John Allen

Don't be so apologetic.  
 
At that price point I would agree about the cannon and deadeyes.  I would expect premium parts all around.

No, I agree with you, at that price point, better fittings should have been included. This is where the foreign made kits stand out above the domestic kits especially when it comes to woods and fittings. Plans and instructions on domestic kits are hand down the best.  

Please advise if I am being nitpicky. The price of the kit is $ 749.00 I am a little disappointed in several of the supplied materials considering the cost of the kit. Most of the fittings including cannons are brittania or a base metal for the money I feel that at least he cannons should be brass. The pre etched deck does not in my opion look as good as planking (personal choice that can be changed by the builder.
I ordered deadeyes at one point before I realized they were metal and had to be painted or browned. I would have thought for the money wood deadeyes on the caliber of Chucks should be supplied.
I know they have a great reputation as for as instructions support and replacing parts. 
 
It just seems for the cost of that kit some parts should have been upgraded.
 
Am I being to critical, I bow to suggestions from the more experienced.

Me thinks one who chooses to post cornbread made round in a square tray is destined for greatness as a facilitator. What better way to take a position of baking round or square cornbread. Now all can get a jar of sorghum syrup and slather over the cornbread.
 

Everybody retract their claws, the sun is shining birds are singing and we all woke up on this side of the dirt.

Well done.

Me thinks one who chooses to post cornbread made round in a square tray is destined for greatness as a facilitator. What better way to take a position of baking round or square cornbread. Now all can get a jar of sorghum syrup and slather over the cornbread.
 

Everybody retract their claws, the sun is shining birds are singing and we all woke up on this side of the dirt.

Well done.

Me thinks one who chooses to post cornbread made round in a square tray is destined for greatness as a facilitator. What better way to take a position of baking round or square cornbread. Now all can get a jar of sorghum syrup and slather over the cornbread.
 

Miscellaneous Items
 
There are a few extra bits and pieces that I completed under the heading of “miscellaneous” items. The first of these was the battery box. Although the luggage compartments make an ideal hiding place for a battery box, I discovered that even a AAA battery size is too large for the space. Paul Koo showed using an ‘N’ size battery here. While I was able to find ‘N’ size batteries at my local electronics store, I could not find a battery holder to match. So I made my own by cannibalising the connectors from a AAA battery box and making a new box from 1.5mm styrene. It’s a snug fit even so, but we got there in the end.
 

 

 
Pocher provides a neat little set of tools that simply require painting and gluing in place in the tool box, and a leather log book, the pages of which are cut from the pages of the instruction manual. They are a nice touch to add a little extra interest to the model.
 

 

 
With all of the chassis work completed, I was able to go back and install my scratch-built ignition wiring loom along with all the spark plug leads. The leads themselves are an after-market part from Model Motorcars.
 

 
And finally, here is a ‘glam shot’ of overall progress to date.
 

 
Next up, the wire wheels......stay tuned.

Engine Block Assembly
 
Assembly begins by attaching the external components to each side of the engine block. Here is the right side, showing the carburettor, supercharger, water pump and water pipes. 
 

 
The trickiest part of this assembly was the water pipes. There are two horizontal “arms”, and a vertical “Y-piece” connected to each other with short lengths of rubber hose. The lengths of the solid components had to be adjusted as they were all too long to fit together in the space. The kit-provided rubber hose was so old that it had turned solid and brittle, so this was replaced by some aftermarket plastic tubing from Model Motorcars. The hose clamps were simulated by small strips of aluminium tape.
 
Here is the left side showing the generator, side cover, horn and starter motor, along with two oil filler caps.
 

 
The horn is made up of three components – two brass pieces joined by a plastic “elbow”. For consistency, I painted all three parts the same colour (Vallego Metal Colour Gold). The generator was one of those parts where the fit was so bad that the mounting holes on the engine block had to moved during the pre-fitting. The oil filler caps also required their repository openings significantly adjusting.
 
Once the main external components were fitted, the crankshaft could be made up.
 

 
The individual parts were designed to snap/press fit together, although they needed a fair bit of adjustment to get them to fit. The main linkages were glued once joined linkages, being careful not to interfere with the movement of the connecting rods. The piston heads are simply set in place with an internal pin that goes through a hole in the con rod. The whole assembly could then be placed carefully in the left half of the engine block.
 

 
The individual metal cylinders were then carefully set in place. It’s important to get these the right way up so that they sit properly in place and allow the engine block to seat securely around them.
 

 
The right hand side of the engine block was then carefully placed on top, and the four retaining screws put in place, while standing on my head, rubbing my tummy and holding my tongue at just the right angle!!! I found that even with the screws nipped up securely, there was still a tendency for the top of the engine block to pull away each side at one end, so I provided some extra assistance in the form of a small amount of CA glue at that spot and clamped it gently overnight.
 
Here are a few pictures of the engine block as one unit.
 

 

 
In the second picture you can see the tops of some of the pistons within their cylinders.
 
The front end piece was also added at this stage.
 

 
And if you turn the crankshaft, you can watch the pistons moving up and down within the cylinders. Cool……
 
The inlet manifold could now be fitted. It had to wait until the two engine halves were together so that the centre retaining screw wasn’t obstructed. Of course, if you were just following the kit diagrams, you wouldn’t work this out until it was too late. Thankfully, Paul Koo’s instructions not only alert you to this, but also advise on a modification to how the inlet manifold joins the top of the supercharger to make it possible to fit at this stage. So here it is in place.
 

 
The exhaust manifolds were temporarily fitted for the photo shoot, but won’t get permanently fitted until much later, when the rest of the exhaust system is installed.
 

 
Finally, the bottom water pipe was fitted. This was a bit tricky as the pipe needed to be bent to shape in order to fit properly without interfering with other components at a later stage. A sticker was also attached at this point. It’s one of those extra touches that add that little bit of extra realism.
 

 
I just have the engine bottom pan to install now before commencing work on the Engine Head.
 
 

Me thinks one who chooses to post cornbread made round in a square tray is destined for greatness as a facilitator. What better way to take a position of baking round or square cornbread. Now all can get a jar of sorghum syrup and slather over the cornbread.
 

Good morning MSW followers. Progress on the CWM has been slow. Amongst other projects I have been building a half bath in my basement. My wife says she’ll never see me again, except when I surface for food. 😎 I am calling it my Captains Quarters. We are giving it a nautical theme. 
 
OK... back to my progress report. Working on the Bowsprit and Jib Boom. Used black construction paper to create The jib boom hardware. Drilled pilot holes after the glue dried. 


 
Doubled over the eyelets to fit tightly in the holes drilled in the boom. 


 

 
I did not care for the chains supplied in the kit, so I purchased more suitable chain at Michaels. 
 

 
Tied off Deadeyes and tightened up the Bob Stays. 
 

 
The Deadeyes are very small at this scale. 
 

 
Continuing to work on the chains on the Bowsprit. I will touch them up with a little flat rust enamel as I go. 
 

 
On ward... 🍻

Is that really something to quibble about?  I’m sure for a heavily used boat like this there were lots of variations.  Let’s just enjoy looking at something different.  
 
My question though is where do the cannon go?🤣😂

I'm glad you asked that question. They were round, made in a square tray.

Eberhard - as ever the detail is very impressive.

Two steps forward and one step backwards ...
  😡
 
... as I said somewhere above – on Friday the plastic globe on my 12W LED globe-bulb in my architect’s lamp fell out and dropped right onto the lower carriage on the workdesk. One of the caster-roller snapped off and two others were loosened – then I spent an hour turning everything on the table upside-down and didn’t find the roller – then I sifted through the waste-bin nearby for another hour and still couldn’t find it – eventually I gave up, cut a new bracket on the laser-cutter, fitted it and then turned up a new roller. Perhaps should have done it like this in the first place, as one always spends more time in search of a part than it takes to make a new one, but I just could not believe that a part like that could have been ejected so far ...
 
 
Still work on the lower carriage ...
 
 
OK, the gun is the key feature of a gun-boat and its very raison d’être, but this gun and its carriage seem to develop into a model of its own right. Perhaps one day I should build a larger scale fully working (the mechanics, not the ballistics, which would be probably illegal over here in Europe) model, now that I have a pretty good understanding of its functioning.
While I was drawing some additional parts to be cut with the laser, I realised, that I had completely forgotten the stiffening brackets for caster wheels. They are essential elements in the construction, as the wheels each have to carry around 15 tons of the total weight of the gun. The brackets were fabricated from steel plates and forged(?) angles, fabricated on the model from tiny pieces of Canson-paper cut with the laser.
 
 

Stiffening brackets added over the caster-rollers
 
 
There were also two brackets needed for the operating lever including connecting rod of the gun training mechanism and for the clutch that connects the cranks below the barbette with the gun. The latter allows to connect gears for two different speed ratios, a high ratio for fine weather and a low ratio through as self-locking worm-gear for foul weather. A quite sophisticated arrangement actually, but as nothing of it will be visible on the model, it was ignored.
 
 

Supporting brackets and connecting rods for working the training gears
 
 
Connected to the gun training mechanisms is also a kind of capstan to help run-in the gun. A tackle is hooked into each side of the upper carriage and the runner lead by two guiding wheels into the lower carriage and onto the capstan. The wheels were turned from steel rod and their supporting brackets cut from Canson-paper. I meant to closely reproduce the original design, but in the end had to simplify it, because the parts were simply too small to laser-cut and handle. Because they are so flimsy that had to be put into place now and will have to painted over.
 
 

Rollers in brackets to lead the running-in tackle
 
The next challenge will be the fitting of the eleven gratings distributed around the lower carriage.
 
 
To be continued ...

Thanks, Pat ... but close-up photographs are really unforgiving, as one can also see in the following ...
 
********************************************************************************************************
 
Further work on the lower carriage
 
Back to the lower carriage. The (mor or less) central pivot determines its rotational axis, but the weight of the gun is actually supported by four (kind of) caster wheels running on cast-iron rails bolted to the bottom of the barbette.
The rails had been turned already a long time ago. The forks for the caster-wheels were fabricated from laser-cut cardboard. The wheels themselves are simple turned steel discs with a groove.
 

Caster wheels prepared for assembly
 
For the assembly, the rails were taped down onto an appropriately scaled print-out of the original plan of the vessel and carriage fixed with a clothes pin. The wheels and forks are temporarly united by axels made from short lengths of copper wire. The casters then were cemented under the carriage in the correct position with respect to both, the rails and the carriage frame, using again varnish.
 

Caster wheels in place
 
The wheels will have to be removed again before painting the carriage, because they will be left in bright steel. I do not know, whether this is correct for the flanges of the wheels, but it gives the whole arrangement are rather ‘technical’ look. The axles with cylindrical end-caps have already been prepared from steel rod and will be installed during the final assembly.
 

Caster wheels in place
 
To be continued ...
 

This exercise is a mini planking task.  I’ve worked the tiles up from the midship section to the keel area on the starboard side.  You can see the tile curvature stretching to bow (top of picture) and stern (bottom of picture) areas.  I’ll be in a better position to adjust the tiles in these areas based on the number of rows required to cover the smaller spaces at each end.  So there are more tiles required to cover the midship area then at the ship ends.
 
Just call me ‘Captain Obvious’.  

Jim,
 
1 question the rudder is at the stern right? and the cannon is at the stern  pointed aft.?
Not being a total idiot or I don't see it right you would have to aim stern to to fire cannon? It seems buttocks backwards unless this was a specially designed boat. Please don't make me feel stupid. Unless this boat was used to bombard land positions when anchored?

Thank you for your comments.
 
The wood camera studio stand is replaced by a metal one. I machined few adaptors for the final goal: to take a photo from the top of the model ship boat. This is a difficult task because the camera has almost to touch the ceiling to be able to see the entire 8 feet long model at a distance of less than 3 feet. Of course, a wide angle lens is required. Here is how it works; the camera transfer a live view  image to the lap top and then the photo transfers to the TV. This way, I can easily see behind the camera.

Have a plank bender used once put back in the box. A take on John's can. I posted a long time ago the same except I used 3 different size cans depending on the size of the build. Can was clamped to desk (1 clamp) soaked strips used a tea candle inside the can, could bend 3 to 4 strips at a time very quick. 1 hand for strips the other to hold downward pressure on the ends.

Put my like button on auto reply You are very gifted.

Paul, Pat, Richard, Boris and Mark - thank you all for your appreciative comments, they are most welcome. Also thanks to everyone who visited or liked my work.
 
A bit more progress:-
 
I painted the interior walls but felt they needed a picture.

The walls were then assembled around the floor piece. The door got a brass knob.


The completed interior was then inserted into the hull.