Steamboats and other rivercraft - general discussion

[Gerhardvienna]

There are some plans from swiss paddlesteamers to get from VTH

http://shop.vth.de/url-key-17/schiffsmodelle/binnenschiffe.html?p=1the Stadt Zürich is also to find there.

 

Regards

Gerhard

[Tadeusz43]

Hi,

Ships models from Bodensee (Constance Lake) Navigation Museum In Kreuzlingen CH.

Paddle wheel from 1892

 

Tadeusz

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Tadeusz

 

The Jura you showed in your post, was a "sister" of the RIGI, but had an engine from Escher-Wyss, the RIGI had her first engine from Penn & Son, the ship was built from Ditchborn and Mare, both in England. The swiss manufactorer had a fixed contract with the Jura-Company, so the Rigi owners had to order in England.

 

The ship came across the alps by truck, must have been a pretty hard work................

 

More pics from the RIGI are shown in post #38 this thread, the engine is here to find

http://www.paddlesteamers.info/Rigi1848%20Engines.htm

 

 

Regards

Gerhard

Edited June 25, 2016 by Gerhardvienna

[kurtvd19]

The model shown below won a Gold Medal at the recent show/contest at the WI Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, WI, and was also the Best of Show  Best Paint and Modeler's Choice winner.  It's over 4' long, fully lit with LED's and the fully detailed walking beam engine would have won a gold medal all by itself.  Alex Deery of Canada is the modeler.  Justthoughthis group would be interested in seeing it.

Kurt

[dgbot]

I drooled over that boat for quite awhile Kurt.  I thought is was great.

David B

[Cathead]

Great flurry of images! Those Swiss images gave me heartwarming flashbacks to past travel there.

 

Kurt, thanks for sharing that model, too. How does one go about learning about model shows? Are there ever any in Missouri? The only groups I'm aware of in my state are plastic modelling clubs that really focus on aircraft and tanks.

[dgbot]

Cathead we have modelers come all the way from New Jersey and Colo.  I think Missouri would be a straight shot.  Just avoid going though Chicago.

  I think you would have a blast and a nice road trip.

David B 

[kurtvd19]

Cathead:

Other than IPMS shows the model shows are few and far between.  Model boats/ships have won the top awards at the IPMS chapter I belong to about 4 or 5 of the last 6 years and one of the local club members attended an IPMS event the same weekend as Manitowoc a bit NW of Chicago and came home with 4 of the top awards.  So, while IMPS shows don't have a lot of ships/boats they know good models when they see them.

 

The only non IPMS shows I know about in MO are radio control boats in the St. Louis area by the St. Louis Admirals - I think their regatta is coming up in September.  They have a web site.  I used to belong and drove down to meetings twice a year in addition to the regatta.  The regatta's today are much smaller but they draw some outstanding boats.  The r/c models are very good and are judges on scale merits - but all must run on the water to be judged.

 

David is right, get on I55 north to 294 to Manitowoc next May and see a great show.

 

And check the MSW topic below where everybody can post notices of upcoming shows/contests.

NAUTICAL RESEARCH GUILD NEWS, Model Ship Clubs and Exhibitions and Events, Museums and Museum Ships

 

Kurt

[Cathead]

Thanks for the input, guys. I'm afraid I don't get out much these days, for reasons of workload and budget, and don't think I could justify a trip to model show more than a few hours away. Would love to, but it'd be hard.

 

Do IPMS shows accept wooden models?

[kurtvd19]

Cathead:

Yes, IPMS accepts wood models.  As each chapter is pretty much just loosely associated with the  IPMS-USA they all get their charter from the IPMS-USA and must follow their rules that include all models.  There are some that are less accepting than others but I think it's more an area interest in that there are IPMS car clubs where all the members model only cars/trucks and there are aircraft centered clubs too.  But nobody is turned away (at least to my knowledge - and I am sure the national group would not take kindly to hearing of such a practice).

 

The model shown on the current cover of the Journal was an IPMS winner - Best Nautical - at the 2015 Nationals and it took 2nd place in the Recent Master's Competition at the WI Maritime Museum's show.  20 years ago the thought of a plastic model on the cover of the Journal would have had some old timers having heart attacks.  The same sort of thing happened within IPMS when they opened their competitions to all media.  They had to with the use of photo etch, etc.

 

You can check the IPMS web site where they list all the shows scheduled.  You just missed a show in Branson, MO.  The IPMS-Gateway (St Louis) group has their show on September 10.  ipms-gateway.com/invite2016html  I don't remember where you are in relation to St. Louis but this might be something to put on your go to list.

 

Kurt

[Cathead]

Thanks, Kurt. Ironically, I just passed through Branson on Friday coming back from a quick visit to in-laws in Arkansas, and I'll miss the September St. Louis event because we'll be away on our annual vacation (in Maine this year, hoping to visit BlueJacket). But these are things we plan ahead for and it's a lot harder for me to take isolated trips for personal stuff like shows. Oh well. I know there's a small show in Columbia later in the fall, may try to hit that one.

 

Sorry to derail the thread. Back to riverboats.

[Cathead]

Here's a question I've been pondering for some time, though I don't want to offend anyone: Why are many steamboat kits so bad? To my eyes, at least, some of the kits I see look terrible. The AL King of the Mississippi, for example, looks very out of proportion with inaccurate detail. I can't look at it without seeing a child's toy, even when the modeller has done a very nice job. It really makes me wish I had the skill set and resources to design and offer a good steamboat kit.

[mtaylor]

CH....

 

Maybe the answer is as simple as "it's their interpretation"?   I doubt if the Euro makers have even seen a steamboat other than pictures.   AL is particularly bad, in my opinion, on holding scale consistent throughout the model.  Talk to DaveS or Chuck.  If you have your own plans, maybe something can be worked out.

[Cathead]

Yeah, that's been my guess, too. I brought up the idea of a good scale steamboat model in the "kit makers" thread, with examples of boats that have plans and good information available, but neither responded. As a writer and educator, I'd love to work on the instruction manual for a good steamboat kit.

[kurtvd19]

Cathead:

One point that was covered is that there must be a good market to make the mfg take the risk.  There are not enough of us building riverboats to be considered a viable market.  The Chaperon kit is the sole kit with good scale fidelity and good engineering and I think the sales of it have been good but I don't think that Marc's going to do another riverboat kit soon - if ever - as there just aren't enough of us to matter.

Here are some photos of what I think is the best engineered riverboat kit I have ever seen - and built.

 

It's a 1/48 scale waterline kit by Train Troll - I got it at the NRG Conference in Mystic last year.  Kit name is the Smokey Duck. Train Troll will be a vendor at the 2016 NRG Conference in San Diego in October.  Laser cut parts that are by far the best of any kit I have worked with or examined.  His market is mainly RR modelers - a much bigger segment of the modeling world than we are.  I think when more boat builder see this guy's stuff he's going to become better know to us.  Check out the web site.  Every one of his models is great and the detail stuff he has is outstanding.

 

Kurt

[mtaylor]

I wonder if Train Troll is the guy we had come through here a few years ago?  Maybe in MSW 1.0.  He was designing a kit and a model for the RR guys and did a build log here.  

[jbelwood]

Here's another great steam boat kit from Inter-Action Enterprises. The CR Lamb is HO scale along with a

utility scow from Train-Troll. Both kits are better than 90% laser cut. Twas a 10 month build for me.

 

John

[jbelwood]

Mark, 

 

I did a build log on Railroad Line Forum covering the Train-Troll HO scale stern wheeler.

 

John

 

http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=45475&SearchTerms=John,Benjamin

[jbelwood]

On a follow up thread, here's the finished product.

 

http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=45622&SearchTerms=john,benjamin

[Cathead]

Kurt, yes, there has to be a market and I'm certainly not a marketer and certainly not a neutral observer. Of course I think a nice steamboat kit would sell, I'm deep in the rabbit hole. I don't understand why there are so many more build logs of the AL kit than the MSW kit, when the latter seems so much higher quality and an equally interesting craft from a visual perspective.

 

Many kits naturally draw upon craft that are still in existence, like Constitution or various craft at Mystic. And the Civil War period is highly popular in general. Well, there are multiple river craft from that general period that have physical museums dedicated to them (Cairo, Arabia, Bertrand), existing remains to view, and in some cases even good plans (Bertrand and Far West at a minimum). If it's economically viable to offer models of Civil-War-era ocean-going ships, to my narrow eyes it seems viable to offer models of riverboats that are simpler in design and construction than most ships.

 

But I enjoy scratchbuilding, too, so this doesn't really affect me directly. I just have a hard time understanding why riverboats are beyond the pale when I look at how many other kits of truly obscure ships are out there.

Edited June 28, 2016 by Cathead

[Cathead]

John, those are fantastic! I hadn't considered the model railroad side, despite being one of them for so long, but it certainly makes sense that there would be a few kits for smaller craft from that direction, and that they'd be high quality. Thanks for sharing!

[Canute]

If you want some harbor barges, in HO or O Scale, look at  http://www.laserkit.com/laserkit.htm  Go into the scales to find the barges. It's an oddly connected website. The kits are laser cut wood, 

 

Sylvan Scale Models has some resin kits in various RR scales : http://sylvanscalemodels.com/HO%20ships%20new%20page.htm

[chborgm]

I think that one of the problems with the proportions of the models is that they are made so that R/C equipment can be installed.

I just finished the Mississippi Riverboat by Mantua, and the main deck on it scales to 20ft high. This broadens the market.

[druxey]

Seeing those Lake Lucerne paddlesteamer pictures made me smile, Gaetan. They brought back childhood memories. The engine room on these vessels was open, and one could look down from a surrounding gallery and see the gleaming eccentric rods working, as well as smell the hot oil.... One of these would make a beautiful model indeed.

[JohnE]

Prompted childhood memories for me as well. When I was 12 (1961??, wow) I stayed a summer with grandparents in Wiesbaden and one day Omi and I took a

Köln-Düsseldorfer paddle steamer excursion to Sankt Goarshausen and back. I, too, was engrossed with the engines. So much so that I almost missed Die Loreley.

 

I think there is still one of those remaining in K-D service, Goethe, that looks much of a muchness with the Lake Lucerne paddle steamers. I do agree, one of these would make a marvelous model.

 

J

Edited June 29, 2016 by JohnE

[reklein]

I got to meet the Interaction guy a a train meet in Salmon Arm BC last week hes got some new stuff coming out too. A nifty little boatworks in N-scale soon to be in 1/87th.

   The hotel the convention was in had a lot of historical fotos from the area including a sternwheeler working with logs. Ya sure wouldn't wanna get the wheel tangled up in the logs. Bill in Idaho

[druxey]

There were similar ships on the Chiemsee in Bavaria, I seem to recall. One was named Edeltraut!

[Gerhardvienna]

Edeltraud is not a wheeler, but "Ludwig Fessler" is a sidewheeler. There are some nice ships on the Chiemsee  on their way......

http://www.chiemsee-schifffahrt.de/de/media/bilder-der-flotte/

 

Regards

Gerhard

Edited June 30, 2016 by Gerhardvienna

[druxey]

My mistake: I'm remembering this from nearly 40 years ago, Gerhard! Thanks for the correction. However, looking at the photos you've linked, this was a much older Edeltraud that I recall.

Edited July 2, 2016 by druxey

[chborgm]

I was stationed in Bad Aibling in the 50's and have fond memories of the lake