leclaire

Brian - I have to say that your idea of "not a lot of progress" is sure different than mine. Looks like a whole lot of cutting and gluing to me. I just spent two full days getting the paint job on the cannons for my Philadelphia to look halfway realistic. Keep up the good work.
 
Bob

Brian - I have to say that your idea of "not a lot of progress" is sure different than mine. Looks like a whole lot of cutting and gluing to me. I just spent two full days getting the paint job on the cannons for my Philadelphia to look halfway realistic. Keep up the good work.
 
Bob

Not a bad idea. We’ve had some company before that belonged in a barn. 😁
 
That is somewhat the role of the current MV Mississippi V. Going off the stats, she is the biggest towboat on the Mississippi and is use by the Corps of Engineers as their flagship. I wouldn’t mind touring that one as well. 
 
Too funny Keith. We’ve been together for 34 years, I’ve got a feeling if she hasn’t got rid of me by now I’m in good shape. Either she a glutton for punishment or she’s just keeping me to protect other women from having to deal with me. 😁
 
-Brian

Kurt or Roger may correct me, but as I recall, in the steamboat era, steamboats started towing extra rafts or other simple vessels behind them to carry more goods. This was very unwieldy and difficult to control, so as riverboat designs evolved, the extra barges shifted to the front of the vessels, but the phrase "tow" and "towboat" stuck around.
 
In other words, there was a slow evolution from the powered river vessel being the primary means of carrying cargo (classical steamboat) to the powered vessel towing some of the cargo in independent loads, to the powered vessel being adapted to push those separate loads (the beginning of the modern towboat), to the powered vessel becoming nothing BUT the power source (more like a railroad locomotive) for independent barges. But the original terminology never changed. Just like how we still "dial" phones.

Well, I got the longitudinal beams and supports in after I did the furniture.  I know - you will never be able to see some of the furniture at all and most others will be a restricted view at best.  But I know it is there and it continues to be good practice on some out of practice old fingers. 
 
Railings are next. I have started on a few jigs for the railings.  I will do the railings in sections. I will hold off on the boiler deck ladders (added due to Federal safety regulations after the General Slocum disaster) until further along when I start doing all of the little odds and ends.

Keith, by no means do I feel that way. I love the conversation and information. These details are something that I hadn’t really given much thought to, I have been more focused on the structure itself. I’m alway happy to learn and discuss more of the intricacies of the boats I’m building.  
 
Funny you mention that. As soon as Keith Black threw those fuel costs out there, my first thought was they had the right idea back in the day, sail power was so much cheaper. A lot slower, but considerably cheaper. 
 
-Brian. 

Brian, I followed your last build with great interest and will be most definitely be along for the ride on this one. I am in full agreement with Eric on the issue of more river craft from the kit makers. Since I live on the Mississippi in Leclaire Iowa I see the modern version of towboats every day during the shipping season. I have thought about trying my hand at a scratch build of the the Lone Star, an old stern wheeler finally retired in 1966 after almost 100 years on the job. It now resides in the Buffalo Bill museum here in Leclaire and would be very easy to use as a "template" for a model. All I need to do is now get the three kits I currently have under way finally finished.
 
Good luck on the new project.
 
Bob

Brian, I followed your last build with great interest and will be most definitely be along for the ride on this one. I am in full agreement with Eric on the issue of more river craft from the kit makers. Since I live on the Mississippi in Leclaire Iowa I see the modern version of towboats every day during the shipping season. I have thought about trying my hand at a scratch build of the the Lone Star, an old stern wheeler finally retired in 1966 after almost 100 years on the job. It now resides in the Buffalo Bill museum here in Leclaire and would be very easy to use as a "template" for a model. All I need to do is now get the three kits I currently have under way finally finished.
 
Good luck on the new project.
 
Bob

Brian, I followed your last build with great interest and will be most definitely be along for the ride on this one. I am in full agreement with Eric on the issue of more river craft from the kit makers. Since I live on the Mississippi in Leclaire Iowa I see the modern version of towboats every day during the shipping season. I have thought about trying my hand at a scratch build of the the Lone Star, an old stern wheeler finally retired in 1966 after almost 100 years on the job. It now resides in the Buffalo Bill museum here in Leclaire and would be very easy to use as a "template" for a model. All I need to do is now get the three kits I currently have under way finally finished.
 
Good luck on the new project.
 
Bob

Brian, I followed your last build with great interest and will be most definitely be along for the ride on this one. I am in full agreement with Eric on the issue of more river craft from the kit makers. Since I live on the Mississippi in Leclaire Iowa I see the modern version of towboats every day during the shipping season. I have thought about trying my hand at a scratch build of the the Lone Star, an old stern wheeler finally retired in 1966 after almost 100 years on the job. It now resides in the Buffalo Bill museum here in Leclaire and would be very easy to use as a "template" for a model. All I need to do is now get the three kits I currently have under way finally finished.
 
Good luck on the new project.
 
Bob

Brian, I followed your last build with great interest and will be most definitely be along for the ride on this one. I am in full agreement with Eric on the issue of more river craft from the kit makers. Since I live on the Mississippi in Leclaire Iowa I see the modern version of towboats every day during the shipping season. I have thought about trying my hand at a scratch build of the the Lone Star, an old stern wheeler finally retired in 1966 after almost 100 years on the job. It now resides in the Buffalo Bill museum here in Leclaire and would be very easy to use as a "template" for a model. All I need to do is now get the three kits I currently have under way finally finished.
 
Good luck on the new project.
 
Bob

I completed the boiler deck structures.   I scored all of the planks horizontally. This is how the Steamboat House at Marble Park in Winneconne was constructed.  S S Moyie in Kaslo, B.C. was much different: the outward panel was horizontal, the inboard panel was vertical and the two side panels were diagonal.  The diagonal panels were probably much more structurally sound, but the Steamboat House is more region specific. I know no one will probably ever see the interior panels that I put in, but I know that it is there.  I know what some of the rooms were: men's and women's saloons fore and aft, galley, and staterooms for captain, cook, and engineer.  I used the remaining space for extra staterooms, pursers' office, and freight office. Now I need to build some furniture for the rooms.  After that, I can affix the stacks (whatever the oversized metal protection is called) and add the longitudinal beams.   The boiler deck will still take some time to complete as the as transverse carlings need to be added, railings and stanchions, stair rails, etc.

Yeah, I guess it is cheating a bit. But the rigging sure was easy. 😁
 
-Brian

Been awhile since I last posted,,,, Holidays and other stuff seems to have diverted me from building...  Anyway I have not been completely idle.  Started painting the boiler deck walls with air brush.    There is defiantly a learning curve with one, but learning is pretty quick.   All the window/doors have been painted, but not yet attached.   Air Brush is defiantly the only way to paint those.   Painting the window/doors with a rattle can or brush would be a challenge.
 

After bending the steam valve pipe air brush comes in handy painting it copper.    I know the steam pipe does not go directly into the smoke stacks, but bending was a challenge to me and once I got to touch the support, I did not want to risk messing it up.   There is a slight indent opposite the steam pipe to accommodate the smoke stack so I guess we can assume the steam pipe goes through the support and into the stack  🙂  
 

Instructions call to mount the bull rails on the first two support posts in the boiler room.    Problem is, even though the boiler support structure is inside the support structure, the smoke stack protrudes outside the structure.   So bull rails need to be attached to the 2nd/3rd supports posts.     I do not think is "builder error" and instead a design flaw,  but knowing my skill, builder error may have come into play.
 

 
Below you can see the smoke stack bulging out just after the first support beam,      
Also still need to get out the alcohol and do a little glue cleanup.

Earlier I glued the two front sections and two back sections of the boiler deck.   I was planning on just gluing the two sections together when I attached them to the hull.   But after thinking about it, why not just have the one deck piece and glue the entire deck onto the hull.    I glued a few extra strips of wood over the joints to add a little more strength.     That may have been overkill.

And finally boiler deck was glued onto the hull with some additional (shall we say) "persuasion"  to have it conform to the hull curve.

I completed the boiler deck.  I used 1/64 birch plywood. Both top and bottom were scored to simulate planking. The underside is white, the top is linseed oil with a light gray painted tissue to simulate "canvas, painted and sanded".  Based upon actual other steamboat photos and other models, I used the "canvas" in areas that were not covered and therefore subject to the elements. I was not certain about the covered and open area at the stern that was used as both the dining room and general passenger area.  I had mentioned previously I am really not certain if this is historically accurate.
 

I will now start on the boiler deck superstructures.  The foreward part of the cabin (12 by 15) was the men's "smoker", which had a hall that connected it to the women's saloon toward the stern.  The original women's saloon was also 12 by 15, but later photos indicate that it had been expanded, probably when the addition 14 feet were added to the hull.  Either side of the hall included staterooms, galley and captain's quarters. The toilet at the stern may have included a wash area between the men's and women's toilets, beneath the water tank on the hurricane deck.  Toilet dimensions were estimated using photo measurements. Amazingly, the last Ryan built sternwheeler, the Leander Choate (2nd) [1908 - 1922] listed the actual measurements of the toilets as 6 by 6.  Strange what was or was not listed in old accounts. 

Just taking a second to wish all my friends here on Model Ship World a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year!!
 
-Brian

I have completed the stringers and added the steering chains.  I used the layout from a Paul L. Neenah Historical Society photo as a basis. For some reason I cannot load that photo for inclusion here. The boiler deck stringers ran longitudinal (bow to stern) with the deck boards transverse (port to starboard). The two wires on the bow are the hog chains which I will add after the boiler deck is added. Now I can add the boiler deck.  I need to figure out when to add the deck versus dry fitting the deck and/or building the staterooms first and then affixing the deck.  
 

Brian - nothing to say that hasn't been said before. An absolutely beautiful build. And your narrative throughout has made the journey a delight. Particularly for us steamboat enthusiasts.
 
Good luck on the "modern" riverboat build. I will certainly follow along as I have on the Cairo.
 
Bob

Brian - nothing to say that hasn't been said before. An absolutely beautiful build. And your narrative throughout has made the journey a delight. Particularly for us steamboat enthusiasts.
 
Good luck on the "modern" riverboat build. I will certainly follow along as I have on the Cairo.
 
Bob

John, those bends are a bit precarious, especially along the scribed lines. Compound that with the instructions having you increase the scribed depth, and you are just asking for the piece to break. In my case, I did break my pieces and had to resort to gluing some card stock to the backside to help hold the bend. Thankfully the battens helped hide the breakage on the outside. Thanks for the tutorial on the proper way to bend this area. If I had used something solid instead of the provided jig, my results would have been so much better.
 
-Brian

Hello everyone,
 
It's getting down to the final details of my build, I am almost done. I just wanted to share this one update right quick on a little gem that I found this weekend.
 
I was trying to decide how to display model properly. My plan was to build another case and mount it in there, eventually. Then the Admiral came up with the brilliant idea to mount it to a slab of wood. I tell you, I'm not sure what I would do without her. So I looked around on the interweb for some ideas and then it came to me, a live edge black walnut slab. So headed down to the sawmill and picked up this beautiful piece of wood. It is a tad bit thicker that what I was wanting (about 2" thick), but I think it will work out perfectly.

 
So I took it out to the barn and gave it a good sanding to get the sawmill chatter marks out of it. Started off with an 80 grit and worked my way up to 400 grit and then a final rub down with some #000 steel wool.

 
Once sanded and dusted, I then applied one coat of Tung Oil to it and let it dry.

 
and then a second. Just finished with this coat and I think that should do it. There are some pretty porous areas on the edges that will need a few extra coats to soak in, but the main part looks perfect.

 
Once this coat cures I am going to flip in over and work on getting the base ready for the light switch and battery compartment. Can't wait to see what the boat looks like mounted to this beauty. Oh, did I mention this son of a gun weighs about 40 lbs. (without the boat). I'm going to have to find a heavy duty shelf to put this on.
 
-Brian
 

Brian:
Do you have a zero clearance insert for your saw blade?  The use of one for each saw blade cuts down on the splintering on plywood.  Makes a much cleaner cut.  Tell your wife that the Byrnes saw is a matter of saving your fingers.  While it is quite capable of taking off a digit or two it being smaller and sized to the work you do with models makes it safer to use than the big shop saw.
Kurt
 

Alex-Ks1, thank you for stopping by. I have been eye-balling a Byrnes precision table saw for some time now, it just hasn't been in the budget as of yet. I cut the bulkheads on my Craftsman 10" Industrial table saw from 1/4" plywood, with a brand new carbide tipped blade. Even with a new blade I just couldn't keep the plywood from shredding. Of course the plywood was not of the best quality either, but this is the reason for all the tear-outs. Fortunately all the bulkheads were hidden and none of the "nastiness" of the plywood can be seen. For the finer stuff, I used an Xacto saw blade and a lot of sandpaper. One of these days I may be able to talk the Admiral into a Byrnes (fingers crossed).
 
-Brian

It has really been a while since I have worked on the model but summer is long over and the New Year approaches.  I completed the front of the engine room.
This means that I can now get started on the Boiler a/k/a Saloon a/k/a Promenade deck.  I need to lay some stringers then I can get started on the planks.  While maybe a not quick process I will be able to stay at this on a more dedicated basis.

Thanks for the tip Paul on Ages of Sail. I'll keep that in mind in case I break my promise to myself not to buy another kit until I finish the ones I have. Any bets on how that will turn out?
 
Bob