Roger Pellett

To designate a vessel for National Historic Landmark status it is Necessary to prepare and file a Historic Structures Report (HSR) with the US National Park Service, an arm of the US Federal Government.  The process can be quite complicated and HSR’s can vary in quality.  HSRs are supposed to include Measured Drawings of the vessel in question.

The National Park Service has posted a number of these HSR’s on line and I believe that includes one for Hercules.  The drawings in the Hercules HSR should be helpful in adding details to this kit.

Roger

Naval Architects have an elegant term for that. It’s called Slamming!

It may just be the angle of the photo but those anchors appear to be over scale.  If the revenue cutters were actually fitted out with the metal stock anchors it would that they would have been brought inboard, the stocks collapsed, and the anchors stored flat on d.eck lashed to ringbolta.

Roger

Have you read Shattered Sword?  If not it might be an interesting book to take on your trip.    It would be of interest as the authors describe in considerable detail how American and Japanese operated and how these operational details affected the outcome at Midway.  You might find some gems that help you to better understand constructional details not explained by the instructions.

Roger

Epoxy cures with an exothermic reaction.  In other words the chemical reaction itself creates heat.  So, while curing, heat needs to be transferred away as fast as it is generated.  In most cases the surface area is large relative to the thickness of the Epoxy so heat buildup is minimal.  In your case the Epoxy is thick and the space confined.  I have mixed epoxy in a 2oz piper cup and it got too hot to touch.  If possible, can you pour it in layers to minimize the volume being cured?

Roger

At least one Epoxy manufacturer, West System, used to sell pigments formulated to be mixed with their resins. There are of course, pre packaged Epoxy paints.  This is all the realm of full sized yacht finishes but should work for you too.  I believe that Urethane marine paints are also applied as a finish coat atop Epoxies.  

Roger

It may seem strange, but in the wooden shipbuilding era, ships and boats were not always built to the Naval Architects drawings.  The final design was often done by modifying the lines on the mould loft floor.  This may account for some of the variations that you are encountering.

Roger

Yes, it sounds like the guy, although I thought that he had a definite release date.

Roger

There is supposedly a guy in prison who recovered $$$$ in gold from a wreck in US Waters.  He stashed it somewhere and lost a fight with the authorities regarding possession.  He will be released in a while and as he had paid his debt to society will be able to enjoy his loot.  He apparently thinks that this is a good bargain.

Roger

The main user of water from the sea chest is of course the condenser for the main engine.  Period photos and drawings for various ships and the condenser for the 1896 main engine of the historic Steamship SS Meteor have the condenser located on the engine’s port side.  This means that the hotwell, air pump, and feed pump would also be located on the port side.  The air pump and often the feed pump were driven by a link to the engine crosshead.  The sea chest would be located on the same side of the vessel as the condenser to minimize the run of of piping to it.  The engineer controlled the engine while standing on the operating platform that was located on the side opposite the condenser as the shaft and linkage for controlling the engine’s rotation had to be located on the side opposite the linkage for the air pump.

The direction of rotation of the propeller was a function of valve timing, nothing more.  The engine was reversed via a linkage that changed the valve timing.  A major advantage of the triple expansion marine engine was that it turned slow enough to be connected directly to the propeller.  Expensive, difficult to manufacture gearing was was not required.

I see no reason why the sea chest could not be located on the starboard side, provided the engine’s condenser and pumps were located on that side also.  A twin screw vessel would have sea chests on both sides with a “port condenser engine and a starboard condenser engine.”  The operating platform would then be located between the two engines.

Roger

I have a Byrnes Saw bought shortly after they first became available, so it’s an old timer.  My interests include scratch building of warships’ boats and completing a very long term project; a steel hulled Great Lakes Steamship.  I do not anticipate building a classic POF sailing warship model.

Never less I continue to find new applications for my Saw that were totally unanticipated when I bought it:  cutting sheet brass and thin craft plywood, cutting dimensioned grooves in jigs to hold parts to be soldered, and most recently slicing off dozens of 1/32in thick hatch boards from a laminated stack.  The saw also did a great job of cutting a tapered blank for the mast of a Longboat model.

While many of these jobs could be performed by a milling machine, they’re expensive too, and setup is often more difficult.  In addition to its rigidity that allows accurate square cuts, the saw’s versatility is due to two features; the ability to raise and lower the blade and the 1/2in arbor that permits metal slotting blades of various widths.  I have never needed a tilting arbor ( which the saw doesn’t have), the extended fence, or the crosscut sled.  I did make a sled from a piece of aluminum angle, with an adjustable stop that fastens to the saw’s Standard miter gage.

It’s a shame that high shipping costs, customs duties, etc. limit access to this remarkable piece of equipment to those living outside of the USA.

Roger

Bob,  As our resident paint chemist, what about Japan Colors?

Roger

That’s a great, beautifully produced book at a great price!  

How about a sight glass for checking boiler water level?

And of course, you can make up your own custom color by mixing artist oils, the kind sold in tubes, with linseed oil.

I’m Assuming that your Tar Colored Wash is what Americans would call an “oil based wood stain”.  This is nothing more than artist oil colors mixed in linseed oil so diluting the stain with more linseed oil should work fine.  I agree with Druxey that stains don’t cure rapidly as they are intended to be top coated with varnish.  There is a product called “Japan Dryer” that when added to linseed oil based coatings speeds up curing.  It should be available wherever you buy paints.

Roger

Although US Navy aircraft carriers are prominent features of WW II operational histories and battle accounts very little seems to have been written about the nuts and bolts of their construction.  (I don’t have Norman Friedman’s book so maybe I’m overlooking something.). This build really highlights the complexity of these vessels.  Well done!

Roger 

MDF is just a substrate, a blank canvas.  It can be finished with a variety of finishes.  If the finish is tasteful and well done it will look fine.  For example, MSW member Druxey is a master at applying faux marble and wood burl finishes to ordinary base materials.  Unfortunately I can’t come close to matching his artistic skills.

A caution- MDF is a wood fiber product and can and will warp from changes in ambient moisture. It is therefore necessary to balance the two opposing sides of the baseboard.  A while ago, I glued a piece of veneer to one surface while leaving the other exposed.  It warped like a banana.  So, if you paint or otherwise finish one surface it’s necessary to likewise treat the other.

Roger

Since your model was purchased in 1954, it would be of the original Bluenose, not Bluenose II.  Bluenose II was not launched until 1964.

$1500+ buys a lot of tools and books!

Back in the day, pine was the preferred material for solid hull ship models.  IMHO it is an under rated ship modeling material, much better than most kit materials, and better than Basswood.  American lumberyard softwood is usually SPF- Spruce, pine, Fir.  It pays to sort through the pile to find the pine.  Often it is not necessary for ship modeling purposes to buy the high grade select pine.  Areas of a plank with knots can be discarded leaving plenty of straight grained material for our purposes.

Roger

Great pictures of an interesting vessel.

The engine appears to be a compound version of a Western Rivers steamboat engine.  Western Rivers defined as the Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri watershed.  Most of these engines were single expansion; steam from the boiler was expanded in the cylinder and exhausted to the atmosphere.  The heat energy in the steam at atmospheric pressure was therefore lost.  This engine has a second larger cylinder arranged in tandem with the high pressure (HP)cylinder.  After being expanded in the HP cylinder the steam was piped into the second cylinder where it expanded further.  By expanding the steam sequentially in two separate cylinders they, the cylinders, remained at a more constant temperature.

It is also likely that the pipe in the foreground from the LP cylinder going through the deck leads to a condenser below.  This used river water to condense the steam, recovering the heat energy remaining in the steam from 212F to the temperature of the river water.

Roger

The pear wood stash is mine not Allan’s.  It was cut back in the 1970’s by someone who was building a house near Marietta, Ohio.  I had it sawn into slabs at a backwoods sawmill.  It sat around indoors and outdoors until a few years ago when I flattened it on my jointer, planed it and sawed it into billets.

Roger

Allen,

I suspect that most are returning to the Twin Cities about 150 miles south of Duluth where we live.  We have a Friday lunch group during the summer we get about 8 guys.  Last Friday there were three of us, the rest headed to warmer climes.  Leaves are all gone.  It’s a long story, but my wife and I have decided to forgo our March visit to Marco Island this winter.  We had been going every year since 2004.😒

Roger

I don’t know what Dremel currently offers but the classic “Dremel Tool” turns too fast to be a good drilling tool.   If Dremel offers a variable speed tool that maintains torque through its RPM range that would be something to consider.  I believe that MicroMark offers a true hand held miniature drill.

Roger.