FriedClams

Keith B, Paul, Chris, Druxey, Bowwild, Glen, Keith A, Andy, Marc and Rick - I thank you very much for the compliments and support. And thanks for all the "thumbs up" and to those watching quietly. A brief update. The wave break diverter that I installed in the last post has been removed and replaced with one of a different design. The original one is something that might have been installed on a metal hull boat, but never on a wooden fishing vessel of this era. The Pelican’s plan set shows a side view of the diverter, but no details or even a top view and what I ended up building was simply wrong. Further research showed the wave breaks on these wooden draggers were built directly onto the deck and not constructed in a shop and then bolted on. The images below show the before and after. Creating the new wave break was the easy part. Fixing the deck after tearing off the old one was the hard part because chunks of the “rubber membrane” tissue came off with it. Heavy sigh. Moving on, I built the galley stove stack and the only info I have on it is the outboard profile. I lifted dimensions from the drawing but placed an alternative cap on top instead of the conical diamond shaped one shown on the drawing. The lower half of the stack has a double wall which allows hot air to travel up between the two pipes and exit at the beveled cap where the outer wall terminates. This helps protect the crew from burns when brushing against it. It's made from brass and two modified plastic pieces from a Grandt Line boiler stack. Solder and glue. Once I knew how it would stand above the deck, I soldered on a deck collar. Then blackened, oil paints and pigment powders. A hole was cut through the deck and the stack inserted. It still needs a support bracket off the doghouse and some butyl or tar at the deck. But deck wear patterns around it and deck weathering in general will be done after all other objects and details are in place. Meaning, not for a while. Thanks for stopping and take care. Gary

Fantastic work, Marc! I agree, and from a modeling perspective a little asymmetry just looks right. Your eye for detail and nuance is exceptional. Gary

Excellent progress, J.C. That bowsprit looks great and your light hand on the weathering is very realistic. Gary

Interesting updates, Wefalck. Hmm, a little adjustment time would be useful. Me too. Gary

Nice update, Brian. I like your louvered vents, and I agree the open position is more visually dynamic. Great little bollard jig. Gary

The water and steam piping turned out very nice, Keith. Tricky indeed and fiddly as well, especially in 1:120. I mostly use phosphor bronze wire now instead of brass because it’s harder and resists kinking and slumping. Tichy Train sells the stuff in 8” and 3’ lengths - .008” up to .04”. Just an FYI. Gary

Sweet work, Keith and creative solution with the BBs. Gary

Beautiful work, Glen - and now I know what parrel beads are. Gary

I know this model is going to be around 3’ LOA, but that photo above (2nd from the bottom) really drives home how big that actually is. Very cool! And it’s impressive that even your foundational structure work is clean and elegant. Nice progress, Paul. Gary

Looking really nice, Keith! I bet that girl frothed up some water getting some of those loads moving. Gary

Very nice progress, Jacques. Really like that toned down blue. I find weathering to be a process and I’m often not happy with an initial result. Try stepping away from it for a few hours, or better still overnight. Sometimes a fresh look will tell you what it needs. Gary

Very nice final photos, Eric - compliments to Mrs. Cathead. Congratulations on another beautiful river boat. I'm heading over to grab a seat for the model RR project. Gary

Lula is coming along great, Keith. I do love that beam engine! Gary

Fantastic work, Glen! Great soldering and well - everything else too. Clean, crisp and as Keith said, handsome. Gary

Greetings Fellow Modelers, Thank you Valeriy for your kind words, and thanks to all for the "likes." Here’s an update on the Pelican’s whaleback. First, the toerails along the P/S edges of the deck are cut to shape then heat bent. Next, the ventilator and its mounting/rotation flange got some color. I used a product on the cowl from AK Interactive that I’ve not tried before called True Metal. This paint was recommended to me by @TOM G and it works great although I haven’t yet mastered how to apply and polish it for best results. It’s a wax based colorant similar to Rub’n Buff, but whereas that product is more of an architectural hardware restorer, True Metal paint is produced for the model hobby and comes in a dozen or so colors that modelers can use. An interesting product that so far, I like – thanks Tom. The cowl below is a mixture of TM “steel” and “iron” applied with a colour shaper. Almost looks galvanized. A beveled coaming/plinth is added. The “wave break” is a diverter whose purpose is to keep water coming over the bow from flowing aft onto the main deck. It’s made from .03” (.76mm) sheet styrene which scales to about 1.4” (36mm) thickness. It’s dirtied up a bit and holes were drilled at each bolt-down location. The unit was temporarily located on the whaleback and selected bolt-down holes were drilled through into the deck. Leaving some of the bolt shanks provided a foolproof way to affix it without concern of getting glue smear on the deck surface. Bolts are Grandt Line 5113. The stemhead fitting is brass with a scale thickness of about .5” (13mm) and the eyes are flattened wire. One of the wires will be clipped flush on the backside and the other will penetrate the wood stem. A port side deck ladder is made of .035” (.9mm) brass rod and finished with Jax Flemish Gray. The ladder receives two styrene mounting brackets and weathering pigment. Two 40” (102cm) tie off cleats will be primed then painted with True Metal on top. I drilled into the bottoms and glued in stubs of brass wire for deck attachment. Then all of the above was glued to the model. Trim pieces were added here and there. All of it is basswood except for the half-round styrene on the right. A wider strip of half-round styrene was added as a rub rail just below the deck surface. This strip also secures the rubber membrane flap that folds over the deck edge. Thanks for stopping by for a look. Be safe and stay well. Gary

Very nice progress, Bruce - she’s looking great! Gary

All nicely squared and true, Paul! Excellent. Handy plastic right-angle squares. Gary

Those final photos of your model are wonderful, Valeriy! Your work is so inspirational and some of the finest modeling I've seen. Congratulations! Your customer will no doubt be ecstatic. I do hope you share it with us. Gary

Great looking new project, Ras. Lots of interesting details and structures to model. This will be interesting! Best of luck. Gary

Nice progress, Keith. Great little structure and fully framed to boot! Gary

Hey Keith, now that's an idea! Wonder if I can find a used one somewhere? Yes Druxey, AutoCAD has been known to have that effect on people. I use DesignCAD for my 2D drawing and have for decades, but for 3D modeling I prefer FreeCAD over it and a number of other alternatives. I think it's a very good solid modeler and a decent surface modeler. There are many good "free to use" programs, but with FreeCAD you download it once and its yours forever; no logging on to a website, registering or having to use it in the cloud. And no concerns that after investing the time to learn a program, the company granting you free access might change the rules and make you a subscriber or a previous user. FreeCAD certainly has its quirks and weaknesses, but so do the alternatives. And I'm not a power user - I just want to make a few parts for my models. Extensive online tutorials and help is available. I found YouTuber MangoJelly Solutions to be a great help. Be safe everyone and stay well. Hope to have a Pelican update this week. Gary

Good to see an update, Alexander. Beautiful work as always! Gary

Thanks to all for the comments and the "likes" Thanks Paul. It's actually an enjoyable process and the SLA technology does a great job of reproducing details and a smooth surface finish. Hey Jacques, that does sound like a good option and it's wonderful those resources are available to everyone. But I'm in a rather rural spot and a population center large enough to support something like that is some distance away. Thanks for bringing that up though as I'm sure it will be useful to other MSW members. Hello Druxey. Because this was my first serious go at it, it took a heck of a long time. I had so many "how comes", "why nots" and "what ifs" to understand and I deleted and started over many times. These are very simply objects and an accomplished 3D modeler could complete these before I even got started. But now that I have the false confidence of a beginner, it takes me a quarter of the time it did starting out. And of course, some designs are easier than others. In example, the simplest designs would be the gypsy heads which are cross-section sketches followed by a revolve - on a good day, 10 minutes. The winch cable guides, 45 mins. Winch drum and brake drum, 30 mins each providing I don't mess up. But by far the most difficult was the intake cowl as it entailed setting up user defined datum planes upon which cross-sections of the cowl are sketched and are then swept together in an additive pipe function. It sounds way more complicated than it is, and an experienced modeler would likely chuckle at my approach. Nevertheless, it took me hours to figure out, tripping and stumbling along the way and now that I almost know what I'm doing - an hour and a half - maybe. Once I got my head around 3D space and user defined coordinate systems within the global coordinate system, the steam stopped rising out of my ears. Thank you, Keith - your support is always appreciated. Thanks, John - they turned out better than I thought they would. Hello Wefalck. I am the one who is confused, not you. You are correct - this is SLA process using resin not PLA. Sometimes I type faster than I think. I will correct that in my post. Good catch and thanks! Gary

Paul, Keith, John and Dan, thank you for your kind and generous comments and to all for the "likes". 3D modeling seems to be popping up everywhere in scale model building so it’s time to give a try. I’ve always enjoyed the process of hand scratching detail parts, and I have no intention of giving that up. But I’m also aware of my limitations and previous projects have suffered from some ham-handed constructions and 3D modeling will help solve this problem. So, the Pelican will be a mix of printed and handmade details. I designed all the printed parts used in this model specifically for the Pelican. It is solid modeling done with FreeCAD. I created the files but didn’t do the actual printing myself. I don’t see myself using a 3D printer enough to justify owning one, but that could change as consumer units continue to improve and drop in price. Anyway, I uploaded all my STL files to a commercial printer (Print a Thing) and the parts were delivered in less than a week. The total cost for these printings was around $33 US including shipping, tax and setup fees. I ordered extra copies of each part thinking some might be deformed due to their tiny size and fragility, but this was unnecessary. These are likely all the parts I’ll be printing for this model unless I run into trouble scratching something. So here they are and just as I received them. No cleanup has been done to them. Stereolithography (SLA), opaque white resin. Below are the deck mounted winch cable guides. It would have been an effort to scratch one of these from styrene let alone four of them identically. I left off the bolt-down washers and hex heads because they wouldn’t have printed well in this scale. Instead, I’ll place injection molded bolt heads from either Grandt Line or Tichy Train. Here they are on an actual dragger (circled on the right). Above on the left is a different cable guide under one of the four gallows frames. There are three different warping/gypsy heads. I have about 14 cleats of several different sizes. The two largest shown here are monsters (40” (102cm)) that bolt to the deck on top of the whaleback. I didn’t realize cleats were made that large. This is another example where making two precisely the same would be a challenge – as least for me it would. The main winch cable drums, brake drums, pinion and bull gears. I only need one each of the gears, but I created different width versions because I haven’t thought through the details of the winch yet. The spooling drum diameter is very large in relation to its flanges, and I did this to reduce the amount of cable I’ll have to wind. And finally, the air intake cowls. The forward cowl has an integral mounting and rotation flange, but for the engine room intake I created the flange separately so I can adjust the height as need be. It’s the same cowl with a longer duct pipe. I added hex bolts to these flanges and with the naked eye they look alright, but under magnification look more like rivets. My initiation into 3D modeling design was a positive experience and only left a few minor scars. It is rewarding to create parts unique to a project that could have been a real pain to make or at least to make well. There is certainly a learning curve with 3D modeling and at times I was perplexed. But eventually all the loose marbles in my head found holes to drop into and the light bulb turned on. It’s easier than you might think. Now back to the boat model. Thanks for looking. Gary

Great progress, Craig. Looking extremely nice. Gary