Canute

Wise man, Mark. As somebody said "Happy wife, happy life"!

I'd like to follow along, too. Gonna hang with Mark, Grant and  the rest of the gang.

I used to paint brass model railroad engines with a brand called Scale-Coat. The metal had to be clean; even had to strip the clear coat from some engines, since they had bubbles in the clear coating. The Scale-coat worked great, since it was a lacquer and dried glossy. Easier to decal over than flat paints. It didn't need a primer, but if you're painting yellows or reds, you better prime first.

They may have had some tackle and a tie off cleat in the overhead, between the deck beams and carlines. I have battle station plans and that's where the gunport door operating mechanism "resides".  A couple of single sheave blocks is all.

You should clean and prep the metal (brass?), either dunk it in some vinegar for brass or apply a primer paint for other metals. The vinegar is acid, so it etches the brass and gives some tooth to the part for the paint to stick to.  Let the primer, then paint your color.

Looks good, Jack. Transom is blended in nicely. The hull planking looks smooth. Since this is double planked, the second layer will lay down nicely.

Well done Dave! The good doctor was suitably wowed.

Great way to recharge the batteries, Jay.

I'd like to follow along, too.

Greg, I'll follow long, too.

Grant, I'll join you in the front row. Looking forward to another build by Clare.

Very interesting boat, Clare. Will be following your build. The masking tape looks like the same tape Tamiya sells. Excellent masking tape!.

How will you keep it level? Guess you could pin the wheels and put one under the trunnion point.

Mick, the first few and the ones showing the overall acrylic supports for the cant frames on top of your build board. Wasn't visualizing the supports until I looked at the overall ones. Takes a while to get stuff drilled into this Irish-Sicilian skull.

Click! Light bulb on now.

One picture (or in this case a series) does the trick. Thanks, Mick!

That boat's a beauty, Sal. As are the sweeps and oars.

Thank you Mike and Dimitris. And the likes from the posse, Matt, George and Cap'n Steve. I hope to jump back into this soon. Cutting paper and card is beginning to pale in comparison to the feel of working in wood. I may end up moving back and forth.

Sharp blades and a cutting mat work well. But, balsa is a very soft wood; really only useful as filler for a hull, between the bulkheads. Trying to shape items, like deck furniture, is difficult because the wood is so soft. The edges don't hold up if much pressure is applied, so fine detail is hard to achieve. You may want to try some basswood. It's still soft, but it doesn't have the issues of balsa.

Very work on the gun carriages, Grant. Worth a bookmark!

You could include sounds via sound decoders. Several roads did have steamboat whistles on their locos. But sound decoders, speakers and a good enclosure aren't cheap. I just put sound in an Alco B unit and that was over $100.

Smoke, on the other hand, won't look too good. The wispy smoke these generators put out won't look even close.

For those of you interested in bigger scales, check out Flagship Models, a purveyor of 1/192 scale ships and some bigger scales. All resin and photo-etch brass, primarily American Civil War era, but he does has an 1890s US torpedo boat aka destroyer. His address: http://www.flagshipmodels.com

Check out the folks at Kombrig, a Russian maker of resin ships in 1/350 and 1/700. They have a number of pre-dreadnoughts in their catalog. Here's their site: http://www.steelnavy.com/CombrigPage.htm

A belated Happy Birthday wish, Grant.

Well done, Greg. Didn't realize the scale of the barky was that small. It's about the size of a WW II Destroyer.   That's for sharing your build.

OC, nice and slow with these thin wood parts. They're nice looking so be very precise in your placement. You'll only get one good shot. Patience is key.