US Brig Niagara by Usgecko - Model Shipways

[Usgecko]

Good day!

 

This build log will cover the second wooden model ship I am tackling, after the Drakkar Amati.

Unlike the Drakkar I decided to do a build log of this.

 

Why the Niagara - two reasons:

• My wife is from Erie PA where the reconstructed Niagara can be found, and thought that this should be my next build - who am I to disagree especially as she purchased the kit!
• I like the lines of the ship and it is simpler than other multi deck models out there

 

Pictures of in progress build to follow - I have been working on it for a few weeks now making steady progress as work and other things allow - happy for all comments/suggestions

 

Stuart

[Usgecko]

First I decided to work on the stern boat:

Found some great Dremel attachments to hollow out the bread and butter kit parts - held them up against a light frequently to make sure I didn't go too far in removing material.

 

Used Bondo car filler to smooth out the hull

Decided to use plastic strip for the ribs etc on the inside

 

 

Instructions indicated that the hull of the stern boat was of lapstrake plank and I elected to use thin plastic strip for that - below is painted

 

And the completed stern boat (aside from oars that I will build later)

Edited December 29, 2023 by Usgecko

[Cathead]

I enjoyed visiting this vessel a few years ago, will be fun to see how you make the kit your own. Great work on the boat so far!

[Usgecko]

On to the hull. Following a lot of advice/suggestions/good ideas I have seen on other builds - thanks to all those that have provided logs on the Niagara!

Decided to cut the rabbet before gluing the keel parts together

 

A little filler over the joins. The rabbet may be made a little deeper after I have attached the bulkheads

Edited December 29, 2023 by Usgecko

[Usgecko]

On to attaching the bulkheads. All were shaped, according to the plans, before attaching. Following someone else;s suggestion I had some L shaped aluminum extrusions laying around and I sawed those up to provide a right angle to try to keep the bulkheads square.

 

I also marked the center line of each of the bulkheads to try and get them aligned correctly. Had one misstep which required used of vinegar to soften the wood glue before re-attaching it more precisely.

 

Edited December 29, 2023 by Usgecko

[Usgecko]

Working on bulkheads and shaping the front filler block attached to bulkhead A before attaching this to the hull

 

Plan is to add additional filler blocks between bulkheads B-c and C-D also. These will be from balsa wood sourced from hobby store

Edited January 6 by Usgecko

[Usgecko]

Installed all of the bulkheads

Additional bracing between bulkheads just to keep everything in alignment and remove any flexibility, figured it would also help if I need to make additional adjustments to the edges of the bulkheads to smooth everything out. Also added are the additional fillers between bulkheads B - C and C- D. Hollowed out notches for timbers in the filler in front of bulkhead A

 

 

Next - moving on to the stern where I am going to replace the timbers that everyone says breaks with laminated plastic sheets

Edited January 7 by Usgecko

[mikiek]

Niagara is a great kit to build. Instructions are quite good and mostly understandable. The biggest problem I had was whether to go historical or modern. The MS kit is closer to the current vessel. There's several deck toys that most likely were not on the original. The paint probably would have been different also. I really didn't care for the color scheme suggested by MS.

I would suggest reading up on the situation at that time in history. The story behind Niagara and her sister ship is quite interesting. I had no idea how much of the war was fought on or around the Great Lakes.

Anyways it's an attractive build when completed.

Edited January 8 by mikiek

[Usgecko]

Hi Mikie - appreciate the input. Do you have any suggestions for good readings on the historical background to the Niagara. My initial inclination was to build per the instructions but info on how to backdate it to the original ship would be great to review.

 

Thanks

 

Stuart

[mikiek]

You might check my build log (check signature below). I went back and forth on the question of historical or current.

I went with historical and was very fortunate to have the input from a very informed MSW member. The guy was like an encyclopedia on anything historically nautical. Sadly, he suddenly passed away a few years ago - a huge loss to our community. Unfortunately, no original plans of Niagara are known to exist. So with Joel's help (many of his comments are in my log) we just did our best to understand the time and the circumstances and what/how they would have built the boat(s). For me, that was as intriguing as building the model. The 2 big things we went with were there was likely very few deck items/structures, and the paint job - if indeed there was one at all - would have been quite different than what the MS kit suggests.

Here is one link to a good write up of the overall situation. It's kinda long but it can give you a good overall idea of what transpired. I also have several paperback books that I can recommend ($5-10 on Amazon). I just need to dig them up.

One thing I did do and it's worth considering - The limewood included in my kit was awful. It splintered, feathered and frayed constantly. You will be using that for your decking and planking. I ended up replacing all that with boxwood which is a much harder wood. No regrets there other than some additional costs.

Let me know if you run into any problems. I'll be glad to try and help.

 

Edited January 23 by mikiek

[milosmail]

I second the comments on the wood quality. I had a LOT of trouble trying the construct a ship's boat, as the wood would splinter or otherwise resist making clean shavings when shaping the interior.. I purchased some holly strips to plank the deck, and I made cabins with mahogany. Many other builder have done much more substitution.

I also found the supplied lines to be inadequate. They frayed, unraveled, and broke easily, so I bougt line from Syren Shipmodel Company. I replaced the cleats with wooden ones likewise purchased from Syren (cleats in 1812 were typically made from wood probably to save cost and they were easy to fabricate).  By the way, please note that the kit does not supply nor can you purchase all the sizes recommended on the plans.

Blocks - well, the kit supplied blocks will do the job, and most people would not notice their irregularitites. Syren's blocks are excellent, but to replace all might run $100 or more. By the way, count your blocks. I found I had been shorted one size, but Model Expo shipped me more at no cost.

Guns - The carronades are twice as long as they should be, but repacing them is not easy so I stayed with those in the kit. Gun ports are way too large for a real naval vessel.

As for historical accuracy, as mentioned there is no accurate information available. The current ship has to meet US Coast Guard standards) Hull colors are unknown as existing paintings done at the period are unclear on this. Deck bulwarks of the period were typically red, not green. Cabins - too many for a working naval gun deck. I have left two off. It's been mentioned that they would interfere with the capstan, but I have seen other historically accurate ships with similar configurations - they probably just did not use all 8 capstan bars at once...the current ship undoubtly uses an electric winch for hoisting spars and anchors, so the existing one is for show.

Ships's boats - unlikely it carried 3, and definitely not slung from davits.

Hammock netting - maybe they had it, maybe they didn't. I don't like the way they look, so I left them off my ship.

Rigging - rigging changed constantly at the discretion of the captain and ship's master. Modern rigging of the ship is designed for crew efficiency and safety. So, probably not historically accurate, but looks nice. Even today's ship has changed configuration since the kit was released. See the discussions on adding bumkins to the bow area as done by some modelers.

Binnacle - the ship must have had one (probably stowed below when a battle was being fought), and a recent photo showed one installed over the existing captain's cabin skylight. I am leaving this cabin off, but I did find a very nice and inexpensive scale replica of a binnacle for the period on the Crafty Sailor web site. So, I'm adding that.

History: I found a good article written by Joel B. Sanborn@Dartmouth.edu titled History of Niagra and published in Ships in Scale in the March 18, 2001 edition.

There is also a UTube video about the Niagara and the history of it's actions on lake Erie in 1812 and 1813.

[mikiek]

Good comments Steve!

Yup - Joel was the MSW member that helped me thru this build - an amazing man. On so many levels, I miss him to this day.

Our consensus was that given the immediacy of the situation, only what had to be built was built. Skylights served no purpose in battle (just more splinters flying around). Same with davits and ships boats. Obviously there was at least one boat on Lawrence or Perry could not have transferred to Niagara.

Our other secondary thought was that the boat(s) were built for one battle. If you lost and had to surrender there was no point handing over a perfectly good and repairable vessel. Longevity was not a primary concern hence the use of a lot of green wood for structural parts. This idea has been expressed in several books on the situation.

The Brits seemed to have the same mindset with the boats they built. It was winner take all. There would be no second chance.

No specs on hammocks. There was no room below deck (the only extra deck) for crew to sleep. We surmised they just slept on deck - again realizing that the mission was going to be short-lived - a week or two at most. Not like some ocean going adventure where they might have to live for months.

Joel and I both crafted a binnacle for our builds. Apparently, much of the sailing on the Great Lakes was just sailing a mile or so offshore - within site of land. But there had to be times when a compass was needed. However, where a binnacle would have logically been placed, totally disagrees with the location of the Captains Skylight.

Paint? They were basically in BFE. The only paint around might be what some creative mind could come up with using local materials. Fire Engine Red and Frenches Mustard Yellow would have been a stretch. There are some thoughts that black might have been used - just as many that there was no paint at all. Again alluding to the fact that they needed these vessels quickly and only for one fight. Paint ain't gonna help you in battle.

Because I wasn't good with a plain wood colored hull, I went with black as that would have been the easiest color to create in the given environment.

 

 

Edited January 23 by mikiek

[mikiek]

Stuart - I didn't mean to bogart your log. There is just so much uncertainty about Niagara as she was built and what happened to her. A lot of opinions floating around. This link was just one of many, but it does show (before he passed) Joel's extensive knowledge and also how much debate there is regarding Niagara to this day.

 

I got really overwhelmed with all the possibilities - this was my first build. I just decided to trust Joel's expertise and we schemed on what a historical Niagara might look like.

There are no right or wrong decisions. You can go current with the plans or dig around a bit and come up with your version of historical. Historical was actually easier as there were less deck toys to build.

 

Let us know how things are going....

[Usgecko]

Mike & Steve,

 

Thank you for the comments - food for thought for sure.

Given lack of historical detail I am possibly inclined to build as per instructions maybe with reduced number of cabins - choice of this ship to build was down to my wife being from Erie PA and she is familiar with seeing the Niagara on Lake Erie.

 

Please keep any comments/suggestions coming. I was planning on getting rope from Syren - suspect that will be a hit to the wallet. I want decent rope because it is the rigging stage I am aprehensive about so investing in better quality rope may help!

 

Stuart

[Usgecko]

Next stage of my build - having read that everyone seemed to have issues with the stern timbers breaking I decided to replace these with plastic

 

I photocopied the sheet of wood with the stern timbers on them, then used the photocopy (glued to plastic sheep using white glue) as a template. Needed three cut out from the sheet plastic for each timber. Fun!

 

These are the timbers before final cleaning and tidying up. That was accomplished through frequent comparison to the wooden originals.

 

It seems whenever I start something with this model I start with a larger piece of wood plastic, then many hours later end up with a really big pile of sawdust/wood shavings and a much smaller finished piece!

Edited January 13 by Usgecko

[Srodbro]

Stuart:

Have fun with your Niagara. 
To the references already mentioned, I would add A Signal Victory by David Skaggs and Gerard Altoff. I found the descriptions of obtaining materials and building the ships at such a remote frontier location to be fascinating. 
When I was building My version I  found such animosity on line about unverifiable historical details that I decided to name my model the Lawrence to avoid contrary comments. 
Seems much surrounding these ships involved contrariness. Perry named his flag ship Lawrence, after his friend who died with the final words “ Don’t give up the ship”, which Perry emblazoned on a banner….and then promptly did just that, when he transferred from Lawrence to Niagara!

Anyway, enjoy your project. 

[Usgecko]

Steve,

 

thanks for the suggestions.

 

so sorry to hear you were bludgeoned on your build by the “experts”. I have experienced this when I was building a Titanic model. One or two of the individuals who did have a high level of knowledge were completely obnoxious. Rather than sharing their knowledge they wanted to make sure that other less knowledgeable builders were aware that they were uninformed and wrong. Very sad but that’s one of the downsides of Internet forums. The majority of people are great but there is a small group of keyboard “warriors” display a level of rudeness they would likely not do face to face. 

I have not experienced such issues on this forum!

 

Cheers - Stuart

Edited January 19 by Usgecko

[mikiek]

Stuart - you will get varying opinions and experiences here, but at least they are given with good intentions.

[Usgecko]

On to fitment of the stern timbers - the plastic sheet replacements for the wooden ones (because I knew I would break them!

 

After attaching the two horn timbers I attached the filler blocks at the stern. These took a great deal of shaping, and may still require some hand sanding after fitting. I wanted to attach these so I had a better chance of getting the remaining stern timbers attached to align the the horn timbers

 

Edited January 20 by Usgecko

[Usgecko]

Got the corner fillers in

[mikiek]

Looking good Stuart! Keep on rocking.

 

I did want to make a comment on what was said a few posts back. You are going to find that in almost every build, the kit supplied ropes and blocks pretty much suck.

Next for full disclosure, I have no connection with Syren. That said, their ropes and blocks will take your final build up at least a couple of levels.

What I have learned, is that in addition to the cost of the kit, I need to be prepared for at least an extra $200 in kit bashing parts & pieces. Maybe even more if I replace some or all of the wood.

 

One of those gotchas no one made you aware of when you dived in 😉. We all have found out the hard way. But IMO, it was money well spent.

[Usgecko]

Mike appreciate the comments.

 

i have mentally accepted that I will need to get better ropes and blocks and Syren seems to be the best place to get them.

 

do you by any chance recall how much of whatever types of rope/blocks you got from them?

[Usgecko]

Next on the list - attaching the waterway and planksheer. Some of the slots for attaching the planksheer did need widening as others have noted.

 

Edited February 4 by Usgecko

[Usgecko]

wrapped up the knightsheads and top stiffner

first made sure the stiffners were snug to what will be the bowsprit

 

 

 

 

Also worked o n the stern framing. Th plans didn't quick make sense to me and seemed more complicated than they need be for the quarter stanchions. Instead I decided to cut a piece of boxwood to the required shape and attached this to the horn timbers and the spacers blocks.

 

Edited February 11 by Usgecko

[Usgecko]

Some tidying up of space between waterways and bulkheads and 3/32 square section rail attached to top of bulkhead (seen in previous builds for reason of height needed fro cannon ports

 

Next step - framing of cannon ports

Edited February 11 by Usgecko

[abelson]

Nice work on your Niagara. I haven't seen plastic used in other build logs. The use of plastic seems counterintuitive to wood ship building. I hope plastics don't creep into wood ship models.

[Cathead]

Seems to me the builder is free to use whatever methods he feels most comfortable with, unless he's aiming for a specific contest standard. And I don't see any functional problem with his choices that would require warning or criticism (as opposed to, say, using wood glue to bond metal parts or something, which actually might require a gentle nudge of advice).

 

And plastic is already becoming quite common through the use of 3D printed parts. There are fair perspectives for and against this, but it seems a touch rude to  imply that the builder here is somehow diminishing wooden ship modeling by using a few plastic parts for clearly explained reasons, especially in a thread where the builder and others have already shared stories of overly critical commenters demeaning their work.

[Usgecko]

On 2/12/2024 at 10:37 AM, abelson said:

Nice work on your Niagara. I haven't seen plastic used in other build logs. The use of plastic seems counterintuitive to wood ship building. I hope plastics don't creep into wood ship models.

Thanks for the comment Abelson. 
I will be honest that if I had the equipment to cut the stern timbers out of hardwood, to replace the plywood that comes with the kit, I would have.

As it is I was not willing to suffer the inevitable breakage of these parts as seems to afflict those that have posted their Niagara building logs in the past. The effect of trying to re-glue these parts, ensuring they were precisely aligned etc. and hoping they didn’t break again just didn’t make sense to me.

Fabricating the parts in plastic was not simple and will in this case be covered by wood as construction progresses and it is something that I am personally ok with for my build.

The question of use of parts other than wood in a wooden ship I will leave to others to debate.

it is an interesting question however in the context of wooden ships. Would it imply that someone who scratch builds everything from wood they have cut from the tree more of a builder than someone who assembles laser cut wooden parts from a kit? Does it really matter in any case as the goal is got self satisfaction through completing the building process. Does someone who has a lathe and electric saw to fabricate parts and turn square dowels into masts deserve less regard than those that only use hand tools.

i would note that those who have the capability, and not inexpensive tools, to complete a scratch build deserve real respect for their skills.

 

Thanks

 

Stuart

 

 

[Usgecko]

Framing for the gun and sweep ports completed, along with a lot of sanding to ensure a level fit for when planking gets attached

 

[Usgecko]

After framing the gun and sweep ports I found there was a gap between the plank sheer where the gun ports were and the edge of the frames. Filled this in with some thin bits of wood then sanded to ensure smoother fit once the first two hull planks were attached. you can see the result below on the outside edges of the cannon ports.

 

Edited March 10 by Usgecko