Ferrus Manus
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Everything posted by Ferrus Manus
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Eric, I think the steam boilers in question might be based on land boilers used in steam tractors and locomotives. For one, there is this article that explains that the conflagration of coal gases run in a tube through the water in the boiler, heating it: There are also some images of steam tractors that show the firebox at the back and chimney at the front, which seems to have been the standard configuration at the time: Our boilers on the ship seem to be at least partially based on this steam tractor from 1920. Perhaps the designers of the kit misapplied the concepts of land boilers to their marine boiler design. This begs the question: if the coal box and chimney are both at the front of the boiler, how would the water be evenly heated?
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Eric, as I primarily deal with sailing ships, I am well aware of the confounding terminology involved. With that said, I understand that this kit is not based on a real ship, but is instead designed to look like a relatively convincing replica as viewed by a non-expert. This kit puts the fireboxes at the back of the boilers- there are even doors molded onto them. Furthermore, the location of the fore bulkhead makes it impossible for a man to even access the fore of the boiler to shovel coal. While this is inaccurate, I am not willing to scratch-build new boilers on a boat that should only take a few weeks to build. In other news, I have gotten the boilers and chimneys painted.
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I've now made up and painted the platform upon which the boilers sit, built the boiler assemblies, and I have them dry-fitted in place as well as the fore bulkhead and the second deck. Next step is painting and installing the steam boilers.
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Kieth, I greatly appreciate being taught the terminology for a type of ship I know very little about. Anyway, yesterday I got the arms and other machinery hooked up to the sternwheel, and the siding for that section of the ship into place. As is relatively standard for my work boats, I made the weathering severe and nasty, indicating a long life for the ship. Next is the coal boilers and associated machinery. I have also decided on a name for this boat- Carol Ann. Maybe when Lula's rudders jam, Carol Ann can push the supply barge for the pile driver. (Seriously, Kieth, your Lula is a masterpiece that I couldn't hope to compete with as I build this kit. You should be proud of her.)
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The process of finishing up the sternwheel involved entirely disassembling the wheel assembly and associated machinery, realigning and repainting the wheel and machinery, and gluing the paddles to the wheels. The process of assembling the paddle wheel: The paddles were attached five at a time. After they were all in place, I repainted any areas that were scuffed up by the assembly process, and sprayed the wheel in a clear sealant. This is to protect the wheel from further scuffing and to simulate the wheel being wet from the water it revolves around in. Here is the wheel as it sits tonight: Tomorrow evening, I will assemble the rest of the stern machinery.
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Wow, an America!? This is a kit that, in my experience, has been nearly impossible to find for sale. I want to build this kit sometime in the future, but it isn't on my radar at the moment. I am definitely going to follow this, and I'm sure it will be built with the utmost precision and care. Definitely an interesting subject. Are you going to build the yacht as designed, or as rebuilt by Donald McKay?
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Now I know why most of the machinery and moving parts on a ship powered by steam would have been unpainted iron- when I painted the parts, I had to give them a protective coating or the paint would rub off, and, much to my annoyance, the arms would have a habit of freezing up when I attempted to cycle the stern wheel. That has, hopefully, been remedied by close alignment of the arms and the parts that connect them to the paddle wheel. The aft assembly is not permanently affixed to the hull as of right now. The individual paddles themselves and the hull will be painted the same shade of red as the wheels. I didn't spend much effort dirtying up the machinery inside the hull itself, as that will only be visible through the windows. I might not even paint the interior walls, we'll see. So far, with just a few exceptions that arise from necessary procedures (unless, of course, Lindberg wants to supply me with genuine cast-iron parts), this is shaping up to be a fun little project.
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Yesterday and today, I worked on the engine room machinery mostly, and also painted the deck. I'm not particularly a fan of the pristine "as launched" appearance of modern restorations/reconstructions (this goes for models as well) of work boats. They wouldn't have looked like that for most of their working lives, and in the case of a coal steamer, would have looked disgusting after the first voyage. Hence the unhealthy, lung-destroying layer of coal dust on the deck immediately aft of where the boilers will be. So far, I have assembled the engine room machinery and dry-fitted the paddle wheel and its associated ironworks.
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A build log is being made for this build because I would like to get some information/do some research on Late 19th century American sternwheel paddle boats. This is Lindberg's "Southern Belle" kit, although it isn't based on any particular ship. I will still be working on the Chebec while I am building this kit, and this kit will not take long- maybe 3 weeks max. I have a few things dry-fitted so far, namely the fore deck and engine room gear. One of the things that factored into my decision to build this model is the fact that the last (and first) powered work boat I made was Revell's tug boat, which turned out pretty great. The tug, accompanied by a late-19th century fishing smack: Another element that factored into my decision to build this kit was @Keith Black's Lula, a sternwheeler intended to supply a floating piece of machinery. The only issue here is that I have never, and I mean never, seen a river boat, even a barge-pushing river boat, whose bow and Stern were completely squared off. Any information would be helpful.
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Sadly giving up on Erycina build
Ferrus Manus replied to bigcreekdad's topic in Wood ship model kits
As someone who also has poor eyesight, I am fortunate to be able to do the 1/100 and 1/96 ship kits. That being said, you could try Midwest's Sea Bright Dory, a beautiful looking rowboat in 1/16 scale with little to no rigging. It should be easy on the eyes, and I'm sure you could make it look magnificent.
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I apologize for severely neglecting this build log. Since the last post, I have painted the hull, installed the beakhead, transom and anchor timbers, and painted and installed the deck. For the most part, I have attempted to base all of the ship's colors off of the museum model. The deck pieces took about 4 days to paint and wrestle into place. The two gangways on the sides of the deck are not identically shaped, I checked. Thanks, Heller! This might have serious implications when we go to mount the inhaul eyebolts for the ship's guns. The next jobs are, in order, to paint and install the hatch and 22 gratings, paint and install the inwales, and paint, rig and install the gunport lids.
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About the injector marks on the hull: I tried to scrape them with a knife, but I couldn't get the knife straight enough (because of the stanchions) as to not damage the plastic. I am afraid to attempt sanding them as it would surely destroy the wood grain, and I wouldn't be able to re-scribe it properly. I figure they will probably just disappear into the detail. At least, I hope they will. This is the only thing about this kit that really grinds my gears.
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Today's jobs were drilling holes for the gun rigging eyebolts and gunport lid outhauls, and gluing the hull halves together. Tomorrow will be painting.
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Don't damage the wood with saliva!! 🤣
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@yvesvidal, your Chebec (and you aren't even done with the hull yet) exhibits a level of quality and craftsmanship that I cannot even hope to match here. Truly, when it is done, it will be worthy of a spot in a museum. With that said, I am finished building and painting the hull of the ship's boat, with just the oars left to go.
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Let's start off this build by getting the ship's boat out of the way. Interestingly enough, Heller has a kit called La Sardane, which I thought, until now, depicted a 17th century ship's boat. In reality, it's a repackaging of the Requin's boat plus some sails, yards and masts. As per the sprue label, the boat is known as a chaloupe. This is likely the direct French translation of the English word shallop, meaning a small boat/ship's boat, especially in the context of 16th and 17th century maritime terminology. 1751 seems a bit late to call a ship's boat a shallop. By that time, at least in the English-speaking world, ship's boats had individual names based on form and intended role (pinnace, jolly boat, launch, etc). The ship's boat, apart from some warping of the keel halves, was easy to put together, and was molded so precisely that the interior pieces fit easily into the boat without glue. Here's what the ship's boat should look like when it's done: This, to the best of my knowledge, is a museum model from Toulon.
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After I finished my Reale, I imagined a world where I could make another large lateener without having the hassle of dealing with poorly molded parts and excessive numbers of oars and oar-related parts- a proper sailer, properly armed, properly rigged, and properly good looking. Well, today, the ship I imagined showed up on my doorstep. The chebec was the galley's last breath- a final, hail-mary attempt to remain relevant in the age of the gun. Probably developed in North Africa or the Middle East, the chebec was the perfect weapon of the Barbary Pirates. It was a sleek, fast, nimble sailer that could rapidly approach a large square-rigged merchantman, hold them up, and make off with the stolen goods with authorities being none the wiser. it was so bad, in fact, that the major navies of the Northern Mediterranean built their own chebecs as an anti-piracy weapon. The kit is so well thought out that I might not even replace the kit blocks, just add more for the ship's gun tackles. I will have to do some research on rigging, but overall, it is an extremely well-made kit especially by Heller standards. I got it on eBay where there are several listings of this same kit, for maybe half of what it would be worth unopened. The kit is complete and unstarted, and I want it to look like this when complete: Shall we begin?
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Recently, I ordered a book that was lightly used and in good condition from an online used bookstore, regarding British coastal vessels. Whoever owned this book originally had used what seemed like an early 20th century postcard from the Netherlands as a bookmark. Some basic research told me that this ship is the Dutch coastal defense ship Jacob Van Heemskerck (1906) and that this picture was taken in 1912. The style of the postcard, according to my research, is the type printed in Germany during and immediately after World War One. Is this postcard rare or valuable? Any information regarding it would be helpful.
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Sorry for the month-long hiatus. The avionics bay, or at least the beginnings of it: To be honest, this kit is really crappy. It's a mixture of poor design and poor execution on the part of Roden. It has so many issues that I think I will go for the wheels-up, closed-doors, in flight display. There are enough windows on the plane to make it a reasonable choice. It's a shame because of how detailed the engines are.
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The kit-supplied decals were not accurate to the actual colors/layout of the actual control panel, or even accurate to the type of skymaster in question. This is my hand-painted attempt, which is based on an image of what appears to be the closest control panel layout to what the kit provides. You tell me which looks more like the real thing.
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The firewall/engine mount and control panel assemblies are constructed to the point at which I can start painting them. Much work was required to ensure as proper of a fit as possible between the two assemblies, and between the assemblies and the fuselage halves. I highly doubt the top piece above the control panel isn't warped on the port side. Roden oh so generously provided me with decals for the control panel- decals that I'm unable to apply without sanding down the raised surface detail. I could probably do a better job myself by painting it.
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If someone is going to go so far as to accuse you of collaborating with pirates, you might as well not give them another second of your time. As a modeler (and a person) I value honesty, integrity and personal responsibility. If you design a crappy kit, you own up to it. Doubling down and pinning it on the modeler does not work and isn't a good look. If I'm paying for your model, I expect a good standard of quality. I am currently building a Roden kit (as you know) and I definitely have gripes about the design and execution. Fortunately for me, the issues I'm having aren't model-ruining. You deserve better that to have to deal with someone like that, and they need to seriously reevaluate their business practices.
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Unlike any reasonable kit manufacturer, Roden actually makes you drill holes for the landing lights yourself. The way I managed to do this was to paint a tiny yellow dot on the center of each landing light (both are one piece) and, while the paint was still wet, press the piece up to where it was to go on the model. Then, I immediately wiped the still-wet paint off the lights. That gave me an idea as to where the pilot holes were to be drilled on the model, and I expanded them until I got this. While they certainly don't look very good, once they're painted and the lights are in, they won't look as bad. I think I got the holes at least close enough to where they were supposed to be that it wouldn't be noticeable at a reasonable viewing distance. I honestly don't understand Roden's logic of forcing a modeler to unnecessarily risk ruining their model by drilling holes they easily could have molded into their parts. This will be a recurring theme.
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@Egilman Thank you for the information regarding the reason for the engine's disgusting appearance. I have attempted to replicate that appearance on the first of the aircraft's engines: It isn't a very large engine either in real life or in my hand. I think I replicated the anodizing coating with relative accuracy using shading. One of the next things I want to achieve before setting out on the next engine is drilling some holes in the fuselage for lights and making the frame for the aft engine.
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88 frames!! Do you really even need planking at that point?
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