King of the Mississippi by Warnerade - Artesania Latina - 1:80

[Warnerade]

Still working on the deck planking, I forget what the name of this style is, it sure is painstaking to do, it sure does look great when it’s finished. 
 

for the second level, I have started the rooms for it and had quite a hard time bending the walls around the frame. On both pieces the walls broke at the top of the door frame. Easy fix, just needed some extra glue and a clamp, so overall no big deal. 
 

I also had to contact Artesania Latina for more walnut planks, after finishing the hull I tossed the rest out. Bad idea

 

my good buddy also got me this awesome bourbon decanter, figured I’d share if witg you guys 

[Cathead]

That decanter is fantastic!

[Warnerade]

Still here and trucking away slowly. Since I am putting lights on it I decided to leave a few rooms open, granted the doors are small so looking inside is limited. I started painting the first level room walls white, and putting a rudimentary steam engine in the room closest to the stern. Hours at work have been long and I just purchased a nee truck so rather than shop and try to buy stuff to make the engine, I decided to use old stuff I had sitting around. I used a piece of 1 1/2 oak dowel for the engines itself and painted them black, painted a nail black and a washer silver and used that for the cap on the end. It’s not very accurate, but it was quick and took my mind off things. 
 

I haven’t decided what the room next to it will be, so if anyone has any suggestions I’m open to them haha

 

Edited December 12, 2020 by Warnerade

[Bob Fraser]

The boilers look good.  Will you be connecting the wheel arms to them?

Mine are just through the walls.

Bob

[Warnerade]

On 12/12/2020 at 6:55 AM, Bob Fraser said:

The boilers look good.  Will you be connecting the wheel arms to them?

Mine are just through the walls.

Bob

 

i Am not sure if I will be connecting the arms, just going to play it by ear. I have not had a chance to touch the boat since that post BUT Santa did bring me a tool box for the ship yard. I have wanted a gerstner for years, I was like a little kid opening a PlayStation haha. Andddd My pup on Xmas day just for fun. 

[Warnerade]

Finished the paddler earlier tonight. The wooden paddles are each 80mm long with a 2mm 45 degree chamfer on the “water” edge. The metal frames are measured at 23mm apart which lefts just over 5mm per side of overlap. I measured one of the wooden paddles and marked 5, 23, 23, and 5 and then just traced across each to make sure they all lined up.

 

when I was inserting them into the metal slots I would place one, go to the opposite side and place the other. Measuring in between, then turn 90 degrees and do the same thing. The first 4 were the hardest to get lined up evenly so the metal frames were straight and true. Hit once the first four were on and measured good, the rest was a piece of cake. 

[Warnerade]

Sorry for how much I am bouncing around with this. I am just now finishing up the main deck. Lining the outside of the deck with the finished trim was pretty easy, just soaked, bent, clamped / taped, and then glued it on after it dried. But on the front with the wave catcher was a little harder. Even after it was bent, the wood naturally wanted to spring to a larger size. 
 

the directions have it sitting directly on top of the outside trim but I have no idea how I was going to pull that off. Thankfully I left a small lip on the trim as it was maybe 1/2 a mm above the deck. This allowed me to put the wave catcher on the inside of the trim and clamp it it up against the outside trim. 
 

once I got it in place and finished (using wood glue and super glue), I realized I forgot to taper the edges. I know a lot of people try to avoid power tools with their ships, but the dremel and the sanding wheel made this an easy correction. 

[Warnerade]

Working on the spiral staircases at the stern end of the ship. My kit was actually short a few walnut planks for the hull (or I just royally messed up) so I emailed AL, they were more than willing to send another batch of planks. 
 

so for these spiral steps, I actually covered all of the visible portions in black walnut plank, leaving a 2mm gap on top where the next step would be glued to. It made gluing fairly simple and I think looks quite nice. 
 

for the spots section, it was hard to line up the center around the wooden shaft so I ended gluing the planks at an angle and it made it much easier to line up and allowed for kore surface contact for gluing. 

[Warnerade]

I finally decided to finish the Hull and the stand. 
 

once the sanding was complete with a 220 and then 320 sanding block, I used a little compressed air to blow the dust off and then coated the stand and the hull with Tung oil. First application was 3/4 tung and 1/4 paint thinner to really allow the tung a chance to soak in and absorb, letting it sit for 15 minutes and constantly reapply to any area the starts to dry up. After 15 min I wiped it clean and the second coat was tung with just a hint of thinner and I used the same technique. The third coat was pure tung oil and it turned out fabulous. 
 

(I used this same technique for more things that I coat in tung, there are YouTube tutorials on it, I think it works wonders)

 

I forget what length i measured as far as where I was putting the nails, but once I got my measurements I drew a parallel line 2.5mm on each side, alternating back and forth. 

 

[Warnerade]

Got the steps finished up, when I put the last piece on it ended up being a little more then 180 degree turn (see picture) so I took my cut off wheel and free handed a small section off so it lines up. Nice and straight meow. Then the outer edge of the steps had sections of overhang so I put a flap wheel attachment on the dremel and rounded them out nicely. 
 

the first deck and one of the rooms is now glued on, next I will be adding the remaining engine room, putting in whatever decorations I can think of to add to the rooms and then going through the painful process of adding lights to the model. 

Edited February 28, 2021 by Warnerade

[Warnerade]

Glued the remaining rooms on and got the entire deck / walls coated in tung oil. For the small doors in the back rooms, i used window screen and superglued it on the back to allow to see inside, the inside walls are all painted white and I am debating one what else to put inside the rooms. 
 

for the doors themselves, I got the brass rings ready for the door handles and rather than keep them brass finished I let them sit in an oxidizing agent called brass black to give it a more rustic blackened look. I used the same method on a previous ship, huge fan. 

[Warnerade]

Well, I’m really glad to see this thread wasnt deleted for inactivity haha. Life has been nuts, great, but nuts. Not much time at all has been spent on the ship. I recently got married and my wife is pregnant, so my wife and I have been focusing a lot of our time on preparing for the baby. I do have some updates from the last post. However, I have to put a layer of Tung oil on everything before I glue things together. For now. I’ll just post a picture of the stairs (which I loathed) and a few recent projects I made for the house. 

[Bob Fraser]

Congratulations to you and your wife! Life will get very busy from now on - I know!

Those stairs - well, I just did something different, even AL have now given up on them and have straight ones on the new release model.

All the best,

Bob

[Warnerade]

Slow and steady

i am sticking with the curved stairs, I have to finish the doors and a few miscellaneous things for the forst deck before I glue the second deck on but I’ve come too far to give up haha

 

witg the supporting arches between the first deck rooms, I decided to cover them with walnut planking as well. I’m not a fan of the look of wood without grain

 

[Warnerade]

Not much has been done since my last post, just checking in to wish everyone a merry Christmas. Been having way too much fun playing with my sun lately, the projects are on hold. For now. (The decks are just sat on, nothing beyond the first floor rooms are glued yet)

[Warnerade]

Finally glued the second level deck on and started working on the support beams. The instructions say 42mm height but mine varies from 42 to ~44mm. 
 

The directions were not clear on how to start for placement, so I looked at the blueprints supplied. They are all spaced 35mm apart and this is also the width of the double doors located on the first level. The prints show there are no posts blocking these doors, so that’s where I started. Making 2 35mm space blocks to use as I place each one. 
 

they are currently just sitting with a tiny dab of glue. Once I dry fit them all I will remove them, cost with tung oil, and glue permanently. 

[Warnerade]

I hope I never have to make another set of spurs stairs again. I wrapped the railing in some extra walnut so it matches the stairs. It doesn’t fit perfectly in place, but overall I’m happy with how they turned out. Now I just have to finish the other side and hope they fit at least just as good. Blah. 

[Bob Fraser]

Well done!

Tricky them there stairs..... even AL has discontinued them and brought back the straight ones again.

[Cathead]

In every log of this kit I've followed, those stairs have looked a nightmare. You did a nice job with them.

[BobG]

On 12/29/2020 at 1:15 AM, Warnerade said:

I have wanted a gerstner for years

 

I've been thinking about getting a Gerstner chest. Is the chest you have made from solid oak or oak veneers? How do you like it now that you've had it for a while?

 

I see that Gerstner has a Pro line of chests that are made in the USA but they are very expensive. I assume they are made of solid wood. There is also Gerstner International which makes chests that are made from oak veneer and are imported from Asia. They look to be very well built but just not solid wood. Lastly, there are quite a few of the vintage chests available on eBay and such that range from poor condition and need a lot of work, to some that have been already been restored, and a few that are pristine antiques. The better ones, of course, are quite expensive. 

 

I'm leaning toward the Gerstner International models since they get good reviews and are a lot less expensive. I hope you've been happy with yours!

 

 

[Warnerade]

On 12/30/2021 at 8:56 AM, Bob Fraser said:

Well done!

Tricky them there stairs..... even AL has discontinued them and brought back the straight ones again.

Thank you, yes those stairs were QUITE a PITA, they’re still not done. I have basically taken a long break unfortunately. I recently finished residency, and moved back to Ohio and had a second child while we already have a 16 month old, my hands have been pretty tied these last two years. I’m just now getting settled after being in my house for about seven months and plan on starting to work on it slowly again.  Hopefully. 
 

my next step is to put tongue oil on all of the walnut Veneers on the stairs, and then finally glue the darn things into place and move on. I have also started The port side support beams, they are all dry fitted, and once I get them covered tongue oil, I will do them in place and get the railings on as well. 

[Warnerade]

On 1/27/2022 at 4:54 PM, BobG said:

 

I've been thinking about getting a Gerstner chest. Is the chest you have made from solid oak or oak veneers? How do you like it now that you've had it for a while?

 

I see that Gerstner has a Pro line of chests that are made in the USA but they are very expensive. I assume they are made of solid wood. There is also Gerstner International which makes chests that are made from oak veneer and are imported from Asia. They look to be very well built but just not solid wood. Lastly, there are quite a few of the vintage chests available on eBay and such that range from poor condition and need a lot of work, to some that have been already been restored, and a few that are pristine antiques. The better ones, of course, are quite expensive. 

 

I'm leaning toward the Gerstner International models since they get good reviews and are a lot less expensive. I hope you've been happy with yours!

 

 

After having it for a few years, I still love it. My box is the Oh, conversion made with veneers, it was not solid oak. It is held up well. Although it’s used only indoors and doesn’t get too dirty, or Dusty, I use wood polish on it occasionally, and it still looks brand new. Some people have this box in the garage, and my level of OCD just could never allowed to get that dirty. 10/10 recommend 

[Bob Fraser]

19 minutes ago, Warnerade said:

those stairs were QUITE a PITA, they’re still not done.

☹️

Congratulations on your new youngster, and the residency! Add those to a new house and it all takes time away from time needed for other things, as I know all too well.

Like me, you'll get back to it when you can. Looking forward to any updates!

All the best,

Bob

[Warnerade]

Finally got the stairs coated in Tung oil and glued in. They did not fit perfect (as expected) as to have the first step flat on the deck the last step didn’t like up exactly with the 2nd level deck. There’s an air gap, worst on the starboard side. To fix it I am going to use some extra walnut planks and glue to the top step / underside of the deck. I’m pretty happy with the outcome of them, thankfully was able to make it pretty symmetrical from the front view. 

[Warnerade]

Putting the finishing touches on the walls for the second level. The cutouts for the doors were actually a little too large for the door provided (maybe 1/32” or so) so I ended up cutting some screen from a window to place behind the doors for a little more structural support with the glue and also to fill in the small gap on both sides of the door. 

[edan]

Hello all,

I'm new to this forum so probably getting things screwed up! Looking for some opinions / advice.

I recently purchased the Artesania King of the Mississippi and after sotd what was bothering me - main deck beam looks too shallow. The Belle of Calhoun and similar vessels provided a clue in their main deck shear and upper deck supports; it looks to me like the King could do with 4 feet either side 'overhang' on deck beam extentions (which is what Belle of Calhoun had). This would provide the additional space for door openings, access to gangways and aft passageway, stores, particularly the cordwood stacks.

I'm going to have a crack at redesigning the main deck and see what it looks like. Any suggestions?

Ed.     

[Cathead]

Ed, welcome to MSW! The best bet for advice would be to start your old build log rather than starting a separate discussion in a log for someone else's build. That would also be the best place to provide a few photos and/or sketches of what you're asking about and proposing, so we can give you better answers. If you don't want to do a full build log, consider starting a thread in one of the advice sections; there's actually a whole thread about general riverboat questions if you search for it, and that might get you more responses. But my short answer is that this kit is not even remotely prototypically accurate and shouldn't be expected to look real. It makes a very attractive model and people have done some good things with it, but it won't much look like any real riverboat you'll ever find images of, at least to an experienced eye.

[Warnerade]

On 4/26/2024 at 5:24 PM, edan said:

Hello all,

I'm new to this forum so probably getting things screwed up! Looking for some opinions / advice.

I recently purchased the Artesania King of the Mississippi and after sotd what was bothering me - main deck beam looks too shallow. The Belle of Calhoun and similar vessels provided a clue in their main deck shear and upper deck supports; it looks to me like the King could do with 4 feet either side 'overhang' on deck beam extentions (which is what Belle of Calhoun had). This would provide the additional space for door openings, access to gangways and aft passageway, stores, particularly the cordwood stacks.

I'm going to have a crack at redesigning the main deck and see what it looks like. Any suggestions?

Ed.     

I like that idea, I like artesania Latina kits but they do lack a bit of realism at times. Would love to see what you come up with. 

[Warnerade]

Finally got the 3rd level deck glued on and working on the state room. Main stairway rails were much easier to put on than I was expecting. 
 

only issue I foresee is the 3rd deck now has a slight up-curve/concave and the stateroom is flat. I have a feeling glueing the stateroom on is going to be difficult. 

[Knocklouder]

Very nice job on the sprail staircases,  yours looks harder to put together than mine, I miss aligned one side when superglueing it on. But I let a lot slide on my builds lol.

Great job on your King of the Mississippi 

Bob M.