Revell USS Constitution 1:96 build log

[dnalley]

I think everyone knows I intend to put a wooden deck on my plastic USS Constitution. I need a recommendation: should I just use one long strip and make it look like the strip is cut (by drawing a dark line across it), or should I actually cut the strips? I bought two packages of 10-minute epoxy so I should get better adhesion.

Hi John. Personally, on the gun deck, I would draw lines across remembering that the boards are staggered as they hit cross beams. It would be a one-piece deck with holes cutout for masts. Every other board hits a cross beam in a different spot. On the spar deck I would cut them since they are more visible. Only my opinion.

 

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

 

[JohnB163]

Hi John. Personally, on the gun deck, I would draw lines across remembering that the boards are staggered as they hit cross beams. It would be a one-piece deck with holes cutout for masts. Every other board hits a cross beam in a different spot. On the spar deck I would cut them since they are more visible. Only my opinion.

Thank you.

 

[JohnB163]

Just about finished with the lower deck.

 

[JohnB163]

Finished cleaning the lower deck.

 

[JohnB163]

Working on lower deck canons.
I had put so much adhesive in an attempt to attach them they are in bad shape.
After that the gun port doors. They are going to be a problem. They are in very bad condition.

 

[JohnB163]

The plans call for a line to be glued to little plastic protrusions. I could never get the glue to hold. I am putting eyebolts in to run the line through

 

[dnalley]

keep at it ... you can do this!

 

[Rokket]

Coming along!

 

[WilliamM]

Need input. On the upper gun deck my instructions call for gunales (sp)?) To be painted white, but pictures of the USS Constitutions show that they are green. Should I go with white or green.
I have been out of action for a couple of years and just getting back to my models. As you are probably aware I am doing a plastic and a wood of the Constitution.
I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving

I've always gone with green topside. White would serve for the gundeck. Gunwales is the correct spelling, but it is pronounced as "gunnels"

Bill

 

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

Green for the upper gun deck bulwarks, white for the lower deck. Why they picked green, I have no idea... Maybe they got the paint from the Dutch.

 

[Alan Smith]

Why they picked green, I have no idea.

Many old foliage green paints contained a pigment called 'Scheele's Green, which was actually made by combining copper and arsenic, which made it a very effective rot-proof and bug-proof coating. The hull was a mix of white oak and live oak from Georgia and wouldn't need this, but much of the internal joinery was southern white pine, which would probably benefit from a coat of fungicide. Copper Arsenate paints were understood to be toxic to nearby humans by the end of the 19th century and were no longer used with abandon, but they are still found in old houses in England, often buried under layers of more modern paint.

 

[Rokket]

I agree with Bill and Kurt: green for bulwarks and white gun deck. I always look to the Hull model. It has "complications" shall we say, but it is contemporary and by the actual crew.

 

[WilliamM]

It's easy to conclude that green and white are the appropriate colors for the ship as she has appeared for the past hundred years, but were these the appropriate colors for her appearance during the War of 1812? I know that the Revell 1/96 kit shows her as of her 1924 modifications, the Model Shipways kit represents the ship today, etc. The only kit of which I am aware that represents her 1812 appearance is the Bluejacket kit. But, I haven't seen her color guide.

Bill

 

[Rokket]

The Hull model (yes, some weirdnesses) was built in 1812 and presented in 1813, so I'm going with the model colors.

The only things that are really strange - no wheel, possible odd rigging (it was "restored" by Prisoners of War), and the stern windows are waaay too huuuge (each pane is about a department store display window), just 4 panes. No wheel could be it's missing or too much trouble (these were sailors, not modelmakers), who knows about the rigging with its muddy history, but just use all the other sources to rig as best as possible. I've 3D printed new windows (a work in progress), going to 6 panes, possibly 9, instead of just 4. Most ships (from drawings and paintings) seem to have 9, a few 6 or 12, none 4 because the panes would be beyond the tech of the time.