USS Cairo by Cathead - FINISHED - BlueJacket Shipcrafters - 1:192

[GrandpaPhil]

Eric,

  Your steamboats are amazing!  Looking forward to this one!

 

[Cathead]

Thanks, Phil!

 

Just a quick update, as I've been away from home for the past week. But the replacement hull/casement parts promised by @MrBlueJacket arrived, and boy do they make a difference! They're cut much more crisply, at the proper angles, and essentially answer most of the questions I posed earlier because now it's obvious how to shape them. So thanks for that quick response; errors happen in manufacturing and it's no big deal since I've got the finished parts now.

 

Here are two side-by-side comparisons of the old flawed and new correct hull:

And same for the casement:

Now I'm excited to get back to this sometime next week, since I can see a clear path forward with these parts. I also updated the earlier part of the log, so as not to scare off any readers who see those old parts.

 

Also, be sure to check out the other new Cairo build log by @rcmdrvr,  who's making rapid progress so far.

[mbp521]

That is a huge difference in the shape of the parts. I can now see why you were having trouble sorting out the lines. Glad to see that Blue Jacket was “Johnny on the Spot” with getting the error corrected. Nic and his crew are always a pleasure to deal with. 
 

-Brian

[Cathead]

So I feel I owe an apology to all those who have signed up for this: I'm afraid I jumped the gun in starting this log. I thought I'd find more time to work on the project but it's just not happening. Given my upcoming schedule I don't think I'll be able to work on it until sometime in November. Very sorry to bait-and-switch; I'm disappointed too! But I think I'll do a better job if I can actually focus on it, and right now (and through the next 3-4 weeks) there's just too much else going on for that to happen. 

[mtaylor]

No worries, Eric.  I believe we all know that real life has priority.  When you're ready, we'll be here.

[mbp521]

I’ll echo Mark’s comments. Life always takes priority. I’m in the same boat (pun intended), lots of work around the property that needs to be done with the cooler weather, so shipbuilding takes a back seat. Whenever you get back to the bench, we’ll be here to cheer you on. 
 

-Brian

[Keith Black]

 Apology? Not hardly. Like yourself, we're all scrambling to complete task/projects before winter sets in. We'll be here when you're able to get back to the Cairo. 

[MrBlueJacket]

12 hours ago, Cathead said:

So I feel I owe an apology to all those who have signed up for this: I'm afraid I jumped the gun in starting this log. I thought I'd find more time to work on the project but it's just not happening. Given my upcoming schedule I don't think I'll be able to work on it until sometime in November. Very sorry to bait-and-switch; I'm disappointed too! But I think I'll do a better job if I can actually focus on it, and right now (and through the next 3-4 weeks) there's just too much else going on for that to happen. 

I have a model that sat for 10 years before finishing it. Not to worry.

 

Nic

[bobandlucy]

Eric, all looks good! Although I work on my model some most days, I am also trying to get some things done around the house before winter hits. The house is a big model, lots of caulking, sanding and painting. I can't say I enjoy it as much as the model, however. . . 

 

bob

[Cathead]

Well, I was right about the 3-4 weeks, here it is almost exactly a month since my last post and I finally got back to this project today! It was a quiet, cold day, so I brought out my portable work tray and set up in front of the wood stove.

The kit instructions tell you to glue the main deck onto the hull, then glue the casement onto the main deck, all before doing any shaping. I didn't feel comfortable with that, so I traced the deck onto the hull and then did the initial shaping before any gluing.

They say to do all the shaping with 220 sandpaper, but given the amount you need to remove from the stern, that seemed unnecessarily fussy, so I used a sharp knife to rough in the shape:

I then finished off the smooth curve with sandpaper (forgot to take a photo at this stage). @mbp521 was kind enough to share a detailed set of digital plans with me, and these were invaluable in checking my work since the instructions are very limited and have almost no useful drawings of the intended steps. Honestly, the instructions are rather hard to follow and I've been reading them over and over just to make sure I don't miss or misunderstand something.

 

When I got the hull the way I wanted it, I spread a thin layer of wood glue onto the upper surface and clamped the deck down real good:

Once that had set, I did the same with the casement:

 

The bit of spreading wetness you see there is from me using a wet swab to clean up a bit of glue that oozed out. Here's the completed hull-deck-casement assembly, after some more sanding:

 

In the closeup photo I can see a bit of a curve at the lower front of the casement that I might try to level out. Didn't notice it in person, and it'll be covered by armor plating anyway.

 

Not all that much progress, really, but it feels great to be back at work on a model after so long (since last February). Thanks for sticking with me.

 

 

[bobandlucy]

Nice work Eric, and I LOVE your hearth area!

[Cathead]

You won't believe this, but I actually got something done on this model! 

 

Following the instructions, I primed the hull/casement assembly. I've always used Model Expo paints in the past, I'm used to them and a creature of habit. But I'm out of paint and needed some different colors. This time I switched to ordering some Vallejo primer and colors from MicroMark. I quite like this primer, it's brushable and seems to do a nice job. Here's the first coat:

 

If you're wondering, I gave the deck some primer even though the instructions say to mask it, because I intend to paint it near-white and then weather it down, since I don't like the dark laser burn effect on the scribed decking and I think the decks would have been kept holystoned and pretty bright, not a dull beaten-up color.

 

The next step is to glue some very thin styrene strips to the hull to simulate keels and stem. This is pretty fiddly at this scale, especially trying not to get glue all over the place while a super-thin strip flops everywhere. Think I managed ok. You can see one glue streak that will get sanded off and re-primed.

 

Another coat of primer will help cover some mistakes, and these are on the bottom anyway.

 

Next step in the instructions is to glue on the hurricane deck, so I spread wood glue across the casement top and clamped it solidly in place.

Next up is starting to work with the armor. I have next to no experience with etched metal so this will be interesting.

 

Thanks for your patience in this glacially slow build log.

[mbp521]

11 hours ago, Cathead said:

I've always used Model Expo paints in the past, I'm used to them and a creature of habit. But I'm out of paint and needed some different colors. This time I switched to ordering some Vallejo primer and colors from MicroMark.

Glad to see another update. I’m not a huge fan of ME paints. They do have some nice colors that are, for the most part, true to some of the originals, but I find them a bit thick and in need of thinning before applying. I love the Vallejo paints. They have so many more color options available and they apply nicely right out of the bottle. 
 

Fantastic job on getting the hull shaped, and I love the plan you have to weather the deck. I’m a big fan of natural wood decks. I wouldn’t sweat the PE too much. I found that it was easier to work with than I first thought as well. Well, at least the bigger parts are. Haven’t had the joy of working with the tiny stuff yet. 😁

 

-Brian

[Cathead]

Tried to make further progress this morning and started getting frustrated. The instructions are vague and poorly organized, many parts seem to have a sloppy fit, and it's just not that fun to work on. I can't imagine how this is supposed to be a "beginner" kit.

 

For example, the hurricane deck is far too long for the casement provided. If you line up the bow end with the casement, this is how far it sticks out at the stern end:

But this isn't easily fixed, since the deck has a border all around it, and if you just trim the deck to length you'll lose that border and it'll look weird. I tried anyway, and ended up damaging the very thin ply it's made out of, though I was as careful as I could be.

 

I sanded it smooth as best I could. It's still too long, but I don't dare take any more off without ruining the appearance from above. 

 

The hurricane deck is also too narrow for the casement provided. There's a clear rim on both sides where the casement doesn't meet the deck. 

 

It doesn't seem like it would be hard to machine the casement to a closer dimension in the production end when the shape of the laser-cut deck is already known. Sanding down the casement to eliminate this on both sides would mean removing a LOT of material by hand, and would change the angle of the sides. I'm just going with it.

 

Next frustration was vague instructions on how to place the gunport lids on the armor. All they say is "line up the ovals in the lids with those on the armor". OK, but the lids aren't symmetrical. So which way do they go (test fit shown below):

The plans are no help:

I consulted the far more detailed plans shared with me by @mbp521, which clarify that the taller end goes up:

 

 

Next problem, trying to dry-fit the forward and side armor. Neither is even close to the shape/size of the provided casement. The forward armor is too tall and too wide with a noticeably different angle at top:

 

While the side armor is laughably different from the provided casement:

These are supposed to fit with a smooth seam between them. The instructions blithely say "trim to fit". OK, how do I do that, I don't have metal-cutting tools. This is supposed to be a beginner's kit. It's one thing to nip metal off thin sprues or file down small nubbins, it's another to cleanly cut an inch of brass without any damage to the piece. @rcmdrvr mentioned using "photo etch shears" when facing the same problem in his log, but I don't have any of those. It never occurred to me I'd need to literally cut the pieces apart to make them fit. I don't think I trust a razor saw to do this without damage. Thoughts?

[Keith Black]

 

37 minutes ago, Cathead said:

@rcmdrvr mentioned using "photo etch shears" when facing the same problem in his log, but I don't have any of those.

 

Seems reasonable.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Xuron-440-High-Precision-Scissor/dp/B00175X4CI/ref=asc_df_B00175X4CI/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310828259700&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8400442552790186348&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9017392&hvtargid=pla-569148348440&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=65583250281&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=310828259700&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8400442552790186348&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9017392&hvtargid=pla-569148348440

[Cathead]

So I was in a stubborn, toddler-like "but I wanna work on my model NOW" mode after posting that. I remembered that I had a pair of model-railroad rail nippers, and decided to see if those would cut brass sheet. Definitely not ideal, they bent and mangled the edges as I worked, but I just went ahead anyway, and with some careful filing and flattening got a moderately workable result.

 

You can see the mangling, but I think the bright brass makes it stand out more than when it's all dark and weathered. I had to cut and file a lot of material to make this fit reasonably well. This will definitely be a "view from a few feet away" kinda model.

 

As you can see, I also added the side armor. This needed to be bent carefully in a 90º bend where it wraps from the casement onto the hull. I clamped the pieces between two metal squares and that worked pretty well. Another example of odd instructions, though, they tell you to glue the gunports to these armor sheets before you do the bend. But that makes an uneven surface in the clamp, and one of the gunports came off. I can't see why you wouldn't just glue the ports on after the sheets are bent, or even after they're on the model. 

 

 

Another problem was that the side armor came out at a different dimension than the front armor; it sticks up further past the hurricane deck. I think it's supposed to tuck in under that deck. I had no control over this because the bend happens along a pre-scribed line. I was not about to try and cut/clip a smooth line off the entire top of these long side armor sheets, so I just ignored the disparity and again hoped that paint and weathering and distance will obscure it. But it's another odd inconsistency about the kit's design. The hull and casement are just too small to allow the brass sheet to fit properly. 

 

 

 

[mbp521]

Eric I’m starting to get the feeling that the instructions for this model are not very useful. This may be a build as you go and use the instructions just for parts placement.
 

The side casement armor does indeed sit under the hurricane deck trim/water ways. It overlaps the armor plating, I would guess to keep most of the runoff from going between the plates and the casements. 
 

I noticed that the forward railroad irons do the same thing that I had an issue in with my build where the top few rows tapered up into the hurricane deck trim. Later on in my build I found the reason for this was that the angles  between the forward casements and the side casements were different. The HSR plans have both casements at a 45 degree angle but later research shows the forwards were 35 degrees. 
 

I love the toddler tenacity of wanting to work on your model right now!  😁

 

-Brian

[Ian B]

Hi Eric

 

Just joined your 'doesn't quite fit, what the heck!' build log  

 

You're doing a great job and I am sure those that follow you in building the Cairo will be so grateful you have asked all those questions and can refer to this build in future years so they won't be so frustrated.  I am tempted myself to build her--- something different for the fleet.

 

Cheers Ian

[Cathead]

Thanks Ian. At my glacial pace it'll be future years before anyone can benefit from a completed build! I'm still hoping I can come out with something that looks decent from a normal viewing distance. But life just keeps not letting me get to this.

[Cathead]

Found another hour last night to dabble in this thing. The next step is to drill out holes that will later hold the guns, and attach the rest of the gunports (the ones that don't go on the armor). So I marked out locations for the guns and ports using calipers to transfer distances from the plans:

 

Below, testing aft gunports. I used their location to set my drilling location (by the middle of the gunport). Anyone see a problem about to happen? Compare to the photo from @mbp521's log of where these go:

 

Yeah, I set the ports on the wrong side of my location line, so they're much too far inward. They should be sitting outboard of the marking line, not inboard. Oopsie. Didn't notice this until after the holes were drilled and the ports glued on. So I chipped the ports off, filled the old holes with toothpicks and wood glue, and filed smooth. Hopefully they'll fade into the background under paint.

Here's the updated aft casement, also with ladders attached. These castings are pretty rough but I'm not up for trying to rebuild something more to scale.

Below you can see another looming problem. The kit has you drill different hole sizes depending on the size of the gun to be inserted. But some of these are smaller than the gunport opening, leaving extra wood showing behind the port. This will probably look odd since everything behind the port is supposed to be open. I didn't recognize this problem until after everything was glued into place. So I took a sharp knife and tried to carve a "cone" within the gunport to at least set the wood back a little, hoping all the black paint will create a collective shadow effect. It's a bit rough but the best I can do without damaging the brass.

 

If I were to do this over, I'd use a small counter-sink bit or something to widen the mouth of every gun hole before gluing on the ports; this would create a smoother and more authentic negative space behind the ports while not interfering with gluing them on. Oh, well. But since the kit has you glue on the armor before drilling holes, that would require carefully locating all the ports first. Currently instructions have you glue the armor (and associated ports) on before doing any drilling, making the drilling very finicky so you don't catch the brass with the drill bit. You could locate all the gun locations first and drill them all out (so you could countersink everything) but that would require extreme precision on a small rough wood casement, because you can't adjust the armor the way you can adjust individual ports. 

 

Personally I'd rewrite the instructions to do these steps consistently; place your armor in its final position and mark ALL the gun holes, then drill them all before attaching the armor & other ports to the casement (rather than attach armor, drill holes through armor gunports and into raw wood, then attach other ports).

 

Anyway, this is what I got trying to follow the instructions (and making my own dumb mistake). Side ports drilled through armor ports (again, very touchy as the drill size is very close to the opening in the brass):

Fore casement with more holes carefully drilled through armor ports, and another chunky ladder.

Top view:

 

That's as far as I got. I think the next step is to prime and paint this whole assembly; I'm really hoping that subdues the various awkward stuff and helps blend it into a more appealing whole. 

 

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, festive solstice, or whatever your favorite approach is. Thanks for all your interest and support, both in logs and PMs,  as I work through this. I'm stubbornly determined to produce something that'll look ok from 4 feet away in my display cabinet!

 

As a final note, here's the view from Cathead Valley after our bitter winter storm blew through with the coldest December air here since the late 1980s. Luckily we have a well-supplied wood stove, also enjoyed by our current three-legged foster cat.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 24, 2022 by Cathead

[Canute]

Merry Christmas to you and yours, Eric. From a frozen "holler" in the Smokies.

[Cathead]

Hey, Ken, I forget where you are exactly, but my grandparents lived for ~30 years in a cabin they build themselves up in the mountains above Black Mountain. It was a beloved place for me, growing up. Fond memories of Christmases in those mountains.

[Keith Black]

 Merry Christmas 

[mbp521]

Merry Christmas Eric!

 

Sorry for all the heartache you are having with this build. I’m just following along and I get frustrated at the inaccuracies. But, I am so glad that you are pointing them out and finding great solutions to fix them so others that build this kit will be able to make the needed adjustments.
 

You guys, and the rest of you MSW members up north please stay warm through this arctic blast. It’s been in the negative numbers here for wind chills the past couple of days and I am really not ready for it. 

 

-Brian

[mtaylor]

Merry Christmas Eric!  I feel your frustration but the "fixes" to this kit seem to be working very well.

[Canute]

Merry Christmas.

 

Black Mountain is a bit east of Asheville; I'm about a half hour south of Asheville. All mountainous. The Eastern Continental Divide runs through here. Most rivers run off southeast. The French Broad River, about a half mile west of me runs mostly north to the Tennessee River and then the Mississippi.

[Cathead]

Update time! Just a few days later, downright dizzying speed. I did a preliminary round of hull painting, and it definitely makes a difference:

 

You can see the bright wood shining out from within the cannon holes, I need to go back and darken that. I also intend to do some weathering to give more texture to the surfaces. But it does hide faults nicely! Note that I haven't done anything with the decks yet.

 

Also, here's my Christmas haul of model-related items. Top two are the most relevant, bottom left is obvious, and bottom right is research for a possible future project.

 

 

Let's see if I can keep up the progress on this thing. A bit worried about all the tiny fiddly brass bits coming up...

 

 

[Roger Pellett]

Eric,  just catching up on your interesting gunboat project although a little late to the game.  I have found that brass sheet as thick as .010in can be easily cut with a pair of ordinary scissors.  The cheap stamped sheet metal ones work particularly well.

 

Re: your Katy Railroad Christmas present book.  If you look through your riverboat book stash I believe that you will find a set of drawings for a Mississippi River Railroad Car Ferry.  It would make an interesting next project.

 

Roger

[Cathead]

Roger, great to hear from you! I didn't think to try scissors, I assumed anything like that would destroy the brass. Oh, well, something new learned.

 

I've definitely kept a riverboat rail ferry in the back of my head for years. The plans you sent would definitely make a good model, all the elevations and details are there, while I've also always loved a photo I saw somewhere (but can't currently find) of a similar ferry operating on the upper Missouri River, though I wouldn't even know where to begin with that one.

 

The Katy railroad bridged the Missouri River on a fantastic span not far from where I live, first in the 19th century and replacing it in 1930. You can walk out on it today, it's part of a statewide rail trail (though you can't cross the whole span). We visit it regularly as it's such a great vantage point to watch the river.

[Cathead]

Did some preliminary weathering; it's an improvement though I'm not sure I'm done.

 

I don't really like the way the raw wood casement looks (anywhere there isn't armor). It looks like what it is, a sanded slab of wood painted black. This is especially true on the aft casement (third photo). No trace of the planking or structure that should be there. I tried to create a horizontal texture using brush strokes but it doesn't come through. Not sure I care enough to fuss over it, though.

 

Next up is building various small details like skylights and the pilot house.