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

[KeithAug]

Congratulations Brian, a wonderful model and the stand is inspired. It has been a great journey and it has been a pleasure to follow your build. Your craftsmanship and dedication has produced a truly remarkable result that I hope will bring you pleasure for many years to come. 10/10 for your first scratch build, so what next?

[Keith Black]

Brian, what a drop dead gorgeous build, congratulations! After seeing the Cairo mounted to the base I can't imagine better, they fit each other perfectly. What a great journey, I enjoyed every post. Thank you for the ride.  

[mbp521]

Thank you all for the kind words.

 

56 minutes ago, KeithAug said:

so what next?

Keith, after a short break, I will be stepping outside of my comfort zone a bit and into the 20th century. A good friend of mine asked me to build a model of a Mississippi River towboat that was owned by his father-in-law. His father-in-law named the boat the Caroline N. after his daughter (my friends wife). He wants me to build it as a  birthday/anniversary/Christmas gift, whenever I can get it completed. It should be interesting, since I have never built a modern boat before. 

 

 

We'll see how this one goes. I'll definitely be doing a log for it though.

 

-Brian

Edited December 12, 2022 by mbp521

[bdgiantman2]

Congrats on finishing this beautiful model,  first-rate all around in construction and meticulous research.  Happy holidays to you and your family.  This blog was a lot of fun to follow. 

[Cathead]

Brian, I can't come up with adequate words of congratulations. Just magnificent. I feel like I should say more but it'd just be word salad.

 

I laughed out loud when I saw your towboat plan. I ended up following in your wake by starting a Cairo (of sorts), and I've had it in the back of my head that a modern towboat would be really interesting too, and well outside my normal range. So I guess I'll sit back and let you tackle that first, too!

 

If we ever take our potential Oklahoma road trip, maybe I'll beg a chance to swing down across the Red River and see her in person?

[Roger Pellett]

Magnificent Model!!

 

Who built the Caroline N?

 

Roger

[mbp521]

Thank you Eric for the kind words. The towboat was not in my original plans, I wanted to start another scratch build of the City of Baton Rouge Ferry, but when my friend approached me about the towboat, I thought why not. To top it off he offered to pay me for it, and wasn't taking no for an answer, so here we go. I still have about six new kits sitting in my closet, two partial builds that I need to finish and the NRG Capstan project that I have to do as well. Looks like I have the next several years planned out for me. Hopefully my towboat project will help you out when you get around to that one.

 

As for swinging by on your Oklahoma road trip, no need to beg, my door is always open and we enjoy entertaining company.

 

-Brian

[mbp521]

3 minutes ago, Roger Pellett said:

Who built the Caroline N?

Thank you Roger. She was built by the Jeffboat Company in Jefferson, IN. She was originally laid down as the Louis H. Meece in 1973. She was later renamed the Caroline N. after my friends wife was born. When my friends father in law retired, he sold the company to Marquette Transportation out of Paducah, KY and she was renamed again. Not sure what the new name is just yet. Haven't gotten that far into my research yet. Hopefully I'll know more by the time I start my build log.

 

-Brian

[VTHokiEE]

Congratulations, simply an amazing build and such a great display!

Edited December 12, 2022 by VTHokiEE

[Nunnehi (Don)]

Brian,

 

Your build is simply stunning and I’ve really enjoyed your log - looking forward to what comes next!

 

Don

[Roger Pellett]

Jeffboat was the last of the “upriver” riverboat shipyards to close.  It had a very long history having built steamboats in the 1800’s.  It was acquired, I think in the 1990’s, along with Dravo’s National Marine barge line by American Commercial Barge Line, then a subsidiary of the Chessie Railroad System.  The resulting organization was principally a barge towing company.  In the last 20 years the company has changed hands and reorganized several times including  a leveraged buyout, and a prepackaged bankruptcy.  I believe that they closed Jeffboat in about 2018.  The company now uses the name American Commercial Lnes ( ACL).

 

The town of Jeffersonville, Indiana is right next to New Albany where there is a riverboat museum.  They might have old Jeffboat tow boat drawings.

 

Roger

[leclaire]

Brian - nothing to say that hasn't been said before. An absolutely beautiful build. And your narrative throughout has made the journey a delight. Particularly for us steamboat enthusiasts.

 

Good luck on the "modern" riverboat build. I will certainly follow along as I have on the Cairo.

 

Bob

[BANYAN]

Brian, I have thoroughly enjoyed following your build and I am now a little disappointed that it is finally complete, and I won't have something new to see what you have achieved.  What a splendid display of skills in building this, and the effort is well rewarded with the magnificent model you have to show for it.  

 

cheers

 

Pat

Edited December 13, 2022 by BANYAN

[mtaylor]

She looks perfect on that stand, Brian.   Simply beautiful.  

[mcb]

Well done!

Congratulations.

 

mcb

[Canute]

Extremely well done. Congratulations.

[Zetec]

This build has got better and better it looks magnificent a job well done. This gives me some thing to aim for with mine I will start a blog in the new year. You said that if you could help you would try. Could you please give me the name and address of the people that made your lights on page 4 could you also tell me what part number or reference name of these lights as I would like to try and get some. I started of trying to build a Radio controlled model and after seeing what yours looked like when finished I changed my mind and hope I can build one to get near to what yours lookes like. Hope all goes well with what you are having done.

 

John

[mbp521]

Thank you John, I appreciate the nice comments. 
 

The LED’s that I used are the multi resistor, micro led’s that I purchased off of Amazon. I used the Golden Yellow color since I thought it represented the coal oil lamp light the best. If I remember correctly, I have about 25 of these installed and they are all powered by a single 9v battery. The link to them is below. 

 

Micro LED's

 

I look forward to following your build. 
 

-Brian

Edited December 14, 2022 by mbp521

[Zetec]

Thanks for that info but what I wanted was info on the [

Lanterns on the sprues. Were you got them from name of item etc.

 

Thanks John

[mbp521]

John,  my misunderstanding. I purchased those at Shapeways. 
 

1:48 Lanterns

-Brian

[Zetec]

Hi Brain sorry to be a pest but how many lights do you get as it works out at £29-00 for 1 or £75-00 plus £25-00 postage for whats in the picture.

 

Thanks John

[mbp521]

6 hours ago, Zetec said:

how many lights do you get

John, It comes with 10 complete lights per set. As shown in the picture, there are 10 bases and 10 globes attached to the sprue. The bottoms of the bases are open to accept the LED wires and the micro LEDs fit perfectly behind the globes. 
 

-Brian

[yvesvidal]

Shapeways is never inexpensive ... 😞

 

Yves

[mbp521]

54 minutes ago, yvesvidal said:

Shapeways is never inexpensive ... 😞

Yves you are correct. Every now and then I run across something that is reasonably priced. The lanterns I used were not terrible, about $1 a piece, but I have seen some things that were just outrageous. Most of it depends on the designer.

 

-Brian

[mbp521]

Just taking a second to wish all my friends here on Model Ship World a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year!!

 

-Brian

[BANYAN]

And to you and your family also Brian.  A happy modelling 2023 to all.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[GrandpaPhil]

Congratulations!  Very nicely done!

[mbp521]

Finally back to where I can function again. Had to have little work done to repair a torn bicep tendon. Just got the cast off today, and now I have to wear this contraption for 5 weeks. Man this is sure cutting into my build time.  I am anxious to get started on my next project, but I don't think I am quite ready. With the time it took me to type this up it may be a while. In the meantime I have a bunch of catching up to do on other build logs since I can now operate the computer again. 

 

 

 

Hope everyone had a great holiday season and is ready for 2023.

 

-Brian

[Keith Black]

 Brian, I didn't know you were having bicep tendon issues. Sorry to hear about this but glad you're on the mend after surgery. The contraption looks like you've been borged. 

[mbp521]

1 hour ago, Keith Black said:

The contraption looks like you've been borged. 

 

"Resistance is futile" 😁 It is a contraption alright, and real fun to try and sleep with at night. I've been dealing with the issue since early November, and since we had already met our medical deductible for the year I figured I'd go ahead and get it done. It was also under Admiral's orders.

 

-Brian