Thistle 1894 by LJP – FINISHED - 1:64 scale – a Wisconsin sternwheeler by Lawrence Paplham

[LJP]

boboandlucy, Thanks for your kind comments on the pilothouse.  It was a bit of a challenge to make.

 

An updated hurricane deck.  I have added the verge pole, water tank, rafts, safety planks, and five boats ,along with the unfinished davits.  All are just placed and not affixed to the deck.  I have lots of detail work that still needs to be done here. I did add the three drains from the hurricane to boiler deck, along with the two additional hurricane deck supports for the forward life boat.  

 

I am thinking about adding the stacks and then coming back to do the detail work.  It is starting to look like a sternwheeler but still has a long way to go.  Once the hurricane deck is complete, I still need to do all of the bulwarks, capstan and jackstaff at the bow.  And tons of little odds and ends that I have yet to start.  

 

[Cathead]

This looks so cool!

[Jim Lad]

Looking very elegant!

 

John

[LJP]

Cathead & John, thanx for the kind words.

 

I really get little modeling done in summer but I have pretty much finished the hurricane deck except for the bell and lots of paint touch-up.  After I complete that it on to final touches on the boiler deck: ladders, hoses, placards &c. Two different perspectives, the latter photo is wonky due to the photo's perspective.

 

The stacks were a bit of a challenge.  The stacks themselves are 1/2" K&S aluminum tube with the tops of half round Evergreen or Plastruct.  The spreader is shaped copper wire with the whistle and vent brass tubing.

 

There will still need to lots of things done on the main deck but Thistle looks like a sternwheeler and an end is getting closer after nearly two years.  

[LJP]

I am finally getting close to the end of my Thistle build after two years.

 

The hurricane deck was finished with the addition of fire buckets and the bell.

The boiler deck had "Official Notices" in 2 height font attached.  A ladder to the pilothouse was added along with the two ladders attached to the railings.  The latter were the federal fire requirements after the General Slocum disaster.

The main deck had the canvas coverings attached above the bulwarks, although they are hardly noticeable. Firehoses were added to the underside of the boiler deck.  The firehoses were located under the hurricane deck in the early years.  The change may have also been a requirement due to Slocum. Safety ropes were affixed to the boiler and engine superstructures.  Lastly, kevels (a/k/a cleats) were attached  to the main deck.

 

So what is left is on the main deck at the bow.  A capstan, anchor, bulwarks and jackstaff are still needed to finish the project.  But again, during summer, modeling takes time. I hope to finish in August - the month Thistle (as the J.H. Crawford) was launched in 1894, and as Thistle was sent to the breakers in 1915.    That I started and finished the build and will finish it in August is pure coincidence.

 

 

[steamschooner]

Very nice, great job.

[Cathead]

So very, very cool. I look forward to a full photo essay when she's truly complete.

[LJP]

I give you Thistle

 

I would like to start by thanking all of you have who have encouraged me and followed my build over these past two years.

To say that I have learned a lot, from drafting the plans to the actual build, would be an understatement. This was my first true scratch-built model and I am glad that I did it.  I have discovered ways to do things wrong that truly amaze even me.  I have also discovered that the eyes are not as sharp as they once were and the fingers less nimble.  While Thistle will never be in a contest, the soon to be cased Thistle will proudly reside next to my fireplace. 

 

Thank you all again. LJP

 

[kurtvd19]

Congratulations on a very well done model.  I have truly enjoyed following your work.

I would like to encourage you to enter Thistle in the 2024 Model Show & Contest at the WI Maritime Museum at Manitowoc.  I think you would enjoy meeting and hanging out with the modelers and you might be surprised with the results of the competition.  Regardless of where it would place I know there are a bunch of us that would enjoy looking closer at Thistle.

Again, congratulations on a great model.

 

Any idea of what's next?

 

Kurt

[Cathead]

I agree with Kurt, I bet you'd be surprised how many modelers would enjoy seeing your work in person. Photos never do models justice, or at least they're not the same experience as real viewing. Entering a contest doesn't have to be about being competitive, you can just think of it as a framework for sharing work in person.

 

And I'm so glad you chose to share this build with us. Such a unique prototype; I really enjoyed learning about it and seeing the project unfold. This is also the kind of model that may well find a home  beyond yours one day; unlike the thousands of, say, Constitutions out there, it's special and would probably have value to a library or local museum when you're ready to part with it. "Museum-quality" is an over-used term in model ship building as it tends to have a condescending tone that implies anything below Smithsonian-level is unworthy, but museums come in all sizes and serve many constituencies. Models are almost always a crowd-pleaser in any setting and I've seen far lower-quality models than yours proudly displayed in local museums and enjoyed by visitors of all ages. 

 

By all means enjoy it in your home, as I currently do mine, but one beauty of building unusual and region-specific models is the higher potential for them to live beyond us.

 

Thanks again for your work!

[Keith Black]

 LJP, congratulations on the completion of Thistle. She turned out fantastic, well done.  

[Roger Pellett]

Congratulations!!

 

In my opinion your model is Museum Quality for several reasons.

 

It is a unique subject that required research by you.

Stern wheel steamboats  working in the Great Lakes watershed are practically unknown.

Workmanship looks outstanding.

 

Marine museums used to be collection of models that people wanted to get rid of.  Our local museum supposedly devoted to Great Lakes Whaleback Ships includes a plastic Titanic.  Today, museums are creating “mission statements” and their collections are being focused on their missions.  The Wisconsin Maritime Museum is “in your backyard” and your model fits right in with their mission.  I’m sure that they would be interested in looking at your model.

 

Roger

 

 

[mcb]

I have to agree with the posts above.  Well done, thanks for posting.

 

mcb

[LJP]

Your collective support is amazing.  Thanks again.

 

Kurt, I have attended the Wisconsin Maritime Museum model contest several times.  The level of construction exhibited is well beyond my Thistle.  The regrettable part is many years ago I kit bashed a Thermopylae clipper which could have been entered into the contest.  That said, I may display Thistle at Manitowoc through the Wisconsin Scale Boating Association (WSBA) of which I am a member.  I agree that it is unusual and will draw interest.   There are several other WSBA events where I will display it. 

 

My next project is the neglected “Honey, Do…” list items I had successfully avoided.  But my next boat project is the logical choice: the predecessor of Thistle, the J.H. Crawford.  During the Thistle build, I was able to obtain a wonderful quartering stern view of J. H. Crawford from the Dave Thompson Collection at Steamboats.com.  I will need to create J. H. Crawford plans as Crawford really looked different (and was 14 feet shorter) than Thistle. I look forward to that build as I now have experience to rely upon.  But that build will not be fast either.

 

Cathead, your models are incredible. Like you I will enjoy my model in my home.  I have already given thought to where it will go when I no longer need it. There are several city museums or county historical societies which  Thistle regularly visited during its life.  I would hope that it will reside in one of those because of its connection. 

 

Roger, thank you for your insights. I have visited your whaleback Meteor and museum.  Definitely worth the visit but I never saw the plastic Titanic.  If you wish to build an interesting sternwheeler with both a Fox River Valley and Duluth connection, the Henrietta (1879) was a government boat, later sold to local Fox River Valley interests as a packet, and sold a second time in 1895 and ran excursions on the St. Louis River from Duluth to Fond du Lac (yours, not mine).  Its barged-out hull is in the Thunder Bay graveyard. 

 

Keith & MCB, thanks for you confirmation – it really means much.

 

LJP

[Roger Pellett]

Too bad I didn’t get to give you a personal tour of Meteor!  In 2005 there was a dedicated effort to display Meteor out of the, mud that she is buried, in and to restore her to a period of Historic Significance.  I volunteered as Project Engineer/ Historian.  It was a fascinating project.  Unfortunately, the museum director that supported the project left and the current one seems hostile to the idea.  IMHO properly restored she could have rivaled Wisconsin’s two other well run maritime museums at Manitowoc and Sturgeon Bay instead of just another a decaying tourist attraction.  I was able to document her.  First with a monograph describing her relatively intact 1896 machinery plant, and later with a book published by an academic press on the history of the whaleback ship.

 

Thanks, for jogging my memory about the Henrietta.  I was dimly aware of an excursion steamer on the St Louis River.  Somewhere I have seen a picture.  Unfortunately, I will be  fortunate to finish the projects already on my ship model bucket list before I am consigned to a care facility or worse. At my age time passes too quickly.

 

Roger

Edited July 31, 2023 by Roger Pellett

[GrandpaPhil]

Very cool!  Very nicely done!