In 1856, Constellation had two 10 shell guns mounted bow and stern as "pivots" or shifting guns. To make shifting them easier, and prevent them tearing up the deck, sectional iron plates were screwed down to the deck, a bit like model rail-road track, these were referred to as "circles" or "gun circles."

What pattern was actually used on Constellation is so far unknown. The museum folks think there was just a basic circle under each gun, but I think they've interpreted the name a little too literally, as I can find very few examples where just a single simple circle was used.

I decided to base the model on the more complicated patterns I found in photos and a diagram in the Navy's 1852 manual: Preparation of Vessels of War for Battle.

I cut the circles from 1/32" (.5mm) sheet styrene, painted black, and glued to the deck with gel CA.

Both guns on the model sit on access hatches that don't correspond to any actual hatch, so the bow circles, especially, had to accommodate the seam of the hatch.

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There's a ball-like thing at the top of each mast with sheaves in it for flag halyards, it's called a "truck." Constellation finally got her's today. The mizzen t'gallant and royal also got attachments to allow them to be easily removed or replaced as the main and fore sails got earlier.

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Not much, happening this time of year. The shop doesn't have heat, so things like batteries that shouldn't be left in the cold come in the house, and the shop which seems to stay at or near 40°f/4°c, become an annex to our refrigerator.
Now and then we get a warm day or three, and I open the doors because it's actually warmer outside than in, but more often than not what gets done is for other folks, and not the models.
Spring is about a month off, but we'll likely get get some warmer days before that and I have been doodling some thoughts on what to address on all three models when the opportunity appears.
On Constellation that's chainplates, pinrails, and getting the mizzen bracing working - a fairlead got some epoxy in it and needs to be cleared. I also want to get into some details like railings on the mast tops, and the bands that the futtocks attach to on the masts. if you don't know what that is, just wait and it'll be explained.

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Made the framed glass portion of the skylight. They're hinged so I can get a finger inside to flip the power switch on or off.
They're made from clear plastic from some packaging, basswood, and brass wire.

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Making a ship's wheel, specifically the turned spokes of a ship's wheel, and 20 of them all a-like, has been beyond me. So I gave up and got Model Monkey on Shapeways to scale his Constitution wheel up to 1:36 scale, and got 4 of them; 2 for Constellation, and 2 for Macedonian.

The helm is made of mahogany. The curves braces laminated from some strips from an old kit; the uprights from some scrap left from a musical instrument build. The drum is some mahogany dowel, from a kit again, and a brass rod axle.

Some paint and clear-coat and it's just about done. I was going to make it operate when the rudder servo moved, but a spoke handle fell off while painting, and I figure it's a bit fragile to be spinning at "non-scale" speeds, so it'll just get some line wrapped around the drum for show.

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Trying to rig the main tops'l and mizzen tops'l braces, I found the winch servos seemed to rotate more than the 3.5 times I thought they did. Oddly, one rotated 4.5 times and the other 4.25 times.

I plugged in other winch servos and got the same results, but my DX6 transmitter didn't have a servo-travel setting that I could find in the manual. So I made new winch drums - again - based on what the servos were doing.

The fore tops'l brace was fine, but the main seemed to pull one side more than the other side.

I mentioned this oddity on RCGroups and someone suggested the DX6 did have a servo travel setting, and I was sure I had looked for it years ago. My manual isn't where is usually is, so I found a PDF on line. Lo and behold, there's a Servo-Travel setting spelled out on page 42!

So I set about adjusting my TX settings to the new drums and there you go, working as advertised!

In the meantime I installed eyes in the mizzen for brace blocks to mount to, and made a brass wire ring for the main tops'l brace to tie to as noted on the original ship a few posts back in this thread.

I apparently slopped some epoxy on the inside of one of the mizzen tops'l brace thru-deck fairleads and blocked it up. I need to pull it like a bad tooth, and replace it, so the mizzen braces are hooked up yet.

Here's some exciting video of the separate bracing for the fore and main tops'ls.
http://todd.mainecav.org/model/constellation/videos/con20180623a.mp4

http://todd.mainecav.org/model/constellation/videos/con20180623a.mp4

🔗

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As the braces go on and off the winch drum, the go through a fairlead plate that's attached to, and moves with the winch, and guides the braces onto the correct drum so they don't get crossed. When the braces leave the fairlead they go off in various directions and angles which would actually prevent the winch servo from being able to slide fore-and-aft to maintain tension. A fairlead bar aft of the winches guides the braces straight to the winch fairleads to alleviate that problem.

Originally this bar mounted on two knees and looking like a riding bit (or a hitching post for us horse folks) was wood with screw-eyes on top. These small eyes were to be replaced with larger ones when I found some.

This was replaced with a metal bar with holes instead of eyes. This worked fine, but I was worried that it would unduly wear the brace lines over time and added too much friction to the system.

Today I replaced the metal bar with a strip of plastic cut from a cutting board. This stuff looks like Teflon, but I don't think it actually is. My concern now is the line with saw into this thing. I think I will make one with sheaves instead of just holes that will cut the friction and ease my concerns about it damaging the lines or the lines damaging it. First I'll see how this one works out, and any wear that appears will tell me at what angle to install the sheaves in the new bar.

If you're wondering why the new bar has so many fewer holes than the old one, it's because I reduced the braces from 5 pairs to 3 pairs. Only the tops'l yards are actively braced now.

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I've been using some 6mm brass framed blocks (shown with some other brass items in one of the pics below) for brace blocks on the yards, they aren't the correct style for the ship, but I needed functional blocks on the braces. I also only have so many of them, so to free a few up for duty below deck, I made up 6 functional wood-shell blocks for the braces. They're ok, and they work, but I don't care for how they turned out. I used some white cedar for the shell, which is too soft and open-grained. I have some branches from a fruit tree, though I don't know what fruit, and I'm going to try and mill some of it to use for blocks. Till then, these will do.

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Made the parrel to go with the truss for the mizzen, which makes all three done, but for painting the fore and main.

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I spent a couple of hours making a yoke or bow, for the fore tops'l yard. This is the thing that attaches to the yard and connects to the parrell. The main tops'l yard's and all three lower's were made from aluminum, but the last one took three tries to get and came out, well meh.

I tried a different idea in their construction this time, since my soldering has gotten better. I cut some brass rod and hammered it square, or mostly square; then bent it to the right shape as my pattern. I hammered the ends a bit more to widen them and used files to shape them. I cut a notch down the middle of some rod about double the diameter of the first one, then cut off about an 1/8" giving me two half-round pieces. These got soldiered top and bottom to the center of the bow, forming the swell that the parrell pin goes through. After some filing and cleaning up, I drilled the hole in the swell and 1/16" holes in the ends.
Then something happened with the drill press that startled me, I jumped, and the part flew off somewhere. I spent the day "cleaning" the shop trying to find it with no luck.

So tonight I did it all again, but with some hope of finding the errant part eventually, I went about making the mizzen bow instead. when it came time to drill, I dug out the 2-direction sliding vice thing for the drill press, instead of holding it by hand with pliers, and everything came out fine with no unscheduled flights.


The parrell shown is for the fore tops'l yard which is why I was making that bow, I haven't made the mizzen tops'l yard parrell yet. I do need to enlarge the hole slightly because the bow is supposed to go all the way on the post more than shown.

Mounted on it's yard, the chain is the tye for the tops;l halyard, and the bit of line is the end of one of the main tops'l yard braces. The little nuts and bolts are 0-80 x 1" hex head bolts I bought 100 of years ago with some matching nuts, and some "scale nuts."

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