canoe21

I lived in Sweden and was part of the Steam Boat Heritage Society for a long time before moving to the USA.
SS Mariedfred's hull is made of steel, a major part of her superstructure as well.
This is boat I worked on during the summer of 1983.
She was also a steam boat but later converted to diesel.

Russ, I believe the main parts of the boat are wood.  But in some pictures such as one picture of the bow the spray guard on top of the rail is dented so it is metal. 
Welcome aboard, Michael and Nils.  I hope this turns out to be another ‘fun build”.
This is a picture dated 1903.  I will try to build to this time.
Bob
 
Bob

Bob:
This looks like a very interesting subject. It is great that you actually found the plans for it. I am guessing that there are many photos of it. Was it wood built or steel? Will you model it at a particular point in its career?
 
Russ
 
 

Bob this looks like a must follow build log. She does look very elegant.
Michael

Congrats to this choise Bob,
this ones comprising plenty of details. and you have the individual possibility for fitting her out in scratch-build. A very nice nostalgic passenger steamer. Wish you all the best for your keellaying party and much fun with the build...
Nils

Mariefred
The coal-fired steamship Mariefred was built in 1903 for the trade-Enhörna Stockholm-Mariefred. She has sailed under the same name and with the same steam engine ever since.  The vessel has been owned by the same shipping company, Gripsholms-Mariefred Ångfartygs AB since 1905. All this makes Mariefred one of the worldwide unique ships and an indispensable part of Sweden's cultural heritage! 
Built at South wharf in Stockholm in 1903. Length 32.84 m, width 6.33 m. Coal-fired steam boiler.  Speed 10 knots.  230 passengers.
 
 

Hello All, Thanks for the comments and Likes, as always very much appreciated.
 
I I have made a small advancement with the bow sprint. as per pictures,
 
sorry not much to say, I think the pictures said it all,
 
Work wil now come to a hult yeat again as the wife want to ( sorry me ) to tile the concevatory floor going to take a few weeks the the hollidays time comes ..
 
Ill try and get some done or some somesmall bits cleaned up.
 
 
cheers

Hello All, Thanks for the comments and Likes, as always very much appreciated.
 
For a change i stared on the Jip Boom.. took a bit of time but the help of The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships Book, The Beed and Sheaves and the plans only showed one side.. hope its right if not .. Well Not Changinging it now LOL
 
 
Cheers

Hello All, Thanks for the comments and Likes, as always very much appreciated.
 
I Come across a learning curve (Mistake)  Chain plate's I miss understood but as the picture shows the step req.
 

 

Rich, as mentioned in a previous post, no doors are supplied, but I remember a group discussion a couple of years back, that no one is 100% sure that they existed in the first place at the time of Trafalgar, mine are currently open whilst I decide what to do with them 

Greetings rich
there are no doors on the entry port. It's all looking good, well done. DAVID

Rich
I found when putting the deadeye strops in that I got a better and more secure result by drill a small hole in the side of the slot in the channel , I even put a drop of C/A on it, had no rips outs, but I did ensure that the chain plates would line up, I also pinned the channels into the hull

Hello All, Thanks for the comments and Likes, as always very much appreciated.
 
Thanks for that Sam, I found a few videos. (Video On Stopping Blocks)
 
Before I found the Video, I used 0.25mm copper wire and made hooks etc. then with the use of silver solder and flux, soldered the ends, ill paint the seen soldered parts.
 
  
 
I am missing a picture, of the between these, Ill make and take a new picture and add later.
 

 

 
Just need to add the coil of rope at the end. not chose how that will look yet.
 
 
cheers

Hello All, Thanks for the comments and Likes, as always very much appreciated. 
HI Gary, I go see what you mean, I have in fact now stripped and re rigged that gun, and it has more slack.
This is the look was hoping for just not got there yet, although im not that worried about the cannons you can see, (  
 
I have figured you that i was using wrong size rings  (left side is the wrong size and out of scale, ( although this would aid rigging) 
so, in my normal faction, ""redo"" again.. 

 
 
So after our BBQ, today ill prime and paint , etc., 
 
Does anyone have a good idea on the easiest way to rig the cannons, as i has tremendous trouble? As what i was thinking I have one made, pull out the rings and make them of deck, then attach when done.
 
 
Thanks for following and looking

Hi everyone
 
Thanks for all of your Likes and comments.  I really enjoy them, particularly as they put a warm smile on my face  .
 
Anyhow, as the fit-out of Shadow's interior progresses, I've started on her Engine Room, which consists of two decks.  Shadow's small size, as well as the fact that the plans are sadly lacking in detail, has meant that I've had to be realistic about what level of detail I could fit into such a tiny area.  So, please don't be too critical....Oh well, as long as it looks mildly convincing, I'd be happy.  
 
Whilst there's heaps more work to go, here are the photos so far.
 
All the best, everyone!
 
Cheers
 
Patrick

Hi Lawrence
 
Many thanks for your compliments.  I'm kinda blushing at the moment, as well as being grateful!
 
Shadow's been a dream build so far. I don't know why, but somehow, I've not made any major stuff ups, yet.....YET, I say .  Let's hope it stays that way!
 
Have a great weekend.
 
Cheers
 
Patrick

Lawrence Good evening
 
I changed my job about 6 weeks ago, and now work in the real world 5 days a week, it has taken me some time to adjust to the work, but now getting into a new routine, its not hard work, but on my feet from 0900 to 1730 working for a private health care trust.
I get into the man cave when I have the chance, and working on a 1/200 model, but that is not on a thread within MSW, it a OOB with some PE but everything else is again on hold, have a week of soon so hope to post something new

So here we are finished.  It was fun building these two boats.  But I don’t think I will build two at the same time again.  One is enough.  Thank everyone for looking in and commenting and thanks to the likers also.
 
So what next?  I’ve wanted to build the SS Mariefred.  I down loaded lines from the museum but they are so far out that I don’t know if I can correct them.  I also want to build the Alma tug from Morro Bay.  She was instrumental in saving the lives of the seamen whose tanker was sunk by a Japanese sub of the coast of California during WWII.  Then there is the Thealka.  A little side wheel steamer whose name should have been The Alka but the painter forgot to put in the space.  And again I want to build the Lagunitas RR ferry in HO scale for my nephew who’s into that sort of thing.  And that’s just a few of the boats on my list.
 
Bob
 
Meanwhile here are the pictures.
 

 

 

 

Hello again Popeye...
 
What a sweet reply for which I sincerely thank you.  
 
Now don't get me wrong, I moved to Florida from the 'sticks."  Before I lived in Naples I lived on a small farm outside of Fayetteville Arkansas.  This was the country indeed. All the things you mentioned, dirt roads.. logging roads, etc.. We  bought 38 acres of land and built it up from nothing.  We built our home, our barn, our pastures, our corral and a nice pond.  I must admit i enjoyed riding the tractor every day; it was a lot of fun...We had a couple of young horses to break in, 10 calves, 2 dogs and 2 cats.  Oh yeah...and plenty of bumpy roads.  The "nuts" part mainly refers to the fact that in the new environment sweaters and jackets will be back in vogue.  That,  along with uprooting an old man with all his belongings.  I appreciate your envy and I suppose in the long run walking to my little boat every day will give me time to recall the happy happenings of my past and if that walking time isn't enough I'm sure the time with spinning rod in hand will provide any memories I may have missed.  What bothers me most is the thought of packing for the move. Charlene, God love her, has said not to worry about that 'cause she'd take care of everything...and you now what, she will!  So, the current house been up for sale for the past two days and now we'll see what happens.  Oh yeah, don't envy us, come and see us.
 
Have a great weekend.
 
Jerry

Hi
I have resized the ships boats and reasonably happy with how they fit on the ship as shown in the AOTS book.
 
Making a new launch the same way as the last launch I made, but just a little smaller, and managed to modify two of the other boats.
 

 

 
The only thing still can’t decide on the size of the rear cutters  weather go with 30ft as they are in picture or make them 25ft
 
 

Hi Mates,
Well I am partially “confused”. Returning to the bowsprit area, for my first attempts at securing the deadeye ropes, and then actually starting the ratlines.
THEN - JanV was right – way back – when he posted, “how will you remember where all of those pre- attached bowsprit mast ropes are supposed to go”?
Now working from the Vasa museum rigging sheet, the Billings sheet, and the Corel -no sails - sheet just don’t know what I’m doing right or wrong ha ha ..
AND Fred Hocker recently posted that the Vasa Museum rigging plan sheet is wrong and is no longer being sold. The Vasa II book will have the correct rigging plans within – a book that is already two years beyond its promised publication date L
 
Updated pics. Need to add a fid for the flagpole? Probably.

 
As a novice, I thought that pre-attaching the blocks and lines would be easier before securing the mast to the bow.
That said I am actually moving forward – now that part is satisfying.
I did finish the upper main platform and added the rat lines (crosstree blocks are missing – I just realized as well) well at least those will be easy.
 

Finished the mainmast upper platform, and discovered that several blocks are also missing at the already installed crosstree for the lower main platform– grrr
These learning experiences are actually valuable as often as I include -grrrr - in my remarks, The next build will benefit from these learning experiences.
 
Cheers mates,
 

 

Hi Mates,
 
Thanks for the likes much appreciated.
 
Tigersteve thanks for your kind words.
 
Dave We shall see – thanks – I am enjoying the learning of how these ships were made to function – sort of “state of the art” technology of their days. Which as ours does today changes as more is learned.
 
Parenthetically, we are certainly, today, spoiled by comparison. When I was working and having to cross the Atlantic from LAX to LHR in a 747 at 36,000 feet. Champagne in hand CD player [yes CD player J] and Sony headphones around my ears, looking down at the ocean –it struck me that C Columbus in his wildest magic mushroom dreams could NEVER imagine  - ever – this reality of a crossing.
 
The joke is now, of course – that in a 100 years from now travellers will look at antique digital flashes of history and laugh about people having to spend 16 hours, packed with 450 others in an Airbus A380 just to get to Australia ha ha ……
 
My father was in the airline business for most of his life – I followed and worked as a pilot for quite a few years. (Champagne was when I was just sitting doing nothing)
 
==============================
 
 
Back to business: I’m sure that I’m “preaching to the choir” here, but wanted to share some techniques that you prob. are already using – but here goes.
 
1) For threading deadeyes (or any rope for that matter) I first use Gorilla Gel, and run a bead at one of the ends of a rope. Then as I clean off the excess glue (thumb and forefinger with a cloth), I twist the rope ends tighter into their turns - as I’m pulling the rope through the cloth. 
 
This results in a hard “needle like” - tip after the glue dries. Then nip the ends to create a thinner entry point making threading deadeyes much easier. It also allows using ropes that are larger and possibly more to scale.
 
The big eye needle (I have not tried) it would seem would require a thinner scale rope because as you pull the needle out the inserted line then doubles over as it is pulled through the deadeye –??
 

 
To secure the deadeye ropes
 
First I insert (in this case) a thread between the doubled tied shroud, looping it twice. Then, twice wrap the deadeye rope around its shroud; hold it in place, and securing it with a bit of G-S Hypo Cement. Let it set then. The last bit is then very simple just run the left over rope through the two thread spools, tighten and nip.
 

 
OOPS mistake – should have done this work for the mizenmast before securing it to the ship. Hmmm grrr - Still learning protocols.
 

 
Learned that not all deadeyes are created equally. In the future need to look through more carefully making sure that eyelets are more equally spaced before attaching to shrouds. Yes I did finally realize that rotating them does help.
 
Also the upper mast rigging work is easily done at the bench – I have not yet tried working with the other shrouds already on the ship Hmmm?
 
OH !!! Ferit, as I have mentioned before you are the one that introduced me to G-S Hypo Cement SO perfect. Thanks again.
 
Apologize about the long opening personal notes in this post J
 
 
Cheers,

Karl,
 
Thanks for confirming this. Much appreciated - como siempre...
 
Played around with the jpg in iPhoto and yes that opening in the mast is very clearly evident, along with a sheave.
 
Charter33 (Graham) thank you for your nice words, and welcome aboard. I'm glad that we found each other's logs (:-)
 

Hola Michael:
I find this picture of the Wasa Museum, and regarding the upper yard hailing rope you are right. If you make a zoom on the picture you can see (unfortunately not very clearly) a sheave for the hailing rope.
 

 
Saludos, Karl
 
 
 

Hi Mates,
 
First thanks for dropping by and the likes. AND
 
Lawrence, I just don’t know how to respond. Your post is well so touching indeed. I am so pleased that you have found this build a pleasure to follow – however slowly it has evolved.
 
Your words are so encouraging; we have all seen builds that make our jaws drop here at MSW. For you to place some of my work on that level, well it’s touching indeed. BIG thanks.
 
PS: I think, by-the-way that you finished your entirely awesome HMS Victory in the time that it took me just to make the crows nests (;-)
 
===============================
 
Minor update on upper foremast;
 
Mistake;
Deadeyes were way too large for the upper platform. I learned through a posting that deadeyes should be about half the width of a corresponding mast. That (in scale) is almost impossible to do – that said my use of the same size deadeyes as with the lower shrouds was all wrong; lack of foresight.
 
So pulled them out, had to make up some smaller chainplates. Used wire that was then joined together with CA Gel glue, and painted flat black. Not correct – but such a minor area that will become lost in the aggregate.  So fixed that.
 

 
Then Karl was helpful and led me in the right direction regarding the upper yard hailing rope bit. I took it a step further and decided (right or wrong) to add a sheave within the upper mast. I assumed (there’s that word again) that a sheave was probably how it was done. Though Anderson does not make that specific detail clear (I might have missed that text?)
 
  
 
Foremast all done now onto putting the upper main bits together THEN attaching the two other uppers at once.
 

Getting a bit nervous regarding that swing-arm light. In a nightmare to be I was thinking of hanging a large double fluorescent fixture with chains from the ceiling of my son’s room.
 
 He’s no longer on my payroll !!J , and I use a corner of that room as my shipyard. Notice the nightmare idea. The admiral would force me to walk the plank for sure.
 
PS: Not complaining lucky to have the space, I know that some builders need to move their work after each session, but lighting needs to be re-visited. Bowsprit and upper fore just for this photo - not installed.