ChrisLBren

That looks great Ben - nice work !!!!

More Finessing and getting closer each time.
 

Hello again everyone,
 
160 years ago today, December 12, 1862, the USS Cairo had her rendezvous with destiny. While patrolling the Yazoo River about six miles north of Vicksburg Mississippi, Commander Thomas O. Selfridge and his crew of 175 men were on a torpedo (mine) clearing mission along with another City-Class iron clad the USS Pittsburgh, the Union Ram Queen of the West and two other tin clads, the Marmora & the Signal.
Roughly four hours into the mission, two loud explosions in rapid succession, rocked the Cairo tearing a huge hole in her portside bow. As the forward hold started to fill with water, Commander Selfridge ordered his pilot to run the ship aground on the east bank of the river. Once the ship was on the bank he ordered part of the crew to secure a hawser to tree on the riverbank and the rest of the crew to abandon ship. 12 minutes after the explosions doomed the Cairo, she slipped her hawser and slid into her muddy resting place for the next 100 years. Not a single life was lost.
 
In 1956 Edwin Bearss and two associates, Warren Grabau and Don Jacks, discovered the wreck and set out on a mission of their own to pull the Cairo from the muddy riverbed. On December 12, 1964, 102 years to the day of her sinking, the final piece of the sunken Ironclad was set on top of the recovery barge. The wreckage was then towed to Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula Mississippi where the pieces were to be reassembled, tagged and catalogued. 
 
Finally in 1977, after several years of neglect, red tape and debate, funding was secured and what remained of the Cairo was transported to Vicksburg National Military Park where she, along with the thousands of artifacts recovered with her, could permanently be displayed properly. In November of 1980 the Cairo reassembly was completed, the protective shelter built and the museum was opened to the public.
 
I first saw the Cairo in the fall of 1984 when I was a Boy Scout. Our troop had taken a trip Vicksburg to hike the park tour road as part of some of our merit badge requirements. A few months prior to our visit, I had just finished my first ship model, Revell’s 1:96 scale USS Constitution. This was the model that started my life long love of model shipbuilding. I still recall as we came down the hill to the Cairo museum and I fist laid eyes on the display, I said to myself that one day I am going to build that ship.
 
A photograph from my first visit to the Cairo in 1984.

Well time passed and life went on, but that thought still remained in the back of my mind that one day I would get around to building my model of the Cairo. In 2011, I moved away from plastic models and started my first wooden ship model, ironically enough it was the USS Constitution cross section. Since that time I have been hooked and have not looked back. In 2014, on our way back from Parris Island, SC to see my daughter graduate from Marine Corps Boot Camp, the Admiral and I decided to take a side trip to Vicksburg NMP. It was then that my interest in the USS Cairo was renewed and I was finally determined that the build was going to happen one way or another. So I searched and searched, but could not find a model kit of the Cairo that I personally felt was good enough (or big enough) to feed my desire to fulfill my dream. So I decided that it was going to have to be a scratch build. Well with only three years of wooden ship building under my belt, I felt that my skills were just not there yet, so I set out to hone my skills by completing more model kits until I felt the time was right.
 
During my Chaperon build, I did a lot of additional research and I added a lot of extra scratch-built details that I had found from contemporary photos of her and from a lot of help from people here on MSW. So in 2020, after completing my Chaperon kit I felt that I had enough practice under my belt that it was time to knuckle down and start a full scratch build. In my mind there was no debating that the Cairo was going to be that build. So here it is, after 38 years of dreaming and over 2 ½ years of work, my final product of the USS Cairo City-Class Ironclad circa 1862.
 










I want to thank all of those who have stopped by to have a look and those who have stuck with me through this build, offering up your suggestions, comments and words of encouragement. It means so much to me to have you following along. I’ll have better pictures coming soon for the Gallery. My daughter works with a professional photographer that is going to do a shoot for me. She is a bit tied up through the holidays, but hopefully after the new year I should have some good ones to add.
 
I am going to take a short break through the holidays, I need to have a procedure done that will put me out of commission for a few weeks, but I need to get it done this year so insurance will pay for it. After that, I will be back at it. I’ve got another scratch build planned that is a bit outside of my wheelhouse, but it should be fun.
 
Thank you all!
-Brian

Congrats Mark !!!!!

Looks really nice Tobias !!!!

I've continued to work my way aft building one section at a time. Still some clean up and touch up needed.
 

Looks really nice Tobias !!!!

Looks really nice Tobias !!!!

Looks really nice Tobias !!!!

Congrats Mark !!!!!

I send you a link of a diaporama of finished Saint Philippe :
 
Gallery of finished Saint Philipp

Hi Jeff,
 
I just started my Granado and in response to your December 19th, 2021, post, I am also finding that getting the glue joints perfectly square is quite difficult. I am in awe of the modelers that get these joint perfect. I am hoping the stem pieces are the most difficult and the job will get easier as time goes by. Thanks for doing the build thread. It will be very helpful.

To No Idea: As garyshipwrighter  partially answered you, the small blocks are intended as a stop for gammoning and collars (fore stay, fore preventer stay, inner and outer bobstay) - see enclosed picture.
I finished all the masts and tried installing them on the model.

Good Morning !
 
The construction site is now completed.  It is composed of a Melamine board 48 by 16 by 3/4 thick I liquid nailed to 1/1/4 Red Oak Stair Balusters.  It is dead level.  The rest of the structure is 3/4 MDF and 1/4 MDF for the upper platform with the usual 1/4 threaded rods.  I abandoned both the 3/4 inch birch plywood board screwed into the same oak balusters - it was not as level - and a 3/4 thick MDF board glued to 3/4 square battens.  I will use the 3/4 MDF as a moveable platform for the plans.  
 
My Taig milled arrived this week as well.  I chose the Taig as I was able to purchase a refurbished unit with the same warranty as new for a discount to list.  It comes stock to run at 10000rpm to cut wood with the upgraded motor.  I love its weight as 80lbs and the x travels a full 12 inches.  Its an amazing tool built with the same craftsmanship as my Byrnes machines.   Most of the Sherline accessories will fit it.  While not necessary to build this ship (I do love collecting tools though!) - it will certainly make the complicated and large structures of the bow and stern at this scale hopefully easier to realize.  Its first task will be to cut the rabbets into the keel parts.    



 

This looks fantastic - I can't believe what some of you guys can do with plastic models.  Awe inspiring !!!!

This looks fantastic - I can't believe what some of you guys can do with plastic models.  Awe inspiring !!!!

Nice work !!!!!
 
Also I noticed you have a Foredom - mine arrives tomorrow and hopefully will help with the stern parts !  

This looks fantastic - I can't believe what some of you guys can do with plastic models.  Awe inspiring !!!!

This looks fantastic - I can't believe what some of you guys can do with plastic models.  Awe inspiring !!!!

This looks fantastic - I can't believe what some of you guys can do with plastic models.  Awe inspiring !!!!

This looks fantastic - I can't believe what some of you guys can do with plastic models.  Awe inspiring !!!!

No Idea, I’ve been so intimidated by your incredible build that I confess I couldn’t look anymore as I fear I would have given up on my far more inferior efforts.  However I am at last at the rigging stage with my 1/36 Le Rochefort. Hope you don’t mind me sharing my ship.
Don’t look too closely as there are a lot of little errors. 

Probably the most difficult part to produce so far - Wing Transom.  I used every tool in my shop (mill, all the sanders and chisels).  I left off the dove tails in the rear of the part as it may make aligning the legs of the stern trickier later.  They really aren't necessary for the structure and the risk of screwing up my third attempt at this part isn't worth it ! 

A small update.
Thank you for your likes and encouragement.
Slowly but steadily there are more rows.

 

 

 
 

I was looking at the alignment of 3 ships... is that enough to call it: Ships of the line?