leclaire

Kind of tangential topic but may be of interest to some members:
 
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/abraham-lincoln-only-president-have-patent-131184751/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&lctg=92646438

Looks like I found an excuse not to not to work on the pilot house staircase....  Decided to finish up the paddlewheel...
 
After aligning the spokes with a piece of wood shown in the rear, I started to add three board to each spoke
 

 
just keep working your way around the spokes, until complete..
 

 

 
Now it is time for the staircase....  In looking a the picture earlier of the railing added to the pilothouse, I discovered I did not quite measure them correctly.   They are a little high the horizontal beams and did not meet the top railing of the stairs.
As such I had to add an extension on to the stairs to meet the pilot house railing.  In the picture below, the pilot house railing should (if build correctly) align with the top of the diagonal hand railing.   In my case, I have a little extra on top,
 
Just needs paint, but all lines up with the skylight deck and the Texas roof.
 

 

 

 
With paint added,,,,
 

 

 
And attached to the hull..
 

 

 
As mentioned earlier, there was just no way I could create the tiny cones for the small smoke stacks.   No matter what material I used, cardstock, paper, aluminum, nothing looked very good do to lack of skill on my part.
 
For the cone shaped shield for the large stack, I took Brian's suggestion and used aluminum from a coke can.   The aluminum is very thin an easily cut with a scissors.   Since the cone shaped shield was larger (more my size), they turned out OK..   I strongly suggest you use this method when building your cone shaped shield...    At this point the cone shaped shields are just dry fit.   After all the rings and crown are attached these cone shaped shields will be applied, primed, and painted.
 
 
 
On to the turnbuckles...As others have commented, the supplied turnbuckles are completely flat and cut out of  the etched brass sheets.    Kurt and others have made very elaborate turnbuckles that really look neat.   Again, I made an attempt at it, but I just could not get the slot in the brass rod to be anywhere near smooth and not good looking at all.    Instead I took the easy way out and just use 1/16" brass rod and inserted eyelets into each end.   I would have preferred to use smaller eyelets, but these were all I had on hand. 
 
 No were near as elaborate as others have made, but to me they get the point across and look better than the supplied turnbuckles  (shown below on the far left).   Just need some primer and paint.
 

 
Any finally for this session, blackened the eyelets.   Defiantly gives them that worn look.
 

All the kind comments are much appreciated. I haven't done anything with the johnboat yet, due to some serious time commitments lately (more on that in a moment). But I did transfer Peerless to her temporary home in my display case, next to Bertrand; since both are 1:87 scale it's a nice size comparison from a fairly "normal" Missouri River boat and the little Peerless. Arabia, on the shelf above, is actually about the size of Bertrand but is 1:64 so looks larger.
 


The aforesaid time commitments relate to the Missouri River; we spent last week on the road with the Missouri River 340 race, an annual 340-mile cross-state paddle race on the river from Kansas City to St. Charles (near St. Louis). It's billed as the longest non-stop human-powered boat race in the world and takes incredible endurance to complete. Over 400 boats entered this year and a bit over 300 finished.
 
We spent the week chasing the race across the state, acting as ground crew for a participating friend, and volunteering at various boat ramps where racers receive necessary support. We were also filming for a future video for our YouTube channel, a spectator's guide to following and watching the race. I spent a lot of time in the water helping boats land and launch, and offering encouragement to tired racers. If interested, you can read more about the race here. Since you're wondering, we've not done the race ourselves, though we have paddled stretches of the river on our own, but I'm working toward tackling it soon. This isn't strictly model-related but I get the most value out of projects that have a sense of history and place, and being involved with the modern Missouri River gives these steamboat models so much more context and value. So here's a few shots from the race week.
 
A mass of paddlers shortly after race launch, coming along the Kansas City riverfront. This is a small fraction of total race participation. A major steamboat landing for the nascent city was maybe 1/2 mile upriver from here.

A busy ramp servicing hundreds of boats in a few hours (replenishing food/water, answering questions, etc.) I'm in the mix somewhere in one of the bright safety vests. 

A nice sunset along the river, where we biked out to a more remote setting to watch and cheer on racers as dusk fell. Note the lone paddler near Mrs. Cathead; by this point in central Missouri the racing pack has spread out over many tens of miles, so paddlers are often alone for long stretches and appreciate a random cheer from the bank.

Just another way to share the special place that is the Missouri River with you all. 
 
Upcoming weather is not conducive to outdoor photography (heat index well over 100ºF every day) so proper photo shoots will have to wait. Thanks for your patience! 

Another beauty, Eric. I vote for an overturned boat, due to not wanting to have to empty it when it rains. 😄
 
More of an aside: I spent last weekend in Collinsville, IL, outside St Louis at their annual prototype modeling meet. 3D printing is taking over the model RR hobby. The folks doing it are the more modern modelers, but the products cover a longer time frame. They even do people in the usual model RR scales. One fellow will even laser scan you and make prints of you.

Excellent job coloring the sacks, crates and other accessories, Eric - they look great.  I particularly like the coal bin and the fact that it's the real thing from your property is an added plus.  Your model has a nice organic rustic feel to it - very realistic.  It suggests the rough service these working boats performed without over doing it.  Looking forward to the final display.  
 
Gary

It will be interesting to see how the wire works out...I used 28 gauge wire and plan also use it on the other rigging.  For the Hog Truss Posts rigging I planned to use 22 or 24 gauge wire.  My hesitance is in the final look with the binding at the end of each wire.   As I say,,, we will see what happens,,, especially in my (not so coordinated) hands.
 
I was able to find the "CHAPERON" lettering and did the best I could on the lettering with my fingers.  I used an extra fine point (.25) sharpie and that is the way to go.   Just needed  a little more hand eye coordination on my part.
 

 
Also mostly completed the railing around the pilot house...  In doing so, I noticed the platform was about 1/8"  wider than the pilot house, which seemed strange to me.   Going back over the instructions I saw the following caution  "Note that the pilot house sides overlap the ends fore and aft".   The pilot house should be 1/8" longer than wider.  This not did not register with me when I built the pilot house as I just slapped the four sides.   Thus my pilot house is 1/8" wider than longer.... and the discrepancy.    Had I been thinking clearly at the time I would have just cut off the 1/8" and none would be the wiser, but what it the fun in that.   Besides,,, as the old saying goes "why do something easy when you can make it hard".   Since the platform extended 1/8" beyond the platform, I added a 1/8" post to the left door and extended the fence.   For those looking at these notes in the future, I recommend you read the instructions and build the pilot house correctly  🙂
 
Below you can see the 1/8" post to the left door and  the extended fence.
 

 

 

 
Moved on to creating the stair structure to the pilot house.   Process to create the structure seems pretty straight forward.   Build the vertical and horizontal pieces over the full size drawing and include the temporary piece on the bottom to hold things together.    I also added the railing at this time.   As the instructions indicate, make the vertical posts a little longer than the diagram ... just in case.   It will be trimmed later on when put up against the ship.
 

 
Flip it over and add the two platforms.  I would suggest not using the diagram for locating the platforms.   Hold the pieces up to the ship and mark the exact locations.   The upper platform should come in just under the the Texas roof and the lower platform butts to the trim piece on the side of the skylight.   Only real way to insure this is to measure against your model vs the supplied diagram.
 

 
In my case the structure is about 1/8" taller then the diagram.   As mentioned above, leave the post a little long and trim to fit later on.
 
On a side note,,,,I hate building stairs.   I hated building the first two stairs on the Chaperon and am going to hate building these stairs.  In a prior life I build the circular stairs on the King of the Mississippi model.   To me none of them are fun.  Trying to hold things together while inserting the steps to me is all sorts of (shall we say) fun.   Anyway....stairs are next.
 
 
 
Prior to the stairs, I decided to complete the outer rings on the paddle wheels.   Only real challenge here is the the rings are so thin that you can easily break one just by looking at them...  As me how I know that,,
Paddle wheels with rings attached
 

 
and painted
 

 
As as long as I was in the area I completed the Cranks and Pitman Arms.   Looking at the picture I see there is a little sloppy glue marks,,,,,   Will need to touch that one up 
 

 
I guess I can not delay any longer...... Stairs to the pilot house will be next....
 
 

And on to the final detailing. I ordered some items that I either couldn't or wouldn't make by hand. This is where working in 1:87 comes in super-handy, since the HO model railroading world is chock full of useful detail parts. Here's my order: 252 burlap sacks, a set of resin-casting crate stacks, and a steam locomotive headlight that's extremely similar to the one featured on Peerless. But the real fun came in painting and weathering these items.

For the sacks, I divided them into two sets and painted one whitish (like a flour sack) and the other a darker brown (like a generic burlap sack). I did three layers of paint washes followed by some light pastels to build up a complex weathered look. When I liked the individual appearance, I built them into long stacks by starting with double-sided tape (to hold the base together) and then using glue to hold the pile together. When complete, the stacks came off the tape nicely as a coherent whole.



I used a similar approach for the crate stacks, with multiple paint washes building up complexity and then a final dusting of pastels. The first photo below shows the initial step from raw resin to coloration, and the second and third photos show the final result. I drilled and drove brass pins into the base of each stack so it could be held from below, allowing full painting without handling.

 


I forgot to take any photos of working with the headlight, but I painted it black, used wood glue to fill in the lens opening (giving it a nice subtle rounding as the liquid dried), then painted the "lens" silver. You'll see it installed in the next post.
 
Finally, I grabbed a bunch of barrels I had left over from other projects and used the same approach as all the other stuff. I took one photo partway through coloration and then forgot to keep up. To work with these easily, I used a similar method to the crates, drilling a series of small holes through a plank of scrap wood, then driving small brass pins up from underneath. Each barrel (also pre-drilled through the bottom) sits on a pin that holds it snugly in place while I paint and weather. 
 

Those are all the in-progress photos I took. In the next post I'll share the final look of all these details as they're installed on the model, along with two additional surprises that I hand-built instead of buying (I also failed to photograph these in progress).
 
 

Keith, good question. To the best of my knowledge, towing was very briefly attempted in the early days of steamboating and generally abandoned quickly. Sidewheelers could have towed, but it was just too hard to control a heavy load dangling off the back end, on curving and narrow rivers, for vessels whose steering was already somewhat limited. Pushing also meant you could naturally monitor the behavior of your "tow", rather than having to constantly look both ahead and behind you from the pilot house. Think of how most people prefer to push a shopping cart rather than pull one behind them when navigating narrow and crowded grocery store aisles (same for a baby carriage or stroller).
 
The phrase "towboat" managed to hang on somehow. In fairness, even modern maritime helper vessels are called "tugboats" although their primary action is to push large ships.

Keith, I may be "young", but I grew up listening classic rock. 
 
Yanking this thread back on topic, you hard-driving taskmasters got your way. I made some thin covers for the pitman arm openings that better mimic the real vessel, and replaced the wooden beams with round pipes. Here's the result from each side:


Also, here are a couple more shots of the bow:


I think this completes the model itself. Only the addition of some superficial details remain. Here's some shots posed against comparable imagery.



Once my detail parts order arrives, I'll work on adding some fun final touches. Really getting there now!
 

Funny thing about sawing and milling my own wood...it makes the material simultaneously more and less precious. Obviously a lot of work goes into that material compared to just buying a packet of wood from some retailer. On the other hand, at the scale of landscape management, I easily produce way more wood than I'll ever be able to use for modeling. A single firewood-sized chunk of maple still produces more wood than I'd use in a single model, much less a whole tree. So it doesn't matter how much I use (or waste) because there are multiple lifetimes of model wood sitting rough-milled in my barn that are a fraction of the broader wood use for firewood and cut as part of general forest management. 
 
Anyway, I pretty much finished the stern assemblage, shown here in this zoomed-in image:

And here's my version:

Let's back up. Harkening back to an earlier discussion on rudders, I made some rudimentary pieces that represent the tips of the rudders sticking out of the water. These will be mostly hidden by the wheel but I wanted them hiding back there:

The bracing that helps support the weight of the wheels was pretty straightforward. On the real vessel, the forward support post appears to go through the boiler deck, but I didn't plan ahead well enough and wanted this to be strong, so I carved a notch into the aft edge of the deck instead. This lets the post be at a reasonably accurate angle but be fully braced against the superstructure instead of just loosely glued to the top of the boiler deck.

The wheel is driven by two pitman arms that extend from the engines to either side of the wheel, connected by a sort of cam. I carved the latter from pieces of cherry, and drilled holes to accept small brass nails that would hold the assemblage together:

Here I'm pushing one nail through the cam into a pre-drilled hole in the end of the axle; same on the other side. No glue, letting me position the cam as desired when I fit everything together:

Then I cut two pitman arms from cherry and carved/sanded them to a shape I liked. At the forward end, these just butt up against the solid wood block of the "engine room", letting the dark paint pretend to be shadow. At the aft end, the nail in the narrow end of the cam goes into a hole predrilled in the arm. Here I'm testing the rough length of one arm:

And the other side:
 

Sharp eyes will notice that the pitman arms are cut to different lengths so that the port and starboard cams aren't in the same orientation. As I understand it, the arms were set to be 90º off from each other to allow proper functioning of the engines. Staggering them this way let each engine's stroke balance the other one out; if they were both set the same way, the whole system would stall as it tried to make a full rotation on one stroke.
 
And here are a few views of the painted pitmans in place. These aren't glued, just set and pinned in place for the moment.
 


This last shot clearly shows the offset pitman arms and cams:

I initially painted them white as many steamboat photos I've seen seem to do that. But I then noticed that the historic photo zoomed in at the beginning of this post makes the arms look very dark, so I'm considering repainting these black. Thoughts?
 
Once I'm set on the final color, I'll install these permanently and paint over the nail heads. Then I think the structure of the vessel is basically done, awaiting only detailing.
 
In the meantime, as I write this, steady rain is developing outside as a moisture plume extending off ex-Hurricane Beryl makes its way into Missouri. Having had nearly 10" (25 cm) of rain in the last week, the soils here are fully saturated and any further rain could be truly problematic. The forecast models claim the storm track will go south of our location with only minor effects, but I'll believe that when I see it; they didn't predict the last 10" either. It's going to be a nervous night as we wonder whether we'll be flooded again by tomorrow.
 
In any case, thanks for following along and giving me so much encouragement along the way. Pretty wild to see this almost done.
 

Completed the railings on the boiler and hurricane decks.   I used  1/16" square strips to lay on top of the railings.   Levering them without a top just seemed not right.
 
Only issue I had (do to lack of skill on my part) was creating the cones that are  to go on top the the smoke stacks.   I attempted them over and over again with different thickness of paper and just could no get them to look right.   After completing the cones, they just seemed lopsided.   I just could not see putting lopsided cones on top of the smoke stacks.   As a compromise, instead of using the supplied dowel rods for the stacks, which really would have looked bad without the cones,  I used copper tubing.   To me they look like smoke stacks.... just not like the real Chaperon...
 
Also completed was the trim on top of the Texas structure
 

 
Next step is to complete the stairs going from the hurricane deck to the pilot house

Nah, to each his own. 
 
I finally had a relatively quiet weekend here and got quite a bit done! We had absurdly beautiful weather for this time of year, so I got out my portable work station and took the model up to our screened in porch so I could enjoy fresh air, natural light, and birds while working on the model.


For the buckets, I cut some strips of on-farm maple the full needed width, then split them with a knife to make two planks. This looks better visually and milling the thinner strips would have wasted a lot more wood from the saw's kerf.

I then marked the proper orientation for each wheel (to ensure all three matched), then started slowly gluing pairs of bucket planks on.


I also spent time carefully measuring and marking where to cut off the bottom of the wheel. Here's the final product, with the bottom-most spoke cut off entirely and one on either side cut down partly (including their buckets).


The raw maple is visually very attractive but it needed to be painted for accuracy, so I did. In the meantime I'd made and painted two housings to hold the axle, then glued them in place. Here's the current state of the build, with the wheel on its housing (though the axle is still removable and not yet painted). I also glued on the forward timbers. The light's a little wonky but you get the idea. I'll take better shots soon.



Next up is to develop the bracing that supports the wheel housings, and the driver arms for the pistons. I think those are the last structural details. I have some detail parts on order and that'll just about complete her at this time. The end is near! Thanks as always...
 

There's a clear argument for going that direction, but I currently have no interest in 3D printing. I enjoy working with my hands, using mostly natural materials. I spend enough time on a computer professionally that about the last thing I want to do in this hobby is spend more time staring at a screen doing computer design!
 
Obviously there are arbitrary limits on where any of us draw the line; I won't be hand-carving any 19th century figurines from hand-milled wood. I just find, personally and without broader judgement, that 3D printing takes the hobby in a direction I don't really want to go personally, though I'll almost certainly take advantage of certain products like figures or detail parts that may well use the technology. But I don't want to use it myself.

Interesting shot. That's some kind of "reacher" car to pull cars from the ferry without getting the engine onto the ferry. Next car is a baggage mail combine. Then two or three coaches, maybe unairconditioned, since there are no extensions off the clerestory roof. next to last car could be a food service car aka diner. Last car is first class, since it does show airconditioning ducts. And the shot is probably mid 30s or later, since that was when Pullman first installed airconditioning systems into passenger cars. I'm another model railroader who wanders into other aspects of modeling.

I’ve always loved model railroading, I just never had the time or funds to really enjoy its offerings early on. Now I have way too many other hobbies to get into and still not enough time, so I live vicariously through those that do. Thanks for posting your article Eric, those are some beautiful models. 

My great-grandfather worked for Missouri Pacific way back when. He was In charge of loading and unloading the rail cars from the ferry that went between Baton Rouge and Port Allen, La. before the Huey P. Long/O.K. Allen bridge was built in 1937.
 
This is a picture that I have hanging in my house of his train and ferry. I wish I could find more information on it and other pictures, it would truly make an interesting build one day. 

 
-Brian

Sorry for lack of progress, haven't touched the model since my last update. But I did have a pretty cool model-viewing experience recently, getting to see a fantastic scratchbuilt Missouri River rail ferry from ~1870 at a model railroad convention. I wrote a full post about it in the Steamboats and Other Rivercraft General Discussion thread so as not to clog up this one, but here's a teaser image to encourage you to go over there and check the whole thing out. This is at the same scale as my Peerless (1:87).
 

 
Hoping to get back to Peerless soon, but other commitments have had to take priority lately. Thanks for your patience!

So I thought that I would give into peer pressure a bit and give the mirrors a try. I had bought a package of locker mirrors for my Cairo display and had a couple left over, so I used one here as a test. Since the hull is pretty hefty I didn't want to make it too top heavy, so I made up a base that is the length of the hull and slightly narrower and set the pedestals at 2" high. You have to get at the right angle to see the underside properly, and when viewing from the port side, only the starboard rudders and Korts can be seen and visa versa. However, when viewing from the stern, all the details are visible. With the black hull the lighting also has to be right to reflect upward and highlight the features. Apologies for the blurry mirror images, I could not get my camera to focus on the hull and the mirror at the same time.
 
Looking to get an opinion from everyone, should I go with the mirror or scrap the idea?
 

 
-Brian

Hardly Eric.
 
Each boat you build is beautiful tribute to some of the lesser known vessels of the Western rivers. I love the fact that the subject of each of your scratch builds are some of the more obscure boats rather than one that tends to be overbuilt. Add in the fact that you try your best to mill your own lumber sourced from your property whenever possible. I say nothing downhill about that. In my eyes they are all works of art. 
 
-Brian

Time for a big dump of progress photos!
 
I completely failed to take photos of building the roof for the pilot house and cabin, but it wasn't complicated. I just cut a thin sheet of wood to the shape I wanted, spread glue on the "rafters", and secured everything with rubber bands.
 
The photo story picks up again as I applied the simulated canvas. I used the same method as I did on Arabia: strips of masking tape held down with a thin layer of wood glue. When that's dried overnight, I trim the edges and paint it. It's held up perfectly on that last model, I really like the texture, and it's more forgiving to work with than tissue paper or silkspan or other options. Plus it's dirt cheap. Here's a sequence showing the progression of slightly overlapping layers on the gently arching cabin roof:



And the same for the pilot house:
 


I'll use some pastels to weather this a little, dull it down, and give it some subtle variation in tone.
 
In the meantime I worked on laying out the support posts for the hog chains, which needed to be carefully situated to run just along the outside edge of the cabin roof. So I marked the final location of the cabin and carefully laid out where I wanted the posts to go through the boiler deck. Then I drilled a series of small holes and used a sharp knife tip and then small files to make the final shape:
 

I then made a simple jig for the angle I wanted the posts to sit at, and used this to set them up. Here they've already been cut and painted. The black tips are meant to represent the iron caps that actually held the hog chains onto the wooden posts.

And here are a few shots of the fore and aft hog chain posts resting in place (not yet glued); you'll notice I temporarily removed the chimneys to avoid any possible damage as I worked on all this:
 



I also built the assembly that goes over the stern, which I'd left off until now since it rises above the boiler deck and I didn't want to bump or snap it while doing earlier work on the deck.
 


Finally it was time to start attaching things for good. Here I've glued down the cabin and pilot house (big step!):
 

And while that was drying I got started laying down the "canvas" on the boiler deck, working up to the aft part of the cabin. I'll let this all dry completely before proceeding up either side of the cabin.
 

A close look will also show that I built and attached the little L-shaped guard wall around the staircase up to the boiler deck.
 
Once all the boiler deck canvas is laid, I'll (re)cut the hog chain post holes, paint it carefully (trying to avoid the cabin walls), then attach the stern piece. At that point the model will really be coming together though a lot of detail work remains to be done (not to mention the paddle wheel, which I'm dreading).
 
Thanks for reading (or at least skimming) through that big dump of updates!

If I said this never happened to me and you believed it, we need to talk about some ocean front property in Arizona that I'd like to sell you  . It may not have happened on the tarpaper roof, but I have made this mistake in other areas on other builds. At least with the masking tape it's a little bit easier to repair. With silkspan and Modge Podge there is a lot more sanding involved.
 
Great job on the recovery though John.
 
-Brian

Got to working with the skylight...  Back when I was struggling with deciding on the type of roofing for the various decks (that simulate tar paper) I ended up gluing masking tape to the decks and painting over it.
Here is a little "fun fact".... If you use masking tape, or tissue,  silkspan to cover the roofs.... you need to  cut away some of the material where the skylight attaches to the roofing  Otherwise  you are gluing the skylight to the material and not solid wood.    After removing the weights holding down the sky light for gluing, guess what pops up?   Ask me how I know this?
 
Anyway had to remove what little of the skylight was still attached to the roofing, removed the roofing around where the skylight was to be attached to the roofing, and glued it down again.   While I am no expert model builder, that was a rookie mistake and I should have known better.   I bet that mistake will not happen again  🙂
 
Below show the 2nd attachment of the sky light
 

Texas housing complete and glued on.   The Texas roofing is in the background ready to be attached.   I have a feeling I will not forget to remove some of the masking tape where the wheelhouse attaches to the Texas roof  🙂

Well, I said I'd work on either the hog chains or the main cabin, and for once I stuck to the plan.
 
Building the rest of the cabin was mercifully straightforward, to the point that I didn't take many in-progress shots. I used some sheets of board-and-batten wood left over from past model railroad projects to lay out the walls, and scavenged close-enough windows from my scrap box. Here are the walls well underway, showing the bracing in the back and the carefully cut-and-fit holes for inserting the windows:

I painted everything white, then glassed in the windows the same way as the pilot house (CA plus scrap clear packaging), then added shades using some old sailcloth material from a past ship kit. When that was done, I assembled the structure using my magnetic squaring jig:
 

And here's the result:
 

Here's the cabin test-fit on the rest of the model, with relevant photos in the background:
 


It's been stressful around here lately and I needed a simple project that didn't require too much thought. This fit the bill perfectly. Doing the roof should be easy, too. Then I'll mark its location carefully and start laying out the hog chain braces.
 
Thanks as always for following along and giving feedback, whether through likes or comments. You all keep me going!

Cap strips and Hog Truss posts have been added
 

 
and Chicken Coop
 

 
Started looking into the smoke stacks and decided i wanted to use some sort of pipe instead of the dowel rods.   Looking at other logs, others seem to imply they used 1/2" PVC pipe saying the outside diameter is 5/8" (same as the supplied dowel rod).  I am not sure what 1/2" PVC dowel rods they were referring to, but the 1/2" PVC pipe I have has an outside diameter greater then 5/8".    I did find at the local box store that the 1/2" PEX pipe is the correct dimension as the supplied 5/8" dowel rod.   You can get a short rigid 1/2" PEX pipe about 3' long.
 

 
As you can see it fits exactly to to outside diameter of the supplied dowel rod.   This is what I will be using for the smoke stacks when I get to that stage in the build.
 

 
Here is an interesting "fun fact"....   With the 1/16" square vertical posts installed on the Hurricane deck, it is not possible to install the back stairs.   With the posts installed, there is not room to slide the stairs into place from the side.   Even inserting the stairs at the bow of the boat and sliding it all the way, back back, I was unable to right it into place.   Only option was to remove one of the posts, insert the stairs, and then replace the post.
 
Below shows post removed and stairs ready to be righted.
 

 
Once stairs were in place, post was replaced
 

 
Decorative support brackets have been installed...    I have a lot to learn about painting brass...  I am not sure what the story was....  I primed the brass and then followed up with at coat of paint, but as the decorative support brackets were glued in, some of the paint came off and had to be repainted.   I am not sure, maybe I should have sanded (scratched up) the brass before priming it as it is really smooth.   I can see why paint has a hard time sticking to it.   I need to look into that for the future..   Anyway, below shows the decorative support brackets installed
 

 
Sky light complete and ready for the Texas.  Masing tape was used here too to simulate the tar strips
 

 
Texas house almost complete.   As with the Hurricane deck the Texas has 1/32" squares battens.   And as with the Hurricane deck they are a real pain in the $#%@. 
Once all the battens were in place, just needs a another coat of paint and the doors.
 

 
And the top to the Texas.   Again masking tape was used to simulate tar strips
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Wefalck, I don't have any kind of lathe. In theory I know what you mean, but I wasn't up for trying the old electric drill lathe trick, at least not until all other options had been exhausted.
 
As it turned out, Brian's method of using cardstock worked like a charm. Much better than the styrene I was trying to use, which didn't want to bend properly and was too thick (the joint stood out like a sore thumb). First I figured out what outside radius I wanted and looked for something to use as a pattern. Turns out a spool of cheap rigging thread from a former kit was perfect. So I traced that outline onto some paper, then traced the inner outline around the right size of brass tubing. This is a basic index card.

Notice that I was sneaky here and folded the stock over to get two comparable discs. Some previous experimentation had convinced me that one layer wasn't stiff enough. So I used the kindergarten trick and cut two out together, making their boundaries more consistent than trying to cut them out separately.

I could have glued the two halves together before cutting, but intentionally didn't. I thought that would make the overlapping joint too thick (more noticeable) and also make the stock stiffer and harder to bend (why the styrene wasn't working). So I spread some glue on one end of the ring, then formed it around the brass tube until I had the angle I wanted:

When both were independently glued up, I smeared glue on one whole surface and sandwiched them together. This worked great, giving me a stiffer final result with the appearance of a single layer (finer joint). I then painted them with thick black paint, which when dry stiffened them even further.
 

And here they are test-fit on the model. Much better than anything I'd tried before. Lots of internet points for Brian! Any card modelers reading this are shaking their heads and thinking "we could have told you that!".
 



Thanks for the advice! Even when I don't take it or go a different way, it makes me think and helps me learn. Next I need to start laying out the rest of the main cabin, and/or laying out the support posts for the hog chains. We'll see what I feel like doing when I next have time to work on this. 
 
 

Looking good Eric,
 
For the rain shields (I have no idea what they are called either) I used thin copper sheeting. 


I took a sheet of card stock and cut a circle about 25% larger than the diameter of the stacks base. I slit the circle from the outside edge to the center and the folded it into a cone to get the desired slope of the shield. I taped it together then centered the point of the cone in the stack to get the inside diameter of the shield and marked it. I then unfolded the cone, cut the center circle out, trimmed the overlap and had the pattern I needed. I then transcribed the pattern to the copper sheet and cut that out. 
 
I used this same method form my Cairo funnels as well, but just used the card stock instead since I ran out of copper. The results came out the same. 


 
Apologies for hijacking your build with so many pictures, I’m a visual guy and pictures always seem to help me describe what I’m trying to convey. 😁
 
-Brian