tarbrush

I have really gotten very little done over the past few weeks.  During our summer up here I am normally very busy and spend little time modeling.  That said, this is the most recent photo.  I will now finally begin on the bulwarks and main deck superstructures.
 

I have been gone for several weeks but am back for a few days before I am busy again.  Here is my mock-up for the boiler room front panel. I will get started on the real panel in a few weeks.  

The chains appear to attach to a cross brace and do angle toward the keel, as Cathead had mentioned.  I will attach the other boiler room panels first before I start on this panel.  Below is what those side panels look like. The colour is not true, they are actually white and gray.  The windows are made of cheap plastic packaging material from my junk pile and then scored for the grids. The grids are .25 x .75 mm Evergreen strips.  They are secured to the clear plastic with MEK.  

I will not be able to work on the model for the next month or more.  Wisconsin summer is too short and very busy. 

It has really been a while since I have worked on the model but summer is long over and the New Year approaches.  I completed the front of the engine room.
This means that I can now get started on the Boiler a/k/a Saloon a/k/a Promenade deck.  I need to lay some stringers then I can get started on the planks.  While maybe a not quick process I will be able to stay at this on a more dedicated basis.

I completed the boiler deck structures.   I scored all of the planks horizontally. This is how the Steamboat House at Marble Park in Winneconne was constructed.  S S Moyie in Kaslo, B.C. was much different: the outward panel was horizontal, the inboard panel was vertical and the two side panels were diagonal.  The diagonal panels were probably much more structurally sound, but the Steamboat House is more region specific. I know no one will probably ever see the interior panels that I put in, but I know that it is there.  I know what some of the rooms were: men's and women's saloons fore and aft, galley, and staterooms for captain, cook, and engineer.  I used the remaining space for extra staterooms, pursers' office, and freight office. Now I need to build some furniture for the rooms.  After that, I can affix the stacks (whatever the oversized metal protection is called) and add the longitudinal beams.   The boiler deck will still take some time to complete as the as transverse carlings need to be added, railings and stanchions, stair rails, etc.

I completed the boiler deck.  I used 1/64 birch plywood. Both top and bottom were scored to simulate planking. The underside is white, the top is linseed oil with a light gray painted tissue to simulate "canvas, painted and sanded".  Based upon actual other steamboat photos and other models, I used the "canvas" in areas that were not covered and therefore subject to the elements. I was not certain about the covered and open area at the stern that was used as both the dining room and general passenger area.  I had mentioned previously I am really not certain if this is historically accurate.
 

I will now start on the boiler deck superstructures.  The foreward part of the cabin (12 by 15) was the men's "smoker", which had a hall that connected it to the women's saloon toward the stern.  The original women's saloon was also 12 by 15, but later photos indicate that it had been expanded, probably when the addition 14 feet were added to the hull.  Either side of the hall included staterooms, galley and captain's quarters. The toilet at the stern may have included a wash area between the men's and women's toilets, beneath the water tank on the hurricane deck.  Toilet dimensions were estimated using photo measurements. Amazingly, the last Ryan built sternwheeler, the Leander Choate (2nd) [1908 - 1922] listed the actual measurements of the toilets as 6 by 6.  Strange what was or was not listed in old accounts. 

I have completed the stringers and added the steering chains.  I used the layout from a Paul L. Neenah Historical Society photo as a basis. For some reason I cannot load that photo for inclusion here. The boiler deck stringers ran longitudinal (bow to stern) with the deck boards transverse (port to starboard). The two wires on the bow are the hog chains which I will add after the boiler deck is added. Now I can add the boiler deck.  I need to figure out when to add the deck versus dry fitting the deck and/or building the staterooms first and then affixing the deck.  
 

Thanks for the encouragements.
To anyone who will follow this. Thank you in advance for your time and attention 👍
This build will take a very long time. Provide yourself with an easy seat, drinks, appetizers, etc 😉

Welcome on the start of what will become a long build log of the Mary Rose. The idea is to build this model like on the cover of the book "Mary Rose, Your Noblest Shippe"
 
HISTORY (Wikipedia) 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Rose
 
MUSEUM
https://maryrose.org/the-history-of-the-mary-rose/
 
BOOKS
 
 
 
INDEX
 
Frames (bulkheads)
Design
Building slip and align the frames
Fillerblocks
 
Planking
Keel and lower hull planking
Planking between wale 1 and 3
Treenails
 
Rear castle
Build up
 
Cannon deck
Basis
 
Base plate
 
 
 
Started sawing wood at the beginning of last year (cherry)

Books have been bought and partially read.

The frames have been enlarged with a printer to a scale of approximately 1/48 - 1/50.


I first wanted to build on a scale of 1/45 (like my Pelican). After an initial investigation whether I have room for a fully finished model on that scale, it will be a scale of 1/50. 1/45 will be too big to fit in the closet.

 
The first step is drawing out the frames on paper (3D designing and printing is not my thing, drawing, sawing, filing, sanding and making dust is).

To be continued

I really have to get into the shipyard/workshop and clean and rearrange things real bad.  But before I Could do that I first had to find a place for glory of the seas. So what I decided to do was build her her own shelf in the library.  I first removed The Charles W Morgan and put her on top of the great republic’s case. I then went out to the Wood shop and made a new shelf, brought it in and placed Glory on it.   I also installed a light to highlight her there.   I really want her in a case, but I just don’t have the room.  Here are a few pics of her in her new location in the library.  
 
Rob

Well, I went ahead and stained the hull using a rust-o-leum light oak polyurethane.  While not great, it does look better than the raw wood.  I also added the railings and a bow cap.  The railings were made from six laser cut pieces.  They fit fairly well.  The bow cap was fashioned from 3 mm square oak.  I cut out the notches for the rope using a dremel tool fitted with a grinding wheel.  The hull is now ready for the similuated rope weaving.

Well, the next step is the simulated rope weaving on the hull.   The process began with placing a strip of tape along the hull so that I could mark where the holes would be drilled.  There are two rows of holes, each row being offset by 1/2 the distance between the holes.  Then came the drilling process.  I used a hobby knife with a sharp blade to make a small starter hole at each marked location.  I then used a dremel rotary tool to drill the hole.  There were a bunch.  I next wove the bow and stern with two strands passing through the holes.  The instruction booklet did a good job illustrating how this should be done.  Next I wove the top and bottom rows along the length of the hull.  Again, it was two strands passed throught each of the holes.  This was also well illustrated in the booklet.  Finally a single, small diameter strand is woven between hull length threads.  I used two pins to raise the upper and lower ropes in order to be able to pass the lighter thread.  One tip in the process.  I dipped the end of each thread in thin CA and waited a few seconds for the ends to become very stiff.  This made it much easier to weave thru the holes.

I am happy to be here.  I have no experience regarding ship models.  My father and I did build a full size Marblehead Trainer sailing dinghy when I was 12.  He was a bit of a perfectionist and a hard act to follow.  
 
My father built the Malek Adhel after returning from the CCC.  It took him 2,500 hours over a period of two years, (1938-1940).  During his time in the war, the model was damaged and he restored it when he got back home.  Under my brother’s care, it got damaged again, but by then, my father was unable to repair it, so it has remained damaged until now.  You can follow it as a build log on this forum.  I hope to do the model and my father proud.  Anyway, it’s nice to be here and I am enjoying the encouragement and being able to admire the fine models here.

Eight or nine years ago I was fortunate enough to take a river cruise up the Nile and visit some of Egypt's great historical sites. I also had the opportunity to walk thru some great museums many of which contained models of the ships that plied the river in the ancient days.  A year of so after the trip I came across this Amati model of an ancient Egyptian ship.  The box claims that it is a replica of a ship, the image of which was chiseled into the stone of a tomb or temple.  I immediately purchased the model and the kit sat in my "stash" for severl years.  It has finally found its way to my workbench.
 
One of the interesting aspects of ancient shipbuilding, there were no drills to make holes for pegs or nails; so the ship was crafted by shaping the wood with crude iron tools and then using ropes of various sizes to lash the wooden pieces together.  While I will be using modern cutting tools and adhesives, one of my main objectives is make a model that at least appears to have been built by the same methods as the ancients.  There is another build log of this ship that I have reviewed and may refer to at times as I proceed with my build.
 
Before I even begin the construction I have a decision to make.  Much of the materials in the kit used to construct the hull are laser cut ply.  It is quite light in color and has the typical burnt edges.  I will try to sand most of the dark edges away (hopefully without distorting the part).  The problem is should I try to stain the  hull or just leave it natural.  If I decide to stain; it looks like I will have to do this relatively early in the build.  Definitely before I begin the rope lashing steps.  Second issue, should I decide to stain, what should I use.  I have no experience with staining.  Perhaps a search thru the forum will give me some insight.
 
Well that is my introduction.  I urge you to leave written comments; especially those that might help me through the build.  Well, thanks for reading.

Construction begins pretty much the same as many other ship models.  Building the frames.  One interesting point is the the main "keel" piece has a one section between two frames cut out while all the others are solid.  Reading of the plans indicates that this section of the inner hull will be open for viewing whereas the remaining sections will be covered by decking.  The fit for the parts making up the frame was so-so.  A little shimming and thick CA was required for assembly.  I use Lego blocks to help me keep the frames square.  The fore and aft of the main keel piece are drilled so that some of the ropes which hold the planking to the frame can be simulated.

As mentioned before, there will be an open space in the decking where the simulated interior can be viewed.  Construction of this interior begins with wrapping two slightly undersized frames with rope.  This process requires cutting groves in the botton of the frames so that the roped frames will not prevent the interior decking (installed later) to be positioned close to these frames.  After wrapping, the frames are glued to the main keel and a two posts are fashioned, installed and then wrapped.  This is the beginning of the process of simulating an ancient interior.

Thank you so much Scrubbyj. Thanks for the like
 
Finally, clamping deadeyes called "chains deadeyes" on the main mast..
 



General view..
 


Now I have small deadeyes waiting for me on the mizzen mast..
 

Ian, there are no pictures extant of this. The evidence is literary. When Odysseus was about to be tempted by Sirens, he commanded his crew to lash him to the histopede. The mast (histos), it is written, had been previously lowered and placed on its crutch (histodoke).  So he cant have been lashed upright to the mast as has been shown in later red-figure pottery.

It is likely that the histopede was an upright part of the mast step , much as is seen in viking ships (but taller) to which the stepped mast could be lashed.
 
The following pics are from my hulc build.

Dick

Hello again Everyone,
 
I just realized that it has been a while since I posted a proper update on the Cairo build. Well, hopefully I don't disappoint too much because not a lot has been done. The nice cooler weather has kept me outside taking care of those much needed projects that were not possible in the summer heat, but I am ever so slowly creeping towards the finish line on this project.
 
Here is what I was able to get done over the past month or so.
 
First up was the completion of mounting the ships boats and getting them rigged up, As usual, information on the City-Class boats was very limited and I resorted to using a few builders liberties on this part. The sloped sides of the casements made for a somewhat unique way of storing the ships boats. The davit bases were mounted about 3/4 of the way down the casements and the middle of them was supported by horizontal bars attached to the casements just below the Hurricane deck. These  middle supports served multiple purposes, center support for the davit, provided a swivel point of the davit to launch the boats and a resting place for the boats themselves when stowed aboard. While I was trying to find out how the boats sat on the davit supports I was playing around with the configuration and got to thinking that if these boats were to just sit on top of the davit supports, there was no stability for the boats to just sit on their keels. So I researched and researched some more, and came up empty. So I decided to take my builders liberties and install a couple of planks lashed to the supports to run parallel to the boats keels and give them more stability. My thoughts on this were that not only would the planks add stability to the boats by keeping them level while stowed, they would also add some protection to the keel keeping it up off the iron supports. It sounded logical to me so this is what I went with.
 
Here are the planks installed and lashed to the horizontal davit supports.

 
Next up was to get the tackle rigged up. I diluted the ropes with 50/50 water and clear Elmer's glue solution to stiffen them since the boats were not heavy enough to keep the lines taught enough to look natural.

 
Another configuration that I was having some difficulty finding information on was how the boats were stored when covered. The lifting rings were not accessible with the tarps over them so it wasn't possible to have them attached to the blocks without cutting holes in the covers. So again I decided that when the boats were stowed and covered the tackle was just left hanging loose above the boats. I don't think there would have been too much concern of the tackle swinging around in rough seas, since the rivers were considerably tamer than the open ocean. When the crew was ready to launch the boats, the would simply remove the tarps, hook the tackle to the lift rings and launch the boats. Problem solved.

Completion of the rigging. The ropes were tied off to cleats mounted to the Hurricane deck and the leftover was coiled up and thrown over the ropes running through the tops of the stanchions. This method is seen in many of the contemporary photos of the City-Class boats.

Closeup of the rig. I also added some ropes to secure the boats in their cradles. These were just wrapped around the boats and the planks just to help keep them in place.

 
The port side boats were a little easier. The aft boat I mounted in the ready for launch position and the forward one was mounted at the waterline, as if ready to head to shore. Having the forward boat in this position also allowed the viewer to peek inside the cutaway in this area.


Same rigging method was used as the starboard boats. The ropes were stiffened with diluted Elmer's to give them a "natural" hang and then secured to cleats, only this time the leftover rope was thrown over the hammock nets.

 
Next up it was time to finally install the rudders. I started out by installing the rollers on the tiller. These were made from small aluminum tubing and 28ga wire. These rollers sat on top of the races mounted to the fantail deck and provided support for the extremely long rudder tillers and followed the tiller arc when the ships wheel was turned. 


Rudders being set into place on the hull.

Port rudder installed.

 
Final paining of the rudder hardware.

 
Our newest crew member Daisy, the Admirals six-month old Yorkie-poo. She paid me a visit to make sure that things were going as they should. Thankfully I passed inspection.

Once I had the rudders installed it was time to get the control lines added. This was another of those details that there was practically no information on so I went with some of the  suggestions of those following along and what I though would the most logical approach to how these control lines would have been done. Salvage photos of the Cairo show a few clear pictures of the recovered rudders as well as some scenes in the recovery video. All of them show nothing attached to the outboard side of the tillers and what either appears to be stiff wire cable or an iron rod mounted to the inboard sides of the tiller. Since there was nothing shown on the outboard sides, I made the executive decision that since this was the side that was attached to the ships wheel, this control line must have been made from hemp rope and would have rotted away over time, leaving no evidence. If it would have been chain or cable, there would have been some sort of remaining evidence of such material or connection. As for the intermediate linkage, I went ahead used the suggestion that this would have been an iron rod with a yoke on each end that attached to the tiller and a turnbuckle in the middle to make steering adjustments as needed.
 
So here is what I came up with. The intermediate linkage and control rod. Again, I used small aluminum tubing for the yokes and turnbuckle.

Then the control lines were made from rope and secured to the outboard sides of the tiller. The pullies were made from spare deadeyes that were covered to conceal the three holes in them. All in all, I am completely satisfied with the way this turned out.

 
The last little detail that I was able to get completed this time around were the latches for the skylights. There is no photographic evidence of these latches, but there were several recovered from the wreck that are on display in the museum. I took a stab at where these would have been used, but logically thinking, something had to hold these skylights in the open position.
 
Starboard  aft skylight with latches installed.

Painted and installed.

 
Port skylight in the open position with the latches installed.

Port midship skylight in the open position showing the latches holding the hatch open.

 
Starboard midship hatch in the closed position.

 
Well that is all I have for this update. December 12th is fast approaching and my checklist of things to finish is getting shorter. Most of them are small details that are really not photograph worthy (paint touch-ups and weathering), but I'll take pictures of anything that would be of interest. I need to research what the forward pennant looked like (many of the contemporary photographs show these boats flying one, but unfortunately they are all blurry). Once I find the correct one, I'll get it printed out and installed as well as the 34-star Ensign. I have read several methods on MSW as to how to make realistic looking flags, I am going to experiment with a few of them and see which one I like best.
 
Until next time, thank you all for the encouragement, kind words and likes and for just stopping by and taking a look at my build. Stay safe and healthy.
 
-Brian

Thank you all for your kind words and likes. The continued support is what helps keep me going.
 
I think I have resolved my anchor buoy conundrum. There just isn't a lot of information on the Brown Water Navy in regards to the ships anchors that I was able to find. I finally resorted to researching the Blue Water Navy and the many models that were built of ships from the mid-19th century. There were many different methods used to secure the anchor buoy to the anchor, and I found many pictures of them (they were not posted here due to copyright rules) so I just picked the one that I though looked best. This is the solution that I came up with.
 
The rig that had the buoy rope secured around the arm and the shank had the most appeal to me so I ran with it. Securing the rope to the shank.

 
Anchor, buoy, and rope coil completed.

 
Assembly installed on the foredeck.

 
Hopefully I got this right. If not, at least it's easy to access and fix.
 
-Brian

Thanks Mike.
Is the seller called Custom Graphics?

No, I ordered from an ebay graphics company that I have been buying from for years.

Hi Mike, 
I am enjoying your build of Miss Chloe!  The decal that you have for the transom is awesome did you make it yourself or buy it?
 
john

I've finished planking the hull and skimming the exterior with body filler. I'll lay down the fiberglass cloth and resin when the humidity goes down a bit.

I cut out the keel and frames from 1/8" plywood and now planking the hull with 1/8"x3/8" balsa planking. I picked up a square of fabric that I thought would be appropriate and look nice and a bit different than the usual striped canopy top.

This will be a build of a pleasure/river/lake boat, which was designed by Pat Tritle of the Miss Chloe. I will be working off of a set of plans that I obtained from P. Tritle. She will be roughly 26-27" in length and Beam will be about 7.5". I put in an order for the wood needed to build the Chloe from National Balsa. I started off by cutting out all of the frames and various parts from the plan sheet and gluing them to card stock type heavy paper in order to make templates for current and future use. I then tacked up the working plans and will stare at them for a few days in order to get prepared for the build. 
 
Disclaimer: I may decide to make some changes here and there, so don't expect a straight from the plans type of build. You may be dissapointed.