vossy

ok, so some more shots which hopefully portray the posts in their real (dark) color. 
 





 
plus a full length shot that David asked for.
 

 
cheers
 
chris
 

Love it !

a few passengers strolling the uppers.
 

 
and a lonely widow perhaps???
 

 
still have a lot of glue stains to clean up etc. its marvellous how high definition photography can show up the smallest defects!
 
cheers
 
chris
 
 

ok, so some more shots which hopefully portray the posts in their real (dark) color. 
 





 
plus a full length shot that David asked for.
 

 
cheers
 
chris
 

hey mike, they are not painted at all. its just the light. they are the same dark color as the pics above them. will try to get better pics today. the only things painted on this boat are the stark white area's and the red paddlewheel. everything else is natural wood with coats of acrylic matt clear on them for protection and to enhance the natural wood grain and color. I will admit though, they do look a lot lighter in those pics.
 
cheers
 
chris
 

Continuing on with the fancy railings. Doing other stuff behind the scenes on the pilot house and smoke stacks.
 





 
Cheers
 
Chris
 

finally starting on the fancy railings.
 


 
cheers
 
chris
 

hi all, have started on the posts that go around the boat to hold the decorative balustrades. all pieces are just sitting there atm. also made a start on the upper crew staircase, again just sitting there as it needs more sanding and atm is a bit of a different angle to the one below it.
 



 
also fashioned some decorative timber on the lower part of the posts at the foot of the main passenger staircase.
 

 
cheers
 
chris
 
 

Hey Eric, yes I got the Chaperon for Christmas last year so she is next up. As I said, she sits in the box waiting for the go ahead. So far all I have done is open the box, check the contents and look through the instructions. I wont start her, or a log, until Mississippi is finished or at least up to the final rigging stage.
 
Cheers
 
Chris
 

really like this boat and your build of her. regarding the hull color, i'm not too sure what you mean but why not get rid of the black altogether and paint the entire hull white, which was extremely common practice at the time. a lot of old drawings of the vessel depict her with a white hull. she certainly appears in literature and art with a predominately white hull as opposed to one having a black one.
 
cheers
 
chris
 

And here is some pictures of the currenlty stage:

 

After a long interlude...Several cannons need to be fixed in place prior to placement of the side gun port patterns.  2 small cannon carriages are placed at the stern.  No issue here with the barrels temporarily placed
 
the plans call for one small carriage at the bow.  Problem here is that in the picture of the finished model on the box, this cannon seems to be a large one and there is no way it will fit in this space and be centered in the port.  This one is on the same deck as the other large cannons.  I ended up using a small one here as the instructions say to do.  So I will be short one small and have one extra large.   Not an  issue now, but easy enough to deal with...just could have one port closed.

 
next issue was the 2 large carriages  towards the stern.  When placement was tested, the bulkheads interfered with centering of the cannon in the port.  next 2 photos illustrate the problem.  
 

 

 
The fix was easy enough...trim back both bulkheads in order to make them more like frames.  Luckily, the MDF is muhk easier to trim than plywood!
 

Since i had to make a few small and large cannons, I figured I may as well make them all.   This way I can test cannon placement with the gunport patterns.  one of the aft ports was a bit off so about 1.5 mm was taken off the lower edge.  Before trimming, I checked that this would not affect the wales as one comes close to this port.  Should have room to spare above the wale.
 

 
The cannons...
 

 
Next step is to affix the side gun port patterns.  
 
Jeff
 

Continuing on with the fancy railings. Doing other stuff behind the scenes on the pilot house and smoke stacks.
 





 
Cheers
 
Chris
 

My wife has always been so supportive of me and my crazy model building habits. But then again, she knew what she was getting into from the start. Here's a picture of me and my beautiful bride from almost 45 years ago, and I am doing (guess what?)...a model building project. 

Continuing on with the fancy railings. Doing other stuff behind the scenes on the pilot house and smoke stacks.
 





 
Cheers
 
Chris
 

Continuing on with the fancy railings. Doing other stuff behind the scenes on the pilot house and smoke stacks.
 





 
Cheers
 
Chris
 

look'in sweet Chris!   the railings look great!   shaping up nicely   

You work behind the scenes ... I presume the revenue service would like to know about that ...
Your fancy railings turned out quite fancy. I like the way it makes her look.

Continuing on with the fancy railings. Doing other stuff behind the scenes on the pilot house and smoke stacks.
 





 
Cheers
 
Chris
 

Continuing on with the fancy railings. Doing other stuff behind the scenes on the pilot house and smoke stacks.
 





 
Cheers
 
Chris
 

I am just interested to get a gauge of usage of power tools over hand tools, (or vice versa), when people build a wooden kit model. I might well be wrong, but I would envisage a far greater use of power tools when building a scratch model as opposed to a kit. For me, I have no space, tools, or knowhow to build a vessel from scratch so I stick to kits only, albeit with a little bit of scratch enhancement when I can manage it.
In building my kits, the only power tools I ever use, in fact the only ones I own, are a soldering iron for plank bending, and very occasionally, a dremel for sanding. Mostly I find myself using hand saws, files, cutters etc. Now I am pretty happy with the end product I achieve with these tools, but looking at some of the truly majestic builds on this site and the internet in general, I wonder how many of these results are achieved via only/mainly hand tools? a mixture of both, with a greater emphasis on using which? And which power or hand tool couldn't you do without to complete a specific task?
 
Cheers
 
Chris
 

You've been busy! Looks really great David. Love the red color throughout. You going to rig the guns?
 
Cheers
 
Chris
 

You've been busy! Looks really great David. Love the red color throughout. You going to rig the guns?
 
Cheers
 
Chris
 

All deck fittings and gunport doors now done.  Next step is masts, yards, and rigging.
 
Regards,
David

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.