leclaire

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

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.

Bob, good eye and good question. Just a personal preference. I think I used a very small overlap when I did the roofing of the Texas and pilothouse, but here decided to lay it flat. Kurt's way is probably more realistic given that there would need to be sealed seams. However, the longitudinal seams would need to be carefully placed so that they shed water downslope (like shingles on a roof). On my hurricane deck, I really wanted to work from the inside out to ensure a good fit (easier to trim at the outer edges of the deck than in a central strip), which meant that overlapping seams would be facing the wrong way. I don't think the effect will be very noticeable either way, though I supposed at the Chaperon's large scale (1:48 instead of my 1:64) it would be that much more noticeable.
Again, wouldn't hurt to test both ways on scrap and see which you like better.

Bob, I'd definitely recommend testing the method off-model first, to figure out the quirks. One thing to consider is that too much paint can loosen the glue, especially at the corners and edges, making annoying curls. That's one reason I like to finish with pastels, so I'm not tempted to overpaint. Of course, a few imperfections just help with the hard-used working boat effect. I bet the real tarpaper got scuffed and torn. I hope it works for you and will be interested to hear about your experience.

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

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

The last three weeks have been very stressful and time-consuming for a bunch of reasons I don't need to go into here. This morning was the first time I've felt focused and sane enough to return to the model. The next step involves laying out the tarpaper covering of the hurricane deck. Kurt's digital book on building the Chaperon has some very good advice for simulating this material (see p. 55 and onward), but I adapted this to use a method I like that worked well on my Bertrand. While Kurt used silkspan and matte medium (two things I don't otherwise have on hand), I used masking tape and wood glue (which I have in abundance).
 
I had to determine a proper scale width for the tarpaper, which would have been applied from rolls. Kurt suggests 3 feet. My roll of masking tape meaures a scale 5 feet wide, so cutting this in half produces a reasonable 2.5 foot strip. I used the grid on my cutting mat as a guide for this. First, I laid a strip of tape on the mat, aligned with its grid, then carefully sliced it in half lengthwise using a knife and metal straightedge:
 

I then made a test roof using scrap wood and multiple tape strips, then painted it with diluted black and rubbed dark grey pastel over it. The result looked as I wanted. It's hard to see in photos, but the tape has a really nice rough texture that I think looks really good in person.
 


So I started on the model, working from the stern. I used a brush of roughly the same width as the tape strips to lay glue, then pressed each strip into place. I used pencil to make guiding marks as needed. I cut the strips to create a staggered pattern, just like planking.
 

Here's how far I've gotten. As with planking, the staggering means that you have to work forward over the whole model, so that's what I'm doing. I'll let this batch dry before doing more.
 
Thanks for reading.

Excellent recovery, Eric.  Show me someone who's never screwed up and it's probably the same person who's never tried.  

Nicely put! It's impressive how much a few supportive comments can change one's perspective.

So I made another big mistake. Afterward, I realized that it's become a pattern lately, I think because life has gotten really stressful and I was using modelling as an outlet but this also meant I wasn't focused on what I was doing.
 
So I started laying out the forward part of the hurricane deck. Below, the starboard side is being glued down. Notice any problem?
 

That's right, I forgot to measure and cut the hole for the chimney or even install the chimney. I also didn't fully color the underside with pastel, used too much glue (causing an ugly color smear underneath) and didn't hold the part over the heads (by the wheel) down long enough, so the glue expanded and peeled it back up. I was so upset when I discovered all this, but it's what happens when I'm not focused. I had to step away for a week and not look at the model.
 
Gradually I was able to think through ways to deal with this. I carefully measured, drilled, cut, and sanded the chimney hole, which was nerve-wracking as the strucure is delicate and any breakage would be very difficult to repair. I sliced out and fixed the glue-warped part. I can't do anything about the color smear underneath, but at least it's hard to see from most angles. Here's the fixed deck, with clamps still holding down the repaired back part.
 

Here I'm attaching more of the deck:
 

Here's how I meant to do the starboard side, until I sat down for stress relief and got ahead of myself. Here, I've pre-measured and cut the hole so that the deck piece can just drop down on top of the already installed chimney, and made sure to fully color the underside.

So now the whole hurricane deck is installed. Here are two views of the current status.
 


It will be another few weeks before any updates as we'll be taking several short trips to Arkansas to help my in-laws with various things. I hope when that's over I can focus again and keep going. Next, I'll be applying the "tar paper" covering of this deck and painting it all black. Then it's railing time.

Good Evening Auger;
 
They would certainly have been notched out, as the iron bands were proud of the mast's surface. I know that I have seen this described somewhere, but I cannot remember where. Failure to do this would have allowed the battens to distort and crack under the localised pressure from the shrouds and other objects looped over the mast head.
 
The lower part of the mast had its core bound together with iron bands, and the fishes and paunches applied over the bands were notched out to sit flush on the core.
 
Incidentally, I see that you are using James Lees's book. Do not rely on his statement that iron bands are seldom seen on models before 1800 as a guide to full-size practice. After the American colonies became independent, the supply of New England masts dried up, and the Navy could not obtain trees of the same size elsewhere. The trees they formerly purchased from the colonies were large enough to supply most masts as a single tree. After the loss of this supply, they came to rely much more upon 'made' masts, comprising smaller pieces all carefully interlocked. These needed iron bands to hold the component parts together. 
 
From the late 1770s onward, there are a large number of drawings of masts made at various dockyards, all of 'made' masts, listing the sizes of the component timbers and their costs. These all show iron bands around the core, and each seems to be the relevant Master Shipwright's suggestion for overcoming the shortage of large trees (this is my assumption, and is not stated as such on any of the drawings) 
 
For any vessel built or re-masted from 1780 onwards, I would use metal hoops on the mast. 
 
All the best,
 
Mark P

A bit more progress framing the hurricane deck:
 


I also added the railings protecting the main staircase.
 
If you look closely you can see another goof. I ran two of the longitudinal beams too close to where the chimneys had to be (they aren't installed permanently yet) and had to file a slot on the outboard sides of the chimneys to let them sit where they needed to be. It's going to be essentially invisible when the decking is in place, but it caused some temporary gnashing of teeth.

I just wanted to thank you for this recommendation. As a fan of maritime fiction (and non-fiction) and sci-fi/alternative histories I thought this series would be right up my street and I was not disappointed. I've nearly finished the first volume and if Taylor Anderson keeps up the same standard I'm looking forward to the rest of the set. I agree it's not high literature, but I like his style and he delivers good plot lines, characters and descriptions. What more can you ask of a good escapist page-turner?
 
Derek

Thanks for the review, Chris. I have been looking for a new "page turner" to get immersed in and this sounds like it might be just the ticket.
 
I just ordered the first in the series and I'll let you know how it turns out.
 
Bob
 

So that was strange. I wrote a whole update post, which was then eaten when I tried to post it by some Firewall Error. But when I went back and did a test post it went through. So here's a shorter version because I don't feel like rewriting it all.
 
Bending beams for the forward part of the hurricane deck:

Connected together and installed on the model, using pins at the back:

Adding vertical supports and testing the heat shields that keep the chimneys from burning passengers or setting the boat on fire; these are made from scrap PVC:

Heat shields painted and vertical posts all complete:

View from the bow:

If you look closely, you may be able to tell that this structure is a bit out of alignment; the forward curve is closer to the port side than the starboard. It's fairly obvious from some angles and not at all from others. Redoing would mean starting over on this entire structure and I'm not up for that, so I'm going to do my best to hide it. The finished model will have enough detail and complexity that I think it'll be pretty easy to overlook. This is why I'm not a professional (among other reasons).
 
Happy (soon) New Year to all of you.