mbp521

George, she is coming along very nicely. I love the description of “practice side” as being the non-display side. I’ll have to keep that term in mind. 😀 -Brian

Absolutely beautiful work Eberhard! I love all the minute details that you are able to get in to such a small scale. It just amazes me. -Brian

John, you are rolling right along with this build. Beautiful job so far. -Brian

Beautiful Keith! This is the point where I think ship models start coming together. To me, the rigging adds a certain beauty them. 😀 -Brian

John, For the most part, the deck boards are all that the rub rail will be glued to. Since you are planning to plank the decks, this will give you another 1/32" more, but still not that much in relation to the width of the rub rail planks. On the real boats, there would have been support beams spaced along the sides to give more attachment surface for the rub rails, and for more realism you can add these if you want to. I chose not to add them since this area was not that visible. With the deck boards and added planking, I didn't have any trouble getting the rub rails to stay in place, especially with a liberal amount of CA applied. This definitely is an issue with the laser machine either not being set up correctly, or possibly the wood board used for the deck thinned a bit toward the outside edge. Either way, it is easy to see the piece was not processed correctly. Ed at Model Expo is excellent at getting replacement pieces sent out quickly, so hopefully it wont hold you up too much. Glad to see that you were able to overcome your "mishap" on the keel. As you stated the repairs will never be seen. I can also neither confirm or deny the same thing happened to me during my build. 😁 But a word of caution, watch those deck extension that run along the sides of the paddle wheel. They can be a bit fragile, I may or may not have broken those a time or to as well. 😜 -Brian

John, Glad to see you are under way with your Chaperon build, and great start so far! I finished mine a couple of years ago and have to tell you, this is a fantastic kit. There are a few minor things that you may need to tweak or add as you go, but nothing that will prevent you from completing a beautiful build, and as a bonus, there are plenty of steamboat knowledgeable people here on MSW to help you out along the way should you get stuck on something. Really looking forward to following along on your journey. -Brian

Johnhoward, what great information! This definitely clears up the nonexistence of the hatches over the fire room. Thank you so much Pat. I’m still trying to dig up more information on the hatchways between the hog chain supports, but I am almost convinced that the aft ventilation funnels on Cairo were located inboard of the hog chain supports and not outboard like the plans show. I’ve even gone so far as to set up my camera at the similar angle as the original photograph and located the funnels where they are in the photograph in relation to the supports and chimneys and they definitely look to inboard. I’ve still got some playing around to do with this, but I should have some resolution soon. -Brian

No need to feel guilty Keith. Research all part of it, and I have had a blast researching mine. No matter how frustrating at times the research is, the conversations that are inspired by said research, are priceless. However, with that being said, I have already begun research on one of my next projects. Fortunately, there is a little more documented history on it so it won’t be near as hard to get things right. -Brian

Keith, I love the old photos! Thanks for posting them. They seem to bring life to the ships we build. What I wouldn’t give to have this type of collection on the Cairo. Sure would save a lot of guesswork in my build. It’s funny how the Navy can have an over abundance of photos of one ship an only a single one for another. I guess that ships like the Tennessee were more likely to dock at more populated areas where cameras were readily available, whereas the Brown Water Navy tied up to the riverbanks in more remote locations. Regardless, that is a great collection you have there. Thanks again for sharing. -Brian

Very nicely done John. Big fan of the lighting. I find that it just adds just the right amount of realism to the build along with highlighting some of the otherwise hidden details. -Brian

Here is another thought. To keep the ash from being blown around everywhere they employed an ash chute to dump the waste overboard. This could be similar to the trash chutes you sometimes see on multi-story buildings under construction. Maybe something like this. The chute would have been flexible, made of canvas or asbestos and could have been folded or rolled up for easy stowage. -Brian

Keith, I had thought the same thing, and that is why I threw in the tarp cover idea. This could have been thrown over the side of the casement between the gun ports to allow the ash & slag to slide down the incline without damaging the painted surface. I know this is far stretch, just trying to toss some ideas out there that were feasible. Without Mark's "way back machine" we may never really know. But it sure is fun coming up with theories. -Brian

Johnhoward, I think you may be on to something there. That seems like a totally viable solution. I went back and looked at some of the photos and found the one of the Mound City. It clearly shows the port forward funnel either removed and leaned up against the chimney, or at least extended out a good bit further than normal. I know this may be stretching it a bit, but they also look to have a cover over the hammock racks in the general area of where they could be dumping something overboard. Just additional food for thought. -Brian

John, What an interesting build, this is a very unique vessel. I know I'm a little late to the show, but I will follow along through the rest of your journey. Wonderful job so far. -Brian

Beautiful work Eberhard! I’ve often thought of building a sea diorama, just not up to trusting my skills yet in that medium and don’t want to risk messing up any of my builds. -Brian

Great job on the railing John. Hope the bandaid isn’t symbolic of a mishap on the railing construction. Those #11’s can be quite sharp 😄. -Brian

Tim, so excited to see more of these pictures of the build. They look to have posted perfectly. Can’t wait to see more. Keep them coming! -Brian

Amazing work as always Keith. -Brian

Johann, glad to see that you are on the mend. Your ratlines look better made with one bad hand than mine do with two good hands. Looking forward to more updates, -Brian

Pulling up a chair. Looking forward to you kicking this build off. -Brian

Mark, pretty much a safe assumption. From my research and the picture below it shows the top of the boiler tubes were pretty much even with the Gun Deck level. These boats drew about six feet of water putting the waterline just about a foot below the knuckle of the casements, and the majority of the boiler below the waterline with maybe the exception of the top foot or so. -Brian

Kurt, given that the boiler was located in the hold, below the waterline and pretty much on the keel of these boats, wouldn't having the ash well cause a flooding problem? Seems like that would be no different than having a hole in the bottom. But, that gives me another theory. What if they had some sort of setup like a pipe that extended above the waterline, say like an opening at the level of the Gun Deck that they could shovel the ash and slag into. It could have been close to the Ash pit, or next to the bulkheads that ran along the outboard keels. This would/could have been in the area that was lost during salvage as well and the reason there is no documentation for it. Just a thought, I could just be trying to invent things. -Brian

Johnhoward, I wanted to thank you again for speaking with me the other day. I apologize for taking up so much of you time, but I took a great deal of very useful information away from our conversation. One theory that I had on the removal of the slag, ash and coals could have been a bucket brigade. The fire men could have simply filled the buckets up from the fireboxes, hoisted them up the ladders, and the crew could have passed them across the Gun Deck and deposited the contents in the river through one of the gun ports. They could have done this on both sides for more efficiency. Just a thought. As for the steel floor, was this just placed in front of the fire boxes? From what I have been able to determine, from the HSR pg. 38 (which could be wrong) the fire box was lined with brick. The only other mention of this area that I was able to locate was in Ed Bearss' book Hardluck Ironclad where they describe in the initial plans "Beneath the boilers would be a fire box, with it's bed lined with fire brick, and enclosed in good sheet iron". Neither of these references go into great detail as to how this was actually constructed. This area was surely lost during recovery efforts, since the entire section collapsed when they brought it up as shown in the sad picture below. None of the other info that I have been able to find mentions anything of the boiler floor construction, but it would seem that they would have recovered something, steel or brick, and had it either on display or mentioned in the list of artifacts. However, I was thinking that could they be describing that the floor was lined with brick then a layer of sheet iron placed on top of the brick? The brick would insulate the wooden hull from the heat of the coal fire and the steel would give a smooth surface for cleaning out the fire box. Is this a safe assumption? Either way, I am surprised at the lack of info on this particular area. -Brian

George, Nifty little jig for drilling your chainplates. Good idea to leave them attached to the strip that way. Makes it much easier to work with. As for the boat configuration, I’m not sure if there was a standard configuration for them but it would make more sense to load them up where they fit better, but also leave room between them to work around when deploying or stowing them. Just my opinion. She’s really coming along nicely. -Brian

Johnhoward, I just sent you a PM to discuss the process. I'll keep an eye out for your response. -Brian