leclaire

Good morning everyone,
 
Small little update, this week we had absolutely beautiful weather (with the exception of Friday) so most of my time was spent outdoors getting other projects done. I did manage a little time on my build though, and here is what I accomplished.
 
I managed to get the turnbuckles fabricated. Tedious project to say the least. Several breaks were needed due to my hands cramping up holding these tiny things, but I got them done. For these I used some 1/16" aluminum tubing and filed the sides flat. I cleaned up the slots with an exacto blade and used some 24 guage brass wire to make the 1mm eyebolts. They have since been painted and I'll let them dry before installing them and rigging the chimneys.


Next, I worked on more deck details and built up a firewood rack. Nothing fancy, just found some twigs around the property and cut them to length and made up the wood rack with spare wood laying around. A little weathering with the torch and some golden oak stain and here is the result.




 
Lastly, I ordered some miniature deck furniture from Shapeways. The detail on these 3D printed parts is fantastic, a little pricey, but worth it for the detail. I purchased some fire buckets and deck chairs and got them painted up. I build up the fire bucket rack for the hurricane deck, added a firewater barrel and placed a couple of other buckets around the boilers. The chairs are a little brittle, so I will be placing them around the decks when I get closer to finishing so I don't break any.





 
That's about all I have this time. I should have more next time since the forecast is calling for rain all week. Now that the turnbuckles are complete and dry, I'll work on getting the rigging for the chimneys done and who knows what else.
 
Thank you for looking and all the likes.
 
-Brian
 

I suspect tie-downs matched the "whatever the builder/operator wanted" theme. I've also seen evidence of metal rods (like hog chains) and metal straps. Yours look great!

Roger,
 
Thank you for the helpful tip. I found a couple of yawl boat ideas that I may incorporate into my build.
 
 
Eric, 
 
You hit the nail square on the head with this one, "it's all the little details that make this so much fun to learn about". I have to say that of all the builds that I have done, this one has been by far the most fun. I have learned so much more about steam boats than I would have dreamed, and still have only scratched the surface.
 
As for the pilot house info, I kind of figured that was why they tied them down. Going back to one of Kurt's comments he made a while back in this log, and as you referenced here, these boats were built on a shoestring budget so they did what they had to do to keep the boats together as best as possible.
 
So to expand on this a little further, or maybe just pick y'alls brain a little more, were the tie downs made from rope or from steel bars with turnbuckles (like the hog chains), or something different? Going by the instructions, the pilot house tie downs are simple cables tied to eye-bolts in the Texas Deck roof. On Dr. Jens Mittelbach 3D rendering of Chaperon, he shows what look to be iron bars with turnbuckles connect to the eye-bolts. I tried zooming in on several of the old pictures and it's hard to tell what was used on Chaperon. 
 
I went ahead and used my own interpretation of these tie downs and made a hybrid of cable and turnbuckles.
 


 
Once I completed the pilot house, I finished the Texas deck railing and posts.
 

The last thing completed this week was the chimneys. The decorative separator was a little bit of a challenge to get just right, but for the most part I think it turned out pretty well. I used a couple of small deadeyes for the end pieces and scratch built the center spreader wheel. The decorative tops of the chimneys were cut from a thin sheet of copper and bent to shape. After assembly and a coat of paint, I think the whole thing looks pretty good.
 




 
 

 
Now to finish the anchor points for the chimneys and mast and hopefully start on getting her rigged up as soon as get all of the turnbuckles made up.
 
Thank you all for the great information and the likes.
 
-Brian

Good question about pilot house tiedowns. These boats were often flimsiliy built and quite susceptible to high winds. This would be especially true for boats heading into the western Plains (e.g., up the Missouri), but severe storms could be encountered anywhere in the Mississippi drainage and the pilothouse is a high and vulnerable structure, often being 40-50 feet above water level where winds are quite a bit stronger (for example, a quick search for wind turbine design specs suggests that winds at 30' can be 1.5 times those at ground level and continue to rise with height). Also, even larger river valleys can funnel winds; the lower Missouri River valley is routinely far windier than the surrounding landscape despite being over a mile wide between bluffs several hundred feet high. Whereas further upriver, as the timber grew smaller and scarcer, the pilothouse could be the tallest thing for miles except the chimneys. I suppose the use or not depending on the quality of construction, owner's preference, and so on.
 
From my reading, numerous boats were damaged or destroyed by storms. Think of the pilothouse like a little garden shed easily tipped over by strong winds. The Arabia's pilothouse is 35-45 feet above water level, roughly equivalent to the third or fourth storey of a building, and I suspect Chaperon is similar. So put that little garden shed on the roof of a 3-4 storey building and consider how much wind load it's recieving. Obviously it's structurally tied into the lower superstructure, but if you were up there in a cheap, lightweight pine box during a windy day (much less a real storm), how secure would you feel?
 
As you noted, it's not the vessel's speed that's important (as this was usually fairly low), it's the atmosphere around it. Again, good question, it's all the little details that make this so much fun to learn about. And all of the above is just my amateur opinion.
 
 

Thanks Bob and Kurt for the link and the suggestions. Once again, MSW shows its value.

Absolutely fantastic job on your gun carriage detail. How on earth did you make the nuts that go on the bolts? As well as all the other hardware? I'm hoping you found a place to purchase this stuff. My skills are not quite up to making something this small.
 
P.S. my Philadelphia is still on the shelf but I'm planning ahead.
Bob

Quite a score. I have a hardbound reprint of excerpts from the publication and it's relatively old, too. Lots of interesting items in there, although the techniques and level of research is somewhat dated compared to what we see today. They certainly are of historical value. Donating them to a maritime museum library might bring as much in tax deductions than selling them outright, if such a thing as tax-deducible charitable contributions exist in Australia.

Thanks, Bob!
My first experiences as a kid were with model railroading. You know how the model RR guys love to depict everything weathered and beat up. I guess it stuck... 
   Well I finally completed the hull... yay! I did a few more passes with the pigments, pencils and erasers and then applied about five thin coats of Krylon matte clear. I made some 12 pound cannonballs from a string of 4mm beads from Goodwill (great place to find cool stuff) by unstringing them then filling one hole with Testors putty. A coat of primer, some touchup and then a coat of Metalizer burnt iron. I also have some 3mm beads to use for the 9 pounders. I'm waiting on some Syren blocks and then I'll rig and permanently mount the gun carriages.

 
   I'm really undecided about the mortar. I finally made a carriage I'm satisfied with and would really like to include it. The stern seems so empty... I'd have to make some mods to the awning battens and other stuff but it's doable. I'm getting close to having to make a final decision before I go much further... any yeas or nays?
BTW, Slim"s not DOA (although technically he IS dead...) and he'll be back!
   Here's some progress shots outside in sunny St. Pete FL:






 

Hi all,
   I got a lot of detail stuff done, not real obvious but necessary. I decided to tone down the nailing with an eraser and generally even out the overall "patina". I rebuilt the 12 pounder cannonball racks, adding storage underneath for bar shot, chain shot and other stuff. I finished the storage cabinets in the stern, using doll house hinges (not functional). Added a bunch more bolts and nuts, and installed all the inside hardware. Next is to mount and rig the cannons, then start on the mast and other deck stuff. 
 

Hello all,
 
More work done this week on my Chaperon. I completed the installation of the pilot house and its stairway along with a "battery" crate that will hide the 9v battery for the lights.
 
I have to admit, I am a little bit ashamed of myself for not planning this one out a little better. My thinking when I first started this build was to use an external power source for the lighting much like I did for my KotM build. But as things progressed I decided that I would just go with battery power instead. I would run all of my wires up to the Texas deck and terminate them there. I was going to make the pilot house removable so the battery could be changed out when needed. This was the plan all the way up until this week when I realized the when I was installing the magnets to hold the pilot house in place that there is a whole slew of rigging and tie downs that are attached to the structure, and there was no way that I was going to remove all of that to swap out batteries.
 
Here is the pilot house magnets going in.


 
Magnets in place and the Texas deck roof being glued down.

It was at this point that I realized this wasn't going to work. So I came up with an alternative solution. I wanted to add a touch of life to the model by adding supplies to the decks, much like the crates I built for the main deck earlier in the build, so I figured that a nice big crate and some hay bales would work to conceal the battery . Here is what I came up with.
The crate I made from spare planking strips and leftover plywood.

 
I snaked the wiring down from the Texas deck to come out the side of the Main deck wall. Added a little aging to the crate with a small torch and some golden oak stain.

 
Placed a connector on the wires and attached some small magnets to the crate to hold it in place, but still be removable.

 
Threw on a few miniature hay bales and here is what I ended up with. Once I get to installing the bull rails, I will make a couple of them as panels to they can also be removed to get to the battery crate.

 
Next I worked on the pilot house stairs and got them installed.




 
Stairs and walkway in place. I just need to finish tying together the railings and I'll be done with this portion. 

 
And here is how she sits right now.  My next step is to clean up my work bench. I didn't realize it until I posted this picture how messy it was. Sure didn't take it long to get this way.

 
Now to work on the pilot house tie downs and the chimneys (after I tidy things up a bit).
 
As always, thank you for the likes and for looking.
 
-Brian
 

Finished the hurricane deck!
 
Full masking-tape tarpaper prior to painting:


 
After a coat of thinned black paint as a base layer
 


After rubbing on dark pastel powder to soften the texture:
 



I added some moulding along the skylights to hide the joints, and will likely to the same around the wheelboxes.
 
In  separate project, we rearranged our living room, allowing the model desk to rotate 90°. It used to face the wall with my back to the room, which I never liked. Now it faces into the rest of the room with a nice view out the window, which is much more pleasant. So this is where the magic happens...
 

I'm starting to think about railings for the boiler deck. Handmaking all those railings won't be fun and I want to come up with a way that won't drive me crazy but still look ok.
 
Thanks for reading
 
 

Thanks, BobG! Testor's metalizer paints are awesome...
I got the gunwales installed and started work on deck paraphernalia. I had a real problem with the 12 pounder cannonball racks though. They are VERY delicate so of course I ended up breaking both of them...😬 After some fiddly repair they are installed but I'm still not really happy with them. Even though they are prototype, they just don't look substantial enough to hold all those cannonballs. I may end up scratchbuilding some improved ones.
 
Progress shots:
 



 

Check the link below - the Scale Hardware section has what you might need.  Excellent quality - have purchased many different sizes of nuts/screws, washers from them.
https://www.modelmotorcars.com/scalehardware/

Thanks, leclaire! Most of the hardware on the carriages came from the three Goodwill cannons. The rest came from Hobbylinc, ebay and Amazon. As kurtvd19 suggested, that hardware is superb. Another manufacturer called Tichy-Train has a whole assortment of styrene nuts and bolts in different styles and sizes I use that are really nice. Grandt line, Meng, Scale-Master and a lot of other manufacturers make hardware that works great also. Hinges, brackets, grommets and lots of other stuff is available for dollhouse scale (1:12) that can also be used. For this scale (1:24) model car detail parts are a good source. I'm also using some 1:35 and 1:60 stuff depending on what fits and looks right. I have a huge stash of photoetch, brass, styrene, cast metal and wood detail parts that I dig through when I need something, so I guess I'm lucky.
   I am seriously debating using the mortar. Since I decided in the beginning of this build that it wouldn't be true to the original I have a lot more leeway in what I can do. This build is ending up being a "typical" gunboat (or gundalow) that could have been used by many nations during this approximate time period, based on the Model Shipways Philadelphia. The mortar was part of the original plan, anyway...
   Now that the decks are done, the fun begins! Slim is stoked... I've given him a grog ration...
 
   
 


Here's the mortar with the scratchbuilt carriage. It would be fixed on the centerline (no swivel) with variable elevation only. I'll add a lot of nuts, tackle, chains etc. to detail it out. 

Thanx guys. One of the great aspects of the lights is they are battery powered...Moab

Are these lights battery powered or plug in?

Hello again everyone,
 
I am taking full advantage of being back to work on my build. My two month break gave me great motivation to get things done.
 
This week I was able to complete the hurricane deck railing, the smaller smokestacks and the searchlight platforms.
 
The railing went on pretty smooth, only a couple of adjustments needed to be made. Mainly in the back where the paddle wheel timbers come down and on the front radii. I also added the handrail to the tops of the railing to give it a more finished look. I know the original Chaperon had the hand rails in place, but along with everything, they were painted white. I decided to stain and varnish mine, just to give it a little more contrast.
 
I had a little issue getting the PE railing to take the bend on the front. I am not sure if I didn't get the curvature of the deck right or what, but the thin area between the posts wanted to bulge out when forming the curve. I finally managed to work everything into place by slightly "massaging" the brass causing it to stretch at the top. 



 
For the back railing the area behind the paddle wheel timbers was too tight to install the PE so I had to cut it into sections. I stopped the railing on both sides of the timbers and moved the back railing slightly aft to line up with the posts. With the handrail in place, this is hardly noticeable.

 
Next I started work on the smaller smokestacks and chimneys.
 
I wanted to add a little more detail to these, other than just the conical cap that the instructions call for. I made the caps from some thin copper sheeting and added the standoffs made from spare brass flat bar I had and held in place with a dot of CA and some heat shrink tubing.
 




 
I also added a decorative top to the two chimneys that, according to the instructions, were to just be left uncapped. This was not the case on the actual boat, and old photos show that she had some sort of decorative top on her, although I could not find a clear enough picture of what they actually looked like. I just used a little imaginations and created my own. For these I also used the thin copper sheeting.


 
 
Lastly, I built the searchlight platforms and installed the. I could not find any pictures of what these actually looked like, so I used the style that Dr. Jens Mittelbach used on his 3D rendering of the Chaperon. 


 
Well, that is it for now. More to come.
 
Thank you all for looking as well as the likes and encouragement.
 
-Brian
 

Yeah, I see your point about the direction of any over lapping if you want to do final trimming at the outer edges of the deck. Hadn't considered that. Thanks.

Eric - one thing I forgot to ask is in the pictures of your test roof, it appears you laid the tape down with no over lapping (both along the sides of each strip and the joints) unlike the method shown in Kurt's tutorial. Could that have had something to do with the curling issue you mentioned? Or is it just not apparent in the pictures. 

Oh, not to worry, I learned the hard way a long time ago to always test first before doing anything on the model. I have never used pastels in any fashion before so this will be a new experience. Who knows, with my painting skills I may just mess the thing up using only the paint to get that hard-used work boat effect. I will let you know how it turns out.
 
Bob

Thanks for the tip Eric. I am getting close to "tar papering" my Chaperon and your results have convinced me to give this a try. I was getting a little anxious about using Kurt's silkspan method. Don't ask me why, it just looked to be something I could mess up big time.
 
Glad to see you back at the Arabia.
 
Bob

Eric,
 
Glad to see you back. Interesting method on the tarpaper roofing, I had gone with Kurt's method of silkspan and matte paint on my Chaperon, but I may play round with your pastel method as a comparison for future builds.
 
I definitely agree with testing off the model first though. It saves time and a lot of headaches. My only issue with prior testing is sometimes I get it right the first time (the test piece) and second time around (the actual model) fails to come out the way I wanted it to. On my Chaperon, my test pieces came out almost perfectly (not to toot my own horn), but after testing and applying to my build it didn't come out the same. I had issues with the sides curling up and too much overlap of the "tar seam" (where my glue mixture simulated the tar oozing out between the layers of tarpaper.
 
But as they always say, third times a charm and practice makes perfect. So I sanded it all down and tried again. Worked better that time.
 
-Brian

Yeah, I see your point about the direction of any over lapping if you want to do final trimming at the outer edges of the deck. Hadn't considered that. Thanks.

Eric - one thing I forgot to ask is in the pictures of your test roof, it appears you laid the tape down with no over lapping (both along the sides of each strip and the joints) unlike the method shown in Kurt's tutorial. Could that have had something to do with the curling issue you mentioned? Or is it just not apparent in the pictures. 

Oh, not to worry, I learned the hard way a long time ago to always test first before doing anything on the model. I have never used pastels in any fashion before so this will be a new experience. Who knows, with my painting skills I may just mess the thing up using only the paint to get that hard-used work boat effect. I will let you know how it turns out.
 
Bob