Roger Pellett

What can I say that hasn’t already been said. Beautiful! Roger

Jim, Thanks. More to come. The inlet will be barred to prevent flotsam from being sucked into the condenser. I will of course have to relocate the outlet. Roger

A brief progress report. Both hull halves are now plated and I am now adding details while I can still benefit from having a flat centerline surface. First before plating the second hull half I located and drilled the holes for the condenser inlet and outlet piping. Drilling sidehill holes is always a messy business that often doesn’t end well. In this case, I first started the hole with a Spiral End Mill. This produced a flat shelf square to the drill press drill. The hole was finished with a brad point drill. The holes were then lined with brass tubing. The holes were not shown on the drawings so were located by photos and reconstruction of engine room equipment locations. After plating the second hull half, I began locating the wooden fender that runs just below the sheer strake. Unlike, the piping inlet and outlet this fender is located accurately on the plating expansion drawing. Addition of the fender will be covered in my next post. Unfortunately, after plating the second hull half I discovered that the fender interferes with the condenser outlet hole. Fortunately I was able to fish the brass insert from the hole with an Easyout and to insert a specially sized plug. This will be mostly covered by the fender.

Shipman, In the Eighteenth Century, Royal Navy, Longboats were sloop (or rather Cutter) rigged. There is ample evidence to support this- rigged models, contemporary paintings, and a detailed rigging drawing reproduced in May’s warship boats book. Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge no one has made a detailed study of the provence of much of this information. The painting of the rigged Longboat by Dominic Serres that appears on the cover of May’s book is, however, indisputable. There is a spirited discussion elsewhere on the forum discussing this topic. Roger

I keep my large woodworking tools hung on a piece of 3/4in particle board secured with L hooks that screw into it. I prefer this to peg board as the hooks stay in place better when you use a tool. Roger

OC With your painting skills I would suggest that you paint your own flag. I did this for a ship model that I built and was pleased with the results. Use very thin paler such as rice paper. Tape it down to a smooth surface. With a sharp pencil draw the border between the different colors. Paint the different colors with acrylic paints. Turn the paper over and repeat the process. After fastening the flag to the flag pole, use a wet brush to tease it into your desired shape. The French tricolor should be easy to paint. The gold lettering can be impressionistic. Roger

Michael, Medical conditions are not to be taken lightly and I hope that your CTS is resolved and that you can get back to doing the things that you enjoy. Visits to the neurologist are no fun; needles, wires, electric shocks, etc. Get we.ll soon. Roger

Joe, is it possible that this boat had an iron steering wheel instead of a wooden one? I’m thinking of one of the Edson type wheels used by small commercial craft. If so, I remember a shop note published in the NRG about making one of these. From your previous posts I believe that you have a metal lathe. If so using the method from the shop note, a metal one might be easier than a wooden one. Roger

In Nineteenth Century America boiler explosions were a major cause of accidental death, and steamboats were a major contributor to this toll. Late in the century Congress finally acted to do something about the problem and delegated design of boilers to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). The society responded by writing a Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, commonly known as the ASME Code. Application of the code dramatically reduced deaths from boiler explosions, although it could not stop operators from taking risks like those described. The Code still is used today, and has been expanded to apply to piping, and even some miniature boilers used in live steam model railroads. With nuclear power on the horizon, ASME added a section on nuclear reactors and piping. Today the code has been implemented by a network of state boiler laws and in the case of nuclear power, Federal law. The code is kept current by a system of interpretations, code cases, and revisions. While Code administration is handled by professionals, the technical content is under control of engineer volunteers from the various organizations including businesses that use it. Back in my day these volunteers met once a month in New York to conduct business. Business was by consensus. All members had to agree. Meetings were open and while visitors could not vote, they could participate in discussions and their concerns were given a full hearing. It is a remarkable example of an industry controlling itself for the benefit of everyone. Roger

Yes, by 1900, US Navy cutters could be steered with either a yoke or a short tiller. The yoke was a fancy casting of Composition Metal, the Navy’s name for copper alloys (brass and bronze). Hitchborn includes a detailed pattern in his book. The two horns are longer than those that Druxey shows. That being said Druxey is not modeling a 1900 US Navy Standard Cutter but a MidNineteenth Century Cutter built by a private shipyard for use by a foreign navy. The rudder pattern itself is different from that for the U.S Navy Boat. Roger

Do you have a Dremel type tool? If so go to any Hardware Store or Home Improvement Store and buy some abrasive cutting discs and a mandrel. The Discs that I am suggesting are about 1” in diameter and quite thin. They are fragile and wear down quick so you’ll need more than one. They come in a little can and one can should be enough. It would help to rig up a little guide. Roger

Brass or copper are the ideal materials, easy to form and solder, and strong enough. They blacken easily, with spots touched up with flat black paint. Using a harder material like piano wire would seem to be doing things the hard way. Roger

Don, Any blade with the right kerf width and tooth count will work as long as the teeth are not “set.” Metal slotting blades regardless of their market description should work.

Adam, Et All, I live in Duluth, Minnesota 1500 or so miles from salt water but at the western end of the five Great Lakes that drain into the Atlantic Ocean. It is the largest port on the Great Lakes with ocean access via the St Lawrence Seaway. Duluth is best known for its cold winters. Less known is the fact that in the early 1900’s there were more millionaires per capita in Duluth, than any other city in the USA. This wealth came from the enormous mineral deposits discovered in Northern Minnesota in the 1890’s. These mineral barons built an exclusive club to enjoy and to entertain the “Eastern Capitalists” visiting Duluth to conduct business. They named it The Kitchi Gammi Club, the native name for Lake Superior. “The Kitch” as it is known to its members is still, over 100 years later, very much a part of the community welcoming members and guests with exceptional hospitality. For over 32 years a large picture of a beautiful young woman has hung in one of the club’s rooms. One day, I gave it a closer look and discovered it to be a painting of Emma Hamilton, Admiral Nelson’s Love, by the famous English painter George Romney. The painting is on permanent loan to the club from a local art museum and was apparently from the collection of one of Duluth’s mineral barons. In 2019, my wife and I visited the National Portrait Gallery in London. I was surprised to find the “same” picture there. So, did Romney paint more than one picture of Emma? Is the Kitchi picture a fake? I will see if I can get the club manager interested in the picture and hopefully club members interested in The Trafalgar Project. Roger Ps: it is possible that we saw the picture in the Queen’s House Gallery at Greenwich instead of the National Portrait Gallery.

And here’s a model that I built from scratch of an American Pilot boT of the same era.

From your build log, it would appear that this Swift is a kit manufacturer’s idea of what a Virginia Pilot Boat should look like, although these small sailing craft typically did not have bulwarks. They also had very little in the way of deck structures; a main hatch, a small hatch forward to ventilate the galley and a low trunk cabin aft. This cabin would be accessed by a hatch, possibly with a sliding cover. Here’s a picture of a Virginia Pilot Boat sketched by a British Naval who saw the real thing.

Plug repair looks good!

Tom, By specifying “iron rod” the kits instructions are trying to tell you not to leave these as shiny brass as seen on so many otherwise nicely done kits. They should be blackened to look like iron. You will have to touch up solder with flat black paint. Roger

Some of the dispersed fire tactics of the British Army can be traced back to experience gained in North America during the French and Indian was, the Seven Years War in the UK and Europe. After Braddock’s defeat at the Monongahela, several officers began to consider tactics that would work better in a wilderness environment. One of these was Lord Howe the older brother of the two Howes who fought in the American Revolution. He was sadly killed at the battle at Fort Ticonderoga. The most famous of the new units formed as a result of this was Rogers Rangers made famous by Spencer Tracy in the movie Northwest Passage. While the Rangers were useful as scouts and long range raiders they were not intended to fight alongside troops in formal battles. A less well known unit that did pioneer dispersed fire tactics in a battlefield environment was the 60th American, later the 60th Royal American. This was recruited from American Volunteers and Commanded by a Swiss Immigrant named Henry Bouquet. If my memory is correct they later became part of the Rifle Regiment. Roger

There was also the siege at Vicksburg that ended with the Union Army capturing the city on the same day that the Battle of Gettysburg ended. Roger

Druxey, Your oar is beautiful! If I may offer a suggestion, I would gently round the tips. We don’t want the crewman catching a crab in choppy water. Roger

One thing that scratch building does require that kit building does not is a plan for building the model. In my case this includes both how I am going to build it and in what sequence. These are challenges that I enjoy. Roger

Keith, Civil War era navies seem to have made wide use of this “Jackass” rig. I don’t know what else to call it. With that in mind, you might want to get ahold of the series of articles published in the Journal, I think in the ‘90s describing the research involved in building a model of USS Kearsarge. You should be able to track them down on the Guild’s website. While your ship is larger, the rigs appear to be similar. Roger

OC, There have been thousands of books published about the ACW and many movies. In my opinion, by far the most accurate movie is Gettysburg. If you have access to it, it is well worth your time to watch it. ,The music score is great too. Roger

Exactly what landing craft are you building? American? British? And designation (LCX)? Roger