King of the Mississippi by bobandlucy - FINISHED - Artesania Latina - Scale 1:80

[bobandlucy]

I made the ventilation grilles. I haven't attached them yet as I'm still thinking about painting scheme. The instructions called for drilling 1mm dia. holes for the bars, which results in a very loose fit. I instead drilled holes slightly smaller than the pins, using a drill press. I then used the first grille as a template for the rest. They came out pretty good, and are uniform in appearance. No glue required, because of the press fit, and because the grilles will be fully enclosed with the second deck installed.

 

Started on the boiler room doors. The instructions call for planking the doors with the same basswood as for the deck and building walls, yet the pictures in the manual show much narrower plank width. I ending up cutting them in half lengthwise.  I think it's going to be the same for the door framing, as the wood that is called out is so wide that half the planking is obscured.

 

I made a mistake and cut out the deck planking at the two hull mounting tabs, should have done so only at the building mounting tabs. Scabbed in pieces of planking. Does not look great. The one towards the stern is within a building, so no biggie, but the one at the bow is kind of an eyesore. . . There are some deck features that go in that area, so I will wait to make a decision on more corrective work.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 31, 2021 by bobandlucy

[Cathead]

Yeah, you can easily hide that behind deck detail. Anything like a rope coil, barrel, or crate would work fine and not be too out of place. Also, as it looks like the kit places some bitts right there, you could even build a thin planked and framed base below the bits that wouldn't look out of place, especially as this kit isn't a realistic depiction of an actual riverboat anyway.

[bobandlucy]

I've been kind of becalmed by indecision regarding painting. I have purchased an airbrush and compressor, plus some accessories. At the hobby shop I bought some Tamiya paints, but have read here since that these paints might not be suitable for wood. I do not want to obscure the lines of planking on the buildings. 

 

Today I ordered some marine colors of pre-thinned paint from USA Airbrush, as recommended by moderator Kurt in another log.

 

I also have some Stynylrez primer in white and gray. I hope that product is suitable, as I read somewhere that it would not obscure details. What is your experience with these products?

 

In order to keep on without causing too much extra masking, I started planking the second deck in the herringbone pattern.

 

[Bob Fraser]

BTW, keep all, or as much as possible, of your planking offcuts - they will come in useful! (You can always get rid later)

AL don't give much, if any, slack in the amount of wood they supply, also look at the dowels for warp / curvature / ovalness.

[bobandlucy]

Still kind of jumping around here as I wait for paint. Today I did the rough assembly of the second deck staterooms. I managed to wet-bend the two plywood round end walls without breaking either one!

 

Edited August 10, 2021 by bobandlucy

[bobandlucy]

In the hope that this might be useful to someone also building this model: the bending shown above was very successful. I had boiled the end pieces for 20 minutes (one at a time) before clamping in place as shown. I let it sit until this morning, and glued on one end. The shaping was precise and I used only finger pressure until the glue set. One thing I have learned is to figure out the clamping arrangement before actually sitting down and doing. . . Also, I have found through experimentation that the results of a prolonged drying time are far better than shorter, or rushing even more by using a hair drier. When I released the piece this morning, there was no spring-back at all. It looked as if it was already glued in place.

 

Edited August 10, 2021 by bobandlucy

[Bob Fraser]

Well done with that. At least one of mine de-laminated 😞  and there were other fitting issues too. Unfortunately this was done before I started a build log so there's no photos.

Keep up with the good work!

[bobandlucy]

Dry-fitting the decks and structures. The topmost deck (roof of the top staterooms) is way out according to the plans. It is supposed to overhang the staterooms considerably on the bow end. The mounting notches on deck and staterooms are out by 1/2 inch or more- I'll have to figure it out. The holes for the chimney stacks are also incorrect and would result in the chimneys being at a severe slant. 

 

I had been impressed with the accuracy of the laser-cut parts. To me this kind of inaccuracy is inexcusable. I spent most of yesterday studying the plans and instructions and cannot attribute these problems to anything I may have done incorrectly. However, I will recover. I'll have to remove some finished planking. . .

 

Likely to slow or stop progress for awhile as I prepare for possible evacuation due to the fire.

 

[Bob Fraser]

I think most, if not all, of us who have done this model have found the notches out of place, and aligned the deck manually.

 

For the structure beneath the pilot house, check pictures 43 and 44 in the photo booklet for the positioning of the two deck pieces.

The longer length of the roof goes forward, and the ventilation deck has the longer end to the back. The door end of the cabins goes forward.

Embarrasingly, looking at my build again I can see I've got the door / no door ends at the wrong ends of the cabins, the door end should be at the end where the two cabin doors are closest.

I got this and deck 2 the wrong way round at one point before I started the log, or just didn't note it, I forget now. Fortunately it doesn't affect the build as long as the doors face forward.

 

Look ahead to photo 61. The stern steam pipes are misaligned in both planes, even when the decks are aligned. I found I had to trim the thickness on the inside once they went through deck 2 to get them to fit. The holes also need widening slightly.

 

Look ahead to photo 66. The hog chain bracing beams are also misaligned between deck 2 and 3. They should be in a straight line and vertical, not slanted outwards. Before doing any planking on 2 and 3 look at the angles for the fore and aft ones, parts 203 and 204 in photo 66, and angle cut the holes to fit, so that the planking works, and part 202. The holes also need widening slightly. Oh, and you need to drill out the hog chain holes at angles too, easier done at this stage than when all is glued and the railings installed.

 

The written instructions for photos 59 onwards just say follow the photos, and the fitting of these parts is well after planking has been done, so a good planking job could well be upset. (Hindsight is great - I've had to redo planking because of these things.)

 

Hope this helps.

Take care, and hopefully the fire won't affect you and yours.

Bob

[bobandlucy]

Thanks, Bob. I do appreciate your time in answering.

 

Regarding the top staterooms. One end has a single centered door, with one small window on each side of the door. The other end has a three-panel "wrap-around" window each side. The instruction photos clearly show the centered door towards the bow, which is how it it placed in my photo above. If I reverse the staterooms end-to-end, the overhangs are correct according to the large plan (photo below). I could install it this way, which is what I think you are saying you did, or relocate the notches, or remove the tabs. Anyway, this will give me the chance to infill the planking at the notches, as I for the second time cut when I should have left in.

 

 

The chimneys I was referring to are the smoke stacks (large stacks in the manual) coming from the boiler room, not the steam vents towards the stern, although I see your point about those. In any case, the plan shows both sets as vertical. As I have already planked all the decks, I will have to deal with the angled holes for the hog chains (thanks, Cathead) and try not to mess up the planking too much.

 

On the plus side, I did my first airbrushing today, red on the metal paddlewheels. . . I'm painting the black by hand, slowly.

 

[Bob Fraser]

I look at it this way, any fixes or alterations done make this your own unique build, (my excuse for my own mistakes and fixes!) rather than the AL version. No two real ships appear to be the same anyway!

 

Checking mine again, there's a catalogue of mistakes on this deck, which were all realised after the planking had been done. Having had to rip up a deck of planking previously, I went the easy route for fixes.

I've probably used the deck notch to locate the cabins, with the door facing the bow, (it needs to be because of the flagpole placement - photo 55), and done away with the roof tabs to fit the roof longer forward. This gives a slightly shorter back deck, no biggie there as it's access to the flagpole. The forward part needed to have a little scrap planking added, as I hadn't planked far enough under the cabins.

Because of the door mistake the pilot house and access stairs, booklet photos 54, 55 and 56, needed to go slightly further back than shown so the stairs didn't cover the centre cabin door. If you look closely at the pics in my build you can see these when compared to the booklet.

From what I've read these cabins were usually crew quarters, and even with the mistakes and adjustments everything still seems to fit.

 

I take it from your pic above the door is facing the stern? If so, it looks from your pic as if you've possibly done the same as me - the long 3 panel wrap around window end should be at the cabin end with the biggest gap between the doors.

 

The chimneys - not sure what you mean about the slant. From your pic the holes appear to be correctly aligned with the air vent grilles below.

They sit in the holes, with a square of wood, photo 22 part 66 in the booklet, as yet missing in your pic, fitted beneath to stop them going all the way in. They have a protective sleeve, photo 60 part 175, at deck level to help set them vertical and cover the hole. More skew is sorted by the metal fixing between the two, so they should be held vertical in both planes when all parts are fixed in place.

 

Hope this helps a little.

 

Airbrushing looks good, as does the brushwork. Embarrasingly I've had one for a couple of years, but it's still in the box.

Be careful when fitting the wood paddles, as the notches for them are quite fragile and can snap. The planks aren't exactly the same thickness over their entire length, and the notches reduce in size due to paint layers and casting differences, not much but just enough to snap if forced as I found out 😞 

 

Cheers for now,

Bob

[bobandlucy]

Thanks again, Bob. I reviewed your log, and I see that you do have the top staterooms oriented correctly. I will have to ignore the notches/tabs from the third deck upwards, and go by the plans. . .

 

Below you can see the forward slant of the smoke stacks. I looks to me that the alignment of the second and third decks is correct, so I will correct the second deck holes to allow a vertical installation of the stacks.

 

For today, though, I am going to continue with the paddlewheel painting. It is just mindless enough work for right now. I'll get back to the dimensional problems a bit later.

 

[Bob Fraser]

Bob, the chimneys don't go to through to the second deck, I don't think the dowel is long enough to allow that! 

Those holes have a square of ply fixed to the roof beneath to close it off. Unless your model has been updated, mine has to be at least 12 years old.

This is what I mean.

No need to correct the holes.

 

As far as mindless goes, wait till you get to cutting the railing posts for the top decks! 🤯 

 

 

[Cathead]

For what it's worth, "chimney" is the correct term for what would otherwise be called "smokestacks" on a riverboat. Just one of those language quirks; that's what they called them.

[bobandlucy]

Bob, I know that the lower set of holes for the chimney are covered from the bottom as the manual shows, to create a recess for mounting. The holes are still misaligned, though.

 

Looking through your log again was time well spent. Looks really good!

[Bob Fraser]

You know what, you've just pointed out yet another mistake of mine! Doh... don't I feel a right dummy now.

I think that list just gets longer each time I look -  never mind, I'll just call it yet another adjustment 🙂

I must have forgotten those holes were there  and put the next deck on with the plates on that one - don't know how I missed it! Now the chimneys are higher than they should be. Oops.

 

I totally get the misalignment issue now. Well caught.

Please accept my apologies.

 

Thanks for the compliment about my build though 😀. The wife, who it's being built for, loves it and OKs all the changes made.

 

 

[bobandlucy]

Bob, no apologies necessary. Hey, I just put Merseyside together with Jerry and the Pacemaker's "Ferry Cross the Mersey" song. I love that one.

 

Bob

[Bob Fraser]

🙂 🙂. Ah yes, the Mersey Ferry used to be my preferred method of going to work for many years.  Many a time the decks were awash with the waves on a stormy day, and getting off one when it was high winds was an adventure - you had to wait for the deck and landing stage gangway to be level and then run for it before a 3 foot gap appeared again! A few times I did jump the gap between stage a ferry just as it was pulling away from the Liverpool stage (much younger and fitter then!).

Thinking about it I've never lived further than a 10 - 15 minute drive, and at one point a 2 minute walk, from the river. One of my schoolmates actually became a captain on them.

this link will take you to a webcam site of cameras overlooking the river River Mersey

 

To keep back on topic this steamer, USS Willow was moored in the docks a 10 minute walk from where I lived at the time.

 

she's now sunk at her moorings in spain.

 

[bobandlucy]

I have a new puppy in the house, as Lucy has passed- so things are going very slowly. The hobby room is not suitable, so I am restricted to things I can do on the coffee table in living room, during nap times.

 

I finished the paddlewheels! Endless paint touchup but I called it done today. Unfortunately, one of the boards supplied for the wheels was 1mm narrower than the other two, and I had no appropriate scrap, so I used it in four places- spaced out evenly. I don't think most would notice.

 

 

 

 

 

[Bob Fraser]

So sorry to hear about Lucy - we know all too well the feeling of such a loss.

 

The paddles are looking good, good catch with the boards.

[bobandlucy]

Working on the spiral staircases. My first is not perfect, and I have yet to fit the hand rails. The posts are not perfectly vertical near the top. . .

 

The disposable pepper shaker happened to be the exact size needed for wet-bending.

 

 

 

[Bob Fraser]

Much better than mine! 

[bobandlucy]

Doing some things a bit out of order with consideration (I hope), to suit my mood. . .

 

Added the first deck buildings and then the doors. The fit of all doors was loose, so I added a backer board, which is visible through the cracks. If I were to do over (which I'm not) I would completely fill the openings with a backer painted black. I used plastic door screen material instead of the acetate sheeting for the wire-glass door windows. For the double doors, I altered the provided hinges by first bending them around a brass rod, then glued a piece of the rod to the hinge. I drilled new holes in the hinges, and cut off the excess hinge material, thus reducing the size of the hinges. Admittedly, they look a little rough, but are not as huge as the hinges as supplied. 

 

 

I made up the paddlewheel supports and fitted the wheel, not gluing it in, in case I need to remove it temporarily for reasons I can't foresee as yet. Installed the rudders.

 

 

Getting close to installing the spiral staircases, which ought to be interesting because they did not turn out to have equal heights. . . I may have to accept a less than perfect install.

 

Due to the curvature of the lower deck (which appears to be an intentional feature), I will need to add some closure strips at the base of the buildings and where the buildings meet the second deck (not glued on yet), but am wary of using kit-suppled material for that, as I may run out- so I am looking to order some walnut or sapelli somewhere on-line. So far, I have only found a good source from Modeler's Central- I have ordered stuff from them before, but shipping takes so long from Australia. . .

 

 

 

 

Edited September 19, 2021 by bobandlucy

[bobandlucy]

Started painting the metal windows. Brutal.

 

 

 

[druxey]

Looks neatly done. Patience, patience!

[bobandlucy]

Thanks, David. I have the patience, but could use better eyesight! Or a stronger magnifier. . .

 

I see now that I had the hinges for the double doors wrong, they were supposed to be operable. Bob Fraser got it right. The written instructions confounded me, and it was not apparent from the parts themselves that they needed to be cut, and part of the hinge discarded. When I enlarged the picture (after the fact), I could see how they are supposed to be formed.

 

 

Oh well, I'm not going to do over. . . 

 

I made the supports for the stable area out of the 4x5 mm material called out. They seem to be way large, and would allow only a very small passage along the side of the boat once the columns are installed. I think I will make replacements out of smaller material.

 

[bobandlucy]

Installed the spiral staircases. Of all the parts of this model done so far, I am least happy with these, but at the same time glad to be more or less done with them. The underdeck closure parts came out at a bad angle, and I had cut them off. I will have to figure out some detail to hide the messy intersection of the stairs and the 2nd. deck at the front edge of the deck. Maybe some bunting? I lost track of how many times I broke the posts, and they are not vertical at the top of the stairs.  Had to add some shim to one to make it match (almost) the height of the other. Altogether a humbling experience.

 

 

Started cutting some deck overhang support columns. This has been driving me crazy. I can't tell from the plans if they are supposed to be vertical or slanted inboard from bottom to top.  The 2nd deck is slightly smaller then the 1st. Mounting is shown to be on the inside edge of the rub rails. The ones at the ends of the run where the deck above is rounded are slanted, according to the plans. The columns above, 2nd to 3rd deck, are clearly slanted. I have seen build logs showing both approaches. Leaning towards slanting in order to maximize space for passage, and to minimize twist in the railings at the curved deck areas. This approach will result in a slightly rounded profile when viewing from the boat ends, which may be a nice contrast to the building structures. Am I nuts?

 

 

 

[Bob Fraser]

Those pesky spiral stairs! 🙂  They've come out well.

Mine broke, stair angles wrong, poles not vertical - it just wouldn't go right, so I chucked in the towel and did a straight staircase thats given me a few problems to iron out later on in the build.

The deck supports - I had the same misgivings, are they vertical or slanted? Looking at the plans and various photos in the booklet, and as you've pointed out, the distance on deck to the houses, slanted came out the option to go with. One of the full size end on plans shows a slant, at least to my old eyes 🙂

It's all looking good from here!

 

[bobandlucy]

Thanks, Bob. I see the slanted end columns on the plans, but was not sure if the ones in between them were also slanted, as there is no section view provided. The pictures in the booklet are not taken at angles that give a good view of them. I decided that having a mix of vertical and slanted columns would look odd.

 

I went with the slanted support columns. Since I did not mark the column locations by overlaying the plan prior to placing the 2nd deck buildings, I started by centering a column between the stable opening. I took the distance between the columns from the plans. The opening in the railing in front of the boiler room double doors did not come out centered, as it should have. I guess the spacing should have been increased slightly. 

 

I will learn to accept that this model will be less than perfect!

 

[Bob Fraser]

Hi Bob. Yep, I found the positioning out too, having done the same as yourself with the spacing.  I guess it comes down to a half mm here and there, positioning slots being a half mm too wide so the cabin moves a bit. Looks good though.

The other thing I found was that each upright was very slightly different and had to be measured with calipers before cutting, and cut slightly over to allow for the slant to be sanded. (I planked the underside of the roof so that's probably why 😀 , also being manufactured more than 16 years ago I guess tolereances weren't so exact and I noticed a slight warp in the deck pieces 😞 )

As everyone here will say, each model is built slightly different, and each builder will make the model their own - you're the captain so have fun building it and most of all don't worry!

BTW I like the nails in the stable rail slots - gives them the appearance of strength, something I didn't think of, I've only just noticed them.