CaptainSteve

Very well done, Steve.  And I'm with everyone else... that gold leaf is an impressive touch to some wonderful carvings.

Thanks so much for updating this! Missed hearing from you. Lovely work.

That looks fantastic.   Nice touch on the carvings.  The gold leaf looks very good.  I hope you enjoyed it.  You did well carving those.  I think folks underestimated to ability they have when it comes to carving.  I hope this prompts more carving to be done on other models and more discarding if the castings that come with kits.  Carving done like this really elevates a model.  Yours really look great.

Thanks, guys. I agree on the gold leaf, Jack. In daylight (from any angle), the carvings glitter and dance.

Verily, ‘t hath been some time since me last posting … but Chuck didst prompt-eth me to do some digging and I didst manage to recover-eth some lithographs.
 
What wit’ me limited carving skills, it took-eth many an attempt afore I were to have a full set of decorations for me barge. Fortunately, Chuck did provide two extra sets of carving blanks … and these were all eventually required to produce a full set.
 
Unfortunately, as I didst mention, pictures of those appear to be lost to the annals of time (and NiCad battery life-spans).
Fortunately, however, some later pictures DID survive …
 

 
(The general viewing public shouldst be aware that the above carving is approximately 1inch by 1 inch, in real life)
 

 
Next, an friend of mine (and the Barge’s eventual care-taker), helped with the gilding of my carvings, using actual gold-leaf …

 

 
 

 
Whilst I still need to take and post some final shots of me Barge, I were to be most impressed with the eventual outcome, Chuck …
 
                     
 
                     
 
                     
 

Hi Chuck,
My Queen Anne barge was completed some time back. The final scrollwork was completed with gold-leaf, and actually looks quite striking. I did have final pictures, but they were lost in the Great Camera Tragedy of 2019 (the batteries went flat). The barge currently sits at a friend's house (the one known as Snoopy). I will endeavour to take some photographs the next time I visit and will post them here.
 

Verily, ‘t hath been some time since me last posting … but Chuck didst prompt-eth me to do some digging and I didst manage to recover-eth some lithographs.
 
What wit’ me limited carving skills, it took-eth many an attempt afore I were to have a full set of decorations for me barge. Fortunately, Chuck did provide two extra sets of carving blanks … and these were all eventually required to produce a full set.
 
Unfortunately, as I didst mention, pictures of those appear to be lost to the annals of time (and NiCad battery life-spans).
Fortunately, however, some later pictures DID survive …
 

 
(The general viewing public shouldst be aware that the above carving is approximately 1inch by 1 inch, in real life)
 

 
Next, an friend of mine (and the Barge’s eventual care-taker), helped with the gilding of my carvings, using actual gold-leaf …

 

 
 

 
Whilst I still need to take and post some final shots of me Barge, I were to be most impressed with the eventual outcome, Chuck …
 
                     
 
                     
 
                     
 

Verily, ‘t hath been some time since me last posting … but Chuck didst prompt-eth me to do some digging and I didst manage to recover-eth some lithographs.
 
What wit’ me limited carving skills, it took-eth many an attempt afore I were to have a full set of decorations for me barge. Fortunately, Chuck did provide two extra sets of carving blanks … and these were all eventually required to produce a full set.
 
Unfortunately, as I didst mention, pictures of those appear to be lost to the annals of time (and NiCad battery life-spans).
Fortunately, however, some later pictures DID survive …
 

 
(The general viewing public shouldst be aware that the above carving is approximately 1inch by 1 inch, in real life)
 

 
Next, an friend of mine (and the Barge’s eventual care-taker), helped with the gilding of my carvings, using actual gold-leaf …

 

 
 

 
Whilst I still need to take and post some final shots of me Barge, I were to be most impressed with the eventual outcome, Chuck …
 
                     
 
                     
 
                     
 

Verily, ‘t hath been some time since me last posting … but Chuck didst prompt-eth me to do some digging and I didst manage to recover-eth some lithographs.
 
What wit’ me limited carving skills, it took-eth many an attempt afore I were to have a full set of decorations for me barge. Fortunately, Chuck did provide two extra sets of carving blanks … and these were all eventually required to produce a full set.
 
Unfortunately, as I didst mention, pictures of those appear to be lost to the annals of time (and NiCad battery life-spans).
Fortunately, however, some later pictures DID survive …
 

 
(The general viewing public shouldst be aware that the above carving is approximately 1inch by 1 inch, in real life)
 

 
Next, an friend of mine (and the Barge’s eventual care-taker), helped with the gilding of my carvings, using actual gold-leaf …

 

 
 

 
Whilst I still need to take and post some final shots of me Barge, I were to be most impressed with the eventual outcome, Chuck …
 
                     
 
                     
 
                     
 

Verily, ‘t hath been some time since me last posting … but Chuck didst prompt-eth me to do some digging and I didst manage to recover-eth some lithographs.
 
What wit’ me limited carving skills, it took-eth many an attempt afore I were to have a full set of decorations for me barge. Fortunately, Chuck did provide two extra sets of carving blanks … and these were all eventually required to produce a full set.
 
Unfortunately, as I didst mention, pictures of those appear to be lost to the annals of time (and NiCad battery life-spans).
Fortunately, however, some later pictures DID survive …
 

 
(The general viewing public shouldst be aware that the above carving is approximately 1inch by 1 inch, in real life)
 

 
Next, an friend of mine (and the Barge’s eventual care-taker), helped with the gilding of my carvings, using actual gold-leaf …

 

 
 

 
Whilst I still need to take and post some final shots of me Barge, I were to be most impressed with the eventual outcome, Chuck …
 
                     
 
                     
 
                     
 

Thanks, guys. I agree on the gold leaf, Jack. In daylight (from any angle), the carvings glitter and dance.

Verily, ‘t hath been some time since me last posting … but Chuck didst prompt-eth me to do some digging and I didst manage to recover-eth some lithographs.
 
What wit’ me limited carving skills, it took-eth many an attempt afore I were to have a full set of decorations for me barge. Fortunately, Chuck did provide two extra sets of carving blanks … and these were all eventually required to produce a full set.
 
Unfortunately, as I didst mention, pictures of those appear to be lost to the annals of time (and NiCad battery life-spans).
Fortunately, however, some later pictures DID survive …
 

 
(The general viewing public shouldst be aware that the above carving is approximately 1inch by 1 inch, in real life)
 

 
Next, an friend of mine (and the Barge’s eventual care-taker), helped with the gilding of my carvings, using actual gold-leaf …

 

 
 

 
Whilst I still need to take and post some final shots of me Barge, I were to be most impressed with the eventual outcome, Chuck …
 
                     
 
                     
 
                     
 

Verily, ‘t hath been some time since me last posting … but Chuck didst prompt-eth me to do some digging and I didst manage to recover-eth some lithographs.
 
What wit’ me limited carving skills, it took-eth many an attempt afore I were to have a full set of decorations for me barge. Fortunately, Chuck did provide two extra sets of carving blanks … and these were all eventually required to produce a full set.
 
Unfortunately, as I didst mention, pictures of those appear to be lost to the annals of time (and NiCad battery life-spans).
Fortunately, however, some later pictures DID survive …
 

 
(The general viewing public shouldst be aware that the above carving is approximately 1inch by 1 inch, in real life)
 

 
Next, an friend of mine (and the Barge’s eventual care-taker), helped with the gilding of my carvings, using actual gold-leaf …

 

 
 

 
Whilst I still need to take and post some final shots of me Barge, I were to be most impressed with the eventual outcome, Chuck …
 
                     
 
                     
 
                     
 

Thanks, guys. I agree on the gold leaf, Jack. In daylight (from any angle), the carvings glitter and dance.

Verily, ‘t hath been some time since me last posting … but Chuck didst prompt-eth me to do some digging and I didst manage to recover-eth some lithographs.
 
What wit’ me limited carving skills, it took-eth many an attempt afore I were to have a full set of decorations for me barge. Fortunately, Chuck did provide two extra sets of carving blanks … and these were all eventually required to produce a full set.
 
Unfortunately, as I didst mention, pictures of those appear to be lost to the annals of time (and NiCad battery life-spans).
Fortunately, however, some later pictures DID survive …
 

 
(The general viewing public shouldst be aware that the above carving is approximately 1inch by 1 inch, in real life)
 

 
Next, an friend of mine (and the Barge’s eventual care-taker), helped with the gilding of my carvings, using actual gold-leaf …

 

 
 

 
Whilst I still need to take and post some final shots of me Barge, I were to be most impressed with the eventual outcome, Chuck …
 
                     
 
                     
 
                     
 

Two last shots of Arabia in her display location in my model/nautical corner of the house. We might move her somewhere else once I get a full case figured out, but this is good for now. I like that the bookcase opens on both sides so it's easy to view the open and closed sides of the model. Out of shot on a lower shelf is my model of Bertrand, another open/closed sided steamboat, so the two go well together here. Note that the Arabia and the revenue cutter behind her are the same scale (1:64); I think it's a fun visual comparison.
 


 
Some of you asked about my next project. Having bought a Byrnes table saw over the winter, I had been planning to shift to scratch-building full-time using wood harvested on my farm. I have billets of maple, cherry, and various fruitwoods that have been drying for up to two years and will provide all the modelling wood I could possibly use. My goal was for the cost of the saw to replace the cost of kits and wood in our budget, which it should. There are a variety of interesting Missouri River craft on the agenda, including the boats used by the Lewis & Clark expedition and some smaller steamboats used on tributaries of the Missouri River.
 
However, the last few months have been extremely stressful for reasons from personal to global, and my brain is a bit fried with trying to keep track of this complicated build. Moreoever, the libraries and historical societies I might otherwise visit to do primary research in Missouri craft are closed or restricted. So I bought one last kit as a simpler relaxation project: the Dusek Viking longship in 1:35 scale (note that the scale of my builds keeps going up, from 1:87 Bertrand to 1:64 Arabia to 1:35 Viking ship; this could be a problem down the road). I am of Norse descent (my beloved grandfather was extremely proud of his heritage), my father-in-law was a scholar of Old English and the Saxon period, and I'm a huge fan of Bernard Cornwell's long "Saxon Tales" series of historical novels (better known as "The Last Kingdom" once a TV show based on it was launched). So this will have some meaning for me while at least letting me follow someone else's instructions. I do plan to make some modifications for authenticity/uniqueness and to replace some of the kit wood with my own home-cut-and-milled; I may also use the plans to build several versions using my own wood.
 
I'll launch a build log eventually, but will likely be dormant for a while. The next few weeks will involve helping my elderly in-laws move closer to us, which would be a massive enough undertaking if there wasn't an ongoing pandemic, so I don't think I'll have a lot of free time until sometime in July. I'll post a build log link here once I start it, for anyone who wants to follow along. Thanks once more for your support and interest.

I took advantage of a cloudy afternoon to take a break from regular work and do a quick photo shoot on my porch, using my phone with a few rumpled sheets as backdrops. May try to do a nicer job someday but the model's not going anywhere and this let me feel a sense of closure. It was pretty windy and you'll see the flag changing positions!
 
First, a few overhead shots:
 



Stern views:
 


Bow views:
 


Side views:


Overall views:
 



Painting for comparison with the last view:

Thanks for everything.

Eric,
Your log has been a wonder ride.  Thanks for letting us follow on the trip.  I'm looking forward to the final photos.  Pics on the river bank sounds iintriguing. 

Port rigging is done:

Bow view:

I added a few final details. For example, there should be a series of posts hung from the sides to protect the vessel. These are similar in function to the tires commonly used by more modern tugs and other vessels. It was common on more busy waterfronts (like St. Louis) for steamboats to line up shoulder-to-shoulder, making these barriers necessary. Photos show a variety of setups, from posts integrated into the hull to those hung loosely from lines. I opted for the latter; you can see the lines tied off to structural posts if you look closely. A spot of glue at the lower end of each post holds it in place as these aren't dense enough to hang right on their own.

For example, here's a view of the St. Louis levee in 1852 from the Steamboat Times website:
 

For the final detail, I added a flagpole and flag to the sternmost part of the hurricane deck, rigging it using a small block. This is the 31-star flag used from 1851 to 1858, following the admission of California to the Union. As Arabia was built in 1853 and sank in 1856, the choice of flag was clear. I printed it on bond paper as a single front-and-back image that could be folded over itself with glue between. I did this with a line carefully inserted along the seam, then rubbed some grey pastel on to dull the paper. I think it has a good texture, and between the weight of the paper and the glue, it takes and holds a decent wavy bend. Notice MSW on the laptop in my home office, set in the opposite corner of our small living room from my workbench.

Here's the contemporary drawing I based the flagpole on, from the UW steamboat photo database:

Those are all the final details, save one: I want to redo the lettering on the wheelhouse. Something had been bugging me about it, and I finally realized that it came out smaller than I intended. I compared the 3D-printed stencil with my initial paper test print and found that the stencil was quite a bit smaller than it was supposed to be. Can't believe I didn't notice up front. Somehow the design shrank in the transfer from my graphics program to the file used for printing. So I contacted the neighbor's teen again and he's going to ensure that the final design is scaled properly before printing a new one. So once I get my hands on that, I'll paint over the original lettering and redo it. Then she'll be done.
 
This might take until next week, so not sure when I'll do a final photo shoot. I want to do one here under the right outdoor lighting conditions (not too sunny) and I also want to take a walkaround video. My final goal is to take the model down to the Missouri River and do a photo shoot with her natural habitat in the background. Also not sure when I'll get to that; the best place to do this is at a conservation area about 45 minutes from me. Stay tuned just a little bit longer. Thanks for all your support, comments, and likes.

You all know she's not done yet, right? Lots of rigging still to go. Here's yesterday's progress on the port side:
 

I'm making all the rigging temporary until it's all done. Too much interaction between parts to trust myself to glue in knots until everything is balanced. Plus I've already found two cases where my original plan was wrong and needed to be amended. So there's going to be a forest of clothespins hanging off her for a while.


Sharp eyes might have noticed I added a bell to the front of the hurricane deck, with a line run back to the pilothouse.
 
Stick with me, we're getting there. Thanks for all the support, it means a great deal as this 2 year 8 month project rolls on.

Wefalck, you've got us thinking about a trip down to the river to collect some authentic sediment and laying it out in a wooden tray, fixed in place with diluted glue. Could even embed a snag or two made of twigs. Mrs. Cathead used to do research modelling changes in the Missouri River's channel and would have a lot of (too much?) fun recreating typical river-bottom morphologies. She even suggested using a 3D printer to create an actual river-bottom model based on existing scan data, though I think that's beyond us.

As is often the case, what I thought I'd do next wasn't what I ended up doing next. Instead of the capstan and grasshopper spars, I focused on other details. For example, I added strips of wood sealing in the edge of the main deck. For the curves around the bow and stern, these were soaked, bent, and dried, then painted while held in a jig so the paint's moisture wouldn't undo the bend. Worked pretty well. It's hard to tell the difference in photos, but they really clean up the deck's edges in person.
 

I added other bow details, such as the jackstaff and the curved bit of wood extending above the deck around the bow (no idea what this is called). The latter was tricky and took several tries.
 

I consulted various photos and drawings of different jackstaffs, then went within a design I liked. This would have been attached to an extention of the stem (coming out through the deck). Some were strapped on with iron; I chose to "bolt" mine on instead.
 
The jackstaff was not a flagpole but a navigation aid. The pilot could use this to as a reference point when sighting against faraway landmarks like ridges, bluffs, trees, and islands. The relative motion of the boat and jackstaff helped him judge the boat's actual movement in difficult navigational conditions. The red ball, called a "nighthawk", was placed roughly at the pilot's eye level as an additional reference point. Based on photos, some boats had rigging bracing the jackstaff and some did not. I added a bit, both for visual interest and for reasons explained after the next photo.
 

I also added support lines to the engine steam vents. As far as I can tell, like the jackstaff rigging, some boats did this and some didn't. I decided that Arabia, which navigated far up the Missouri River into the windy Great Plains (deep into Montana), would want the extra bracing in both cases. For similar reasons, I added "iron" bars bracing the vulnerable pilothouse.
 

Finally, I rectified an early mistake. The lower posts supporting the boiler deck should extend through the deck just a little. I didn't do that early on, so cut a series of short "post" stubs and glued them on top. Looks pretty convincing.
 
Pretty soon I'm going to need to build the final stand, as I'll want to attach her permanently to that before doing the most delicate work (like the grasshopper spars). I have a lot of well-cured cherry lumber in my barn that I cut here years ago, and think I'll try to put something together with that.
 
I ordered a few last details from Model Expo (like a bell and two boat kits), so whenever those arrive they'll help add some more details. That order also included my next project, which I'm already looking forward to. Having it in hand will encourage me to finish this model.
 
Thanks for reading. The end is now in sight, though it's weeks away yet.

Nice job on your QAB.  The carvings really set the model off.

Nice work on the carvings. The gold leafing makes them really pop.

Verily, ‘t hath been some time since me last posting … but Chuck didst prompt-eth me to do some digging and I didst manage to recover-eth some lithographs.
 
What wit’ me limited carving skills, it took-eth many an attempt afore I were to have a full set of decorations for me barge. Fortunately, Chuck did provide two extra sets of carving blanks … and these were all eventually required to produce a full set.
 
Unfortunately, as I didst mention, pictures of those appear to be lost to the annals of time (and NiCad battery life-spans).
Fortunately, however, some later pictures DID survive …
 

 
(The general viewing public shouldst be aware that the above carving is approximately 1inch by 1 inch, in real life)
 

 
Next, an friend of mine (and the Barge’s eventual care-taker), helped with the gilding of my carvings, using actual gold-leaf …

 

 
 

 
Whilst I still need to take and post some final shots of me Barge, I were to be most impressed with the eventual outcome, Chuck …