leclaire

Brian,
 
At the risk of exposing my ignorance, what is a mini-split unit? Obviously it has something to do with air conditioning and seeing two boxes suggests the split reference. How does this work in your case with one room to cool.
 
Bob

Brian,
 
At the risk of exposing my ignorance, what is a mini-split unit? Obviously it has something to do with air conditioning and seeing two boxes suggests the split reference. How does this work in your case with one room to cool.
 
Bob

Time for another update.
 
Day 11:
With the extremely appreciative help from my boys we were able to get all of the ceiling drywall put up. It took the better part of the day, but it is done. I was even able to talk them into putting up the ceiling insulation as well. I guess I raised them right.


 
Day 12:
Back to working solo. Today was taping and bedding. Another slow process. I tried as best as possible to minimize the amount of seams in the drywall, but there was still al lot to contend with. I have a few more seams on the ceiling to finish up with, the overhead work sure takes it's toll on the shoulders and neck.

 

 
Day 13:
As I was typing this, the delivery truck showed up with my mini-split unit. Just in time, the days are really starting to warm up.

 
Looking forward to this nice long weekend coming up to finish the taping and getting the AC installed. I might even be able to start detailing the walls. Thanks for stopping by.
 
-Brian
 

I made up the hatches that are on the deck and fitted them into place and then started to do the floor and the sides of the boiler pit. I cut out to openings to show were they got the coal for the boiler from. I now started to cover the deck in 2mm x 5mm lime wood planks. I then cut out the beams that went across the back put the planks in on the sides and then put in new crossmembers. All done with no problems.
 
John

Dear fellow builders,
I`m pleased to find all this nice response with my Ergenstrasse introduction, and shall be posting the first available pics of the log herewith.......
 
Gary
the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse was my most detailed model to date, I`m pleased that you liked it
 
Mark
thanks for looking in and further enjoy the build
 
Paul
I`m very pleased you like it
 
Roger
thanks very much for your kind and interesting to read input on this behalf
 
Andy
Yes, I remember it was a waterline-model kit from the webs homepage of Sylvan models. The pic in my introduction was just to give an idea what a Laker steamer would look like
 
Nils
 

dimensions / data
 

hull, frameplan and lines taken from wooden Ferris design steamer (Emergancy Fleet)
 

frames adopted to transparent paper glued onto 3 layer birch plywood
 

frame set up on the base building board
 

a lot of jigsaw work.....
 

the raw cut tiles for better handling
 

the hull shape is coming on with every frame, the edge outcuts are for placing the stringers
 

 

here to be seen, the square bar "backbone" of the hull. This will also take up the mounting spindles for the stand pedetals
 

an additional keel bar is placed underneath the square bar
 

next in progress will be the mounting of the stringers and check of the lines staking

IThe “Lake” class of steamships were steel hulled vessels built by shipyards along the shores of the Great Lakes.  Over 75 of these were built in Duluth, Minnesota’s Riverside neighborhood along the St Louis River that flows into the Western End of Lake Superior.  In addition to constructing the shipyard the owners built an entire community; apartment buildings, houses, recreation clubs, etc.  The houses are still lived in.
 
The Ships were based on the Norwegian Fredrickstad design with dimensions limited for passage through the Welland Canal around Niagara Falls and the locks around the rapids in the St Lawrence River.  This limited length to about 240ft.  Most if not all were not completed in time to stem the WW I shipping crisis.    Construction stretched into 1920, and of course they then contributed to a glut of shipping that depressed prices.  The Riverside Yard closed shortly thereafter.  The yard’s owners formed a Great Lakes fleet composed of these vessels.  Known as the “Poker Fleet,” the Ships were named Ace, King, Queen, Jack, and Ten. In the first picture that you posted above Corsicana’s cargo gear has been fitted out for the lumber trade.
 
You should be able to find drawings.  The American kit manufacturer A.J. Fisher used to sell a kit and drawings for one of these.
 
Roger

I`ve just kicked off my new project, It`s a tramp Laker Steamship based on an 3 island superstructure and on a real appr. 2150 tonnage freighter built in 1918, now in (H0) scale 1: 87.
Who still remembers the Warner Bros movie "The Sea Chase" of 1955 staring John Wayne in the roll of capt. Ehrlich of the ERGENSTRASSE and Lana Turner as an attractive female agent as the only passenger.
 
I investigated and found out that the Laker ship "Corsicana" aka "Margaret Shafer" had been engaged for the movie in 1955, hereby renamed to ERGENSTRASSE.
For my model I used the Corsicana`s data  for the Ergenstrasse rating and for hull, frameplan and general shapes those of a wooden Ferris-Ship of the American emergency fleet, being round about the length, width and depth an tonnage of the Laker Corsicana .
The movie ship was fitted with the following changes compared to the Corsicana :
- Masts changed from four to two, these placed in the forward and aft welldeck areas
- Outer bridge ends fitted with wing cabs
 
My model will be performed completely from scratch and in the same way as my previous models and bearing a rivited metal plating skin
 
Data for model ERGENSTRASSE
scale           1:87 (H0)
Length        87 cm
width          15 cm
depth            7 cm
 
I decided to fit 23 plywood frames, and to provide stringers and pine plank strips beneath the metal plating
The model will set up on 2 brass pedestals and wooden stand baseplate
 
Nils

This is the Corsicana, built 1918

This is the steamship ERGENSTRASSE aka Corsicana aka margaret Schafer

Captain Ehrlich aka John Wayne




This is a pic from the web representing a laker steam freighter, not my model

'Figured it was likely a 'temporary' glitch ...  and reminds one how quickly things could just 'go away' in the event of some cyber-war, gigantic solar mass ejection event aimed directly at earth (one knocked out all telegraphs in the 1800s) or some global catastrophe (don't want to imaging one right now) .  The convenience and scope of information available at one's fingertips through this and other forums is awesome, though, and it sure beats the 'old days' of scrounging through municipal libraries - which never had the sort of 'builders' techniques' laid-out with such clarity.
 
  I'm doing things I never thought practical (or even possible) with present technology ... from complex spreadsheets to Photoshop wizardry to sound editing and desktop publishing.  'Guess the rewards justify the risks, and one can always try to minimize those with multiple thumb drive AND paper backups.

Back with more.
 
Day seven:
I finally finished up with the itchy stuff. At least for the walls. Long sleeves, long pants, goggles and a mask was still not able to keep those tiny fibers of glass from making me itch. Maybe it was just a mental thing, but I'm glad to be done with that part.

 
Day 8 -10:
Time for the drywall. This is a slow process when you are hanging each sheet by yourself. Took me a few days to get this done. Thankfully my sons are coming over this weekend to help with the ceiling drywall.

 

 

 

 
Once we get the ceiling completed, it will really start looking like a room. I am hoping that I can con, swindle, bribe, or guilt my boys into putting the insulation on top of the ceiling so I can avoid the itch monster again. Also, my mini-split unit should be arriving some time next week. Once I get that installed It should make for a more comfortable working environment.
 
Well that is all for now. I'll post more after this weekends progress. Time to go and get some of this mess cleaned up.
 
-Brian

Thank you Keith for the reminder.  One thing I did incorporate into the design was wood floors. So much easier to find dropped parts.  I have a feeling that once I move out of my current spot in the house, that the hundreds of tiny pieces that I offered up to the carpet Gods will miraculously turn up. As for the "where did I put that "xxxxxx" craft knife" desk, science has yet to develop a remedy for this, so even with the new room, I am doomed to forever be on the search for that elusive knife.  
 
-Brian

Very elaborate shed Brian. I think however you have missed the most important feature from your plans - the lost bits black hole! Also you seem to omitted the "where did I put that "xxxxxx" craft knife" desk.  I hope you haven't got so far that you can't change the design!

boboandlucy, Thanks for your kind comments on the pilothouse.  It was a bit of a challenge to make.
 
An updated hurricane deck.  I have added the verge pole, water tank, rafts, safety planks, and five boats ,along with the unfinished davits.  All are just placed and not affixed to the deck.  I have lots of detail work that still needs to be done here. I did add the three drains from the hurricane to boiler deck, along with the two additional hurricane deck supports for the forward life boat.  
 


I am thinking about adding the stacks and then coming back to do the detail work.  It is starting to look like a sternwheeler but still has a long way to go.  Once the hurricane deck is complete, I still need to do all of the bulwarks, capstan and jackstaff at the bow.  And tons of little odds and ends that I have yet to start.  
 

Thank you Yves! I do have several kits stored away that I might be able to find room for. If I come up short on space, that’s always a good excuse to add on. 😁
 
-Brian

Fantastic project! And here I am looking forward to expanding from a 2'x4' workbench to a corner of a small spare bedroom! This looks really cool and you know I respect DIY projects. Will be fun to see it come together, and I love the exterior aesthetic already.

Oh most definitely Keith. I will have plenty of lighting. The can lights are just for the room itself. If you notice that on the ceiling joists there are blue boxes mounted there. These are for some 4' hanging LED light bars that I currently use in my "temporary" shipyard. Plus I will also be using the LED articulating magnifying lights that are on my bench now as well as LED light strips mounted under the shelves and upper cabinets that I will be installing. With all of the lights that I have planned, I may need sunscreen and sunglasses when I turn them all on.  
 
-Brian

Nice start, Brian. Being serious when I ask, are you sure you're going to have enough lighting? What may work now you'll find inadequate in a decade or so. You can never have too much lighting. 

I wanted to share a project that I have been anxious to get started on for a few years now. When we built our house back in 2019, the Admiral was gracious enough to let me use one of the spare bedrooms as a shipyard in a temporary basis. Well, temporary has turned into a four year homestead. Back when I had first planned an out of the way place to move into, my initial thought was to purchase an unfinished out building and then finish it out the way I wanted. Well, not sure if you have priced any of these new out buildings, but they are ridiculously high, at least around here they are. A nice 20'x12' unfinished wood framed storage shed will set you back about $10K to 15K. Way to rich for my blood. I even looked at used ones, which are cheaper, until I pay someone to move it for me. So I decided to utilize a 12'x20' back corner of our barn. This was agreed upon with the Admiral and so plans were finalized and materials were priced and budgeted. Unfortunately, right after the pricing was done, we had a freak storm roll through and dumped 8" of rain on us in 5 hours. This caused the creek that runs through our property to flood and wash all the leaves, branches and other debris up against the fences and rip them all out of the ground. Well, the shipyard funding had to be used to replace about 400' of fencing, posts and toprails. Then Covid hit and lumber prices skyrockets and again the shipyard was put on hold. Well since that time I have finished up an a couple of builds and found myself complacent in my temporary(permanent) home. But now with lumber prices finally back down to a somewhat manageable cost and being inspired by other land based projects, one in particular @Cathead Outdoor kitchen build has got me chomping at the bit to get off my backside and get this done. So I have put my Caroline N project on a temporary hold while I spend time out in the barn, before the Texas heat kicks in, realizing my plans for permanent shipyard. 
 
So without further ado, here we go.
 
This is the planned corner of the barn where the shipyard will be.

 
Plans that I drew up back during the initial planning stage.

 
Day 1, the materials have arrived. Of course it rained the day before delivery, making things nice and muddy for the delivery driver. The forklift managed to dig some nice ruts in the ground, but the driver was able to get everything unloaded. Now I have a side project of filling in and smoothing out all the ruts and re-growing the grass. But anyway, the materials made it so time to get started.

 
Day 2: Moving all the junk that has accumulated in the corner out and putting up the first wall. As you can see in the below picture, I was so anxious to get started I didn't take the time to get everything out of the way yet.

 
Day three: I bribed my sons and son in law with beer and food to come give me a hand getting the walls up. Cheap labor but very helpful.

Still on day three, more of the wall frames going up.

 

 

Day four:
With my labor team exhausted, it was up to me to trudge on. Now that I had the framing done, I was able to work on the outside walls of the shipyard. I figured what better way to wall in a shipyard than with shiplap.

 

 
Day five. Electrical work. Didn't have a lot of time this afternoon to do much, but was able to get most of the electrical wiring and boxes done and the recessed lighting installed.

 
Day six: Now to the real fun, fiberglass insulation. Even this picture makes me itch. So I gear up in an old flight suit, a throwback from my Air Force days of which I can't believe I can still fit in, and start hanging insulation.

 
That is as far as I have gotten for this week. More to come as I progress.
 
-Brian
 

I think it's hard to do unto others as we'd have them do unto us. It's hard for me not to see Likes as somehow lesser than a written comment, yet my personality really struggles with writing lots of generic "Looks nice" posts if I don't have something specific to say, and so I work hard to remind myself that a Like is a completely legitimate response. Also, sometimes nobody knows the answer to your question. I know I've felt bad about not responding to a question in a build log before, but if I don't feel I can add anything helpful, it doesn't feel right to take up space saying "Beats me".
 
Finally, I struggle to decide where the line between constructive criticism and nitpicking is. We all have different standards for "good enough" and photos can often be very unforgiving, so I don't know how or when to point something that looks wrong to me but the builder might be fine with. I'm also not such a good builder that I'm always comfortable attempting to critique others' work, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that regard. It's a difficult situation to parse.
 
This also goes back to the tension between the two roles of build logs: as a live community experience of a model's progress, and as an archive of the work that was done. In the former role, lots of comments are welcome and even psychologically beneficial. In the latter, lots of comments are a PITA, as anyone reading through a past log has to wade through lots of irrelevant content. The only other online forum I frequent (a baseball site) has the opposite problem: all comments are essentially live-streamed (they aren't numbered and tagged as at MSW), making it really easy and fun to interact with people but nearly impossible to find past content again. Neither approach is perfect.

One thing Ive seen over and over, within this forum and in others, is that many common questions arise that typically already answered at length in other places.  Any trip to another forum and you will see that asking a question like this normally is immediately followed by some snark comment about you not doing any due dilligence or research.   One thing Ive always appreciated about this forum is that despite some builders clearly not bothering to read other logs, they STILL get lenthy anwers and help from some of the same people whom I know have answered that same question a half-dozen times or more...  so really, I see nothing wrong with how anybody does anything around here.   This forum is already far better than many others...   no complaints at all. 
 
For me, I often totally forget the like button, and actually regret not utilizing it more just to let others know that the work they put into their logs is appreciated, is being read and is still worth doing.   As a relative newb, I rarely have anything useful to add, so try to remember that many of the likes your getting might be from folks not nessesarily ingoring your question, but maybe just are not able to answer it (or if like me, like your question because they themselves have the same one...).  
 
Plus, who am I to critisize your work?  An interesting phenomenom I noticed having read (I think) almost every Longboat build log is that the same people will comment "beautiful job" and "clean work" even though clearly one builder is light years better or cleaner.   To me this is not a dishonestly but rather quite helpful, not only to the builder but also to the continued interest and growth of the hobby.   Truly good criticism comes across in a way that is hard to distinguish, and I personally appreciate the subtlety and the respect people of all skill levels within this particular community show to each other.  
 
Honestly...  this is without a doubt one of the best forums I have ever been lucky enough to discover.   No ego's, clean language, genuine interest in the work and best of all: lots of help....

The pilothouse roof is on.  
 
For the roof supports I used 1/32 birch plywood.  This is much stronger than the 1/32 basswood that I had used for the superstructure panels.

The roof panels are 3/84 maple veneer.  I soaked then in water so I could bend them at the base of the roof.  The panels were standard with a little trimming to fit.  

The finished product after sanding, sealing and painting.  I still need to add the filial on top and make the stirs to the pilothouse

For the next project, I will start at the stern of the deck and build all of the attachments; verge pole, water tank, rafts and safety planks, and five boats.  Some of this will go quickly but the boats may take some time.  
 

I assembled the pilothouse.  Again, took longer and several attempts. Still not really satisfied with it but I will now finally start the roof.  I still need stairs to the door. The interior photo shows the wheel, part of the lazy bench and the radiator.  Speaking tube is hidden in this photo.  I am not certain if there was a compass.  There were references to Thistle missing its landing in the dark or in fog so I wonder if there was one or if it was not used. 


 

I have built the panels and the base along with the wheel.   
 
The wheel was "about six feet across" and Bates said 2 spokes per foot diameter so I needed 12 spokes.  This looks about right for the number of spokes per photos. Photos also had the wheel  about mid-height of the pilothouse windows so I needed to cut into the base to shorten the height of the wheel. Several other photos had the pilot standing outside the pilothouse on the port side while steering. The wheel is close enough to the windows to allow this.  
 
I intend to affix the panels to the base, add in all of the pilothouse parts and pieces (wheel, lazy bench, radiator, speaking tube &c.) and then start on the roof.  I expect the roof will take a few attempts before I get it right.  Some photos did show a visor but I have found none with breast board. I will probably include neither as the pilothouse windows will be closed. 
 
 

G'Day! I am back from over five weeks with Tassies, Aussies and Kiwis.  [a/k/a my family duties] The countries are wonderful but it is really the people that are the most wonderful. But care must be taken at the pubs with the locals and the consumption of "stubbies".
 
It may be another week or so before I can dig out and get back to modeling.
 
 

Hello Brian, I just read this thread from start to finish and I am in awe!  Every time I thought you were adding the last detail you would come up with more.  A truly inspiring build of heirloom quality.  I am just getting ready for my first, a simple steam launch and have learned so much by seeing how you accomplished the level of detail in your model.  Thank you so much for sharing and I am now headed to your next build.
 
Denis

I doubt the ship was dry docked for that amount of time. That would cost a fortune, and cost the commercial shipyard a lot of lost business having a dock occupied for that amount of time. Tied up at a lay-by berth is what they’re referring to.
 
Modern dock supports are steel with wood bolsters bolted in place on top.
I did read that there were high winds at the time the ship was knocked off the blocks so it’s possible that either the blocks were not in the right place, or the ship shifted during the pump out and didn’t land correctly on the blocks. I wouldn’t speculate any further until the MAIB or whichever investigation authority is overseeing this incident, publishes its report.
 
Andy