mbp521

 

5 hours ago, Vladimir_Wairoa said:

wow flying fish, beautiful work.Thanks Brian for explanation, soon im at planksheer so i can show how it materialize and we can possibly suggest how it goes. finger crossed  V. do you have album of flying fish so i can see her? 

Vlad,

 

With what I’ve see so far by the quality of your work, I don’t see where the plank sheer will be a problem for you. Cutty Sark is on my list of builds one of these days. 
 

Unfortunately I do not have a build log or gallery pics of my Flying Fish on MSW, if you like I can post a few pics here if you like (I figured I’d ask before hijacking your build log). I started her about five years ago and in the mean time we moved. She was packed up for a few years and I only recently pulled her out of storage.  My intention is to finish her once I’ve completed my scratch built USS Cairo. Right now all I have completed on her is the hull and deck furniture. I had started work on the masts but didn’t get very far before she was packed up. 
 

-Brian

Vlad,

 

It seems at that scale it would be a lot easier to do. Sounds like you are going about it the way I do mine. My approach was to cut all the planks to length and mount them in place. I then placed the nibbing Strake in place on top of the planks and marked the plank location on it. Then cut the nibbing Strake on the marks, a little fine sanding and the glued into place. 
 

These are some pictures of my planking and nibbing Strake from my Flying Fish. 
 

 

Hope this helps. 

-Brian

Vlad,

 

Beautiful job on the nibbing. As mundane and time consuming as it is, this is still one of my favorite parts of deck planking. 
 

-Brian

31 minutes ago, dcicero said:

Not a lot of thought given to crew comfort in those ironclads, Brian.

 

You'd made a point earlier about armor plating and I swear I'd read that armor was added to the forward casemate and pilothouse in light of battle experience.  As I recall, after actions up the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers -- Forts Henry and Donaldson and Fort Pillow -- the need for that armor was clear.  The boats would form up in line abreast, with only their forward guns bearing on the enemy batteries.  They took a lot of punishment from directly ahead because of that and needed to beef up that armor.  I believe Cairo's pilothouse was modified like that and I seem to remember seeing that extra armor on the pilothouse when visiting, but I looked around last night to try to find the reference for that and couldn't.  Drove me nuts.  I can usually lay my hands on a reference like that without any trouble, but not this time.

 

I do know the forward casemate armor was beefed up over the original plans and that was done prior to any of the boats going into action.  I even found a reference to proofing trials of that armor and it was found to be completely acceptable.  Those trials were done at Cairo, IL.

 

 

Dan

Dan, How right you are, no creature comforts at all, with the exception of maybe the officers quarters. Of course even they had to deal with the heat and the constant churning of the paddle wheel and the engines. Still better than the enlisted crew had it. Sleeping in hammocks below deck having to deal with the heat and on deck with the mosquitoes. And as anyone from the Western Rivers region can attest, the mosquitoes can be horrible.

 

I seem to recall reading the same thing about the armor upgrades and I believe that it was at the Cairo museum. If I remember correctly, all of the interlocking flat armor on the forward and side casemates was original (well in place when they were delivered to the Army. The upgrades with the railroad irons was the later addition as they proved that the 12" thick oak planks on the side was just not enough. I do not recall as to whether or not the aft casemates were armored. I would think that they were, but I'm not 100%. I will need to do little more digging when I get to that point in my build.

 

The pilothouse was definitely armor plated. Here are some pictures of it from my visit there a few years back. I also recall from my research that several skilled Confederate sharpshooters took out some of the pilots of these boats by taking a perfectly aimed shot through the portals in the armor. 

 

 

I know that most of the surface damage on these plates was due to rusting, but I can't help but think that some of it may be from bullets and cannon balls.

 

-Brian

Thank you all for the kind comments!

 

Dan, excellent history lesson. I would say that that was one lucky shot that crippled the Mound City. One of the major drawbacks and hazards of the City Class iron clads (and I would speculate other classes as well) was the lack of escape routes in the event of a boiler rupture. I can only imagine what those men went through. Those lucky enough to make it through the gun ports faced enemy snipers while the others were basically boiled alive. Unthinkable horrors of war. 

 

-Brian 

Hello again everyone,

 

Update time.

 

So it's been a pretty productive week, I started working on the boiler.

 

First thing I did was cut five 3/4" dowels, 6" long for the boiler tubes. To simulate the rivets, I used some aluminum foil tape I had laying around. Using a ponce wheel, I ran the wheel on the paper side to give the 3-dimensional look of the rivets. I then cut these into strips and wrapped them around the boiler tubes.

 

Simulating the rivets.

 

Strips wrapped around the tubes.

 

It was at this point that I figured out that I was going about this all wrong. I was making this way too hard on myself. So after rethinking the process, I decided to just wrap the entire boiler tube with the tape and create all the rivets at once.

 

This was the result.

 

Much easier and quicker. Next step was to create the steam drum using the same wrapping process.

 

First I drilled out the holes for the connector pipes and pressure relief valves.

 

Then installed the steam drum. The steam drum was made from a 1/2" dowel cut 4" long

 

Next I simulated the mounting flanges for the steam drum and pressure relief valves.

 

 

Then it was time for a test fit in the hold.

 

Work then began on the flume and furnace doors.

 

Simulated rivets for the flume.

 

Work on the furnace doors.

 

Taking Eric's advice I went ahead and printed the bricks for the boiler floor. After careful consideration, I determined that hardly any of this will be seen at all so I went ahead and just used the printed pattern for the entire floor, including the ash pit. 

 

 

Another test fit and all looks to line up pretty good.

 

 

Now time to load up the coal bunkers. I used some modeling clay for the form and pressed some medium grain Talus for the coal.

 

Some of the loose fill I held in place with some watered down PVA.

 

Next, build up and installation of the pressure relief valves.

 

Finally I installed the port and starboard coal bunker doors, got the boilers painted flat black and then dry-brushed the assembly white to highlight the rivets and other features.

 

Next on the build agenda will be paint up the coal once the PVA dries, build the boiler supports and the engine mounts. 

 

That's all for now, Thank you all for looking and the likes.

 

-Brian

 

 

Daniel,

 

I read your build log and ask myself how can he improve on perfection, and yet you still never cease to amaze me.  
 

Beautiful work as always. 
 

-Brian

Dan,

 

Thank you for the words of encouragement, and I hope to one day follow your build of the Cairo. 
 

9 hours ago, dcicero said:

The naval side of the Civil War is overshadowed by the land war, but there's plenty there for the modeler, lots of technical innovation and experimentation, some of which worked out and some of which didn't.

You hit the nail on the head with this one, there was some serious experimentation going on with these boats. Given the fact that they just had 100 days to provide seven ships, there had to be major trial and error going on.  
 

Just a couple of examples would be, like one of our previous discussions in this log, the rudder placement and the lack of control of these boats. While the design of these boats was based on the standard stern wheel steamers, many alterations were made to try and protect the mechanical features from enemy fire like moving the paddle wheel forward and under the structure, armor plating etc. I’m sure the builders didn’t have much time for test runs and left it to the Army for shakedown testing. 
 

Another example would be the armament. These boats originally just had flat armor plating on the front, aft and sides (as well as the pilot house) when they left the shipyards. The function of the side plating was just to protect the boilers and that was about it. The crews felt this was not enough and came back and placed the additional armor forward and aft of the side plates using salvaged railroad irons. This holds true for Cairo, I’m not 100% sure of her sister ships. It’s really hard to tell from the old photographs if they all had this additional armor and I have not done extensive research on the other six to be sure. Through my reading though, there were many alterations done to them over time, unfortunately Cairo’s life span wasn’t long enough to get the chance to see many of these alterations. 
 

-Brian

Eric,

 

Looks good. That should get you going. A few planks along the hull should go a long way to stabilize the hull. 
 

-Brian

Kent,

 

Welcome aboard, glad to have you following along. 
 

Frisco huh? I’m about 45 due north of you on Lake Texoma. 

 

-Brian

Yves,

 

Thanks for the update. Glad that you are still working on this build. I’m sure you aren’t the only one that gets sidelined by other projects. They do provide a benefit in a way, they help to keep the other projects from becoming stale. 
 

Looking forward to future progress soon. 
 

-Brian

12 hours ago, dcicero said:

My pleasure.  The Vicksburg Campaign is endlessly fascinating. I also recommend Vicksburg is the Key by Terry Winchell.  It’s a good read by a terrific historian.  I’ve heard him speak a couple of times and, before reading this book, thought his Triumph and Defeat was one of the best overviews of the campaign.

 

I’m also a fan of the U.S Army War College Guide to the Vicksburg campaign, but you’ve really got to be interested in this stuff to get through that one!

 

Dan

Dan,

 

The Vicksburg Campaign is a fascinating subject as is the American Civil War in general.

 

Hailing from the Baton Rouge area there was plenty of Civil War history around to study. I remember one of my middle school field trips for Louisiana History was to Port Hudson, site of the last Mississippi River stronghold captured during the Union campaign to control the Mississippi River. Up to this point, this siege was the longest in US Military history (one day longer than the siege on Vicksburg). I do believe this trip was what fostered my interest in the ACW. A couple of years later I went to Vicksburg NMP and that was when I first laid eyes on the USS Cairo. After this trip, my interest in boats and building models of historic ones began and have building them every since. It wasn't until about seven years ago that I caught the wooden model building bug. I started with a couple of cross-sections to get used to the techniques, then on to full rigged ships.

 

In 2006, on our return trip from my daughter graduation from boot camp at Parris Island we stopped of in Vicksburg to tour the NMP once again. This time I was lot more appreciative of what actually took place there and what the people of Vicksburg must have gone through during this time. Then touring the USS Cairo and it's museum prompted my drive to build a model of her. I believe I mentioned earlier in this build that unfortunately there are no large scale models available of her (that I was able to find), so scratch building her was my only option.

 

My apologies for the personal history lesson, but you struck on a topic that I have a lot of interest in. 

 

-Brian

Dan,

 

Thank you for the information on more reading material, I’ll definitely look that one up once I finish Grant Wins the War. 
 

-Brian

14 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

Brian,  

 

The book is Grant Wins the War: Decision at Vicksburg  by  James R. Arnold.

 

Straight military history, well told, adequate maps.  After reading I feel that I understand this complex campaign.

 

Roger

Thanks Roger,

 

I managed to find a copy of this book on Amazon for $6. It should be here some time next week along with my copy of Alan Bates’ The Western Rivers Steamboat Cyclopedium.  

 

-Brian

11 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

Mounted where they are the rudders would have been ineffective.  A better choice would have been to move them inboard where they would have benefited from the fast moving water from the paddle wheel, but that would have posed a structural problem- how to support them.

 

The inboard, center location of the paddle wheel was likely an attempt to shield it from gunfire.

 

Roger

Roger,

 

I definitely agree with you on this one.

 

My though was that if they moved the paddle wheel aft a few feet and mounted the rudders in front of it, it would probably be more easy to control. This would be in line with the design of the stern wheel packet boats and would also hide the rudders preventing them from being an easy target.

 

-Brian

1 hour ago, Keith Black said:

Far North Texas........Denison, Sherman, Gainesville? My son was born in Sherman, at the time we were living in Tioga .

Keith, 

 

Small world. Actually right between Sherman and Gainesville. Small town of Gordonville. 
 

-Brian

Gary,

 

Thank you for the kind comments, glad to have you following along. USS Cairo has long been a fascination of mine and I always wanted to build her. It’s just taken a long time to gain the skills to take on a scratch build like this. Thanks to this forum and all of the helpful members on it, I finally decided to jump on in. I figured that what’s the worse that could happen, someone points out something I did wrong and I have to redo it? Oh well, just hones my skills. 
 

I appreciate the useful info on modeling supplies, I’ll definitely add New England Brownstone to my favorites folder. I’m always on the lookout for good sites to shop from. I have the feeling that if all goes well with this build, it may not be the last one. 
 

-Brian

 

3 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

I'd say yes - have a frame. The stabler the shape as you plank, the better off you're likely to be. And better to be safe than sorry - it'd be terrible down the track to regret not having a frame.

Eric,

 

I'm with Steven on this one. I'd say that given the long slender design of this hull, a frame is the way to go. Why risk it when a little extra work will pay off in the end.

 

-Brian

Eric, 

 

Thinking about it, the printed paper method might just be the right idea. Most of it will be hidden under the boilers anyway. With the exception of the ash pit, I may just do that then shape and paint the ones that will be seen. No sense in going through a big expense for something that won’t really be seen. 
 

-Brian

Thank you Roger.
 

During my research on these boats I’ve read that they were notoriously hard to control. One reason being the small rudder size and the other being the placement of the paddle wheel in relation to the rudders. These factored in with swift river currents probably made it a task that only seasoned pilots could manage. 
 

By the way, I’m curious as to the name of the book you are referring to. I’m always up for reading up more on Vicksburg and the campaigns of these boats. 
 

-Brian

Thanks Keith. A little bit of extra work but it sure helps keep everything in line. If I ever do another scratch build, this will be the first thing I build. 
 

-Brian

Hello again Everyone,

 

So I managed to get the build jig set up this past week, and in hindsight I realized that I should have done this from the beginning. It sure makes lining everything up so much easier.

 

I didn't take any pictures of its construction, I guess I was just excited to get to building it and completely forgot about taking them. Anyway, basic construction was two sheets of 1/4" MDF with 1"x4"s cut to length and sandwiched between them the height of the hull. I then tuned the hull over, traced out it's profile and cut that out. I then lined up the Bob Hill plans (yes, I used these, but first I made sure that the framing stations lined up with the HSR ones and they did perfectly) with the hull opening, taped it in place then marked all of the frames.

 

This is where I started taking the pictures. Oh, and I went into town and had the scaled plans printed so that I didn't run the risk of the ones I printed and taped together throwing my frame lines out of whack.

 

Next I installed the pedestal mounts in the hull so that I could secure it to the jig. I for the mounts I used these 1/4" threaded inserts that you drill the pilot hole and insert with an Allen wrench. These things were pretty cool. I like them better than using T-nuts because if they strip out, you can replace them without tearing apart the model.

 

Drilling the pilot hole.

 

Installing the insert.

 

Testing the fit with the temp screws that I am going to use to hold the boat in place while it is in the jig.

 

And the whole setup in place. The red lines are every fifth frame, as called out on the plans. I then went in and marked all the rest of the frame lines in black so  I have a perfect reference for all of the frames. Also, as you can see by my simulated nail lines, The stations gradually migrated out of line with the frame stations. This was where I was having trouble keeping things lined up and prompted me to build the jig. Lesson learned. Luckily most of these won't be seen since they will be hidden by cannons or the Officers Quarters.

 

Now that this part is done, it's time to move on to finishing the gun deck framing and planking. First frame in place. And now they can be lined up where they are supposed to be. First frame going in.

 

A few more frames in place.

 

All frames in place. The wider frames have knee braces mounted to their undersides. These will be installed once the boat is removed from the building jig.

 

Aft planking going in.

 

And finally, the engine holds cut out, the deck all sanded and four coats of wipe-on poly applied. 

 

Things ought to start moving along a little better now that I have the build jig as a guide to work off of. I am going to start work this week on the boilers and getting the brickwork laid down in the boiler hold. Haven't quite figured out how I am going to do the bricks yet. I've seen several methods in different builds from powdered mixes to cutting small pieces of wood and painting them up. Not real sure yet, but I am open to any suggestions to other methods used that  might be easier.

 

Anyway, that's all for now. Thanks for looking.

 

-Brian

Great use of the materials on hand. 
 

-Brian

One can only wonder how odiferous that could get within the closed confines of Iron Clads. I guess eventually you would get used to it. 

 

-Brian

Kurt,  

 

Thank you for the information. Out of curiosity, I went to the Howard Museum website looking for the books you referenced. Is there a specific link to them or do you have to email them for information? 

 

-Brian