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drobinson02199

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Everything posted by drobinson02199

  1. drobinson02199
    Chris: The idea of building them up at the base was one I considered before I installed them. Having built and installed them, I'd be reluctant to try to pry them out at this point for fear of really messing them up. The joins between the treads are fairly fragile. I think I'll just live with them as is. I just looked at them again, and one thing I might do at the end is dress the bottom of the curved railings up to the bottom of the second deck with a piece of Sapelli, so that there is at least a smooth transition. I'll need to do something similar at the railings. The solution to this is to build it differently, carving out an extra straight tread and adding it to provide height as I noted above. Regards, David
  2. drobinson02199
    Finished the third deck and mounted it on the boat. I oriented the herringbone so that it runs in the opposite direction on the outside bands from the deck below. Thought that would be more interesting. On the side view, you can also see the drive rods on the paddlewheel. Regards, David
  3. drobinson02199
    Chris: Some more thinking about solutions to the circular stairs. I took some measurements, and the treads are 3mm high. There are 13 of them, so that's 39mm, and the distance from the lower deck to the bottom of the second deck is 42mm -- just one tread higher. My staircase came out at 39mm on the nose, so my thought above about "drooping" may not hold. It would take a lot of precision to impart a slight uptilt of 1/4 mm on each tread, which is what it would take to add that extra 3mm over 13 treads. Another possible solution would be to cut a couple of extra straight treads out of the laser cut board they came in. I had to cut both of my straight short railing sections down, so I think they would take the extra length. I also had to cut one section off the curved railing -- so maybe it would take the extra tread as well. Thanks, David
  4. drobinson02199
    Chris: I had another idea about how to get the curved stairs to come up to the second deck. When you assemble the stairs, you glue one tread above the other, and when it's done right in terms of length, there is very little common surface area between the two treads. It occurs to me that this might cause a very slight "droop" in the angle of the treads relative to each other, and therefore shorten the rise. The fix (and it would be very doable with this kit as is) is to sight each tread assembly while gluing and make sure that the treads are at least precisely level relative to each other, and perhaps slightly (very slightly) canted up. I can't tell now with the stairs mounted if mine had any "droop", but I suspect so -- but it would be so minor that you wouldn't see it unless you are looking for it. Over the 13 treads, that could result in the one tread height drop that I got. Regards, David
  5. drobinson02199
    Chris: I fretted over that when I dry-fitted the staircases. They are just one step height short of ending flush under the second deck. I considered elevating them with a sort of platform on deck 1, but then looking at the finished model, it seemed to me that the part where the staircases meet the first deck will be more visible than the part where they meet the second deck. I may be wrong about that -- but I opted to have that first deck join look normal. The angle is OK -- on one of mine, the way the stair rail twisted around left it angled in just a bit. I think if they were elevated to come up to the second deck, the angle might look OK. I'm glad (sort of) to hear that it's not just me. It would initially seem that it would be an easy fix for AL to just add one more straight step -- but . . . those are in one of the laser cut panels, and the railings would have to be lengthened, and they are laser cut as well. So not an easy fix for AL. The plans and the instruction booklet pictures show the stairs coming up so that the top step fits flush under the second deck, effectively making the second deck the last step going up. The rails line up with the second deck railing. That won't happen on mine. What might cause it is the bowing of the second deck when attached to the engine and boiler rooms. I assumed that was what was intended and so glued it down with a fore-to-aft slight curve. That could cause the bow section of deck #2 to lift up just enough to cause the issue. That is probably not intended, but it's likely what caused me to have to add the skirting board you suggested. The next modeler to tackle this kit could instead glue on deck #2 without pushing the center down, and then dress the gaps in the join with the engine and boiler rooms with a molding. Or, sand down the fore and aft sections of the first deck structures to remove the bowing of the second deck. Either of those would seem to be the fix for this as I think about it. But you'd need to know that in advance, as the picture on the box suggests a slight curve. Regards, David
  6. drobinson02199
    First deck posts and railings done. AL uses a lot of Sapelli in this kit, and I really like the reddish cast -- makes the natural wood combination look much better. Also take a look at the small second deck enclosure around the circular stairs. Took some work to get the sideways bend in the Sapelli strip. Best regards, David
  7. drobinson02199
    And the curved stairs now mounted on the boat.
  8. 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
  9. 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
  10. drobinson02199
    Paddle wheel now done and mounted on the boat. Regards, David
  11. 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
  12. 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
  13. 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
  14. 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
  15. drobinson02199
    Second deck completed, mounted, and first coat of varnish just applied. Regards, David
  16. drobinson02199
    Chris: No problem at all. Your deck looks gorgeous. What wood is it? Regards, David
  17. 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
  18. 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
  19. 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
  20. 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
  21. 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
  22. 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.
  23. 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
  24. 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
  25. 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

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