mbp521

Masterful work Eric. I’m right there with you. Adding cargo and other deck details really starts to pull the whole thing together. I like the technique of using the masking tape to give the chimneys that “hammered” look. If I had known about this sooner I would have definitely incorporated that into my build. -Brian

Good morning everyone, Small little update, this week we had absolutely beautiful weather (with the exception of Friday) so most of my time was spent outdoors getting other projects done. I did manage a little time on my build though, and here is what I accomplished. I managed to get the turnbuckles fabricated. Tedious project to say the least. Several breaks were needed due to my hands cramping up holding these tiny things, but I got them done. For these I used some 1/16" aluminum tubing and filed the sides flat. I cleaned up the slots with an exacto blade and used some 24 guage brass wire to make the 1mm eyebolts. They have since been painted and I'll let them dry before installing them and rigging the chimneys. Next, I worked on more deck details and built up a firewood rack. Nothing fancy, just found some twigs around the property and cut them to length and made up the wood rack with spare wood laying around. A little weathering with the torch and some golden oak stain and here is the result. Lastly, I ordered some miniature deck furniture from Shapeways. The detail on these 3D printed parts is fantastic, a little pricey, but worth it for the detail. I purchased some fire buckets and deck chairs and got them painted up. I build up the fire bucket rack for the hurricane deck, added a firewater barrel and placed a couple of other buckets around the boilers. The chairs are a little brittle, so I will be placing them around the decks when I get closer to finishing so I don't break any. That's about all I have this time. I should have more next time since the forecast is calling for rain all week. Now that the turnbuckles are complete and dry, I'll work on getting the rigging for the chimneys done and who knows what else. Thank you for looking and all the likes. -Brian

Yay! Glad to have you back! Looking forward to more of this masterful build.

Roger, Thank you for the helpful tip. I found a couple of yawl boat ideas that I may incorporate into my build. Eric, You hit the nail square on the head with this one, "it's all the little details that make this so much fun to learn about". I have to say that of all the builds that I have done, this one has been by far the most fun. I have learned so much more about steam boats than I would have dreamed, and still have only scratched the surface. As for the pilot house info, I kind of figured that was why they tied them down. Going back to one of Kurt's comments he made a while back in this log, and as you referenced here, these boats were built on a shoestring budget so they did what they had to do to keep the boats together as best as possible. So to expand on this a little further, or maybe just pick y'alls brain a little more, were the tie downs made from rope or from steel bars with turnbuckles (like the hog chains), or something different? Going by the instructions, the pilot house tie downs are simple cables tied to eye-bolts in the Texas Deck roof. On Dr. Jens Mittelbach 3D rendering of Chaperon, he shows what look to be iron bars with turnbuckles connect to the eye-bolts. I tried zooming in on several of the old pictures and it's hard to tell what was used on Chaperon. I went ahead and used my own interpretation of these tie downs and made a hybrid of cable and turnbuckles. Once I completed the pilot house, I finished the Texas deck railing and posts. The last thing completed this week was the chimneys. The decorative separator was a little bit of a challenge to get just right, but for the most part I think it turned out pretty well. I used a couple of small deadeyes for the end pieces and scratch built the center spreader wheel. The decorative tops of the chimneys were cut from a thin sheet of copper and bent to shape. After assembly and a coat of paint, I think the whole thing looks pretty good. Now to finish the anchor points for the chimneys and mast and hopefully start on getting her rigged up as soon as get all of the turnbuckles made up. Thank you all for the great information and the likes. -Brian

Roger, Welcome to the party. It's never too late to join in. Thank you for the insight on the work boats, I'll definitely look into adding that to my build as well as looking for Howard Chapelles book (could be useful if I have to scratch build one of these boats). I had never even thought about them using the boats to tie off to the shoreline, I figured they were just for emergencies or for use as tenders. My impression of them docking was that they would just pull up to the banks, drop the stage, have the deck hands haul the rope out, then use the capstan to tighten the line. It all makes sense now. As for the Chaperon carrying passengers, that was one of her primary roles, shuttling passengers on the Ohio, Barron & Green Rivers. Even as the J.C. Kerr she carried passengers, so I'm sure since she was built in 1884 she would have fallen under the Steamboat Inspection Service since it was created in 1871. When I started this project I had very limited knowledge of steamboats, but through this build, research and conversations with those (like you, Cathead, Kurt and others) that have studied them for years, I have learned a lot. -Brian

So I have a question that has been rattling around in my little pea brain for a while. While I was installing my pilot house and securing the tie downs, the thought occurred to me as to why these were needed. I know that these boats were not known for their blazing speed, and surely running up and down the shallow western rivers with all their twists and turns that they were not running full steam ahead all the time, what would the need be to secure the pilot house to the deck with tie downs. Were they just not that structurally sound to withstand a stiff wind should a sudden storm pop up or did the open window in the front act as sort of a wind drag that caused lifting on the house itself. Just curious because in studying pictures of numerous different boats, tie downs were not used on all of them. -Brian

Eric, I love the way the roof came out with your technique. The tape better defines the tar paper lines. The silkspan that I used on my build was a little thin and really can't be seen with the exception of where the Modge Podge "oozes" out between strips and the paint is a little shinier that the rest of the roof. I may have try this method on my next steamboat build. Also, a nice view is always a plus to have when spending hours at the work bench. I wish my bench was that clean (I'll definitely have to work on that). _Brian

Hello all, More work done this week on my Chaperon. I completed the installation of the pilot house and its stairway along with a "battery" crate that will hide the 9v battery for the lights. I have to admit, I am a little bit ashamed of myself for not planning this one out a little better. My thinking when I first started this build was to use an external power source for the lighting much like I did for my KotM build. But as things progressed I decided that I would just go with battery power instead. I would run all of my wires up to the Texas deck and terminate them there. I was going to make the pilot house removable so the battery could be changed out when needed. This was the plan all the way up until this week when I realized the when I was installing the magnets to hold the pilot house in place that there is a whole slew of rigging and tie downs that are attached to the structure, and there was no way that I was going to remove all of that to swap out batteries. Here is the pilot house magnets going in. Magnets in place and the Texas deck roof being glued down. It was at this point that I realized this wasn't going to work. So I came up with an alternative solution. I wanted to add a touch of life to the model by adding supplies to the decks, much like the crates I built for the main deck earlier in the build, so I figured that a nice big crate and some hay bales would work to conceal the battery . Here is what I came up with. The crate I made from spare planking strips and leftover plywood. I snaked the wiring down from the Texas deck to come out the side of the Main deck wall. Added a little aging to the crate with a small torch and some golden oak stain. Placed a connector on the wires and attached some small magnets to the crate to hold it in place, but still be removable. Threw on a few miniature hay bales and here is what I ended up with. Once I get to installing the bull rails, I will make a couple of them as panels to they can also be removed to get to the battery crate. Next I worked on the pilot house stairs and got them installed. Stairs and walkway in place. I just need to finish tying together the railings and I'll be done with this portion. And here is how she sits right now. My next step is to clean up my work bench. I didn't realize it until I posted this picture how messy it was. Sure didn't take it long to get this way. Now to work on the pilot house tie downs and the chimneys (after I tidy things up a bit). As always, thank you for the likes and for looking. -Brian

Hello again everyone, I am taking full advantage of being back to work on my build. My two month break gave me great motivation to get things done. This week I was able to complete the hurricane deck railing, the smaller smokestacks and the searchlight platforms. The railing went on pretty smooth, only a couple of adjustments needed to be made. Mainly in the back where the paddle wheel timbers come down and on the front radii. I also added the handrail to the tops of the railing to give it a more finished look. I know the original Chaperon had the hand rails in place, but along with everything, they were painted white. I decided to stain and varnish mine, just to give it a little more contrast. I had a little issue getting the PE railing to take the bend on the front. I am not sure if I didn't get the curvature of the deck right or what, but the thin area between the posts wanted to bulge out when forming the curve. I finally managed to work everything into place by slightly "massaging" the brass causing it to stretch at the top. For the back railing the area behind the paddle wheel timbers was too tight to install the PE so I had to cut it into sections. I stopped the railing on both sides of the timbers and moved the back railing slightly aft to line up with the posts. With the handrail in place, this is hardly noticeable. Next I started work on the smaller smokestacks and chimneys. I wanted to add a little more detail to these, other than just the conical cap that the instructions call for. I made the caps from some thin copper sheeting and added the standoffs made from spare brass flat bar I had and held in place with a dot of CA and some heat shrink tubing. I also added a decorative top to the two chimneys that, according to the instructions, were to just be left uncapped. This was not the case on the actual boat, and old photos show that she had some sort of decorative top on her, although I could not find a clear enough picture of what they actually looked like. I just used a little imaginations and created my own. For these I also used the thin copper sheeting. Lastly, I built the searchlight platforms and installed the. I could not find any pictures of what these actually looked like, so I used the style that Dr. Jens Mittelbach used on his 3D rendering of the Chaperon. Well, that is it for now. More to come. Thank you all for looking as well as the likes and encouragement. -Brian

Eric, I agree it could be worse. It was just a couple of short years ago when Texas set that record of 42"+ when Hurricane Harvey rolled through Houston, fortunately for us it took a northeastern turn. We moved to Texas about 22 years ago and since that time (with the exception of the occasional hurricane passing over) this was the most rain in a short period of time we have seen come down. We just had the misfortune of the line of storms "train" over us and ring every bit of moisture it could out of the clouds. When I built our driveway, I had thought I had compensated enough for the runoff, since the creek starts on the ranch just west of ours at a pond about a 1000' away, most of the water is shed from the pasture land of our neighbors. The creek bed is only about 3' wide so I installed two 24" culverts thinking it could handle what would come its way. Apparently I miscalculated a tad bit. I should probably stick with model building instead of civil engineering. -Brian

Eric, Glad to see you back. Interesting method on the tarpaper roofing, I had gone with Kurt's method of silkspan and matte paint on my Chaperon, but I may play round with your pastel method as a comparison for future builds. I definitely agree with testing off the model first though. It saves time and a lot of headaches. My only issue with prior testing is sometimes I get it right the first time (the test piece) and second time around (the actual model) fails to come out the way I wanted it to. On my Chaperon, my test pieces came out almost perfectly (not to toot my own horn), but after testing and applying to my build it didn't come out the same. I had issues with the sides curling up and too much overlap of the "tar seam" (where my glue mixture simulated the tar oozing out between the layers of tarpaper. But as they always say, third times a charm and practice makes perfect. So I sanded it all down and tried again. Worked better that time. -Brian

Greeting everyone, It has been some time since my last update, I hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday and a New Year. I was supposed to have been working on building my new shipyard during my hiatus, but unfortunately Mother Nature decided to unleash her wrath upon us several weeks ago and dump 8"+ of rain in a five hour span. This cause some considerable flooding of the creek that runs through our property and in turned washed all the debris from the wood down with it. Well all of this debris washed up against my fencing taking down about 200' with it. So most of my time lately has been spent making repairs on weekends when it not raining. I am beginning to wonder if I some how moved to the Pacific Northwest US instead of living in Texas. This has got to be a new record for wettest winter here. Here is what just a couple of hours of hard rain can do. This is the front of the property. The ditch is about 6' deep and the rain had stopped about an hour ago and some of the water had receded. ...and this is my driveway to the house under about a foot of water. Thankfully the damage was minimal and nothing that couldn't be repaired. Unfortunately my shipyard budget was used to make repairs. Luckily I am married to a great woman and she graciously allowed me to setup shop back in the gust bedroom until I can get my shipyard finally built. So here I am. I got everything un-boxed happily started work. The first week back didn't produce much, but I managed to get the paddle wheel mounted along with the support timbers and some of the hog chains. Before mounting the paddle wheel, I added a couple of vent pipes from the machine room. I had debated on adding an additional two windows on the stern. From some of the pictures on the U of W website, it looks as though the Chaperon went through several remodels. Some pictures show one window and other show three. So I decided to leave it a one. Installing the paddle wheel. A few little details I added were the bolts holding the pillow-blocks in place and the bearing oilers (not sure of the proper name). Next came the support timbers and hog chains. Dry fitting the railing. This looks to be a pretty tight fit and some adjustments may have to be made. That is all for now. I hope to have more updates soon. As always, thanks for looking. -Brian

Eric, Nice job job on the “adjustments”. I don’t want to even get into the number of times I have sat down to a build to get my mind off of life, only to realize that I got my mind off of everything. Including my build. I just look at it this way. More time spent working on a hobby we love. Not to mention it’s good practice. Lord knows I can use all the practice I can get. Watching your build gets me through the withdrawals I am having while my Chaperon sits in a box. -Brian

Eric, Maybe a little on the pucker-factor side, but not worth teeth gnashing. Besides, the protective heat shield on the smokestacks will protect those beams from any fire danger. She's really looking good. -Brian

Eric, I’m not seeing anything out of alignment here. All I see is a fantastic looking boat taking shape. Happy New Year to you as well. -Brian

Eric, Beautiful work on the Arabia, those compound curves on the aft decking look like they were a bit tricky to lay down the wood sheeting. Especially with the delicate structure beneath. She’s really looking good. I love the the idea of milling your own wood, I have 15 acres of cedar trees myself, along with some other hardwoods (pecan, oak, bois d’arc, mesquite, etc.) spattered about, that I would love to use for future builds. What is your process to cut the wood down to these strips? Just curious, I’d like to do the same instead of just burning what I clear out. -Brian

Eric, it’s all good. I’m actually surprised she let me stay put for as long as she did. But, like I said, I have my corner of the barn picked out and just need to get off my tookus and get my room built out. Should only take a couple of months to get done. Future shipyard spot. -Brian

Good evening everyone, I am finally back with an update. The holidays season seems to cut down significantly on the build time. That and unexpected work trips have slowed mine down to a crawl. Unfortunately this may be the last update for a while. The admiral was gracious enough to lend me part of her guest bedroom to use as my shipyard, but now she has put her foot down that I get out, so I have to pack it up and move it to the barn. This is not a bad thing though, I will have my own room (a 10' x 12' corner with heating and air) to spread out and have a little more organization. The only drawback is that the room in the barn isn't built yet. So, my build time over the next couple of months is going to be dedicated to building a shipyard instead of a ship. It'll all be worth it in the end though. So enough of that. Here are some pictures of what I was able to accomplish since the last update. I have all of the sconces installed as well as the boiler deck railing. I just need to get a coat of paint on the sconces. I also decided to add a hand rail to the railing. the PE railing just looked too plain there by itself, and adding the hand rail gave it more definition. Another little detail I added were the downspouts on the pilot house. A little something I noticed in the old pictures on the U of W website. There are also a couple of these I will be adding to the Texas deck as well, once the roof has been installed. These are made from 3/32" polystyrene tubing. I tried heating and bending it first, but I just couldn't get the shape I was looking for. So I ended up inserting some brass wire in the ends of the tubing, heating it, then bending it with needle-nose pliers. This worked out perfectly and the shape held just right. Next I started on the bell. Again I wasn't too please with the Britannia one. To me it seemed a little small. So I grabbed up some spare 1/4" walnut dowel and turned one down on my mini lathe. I think it came out pretty nice. Then I used a piece of 18ga wire to make the holder and used the side braces that came with the kit, along with a couple of supports to modify it slightly. Then I mounted it in place on top of the Hurricane deck roof. I will work on making the board the holds the pulleys for the clapper rope and get that in place later. Not really sure of what this board was called, but I noticed it on the 3D rendering and confirmed from the old photos from the U of W website. I want to also add the antlers to the bell. I had the perfect set, but I couldn't bring myself to scalp my grandson's toy deer. I'm sure I can find another plastic deer at a toy store somewhere. I was also able to complete the bit on the fore-deck and get it installed. Lastly, I started working on the carbon arc searchlights. I formed the housings from 3/8" dowel and used flat 1/16" brass strips for the mounting swivel bracket and the clamps. I then used some heat shrink to wrap it in to give it a smooth look on the outside. I was still in the process of getting these assembled when I got sidetracked on the hand rail. I may keep these out of the boxes and work on them from when I have a spare minute or two while I build my shipyard. I think I have a box somewhere that has a bunch of old plastic car models in it. I'm thinking of using some of the clear headlight lenses from these to make the lenses for the searchlights. Trick is, I have to find the box first. Otherwise, I am going to have to come up with some other way of making them. Anyway, that is all for now. As always, thank you all for the likes and for looking. Until next time, Happy Holidays to all. -Brian

Good afternoon everyone, Thank you all for the likes and information. Blighty, I do plan on lighting the entire model, from the pilot house down to the boilers. I am still working on a way to try and light the red and green navigation lights on the smokestacks. This is definitely proving to be a bit of a challenge without the wiring being seen. I'm sure I can come up with something though. I am also toying with the idea of adding the carbon arc searchlights and somehow lighting those up as well. We'll see how this challenge goes. I managed to get a little accomplished this week. The chicken coop and the capstan. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am not a real big fan of the brittania fittings that come with the MS kits, and anywhere I can scratch build the pieces I will. The capstan being one of those pieces. The kit supplied one was poorly cast and was terribly out of round so here is the third a final version of my scratch built one. The chicken coop was a little lacking in details as well, so I added a few little touches to spruce it up. I was looking online for some 1:48th scale chickens to add to it, but couldn't find any. I think this should be good enough though. Maybe my version of the Chaperon is sitting at the docks waiting on a resupply and the chicken coop is empty. That's all for now. I am currently in the process of adding the all the decorative sconces and railing to the boiler deck as well as cutting the smokestack crowns from thin copper sheeting. This is turning out to be a bit of a challenge as well. But I'll figure it out, just need to find the right tools. Thanks again for looking. -Brian

Aww come on Eric, I can't suck you back into my rudder conversations again? Kurt, Thanks for the input. I agree, the website is really neat and has inspired many new ideas and subtle touches to add to my build. I have seen these photos on the UofW website, but since they were labeled as the Chaperon Towboat, built in 1904, I wasn't sure as to the accuracy of the lifeboat style on this one. I looked at some of the other photos of the 1884 Chaperon and zoomed way in on them and can somewhat make out that a couple of them show flat transom lifeboats, but they are a bit grainy. As for the configuration changes of the 1884 Chaperon, there are some subtle differences that I have noticed through the photos, like the addition of searchlights, the front wall of the main deck by the stair case (open as opposed to being enclosed), the smokestack "crown" (or what ever the decorative top piece is called) has seen several changes, different color schemes on the trim (hard to tell with black and white photos) but it is definitely noticeable on the doors and the "Anchor and Arrow" between the smokestacks, but I haven't seen too may photos that drastically change the look of the boat structure itself. As for the third rudder, I am seriously contemplating adding it. No monkey rudders though. I can't find any evidence that the Chaperon ever had these. -Brian

Hello everyone, I wanted to pose a question about rudders. I was doing some research on the internet on the Chaperon to find out what style of lifeboat she carried with her. The kit contains the standard britannia ones that bare pointed on the bow and stern, but in many of the old photographs I came across show ones with a flat transom on them. Anyway, while researching this I found there were several pictures of steamboats in “dry-dock” where they show them with three rudders instead of just two. I’ve seen the additional “monkey rudders” mounted aft of the paddle wheel, but this third rudder was mounted to the hull in line with the other two. I’m sure the timeline would dictate the evolution of the boats, but my curiosity got the better of me so I went down the rabbit hole and started looking into rudders (again). I really couldn’t find a whole lot of info on when they started putting three rudders on steam boats or if there were just a few one-offs where the shipbuilders were experimenting with maneuverability of the boats. Then I stumbled across a site of a gentleman from Germany who put together beautiful high-res drawings as well as a 3D virtual tour of the Chaperon. That’s when I saw that he had also included three rudders on his drawings. So being the novice in the world of steamboats, I figured I’d pose this question to the experts. Personally I think it’s pretty cool looking to have three rudders, but I would till like to keep my build as historically accurate as possible. Any thoughts on this? BTW: here is the link to the site I was referring to. I’m not real sure of it’s accuracy, but it does resemble the MS kit. https://www.jensmittelbach.de/steamboats/chaperon/index.html -Brian

Eric, Glad to see you back. Excellent work as always. BTW: Your workbench looks a lot like mine. I like it that way -Brian

Beautiful work on such tiny pieces. One slip of the tweezers and those parts can be lost in the void. She’s coming along nicely. - Brian

Eric, I have been using heat shrink for years and it holds up well in all types of weather. I use it on the wiring of my trailers that sit in the sun/rain/snow year round and haven't had a single connection rot away. The only issue that I had with doing the bands this way was I had to secure them in place with a touch of CA because they tended to slip on the wooden dowel. There are some heat shrinks that have a heat activated glue on the inside of them that helps seal the connection and would probably work a little better in this type of application, I just used what I had on hand. -Brian

Greetings everyone, It has been a while since my last update. Unfortunately, end of year work travels and work on the ranch has taken a considerable toll on my ship building time. However, winter is fast approaching which means colder weather to stay indoors and in the shipyard. I was able to accomplish a few tasks on my build, but not a whole lot. I figured I'd go ahead post what I have so far. Work was completed on construction of the Texas deck. All those little battens to glue into place. A monotonous task to say the least, but I got it done. I still need to hang the curtains and secure it to the top of the Hurricane deck, but I need to get the LED wiring dressed up and run the main power wire from the bottom. I was going to go with a battery powered solution, but I couldn't come up with a way to house the batteries that I liked. So I decided to just run an external power source. (more pictures on that later) Next I fastened the Hurricane deck to the top of the Boiler deck and pulled the wiring through. I used thin tissue paper to cover the windows to hide the LED's that are glued to the top. The tissue paper should provide a nice glow with the yellow LED's. Lastly, I started work on the smokestacks. I tried several methods to simulate the joint between sections. First I tired using some leftover pin-striping I had, but I couldn't get the tape line up all the way around. Next I tried small rubber bands (leftover from the kids braces). Unfortunately, the kids have been out of braces for several years now and most of the ones I had left were dry rotted and didn't have enough good ones to complete the job. So I finally came up with the idea of using heat shrink tubing. I was outside repairing the wiring on my trailer when the idea occurred to me that this would be a perfect solution. So I gave it a whirl. I am actually pleased with the result. All I have left to do is paint them and see how they look. The smokestack caps I made from a sheet of thin copper, in which I pasted the pattern on and cut out with small snips. I am going to use the same method and material for the decorative tops. That all for now. Hopefully I will be able to get more done with all of the travelling done for the year. Thanks for looking (and Happy Veterans Day to all those who served) -Brian