Paddleducks
General => Introduce Yourself => Topic started by: John Davies on February 14, 2015, 09:07:10 PM
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Hello, I'm John, from Selly Oak in Birmingham, UK.
I've had a long time fascination with paddle steamers, possibly due to going over to the Isle of Wight on the old 'Ryde Queen' as a small child, and memories of a short lived TV series, 'Riverboat'. To me the Victorian and Edwardian ones which plied the European and British waterways were very, very graceful, elegant looking ships.
Modelling so far - Schrieber-Bogen 'Dresden' - a lovely kit which repays careful work. Similarly I built the Deutscheschiffahrtsmuseum card kit of the Kronprinz Wilhelm, converting it from a waterline to a full hull model and am currently working on the Rigi kit which is available on some websites.
This is a nice little model, which repays a lot of extra work. Basic details of what I've done so far are :
Reinforce the hull with thicker card, particularly inside the lower bottom corners. Seal it, inside and out with polyurethane varnish and then sand off the angular corners. (The stern, sadly, isn't so easy to do.)
Punch portholes out with a leather punch and glaze.
Cut the paddle wheels out and mount on a new wooden shaft of more scale size. Make wooden bearing blocks for shaft.
Add the chain pulleys, ropes and guide tubes for tensioning the hull. - American steamers had a 'hog's back' for the same purpose; what was this European arrangement called?
Scribe the deck planking.
Generally reinforce upperworks and cut out all windows, panels etc...........
And I'd better warn you, she eats a large number of cereal packets while you're doing all this..........
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Hello John
I am curious about the arrangement for tensioning the hull? Do you mean the steering gear added when Rigi gained a wheelhouse?
All the best
Brian Gates
Gillingham