I got in a flow so I forgot to record the various paints I used when doing the paintings but the walls are a base of Scorched brown drybrushed with Graveyard Earth as I have made my standard for dark wood on this build, with the addition of a drybrush of Tausept Ochre on the elaborate border along the ceiling.
Now, this won't exactly be visible when the windows are done and the cabin is closed so you can call it a recreational intermission if you want, unless your intention is to show the insides of the cabin this won't be necessary.
But it was great fun and I'll add a bit more detail to the cabin just because I can.
SkelettetS
New member
nice!
as for the window, i think water effect is really overkill. better to just use like for example blister plastic and cut suitable squaret and glue on.
any battle damage planned? blowtorch? ;D
as for the window, i think water effect is really overkill. better to just use like for example blister plastic and cut suitable squaret and glue on.
any battle damage planned? blowtorch? ;D
nice!
as for the window, i think water effect is really overkill. better to just use like for example blister plastic and cut suitable squaret and glue on.
any battle damage planned? blowtorch? ;D
Overkill or not, it gave an awesome effect! I'm going to cover those details in my next update, I just have to assemble these 55 three-part cannons first...
The time has come... This morning I sat down with the wall of the cabin, you saw the result and to celebrate the fact that it is(was, it's past midnight here now) saturday, I sat down on my bum all day long, just working on different details.
I just might have to get me something to eat soon... But first things first! Update time!
I gave all the windows the water effects treatment yesterday and today I reaped the results. I'm more than satisfied with the stern-most windows, though the ones on the sides were a bit disappointing, still, not bad enough to redo.
Going to go over with a few more dabs of paint before I'm completely satisfied though.
Then I took the bold step of drilling a few holes in the deck to attach a LED, sadly the only ones I had with the right colour were 5mm ones and it looks really huge so I had to hide it instead of painting it like a lantern and putting it on the table like my first idea was.
And I attached a quick coupling to the LED on the bottom of the hull piece to make sure I didn't accidentally melt something while soldering, that would be slightly frustrating.
Then to the part that took most of my time today, tedious, tedious work. But accompanied with a movie for entertainment I cut off, cleaned and assembled the 96 pieces that formed the main Oomph of this beauty.
And that concludes the update for today!
Please feel free to comment and critique.
I just might have to get me something to eat soon... But first things first! Update time!
I gave all the windows the water effects treatment yesterday and today I reaped the results. I'm more than satisfied with the stern-most windows, though the ones on the sides were a bit disappointing, still, not bad enough to redo.
Going to go over with a few more dabs of paint before I'm completely satisfied though.
Then I took the bold step of drilling a few holes in the deck to attach a LED, sadly the only ones I had with the right colour were 5mm ones and it looks really huge so I had to hide it instead of painting it like a lantern and putting it on the table like my first idea was.
And I attached a quick coupling to the LED on the bottom of the hull piece to make sure I didn't accidentally melt something while soldering, that would be slightly frustrating.
Then to the part that took most of my time today, tedious, tedious work. But accompanied with a movie for entertainment I cut off, cleaned and assembled the 96 pieces that formed the main Oomph of this beauty.
And that concludes the update for today!
Please feel free to comment and critique.
That'd be something! Mmm, puddle of goo...
No battle damage planned, I did have an idea about making a scene where she's battling the Guerriere but I couldn't find any models of that ship in the same scale(or at all, mind you), that would have been really awesome.
SkelettetS
New member
the windows actually turned out great, forget my earlier post.
as for the the cannons, big "aaaaargh". it hurts just to look at them lol. i salute your dedication!
as for the the cannons, big "aaaaargh". it hurts just to look at them lol. i salute your dedication!
And that's only the first 30 of them, got a whole deck of them left.the windows actually turned out great, forget my earlier post.
as for the the cannons, big "aaaaargh". it hurts just to look at them lol. i salute your dedication!
what I'm really looking forward to is the rigging. Got around 100m of string that'll cover her when I'm done. Updates.
I have to start with apologising for the severe lack of updates lately, it started with having a heavy schedule at work so I didn't find the will to update and continued with me managing to break my keyboard at the absolutely worst part of the month making me unable to do anything productive with the computer for a while. And of course, right after that I got one hell of a cold and spent the coming days in bed feeling sorry for myself. But I haven't been completely inactive, even though my speed dropped quite severely during this period I did manage to get a little bit done and it's high time I shared it with you guys.
I left you with having made the windows and some interiors for the cabin;
my next step was to tie the ropes to the rudder, a fairly simple step but it deserves to be documented.
And then it was time to thread through the eyebolts and I quickly realised that the eyebolts that came with the kit were everything but adequate. So, I needed to make my own. For this I needed some steel wire, a pair of tongs and something to loop the thread around. The last part proved to be a challenge so I decided to sacrifice a cheap pair of tongs I had lying about and using some needle files I created a tool perfect for my needs.
With this newfound friend I managed to create eyebolts as close to perfect I'm able to come with 0.8mm steel wire.
The cables I attached to the LED needed somewhere discreet to get outside the ship so the drill bit got to see a bit of action and all of a sudden I had a not so seaworthy ship.
With that done and eyebolts attached to the bottom of the underside of the first deck it was time to thread the eyebolts and let the cable run outside the ship before attaching the deck pieces to the hull.
After having read a few other threads about the same build and with the same theme I'm going for I noticed that most covered and removed the front ports in order to make them fifteen per side and not sixteen which is standard on the kit. So, I decided that I can't be any worse than that myself. I started with using the gun port lids as covers and glued them shut inside out(to not have to care about removing the extra detail on them).
I carved away the protruding parts of the port lid to create a nice and relatively even bend of the hull.
I then continued to fill the seams with Liquid Greenstuff (It's a green, plastic, air-hardening filler for those of you who don't recognise the name)
And then I sanded everything down using a steel brush on my Dremel to get a slight hint of a wood grain imitation(I have no idea why I took a picture of this side here and not the same as in the other pics)
And the result after having removed the ports and painted over the work
Next up was to glue the cannons in place and then add the ropes holding them in place when recoiling from firing.
I did this by first adding one of my home made eyebolts to the bulk head and tying a rope to the eyebolt which I then continued to loop around the back of the cannon and then loop around a pin on the hull, sealing it on the pin with a dab of glue and then continuing like that on every cannon, making sure the rope has a slight droop between the cannon and the wall.
I then tied the spare studding sail yards to the deck using the four eyebolts seen in the previous picture and I also filled the seams between the deck pieces with filler.
When the filler was dry it was sanded and painted over. it didn't quite remove the visibility of the seams but it got better at least.
And then it was time to glue the gun port lids in place.
Following that I made thirty short lengths of rope and tied a small knot at the end of each and pulled them through the holes in the lids.
The threads were then each pulled through a hole in the hull and secured with a bead of glue on the inside.
And this concludes the rather lengthy update this time
Cheers mates!
I have to start with apologising for the severe lack of updates lately, it started with having a heavy schedule at work so I didn't find the will to update and continued with me managing to break my keyboard at the absolutely worst part of the month making me unable to do anything productive with the computer for a while. And of course, right after that I got one hell of a cold and spent the coming days in bed feeling sorry for myself. But I haven't been completely inactive, even though my speed dropped quite severely during this period I did manage to get a little bit done and it's high time I shared it with you guys.
I left you with having made the windows and some interiors for the cabin;
my next step was to tie the ropes to the rudder, a fairly simple step but it deserves to be documented.
And then it was time to thread through the eyebolts and I quickly realised that the eyebolts that came with the kit were everything but adequate. So, I needed to make my own. For this I needed some steel wire, a pair of tongs and something to loop the thread around. The last part proved to be a challenge so I decided to sacrifice a cheap pair of tongs I had lying about and using some needle files I created a tool perfect for my needs.
With this newfound friend I managed to create eyebolts as close to perfect I'm able to come with 0.8mm steel wire.
The cables I attached to the LED needed somewhere discreet to get outside the ship so the drill bit got to see a bit of action and all of a sudden I had a not so seaworthy ship.
With that done and eyebolts attached to the bottom of the underside of the first deck it was time to thread the eyebolts and let the cable run outside the ship before attaching the deck pieces to the hull.
After having read a few other threads about the same build and with the same theme I'm going for I noticed that most covered and removed the front ports in order to make them fifteen per side and not sixteen which is standard on the kit. So, I decided that I can't be any worse than that myself. I started with using the gun port lids as covers and glued them shut inside out(to not have to care about removing the extra detail on them).
I carved away the protruding parts of the port lid to create a nice and relatively even bend of the hull.
I then continued to fill the seams with Liquid Greenstuff (It's a green, plastic, air-hardening filler for those of you who don't recognise the name)
And then I sanded everything down using a steel brush on my Dremel to get a slight hint of a wood grain imitation(I have no idea why I took a picture of this side here and not the same as in the other pics)
And the result after having removed the ports and painted over the work
Next up was to glue the cannons in place and then add the ropes holding them in place when recoiling from firing.
I did this by first adding one of my home made eyebolts to the bulk head and tying a rope to the eyebolt which I then continued to loop around the back of the cannon and then loop around a pin on the hull, sealing it on the pin with a dab of glue and then continuing like that on every cannon, making sure the rope has a slight droop between the cannon and the wall.
I then tied the spare studding sail yards to the deck using the four eyebolts seen in the previous picture and I also filled the seams between the deck pieces with filler.
When the filler was dry it was sanded and painted over. it didn't quite remove the visibility of the seams but it got better at least.
And then it was time to glue the gun port lids in place.
Following that I made thirty short lengths of rope and tied a small knot at the end of each and pulled them through the holes in the lids.
The threads were then each pulled through a hole in the hull and secured with a bead of glue on the inside.
And this concludes the rather lengthy update this time
Cheers mates!
