mbp521

Hey everyone, I have put the Caroline N on a temporary hiatus while I work on another project. I have finally started work on my new shipyard. I wanted to get most of this completed while the temperatures here in Texas are somewhat manageable. I have started a Shore Leave build log on it if you wanted to pop over and follow along as I progress. You can check it out here. Hopefully it won't take me too long to get the shipyard done and I'll be back to work on the Caroline N in my new digs. -Brian

I wanted to share a project that I have been anxious to get started on for a few years now. When we built our house back in 2019, the Admiral was gracious enough to let me use one of the spare bedrooms as a shipyard in a temporary basis. Well, temporary has turned into a four year homestead. Back when I had first planned an out of the way place to move into, my initial thought was to purchase an unfinished out building and then finish it out the way I wanted. Well, not sure if you have priced any of these new out buildings, but they are ridiculously high, at least around here they are. A nice 20'x12' unfinished wood framed storage shed will set you back about $10K to 15K. Way to rich for my blood. I even looked at used ones, which are cheaper, until I pay someone to move it for me. So I decided to utilize a 12'x20' back corner of our barn. This was agreed upon with the Admiral and so plans were finalized and materials were priced and budgeted. Unfortunately, right after the pricing was done, we had a freak storm roll through and dumped 8" of rain on us in 5 hours. This caused the creek that runs through our property to flood and wash all the leaves, branches and other debris up against the fences and rip them all out of the ground. Well, the shipyard funding had to be used to replace about 400' of fencing, posts and toprails. Then Covid hit and lumber prices skyrockets and again the shipyard was put on hold. Well since that time I have finished up an a couple of builds and found myself complacent in my temporary(permanent) home. But now with lumber prices finally back down to a somewhat manageable cost and being inspired by other land based projects, one in particular @Cathead Outdoor kitchen build has got me chomping at the bit to get off my backside and get this done. So I have put my Caroline N project on a temporary hold while I spend time out in the barn, before the Texas heat kicks in, realizing my plans for permanent shipyard. So without further ado, here we go. This is the planned corner of the barn where the shipyard will be. Plans that I drew up back during the initial planning stage. Day 1, the materials have arrived. Of course it rained the day before delivery, making things nice and muddy for the delivery driver. The forklift managed to dig some nice ruts in the ground, but the driver was able to get everything unloaded. Now I have a side project of filling in and smoothing out all the ruts and re-growing the grass. But anyway, the materials made it so time to get started. Day 2: Moving all the junk that has accumulated in the corner out and putting up the first wall. As you can see in the below picture, I was so anxious to get started I didn't take the time to get everything out of the way yet. Day three: I bribed my sons and son in law with beer and food to come give me a hand getting the walls up. Cheap labor but very helpful. Still on day three, more of the wall frames going up. Day four: With my labor team exhausted, it was up to me to trudge on. Now that I had the framing done, I was able to work on the outside walls of the shipyard. I figured what better way to wall in a shipyard than with shiplap. Day five. Electrical work. Didn't have a lot of time this afternoon to do much, but was able to get most of the electrical wiring and boxes done and the recessed lighting installed. Day six: Now to the real fun, fiberglass insulation. Even this picture makes me itch. So I gear up in an old flight suit, a throwback from my Air Force days of which I can't believe I can still fit in, and start hanging insulation. That is as far as I have gotten for this week. More to come as I progress. -Brian

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