Portland by jbelwood and norm1116 - BlueJacket Shipcrafters - abandoned

[norm1116]

John,

 

I hope you are doing alright now.  Ecoli is bad stuff. 

 

Your recommendation sounds good.  I am not messing with the decks again until I get the paddle wheel boxes done.  THey will provide the additional reference points I need.  I'm probably reading too much into it again, but I don't want to glue something down to find I was off a quarter inch.....

 

Looking forward to your water line and hull painting post.  I have a couple of days scheduled to work, so it may be next week before I get anything accomplished.

 

 

[RFP]

So glad you are feeling better, John... I've been missing your posts.  Here's wishing a quick trip to a complete recovery!

 

Rob

Edited July 2, 2019 by RFP

[jbelwood]

Here I must digress. Before putting any paint on the hull, I established the water line. As shown in the photo

I used (borrowed) a water line scribe available from Micro-Mark. The picture looks confusing as I used a large wall

mirror laid flat as a base for the scribe. This enabled me to run the scribe completely around the hull with no faults.

Using the plans, I marked where the WL met the bow and stern and placed a small pencil mark. Then spent considerable 

time getting the hull positioned fore and aft and abeam to align with the scribe.

With this all established, I drew a complete WL on the hull as shown. Since I have yet to paint the hull, this allowed me

to correct any errors. I then removed the hull and primed it before painting it Rust-Oleum Ultra Cover Semi-Gloss White.

When completely dry, I then placed the completely painted hull precisely back next to the scribe. Having previously

established the correct height of the scribe, I simply drew the new WL without any errors.

 

That's all for now.

 

 

[GrandpaPhil]

I’m sorry to hear about the E. Coli.  

 

I went through that twelve years ago and it made me completely miserable for about six weeks.

 

On the bright side, the Portland is looking good!

[jbelwood]

Here is the final finish on the hull. The photos speak for themselves. I forget

what I used for the bottom color. Again, large rattle can.

 

The last photo gives away a secret. Yes, I am also a model railroader, have been

for more than 40 years. The two on the left display cover articles that I had in

Model Railroader magazine and Railroad Model Craftsman more than a decade

ago. The layout itself has more than twelve feet of maritime scenes.

 

 

John Elwood

[norm1116]

John,

 

Great photos and explanation of these steps.  I have a question though.  After you drew the waterline in, did you apply tape to the line, or did you do it another way? 

 

On the train side, is that you in the YouTube video about the Olympic & Puget Sound Railway?  Everything I've ever done in my life looks like crap compared to what I saw in that video.  If that is you, I'm sure others here would like the link to that video.

 

I started the paddle wheel boxes today. 

[jbelwood]

I drew the water line on the bare hull just to get the position of the scribe correct. Being very careful,

I removed the hull and painted it completely with primer and white. Then placed it back into the original

position. Since it was now positioned exactly as before, I simply drew a new water line onto the newly painted hull.

Now I placed the Tamiya tape just above the new pencil line, and checked it several times for accuracy.

Then covered the white area above the Tamiya tape with wide blue painters tape. Make sure the WL tape

it pressed down securely to prevent bleeding. 

 

When you are satisfied, remove the hull and spray the bottom paint in several light coats until you get the

desired result. I removed the tape after about 15 minutes of drying time.

 

Yes Norm, that's me. What you saw was the trailer for the one hour video that was for sale several years ago.

It was sold out years ago. They had to remove the music that accompanied it due to product infringement.

Those interested simply go to you tube and punch in "John Elwood Model Railroader". Here's an example

of my work in keeping with the maritime theme. I have many more photos but don't want to interrupt this

thread with silly model railroad stuff.

John Elwood

 

 

[RFP]

13 minutes ago, jbelwood said:

< snip >   Here's an example

of my work in keeping with the maritime theme. I have many more photos but don't want to interrupt this

thread with silly model railroad stuff.

John Elwood

 

 

Wow, John, you're awesome!

Edited July 4, 2019 by RFP

[MrBlueJacket]

John and I both belong to the CT Marine Model Society. His choice of the name James Wiser for the boathouse is a tribute to Jim, who was a club member and fantastic modeler. John named the boathouse is his honor after his passing. Also, the CMMS gives out an annual Jim Wiser award for excellence in modeling.

[jbelwood]

It's been a while since anyone has posted here so I thought I'd bring it back to life.

Putting the paddle wheels together is a bit tricky so here's what I did.

 

I cut two lengths of wood approximately 7/16" wide and clamped them between the 

wheel formers. after spending some time finding three radials where the spokes and

rings coincided. Once that was established I added the paddles with CA being careful

to orient them properly. Take your time here as the paddles are easily broken.

 

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a way to clean the brass prior to painting. Would suggest

washing the oils off your hands prior to working on this assembly. I finished by spray

painting two coats of Floquil Santa Fe Red onto each wheel.

 

John Elwood

[dan evans]

Your paddle wheels look great .  Have fun making the boxes.  Lots of soaking .  good luck

Dan

[norm1116]

Paddle Wheels

 

I saw John's post, and the build log of another Portland clamping spacers between the radials.  I tried it and it gave me a run for my money, so I came up with a different plan.  Here goes.

 

The manual and John mentioned matching up the radials before doing anything else.  As you can see, if each set of 3 is not properly matched, the floats will not look good when glued. 

 

(If you open the Portland manual, page 27, photo 12, it looks like the radials were not matched properly.  Some of the floats do not make contact across all 3 radials.  I may be looking at it wrong, or it might be an optical illusion, but it seems off to me.)

 

In this photo, the radials are not matched.  They do not line up around the 4 o'clock and 7 o'clock areas.

 

Once I determined the matches, I marked the corresponding spoke on each radial with a red dot.

The manual talks about each paddle wheel being mirror images of each other.  One for port, one for starboard.  The description of how it works was confusing to me.  Here's what I think it is supposed to be.

 

The floats have a blank side, and a side with a chevron laser marked in it.  I'm assuming the laser mark side would be placed so it hit the water first.  I hope it is not too noticeable, but I installed every one of mine backwards.  You will see it in the next few photos.

 

If you are looking at the starboard side of the ship, and the ship is moving forward, the wheel will be turning clockwise.  The floats will hit the water supported by the radial beams behind them.

 

If you are looking at the port side of the ship, and the ship is moving forward, the wheel will be turning counter clockwise.  The floats will hit the water supported by the radial beams behind them.

 

Back to the "mirror image" thing.  The manual says to cut 2 hubs 1-7/16" long.  It gives instructions on how to space the radials on the hub, then it says "Do not glue the radials in place yet".  I assumed that means do not glue the radials to the hub yet.  So,  until the hub is glued in place, the 2 wheels are exact copies of each other.  Technically, also mirror images, but way confusing in the instructions.  Build 2 identical paddle wheels.  At a later stage when you attach the wheels, orient them, and glue the hub in, they will become mirror images of themselves.

 

So I'm ready to put it all together. 

I got a piece of scrap 1/2" wide, 3" long, and 3/32" thick.  I used my mini miter box and sawed halfway through the scrap about 1/2" from one end.  I then made another cut 15/32" from the first, and another 15/32" from the 2nd cut.  from my calculations, there is a 15/32" gap between each radial.  I then cut the 3" piece in half lengthwise, and each of those pieces in half again.

 

I used an old shoe box.  I cut support notches in each side.  Put 3 matched radials on a skewer, matched up my marks, and using the notched scrap wood from the previous photo, I lined up one piece of the scrap wood on the bottom circle.  I placed a 2nd piece above it and used binder clamps to hold it in place.  I repeated that 180 degrees to the first one and ended up with this.

One of the advantages I got out of this was there was a fair amount of "give" at the outer edges.  It was easy to align and insert the floats.  I only broke off a few of the little tabs.  The instructions recommend installing all the floats prior to gluing, but that was challenging.  I used a square scrap to visually align the float perpendicular to the radial and put a dab of CA on the center radial to keep it in place.  I put in 4 floats, 1 every 6 spokes and glued the center of each.  I was then able to adjust the outer radials, install the remaining floats and place a drop of CA on each of the float "tabs".

 

 

Notice I put the marked side of the floats the wrong way.

 

 

 

Because the hubs are installed, they are now mirror images of each other.  Until the hubs are glued, they are exact copies.  Again, notice I installed them all with the chevron laser line on the wrong side.

 

I got them painted.  Not excited about the quality of the paint, or my paint job, but most of it will be hidden.  This is a tough one.  There is no way to correct mistakes. 

 

I did spray paint them with Krylon paint.  I have no idea what the actual color name is, it's not on the can.  It is a bit "redder" than the paint supplied for the kit.

 

Edited July 14, 2019 by norm1116

[norm1116]

Paddle Wheel Boxes

 

The instructions were fairly good.  Here's how mine went together so far

 

 

Edited July 14, 2019 by norm1116

[jbelwood]

Don't be too concerned about the wrong orientation of the floats. Just make sure the floats are 

ahead of the spokes in the direction of forward rotation. Once installed only the lower 30 per cent

of the wheel will be visible. In the above port side photo, the wheel is still removable. Paddle box cover

not yet painted or glued in place. Can't understand why the photo got inserted mid sentence.

 

John Elwood

[mtaylor]

John,

 

Type text.   Upload photos.  Put cursor where you want the photos.  Hit the "+" and photo should go where you want it.  

[jbelwood]

Thanks Mark, I should have known that.

 

Note to Norm, re: MSG question. Lighthouse on CMMS home page yet to be identified.

 

John

[dan evans]

nice job on the paddle wheels.  very creative way of spacing.   I used the wood block method but it was a little clunky.   Also like your window and door treatment good scale.

[norm1116]

John,

 

When you painted your paddle wheels, did you prime them first or just spray them with the Sante Fe Red?  I want to avoid having the paint rub off the brass.  I'm going to try to clean it a bit first, but it is not going to be easy.

 

Thanks, and thanks for getting back to me on that light house.  I used to live in Old Saybrook as a kid.

 

Edited July 10, 2019 by norm1116

[jbelwood]

Norm,

 

I cleaned it with alcohol and q-tips as best I could. Lousy job at best. Sprayed it without using primer but, looking back, I

probably should have done so. Floquil seems to adhere quite well on it's own.

And yes, some of the paint has chipped away but easy to touch up. 

[norm1116]

Thanks John,

 

I'll prime my paddle wheels first just in case.  Got the templates ready for the sponsons and will be doing that soon!  Getting ready to paint the paddle wheel boxes gold also.

 

You have been a great wealth of information for me, and I appreciate it.  Part information, part support, part "just do it", you have been instrumental in my process though this and I appreciate it!

 

Edited July 11, 2019 by norm1116

[jbelwood]

Before you go any further, take a look at this photo. In particular the paddle box cover. At this point

in the build, I couldn't determine where the cover ended. Was it at the main deck or further up just past the

saloon deck. No where in the instructions did it tell you to completely cover the box or not. I took a chance 

and completely covered it down to the main deck as shown in the photo. I guess I did it correctly as the

build has gone smoothly since.

 

Out of curiosity, what did you do Dan? You can probably catch a few other little problems, but we'll talk about

those later in the build.

 

John Elwood

 

 

[norm1116]

John,

 

Concerning the paddle wheel boxes, I spent a while looking at the same issue.  The instructions and plans are not detailed enough to figure out how long the covers should be.  The new manual says the laser cut parts are 6" long.  The old manual says to cut out 4" pieces for the covers.

 

So I looked at the photos.  In the new manual, photo 6 on page 24 shows the boxes in place with 5 braces, none in the bottom position, and no covers installed.

 

Photo 11 on page 26 shows 3 braces, with two on the bottom.  Also in photo 11 it shows the covers cut off above the bottom brace.

 

Looking at it all, I don't think it would matter either way!  At some point, it will all be covered up.  Because I'm still not positive which direction is best, I saved the cut off parts in case I need to reattach them. 

 

I'd also like to hear what other builders did.

 

By the end of this build log we should have a good idea which way works best!

 

Edited July 11, 2019 by norm1116

[dan evans]

sorry guys Its been so long since I built the boxes i can't remember.  But I do recall going all the way down to the deck level.   Getting them perpendicular to the deck was a little tricky.  The other thing to look out for is the space between each deck top as you build up  I had to patch in some peices as I went up the decks.  Again i wish i had this many people on the build when I started.  Great conversation.

[dan evans]

here is a picture of the gap.

[Jack12477]

On 7/9/2019 at 6:34 AM, jbelwood said:

Thanks Mark, I should have known that.

 

Note to Norm, re: MSG question. Lighthouse on CMMS home page yet to be identified.

 

John

John, @jbelwood, it looks like the Saybrook Breakwater Lighthouse at Fenwick Point near  mouth of Connecticut River in Old Saybrook. <old lighthouse buff here > Assuming they picked a CT lighthouse. 

 

Edited July 22, 2019 by Jack12477

[RFP]

9 hours ago, dan evans said:

< snip > Again i wish I had this many people on the build when I started.  Great conversation.

 

I agree, Dan, this is a great build log.  I am so glad that real craftsmen are working on the Portland now... I'm ordering mine in September, and the work chronicled here will be massively helpful.  ;-) 

[MrBlueJacket]

Tough to remember exactly, but I think I covered the wells all the way down.

[RFP]

I've got a question about the paddle wheel and it's 'box.'  There is a lot of 'headroom' at the top of the wheel... what is all this space for?  In the real world, does the wheel move up and down (like the wheels/tires of a car) and the space is needed for that travel.  I know my question has nothing whatsoever to do with the build log, but I'm wondering...

 

Rob

Edited July 15, 2019 by RFP

[MrBlueJacket]

to RFP:

 

My GUESS is that if the wheel well confined the splash, some of it would be directed against the turn of the paddle, using energy for nothing. Just my guess, but try to picture the water splashing against the top, then back-splashing to the wrong direction. by letting the water splash go higher, it would more likely drip straight downand not impede progress.

 

Nic

[RFP]

Nic,  thanks for your thoughtful response... makes perfect sense to me!