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[JerryTodd]

The boats got a coat of primer.  I cleaned up the 1st cutter and launch, and all but the launch got some white and black paint sprayed on.I still don't know what the ship's boat chocks ought to look like, so I made some basic ones based on a some that were on a boat I worked on long ago.  These are easily replaced if I find something more authentic down the road.
I made rudders and tillers for all the boats, but had to install eyes on the stern-posts of the launch and first cutter as gudgeons.  Then I installed lifting-eyes in all the boats.
I have some cleats from an old plastic kit, and a few tiny brass belaying pins to detail the boats a bit more.  I still have oars and their sailing rigs to make, and I intent to put rings on all the lifting eyes.It's going to have to warm up a bit so I can use the air-brush to give them a proper paint job and can call them "finished."

[JerryTodd]

The pivot guns I made, then 3D modeled and printed for Constellation were based on information I got from the folks restoring the actual ship.  They said they were restoring the ship to her Civil War appearance, and showed me plans for her 30# Parrott pivot gun they got from the National Archives.  That was interesting, but I was modeling the ship when she was new, and mounted different pivots.  Then they showed my a set of plans for a 10 inch shell-gun on a pivot mount for the side-wheel frigate Mississippi, dated June 1855.  They said that was what the ship was originally armed with, so I went to the Archives and got a copy of these plans.  Then I started making them.
 
Years later, I got into 3D printing and finished up a 3D model I started a while back and printed a pair of fully formed, completely detailed 10" pivot guns.


Another project I've been working on is 3D modeling Naval guns from the 1850s ~ 1870s.  I'd just finished a 60# Parrott rifle which the Cumberland carried as her aft pivot when she fought the ironclad Virginia.  Her forward pivot gun was a 10 inch shell-gun on a pivot carriage. Looking into data to model this gun if found an July 1850 drawing from John Dahlgren of his proposed armament for first class frigates.


close-up of the pivot gun.

This proposal called for 6 10 inch pivot guns on the spar deck, and 26 9 inch guns on the gun-deck.  The Navy instead went with a pair of 10 inch pivots, fore-and-aft on the spar deck, and 8 inch shell-guns with 32# shot guns on the gun-deck.  This also happens to be how Constellation was armed.

Constellation's pivot guns were described as; 10 inch shell-guns on pivot carriages, just as they are in his drawing .  Now I'm wondering which 10" shell-gun Constellation actually had.  Dahlgren's drawing was made five years prior to the Mississippi pivot gun plan.  Constellation was launched on August 26 1854, and commissioned on July 28 1855 putting the Mississippi's plan between those dates.  The more I ponder it, the more likely it seems to me that Constellation was armed with 10 inch Dahlgren's, and not 10 inch shell-guns of 86cwt.  I'm trying to find documentation to nail this down, but till then, I've opted to replace Constellation's pivot guns.
I noticedDahlgren's drawing was the same carriage as theTraversing Pivot Gun Carriage and Slide diagram from the 1852 Instructions.  Dahlgren didn't change the breech of the gun in the drawing, but changed the barrel to look like his 10 inch gun.  I couldn't find a Dahlgren anywhere with a Columbiad style breech, even in Dahlgren's patent drawing, though Rodman's gun were similar; but there weren't any Rodman guns in 1850.


In modeling this gun, I kept the normal Dahlgren breech with an elevating screw, as they were right through the war.  Spencer Tucker in Arming the Fleet says the carriage was the same as that for for the Columbiads (the Traversing Carriage shown above), but widened to accommodate the larger Dahlgren gun body; so that's what I modeled.


The slide for this gun is actually a bit shorter than the Mississippi gun slide, so it will be much less cramped on Constellation.
The first gun 3Dprinted lost a roller or would have been perfect, and the second gun came out perfectly.  I printed them in three parts each, instead of trying to pit it all in one piece as I did the first set.
   

Since the slide is shorter, I have to redo the deck tracks to fit...

[JerryTodd]

I cleaned off the old tracks from the access hatches, on which the pivot guns sit, sanded and refinished the decking.


The new aft pivot and tracks on the aft access hatch


The new forward pivot and tracks on the forward access hatch


The field carriage for the boat howitzer I made for the launch had iron wheels, and I got to thinking the wooden wheeled version was probably more appropriate for 1856.  Here's the replacement painted and ready

[JerryTodd]

Back in June, just when I thought I'd get Pide's ballast done and have the model sailing by Summer, I had a bit of a health issue. "Such are the best laid plans of mice and men."So, still working on recovery as we approach the end of Autumn, and finally feeling like I can get some work done without lopping of a finger or two; it goes and gets cold on me.  Too cold to glass (GRP), paint, or just be in my unheated shop, my fall-back is 3D modeling parts and details, so when a warmer day or three comes along, I can sneak in and install a few.
The subject of this post is a detail that actually needs to get done so I can start doing proper rigging work - pin-rails.  The point being that trying to install them after stuff like the lower shrouds are in would be a royal pain in the 'bottom'.The earliest drawing of the ship's spar-deck lay-out dates to 1888, I'm depicting her from 1856 when she was "new."  This shows the out-board pin-rails, but no details, like how many pins, etc.  The earliest photos I can find showing the pin-rails are from the 1890's.  Basically I'm assuming there was any significant change in them up to the time.

This one's from 1926...
 
I modeled the mizzen, or aft rails first, and worked out the kinks before doing the main and fore rails, then the bow rails; 3D printing each set as I went.
 
Here they are sitting at the places they'll be installed.  They all will be drilled for mounting pins, primed, painted, and coated to protect them from UV as best I can.
   
The temperature's supposed to be about 15°c Tuesday (Dec 17), so I'm hoping I can get all that done then, and maybe even installed.

[JerryTodd]

Continuing on in my slip-shod way....
Constellation's boats got final paint, inside and out, though there's some touch-up to do, and I modeled cradles for the in-board boats (Launch, 1st & 2nd Cutters).  These are right off my head and aren't based on any historic data as I haven't found anything certain for US warships circa 1856.I've never been happy with the red oak crown bitts I made years ago, so modeled new ones, a little more bulky and with better sized sheaves.  Speaking of sheaves, I rework my 3D models of blocks to take 8mm sheaves and printed some shells (to get brass sheaves) and some with sheaved modeled in for most things that won't be moving much, like bunt-lines, halyards, etc.
The pin-rails have been drilled for mounting pins, primed and painted, but the bulwarks have to be prepped before they can be installed.  The bulwarks have to be drilled for the mounting pins, and painted, because painting behind the pins once installed would be a pain.  The hammocks are 3D printed on trays and epoxied on top of the wooden bulwarks.  They trays were made a little wide to accommodate my sloppiness in making the bulwarks, and have to be ground flush with the inside and outside surfaces.  The a wooden strip in glued on to cover that seam.  Another thing to be done before the pin-rails are installed. I'm working on the starboard side currently, which includes painting the hammocks to look, I hope, like canvas.
A while back I discovered Constellation was rigged with rigging-screws (turnbuckles) as opposed to dead-eyes-and-lanyards, on her lower and top-mast shrouds, from when she was built until sometime in the 1890's.  I 3D modeled these, hoping to find someplace to lost-resin cast them in brass or bronze for me, but making the 60 or so I need would run over $1,000 US, so I printed them and popped a pair on the model, under tension, to see how they'd hold up.  They had been there since November of 2023 without breaking, stretching, or deforming, despite my bumping into them near every time I reached for something on the hull.  They're non-functional, basically just for show, but so are the lower shrouds.  In any case, there's always a chance of breaking one or more in my handling the model, so I need to be able to replace them as needed.  To that end, the chain-plate are held to the hull with a brass round-head wood-screw, and the rigging-screw to the chain-plate with a brass nut & bolt.

[SailorGreg]

Lovely work Jerry, and a lesson in how 3D printing can make things so much easier for us - those hammocks would have taken an age to make by hand.  (Yes, I know they probably took an age to print as well, but you didn't have to sit there carving each one!)

Greg