Cathead

When I built this last year, I ended up with a thin gap at the shutter plank. Rather than remake the plank, I just made a thin stealer to fit, as described in this post and shown in this image:
 

I love the crisp, professional style of both wood and metal work in this build. 
 
Question: How were the hull and deck planks attached, and do you plan to simulate that in any way?
 
As for the uneven planking widths, you see the same thing in drawings of Bertrand. Builders pretty clearly just used whatever they could find and afford.
 
Thanks for the update, I've been looking forward to your return. Happy New Year!

Hello druxey, Cathead, and Bob,
 
It's good to hear from you again and I wish you the best for the New Year!
 
Druxey,  I was trying to come up for a term for the splint on the cam frame.  I have to admit I had to google the word kludge  -- you nailed it.  It is a term that I will have to add to my vocabulary when speaking of Heroine.  I think the term can accurately be applied to just about every repair on Heroine.  Heroine is a tribute to the ingenuity of her crew but I have no idea how she continued to operate with many of the repairs.
 
Cathead,  The hull planking was fastened with round headed spikes with about 3/4 inch heads.  The deck planking was fastened with large nails, two per plank per beam.  I have some wonderful drawings showing the locations of all the deck nails but have yet to find info on the size or shape of the heads.  Kevin will be returning from a conference on Monday and I'll get that info from him.  As to how I am going to simulate it, I'm still not sure.  If the heads were large enough, I'll probably use brass wire.  Looking at a large section of deck that was recovered from the wreck, the nails are almost invisible from a few feet away so I wouldn't want them to be too obvious.  I think I am going to use a darker wash on the exposed wood to give it an aged look and I was toying with the idea of using a pin or fine punch to simulate the  nail heads.  The wash would make the pattern stand out.

I love the crisp, professional style of both wood and metal work in this build. 
 
Question: How were the hull and deck planks attached, and do you plan to simulate that in any way?
 
As for the uneven planking widths, you see the same thing in drawings of Bertrand. Builders pretty clearly just used whatever they could find and afford.
 
Thanks for the update, I've been looking forward to your return. Happy New Year!

I love the crisp, professional style of both wood and metal work in this build. 
 
Question: How were the hull and deck planks attached, and do you plan to simulate that in any way?
 
As for the uneven planking widths, you see the same thing in drawings of Bertrand. Builders pretty clearly just used whatever they could find and afford.
 
Thanks for the update, I've been looking forward to your return. Happy New Year!

I love the crisp, professional style of both wood and metal work in this build. 
 
Question: How were the hull and deck planks attached, and do you plan to simulate that in any way?
 
As for the uneven planking widths, you see the same thing in drawings of Bertrand. Builders pretty clearly just used whatever they could find and afford.
 
Thanks for the update, I've been looking forward to your return. Happy New Year!

I love the crisp, professional style of both wood and metal work in this build. 
 
Question: How were the hull and deck planks attached, and do you plan to simulate that in any way?
 
As for the uneven planking widths, you see the same thing in drawings of Bertrand. Builders pretty clearly just used whatever they could find and afford.
 
Thanks for the update, I've been looking forward to your return. Happy New Year!

I love the crisp, professional style of both wood and metal work in this build. 
 
Question: How were the hull and deck planks attached, and do you plan to simulate that in any way?
 
As for the uneven planking widths, you see the same thing in drawings of Bertrand. Builders pretty clearly just used whatever they could find and afford.
 
Thanks for the update, I've been looking forward to your return. Happy New Year!

I love the crisp, professional style of both wood and metal work in this build. 
 
Question: How were the hull and deck planks attached, and do you plan to simulate that in any way?
 
As for the uneven planking widths, you see the same thing in drawings of Bertrand. Builders pretty clearly just used whatever they could find and afford.
 
Thanks for the update, I've been looking forward to your return. Happy New Year!

Hello,
 
I hope everyone had a great New Years!  I spent the last week playing catch-up after taking some time off with the family.
 
The rest of the machinery requires some of the deck to be in place so that took up most of my time this last week.  Heroine's planking isn't pretty!  The widths of her planking range from 3" up to 15" and there is very little pattern to it.  In the stern, the port side planking ranges from 6 to 10 inches and the corresponding area to starboard is made up of 3 to 6 inch planking.  Although some of it is repairs,  some of it looks like they ran out of the wide planks quickly and made due with whatever they had.
 
 
Guard planking completed.  Kevin discovered the remains of black paint on the hull timbers and the guard cap.  He believes the Upper works were white with black trim.

 

 

 

 

 
Starting to add deck planking.  One of Heroine's cam frames in back for scale.

 
 
This cam frame was in the bow compartment as a spare.  It was late coming out of conservation and I haven't had time to model it in AutoCAD for machining.  That will be my first task for next week.

 
Close up of repair to cam frame.

 
Close up of wedge in one arm of the cam frame.  It appears that when the splint was riveted to the frame there was still some play so they drove this wedge in.

chborgm, for the main & boiler decks I pre-stained each plank, using diluted Model Shipways gun-carriage red paint cedar cherry stain. I mixed very small batches at a time, and stained sets of 24" long planks together. Then I would remix a batch and do another set, and so on. The result is a bunch of planks that are subtly different colors and shading. Then, when I planked the decks, I cut each individual plank to length, from a different 24" piece, so that they changed shade end-to-end as well as side-to-side. The result was a nice gentle variation in color across the deck. This image from early in the build (way back in April) shows what this looks like from above:
 

 
For the hurricane deck, I did exactly the same thing, except I rubbed a dark grey pastel stick across each 24" length first, and rubbed the result in with my fingers. I find that finger oil does a really nice job of fixing pastel to wood; I never bother to seal wood I've handled this way unless it's an area that will be handled routinely. Again, doing each strip separately ensures a variation in the darkness of the pastel, so that when you cut the individual planks you get a nice variation. It sound very fussy but really isn't; I just work ahead at a time when I'm too tired to think about the actual model and just want a mindless job for 1/2 hour before bed. Then I have a nice big stock of planks to work with when I'm ready. All the wood in this model is basic basswood strips, by the way.
 
Ken, I have to say that the one mode of transportation I've never developed any interest in is cars. 
 
Thanks, everyone, for the likes and praise. Photography can hide many faults in a model!

Well, I'm definitely going to miss my personal goal of finishing this by the New Year, but it sure does feel like I'm getting there. In the quiet time around the holidays, I was able to finish framing and planking the hurricane deck, along with building the outhouse/laundry structure. 
 

 
This framing was difficult, and I'm not entirely pleased with the results. It really tested my skill level to create a delicate web of beams, curving both with the port-starboard camber and the fore-after sheer, while resulting in a smooth support for the uppermost deck (which will be very visible on the finished model). I didn't always succeed; a close look in person will reveal some strange twists and angles in the framing. The aft end also took some creative fiddling to get right; a close look in subsequent photos will show that I had to graft another support beam onto the existing structure to support the deck properly. The good news is, as it always is for most models, is that such details tend to blend into the background of a finished model, and most viewers will never notice. But I do, and despite some un-Christmas-like language at the time, also consider such things part of the process of developing my skills. The end result will look good enough.
 

 
Here's the outhouse structure, which hangs over the stern so that the paddlewheel helps with disposal. There are separate mens' and womens' chambers, separated by a laundry room in the middle. Two plans show two different ways to arrange these: one has the doors all at the front, the other has the outhouse doors on each side of the structure. I went with the latter, as I figured it provided a bit more privacy for the occupants of these public multi-holers. As it was, these weren't always good for dignity: one book notes that sometimes when repair work needed to be done on the paddlewheel during voyages, lookouts were stationed at the outhouses to prevent a mutual loss of dignity to those below and above. It wasn't clear to me which side the mens' and women's chambers should go, so I followed old practice and placed the womens' on the left and the mens' on the right.
 
And here are a few views of the current status, showing the planked-in hurricane deck and the paddle-wheel support braces. I haven't installed the hog chains yet, as I think they'll be in the way of other work, but I do have the holes drilled in the decks to accommodate them.
 



 
You'll also notice that the hurricane deck is a different color. There's no one clear answer on what color steamboat decks tended to be; some sources say they were painted or stained various shades of red, others that they remained natural wood. I suspect it varied quite a bit between builder, owner, and such. I went with red for the main & boiler decks because I like the visual contrast with the white hull & superstructure, but changed to grey/black for the hurricane deck and outhouse roof. In this case, I remember reading somewhere that these uppermost surfaces were sometimes tarred or otherwise sealed differently, and I think the different color helps establish that these areas are different than the lower two decks, serving primarily as a roof rather than a surface. And I think it adds a little more visual interest to the model. Without a clear answer, builder's choice takes precedence.
 
If you're wondering, the main & boiler decks were stained with thinned Model Shipways paint, while the hurricane deck is rubbed with grey pastel. This is my favorite way to color wooden models, one I use a lot in model railroad buildings, as it keeps the grain of the wood rough and realistic and tends to naturally look faded in a way that paint & stain don't always do. 
 
Next up: building the pilot house atop the clerestory and roofing/decking in that area, and adding the chimneys. Then I need to build the delicate railings that line most of the boiler deck; I'm not looking forward to that. But once that hurdle is past, the physical model is about done, and it's on to rigging the various hog chains, spars, and other lines around the boat. I'm certain I'll have this done by the end of January. In the meantime, here's the April Verch Band with A Riverboat's Gone:
 

So, first of all, ALL wheels weren't red, I've read of some boats with white or green or other color wheels. But red clearly was a common standard. I'd say it relates to the availability of cheap red paint during that era. In my understanding, before modern paint chemistry, paint/preservative was based on linseed oil, with something added for pigment. Iron oxide was a very common and cheap substance you could use, which gave the paint a dark reddish-brown tint (surprise!). This is why red became a standard color for barns in Europe and the US. So I assume many steamboat builders used it for the same reasons. I believe that the bright fire-engine red we see on modern steamboats is inaccurate, as the early paints couldn't achieve that brilliance, but would have been duller and rustier. That's one reason I chose to use muted colors on the Bertrand, as opposed to the bright red I see on some models.
 
As for why the wheel alone was red, and not the hull and superstructure, I'd guess that whitewash or whatever else they used was even cheaper. Given that appearance was a big factor in the intensely competitive riverboat market, the wheel color may have been because they wanted it to stand out, or because someone realized that a white wheel would look awful all caked in mud and gunk as it revolved up from the river. The underside of the white hull would have been nasty, too, but few would ever see it unless the boat capsized, and which point your marketability just went down the tubes, anyway. A nice dark red color would have hidden the gunk nicely, like brown kitchen tile. I suspect this is also why many boats had their stern paneling (facing the wheel) painted red as well, hiding the gunk thrown onto it by the wheel, as well as worse coming down from the outhouses above.
 
If anyone else can correct or add to the above, please do!

The first parts of the rigging to install, after the bowsprit lashing, were the mast tackles. In the manual I found only the tackle itself but no information about how to set it up. In my clever books different possibilities are shown. On the main mast I opted for a simplified tackle without runner which is appropriate for smaller vessels. On the fore mast however I installed a full tackle with runner because I think this was also used as fish tackle for the anchor and needed more capabilities.
 

the two different mast tackles
 

tackle on the fore mast - runner and tackle block are hooked into ringbolts in the waterway
 
 
 
Now I started with the shrouds. As usual I work from aft to forward. The completed mast were stepped in one piece contrary to the way of other builders in this forum which set them up level by level. So far I never had problems to set up the shrouds around the already installed topmasts.
After setting up the first two shrouds I usually set up the associated stay to have balanced forces on the mastheads.
Because of the changed mast heights the schooner stay now runs almost horizontally between the masts but I find this still looks fine. The mouse is just a asymmetrical figure of 8 knot doubled up on the upper end with a stopper knot. Its easily done and of the right size. The stay, including eye and mouse was seized down to 1cm below the mouse. The fore stay was set up with deadheads according to the manual although probably heart blocks would have been more true to the original. The collar on the bowsprit is held in position with two stop cleats.
 

main top taking shape
 

fore top with schooner stay
 

fore stay
 

collar of fore stay
 

the nearly horizontal schooner stay seems to look ok
 
 
 
 
 
 

The two yards were now each made with an octagonal mid section. I had to use thicker dowel respective a square strip to make this possible.
 

fore yard in the raw
 

both yards on deck - the stopper cleats on the ends are still missing
 
 
Recently the future skipper of Pickle was visiting the wharf and asked for a better progress in finishing his vessel because of some urgency (he probably was just impatient). He also cited the old saying that 'Planning is just the replacement of coincidences by errors' and mentioned that he had a moderately experienced bosun available for the installation of the rigging as well as a reliable carpenter for possible modifications.
I took a deep breath, plunged into deep water, stopped planning all that belaying points and stepped the masts.
 

foot of main mast
 

foot of fore mast
 
 
After setting up the masts perpendicular to the deck I found that Pickle was listing visibly to starboard. That impression was confirmed by the admiral and other bystanders. First I thought that a vessel hardly ever lies on an even keel and the listing could be in accordance with the set sails and the apparent wind.
But this would just have been a (too) easy way out. I had to correct it. Sigh. After about 7 tries which included remounting Pickle the other way on the stand, reworking the holes in the stand, changing the screws and drilling new holes into the keel I found that the a slightly asymmetrical lower hull was pushed into a listing position by the symmetrical brass columns on the stand. Reworking the brass finally did the trick. (It seems that if you want to put things straight you have to cut some of the top brass.)
 

there was the crux of the matter...

Hello,
 
thank you all for your kind words and Robin, it's good to here something from you. You feel better now? I hope you had all a good start into 2016. In my case, the model comes more and more to an end and that is for me the good start. 
 
Over the weekend I did only small things, like the rail for the ladder from the upper gun deck, the ropes to open the gun ports at the quarter deck, the emergency steering and the flagpole.
 

 

 

 

 
But the next weeks come the last great themes. The lanterns and the nettings for the hammocks. I don't know if I should build the later with hammocks ore only the frames like at the model of the Victory? I really have no idea how to build the netting, but I think I should build them. 
 

 
Regards,
Siggi

So, first of all, ALL wheels weren't red, I've read of some boats with white or green or other color wheels. But red clearly was a common standard. I'd say it relates to the availability of cheap red paint during that era. In my understanding, before modern paint chemistry, paint/preservative was based on linseed oil, with something added for pigment. Iron oxide was a very common and cheap substance you could use, which gave the paint a dark reddish-brown tint (surprise!). This is why red became a standard color for barns in Europe and the US. So I assume many steamboat builders used it for the same reasons. I believe that the bright fire-engine red we see on modern steamboats is inaccurate, as the early paints couldn't achieve that brilliance, but would have been duller and rustier. That's one reason I chose to use muted colors on the Bertrand, as opposed to the bright red I see on some models.
 
As for why the wheel alone was red, and not the hull and superstructure, I'd guess that whitewash or whatever else they used was even cheaper. Given that appearance was a big factor in the intensely competitive riverboat market, the wheel color may have been because they wanted it to stand out, or because someone realized that a white wheel would look awful all caked in mud and gunk as it revolved up from the river. The underside of the white hull would have been nasty, too, but few would ever see it unless the boat capsized, and which point your marketability just went down the tubes, anyway. A nice dark red color would have hidden the gunk nicely, like brown kitchen tile. I suspect this is also why many boats had their stern paneling (facing the wheel) painted red as well, hiding the gunk thrown onto it by the wheel, as well as worse coming down from the outhouses above.
 
If anyone else can correct or add to the above, please do!

So, first of all, ALL wheels weren't red, I've read of some boats with white or green or other color wheels. But red clearly was a common standard. I'd say it relates to the availability of cheap red paint during that era. In my understanding, before modern paint chemistry, paint/preservative was based on linseed oil, with something added for pigment. Iron oxide was a very common and cheap substance you could use, which gave the paint a dark reddish-brown tint (surprise!). This is why red became a standard color for barns in Europe and the US. So I assume many steamboat builders used it for the same reasons. I believe that the bright fire-engine red we see on modern steamboats is inaccurate, as the early paints couldn't achieve that brilliance, but would have been duller and rustier. That's one reason I chose to use muted colors on the Bertrand, as opposed to the bright red I see on some models.
 
As for why the wheel alone was red, and not the hull and superstructure, I'd guess that whitewash or whatever else they used was even cheaper. Given that appearance was a big factor in the intensely competitive riverboat market, the wheel color may have been because they wanted it to stand out, or because someone realized that a white wheel would look awful all caked in mud and gunk as it revolved up from the river. The underside of the white hull would have been nasty, too, but few would ever see it unless the boat capsized, and which point your marketability just went down the tubes, anyway. A nice dark red color would have hidden the gunk nicely, like brown kitchen tile. I suspect this is also why many boats had their stern paneling (facing the wheel) painted red as well, hiding the gunk thrown onto it by the wheel, as well as worse coming down from the outhouses above.
 
If anyone else can correct or add to the above, please do!

So, first of all, ALL wheels weren't red, I've read of some boats with white or green or other color wheels. But red clearly was a common standard. I'd say it relates to the availability of cheap red paint during that era. In my understanding, before modern paint chemistry, paint/preservative was based on linseed oil, with something added for pigment. Iron oxide was a very common and cheap substance you could use, which gave the paint a dark reddish-brown tint (surprise!). This is why red became a standard color for barns in Europe and the US. So I assume many steamboat builders used it for the same reasons. I believe that the bright fire-engine red we see on modern steamboats is inaccurate, as the early paints couldn't achieve that brilliance, but would have been duller and rustier. That's one reason I chose to use muted colors on the Bertrand, as opposed to the bright red I see on some models.
 
As for why the wheel alone was red, and not the hull and superstructure, I'd guess that whitewash or whatever else they used was even cheaper. Given that appearance was a big factor in the intensely competitive riverboat market, the wheel color may have been because they wanted it to stand out, or because someone realized that a white wheel would look awful all caked in mud and gunk as it revolved up from the river. The underside of the white hull would have been nasty, too, but few would ever see it unless the boat capsized, and which point your marketability just went down the tubes, anyway. A nice dark red color would have hidden the gunk nicely, like brown kitchen tile. I suspect this is also why many boats had their stern paneling (facing the wheel) painted red as well, hiding the gunk thrown onto it by the wheel, as well as worse coming down from the outhouses above.
 
If anyone else can correct or add to the above, please do!

So, first of all, ALL wheels weren't red, I've read of some boats with white or green or other color wheels. But red clearly was a common standard. I'd say it relates to the availability of cheap red paint during that era. In my understanding, before modern paint chemistry, paint/preservative was based on linseed oil, with something added for pigment. Iron oxide was a very common and cheap substance you could use, which gave the paint a dark reddish-brown tint (surprise!). This is why red became a standard color for barns in Europe and the US. So I assume many steamboat builders used it for the same reasons. I believe that the bright fire-engine red we see on modern steamboats is inaccurate, as the early paints couldn't achieve that brilliance, but would have been duller and rustier. That's one reason I chose to use muted colors on the Bertrand, as opposed to the bright red I see on some models.
 
As for why the wheel alone was red, and not the hull and superstructure, I'd guess that whitewash or whatever else they used was even cheaper. Given that appearance was a big factor in the intensely competitive riverboat market, the wheel color may have been because they wanted it to stand out, or because someone realized that a white wheel would look awful all caked in mud and gunk as it revolved up from the river. The underside of the white hull would have been nasty, too, but few would ever see it unless the boat capsized, and which point your marketability just went down the tubes, anyway. A nice dark red color would have hidden the gunk nicely, like brown kitchen tile. I suspect this is also why many boats had their stern paneling (facing the wheel) painted red as well, hiding the gunk thrown onto it by the wheel, as well as worse coming down from the outhouses above.
 
If anyone else can correct or add to the above, please do!

So, first of all, ALL wheels weren't red, I've read of some boats with white or green or other color wheels. But red clearly was a common standard. I'd say it relates to the availability of cheap red paint during that era. In my understanding, before modern paint chemistry, paint/preservative was based on linseed oil, with something added for pigment. Iron oxide was a very common and cheap substance you could use, which gave the paint a dark reddish-brown tint (surprise!). This is why red became a standard color for barns in Europe and the US. So I assume many steamboat builders used it for the same reasons. I believe that the bright fire-engine red we see on modern steamboats is inaccurate, as the early paints couldn't achieve that brilliance, but would have been duller and rustier. That's one reason I chose to use muted colors on the Bertrand, as opposed to the bright red I see on some models.
 
As for why the wheel alone was red, and not the hull and superstructure, I'd guess that whitewash or whatever else they used was even cheaper. Given that appearance was a big factor in the intensely competitive riverboat market, the wheel color may have been because they wanted it to stand out, or because someone realized that a white wheel would look awful all caked in mud and gunk as it revolved up from the river. The underside of the white hull would have been nasty, too, but few would ever see it unless the boat capsized, and which point your marketability just went down the tubes, anyway. A nice dark red color would have hidden the gunk nicely, like brown kitchen tile. I suspect this is also why many boats had their stern paneling (facing the wheel) painted red as well, hiding the gunk thrown onto it by the wheel, as well as worse coming down from the outhouses above.
 
If anyone else can correct or add to the above, please do!

So, first of all, ALL wheels weren't red, I've read of some boats with white or green or other color wheels. But red clearly was a common standard. I'd say it relates to the availability of cheap red paint during that era. In my understanding, before modern paint chemistry, paint/preservative was based on linseed oil, with something added for pigment. Iron oxide was a very common and cheap substance you could use, which gave the paint a dark reddish-brown tint (surprise!). This is why red became a standard color for barns in Europe and the US. So I assume many steamboat builders used it for the same reasons. I believe that the bright fire-engine red we see on modern steamboats is inaccurate, as the early paints couldn't achieve that brilliance, but would have been duller and rustier. That's one reason I chose to use muted colors on the Bertrand, as opposed to the bright red I see on some models.
 
As for why the wheel alone was red, and not the hull and superstructure, I'd guess that whitewash or whatever else they used was even cheaper. Given that appearance was a big factor in the intensely competitive riverboat market, the wheel color may have been because they wanted it to stand out, or because someone realized that a white wheel would look awful all caked in mud and gunk as it revolved up from the river. The underside of the white hull would have been nasty, too, but few would ever see it unless the boat capsized, and which point your marketability just went down the tubes, anyway. A nice dark red color would have hidden the gunk nicely, like brown kitchen tile. I suspect this is also why many boats had their stern paneling (facing the wheel) painted red as well, hiding the gunk thrown onto it by the wheel, as well as worse coming down from the outhouses above.
 
If anyone else can correct or add to the above, please do!

chborgm, for the main & boiler decks I pre-stained each plank, using diluted Model Shipways gun-carriage red paint cedar cherry stain. I mixed very small batches at a time, and stained sets of 24" long planks together. Then I would remix a batch and do another set, and so on. The result is a bunch of planks that are subtly different colors and shading. Then, when I planked the decks, I cut each individual plank to length, from a different 24" piece, so that they changed shade end-to-end as well as side-to-side. The result was a nice gentle variation in color across the deck. This image from early in the build (way back in April) shows what this looks like from above:
 

 
For the hurricane deck, I did exactly the same thing, except I rubbed a dark grey pastel stick across each 24" length first, and rubbed the result in with my fingers. I find that finger oil does a really nice job of fixing pastel to wood; I never bother to seal wood I've handled this way unless it's an area that will be handled routinely. Again, doing each strip separately ensures a variation in the darkness of the pastel, so that when you cut the individual planks you get a nice variation. It sound very fussy but really isn't; I just work ahead at a time when I'm too tired to think about the actual model and just want a mindless job for 1/2 hour before bed. Then I have a nice big stock of planks to work with when I'm ready. All the wood in this model is basic basswood strips, by the way.
 
Ken, I have to say that the one mode of transportation I've never developed any interest in is cars. 
 
Thanks, everyone, for the likes and praise. Photography can hide many faults in a model!

Despite harassing Ken about his typing, I've now twice mis-stated the coloring agent used on my deck. Just to be clear, it's Model Expo cherry stain. Not gun carriage red, as initially stated, and not cedar stain, as I "corrected" it to say. I've been chainsawing cedar trees all week, and apparently they're in my head.

Despite harassing Ken about his typing, I've now twice mis-stated the coloring agent used on my deck. Just to be clear, it's Model Expo cherry stain. Not gun carriage red, as initially stated, and not cedar stain, as I "corrected" it to say. I've been chainsawing cedar trees all week, and apparently they're in my head.