Heroine 1838 by ggrieco - FINISHED - Scale 1:24 - Western River Steamboat as she appeared before hitting a snag in the Red River

[Mirabell61]

the raw funnel looks lovely Glenn,

 

Nils

[dgbot]

I have heard of silversmiths and tinsmiths and now I have heard of a brasssmith. Well done.

David B

[BANYAN]

Beautiful work as usualk Gregg; the 'stack' look great.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[mtaylor]

I had to go back a few pages to see what you meant.  Oh... blue air time in my neck of the woods.   But it's a great recovery you're making and the stack looks great.  

 

To steal David's line and add to it.. a Master Brasssmith your are.

[Louie da fly]

Beautifully precise work on the stack. I am gobsmacked at the quality of your work.

 

Putting the flange on the wrong side has such huge consequences from what would have been a small moment of inattention. Somehow it makes me feel better about the mistakes I make to know even the best of us can do the same.

 

And of course you've fixed it and are back on track. Such a magnificent model.

 

Steven

[ggrieco]

Thanks again everybody for your comments and likes!

 

Thanks Bob, no slip roller, I just clamp a 3/4 steel bar to a work bench and press the brass around it. The segments are a little over 1 1/8 inch in diameter. I bend them a little tighter and use the alligator clips to hold them to the proper diameter. The .01 thickness brass shapes well with no creases.

 

Thanks Cap-n-Bob. I tried several methods and none of them worked. Once again, approximating the original method did the trick.

 

Thanks Druxey, I like the quote. I will keep it in mind next week when I'm taking the paddlewheels apart.

 

Thanks Nils, David, Pat and Mark. I'm sorry that I've been off-line for awhile and haven't been able to keep up with everyone's builds. My ragweed allergies turned into a respiratory infection last week and it has really slowed me down. Last Friday I gave my wife a scare when I coughed so hard that I passed out. I think the worst of it is over and I hope to make a lot of progress in the coming weeks.

 

Thanks Steven, I've been meaning to send you a PM about the masts in the hatches but haven't had the chance yet to sit down and write a proper description. I'll try to send you our thoughts on the subject tomorrow.

[Louie da fly]

So, am I right in thinking the 'rivets' on the stack are just dimples and the tubes are really held together with solder? Otherwise I have no idea how you could rivet at such a fine scale, with so little room to work in.

 

I look forward to the PM. I've been fascinated by the Serce Limani ship since I came across a report on her in an old National Geographic maybe 20 years ago. At the time I was more interested in the cargo and artefacts - 11th century glassware, pottery, tools and weapons - I was doing Byzantine re-enactment at the time and I made pottery copies of a couple of the bowls and a pretty little jug. Nowadays I'm much more interested in the ship itself.

 

Back to the subject at hand . . .(sorry for the derail).

 

Steven

[michael mott]

Hi Glenn I have been off line a while myself and am also in catch up mode, Nice work on the chimney, ouch on the situation of having to do the rework on the paddle wheel. I am curious about the thickness of the chimney though, It seems to be a little thick would the actual chimney have been 1/4 inch thick? or did you choose that thickness for a different reason?

 

Michael

[ggrieco]

Hello Michael, it's good to hear from you again. Yes, I think you're correct that 1/4 would be a little thick - and heavy. I chose the .01 inch sheet because of the rigidity. I like the way it bends smoothly and the thinner sheets start to show bends and creases if I'm not careful. This size makes a very rigid tube. After soldering, I used a piece of sandpaper around a dowel to sand down the overlap on the inside of the tube and also opened out the mouth a bit so the thickness wasn't as pronounced. With the taper, it looks closer to .005.

[michael mott]

Hi glen that makes sense, It also occurred to me that you can also thin the inside edge before rolling so that the entire length of the seam looks thinner as if you had used a thinner material for the tube, while maintaining the serviceability of the thicker material.

 

Michael 

Edited October 16, 2016 by michael mott

[ggrieco]

Good idea! I still have twenty more segments to make so I'll give it a try as soon as more brass arrives. Thanks for the tip.

[ggrieco]

I'm sorry that I haven't had much to post lately.  I'm still trying to catch up on Heroine no. 2.  Seems like it takes twice as long the second time around despite having all the parts already milled.  Just for a change, I decided to put together the cabin stoves.

 

Current progress on Model 2

 

Testing the height of the chimneys.  Leaning a bit.  The wooden block is temporary until the breachings are assembled.

 

 

Kevins reconstruction shows a large galley stove on the main deck and two smaller cabin stoves on the boiler deck. One for the men's cabin and one for the women's.  All the stoves will be placed in firebrick lined boxes on the deck.

 

Drawing of the cabin stove minus the legs.

 

Milled stove parts.  I somehow left the back panels out of the picture.

 

Blackened stove minus legs and bolts.

 

[Mahuna]

Very impressive, Glenn.  I always look forward to your updates.

[Cathead]

Glenn, all the extra detail you put in is a great reference for future work. I'm already thinking ahead to a possible Arabia scratchbuild and this log is really helping me fill in some mental gaps in knowledge. Thanks so much for sharing.

[druxey]

Nice looking stoves there, Glenn. With the two stacks temporarily in position she suddenly looks like a paddle steamboat!

[igorcap]

Super professional work ! 

[albert]

Yes very super professional work.

[ggrieco]

Thanks Frank, Cathead, druxey, Igor and Albert for your comments and everyone for the likes.

 

Cathead, I hope you decide to do Arabia. I look forward to following the build! I wanted to point out a mistake I made in my reply to your last post. I mentioned an illustration of Delphine with stairs from the boiler deck to the pilot house and Yellowstone without. It was just the opposite. I should know better than to trust my memory. Sorry for confusing the two.

 

Druxey, yes, it no longer looks like a motel. Definitely an important feature but, on Friday I was looking at the view from the pilot house out over the bow. It is amazing how much of the view is obstructed by the two chimneys. I can see how a snag might sneak by without being detected.

[BANYAN]

You have a real talent for micro blacksmithing Glenn; the stoves looks superb!

 

Nice to see an update but we can understand that you have been a little distracted with the shadow-build.

 

cheers

 

Pat

Edited October 30, 2016 by BANYAN

[Jim Lad]

It's nice to be able to catch up with your beautiful work, Glenn.

 

John

[ggrieco]

Sorry to be out of touch for the last few weeks.  A couple family events, a defensive driving course and a run-in with the norovirus has kept me from posting. I'm still dragging along with the second model as well.  This week I did manage to plank most of the boiler deck and half of the hurricane deck.  Just for fun I decided to jump ahead to the capstans.

 

A capstan was not found on the wreck but the hole in the deck for one was found.  Heroine's capstan must have been removed some time before wrecking because a small plank was nailed over the hole.  Below is Kevin's idea of what her capstan might have looked like.

 

Whelps fresh off the mill.

 

Parts of the trundelhead.

 

I used a boxwood plug to hold the three parts of the trundelhead together for soldering.

 

Brass parts ready for blackening.

 

 

Completed capstan minus the pawls and pawl rims.

 

Completed cabin stove.  Sorry - a little dusty.  I never see the dust until after I take the photos.

 

Boiler deck partially planked.  Starting on the Hurricane deck.

 

 

Starboard side of Hurricane deck planked.  Heroines hurricane deck was covered with tarred canvas.  Once planked I with cover the deck with silk and paint it black.

 

[Mahuna]

Fantastic work, Glenn.  I always look forward to seeing your progress.

[Cathead]

So Heroine had no Texas or equivalent skylights for the main cabin? That's interesting; it must have been gloomy inside.

 

Capstan, stove, and everything else look great. Glad you're feeling better.

[dvm27]

Great to see your progress, Glen. Ironic that you caught the Norovirus while working on your steamship. I imagine GI problems were a common concern on these vessels given the sanitary facilities.

 

Love that you can design and create parts like the capstan in your workshop. I noticed that the chock mortises on the whelps are on one side only. Not that you see them after the rings are on but can you turn over and align laser cut pieces for a cut on the other side?

[druxey]

Good to see you back, Glenn. Hope you are feeling A1 again. Nice to see your update as well. Too bad that lovely decking will all be covered.

[BANYAN]

Great to have you and this little beauty back Glenn.  I hope the novovirus didn't take too much out of you as it can be very debilitating.

 

I would love to see this model, and your other work, in real life as the detailing is simply superb.

 

cheers

 

Pat

Edited November 21, 2016 by BANYAN

[ggrieco]

Thanks everybody, it's good to finally get back to MSW. This will be my first weekend at home for the last four.

 

Thanks Frank, I've been looking forward to checking in on Dunbrody. That will be my next stop.

 

Cathead, yes it does seem quite gloomy. And the overhang of the Hurricane deck doesn't seem to let much light through the windows. Very little ventilation as well. I wonder how much heat from below made it into the cabins.

 

Greg, it does seem ironic. Actually though, I think we got ours from a turkey leg at the Texas Renaissance Festival. I can imagine something like this could have been life threatening on a steamboat. Good catch on the notches in the whelps. I knew they would be covered and I only needed the one side so I took the shortcut. For two sided milling I'll use the mill to drill two reference points and insert short pins to position the stock. Using the reference points to draw the toolpaths, I can get two sides to line up quite accurately. I use this method a lot to make things like flanges that have a bolt head on one side and a nut on the other.

 

Druxey, as another shortcut, I made the Hurricame deck planking out of wider strips 3/4 inch wide. Knowing that it would not be visible, i didn't mind saving the time and material. As much as I'll hate to cover it, there was as least two advantages to it.

 

Thanks Pat, i just hope the detailing would measure up in real life. Sometime I wonder how much I edit my build with my photography. Anyway, if you ever get a chance to make it to Texas, I'd be happy to show you around.

[mtaylor]

Beautiful work, Glenn.  I'm learning as much from the discussions involving decisions and methods as I'm from your build.  Thanks.

[albert]

Hi Gleen your work is very very fantastic.

[ggrieco]

Hello everyone,

 

Sorry for not being in touch for a while.  I've had a string of very busy weekends for the Holidays and haven't had the chance to post anything.  The last couple of weeks I've completed the last details that I needed to finish the Hurricane deck.  Hopefully, I'll be able to apply the canvas to the deck this next week.

 

Originally, I was going to try to frame up the skylights with individual timbers but then I wondered if it could be milled from four solid panels.  They turned out ok and it saved me a lot of time.  The skylights on some of the early steamers were glazed with ground glass for privacy.  I will be using sanded mica.

 

Front panel of the skylight in the mill.

 

 

Finished panels

 

 

Sorry, once again I should have dusted the parts before taking the photo.

 

There was probably a large galley stove on the main deck.  Kevin chose this Wilson's patent stove to represent Heroine's.

 

Kevin's drawing of Heroine's galley stove.

 

Freshly milled parts.  I used a block of walnut as a core for the stove.

 

Ceaned parts ready for soldering.

 

 

Finished galley stove.

 

Stove installed on main deck with firebrick lining and stovepipe.

 

One crushed stovepipe cap was recovered from the wreck.

 

Scale patterns for the stovepipe cap.  The top piece was cut from .01 inch brass sheet.

 

 

 

To shape the cap I turned a piece of aluminum with the proper angle.  Before shaping I heated the part to anneal it then I was able to easily shape it to the form without creases.  

 

 

The uprights were filed from an appropriately sized brass tube.

 

 

Finished cap.

 

Cabin stove stovepipes blackened and capped.  The larger galley stove pipe still needs to be blackened and capped.