mbp521

Glad to see you back at it John. Everything is looking good. Those battens are certainly tedious work, Are you planning to do any interior details on the pilot house? -Brian

Still loving the updates Tim. Beautiful work as always. Glad to see that some of my research matches up with your groups on the launches. -Brian

I think you nailed it Keith! Well done. -Brian

Too funny Keith! Without getting too political here, I would, but I'm too honest. 😁 -Brian

Coming along nicely Eric. Seeing this reminds me that I really need to get started building my shipyard in the barn. I have put it off for way too long. Maybe following your kitchen progress will inspire me to get moving on it. -Brian

Thank you Keith. Not sure what is up with Mother Nature this year, but she is definitely on the warpath. Our damage was insignificant compared to what the South and Midwest has been dealing with, as well as the wintry stuff you guys up north have been getting. I don’t think it will be as much of an issue on the bottom, as it will be with the sides. Since these will be more visible I want to focus more attention on the plates there. At first I had thought about that too, but there were a couple of the bulkheads that I didn’t quite measure correctly and they came up a little short to get the hull contour right. I guess I could build them up a bit and go with the card stock. I’ll give it some thought before diving headlong into the filler. -Brian

Hello again everyone, It has been a while since I have been able to get any work done, March was a very busy month. It started off with attending a cousin's wedding in South Louisiana, followed by a couple of rounds of severe storms that knocked down several trees on the property. Unfortunately these trees fell across our fencing used to contain our farm animals, so along with having to play lumberjack, we were also having to play cowboys and round up the herd. So fence repairs took some time to get done, but we managed to get them all repaired and the herd is now once again happy and contained. The fence work was also completed just in time for the Admiral and I to jet off on a two week vacation. Crossed another bucket list item off the list and finally visited Pearl Harbor (and some of the other parts of Hawaii). Once we got back from the trip, it was time to get back to the bench and get some work done. Well, I made a little progress the last week of March before Covid decided to rear it's ugly head and invade our house. First the Admiral came down with it and then me. So I have spent the last week and a half trying to kick this nasty bug, and I finally feel good enough to sit down and post an update. So with all that being said. here is what I was able to get done. I started working on getting the hull plated. I decided that I would go ahead and skin the hull with 1/16" basswood for now. I'm still not 100% sure of how I am going to simulate the steel plates, but I figured that I would go ahead and get the basic shape of the hull done and work on that once it was completed. The first section covered was the center keel area, since this was the easiest shape to make. I started with a cardstock cutout of the area then transcribed it to the basswood sheet. Next I soaked the forward end of the plank and shaped it to get the gentle curve of the bow. Then it was on to gluing the sheet to the hull. I wanted to make sure that I got a good bond so I used a little weight to help hold it down. Finally the front end of the sheet was glued, clamped and left to dry. While the first sheet was drying, I used the same method to cut out the side sheets. Once the first sheet was dry, I moved on to the port & starboard sides of the bow. I was struggling to get the compound curve of the sheet to lay right, so I decided to trim off the forward curve and take a different approach to it. Here are the side sheets in place. I was still struggling with how to cover the bow and stern areas. At first I was going to try planking them both with 1/16" x 3/16" basswood strips, but it just wasn't working the way I wanted it to. So I started rethinking things and decided that I am going to cheat a bit and use body filler to get the general shape. On the bow side it is not so bad, just a few foam blocks to fill in most of the void and some basswood strips on the sides to get the correct height and I should be good to go. The stern area is going to be a bit more difficult since there are numerous compounding curves to contend with. I will throw in a few filler blocks to take up some of the bigger areas, but I think this method will also work to get the general shape as well. This was as far as I got before getting sick. I'm on the mend now and hopefully within the next few days I should be able to get more done and have better progress. For now, thank you all for stopping by. -Brian

Tim, Thanks for posting more photos of the build. This truly makes me miss working on my Cairo. I am envious of the details you guys have put into this model. If these pictures are from three years ago, I can only imagine the progress that has been made since. Looking forward to the next installment. Keep them coming. -Brian

Eric, It’s good to see that you managed to get this build done and keep most of your sanity while doing it. Sometimes persistence pays off (or dare I say stubbornness in this case). I may have mentioned this before that it’s a shame that there are not any other kit builders out there that offer this fine ship in a bigger scale. Personally I believe that 1:192 scale is just too small for all the details that go along with the City-Class ironclads, and one of the reasons I passed on building this kit. Now after watching your build, there are so many more reasons that I am glad I went the direction I did. Somehow I believe it would have gotten boxed up and stashed in a far away dark corner of the closet, forever to be forgotten, or simply chucked if it was me struggling with it. I do have to hand it to you though, you took what you had to work with, stuck with it, and made the best of it. For all your troubles and trials you still produced a fine model worthy of your display case. Speaking of display cases, with her diminutive size in comparison to your Bertrand, she almost looks like a coal scow. 😁 Seriously though, great job on soldiering through with this build. I always enjoy the details and honesty you provide during your builds and I anxiously await to see what hits your bench next. Save me a seat on the front row. -Brian

Welcome aboard Denis, glad to have you. -Brian

Looking good Keith. I’ve run into the same issue with placing the rope coils and not enough room on the fife rials. In this case I have used my own method of cheating and just made up enough coils to cover the rails for effect, and leaving the counting of lines vs coils to the viewer. 😁 -Brian

Keith, I can’t think of anything else to say that I, or anyone else hasn’t said already, so I’ll just keep it short and sweet. You are a master. WOW!!! -Brian

Thanks for the clarification on the rigging. If I wasn’t impressed with your work before, I truly am now Keith. With these “physical limitations” you speak of, seems to in no way hinder your ability to turn out a beautiful product! I am taking notes on your rigging methods for when I do my next fully rigged ship build. However, I don’t think I’ll be able to “cheat” on it since I’ll have to keep my scale a bit larger than 1:120. I’m just not ready for something that small, and with my sausage fingers I’d just make a mess of things. -Brian

Just catching up Keith. Everything is looking top notch. I’ve never used the off ship method of rigging the masts but it sure looks like a more efficient way of doing it. I’ve always started by stepping the masts then rigging back stays and ratlines from there. Then on to the yards and final rigging. I’m just curious as to how much work it is to install the lower ratlines with the lower yards in the way. I’ll be watching and learning as you go along and see if I need to change my methods. By the way, just last month I picked up a B&D Workmate (with all the parts) at a yard sale. Best $5 I ever spent. Now I have two. 😁 -Brian

Looking good Zetec, brings back fond memories. -Brian

Keith, in my opinion lining up the deadeyes and getting them to stay even is one of the most difficult tasks in the rigging process. Looks like you nailed it though. Beautiful work! -Brian

The miniature details of this build just keep getting better and better Eberhard. -Brian

I am my own worst critic when it comes to pictures of my builds. My only saving grace is that I see other builders with the same concerns about their photos as well. So I trudge diligently on. Beautiful work Roger, I’m taking it all in to help learn the metalwork craft. -Brian

Absolutely stunning work Keith! -Brian

Roger, that is actually what I have been doing to research this subject. I found a nice video on YouTube that shows a walk thru of the MV Mississippi IV and then a walk around of the hull. The video does show some good detail. In some of the shots you can see the weld lines, especially where the bottom of the hull meets the side of the hull. There are also some shots that show the sides of the hull and you can make out the welded panels, but they are fairly flat to avoid drag. I do take this walk thru with a grain of salt since this vessel was built in 1961 and the Caroline N was built in 1973, so the building methods might have been different. -Brian

Now that is impressive, thank you for the link. What is even more impressive is that there is a building big enough to house a 345m (1132ft) cruise ship! The Admiral and I are going on a cruise in a couple of weeks so I will definitely be looking to see how the ship was put together and taking notes. 😁 -Brian

Thank you Eberhard & Roger for the useful information. I have seen videos of some of the modern day military ships going together, i.e. the Aircraft Carriers Gerald Ford & John F. Kennedy where the hulls are assembled with the modular concept. It is very impressive to watch and even more impressive that they can get all these modules lined up perfectly. I was a welder for several years, 25+ years ago, albeit on semi trailers and not ships, and I am all too familiar with the skip welding technique. This method is a prime example of less is more, where as at certain areas a solid line weld can actually cause more stress and breakage on the steel where the skip method allows for some flex removing the stress and minimizing breakage. I am not much on up on the engineering of ship hulls, but I would guess that even with the stiffening bulkheads there is always some flex. But I could be wrong. -Brian

I’m going to have to experiment with this method as well. Thank you. Roger, so do I understand this correctly, through this process there were no welded seams on the outside of the hull. The plates were butted up against each other and welded from the inside? Just curious, and want to get this right and if this was the case, what prevents water from entering the seams? I can see the benefit of the welds being on the inside of the hull, in that it would make it more streamline with no drag on the welds. -Brian

Keith, MDF is a fairly stable wood for forming the frame. It is a tad bit heavier than plywood, but makes a nice solid, sturdy base. As Eberhard stated above, as long as it’s is kept dry there should be no issues with it. Eberhard, I have a couple of experiments I am working on to simulate the welded hull. One of them uses aluminum foil tape over fine tread to show the weld lines. I am currently working on covering the bulkheads with basswood panels. Once the basswood is in place I’ll see which experiment works best. I hope to have some pictures posted soon of the progress. Work has been crazy busy, so my time at the bench has been limited. -Brian

Eric, apologies for missing your last update (#96), not sure how I didn’t see the post, but thank you for the mention. The ridge beam looks great! To help ease some the pain on the vent funnels, these were used to direct fresh air down to the gun deck for cooling and clearing smoke from the boilers. They could be rotated 360 degrees and could also be raised and lowered, or completely removed from their positions if needed. So in reality, there really is no right or wrong way to face them. As for the davits, I think you got this. I say go for it. -Brian