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Constellation a 1:36 scale RC model

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JerryTodd

Mon Nov 14 2016, 07:24pm

Registered Member #1987

Joined: Wed Dec 21 2011, 04:06am
Posts: 98

Starting to Build an RC Square-Rigger

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Without getting into an autobiography let's say this project started long before any plans were examined, or any wood cut.

At the end of 1998, I simply wanted to build a large radio-controlled square rigger, and was leaning toward a "jack-ass bark" rigged boat, and not any vessel in particular;

but a good friend put the bug in my ear of modeling the Constellation which had just been hauled for restoration. Chapelle's drawings from The History of the American Sailing Navy were available from the Smithsonian, but I also found out several original drawings were available at the National Archives. One set of lines and profile were in 1 inch = 3 feet or 1:36 scale.

I wanted as big a model as I could manage to fit into my SUV. Tape measure and plans in hand, a bit of scribbling, and I determined a 1:36 Constellation would actually work.

By mid February of 1999 I had the keelson and forms stood up on the building board and was ready to start planking.

There were details about the ship that were not on any of the drawings I could get, so while I searched for information, I ran across William Mowll's book; Building a Working Model Warship:HMS Warrior, 1860. How he built the hull for his model made me think of doing the same; so my plan became to build a sacrificial plug, from which a mold would be made. I would mold three fiberglass hulls; one would be my RC model. The other two would be finished as static unrigged hull models; of which one would be donated and the other sold, the money from selling one I figured would pay for everything. Seemed like a good plan.

So, instead of planking, the hull was battened, and covered with brown paper packing tape.

Eventually, the wife and I sold the house, bought a small farm, kept some horses, split up, sold the farm, I moved into an apartment, and in 2008 bought a house with a 12 x 29 shed out back. All this time the "plug" as I referred to it, was stored away and untouched.

So begins a "log" of my building a working model of the first class sloop of war Constellation in 1:36 scale.

The next installment will pick up were work resumed in 2009...

[ Edited Sun May 01 2022, 11:56pm ]

JerryTodd

Mon Nov 21 2016, 04:00pm

Registered Member #1987

Joined: Wed Dec 21 2011, 04:06am
Posts: 98

Building an RC Square-Rigger - for Real This Time

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In the new shop, the first thing I did was make the building board into a workbench by putting it on it's own legs.

That done, I resumed work on what was still a "plug" for a fiberglass mold. One major detail needed were the quarter galleries, so this is where I restarted. Since no plan showed accurate views for building them, I relied on photos of those on the ship. Since this "plug" was likely going to be destroyed in removing it from the mold, I framed the galleries in scrap wood and sheathed them in card.

The plans show nothing of the bulwarks either, but photos of the ship right until she came to Baltimore in 1955 shows they were not simply a continuation of the side planking up to the rail, which is what the plans did imply. Visiting the restoration I found her cap-rail was right on her waterway, with hammock irons mounted on top. These were wainscotted and gave the impression of a solid bulwark.

So, I cut the plug down to the level of her sheer plank as the actual ship was.

I was increasingly concerned about making the mold. I was using the paper tape to impart details like planking and bottom copper, but I wasn't happy with the quarter galleries, and had no ideas on how to get the nail-head detail in the "copper." While I mulled over how to deal with details I didn't know, I passed the time working on mast making.

I found a couple of very nice clear white cedar boards at the lumber yard while getting material for another project, and got them to make Constellation's masts and spars.

The lower mast were cut square, tapered while square, made 8-sided, then round where they were supposed to be round. Almost all of this done with a block plan and utility knife.

Banding was done with the brown paper tape, then the front fish, or rubbing paunch was installed...

Next up...
The Plug becomes the Hull

[ Edited Wed Jan 25 2017, 04:42pm ]

bensid54

Tue Nov 22 2016, 06:45am

Registered Member #2957

Joined: Wed Jun 13 2012, 05:43am
Posts: 1012

That looks good what do you think you will sell the glass hulls for?

aew

Tue Nov 22 2016, 08:38am

Arthur

Registered Member #1929

Joined: Wed Nov 30 2011, 03:05pm
Posts: 3035

Jerry: I followed this some time ago but then couldn't find it anymore.
It's great to see it being re-posted.

JerryTodd

Wed Nov 23 2016, 06:32pm

Registered Member #1987

Joined: Wed Dec 21 2011, 04:06am
Posts: 98

Fiber Glass

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I gave up on the idea of making a mold. It had been 10 years since I started the thing, and I had my doubts about the whole mold making process, so I decided to just build a model from what I had. What I should have done was start from scratch and built a planked hull as I had intended to, but I opted to just glass over this.

If you are contemplating such a project, of any size, do not do this - stand up forms and plank a hull as it should be. (see the Macedonian log on my website link in my signature.)

I started by removing some of the "details" I had been adding, like the card-stock quarter galleries, and I shaped and tapered the head-knee.

I then laid 3oz glass cloth with polyester resin on the port side...

and later the starboard side.

Lots of sanding...

then two more coats of resin were rolled on.

The forms were all pulled out...

The marks on the hull can be seen through the glass, which is handy later.

and resin was poured into the hull to fill between the battens, and glass matting laid in on the portside....

then the starboard side.

Then I had a fiberglass hull.

[ Edited Tue Jan 03 2017, 11:05pm ]

JerryTodd

Wed Nov 30 2016, 03:24pm

Registered Member #1987

Joined: Wed Dec 21 2011, 04:06am
Posts: 98

Chugging Along

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With the "hull" glassed, and the notion of mold-making and multipule hulls out of the way, I began making the permanent quarter galleries from pine and bass.

The new galleries with the old card versions.

The deck-clamp was made of 1/8" x 5/16" pine strips, in layers to build it up to 3/8" and a sub-deck was cut from 3/16" luan plywood.

The hole for the rudder head was made. The real ship has a metal flange where the rudder enters the hull. I epoxied in a brass tube that poke out at the bottom, replicating this.

The rudder is made and installed to this plan....

Deck beams started going in both for the spar deck and the "equipment decks" below where the controls would be mounted.

The director of the ship gave me some live oak taken from her during the restoration. The only way I could figure to use it besides just gluing some pieces in was to make the mast-steps from it. The deck framing included hatch openings and mast partners as well.

The model would have removable external ballast that would be held to the hull by threaded rods that ran all the way through the hull to the spar deck inside tubes - those tubes were installed next.

The deck framing is a bit heavier than necessary at 3/4" square. The deck, in fact would be pretty heavily built; 3/4" frames, 3/16" plywood, a layer of 4oz glass, and 3/16" thick decking. Later models would tone down this deck construction a bit. Pride got 3/8" frames, 3/16" plywood, and 1/16" decking. Macedonian is getting 3/8" frames, 1/8" plywood, and 1/16" decking.

[ Edited Tue Dec 20 2016, 09:50pm ]

JerryTodd

Fri Dec 02 2016, 09:39pm

Registered Member #1987

Joined: Wed Dec 21 2011, 04:06am
Posts: 98

Radio Control

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I installed a beam forward, to carry a step for the bowsprit (I wasn't modeling the gun-deck) and a small deck abaft the main-mast for the battery to lay on, held in place with peel-and-stick Velcro tabs.

With this much set up, I could figure out how to handle bracing the yards. I was going to use a winch-servo that was capable of rotating 3-1/2 times. With the braces attached to their yards out near the ends, as is prototypical, the distance each working brace was from the center line was different for each yard I intended to control (main, fore, cross-jack, main tops'l, and fore tops'l). Additionally, as the yard is braced one way or the other, the brace on each side changes length differently, causing one side to go slack as the other side takes up. With horizontally mounted winches, slack is not good, the brace can fall off it's track and tangle. To handle this, my original plan was to use blocks on springs to keep tension on the braces, as shown in the diagram below. The wooden posts on eitherside of the ballast-bolt tube in the image above are where these spring would be mounted.

Since I was mounting my winches in-line, fore-n-aft, I needed to stagger them vertically so they wouldn't interfere with each other.

Everything was mounted on a pallet so it could be installed or removed as a module.

The rudder servo was mounted separately back aft, that's next...

[ Edited Fri Jan 06 2017, 01:20pm ]

aew

Sat Dec 03 2016, 09:22am

Arthur

Registered Member #1929

Joined: Wed Nov 30 2011, 03:05pm
Posts: 3035

Nice job Jerry.
Is that a lead-acid battery? If so, are you powering the servos direct from a 6 volt one?

JerryTodd

Sat Dec 03 2016, 08:03pm

Registered Member #1987

Joined: Wed Dec 21 2011, 04:06am
Posts: 98

Yes, it's a 6 volt 7 amp-hour sealed-lead-acid battery and powers everything. There will be more about that later in the story.

The three servos shown all have in-line fuses, but the rudder servo plugs directly into the receiver. I eventually changed how the servos are set-up, but the wiring is still the same. The regulator shown in the schematic was never used.