Cathead

Hello,
it is done. At least the wheels are ready build. Next to build are the two supporters for the wheels.

Hello,
because today the summer ended we had here the last weeks and it rained again the whole day, I was busy at the yard. 
This is cutter No. 3 and I think now it works. The handles are a little too bulky, but when they are slimmer they would break. The spooks have a Ø of 1,6 mm!


Now are only 17+ spooks left

Just catching up - my index finger almost got numb from clicking so many likes...
 
Cheers,
 
PS: clicked a wrong key -- nothing below is hidden....
 
Cheers

Hello,
the first results.  I think, tomorrow I have to make the cutter new. But it is an interesting material and cuts better then wood. 

Hello,
the wheels. They kept me busy this week, and other things like my garden. But now they are in the raw ready. I think I must not explain the pictures

 
 
 
 and then that  So, go back to start, and try again
 
This time I made the beads before I cut the rim loose. The shipwright is pleased.
In the foreground you see some of the spokes. They are from mammoth ivory. So, if you hear nothing from me the next weeks, I'm busy or I had thrown it all away. I hope not.

 

I was able to get a lot done this week. Firstly I finished added the bolt ropes and grommets to the topsails so I can now add the reef points to finish them up.
 

 
I also finished bending the topG sails to the topG yards.
 

 
The topsail and lower yards are now completed, with all the blocks, man ropes and studding sail booms installed.
 

 
I added the spritsail yard and rigging to the bowsprit.
 

 
And have the fore shrouds seized to length and the lanyards threaded.
 

 
I am in the process of adding the rigging to the boomkins, finishing up the fore shrouds, and starting to rig the main shrouds.

I have a good start on the last two sails which are the topsails. I am currently working on adding the bolt rope. I don't know why I didn't think of this for the previous sails but for these I started adding the bolt ropes from the middle of the bottom of the sail so I could work on both sides up to the top of the sail. This will speed up this process by half. These sails have three rows of reef points so they will take a while to add.
 

 
I am still adding blocks and man ropes to the topsail yards and lower yards, although they are almost done. The studding sail booms will be added after all the blocks are on.
 

 
I have put the bowsprit in place and added the gammoning. I am in the process of adding the bob stays and bowsprit stays. I have the bob stays temporarily tied to the deadeyes on the bowsprit so I can get them all even. 
 

 
I have the lower shrouds for the fore and main masts served and ready so I will be adding them soon too. I will also be tying the topG sails to the completed topG yards to get that process started.

This was a fun week.  I finished the stern details.  These included building the second seat, which I'm happy to say is close to identical to the first.  I made the horse for the boom sheet out of 22 gauge annealed wire, with washers made from .062" diameter styrene rod with the center .028" drilled out for the wire.  I cut and formed the transom knees, and glued those on.  I then shaped and added the cleats.  These I had bought from Chuck a long time ago.  I see he currently offers cleats in 5mm, 7mm, and 9mm.  I have 9mm and 6mm on hand.  So for the cleats on the transom knees, I shortened the 6mm to 5mm, and used the 9mm and 6mm cleats in the other areas of the stern.  I see in these enlarged photos a couple of spots that need touching up, but I'm otherwise happy with the way these details turned out.
 
Erik

I think that this old U S Navy expression must apply to you Steven:
 
”If you can’t get your job done during the 24 hour day, work nights!”
 
Or perhaps days are longer Down Under.
 
😀😀😀😀
Roger

Got the two long pieces of veneer on the upper hull attached.
 

 

 
Because these pieces are so wide, they are terribly unforgiving of any error in hull fairing, and that point is made apparent toward the bow. Here you can see that the natural curve of the veneer creates some small pockets where too much material was removed during the hull fairing process.
 

 
You can't simply smash these down, because that will cause the veneers to buckle. Nor can you simply ignore them, because doing so will cause the wales (the next belt of planking) to sit too low relative to the upper veneers. Nope, I'm gonna have to add some material in those areas to raise the surface slightly and allow the wales to sit level with the upper hull veneers. An unwelcome task, but necessary.
 
In the meantime, I may be hitting the pause button yet again on this build, for reasons I'll discuss in a separate topic. 😮 Don't worry -- nothing bad!

Sanding done (mostly) and stern veneers applied. You can tell from the photo that some additional minor sanding and filling will be needed to achieve the final stern shape.
 

Okay, with the Hurricane now occupying a space of honor on the shelf, it's back to Phoenix! Following the instructions, we next darken the openings for the gratings. Exciting stuff, right?
 

 
Then it's time to start applying finish planking. Yay! The process starts at the stern. Before I started gluing anything, I cut out the relevant parts and did some dry fitting. That's when I noticed that the sternpost fascia pieces are not wide enough to cover the width of the post.
 

 
I went back and read through the instructions again. Sure enough, it looks like I overlooked some tapering that needs to be done. I will check some build logs to confirm this, but I'm pretty sure I have some more chisel & sandpaper work in my immediate future.
 
Cheers!

Hey brunnels. Thanks for the comment. I doubted my abilities a lot going into it. I think I am quite lucky with the way it turned out. Adding these whaleboats ends up concealing quite a lot of detail so it's definitely a choice to consider.

The boats look really nice! Great work!

After completing the hulls, I could start working away at all the internal details. First, I laid the deck planks. These all were a bit narrower than the previous boat. I’m still not really sure that there is enough space between the planks and the thwart raiser.




Then I worked away at the gratings, quarter decks and various benches

After the thwarts went in, they really started to come to life

I’m just going to post a bunch of pictures now. There were many small things on these boats. I think the thwart knees were a particular pain and they could be a bit better, but I’m otherwise very happy with the boats now.










So this was my biggest point of improvement going into this build and I am extremely relieved it is done and very happy with how it turned out. These boats absolutely turned into a project of themselves, but I feel they take an important place in the model. I’ve learnt a lot through this process and am extremely grateful for all the logs and posts I’ve seen on this forum of other people’s small boats, that was a huge help. Anyway, onwards now. I can finally start thinking about the ship again and how I am going to fit all these little guys in.

Thanks Roger. That's my opinion entirely. A lot of this is educated guesswork based on (extremely!) inadequate source material. Of course we can't be sure it's all correct, but a lot of the fun is in the investigation of source material and speculation as to how it could be done, given the pictorial evidence (often affected by artistic licence), the archaeological evidence (often frustratingly incomplete) and the practicalities of sailing a wooden vessel.
 
And if later evidence proves one of the guesses wrong, one still has the satisfaction of having done the best one could with the information that was available at the time.
 
So, on to current progress. Shrouds and halyards in place, but only the foremast shrouds have been finalised.

I really do need to clear my workdesk before I take photos!
 
I made new silkspan sails - I wasn't happy with the first iteration. This time I made them oversize and folded the edges over instead of gluing strips of silkspan to the edges. The cross was painted on with Tamiya acrylic paint. I needed two coats for the "face" side and one for the other side. Considerably happier with the second version.
And I've added the blocks to the yards - for the tacks at the lower ends and the vangs at the upper.

Druxey, if I might pick your brains - how did you attach the bolt ropes to your silkspan sails (they look particularly good)? And the robands?
 
Steven
 
 
 

Hi folks, just a wee update. I didn´t give up on the project, it´s just a wee break because of my return to work and the garden (that´s the unfortnate circumstance when having a bungalow with front- and back garden. But I will come back and finish the ship for sure.
 
I don´t give up guys, don´t worry...
 
Micha

Glen, 'chuffed' means pleased. You can be mildly chuffed or extremely chuffed. I think they were near the top end of the scale. One asked me if it would be possible to get his yacht model repaired, others were very interested in the idea of selling the models to the public - lots of people come here from Melbourne and have a nice trip in the lake in the paddlewheeler. What nicer than to then buy a model of the boat? 
 
Roger, I agree about the cost factor. The wood is donated - we have far more than we know what to do with, and the machinery to cut it to size. I'm hoping I can figure out a jig to make mass production easier.
 
Oh, and 13 is just the start!
 
Steven

I believe that everything being hand made should also be a selling feature. In this case it’s also cheaper as it  appears that you are donating time and materials.  Printing materials and labor would be out of pocket costs.
 
I join others in lifting my virtural hat to you!  Building 13 of the same model !
 
Roger

Thanks for the likes and comments everybody. I got into preparing multiple 1:50 hulls today - I think I have about 13 made so far. But I only have half a dozen "verandahs" and awnings so far, so I've got some catching up to do.
 
Also working on the sort of roll-top desk thingy (see photo No. 3 in post #18 above) for the big model - it supports the wheel on the full-sized vessel, but I'm only doing the wheel for the big one. I have a cunning plan for how to make it. It remains to be seen whether it will work.
 
Pat, 3D printing would certainly save time and effort, but as I have absolutely no experience or equipment I expect I'll just build up the seats and gates with strips of wood (and they're free!)
 
Steven

Looks good to me!

I was invited to take the almost-complete 1:50 model along to the meeting of the Golden City Paddle Steamer Museum Society (the group of volunteers who own and run the Golden City) so they could have a look at it.
 
They were all very chuffed with it, thought it was brilliant, loved the idea of selling 1:50 models to visitors as a fundraiser. And wanted to know if the big (1:25) model would be ready to display in time for the "season" (they only run the full-sized one on the lake from October to April due to Australia being upside down and having winter in June.) I wasn't able to give a definite undertaking because of uncertainties in what problems might arise in building the big one, but just between you and me I think it's quite possible.
 
They even have a big glass display case (museum-sized) which they recently acquired and in which they plan to display it.
 
All rather positive. Now I actually have to deliver the goods!
 
Steven

Neat examples, wefalck! Steamboat ferries were fairly common on the Missouri River for a period of time, before bridges were finally built. But in winter they couldn't operate, so in some cases where the river froze solid enough, tracks were laid directly across the river ice, as in these examples from North Dakota:
 
1879 photo (University of Washington libraries)
 

 
1879 wood-cut print (North Dakota Heritage Center). Notice the steamboat drawn up on the bank for winter.

Interesting shot. That's some kind of "reacher" car to pull cars from the ferry without getting the engine onto the ferry. Next car is a baggage mail combine. Then two or three coaches, maybe unairconditioned, since there are no extensions off the clerestory roof. next to last car could be a food service car aka diner. Last car is first class, since it does show airconditioning ducts. And the shot is probably mid 30s or later, since that was when Pullman first installed airconditioning systems into passenger cars. I'm another model railroader who wanders into other aspects of modeling.

Sorry for lack of progress, haven't touched the model since my last update. But I did have a pretty cool model-viewing experience recently, getting to see a fantastic scratchbuilt Missouri River rail ferry from ~1870 at a model railroad convention. I wrote a full post about it in the Steamboats and Other Rivercraft General Discussion thread so as not to clog up this one, but here's a teaser image to encourage you to go over there and check the whole thing out. This is at the same scale as my Peerless (1:87).
 

 
Hoping to get back to Peerless soon, but other commitments have had to take priority lately. Thanks for your patience!