Wow, one year and 4 days to complete this project. I never expected it to take this long. Frankly, I'm relieved that my part in this is over, I've been a little stressed over it. Now I just get to sit back and watch y'all build.
Very heavy packaged delivered. Have to wait until this weekend to open for fear of another project THAT MUST BE DONE NOW
I've been getting some questions on putting together the Constitution, so I thought I would share them here for the benefit and input of all. For the fill around the water channel, balsa and foam are both good options. Balsa or blocks of foam can be used before you sheet the hard area, or even in place of the sheeting. I tend to use a two-part expanding foam when building my ships. I sheet first, and then fill as much as I can with the foam, and finish it off with self-leveling polyurethane concrete sealer. The foam I use is made by Alumilite and I can get it at my local Hobby Lobby. Expanding insulation foam can also be used. Both types are messy and hard to use, but I find the two-part foam slightly easier than the cans. You may want to put off filling under the water channel until late in the build. I suspect that some ballast will be needed inside the ship and this will be the best area to add it. I just don’t know how much is needed until we know how much the equipment will weigh. I believe the winches are split between the square sails and the fore and aft sails. Hopefully someone else will chime in here with more information.
You need to control the foremast with one servo and the main and mizzen mast with the other. You must be able to have the foremast face the opposite direction from the main and mizzen to perform some maneuvers. The sliding trays are used to help maintain tension on the sheets as the geometry changes while you rotate the yards, but that's not needed for the fore and aft sails. The fore and aft sails can be tied in to one of the servos for the square sails if you want, or you can use a third servo that is not on a sliding tray. My smaller plastic Constitution doesn't have control over the fore and aft sails at all, I just maintain a constant tension on the lines.
New guy here! I'm a scale boater, who is interested in square riggers. I found this site via Mark, who pointed me here after I inquired about his Constitution kit. I read the entrire thread through in one sitting-- fascinating stuff here! I've never done RC combat, but I was exposed to through clubmates back when I lived in the Seattle area. I have not (yet!) built an RC square rigger, but I do have full scale sailing experience on one- the USCG Eagle. Some thoughts on the sailing part of the discussion: I haven't seen much discussion about which sails to set-- that will have a big impact on how handily your ship maneuvers. Ships of that age usually reduced to "Fighting Sail" in a battle-- it frees up hands to work the guns, and with fewer sails set, it takes less time to do maneuvers. I think fighting sail would be appropriate for RC combat as well-- the boat will be moving slower, and maneuvers like tacking will take a lot less coordination on the sticks. In general fighting sail is the spanker, a couple of jibs, and the topsails-- everything else is furled. (The topsails are the lowest square sails on the mast that have another yard under them. Wearing a square rigger is much easier to do than tacking- because you are turning away from the wind. Tacking, on the other hand, is a complicated bit of seamanship, and if you screw it up, you can get caught "in irons", helplessly sitting there with your bow pointed into the wind, and no forward motion. If you are only going to wear when you change direction, all the yards can be operated together. When you tack, you need to be able to brace the foremast's yards around to the opposite tack of the main and mizzen-- essentially setting them at a reverse angle like a deflector, to help the wind push the bow through and off the wind. When to brace them is the tricky part-- brace the fore yards around too soon, and they act like a giant brake-- wait too long and they may stop you from getting the bow through wind..... I'm trying to keep my salty language to a minimum-- my apologies if my jargon has lost anyone. I'll happily explain more if I can .... Finally, someone recommended "Eagle Seamanship" -- it is an excellent book. Eagle is Barque-rigged (no square sails on the mizzen) but that doesn't really matter, as the Main and mizzen sails will pretty mush always need to move in tandem. It gives you detailed steps on tacking and wearing-- how to manage the sails. It is cheap, too!. Looking forward to reading more about your experiences with this kit/model.....
There are at least 10 kits out there, but I suspect that builders just haven't found the time to work on them.
My father has the original kit that Mark assembled, he is working to have it on the water by our clubs May battle. I also have one of his kits that has been partially assembled in the attempts to slightly modify it to make a little different ship. I also have been working on my First rate, which is also planned on being on the water in May. perhaps we will see the first AOS battle..
From your long slumber, from the icy depths, arise! I resurrect you, O Mighty Thread about USS Constitution! Arise and see the light of day again, for your work is not yet done. Another builder stands ready to challenge you! Now that that's out of the way, I've got a couple questions. What is a reasonable sized CO2 bottle for a heavily-armed ship like the Constitution? Remember, this monster is supposed to carry 12x 50-round cannons. That's a LOT of firepower... Next question... what is a reasonable weight estimate for the cannons? Reason I'm asking is that I have two of these superb kits. For the first one, I intend to do as much assembly as possible prior to installing the cannons. Ideally I want to sail the ship a few times to get a feel for handling characteristics before deciding on specifics about the cannon arrangement. I plan on installing everything except the cannons themselves, so I'll put in CO2 bottle, solenoids, gun decks and elevation mechanism, etc. But I'll still need a reasonable substitute weight for the cannons themselves, so I can properly ballast the ship, or at least the major parts like the weighted keel.
12 guns and solenoids, how big is this ship? A six gun ship in IRC carries a 9 0r 12 ounce tank. so I would say two of those.
