Western River Steamboat Heroine by ggrieco - Scale 1:24 - 1838 as she appeared before hitting a snag in the Red River. - Finished

[Jack12477]

WOW, very impressive milling of those skylight panels, Glenn.  Ditto the stove .

 

Question: Are you using a butane micro torch or iron to do your soldering ?  I'm trying to learn how to solder brass - been using an iron with a tip rated at 900 F and Stay-Brite brand silver solder, but it's been a frustrating process.

[Mahuna]

Great work, Glenn!  Heroine is really looking good.

 

I'd be interested to know how you got consistent bends in the uprights.

[druxey]

Nice stove and delightful cap! I envy you having CNC milling available to make those skylight frames.

[albert]

Bravissimo Glenn.

[michael mott]

Your work with the milling is certainly impressive Glenn.

 

Michael

[Cathead]

I'd be interested to know how you got consistent bends in the uprights.

 

 

He's a wizard, that's how. Glenndalf the Gre(at) walks among us.

[Mirabell61]

beautiful metal work Glenn,

 

Nils

[BANYAN]

Wow what a comeback Glenn, I had been missing your updates.

 

Those skylights are stunning.  I will be making some for my Victoria project in the coming year and wish I had CNC. I have the mill but I don't think I would use CNC enough to get value-for-money; may need to investigate a little further noting the great results you achieve.

 

You truly are the master of metal; those 'charley nobles' look great, and a neat construction technique.  I am learning so much from following your build log; many thanks!

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Jim Lad]

Beautifully precise work as usual, Glenn!

 

John

[ggrieco]

Thanks everybody,

 

I've missed being in touch. I'm happy to finally have a free weekend to explore n MSW.

 

Thanks Jack, yes, I use a Blazer micro torch and love it. The fine flame works great for these small parts.

 

Thanks Frank. The two uprights on the front of the stove are 1/8 square tubing with two sides filed off. For the rest of the upright bends, I score the back side of the sheet and then used a fine square file to file a 90 degree notch half way through the sheet. Makes for a clean straight bend but you can only bend it once or twice before it breaks in this thin metal.

 

Thanks druxey, I still having a lot of fun learning what the mill can do. I've never used it so extensively for one model before. I'd hate to think of how long this model would have taken if I didn't use the mill.

 

Thanks Albert, Michael, Cathead, nils and John. It's good to hear from you again.

 

Thanks Pat. I look forward to following your Victoria build. I have a feeling that you'd have no problem getting value for the money out of CNC. Although, I still feel like I'm cheating when I see modelers doing higher quality work by hand.

[Roger Pellett]

I'm amazed that you are able to machine the window mullions without the cross grained areas collapsing, even using the Costello Boxwood.

 

Roger

[CDW]

I recently stayed at the Rising Star Casino in Indiana. While there, admired a beautiful scale model of the Rising Star Riverboat. I thought it was one of the finest looking models of that type of boat I had ever seen until I found your build thread.

This model is amazing. Would love to see something like this in person. 

[ggrieco]

Hello Roger, I was a little cautious before I machined the lower window frames. I wasn't sure they would hold together. I used a 1mm four flute endmill and took light passes and it cut pretty cleanly. I was surprised at how rigid the final product turned out.

 

Thank you daddyrabbit1954. I really appreciate your kind comment!

[S.Coleman]

Hey that looks great. I have been looking in ever since this build started and have been most impressed each time. Well done.

[ggrieco]

Thank so much Scott!

[ggrieco]

Hello everybody,

 

I was was starting to feel a little burnt out trying to catch up with model two so I had to take a little break for the Holidays.  I was able to get the tarred roof on and the chimneys completed but, never got a chance to post.  Sorry for leaving many steps out trying to catch up.

 

For the tarred roof I used silk.  I experimented with several adhesives but finally settled on shellac.  One very thin application to penetrate the wood.  Then a second heavier coat to provide a layer to bond to.  I was a little concerned that I would never be able to get the wrinkles out but, after laying the silk on the roof and brushing with shellac, the silk pulled itself to the prepared surface like a magnet.  I was able to apply the entire roof in about 30 minutes.  The shellac dries to an almost glass hard surface and bonds quite well.

 

 

Test piece wood with silk applied.  The silk was originally blue but, somehow changed to dark black the moment the shellac made contact.  I have no idea about the physics of it but it saved me from having to paint the entire surface.

 

Completed tarred roof on the model.

 

Ground glazing installed on the skylights.

 

To make the chimneys as rigid as possible, I used an oak dowel as a core.

 

wooden rings were used as spacers between the top ends of the chimney segments and the dowels.  The lower edge of the segment fit tightly over the segment just below it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The chimneys required three guy wires each for support.  We had plenty of illustrations but only a couple showed the location of all three.  Information was combined from several illustrations. 

 

The Ouachita

 

Delphine

 

Homer

 

Napoleon

 

Yellow Stone

 

Selma

 

Bands for the guy wires.

[

 

Blackened bands

 

Guy wires in place.

Machined pieces of the pawl rims.

 

Completed pawl rims waiting for their pawls.

[Jack12477]

Welcome back Glenn, your weekly posts have been missed.  Beautiful work on the roof, chimneys, pawls and window glazing.

[Cathead]

Yay! Wonderful collection of illustrations, thank you for that. Do you know anything more about the jackstaff design for the Yellowstone and Napoleon? I've never seen one like that, with the two-part structure first angled forward then aft? Seems much fussier than the standard vertical jackstaff, why would they do it that way? Which style are you using for Heroine?

 

 

Also, how did you get the silk to sit so perfectly against and around all the various skylight corners, etc? Everything looks great, and I appreciate you continuing to put the work into keeping us updated.

[druxey]

So nice to see you back and the terrific progress you are making. Interesting shellac/silk technique that you've used, Glenn.

[dvm27]

Missed your updates, Glenn, The roof looks terrific!

 

Is your live stream up and running http://nautarch.tamu.edu/model/

[michael mott]

Glenn beautiful work on the roof and chimneys. The work on the mast bands using the CNC certainly gives great results. The method of machining them out this way gives me the same concern as when I fretted out with a jewelers saw the mast-cap out of some solid brass, it seems that there is a far larger amount of brass that goes into the scrap box that when these parts are fabricated or cast.

 

We all make these sorts of decisions and choices and I am not being critical of the method, it occurs to me though that as we invent "better" ways of doing things there are always consequences. No matter what methods we employ the embedded energy in the materials and methods bear thinking about especially when we "replicate" artifacts from our past.

 

I am starting to ask my self more "how would my forebears have tackled this problem" given my current understanding and knowledge of the technology of their time, which by its nature is a moving target.

 

Regards Michael

[Landrotten Highlander]

All I can say is WOW.......just........wow.

[BANYAN]

Great to see you back and obviously refreshed from your holidays Glenn.  That is a great technique you came up with for the tarred roof, looks very authentic.  The model looks great and is a testament to your skills.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Jim Lad]

That really is a work of art, Glenn.

 

John

[ggrieco]

Thanks everyone,

 

Thanks Jack, druxey, Landrotten Highlander, Pat and John for your kind comments.

 

Thanks Cathead. Kevin went with the angled arrangement as on the Yellowstone for his reconstruction so I will be using it. I wondered about the reason as well. Recently, a visitor asked the same question and I thought about asking Kevin but then forgot about it. I'll try to remember to ask Kevin why he went with it on Tuesday.

As for the silk, I had no idea that it would work as well as it did. The silk was very wrinkled and I was sure that I would need to stretch it or at least weight the edges to make it smooth. The wetted fabric seem to have some affinity for the shellacked surface and sucked itself up to it. I used no weights or stretching of any kind and the fabric held itself in place instantaneously. I used one piece and cut the openings as soon as it dried. Not a wrinkle in sight and securely attached to every surface it touched. I love working with shellac and have always been impressed with its qualities but had no idea that this would work so well.

 

Thanks Greg, We tried to get the webcam up and running but we're still having some troubles with it. After fiddling with it, it will work for a short while and then it will just stop for no apparent reason. If we ever get it to work consistently, l'll mention it in a post.

 

Thanks Michael, yes, I found it painful to waste so much brass to make the bands. To make the situation even worse, the bands could have been cut from 1/4 inch brass but I was out of 1/4 stock and had to cut it from 3/8 inch instead. I had to face the back side to get the proper thickness I needed - a real waste of expensive brass. CNC was an expedient for me but, the band could have easily been made from a strip of brass and drilled for eyebolts. Actually, in hindsight, it might have been easier (and more authentic)! I'm afraid I might have gotten a bit lazy and took the easy and wasteful way out. The archaeologist in me just took a backseat to the engineer. I was trying to show-off what the mill can do and compromised the artifact! I appreciate and totally agree with your comments, I will definitely try to be truer to the original techniques as I proceed.

[EdT]

Beautiful work, Glenn, and some really nice ideas here.

 

Ed

[Mahuna]

Been waiting for another of your great posts, and this one didn't disappoint!  Your work on Heroine is beautiful. 

[Blighty]

Unbelievable, so skilled.

Edited February 11, 2017 by Blighty

[kees de mol]

Very beautifull and I like the different tools and techniques you use to build it.

[dvm27]

For those of you who enjoy following Glenn's building log I'm sure you also miss his updates. Glenn's profession is actually building model ships (which should come as no surprise to anyone here) and he has been very busy trying to complete several projects and preparing for new ones. As much as he enjoys posting on this site, there literally are no enough hours in the day for him to do his job and keep us up to date on his progress. But he will return as soon as he gets caught up and wishes everyone the best. Perhaps it's not ideal when your hobby becomes your profession!