Steam Schooner Wapama 1915 by Paul Le Wol - Scale 1/71 - From Plans Drawn By Don Birkholtz Sr.

[Paul Le Wol]

 

 

This will be a waterline model of SS Wapama, built by Kaiser Shipyard #3 in Richmond California and launched in 1915. She plied the waters of America’s Pacific Northwest bringing lumber from the mills to markets in California. Passengers and general goods were also transported. I am using the Historic American Engineering Record drawings from the Library of Congress website. These drawings are scans of drawings produced by Don Birkholtz Sr. of Tri-Coastal Marine for the National Park Service. The TIF files were downloaded and opened in an old version of Adobe Elements. They were then cropped and converted to high quality PDFs. The PDFs were opened in a free version of Foxit reader and printed using the tile function. Lots of cutting and taping together. I wanted to use my 36” build board so the drawings ended up being 1/71 scale which results in a model approximately 36.5” LOA and because it is waterline, it will be about 17’ high. I had a very difficult time trying to source basswood plywood locally so I ordered 1/16” and 1/8” basswood plywood from Amazon that come in 12’ x 12” sheets. The 1/8” sheets were 7/64” x 11.75” x 11.75”. Overall it is of good quality. The bulkhead former is made from two layers of plywood and one layer of 1/32” basswood sheet which results in a thickness of 1/4”. The non-destructive tracing method was used to trace the plans onto the plywood. An awl was poked through the drawing and the resulting holes were joined together with a ruler and pencil. 
 

 

 

I’m using a retractable knife with the 1” black blades to cut the plywood so eight pieces of plywood were cut and then glued together.

 

 

 

 

Notches for the masts and Samson post were cut into the former and then 1/16’  plywood spacers were glued on each side to register where the bulkhead sit . They also box in the slots for the masts and post.

 

 

 

 

 

After cutting the plywood with the knife I used the Ultimation sander to square up the sides.

 

 

Here is the former ready for the bulkheads to be attached.

 

 

 

Next will be prepping the board for mounting the former. Hope to see you then.

 

Edited Wednesday at 07:33 PM by Paul Le Wol
Too many photos

[vossiewulf]

Good luck on the build Paul!

[Paul Le Wol]

28 minutes ago, vossiewulf said:

Good luck on the build Paul!

Thank you for your support vossiewulf. It will be needed!

[ccoyle]

Here's some inspiration for you, Paul. This model is on display at the Channel Islands Maritime Museum. Steam schooners played a significant part in the history of Northern California's timber trade before modern roads made the transport of sawn lumber by truck more economical.

 

[Paul Le Wol]

Thank you Chris, @ccoyle, I’ll be looking at that photo a lot.

Edited Wednesday at 08:56 PM by Paul Le Wol

[JacquesCousteau]

Very interesting choice of a build, I'm looking forward to following along! I'm sure it will make for a great (and very large!) model. It looks like you've made a good start with the former.

[Paul Le Wol]

4 minutes ago, JacquesCousteau said:

Very interesting choice of a build, I'm looking forward to following along! I'm sure it will make for a great (and very large!) model. It looks like you've made a good start with the former.

Thank you Jacques, it is kind of up-sized but I have a 40” wide display cabinet that needed filling 😀

[Dr PR]

Paul,

 

The Wapama was one of my favorite museum ships. I visited it a couple of times back in the 1970s. I loved the interior woodworking, the spiral staircase to the passengers quarters, and the Captains cabin decorations. It was very interesting to go below into the engine room and get a close up look at the triple expansion steam engine.

 

It was a crime for the National Parks Service to let it rot away!

 

I am glad you are making this model. I have considered making one myself - for some time down the road.

[Paul Le Wol]

Hi Phil, thank you for sharing your memories. She must have been a sight to behold. 

[FriedClams]

Congratulations on starting a new project, Paul.  This is an interesting and eye-catching subject and I look forward to watching you bring her to life.  I haven't taken a look at the HAER plans for this vessel, but typically they are rather complete, and I hope they don't leave you having to guess at too much.  At 36" and with such a complicated pilothouse/quarters structure this strikes me as an ambitious project.  I'm pulling up a chair and wishing you the best of luck.  I know this is going to be a fantastic model!

 

Gary

[Paul Le Wol]

Hi Gary, thank you very much. The HAER drawings, photos, and documentation are incredible and don’t leave much to the imagination. When you download the TIFFs and convert them they turn out very clean and clear. Hopefully this will become a reasonable facsimile of Wapama.