Cathead

For any novices that may find the build board daunting (as I do), there are a couple simple approaches that will get you almost all the same accuracy for a fraction of the fuss. Using metal T-squares and clamps will let you install each bulkhead at 90 degrees to the keel while keeping your total workspace smaller (good for people like me working in their living room). You can also glue a thicker block onto the top of the bulkheads (along with basic stiffeners) and use that to set the model upside down in a rotating work stand. This worked great for me and meant that I could approach the hull at any angle I pleased rather than only at 90-degree angles set by a board; this was also more ergonomic. See this post from my log for photos of what this basic approach looks like. This approach will allow the model to flex a bit more than the very solid build board shown above, but in my experience the difference and potential error was quite minor and well below the threshold that most beginners are likely to care about. I've used a rotating stand like the one in the link above for every one of my models and find that its flexibility and ergonomics far outweigh any loss in rigidity, at least if (like me) you're not going for museum-quality perfection.

I live in central Missouri, and would certainly be willing to help in some R&D given my access to St. Louis museums and the Missouri historical society. I'm just an amateur when it comes to actual model development, but it'd be quite fascinating to be a research assistant for such a project. As far as I know there's no model kit or even plans available for this really interesting and important craft, and it would be a great NRG project to fill that gap. Heck, Chuck, even if you want to make a private kit of this I'd be interested in helping.

This is probably a little too regional/obscure, but personally I think a really unique model would be of the "barge" used by Lewis & Clark as their main vessel on their exploration up the Missouri River. I scratchbuilt a rough version of this when I first started getting into this hobby: It has major historical significance, is similar in size and rough layout to other longboats but is far less redundant, and there is some historical information available on its design and construction. The idea that those guys paddled/dragged/sailed this thing all the way to western Montana from St. Louis still boggles my mind, and it'd be a really neat piece of Americana. Seems no less obscure than some of the regional fishing boats that have been proposed. What do you think?

Thanks for the comments and likes; I certainly agree that I absolutely love the process of turning chaos into order. I'll get back to the machinery (and an explanation of the engine inaccuracies) soon, but this weekend I decided to take a break from that arc of the project and do something quite different. Feeling the need for some motivation/inspiration, I started working out the layout of the main deck superstructure by cutting up an old water-filter cardboard box and using it to make templates for walls and decks. We have no idea what the Arabia really looked like above-decks, as all the superstructure was washed away and there are no drawings or images to my knowledge. The painting at the beginning of this build log is an artists' rendition commissioned by the museum. that is mostly reasonable, so I'm using that as one guide so that my model approximates what people "think" she must have looked like. However, after spending some time browsing the magnificent online collection of steamboat photography hosted by the University of Wisconsin, I've decided to also use the sidewheeler Mary McDonald as another reference. This vessel was built in St. Louis in 1866 and ran primarily on the Missouri River until 1873, long-lived for one of these boats. Although she was built ten years later, she has a very similar hull layout to Arabia and matches the painting pretty closely; everything in her design that I can would be fitting for an 1856 vessel as well. There are four good photographs and a drawing of her, covering many useful angles, making her an excellent reference. You can see all of the available images here; click on each one to get a high-quality zoomable image that really shows good detail. She's also a good match for the preliminary drawings I did of the Arabia's superstructure. So given those resources, below are three shots of how the model looks in mock-up form. On these boats, the deck above the main deck was confusingly called the boiler deck, although the boilers were on the main deck. The oddly named boiler deck tended to be about twice a person's height above the main deck to account for the very large machinery. Above, I've mocked up main deck walls about 13' (4m) high. The flat piece in front is a mockup of the boiler deck, though it's sitting on the main deck level, showing the outline of the main cabin, where the chimneys poke through coming up from the boilers, and the gaps near the front where the staircases will come up from below. If you look closely, you'll see a mockup person for rough scale standing in front of the port engine. Here's a view from above so you can better see the deck layout. The boilers sit right under the main cabin outline, just behind the chimneys. They're actually drawn in pencil on the cardboard, but you can't see that in the photo (the rest is drawn in pen). As noted once before, the wheel axles would not actually cross the hull, I'm just using a single dowel here to help keep things aligned. Here's a stern view that closely matches the angle of this photo of the Mary McDonald. It all looks a little odd right now without the next set of decks and cabins above, but that's as far as I've gotten. It's exciting to envision the full shape and this was a fun, different exercise for the weekend.

Excellent review, thank you. It certainly makes me consider this as a future build, given my Norwegian heritage. I'll look forward to your build.

Fair enough, I was thinking culturally more than politically.

I've just discovered this thanks to your kind comment on my own build. What a lovely project! I have a future dream of building a family-related vessel as well, in this case my wife's grandfather's sailboat from Lake Michigan on which her mother sailed growing up. I think it'd be a neat gift for my MIL. In the meantime, I love the look of this vessel so far. In my office, I have an ink drawing of German merchantmen that I purchased from an art dealer in Switzerland along with a German map of the world from the same period (wife is half-German and I studied it for many years). So it's quite neat to see a build of a German sailing ship. Looking forward to whatever progress you might make!

This looks like a cool project with a creative approach to upgrading this kit. Makes me wonder what I could do with an old plastic kit I have sitting around. Nice detail on your methods so far.

Moving forward on the engine assemblies: Installing these on the cylinder timbers and adding steam drums: Two shots of the finished & painted engines: There are two fairly egregious inaccuracies in these engines compared to the real thing. Can you spot them? Consult the original photos here if you want to try. I'll discuss these in a future post and explain why they happened and why I'm not fixing them. And here are three shots of the engine assemblies placed on the hull (but not attached). This gives a bit of context and scale. Next I decide whether to start on the boilers or the wheels. I'm rather tired of working on machinery but both of those are necessary next steps before I can really move forward with deck planking and superstructure layout. I can't wait to lay the main deck! Thanks for reading, everyone. The beginning of summer has been really hard on my modeling schedule but perhaps the depths of summer will help.

I'm curious why you pursued the fairly complex task of building and inserting spacers between each bulkhead when scrap wood glued along the top of the bulkheads instead provides excellent stability during the fairing process and takes a fraction of the time and fuss to achieve. Perhaps you explained this and I missed it. Also, as this is meant to help educate new builders, isn't the correct term "sheer plank" rather than "shear plank"? Might as well ensure the terminology is as correct as the instructions so no one gets confused down the road. It's not a typo as you've written the latter a number of times.

More progress on the engines. I continue to use whatever I can find in the scrapbox. Not much to say here, just slowly building up the maze of piping and beams that translate steam into motion.

Cool, you're doing Chaperon next? I'll look forward to that. My personal aesthetic eschews any bright colors even if authentic, so I personally would do the Chaperon's deck as a highly weathered red or a duller red-brown, or at least a naturally stained color. But that's just me. Get those railings done!

Lots of fancy railings are definitely a downside to being a riverboat enthusiast (although not all boats had such gimcrackery). Looks like you're off to a good start.

I agree, I'd love to see some builds of Australian river craft. If they were done at a fairly small scale the detail work might not be too bad and the general idea could be conveyed. Someone should go for it!

I've begun building the piston engines. These are a challenge, as I know I won't be able to duplicate them exactly, but want to produce a reasonable approximation. I'm also dedicated to doing so with whatever scrap materials I already have on hand to keep costs down. To review what the original engines looked like, visit this post in my planning thread with photos from the museum. I began by digging out some styrene tubing and wooden dowels. I needed to produce a concentric structure with the outer ring protruding from an inner surface, so I nested two styrene tubes and a dowel: Next I needed to start the main piping coming out from each quadrant of the cylinder, so cut some smaller styrene tubing at a 45 degree angle with a hand saw, glued them up in elbows, and used a slab of wooden dowel to simulate the joining surfaces of these pipes: After painting, I glued all this together and extended the piping above the joining surface. Here you can also see the end structure for which I used the nested tubing/dowels: I then cut some wooden slats to form the structures connecting these pipes. These were higher on one side and lower on the other, reflecting the way that steam was pumped in and around these piston engines: I then cut some tiny squares of styrene to simulate the bolt/washer assemblies on the cylinder ends, painted everything so far, and put it on the cylinder timbers as a test-display: And here's a broader view of the two assemblages so far. Lots of piping and structure yet to add, but I like how it's coming together so far. The thick Model Shipways black paint does a reasonable job of blending the wood and styrene into a single surface texture and I'll probably use a bit of pastel weathering when I've finished assembly. I've been on a mental block about starting these for a while, as machinery is my least favorite subject, but I think these are decent. The piping sticks out farther to either side than the real thing, but that's the nature of using the tubing I had on hand, and it's only noticeable to someone really carefully comparing this to the real thing. Thanks for reading.

As a followup to Phil's post on clothespins (or clothes pegs as they say in the old Empire), here's an easy way to modify these handy tools to produce a much stronger clamp. I post this with Phil's blessing after an exchange of private messages. Start with a regular clothespin (bottom). Disassemble it and reverse the metal spring as shown, flipping both wooden pieces so that the smooth side faces inward (middle). Reassemble so it looks like the top example. It can be fussy to get the second side in under the spring; I lift the spring with a fingernail, wedge the narrow end of the other wooden piece under it, then lever the piece along until the spring falls into place. The result is a smooth-nosed clamp that has far more holding pressure than the original, and exerts that pressure right at the tip rather than some distance in. This makes it far easier to clamp things in narrow spaces. I suggest getting a variety of clothespin sizes, as the smaller ones can have a very narrow opening range when you do this, while the larger/longer ones have both a wider clamping range and more strength. I use far more of this style than I do unaltered clothespins.

Carl, that hadn't occurred to me but is quite sensible. Thanks!

Thank you for sharing this beautiful model and taking the time to write and photograph your build so carefully. I have really enjoyed it.

Bob, Yes, I finally decided to just ignore the missing piece. I agree with you that it was almost certainly there, but as I couldn't determine what it might have looked like, it didn't make sense to invent it. And it's a detail no one will miss without it being pointed out. I didn't even notice it until recently even after all my live and digital studying of the preserved timbers. Part of my concern about "leaving it open" is the subsequent need to properly fill in all sorts of internal details that I don't have much guidance on. But since everything above the main deck is speculative anyway, I guess I have leeway to, well, speculate.

The cylinder timber assemblies are essentially done. Here they are test-placed on the hull, using a dowel to align both sides. In reality there wouldn't be an axle running all the way across, but I have it set up this way at the moment to ensure that both sides are aligned. Here's a closeup of some details (see photos in the last post for the real thing): Below is a closeup of the real pillow block (the metal brackets holding the axles to the timbers). I decided I wasn't capable of making an exact replica and went for a reasonable facsimile instead. To make these, I traced the outlines of multiple blocks in a single sheet of wood, drilled & filed the axle holes, and only then cut each one to length. This made it easier to get the holes aligned properly and lessened the chance of cracking the wood. Then I carefully cut and filed the final shape. Below is a staged photo of the process, from a basic block at bottom left to a screwed-up block at bottom right (got the hole off-center) to four decent ones above. To make the metal rods holding the different timbers together, I carefully drilled out the holes in sequence, then used blackened metal wire for the rods. I made the little iron face plates (or whatever the right term is) by cutting a strip of styrene most of the way, leaving the end attached to the sheet for ease of handling. I then painted it black, drilled holes along the length, and cut a series of tiny squares centered on each hole: I then slid these onto the rods, which was tricky between timbers. I positioned them in the middle of each gap, painted the remaining cut surfaces, then applied a dab of CA to each one and slid it down into place: And here's another view of the test-fit assembly: The inboard timbers are based on the measurements and photos I took at the museum so are pretty close to accurate. The outboard timbers (the squarish pile at the edge of each guard) are my own design, as I have no information regarding how these were done on Arabia. None of the excavation photos show these timbers intact. I found one drawing in a reference book of a similar style, and it makes sense to me as a design. The inboard timbers have to with stand the back and forth pounding of the cylinders, so have long braces in either direction. The outboard ones just have to hold up the wheel, there's really no back and forth stress there. So I decided a simple design made the most sense. These will be barely visible anyway unless I decide to leave one side of the model open. I'll probably work on building the engines next, so I can finalize the assembly of this section. When all the machinery is finished I'll be able to lay out the rest of the deck and determine exactly where the superstructure will go, meaning I can determine what portions of the deck to plank and which will be hidden. I had intended to build this as a "closed" model, but doing the detailed work on the cylinder timbers is making me question that and wonder whether to leave one side open. This also affects the level of detail with which I build the paddle wheels. Will they be mostly hidden within the hull, or exposed to view behind open framing? To be lazy/efficient, or obsessive/interesting? Thanks for reading. Hopefully the build continues to be more interesting as we get into the above-decks work.

Nicely done.

Looks nice. One question: it appears that there are two joints amidships at the same location; curious why those aren't staggered? Or is it an optical illusion from the photo?

I have used heavier bond paper for sails with good results in my opinion. I use artists' pastels to color my paper sails.

I'm now working on the cylinder timbers, the pair of large timber frameworks that support the piston engine and paddle wheel on each side of the boat. A full original set is on display at the museum. although the tight quarters and large size made it very difficult to photograph the entire assembly in one view: Thus, for reference, here's the drawing I made of these based on measurements and photos taken at the museum. I've printed these out at scale and used them as a template for the model: Each set of cylinder timbers consists of a larger assembly that extends to support the wheel, and a smaller assembly that supports the other side of the piston engine but is much shorter. Here's a view from the engine end, looking toward the stern. The (port) wheel is on the view's right, so the assembly to the right is the big one, while the one to the left is the smaller one that only supports the engine. I hope that's clear. And here's what I've built so far. I started by carefully cutting the thickest angled piece under the engine and using that to define where each of the larger beams went. From there, I'm slowly filling in the shorter support blocks. I'm building both sets of timber assemblies at the same time to ensure that they match, even though it really doesn't matter since they don't connect across the boat in any way. I just think it's helping me make them correctly to do it together (and reduces the redundant feel of starting over on the second one after finishing the first). Current status of one set (the other looks the same) next to a template: I've now run into an interesting problem that I hadn't noticed before. Both the large and small sides have wooden braces at the stern end that angle down from the thick cylinder timber to act as a counter-brace (these are on the right side of the drawings posted above). On the large assembly, they simply butt up against the timber end with a metal bracket connecting the two, and what looks like a simple mortise on the lower one: But on the short assembly, there's a strange quirk about the connection between the timber and the brace: In the image above, notice how the brace (on the left) meets the timber (right) well below the latter's top surface. Moreover, the large vertical bolt that ties all this together is too long by maybe 4-6", what looks like about the same gap (outlined in red). And from above, you can see that there's a notch in the timber. So was there some kind of extra wooden brace that extended from a notch in the timber, over the top of the brace, different from how the other two worked? I don't know if that explanation and question is clear; I'm sure I suffer from the curse of knowledge from studying this so much. But if that makes sense, does anyone have any ideas? I can't see any evidence for how such a brace would have been shaped if it had existed, and am somewhat reluctant to add something that isn't there in the recovered assembly. But it seems strange to me and I'm just curious about thoughts on this very esoteric question. Working on these has been a nice change from planking; I'm glad I tackled this next. Thanks for reading.

Or the German equivalent, wieauchimmeresheißt.