Irish Royal Mail Steamer Connaught build

[Eddy Matthews]

Can you just clarify something Stuart?

So the horizontal plates are made from masking tape, and the vertical plates are made from watercolour card? Yes?

Is so, why the two different materials? Wouldn't masking tape have been a lot easier?

Regards
Eddy

[Stuart Badger]

Sorry 'bout that all!
The masking tape was placed on the hull to mask off the areas to be covered with contact adhesive. I first marked the watercolour paper into 19mm strips (the scale width of the plating - and also the width of the masking tape, lucky!). I then laid the first (narrower) 15mm line of plating in the paper down from the bulwarks to just over the portholes. Then I laid four strips of masking tape 19mm apart - the first strip butting up against the first strip of paper, then a 19mm gap, another row of masking tape etc.

The next step was to coat the both EXPOSED areas of the hull and the marked paper with contact adhesive. When this was dry I cut the strips of paper from the glued sheet and stuck them in the GAP between the rows of masking tape. I rolled them down with a rubber ink roller and when they were fixed I removed the masking tape from between the strips of paper leaving a clean, unglued hull between the rows of paper 'plates'. I hope that's clear and sorry for the confusion!

All the best

Stuart

[Eddy Matthews]

Thanks Stuart,

That's cleared up my confusion It doesn't take a lot to confuse these addled braincells nowadays!

Eddy

[Stuart Badger]

Hi PDs!

I have reached that stage of the build where I AM doing quite a lot - but it won't show results until later. Tomorrow the hull gets turned over for the final fettle and first paint.
My beautiful assistant asked me today what it would all look like when it was finished! So I thought I'd have a bit of fun and put all the bits together roughly - useful as it turned out for working out where to make decks removable etc. Anyway - just for fun here's the bits 'loosely' together. Bear in mind that nothing has been aligned or measured in these shots!

All the best

Stuart

[Eddy Matthews]

It's looking absolutely magnificent Stuart, I can't wait to see it all come together....  The downside is that it's too damned good to put in the water!!

Regards
Eddy

[Philip]

WOWSA !

Nicely Done!

Philip

[Stuart Badger]

Hi PDs
and thanks Eddy and Phillip
I had been looking at the hull in preparation for the painting and something about the portholes didn't look quite right to me. I checked Mick's photos and the drawings again and sure enough each portliight has a thin bezel around it.
I made these by drilling a piece of 12mm PVC rod with a 10mm drill in the lathe - thus making a piece of 1mm walled PVC pipe which I sliced into 1.5mm rings (see first photo) I then glued these over the portholes in the hull. The next job was to make the Hawsepipes which I made from a piece of 19mm brass tube angled to suit the hull with a bezel of brass soldered on to form the cast end of the pipe (2nd photo).
This work finally enabled me to get a coat of paint on the hull and fit the unglazed portholes. I hope you can see in the picture of the portholes how the watercolour paper has given an 'iron plate' look to the hull. Ah well, tomorrow I have to glaze 60 portholes - but I am NOT making 60 sets of curtains!

All the best

Stuart

[mjt60a]

That works really well as the 'iron' texture

[Stuart Badger]

Hi PDs!
Thanks for the comment Mick.
Yesterday and this morning I spent working on the stern area of Connaught having decided to mount the rear deck and houses. You may be interested in the method of deck construction as it’s very light – ideal for Paddlers! I use photo-mounting foamboard as the sub-deck. This is fairly stiff foam about 3mm thick sandwiched between 2 layers of paper. It is rigid, VERY strong for its weight and cuts beautifully. I hope the sequence of photos explains the process.
The first step is to cut the board roughly to the shape of the area to be decked. The foamboard is laid in place and scribed around with a pair of compasses to give the correct size for the deck, allowing for the width of the waterway. A centre line is marked and I then positioned the deckhouses accurately and marked their locations. Then I turned the board over and, again using the compasses scribed the width of the supporting side deck beams.
The deck was then planked (right way up) in the same way as described earlier avoiding the spaces for the cabins etc. Before doing anything else the deck was given 2 coats of varnish – this is an essential part of the operation as the planking needs to be absolutely secure for the next processes, First I cut out the holes for the deck houses. Then, turning the deck over I cut through the foamboard down to the level of the planking along the line I had previously scribed. Then I made a horizontal cut along the outside edge of the board at the point at which the planking is glued to the foamboard and removed this strip. What you are left with is a deck rigid enough not to need a ply base with only the thickness of the planking at the edges (about 1mm after sanding). Because it overlaps the deck support you don’t need to spend hours getting the deck an exact fit into a strange shaped space either!
As the deck accommodation is quite large I am going to glue the deck in place and remove the cabins for access. I will put the camber on the deck simply by gluing a slightly arced strip of ply across the deck underneath. The foamboard takes a curve very easily and is not springy – so minimum support is needed.
I have included some shots of the assembled deck. And it would appear that one of the Directors of the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company is inspecting the unfinished vessel!

All the best

Stuart

[Eddy Matthews]

it would appear that one of the Directors of the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company is inspecting the unfinished vessel!

Strange, I didn't know Isambard Kingdom Brunel had anything to do with the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company! That stove pipe hat is a dead give-away!

The deck looks fantastic with it's deckhouses in place. We must be getting close to having the drive system fitted now?

Regards
Eddy

[Stuart Badger]

Hi Eddy!

I am going to complete the stern - so that's the grating and cover for the steering gear, cut out for the mooring bollards, build and fit the side benches and THEN I shall start on the humpy whirly round bit in the middle! I fancy using a doubled up version of the chain drive I used on Old Trafford. The drive is going to have to be a two step reduction because there is no room for a reasonably sized sprocket or gear on the paddle shaft - and I think you said about 10 to 1 reduction required on those motors? I'm wondering whether to reduce it a bit more in view of the diameter of the wheels?
I have to decide soon as I need to order the bits - to be honest I'm in a bit of a quandry as I've NEVER built an electric paddler before - HELP!

All the best

Stuart

[Eddy Matthews]

I've just hooked up one of those motors with the pulleys I have as standard - These give a ratio of about 6:1..... If your going to use 12v it will give approx 140RPM - And from the models I've seen with those motors it should give a realistic speed with a bit of extra power in reserve.

Regards
Eddy

[Stuart Badger]

Thanks VERY much Eddy! That could make things a whole lot simpler - the only motors I've used in the past have been the really fast japanese things in prop driven boats - cheers.

Stuart

[Stuart Badger]

Well PDs -I've bitten the bullet and drilled two holes in the hull for the paddle shaft. The paddles are now mounted and I have sourced and ordered all the toothy round and round whizzy parts - so now I wait!

All the best

stuart

[djcf]

Hi Stuart, Looking really good, I like the plating a lot. One question, are you making the whole sponson area removable?

Clark