Chaperon by John Gummersall - Model Shipways - Scale 1:48

[John Gummersall]

Brian,

 

That is a good comment....   And it would be like me to forget that.   But fortunately this time I did not.   Before I masked the sky light I located where the Texas cabin would be located and laid down the wood foundation to support the walls.   Then I laid down the masking tape and painted around where the Texas cabin would be formed....     

 

I will say, there is one issue with the masking tape method..  On the Boiler deck the stationary holes around the edge are square (to accept the 1/16" stationaries).   But unless you have some sort to square drill (and I do not), to free up the holes (covered by tape) you have to drill or poke them out,,,, and they end up more or less round.   But when I comes time to put in the stationaries, square wood is close to round, and with a hold that small, the square wood fills up the hole and it is not noticed.

 

[Cathead]

Using the masking tape method, I found that when I needed to insert something into a square hole that I'd drilled or cut out, that the extra little wings of tape at each corner actually helped hold the square stock in place when it was pushed down in; just a bit of extra friction fit. I think you're right that it won't be noticeable regardless.

[John Gummersall]

Cathead,

 

I agree with what you are saying...  As I tried to dry fit some of the square stationaries into the round holes, those little extra bits of tape really help hold the stationary in place.  

 

With the hurricane deck glued down it was a simple thing to slightly lift up the aft portion of the deck and slip in back wall.   

 

For those that follow in the future with the chaperon... when building that back wall, the jig provided is good in helping with the curve, but not that accurate.   Even my "juice can" method (mentioned earlier) is rough...  No matter how you bend the walls, the most crucial point, and it really should emphasized in the instructions, is that that back wall curves need to match the last holes in the boiler deck floor.   Otherwise the wall will not match up to the last stationaries and will just looks off.     Had I know that fact when I was bending the walls, I would have insured the final bends matched the last stationary holes.    In my case even with a little fiddling, the wall does not match up exactly to that last stationaries.    At this point I think I am going to leave it as is.....   But don't make the same mistake.   This could have been better had I know the exact bend was critical

 

 

As for the bow and the forward stairs, as mentioned earlier, save yourself a lot of grief and do not mount the stairs prior to the hurricane deck as stated in the instructions.  Once the hurricane deck is down it is easy to slip it into place.   No way could I have glued those stairs in prior to the hurricane deck as expect them to line up exactly

[John Gummersall]

Not much to really report today...... Started inserting the boiler deck stationaries.   As Cathead mentioned on previous post, putting a square stick into a round hole works out pretty well.   Just the smallest touch of glue and the stationary easily slides into place.   1/4" above the huricane deck was easily maintained with a 1/4" piece of wood as a guide

 

As you can see toward the middle of the boat the hurricane deck  flared up a bit on the overhang and to be (shall we say) persuaded with some jigs to keep the proper curve.    Same jigs used between the main deck and the boiler deck were modified and did the job well.   Once glue dried, the hurricane deck was in the correct position.

 

Closer look at the stationaries...  No big deal.

 

 

[mbp521]

Nothing like a little gentle persuasion to get the wood to do what you want. 😁

Looking good John!

 

-Brian

[John Gummersall]

It has been about four months, but I am back..  Took a little break and worked on the Western Mountain Buckboard model.   It is what I call a "quick win" and just want I needed to re-energize myself.

Back to the shipyard (Buckboard is not a ship)..

 

Just about completed the boiler deck stationaries (ran out of painted posts) and started the cap strips.  They were previously bent and painted.  Just waiting for the boiler deck stationaries to be completed.

 

 

 

[mbp521]

Glad to see you back at it John. Sometimes a break is what’s needed to help prevent burnout. Nice bend on those cap strips, I’ve never been able to get my bends to hold their shape like the one sitting on the bow. Mine always tend open up a bit. 
 

I’d love to see some pics of the buckboard. I’m sure it turned out just as nice as the work you are doing in the Chaperon. 
 

-Brian

[John Gummersall]

Brian,

Thanks for the comments...  I am no where near in the same class of builder that you are, but I have fun with it.

Here is a picture of the final Buckwagon.

 

If you care to see all the gory detail, below is the log

 

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/35314-western-mountain-buckboard-by-john-gummersall-finished-model-trailways-112-scale/

 

 

[John Gummersall]

Cap strips and Hog Truss posts have been added

 

 

and Chicken Coop

 

 

Started looking into the smoke stacks and decided i wanted to use some sort of pipe instead of the dowel rods.   Looking at other logs, others seem to imply they used 1/2" PVC pipe saying the outside diameter is 5/8" (same as the supplied dowel rod).  I am not sure what 1/2" PVC dowel rods they were referring to, but the 1/2" PVC pipe I have has an outside diameter greater then 5/8".    I did find at the local box store that the 1/2" PEX pipe is the correct dimension as the supplied 5/8" dowel rod.   You can get a short rigid 1/2" PEX pipe about 3' long.

 

 

As you can see it fits exactly to to outside diameter of the supplied dowel rod.   This is what I will be using for the smoke stacks when I get to that stage in the build.

 

 

Here is an interesting "fun fact"....   With the 1/16" square vertical posts installed on the Hurricane deck, it is not possible to install the back stairs.   With the posts installed, there is not room to slide the stairs into place from the side.   Even inserting the stairs at the bow of the boat and sliding it all the way, back back, I was unable to right it into place.   Only option was to remove one of the posts, insert the stairs, and then replace the post.

 

Below shows post removed and stairs ready to be righted.

 

 

Once stairs were in place, post was replaced

 

 

Decorative support brackets have been installed...    I have a lot to learn about painting brass...  I am not sure what the story was....  I primed the brass and then followed up with at coat of paint, but as the decorative support brackets were glued in, some of the paint came off and had to be repainted.   I am not sure, maybe I should have sanded (scratched up) the brass before priming it as it is really smooth.   I can see why paint has a hard time sticking to it.   I need to look into that for the future..   Anyway, below shows the decorative support brackets installed

 

 

Sky light complete and ready for the Texas.  Masing tape was used here too to simulate the tar strips

 

 

Texas house almost complete.   As with the Hurricane deck the Texas has 1/32" squares battens.   And as with the Hurricane deck they are a real pain in the $#%@. 

Once all the battens were in place, just needs a another coat of paint and the doors.

 

 

And the top to the Texas.   Again masking tape was used to simulate tar strips

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cathead]

Everything looks great!

[mbp521]

Gotta love all those battens 😁. They really test your patience. Great work John!

 

-Brian

[John Gummersall]

Got to working with the skylight...  Back when I was struggling with deciding on the type of roofing for the various decks (that simulate tar paper) I ended up gluing masking tape to the decks and painting over it.

Here is a little "fun fact".... If you use masking tape, or tissue,  silkspan to cover the roofs.... you need to  cut away some of the material where the skylight attaches to the roofing  Otherwise  you are gluing the skylight to the material and not solid wood.    After removing the weights holding down the sky light for gluing, guess what pops up?   Ask me how I know this?

 

Anyway had to remove what little of the skylight was still attached to the roofing, removed the roofing around where the skylight was to be attached to the roofing, and glued it down again.   While I am no expert model builder, that was a rookie mistake and I should have known better.   I bet that mistake will not happen again  🙂

 

Below show the 2nd attachment of the sky light

 

Texas housing complete and glued on.   The Texas roofing is in the background ready to be attached.   I have a feeling I will not forget to remove some of the masking tape where the wheelhouse attaches to the Texas roof  🙂

[mbp521]

8 hours ago, John Gummersall said:

After removing the weights holding down the sky light for gluing, guess what pops up?   Ask me how I know this?

If I said this never happened to me and you believed it, we need to talk about some ocean front property in Arizona that I'd like to sell you  . It may not have happened on the tarpaper roof, but I have made this mistake in other areas on other builds. At least with the masking tape it's a little bit easier to repair. With silkspan and Modge Podge there is a lot more sanding involved.

 

Great job on the recovery though John.

 

-Brian

[Cathead]

Great story and instantly familiar. I'm actually in the process of doing the same thing to my Peerless, but lucky me, there's no Texas so there's nothing to attach on top of the roof. Definitely an easier fix than some roof coverings, love how you turned that into a positive. 

[John Gummersall]

Started on the railing that go around the ship.... I was not looking forward to this as I was sure the hull (do to my poor building skills) was not going to match the curve in the etched brass railings.   To my surprise the railings were pretty close to the curve in the etched brass railings.   Some of the square stationaries were not exactly 3/32" high so they had to be filled down some, but for the most part the railings on the hurricane deck went on pretty well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As designed in the kit the railings looks a little thin and and do not have any type of place for you hand to rest.   Just one skinny railing.   I decided to a strip of wood on to of the railing to make them look a little more finished.   I decided to use 1/16" x 1/16" strips on top of the railings.  In order to pre-bend for the curves it runs out a laundry detergent cup is very close to the curve in the railing.   A little soaking and a few clamps and drying over night, and the wood was very close to the actual curve in the railing.

 

Below there are two strips being bent.  One already painted the the other to be painted

 

The old saying is try,,,,,, it is not possible to ever have too many clamps

 

 

While waiting for those strips to dry and be painted, I decided to add some planking to the inside of the pilot house....   I just seemed a little stark with plan walls.

 

 

On to the six rear smoke stacks.   I started out using the supplied dowel rods and attempted to make the paper tops as described in the directions...  I used stiff paper, but it was not as stiff as card stock.   That may be my issue as i just could not make those stack tops look very good.   They looked mis-shaped.  At that point I decided to skip the paper tops, but then I could not use the dowel rods as stacks,,,,  as they would look like dowel rods.    Thus I cut some 5/32" and 1/4" copper tubing to simulate the stacks.   They would not have the tops, but at least they would look more like smoke stacks than dowel rods.

 

Below are the smoke stacks ready  to be attached to the hull...   I have since found some firmer card stock, so I will make a few more attempts at the stack tops, but I am no optimistic of the outcome....  Besides, the copper tubing painted black look pretty good as smoke stacks,,,, we will see what happens with my attempt at tops with card stock.

 

 

[mbp521]

9 hours ago, John Gummersall said:

I have since found some firmer card stock, so I will make a few more attempts at the stack tops, but I am no optimistic of the outcome.... 

Very nice job on the railing John!
 

For the stack tops I used some thin copper sheeting that I had on hand. For the ones that look like crowns I cut the copper to where it allowed enough space to secure it to the top of the stack and stick up enough to clip the each point with flush cuts. Once they were all cut, I gave them a slight bend outward to give them their finished look.

 

For the stacks that were capped I used the same copper sheeting and formed the caps. I then used thin brass strips for the supports. The ends of the brass strips I bent to the angle of the caps and glued them on the concave side of the caps and the straight sides were secured to the tops of the stacks. 

I ran out of copper sheeting on my last build, but I found that an aluminum can works just as well. Hope this will give you some helpful ideas. 
 

-Brian

[John Gummersall]

Brian,

 

Thanks for the information.... I really appreciate it.   I do not have any copper sheeting on hand, but I do like that idea instead of card stock.   In the mean time, I will try my hand with the aluminum can.  

[John Gummersall]

It has been awhile since my last update....  Summer activates and around the house chores has kept be away from the shipyard.

Here are a few updates... 

 

Completed the Pilot House... With the exception of the "CHAPERON" lettering...  I completed those a long time ago, but for some reason can not find them... Ugh...    I will look some more next week when I get back to our home location, but I may have to start over and redo them.

 

Not sure whey the below picture came out blue, as the pilot house is defiantly white..   I guess just pretend you are seeing a white pilot house  🙂

 

For the support wires, I actually used wires instead of the supplied line.  It is 28 gauge wire

 

 

 

 

 

 

Completed the lifeboats.   Use 1/32 x 3/32 strips to plank the lifeboats.

 

 

 

And the Stage is pretty close to complete.  Just needs some blackened eyebolts

 

 

 

It has been a long haul, but the end is in sight... A few more weeks (at the rate I build) and the chaperon should be complete.

 

 

Edited June 30 by John Gummersall

[Cathead]

Nice progress, good to see you're still working on this.

[John Gummersall]

Completed the railings on the boiler and hurricane decks.   I used  1/16" square strips to lay on top of the railings.   Levering them without a top just seemed not right.

 

Only issue I had (do to lack of skill on my part) was creating the cones that are  to go on top the the smoke stacks.   I attempted them over and over again with different thickness of paper and just could no get them to look right.   After completing the cones, they just seemed lopsided.   I just could not see putting lopsided cones on top of the smoke stacks.   As a compromise, instead of using the supplied dowel rods for the stacks, which really would have looked bad without the cones,  I used copper tubing.   To me they look like smoke stacks.... just not like the real Chaperon...

 

Also completed was the trim on top of the Texas structure

 

 

Next step is to complete the stairs going from the hurricane deck to the pilot house

[mbp521]

Beautiful work John!  I like the idea of using wire on the pilot house tie downs. The wire should keep them from sagging over time like rigging line does. Your work is crisp and clean. I sure hope you are able to locate your pilot house name boards, it would be a shame to have to duplicate your work on them. 
 

-Brian

[John Gummersall]

It will be interesting to see how the wire works out...I used 28 gauge wire and plan also use it on the other rigging.  For the Hog Truss Posts rigging I planned to use 22 or 24 gauge wire.  My hesitance is in the final look with the binding at the end of each wire.   As I say,,, we will see what happens,,, especially in my (not so coordinated) hands.

 

I was able to find the "CHAPERON" lettering and did the best I could on the lettering with my fingers.  I used an extra fine point (.25) sharpie and that is the way to go.   Just needed  a little more hand eye coordination on my part.

 

 

Also mostly completed the railing around the pilot house...  In doing so, I noticed the platform was about 1/8"  wider than the pilot house, which seemed strange to me.   Going back over the instructions I saw the following caution  "Note that the pilot house sides overlap the ends fore and aft".   The pilot house should be 1/8" longer than wider.  This not did not register with me when I built the pilot house as I just slapped the four sides.   Thus my pilot house is 1/8" wider than longer.... and the discrepancy.    Had I been thinking clearly at the time I would have just cut off the 1/8" and none would be the wiser, but what it the fun in that.   Besides,,, as the old saying goes "why do something easy when you can make it hard".   Since the platform extended 1/8" beyond the platform, I added a 1/8" post to the left door and extended the fence.   For those looking at these notes in the future, I recommend you read the instructions and build the pilot house correctly  🙂

 

Below you can see the 1/8" post to the left door and  the extended fence.

 

 

 

 

Moved on to creating the stair structure to the pilot house.   Process to create the structure seems pretty straight forward.   Build the vertical and horizontal pieces over the full size drawing and include the temporary piece on the bottom to hold things together.    I also added the railing at this time.   As the instructions indicate, make the vertical posts a little longer than the diagram ... just in case.   It will be trimmed later on when put up against the ship.

 

 

Flip it over and add the two platforms.  I would suggest not using the diagram for locating the platforms.   Hold the pieces up to the ship and mark the exact locations.   The upper platform should come in just under the the Texas roof and the lower platform butts to the trim piece on the side of the skylight.   Only real way to insure this is to measure against your model vs the supplied diagram.

 

 

In my case the structure is about 1/8" taller then the diagram.   As mentioned above, leave the post a little long and trim to fit later on.

 

On a side note,,,,I hate building stairs.   I hated building the first two stairs on the Chaperon and am going to hate building these stairs.  In a prior life I build the circular stairs on the King of the Mississippi model.   To me none of them are fun.  Trying to hold things together while inserting the steps to me is all sorts of (shall we say) fun.   Anyway....stairs are next.

 

 

 

Prior to the stairs, I decided to complete the outer rings on the paddle wheels.   Only real challenge here is the the rings are so thin that you can easily break one just by looking at them...  As me how I know that,,

Paddle wheels with rings attached

 

 

and painted

 

 

As as long as I was in the area I completed the Cranks and Pitman Arms.   Looking at the picture I see there is a little sloppy glue marks,,,,,   Will need to touch that one up 

 

 

I guess I can not delay any longer...... Stairs to the pilot house will be next....

 

 

Edited July 23 by John Gummersall

[Cathead]

Nice progress! Think of your pilot house as one of the details that makes the model distinctly yours.

 

And the best advice for a hated task, like building stairs, is to just take it one step at a time.

[mbp521]

9 hours ago, John Gummersall said:

"why do something easy when you can make it hard". 

I thought that was the model shipbuilders motto. 😁

 

Stairs are my least favorite parts to build along with railings, and on my current build there is plenty of both. That may be the reason I’ve been lagging in the build department. 
 

You are really making nice progress!

 

-Brian

[John Gummersall]

Looks like I found an excuse not to not to work on the pilot house staircase....  Decided to finish up the paddlewheel...

 

After aligning the spokes with a piece of wood shown in the rear, I started to add three board to each spoke

 

 

just keep working your way around the spokes, until complete..

 

 

 

Now it is time for the staircase....  In looking a the picture earlier of the railing added to the pilothouse, I discovered I did not quite measure them correctly.   They are a little high the horizontal beams and did not meet the top railing of the stairs.

As such I had to add an extension on to the stairs to meet the pilot house railing.  In the picture below, the pilot house railing should (if build correctly) align with the top of the diagonal hand railing.   In my case, I have a little extra on top,

 

Just needs paint, but all lines up with the skylight deck and the Texas roof.

 

 

 

 

With paint added,,,,

 

 

 

And attached to the hull..

 

 

 

As mentioned earlier, there was just no way I could create the tiny cones for the small smoke stacks.   No matter what material I used, cardstock, paper, aluminum, nothing looked very good do to lack of skill on my part.

 

For the cone shaped shield for the large stack, I took Brian's suggestion and used aluminum from a coke can.   The aluminum is very thin an easily cut with a scissors.   Since the cone shaped shield was larger (more my size), they turned out OK..   I strongly suggest you use this method when building your cone shaped shield...    At this point the cone shaped shields are just dry fit.   After all the rings and crown are attached these cone shaped shields will be applied, primed, and painted.

 

 

 

On to the turnbuckles...As others have commented, the supplied turnbuckles are completely flat and cut out of  the etched brass sheets.    Kurt and others have made very elaborate turnbuckles that really look neat.   Again, I made an attempt at it, but I just could not get the slot in the brass rod to be anywhere near smooth and not good looking at all.    Instead I took the easy way out and just use 1/16" brass rod and inserted eyelets into each end.   I would have preferred to use smaller eyelets, but these were all I had on hand. 

 

 No were near as elaborate as others have made, but to me they get the point across and look better than the supplied turnbuckles  (shown below on the far left).   Just need some primer and paint.

 

 

Any finally for this session, blackened the eyelets.   Defiantly gives them that worn look.

 

[Cathead]

Nice to see you posting again! Great progress. I've heard of (and worn) coke-bottle glasses, but now I've seen coke-can heat shields!

[mbp521]

Looking good John. Glad to see the aluminum can worked out for you. Nice job on the turnbuckles as well. I think the actually cam out better looking than the ones I made with the slots filed in the sides. 
 

-Brian

[John Gummersall]

Cathead and Brian

 

Thanks for your comments.  I appreciate them...  As for my lack of posting...I really should stick more to ship building....   Seems all sorts of other stuff pull me away, but when I have time and in the mode, I always get back to it.   As I do enjoy the builds.    It sometimes takes me 1 1/2 - 2 years to finish a model, but they do get done.

 

Here are the painted coke can smoke stack shields.   They turned out OK

 

 

I am sure I am the last one to learn this, but I will mention it anyway.   When painting coke cans or etched brass for that matter, in order to get paint to stick well to either surface, you really need to first spray on some sort of "etched primer".   This primer as the name implies, somehow etches the metal as it is applied and leave a very good base for later paints.    I have found (the hard way), that just using a normal primer and then the final paint over metal does not turn our very well.   It looks great initially, but when trying to apply the piece to a model, frequently some of the paint flakes off.   Sanding the metal with 400 grit and the following up with an "etched primer" and paint leaves a pretty solid finish.    I just used a rattle can of etched primer from hardware store, but I have head others talk about  an actual product for spray guns call "SMS Etch Primer"  that is supposed to be very good at preparing metal for paint.

 

 

Starting working on the stern timbers and ran into a slight problem.   Since I added the railing on top of the fence, you can not get the correct angle of the timbers to reach the vertical posts.  Railing is in the way and there is no way to make the timbers match up with the vertical posts.   Took a lot of humming and hawing, but about the only idea I could think of was to extend the vertical posts back over the railing as shown in the picture below.

With the vertical posts now even with the back fence,  was not to big an issue to make the timbers line up.

 

Final result showing the stern timbers now lining up with the extended vertical posts.    An other option, might be to have a break in  the fence on both sides of the timbers.   That might have looked better, but I did not want to destroy the already installed fence.

 

 

Started working on the hog truss posts and caps

 

 

 

 

Paddle wheel installed and cables.   Rather than us the supplied thread I decided to us 22 gauge black wire.   If you decide to use wire,  22 gauge wire fits the hog truss posts cap holes exactly.   Turnbuckles have not been painted black

 

 

Black cable over a black floor did not show up on all the picture, but hog truss posts, caps, and cabling complete

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mbp521]

Looking good John, getting closer to the finish line.
 

The railing at the stern posed the same problem to me as well and if memory serves me correctly, I ended up cutting the railing to terminate at the posts. Your solution seems to have worked out perfectly, with great results.  

 

-Brian

[Cathead]

Looks great, glad you're still plugging away!