Cathead

Speaking of dredging, I'm coming up dry in my barrel of superlatives, having used them all up on your logs over time. So, you know, good job and all that! Models after my own heart.

I just love how a well-planked deck draws a model together.

I'm going to have to order a replacement WOW button soon, mine is wearing out.

Yikes! Dodgy instructions are the bane of way too many kits.

LOL, Glen, that meme is everywhere but rarely have I seen it used so perfectly.

Well, pretty much every modern river towboat has a grill/smoker out on deck somewhere, so maybe these guys were just foodies ahead of their time.

For the life of me I can't NOT see that as the bow of a small upturned boat with the stem and keel arcing over the top. The strongest argument I can think of for it NOT being that is that it looks rather deep, more like a maritime boat, especially when it can't be all that long. It would seem far more likely that this vessel would use a simple shallow squared-off jonboat. Otherwise could it be some kind of stern-facing vent hood? But there isn't much room under it for any sort of equipment that would need such a large vent, and I can't even think of what that would be. Presumably they didn't have a restaurant-grade commercial fryer in there...

I'd say that these aren't just any figures, but figures of arguably two of the most beloved naval literature characters of all time. They're edging over into collector's items, not just obscure details of a given model. If they were just generic crew figures you wouldn't see this level of interest. But lots of people enjoy collectibles (baseball cards, action figures, *ahem* models) that recreate something beloved, and these certainly fit that niche. Personally I'm not in a position to take on a Surprise model, but I'd absolutely buy these on their own, paint them lovingly, and develop a little cabin diorama to display them in. I wouldn't do that for just any figurine.

That's pretty much where that phrase comes from, right? The fact that railroad lines so often divided communities and helped create distinctly different districts based on income, class, race, etc.? Certainly I'm using that as a subtle visual cue here.

And one more building done this weekend. This one was a laser-cut kit, so went a lot more quickly. Basic airbrushed coloration, again just a low-key color scheme. Assembling walls with windows, doors, and roof braces. Already weathered the walls the same way as the last building, using pastels and small brush. Wood porch, same thing. The kit's wood is quite thin, so I added some braces to keep it from warping. Basic tarpaper roofing, colored with pastels. Finished building, with posts and chimney installed. No need for a foundation on this one! And here it is in its rough intended location. As discussed earlier, this part of town is meant to be a somewhat poorer district down along the river, which is a short distance from the fascia here. It's hard to see in the photos, but the scenery slopes down gently from the tracks toward the river. There will be a small general store type building across the road from this, also up on posts due to the location. Using this style building helps differentiate from the higher ground districts across the tracks, and implies the nearby presence of the river. As much as I like scratchbuilding, I do enjoy a well-designed kit where someone's put careful thought into all the dimensions and fit and so on, so I can focus on the artistic side. If you're wondering, here's the kit: https://www.blairline.com/cohouse/ Blair Line is a small Missouri-based manufacturer and I'm happy to support them. Thanks for reading!

Man, it's so good to have you and this build back. I missed you both. This is especially well timed since we somewhat recently spent a weekend up along the Mississippi River, renting a small riverside cabin and just watching traffic go by on both the river and the adjacent busy rail line. Good times. I'll note that many towboats I've seen on the Mississippi have a smoker and/or gas grill on deck somewhere. Every detail you've added looks marvelous.

Great question, I had actually given this some thought; guess I should have discussed that! I decided not to list a specific business for two reasons. Laziness. I just didn't want to hand-letter "Furniture makers" or some such in an even smaller font unless I really had to! Especially for a background/backdrop building. Leading to the next point. Flexibility. Even though in my head it might be a furniture maker, why not leave it a bit more open in practice? Maybe it's a cooper's shop instead? Since, as you say, there's precedent for just the owner's name, I decided that worked fine in this case. You can argue that in a small town like this, everyone knows everyone and their business. And this isn't so much a walk-up business like a grocer or clothes shop, so they're not as concerned with drawing casual passersby. Essentially versions of your B2B point. In the railroad's business directory, virtually every business was simply listed by owner's name, not any further clarification other than the general category. For example, under "general merchandise", they just listed J.B. Challis, H.R. Harris, etc. rather than something like "H.R. Harris, dry goods" or "J.B. Challis, grocer". Finally, defining it too specifically doesn't alter operations; you don't need to know exactly what that business is to accept that crates of goods are arriving at the depot for it. It's the depot operators need to recognize, not this little background structure. I will likely be putting more details on buildings that are more day-to-day public retail (bank, grocers, etc.). Later, I could also change my mind and make a separate sign saying "Furniture makers" or the like, and hang it over the door. You two are on top of things! It actually does have a foundation, I just didn't photograph it. My goal is to install the foundation permanently on the layout to allow scenic material to overlap up to it, while the building stays removable. Same plan for most of my other structures. This lets me integrate scenery in without risking staining the building. I was planning on presenting that when I did the scenic install work, which I haven't done yet. But since you asked, here it is with its foundation loosely held in place. Most of this will be hidden by overlapping scenery and by a partial wooden walkway. The overhang is just a storage area where I'll pile stacks of lumber, barrels of nails, etc., so it'll just have a gravel base. Thanks for the attention to detail and thoughtful questions!

Time to go back to some actual traditional model building! I need lots of buildings to fill out the town, which will be a mix of scratchbuilt and kit-built. First up is a simple scratchbuilt background building. I zoomed into the depot area In the historical photo below (from the State Historical Society of Missouri). See that row of small false-front buildings across the street from the depot? Those fall right on the line of my backdrop, so I need to make a few shallow-depth buildings to fill in that space and convey the feel of that district. I'm not worried about reproducing them exactly, I just want to capture the right feel. I have a distinct visual theme in mind for Rocheport. This was a prosperous time, overall, with the railroad having recently come through. So I want my buildings looking reasonably well-kept and in some cases fairly new. I'm not going for the decay-gothic look so common in model railroads. I want this to feel like an old but prosperous town. That being said, there are different districts. The core business district off to the west should look especially prosperous, while these smaller buildings near the depot should be a bit rougher, and the riverfront area across the tracks (foreground) should be noticeably poorer if still not run-down. Keep all that in mind as I describe this and future buildings. First I drew up a basic design and cut out the constituent walls from the scribed wood sheets I had on hand for just this purpose. These were given several light coats of grey primer, both to seal the wood somewhat and to simulate a coat of paint. Back wall at lower right is after one coat, front wall at lower left is after two coats. The primer color is almost exactly what I wanted (a faded grey-white) so I didn't bother with actual paint. Plus, this maintains a hint of wood grain that I like. Next I did some gentle weathering of the walls using pastels applied with a thin brush. Working plank by plank, I subtly varied the colors help the planking stand out. In the photo below, the front wall at top hasn't been pasteled yet, while the back wall at bottom has. I then painted the door and window fittings I dug out of my scrap back, and lettered the top of the false front using dry transfers. It's really hard to line up individual dry transfer letters perfectly, and if I could do it over again I'd use a little more space on either side of the ampersand. But the slight unevenness also brings to mind a small business's hand-painted lettering, which does fit the setting. You can't easily tell here, but I gently distressed some of the wood to give a hint of peeling paint. Not too much, just enough for subtle visual effect in person. Time to assemble the building. I used my magnetic square jig for this, which both holds walls square and uses strong magnets to lock pieces in place while glue dries. I haven't mentioned it yet, but all the walls have interior bracing to make sure they don't warp. I did this early on, prior to priming. Overhead view of the assembled walls and interior framing. I don't intend to show the interior of this so made no effort at detailing. This is a background structure that will be partly hidden behind the depot. And the assembled walls from the most common viewing angle. Notice the slight bleeding of red paint into the planking, which I don't care about because a piece of trim is about to be installed there. Time for the roof. I braced thin sheets of wood cut to size, then applied pre-made trips of paper shingles. Several manufacturers make versions of these. They're slow and fiddly to apply but I love the results. These also get some light pastel weathering to vary their appearance. Rear view. This goes up against the backdrop. Front view. Not quite done, I wanted to add a lean-to overhang on the left side for added visual interest. This was pretty straightforward and I didn't photograph the process. I forgot to add earlier, the name comes from that railroad business directory I wrote about a while back. Inman was a real merchandise business in Rocheport with ties to the railroad. I made it Inman & Sons so the name would stretch more across the false front, and decided this is probably a small furniture maker or other such manufacturer, who might be getting small loads of hardware and supplies (nails, hinges, paint, glass, that sort of thing), which is why being located right behind the depot makes sense since that's where small loads like that would be delivered. This kind of business isn't big enough to have its own dedicated slot on a freight spur. It just gets crates from the depot. And here's the final structure loosely in place on the layout. It and its future companions will help line the street behind the depot nicely, obscuring the backdrop transition and bringing a sense of busy-ness to the depot district. Go back and refer to the opening photo to remind yourself what this is representing. So that was a fun little project. The building going next to it is a laser-cut kit, so that'll provide a fun comparison in methods and results. Thanks for reading, and hope you enjoyed this return to actual model-building!

Great backstory! Had no idea you had a connection to this vessel's home region.

Washington State does have a variety of coal deposits, especially in parts of western WA, and coal is a LOT more energy-dense than wood, and a lot of vessels had converted over to coal by the late 1800s (just like railroads). Also, a lot of the dominant trees in the Pacific NW aren't as energy-dense as Midwestern/Eastern hardwoods, making coal even more attractive as a fuel. But I'm not particularly familiar with the maritime history of that area so I really can't say what fuels were used when. The lack of smoke may just be photographs being staged/taken when the vessel isn't working hard. Coal-burning locomotives don't put out plumes of black smoke all the time, either, just mostly when they're trying to build up steam pressure (like starting a heavy train or going up a grade). A locomotive cruising along doesn't actually put out all that much heavy smoke, and the same would be true for a vessel like this.