Roger Pellett

Thanks, Gary!
 
I rebuilt a new version of the tow knees. These are just set in place right now. I decided to focus on the style seen in this photo:
 




Thoughts?
 
I also started laying out a draft of the paddlewheel. Here's the loose size I'm thinking of using; compare with the photo below that is my best view of the stern area.
 
 


Thoughts on all of this? 

A wonderful model!  Eric, I believe that you have a set of drawings for a similar railroad ferry in your stash.  Perhaps a future project?
 
Railroad car ferries also sailed on the Great Lakes, particularly on lakes Erie and Michigan.  On Eastern Lake Erie they transferred cars filled with Ohio mined coal across to Canada.
 
 Lake Michigan was a different problem as its axis is North South.  This means that it blocked railroads moving freight from Michigan to Wisconsin, Minnesota and points west.  Going around the south end of the lake meant that trains had to negotiate the crowded Chicago rail yards, an unacceptable solution.  Two railroads, therefore, operated very large purpose built car ferries across the lake.  These ferries operated year round, breaking winter ice.  As least two were lost in winter storms.  The last two, SS Badger and SS Spartan were built in the early 1950’s.  Both still exist although only Badger sails.  Today, she hauls passengers and their vehicles across the lake; no railroad cars.  Badger is the last coal fired reciprocating engine steamship sailing on the lakes.
 
There were also a number of paddle driven railroad car ferries that shuttled cars across the Detroit River.  The paddle wheels were driven by massive horizontal steam engines.  I remember seeing them in the 1960’s.
 
Roger

This is the last post for this build log.  All the electronics have gone hay wire. The servo does not act correctly nor do the motors and reliever.  I don't know how to fix this one without replacing components.  I am not going to do that.
 
Thank everyone for the help and interest.   

So this is the two of them and I’m quite happy that I re did it without the shield 

Very cool, Greg.

We recently spent a few days along the Upper Mississippi River (the stretch bordered by Minnesota, Wisconsin, and northern Iowa) and I thought a few photos and stories might be of interest to the general audience here. This part of the river is quite different from that below St. Louis; it's controlled by a series of locks and dams that create relatively stable pools for navigation, whereas below St. Louis the river is free-flowing. This also means that the whole valley is often filled with water, creating a maze of channels and islands that's actually more natural in appearance than the highly channelized lower river. Views like this also resemble what rivers like the Missouri used to look like before they were locked into permanent navigation channels and their complex forested floodplains transformed into dry farmland.

The bluffs along this stretch can rise over 400 feet above the river, giving dramatic views from various public lands, like this shot looking down on a toy-like towboat far below.

We were also fortunate to catch a large tow going through Lock & Dam 13 (just north of Fulton, Illinois), and set up a tripod so we could take time-lapse imagery of the whole process. I can't upload video here, but extracted a sequence of frames to show the process, which is pretty neat if you've never seen it done before.
 
This tow consisted of three columns of barges, two of which are four barges long and one just three, for a total of 11. The lock can only accommodate three barge-lengths without a towboat, so there's no way this whole massive tow can get through in one piece. So how is this impasse handled?
 
Here the lock is opening and you can see the tow approaching from downriver.

After some careful maneuvering, the towboat shoves its tow into the lock, with only a foot or so to spare on either side.

The tow is "broken" between the first and second rows of barges, and the towboat begins to back out of the lock with the first row, leaving rows 2-4 alone in the lock so the gates can close.

Once rows 2-4 have been raised to the upriver level, they're hooked to a little engine/winch that runs along an extended rail beyond the lock. This pulls the tow upriver out of the lock, beyond the upper gates, where it's tied off to await the rest.

Now the water is lowered again and the towboat enters with row 1.

A closeup of the towboat, a 6140 horsepower vessel built in 1976. It bears some resemblance to the Caroline N, subject of @mbp521's beautiful ongoing build, though they're not sister ships (second image from Towboat Gallery).


Once the towboat has been raised, it reunites its tow and proceeds upstream. I didn't record this part.
 
Anyone interested in watching how locking works should check out the live webcam streaming from Lock 19 at Keokuk, Iowa, which also monitors an active rail line running along the river next to the lock. This is mounted on a historic double-decker road/rail bridge, the upper portion of which has been converted into a pedestrian overlook of the lock and river and is a great place to hang out on a pleasant day and watch river/rail traffic. But you have to watch what you say, as the camera picks up voices from below (I have mixed feelings about that). This lock is longer than the one shown above and can accommodate a full 12-barge tow and towboat all at once.
 
And just to show that I'm an equal-opportunity transportation buff, here's a nice shot of a CPKC freight running downriver on a very active line.
 

Thank you for the nice comments.
 
The planking at the bow has been further sanded and fitted with treenails.

Back to the rear castle.
Smaller wales (4) are placed on the clinker planking. Of course, none of the four have the same dimensions.
The drawings and photos are partly used to determine the "right" location. The dimensions between the wales are also taken into account for future painting works.
According to Mary's remains, the Wales certainly continue as far as sector 10 (the penultimate cannon port)
 
"penultimate"  A new English word for me (hopefully Mr. Google translate is correct 😳)

After applying these wales I have to read my books and think first.
The "frames" of the rear castle are much too thick. And the clinker planking on the transom also feels wrong.
This means extra sanding and cutting, probably a redo and a   smiley.
 
Thanks for following
 

I’ve been off the forum, but not completely inactive.  My new work table has arrived and I love it!  Solid Birch.  Gateleg.  Six drawers of storage.

I have also taken exclusive proprietorship over my repro Lancaster County Fanback - a chair that I, alone, love.
 
Arrayed along the back are all of the rigging specific books I have acquired and borrowed.   Among the latter are Marquardt’s tome on 18th Century rigging, as well as a reader-friendly binder expansion of Anderson’s Rigging in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast, both of which were lent to me by Dan Pariser - thanks, again, Dan!
 
I like to use Anderson as my baseline, particularly the earlier edition, because he calls out Continental and particularly French differences.  Simultaneously, I keep pace through Lees, Marquardt and the binder version of Anderson, which is actually the later edition that focusses specifically on English practice.  Simultaneous to all of that, I am referencing my photo library of models to reference fair leads and really see what all of this is supposed to look like.
 
One model that has been particularly helpful as a reference is the following of L’Ambiteaux, in 1:96.  The photography expands in high definition and you can really see where it all leads to.  The full-site version has many more pictures than the mobile version:
 
https://www.modelships.de/Ambitieux/Photos_Ambitieux.htm
 
Because my knowledge of rigging is so limited, this has always felt to me like the most daunting aspect of the build.  Gradually, though, as I follow Anderson’s advice and read through the entire book before starting, I am developing a vocabulary and understanding of what all of the lines do.  Slowly, I am beginning to see how to map out my belay points.
 
Of course, I have been the benefactor of A LOT of extra help, here, with John Ott being completely open about his sources and his own belay plan and line-scale corollaries.  Michael D (72Nova) has been exceedingly gracious in sharing his rigging techniques in very small scale.  And Kirill has also been exceedingly generous in sharing photographic resources and his own knowledge.  Thank you to all and many others!  I think, as I get into it, I will come to enjoy the rigging process.  I am, nonetheless, determined to make a passably good job of it.
 
In the meantime, before I could strop deadeyes and fabricate chains and preventer plates, I needed to fill-in between the middle deck wales at the fore and main channel locations:

Work continues slowly on the Africa figure.  I am in the process of defining shapes and volumes.  All of my edge tools were pretty dull, though, so I took a little time to brighten their edges.
 
Little by little, we are getting there.  Thanks for looking in!
 
Best,
 
Marc
 

So, I had a small pocket of time to snug and snip the fore, port channel. I was able to finesse that first knot up a little higher. Really - and considering that they do tighten up just enough more under slight tension - I am very pleased with this experiment. Black touch-up paint to follow:


I am at least confident that these long links would not look better as wire. I may have over-calculated the angle of the two furthest aft preventer plates, but I was just following what the test line told me to do. Also, technically, the preventer plate links should span to the lower wale, but the first batch I made just looked over-long. I can live with this compromise. It is still a vast improvement over the stock kit. The important thing is that the chains no longer interfere with the port lids.

There are three backstay deadeyes that I have yet to prepare, but I will get to them in the next few rounds of deadeye prep.

Roger and ClipperFan,
Thanks for your very kind words!!!  Every thing seems to take much longer than I expected, and it seems that I have to constantly remake items because I either don’t like the first result or I break something trying to correct it or I just plain loose it when I drop it or it flys out of my fingers/cotton pliers.
None of this would be possible if not for EdT’s remarkable books on building the Young America.  I have attempted to use the processes he describes in the 3 volume set.  I have found them to be invaluable.  Without them I would be lost.
Roger, your own model is amazing!!!  You are truly a master at metal work, which when done well, takes a model to a whole other level.  I am learning a lot from your build as well and can only hope to come close to your level at some point.
I really like Great Lakes ore carriers, being from Ohio and having lived outside of Cleveland for 36 years.  My grandfather was a helmsman on a whale back freighter for a while after WW1.
Again, thankyou both for the encouragement.
Rick
 

Off to test my boat in my hot tub.  The boat is not working now.
 
The rudders move and the ESC is on.  The motors will not turn.
 
The charger says the batteries are 8.3 and 8.1. so it is not the batteries
 
Maybe a lose connection,  I had to super two of pins in the connectors.

Thanks Roger, glad you think so.
 
General rules of thumb:
- The effect is a bit unorthodox since it will be black upon white upon more black, but it still works if you use your eyes keenly
- I applied white on the black primed hull, spraying a mottling/stippling effect, which in reality is just random ways to fill the space without completely painting it over
- For the effect to really work, focus the white on the middle of the raised details, so that the outer edges are still dark (that’s what makes the light/shadow effect). 
Below is a picture of my BF110 of which this strategy is applied on a far larger subject scale:

In this case I would be more subtle than the plane, but I hope you’ve gained the understanding 
- The fan is a result of nothing but a lack of money to buy some more ventilation systems
 
Please ask if you have any more questions, hope this helps, and good luck!

Waited to respond until I had something to show. 
 
Sorry for trying to put years of operations and many courses and manuals in a single post... I guess that was a bit much. 
 
In any case, as mentioned before, the first liquid line was the hardest as I had to line it out, get a good length etc. Once this one was done (and for those paying attention, in the last picture it had already its end flanges and orange painted extremities in place), I could continue with the others. 
I was very reluctant to glue it in place, due to so many things that need to line up at one time, that I didn't glue it in place for a long time. Although I wanted to continue aft with the vapor line next to my finished liquid line, I decided not to do that. 
Although everything is far from perfect, I had a feeling that the longitudinal distance between the manifold flanges would be very important for the overall view of the model. I therefore went ahead with the aft liquid line. Once that was done, I could go towards the center and make sure those distances were at least symmetrical. 
Again everything was laying dry fitted for a very long time, until I was sure that I had at least the space to cram in the other lines. 
I then glued the two liquid (orange tipped) lines in place and continued inward with the vapor lines etc. 
 
Here you see how I lined up all manifold flanges to be at a straight line transversally. Because I had the two liquid lines fixed, I could use a straight piece of styrene touching the flanges. I then marked the edge of the "new" pipes and cut them off at that mark. 

 

 
Once I had the flanges on on one side, I then used that piece of styrene against all flanges (with the white pipes still dry fitted) and used the same trick to mark out the other side. Then I cut that side and glued the flange. Up till that moment I had the "flanges", small rings, that I needed for valves, loose on the pipes. Once the flanges were in place, I could measure and glue the first flange for the first valve and so on. 

 
And a bit of extra. As you can see on the liquid manifold ends, there are two valves. 1 is manual, with a wheel (inboard), the other is hydraulic (outboard), with a big actuator. The manual valve is called a double shut valve and is installed because a single valve can leak, chances of having two valves leaking at the same time are much smaller. Since the liquid lines can go quite high in pressure, this is a requirement for liquid lines only. On the vapour line you can see there is no more manual valve behind the hydraulic actuator. 
The high pressure line also has a double valve (more work for me again). 
 
I've been thinking of making the manifold flanges bolted, in a similar way as the strainer lids. But eventually I decided against it. It would probably be out of scale, take a long time to make and I had already used blank discs as end flanges on other parts of the vessel, so it would be out of the normal to have them with bolts here. 
 
And last but not least I tested with a paper template, the walkway that's supposed to come on top. To my greater surprise (I had to make some things slightly out of scale and expected the accumulated error to be quite large), it fitted quite well. 
I will make a cardboard adapted version of this catwalk before I make the final one in the same way as I made the driptray gratings. 

 
 

Channels…

Drilling for the Masts and Bow Sprit… No glue at this time. 

Ready to seal and paint the hull and bulwarks. 
 
Cheers 🍻 
 

Thanks to all for your comments, feedback and "likes".  It is so appreciated.
 
 
I do apply it to raw wood and yes it can get blotchy if I try to add too much color in one wash, especially on soft wood such as basswood.  Typically, I lay down one or two very diluted washes rather than one heavy wash and I don't mix the chalk/alcohol to a gain a paint-like solution.  It's mostly alcohol with a tad of chalk added in.  I dip my brush into clean alcohol and then pick up some of the powder that I scraped off the side of a chalk stick and brush it on.  If it's too much color, I wash on more clean alcohol to dilute and blend it.  When I'm doing a quantity of wood at once, I'll scrape the sides of the chalk directly on to the wood and then with a sopping 1/2" brush of straight alcohol, slop it all around.  But that is an on-bench process only - never on the model itself.  Play around with some scrap wood and you'll quickly see how easy, forgiving, controllable and versatile it is.  For deeper richer colors, the same process can be used with pigment powders but that is not as forgiving.  Thanks Paul.
 
 
Thanks for the tip on the ground glass.  I found a vendor that sells several grits in small quantities so I'm going to order some to take a look at it.  I'll report my findings.  I've only ever seen crushed/flaked ice used.  Thanks, Wefalck.
 
 
   
Jerome and Keith, thanks for your input and I agree - crushed ice and I think mostly flaked.  Especially today - what they used in 1943, not sure.
 
 
Good suggestion Jerome.  Thanks.  As mentioned above, I'll be looking at some ground glass and see how sparkly (or not) that is first.
 
@Keith Black  Thanks for the link on the snow/ice modeling, Keith.  I don't know if those products will work for me here, but I'll keep them in mind and add them into my info folder.  Night Shift is an amazing modeler!
 
@Paul Le Wol @Keith Black @Jim Lad @FlyingFish @TOM G @Glen McGuire  Thank you for your kind words on the work in progress. 
 
Stay well,  Gary

Good to hear about the files.
 
I have a habit to pursue  a hobby when started.  I started out bookbinding in the late eighties.  Ended selling when COVID closed the farmers market closed.  During that time woodcarving ten years were spent.  Only quit that when the cerebral palsy made my hand cramp too much.  In for the long run with model ship building.
 
Too ambitious, no.  The models are selected in degrees of learning curve.  Driven, yes.  Reading history for a hobby leads to one book another!  Seeing a jumble of parts become a work of art thrills me!  Craftsmanship will keep me young.
 
My downfall is buying books and tools.  You can not create well with a poor tool and little knowledge.

Indeed....clewed to the mast simply meant you furled the sails up close to the mast and when they unfurled the clews would fall and be pulled outward.  this tended to make the sails bunch up at the parrel point.
However commercial ships generally used the other furling method which furled the sail directly up, leaving the clew as presented in this image.   the sail would fall and the clews would be in place outboard.  I suspected that if you were an ole Navy man...you'd furl clews  to the mast......
 
From my research it appears that clewing to the mast on commercial ships was done mostly before the double topsail was introduced...as depicted in the image you presented.
 
Rob 

Johnny...it has to do if the sail is rigged military style...with the clews to the mast or commercial with them rigged as you see on the Glory of the Seas.  There is a name for both, but I can't recall them off the top of my head at this time.
 
It is true that the rigging on commercial vessels as a matter of the captains, or owner's preference.
 
Rob

Paul,  My thoughts exactly.  I believe that Peking was not scrapped but was sent to Hamburg, Germany and restored.
 
Roger

A nice project, well executed!
 
Determining the correct scale is of course important as it will determine sizes of all of the fittings that you intend to scratch build.  As an ex Coast Guard Officer, you obviously know that the “length” of a vessel has several definitions; length overall, register length, etc.  Before getting too far down the road, you might want to double check scale by using a dimension less subject to interpretation.  I would suggest that you compare the beam of your model with the published beam.
 
You are fortunate to live in my favorite small town.  Mystic has it all; a great museum, beautiful architecture, and good restaurants.  I grew up in Northeastern Ohio which was ounce the state of Connecticut’s Western Reserve.  Many of the small towns  in that part of Ohio share Mystic’s timeless quality with their white Federal Style homes and Churches.  The row of houses  just across the river, from the Seaport is particularly impressive. 
 
Roger.

Hi Roel,
 
Thank you for taking part....& I agree they are a funny hull shape. A design that is definitely trying to get the most boat from the least timber - noting that the original was designed in 1933 & I think that's the depression or soon after. I think people then also just tried harder to get more from less - 7.3m wasn't a small boat in those days, but it certainly is now.

Lower Deadeyes…

…and so it begins, the “smallest” deadeyes. 

Pin Rails are going to be so much fun. 😜

So this is a pretty complicated question. It sort of depends what you are looking to achieve. However here are a few things that might help you:
As others have suggested there are lots of youtube videos aimed at all skill levels. I would suggest searching for "intro to miniature painting" or something similar. Airbrushing is its own thing, with its own set of challenges and skills to learn. You can get smooth transition with no brush strokes with a brush. They are just different tools and mostly airbrushing allows you to save a bit of time if you are trying to do a whole bunch of stuff at once, but there is a significant investment both in money and time to learn how to use them properly. I did a presentations at MSON and MSWWNY talking about how painting can be used to enhance ship models earlier this year, if you are interested send me a PM and I can send you a copy of it. It is aimed at trying to broadly introduce painting to those not so familiar with it. If you are interested in the detailed application of painting to ships there are a lot of logs (particularly in the modern section of the build logs) where people are painting plastic ships. Alternatively if you want to see some up close pictures of painting applied to an 18th century vessel, I cover a bunch of my work and painting philosophy in my Alert log.

Greetings Fellow Modelers
 
Thanks to all for your fine comments, for the "likes" and to those watching quietly.
 
 
More Fish Hold Stuff
 
Continuing on with the fish hold, the next step was to build the back walls of the bunker partitioning.  In the drawing below, the hold is defined by the yellow cross-hatching and the back wall partitioning by the green lines.  The back walls are individual bunker partitions, but for this model I've simplified it as a single one-piece wall.  The blue dots are the vertical posts used to segment the hold into individual bunkers/pens.
 

 
 
To begin, I created a paper template of the area to be walled.
 

 
 
Planking was glued directly to the paper template.
 

 

 
 
Styrene channel was glued on at each post base location. The proper depth channel needed for this is not manufactured, but I found an “H” column that was close enough once modified.
 

 

 
 
The back wall pieces were then glued on.  A corner torn from a Post-it note makes a hands-free right-angle square.
 

 
 
At this point, I became aware of two errors that needed to be addressed.  First, the height of the perimeter partition walls, and the bulkhead end walls were too short.  This would allow a view through an open hatch to see above the walls.  It would be an extreme angle view to be certain, but a deck mock-up proved to me it was possible.  The second error is that the forward bulkhead end wall was placed 12 scale inches forward of where it should be. That's a problem because it interferes with the proper placement of the mast, which is unacceptable.  So, a second end wall was installed 12” aft of the first one.
 
In the image below the new (taller) end wall is on the right.  One would now expect that the two forward bunkers are 12” narrower than the other bunkers, but they are not.  The post spacing is correct from the aft bulkhead forward and only the forward wall was misplaced.  Indeed, I caught this error because the forward bunkers appeared to me a tad wider than the others.
 
Extra work caused by working carelessly.
 

 
 
Next, the four-sided posts for the bunker partitioning were made.  They are a five-piece styrene construction.
 

 
 
 
A construction jig is assembled. The styrene is modified “H” columns and strips from Evergreen.  Solvent cement keeps the posts from being inadvertently glued to the jig.
 

 
 
A channel is placed into the jig.
 

 
 
A flat strip is cemented on top of that. Two of these channel/flat piece assemblies are made for each post.
 

 
 
The center rectangular strip is added to one of the above assemblies.
 

 
 
Then both assemblies are cemented together.
 

 

 
 
The posts are glued onto the post bases.
 

 
 
One of the back walls is heightened, a channel extension is glued on, and a partition is installed.
 

 
 
The partitions are cut from blanks of edge-glued wood strips. A paper template of the partition is placed on the blank and the shape is cut free. They are stained with chalk and alcohol. I use alcohol to liquefy and apply the chalk because it penetrates the wood and evaporates off quickly leaving no time for the thin wood strips to warp.
 

 
 
I used “super thin” CA to glue these partitions in.  With the partition already in place, a drop of the CA at the top of the post races down the channel and glues most of the plank ends.  I have an extension tip on my bottle to help control the flow and I use the watery glue infrequently and cautiously.  I feel there should be a “skull and crossbones” on the bottle.  If you must use it, keep a can of fresh acetone at the ready.  A mishap will glue your fingers together instantly with the possibility of a trip to urgent care.  Am I exaggerating?  Not really.
 

 
 
The partitions are all in.  I'm considering partially filling a few of the bunkers with ice.  What do you folks think and what would make a convincing 1:48 ice?  It would have to be a non-soluble material.
 

 

 
 
I've installed 8 surface mount LEDs (one over each bunker) to light up the hold.  That seems like a lot, but they are small and their output will be adjustable.  Two wood strips holding four diodes each are assembled.  These LEDs are SMD 805 warm white and are attached to the strips with a clear (when dry) version of Gallery Glass.  For scale, the grid on the mat 1/2” (12.7mm)
 

 
 
Both strips attached over the bunkers.
 

 
 
Thanks for stopping by.
 
Be safe and stay well,
 
Gary