Dave's corner

[Chuck Doan]

You are getting some terrific interior shots Frederic! Really superb atmosphere.

[Frederic Testard]

Thanks, Russ and Chuck.


Turning now to the left side, I built the frame for the hoist shed - less the roof trusses - the frame of the water tank and the tank itself (to be completed later).



And probably the most intimidating piece for I had never done something like this before.



Here are some pictures showing the way I built the ship.

I had the plan of a HO cannery tender about 6" long, which is close to the space available here. I decided that the proportions would be OK, xeroxed it and cut the shape of the deck. Then I transferred this shape on a balsa plank, and also on a thinner one which I used to make the curved deck of the ship. I cut some holes in this deck and balsa plank for the cabin and the hatch over the cargo place. To make support for the curved deck, I added several pieces of balsa on both ends.



When there was enough height to get a satisfactory curve, I glued the deck on this first layer of balsa.





Two layers later (before trimming and sanding the third layer) :



At that moment, I decided to use 'half layers' so as to leave room for a vertical piece of balsa for the keel. We can see this keel slipped between the two first half-layers. Clearly it's not glued and can be removed for trimming and sanding (and in fact, I changed it later since the shape was not very good).





After installing and sanding to their final shape the last half-layers, here is what we had.





Then came the planking work. Here are two pics.

The siding was made out of white Canson paper (called Strathmore in the US?), cut in strips reasonably equally wide on a chopper. The pic clearly shows the assembly and cutting process.



Planking the deck. It's easier than the sides. The planks are simply glued then trimmed, first roughly with wire cutters, then with a file and some sandpaper.



The deck and the hull were stained with the usual A & I mixture. It gives a pleasant look (and explains why the ship is in a repair area...).



One can see on this pic a small propeller behind the cabin hole. I couldn't find anything this small (less than 0.4" of diameter) in the local hobby store so I scratchbuilt it starting from a sheet of brass first roughly shaped with metal scissors, then finished with files and bent to a plausible profile. After seeing the pic, I felt it was still a bit rough and filed it a little more. I didn't know Dave's little fan details then...



I must say that after seeing how easily the thing was done, I have reconsidered some possible marine projects on the Lake Itasca on my Sn3 layout. There might be some room for paddlewheelers there...

More progress on top of the hull. The outside of the thing was done with a lamination of two layers of canson paper again (there's some compound curvature there, and paper is certainly more willing to follow it than wood). Inside a small piece of stripwood gives some thickness.



After painting, starboard, the bow and the stern. As I mentionned above, I eventually changed the keel. It was too high, and I had forgotten to leave some support for the rudder.







With some rust added.



The scuppers were too small so I enlarged them with a small square file.



Going on with the cargo hatch. It won't be operable, and a few planks make its inside 'core'.





Then this core is covered with more planks. I used some leftovers from the red shed.







Checking the fit.



Making the doors. Not having them operate makes the thing easier. The hinges are cut from canson leftovers.





Below, a plank was added to make the door sturdy enough for drilling.



Adding the bolts. Evergreen 0.020" rod was inserted into a slightly larger hole, cut overlong then glued from the inside with ACC reinforced with micro-balls.





An old technique (which I read many years ago in a Jack Work's article) that I had never tried was used to trim to the same length the heads of the bolts. In a 0.020" thick little bit of styrene, I drilled a 0.032" hole. Then the hole was slipped around the bolt and the styrene plate was used as a thickness jig.





The finished heads.



Paint. A standard job : Polly Scale boxcar red, then weathering with burnt umber and a few chalks, plus some red to touch the ends of the planks.





Next time : the cabin.

[finescalerr]

Now that is an impressive bit of fabrication. Anybody who can shape and plank a hull has my undying admiration. I would simply have asked Doris to do it. -- Russ

[Junior]

This is an extremely well done documentation  with lots of interesting information and well made details. Will defenitely try your way of making paint cans. Is there a link to Big Lars´ oil drums? Great that your´e posting all these pics. Frédéric!

Anders

[chester]

Thanks for the sbs Frederic on a great looking vessel. One comment on the finish however. Wouldn't there be discoloration at and below the waterline? Boats here, in only a short time in the water, acquire a dark greenish black tint to the hull. Longer times in the water lead way to barnacles and scum. (I'm reminded to clean my own filthy hull at this time)

[Frederic Testard]

Russ, I had the same feeling before trying my hand at it. On a simple model like this, it was really an easy job, that by no means could justify asking for the help of Doris, the Sovereign of the Seas.
Thanks for the comment, Anders. Larry's drums have appeared on several occasions on RR-Line forum. There's no specific link, he just cast and sent a couple of them to me and other members of RR-Line as a sign of friendship.
Chester, your comment about the color above and below the waterline is perfectly right. I remember somebody had already told me and I forgot to make it. I'll have to remind to darken the bottom of the hull. Thanks for it.

[Frederic Testard]

Then it was time to build the cabin.

It was built around a core of bristol paper, to be covered on both sides since both will be visible.

At the beginning, it never looks very nice...





Planking the inside gives some sturdiness to the thing. The spaces between some planks will allow the bristol to be folded.



Beginning of the outside planking. The most delicate places are on the sides of the windows since there's really not a lot of paper to fold there. With the added rigidity provided by the plank, it becomes easy.



Done (but not glued).







After sanding, the inside was painted mahogany (Vallejo acrylic). It's a bit luxurious but in this time there were many fishes...



The outside is still to receive its 'coat' of peeling white, following the technique already described for the hull.



It was a pleasant moment.







Trimming of the cabin done, as well as the windows. The ship still lacked a door, a roof and some interior details.







After the addition of these missing details.





The wheel house with the wheel. Since this will be barely visible, I simply added two levers.



The making of the door. The core is a plank of 'samba' wood. Don't know the english name for this one.



A hole was made for the porthole (a 2 mm diameter drilled hole was enlarged then finished with a round file, until the brass porthole fit exactly). Then one of the sides was covered with planks of basswood.



Again, the hole was cut into this planks (X-acto plus file). The process is a bit hard and one of them got unglued but everything was soon OK.



Then, the other side was covered with vertical strips of canson paper, and again the hole was cut into these strips.



Finally, two small strips of paper were glued for the door opening mechanism, they were painted brass (Revell) and on both sides a pin head was inserted (it's a bit delicate since you can't leave a long shank but it wasn't so hard. Inspired by all the madness running in many topics, I decided to add the little metal part that maintains the door closed (sorry, I don't know how to say it in english) [I have since shortened this piece which was a little long, I think, in this first version]. In any case, I also suggested the female counterpart of this male part by painting a little black square on the brass strip I put on the frame. It was really an easy detail to make, and I think it adds a lot to the door.



The inside of the cabin. A first piece of balsa was cut and sanded to fit the wedged shape of the cabin. It was cut wide enough to not reach the front wall of the cabin. Then a second piece was added behind it to increase the thickness. This second one is more narrow and no special effort was made to make it fit exactly between the side walls.



A square strip of wood was added to hold the wheel. Finally, all the visible wood was covered with canson paper, and painted mahogany (Vallejo). Then, the wheel was added as well as two small styrene levers the ends of which were heated with a lighter to give them the characteristic ball form.





And then she was declared done. Well, a number of pieces might still be added due to the work being done on the ship by Dave's crew, but they won't really belong to her.

I had already made a brass propeller. I used a file to give a piece of styrene tubing the ovoidal shape we often see at the end of the propeller axis on real boats.
The rudder was made with a lamination of two pieces of canson paper. The axis is a short length of 0.025" Evergreen rod.

And as you probably have guessed now,  Troels' wife's first name is Anne.







Next time, the cart for carrying the ship out of water, and the finishing of the water tank, and then the remaining topic will be live from the work bench.

[finescalerr]

Satisfactory. -- Russ

[Frederic Testard]

I'm glad you like it, Russ...

[Frederic Testard]

Not a lot to say about the water tank. It's cardboard over a roll of sopalin like paper. The cardboard was painted with acrylics then covered with chalks.

The cradle was built to look like a real one I'd found on Flickr. It's certainly big in this small facility, but I liked the mechanic game with the various pieces of timber.





A shot of the cradle without the ship. I thought I would add more texture to the rusty plates but I'm not sure since they are barely visible. And the whole thing is quite fragile since there is some play to allow for an optimal placement of the vertical supports, and the little wood pieces that maintain the things in their position are not glued (so that if Troels wants to change the boat he could - except if until the moment when I give him the dio, it has dislocated itself so many times that I decide to glue everything... [] ).



A general view. The cradle was installed just near the rails since it rolls quite well and the slope is steep...



To finish with this and make the transition with the next posts that will show the work currently being done, here is the concept for this part of the scene. The Anne arrived the day before for a quite long repair job. The planks and ropes that maintained her while she was hoisted has been removed but left near or on the ship.  The workers have prepared the pieces for the scaffolding they will assemble to help them make the paint job, but for the moment they are just there, leaning against the water tank support. They also started to gather paint, and brought a new, bigger rudder to replace the small initial one. All the detailing implied by this concept is yet to be added to the diorama.

[Frederic Testard]

After a fortnight spent in the mountains of Coloregon on the Sn3 layout, it's time to come back to Maine, and the last bravura piece of the diorama. I have a double source for the hoisting donkey. A while ago, Marc sent me numerous pictures of various brands of donkeys, among which an AH&D one. And I happen to own a copy of  W.M. Harris' "Logging with steam - Steam Logging in the 1880s" in which he lavishly describes how he scratchbuilt a number of 1 1/2 scale models, including an AH&D donkey.





The last picture shows the brown lasercut nuts by VectorCut. The hole of the nut is about 0.024". I made a mistake and installed round washers instead of nuts (I don't have my 20 year old man eyes...). I decided to leave them though, since it is a remote location and changing would probably result into a worse state.







The plans for the drums axes frames and the making of the left ones.



Since I was not very keen on cutting through 0.08" thick styrene, I printed four plans and made two pairs of frames which I finally laminated to get the right thickness. This is definitely not micro-mechanics accuracy but I think it doesn't look too bad.

The four plans were first taped over the 0.04" styrene sheet and the main cutting points were punched through them. Then they were just shifted near the frames to provide some visual reference. The slender extension at the bottom of the frame is a strip of Evergreen I added when everything else was done.





Time to put the lathe in operation to machine the conical part and the stack of the boiler out of a piece of brass. The little cylindrical part in the bottom acts as a pin when I connect the top to the bottom of the hard wood boiler.



And with the wooden bottom (still to be improved...).

[Junior]

Great looking cradle Frédéric! Not much work remains I´ll guess.

Anders

[Frederic Testard]

Well, the donkey will need some attention. There are many small details and some precise fitting.

[finescalerr]

Keep going. I like it. - Russ

[Frederic Testard]

Thanks, Russ. I'll keep.

The frames for the second drum have been done. While I had followed Steve Harris' relatively 'heavy' design for the end frames, I chose to make those lighter according to Marc's drawings. I think they are indeed nicer. The gears engage reasonably, and the mechanism might work... The white marks on the side of the donkey are putty, and the donkey was covered with a styrene 'cap'. I just forgot to push completely the conical top...