mbp521

Nice job on the painting Eric. Looks very realistic. Great use of colors and shading. 
 

-Brian

5 hours ago, johnhoward said:

Brian,

The Hammock Storage Stanchions were slices sawn from an aluminum rectangular cross-section extrusion, followed by removal of unwanted material to result in their, final "H" shape.

 

JohnHoward 

John,

 

Thanks for the info. From the pictures they had the look of hammered iron, only the aluminum color was throwing me off. Good idea though to keep the shapes uniform. 
 

-Brian

That is great news. A model well deserving of being on the calendar. Congrats on being chosen Eric. 
 

-Brian

Nice little motivational gift. Happy Birthday Eric. 
 

-Brian

Eric,

 

Sorry for all your troubles with this build so far. I’ve had major issues with other builds in the past, but nothing on this scale. Unfortunately this boat is way out of my wheelhouse to offer up any good suggestions as to how to remedy the situation.

 

One would think that with the way the frames were notched to accept each plank that it would work as a bend and overlap guide as the planking progresses. Obviously this is not the case, and to me seems to be an engineering flaw in the design.
 

Without having the instructions in front of me it makes it difficult even attempt to understand how things fit together, but from your pictures it looks as though if plank 23 (I think) were wider toward the stern instead of tapering under 22 and 24, things would fit together a little better. Again this is just an assumption on my part going off of the pictures. 

 

However, not to make light of your struggles too much, you could take the Viking approach to this and beat the planks into submission. 
 

Hopefully things will sort themselves out and you’ll soon have a hull to be proud of. 

 

-Brian

Hello again everyone,

 

Work has begun on the boiler room walls this go round. 

 

So I finally decided that in order to show the interior of this model, I am going to leave one side partially open and complete the exterior of the other. In order to show some of the details I will also be installing LED lighting hidden behind lanterns and such.

 

I took some ideas from the St. Louis build on how the boiler room walls were constructed. Since none of these walls survived the salvage and the plans are pretty vague on the true construction, builders liberties were taken in my interpretation of them. I installed louvered windows around the boiler walls, under the assumption that these were used for cooling and warming purposes. Air flow from the forward gun ports and funnels mounted on top pf the Hurricane deck was forced down to the gun deck, through the louvers and up through the skylights. Again, this is just my assumption as to how this worked, and I could totally be off base with this.

 

Rough sketched plans of the fore and aft walls used as a template for the louvers.

 

Bottom framework of the walls.

 

Construction of the windows.

 

Forward and aft wall in place.

 

Construction of the starboard windows.

 

Starboard windows in place.

 

 

Coat of white paint and the boilers set in place to get a view of what it will all look like.

 

 

 

 

Not much else was done. I have been dividing my time with other projects around the house, trying to take advantage of a few cooler days. I have some micro LED's and 3-D printed lanterns on order for the lighting, hope fully those will be in some time this week and I can get started on the lighting and wiring.

 

That's all for now. Enjoy, and thanks for the kind comments and likes.

 

-Brian

Such precision work. Simply amazing. 
 

-Brian

Eric,

 

This project definitely looks like a learning experience. I do believe though that your perseverance will pay off in the end. Just keep smiling and plank on, you’ll get there. 
 

-Brian

Tim,

 

Beautiful work as always. Well worth the wait. 
 

Out of curiosity, what materials did you guys use for the hammock stanchions?
 

-Brian

Tim, what a cruel tease. 😜

 

It’s all good though. I think we’ve all been there at one time or another. Can’t let that computer get the best of you. 
 

Patiently standing by. 
-Brian

 

Thanks for the info Roger. I just finished “Grant Wins the War: Decision at Vicksburg “. Fantastic read. The first chapter was primarily on the northern gunboats and most of those were the City Class “Pook Turtles “. I’ll definitely add that to my list of books to get. 
 

I’m loving my renewed interest in the American Civil War. Certainly more appreciative of it now than I was in my youth. 
 

-Brian

Vlad,

 

Magnificent job on the Captains gig. I have four cutters to build from my Cairo. I can only hope they come out half as nice as this one did. 
 

Sorry to see this project coming to an end. I’ll have to switch over and follow you progress on your Glory of the Seas build. 
 

-Brian

Not a bad idea Patrick working on multiple projects. Helps keep the mind fresh. When you get hung up on an issue with one, just switch to another until You can solve it. 
 

BTW: The F-4 Phantom is one of my favorite planes. Right up there with the P-40 Warhawk and F4U Corsair. 
 

-Brian

Patrick,

 

Beautiful job on the boiler and hull. Smooth lines fine finish. Also looks like you are double-dipping with those F-4 parts under the hull. 😜

 

-Brian

36 minutes ago, vaddoc said:

Not sure if I can pull this off but it will be fun trying. 

Vaddoc,

 

Your craftsmanship is top notch and this shouldn't be any problem at all for you. 

 

She is really starting to take shape. 

 

-Brian

Eric,

 

I did notice this little detail and really thought about adding it, but it was just one of those that I decided to forgo since it is not going to hardly be seen at all.

I am glad that you showed me the Arabia pics though. Part of the reason I decided against doing the scarps joints was that I wasn’t 100% sure that was original or just built that way on the restoration since a lot of the original timbers were missing. 

 

l guess I need to stay consistent when deciding what details to add and what not to. Mostly depends on the mood I’m in at the time I’m building it. 
 

-Brian

Hello again everyone, 

 

So it has been a very unproductive productive week or so.

 

I started working on the engines last week and got them about halfway built when I started to realize that they just weren't looking the way that I wanted them to. Unfortunately there are no real good detailed drawings of them (the HSR drawings are somewhat useful but are still a little lacking in details), so I am having to rely on photos of the actual Cairo and other builds to get an idea of the shape and reasonable size of them.

 

Working off the photos is tough given that everything is painted black and doesn't show a lot of depth.

 

So I gave it a shot to see what my first version would look like.

 

I started with the bottom support rails. The width was pretty easy to figure out since the HSR Gun Deck Plan drawings have them in place and since I have the plans scaled to 1:48 I could get this part close.

 

I then turned down and carved the connecting yokes. 

 

Then using 3 different size dowels I made up the steam drums and piston rods and laid out the assembly.

 

It was here that I started to think that they just weren't looking correctly proportioned. So I decided to work on other features and figured I'll circle back to these when I can get a better understanding of the size proportions between the assemblies.

 

So I decided to start work on the support pillars for the engines and paddle wheel. These were a little easier to figure out. The hardest part of this was getting the height position of the paddle wheel and the correct angle of the timbers.

 

These are the ones from the actual boat. Although they are not original, they gave me a general idea of how they were constructed.

 

These are my versions.

 

These are all just dry fit for now. I am waiting on another order of scale lumber to complete some of the interior walls. Once I have those in place can get everything glued down.

 

Next, to stall for time while still pondering my engine dilemma, I decided to get the toe boards in place for the crew quarters. 

 

Starboard quarters.

 

Port quarters.

 

Lastly I finished installing all of the hatch covers and cut out the rough version of the Pittman arm wooden inserts. These will be used a rough draft for now until I can get the engine situation straightened out. I just wanted to see what it was going to take to get these carved out.

 

Pittman arms.

 

And how she sits now (pardon my foot photo-bombing the picture). I removed the boilers and set them aside so they wouldn't get dinged up while working on the other features. I still need to get the boiler hold painted with a whitewash and touch up the coal, but I'll get there.

 

 

Doesn't look like very much right now, but soon I will start going vertical and it will then begin to look a little more like a gunboat instead of a barge.

 

That's all for now. Thanks for taking the time to visit.

 

-Brian

3 hours ago, ccoyle said:

My 3x-great grandfather was with the 39th Georgia at Vicksburg. He was captured and paroled, then later wounded during the Atlanta campaign and discharged for disability. His son's family emigrated to Parker County, Texas.

Very interesting history, good to see that he was able to survive and prosper after such a devastating war. I have relatives out in Parker County as well.
 

Most of my family immigrated from France and Ireland in the mid 1880’s and settled in Louisiana, so I have no Civil War history there. But it’s great to hear about those that have. 
 

-Brian

Vaddoc,

 

Thank you for the kind compliments. The American Civil War is truly an interesting subject. A subject that I was really into when I was younger.
 

As I grew up, my interest in it kind of faded away (once girls and cars came along). Then I was fortunate enough to get deployed to the UK during the Gulf War and that’s where the real history is. Not downplaying American history, it’s just that Europe has a lot more of it. I spent a lot of my spare time while I was there exploring historical sites and taking every opportunity to go where Uncle Sam would send me throughout Europe and Southwest Asia. 
 

It wasn’t until a few years ago when we visiting Vicksburg again that my interest in the Civil War was renewed. But you are correct, the build log coupled with the history behind the ship, definitely helps to keep it interesting. 
 

-Brian

Tim,

 

Thanks for the update. I recently started my scratch build of USS Cairo  a few months ago, and the information and pictures that you guys have provided have been most helpful in getting my build under way. 

 

I am currently working on the gun deck features and was working on researching the make up of the walls that surround the engines and officer quarters. I figured that the walls around the engines were just to help with noise mostly since, judging by the plans, it looks more like a shield than anything else. Unfortunately the HSR “Gundeck Plan/Section” that I am using is rather vague but the walls look to be similar to those surrounding the boilers, although probably minus the louvered windows. I was just curious if you guys had a plan as to how you were going to build this section of the interior walls, or is this part still in the research phase. Or, am I totally reading the plans incorrectly and is there even a wall there?
 

Also scrolling through the build I haven’t seen any pictures or mention of the officers quarters. Was that part still being researched as well. I know that a lot of the information on this section of the boat is lacking due to the fact that most of this area was lost or destroyed during salvage operations. I’m just trying to get my head around the construction of these parts. Please forgive me if I am jumping way ahead in your build, there are just so many unknowns on this build and I’d like to get it as accurate as possible. 
 

You guys are doing a fantastic job on this build, and I can only hope that my version comes out half as good as this one. 
 

Looking forward to more updates.

 

-Brian

It has finally arrived. Not sure how I ever made it without this book. What a wealth of information packed into it. 

 

 

-Brian

Patrick, 

 

We’re with you to the end. Pace is not important, as long as you enjoy the project, and these projects can take time. We are a patient bunch. Besides, you can’t rush perfection. 😁
 

-Brian

Patrick,

 

The boiler looks great!  I would venture to say that the boilers were riveted together, but I would have to defer that to the experts for confirmation. However, since many of the boilers in this time period were similarly constructed, I would say that it’s an accurate assumption, and I riveted the boiler on my Chaperon as well. 
 

I used a similar method for my boiler on my Cairo build. But instead of glue droplets I used a ponce wheel on the backside of the aluminum tape to form the rivets. I must say though, you did a great job on getting the glue droplets uniform. 
 

-Brian

Looking good Eric. Great idea with the binders. I’ve tried using finger clamps before hold pieces in place on each side, but the swivel feet made it difficult to line up on both sides. I’m going to keep this method in my back pocket for future use. 
 

It’s just a thought, but the color of stain that you are using looks great on there. I would think that a couple of more coats would give you the desired color you are looking for and may help alleviate the visible wavy lines of the wood. 
 

-Brian

Here you go Vlad. Enjoy.