USCG Harriet Lane by _SalD_ - Model Shipways - 1:96

[rcmdrvr]

My Harriet Lane just arrived.  It will be my next project.  I will be following your build carefully.

[_SalD_]

20 hours ago, Jack12477 said:

 Nice job Sal, looks good and it covers the overspray

Thanks Jack, and the plating will cover a few dents in the hull as well. 😉

[_SalD_]

20 hours ago, rcmdrvr said:

My Harriet Lane just arrived.  It will be my next project.  I will be following your build carefully.

Thanks for following rcmdrvr, it's a nice little kit and I'm sure you will enjoy it.

[_SalD_]

Coppering continuing: almost finished.

Interesting and I'm not sure why this is happening but within a week of coppering the starboard side it started to tarnish. I've coppered this ship exactly the same way as I've done my other ships and have never seen this happen.  In fact the copper plates on my Syren are still pretty much in the same condition as when they were installed.  The only thing I can think of and I'm just guessing is that we are right across the street from the gulf and maybe it's the salt in the air.

 

 

 

[_SalD_]

Finishing up the copper plating:

Complete except for the dressing belt.

 

Dressing belt added.

 

Rudder finished

 

Dry fitting the rudder

 

 

 

[rcmdrvr]

Are you using any other adhesive other than the backing on the copper tape?  Will you put anything over the copper to seal?  Your copper taping is quite striking.  

[_SalD_]

Thanks rcmdrvr.  I find that the adhesive on the back of the tape is sufficient to hold it in place and don't use any additional glue.  I use a wallpaper seam rolled to press the tape down after it's set in place.  I personally have not sealed the copper plating on any of my ships and it seems to hold up well.  I know other people who do, so I think it's a matter of personal taste to seal or not to seal.  One thing you do have to be careful of is to not touch the copper with your bare fingers, fingerprints are very noticeable.  I always use latex gloves while putting the copper on and then try not to touch the bottom of the hull while doing other parts of the ship.

[bobandlucy]

Looks good, Sal. This is the first plating I've seen without the nail marks on the tape. To me it is more convincing without, and easier on the eyes. . .

 

What is a "wallpaper seam rolled"? Thanks

 

Bob

[_SalD_]

Thanks Bob. I agree with you at this scale they would be too much.

 

On 4/9/2023 at 11:18 AM, bobandlucy said:

What is a "wallpaper seam rolled"?

The seam roller. If you look at my post #29, the first photograph, the little tool, upper right side with the wooden handle is the seam roller.

[_SalD_]

Paddle box lower sections:

The lower paddle box sections are made up of two forming pieces separated by a spacer.  Assembling these pieces is pretty straight forward, you just need to pay close attention to their correct orientation.

 

Spacer glued in place.

 

Glued the second forming piece to the spacer.  Only thing I had to keep them lined up and vertical was my mini miter box.

 

The wrapping pieces were centered and glued to the front of the paddle boxes.  After the glue dried I used my wife's 'plank bender' to steam and bend the pieces to fit around the sides of the paddle boxes. 

Wrapping pieces were then glued to the sides of the paddle boxes and held in place with rubber bands.

 

Sponson deck sections:

While I was working on the paddle boxes sections I also glued the two sponson decks together.  I wasn't quite sure which square holes to use to align these pieces as called for in the instructions because none of them seemed to line up properly.  What I used was the small round hole at the end of the pieces that seemed to position the pieces in their correct orientation relative to each other.  Used a drill bit for the alignment pin.

 

 

 

[rcmdrvr]

I like the look of your coppered hull but I also like the look of the painted hull that is on the cover of the box.  I am not sure if I want to follow in your footsteps and copper the hull or paint........decisions, decisions, decisions.  I am following your build as you are doing a great job as a guide; keep up the good work!

[_SalD_]

Thanks again rcmdrvr for the kind words.  The reason I coppered the hull was, first, I find it enjoyable and second, if you believe it, I find it easier than painting.  It's just a matter of personal taste.

[_SalD_]

Paddle box upper sections and Water closets:

The upper paddle boxes and water closets were assembled using the mini-miter box again to keep the pieces square.

 

 

The paddle box covers were shaped and glued.  Covers were shaped to fit using the stream iron after the top end was glued to the paddle box frame.  The water closet sections were glued together and sanded as per the instructions using my favorite sanding tool.  The sander works well you just need to be careful and not be too aggressive.  I use 240 girt paper

 

 

Pieces dry fit together.

 

 

My wife and I, and dog, will be driving back up to Connecticut for the summer soon, so this will be my last post for a while.  Once there it shouldn’t take too long to get posting again.

 

[rcmdrvr]

Have a safe drive back to Connecticut.  In a week or so my wife and I will be leaving on our Spring RV trip.  Just waiting for temperatures up north to moderate a bit.  Will be on the road 7 or 8 weeks.  

[_SalD_]

The rudder

I decided to go back a few steps and install the rudder on the ship.  I also decided that in lieu of using paper strips for the pintles and gudgeons as called for in the instructions, I would make my own.

 

I started by cutting some 1/16” wide brass strips to a length that I scaled off the drawing shown in my post #29.  To those strips I soldered pieces of 1/16” diameter brass tubing.

 

The pintles were bent to fit around the rudder and the gudgeons were bent to fit the hull.  Pins were glued into the pintle tubing to complete the hinge.  The pieces were then blacken.

 

The rudder had to be reworked by cutting in notches to made room for the hinge assemblies. 

 

The rudder was installed by gluing the pintles and gudgeons to the rudder and hull.  I also added a false keel to provide protection for the copper plating.

[rcmdrvr]

Those look really great!

[_SalD_]

Moving right along,  I started to assemble the lower paddle wheels.  First the paddle wheel spokes were glued into the lower paddle box and then the paddles were fitted in-between.

The curved skirt around the edge of the sponson was then attached.  The straight portion of the skirt was glued first and then after it dried the ends were wetted and bent to fit to the curved edges.

 

The photo etched front of the upper paddle box was glued in place using ac glue.  Then I opted to add the decorative moldings to the inside edges of the paddle boxes.

To help keep the lower paddle boxes in position while the sponson support struts were glued in place I screwed a temporary support to the bulkhead support pieces.

 

The lower paddle wheel assemblies were dry fitted in position and the struts were added.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[_SalD_]

After fitting the lower paddle wheel sections in place they were removed from the ship and painted along with the upper paddle wheel enclosures.

In between coats of paint I started to work on the support stand.  One issue I had while assembling the stand was that the guide marks etched into the parts used for aligning the pieces were a little off.  I also decided that I was going to use copper tubing to support the ship instead of the 1/8" diameter dowel called for. I plugged the holes in the stand with pieces of dowel and redrilled for 3/32" dia. tubing.

The britiannia metal eagle figure head was cleaned up and painted, then glued to the underside of the beakhead..

I thought I would add a little 'bling' to the ship so I download a 3D eagle emblem and had my daughter's fiancé ( who has a 3D printer) print out two eagles for me.  At this scale there isn't a lot of detail but they were fine. 

After cleaning and painting them they were glued in place on the upper paddle wheel covers.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rcmdrvr]

I really like the eagles.

[_SalD_]

The Deck

Since the deck comes in two pieces instead of individual planks I decided to embellish it a bit by scribing the pieces to simulate planking.  I used the same procedure that I used on my pilot boat build where the deck pieces were given four coats of polyurethane and then scored with a steel point.  The deck was then painted with an acrylic paint and wiped off also most immediately.  Prior to the scribing the deck pieces they were dry fitted in place to insure they fit.  After having a little difficulty fitting the deck in beneath the spirketting board the one thing I would do differently is not install it until after the deck is in place.  The only reason I can see why you would install it before the deck goes in is so it can be painted.  For the planking layout I decided to use a 10" wide plank with a three butt shift. I then drew up a scaled representation of what the deck would look like.

Each deck half was taped down adjacent to the deck layout and scribed.

Both halves scribed.

Paint applied and wiped off.

The decking was then glued in place.

I also finished the base and mounted ship.

 

 

 

[rcmdrvr]

Very much like your deck.  Hope you can build your deck structures to cover the location scribes.  I was only simi successful.

[_SalD_]

Thanks rcmdrvr.  I've started placing some of the forward deck pieces onto the deck and the scribed deck is making the location scribes a little less noticeable.

[_SalD_]

Populating the deck:

The inner hawse pieces, the bowsprit step, the catheads and windlass assembly were all installed as per the instructions.  I added a few extra details to the windlass assembly not included with the kit including a crossover bar with handles, the purchase rods and a pawl.  I know the handles are usually stored but I just decided to show them on this ship (or until they get broken off).   

Companion way A was assembled and added to the deck.

 

Fore mast bitts:

After assembling the pieces of the fore mast bitts an before painting I filled the holes with pieces of wire to keep them from getting filled with paint. 

Finally the upper paddle unit was glued in place.

 

[druxey]

Nice neat work, Sal!

[rcmdrvr]

SalD.  Soon you will be building the cannon structures.   I have not posted my cannons yet (I am travelling) I swear that the cannons are too big for the carriages.  I had to do alot of work on the carriages to get the cannons to point out the ports.  Take it slow and test fit over and over.  I also spent a few hours with a jewelers file to get the barrels ready for painting.  Good Luck!

[_SalD_]

20 hours ago, druxey said:

Nice neat work, Sal!

Thanks druxey, appreciate the feedback.

 

9 hours ago, rcmdrvr said:

Take it slow and test fit over and over.

Thanks for the heads up rcmdrvr.  I'm working on the cabin and pilothouse now and starting to understand your frustrations. 

[_SalD_]

Cabin & pilothouse:

I started the cabin and pilothouse assembly following the instruction booklet but after gluing a few of the wall sections to the base I found that they just didn't fit the base correctly.  The wall sections were too short.  Good, bad, right or wrong, I chose to I disassembled what I had done and to then glue all the wall sections together first and then adjust the base to fit.

Completed cabin and pilothouse

Although I did not have a problem with the Photo-Etched pilothouse window frames fitting I did have an issue with the cardstock panel that wraps around the exterior of pilothouse.  In the second photo down you can see that the door and the first window cutout do not match up with the wood cutout underneath.  My fix was to cut the door off right at the window frame opening and move it back. I also removed the first window mullion and moved that back also.  I then fill the gaps with small pieces of wood.  I did this on both sides of the pilothouse.

 

 

Cardstock door and window relocated.

 

[druxey]

Well adjusted, Sal!

[rcmdrvr]

Great job on your cabin and pilothouse.  Wish mine had turned out as well.  I don't understand why your photo etch fit so well.  I must have really screwed something up in the assembly of the basic structures.

[_SalD_]

20 hours ago, druxey said:

Well adjusted, Sal!

Thanks druxey. I'm assuming you're talking about the boat because I'm far from well adjusted. 😁😉

 

15 hours ago, rcmdrvr said:

Great job on your cabin and pilothouse.....I don't understand why your photo etch fit so well.

Thanks rcmdrvr.  The fit may have had something to do with me building the walls first.  I had to modify the base quite a bit to make it fit.  The outer card layer didn't fit to well though.

 

 

Thanks to everyone also for all the likes.