Greg Davis

That does seem reasonable, now that you mention it! Months ago, I had looked into the history of aluminum tubing and it didn't seem to fit quite right for the time period. So I did then think more about steel tubing as it was being used in the bicycle manufacturing process and it is said that SD had made use of bicycle wheels from Peugeot on the 14bis. Related, the steering wheel on the hydroplane may be Peugeot as well. Anyway, I hadn't thought about galvanized steel - the zinc coating would give the lighter color and importantly the rust proofing for his creations!

Yes, I will be 'rigging' the model. It seems that SD really liked the big aluminum propeller blades. From the pictures of his machines that I've seen, the only craft that used a more modern two-bladed wooden propeller was the Demoiselle - his final airplane.

A while back I chemically blackened the pontoon harness. I've looked at it for days - disliking it more and more. Today I stripped the structure back to clean brass. I'm now going to prime and then paint it aluminum. Hopefully that will get this back to a lighter color seen in photographs of the craft: I've spent a lot of time wondering as to what metal was used in the boats construction - steel, aluminum, other. It is known that the propeller is aluminum and the color of the pontoon harness / engine pylon seem to be similar. Blackening was not good; hopefully painting is better!

I have finished the first phase of the build. All the main boiler castings have been added. The instructions tell me that it is time to prime and paint the boiler! I'm now having reservations about the light blue / red color scheme I had picked at the start - I'm concerned that it may look too 'toy-like' for lack of a better description. Still don't want to have it in green. My feelings are now tilting toward this blue / black scheme: This is one of several color schemes that Micro Metakit has produced the BR18 in. By the way, this HO brass model sells for about $2,300. Yet, some people tell me that making wooden ship (and other models) is a costly hobby!

Everyone - Thank you so much for all the input - I learn so much from all of you! Greg

Interesting!

I agree with wefalck wrt the rivet situation - in pictures of actual BR18's that I have seen, such a rivet pattern is missing. The pictures project do show metal bands at the locations that OcCre places the yellow stripes. It seems likely that the boiler sections were welded with joints reinforced with the bands. The rivet less portrayal is also noticeable in models produced for model railroading. So I think it is safe to conclude that the noticeable rivets need for assembly of the OcCre model are contrary to the actual construction of these locomotives. The final product of this modeling adventure certainly will be a 'representation' of the BR18 with a number of misgivings!

The amount of work putting on the last row of the larger plates was about the same as the other 3 rows in total. Each plate needed to be reduced in size - I don't think I over sanded the frame and didn't leave gaps between rows of plates, yet there was about 0.5 mm that needed to be removed from each plate. In some sense this is not bad when you think about how hard it is to manufacture the wooden disks and then provide brass plates that the sum total of lengths of 4 plates would exactly match the circumference of the boiler assembly! I adjusted the plate length using the Dremel sanding tool and the mill file. The four smaller plates at the front went on smoothly. Once all the plates were attached, I had a small amount of overhang in the front that was removed with the mill file. Again the amount was not great considering that the five plates lengths needed to match the wooden frame length. I should note that the instructions said to not pin / nail the front of the small plates. I believe this is because the kit comes with adhesive yellow stripes that go around the boiler and one is right at the end of the brass plate. The adhesive stripe would not work well on top of the nail heads. I put the nails in as I will not be making use of the adhesive tape. Next I have begun to fit and attach the soft meta castings to the boiler: The outward appearance of these castings are really nice. Each needed some adjustment at their base in order to match the diameter of the boiler. Again the Dremel with a (larger) sanding drum is getting some good usage. Related, the nails securing the brass plates under each casting are to be removed when the castings are attached. I have removed some, but others have been stubborn so they have been ground down instead.

Today I began attaching the brass boiler plates. The kit comes with a pretty significant number of pre-drilled brass rectangles: The black object is a bending tool that OcCre markets - I had to buy this separately, it is turned wood and I'm surprised this isn't just included with the kit! The instructions show it in use and do indicate the brass should be bent on a cylinder with diameter 40mm. The boiler's wooden frame is 60mm in diameter. When the brass is bent on the smaller diameter it flexes back to fit the boiler nicely. I had thought about turning a bending tool myself, but wasn't sure if the 40mm diameter was a typo so I went ahead and purchased the tool. Note it has a couple of smaller diameter extensions on the right. These will be used later in the build and (unfortunately) the instruction booklet, does not indicate the diameters of the smaller shapes. So I guess it is advisable to have the tool! Here is the first plate attached - I think this is a required picture! The instructions indicate that the plates can just be nailed - glue not needed. I followed along, but with some apprehension. The instructions suggest using a pin/nail driver that they also market. I chose to not get that tool. Instead I have drilled very narrow pilot holes and used pliers and / or a small hammer to insert the nails. Currently, I have attached 3/4 of the large plates needed on the boiler - one more row to close it up and 4 smaller plates at the front will finish the work. One last note, the instructions provide guidance on how the builder can make / keep space open if installation of a smoke generator is desired. I will not be doing so, so I have not created an opening on top for such a feature.

Thank you very much for this information! I had done some searching on the web with regard to color schemes hoping to find another bright color than green. It is not that I have anything against green - I was just looking for something different than the box cover. A blue based scheme had been on my mind and I was actually surprised to have found that it might be a possibility. If this hadn’t shown up I think I may have decided on a more standard black boiler with red underworks or just black. This is a nice looking locomotive and would probably make an attractive finished model in nearly any color. Greg

The boiler framing is all glued together and faired. I finally found a good use of a sanding 'tee bar' that I had from building model airplanes years ago. The fairing is minimal, but quite important so that the plating sits evenly along the boiler; however, the work is not as satisfying for me when it is compared to working on a ship's hull. Here the boiler is setting on a jig / stand that is included in the kit. First, it will be used to hold the boiler during the brass plating that comes next and then for adding castings / details. Later in the build, the stand is turned over and a couple of pieces are added to hold the lower mechanic of the engine.

Appreciate it!

I've cut out and test fitted the 35 pieces of wood that serve as the boiler frame. Because I am so used to working with model ships, I will say that there are 7 bulkheads that mesh with a 4-piece false keel assembly. The 4 pieces in the false keel have tabs that interlock with one another along the central axis. This quickly squares up the bulkheads. There are then 4 stringers running fore to aft that slot in next to the false keel pieces. Finally the middle 5 bulkheads have doublers. Currently all these pieces are being held in place with clamps and rubber bands. Tomorrow I'll recheck that everything is in the correct place and then glue all of this together. Besides keeping everything square, I think the most important observation is that the doubles need to be placed on the aft side of the inner bulkheads. Looking ahead, the reason for all the doublers is that this structure will soon be covered with rectangular sheets of brass. The brass plates will line up with the center of the frames and doublers as well as the joint between keel pieces and stringers. If the doublers are placed on the wrong side of the bulkheads, there will not be correct support / fastening locations for the brass plates - hence I'm checking this tomorrow when I'm more awake! By the way, this boiler frame is 11.5" long and 2.375" in diameter!

Today I couldn't overcome the need to start yet another project - this time the 1/32 scale BR-18 Locomotive kit made by OcCre. This is a model that I have had my eye on for many years, but was unsure about paying the list price for. When Model Expo was closing out their line of OcCre products, I was able to get it for 50% list - so it was added to the massive stash. OcCre considers this an advanced level model that should take approximately 500 hours to complete. They also indicate that the model has 2342 parts - thus the model should be assembled at the rate of 4.684 parts / hour. When the box arrived I did notice that it was quite heavy and after opening it is clear why that is the case - the model is dominated by metal parts! There is a lot of brass and a ton of soft metal castings. I was impressed by the size of the drive wheels - 3 5/8" in diameter - this is going to be a good size model when completed! While the box cover art and instructions make the model up in a very nice green and gold theme (that actually works good for a Green Bay Packers fan), I plan on going with a blue based theme similar to this Marklin BR18: I am looking forward to diving into the model immediately with the project sharing time with at least three others!

I think you noticed the key to what happened - I've stared at these pictures countless hours and never noticed the change in the platform location! I wonder if after some trials, SD found that the rear end was not staying down enough so the platform was moved back to provide additional leverage. I'm now planning going forward to leave / position the rear hydrofoil on the second to last hoop and keep the the platform in the pushed back location. Thank you so much for sharing your observation. Greg

I don't think there was a prototype as much as the No 18 Hydroplane was a 'work in progress', it seems to have been the case that Santos-Dumont modified many of his creations as they were built and tested. The top picture that Craig posted was taken earlier than the bottom picture. The top picture is a reflection of this photograph (Henrique Lins de Barros sent me copies of some original pictures of the boat): At this time the engine had not been attached to the boat. The second picture was taken later when the engine was in place and the boat was essentially complete. A couple changes are noticeable between the two pictures, the covering of the pontoon has changes from one that has longitudinal stripes to being a solid color. Another, functional, change is that there is a lever in Santos-Dumont's right hand in the early picture - I have assumed this was to be a throttle; in the second picture the lever is missing and additional controls are now connected to the steering wheel. For me, it is hard to say if the steering column has been changed because the pictures are taken from different angles. The steering wheel looks to have similar height wrt his chest. S-D's leg looks straighter in the second picture, but this could also be from moving the saddle back a bit without moving the platform. Since my model is to have the engine, my work should better approximate the later photograph. It's hard for me to work this one out as I feel (without photographic evidence) the rear hydrofoil structure should mount at a hoop location as this would minimize the number of holes / bolts needed to hold the craft together and maximize its strength. If I follow this line of thought, I should attach to one of the last two hoops - the second to last may be a bit to forward, but the last one I have might be to far back. The other options would be to attach just to the stringers between the last two hoops and/or add another hoop between them for attachment purposes. I'm not really fond of those solutions because it ruins some of the symmetry in the model. I really appreciate the feedback and advice that all of you are providing and I hope it will help lead me to a satisfactory solution to the rear hydrofoil and cockpit locations. Thanks to all of you!

After some additional reflection and looking at pictures of the rear end, now I'm not sure it needs to be moved and I may have actually drawn it too far aft in my building plans.

Today I did test fitting of the pontoon / nacelle harness and engine pylon structure. It went fairly well, I just needed to make a small adjustment on the location of the front engine supports - they needed to come down about 1/16" from where they were originally attached. While doing the test fit, I noticed I made a mistake on the rear hydrofoil mounting structure. I fit the structure to the second to last hoop location - it should be placed at the furthest back hoop. So I am going to need to rebuild the lower portion of the structure! I'll go back to working on the engine in a while. Still needing to do some research / determination as to how the coolant and fuel systems were set up. I won't be able to model all the details, but I do want what I do put in being fundamentally correct.

It took 5 tries, but now I have 2 intake manifolds that can be used on the model: There is a small amount of final adjustments that need to be made, but that should be easy since the copper bends nicely. The basic alignment of the pipes were made using a jig I had made for my Santos-Dumont 14bis model - I'm glad I didn't throw it away after finishing the kit! The central piece is 12 gauge copper. Four holes were drilled through the cylinder to accept 18 gauge copper that form the distribution pipes. The four sets of pipes were soldered before bending to shape. Two 3/32" rods were slid under the 'spider' to lift it out of the jig and the pipes were snipped off flush with the jig. The ends will be smoothed out when the final fitting / attachment to the cylinder castings is done. Need to keep these safe until then!

Plenty more to work on while pondering the fueling system! So some different metal work; its the mounting structure for the rear hydrofoil: I feel that I am getting close to being able to tie the main components, less the engine, all together.

Not sure - the copper might not be stiff enough to hold the bend when pulled back out of the tubing bender.

this is dead soft copper, so it bends very easily - to easily in some cases, I believe that is why it damages with little effort. Next I'm going to redo the work using a rod like you suggest. I had used looping pliers for the first try. The wire notched where it contacted the lower edges of the tool. Some of the nylon faced jewelry equipment might work better with this material.

But I know where they are and if I don't address them it will bother me for ever! This is not to say that there may be (are) other imperfections that will stay - but some I can live with and others I can't.

This is my first try at making the fuel distribution system - two copies are needed. I drilled 4 holes through the center copper piece, soldered and then bent the distribution pipes. I think I can improve on this trial a bit, but most importantly, I hope that it looks a bit more like what was on the hydroplane than the castings that came with the engine kits (see pic of the V8 from my 14bis build below). The copper seems to be about the right diameters, but the bends need to be done without so much damage to the wire.

I've spayed the hull several times with black paint. I thought it was ready to varnish, but upon closer inspection, I found two locations where the paint could be smoother. So I am going to sand those regions a bit and recoat before moving on. As you would guess, the areas that need attention are above the water line - everything below, where the copper will go is just fine!