Airbrushed on a couple of coats of olive on the gun carriages and slides, then went at the hardware with Testor's Flat Steel. The US Navy kept the hardware bare metal and well greased. The gun tubes too, were kept greased and shiny.
I never have much luck paint just the tiny thing that needs painting, so I paint it, and around it to get in all the nooks and crannies, then cut in the base color to neaten it all up.
Unfortunately the gun tubes are painted satin black from a spray can, and I don't have any brush-on to do the above mentioned cut-in on them. The stores don't seem to carry anything smaller than quarts now-a-days, so I had to order online.
The other guns I've printed got some paint too.

The new tracks for the pivot guns were remodeled, printed, primed, the old ones removed from the hatches, the hatches sanded and refinished. The tracks are painted, glued in place, painted some more, and clear coated. It's a matter of painting the guns then screwing them to the hatches. Details such as tackles, eyebolts in the deck, etc, will come after that.

When I made the boat howitzer, I modeled it based on an original in Fairfax Virginia with iron wheels. Looking at all the images from 1850's manuals, drawings, photos, and even artwork showing them in Japan; they nearly always have wooden wheels. I started thinking it was probably more appropriate for Constellation's boat howitzer's field carriage, in 1856, to also have wooden wheels. So I modeled a set, and printed a new field carriage, and today, got it painted, though it needs to be clear-coated yet.

BTW: The STLs for these guns and more are available on Thingiverse, for free; which is about $50 Canadian

I kid

I made a copy of the file for the tracks I had made before, and remodeled tracks for these new, shorter, guns. I also made them thinner to be more scale than the old ones.
It took more than 5 hours to print because I had to make then in halves, and stand them on edge to fit in the printer's space.
Part of the forward circle didn't print, so I set up to reprint just that, plus a few extra pieces, just in case.

I scraped off the old tracks on the model's fore and aft access hatches, sanded off the scars of the old tracks, and laid things out to check the fit. There's some more sanding to do, and then put the finish back on the deck, before gluing the tracks down after they're primed and painted. The bits of track hanging over the edge will be sawn off and glued to the deck across the hatch seam.

I don't think my hammocks would work with the Constitution. Constellation's bulwarks were sheathed hammock irons, something like those on Constitution's bulwarks, but taller. Since the irons can't be seen, I used wood blocks in their stead. This created, basically, a flat surface to epoxy my 3D printed "trays" of hammocks to.

Constitution's hammock irons are visible, have netting connecting them, and that the hammocks are dropped into. This was often covered with a tarpaulin, which may have been plain cotton duck or tarred, but in most contemporary paintings and drawings are uncovered. (same reason I made my hammocks exposed rather than covered).

It is possible to make 3D models of the cap rail with irons, hammocks, and whatever, all in one piece, or sections as I did mine; or maybe the irons and hammocks in sections that glue onto the cap rail from the kit, but that's more involved than I can spare time for at the moment.

I was aboard when she came back from dry-dock in March 2011. I lived in Baltimore city from 1969 to 1989, and in it's suburbs, since. I worked on the water on tugs, a skipjack, the first Pride of Baltimore's construction, and later as crew. My best friend, who I've sailed with since we were teenagers, is a tug captain on the bridge site right now.

When I was volunteering at the Naval Academy Museum, I got to see a glass-plate photo of Constellation on the Severn in 1879 where you can see the widened gun-port for the XI Dahlgren (port-side). The "proposed" set-up was marked on her original gun-deck plan from 1854, I put a portion of it here.

The Constellation folks showed me plans for a 30# Parrott pivot carriage and slide. They said that Constellation had that and a 20# pivot during the Civil War, which they said was the time frame they were working toward restoring ship.
My model is of the ship in 1856, when she was new. They said she was armed with 10" shell-gun pivots then, and showed me plans for a 10 inch gun & pivot carriage for the Mississippi dated .
I made that gun by hand for the model, intending to learn to photo-etch to detail it, but then I got a 3D printer and 3D modeled and printed both guns with all their details.

The Mississippi gun is 8,600 pounds, the 10 inch Dahlgren is 12,000 pounds; but the Traversing Carriage and Slide modified for the Dahlgren is shorter, but wider, and the Dahlgren mounts lower, lowering the center of gravity. It actually fits Constellation's better fore and aft.

Constellation was the last sailing warship the Navy built, launched in August 1854, and commissioned in July 1856. The Mississippi gun plan is dated July 1855, and Dahlgren's drawing is dated July 31 1850. Both guns are referenced as "10 inch shell-gun on pivot."
The frigates and razzees, such as Cumberland, were all armed with 2 10 inch Dahlgren pivots on their spar decks.

I'm still looking for data that will confirm things one way or another, or yet another, as it may turn out, but I'm acting on a hunch that she should have 10 inch Dahlgrens.

BTW: if you notice the last image attached of the new deck tracks being worked on, you can see the back ends of the old guns slides in the image of the deck, and see the difference in the length of the old and new guns.

Doing some research about Naval Guns in the 1850's for another project led me to thinking Constellation was armed with something different than the pivot guns I armed her with.
I decided to replace my 10 inch 82cwt pivot guns with 10 inch Dahlgren guns she more-likely had.
The 3D model is based on Dahlgren's own sketch made in 1850, which matched a diagram of a Traversing Carriage and Slide printed in the 1852 "Instructions."
I printed two of these 10 inch pivots, but because their slides are shorter than the guns they're replacing, I need to make need deck tracks to go with them.

I was working on the stern and quarter galleries separately, but reconciling the sides with the back was making my brain itch, so I made it all one model, which helped, and didn't.

To create a base to work from, I'm going to 3D model the aft 15cm or so of the physical hull down to the waterline, hoping that will make it all the right size and fit.

The transom at the widest part is about 27cm across and some 10cm tall, which won't fit in the printer, so I'll be dividing it into parts that"ll assemble on the model's wooden transom, with the quarter galleries as separate pieces.

There's always long gaps in working on my models. Life just gets in the way for long periods sometimes. Poor Macedonian is always in third place for attention behind Constellation and Pride of Baltimore. But, every now and then, I devote myself to Macedonian alone, and even get some work done.

As my next way-point, I would really like to get the hull to the point of painting, but there's a lot to get onto it before that can happen.

One item are the channels. These I made of aircraft plywood, but I feel they may be too thin, and maybe the wrong shape in cross-section. So I moved onto the quarter galleries. I decided to build them up right on the hull, but I'm not to happy with those either.
I ground the edge of a utility blade to make a scraper to shape the moldings with, but the pine is just too soft to get the appearance I want, so I'm going to pull that off when I find better wood to make them from.

I have no solid evidence how Macedonian actually looked, in particular, her stern. In paintings there are no two alike, nor is any useful detail shown. Where you can see it, such as in Gardner's paintings of her fight with the United States, you can see much and what's visible is generic at best. I do have sketches of two other Lively class ship's stern decorations, so based on those, and the styles of other frigate sterns I could find pictures of, I developed my own Alexander the Great themed stern. At this point, I'm heavily leaning towards 3D printing the entire transom, moldings, carvings, window frames, and all; including the quarter galleries. I'll print it in several parts and simply epoxy right onto the existing wooden transom, which needs to be thicker anyway.

Moving to the bow, Macedonian's alleged "original" figurehead exist today at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis Maryland. I say alleged because compared to other figureheads of British warships, this one looks more like a caricature of actor Michael J. Pollard.
Years ago, someone digitally scanned the figurehead, contacted me, and offered to 3D print a model for a mere $300 US. I felt that was a bit much for a 6 or 7cm tall bust, so I passed. When I was able to 3D print myself, I contacted them again hoping to get a copy of the STL file, but they hemmed and hawed about copyrights and other nonsense (I think they actually lost the file). So, while the figurehead at the Naval Academy may actually be Macedonian's figurehead, I figure it was damaged in the fight with United States, and the American sailor that repaired it, put his own "touches" to the job. Basically, I don't think it originally looked like that. Online, I found a 3D file from someone who scanned a bust of Alexander the Great in a museum in Europe somewhere. I know of several figureheads said to be based on classical statues, and this one was the same general style as the figurehead and around early enough for someone to have sketched it back then for the carver to reference, ie; I think this is probably closer to what the Macedonian's figurehead looked like before the big American frigate bow-raked her and took off a big chunk of his head.

Speaking of 3D printing... I got into resin printing with the intent purpose of making parts for ship models. The figurehead, decorative carvings, guns, crew figures and so on. I originally bought 5 3D printed 18 pounder Blomefield guns, and 5 32 pounder Carronades with the intention of making molds and casting the rest needed in resin. Having a printer of my own means I can print all the guns I need myself.

The trick to 3D printing is having the digital 3D model to print - you can't print a letter till you type it. You can see a lot of stuff's been printed for Constellation over in that build-blog. Here, so far, besides a test print of Alex's head, and a couple of guns, I made and printed the ship's stove.

I learned that from the 1780's to 1810, the most common type of stove on British warships was the Brodie type, which supplanted what was known as the Firehearth. In 1810 stoves by Lamb & Nicholson were taking over in place of the Brodies; but I have yet to find any information; drawing, photos, models, or even a description of a L&N stove. Macedonian was launched in June of 1810 and I'm sure her stove was requisitioned well before then, so was most probably a Brodie type. Anyway, that's the course I steered. In The Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War by Brian Lavery, on page 198, was a chart showing stove dimensions for various ships based on gun rating and I based my model on the sizes for a 38 gun frigate. (The figures in the pic with the stove are Constellation's crew, and not 1812 period)

The drawing of the rudder attached here, shows how it will be made from Plexiglass and brass rod. The "extension" to increase it's area is left clear, and is not removable, though the entire rudder IS removable. Side pieces in the shape of the scale rudder are glued to either side, and will be coppered like the bottom.

The hull's be taken out on display a couple of times, one time even getting in the pool for her first ever swim.

Another attached drawing shows her sail plan based on a drawing of another frigate, proportion-wise. Her external ballast is also shown. Constellation uses a 2 inch ID PVC pipe filled with 000 lead shot and weighing about 42 pounds for ballast. It's held to the model by 2 5/16" stainless steel threaded rod inside aluminum tubes in the hull. I need to install such tubes in Macedonian, and the plan is to place them so she can use Constellation's ballast, though I may make Macedonian her own so the two models can sail together.

As for the sails and rig. History of the American Sailing Navy has spar dimensions for Macedonian taken in 1818. Obviously this is how the Americans re-rigged her to their standard, and not how she was rigged before her capture, so, for me, they're meaningless. I haven't found any direct reference for her spars and sails, or for any other Lively class frigate either, but I have some "standard" numbers for different rates of ships. The problem there is it's dated a decade before the Lively's and even 38 gun ships were a little smaller than the Lively class boats then. I've plugged these numbers into a spread sheet, and came up with something of a compromise between Steel's 38 and 40 gun ships specs and Trincomalee, a Leda class 38 existing in Hartlepool today. So far, I've made the built-up lower masts for the model, save the bowsprit.

There will be a lot of 3D printed items going into the model; all of her guns, boats, fittings, carvings, crew figures, figurehead, and anything else I can think of and can manage to digitally model myself.

I made a technical screw-up here. The main wale should be "anchor-stock" planked; additional wales, are "top and butt" planked. I don't know why, but I used top and butt planks for Macedonian's wales, and was mostly done before I realized my error. I'll just have to hang my head and take it when some rivet-counter comes along and berates me for it.

At any rate... Back to the old white pine again, where I sawed out the shape from the edge of the board, then sliced off the planks, one by one. These got applied to the hull with gel CA. At the hard bends, like in the bow, they are dipped in ammonia and clamped in a makeshift jig to bend them to shape. It's not difficult, but I went through a lot of latex gloves working with CA, and since I'm not a fan of jig-saw puzzles, it was a bit tedious. On this model the wales are mostly decorative, added because the real ship had them and without them you'd think something was missing, even if you didn't know what.

Once the wales were on, they were puttied, sanded, planed, and epoxied. A friend and I were building a boat in my yard then, and the hull got a bit of epoxy brushed on, or poured into the nooks and crannies in the hull when ever there was some left over.

I cut out the gunports in the usual way, drill a hole big enough for a sabre-saw blade to fit into and go to town with the saw, carefully.

The hull is only as thick as it's planking, which is an issue at the gun ports and such. Basically I need to frame around the gunports not only to get the right hull thicknesses, but some of tis framing peeks into the port, forming a ledge for the gunport lids to close against.
That's another of those puzzles I'm not so fond of, and I haven't determined yet how I'm going to go about it. The shape of the hull is what comes into play here, so I have to cut the side pieces for each gunport to shape; clamp an ammonia-dipped wood piece in place to take the shape, or even 3D print gunport frames custom made to fit each one. When I figure it out, I'll be sure to post that adventure here for you to follow. 😉

All this started back in the middle of November of 2011. The last picture ( I hope that's where it is) is a close-up of the fore-foot of the hull taken in early October, 2012. Being a wood hull, and kept out in my unheated/uncooled shop, the wood will move with temperature and humidity. If you look closely at the photo, there's a dark line along a seam - a crack! This is why I glass my hulls, at least on the outside, and coat them in resin on the inside. If any wood in the hull gets wet, it will swell, when, if it dries, it will shrink. This will cause seams to open, things to come loose, plywood to delaminate, mold and rot to take hold, and turn all your hard work to trash.
Glass cloth is to resin what rebar is to concrete. A wood hull like this doesn't need glass cloth to play that part, the planking is structural enough for that on it's own, but wood "moves" more than glass, and so the glass acts a bit like shrink-wrap, holding the wood to it's job. Plainly put - paint ain't enough!

Also, when ever something is going through the hull, like a prop-shaft for instance, I drill the hole over-sized and fill it with epoxy. When that's set-up, drill the proper sized hole in the epoxy. This way there's no bare wood that water can get too. This model will get holes drilled through the keel for rods that will hold the external ballast to the hull; that will be done in just the manner described.

As the planking progressed, the keel, fore-foot, stem, head-knee, and stern post were all fitted, and where the planking was completed, installed. Once the planking was completed, the forms were unscrewed from the build-board and the hull could be viewed upright at last.

I knocked out the transom forms, and after marking the hull at each form, to have reference marks to measure from, I knocked out every other forms mostly to see how much trouble I'd have getting them out. The hull got sanded, shaved in places, then water-puttied, sanded, puttied, etc.

Then I knocked out the rest of the forms. The inside was sanded and/or scraped, like where the putty pushed through seams. and the dust from that was brushed into any cracks, and diluted glue was painted in to further bond the planking. When that set-up, it was more sanding and clean up till I felt it was sealed up, and then the inside of the hull got a coat of resin.

During all that I saw the hull would need some frames to help hold it's shape. It seemed the tumble home wanted to flatten out. I cut the some of the removed forms into frames, (like, every other one) and epoxied them into the hull.

I made a template for the gunports and printed it on the plotter. The ends, especially the bow end, had to be extrapolated to account for the hull curving away from you relative to a flat image, so I couldn't just print the profile. As I was cutting the gunports, I noticed the squares I was cutting looked like open gunport lids, so I left them on like that. I used this to mark out the gunports and other details onto the hull. I also leveled the build-board, and then the hull on the board to mark the waterline with a block and a pencil.

Starting with the transom, the hull got a layer of 4oz glass cloth applied. This bonds, reinforces, and waterproofs the hull. It's also pretty much transparent so all the marks for gunports, waterline, etc, and completely visible. The hull was now basically, sealed.

One of the pics shows it sitting on Constellation. The 1854 Constellation's dimensions are close to Consitution's, so you can get some idea of how Macedonian compared in size to the United States.

You may have also noted that all the planking is of the same thickness; there' no wales or similar variations in planking thickness the ship would have had. That's because I always planned to glass the hull, and such changes in elevation would have created tight corners making it hard to glass over. Those details, like the wales will be applied on top of the glass, as will be detailed in the next post.

Thank you for the comments.

I'll look up Alexander Pope. I read a couple of Alexander Kent's Bolitho series and didn't like it at all. I got a full set of the Nathanial Drinkwater series by Richard Woodman at a yard-sale, and liked that very much, despite having never heard of it before.

I've built 3 of the Revell 1:96 scale Constitution kits, two of which were converted to RC and were sold and 1 United States kit which was RCed and sold as well. I have a United States kit now that I found in a thrift shop for $5 US. I started on it with the intent to make another RC model, it never got much past some painting. I sail in the rivers of the Chesapeake Bay and not in ponds or pools, so such small models bob about like corks. That's what prompted me to build large models with some weight to them.

When you go to build that kit, note that the United States no longer had that "round house" back aft by the time she fought Macedonian, and lost the "Old Wagon" nick-name by the War of 1812. Model companies aren't really any good at history, and some (Artesania Latina) are almost criminal in how bad they are.

White pine's what's in all the "lumber yards" and what I always have laying about the shop. Maryland isn't where people look for quality woods.
I build boxes and camp furniture for American Civil War reenactors, that's where the scraps come from.

The counter planked and shaped, the hull planking comes up, over-laps it, and it trimmed flush with it. A lot of it has to make a pretty hard bend, and it takes some ingenuity to brace and clamp everything till the glue sets. Notice the spring clothespins used backwards to push against the planks.

At the bow, the planks are tapered down to no-less than half their initial width. As the planking at the bow gets cramped, a plank needs to get "dropped" or cut into the plank on either side of it. Back aft, the span to be planked gets larger and "stealer planks" have to be inserted to take up the gaps.

At both bow and stern, the planking runs off the stem and stern post and is trimmed flush with those timbers, forming a flat surface for the outer stem and stern post to rest on - much the way most kits are done.

Wider planks were installed at the garboard, and a couple of planks above it, where there was a long flat run; just to speed things up a little. Eventually, the last plank (shutter plank) gets installed. There's still planking above (with the hull upright) the sheer plank, and sanding, a lot of sanding, and even some planing to do.

The drawing came digitally from the Smithsonian Institution with a printed copy in 1:48 scale. I re-scaled the drawing to 1:36 to match my Constellation. I worked out which stations I was going to use as forms, printed them on the plotter I had then, pasted the paper forms to some plywood and rough cut them out with a sabre-saw. They were sanded to the line and angled so the planking would lay flat.

Before the forms could be stood up, the build-board/bench had to be resurfaced and given a coat of flat-white paint, then marked with a center-line and station lines from the plans. Constellation and Pride of Baltimore were both built on this base, and it had gotten a bit scruffy.

Slots were cut in each form for the 1/4" plywood "keelson" or "inner keel" for you kit builders. Once stood up on the base-board, the edged of the forms were covered with painter's tabe. The forms weren't intended to remain in the model; rather the planking would be glued to itself, and when complete, the forms removed, the blue tape keeping the planking from being glued to the forms. This is how Pride was done, and Constellation was sort-of done.

The planking is all white pine scraps left over from other carpentry and cabinetry jobs, though I did have to buy another board to finish when the scraps ran out. Planking was cut to about 1cm x 3mm at whatever length that board happened to be, usually 50cm-ish.
The planks went on starting at the "sheer plank" and worked towards the keel, or "up" in the world of upside-down hulls. No attempt was made to run full-length planks, in fact, that was avoided; that way I could deal with fitting one end while the other end basically just laid on whatever form it landed on. Butts, where planks met end-to-end, were joined with little blocks inside the hull, and glued with PVA. They would hold the ends together, and get removed later on. As the planking reached the counter, that was planked up to the break of the transom.
All the planking was edge-glued to each other with water-resistant Tite-Bond II wood glue, and small common nails to hold it to the forms.

The planking is not properly spieled (shaped to fit) but simply tapered at either end with a block plane, and if need be, dipped in amonia and bent to fit. Ammonia dries quicker and doesn't interfere with gluing like water would. It also keep you from dozing off on the job.

I've been into the Hornblower series of books since elementary school, but it was C.S.Forester's The Captain From Connecticut that lead me to Horry. The first story published has Hornblower in command of the 32 gun frigate Lydia. I've always wanted to build a model of Lydia, but, of course, there were no kits or plans to be had.
My friend and I have a 16 foot Windsprite daysailer, hull #1 of 16 built, which we named Lydia. In the picture, the 20-something girl in the 40 year old boat is also named Lydia.

After starting on Constellation, i was thinking of donating or selling that model, so I wanted to build and RC square-rigger I would keep. Lydia came to mind again, but I what plan to use for a fictional ship? I decided on a British frigate and since the lines for one were in Chapelle's History of the American Sailing Navy, and getting a copy would cost under $10 US, so that's the boat I went for; HMS Macedonian of 38 guns. At 1:36 scale (like my Constellation) she would measure...
Beam: 13-1/2" (34.3cm)
Length on spar deck: 55" (140cm)
Length of the hull: 59" (150cm)
Length over the rig: 85-3/4" (218cmcm)
Draft: 6.7" (17cm) w/o ballast keel, 10.2" (26cm) w/ballast keel
Making her a little smaller than "Stella."

Later, after I'd already built the hull, I found out Lydia, of the novels, was based on the Perseverance class of frigates. One of the pics attached shows the profile of the Perseverance in front of that of the Lively class showing how small she would have been by comparison. Actually, if I had built Macedonian at 1:48 scale (which is what the plans were) she would have been very near this size.

Anyway, what's done is done, and while I don't have the ship of my fictional hero, I have a ship that was one of 16 ships built to that class. Built at Woolwich Dockyards, England, in 1809, and launched on 2 June 1810. In October of 1812 she encountered, fought, and was captured by the American frigate United States. Captain Decatur of the United States was intent on preserving his battered prize, and after two weeks floating in the Atlantic, she was repaired enough to sail to the US. She was officially taken in to the American Navy in April 1813, though she spent the remainder of the War of 1812 blockaded in the Thames River in Connecticut with United States. She was decommissioned near the end of 1828, and broken up at Gosport (Norfolk Virginia)

While not a glorious history, full of battles, the Lively Class did have great histories in battle; Lively, Resistance, Apollo, Hussar, Statira, Horatio, Spartan, Undaunted, Menelaus, Nisus, Crescent, Bacchante, Nymphe, Sirius, and Laurel. Ships that fough at Lissa, Naples, intercepting the Spanish Treasure ships, and more.

My model is a representative of a great class of frigates of the Napoleonic Wars, even if it isn't HMS Lydia.

There's a hole in the fin near it's bottom, same size as the holes towards the top of it. After the lead went in, using that hole as a guide, I drilled into, but not through, each half of the bulb. A metal rod about 6cm or so will be captured in these holes to prevent the bulb from sliding off. It will also be epoxied in when the two halves are epoxied together.
When it warms up enough to do all that, I'll post pictures of the process here.

After throwing the boat in the tub and figuring out how much weight she needs to put on to sail pretty, I had to figure out how to form that weight. I already planned an ostrich egg shaped lead bulb, but I needed to figure the size of the thing to get the weight I wanted, and then make a plug of it to sand-cast the lead.

It popped into my head to 3D model and print the form for the bulb, then I could change the size and shape to get the volume to get 25 pounds. I have 50 pounds of reclaimed lead shot laying around just for this purpose, but I don't have the tools and materials for melting and casting. Then I figured, why not make the 3D printed bulb a container for the lead, just like my Constellation uses a 2" ID PVC pipe filled with lead shot for ballast, I'll make a plastic egg shaped version of that.

I started by making a ball in Anim8or (my 3D modeling software) with it's surfaces facing inward. Then I looked up how to calculate the volume and found a nice Ellipsoid Calculator where I could plug in numbers in millimeters (what Anim8or uses) and get an answer in cubic inches (what my brain uses). Lead weighs .41 of a pound per cubic inch, meaning I need a volume of about 61 cubic inches. Playing with the numbers on the site, I settled on a=50mm, b=105mm, and c=45mm, giving me 60.62 cubic inches, or 24.9 pounds. The weight of the metal fin, the resin shell, the epoxy fill, etc should put this really close to 25 pounds.

Adjusting my 3D ball into an ellipsoid of those dimensions gave me the inner surface of my bulb. I copied that, enlarged it, and flipped the surface to face outward, giving me the outer surface of the bulb and making it slightly over 1/8" thick. I closed the gaps between the two surfaces, and added a slot and some structure for the fin to sit on. Even in two halves, it wasn't going to fit in the 3D printer, so I divided it into quarters and then I could print 2 parts, or half the bulb at a time.

Once printed, the pieces were bonded together to form a left and a right half. These were filled with lead shot, and epoxy poured into each half to bond everything together and make it solid. The fin has a hole that will be inside the bulb with a metal pin so when the halves are bonded together, that pin any chance of the bulb coming off the fin.

The two halves haven't been bonded together yet as it's been too cold in my unheated shop.

In the warm house, I've been 3D modeling boats for Constellation, and a kind of generic inflatable boat for Pride. When I was on board, Pride had four boats;
Two inflatables; a beat-up old faded red or orange one, and a new gray one meant to replace it.
The "Bequia Boat" that went into storage soon after I reported on board, and came back out just before I left the boat.
A lapstrake boat about 16 foot, that sat inverted on the stern davits my whole time aboard. I was told it would need to soak for a month to swell up, and even then it would leak like a sieve.
Aside from the orange inflatable, I'll only be modeling the stern-boat. I have a 3D model of a boat with about the right shape, I just need to scale it to size and print it.
Ellipsoid Calculator:

https://www.omnicalculator.com/math/ellipsoid-volume

The last boat for Constellation is modeled and printed. The whale-boat will hang from davits on the stern of the ship.

The next boat will be two of the same boat that hang from davits on the aft port and starboard quarters of the ship, I just call them quarter-boats.
They're slightly longer than the 2nd cutter, but not as deep a hull.

The pictures show the building of the 3D model. The halves of two boats in the slicer software. The models printed, but still in halves. The two quarter-boats with the 2nd cutter. The boats sitting in their relative spots on the main model.

I was familiar with 3D modeling, and researched how 3D printing worked a long time ago, but is wasn't till the last couple of years that reliable-ish printers got to where I could manage to buy one.
My modeling skill isn't so great, and I've yet to manage what it takes to reproduce the sort of carving shown in the attached picture, which is something I need to learn for both Constellation and Macedonian. Figures are also a skill I've yet to acquire, but I've never been good at drawing people.

Got all the details into it I'm going to do, checked for "holes" and sent it to the printer, which took about 5 hours. It's 8.5 inches (216mm) long, weights about 30 grams and cost slightly over $1 USD in resin. I'll bond the two halves together and clean up the seam, then it's on to primer and paint.

I'm modeling Constellation's boats based on 1854 drawings for her boats speciffically, that I got from the National Archives.
So far I've built the launch and 1st cutter. The launch's rail, gun mounting points, and boat howitzer are all 3D printed.

A while ago I started a "wire-frame" 3D model of the 2nd cutter, but I couldn't get the lapstrake planking right.

While working on a 3D models of Macedonian's stove, and a ballast bulb for Pride of Baltimore, I got an idea for doing the cutter, and though it's not as clean and fair as I'd like, it's getting there, and I've been making progress.

At the moment, I have 3 more ribs left of 25 to put in, seat clamps, floor-boards, and some other details, before I can send it to the printer.
The model's divided into two halves because it won't fit in the printer full size.

There' two other boats started, the "whale-boat" or stern-boat, and a pair of quarter boats, very similar to this cutter, but slightly longer.

I searched high and low to find left-handed taps and dies, or even steel screws and nuts to use as taps and dies to make the rigging-screws, with no luck at all. I've also bee searching for more information about the rigging-screws themselves, especially images.

I haven't given up, but since I've had some luck with 3D printed parts, I figured I'd see if that would be up to the task.

I just got a new 3D printer that will print larger stuff at higher resolution (more detail), and was cheaper than my original machine cost back in 2020. I think it's a little faster too. (Elegoo Mars 3)

I made a 3D model in Anim8or; printed, adjusted the model, and printed it, a couple of times. I put a couple on the model under tension to see how they hold up, and after a few days of varying October temperatures in my unheated shop, it seems to be holding up alright.

I saw some videos on YouTube about using 3D printed masters for "lost-resin casting" and looked around to see what it would cost to have these cast in brass/bronze from my STL file. While that would be a great solution to my durability concerns, so far it looks like it would cost over $900 USD to get 60 raw castings. That ain't happening unless this lottery ticket on my desk is a winner. 😉

I was going to slap together a temporary trough to float the model in to determine what the weight the bulb on her fin would need to be, but I'm either up to my neck with other stuff or too worn out to motivate myself through the shop door.

I finally put the model in the tub, in which she barely fit, and figured out the bulb will need to be 25 pounds (11kg) to sit about 1/2" below her painted water line. Adding the battery and some lead-shot bean-bags will trim her where I want her for sailing.

I'm still up in the air on how to make the bulb; whether to melt and cast the lead, or cast the lead in epoxy. I'm leaning toward the epoxy casting, and have ordered the epoxy to do the job (and to do some other jobs like repair the pram).

In either case it will be made in two halves and somewhat "wing" shaped; something like this model's, though Pride's fin is longer, wider?


Meanwhile, the masts are back in and I've been playing with the sail controls again. I seized dress hook loops to the winch lines (red arrows) to attach the sheets and figure out how to keep everything neat and untangled.

My rule-of-thumb is to glass anything that's thin, punctureable, or has seams ie; planking.

The cloth is in the resin to impart strength, like rebar in cement. Over the hull planking it has a sort-of shrink-wrap effect, holding things together, such as when seams in the planking open up due to the wood's expansion and contraction.
The keel doesn't need this sort of back-up, it basically does that job itself, but it should get well coated in resin. Inside the hull ought to get resin coated as well, even if it doesn't get cloth.

The point is that any water that gets into the wood will be adsorbed making the wood swell, which can pry things apart in extreme cases. It also may not have a way out and will cause rot and mold.

In the attached image, that crack in the seam is in the filler putty under the glass. It's not visible inside the hull, and it's not an issue at all because the glass is intact. The cloth here is 4oz which you can see the weave of in the reflection of the flash, with poly resin. The second pics is just the rest of the boat 😉

Looking at the portrait of the ship done in 1856 by Tomaso deSimone at Naples Italy, on which I'm basing my model's appearance; I discovered, while looking for something else, that she didn't have deadeyes and lanyards on her shrouds, lower or topmast.
I originally wrote this off as deSimone's corner-cutting, like how he leaves off ratlines on the far side of ships in his portraits. I figured the ship originally had dead-eyes and lanyards and was later fitted with rigging-screws, maybe around the Civil War. But the more I looked at deSimones other paintings, of Constellation and other ships, and photos of the ship after the Civil War, it seems Constellation had rigging-screws (turnbuckles) right up into 1910 or so.

So, how do I make these things? The chain plates up to the screws are the same as I've been planning, but I'm going to need taps and dies between 1mm and 2mm in both right-hand and left-hand threads to make what's shown in the little sketch, and the only left-handed tools I can find on-line are from MiniTaps and are very expensive.

A couple of 3D printed grates went into the companion way hatches, just so they wouldn't be a pair of gaping black holes. The pin rails were glued in place and holes drilled in the main mast rail for the fore-tops'l braces to pass through. The real ship had an iron band with eyes below the tops for the futtock shrouds to attach to. I didn't need these to be removable, so I simply wrapped a strip of styrene around the mast and inserted eye-pins through it. The tops themselves have also been drilled for the topmast shrouds to pass through to the futtocks.
About here I shifted work to Pride of Baltimore, but came back a couple of nights ago and glued down the hammocks on the starboard side. I tried to rig up something to cut down bass strips to 3/16 inch for the railings on the bulwarks that will hide the seam between the bulwark and the hammocks pieces. I couldn't get anything to work, so I opted to mark off the bottom with blue masking tape in two layers to form an edge to place the strip against. After being glued on, I trimmed it to to top of the hammock trays.

The outboard side of aft quarter of the starboard side is done this way so far.

Early on in Pride's career, there apparently was concern about her main boom hanging from it's lifts when the sail was down. Swinging side to side, and the weight pulling at the mast head of that sharply raked mast, probably gave somebody bad dreams. Sometime in later 77 or early 78 they installed a welded steel tube frame for the boom to rest on when the mains'l wasn't set. Because of it's construction and appearance, it was always known as the "Roll Bar."
Any model of the first Pride of Baltimore isn't complete without this identifying piece of equipment.
I originally intended to make it from brass rod (a lot easier than tubing to put together) and I may still, but I couldn't resist taking a shot at printing it in resin.
Comparing the two; brass would definitely be significantly stronger, but if it were bumped enough to be damaged, would probably do more damage to the model; rails, bulwarks, etc; than the roll-bar itself.
Resin will break with much less effort than the brass version would require, but the damage would probably be entirely taken by the resin part without much, or any, being imparted to the model. It would be easy to reprint and replace the roll-bar.
I'd probably be replacing the resin roll-bar more often than repairing the hull from the brass one taking a hit.
That said, I had to model and print a resin one, right? I made the model in two halves because it wouldn't fit in the printer in one piece. I "glued" the two halves together with some resin and a zap of UV light.

The bitts at the base of the main mast have had a rod installed for a long time intended for the winch. After printing a pair of winch drums for my friends schooner model, I thought I'd use those here, but they're a completely different style; so using photos, I model a winch drum and handle for Pride. These are nearly done printing as I type here, so I'll post those pictures in a little while.

Been away a few days, and except for a couple of days when it rained it's been 30°c or above, mostly above. In the shop it's a chilly 27°, but so humid you're drenched from the exertion of picking up a pencil.

Pride had three barrels forward of the cabin trunk in '81. I reworked and re-scaled that barrel I found on Thingiverse and printed three of them which came out very nice except re-scaling them apparently made the end too thin and they didn't print.
I'm gonna use those as napkin holders. 😉

I tried to fix the 3D model, but it was easier to just start from scratch. These three came out fine. Along with them I printed a 25mm 2-blade prop. It'll just spin on a screw since there's no longer a motor in the model.

I updated the cutaway drawing to show the new servo layout.

Not having the screws to assemble the tensioning blocks I printed, I got some 1.5mm braided polyester cord for the control loops, and used a pair of brass blocks I got from RB Model a long time ago. These were attached to springs both mounted to a screw-eye in a wood block on the fin trunk. These blocks are obviously lighter than the 25mm printed ones, so won't weigh down the loops.

Rigged up the radio gear and ran them through some tests. Except for one channel needing some reprogramming to get it's full 3.5 turns, the whole thing worked as it should.

Now I need to work out how all the sheets and things that connect to the loops will be routed and go through the deck.
To help with that I made a diagram of the model to mark out what went where. The black spots are the thru-deck positions where I'll need to install some blocking and run a brass tube through. Not shown are the main top-mast running back stays and the braces for the squares. The main-stays shown are the running main-stays typical of Baltimore-Clippers and any boat with such raked masts.
When sailing, the windward one would be brought up taught, and the leeward one slacked, and usually tied to a main shroud out of the way. The model's mast are strong enough to be unstayed, but this set-up is a signature item on a Baltimore Clipper, and a big part of the tacking procedure when I was sailing aboard, so I want it to appear functional on my model.

I gave the steering some attention as well. A pair of blocks get mounted port and starboard of the rudder servo to turn the steering cables aft. Because rudder servo's arm travels in an arc, these blocks make the most use of that travel. Confirming the position of the blocks, which are another pair of brace blocks I cobbled together for Constellation back in '16, I'm going to use screw hook/eyes rather than the brass wire eyes shown in the picture, as they're stronger.

The above-deck portion of the steering has to wait till I can fasten down the aft section of sub-deck before I can install anything.