3/24/2019:

Some time late last fall the gunport eyebrows were installed, though only on the starboard side.

Today, was nice, and warm enough to get something done, and that turned out to be the mast trucks, which were sliced off a mahogany dowel, drilled to fit the tip of the masts and to take a flag halyard, and painted white.

3/30:

Got in some cleaning and adjustment, and got some acetone into a blocked fairlead with no luck at freeing it yet.

4/22: Gun Circles

Over a couple of days the gun circles were installed. On the real ship, these are iron tracks for the gun to be shifted on without tearing up the deck. The pattern I used was based on a diagram of pivot guns in the Navy Department's 1852 Preparation of Vessels of War for Battle. I was told that Constellation had a simple circle at each gun, but I think that is an a misinterpretation as the tracks are referred to as "circles" regardless of what pattern they are in.

The circles were cut from 1/32" sheet styrene and glued to the deck. Both guns sit on hatches in the model that don't correspond to actual hatches in the real ship. I'll come back and install eyebolts in the deck where they're required for working the gun as shown in the diagram.

The stern circles...

The bow circles...

Pinrails: I cut and installed one of the pinrails along the bulwark a while ago. This is made of 1/8" aircraft plywood. I still have five more to do.

5/18: Sailing

Packed up the models in a U-Haul trailer and hauled them to St Michaels on Saturday, then up to Baltimore for Maritime Day on Sunday (see Sailing portion of the Photos section).

Yes, it's been a whole year and other than taking the batteries out of the model, I haven't touched a thing. I did buy an Elegoo Mars 3D printer back in March, but it wasn't till now that I printed anything for Constellation with it. I thought I'd try making a 3D model of the ship's head carvings, but that's proven to be a bit beyond my modeling skill-set at the moment. I decided to make a list of the items I want to 3D print because they're small, or difficult for me to get the level of detail I want.

Things to 3D print for Constellation
• Ships wheel (done-already bought a 3D print from Shapeways) Note: replaced with a less fragile one printed myself later.
• Deck fittings; bollards, binnacles, buckets, barrels, boxes, sea chests, etc
• Anchors
• Boat howitzer
• Other boat fittings; oars, buckets, etc
• Pivot gun carriages with all details
• Figures; sailors, Marines, officers.
• Blocks, hearts, and some other rigging parts
• Boarding steps
• Maybe even print the remaining ship's boats!

The first complete 3D model part wound up being the stanchions for the pin rails. These turned posts are only slightly taller than 1 inch, and 1/4 inch square, but they turned out just right on the first try. With that success I've gone for a more complicated subject next; the launches boat howitzer!

7/4: 3D Model of the Boat Howitzer

The boat howitzer took shape fairly quickly because I have several decent drawings, and photos of originals and reproductions. It started with the trail, the wheels, originally with 12 spokes, and later 16, then got into detailing the trail wheel. The barrel and cross beam, and then some details like brace bars, nuts, etc. I added some color later, to get a better feel for how it looked though that has nothing to do with it being printed. It will be prited in three parts; wheels, carriage, barrel, and boat sled, plus the pivot fittings that go on the launches rail.

7/9: 3D modeling of the boat-howitzer continues bit-by-bit. I thought it was pretty much done, and left out a few details I didn't think I needed, like a hole under the barrel for the pin that holds it to either carriage. I don't think I'll be able to pint the sled with the barrel attached, so I'm gonna need that hole after all.