Philadelphia by Elijah - Model Shipways - 1:24 Scale - Continental Gunboat

[mikiek]

Enjoy the time away Elijah. Sometimes I wish I could do the same. The ship-o-holic in me keeps cracking the whip and telling me  "Back to work you loafer"

[Elijah]

After a good deal of trial and error, multiple attempts, and maybe a bit of frustration, I have painted the cannon barrels and the trunnion bands!

 

[Elijah]

[Elijah]

[Elijah]

[kurtvd19]

Elijah:

Looks great.  Did you get the airbrush working OK?  I'm guessing you did...

Kurt

[DocBlake]

Excellent work, Elijah!  That is about the best approximation of a weathered wooden boat I have seen!  Fantastic job.  Your metal work and guns look great, too.

 

BTW:  It was nice meeting you at Manitowoc in May.  Hopefully I'll see you there next year.

[Elijah]

Thanks Doc and Kurt! Actually, I didn't get it to work as well as I would have hoped. I cleaned it up and got it to spray liquid, but with the paint I could never get a consistent flow. So, I tried an alternative and brushed it by hand. I used a foam brush to prevent any brush strokes, and I think it worked out fairly well. I think the texture of the cannons works with the theme of the rest of the boat, so I'm pretty happy with it now.

[kurtvd19]

Elijah:

Next time you come to a meeting bring the compressor and airbrush back so I can trouble shoot the combo.  Maybe the brush needs disassembly and a deep cleaning.  I will go over it thoroughly and make sure it's working properly before you try to use it again.  I won't be able to do the night of the meeting though.

Kurt

[Elijah]

Thanks Kurt, that would be really great! 

[mikiek]

It looks as good as the air brush would have done. Glad you're going with painting it instead of blackening. I think in the long run it's easier. Especially if you have to touch it up after the pieces are in place.

[Elijah]

Thank you Mike!

[Landlubber Mike]

Really nice work Elijah!  My daughter and I went to the Smithsonian American History museum earlier this week and saw the Philadelphia.  I took a few pictures and can send them if you’d like.  

[TomShipModel]

Elijah,

 

It has been awhile since I posted here, but I just have to tell you that you are doing a great job.  Your workmanship and fidelity to scale is top notch.  Congratulations.

 

Tom

[Elijah]

Thank you Mike and Tom! Sounds fun Mike! It would be really cool to see your photos! I wasn't able to get any good ones when I went, unfortunately. 

[Landlubber Mike]

Sure thing Elijah - here are the photos I took.  The lighting wasn't great, and I had to change the exposure of the cannon at the bow, but here are the pictures.  If you want me to send them directly to not clutter your log, let me know.

 

Cannon shot that sunk it:

 

Edited July 7, 2018 by Landlubber Mike

[Landlubber Mike]

Here are pictures of the model that was displayed alongside it:

 

 

[Elijah]

Thank you, nice photos! I'll keep them on the log, as other people may also find them useful in the future.

[Elijah]

Just a small update. I installed the lower deadeyes, which was not really difficult. Still, it always makes me a little nervous drilling holes in the side of my boat, especially large ones... blub..blub..blub...  Anyway, here are a couple of photos. It's an odd way of fastening them to the hull, isn't it? The builders had very little metal to work with, or time for that matter, so I guess they had to get a little creative.

 

[alde]

I'm glad to see an update. She's looking great. I really love the way the wood came out. It's looks perfectly weathered and authentic. 

[Elijah]

Thank you Al and thanks for the likes! 

Edited August 21, 2018 by Elijah

[Elijah]

Some small progress. I've all but finished the metal components of the cannon carriages. The brass bolts need to be painted, but otherwise, they're pretty much done. I'm not so sure I'll be rigging them just yet though. I need to order some more blocks from Syren because I am literally one block short of having what I need to rig them. I also need to get around to the task of drilling the holes in the hull to receive the eyebolts for the rigging. Not the most exciting part of the build, but it must be done.  Also on the agenda is to order some light grey paint to paint the hawse pipes, which might as well be put in now. That, and I can put in the mast partner too around this point. In any case, there are a number of small projects to attend to, but I'm trying to tackle them mostly one at a time. 

 

The 12 pound cannon

The 9 pound cannon carriages

 

Eyebolts with rings to be attached to the 9 pound cannon carriages

The 9 pound cannon basically finished (minus trucks)

 

[Elijah]

So, it's been way too long since I've updated this log, sorry about that.  I've been busy with a number of other activities, but have managed to make a little progress on the boat. My line of approach has basically been to fabricate as many parts as I can without staining or painting them, in preparation for a mystical day in the future where I stain and paint everything. So, I made the anchors! That was pretty simple. Then I tackled the main mast. I've never had to carve a mast before, so it was interesting. I think I was a lot better at it by the end than at the beginning, and I suppose that's how it's supposed to work...  Still, I cannot swear that the mainmast, or the topmast for that matter, are perfectly round...  I have a number of parts to make up before staining and painting day, including the cap rail. I'm probably not going to literally save everything to be stained at one time, but I would like to minimize the amount of time's I do it, since I've found it a rather frustrating process in the past.  In any case, now I'm preparing to make the spars. Since I'm going to rig the model with sails, I'm going to have to scratch build the spar that holds the bottom of the mainsail. I have a 1/8th scale plan sheet that has it on there, and I both measured it at that size, and also scaled it up with the printer at 400%. I measured the lower spar to be 3/64'' on the plan sheet, but when I scaled it up, the lines got so thick that it looks bigger than 3/16'', which is the drawing at 400%. I've been looking at photos, and just haven't made up my mind as to what size I want to use, so any recommendations? The main spar is 5/16'' in diameter, for reference. It seems to me that the lower spar is smaller in diameter. Anyway, that's the puzzle I'm working on now, but I don't really have any photos to show for that yet, so here's the photos I've got to get you up to date!

[Elijah]

Oh, here's this one too

[EJ_L]

Welcome back! Life sometimes does get in the way of model building, as do other hobbies. With a finite number of hours in a day, often there is just not enough room for all we wish to do.

 

Good plan with prepping as much as you can to stain at once. That does help to cut down on the down time waiting for the stains to cure and dry. Mast work looks good from what I can see. If anyone questions any rough spots just say it was an emergency repair and the mast had to be hand hewn in a hurry.  

 

As for your spars, while I certainly am no expert, I would bet that the lower spar would be smaller than the upper. if your main spar is 5/16" then I think a lower spar at 3/16 would look appropriate. To know for certain, I would say you would need to know what the diameter of that spar in real life is. Then you could scale it down to fit your model. Hopefully someone can either back up my thoughts or say with more authority on the subject.

[DocBlake]

Glad to see you back at it, Elijah!

[kurtvd19]

Elijah:

Here are three photos that show the relative sizes of the spars.  First the model in the Museum and then the replica.  Got these from Bob Filipowski when I was building my model.

Kurt

[lambsbk]

What a beautiful build.

 

I have been to this museum and like you was fascinated with this boat. I took a few pics as well - yours look great. As I recall the lighting was quite suppressed in this part of the museum. The dead eyes in the museum caught my attention - the lanyard holes were not centered as I expected but were offset further into the dead eye. One of your pics shows that as well.

 

Dave

[Elijah]

Thanks guys! I'm thinking more and more that 3/16th would work out pretty well. As to the pictures, Dave, I wish I could take credit for them, but those are actually Landlubber Mike's photos from when he visited the exhibit.

[samson]

Hi Elijah  
These are some fine details you add - I love them.  

 

Cheers Jens