USS Saginaw 1859 by catopower - FINISHED - 1/8" scale - paddlewheel gunboat - first ship built at Mare Island

[catopower]

Paddle Wheels

 

I decided to set aside the armament constructions while I get back to an assembly that's been holding everything up on this model as I was trying to use brass etching and improving that technique. So, I finally decided that enough was enough and it was time to just build the paddle wheels. 

 

I went back to an old fashioned method of metal working to make flat rings for the paddle wheels. I had use large gauge (relatively speaking) copper wire wound into a circle and then flattened with hammer and anvil making the wire into a flat ring. I used this method to make circular tracks for pivot guns on a few models in the past. It worked then and maybe my touch has improved a little. At least I can hope.

 

For the Saginaw's paddle wheels, I would need 2-1/2" diameter outer rings. The diameter of an inner set of rings depends on which drawings you look at. I chose to use the original sheer plan drawings of the Saginaw, which show a basic paddle wheel structure. There is another set of detailed drawings available, but it's not clear if these drawings are actually specific to the Saginaw since the name doesn't appear anywhere on them. In any case, the inner ring diameter I'm using is approximately 1-9/16" diameter.

 

 

I made up some template on my computer and used them to create a set of MDF formers for the ring sizes needed. The templates were glued to the MDF board and cut to shape. The formers were then glued to an MDF board base. 18 gauge copper wire was bent around formers to create rings of appropriate size.

 

 

The copper wire rings were then carefully set on an anvil and tapped carefully with a hammer, flattening out the wire little by little. The wire tends to straighten itself in the process and is regularly bent on the former back to shape. The wire also tends to twist, so the piece is turned over regularly to undo any twist. 

 

 

As the wire is tapped flat, the ring flattens and widens. At this scale, the ring should actually be only about 1/32" wide (just under 4" at full size), but that makes it too flimsy for me to work with, so my aim has been about 3/64" to 1/16". 

 

 

Once the rings were made, I had intended to silver solder them closed, but found it was easier for now just to CA the ends together. The effort here is to get these done so I can get work on the hull and deck structures going again.

 

I made another template for lining up the rings and the spokes, again printed off the computer. For the spokes, I used 1/32” thick by 3/64” wide boxwood I had on hand. For the time being, I just deal with the part of the spokes connecting the two rings. The longer spoke sections that reach out from the hub, do so at an angle, so I simply left room along the inner ring for these to seat.

 

The very first spoke was run across the whole assembly to hold the rings into place while all the short spokes were glued into place.

 

 

 

Clare

[Jim Lad]

Nice to see an update, Clare - and a very nice start to the paddlewheels.

 

John

[gjdale]

Nice work Clare. Thanks for showing your method too, that's really interesting.

[tarbrush]

looks real good Clair, I like your technique for making the paddle wheel rims.

[NMBROOK]

That's some great metalwork Clare! I thought the ring may have distorted out of round by the flattening process.

Kind Regards Nigel

[captainbob]

Beautiful hammering.  I would say “your touch” is very good.

 

Bob

[shark bait]

Once again Clare, very nice work.

Bill

[catopower]

Thanks for the support guys! Sorry progress has been so slow. Perhaps with this "breakthrough" on the paddle wheels, I can get some forward momentum going again. 

 

I did finish all four sets of rims. Next, I'll be working on the hubs of the wheels and the connecting spokes. Finally, come the cross bracing and paddles themselves. We'll see how all that goes. I'm thinking now about how I want to make the hubs. I was initially thinking of making one-piece hubs turned from brass. But, now I'm realizing that adding the spokes will be easier if I can make separate hubs for each rim, add the spokes and then put the halves together.

 

I'll let you know what I come up with...

 

Clare

[catopower]

By the way, does anyone know what these poles are that sometime appear on the bulwarks of Civil War era ships? The following is a photo of the Kearsarge.

 

 

 

There are some that look very similar behind the Dahlgren boat gun on the USS Nipsic.

 

 

 

Finally, there is something similar, but not painted white in a rack behind these officers aboard the USS Malvern.

 

 

 

Any thoughts? At first, I thought they might be hand spikes for handling the cannons, but they seem too small for that, particularly for the large pivot gun in the first photo, and there are a lot of them together in one place. Boarding pikes? Seem short for that too, though that might just be a perspective issue.

 

 

Clare

[Jim Lad]

Capstan bars or handspikes would seem the most logical, Clare.  Perhaps one of our members has some definite knowledge.

 

John

[popeye the sailor]

the rim ring looks really good Clare.....did you consider making them in photo etch?    very nice progress 

[captainbob]

I had the same question about six months ago.  They are capstan bars stored out of the way.

 

Bob

[catopower]

the rim ring looks really good Clare.....did you consider making them in photo etch?    very nice progress 

Yikes! Are you just giving me a hard time about my ongoing photo etching issues?   Shall I just pass the salt so you can rub some of that into the wound too? 

[catopower]

Thanks for the ideas about those bars John and Cap'n Bob. I think I originally dismissed the possibility that they could be capstan bars because they seemed too light. Also, on the Nipsic, that boat gun appears to be on the Quarter Deck, which I figured was probably officer's country and didn't seem like it would be a place they would store capstan bars. Plus I wouldn't think there'd be a capstan that far aft. Unless perhaps those particular bars are actually hand spikes for use on the boat gun pictured.

 

I suppose I should see if I can track down a deck plan or more photos of the Kearsarge to see if there is a capstan somewhere fairly close to where the bars are pictured.

 

Thanks again,

Clare

[mtaylor]

My guess would be handspikes.  I know I've seen photos of them in use on pivot guns but not sure where at this point.

 

Edit:   Ah... did a fast Google.. Handspikes and levers. 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pivot_gun_usnavy.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2DSj74-Km94/T_SLISXLbdI/AAAAAAAAIHw/NRVH84CmB1A/s640/Cannon_Banded_Rifle_6.4inch_CSN1864.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Dahlgren_gun_crew.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/HMS_Sidon_68_pounder_pivot_gun_1855_LOC_05685u.jpg/1244px-HMS_Sidon_68_pounder_pivot_gun_1855_LOC_05685u.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tWz2TN1XM0s/T5KVbbk_OeI/AAAAAAAAHlc/JVKPIHG5W7o/s1600/9inchDahlgren.jpg

http://en.academic.ru/pictures/enwiki/85/USSKearsargeXIinchDahlgren.jpg

 

I also found this fascinating bit: http://civilwartalk.com/threads/moving-a-pivot-gun.76845/

 

Hope this helps.

[catopower]

Mark, you rock!

 

What was particularly interesting was an e-book link in the Civil War Talk forum you posted at the end there. Interesting discussion about handing pivot guns, but that e-book "Ordnance Instructions for the US Navy, 1866" that was an incredible find! 100+ pages of all the details about handling boat howitzers, the maneuvering of pivot guns, what everyone's job is at the guns, organization of boarding parties and small arms... everything.

 

I've got a ton of fascinating reading material now.

 

Thanks for the info!

Clare

[catopower]

So, the next issue coming up now is going to be the proper color for the paddlewheels. 

 

A lot of civilian ships appear to be painted red. The USS Powhatan, which served in the Pacific around the same time as Saginaw, appears to have been painted black on most models. Also, Japanese woodblock prints of Perry's arrival, while stylized and not detail accurate, probably have the color right and show the wheels as black. 

 

I do have one color illustration of the Saginaw in her original configuration that shows red paddlewheels, but I don't know the history of this illustration. If the paddlewheels were red, I would expect them to have been painted with red lead. The problem I have with that is that red lead is a color that most people don't see anymore and it's actually more of an orange red. It's not particularly nice looking on the model.

 

So, I'm trying to decide, if I use red and, if so, if I should use a little artistic license and use a darker shade of red so that model looks nice. Or, I could try to be color accurate and use a red-orange. The other option is to go with another ship of the time and paint the wheels black.

 

Not sure yet, but will have to decide soon.

 

 

Undated illustration of the Saginaw in her 1859 configuration.

 

Model of the USS Powhatan.

 

 

Clare

[catopower]

And, I should add about the handspike/capstan bar question...

 

Clearly capstan bars have to be stored somewhere and the bulwarks seems to be the place, so I will definitely add those. I'm thinking that hand spikes should be stored similarly. Probably, at 1/96 scale, handspikes and capstan bars won't look any different, so I just have to make a mental note as to which are which and where to store them.

 

That ordnance instructions e-book should give me an idea of how many hand spikes are needed per gun. So, I'll just plan on putting an appropriate number of "poles" in various locations.

 

As to what is actually shown in the photos, I'm not sure since both capstan bars and hand spike I think are usually tapered a little and have more of a square cross section at the heavier end. Those bars in the photos look round and straight.

 

And then where were boarding pikes kept? Would there be lockers for those perhaps?

 

Questions, questions...

 

Clare

[Jim Lad]

Clare,

 

My personal view is that red paddles would look really good against a black hull.

 

The boarding pikes may well have been locked away out of temptations way in case of possible mutiny.

 

John

[captainbob]

I agree that red on black would look good, but I think that a gunboat especially during war time would cover the red with black.

 

Bob

[catopower]

Thanks for your thoughts John, Cap'n'Bob. I agree that red will look nicest and create a nice color contrast for the paddle wheels. The illustration with the red paddle wheels would have been how she looked pre-war. My build, being 1870, the year she was lost, is post-war, so maybe red makes sense there too.

 

I have some Tamiya Bright Red, which when sprayed onto a surface just looks plain red and seems good. A darker red is probably less accurate, so I'll try this and see how it looks. I'll get the hubs of the wheels done first and give it a shot.

 

Thanks,

Clare

[gjdale]

I think that will be a good choice Clare. A nice contrast to draw the eye to a feature of the build.

[shark bait]

Hey Clare, I think red is the answer for your time frame. Would a flat color look more like the paddle wheels had been used?

Bill

[catopower]

Hallelujah!

 

I think I finally broke the etched brass spell that's been standing in the way of progress on the Saginaw! 

 

I've been kind of down and out of doing a lot of shipmodeling the past couple weeks due to a pinched nerve or something in my neck and shoulder. For a while, I wasn't getting much sleep due to pain and that's left me tired all day – too much so to feel like sitting down and getting any work done with neck and shoulder pain. It's gotten much better since then, and while it's not totally gone, I've been able to get some things done.

 

Being a bit short of project motivation for a while, I decided to do a little technique research and worked a bit on just one aspect of photoetching brass, and just practiced prepping the metal and getting the artwork onto it. I did a bit of experimentation on exposure times under a lamp and took observations. Eventually, I worked my way back up to actually etching the brass and today I made the pieces that would form the basis for the circular skylights on the Saginaw.

 

 

 

Here's the exposed photoresist, all nice and cleanly adhered to the metal. This was the first major victory. I'd had problems with bubbled in the photoresist, what I thought was dirt and such. I found that keeping the metal and the photoresist very wet while sliding it into position made a big difference. Also, in the exposure process, the metal was getting hot and that was affecting the photoresist's adhesion and all. I found that getting the right sized lamp, getting the right distance and exposure time helped. Also, I found it best to let the project cool off after exposing one side, but before exposing the other side.

 

To improve evenness in the exposure, I also found a solar powered display turntable. I set the project on that under the lamp to expose the photoresist and the light powered turntable kept the whole thing slowly rotating and evening out the exposure across the work piece.

 

 

I made sure to warm up the etchant by placing the bottle in a bath of hot water. Even with the very chilly garage, this improves the efficiency of the etchant. I also made sure to start with a fresh bottle of etchant, and I'm very carefully making sure to mark the usage and track it very carefully. The resulting etch took less than 10 minutes. I made sure to remove the work piece at one point and rinse it, removing spent etchant with a brush, before returning it to the etchant bath to resume the process.

 

 

The pieces for the skylight were cut from the sheet and cleaned up. At this point, all the etching work has been done and now it's just a matter of using the parts to assemble them into something useful, and hoping I designed the part correctly.

 

 

In this case, the pieces are bent to shape and I cut off some thin rings from a 15/32" brass tube on my Sherline lathe. I glued these into place using a little thick CA in a couple spots to hold the pieces in alignment. I then glued each spoke to the ring using thin CA.

 

 

Finally, I trimmed off the excess lengths of spokes and filed them neatly. These will fit on top of the circular coamings I turned for them long ago.

 

Next step is to paint them and add the clear acetate windows. That will be a bit of a task, but after all the pain I've gone through relearning and redeveloping good technique for the brass etching, this should be a breeze!

 

I'm not sure if I'm going to try to put protective bars over the skylight windows or not. At this scale, they'd probably be around .005" and nearly invisible. If I put them on, I would mount them vertically and there would be maybe 3 per wedge-shaped window. I'm not sure what material I'd have that would be thin enough to work other than nylon fly tying thread.

 

Anyway, it's good to make progress on the Saginaw again. It's been neglected for far too long!

 

Clare

Edited April 20, 2014 by catopower

[Jim Lad]

It's good to see you back at it, Clare, and on the mend health wise!

 

Looks like you've pretty much got that etching process licked!

 

John

[captainbob]

Clare,

 

Glad the nerve is feeling better.  You’ll have to do a tutorial on how to etch brass.  I’ve never been able to come close to your quality.  Good work.

 

Bob

[michael mott]

Clare, I agree with Bob a tutorial on your brass etching would be great. I had to backtrack a few post to catch up . Your work on the rims for the paddlewheels was outstanding beautifully executed. The skylights look great too.

 

Michael

[catopower]

Thanks John, Bob, Michael.

 

So far, so good. I'll consider writing up a tutorial in the future, but I have to find a bit of consistency in the task first. Let's see how other things turn out.

 

Now that I've made the skylight parts, I'd like to get back to making the paneled doors I tried to make long ago as well as the rings for the paddle wheels. I really am not satisfied with how the flattened wire paddle wheels turned out. They are okay, but not as round as I'd like them. Of course, I may find it difficult to get the width consistent on all four sets of rims, but maybe that won't bother me as much as wheels that a little out of round. We'll see. I'm going to try working on those doors and the wheel rims this week. 

 

I also got some large diameter round brass in very short lengths so that I could potentially turn the rims on the lathe. Unfortunately, the chuck I have isn't big enough and I'm not ready to spend $130+ for the larger chuck. Eventually, I'll get one, but let's see how the etched brass turns out first.

 

Forward!

 

Clare

[gjdale]

Great to see you've solved your problem with etching Clare, the results look excellent. I'll add my vote/request for a tutorial in due course.

[catopower]

Thanks Grant. I'll be tallying up the votes for a while yet. But, things are feeling better on the brass etching at this point...

 

 

 

 

Consistency of work! 

 

The big question of doing this photoetching work is whether or not my success with the skylight parts is repeatable. So, today, I went back and updated the artwork for the paneled doors and also modified the skylight artwork to scale it up for a taller and larger (3/16" scale instead of 1/8" scale) Yacht America skylight. The Saginaw will require 10 paneled doors, so I made artwork with 12 of them, giving me a couple spares.

 

To cut to the chase, I managed to go through the whole process twice today: Once for the paneled doors and once for the America's skylight frame. All seemed to work well, so that's 3 times in a row(!). Looking back, it almost makes me wonder how I could have been having so much trouble. But, I'm just really happy that things are finally going well. We'll see how long it lasts!

 

 

Above are the results of the etchings I did today. The outer edges of the panel doors have been filed smooth. I still have to file inside the openings. After these are cleaned up, I'll glue them to thin wood sheet to complete the doors. The skylight frame on the right is for the Yacht America in 3/16" scale, so I made this 33% larger than the Saginaw's. It will also be taller, so the legs of the frame will be bent to a sharper angle. I'll probably then glue thin wood pieces over it, with this providing the basic structure. You'll have to look at my Yacht America log to see how well that works out.

 

 

Above are the Saginaw's skylights test fit into place. I still have to decide how I want to handle the windows and the protective bars. I painted the insides of these white, but they look awfully bright with the black exterior. Though I've painted all the coamings on the model black, I suppose I could re-paint the skylight frames white instead. Either that or "fancy them up" with a simulated wood color. Of course, with windows in place, the inside color probably won't be so prominent.

 

 

Here's a closeup of one of the painted skylights.

 

 

In any case, it sure feels good to have the skylight structures behind me now. This takes a load off. The only other difficult structure is probably the paddle wheels. More on that next time.

 

Clare

Edited April 20, 2014 by catopower