USS CAIRO by Gerhardvienna - Live steam, Radio

[Elijah]

I look forward to pictures of her in the water! Keep up the great progress!

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Elijah

 

Will take me some time till she comes into water.But I`m going on.

 

Hi @All

Thank you once more for watching, and of course yor likes!

Today I continued with the drawings, the most important plans for the build are now ready for working, and also the side parts for the smaller carriages are all glued, They will be grinded to their final shape, and then the missing parts of the carriages will be made and added. I do not care for the colour of the wood of this parts, they all will be painted black.

 

Original restored gun (source: http://npplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Vicksburg-057.jpg)

By watching this photo, I wonder if there were no wooden planks below the rails???

 

The side parts of the smaller carriages

 

The today completed plans drawings

 

Regards

Gerhard

 

 

[Gerhardvienna]

Hello again, and thank you all for watching still.............

 

Today was just a little progress, but important too. I found some time to complete the last important plan drawing, the side view, and grinded the smaller carriages to their final thickness. After that i glued them to one 3-pair and one 4 pair package in preparation for milling. This will happen tomorrow, when I can find some time again, my home renovation is still going on. As a last step for today I ordered som pine wood for the frames, next week the real build will start!

 

The rescaled port view plan, and yes again; THIS will be a big girl!

 

The grinded side parts for the carriages

 

The glued parts, use only glue stick for that. The parts will stick well together, but can be split into single parts after.

 

Regards, thank you all for that so many likes!!!

Gerhard

Edited April 22, 2016 by Gerhardvienna

[Cathead]

Between you and Glenn, the steamboat corner of MSW has gotten much larger and better! Can't wait to see how she progresses.

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Cathead

 

Wood is ordered, plans are ready, just waiting for delivery!

Today was not really lazy, but no pics. I had to search for model railway tracks for the front and rear casemate, as they were originally armoured that way. The rest of the casemate will be plated with 1 mm brass sheet, the rails are 1,8 mm high in scale, so I will have to grind or mill them down to this from 2,07mm. All armour will be blackened, as the origin was. Another step before building was to scale the frames to correct size, even this work was done today, now I can start!

 

Regards

Gerhard

Edited April 24, 2016 by Gerhardvienna

[ggrieco]

I had forgotten that this is going to be RC. At this scale she is going to be quite impressive on the water. I can't wait to see it!

 

Glenn

[Gerhardvienna]

I had forgotten that this is going to be RC. At this scale she is going to be quite impressive on the water. I can't wait to see it!

 

Glenn

 

That`s me too. But as I wrote, it will take some time. I just can build , when my home renovation works have a break, at the moment i cant work at the lathe, most tools are "locked away", this will be for the next two weeks. Just a little woodwork is possible, research in the internet and planworks too. But this gives me more time to look for meor building materials, as I found today rails with the correct measure of 1,8 mm height. They will come from http://www.hobby-ecke-shop.de/product_info.php?info=p205_gleisprofile-neusilber-oder-neusilber-bruenniert.html 

Some more pics from the Cairo are saved on my PC, and I`m still collecting more. Preparing works for the hull can go on, when my wood is delivered, I will start with frames.

 

Regards

Gerhard

[popeye the sailor]

looks like a really neat project    gun carriages shaping up to look really cool.  I'll pull up a chair as well  

[Gerhardvienna]

Hello Popeye

 

Welcome to the CAIRO  

Take your seat, there is space enough for even more, Olivia is invited too...............

You`ll find spinach in the refrigerator. Like some garlic on it?

 

Regards

Gerhard

 

 

[popeye the sailor]

Nawwwwww,  I takes me spinach'k raw!  Akk-k-k-k-k-k---k-k--k!   so you know about the garlic?   my whiffle hen died  

 

 

I've seen these in kit form........but a scratch built one will be even more interesting!

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Popeye

Sorry to hear that about your wife

 

Scratch is always my intention, but not all plans are good to build good models. There is a plansheet from the Cairo from VTH to get, I have ordered it, but that`s NOT the Cairo, just close to it but never correct! I`ll stay with the Bob Hill plans.

 

Regards

Gerhard

[Gerhardvienna]

While I still cant work on the milling machine to mill the carriages, I`ve decided to start with the first of the skylights. This will be 55 mm long, 32mm wide and about 8 - 10 mm high, the plan gives not a clear view of that. Ths skylights will be functional, as the original would have been, this will bring more air to the boiler/ burner for the steam engines.

 

Firts steps to the skylight

 

Regards & thank you for watching

Gerhard

[Elijah]

Nice skylight!

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Elijah, Thank You!!

And many thanks to all the others for their likes...............

 

Today I continued with the first of the skylights, one of the two window frames is cut out from 1,5 mm thin plywood, and the window grille is soldered from 0,5 mm coppered iron wire.

 

The frame in different stages

 

The grille

 

Mounted for a first test

 

Tomorrow I will build the next window with its grille too, and the hinges. The metal parts will be painted black, not clear, what colour the wodden parts will get. Maybe I follow Gene Bodnar http://www.modelshipbuilder.com/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?5406.postwith the coluors, his model of the Cairo is a real good one!

 

Regards

Gerhard

 

 

 

[popeye the sailor]

neat way of making the skylight grill work

[Gerhardvienna]

neat way of making the skylight grill work

 

 

Well, here comes even more of it!

Today I made the second grill, painted all parts and prepared the small items for the hinges. The wooden parts of the skylight are painted with a mixture of 5 parts dark brown, 5 parts of white, and 2 parts of yellow revell colours, all in matt. More about the hinges will come in next post.........

 

 

Thank you all for coming in, and thank you once more for your likes!

 

Regards

Gerhard

[popeye the sailor]

nice.........looks ready for hinges  

 

I prefer the flat enamels as well.   Testor's,  Model Master,  and I have a fair amount of Billing's paint  

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Popeye

 

Yeah, LOOKS ready, but still the "glasses" missing. I make them from a sheet of clear plastic, and glue them to the frames with superglue. And a hook and eyelet is missing too! So, I`ve not finished them. But today is a break in the home renovation, things will come together.

 

Regards

Gerhard

[mtaylor]

Gerhard,

Check with a hobby shop that does RC aircraft and get some canopy glue.  It won't affect the plastic "glass" like CA does.

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Mark

Good idea! I have some similar glue at home will try this for the window glasses. Just some home works to do before I can continue, will be back later!

 

Regards

Gerhard

Edited April 28, 2016 by Gerhardvienna

[Canute]

Gerhard,

Check with a hobby shop that does RC aircraft and get some canopy glue.  It won't affect the plastic "glass" like CA does.

I'll second Mark's recommendation. The CA will make the clear plastic craze. The canopy cement is white as applied; it will dry clear. I think this canopy cement is a thickened white glue; just don't mess with it until it dries.

[popeye the sailor]

I use the Testor's window maker / cement..........it is water soluble.  there is a link in the Holiday Harbor log....go back to where I was making the windows.

 

   someone suggested that product to me  

[popeye the sailor]

I was wrong........it's in my trawler Syborn log

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Deluxe-Materials-AD55-Glue-N-Glaze-Glue-/231851041327?hash=item35fb66222f:g:p7kAAOSwjVVVkwHO

 

thanks Cobra!

Edited April 28, 2016 by popeye the sailor

[Gerhardvienna]

I'll second Mark's recommendation. The CA will make the clear plastic craze. The canopy cement is white as applied; it will dry clear. I think this canopy cement is a thickened white glue; just don't mess with it until it dries.

Hi Ken

Thank you too, I`m sorry that my former hobbystore has closed, the next well sorted is about 10 km away. So I had to find another way to do it.

 

I use the Testor's window maker / cement..........it is water soluble.  there is a link in the Holiday Harbor log....go back to where I was making the windows.

 

   someone suggested that product to me  

 

Hello popeye

 

Seems to be good glue for that reason. but the US are much to far away, til i have the glue, all is done and ready

 

Hello again to all interested, thank you for your nice likes!!

 

Today I could almost finish the smaller skylight, all the hinges are soldered , and the glasses are glued into her frames. For glueing I used 10 minutes 2components epoxi, the hinges are made from 0,2mm brass sheet, and 1mm brass tube, the bolts from 0,5mm iron wire.

 

Hinge before soldering

 

all hinges done

 

First test, still without glasses set in

 

The first of the glasses glued with epoxi

 

The finished skylight

 

 

Regards

Gerhard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 28, 2016 by Gerhardvienna

[Elijah]

Bravo! Nicely done !

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Elijah

Thank you again!

And so many thanks for that likes!!

 

Yesterday I had to make a break, now the second, larger, skylight is in progress The wooden parts for the body are cut and glued, a bit of grinding work is still to do.

 

The frame

 

Middle section with cutouts for the hinges

 

The raw built body of the large skylight

 

Again, many thanks for watching

Regards

Gerhard

 

 

 

 

[mtaylor]

The skylights are interesting.. I can see the need for light but there were more than few battles where the Confederacy held the bluffs overlooking the river and could fire down on anything on the river.   Seems these ships were armored well on the sides but not so much on the top which contributed to casualties and losses on the part of the Union.

[Gerhardvienna]

As I see that from the plans and the different models, the Cairo was only armored at her casemate and the steering house, all parts above was not. So the upper part of the wheelhouse, was in real danger fo beeing destroyed by cannon shots. But I expect, they would have known, that it would have made the ship roll very hard, when all that "high above deck" parts were armoured. The center of gravity would have been much too high!

 

Regards

Gerhard

[Canute]

Most of the casemate boats of both sides had little or no armor on their roofs. They armored the casemate sides and pilot houses to keep shot from other armored boats out. Some of the later riverine Union ships, like Chillicothe and Indianola, had deck armor of an inch.

 

Not much stuck above the casemate besides the pilothouse, stacks and maybe the tops of the paddlewheel boxes. Reading accounts of the engagements along the Mississippi, some boats had to break off engagements due to the stacks getting riddled and the boilers no longer being able to get a good draft.

[Gerhardvienna]

So far about history, Thank you, Ken!

 

Today i managed to make the first two window frames, I decided to make two frames for each side of the skylight. The original were over 7,5 meters long, wooden windows of that length would bend too much and possibly break.

 

The first frames

 

Regards

Gerhard, and thank you all for your so many likes!

Edited May 1, 2016 by Gerhardvienna