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drobinson02199

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Everything posted by drobinson02199

  1. drobinson02199
    I have now finished the circular stairways, and I learned a lot. I did the first one on the left all the way through, to see what I'd learn before tackling the second, and I learned a lot. The manual says to space the stairs 2mm apart -- and aside from the ambiguity of that instruction, it leads to treads that are too short. See the top tread on the left. So I started just eyeballing the tread spacing, leaving as little as possible while still providing support. The right hand straight portion is about 3mm longer than the left one, and looks better. I didn't soak the left hand curved railing long enough, and it broke and I lost the short piece down the drain. So I had to make railings for that as you can see on the left, second picture. They won't show much as they are on the inside. On the second one, I soaked it, then ran under hot water while bending, and then put the bent piece inside a toilet paper tube overnight. I didn't soak and bend the curved railing before painting on the first one (left), and you can see the break where it slants down. On the right, I soaked and bent before painting and it has a nice continuity where it bends down. I was initially disappointed that the curved railing was plywood vs. something nicer, but I used a paint color called nutmeg brown, and when it's varnished it actually has a real wood look, so that came out OK. Need to be careful to watch the orientation of the spirals on both stairs and railings. They go in different directions, and I almost muffed that. I'll send another picture later when these fully dry and I've mounted them on the boat. Regards, David
  2. drobinson02199
    Chris: It's Krylon Fusion spray -- Satin Burgundy. I originally got it to paint the large plastic hull of the Mt. Washington, and this was the only non-gloss red that Fusion had (wanted Fusion for plastic bonding). But I really liked the color -- a maroon red and more subtle than regular red. It adheres to anything -- these wheels are metal. Regards, David
  3. drobinson02199
    Paddle wheel now done and mounted on the boat. Regards, David
  4. drobinson02199
    So I took Chris's (Vossy) suggestion and added a skirting board or base molding around the stateroom structure, using some walnut I had left over from previous kits. Looks really nice now. Thanks, Chris! Regards, David
  5. drobinson02199
    Scott: Yes -- now that I've mounted it I can see that most of the herringbone I worked so hard on will be hidden. I think the next deck is also herringbone, and more of that will show. Reminds me of the Revenge. There are multiple decks inside the hull that I planked -- never to see the light of day. Regards, David
  6. drobinson02199
    Stateroom level done now. What you see isn't glued down yet, but even when it is, there will be more gaps where the sides meet the deck than I'd like. Fortunately, all of that will be pretty much hidden by the railing.. The instructions say to mount the compartment and then install doors and windows, but I did the doors and windows before mounting, and I think it would be lots more trouble to do it the other way. The grating shown isn't varnished yet (I'll do it when I break out the varnish again), but I didn't paint it. I have that same grating in another AL boat (Sanson Tug) and it varnishes to a nice brown. Regards, David
  7. drobinson02199
    Chris: For the deck planking, I'm just using the kit basswood, finished with at least two coats of clear satin poly. When I get inspired, I sometimes do a third coat. I think the wood that's going to make this model look really good is the Sapelli, which is liberally used on the model. It varnishes to a deep reddish brown that is very rich looking. Regards, David
  8. drobinson02199
    Second deck completed, mounted, and first coat of varnish just applied. Regards, David
  9. drobinson02199
    Chris: No problem at all. Your deck looks gorgeous. What wood is it? Regards, David
  10. drobinson02199
    The first level structures are complete and mounted on the deck. A few construction comments: I noted above my use of wire mesh vs. acetate on the doors. Antony UK -- thanks for the wire straightening tip. Worked great and the other 3 doors look much better. Re the horizontal windows you see in the detail picture: I aligned the two long pieces and drilled them together before mounting them. That gave me aligned vertical holes for the pins. The doorknobs on the small doors are actually leftover bollards from the Revenge that I cut off. The instructions seemed to call for the same thing as is on the hinged doors, and I thought that would look off on these, so I improvised. Re the hinged doors: the instructions actually call for creating working hinges by folding over the hinge you see and using two, with a pin. I tried it and couldn't get it right, so since I don't care about working doors I just used 1/2 hinge as you see, and it looks fine to me. The rear structure for the paddlewheels isn't varnished yet, and I want to put nails in for looks. I've started on the second deck with the herringbone pattern. Mindful of S. Coleman's comments on his experience, I took a lot of measurements and pulled some old trig out of dusty memory. Have laid a few planks, and so far so good. Fingers crossed. Regards, David
  11. drobinson02199
    Antony: Thanks for the tip on straightening. I thought about painting the bars black, but even though it's not probably historically accurate (or even good modeling technique), I like the look of a bit of brass on these models. In the pictures in the manual, the hinges on the double doors in the boiler room are left unpainted brass -- so I figured I can leave these brass as well. Regards, David
  12. drobinson02199
    For the engine room doors, the kit calls for acetate windows, scored then painted and wiped off (so I assume the black paint stays in the scored lines but wipes off the rest). Acetate for model windows and I have never gotten along well. I seem to get it scratched or smudged or dirty, and then over time it collects dust. So instead, I used some leftover wire from an earlier model to make barred windows. Back and front shown below. It turned out as I had hoped, and I like the look. I know that the wires aren't perfectly straight (hard to get that from an old coil), but from a normal viewing distance I think it will be OK. Regards, David
  13. drobinson02199
    Antony: I hadn't thought of the height vs. draft -- in the Navy they taught us the "center of buoyancy" vs. "center of mass". Get the center of mass above the center of buoyancy and she flips over. Looking at this hull and the superstructure, they must have just had tons of lead ballast in that hull to keep the center of mass low. Makes sense -- shallow draft for the river. Regards, David
  14. drobinson02199
    This kit requires some self-defense. When I started building the deck structures , I noticed that the forward one didn't fit the tab slots in the main deck. So before I finished gluing it, I looked at the alignment of the deck structure tabs to the second deck. It turns out that the first and second deck tab slots are out of line. You can see it in the pic below. What I'll need to do is sand that tab down so the forward structure can lie flush, with the rear lower tab engaged. When the rear structure is mounted and the forward one lies as you see it, the second deck fits perfectly (see picture). I'm not sure how AL got this wrong. While I'm on the subject of the kit, I've had to carefully inventory all of my wood, because AL doesn't provide much if any spare wood, and I needed to make sure I had enough. I'm short of one of the wood types, but I have spares from other kits I have finished so I think I'm OK. But the wood quality and quantities in this kit are nowhere near what I had in the Amati Revenge. On the other hand, the kit didn't cost much. So a heads up on this to others who may build this, and I will continue to look ahead to ensure fit as I build this. Regards, David
  15. drobinson02199
    I have now completed the hull planking. Pictures after the first coat of varnish are below. I think I'm going to like this boat and like building it, but I have to say that I'm not completely happy with how the walnut hull turned out. The wood Artesania Latina provides for this is flimsy, and chips easily. More comments on the kit itself in the next post.
  16. drobinson02199
    Chris: Thanks for this. I have a real weakness for the look of a natural varnish on the hull. If you look at my Revenge, just completed, you'll see that I didn't paint the bottom half of the hull white (as specified) because I love the natural look. I'm reminded of a post I read a while back that said "It's a model ship, not a piano", but I'm still a sucker for that look. Thanks, David
  17. drobinson02199
    Chris: The deck pattern was like that in the instructions. They called for 10 cm strips staggered. I staggered them, but instead of a 5 cm offset I ended up with 4 and 6, which I continued. I say "ended up" because it started with a measurement error, and so I just continued it. Looks OK to my eye -- but I tend to forgive myself a lot when I mess up. At least one of the upper decks calls for a herringbone pattern. I've started the hull planking, and it's actually kind of tricky. Unlike sailing ship hulls which have a continuous vertical curve, the sides and bottom form a right angle, and the trick is to get that transition without leaving any space or a rough looking corner. I've done one side and the approach I used was to plank the side first with an overhang past the bottom, then lay in bottom strips against the overhang and sand down the overhang. Looks good -- pics will follow when I finish and get the first coat of varnish on. Regards, David
  18. drobinson02199
    I have finished planking the main deck and have mounted it to the hull. Will wait on penciling in nailheads until I finish hull planking and varnish all of this first assembly. It will be interesting to see how the hull planking works. I have rounded the corners where the bottom meets the side bulkhead, and maybe with some steam I can curl the planks around that to create a smooth transition. That's what the pictures in the manual look like (sort of -- it's hard to tell). Regards, David
  19. drobinson02199
    Chris: The main deck, which is the largest outside dimension of the boat, is 25" long by 5" wide. The hull is a bit shorter and narrower. There is, however, a boom that hangs off the bow, and I don't have a fix on how much total length that would add. The box says almost 26" wide by a bit over 5" wide by almost 12" high. Regards, David
  20. drobinson02199
    Here's the finished hull with side bulkheads. I fitted the deck (not shown) before attaching the bulkheads, as it's easier at that point to sand down the frames and make sure the tabs fit properly, and the deck seats properly. It also helps with positioning the slanted piece in the stern. Regards, David
  21. drobinson02199
    Also, the labeling of frames 4 and 5 is reversed on the laser cut key sheet. This becomes obvious if you are assembling the bottom board at the same time as the false keel and frames. Regards, David
  22. drobinson02199
    Well, day 1 of the build and I've already made my first doofus move. I wasn't being careful and had the plywood sheet flipped over relative to the key sheet, and took the wrong frames out and glued them to the fore part of the false keel -- using CA glue. Fortunately, discovered the mistake about 30 minutes in and was just barely able to knock the frames off -- but not before the last "knock" broke the false keel into two pieces as shown in the first pic. The fix was to assemble the two halves of the false keel, the frames, and the bottom board simultaneously -- so that the bottom board aligned the two halves and also created structural strength. All fine again. On reflection, assembling frames, false keel and bottom board at the same time is the way to go, so that the frames can be properly aligned (and necessary tab sanding done as you go), but with other ships I've built it was false keel and frames first, so that was the reflex. Need to slow down and look ahead. Regards, David
  23. drobinson02199
    Here's what comes in the box (see pics): Printed instructions with color photos One large plans sheet plus key to laser cut sheets Parts as shown I'll post progress as I go. Regards, David
  24. drobinson02199
    The Revenge is complete! Pictures below. For anyone thinking about this kit, a strong endorsement from me. Really terrific materials and instructions -- and really interesting to build. Now a bit of a breather and then the King of the Mississippi by Artesania Latina. Regards, David
  25. drobinson02199
    The lateen yard lifts are the "fan shaped" type (does anyone know if there is a nautical term for this? I couldn't find one). That fan shaped rigging requires tension to look nice, and in the rigging diagrams there were a lot of rigging elements pulling the yards in the same direction as the lifts do, but nothing I could find (including on the 3D pictures) that provided an offsetting tension. In the absence of that offset, the fans would all sag and it would be very difficult to keep the lateen yards parallel. So I have added the three stays you see in the picture marked with yellow arrows, and that worked well and I could tension and adjust the fans. The other modification I made was to use 6-spoke fans vs. the 5-spoke ones called for on the plans. From the prior fan rigging, which also called for 5, what I found is that the glue needed to hold a single thread in the lowest spreader hole stiffens that thread just enough to make it really hard to get the fan spokes to tension evenly and look nice. So I just went to 6-spoke fans, which keeps glue off the spreader and off the spokes, and provides a better look to the fans. Regards, David

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