mbp521

Johnhoward,

 

I appreciate the input on this very much and kinda figured that would be the answer. Coloring determination on many older ships, especially those that didn’t have much of a history before going down to the depths make it difficult on us builders that are doing our best to faithfully replicate the original ships. I see a lot of this issue on other builds where builder liberties have to be used when the information is just not there. One such example would be Vasa. She didn’t make it past her maiden voyage before being lost for 400 years. 
 

During my research on the coloring, I have run across model after model of ironclads, not just the City Class ones, where the builders have used the red color scheme for the hulls. There is even a life size replica of the Monitor that has the hull painted red. I agree that the bright red was most likely not used, but that a more muted red iron oxide could have been a possibility. However, since there is no documentation or information that can prove otherwise, and like you said, I will go with my own personal preference and color the hull to my liking. I have been playing with a few color schemes that I like and I believe I have settled on a reddish-brown rust color that is close to an iron oxide that I think will break up the otherwise all black paint on the casemates. I guess that if somewhere down the line a discovery is made the confirms the true hull color, I can pull my model out of its case and fix the error. Until then I think I’ll be happy with what I have now. 
 

Again, thank you so much for your input. Really looking forward to more updates on the St. Louis build. 

-Brian

Lots of tedious work, but it all pays off in the end. I love the minor variances and inconsistencies, they add that touch of realism to a build. 
 

To echo Steven’s comment, I’m glad all went well with your father in law’s memorial service. Coordinating that any people online is no easy task. 

 

-Brian

Happy New Year to you as well. What a beautiful winter scene, definitely postcard worthy. We barely escaped the white stuff here this time around. good weather to spend in the shipyard. 
 

Can’t wait to see how the latest additions to the crew come out. 
 

-Brian

Daniel,

 

Beautiful work as always, as well as the very descriptive history lesson. Truly wonderful build to follow. 
 

Stay safe and have a Happy New Year as well. 
 

-Brian

15 hours ago, Cathead said:

Thanks for sharing that video, it was a nice overview of various steps taken in construction.

That’s what I was thinking as I was watching. It’s amazing the skill and labor involved with shipbuilding. My ulterior motive was hoping, somewhat, that by watching it would entice you to add the rivets to your build 😈. 
 

Beautiful job on the figures. They look right at home on the deck. My skills at detailed painting have never been that good. One of the reasons why I try to steer clear of painting my models unless it it’s one solid color, or lacks the fine details. 
 

-Brian

Johann,

 

This is quite simply a masterpiece in the making. The details and intricate work you put into this build are mind blowing. I look forward to each and every update with great anticipation. Coupled with the videos, it is one of “The” builds to follow. Thank you so much for sharing your amazing work with us, it is a true pleasure. 
 

-Brian

Keith,

 

What a beautiful build! My apologies for being so late to the game. I’ll gladly take a seat in the back row, punishment for being so late. Your deck details are fantastic, as is your rework of other details. 
 

After reading through this build, not sure if I missed it or what, but what is the back story on the model. Was this a continuation of a build that you started in the past or an unfinished build that you inherited?  Also, what is the coloring of the decking? From the photos it has a deep, rich color that goes beautifully with the black and white of the hull.

 

-Brian

Johann,

 

Merry Christmas to you and your family as well. 
 

-Brian

Wefalck,

 

Just ran across your build and spent the last hour catching up. I have to say this is an interesting boat and a magnificent display of model building mastery. Looking forward to following along on future updates. 
 

-Brian

Merry Christmas Everyone,

 

I figured I'd get one more quick update in before the end of the year.

 

While I still sort out my hull color, I started working on the cannon carriages.

 

I started out with pasting the template as a pattern and cutting out the rough form on my bandsaw.

 

 

With a little sanding and carving I pieced them together. Please forgive my lack of pictures on these, I totally forgot to take them while building them.

 

Temp installed in one of the gun ports.

 

 

The more I looked at the carriages, the more I became dissatisfied with them. So while I pondered yet another quandary, I decided to work on putting in the waterway knee braces. I managed to find some dollhouse molding that I thought would work perfect for these braces. They may be a little bit more fancier than what was actually used, but since none of them survived the salvage, I went with what I thought would work. Besides, compared to the HSR, they look pretty close.

 

 

First one in place.

 

All done. I'll clean them up a bit before the paint goes on.

 

Once the knee braces were installed, I worked on building the rudders. Again I apologize for the lack of pictures, I guess I was just too engrossed in my work to focus on anything else but the build.

 

 

Next I started working on the casemate planking. This time I remembered to take pictures.

 

Lining things up for the casemate planks.

 

I made little jig to ensure that all sills were the same height. It seemed to work pretty good.

 

Aft lower sills in place.

 

Planking begins.

 

Aft and starboard planking.

 

Port side planking. It is here where I finally figured out how I wanted to show the insides. I was struggling with how to show off some of the details inside. I wasn't sure if I wanted to leave the whole thing opened like the model in the Cairo Museum, or make a removable panel, or what. I wasn't too keen on leaving the whole side open, due to the fact that it seems that the integrity of the side would not be there without any support. Not that I'll be handling the model much after it is completed, it was just a concern. 

 

Then I thought that maybe I could install a few removeable panels to allow access to the inside views, but I ruled that out because I didn't want to have to take it out of the case every time I wanted to show someone the insides. It wasn't until I was looking for some parts on Model Expo when I saw a picture of the USS Confederacy that the Idea to leave the planking off the side and expose the framing. The frames are spaced far enough apart that you will be able to see inside and there is no issue with compromising the structure.

 

Completed port side with cutaway.

 

Finished planking the starboard side and starting the gun port cutouts.

 

Aft planking done and working on the gun port cutouts.

 

Finally, I couldn't stand it anymore. I just couldn't get over the look of my first attempt at the gun carriages. They just didn't look right. So I went ahead and rebuilt them. This time I took pictures of the process.

 

Shaping the boards.

 

Sides stacked and glued together.

 

Trunnion notches filed out.

 

More shaping.

 

Turning the axles.

 

 

Pieced together.

 

 

Mostly completed, just need to add the trucks to it. Then assemble 12 more.

 

I am much more pleased with the outcome of these than my first attempt.

 

 

Well that is all for now. Hopefully on the next update I will have some progress on the hull painting and a few other things.

 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday Season. Please be safe and take care of yourselves.

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

-Brian

 

Eric, 
 

Just scanning through YouTube and ran across this video. You may have already seen it, but I thought I might share. Very interesting. 
 

 

 

-Brian

Eric,
 

Love the look of the deck. It’s coming along nicely. As for the rivets, why not try several techniques on some scrap wood to see how they turn out. At least that way you can see if if you like any of them without risking the looks of your build. 
 

-Brian

Roger, Wefalck,

 

Thank you both for the information. It’s very much appreciated. I had no idea that farmers used the same red on their barns. That would explain why you can still see remnants of red paint on some of the old dilapidated barns, as well as some still standing. The paints actually last longer than the wood.

 

I am seriously considering going with a reddish-brown hull, it seems the general consensus points that direction anyway. I have a few inquiries out to others, a couple of which are outside of this forum, with the same question, and so far the answer has been the same, “not a lot of info on it” and “go with your preference”. I think I’ll play around with some colors and see what comes out. I still have some time. 
 

-Brian

John,

 

I very much appreciate the info on the officers cabins. It will come in handy when I reach that point of my build. 
 

If I may, I’d like to pose another question. I am at the point in my build where I am ready to paint my hull. I’ve done some research on this but keep coming up empty. The Cairo museum has a model on display that has the more modern looking red hull below the waterline and black on the rest of the vertical surfaces. I am wonder as to how accurate this paint scheme is. I like the look of the red hull, but I’d also like to keep my build as historically accurate as possible. Have you guy run across any information that would justify the use of red on the hull or is this one of those mysteries that may never be solved?
 

Any advice or direction would be greatly appreciated. 
 

-Brian

Eric, great idea! Hadn’t thought about that. I’d have to email them though, unfortunately the museum has been closed since summer due to the ‘Rona’. 
 

I guess I could also pose the question on the log for the St. Louis. I know those guys have done extensive research on that build. 
 

-Brian

Keith, thank you for the kind words. I have a feeling you are correct, given the stringent time frame these boats were built on. I would probably say that they just slathered them down top to bottom with a coat of black paint and sent them on their way. Cairo’s service life was so short she probably never made it to a dry dock to have my hull work done, so it most likely remained its original color.
 

Unfortunately there are no records to prove or disprove this. It may all boil down to a coin toss, which will be heads on both sides, meaning red it is. That is, unless I happen across some hidden document that calls out her original paint scheme, or someone out there has done extensive research on how the hulls were treated. 

 

Pat, what I wouldn’t give for a “way back” machine, not just to get a picture of what she looked like, but to also see these beautiful machines in action (from a distance of course). 
 

On a different note, I have done some studying up on the model in the museum and there are several discrepancies with it, in comparison with the HSR. And not to discredit the builder(s), they did a beautiful job on it, and for the most part it’s fairly accurate. But I do think they took a few “builders liberties” with it as well. I’ll be more than happy if mine comes out looking as good as this one. 
 

-Brian

Hello again Everyone,

 

It's time again for another episode of "Ask the Audience".

 

I have been working on getting my hull faired and completed so that I can get it painted to where I don't have to flip the model over anymore. I getting to the point where the deck structures will prevent the boat from being turned over without the risk of breaking something off. So in the process of researching the hull painting, I ran into another quandary that I cannot seem to find any information on. 

 

I know that the regular packet steamer hulls were generally painted, along with everything else above the waterline. And I know from research that the Iron Clads were also painted above the waterline as well, given the numerous pictures available on the internet and in books. This stands to reason that their hulls would have been painted too, to give the hull some form of protection from water absorption, even if their expected life span wasn't that long. The problem that I am having is what color was the hull painted? I have found several instances where the model builder painted everything below the waterline something of a Red Oxide color, similar to that of more modern steel warships (and other ships). In my limited knowledge of modern ships, I have come to understand that the Red Oxide hulls were a rust preventative and to help with keeping marine parasites like barnacles from fouling the hulls. This is all fine and dandy, but the USS Cairo was a wooden hull boat that travelled in fresh water. So what would be the reason for the red hull? Since the Cairo spent over a 100 years at the bottom of the Yazoo river, none of the paint survived, which makes it really hard to determine what colors were used.

 

My ultimate goal is to get my build as close to accurate as possible. I like the red hull color scheme, but was it authentic? This may be one of those time where "Builder Liberties" come into play, but if anyone out there has any input that would help it would be greatly appreciated.

 

These were some pictures of the model in the USS Cairo Museum that I took on my last trip there. It shows the red painted hull. There are a several other pictures that I found of models on the internet that have red hulls as well as black ones. I didn't post them here because I wasn't sure of their copyrights.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

-Brian

Beautiful job Kevin. Excellent build. 
 

-Brian

So after a little more research, I determined that you were right Keith, The muzzle swell on the 30lb parrot rifle was a little bit much.

 

I found some pictures I had taken a few years ago when I visited Vicksburg NMP. Now given the assumption that these are the original guns that were brought up with the rest of the USS Cairo then the 30 pounder has a slight swell at the muzzle, a little less than what is shown on the HSR.

 

 

Compared to the HSR drawings, the real guns have less muzzle swell.

 

So with that all being said I decided to turn it down a bit. It might not be perfect, but I do think it looks closer to the actual gun than the drawing.

 

Thankfully there was only one 30 pounder on board. Now to build the carriages and figure out how to duplicate the other guns.

 

-Brian

Eric,

 

So sorry for your loss. What a beautiful dedication to him. It sounds as though he was a great man who lived a wonderful life and will be dearly missed. 
 

Your build is progressing very nicely, glad to see that you have been able to overcome all of the obstacles the build and life have thrown your way. 

Very nice job on the decking, much better results than the kit provided “scribed” planks. Definitely adds a touch of realism to it. 
 

Do you plan on repainting the hull, or are you going to leave it as it is currently. Personally I think the way it looks right now gives it a very nice “weathered” look as though it has seen many beaching and days along the docks. 

 

-Brian

YIKES!  That is a serious parrot problem. 
 

-Brian

Keith,

 

Thanks for the additional pictures. What a plethora of puzzling Parrot problems. 
 

-Brian 

4 hours ago, Keith Black said:

Brian, beautiful work. I am enjoying your build and look forward to each new installment.

One thing if I may, while your turning of the 30 lb Parrott rifle is beautiful, it looks like there is too much muzzle swell. I've seen photos of 30 lb Parrott rifles that have no swell as per the attached photo but then other 30 lb photos show a very slight swell. I once had tons of Parrott rifle photos when doing research for the Parrots on the Tennessee but have since deleted them when I finished the guns. 

Please don't take this as criticism, merely a small point that you may want to look at more closely......Keith

Keith,

 

No worries about the criticism, I openly welcome it. Any tips, guidance or pointers I’ll gladly accept. To be honest, I really didn’t do a whole lot of research on the guns for Cairo, I just took it for granted that the HSR document was correct on her armament. I based the guns off of the below sheet that was part of the HSR. This drawing has a significant muzzle swell on it. However, now you’ve got my curiosity up again on how they really looked. Time to do a little investigation. If you do happen to run across any other pictures of the Parrots that you may have, please feel free to share. 
 

Please pardon my coloring. I color coded them for positioning on the deck. 
 

-Brian

5 hours ago, Cathead said:

Looks wonderful, so crisp and even on the framing. Nice fix using the toothpicks to strengthen those joins. The guns look nice to me, though I'm hardly an expert.

Thank you Eric. That toothpick method has come in handy more than once on this build. 
 

-Brian

Hello Again Everyone,

 

I have finally hit the six month mark on my build and figured it was time for another update. It has been slow going and I realized that it has been several weeks since my last posts, so I guess it is about time to get something out there. I am still chickening out on building the engines. For some reason, I just cannot get my head into them (not sure if it is mental or what). So instead I worked on the casemate framing for the gun deck.

 

To start the framing, I set me up a jig that would allow me to keep the frames in a straight line and equal height. I use a couple of scrap blocks glued to both ends of by build frame and some 3/4" aluminum angle for this. For the top beam, I marked out the framing positions to also line up with the build frame and set that into place on top of the blocks. Then the beam and aluminum angle were lined up and clamped into place. The two middle blocks were left loose so that I could slide them next to the frames as they were going in to maintain a consistent height. Even though I use a solid piece of angle there was still some flex in the four foot span and I didn't want to risk my frames drooping in the middle.

 

 

First few frames going in on the port side.

 

 

More frames going in.

 

Looking pretty straight.

 

Starboard and port frames in place.

 

 

 

 

After the side frames were installed, I started work on the forward casemate frames. These were twice the thickness of the side frames for added protection on a frontal assault. On the real Cairo, the side frames were about 12" thick, the forward frames were 25" thick. This was not counting the armor plating that added an additional 2 1/2" of thickness.

 

 

While I contemplated how I was going to form the curve of the top beam at the forward end. I started work on one of the deck features. I built up a couple of water/beer/wine casks (not sure what the preferred drink of the day was) and got them into place next to the stove.

 

 

 

I went ahead and temp installed the stovepipe since I wasn't sure that I would be able to get my drill down in the deck once the forward frames and ceiling beams were in place.

 

 

Then the fun began where the top beams started to curve in at the bow. I built up one of the ceiling beams to keep the port and starboard casemate frames equidistant apart while I made the bend in the beams. The ceiling beams have a slight bow to shed the water from the hurricane deck. I calculated these to be about 4mm in rise to the center to give them the correct radius. I glued the pattern to the beams and sanded them down on my disc sander.

 

With the first ceiling beam in place, I then cut out a pattern and form to use for a consistent and even bend on the forward frames. 

 

A second and third ceiling beam were added to keep the curve in place, along with the forward casemate frames.

 

 

I was having some trouble keeping the top beams from going back to their original form. My attempt at steaming them with a steam iron was not working all that great, not to mention the look the Admiral gave me when she caught me using her iron for something other than what it was intended for. So I drilled some holes through the side beams and into the ends of the ends of the ceiling beams and epoxied some toothpicks into them. I also added a small piece of scrap wood to the bottoms to hold it  all together. The scrap wood should be out of the way where it is not seen on the inside.

 

Once the epoxy was set, I trimmed the top beams and finished out the port and starboard casemate frames to tie into the forward ones.

 

 

Next I finished out the aft frames. Again, I temp installed a ceiling beam to keep the sides at their proper distance then installed the framing.

 

 

 

With all the framing in place, I have now removed her from the building frame. This makes it a whole lot easier to work on not having the bulky jig to deal with. Here is where she sits right now. She is starting to come together.

 

 

Finally, with the framing completed, I tried my hand at some more wood turning. I wanted to see if I will be able to make my cannons from wood. I think I have the concept down, just not sure if I can make them consistent. Here is my first attempts on the 30lb Parrot Rifle and one of the 32lb Smoothbores. I'd be glad to hear any thoughts on them.

 

 

 

That is all for now. Hopefully I can get more done since the colder weather is starting to set in. Of course the holidays are also around the corner so that may put a delay on some of it. In any case, thank you for looking and all of the kind comments and likes.

 

-Brian