Roger Pellett

Hank, Looks Great! You are proving that you can make a silk purse from a sow’s ear. Roger

Before starting the rigging on my last model I went to the cosmetic department at our local Target store and told the lady stocking shelves that I wanted a bottle of her least expensive lacquer based clear nail polish. A little bottle with brush on top cost well under $2.00. A little dab was used to secure knots, servings,etc and ro stiffen the ends of line. It worked great and I still have most of the bottle.

I hope what I am about to say does not just add confusion. A key to a bandsaw working well is blade tension, especially when using wider blades for resawing. If you are able to see these saws in person before buying, I would buy the saw that is most heavily built and has the most rugged tensioning mechanism. The amount of tension will also be limited by the spring rate (force/displacement) of the blade tensioning spring, assuming that these small bandsaws have one. I just replaced the spring in my 14in bandsaw with a stiffer spring. Roger

Brian If you google Ohio River Yawlboat you will find the google book page From Chapelle’s book plus photos of a real boat on display at the Ohio River Steamboat Museum in Marietta, Ohio. Roger

Look on Amazon under toys and games. Toy stores sometimes carry a line of resin cast animals. Also try model railroad sites. S scale model railroads are 1:64 scale. I recently saw a group of rabbit hunters for sale as model RR scenery. Two Beagles were included but I don’t remember the scale. Roger

Brian, Nice work on an interesting subject. I am late to the party on your lifeboat question. The boats in the photos above are not lifeboats. They are a type of workboat known as “Ohio River Yawl Boats” and most Western River Steamboats carried at least one. As you point out, these steamers navigated narrow, shallow, and winding rivers with shifting sandbars. It was often necessary to set out lines tied to trees along the banks, and this required workboats that could handle the heavy rope required. For example, a line could be carried ahead by boat, tied to a large tree, and then taken up by the capstan on the foredeck that was most certainly steam operated. The yawl boats were hard chined, with flaring topsides so that the boat would gain buoyancy when weighted down. Howard Chapelle discusses and provides drawings in his book American Small Craft. Equipping your Chaperone with one of these, authentically modeled would be an interesting project by itself. The question of lifeboats is a legal one. Did Chaperone carry passengers and if so, what lifesaving devices (boats included) were required by the Steamboat Inspection Service. For example I have a book about the excursion steamer Island Queen that sailed from Cincinnati into the 1940s and I believe that she did carry some true lifeboats. Roger

There was a ship model building blip in the 30’s and 40’s probably encouraged by a lack of more expensive options during the Depression and later WWII rationing. The hobby was also promoted by at least one author (E. Armitage McCann) writing how to do it articles in Popular Mechanics. Since the war, Americans have become obsessed with entertainment and the celebrity culture surrounding it. The evening national news networks spend in my opinion an enormous amount of time covering the entertainment industry, including themselves, while ignoring more accomplished “doers.” The alumni magazine of my alma mater, The University of Michigan, devotes a huge amount of space to graduates in the arts and entertainment fields while ignoring the accomplishments of graduates from its large and highly regarded engineering school. For example, Kelly Johnson, Director of the “Skunk Works” that designed many of the groundbreaking high performance post war aircraft was a Michigan Engineering graduate whose accomplishments are ignored. Since few are interested in the ships themselves unless they star in movies few are interested in models of them regardless of their quality. That’s just the way it is. For most of us it is just a hobby. That doesn’t mean that we cannot be personally satisfied producing beautiful historically accurate work, and if when we are pushing up the daisies it is consigned to the dumpster we’ll be none the wiser. Roger

I have a “nail pusher” that I inherited with my father’s tools and have never used. It consists of a bulbous handle and tube. There is a plunger inside the tube and the end is magnetized to hold a small headed nail. By pushing on the handle the nail is driven. If if this is what you are trying to use, it won’t work with brass nails as they are nonmagnetic. Roger

I worked for 36 years in two business fabricating heavy steel assemblies- high pressure piping. Customers routinely specified that piping be primed prior to shipment to the job site with “red oxide primer.” This was a cheap construction primer that would protect the piping until it could be erected and insulated. In 2000, this paint formulated by a local paint manufacturer cost about $14 per gallon, less than a quart of quality acrylic enamel. My point is that red oxides are widely used as paint pigments because they are cheap, and my experience is that there is no standard formulation or color standard. Boat yards and ship yards would have used what was available locally at the lowest price. I would, therefore, suggest using model railroad colors. Years ago Floquil used to sell a color called “Boxcar Red,” I am sure that someone today produces an equivalent color in an acrylic. Roger

This would look great sitting on a section of carrier deck.

Nils, Nice Model!! You did a fine job painting the passengers and crew. Do the feathering paddle wheels work? Roger

Sheets for small craft in particular have to be larger than “necessary” to provide a comfortable size to grip. Roger

At one time the Nautical Research Guild offered for sale a plan set for a ship with a Joseph Conrad connection. Octago? Sorry, I don’t remember. Perhaps Kurt can answer. Roger

Western Flyer still exists and is being restored at a boatyard in the State of Washington here in the USA. One or more articles about her were recently published in WoodenBoat magazine. You should be able to find them on their website. You might also be interested in a series of posts on this forum by Jersey City Frankie recreating the boat from the Erskine Childers novel, Riddle of the Sands. Roger

For those of you building this model and particularly for those planning to rig it, there was an extensive series of articles published in the Nautical Research Journal a number of years about the model at the Naval Academy. If I remember correctly some of the rigging is not period correct. Apparently done by the notorious Charles Davis I the ‘20s. Spend a few bucks and buy the articles from the NRG office. Roger

Dennis, If you are going to continue submerging your memory sticks, maybe you should store your data on one of these. Roger

Ok, I’m posting this here so that you aviation enthusiasts will be sure to find it. Hopefully some eager beaver will not move it before you all see it. I have 12 Leach Heritage of the Air Aviation prints. The prints themselves are about 8in square with about a 1-1/2in border all around. They are nicely done and are intended to be framed. They belong in someone’s Man Cave, just not mine. You can find examples for sale on eBay. They cover the biplane era and are mostly military themed. They are rolled and were never used. I would be happy to send them FREE to any of you that would like to have them, or if you don’t have room for all 12, I would be willing to split them up. If interested, send me a PM. Roger

Kevin, Thanks for posting this! That guy has a steadier hand, stronger grip, and more confidence than I have. Never less, it is interesting to see how other modelers have solved similar problems. Paper plating so far looks promising and I am anxious to experiment with shellac. Unfortunately it is tax season here in the states and the little time that I have to spend in the shop has been spent building a glass case for my longboat model. Your model is looking great. Roger

Lou, I wonder if your painting problem is not caused by an interaction with either the mould release agent used when casting the parts or something deposited by off gassing of the casting material itself. Some epoxy formulations, for example, are prone to what is known as an “amine blush” that forms on the surface during cure. This can interfere with paint adhesion. A good cleaning and rinsing with detergent and water might help. Roger

Kevin, In my day the first fact that a beginning Naval Architecture student was required to remember was that a 1ft square x 1in thick steel plate weighed 40.8 lbs with all other weights in proportion. From your plating expansion drawing your vessel is plated with 7-1/2lb plate with some 8-1/2lb plate on the bottom. 7-1/2 lb plate equates to 3/16in, very thin but not unusual in a vessel of this type. I don’t know what scale you are building to but at museum scale of 1:48, 3/16in equates to .004in. Checking paper laying around the house cheap computer paper, .003in; letterhead correspondence, .004in; Crane 24lb acid free thesis paper, .009in. I have a little experience with trying to plate a model hull, in this case a Great Lakes freighter hull. I first drew a plating expansion diagram like yours above by taping the girth of the hull at various stations, and laid out the plating pattern based on photos of the vessel prior to launch. Once I was satisfied I marked the plates on the hull using a wooden spline tacked to the hull. So far, so good. My next step did not work. I tried to affix brass shim stock plates using 3M transfer tape. A day or so later edges of the plates began to lift. Frustrated, I put the model aside and worked on something else. Today, I decided to try Bob Cleek’s paper and shellac idea. I plated a prepared strip of wood with two weights of paper using bookbinder’s glue and got a good bond. Tomorrow I’ll shellac it but am concerned that the alcohol in the shellac might attack the PVA glue bond. We’ll see. I was also concerned about peeling the brass plating off the model hull but it peeled right off. Roger

Kevin, Nice work! If you look up the thread “simulated rivets on plastic hull” on the forum, you will find my magnum opus regarding riveted hulls based on observations of surviving examples around the Duluth Harbor. Overall conclusions- Rivets joining hull plating are barely visible since they were usually hammered flush into a countersunk hole. This was necessary to take advantage of the hot metal of the rivet shrinking to produce a watertight joint. Rivets joining topside structure are more prominent as snap rivets with domed heads were used to join light superstructure plating. Roger

Gary, great job on the boat in general and the winch in particular. Your subtle use of colors, and simulation of wear really adds interest. The winch looks like a piece of equipment used by men who depended on it to make a living - used but not abused. Roger

Steve, Nice work on an unusual subject. Does this eventually become part of the railroad layout that appears in the background? Roger

Model aircraft plywood available at hobby shops and online and cheaper craft plywood widely available at home improvement and craft stores is available in larger dimensioned sheets with fractional thicknesses of 1/4, 1/8, 1/16,1/32, and 1/64in. Roger

Three Points The most detailed information on windlasses that I know is contained in Howard Chapelle’s book American Fishing Schooners. This book is in two parts- the first discusses the development of the ships. The second is an extensive “glossary” complete with sketches, drawings and period catalog cuts of construction details and fittings. The entry about windlasses is particularly extensive. The most successful of the improvements to the handspike windlass was the Armstrong Patent Windlass that Incorprated ratchets to allow up and down motion via pump handles. I don’t know exactly when this improvement was patented but you might be able to track down the patent on the Internet. The Schooner Alvin Clark built in the 1840’s and sunk in the 1860’s on Lake Michigan was found by modern day salvagers to be fitted with an Armstrong Patent Windlass. The Armstrong Patent Windlass did not require massive iron castings. The small lever and ratchet system could and was used with wooden barrel and whelps throughout the Nineteenth Century. Roger