CaptainMac

Big deal today! I stained the hull. Wanted it dark, but not too dark. I decided to just use the Minwax "Red Mahogany" that I already had. Looks about like I wanted. Nice contrast in the planking and accentuated wood-grain. A rich look. Not really as red as in this picture, though. The far end looks blue because the reflection of the sky outside the open garage door. Still needs the keel... Wanted to start something easy, like the landing stage. Well, I didn't like the silhouettes of the provided side pieces. Had an uneven curve on the tops, and the ends were different. Plus, I thought it was going to look stubby -- too short and wide. So I drew my own in CorelDRAW! Made them two feet longer: 30 feet [7.5 inches instead of 7 inches], using some maple wood I had, which was also a little thicker than the kit pieces, with nice grain: The kit has the stage planking flat, but all the old wooden stages I see were curved to match the top of the side pieces. Several I've seen have these tread-like strips. Note it also has a handle bar [or whatever...?] on the end, which I'm adding: So, here's my computer drawing of my planned stage, with some test "tread" strips. The kit has 20 deck planks, 1/16" wide. I decided to flip the planks 90⁰ and use 10 planks, 1/8" wide. Half the amount of wood needed: I had to bend the planks all the same, to match the top curvature of the side pieces. I made a press to clamp the wet pieces in to dry. I also used it to glue the pieces together: Here's the stage so far. Planking is curved and glued together, but not yet glued to the side pieces. I want to stain them first. The sides will stay natural. And there's the "handle bar," but not trimmed to length: -- Michael

I started doing some initial, rough sanding today. Pleased, so far: -- Michael

I just finished planking the stern. Here is before applying the wide planks: The short, wide planks added to the stern: I will be able to start sanding. I want to stain the hull to accentuate the variations in the planks. -- Michael

I finished up the small planking. The instructions said 13 rows, but mine didn't quite cover the bottom of the bow: I added a 14th row, so under the bow they would make a better transition to the flat bottom: Here's the wide bottom planks. I used them full length, since they won't show. On the sides, I used shorter strips, and staggered the joints, to be more realistic. On the bottom, I did stagger the stern-ward ends. [I have filled the narrow gap on the left. I am currently finishing the wide planks on the curved stern. Almost done.] -- Michael

Mike -- Thanks. The instruction booklet is only 12 pages, and 6 pages just deal with the hull. A lot of pictures of that process, and good directions. Six pages for everything else. Doesn't sound like enough, but I haven't got there yet. Small type, so it probably says more than it looks like. There are 5 large sheets of well-labeled/detailed plans, so, they should be easy to follow, just from the illustrations and notations for the parts.

Still planking the hull! Hard to tell much difference, but I've done a lot more. I'm not using a long strip all at once, but cutting segments, and staggering the joints from row to row, to look more realistic. Instead of painting, I'm planning on staining the hull to see the subtle woodgrain variations in the planks. The 1/8"×1/6" strips have slightly different widths and thicknesses. You're supposed to do 13 rows before switching to the 1/2" strips on the bottom. I've got 11 rows down both sides, maybe one less on the bow: I use ammonia, like the directions said, to bend the planks: -- Michael

Here are a few planking photos... First-two are the top row being put on: You can probably make out the slight deck camber that I added here, the original brown edges of the bulkheads still visible down the center: Current views of the hull: -- Michael

Hello, I'm a new member. First post. Various builds on this site have turned up countless times in my searches over the years, so I decided I should just get on-board. I am not familiar with actually using the site, and I have never tried a build log before, but I'll give it a shot. I have certainly benefited from seeing the process and progress of others. My main thing is steamboats, namely paddleboats, and especially sternwheelers. Here, I'll be working on the Chaperon. I didn't get this model because it was the Chaperon, but because it is the most realistic looking, typical packet boat kit I've run across. I might even change the name. I will certainly customize it, adding my own modifications and "improvements" along the way, to make it my version of the ideal steamboat. The first thing I came to that "needed fixing" was the flat-topped bulkheads of the hull. The main deck certainly needs to have some camber to it. And all the other decks, for that matter! This will, of course, complicate things for me later on [which I seem to be good at doing]. So, I scanned one of the middle bulkhead pieces, and traced it in CorelDraw on my computer, adding a camber line to the top. I printed out a bunch of these templates, rubber-cemented them to the front and back of sandwiched stacks of bulkheads, then sanded along the camber line, which is only between 1/32"-1/16" lower on the edges, but should be noticeable. [You can see one side done in the photo.] Well, I'd better stop here for now, to make sure this works...