Civil War Picket Boat by rafine - FINISHED - Model Shipways

[rafine]

The steam plant consists of the boiler, engine, condenser and hot well. The boiler was covered in my prior post. I've now done the remainder. I first did the condenser and hot well. These were simple and straight forward. The condenser was made from dowel, laser cut wood and piping components ( cast els, tubing and etched brass).  The well is laser cut wood with piping components. The wood parts were painted with Pollyscale depot green. These items are shown in the first attached photo.

 

I then moved on to the engine. This is a very intricate piece of work, which was made a whole lot easier by the really nice laser cut and etched brass parts and the detailed and very clear step by step drawings in the plans. Congrats to Bob Crane, the kit designer, and Model Expo for a job well done. Although I generally like to scratch build detail items like this, I would have been hard pressed to duplicate the kit parts or to produce a finished product as good as that made from the kit parts. I am attaching a series of photos that follow the construction sequence. As shown in the photos, all of the component parts were painted prior to assembly. I won't install the steam plant until a little later in the construction process. 

 

The gun will be next.

 

Bob

 

 

[Jim Lad]

Crikey, mate, it looks like that engine would actually operate with a little steam injected!

 

John

[russ]

That is a nice looking assembly. I agree with John. It looks like it might actually work.

 

Russ

[augie]

Nicely constructed and finished!

[WackoWolf]

The engine came out beautiful mate. Keep the post and pictures coming.

[rafine]

Thanks, as always, guys.

 

Russ and John.: It actually did have movement of the parts until I glued it to prevent my playing with it until it broke.

 

Bob

[gjdale]

Very nice work on the engine there Bob. I agree with others - it looks like it could be a working engine!

[j21896]

Looks like 1:1 scale work Bob!  Very nice.

 

Robert

[rafine]

Thanks very much, Grant and Robert.

[Timothy Wood]

I have to say, I'm really enjoy watching your progress, you do outstanding work.  As the others have commented before me, she looks like she could be the REAL thing.

 

Cheers,

 

Tim

[rafine]

Thanks so much, Tim. As I've said before, a lot of the credit should go to the kit design and the kit parts.

 

Bob

[Ryland Craze]

Bob, I am enjoying this build as I have a lot of interest in the Civil War.  Because of your build, I purchased this kit and have it on the shelf to build.  I hope to get to it in the near future, but I will continue to learn from your build.

[rafine]

Thanks, Ryland. I think that you will enjoy the kit. 

 

The gun is now assembled and mounted. It consists of a cast metal barrel, laser cut wood parts and more of the nice photoetched brass parts. To these, I added bolts and bolt heads as required, as well as ring bolts.  All of the metal parts were painted, rather than blackened. After mounting, I decided to add rigging to the gun. Although the plans do not show it and I couldn't find anything definitive to support it, it just seemed logical that there would be some rigging to help maneuver the gun. The ringbolts shown on the plans also seemed to suggest that something would be hooked to them. I chose blocks and line that seemed appropriate in size.

 

The gun rigging issue also got me thinking about whether this vessel would be carrying an anchor, and if so, what kind and size. Again, none is shown on the plans. I'd appreciate any info or thoughts that anyone might have.

 

I'm now beginning the last major assembly on the model, the spar torpedo and its mounting and rigging.

 

Bob

[augie]

Gun is very nicely done and rigging for it looks appropriate.  Good choice on painting there.

 

Hope someone with knowledge chimes in on the anchor.  I can't imagine she wouldn't have one.  But where would it go??

 

Very crisp, Bob.

[Jim Lad]

Nicely finished gun, Bob.  Can I ask the purpose of the metal plate with the hole in it at the after end of the mount?

 

As for the anchor, a small Admiralty pattern anchor with a folding stock could be tucked away in pretty much any spare corner - maybe against the side on one of the benches, or even on the bottom of the well.

 

John

[gjdale]

Very nicely done Bob. I have no idea as to correctness of the gun rigging, but it looks good and seems appropriate. I agree that an anchor would also be expected.

[mtaylor]

Nicely finished gun, Bob.  Can I ask the purpose of the metal plate with the hole in it at the after end of the mount?

 

As for the anchor, a small Admiralty pattern anchor with a folding stock could be tucked away in pretty much any spare corner - maybe against the side on one of the benches, or even on the bottom of the well.

 

John

 

 

John,

That's for the rear pivit pin.  The gun could be rotated and then pinned at either the front or the back.

[mtaylor]

Bob,

Excellent work on the gun and the rigging. I think there should have been another set of tackles to return the slide forward to firing position.  Probalby rings on the slide and two more near the front of the base.

[rafine]

Many thanks, guys for both the kind words and the help.

 

John: I think that Mark is basically right about the rear plate. What would an appropriate size be for the anchor?

 

Mark: Thanks for the answer to John. As to the gun rigging, I did some further research about Dahlgren howitzers (the gun on this vessel) and can't find any indication that there would be a tackle on the slide. In fact, I'm even questioning my decision on the tackles that I added.

 

Bob

[mtaylor]

Bob,

I thnk you're right about the slide tackle.  I didn't realize it was a howitzer. My bad.    As for the tackles you added, they seem appropriate to be used for training and also securing the gun.  I did some research into these early on during my Constellaton as they were used in the ship's boats and by Marine landing parties and then promptly mentally spaced the info..

[Jim Lad]

Bob,

 

For a launch like yours, an Admiralty pattern of about 3 feet to 3 feet 6 inches length would probably be about right.

 

John

[rafine]

Thanks, John. That's very helpful..

 

Bob

[rafine]

I've now made and installed the spar torpedo. The first order of business was to make and install the two supports for the torpedo. These were made from photoetched brass parts that were bolted together and then bolted to the hull.Next, I made the torpedo. This was done using two sizes of dowel, etched brass, paper bands and some eyebolts. The torpedo was then mounted on the supports with a lashing aft and a brass cap on the fore support. Finally, I rigged the torpedo in accordance with the plans and photos of the prototype model. The rigging is somewhat problematic, since there seems to be very little information on it or precisely how the torpedo was released and detonated.

 

I will be completing the model by making an anchor, doing the mast and installing the steam plant components.

 

Bob

[gjdale]

Nice crisp work there Bob - looking great!

[russ]

Nice work on the torpedo. No one would ever guess all that went into making it. It looks very good.

 

This kit must have a good deal of photo etched material. That really makes a difference in a kit.

 

Russ

[rafine]

Thanks, Grant and Russ.

 

Russ, the very nice and extensive photoetching is one of the real strengths of this kit.

 

Bob

[augie]

Nice job Bob ---- as usual. 

 

Reminds me of Kate Hepburn's line ..... 'Can you make a torpedo, Mr. Allnut?'

[mtaylor]

Bob,

As I recall they weren't released but detonated on impact.  There are some plans for the ones that were screwed into the ships hull and then the fuse was set but coppered hulls put a stop to that.  I'd think running up a ship and detonating it would have been more than exciting to the crew of the picket boat.  Possibly fatal.

[st george]

Great build Bob. I don't know how I missed it before.

 

David

[Old Sea Dog]

Very nice work.