Landlubber Mike

Hello all, this is my first post here.  I build a little of everything. Helicopters, Airplanes, cars, trucks, subs, trains and boats. I will try to make it RC regardless of how impractical of a project it is. This is where I find myself today. Taking a kit that was designed for display with a shallow hull and trying to make it very scale, operable and not resort to function over form. The bug bit at the Civil War Naval museum. I was drooling over the artifacts and since I wasn't allowed to take any home I had to build something. I wanted a wood kit of a boat from the 1800's and river boats are a favorite of mine. After looking I settled on the Chaperon kit from Model Shipways. This is my first paddleboat. 
 
  All I knew about riverboats were the glorified Hollywood version. I ordered some books and the real history is far more fascinating. Especially the books written when my grandfather was in diapers. Those have a unique perspective that can't be projected from a modern writer. The hook is set now, my next boat will be a side wheeler. 
 
I would greatly appreciate any help and advice given. I'm not an expert and that's why I'm here. There are some very knowledgeable people on this forum.
 
Firstly an era of great interest to me is the 1880's. That was when the river was losing to rail, the wild west was in full swing and answering the question "North or South" incorrectly could be the difference between a hot meal or a scattergun in your face. The Chaperon was built in 1884 as the J.C. Kerr. She was rebuilt as the Chaperon in 1904 and renamed the Choctaw in 1917. She burned in 1922 on the Tallahatchie river. I will be backdating the  Chaperon kit to represent the J.C. Kerr in its first few years of life. 
 
My initial impression of the kit is high. The quality and fit is very good. The plans are excellent as well. I built the keel first as per the instructions. I then added the  ribs to complete her skeleton. The next step was to assymble the main deck on a nice hard level surface and let it dry.  I then deviated from the instructions and attached it to the skeleton before planking the hull.  It was just too delicate and easy to warp. After the deck was attached it was rock solid. Time for the first  weigh in, 489 grams. The J.C. Kerr was built for the shallow Ohio River and had a very shallow draft. She only drew 4 feet "loaded to the gaurds". I don't want to deepen the hull so every gram counts. I used my Dremel and hollowed out the ribs. I added some light weight foam and she was at 375 grams at this point. 

This book is subtitled ‘The last British sailing coasters’. I would recommend it to anyone interested in these vessels. Almost anything of interest is accompanied by detailed drawings, done by the author.
 
There are 15 chapters:
Introduction Shoes and ships and sealing wax Alert Brooklands Hulls and builders Anchors Deck fittings Variations in rig Masts, spars and standing rigging Sails and running rigging Engines Food Schooner models The vessels Conclusion   The first 2 chapters provide a brief introduction, briefly describing the ships and the sort of trade they were involved in at the end of the age of sail.
 
The next 2 chapters cover the times the author spent crewing 2 of these vessels. Interesting reading about life on these small craft, but more importantly for the model maker interesting details like what sails were set to leave and enter port. There is interesting detail like this throughout the book.
 
Chapters 5 – 10 are then filled with just about every detail of these vessels the model maker could wish for. All supported by numerous drawings. For instance the chapter on deck fittings covers: the galley, companions, sidelights, dolly winches, water tanks, skylights steering gear, wheel houses, cargo gaff, pumps, boat, motor winch and hatches. With drawings of every detail and variations. I could write a lot more, but to put it simply these chapters contain all the details required to make a model at any normal scale. Possibly more details may be required for a model at 1/24 scale (hull 4 feet long) or larger. To emphasise it, I repeat there are drawings that accompany everything.
 
Chapter 11 deals with the internal combustion engine. It does not deal with just the mechanics of an engine, but its effect on the trade supported by these vessels in terms of stockpiling and uncertain delivery dates and the way this affected the crew (more accurately the reduction in crew that this allowed). This brought about the end of the age of steam as well as being the final nail in the coffin for the pure sailing ship. It also details the effects an auxiliary engine had on the vessels themselves. To quote, ‘Topsail yards were sent down, flying jibs dispensed with, bowsprits cut short and topmasts, when not removed altogether cut down to short stumps…’. All things to bear in mind if making a model of a ship fitted with an auxiliary engine and much more.
 
Chapter 12 deals with the diet on these vessels. Probably not that important to the model maker, but interesting.
 
Chapter 13 is to me one of the most interesting in the book. It deals with how to take the lines of a vessel from a photograph. Obviously some photographs will be better than others. Ones taken when the vessel was light and the more photographs available the better. There is some deductive thinking involved which is all explained.
 
Chapter 14 proceeds to list over 300 vessels that are potential subjects for models. Most of which just contain the minimum of details, however some contain pages of information. There are lines, deck and sail plans for 28 of these. They are reproduced at small scale, not sure how well they could be scaled up on a photocopier, but if they turned out fuzzy it should be possible to trace over the lines.
 
Finally the conclusion gives some of the authors’ thoughts about where sailing ships will go from here. Time will tell.
 
Altogether a very enjoyable read and well worth the small effort of obtaining a copy. Having got the book I think I would have liked to have paid more for a better copy, not that there is anything wrong with the copy I obtained, no torn pages just a few rounded corners; it still contains its library card.
 
After reading this I feel I am well on the way to becoming an expert on schooners, though in reality I know that is not the case, just the effect of reading the book. I am sure a very reasonable model could be made from just the information contained within. The only problem being fitting it into the list. Would recommend to anyone interested in this type of small vessel.
 
Glenn
 
 
 

Amazing carvings, great work!  You probably mentioned this before but can I ask what wood you are using?

Larry:
Just don't fall into the "Research Trap" where you never get around to building the model while you search for that last definitive piece of information.  At some point you have to say "time to build".
Kurt

Few years ago when I decided to try cherry  wood instead of pearwood, it was not clear if
this wood was suitable for the task. In Europe, pear wood is a common tree, in Canada, pear wood is very expensive, but cherry wood is very much affordable. Workability of pear and cherry woods are very similar. For planking, pear wood is often use but it has no grain pattern. At the opposite, cherry wood has many grain patterns but not all of them are suited for the task, especially when the grain runs perpendicular to the length of the plank.
 
If we understand this  simple rule : ‘’The grain pattern must runs parallel to the length of the plank’’,  then I believe that cherry wood can be a good choice for the model ship builders.

Been sanding the 1st layer of planking, slowly. Should be all done next week as I will have lots of time. 
My wife has a (Epic, which is a medical software) conference up in Wisconsin next week and I am tagging along. We will be staying in a resort, so besides swimming and taking advantage of the free stuff I will sanding the Boyer. 
Marcus 

Hey everyone,
Thanks for the positive comments. My current distraction is a little more demanding of my attention (and rightly so). Her name is Freyja, she’s four months old, and she doesn’t really allow me to turn my back for a second. 
 
Andy 

Hi! 
I had been picking away at it a little bit over the winter, so there has been some progress. I tended to stall every time Jason (Beef Wellington) posted an update on his build. And also a few other distractions keep getting in the way. I may get back to it when the distractions abate, and the weather turns cooler. 
 
Andy

Just a small update. I installed the lower deadeyes, which was not really difficult. Still, it always makes me a little nervous drilling holes in the side of my boat, especially large ones... blub..blub..blub...  Anyway, here are a couple of photos. It's an odd way of fastening them to the hull, isn't it? The builders had very little metal to work with, or time for that matter, so I guess they had to get a little creative.
 

Ok, so I built deck cannons- not much to them, just glue and paint. I painted the wheels before attaching to the base- and touched up the cannons after they were glued up. The little handles required a pin vice bit. 
Then started on the dead eyes/chain plates. A little tricky- I used a 3-way alligator clip holder for the soldering of the wire twisted around the dead eye to the chain plate. I had to paint them twice because the paint didn't bond to the brass right away. I haven't decided how I'm going to go about attaching the bottom of the chain plate to the ship. I'm going to look at some other build logs before deciding if I'm sticking to Hunt's plans or deviating a bit. Any suggestions are welcome. Thx
 
 

I wasn't happy w the way the 2nd 

The timbers on the prints did not exactly line up with my model (Hunt's practicum mention this issue) so I just did my best to make them line up. I did both sides at the same time- placing both together and leaving the top point a little long in order to account for minor differences (one may be a few mm different then other (port/starboard). My Dremel came in very handy to fine tune the timbers- and I pretty much followed the prints to get the spacing and angle correct- the top lean a bit forward. 
  The 3rd rail is tricky- it's taken some time, and I decided to make the 3rd rain after I installed the timbers. I hasn't worked out as perfect as I would have liked. I'm going to do a little fine tuning w the Dremel to the rail (in pic) and see if I'm happy w them- if not , I'm going to scrape it and start over- I want this to look smooth and blend w the rest of this part of the ship- and xtra hour or so isn't a big deal compared to not being happy w the look! 

I'm back at it after a break. My work schedule is still making it difficult for me to find time to build. 
  I bought some mini brushes to paint the design. I'm going to "fine tune" the top star w more detail. 
 I was "afraid" of this part, but thank's to a Dremel, life is good?  .015x.030  styrene was a little tricky, I just used clamps and did and inch or so at a time, the curves were a little tricky but it worked. More to come!

All the stays are now up.  Some run close to the mast and shrouds so you have to look for them.
 
Regards,
David

Forgot to say - I did use CA to glue my planking,BUT,the CA I`m using is odorless & seems to be fumeless - no more bad reactions. The only drawback is that it`s a bit more expensive than the usual stuff.
 
Mark

One thing about cherry is that it usually doesn't take stains and finishes evenly and should be sealed before finishing.

Maybe try ironing it flat with a steam iron? Steam bending is a thing.  As mentioned above, veneer is shaved off a spinning log so it’s “real” shape is the diameter of the log, it doesn’t want to get flat and stay that way. Lloyd McCaffery covers the issue in his book Ships in Miniature, here is his illustration. He points out that in th process of making veneer, the cutting blade is continuously forcing the wood fibers to shear as the veneer is bent back away from the log by the cutter. These tiny cracks are what keep catching the x-acto blade and making it wander.  McCaffery states he won’t use veneer on the model, only the case and the base. But his model timbers are typically incredibly tinny.

I'm in!  I was involved in a 1:24 scale long boat project a few years back.  It was a group build.  The project got scrapped when the CAD guy drawing the plans died unexpectedly.  Hopefully we'll have none of that with this build!

A great project would be a stern section including a great cabin, magazine, light room and filling room in a larger scale, say 1:32

I just hope that when I'm finished it doesn't resemble William H. Macy as he appears in "Shameless!"
 
Thanks for checking in everyone. While it's still early days, I have to say that I'm very impressed with this kit so far. It's presenting plenty of challenge. I'm working on the planksheer, rails and stanchions and they're quite tricky, but at the same time the design of the kit is so good that it doesn't work against you. It's very satisfying and fun. Also, I can see that the kit provides lots of room for enhancement or upgrading which I hope to do to a certain degree. With so much reference material readily available that shouldn't prove to be a frustrating exercise.
 
David

The bow view and the stem do, actually, kinda resemble William H Macy just a tad bit. 

From the pointy end to the square end:
 
For the past few weeks, I've turned my attention to the stern.  First up are the windows.  The kit's stern piece is thin ply, and it would work fine, but it's not boxwood.  So I decided to continue with my bashing and try to scratch out everything.  For the frames, I glued in some fairly thick stock (1/8 inch):
 
                                           
They required a little bit of trimming, just to ensure that the actual windows would follow the curvature of the counter (which seems to be a bit less pronounced on NMM's plan).  To get the windows into the proper angle, I used the kit's stern piece as a framing jig:
 
                                           
 
That worked pretty well.  You can see that I marked out the alignment of each of the center frames, and that helped a lot.  I used 3/64" stock for the frames, and cut lap joints for the corners and to set in the horizontal cross piece.  For the vertical cross piece, I cut only one lap in the horizontal piece, and then set the vertical piece up as close to the top and bottom as I could.  That helped with the alignment.
 
                                          
Here they are all in place, with the munions.  In this photo the munions look out of alignment, but I just went back and checked, and in real life they don't look as bad.  Plus they'll be covered with pilasters. 
 
My one gripe is that the 3/64 inch stock makes for some pretty thick looking windows.  I don't think I could have gotten anything thinner to work, since these are pretty delicate as is.  (I might also mention that as I was dry fitting one window in place, it shot out of my tweezers, and flew into the Captain's Cabin.  It took my strongest flashlight, a long bent wire, and 90 minutes of patience to fish it out of there.  That's also when I saw LOTS of shavings and dust lying in there that I also extracted.)
 
Next is the taffarel.  FFM details a lamination process that took me a while to understand, but I think I have worked it out.  It consists of 3 layers.  The bottom, with the grain running horizontally, is the main outline of the taffarel.  I simply traced the kit's piece onto some 1/16" stock, and cut it out.  The middle layer constitutes the three coves along the bottom of the taffarel, and its grain runs vertically.  Then the top layer forms the "arch of the cove" or the border, and it is very thin and fragile, even with the grain running horizontally.  I cut a mold on my bandsaw out of some pine scrap:
 
                                    
 
In this I first glued up the top two layers, covering them with plastic wrap so they wouldn't stick to the mold:
 
                                    
And then I clamped the mold together overnight. 
 
                                     
 
Out of the mold, I hollowed the coves a little bit, and here we are:
 
                                     
 
For the carvings, I'm pretty much planning to follow the layout on the NMM plans, of the King & Queen of the Seas, with various sea monsters around them.  I thought of trying to make the King & Queen a merman & mermaid, but I couldn't get the fishy lower part to look right, since it needs to curve over the cove.  But I do think that instead of the putti flying in the middle section I'll try to carve a Kraken.
 
A few years back I started carving the figures into the taffarel itself.  I gave that up when I saw other builders glue figures onto the taffarel.  And so that's the procedure that I'm following.  And this time as well, instead of using a power carver, I'm using a high number of #11 exacto blades (it's the sharp point that has proven most useful, and it breaks easily).
 
So far I've mostly finished Her Highness:
 
                                        
I was pretty disappointed when I saw this photo, because she looks like nothing more than a blob.  I did cut the folds of her skirt, some curls in her flowing locks, and something of a "face."  But obviously I'm going to have to do some more refining, to get the details to stand out more -- and of course with poly wiped on, they will show up a bit more, but so will all the flaws.
 
And that's where I am.
 
Cheers,
 
Martin

Hi Martin,
I used the brass etched window frames supplied with my Pegasus, and used clear acetate for the glass.
To fix the glass I used epoxy resin - very, very, carefully and sparsely applied. Ca is a no, no, for this purpose as it tends to fog the acetate.
I have used Clearfix  at times and it can work very well. It gives a sort of old fashioned glass look that can look good on period models.
I would suggest you trial some on a spare  frame to gauge the effect.
Those decorative figures are incredibly small at 1:64 scale, have you tried a No 11 scalpel blade point to assist with detailing facial features. Have to handle them carefully to avoid snapping them, but that probably isn't a bad thing when doing fine work.
 
B.E.
 
 

Looks great David.  The counter block took me quite a while to put together, lots of curves and angles.  For the stern generally, it seemed to me that the transom, etc. have very subtle curvatures.  Take your time to get the framing right to ensure that you can capture those curves.
 
That's a cool protractor - very helpful for this hobby I'm sure!
 
If you have questions, I have lots of pictures that I've accumulated over time (including from a trip to Mystic).  John (Texxn5) has a great website with lots of pictures as well:
 
http://www.charleswmorganmodel.com

Hello all
just got back from a fantastic vacation in Ireland. Problem about having a great time on vacation is eventually it must come to an end. I have now since settled back into reality. I did manage to finish turning my 12 pound wooden cannons on my homemade or should I say poor man’s “lathe”. I am pleased with the results. Just need to bore out the ends and put the pin holes in the full ones, paint them black and the assemble. 

 
Tom