_SalD_

I have not posted for a few days but work has continued.  I spent quite several nights filling holes and cracks and sanding the hull.  After the first round of filling and sanding; I applied a clear, acrylic sealer and let it dry.  This seemed to "stiffen" the hull planks and make it easier to fill the smaller cracks and holes.  Next I primed the hull, gave it a final sanding with 320 grit and marked the waterline.  While I admire the copper bottom that SalD applied; I decided to go with a hull red paint that was included with the kit combo package from Model Expo.  I carefully masked off the water line using Tamiya flexible masking tape and brushed on the Model Expo paint.  It is quite "creamy" but I decided not to thin.  It went on smoothly and flowed well.  I was happy with the finish.  I also primed and gave a single coat of white to the inner bulwarks and then stopped.   I decided that I would wait until the decking was installed before completing painting the bulwarks.
     Next came construction of the exterior hull pieces that will make up the lower and upper paddlewheels.  For the first time I ran into some difficulty with understanding the instruction booklet.  I came up with a few questions regarding positioning of various parts that the photos just did not do justice.  I looked at the build logs of a couple of Harriet Lanes in this forum and they were quite helpful.  Being able to look at other builds of your current build is a HUGE help.   I also deviated from the recommended paint scheme of the lower paddlewheels.  The booklet and kit photos call for the entire structure to be painted black.  I decided to paint the wheels red and the paddles brown to simulate a natural wood finish.  Not scale; but I like the way the paddlewheels stand out from the hull.
     With the lower paddlewheels installed; I began work on the deck.  This task was both easier and more difficult that I expected.  A lot of very careful fitting and shaving is required.  This was the first time I ran into a kit piece that did not fit well.  I wish Model Shipways had made the decking pieces a bit oversized and let me do the fitting.  Once the decking was installed I ran a strip at the bottom of the bulwarks to "hide" the gaps that had appeared.  Not perfect; but I am satisfied.  The last step was to give the bulwarks a final sanding and then several coats of white paint.  Quite a bit of masking is required.
     I have kind of hit a milestone.  The hull and main decking is complete.  From here forward most everything else I build will be built above the deck.
 

Thanks again rcmdrvr for the kind words.  The reason I coppered the hull was, first, I find it enjoyable and second, if you believe it, I find it easier than painting.  It's just a matter of personal taste.

Paddle box upper sections and Water closets:
The upper paddle boxes and water closets were assembled using the mini-miter box again to keep the pieces square.
 
 
The paddle box covers were shaped and glued.  Covers were shaped to fit using the stream iron after the top end was glued to the paddle box frame.  The water closet sections were glued together and sanded as per the instructions using my favorite sanding tool.  The sander works well you just need to be careful and not be too aggressive.  I use 240 girt paper
 

 
Pieces dry fit together.
 


 
My wife and I, and dog, will be driving back up to Connecticut for the summer soon, so this will be my last post for a while.  Once there it shouldn’t take too long to get posting again.
 

Paddle box upper sections and Water closets:
The upper paddle boxes and water closets were assembled using the mini-miter box again to keep the pieces square.
 
 
The paddle box covers were shaped and glued.  Covers were shaped to fit using the stream iron after the top end was glued to the paddle box frame.  The water closet sections were glued together and sanded as per the instructions using my favorite sanding tool.  The sander works well you just need to be careful and not be too aggressive.  I use 240 girt paper
 

 
Pieces dry fit together.
 


 
My wife and I, and dog, will be driving back up to Connecticut for the summer soon, so this will be my last post for a while.  Once there it shouldn’t take too long to get posting again.
 

Paddle box upper sections and Water closets:
The upper paddle boxes and water closets were assembled using the mini-miter box again to keep the pieces square.
 
 
The paddle box covers were shaped and glued.  Covers were shaped to fit using the stream iron after the top end was glued to the paddle box frame.  The water closet sections were glued together and sanded as per the instructions using my favorite sanding tool.  The sander works well you just need to be careful and not be too aggressive.  I use 240 girt paper
 

 
Pieces dry fit together.
 


 
My wife and I, and dog, will be driving back up to Connecticut for the summer soon, so this will be my last post for a while.  Once there it shouldn’t take too long to get posting again.
 

Paddle box upper sections and Water closets:
The upper paddle boxes and water closets were assembled using the mini-miter box again to keep the pieces square.
 
 
The paddle box covers were shaped and glued.  Covers were shaped to fit using the stream iron after the top end was glued to the paddle box frame.  The water closet sections were glued together and sanded as per the instructions using my favorite sanding tool.  The sander works well you just need to be careful and not be too aggressive.  I use 240 girt paper
 

 
Pieces dry fit together.
 


 
My wife and I, and dog, will be driving back up to Connecticut for the summer soon, so this will be my last post for a while.  Once there it shouldn’t take too long to get posting again.
 

Thanks again rcmdrvr for the kind words.  The reason I coppered the hull was, first, I find it enjoyable and second, if you believe it, I find it easier than painting.  It's just a matter of personal taste.

Work continues.  Thought I would post a few photos of the planking process.  The planking in this kit is laser cut on 1/32" sheet.  This really cuts down on the cutting, fitting and shaping.  Each strake (there are 10) consists of 3 pieces (fore, aft and center).  Generally the fore and aft pieces require soaking in water before fitting on the hull.  I used a 1" diameter PVC pipe, plugged at one end, tipped on end (vertical) and filled with water.   Just drop each planking piece into the tube to soak.  Worked well.  I soaked the fore and aft pieces for about 10 minutes before fitting and gluing to the hull.  I used CA for the adhesive.  I did have a bit of trouble with the some of the planking bowing between the frames.  I tried steaming or adding a reinforcing piece behind the bows.  This worked most of the time but there are still areas that are slightly bowed.  Hopefully this will not be too conspicuous.
 
The next step was to cover the planked hull with spackling paste and sand, sand, sand.  I used spackling paste because it is inexpensive and sands easily.  Next step, plank the inner bulwark.  This went very easily until I reached the stern where the curve is quite severe.  The provided pieces (again, 1/32" sheet) were soaked about 20 minutes and then carefully bent around the curve.  I did not use heat, just slow bending by pressing the pieces against the bulwark.  Some triming at each end was required.  I cemented these pieces by brushing alphic resin (wood glue) on the piece.
 
  The following photos are of the hull during the planking process, the first round of spacking and sanding and fitting of the inner bulwark planking:
 
 

Alistair, very interesting method for aging the copper plates.  I just might have to try it out on my current build.  The one thing I'm not sure about however is which morning pee I should use, the 1AM or the 3AM or the 5AM or the 7AM.😉

I like the look of your coppered hull but I also like the look of the painted hull that is on the cover of the box.  I am not sure if I want to follow in your footsteps and copper the hull or paint........decisions, decisions, decisions.  I am following your build as you are doing a great job as a guide; keep up the good work!

Paddle box lower sections:
The lower paddle box sections are made up of two forming pieces separated by a spacer.  Assembling these pieces is pretty straight forward, you just need to pay close attention to their correct orientation.
 
Spacer glued in place.

 
Glued the second forming piece to the spacer.  Only thing I had to keep them lined up and vertical was my mini miter box.

 
The wrapping pieces were centered and glued to the front of the paddle boxes.  After the glue dried I used my wife's 'plank bender' to steam and bend the pieces to fit around the sides of the paddle boxes. 

Wrapping pieces were then glued to the sides of the paddle boxes and held in place with rubber bands.

 
Sponson deck sections:
While I was working on the paddle boxes sections I also glued the two sponson decks together.  I wasn't quite sure which square holes to use to align these pieces as called for in the instructions because none of them seemed to line up properly.  What I used was the small round hole at the end of the pieces that seemed to position the pieces in their correct orientation relative to each other.  Used a drill bit for the alignment pin.

 
 
 

Paddle box lower sections:
The lower paddle box sections are made up of two forming pieces separated by a spacer.  Assembling these pieces is pretty straight forward, you just need to pay close attention to their correct orientation.
 
Spacer glued in place.

 
Glued the second forming piece to the spacer.  Only thing I had to keep them lined up and vertical was my mini miter box.

 
The wrapping pieces were centered and glued to the front of the paddle boxes.  After the glue dried I used my wife's 'plank bender' to steam and bend the pieces to fit around the sides of the paddle boxes. 

Wrapping pieces were then glued to the sides of the paddle boxes and held in place with rubber bands.

 
Sponson deck sections:
While I was working on the paddle boxes sections I also glued the two sponson decks together.  I wasn't quite sure which square holes to use to align these pieces as called for in the instructions because none of them seemed to line up properly.  What I used was the small round hole at the end of the pieces that seemed to position the pieces in their correct orientation relative to each other.  Used a drill bit for the alignment pin.

 
 
 

Paddle box lower sections:
The lower paddle box sections are made up of two forming pieces separated by a spacer.  Assembling these pieces is pretty straight forward, you just need to pay close attention to their correct orientation.
 
Spacer glued in place.

 
Glued the second forming piece to the spacer.  Only thing I had to keep them lined up and vertical was my mini miter box.

 
The wrapping pieces were centered and glued to the front of the paddle boxes.  After the glue dried I used my wife's 'plank bender' to steam and bend the pieces to fit around the sides of the paddle boxes. 

Wrapping pieces were then glued to the sides of the paddle boxes and held in place with rubber bands.

 
Sponson deck sections:
While I was working on the paddle boxes sections I also glued the two sponson decks together.  I wasn't quite sure which square holes to use to align these pieces as called for in the instructions because none of them seemed to line up properly.  What I used was the small round hole at the end of the pieces that seemed to position the pieces in their correct orientation relative to each other.  Used a drill bit for the alignment pin.

 
 
 

Paddle box lower sections:
The lower paddle box sections are made up of two forming pieces separated by a spacer.  Assembling these pieces is pretty straight forward, you just need to pay close attention to their correct orientation.
 
Spacer glued in place.

 
Glued the second forming piece to the spacer.  Only thing I had to keep them lined up and vertical was my mini miter box.

 
The wrapping pieces were centered and glued to the front of the paddle boxes.  After the glue dried I used my wife's 'plank bender' to steam and bend the pieces to fit around the sides of the paddle boxes. 

Wrapping pieces were then glued to the sides of the paddle boxes and held in place with rubber bands.

 
Sponson deck sections:
While I was working on the paddle boxes sections I also glued the two sponson decks together.  I wasn't quite sure which square holes to use to align these pieces as called for in the instructions because none of them seemed to line up properly.  What I used was the small round hole at the end of the pieces that seemed to position the pieces in their correct orientation relative to each other.  Used a drill bit for the alignment pin.

 
 
 

Paddle box lower sections:
The lower paddle box sections are made up of two forming pieces separated by a spacer.  Assembling these pieces is pretty straight forward, you just need to pay close attention to their correct orientation.
 
Spacer glued in place.

 
Glued the second forming piece to the spacer.  Only thing I had to keep them lined up and vertical was my mini miter box.

 
The wrapping pieces were centered and glued to the front of the paddle boxes.  After the glue dried I used my wife's 'plank bender' to steam and bend the pieces to fit around the sides of the paddle boxes. 

Wrapping pieces were then glued to the sides of the paddle boxes and held in place with rubber bands.

 
Sponson deck sections:
While I was working on the paddle boxes sections I also glued the two sponson decks together.  I wasn't quite sure which square holes to use to align these pieces as called for in the instructions because none of them seemed to line up properly.  What I used was the small round hole at the end of the pieces that seemed to position the pieces in their correct orientation relative to each other.  Used a drill bit for the alignment pin.

 
 
 

I started working on the walking beam engine by first modeling the walking beam.  The dimensions were taken by scaling the drawing.
 

 
Building the model laying flat
 

 
 

 
Nice thing about 3D models is that you can build parts in any order and put them in place.
 

 
 
Next I modeled the support frame for the beam based on the drawing dimensions.
 
Bearings at the top of the frame that supports the beam.
 

 
The main vertical members are 12”x12” timber.  For the bracing tie rods I used 1 ½” diameter rods.
 

 

 
beam in frame, still need to add the main support shaft.
 

 
 
As a side note I made a little virtual walkthrough around the relief valve that I posted but you couldn't play it, so I deleted it.  I guess you can’t post videos here.

I couldn’t find too much information on what the boiler would look like so I took some artist liberties.  From the drawings I knew its diameter and length, stack location and the stack height and diameter.  I wasn’t sure about the number or location of the doors used to load the coal so I guessed at two.
 


 
 
I also took some liberties and added a pressure gauge and sight glass.  I always made fun of the designers at work when they added nuts and bolts to pieces of equipment that would never be seen when you printed out the drawing but now I know why they did it, it's fun.
 


 
 
Boiler fit on the plans
 

 
Boiler in the ship
 

Next I decided to work on the paddlewheels.  I started with the crank arm with dimensions taken from the drawing.  I also learnt that the length of the arm will be half of the stroke length.  So with a stroke of 14’ the arm is 7 feet long.
 

 
The flanges for the paddlewheel arms were next. Followed by the shaft.
 


 
The buckets (paddles) on the paddlewheel are 8’-3” long by 2’-4” wide.  There are 13 main buckets and 13 intermediate buckets per wheel.  The wheel was 29’-4” in diameter and rotated at a speed of 17rpm.
 
One question I had about the buckets is; are they made of one piece of wood 28” wide or of three planks 9 1/4” wide?
 

 
 
After making one set of the main and intermediate buckets it was very simple to array (copy) them 13 times around the center hub.  Iron bands were added as shown on the drawings.
 



 
After one paddlewheel was completed it was just a matter of copying it to the other side for the complete paddlewheel assemble
 

 
I like this view.
 

 
wheels set in the hull
 

I don’t know if this next step is 100% correct but for easy of installing the main deck beams I thought I would run them across the top of the bulwarks and hull in one piece.  The main deck floor beams are 4”x 6” (1/16”x3/32”) and are equally spaced at 2’-4 ½”.  These were made from extruded shapes placed on top of the hull and bulkheads.
 
 


 
 
 
An 8”x10” (1/8”x5/32”) guard timber was placed around the perimeter of the deck beams and faced with a 2” x 10” (1/32”x5/32”) plank.  Wales were added at the top of the hull following the sheer and deck beam braces were added
 
 

 
 
The deck itself was constructed using a surface command and given a thickness of 2”.  For clarity the decking won’t be shown to often.
 
 

Now, because the ships engine will be such a defining part of the actual model my thinking right now is to make room for it in the hull.  To do that a portion of some of the bulkheads, and of the BF will need to be cut away.  The plan is to do cut them out after all the hull planking is complete so the model is sturdier. 
 
This picture shows the area required for the boiler and engine.
 

 
 
Bulkheads and BF cut away.
 

 
 
Then I thought, to help stiffen the hull, walls should be added to form out the engine compartment, although not part of the actual ship.
 

For those of you who have been directed here from my Armenia build in the ‘Build Logs for SCRATCH SHIP MODEL PROJECTS’, please bear with me.  For those of you not coming from that build link I will be developing a 3-D model of the Hudson River sidewheeler, Armenia.  Briefly, the Armenia (1847-1886) was built by Thomas Collyer, New York. She had a wood hull with an overall length of 187 feet, a molded beam of 28 feet with an extreme beam of 50 feet with a depth of 8 feet 6 inches. She displaced 391 tons. She was powered by a Henry Dunham vertical (walking) beam engine. The paddlewheels are 29 feet 4 inches in diameter by 8 feet 3 inch wide.  I will be following drawings, by F. Van Loon Ryder dated 1954, 1/8” (1:96) scale, resized to 3/16” scale.  The purpose of building this model is to help me better understand how to actually physically build this model from scratch and to learn 3-D cad.
 
I will be building this model with AutoCAD version 2013.  I’ve used AutoCAD for close to 30 years now but never its 3-D functions.  This will be my first attempt at a 3-D model so all you proficient users of 3-D cad, if you see me doing something really stupid please don’t hesitate to let me know.  That goes for all you steamboat experts also, as this is my first steam powered boat, if you notice that I am making some major faux pas on the ship please let me know.
 
Alright enough talk lets draw something.
 
I started by scanning the hard copy of the drawings and making .tiff files of them.  Those files were then inserted into AutoCAD and scaled to 3/16” (1:64) scale.  Using the Body Line drawing I laid the keel using a polyline and sweep command.
 

 
 
Next I used polylines to trace over the body line cross sections. From these tracings I extruded the bulkheads needed to form the hull.
 
 


 
A little a## backwards with this next step but using the bulkheads I formed the bulkhead former.  Slots were made in each bulkhead with matching ones in the bulkhead former.  These pieces will be used as templates to construct the actual model.
 

 
Once all the bulkheads and the bulkhead former (BF) were completed I used the ‘loff’ command between each bulkhead to create the hull.  OMG, if real planking could be this easy.
 

 
Hull complete.
 

Hello all,
 
Back from vacation and finding it hard to get back into drafting up the Armenia, perhaps after the holidays.  There is something from our stay in Florida that I would like to share.  There was a sand sculpting competition at the beach across from our place and it's the first time we were down there when they had the event. I have to say I was truly impressed by with the amount of detail put into these sculptures. All the sculptures are 7 to 8 feet high.  If you would like more information here's the web site:  https://www.siestakeycrystalclassic.com/
 
Just a few of the dozen or so sculptures
 





 
First prize winner
 


 

Thanks rcmdrvr.  I find that the adhesive on the back of the tape is sufficient to hold it in place and don't use any additional glue.  I use a wallpaper seam rolled to press the tape down after it's set in place.  I personally have not sealed the copper plating on any of my ships and it seems to hold up well.  I know other people who do, so I think it's a matter of personal taste to seal or not to seal.  One thing you do have to be careful of is to not touch the copper with your bare fingers, fingerprints are very noticeable.  I always use latex gloves while putting the copper on and then try not to touch the bottom of the hull while doing other parts of the ship.

Looks good, Sal. This is the first plating I've seen without the nail marks on the tape. To me it is more convincing without, and easier on the eyes. . .
 
What is a "wallpaper seam rolled"? Thanks
 
Bob

Thanks Bob. I agree with you at this scale they would be too much.
 
The seam roller. If you look at my post #29, the first photograph, the little tool, upper right side with the wooden handle is the seam roller.