USS Cairo 1862 by MPB521 – FINISHED - Scale 1:48 - American Civil War Ironclad - First Scratch Build

[mbp521]

Hello again everyone,

 

I just realized that I have not posted any updates on my build this month. Time just got away from me and I have been concentrating more on building than the build log.

 

So here is what has happened since last time.

 

I have finally started work on the Hurricane Deck features, mainly the wheel house and its additional attachments, such as the store rooms, showers and latrines.

 

First in, was mounting the main wheel house structure that I had previously built in the last update. All of the remaining aft  structures are built around this one.

 

Next up were the side skylights over the paddlewheel cranks. I think these served a dual purpose. One was for lighting and the other to help cool the officers quarters, given their locations.

 

I started off with a simple framework.

 

Added the dividers.

 

Installed some screen mesh and painted them up. Then the port side was temp installed.

 

Overhead view showing the cranks below.

 

I then completed the starboard side and both were then mounted in place. After they were installed, I marked off the area where the showers and other buildings were going to be located.

 

Next up was the aft building. There is no real documentation on what these structures were used for, with the exception of some references that say there were showers located on the Hurricane Deck and that water from the paddle wheel was somehow collected and plumbed to be heated for crew showers as well as "flush" the latrines. I'm an not sure how all of this was done and I was not able to find any information on how this was plumbed up to work, so no details were put into the internal parts of these building.

 

Another part of this build I struggled with was the curvature of the roof on the two main buildings on the fore and aft of the wheel house. The HSR plans for Cairo show the roof to be flat. I am not sure if these were drawn this way due to lack of information or what. From the only existing picture of the Cairo it is really hard to tell since it gets extremely grainy when you zoom in a good bit. It would stand to make sense that the roof would have a bow to it to shed rainwater. Also, in the pictures of this structure on the Mound City, Baron DeKalb (St. Louis), Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Carondelet, they all have bowed roofs on them. Majority rules, so this is the style that I went with.

 

The main forms for the walls of the aft building.

 

Temp installed in their location to get the curvature of the wheel house right.

 

Framing of the doors.

 

Rough forms for the doors and widow dividers.

 

Side window dividers going in.

 

Building up the doors.

 

Completed doors and windows.

 

Some of the outside planking going on, to give it a nice finish.

 

 

Slather a coat of paint on the sides and a bit of weathering.

 

Structure set in place.

 

and a little more weathering. At this point I am just paying around with the weathering to see what technique I like. Once everything is completed, I'll go back and put more effort into it. I just like practicing up as I go along.

 

The fore building was built in the same manner as the aft one, with the exception that there are side buildings that extend from the port and starboard side of this one.

 

Construction of the starboard side building.

 

 

The port side was built exactly like the starboard side. They were both painted up and glued in place.

 

Next was the installation of the ladders to access the top of the wheel house.

 

Starboard ladder complete.

 

More important features on the starboard side, the latrine.

 

 

 

 

I wanted to show a little detail on this part, since this area was described in documentation as being the latrines. My story goes that there was a sailor that ate something that didn't agree with him so he left the door open afterwards as a courtesy to the next occupant.

 

Then it was time to tarpaper the roof of the structures. I did this in the same method as would have been done on most steamboats of the time. Silk span was cut to a scale 4' wide (scaled down to 1" in 1:48) and secured in place with watered down ModPodge. The overlapping tar seams were simulated as well.

 

All trimmed up and ready for paint.

 

And all painted.

 

Port ladder going in.

 

Building of the port side latrine. Since I detailed the starboard side, I left this one simplified with the door closed.

 

All structures painted up and a bit of weathering.

 

Here is another area that is hard to find info on. Research has turned up zero information detailing these hatch covers over the aft skylights. The HSR as well as the Bob Hill plans show this area as open which would leave everything below exposed to the elements. I have studied some of the pictures that show this area somewhat, but again zooming in makes things very grainy, so it is hard to tell if these covers are one long cover or several hatches. For the time being, I am going to go with separate hatch covers until I can uncover something that proves me wrong.

 

 

Hatch covers completed and the base trim installed.

 

Painting the trim.

 

Then it was on to one of the more tedious jobs, marking the deck nails. When you look at the actual Cairo in Vicksburg, many of the deck nails are still embedded in the beams of the bow. From what it looks like, the deck boards were nailed to every beam, but at 1:48 scale I thought that this would look a tad bit cluttered and messy, so with my build I went with every-other beam.  

 

 

Simulated nails on the wheel house structure.

 

Lastly, it was on to the funnels. These provided a way to direct fresh air to the gun deck below, to help clear out gun smoke, cooling during the summer months. They also helped remove some of the heat created from the boilers, cook stove as well as removing odors from the occasional smelly sailor.

I made these from 12mm clear acrylic tubing. I had originally wanted to heat the tubing to form the bend, but after several failed attempts I decided on my second method. On my first attempts, when I would heat the tubing, I wasn't able to keep the plastic from bunching up on the inside of the turn. This seemed to be a little too tight of a turn so I decided to cut the tubing at a 45 degree angle, fill the bend with Milliput and sand the outer bend to for the curve. Once it was sanded down, I drilled out the center of the Milliput to where only a thin layer was left on the inside, enough to maintain the structure of the funnel, but not enough to block the opening.  

 

 

I used the last bit of copper sheets on the chimneys, so instead of using that material for the funnel flares, I used some heavy card stock. 

 

More simulated rivets with aluminum tape.

 

Completed funnels.

 

 

That is it for this update. I am currently working on the forward and center skylights, but I haven't downloaded those pictures as of yet, so they will be on my next update. Hopefully it won't be as long of a wait. I am still researching these a bit due to the fact that I am having trouble finding out how they were built.

 

Until next time, thank you all for visiting, the likes and the kind words. Be safe and stay well.

 

-Brian

 

 

Edited January 31, 2022 by mbp521
Grammar

[Roger Pellett]

As usual, very nice work!!

[wefalck]

When I see these 'outbuildings', I wonder, whether they employed shipwrights or country-side carpenters ... 🤔

[mbp521]

28 minutes ago, wefalck said:

When I see these 'outbuildings', I wonder, whether they employed shipwrights or country-side carpenters ... 🤔

Most definitely country-side carpenters. There were seven of the boats built in 100 days by the cheapest labor they could find in the area.

 

-Brian

[Keith Black]

 Brian, beautifully executed stunning detail. You made my day.  

[gak1965]

Awesome detail!

[Canute]

Brian, beautiful work, sir. 👍

[KeithAug]

23 hours ago, mbp521 said:

since this area was described in documentation as being the latrines

 

The crew are obviously a bit pedantic about sanitary cleanliness. Don't you think that a bit of realism in the pan might add to the overall effect?🙂

 

On 1/31/2022 at 6:10 PM, mbp521 said:

Building of the port side latrine. Since I detailed the starboard side, I left this one simplified with the door closed.

 

Perhaps the door should be slightly ajar, with a glimpse of the seated occupant smoking his corn cob pipe.😀

 

You can see that I am very taken with your Bogs.

 

Your work is beautifully neat as always.

[Cathead]

Fantastic! Any idea how were those hatch covers held open? Some sort of prop stick from below, or some sort of chain/rope from above?

[mbp521]

9 hours ago, KeithAug said:

Perhaps the door should be slightly ajar, with a glimpse of the seated occupant smoking his corn cob pipe.😀

Keith, that would be a hilarious addition to this if I were to put figures on it. Maybe the door being opened was from all the pipe smoke. 😁

 

-Brian

[mbp521]

3 hours ago, Cathead said:

Any idea how were those hatch covers held open? Some sort of prop stick from below, or some sort of chain/rope from above?

Eric, From what I can tell so far these hatches were just leaned up against the side wall of the wheel house, but I have considered adding a prop stick to them just for aesthetics. I still need to do a little more looking into these since I am not sure if they were one long cover or four individual ones. The skylights over the boilers are what is really troubling me. I am having a hard time finding any info on them to determine if they had glass panes in them or were solid covers. Since the HSR shows what looks to be window dividers on it I am seriously thinking of going with glass and propping a few of them open. All this research has seriously slowed me down a bit.

 

-Brian

[mbp521]

Hello again everyone,

 

I am not ready for an update just yet, the past few weeks have been spent researching and studying photographs of the Cairo and her sister ships to try and get a better understanding of how the Hurricane deck and its structures were built. I do have a few things completed, but nothing substantial enough to post. I have however posted this same information on the Gateway Model Shipcrafter's Guild build of the St. Louis, and I thought I would post it here in my build to see if I could get more feedback from the members that aren't following that build.

 

I have been struggling to figure out how to build the hammock netting on the sides of the Hurricane deck. Johnhoward posted some great info on Civil War era hammock netting in their build log, but I am not sure if the all of the info applies to this type of boat. I was able to locate a high resolution .tif file of the Cairo, and In looking at several areas of this photo, I can see where it looks like one the crewman's legs are visible through the hammock netting in the forwardmost station between the first two stationaries (I'm not sure of the proper terminology for these). However, when I zoom in on them, there appears to me, to be several evenly spaced vertical lines that look to be individual boards along this space. Also, if you look further aft, closer to the workboats (between stationaries 5 & 6), these vertical lines are more defined especially at the bottom where is looks like either the paint is washed out or the sun is reflecting off the shiny surface. The counterpoint I came up with in this area, was that the tarp covering the hammocks was not pulled all the way down to the deck and that the lighter area showing is the hammocks themselves. But I don't see the horizontal lines of the net. The first picture that you have would make sense with the netting running horizontal and vertical, but the spacing of the grid on this net would seem to let a lot more show through if they were indeed empty. 

 

There are also two crew members sitting on these hammock nets in both of these areas and neither of the sections they are seated in are bowed. This looks like it would take into account what you stated above, that there could have been a temporary horizontal rail installed to support them or some other solid surface. I wouldn't think that given the size of the stationaries, that they could pull a rope taught enough between them to support a full grown man without bowing just a little bit. I am just struggling with the evenly spaced vertical lines that look like planks, being netting.

 

 

 

 

 

Another thing that I discovered while going cross-eyed staring at this photograph, is it appears that there may have been a companionway located on the Hurricane deck just aft of the rear funnel and outboard of the forward hog chain support post. In the closeup snippit below, you can see what appears to be an open hatch cover with  long windows. The reason I believe that this would be a hatchway is because of the white paint on the hatch itself as well as the inside walls. This seems to match the paint scheme of the open windows on the forward skylight (second picture below). Best I can tell, this companion way would come out just behind the aft most side guns and allow the crew to load supplies to the gun deck and hold without having to move the cannons out of the way and load everything through the gun ports. I truly could be off base with this theory, but it definitely looks like this is some sort of access way to the deck below.

 

 

One final item that I found is what looks to be a skylight on the roof of the forward side structure built around the paddlewheel house. If you look at the snippit below, there appears to be a white rectangular shape on the roof of this structure. It would make sense that this could be a skylight, since the only other window in this area is located on the forward wall of the same structure, and it is pretty small. I just thought that I would throw this out there to possibly spur more discussion on what it could possibly be. 

 

 

Any thoughts or opinions on this are welcome. I am trying to get a different perspective on these areas to get my details as accurate as possible. Hopefully I'll have an update on the build soon.

 

Thank you for stopping by.

 

-Brian

[Roger Pellett]

Brian,

 

Your continuing hammock netting research reminded me that I never answered your question about the source of the hammock netting drawing that I posted  awhile ago.  The drawing is from the book An Outline of Shipbuilding, Theoretical and Practical by Theodore D. Wilson.  It was originally published in 1873.  As this was during the US Navy’ “Doldrums” after the Civil War when the Navy ignored much new technology, I believe that it accurately reflects Civil War era US Navy ship construction.  

 

While still called hammock nettings these were really wooden boxes supported by iron frames.  There was no actual netting.  The boxes were divided into two horizontal layers.  The upper for stowing hammocks and the lower for “small spars and lumber.”  While you don’t have spars, small or otherwise, they could have stored boat oars, lumber for repairs, etc.

 

My book is a reprint.  Unfortunately, reprints vary widely in quantity, and you seldom know what you are getting until the book arrives.  My book is published by the University of Michigan.  Michigan’s Naval Architecture Department dates from the late 1800’s and they were one of the first organizations to digitize the collection in their huge library, so lots of “goodies” for us.  Their reprints are better than average; hardbound in a sturdy binding with decent quality paper.  Even so there are a few quality control issues, namely one or two fold out tables that were not completely copied.  I also have U of M reprint of the US Navy 1866 Ordnance Manual.  Again, nicely bound but missing a drawing.  Both are also on line.  I much prefer a nice book.

 

Roger

[Keith Black]

 Brian, I find it amusing that I can look at a photo hundreds of (if not more) times and then look at it again and see something I'd not noticed previously. Evidently I focus on the one thing I'm looking for in particular and miss seeing other details. It's easy for my imagination to run away with itself when studying a photo for a long period of time. Those times when I think I've found something but it's murky and a bit sketchy I take a break, look at the model, make a drawing of what I think I saw, and let it rest for a day. I then go back to the photo and what I think I saw before is either there in a sharpened sense of actuality or like gossamer in a gale, it has blow and faded away. 

 

 

[mbp521]

On 2/25/2022 at 12:01 PM, Roger Pellett said:

Brian,

 

Your continuing hammock netting research reminded me that I never answered your question about the source of the hammock netting drawing that I posted  awhile ago.  The drawing is from the book An Outline of Shipbuilding, Theoretical and Practical by Theodore D. Wilson.  It was originally published in 1873.  As this was during the US Navy’ “Doldrums” after the Civil War when the Navy ignored much new technology, I believe that it accurately reflects Civil War era US Navy ship construction.  

 

While still called hammock nettings these were really wooden boxes supported by iron frames.  There was no actual netting.  The boxes were divided into two horizontal layers.  The upper for stowing hammocks and the lower for “small spars and lumber.”  While you don’t have spars, small or otherwise, they could have stored boat oars, lumber for repairs, etc.

 

My book is a reprint.  Unfortunately, reprints vary widely in quantity, and you seldom know what you are getting until the book arrives.  My book is published by the University of Michigan.  Michigan’s Naval Architecture Department dates from the late 1800’s and they were one of the first organizations to digitize the collection in their huge library, so lots of “goodies” for us.  Their reprints are better than average; hardbound in a sturdy binding with decent quality paper.  Even so there are a few quality control issues, namely one or two fold out tables that were not completely copied.  I also have U of M reprint of the US Navy 1866 Ordnance Manual.  Again, nicely bound but missing a drawing.  Both are also on line.  I much prefer a nice book.

 

Roger

Thank you Roger for the info. I have to tell you, there are fewer things better than a good book. Especially ones that have plethora of useful information. I was able to locate a used copy of the U of M hardcover printing on Amazon for $20. Looking forward to perusing through the pages when it comes in. 
 

I have just about made my decision on on how I am going to build the hammock nets, and most likely it will be the wooden box style. In the pictures I posted earlier, you can definitely see that they are raised above the deck surface, but I was thinking this was just for rain water to flow under and help keep the hammocks dry. It never occurred to me that hey could be used for storage, but that makes perfect sense. 
 

On 2/25/2022 at 12:49 PM, Keith Black said:

 Brian, I find it amusing that I can look at a photo hundreds of (if not more) times and then look at it again and see something I'd not noticed previously. Evidently I focus on the one thing I'm looking for in particular and miss seeing other details. It's easy for my imagination to run away with itself when studying a photo for a long period of time. Those times when I think I've found something but it's murky and a bit sketchy I take a break, look at the model, make a drawing of what I think I saw, and let it rest for a day. I then go back to the photo and what I think I saw before is either there in a sharpened sense of actuality or like gossamer in a gale, it has blow and faded away. 

 

Keith, I am right there with you when it comes to staring at an old photograph over and over.
 

When I discovered the high-res picture of the Cairo the other day it was like getting a new tool. I was so excited to see certain parts of the ship that I was not able to make out before. I wasn’t even aware that at the time the picture was taken, that they still had the howitzer on the Hurricane deck. In all the previous pictures I had, it was difficult to discern what that section of the picture contained. I even had the Admiral laughing at me due to my excitement of discovering new details. She said I looked happier than a toddler with a lollipop. But after staring at this one for several hours, I started going cross eyed and had to step away for a while. 
 

-Brian

[Keith Black]

6 minutes ago, mbp521 said:

She said I looked happier than a toddler with a lollipop.

 We certainly are an easily amused beast. If only they had know how expensive 'easily amused' would become, toddlers would be in short supply. 

[bdgiantman2]

From the pictures you have provided of the hammock nets, I would almost just suggest the hammock nets the sailing ships used throughout the half a century earlier. The only problem would be that I don't see a secure enough place to fasten the metal parts to on the deck being right on the edge. Would help by having tall posts for sure which would help in some ways. Guessing those posts to be 8ft to 10ft tall. The part I find interesting is how  the nets are covered with strips of clothe or canvas about a foot wide using the crew as a scale. Its like they used sliced sails to make the hammock nets.

[mbp521]

16 hours ago, bdgiantman2 said:

From the pictures you have provided of the hammock nets, I would almost just suggest the hammock nets the sailing ships used throughout the half a century earlier. The only problem would be that I don't see a secure enough place to fasten the metal parts to on the deck being right on the edge. Would help by having tall posts for sure which would help in some ways. Guessing those posts to be 8ft to 10ft tall. The part I find interesting is how  the nets are covered with strips of clothe or canvas about a foot wide using the crew as a scale. Its like they used sliced sails to make the hammock nets.

Bdgiantman2, I appreciate your input on this. The technique you described I am not very familiar with, but it does sound interesting. It would make great use of old sails, and who knows, some old sails could have been used as the covers for the hammocks.

 

 

 

I think that I have finally figured out how I am going to go about building my hammock nets. I believe that I will be following the model outlined in Chappelle’s book The American Sailing Navy. On page 476, Chappelle shows three versions from 1800 to 1865. The latest one, 1828-1865 will be what I am going to model mine after. This version has stanchions covered with wooden panels on the inside and wooden staves on the outsides along with a wooden top rail.

 

I will have two stanchions placed between the stationaries, and the hammock net will run from the forwardmost stationary to the second to last one (9^th Stationary) on both sides. I will not place a hammock net between the 9^th and 10^th stationary as a way to give the crew access to the ship’s boats. It's unclear if the Cairo was built this way since the ships boats are covering this area, but the pictures of the other City-Class Ironclads have different variations of access to them, so I used my builders liberties to go with the one I thought fit best. The stanchions will be elevated about 6” (1/8” scaled at 1:48) to allow for rain water run off and stowage of spare lumber and other items. (Thank you Roger P. for the info on that little detail). I will also add wooden runners down the middle of the stanchions with gaps between them to support the hammocks and provide air flow  to help keep the hammocks dry. Once these are built out, I am going to simulate some of them being filled with a canvas cover, a couple I will leave uncovered to show the stowed hammocks and a couple more I will leave empty, to show the construction details. This is the plan anyway. I may dive off into and find that I have bitten off more than I can chew and have to reconsider my ideas. We’ll see how it goes. Stay tuned.

 

The below drawing is my interpretation of how I will construct the nets.

 

 

-Brian

[bdgiantman2]

Brian, your image provided very accurately describes what I was trying to say in my last post to you, except you have wood panels on the outside edges of the hammock storage compared to a clothe covering on outside of hammock storage. I didn't think to have a support beam under the iron stanchions though, that would brilliantly solve the problem. Great job and go for it!

 

Brian D.

[mbp521]

Hello again everyone,

 

I am back with a brief update. The past few weeks have been spent building and then rebuilding due to finding out more details on the high-res picture that I discovered.

 

Starting off, I built up the forward skylight. I constructed the basic frames from 1/16" basswood strips.

 

 

Then I installed some mesh underneath, which I assumed would provide some protection from drunk crew members falling through when the hatch windows were open. Actually was thinking that it was to somewhat protect the crew on the Gun Deck from flying shrapnel during battles.

 

Once I had the basic frames built up, I painted it up and made the window hatches. These were made from .040 square styrene strips backed by clear plastic. This was definitely a tedious process, cutting all the tiny pieces and sanding them to fit just perfectly.

 

Once they were completed, they were then temp installed in place.

 

Once the forward skylight was done, I moved on to the center skylight. Again with the tedium, I measured out and started building the 16 windows that make up the central skylight, This area was used a ventilation for the boiler area below. The funnels on the Hurricane deck could be directed into the wind to force cooler air down below and these skylight hatches could be opened to allow the hot air from the boiler to vent out. 19th century air conditioning. 

 

 

 

 

One down 15 more to go. 

 

Needless to say, building up all these windows got old really fast. So, I put my little pea brain to work trying to come up with a better, more efficient way to do this. While I pondered a solution, I happened by the Admirals craft room where she was hard at work making stencils for T-shirt on her Cricut. Then it hit me! I wonder...

 

So I inquired with the Admiral as to what types of material could that Cricut cut? Here response was, "pretty much anything you need". Well that really got the wheels to turning, and it just so happened that I had some white 0.020 styrene sheets laying around that I thought would work perfectly for the window frames. So I got a crash course in the Cricut canvass, which is a simplified CAD program and went to work. I measured out the the widow widths and entered everything into the program and away she went. 

 

The end result was perfect window frames. All built in the program and cut in less time that it took for me to put together one the other way.

 

 

So I took the frames and sandwiched a piece of clear styrene between two of them and started making up the windows.

 

It was at about this time that another idea hit me. I was going to have to paint the tops of these windows black to match the rest of the deck and not stand out like a sore thumb. So I commenced to painting the first one and found out real quick that this was going to take way too much work and not come out like I wanted them to. So it was on to Amazon for some black .020 styrene and back to the Cricut.

 

This made thing so much easier.

 

 

Putting in the hinges.

 

In place on the deck.

 

Before getting them fully installed I propped some of them open with prop-rods. Since I was not able to dig up any information on this area of the boat, I followed the HSR plans for this part as I did for the forward skylight.

 

These windows worked out so well, I continued on with the hatches over the paddlewheel cranks. Same methods as before, I sandwiched a clear piece of styrene between a black and white frame and mounted them in place.

 

First one tested for fit. Since I assumed that these would have been opened manually, none of the pictures show any rigging going to them otherwise, I installed a handle on each one to help open it for ventilation. 

 

Port side all installed, hinges added and a little weathering to see how it looks.

 

It was at this point when I found the high-res picture of the Cairo and things slowed to a crawl. The Admiral and I were watching a Civil War documentary on the History Channel and they just so happened to have a segment on Iron Clad Gunboats. Well they also had the photograph of the Cairo on there and as they were showing it, I noticed a few details that I had not seen before. I hit the pause button, slow rewind and forward staring at the picture. There were details that I had not seen in the many version of this picture that I had downloaded from the internet. So I figured that there had to be a better version than the ones I had out there, so to the Web I went. Now I know that I said that I found the picture, but I really have to give the credit to the Admiral, she is actually the one that found the high-res version that I have been using lately. So when I mean things slowed to a crawl, the literally did. I spent endless hours staring at the new photo pouring over details I was not able to see before. One of those details was the forward skylight, I had totally gotten it wrong, and so did the HSR.

 

From the below screen shot you can see the skylight is made up of only two panels on each side and not three. The port forward hatch looks to be fully open while the starboard and both aft hatches are only partially open.  You can just make out the frame lines on the port aft hatch that show that they had long narrow panes in them and not a divided lite style like the HSR plans. So I decided to go about rebuilding my first version.

 

I started with a frame much like version 1. Borrowed the Admirals Cricut once more to make the window frames.

 

And constructed version 2. I have to say that a lot of work went into version 1, but I like version 2 much better.

 

Next up was a newly discovered feature that I have been discussing at length with Johnhoward over on the St. Louis build. I mentioned this feature in an earlier post (#462) of what looks to be a deck access hatch from the Hurricane Deck to the Gun Deck below. Well I decided to go ahead and build these up, since it would make sense that there would be some sort of access the lower deck to aid in resupply, as well as add a easier way for the crew to scramble below deck during battles. I am still in the research phase of this part, but I wanted to see how they looked and if it made sense to have these.

 

The side walls have been cut out.

 

Structure complete, minus the hatch window.

 

Hatches in their proposed location.

 

Hatch window constructed the same as the others on the skylights.

 

I am going to hold off on painting these until I can uncover more info on their actual existence. Seems like they would be, according to the picture, but we'll see.

 

Last up was the construction of the davits and anchors.

The anchors were pretty much straight forward. I purchased a couple of 38mm Corel anchors from Model Expo a while back and figured they would work perfectly for the scale of this build. They were standard, wooden stock anchors that I converted to iron stock ones, more like what was aboard these Iron Clads.

 

Some of the mold seams have been filed away and the iron stock was made from brass wire and beads.

 

The shackles I made out of brass wire as well, just hammered flat on the ends and bent to shape.

 

The finished anchors, minus paint.

 

Finally the davits were constructed. These were made from 1/8" aluminum rod. I started by drilling a pilot hole in one end of the rod to receive the eyebolt to form the ring for the blocks.

 

I then tapered the end to almost a point by chucking the rod in my drill and using a fine file to the desired taper.

 

Then I made up a jig to get all eight davits a consistent radius on their bend.

 

 

 

Next up was the support brackets. I started off making these out of 1/16" aluminum tube for the supports and 1/8" ID tubing for the collars. I made up another jig to keep the angles consistent and then after several failed attempts to solder the support rods to the collars, I finally gave up.

 

Version 2 of these, I decided to go with styrene rod and tubing. This method worked so much better and with a dab of CA I was well on my way with a solid joint between the collars and supports.

 

All eight completed davits, ready for paint.

 

Now it is on to getting the anchors and davits painted up. I still have more research to do on the access hatches and I will start working on the hammock nets. Hopefully I will have those completed by next update.

 

As always, thank you all for stopping by and liking my work as well as all the kind comments and input.

 

-Brian

 

Edited March 9, 2022 by mbp521

[Keith Black]

 Brian, wonderful stuff and lots of it. You've been busy! I think my wife needs a Cricut. I'm almost certain it will be of benefit to her with her many projects.

[mtaylor]

Your heavy research and some luck (the TV program) are really paying off.   

 

BTW, soldering aluminum isn't easy.... seriously.  You might have had better luck with brass.   OTH, the styrene is working extremely well.

[Nunnehi (Don)]

Brilliant, just brilliant, Brian. I do a lot of work with youth groups and a big part of the training we do is knowing and using resources - this is a textbook example, thanks for sharing. 
 

Don

[BANYAN]

Nice use of modern tech to achieve a great result .  A very fine model you are producing.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[mbp521]

On 3/8/2022 at 5:46 PM, Keith Black said:

 Brian, wonderful stuff and lots of it. You've been busy! I think my wife needs a Cricut. I'm almost certain it will be of benefit to her with her many projects.

Keith, I bought the Cricut a couple of Christmas' ago for me.... I mean her, and it was a great investment. I just learned how to use it a couple of weeks ago, but I see lots of projects coming in the near future now that I know that it has the capability to cut thin basswood. 😜

 

 

On 3/8/2022 at 7:53 PM, mtaylor said:

Your heavy research and some luck (the TV program) are really paying off.   

 

BTW, soldering aluminum isn't easy.... seriously.  You might have had better luck with brass.   OTH, the styrene is working extremely well.

Mark, I love watching the History Channel, and here lately they have had a lot of American Civil War shows on. I watched one the other day on Ulysses S. Grant that was fantastic, as well as the one on Abraham Lincoln. The research is really helping with the build, I really wish I had started a lot earlier, there are several interior features that I would have changed, but I was anxious to get started. So far I feel that I have a somewhat true representation of the ship, but going forward, since the exterior is the most exposed, I really want to make sure that I get this part right.

 

As for the soldering the aluminum, that was a lesson learned. At first I was going to make the davits out of brass but I was having trouble finding 1/8" brass stock. Must have been a run on them, that is why I went with aluminum. I am getting to where I really like working with the styrene more and more though it just that the 1/8" styrene was a little too flimsy for the davits.

 

On 3/8/2022 at 10:07 PM, Nunnehi (Don) said:

Brilliant, just brilliant, Brian. I do a lot of work with youth groups and a big part of the training we do is knowing and using resources - this is a textbook example, thanks for sharing. 
 

Don

Don, Thank you for the kind words and my pleasure. As a kid I remember hating to have to research things. I got over that in college, and started to enjoy it. College was a long time ago and not a lot of research was done after that, except for the occasional look up of something of interest, but nothing too in depth. Then with my last build I really started to get into it. Then came this build. I had no idea what I was getting into, but I love it. Kids today have it a lot easier with the internet at their disposal, but it's almost too much information and not all of it is correct. Thanks to people like you, they have mentors that can guide them in the right direction and let them know what and how to look for the correct info.

 

On 3/9/2022 at 12:13 AM, BANYAN said:

Nice use of modern tech to achieve a great result .  A very fine model you are producing.

 

cheers

 

Pat

Pat, Thank you for the kind words. When I first approached the Admiral about using her Cricut to make the window frames, she told me that was cheating and that there was nothing wrong with the way that I was doing them before. This was just her way of kindly telling me that she didn't want to show me how to use the machine for fear of me taking it over. But I explained to her that it wasn't really cheating, I mean the Cricut is basically a CNC machine and that is what the model kit companies use to make their kits. She finally caved and now I have my window frames and Cricut knowledge. Time to take over her machine.

 

-Brian

[mtaylor]

Brian, might be better if you buy your own Cricut.   There's a fine line out there on using the wife's stuff.

[KeithAug]

Brian

 

Re - I happened by the Admirals craft room where she was hard at work making stencils for T-shirt on her Cricut.

I need one of those. Must get my wife into making stencils for T shirts then I can buy her one for Christmas.

 

Also I am always amazed that the photographs of your work space and model never have a speck of dust on them. How is this possible?

 

 

 

[mbp521]

1 hour ago, mtaylor said:

Brian, might be better if you buy your own Cricut.   There's a fine line out there on using the wife's stuff.

Mark, I would buy me one if the things weren't so dang expensive. I can tiptoe around her and use it when she's not looking. If I get caught, I'll just aske her about the many tools of mine she has laying around her room. Might not keep her quiet, but it may buy me some time to make my escape. 😁

 

-Brian

[mbp521]

25 minutes ago, KeithAug said:

Brian

 

Re - I happened by the Admirals craft room where she was hard at work making stencils for T-shirt on her Cricut.

I need one of those. Must get my wife into making stencils for T shirts then I can buy her one for Christmas.

 

Also I am always amazed that the photographs of your work space and model never have a speck of dust on them. How is this possible?

 

 

 

 

Keith, they are really neat machines and easy to use. She had been wanting one for a few years so I finally broke down and got it for her. Good decision on my part. I never figured that I would find a use for it.

 

As for my tidy workspace, I try to make it a habit of clearing a small area when I take pictures and since they are such large files, I generally crop out some of the picture to get it to a size that will upload to MSW.

 

If you truly want to see what my work space looks like while I work, here you go.

 

Hopefully it doesn't scare you too much.

 

-Brian

[Keith Black]

 Brian, thank you for posting this photo of the Cairo . You've made the original slab sided turtle look beautiful. 

 

 

Edited March 11, 2022 by Keith Black