John Gummersall

I agree spiling is not a problem on the Philadelphia. But as I have mentioned earlier, past models have shown to me that I am the "World's Worst Spiler" (if that is a word). Fortunately wood filler, paint, and a lot of sanding makes hides even the world's worst "spiling" job. Having said that, there is some minor bending/twisting of wood on the Philadelphia. I do like Chuck's method of bending wood as very few clamps are required to make the plank lie flat to the bulkheads. My previous planking jobs usually have ended up with more clamps than wood try to get the wood to do unnatural acts to lie flat. Looking forward to my next ship that has thinner planks and more curve/twist to them to see if I will loose my title as "World's Worst Spiler"

Before I take on spiling I thought it best if I give Chuck Passaro's planking Videos one more review. I have seen them before and they looked interesting, but I never really attempted his process. Having gone back over the videos, I now realize this is the way to do planking - for me anyway. I made a very small version of the bending station suggested by Chuck. In Chuck's case it looks like he uses a 2 x 12 board over a couple of saw horses. That seemed a really good setup, but I just did not have that kind of room. Below is my smaller version of a bending station. With the Philadelphia there are not too many planks to bend and each plank is much wider than the planks on most models. This process worked great for me even with the wider planks. I say "even with the wider planks" as the wider planks are much harder to bend. Narrower planks would be much easier to bend. I am looking foreword to trying this process on a future boat with narrower planks, but for now this worked great for me. In the event you are interested, here are the links to Chuck's videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCWooJ1o3cM&t=7s Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T5C9rW2JkU Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atXqH0GWLL8 Part 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhwsf4lW6Sc Part 4 As I was waiting for planking to dry I wanted to experiment with blacking brass. Just as many theories on spiling as there are modelers, there are any number of ways to blacken brass - some successful other not so successful. In my case I wanted to try "Novacan Black Patina / for Solder - Lead". I had heard this works pretty well so I wanted to give it a try. Below is the result. I need to keep fiddling with it. In the example below I did not pre-clean them with acetone. Just took the brass and stuck it into the Novacan Black Patina. I was hoping for a more even black. Instead I got a very rusty look. So it defiantly aged the items - like they have been sitting on the bottom of the sea for some time - and that is a look if that is what you are after. Tomorrow I will try with a pre-wash of acetone to see if I get a more even look - We will see,,,, As you can see the above blackening process left the pieces looking pretty rustic. If that is the look you want then OK. In my case I wanted a more even blackening. I attempted diluting the Novacan to 1/2 strength (with water) and ended up with a pretty even blackening with nothing rubbing off. Based on the dilution process, I am really impressed with Novacan for blackening brass. Below are some additional Philadelphia brass etching pieces blackened with Novacan at 1/2 strength.

Been awhile since my last update... As I indicated early on, this will be a painfully slow log... I do not get to work on the model as much as I would like. Seems something else is always tugging for my attention... Anyway, the first three planking rows have been completed.... Pretty straight foreword, just a slow process. Each plank has to be cut to size, soaked, pinned into place, let dry, and then glue into place. Below is my attempt at the first three planking rows Bow Stern Port Side Starboard Side As I was waiting for each plank to dry I decided to plank the decking. As mentioned earlier,,, "why do something easy when you can make it hard". I used 1/32" x 1/2" planking as I did not want to add to much height to the deck. Having said that, additional height does not appear, at this point, to make a difference with the Philadelphia. In hindsight I probably should have used 1/16" x 1/2" planking as 1/32" has a lot more warping to deal with than the 1/16". In addition, others had mentioned that an additional 1/16" of an inch probably is what the original model designer intended and greatly helps with the placement of the canons. In either case, do not forget to weight down the decking after planking it to prevent warping. You will definitely have warped decking if you do not weight them down as the glue dries. Below is the decking after the planking. At this point I just layed the decking in the boat for the picture. In reality, the ceiling planking will be applied before the decking is glued into place. Now on to the (shall we say) fun part - spiling.... I am probably the world's worst spiler.... I have attempted and tried several spiling methods others have used in past models but do not really feel comfortable with any of them. At this point I just to not have the knack for it. I am not sure what the issue is... too old to learn, too new to modeling, or just no talent - pick one..... Once again, we will take it on and see what happens.. 🙂

I agree,,,, really nice job on everything I see,,, Boiler and machinery look really good. You have a far steadier hand than I did... I had a hard time with those small parts... As for you spiling,,,, that looks great too. From the pictures you did a very good job at matching the planks. To me pre-notched lines for planking were more of a guide that the absolute truth... Main thing is to try to match the curve of the previous plank and have as small gap (or no gap) as possible between planks. From what I can see, you have done an excellent job (and better than I do). I will give one word of warning,,,, when it comes to painting the hull, no matter how much you patch and sand, even the smallest seams will show up and appear huge to you after the first prime coat. It is easy to get discouraged after what seems like endless sanding and have a hull that looks really smooth, only to have the paint expose numerous seams. Just keep patching, sanding, and additional coats of paint. Eventually all the seams will be filled and the hull will be smooth. It may take 6-7 coats of paint,,,, but in the end, the hull will smooth and look fantastic.

Cockpit floors have been laid. One issue I noticed on the bailing well is that there is no border to the well to support the lid. The model does not have a lid, but I assume there should have been. The 3/16" board on one side could support one side of the lid, but there is no support for the other side of the lid (marked in green below). I did not catch this until after I laid the cockpit floor. If I was doing this again I would have just cut the flooring plank a litter shorter exposing some of the 3/16" floor support board. However, at this point, not sure If I will just leave it (as that is what the instructions call for) or just add a small piece of wood on the edge to support the bailing well lid. With both cockpit floors completed I added a 1/32" strip of wood over the false keel portion of the cockpit (marked in red) as I assume this will be visible in the completed model. With the age of philosophy saying "you can never have enough clamps", below sits the hull with both port and starboard strips of the sheerplanks, soaked in water, and bent into place. Once dry, tomorrow I will glue them on,,,, and the planking fun will begin.

I am by far no expert on spiling,,,, In fact far from it.. Most of my attempts at spiling have a lot to be desired.... But I have learned this,,,, if you plan to paint the hull, no matter how good or bad your spiling looks,,,, in the end both good spiling and bad spiling all look the same under paint. The better your spiling the less sanding you will have to do, but in the end it all looks the same under paint. Try to keep learning you spiling skills (as I am), but also try not to worry about it as you go. Not worth the worry. Remember, sanding and paint are your friends and your ship will look great in the end. Everyone will marvel at your completed ship and you will look back and wonder why you agonized so much over the spiling.

Completed bulkheads.... In previous posts I mentioned that I had to trim what I would consider an unusual amount off each bulkhead. This seems to have changed. As shown in my last post I started with bulkhead #9 and worked toward the stern. I mentioned I was worried that I had to trim each bulkhead what I would consider an excessive amount (2mm). I was worried I was doing something incorrect but saw no other way. Interesting enough, when I got to bulkheads #1-#8 they all seemed to be the correct length with only minor trimming for them to match the outer edge of the hull. So I guess all is good with the world. In the below picture, all bulkheads have been installed and I have started on the foreword lower cockpit I do not really expect any issues with the foreword and aft lower cockpits... Famous last words.... we will see what trouble I can get myself into...

Following that age old philosophy stating "why do something easy when you can make it hard" I decided to plank the bottom of the hull and the decking in the boat. But for this you need to get some extra wood. I decided to plank the bottom of the hull and the decking with 1/32" x 1/2" wood. In hindsight I think I should have gone with 1/32" x 3/8", but the wood has been ordered... While waiting for the wood to show up I moved on to the cannons. As others have commented both the 9lbs and 12lbs cannons need a lot of cleanup from the molds. Might be time for Model Expo to get a new cannon mold. Anyway, they clean up pretty well after some filing and sanding. When assembling the 9 lbs cannon mounts it says to glue the front and side pieces on the etched lines on the wheels.. Problem is the front piece (shown in green below) is not wide enough. When you glue on the side pieces they do not line up with the etched lines on the wheels. While dry fitting I noticed this but did not give it much thought... Not so good. Problem is, later on, when you lay the cannon in the mount the back part of the cannon will not fit down in the the slot... So the cannon will only shoot straight and be able to shoot up into the air. This might be an issue later on if the cannon potentially could not be high enough to shoot over the rail. I was thinking of breaking down the mount and add a small sliver of wood on both sides of the front piece (to make it wider), but a better thought was just to sand down the two side pieces (shown in red). The required sanding is so small that it is completely unnoticeable. So when building you cannon mount, note if the sides line up on the etched lines and if not, plan to sand down the sides or increase the side of the front piece. Have not built the 12lbs cannon mount yet, but will look out for this potential issue. Final result for the cannons... The do clean up respectable ... Not museum quality but good enough for me. Note the mount for the small cannons in red. The mount from the kit was so bad that is broke even with really delicate handling. Using two eyelets and some thin wire I created a new mount. Once this is mounted on the boat, it will look fine. Planking arrived and bottom planked. I started out thinking I would do the 1,3,5,2,4 or 1,3,2,4 planking pattern, and spent some time in laying out both patterns to see what I like best,,, It ended up being the 1,3,5,2,4 pattern. However after lots of thought and time on the issue I screwed up the pattern on the very first row, but did not realize it until I was on the 2nd row.... So from there I just said "the heck with it" and went for a totally random pattern. Oh well,,,, it is just the bottom and few (only those that peak) will ever see it. If you plank the bottom hull, be sure to put weights on it as the glue dries to prevent warping... I learned that the hard was on a previous model. With bottom planked, stained (golden pecan), and sealed, I started installing the bulkheads. Take time to insure you false keel is straight before you start the bulkheads. As mentioned earlier, I am not sure why my bulkhead pieces were so long. On both sides of the hull they extended about 2mm past the hull. So in addition to beveling the planks with bevel lines I had to trim each 1/2 bulkhead by about 2mm in order for them to line up with the edge of the hull bottom. Not really a big deal, but the fact that every bulkhead was about 2mm long (and other logs only mentioned slight sanding) made me feel a little uncomfortable that something was amiss... Anyway,,, we will see what trouble I get into later on do to this "adjustment". As with planking the bottom, be sure you have weights on the bulkheads as the glue dries,,,, or you will have some warping and a lot of (shall we say) "fun" later on trying to unwarp the hull. - Again,,, ask me how I know this 🙂

Lewes, Thanks for the heads up..... I will keep that in mind when I get to beveling the bulkheads... By the way,,,, is it just me or were your bulkheads a little long too and had to be shortened where they meet the false keel?

Started to dry fit some of the bulkheads on the false keel and noticed that almost every bulkhead (on both sides of the keel) extend beyond the flat bottom of the boat. The bow/stern sections (after beveling) seem like they will be close, but most of the others seem about 2mm long. From what I can tell they are supposed to line up with the edge of the bottom of the boat. Not a big deal as I can easily shave off some of the center joint where it meets the keel, but the fact that almost every bulkhead is too long somewhat concerns me. Like maybe I missed an earlier step an did not build the false keel correctly. Looking at some of the other Philadelphia logs only Brucealanevans mentions adjusting the bulkheads,,, and that seemed only because he mentioned his false keel was not square. Anyway,,, I have gone back over the plans and instructions all seems to be correct. I just I just need to adjust them where they meet the keel so that the outside of the bulkhead lines up with the bottom. Should not be a big deal, but I am concerned I may regret this later in the build.... But do not seem to have a choice.

Just starting up the gunboat Philadelphia build... I just completed the USN Picket and anxious to get started on the Philadelphia. I am by no means an expert builder but having a lot of fun along the way. One word of warning,,,,, this will be a painfully slow log to follow. I know most people hate slow logs. I am not a full time modeler so I only get to work on it when I have some spare time. Hopefully I will be able to have at least one post a week. Maybe more,,, Rather than have a log and shows only the good stuff I plan to bare my dirty laundry and show a lot of "what not to do when building the Philadelphia". I will plan to complete the Philadelphia, but it may get ugly along the way... One item that I am sure is a "no brainer" to more experienced builders, but is worth mentioning... The Philadelphia, like most medium/large models has a lot of wood strips of various sizes. Before you begin, I would suggest you identify each different size of wood strip and label it so you can easily find it later in the build. The wood strips are very similar in size and no sense rummaging through all the word each time to want a particular size. Below is my attempt at labeling each strip size. Does not matter how you label them, but you will save yourself a lot of grief in the build if you can easily identify each strip as you need it. Starting right in,,,,, The instructions call to build the false keep, glue the stem and stern posts to it, and then trim the stem and stern posts. I guess right away I am altering from the instructions,,, Hope this is not an omen for the future,,,, To me it is much easier to build the stem and stern posts, trim them, and then attach them to the false keel. Not sure if I will get in trouble later on or not, but one thing I did do when beveling the stem/stern posts for the rabbets was to trim them more than the suggested trim lines. In the past when I have trimmed the stem/stern posts to the suggested lines, it is never enough to accept the planking, and when planking I had to shave the ends of the planks to fit into the rabbets. This time I choose to bevel the stem/stern posts enough to accept the end of the planks that will eventually be inserted. Like I say, have never done this before and later on in the build I may regret it, but it has been done. Here is the result of the stem and stern post builds. Stem Post Stern Post Then building the false keel there are three cross pieces to provide support and help verify the keel is plumb when glued to be bottom of the hull. I do not have a couple machine angle plates to help insure the cross pieces (and later on bulkheads) are square... So you use what you have. In this case some angle braces. Worked well for these cross pieces, but looking at the bulkheads, I can see some (shall we say) "fun" ahead trying to get the bulkheads square. In the past I have had issues getting bulkheads square when each bulkhead was one piece, but in the case of the Philadelphia most of the bulkheads are two pieces. Doubly hard to get square.... and if the bulkheads are not square, you are in for all sorts of issues down the line - ask me how I know this 🙂 Let's just say I plan to pick up a couple machine angle plates prior to taking on the bulkheads Laying out the bottom of the boat pretty straight foreword. Glue the three pieces together and you are done. Just insure you have a very flat table and while the glue is drying, put some weight on it to prevent warping. Below is the completed keel (with stem/stern plates attached) and the bottom of the boat. One note, the bottom section of the boat is 608mm long, but the false keel is 610mm long. Not a big deal, and I probably could have left the overhang, but just to be safe I shortened the false keel by 2mm before gluing on the stern post. Was not sure that 2mm gap would have made a difference when planking, but did not want to take a chance and easy to correct. Verify you false keep fits the bottom of the boat before gluing. Below is a picture of the stern post after gluing to the false keel. The stem post connection to the false keel was really sloppy. Not a good fit at all. Below (in red square) I glued a small piece of wood on each side of the false keep where it meets the stern post - just to insure a good bond

I agree,,, off to a good start.... I just completed my Picket build, but you are incorrect. The Picket collection of models already had an amateurish version - Mine 🙂

Seems OK To Me.... The stain is just Rust-oleum Weathered Grey. However, rather apply it like most stain where you brush it on and then wipe it off to get the look you want... I just brushed it on like paint and did not wipe any off. In effect it is like a grey paint..

Thanks for all the comments..... I am still have a lot to learn,,,, but having fun during the process...

I decided to skip the blocks in the kit and order some from Syren. They are much more realistic and have to be assembled. In my case I ordered double blocks. They come with five sheets that must be glued together to form six full double blocks. Instructions makes several references to carefully align the five sheets that form each block before glueing. In reality the five sheets all go together very easily and align perfectly. In fact they aligned so easily, I thought I was not doing it correctly. As I played with the sheets trying to see if there was some other way of lining them up, I realized the pieces on these sheets break off very easily - Ask me how I know that .... 🙂 Four of the six blocks had all the pieces and glued together nicely. The other two blocks I had to piece together to glue. The picture below does not show how really small some of the pieces on the first and last sheet (shown below) really are. So small, just the friction of the tweezers picking them up would make them stick to the tweezers. Save yourself a lot of time and grief and treat the sheets gently.... Gluing the blocks together from the sheets is much easier than having to build them by hand. Once the blocks dry, they can easily be broken out of the sheets, sanded and ready for stain. As with most things, the more you do them the better you get at it. While the finished blocks below look better than the stock ones, they could be better. Lack of skill on my part. My next set of blocks will be better At this point the hull has it's final paint coat and all machinery has been completed. All the remains is to assemble them. Starting in the bow with the Howitzer.. For raising/lowering the canon, the instructions called to wrap a 1/16 tube with thread to simulate screw threads. Instead I opted to just us an actual screw. Cut off the head to leave just the thread. To me it just looks more like screw thread. In hindsight, the hand crank (to turn the screw) probably should have been left brass or maybe painted silver to more stand out. As it is (black), it is kind of hard to see or really know what it is. One challenge was creating the two large wing nuts used to anchor the canon. Instructions call to cut a slit in the 3/32 tubing and insert the wing. Initially I was going to skip that part as I felt, no way was I going to be able to cut a slit in a 3/32 tube. But I gave it a shot and with a razor saw was actually able to make the slit. Not sure it did the very find teeth on the saw much good, but I was able to cut the slot and form the wing nuts. Similar issue when creating the three attach points for the canon. Here a hole must be drilled through the 3/32 tubing and a pin inserted. With a vise and a steady hand the hole was drilled. When drilling the hole, once you have gone through the first layer of tube, stop and re-align the bit to insure you will be drilling directly through the other side of the tube. If not, it is easy to get out of align when the drill comes out the other side of the tube. Again - ask me how I know that 🙂 In the below picture you can see four of the six blocks in action - used to move the canon back and forth on the deck. The hooks were just made out of eyelets and the blocks were stropped with very fine line. As you can see,,,, my stropping skills need a lot of improvement. Below shows those canon lines coming from the blocks to a couple cleats below the deck. Whatever army guy ordered the line for those blocks had no clue really went overboard. Those lines probably should go over the deck by maybe 6 feet or so... As you can see there is probably about 20 feet of line from the blocks coiled on those two cleats . A little more line than needed 🙂 Here are a few more pictures of the front section,,, Moving to the mid-section of the boat we have the machinery. Not really much here. Since the machinery has been assembled, all that remains is to insert them into the hull. I will say,,, in the philosophy of "do as I say and not as I do".... I did have some (shall we say) "fun" with the machinery. In my case I wanted all the piping that was intended to go through the deck, to actually go through the deck. To me that just looked better then having the pipes just stop at the deck. Thinking I had a good idea, I cut the vertical pipes (the one that were to go through the deck), longer than need be and glue them into the upper pipe. My thought was that then I could then just hold the piece machinery where it was supposed to go, mark the deck, drill the hole, and then lower the machinery and the pipe would go into the deck. In reality it did not work out so well. Holding the piece of machinery, it is very difficult to mark the exact spot in the deck for the pipe. Off by the tiniest bit and the machinery will be out of place. Put the machinery in the correct spot, and if the hole is not exact, the pipe is not vertical. Even if the pipe is only out of vertical by a tiny about, it is real obvious - Again,,, ask me how I know this. It took me way more time trying to get the machinery and pipes straight than I am sure it was supposed to. I think a better approach would have been to put the machinery in place and then measure/cut and glued in the vertical pipes. In the case of the rudder, I wanted a curved rudder. Using the two rudder pieces supplied I was able to make a curved rudder, but to me it was just too skinny. Perhaps it was do again to lack of skill on the builder (me)... Using my skinny rudder has a template I used a couple pieces of spare wood and made a thicker rudder. To me it looked better,,, some may disagree. In regards to the torpedo I had a few cleats left over, so rather than take several lines to one cleat I dedicated a cleat to each line. This time the army guy in charge of lines got it a little more accurate (or at least he thinks so). The forward and aft lines and firing pin lines need to have extra line in order to be able to launch and trigger the torpedo. Those three lines go to their respective cleats and the remaining line is coiled on the bench. The torpedo release pin line is only used to release the pin, so not a lot of extra line would be required. As such this line goes around a cleat with the remainder just hanging in the boat At this point "I am calling it",,,,, To me I am done..... Below are a couple more pictures,, And it her final home....

I agree,,,,, a really nice job

Fittings on boiler complete. All other machinery complete too... Next step will be inserting the machinery into the hull.

After a fair amount of sanding and re-painting the final hull. It still has a few "dinks" on the bottom, but you won't see those, and the sides look great, so I am going to "call it" done. Turning the hull over - getting close to done here too. Still have to mount the coal bin hinges and tiller. Getting set up to add the machinery. The build of the condenser and hot well are as easy as they look. It is hard to see, but the pipes that are intended to go through the deck are a little longer than the feet. Rather then just have the pipes stop at the deck, I plan to drill holes in the deck so the pipes actually go through the deck. A little more realist look than just have the pipes stop at the deck. Building the engine is a lot easier than it looks on the diagrams. Diagrams are very good and show the exact way the engine should be built. The accurate detail on the diagrams I supposed is why (until you actually start the engine build) it looks so complicated. Study the engine build sequence and when you start to put the pieces together it really is easier than it looks. One thing to mention, (and this is probably obvious to more experienced modelers), is that the holes in the pieces on etched brass sheet need to be increased. One idea (do as I say and not as I did) is to expand them all at one time while they are still on the sheet. Pieces that are to take pins (like most the engine pieces) can be expanded with a .8mm drill bit. Pieces that are to take the 3/32" pipe can be expanded with the drill bit that came with the model. Bit is not labeled but I assume that bit is 3/32". Once that is done you will not have to stop what you are doing with each piece to expand the holes. Only issue I had with the engine (and you will too) is dealing with the very small parts of the engine. It takes a good eye and a couple good tweezers, but it does go together. Instructions call to "rivet" the brass pieces together. No way someone of my skill (and large fingers) should even attempt to rivet those very small brass pieces. A small dab of CA glue works great. Much better option than riveting... to me anyway. Instructions call to complete the plumbing of the engine at this time. Not knowing exactly where the engine will be located on the deck, I figured best to complete the plumbing when the engine is positioned on the deck. Just noticed the simulated bolts on the engine are showing a little white... Will touch that up before final deck placement

Turangi Thanks for the comment on the stack. I too am pleased with how it turned out. However, I am way too much a novice model builder to have any original thoughts. If it is not in the plans or in someone else's MSW build log, it is not in my build. In this case the thought for the stack did come from another Picket build log. After some filling and sanding ( a lot of filling and sanding) and a coat of grey primer below is the result. Before the primer I thought the hull was pretty smooth, but as they say... "primer magnifies your blemishes by 10% and paint magnifies them by 100%".... As you can see, I have some more filling and sanding to do before the final test of paint. However, when it comes to painting I will be cheating... as I plan the final will be a flat black. A whole lot more forgiving than if the hull required a gloss finish. Took a break from the filling/sanding and wanted to take on something easier. Decided to tackle the spar torpedo next. Below are the results. Nothing really hard about the torpedo configuration - that is if you do not follow the instructions. The instructions call to pin and (somehow with a hammer) rivet the various pieces together. No way someone of my skill could do that rivet process with such tiny pieces - or any pieces for that matter. Instead I just pined and then CA glued the pieces together. A strong bind and way easier then riveting them. As to the tip of the torpedo, when I attempted to carve the point at the head, it did not turn out well. Looked more like a bullet than a point. Further work on it just could not get a point that looked good to me. Again taking a page out of other Picket build logs, I make the point out of card stock. Started with a compass and drew a circle. Cut out a 25% pie wedge from the circle and then rolled it up to see the point. From then continued to cut a bigger and bigger pie piece out of the circle until I got a point I was happy with. When gluing the final result to the dowel, have the seam on the bottom of the torpedo and no one will see it. With the spar and all steps in the future that require the use of pins or eyelets. Use a .6mm drill bit to make the hole. It fits the pins exactly. Also, the holes in the pieces in the brass sheet (that are to take a pin or eyelet) are not quite big enough to take a pin or eyelet. Use the .6mm drill bit to enlarge each hole. Looking ahead I expanded holes on all the brass pieces with the .6mm drill bit. Same issue with the parts on the brass sheet that are intended to pass a 3/16 pipe. Those holes are also little too small. Best to expand them with a 3/16 bit before taking them out of the sheet. Final spar mostly assembled. I plan to attach the fittings to the spar when they are attached to the hull.

Began to work on foreword side of the boiler. Rather than use the 1/2'' dowel rod suggested in the instructions I changed that out for a 1/2'' pipe. I just looked more like a smoke stack. Interestingly enough, the dowel rod was 1/2'' outside diameter and the pipe was 1/2" inside diameter, so it slipped easily over the dowel. Cut about a 1" length off the dowel and glued it to the top of the structure then glued and slipped the 1/2'' pipe over the dowel. Added the doors and painted the entire stack black Below is the stack along with the steam barrel and rudder. I was thinking of using metal straps instead of the card stock for the steam barrel straps, but could not find a 1/8" metal straps. Everywhere I looked at local hobby shops and the internet were all out of them and did not know when they would get more in. I guess blame Covid 19 for supply shortages. Later added the stack bands (again card stock) and the door hinges and handles. Instructions talked about soldering the hinges but they were easy enough just to glue then. Back to the hull,,, After an initial sanding and some filling After adding the both rub rails and some basic sanding - - still have a lot of sanding/filling in my future,

Add the top of the steam dome and it is starting to look like something Boiler stand pretty straight foreword On to the foreword end of the boiler. This is were the fun starts. I am looking foreword to this... Instructions pretty straight foreword with the first part. Note the four 1/8 x 1/8 corner pieces inside the structure. You will need these if you plan to round out the corners going into the smoke stack. Again a few minutes with the Dremel and the structure is rounded going into the smoke stack. Still need a little more sanding.

Planking of the hull complete. Time to add the stern section (parts 33-35). Glue them to the hull then trim them to match the curve of the stern section. A few minutes with a Dremel tool and the stern section was complete. If you do not have a rotary tool, you could do with with a file and sandpaper, but it will take a long time. Get some sort of rotary tool, you will not regret it. There is a slight gap between pieces 34-35. When trimming down the stern section, it just seemed like the correct angle. Trying to get a smooth curve that would eliminate the gap just seemed it would be too steep and not match the flow of the hull. This will easily be filled by wood filler later on. The final hull after an initial quick sanding..... I have a lot of sanding and filling in my future. Purists will note I did not use the usual 4 staggered plank pattern with the planking. Instead I mostly just lined of the planks on the same rib. I figured I was painting this hull, so no need to stagger the planks. Having said that,,,, I should have used the 4 staggered plank pattern with the planking. Even though I will not be seen after painting,,, It definably looks better before painting. On to the boiler,,, Instructions call to just somehow glue the steam dome to the main boiler and then somehow plank it. Gluing a flat surface to a round object and then try to plank it, seem a little to tricking for someone of my skill. Instead I did what some others have done and glued a piece of balsa to the top portion and then wrapping the main boiler in sand paper. From there you can easily rub the two pieces together to from a tight fit. Then it will be easy to plank. In my case I use a hole saw to cut the section to be glued to the top portion of the boiler. Balsa is so soft by no means do you need a hole saw to cut it. The Balsa could easily be cut with an exacto. If fact, I am sure it took me more time to set the hole saw set up to drill the hole than if I had just cut the balsa by hand. But,,, I just liked playing with hole saws. Do not show the process here, but this is the final result. Balsa sanded to fit the boiler curve and can easily be glued to the boiler Once glue dries, the top portion can easily be planked,

Remainder of the planking is pretty straight foreword and more or less go straight up the hull. One issue I would like to point out is the planks at the stern. Not only are they curved, they also twist. Best way to accomplish this is to soak them and pre-bend them. The wood is very thin and only about a 5-10 minute soaking is all that is needed. Once soaked, the plank bens/twists very easily and can be clamped (with very little effort) into place. Below show strake #5 being held in place by only one clamp and a rubber band. Be sure to let the plank completely dry before gluing to the hull. Once dry, the plank will maintain the shape you clamped it to and can easily be glued to the hull. Don't be tempted to glue it before it is dry as the planks shrink as they dry. If you glue wet planks to the hull, when the plank shrinks, you will have a gap between your seams. Below is a picture of the dry strake ready to be glued to the hull. Note the bend and twist. Again with only one clamp and a rubber band the dry plank is easily glued to the hull. It can be a pain waiting overnight for each plank dry. If you like, you can soak and bend/twist the corresponding planks on each side of the hull stern. That way two planks dry at the same time and next day you can glue two planks instead of just one.

Moving on up the hull (from the keel) the remaining strakes seem pretty straight foreword. Not nearly as complex as the initial strakes 10-13. I would like to point out where the hull curves the most (around strakes 7 & 8 ) it is pretty hard to get a good fit without some fiddling. Trying to make straight wood go around a curve leaves some somewhat wide gaps between the strakes. Not really a big deal is you plan to follow up with wood filler, but one option to make the strakes match up as this curved section of the hull is to pre-bend them to somewhat match the curve. Many ways to do this, but in my case I used some wood molding quarter round and a PVC pipe section. Soak the wood well and then clamp the strake between the molding quarter round and a PVC pipe as shown below. Give it plenty of time to dry (maybe overnight) and then viola you have a curved strake that will match up with the hull curve.

Instructions call to next build strike 13 (the one along the keel) and build strikes up from the bottom and down from the top. I guess meeting in the middle about strike 6 or 7. Looking at the plans, strikes 9-13 are the most challenging as the plans are not really clear as to where they lay at the stern - especially as they lie relating to curved part 23 and the steering column. In the bow section only strikes 12 and 13 took a little studying. For a seasoned builder, the plans may seem easy, but for me I had a really hard time figuring out where strikes 9-13 start and end. Having said that, the plans do seem to be correct. Just take a lot of studying. Make sure you fully understand the location of strikes 9-13 and you will be OK. Below is my interpretation of strikes 9-13. I think they are correct as to the plans, but I will let you be the judge. One more thing. I am with out a doubt the worlds worse "spiler" (if that is a word). Spiling the plans was a challenge for me, and I would be very disappointed if this was to be a natural wood finish hull. Fortunately with wood filler and paint, the hull in the end will be fine - just looks a little (shall we say) "rough" at this time. Below are some pictures (in my opinion) of strikes 10-13 as the stern section In the bow section, note where strikes 12-13 end. After that the strikes at the bow are pretty straight foreword. Below are some pictures after strike 9 was added. As I mentioned,,, pretty crude, but should turn out of OK in the end - A good wood filler can be your best friend. Photos (15).zip