John Gummersall

Next came the rear axle. Start with the 9x9mm square wood and drill a 5mm hole in each end and insert the 5mm dowel. At the end of the 5mm dowel drill a 2mm hole and insert the 2mm dowel. Paint it up and put aside for later steps Started working on the steering struts When gluing the struts together, instructions call to make the gap 5.5mm in order for the haul bar (5.0m) to easily slide. Prior to gluing the struts together I temporarily inserted two of the brass strips to accommodate for the extra .5mm... Having done that, I am not sure that is necessary. In fact I wish I had not allowed for that extra space. Haul bar can still easily fit between the struts and can move around. I really hated to see the extra .5mm gap. In a later picture I will show the haul bar inserted and the gap showing - ugh Glued with the strips removed. In the below picture the three straps with the pins showing are all made of card stock and painted. The side clamps are the brass strips. As mentioned earlier, it really is hard to tell the difference and the card stock is a whole lot easier to work with. Next came the haul bar - again card stock instead of the suggested blacked brass. Attach the steering struts to the front wheel bracket. This calls for slitting the front wheel bracket and laying in the steering struts so the lay flush. Lay the steering struts on to of the front wheel bracket 45mm back from the haul bar. This is where the steering struts should be inserted into the haul bar. You can also use the full diagram to help with the placement. Make some lines on each side of the front wheel bracket and start cutting. After some cutting, filing, and sanding the struts should lay even in the front wheel bracket. Below shows the two parts about to be joined, And all assembled

Starting to assemble the beams and suspension stabilizers. I am assuming that it will be imperative to insure this structure is perfectly square (or as perfect as I can get it at my still level). There weights seemed to do the trick Resulting in a "fairly" straight suspension

Next step was to create clefts in the beams and in the suspension stabilizers. Instructions call to use a fine hack saw, with clamps and steel ruler. Clamp the pieces and then using the saw make the clefts. Here is where my lack of skill started to show up. Making a straight cleft in the suspension stabilizers was pretty easy as those part are wide, but making a straight cleft in the three beams, for me anyway, was really hard. First off the beams are very narrow so there is not much for the metal ruler to grab on to. As such when I started the saw cuts the beam would tend to move on me. Also, in my case, the beams were not perfectly straight. There was an ever to small bend to them. Had to look really close to see the bend, but it was there. End result, while the saw cut was in the middle of the strip at both ends, the slight bend in the middle ended up with the cleft off center. It looked horrible. Had to go through the process of soaking and straightening out the strips. Below you see my attempt at clamping the thin strips. I ended up using the sticking side of duct tape to help hold the stirp in place as I made the cut. Unless you really are confident in making these cleft cuts, I would suggest getting of additional 3/16" strips (closest to 5mm) and practice, practice, practice before you make the attempt on the real wood. I did not think this would be a hard task and I ended up wrecking the 3 pieces of mahogany supplied with the kit. At that point I acquired the additional 3/16" strips for practice and eventual strips. Dumb you get early Smart you get late 🙂 Also, it mentions using a fine backsaw. I would suggest starting with a fine backsaw, but the eventual cleft will be "too fine". For the cleft to show up better it is best to follow up the fine backsaw line with a thicker saw resulting is a thicker cleft. Again, unless your wood is perfectly straight and you are really confident in making the cleft lines..... practice practice practice Four strips of supplied mahogany Resulting clefts in the beams and suspension stabilizers - after a lot of cursing and 'redo's After painting them yellow

Here is my two cents.... I vote not to paint it. I build the Endeavour, and like your model the hull looked great. And to me, too great to paint... even the bottom. I know the hard core realists and going to cringe, but I really like the look of natural wood planking. But as they say, the only one you have to please is yourself (and of course CEO), so whatever you decide I am sure will look fantastic

For the wheel treads, instructions talk about using 1x5mm wood strips and wrap them around the outside of the rims. Problem is (and again it may just be my model) the wheel rims are about 5.5mm wide. So the 5mm strips will show a little gap. Instead I used black card stock paper (doubled over) and painted it will black gun stock paint. Looked pretty good in the end and was pretty easy. Started with card stock paper and made three deep lines with a pen. 3mm, 6mm, 3mm Folded up the paper on the lines and glued them together, resulting is a 6mm strip twice the thickness of the paper Folded it over and turned over so the seam will be on the underside, glued it to the outside of the rim, and painted it black. Looked pretty much like a black metal rim Instructions then call to cut two 54mm pieces and two 45mm pieces out of the 4mm brass strips to be used for the interior axle housings. Eventually these will be painted black. In my experience (and I am little more than a novice at model building) I hate painting brass. Even after using an etching primer followed by paint, while the result initially looks good, it does not take much handling (like actually installing the piece), for little pieces of the paint to fleck off. Based on my experience with the black cardstock on the rims, I decided to use this method on the axle housings. While the instructions call for two 54mm pieces and two 45mm pieces of brass, in my model the axle housings were actually 60mm and 47mm. The width of these axle housings on my model were actually 5mm instead of 4mm. Before you cut these pieces, either out of brass or card stock, verify the proper length... and maybe a little longer.... You can always shorten them. In this case, same as before. Line out 3mm, 6mm, 6mm lines, fold on the lines to make one strip and paint black with gun stock paint. From here you can cut the required strips for the axle housing. Happy with the end result and a whole lit easier than working with brass strips Next step is to add all the pins on both sides of each spoke - a total of 192 pins.... Since the pins are 5mm in length and the wheel is 5mm in depth, all 192 pins need to be cut in 1/2 - preferably a little shorter or the pins from each side of the wheel will hit each other. Just cutting these pins in half is a long frustrating task... pins are so small, and to cut them in half takes some real patience. After that you need to drill .5mm holes through each wheel for each pin. I would not suggest doing this with a pin vise. There is just no way to drill that many straight lines with a pin vise, and if the holes are not straight, the wholes on the other side will not look very good. In my case I used a dremel workstation to drill the holes. Instructions called for a .5mm bit, but I found a .7mm bit fits the nails better. Also I used a special pliers made for holding pins. Between the jaws are a little hole to hold the pin. Trying to hold these small pins and drive them into the holes would be very hard with a tweezers or needle hose pliers. Here is the one I have Not really in focus, but you can kinda see the hold to hold the pin in each jaw After several long tedious sessions, all the pins were inserted on both sides of each wheel I am really glad the wheels are finally completed..

I decided to take a break from ship building and try a "non-ship". In this case I selected the "Stage Coach 1848" from Artesania Latina. I choose this one over other stagecoaches do to it's 1/10 scale. A little bigger than the other stagecoaches and I (having fat fingers) I like the larger scale models. For those of you that want to follow along, this will be a very slow build. It will get completed, but I am not a very active model builder. I work on them as time permits, so it is going to take some time. I would suggest checking back every 2-3 weeks or so for an update. Starting in, the first step is to build the four wheels. More or less a pretty straight forward task. Assemble the wheel rings - four pieces each In order to add the spokes, it mentions to use the "full size" diagrams to place the spokes. Problem is, and this just be the diagrams in my particular model, the full size diagrams are not entirely accurate as to the spoke placement. Notice in the two pictures below the spacing between some of the spokes are not the same. So if you lay the spokes via the diagram, the spaces between spokes will not be accurate. The spokes are made from 4x4mm strips flattened (by sanding) on two of the sides and then cut into 69mm lengths (for the large wheels) and 48mm lengths (for the smaller wheels). The spacing between most of the spokes are the same, so by using a compass, it is easy enough to find a correct size that will go all around the wheel. Once you know the accurate space between spokes it is easy enough to go around the wheels and mark where each spoke is to connect to the rim. For easiest spoke placement, I would suggest cutting a circular hole in a piece of 1" board to insert the wheel axle. From there the spokes will lie flat on the board and can easily be glued into the axle and onto the wheel rim To insure each spoke is the exact same length, use a stop on the saw box. It will save a lot of time and insure each spoke is the proper length Adding the spokes to the smaller wheels and to the larger wheels end results prior to painting After a little primer After paint and before adding the trim

Thanks for all you comments...I appreciate them. For anyone who thinks they may be interested in the model, I highly recommend it. It was fun and I learned a lot along the way. For those of you who would like to make the Chaperon and have it look more like the real ship,, I have included a couple links Brian (mbp01) sent me on the Chaperon. One link is a series of photos on the ship and other is a 3D Virtual Walk through. The 3D Virtual Walk through is especially neat as you can take a virtual walk through most of the ship. By the way, if you have not seen it, take a look at Brian's (mbp01) log on his build of the Chaperon. It is truly museum quality work. Anyway... have fun and hope future Chaperon builders will find this log helpful....if nothing else, show you how not make some of my mistakes. 🙂 3D Virtual Walk through https://www.jensmittelbach.de/steamboats/chaperon/index.html Chaperon Photos https://search.library.wisc.edu/search/digital?q=chaperon&filter[facets][collections_facet~Historic+Steamboat+Photographs]=yes

OK,,, back at it.... The end is near. Starting with the rigging... Used some black .25mm line. As you might imagine, it is a real rats nest of lines going back and forth holding up the smoke stacks. Somewhat of a challenge for me trying attaching each line while trying not to knock any of the existing lines. but eventually they were all applied Kind of hard to see the lines in these pictures with black lines against the black deck, but the plans accurately show where each lines goes, so not a big deal. On to rigging the forward gang plank. Again a lot of lines in a small area. Plans are accurate as to where each line goes. Only real (shall we say) "excitement" was with the very last line. Swung my head around to fast and the magnifying glasses on my head accidently hit the gang plank. All the rigging, gang plank, and boom came crashing down. By that time (after a few choice words) I had been at it too long and too tired, and too cranky to repair it. Repairs will be the next day. I have found that about 2 hours of work on a model is about all I can do at one time. After that I start making mistakes (like this one). This time I had been working about 3 hours,,,,, and obviously it showed up with the crash. I will try to listen to my own advice more in the future. On to the life boats. At this point all I really had to do was rig the gang planks. The life boats and posts were made earlier. Brian made the suggestion in his build that the interlocking rings at the base of the post are a little funky and instead mounted the posts on a board and extended out for the hull. These boards are circled in red below. Also, the upper deck is wider than the lower deck (or at least that is the way it is on my model), so if you use the interlocking rings from the lower deck, the posts will extend out from the upper deck and will not be vertical. I liked the idea of mounting the posts on a board instead of the interlocking rings.... And with the life boats rigged I am going to "call it".... done ...... except for the base.... Over the next week I will figure out some sort of base. Its eventual home will be in a large display case that hold most of my models so it will be protected. It has been a long journey and a real challenge for me as I am probably a below average modeler at best. But it has been fun.... At this point I am going to take a break from ship building. My next build will be the Artesania Stage Coach. For some reason that caught my eye and I looking forward to it. Here are a few final pictures

Cathead and Brian Thanks for your comments. I appreciate them... As for my lack of posting...I really should stick more to ship building.... Seems all sorts of other stuff pull me away, but when I have time and in the mode, I always get back to it. As I do enjoy the builds. It sometimes takes me 1 1/2 - 2 years to finish a model, but they do get done. Here are the painted coke can smoke stack shields. They turned out OK I am sure I am the last one to learn this, but I will mention it anyway. When painting coke cans or etched brass for that matter, in order to get paint to stick well to either surface, you really need to first spray on some sort of "etched primer". This primer as the name implies, somehow etches the metal as it is applied and leave a very good base for later paints. I have found (the hard way), that just using a normal primer and then the final paint over metal does not turn our very well. It looks great initially, but when trying to apply the piece to a model, frequently some of the paint flakes off. Sanding the metal with 400 grit and the following up with an "etched primer" and paint leaves a pretty solid finish. I just used a rattle can of etched primer from hardware store, but I have head others talk about an actual product for spray guns call "SMS Etch Primer" that is supposed to be very good at preparing metal for paint. Starting working on the stern timbers and ran into a slight problem. Since I added the railing on top of the fence, you can not get the correct angle of the timbers to reach the vertical posts. Railing is in the way and there is no way to make the timbers match up with the vertical posts. Took a lot of humming and hawing, but about the only idea I could think of was to extend the vertical posts back over the railing as shown in the picture below. With the vertical posts now even with the back fence, was not to big an issue to make the timbers line up. Final result showing the stern timbers now lining up with the extended vertical posts. An other option, might be to have a break in the fence on both sides of the timbers. That might have looked better, but I did not want to destroy the already installed fence. Started working on the hog truss posts and caps Paddle wheel installed and cables. Rather than us the supplied thread I decided to us 22 gauge black wire. If you decide to use wire, 22 gauge wire fits the hog truss posts cap holes exactly. Turnbuckles have not been painted black Black cable over a black floor did not show up on all the picture, but hog truss posts, caps, and cabling complete

Really nice paint job. And even smooth gloss finish... not easy to do.

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.

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....

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

It has been awhile since my last update.... Summer activates and around the house chores has kept be away from the shipyard. Here are a few updates... Completed the Pilot House... With the exception of the "CHAPERON" lettering... I completed those a long time ago, but for some reason can not find them... Ugh... I will look some more next week when I get back to our home location, but I may have to start over and redo them. Not sure whey the below picture came out blue, as the pilot house is defiantly white.. I guess just pretend you are seeing a white pilot house 🙂 For the support wires, I actually used wires instead of the supplied line. It is 28 gauge wire Completed the lifeboats. Use 1/32 x 3/32 strips to plank the lifeboats. And the Stage is pretty close to complete. Just needs some blackened eyebolts It has been a long haul, but the end is in sight... A few more weeks (at the rate I build) and the chaperon should be complete.

Brian, Thanks for the information.... I really appreciate it. I do not have any copper sheeting on hand, but I do like that idea instead of card stock. In the mean time, I will try my hand with the aluminum can.

Started on the railing that go around the ship.... I was not looking forward to this as I was sure the hull (do to my poor building skills) was not going to match the curve in the etched brass railings. To my surprise the railings were pretty close to the curve in the etched brass railings. Some of the square stationaries were not exactly 3/32" high so they had to be filled down some, but for the most part the railings on the hurricane deck went on pretty well. As designed in the kit the railings looks a little thin and and do not have any type of place for you hand to rest. Just one skinny railing. I decided to a strip of wood on to of the railing to make them look a little more finished. I decided to use 1/16" x 1/16" strips on top of the railings. In order to pre-bend for the curves it runs out a laundry detergent cup is very close to the curve in the railing. A little soaking and a few clamps and drying over night, and the wood was very close to the actual curve in the railing. Below there are two strips being bent. One already painted the the other to be painted The old saying is try,,,,,, it is not possible to ever have too many clamps While waiting for those strips to dry and be painted, I decided to add some planking to the inside of the pilot house.... I just seemed a little stark with plan walls. On to the six rear smoke stacks. I started out using the supplied dowel rods and attempted to make the paper tops as described in the directions... I used stiff paper, but it was not as stiff as card stock. That may be my issue as i just could not make those stack tops look very good. They looked mis-shaped. At that point I decided to skip the paper tops, but then I could not use the dowel rods as stacks,,,, as they would look like dowel rods. Thus I cut some 5/32" and 1/4" copper tubing to simulate the stacks. They would not have the tops, but at least they would look more like smoke stacks than dowel rods. Below are the smoke stacks ready to be attached to the hull... I have since found some firmer card stock, so I will make a few more attempts at the stack tops, but I am no optimistic of the outcome.... Besides, the copper tubing painted black look pretty good as smoke stacks,,,, we will see what happens with my attempt at tops with card stock.

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 🙂

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

From the comments above it looks like the quick indexes are being maintained, and I really do like them. But when I look at the tags for the various indexes, they all snow a date of Nov 2023. Are just the titles incorrect and in reality the indexes are up to date? Thanks john

Brian, Thanks for the comments... I am no where near in the same class of builder that you are, but I have fun with it. Here is a picture of the final Buckwagon. If you care to see all the gory detail, below is the log https://modelshipworld.com/topic/35314-western-mountain-buckboard-by-john-gummersall-finished-model-trailways-112-scale/

It has been about four months, but I am back.. Took a little break and worked on the Western Mountain Buckboard model. It is what I call a "quick win" and just want I needed to re-energize myself. Back to the shipyard (Buckboard is not a ship).. Just about completed the boiler deck stationaries (ran out of painted posts) and started the cap strips. They were previously bent and painted. Just waiting for the boiler deck stationaries to be completed.

Only thing left to do is mount the wheels and add the large nuts to the axle (to keep the wheels on). The four large nuts are made/cut from the same rubber like material used for the outside of the wheel. Instructions all to glue two of them together to make what looks like a large nut. Below shows eight rubber nuts guided together to form four large nuts. Mount the wheels and add the nuts to each axle, holding the wheels on. If you look close you will see one of the nuts inside the hub on the axle. With at, all that is left to do is add the whip and I am "calling it" done... For anyone you is interested in building the Buck Wagon, below are a few points to consider. All of these have been mentioned above along the way, but here is a summary. 1) The 3/16" bolts are too short of many of the places that call for 3/16" bolts. Before you begin, I would contact Model Expo and have them send you some extra 1/4" nuts. They easily fit in those spaces the 3/16" bolts are too short. 2) The supplied nails are way oversized and the heads are cone shaped instead of flat. Since the bottom of the wagon could not be seen, I decided not to use them there, but by the time I reached the wheels, I still could not see using the supplied nails. For the wheels I purchased much small nails and they worked great. If you are going to purchase smaller nails, purchase enough to cover the bottom of the wagon too in addition to the wheels. 3) The Reach plate assembly (to me anyway) was really unclear. I studied it a long time (way too long) trying to figure it out. It finally came to me, but unless you already know about Reach plates, you will spend some time trying to figure it out. Hopefully some of the pictures I supplied above will help. 4) The axle coupling (not sure what purpose it serves on the wagon), really should be on the front axle. Diagrams are not real clear as to the exact size and location of the front axle clips. Be sure to fit one of the longer clips on the outside so to have room for the axle coupling. For me it is back to the Chaperon Riverboat. I was about 3/4 they way though that build and I needed a break. I took on the Buck Wagon as a "quick win" and a break from the Chaperon... Have been revitalized, I am going back to the shipyard and complete the Chaperon.

On to the wheels. All four wheels went together very well and stained As mentioned early on, the nails supplied are grossly oversized. Earlier I mentioned skipped them on the underside of the cart. but the wheels really needed some sort of nails. I went out an purchased some smaller nails that fit the bill perfectly. Holes were drilled between each spoke and a nail (with black painted head) was inserted. Below you see some of the nails with sticking out of each wheel. After all nails were inserted, they were clipped off the outside of the wheel and files smooth. Final version of one of the wheels with nails cut off, rim cleats added, and gasket material added on the outside of the wheel. At this point instructions all to cut little swales between the nails on each spoke. Sounds good in theory, and it actually looks good in the pictures, but someone of my skill just could not handle it. I started out making the swales (about 10 or so), but I just could not get them consistent looking. Seemed each swale was different and the overall look was horrible. I took some wood filler and covered up my mistake. So my wheels will not have the swales. What you see below is how they are going to look. On to the apron... Not much to say here... goes on pretty easy. Likewise with the luggage rack.. Only thing I will say here is with these two parts, and like the other Britannia parts with the model, they are so thin that they bend out of shape just looking at them... Lots of fun with Britannia 🙂

There are two parts to the cart that are not mentioned in the instructions... Axle Couplings and Wheel Rubs. They are shown in the diagrams, but not very clear (to me anyway) as to where they belong. Below are the Axle Couplings (in black) and Wheel Rubs (in red). I contacted Model Expo in requesting a picture of their cart showing the location of these parts. The below picture was returned. Note the location of Axle Couplings (in red) and Wheel Rubs (in green). A picture is worth a thousand words. At this point I have an issue. Looks like the Axle Couplings only go on the outside clips of front axle. When I assembled the front axle, the front axle diagram showed all the front axle clips to be "about" the same size, with each one a little longer. If you look below, the diagram shows the clips going from short to long on the axle from outside to inside. My problem now is the short clips at the end of the front axle are not long enough to hold the Axle Couplings. I think at this point I am going to skip them. I am not even sure what they are supposed to do. To me an axle coupling function to join two shafts together. From the picture they do not seem to server any purpose. Put them on if you want, but to me it is not worth (at this point) switching some of the longer for shorter clips just to add the Axle Couplings. Below show the Front Axle clips I mentioned above. As you can see, it shows the clips going from short to long on the axle from outside to inside. If you follow the instructions (as I did), you will not have room for the axle coupling fittings on the outside clip. Not a big deal, just swap the last two clips and you will have plenty of room and the shorter clip will fit just fine as the 2nd clip inward. As for the wheel Rubs, they have a couple small holes in them for bolts. Bolts do not go through the deck. Cut the heads off some small bolts and inserted them into the holes to show they are bolted to the underside of the cart. Wheel rubs with small bolts stuck through the holes And with the bolt cut off Anyway, I just wanted to insert this topic on the Axle Couplings and Wheel Rubs as it is a little confusion as to where they are located. Hopefully this will help someone down the line.

Completed adding the spokes to the wheels and doing some fine tuning on the spokes. I have have made a mistake earlier when I indicated that it would be easier to do the bulk of the spoke trimming before they were glued into the wheel. Turns out that may not have been the case. While doing the fine tuning, it was easier then I expected and the spokes are well glued into the wheel. I might suggest following the instructions (who does that?) and do all the trimming of the spokes after they are in the wheels. Still have to add the tire bolts, round the edges, and re-stain, but these wheels are close to being done. Speaking of tire bolts, they call to use the same nasty nails that were supplied for the underside of the carriage. For these I ordered some more appropriate size bolts. Hopefully they will arrive in the next few days Nearing the end. Below are a few pictures of the current status. Will still need to touch up the paint here and there at the end. All Reach Assembly parts have been added. A couple close ups of the forward Reach Assembly parts. And some overall pictures of the current status Rear view Front view And a couple overhead shots Next plan to add the Luggage Rail, Apron, and whip