Black Seas American 44-gun Frigate USS United States

One of the original six frigates authorized by Congress on 27 March 1794, United States was designed by Joshua Humphreys and Captain Thomas Truxton, built in Philadelphia, and launched on 10 May 1797. She was commissioned on Jully 11 with Revolutionary War hero Captain John Barry in command. She was the first of the six frigates launched, beating Constellation by four months, and Constitution by five and a half months. After fitting out she was ordered to sea on July 3, 1798. United States had a long and colorful history. Attached is the link to an excellent report of her long service history.  https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/ships/original-frigates/frigate-united-states.html

• Armament: 32 x 24 pdr long guns, 24 x 42 pounder carronades (War of 1812)
• Compliment 400 - 600 officers, enlisted men, 50 Marines
• Displacement 1576 tons
• Length 175'10", Breadth 44'8", Depth of Hold 21'2"   

The build for Warlord Games' Black Seas USS United States went pretty smoothly with no great issues. After identifying what I felt was missing from the kit and how I wanted to deal with it, everything progressed nicely. I should mention drilling. I drilled more rigging holes on this model than any other I have ever built! The resin used by Warlord is lovely to drill, no shards, no splinters, no bulged rims, just a bit of powder easily blown away. So I went crazy with holes. Another issue, one I mentioned in the last post, was that the quarter boats and davits supplied did not fit the model, and use of them would prevent using any mizzen ratlines. So I created new davits to fit on either side of the mizzen channels and used 3D printed boats rather than the flat bottomed boats that came with the model. There were no stern boat davits either so I made those too and added a Captain's gig to hang from them. I went with regular printer paper for the sales this time and, rather than stain them, I decided the new United States frigate would have crisp new white sails.

Scratch built masts with more realistically scaled tops. I used the oversized spanker boom and gaff that was supplied with the kit.

Tying on the spars. I decided to have full courses rather than the furled course sails.

Shaping the sails after dipping them in a PVA/water/paint mix

Mounting more spars and sails. I have also added the stern boat davits here.

Starting to add some standing rigging

Ratlines mounted and more rigging done. Stacked boats added to the waist and quarter boat davits installed on either side of the mizzen ratlines

All of the boat davits visible here

Nearly done, just the anchors, stern boat, base and flagging to do yet.

The finished Ship