gieb8688

Try this again. The planking went well. Adding the material between the bulkheads helped a lot in keeping the planks aligned. 
 
Bill

Hi everyone,
 
I've gotten the deck planking finished. I am happy with the results being it was my first try. I have a little sanding to do, but not much. I will have to decide if I am going to stain or paint the deck. I was reading Howard Chapelle's book " The American Fishing Schooners" and in the section about fishing schooners of this time frame, they could be painted or stained.
 
Bill
 

 

Hi everyone,
 
I have started painting the bulwark, stanchions and planksheer before adding the main rail. I am using a satin acrylic paint. This will take several coats to give a good appearance. Painting did show that I need to do a much better job of finish sanding. The paint brings out all of the small imperfections.
 
Bill
 

 

Hi everyone,
 
I have finished painting the bulwarks, stanchions and planksheer. I need to do a little cleanup and then I will start adding the main rail.
 
Bill

And So It Begins
I was out of town last week and finally got to start gluing wood. The laser cutting is excellent with just 2-3 hair-thin tabs holding each piece in place. Most of the notches are just a bit too wide so pieces are a loose fit. It's always better to have a tight fit and remove material as necessary. The hull construction is quite unconventional. You probably couldn't figure it out from the plans alone but the step-by-step instructions make it all clear.

CHAPTER 8 (continued)
 
The Rabbit hole:  in late July my wife and I visited a fellow model builder and NRG member and his wife who live nearby in Wisconsin.  I was astonished by his collection of beautiful scratch built models, several of Lake vessels.  I was intrigued by the way that he had added interest by giving viewers a peek of the ship’s machinery through an open door, hatch or skylight.  Returning home, I decided to add the same feature to my Benjamin Noble model.  I will show the engine room skylight open revealing the top of the triple expansion steam engine below.  I also decided to show the coal bunker partially filled, visible through the open coal bunker hatch.
 
This all required an examination and reconstruction of the ship’s internal arrangements.  I was able to do so with reasonable accuracy from the structural drawings that showed the rectangular trunk passing from the engine room to the deckhouse roof.  This same drawing also showed the coal bunker and located the two boilers.  I was surprised to discover that the layout of the coal bunker and boilers differed from the usual layout of Great Lakes ships- see drawing below.  Instead of locating the coal bunker at the forward end of the deckhouse, the bunker wraps around the boilers with the hatch behind the smokestack.
 
Why did the Noble’s designers do this, and why not use the generally accepted arrangement?  Answer:  by doing so they increased the volume of the hold by the 7000+ cubic feet that would otherwise be taken up by the bunker.  So then, why did the designers of other Great Lakes ships favor the more common arrangement that cost them hold volume?  
 
For every cargo that can be conceivably be carried  aboard ship there is what’s called a “stowage factor” that lists the volume required by one ton of cargo.  The principal American Great Lakes cargo was and still is iron ore.  In the early 1900’s, coal was a secondary cargo, loaded when the opportunity presented to avoid returning back up the Lakes in ballast.  The stowage factor for iron ore, a very heavy cargo, is about 20 cu ft per ton.  When hauling iron ore the ship would be considered to be fully loaded well before her holds were full.  Sacrificing hold volume for bunker space, therefore, did not affect the carrying capacity for vessels built to haul iron ore.
 
Why did the Noble’s designers need the extra hold space gained by her unusual and costly bunker arrangement.  She was designed to carry a very light cargo: pulpwood with a stowage factor of over 140 cubic feet per ton.   When she sank, she was carrying railroad rails, stowage factor 12 cubic feet per ton.  There was a lot of empty space in her hold that was subject to flooding if her hatches failed.  
 
The subassembly in the second photo below fits into a space chiseled into the poop deck.  Parts of it will be visible through the engine room skylight.  The other part is the coal bunker.  The two boilers would have been underneath.
 

CHAPTER 8- A Major Milestone and a Rabbit Hole
 
Since my last progress report almost three months ago, I have been working steadily on the model.  A couple of weeks ago, I reached a major milestone, I fastened the two hull halves together.  Before I could do this, I spent considerable time adding necessary hull openings; hawse pipes, mooring pipes, porthole linings, the propeller shaft tube, and piping inlets and outlets.  Once the halves were fastened, I added the keel plating and the propeller boss reinforcement plates.  The final keel plate aft awaits installation of the lower rudder support shoe, that first requires installation of the rudder and propeller.  The White supports utilize the female threads embedded in the bottom of the hull but the supports themselves are temporary.  The grey color is  primer.  As usual, the digital camera shows areas that need to be cleaned up.
 

I should show you what I'm replacing. Damage you can see, and things like the caprail is half unglued, etc.

well here are some pics of progress
i am proud of what i have done as i have Parkinson's and my hand shakes
Doctor thinks it is great therapy
anyway here we go
 
      
 
This is the forward torpedo room. the bunks are checkered material from doll house suppliers. Iam not happy with floor coloring and will probably will try another color. i added the extra left side upper part of floor that Yvesdale did on his build.
 

 
Here is the two tubes inserted in Oto's pressure hull forward section. i cannot say enough about RC Models brass add ons. they make a mundane model into a real work of art. No way i would have ever tried this project if I had to do it with out the add ons .
thank you Oto !!!!!!!!
 

 
Two of the finished torpedo tubes. They are painted with Tamiya XF 14 as per the trumpeter painting instruction sheet. 
 

 
The finished sub-flooring with the 4 under floor torpedoes.  i  laid on a heavy oil and rust addition to the floor. Now a word about the Trumpeter torpedoes !  They were a real PIA . The units fitted poorly and i had to do a fair amount sanding to get rid of the seams. i  decided to not waste the time on these as they will be out of sight. the propellers and steering vanes were a real hassle to get aligned. i was almost tempted to use Tamiya torpedoes instead. but as the you will not be seen very easily, decided to use the trumpeter ones. Still never again. not worth time and effort imho.
So here we are. All in all i am satisfied !!!!!!!  Please feel free to comment as i am always open to constructive advice. 
More to follow
 
 

Hi All,
Something newish for me thanks to the inspiration of others on this site.
 
I started this build several years ago, 2008?
I got  the basic hull and some Superstructure almost compete and thought it was time to drag it out again....
Reasons for this is that I am tired of sitting on my Chuff for the last couple of months waiting for surgery on a torn  right Rotator Cuff and looking like I'll be languishing for a couple more month's to come.
 
The scale and size makes things a little easier to accomplish with my left hand. 🙂
 
The Partworks version is essentially an Amati offering in 140 magazine issues and it seemed too good an opportunity to re-start proceedings.
(I have the Trumpeter 1/200 version with MK1 Detail set and the Tamiya 1/350 version also.)
 
I began this afternoon by ensuring all subsequent issues and contents  were present and put aside the 1/400 Titanic for a future when I have both arms fully operational 🙂
 
So, don't know how far I can get but my best shot and it's better than casting around feeling "Disabled."
 
The Hull looks good for the time it's been in storage, some attention with filling, sanding and primer will help
The Superstructure components will be wrapped in PE
 
I'm looking forward to getting stuck in!! 
 
(A very big "Thank you" to the Gentlemen currently building the Amati version, it's given me much needed inspiration!!)
 
Cheers....HOF.
 
Photos:
 
 

And the port side is now plated as well. Just the line along the keel and up the bow, and the rudder to plate now, but I shall take a breather first. 
 
I had to slightly sand the notches in the display stand to make space for the copper tiles which make the keel marginally wider.
 
A couple of pictures, one of which shows the Vanguard Models Zulu "Lady Isabella" for size comparison... Both are almost identical scale (1:64 for the "Lady Isabella", to 1:63 for "Stefano")
 
I have to say, as much as these copper plates are brilliant, I shalln't be sad to have a break from sticking them on individually for a while!
 

 

 

Starboard side plated....
 
A few more in progress shots, then the finished starboard side.
 

 

 

 

 

 
The keen-eyed among you will spot a patch where I did a bit of cleaning of one of the plates... It should blend in again over time.

Thanks for all the likes and encouragement.
 
I thought it might be helpful to some if I described in a little more detail how I'd planned out the bands along the top of the plating, when the plates are all laid from the keel up. It presents an interesting challenge, because the shaped tiles must be laid first, then the bands along the top which overlap them. All must be done leaving enough space for the top plates to overlay the lower, and leaving a smooth waterline, and without too much distance between the plating below the bands, and the waterline so that messy gaps are left.  In addition, one can't simply leave full tiles underneath the top bands as they have raised rivet detail which will raise them unevenly. Hence they must be trimmed. I wondered whether I might hammer down the detail, but I was unconvinced that I'd manage to do that on the rivets in question without completely destroying the visible area of the tiles.
 
Here's how I managed it. I measured the width of the bands at the top, and marked that width down from the waterline minus two millimetres. That gave me the line I wanted the plating to finish at below the bands. Once the lower plates reached that line they are now being cut to follow that line. The lower band can then be started overlapping those plates slightly, and leaving 6mm for the upper band.
 
Hopefully that makes sense. At each sense, I'm making sure I'm measuring again carefully and checking as I go. I'm using 6mm masking tape to keep a nice neat space for the top band (which are the tiles with rivets on the top AND bottom) to finish off. This should, hopefully result in a nice neat line. The waterline painted will be the guide for this.
 
Here are the results so far...
 
The first photo shows the lower plating cut to the pencil mark (which shows the bottom extent of the two bands, minus the overlap). The first two plates  of the lower of the two top bands have been added, with the yellow masking tape giving a guide to make sure sufficient room is left for the top of the two top bands. 
 

 
The second photo is the same work but from the stern to show the sweep as it goes forward.
 

 
And a couple of angles of progress so far.
 

 

 
These plates are quite simply cut where necessary with little scissors, so with a little care the job is proving relatively straightforward. I've also realised that the photo etch tags can be easily cut with a scalpel to remove them from the main sheet without any bending. So that's now my preferred method of doing that. Once done, they are then trimmed and separated with tiny sewing scissors.
 
Happy building!
 
Rob

I've been gradually plodding along with the copper plating. This would have been faster, but I got distracted with another small kit, and took a holiday...
 
The copper-plating has two rows that run at the top parallel to the waterline. I've used masking tape to mark the bottom of that band (with 2mm to play with), so that I know where to stop the lower bands. These lower bands will be cut to fit the lower edge of this masking tape, and then the two top rows added to finish the job. So the masking tape finishes 13mm below the waterline. It's worth noting that this isn't 13mm vertically, but 13mm as the plates are laid... a fairly different measurement by the time you get towards the stern.
 

 

 
 

At this stage, I envisage it being new year before any further work can start. That's fine with me as it gives me a small break after my Vanguard Models stuff, before I dive back into this. I was looking through my files tonight and found 3 pics that Chris did of the original prototype. I'm not sure if these have been seen before, so I'll add them to my log so you can see what to expect as this progresses.
 

I have the  Hms Diana partially  build, which I am unable to continue with. I have added photos of how far I have reached on the build. I stopped my build at the near end of coppering the Hull which I was unhappy with. Anyway I have added some photos which will show how things stand at the moment. Please message me if you are  interested.  I have it for sale for £250 and the buyer needs to collect  uk only.    Thank you DAVID
 

Progress continues albeit at the all ahead slow bell, interrupted by the all back full bell.  Hopefully I will get this done before the finished with engine bell.
 
Work has involved getting the hull halves ready to be joined.  The first project was to add the fenders that run along the hull sides.  Whenever a Ship on the Great Lakes is in one of the rivers connecting the Lakes, in one of the two connecting canals, or enters or leaves harbor, the captain is on the bridge and conns the vessel.  Great Lakes Captains are considered by many to be some of the world’s best shiphandlers but never less, the vessel’s that they command do rub against things, sometimes on purpose.  In one of the approaches to the SOO locks ships are controlled by “riding the wall.”
 
Benjamin Noble’s fender was made from 6”x8” oak timbers sandwiched between 3in x 3in structural steel angles, all layed end to end.  In my case, I ripped two 1/16in x 32in maple strips, one per side, and skipped what would have been the four tiny angles.  In my opinion, the slight simplification was better than something over scale.  The fenders were secured with wooden pegs driven and glued into holes drilled into the wood core and through the paper planking.
 
Another project that took longer than expected was the engine room gangway.  The only major opening in the side of lake freighters is the engine room gangway.  In addition to providing access, it also provides a perch for the engineer to watch the world go by.  The door was, and still is on modern vessels, closed by a “Dutch door” with top and bottom sections, and in good weather when entering or leaving port, the top section is often open.  I decided to show the gangway on the starboard side with the top half open and the one on the port side closed.  Although the opening and door frame is done for now, the interior is  too black.  I’ll have to figure out how to tone down the paint job.  Although it now sticks up above the sheer, there is another deck to be added once the hulls, are joined.
 
I also spent considerable time completing the other openings like hawse pipes that attach to the hull.  All are soldered brass.
 
the last distinctive hull feature that I built was the stern frame that holds the upper bearing for the rudder.  The photo below shows the hull frame for the museum ship William A. Irvin in the Duluth Harbor.
 

 

Chapter 7 Marine Engineering (Conclusion)
Work continues to detail the hull halves.  Hopefully by next Sunday I should have some pictures to show you.  Meanwhile, I hope that you will indulge me with a little more Marine Engineering.
 
First, two drawings of the indicator in my collection:
 
The spring loaded piston is piped up to the engine cylinder and forces from steam pressure balanced by the spring compression pushes the cylinder up and down actuating the stylus pushing against the cylinder.  A piece of paper has been wrapped around the cylinder.  Different springs can be used to match anticipated steam pressure.
 
Meanwhile the drum is rotated by the string connected via the wooden wheels to the piston rod of the engine.  The resulting trace of steam pressure vs cylinder volume looks like this:
 
Without going into the math, the horsepower output is proportional to the area within the diagram.  The horizontal “steam line” on the diagram represents steam at inlet pressure entering the engine cylinder before the piston moving in the cylinder causes the valve to close.  On the 1896 triple expansion engine aboard the SS Meteor Whaleback Museum Ship there are handwheels on the valve train to adjust this “cutoff.  This brings up a question.  History is full of stories of steamboat races and emergencies where the captain demands more power from the engineers.  The engineers often respond by stoking up the boilers and gagging the relief valves.  Assuming that boiler capacity existed, why not just adjust the cutoff to admit more steam into the cylinder?  Maybe, that’s what they did but gagging the relief valves makes for a better story.
 
And finally, I’ll close out this chapter with a personal memoir.
 
I arrived in Duluth from Marietta, Ohio in May of 1989 to accept a new job.  When I arrived, the company was moving to a new shop and headquarters at the end of a slip in the Duluth Harbor.  From my office, I could see the channel that ships used to get to and from the loading docks in the harbor.  
 
While finishing up one evening, I noticed an old “straight deck” lake freighter heading down the channel to pass under the lift bridge into the lake.  I was able to drive to the ship canal leading out to the lake before the boat reached the bridge at the entrance to the canal.  The ship was the Henry Steinbrenner and as she passed by, there stood a bagpiper on a hatch playing Amazing Grace.  It should have been Auld Lang Syne because after unloading her cargo of grain at Buffalo, NY she went to the scrap yard.  She was the last coal fired reciprocating straight deck ship operating on the Lakes.  The other  coal fired old timer still operating on the Lakes,  the Irvin L. Clymer was scrapped two years later in Duluth. She was a self unloader. Truly the end of an Era.
 
Today, I count just 5 steam powered American flagged ships active on the Lakes- all self unloading, oil fired, steam turbine driven.  The Edward T. Ryerson, the last straight deck steam ship (steam turbine) was just drydocked at Fraser Shipyard across the bay from Duluth in Superior, WI after sitting idle for several years.  Maybe she’s going back into service.
 

A brief progress report.  Both hull halves are now plated and I am now adding details while I can still benefit from having a flat centerline surface.
 
First before plating the second hull half I located and drilled the holes for the condenser inlet and outlet piping.  Drilling sidehill holes is always a messy business that often
doesn’t end well.  In this case, I first started the hole with a Spiral End Mill.  This produced a flat shelf square to the drill press drill.  The hole was finished with a brad point drill.  The holes were then lined with brass tubing.
 
The holes were not shown on the drawings so were located by photos and reconstruction of engine room equipment locations. 
 
After plating the second hull half, I began locating the wooden fender that runs just below the sheer strake.  Unlike, the piping inlet and outlet this fender is located accurately on the plating expansion drawing.  Addition of the fender will be covered in my next post.  Unfortunately, after plating the second hull half I discovered that the fender interferes with the condenser outlet hole.  Fortunately I was able to fish the brass insert from the hole with an Easyout and to insert a specially sized plug.  This will be mostly covered by the fender.

Not a lot left to do on the hull now, after all the recent work. More gunport lids (and ropes) to do and the rest of the safety netting. I'm going to replace the green netting (that came with the kit) on the stairs, as I think the black (tuille) looks much better.
 
I'm then going to use some milliput to fashion some hammocks to go round the outside.- Pretty much done at that point and I can finally move on to the masts and rigging!

First attempt at adding some of the safety netting towards the bow section.

Oops. I finished.   I think, anyways.  First time building a ship with ratlines, though simple and mercifully few, as they were.  Van Gaasbeek's book was a wonderful source, though when you really get into it, one is still left with many questions. Never mind reading the plans. . . I searched the internet for hours trying to find out what an "MF Vent" was before realizing it was just a bad imprint of "MR VENT" or Mushroom Vent.  (I sure came up with what MF stood for on my own.)   If anyone wants mirrored-sections (in a .docx file) or any other 'stuff' I drew up for the project, let me know.   Below are photos; I'll probably post a few on-the-water pics in the Gallery next time I get down to the river.  Thanks all for following along. 
Best, 
Harvey

 

 

 

 

 

Futtock Shrouds
Futtock Staves blackened and tied in place.  Catharpins also tied in place.  To help to keep the catharpins the same tension I made a simple jig I had seen in another build.  

 
Prepared the Futtock Shrouds with the hooks.

 
Rigged in place and when I was trimming the extra lengths tragedy struck.
😱😱😱  I hit one of the lower mast shrouds with the snips.  I just couldn't believe what I've just done.
 

 
After getting over the shock I sat down to see how I was going to fix it.  I removed the lower part of the shroud with the deadeye completely, wetted the lower seizing on the futtock shroud to loosen the glue and untied it, cut the end of the futtock shroud just a bit shorter and seized a new piece of lower shroud thread to the end of the futtock shroud.  It came pretty good, it's not noticeable.  Then rigged again the deadeye.
A quick rough sketch.
 
 
Futtock shrouds all in place with damaged lower mast shroud (starboard,5th one on fore mast) repaired.  

 

 

 

 
 

 
Regards
Robert
 

A small update.
I managed to adjust the deadeyes to bring them in line with each other, so I don't think I really need to replace everything.  Basically I had to adjust all of them.  Where I had gone over the glue with water I have some faint whiteish discolouration on the black shrouds. I think a light application of shoe polish will do the trick.  Probably it was caused by the mixing of the bee wax, which was already on the shrouds, with the glue while I was handling them.
 
Some photos with lower masts shrouds, deadeyes and lanyards rigged in place.

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
If you notice in one of the photos, earlier on I managed to knock down the flag pole on the bowsprit.  I will fix later on.  I am really pleased I have't yet fitted the gunport lids as I am sure I would have nocked down a few of them while doing the rigging.
 
Next the catharpins and futtock shrouds. 

Heinz,
Thank you, comments appreciated.   From time to time I visit your build log to steal some ideas.🙂
 
Sjors,
Thanks for your comments.  You yourself are doing a very good job on your Victory.
 
Now I have basically started the rigging.  As per kit manual I started with the shrouds on the lower masts.  I had already done the pendants before.  I started by serving the part of the shroud that goes round the mast.  The forward shroud is served all the way.  The thread for the Mizzen mast is a different size.
 
First I tied the shrouds round the mast

 
Then I tied the deadeyes with the shrouds, also tied the cleats to the shrouds before rigging the lanyards.  The lanyards still have to be tensioned and tied. I will do them together starting from the front, set by set alternating from starboard to port when I have all the shrouds in place.

 

 
 This is the knot and the way I am tying the shrouds to the mast and to the deadeyes.  I had seen how to do this type of knot on Youtube   For the knots I am using the 0.25mm thread.

 
Five times around the bunched thread, end passed through the small loop.

 
Tighten the knot, fit the deadeye in the loop by pulling either the very end of the shroud or the other end going up to the mast, to get the deadeye at the right height from the channel. 

 
Same knot used.

 

 
When all four knots are done I go over them with white glue and when dry trim the ends.

 
 
Robert