Cathead

Daves, http://www.steamboats.org/modelplans/paddlewheelers.html has a lot of plans offered. I bought the plans for my Far West scratchbuild there and was pleased. The site also has a long list of other resources for research. For Bertrand, I mostly relied on archeological drawings from the National Park Service excavation of the wreck (see my log). I'd purchased a set of private plans, too, but found that they conflicted with the NPS drawings so mostly used the latter.

That is gorgeous.

Yeah, hog chains didn't come along until later.

Wow, I'm jealous. Bertrand had hog trusses, sheer, AND camber to her main & boiler decks. I eliminated the camber on the boiler deck for sanity's sake, but still felt I had to build it in place. I cannot wait to see how your deck drops in. Having the CAD skills is a really nice piece of your toolkit. Good luck, if that's the right phrase!

Another interesting question is how to judge responses. Does a post with X likes show the same level of interest as X different people saying the same thing? I know I agree with several other suggestions here and have "liked" them, without wanting to clutter up the thread by saying so out loud (so to speak). If the thread is read in a linear fashion, lots of similar posts will feel like they have more weight as opposed to an older post that piles up likes that aren't noticed unless one goes back and looks. For example, I love the idea of more exploration ships (especially Beagle and Endurance) but felt that liking the initial suggestion was sufficient. Is that how it's read by those who want the input?

Fair enough. I thought it might inform peoples' ideas about what kinds of models were practical or not to develop. But you're likely right that it takes your initial question off-course.

So here's a question for the kit designers reading this. How do you judge what will sell or be popular? All of us can advocate for our little niches (riverboats, transitional craft, merchant ships, etc) but you professionals have to actually assess and decide what will be a good product. What does that R&D process look like? How much is guided by your own hunches and interests versus outside research into trends, etc.?

Frankie, I've considered pitching that service to kit makers before, having had the same thoughts as yourself. No idea if it's a sensible plan or not.

I love the raw wood. That cherry almost looks like copper. Beautifully done.

Heh, you definitely live in Colorado if summer is outdoors time. Here in Missouri, heat and humidity are quite conducive to quiet indoor model work. Excellent work as always, I look forward to more when you get around to it!

In general, I'd say that good riverboats are underrepresented. Most of the kits I see look out of proportion and toylike, even if finely crafted, and they all follow the same "gingerbread castle" prototype of a generic lower Mississippi palace boat. Model Shipway's Chaperon is a rare exception. There are a number of fascinating prototypes and possibilities among American riverboats alone, much less international ones. Bertrand, Arabia, and Cairo all have museums dedicated to or featuring them and/or their remains Far West has a fantastic story (the boat that carried Custer's men to and from Little Big Horn) The golden age of steamboating extended into the photographic era, meaning there are good resources for any number of protoypes. And I'd like to think that plenty of American consumers, at least, would connect to a Mark-Twain era Midwestern steamboat as to a sailing ship. I love sailing ships, but also feel that there are SO. MANY. age of sail models out there already. Branch out! My specific answers to your questions: Name: Arabia, Bertrand, Cairo, or Far West, as those are readily researchable and can tie into museums and known American history. Country/date: USA, 1850s-1860s. Material/style: Any hull form could work. Solid hull is likely a good choice for steamboats with their flat-bottomed, low-slung hulls, though an open-framed steamboat looks pretty good too. I assume solid would keep the price down? Wood could be relatively simple, as most boats would be painted and weathered. Price: I'd say $250-$400. Scale is an interesting question. My 1:87 Bertrand ended up about 2 feet long, I don't think you'd want it to be too much larger than that. Time: I can't envision tackling a project much over two years right now. Scratchbuilding Bertrand took me about a year, including lots of R&D. A kit would speed that up, but I also put a lot of time into it. Still,I have to imagine that more people would buy (and commit to) a kit that could reasonably take them a year or so. Much beyond that and life is just too uncertain unless you're a REALLY dedicated builder. For me, at least, I'd rather enjoy a number of different projects over time than one all-consuming one. Level: Beginner to moderate. A small steamboat could easily be a beginner kit, there's less planking and rigging than a sailing vessel, but enough interesting superstructure detail to keep it interesting. A moderate kit would include more detail, better castings maybe, or interior? Above all, a really good steamboat kit with well-presented historical background and context seems to me like a very different offering to the model market, and one that could capture the imagination of many Americans who don't have much connection to the ocean anymore, but do to their rivers and their history. Don't know how they'd sell outside the US, but only so many Americans care about British or foreign ships either. I'm being selfish here, but as a history buff and freelance writer, it sounds like great fun to help a kit designer develop a backstory and interpretive materials for an American steamboat model. Anyone interested?

Stay sail is rigged: For the halyard, I rigged a single block at the mast rather than pass the line through the mast sheave. It made the rigging easier to handle, rather than tangling it with the other lines behind the mast (this also seems more functional for the real-life craft as well). The tack is hooked to a ring bolt at the bow. The sheet is belayed to a pin. The sail ends up looking smaller than I expected, I think because I measured it hanging dead from the stay, rather than billowed out, but I think the jib will balance it nicely. You may have noticed the missing bowsprit. I broke that off with an errant wrist while rigging the stay sail. Turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as the reason I bumped it was that it was really in the way in the first place. I just left it off until I was done with the staysail. Fortunately, it came off cleanly and I think I can just glue it back on when I'm ready to work on the jib. It would have worked great to not even install the bowsprit until I'd finished the rigging to this point; something to keep in mind if I end up in a future situation on another build. Anyway, I like the way it's shaping up. One more sail to go, then the final standing rigging.

You've done a really nice job; the lighting is a wonderful effect.

Those dowels are a really cool idea. Is that unique to this company? Nice start, I'd like to follow along.

Mark, What color palette do you think aged sails should have? To my eye, the cloth especially was too orange/yellow. I could see darkening what I have, but as you note, since the rest of the model is pretty crisp, I could also stick with what I have. I appreciate your input. Ken, Thanks for the tip. I'll look into it the next time I'm in a settlement.

I've been experimenting with sail-making (special thanks to samueljr, who PMed me to offer advice). I tried three materials: sail cloth, basic index-card cardstock, and nice bond paper (conveniently left over from Mrs. Cathead's graduate thesis many years ago). I made a pattern from tracing paper, and used that to make equivalent sails from all these materials. For all three materials, I followed several similar steps: Cut out core sail shape from intended material. Cut, score, & fold paper strips to serve as edge reinforcements (even for the cloth sail, as I was quickly convinced I couldn't sew hems or seams remotely to scale for this model). Make corner rope loops by clamping a folded-over length of rigging line in a clothespin, twisting the two ends until they tightened up into the right-size loop, securing the twist with another clothespin, then applying CA to the twist. When dry, I cut most of the tail end off and had a nice stable loop with enough tail to hold it within the sail's hem. Glue rope loops into pre-cut paper strips, along the creased center line. Spread wood glue thinly along the interior of each paper strip, then fold over the sail and clamp tight with a series of clothespins. I also tested coloration, using artist's pastels that have long been a staple of my weathering toolkit for models. Both paper and cloth take pastels nicely without need for adhesives. In the photo below, you see three completed tests; all-cardstock (top), cloth with cardstock hems (lower right), and bond paper with cardstock hems (lower left). I overcolored the cloth sail to get a sense of when to stop, and tested two different lighter colorations on the paper sails. I had already been convinced I didn't want to use cloth sails, the materials didn't play well together, the sail was too floppy, and the weave too coarse. I also tested a bond paper sail with bond paper hem, but found that the material was too soft to hold well as a hem; it crumpled with the moisture of the glue and didn't stiffen the sail well. The cardstock hems worked great, really stiffening the sail and allowing me to impart a nice curve to it without needing to treat the whole sail. I liked the bond paper sail best, the finer quality of the paper made a nice sail, while the cardstock hem didn't stand out as different while being much stiffer and easier to work with. I carefully traced stitching onto all of these with a ruler and pencil to check how detail would stand out. I learned that it's best not to do the pencil work until you're otherwise done, as it can smudge as you adjust the pastels or otherwise handle the sail. In every way I liked the sail at lower left best (bond paper with cardstock hem and very light weathering/coloration); here's a closer look: Satisfied with this attempt, I decided to see how it looked on the model. Here it is, fully rigged but not permanently. Most lines are still loose, held in tension by a series of clamps hanging from the lines (hidden behind the model). What do you all think? Now's the time for me to make changes or try a different approach, before I rig the mailsail permanently and move on to the stay sail and jib (note that there's still a temporary line run to the masthead from the bowsprit traveler, to help me shape the jib properly even though that line won't be there on the final model).

Yep, much better. No one will ever know.

Depends on how accurate you want it to look, I guess. To my eyes it'd be a significant missing feature. I'd suggest shaping a new piece to fit the shape of your bow, and filing a notch into the backside into which the point of the bow would fit. Having the stempiece overlap the bow planking would still technically be "wrong", but would simulate "right" far better than leaving it off. It should be fairly easy to do this, as your bow is straight so you don't have to fit anything to a curve.

Hearty congratulations!

Looks great. I really like the shape of that hull.

Designing a flat deck that will bend properly into the right spacing? Just when I thought you couldn't top yourself. Can't wait to see the outcome. About those cabin layouts, are the narrower ones essentially sleeper berths with curtains, like on a Pullman car? Looks like there's only a few "true" rooms, likely the pilot & captain at the bow and a few in the ladies/families section at the stern. Also, thanks for sharing the photos of the shell fuses and your "wrench". I love learning about details like that.

So here's my "final" vision of the rigging, and a photo of testing the sails on the model. I posted the same images, and some more summary discussion, over on my build log, but wanted to share these here, too. Thanks again for all the advice!

So I've had a fun week trying to figure out a sail plan for this longboat. Once I started studying the rigging shown in the plans, and trying to envision how sails would work, it just didn't make sense. I'm not an expert sailor, but I did sail some growing up, and I just couldn't figure out how the rigging plan shown in the model could work in real life. I created a separate discussion (linked above) in the Sails & Rigging section of MSW to explore this question, and got some really useful advice. Here I'll summarize the problem and the solution I've settled on. I did find several other longboat builds that included sails, and I'm going to use them to illustrate both my concern, and my solution. The problem: The diagram below lays out the problem with the foresail halyards that I couldn't understand, and a problem with the gaff that was pointed out to me in the other discussion. I hope it's self-explanatory. For example, on this very nice build by greatgalleon, look closely at sails, which are attached directly to the halyards as shown in the instructions. They look great, but how could they have been raised or lowered? There's nothing mobile about this rigging. Also notice how the topping lift crosses the sail; if the sail fills in that direction, it'll interfere with the sail's ability to catch wind. Important: I'm NOT criticizing this build, just using it to illustrate my concern about the functionality of the rigging as shown in the instructions. The solution: The diagram below lays out my solution, after some discussion in the other forum. For example, on this very nice build by samueljr, he solved the problem by attaching additional blocks and rigging, using the original "halyards" as extra stays from which to hang the sails. This works, but adds a lot of extra rigging for a boat which had to be routinely rigged and derigged. So I followed a simpler approach, taking out the useless "halyards" shown on the plans and replacing them with a basic rigging that would allow for sail operation with a minimum of spiderweb. I don't know if my approach is "right", but it's both simple and functional as far as I can tell. I intend to move forward with this plan or something very similar, feeling better now that I have a rigging plan I can actually envision using in a real-life situation. Progress: Shortened gaff. I tried to make the two tiny side pieces as shown in the manual, but kept breaking them, so went a different way and formed them as a single piece, fitting the gaff into a narrow slot. Painted and sanded, it looks fine to me and is stronger. Other attachments. I test-attached the gaff to the mast using a piece of wire, so I could experiment with sail shapes. I attached the forestay temporarily, allowing for further adjustment as I proceed on sails. I formed the bowsprit traveler and made a hook to attach to the flying jib, temporarily represented with a line to the masthead. And here's my sail plan tested in 3D. I temporarily rigged a line from the traveler to the masthead to hang a paper sail, though in reality there will be no line there. All the lines are temporarily tensioned by clothespins hanging from their loose ends. Once I decide I like the sail shapes, I'll use the paper cutouts as templates for making the real thing.

Many, many thanks, Roger. I feel much better about a rigging plan that I can understand and envision actually using. Next step, I think I'll mock up the sails with cardboard and see how they look in 3D. Hopefully this weekend.

Heh, sorry for picking at an unknown scab. For what it's worth, it didn't even occur to me that way, I just assumed there was something interesting about the design that made it that way. I suspect the vast majority of viewers would, too.