mbp521

Congrats on a magnificent build. It’s been a pleasure to ride along on the journey. -Brian

Just catching up Eberhard, and as usual your work still amazes me. -Brian

Oh so true Keith. She’s going to have some weight to her. -Brian

Hello again everyone, It is finally about time that I get back to the bench and get some real work done, and not this around the house to-do list stuff. I don't have a lot to show right now, since I am just getting back into the groove, but I wanted to get something out there. I last left off working on getting the bottom of the hull covered. I was initially going to skin the whole thing over with basswood sheets, but the bow and the stern area had way too many compounding curves and angles to get the wood sheets to lie down correctly so I then decided that I would plank it to see how that would look. Still with the difficult curvatures around the Kort Nozzles, I still struggled to get the planks to line up and lie down as well. I started planking the middle and got so frustrated that I finally decided that I would just go in and fill the whole thing with body filler. So I tore out most of the planking and used a light weight air drying clay to fill in between the bulkheads, The clay was cheaper than the body filler, but took several days to fully cure. I then took a few strips of planking and glued them in place about an inch or so apart. The strips will serve as a depth guide for the applicator as well as an indicator of how far I need to sand the body filler down. I figured with all the gaps that I was going to have to fill in with the planking in this area, I might as well save some frustration and wood and just fill the whole thing in. Besides, this area will hardly be seen at all anyway. Here are the guide planks going and the clay filler in place. Even pre-soaked the planks had to be held in place with weights to keep their form while the glue dried. Next I slathered on a couple of coats of body filler and let that set. This is the first coat going on. First round of sanding is done. There are some low spots and pinholes that need to be filled in, but for the most part I think it turned out well. That is all for this update. I know it's not much, but I hope to have more next time around. Winter will be here before you know it which provides ample time for shipbuilding. I'm actually just tickled to finally get to use the new bench and shipyard setup. Thanks for stopping by. -Brian

Keith/Mark, that is exactly what I plan to do. I am going to run some LED lights to illuminate the model and enclose it with a pane of plexiglass. A lot cheaper and easier thank building a dedicated display case. Eric, the baseballs are a couple that I had autographed, one by Nolan Ryan and the other by Tony Gwynn Sr. As for the armadillo, I got that thing for Christmas when I was around 10 years old (45 years ago). Needless to say it has a few miles on it, but since I’ve had it for so long, I find it hard to part with. One of my grandsons has laid claim to it when I’m gone. -Brian

Hello again everyone, Well once again I failed at taking progress photos of my work, I guess the anxiousness of me wrapping this project up got the better of me. The weather has finally cooled down, so more attention needs to be focused on other projects and to be honest, I am really ready to sit down at my new bench and start making some sawdust. The past couple of months that I have actually been doing “work” work in my new room has found me staring at the incomplete hull of my Caroline towboat, just chomping at the bit to get back to work on her. So for now, I am calling this project done. The bookcase is finished and my nicknack shelves are done, the only thing that remains is the lighting and glass for my Chaperon, but I’m putting that off for the time being. For now this will have to do. The finished results of my bookcase and all my junk to fill its shelves. Still have more to move in, just haven’t found all the boxes with the rest of my books. Thanks for following along. For now I am leaving this build open for some final shots once I get the Chaperone properly displayed. But for now, I’m calling it good. -Brian

Nothing like a little gentle persuasion to get the wood to do what you want. 😁 Looking good John! -Brian

That’s quite the unique load she’s carrying. A far cry from the normal cotton bales. 😁 The masking tape tarpaper turned out great! It’s hard to tell from the pictures, but did you leave the scribe lines for the skylight visible through the tape? -Brian

Thanks for the update Tim. You guys' level of detail is just amazing! -Brian

Thank you Yves! She’ll have a proper, dust free place once I get the bookcase completed. I just wanted to make sure she’d fit and at a good viewing angle so thats the reason for her sitting there right now. -Brian

Howdy everyone, I know it has been a while since I last updated this log, This has been one busy summer and I have hardly had time to work on any personal projects. Most of the last few months have been spent helping my daughter and son-in-law get their house finished, most of the stuff they didn't want to contract out like running the 900' water line, fencing, dirt work, tree clearing and other odds and ends. However with the bulk of the work done I finally found some time focus on my projects and get some work done on the shipyard. I am not real sure what day I left off on so I will just post some of the things that I have accomplished. First, I took ,my adjustable work bench and scaled sown the top a bit to fit in the room. The length had to be cut down to 5' from 6' and I squared off the front to make it more uniform. I took the old gray, dinged up bottom and gave it a fresh coat of flat black, to fit my color scheme of the room a little better. Next, I wanted to dress off the edges of the top, so I purchased some vinyl trim to protect the edges, routed the groove and installed the edging. The final product, I am completely satisfied with. Then it was on to building the shelves for my reloading bench to help organize some of the clutter. I didn't take any pictures of the building process, but this is the finished results. Next, I wanted to have a place that I could use to clean my guns, or work on them, or other tasks, but didn't want to take up more space, so I decide to build a Murphy Desk. Some thing that would fold up out of the way, but could be setup quickly if I needed the extra counter space. Again, I failed to take pictures of the build, but this is what I came up with. Finally, needed a place to store all of my wood strips that wouldn't take up valuable counter top space. Some place out of the way, but with easy access. I decided that a small shelf under my storage area was the perfect place. I just purchased some inexpensive drawer dividers, turned them on their side and glued them into place on the shelf. Now I can keep them nice and organized and out of the way, and all I have to do is a 180 from the workbench and grab what I need. I've started work on the book/display case. So far I have managed to get the main framework of it built, I just need to cut and install the facing and trim, then paint it all up. I plan on running lights to the display area, where my Chaperon proudly sits temporarily and I will also install a glass panel on the front to help keep the dust off of her. More to come soon. The brutal Texas summer has finally started to subside and the weather is getting a bit more tolerable to work out in the barn. Thanks again for stopping by, and I hope to not wait so long between updates. I'm really ready to be done with this project and get back to the Caroline. Her hull has been sitting on the workbench, neglected and untouched for way too long. -Brian

That’s one way to put it. 😁. Through all the monotony, the end result is well worth it. -Brian

Agreed! But not near as monotonous as all those battens on the Boiler and Texas deck cabin walls. 😁 -Brian

Nicely done John! Your frustration and patience paid off. They definitely look more realistic mounted on the correct side of the stationeries. -Brian

I feel your pain Eric. So many other projects keeping me away from my build, but I hope to be wrapping them up soon. To me, winter has always been prime building season. Beautiful work on the deck, the rough, rustic look brings out the true beauty of these boats. I do like your idea of wanting to build the boiler deck off the boat to save a lot of frustration of breakage when sanding the planks. I’ll be anxious to see the method that you will use getting all the posts lined up with the main deck below. I’ll just sit back and watch and learn. 😁 -Brian

I still think it’s impressive that you harvest and mill your own wood on property, then turn out beautiful work. -Brian

Beautiful work by everyone on the project. So much more detail on this larger scale than I was able to cram into my build. Keep the updates coming. 😁 -Brian

Great insight on the construction history of these freighters. Doesn’t sound like the engineers were focusing on safety and integrity of the hull as much as they were for functionality and capacity. She’s really starting to look like a ship now. -Brian

Absolutely beautiful Eric, thanks for sharing your adventure of the build. Time to now go and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Looking forward to what you cook up next in the kitchen. -Brian

Very nice Roger. A lot of work for such a tiny piece. -Brian

Beautiful door Javlin! I love the smell and look of cedar and I have an over abundance of it on my property that I could harvest and make one like that out of (and would love to), unfortunately I just don't have the tools to mill it it. Definitely don't have to worry about the termites with that door though. -Brian

Javlin, I am starting to have an issue with the way that I built the door. With the cooler temperature and lower humidity in the room and the heat and high humidity outside, the door is starting to warp a bit and not closing properly at the bottom. I have been looking up different ways to to somehow latch the door at the top and bottom to hold it evenly in the jamb, but most store bought methods are pretty expensive, so I've been trying to come up with a DIY method. Still working on that. Mike, I haven't posted updates yet, but I have a 42" 4k TV mounted above my work station area and a mini fridge is in the works. Won't be long and the only reason I'll need to go into the house is to shower every now and then. 😁 -Brian

Roger, another great question. When researching the City Class boats all the references that I found referred to a painted band as an identifier for which boat it was. Not once did I run across anything that stated whether or not the band was painted directly on the stack, or a separate band. I never even gave any thought to the fact that the heat could burn the paint off, also the boats very rarely had any down time and had to be ready to go in a moments notice, so the boilers were constantly stoked. I did go back and review some of the old photos that I had from my research and from what I can tell, it looks like the bands were painted directly on the stacks. Nothing that I can see shows that the stacks were any wider where the bands are that would indicate they were double walled in this area, and unfortunately neither of the stacks of the Cairo were recovered (they were knocked down by one of the other boats on patrol with her that fateful day to hide her location) and they may have rusted away over the 100 years she sat on the bottom of the river. So my guess is that they had some good paint that held up to the heat, or they kept a good supply of paint on board for touch ups. -Brian

I think you may be on to something here. It’s is a strong possibility that this could be where the stairs are/were located. The walled area you circled seems like the typical construction of the day to surround stairwells and would be a prime location for them. From past experience of staring at old black and white photos it’s sometimes hard to get a good perspective of where details are located. I find my brain tends to put things that are not there in places where I think they should be. -Brian

No model is ever complete without a sampling of blood, sweat and tears. One down, two to go. 😁 Could it be possible that the stairs were just forward of the engine room and run perpendicular to the center line of the boat and come up to the boiler deck, just under the covered area of the boiler deck structure? Just a thought. It wouldn’t be the most ideal place but given the diminutive size of this boat, there’s not much room anywhere else. -Brian