A Paddle tug in Oregon

[mogogear]

Hello PD's Last Spring I bought a empty paddle tug from Channel of the sale boards- Luckily I had a friend in Cardiff that Channel could drop it by to and thus have a friend really pack it and prep it for a long  SAFE journey...across the Atlantic and across the US to the West Coast


A big Thank you to Channel for his courtesy in the transaction and to my friend Odilon in Cardiff...He packed it like he was shipping his mother good china !! 



So here is a shot of this paddler ( As Channel rightly identified it as a GRP hull of the Mayflower made into a sidewheel tug) as it was depicted in the eBay auction





and here she is coming out of her "shell" as I unpacked her in Oregon( notice that wife and daughter are so excited to see what has come for dad from across the sea!!



The dog is not too excited either...sheep dog for scale to box...



and much bubble wrap later....



Here she is next to another live steamer I am building - a torpedo boat destroyer from exactly the same period- the USS Cushing



Yes this paddler will also be live steam-  I have a Cheddar Puffin twin cylinder engine and boiler for it . I will mount the engine transversely and have a ladder chain and gear drive.

Next up the shop work begins-I have a long list of things to do before Spring sailing season is upon us!

[PeeWee]

Its always good to see a successful delivery. 

I noticed that in Pic 3 the wife on an e-reader and the daughter with a book,  surly the wrong way around  I work in a school and the adults here think anyone with a kindle is a heretic   

[mogogear]

Its always good to see a successful delivery. 

I noticed that in Pic 3 the wife on an e-reader and the daughter with a book,  surly the wrong way around  I work in a school and the adults here think anyone with a kindle is a heretic   

Good eyes- The Wife has a bigger budget than the daughter .............. She is too young to fight successfully yet at 9 years old... those battles are coming... but right now as my dear old dad would say "She has champagne taste and a beer budget"..... the budge rules. A safe journey for the boat was a relief ---

You see the box- it weighed in at 25 kilos and I got it here in 3 days via Fedex for about $200 with parcel2go.com ...Highly recommended- they even picked it up at my friends door...

[mogogear]

So the work continues.

My short list and it will grow is to:

Mount the engine and boiler on a removable tray- work out chain drive

Rearrange some small structures on the deck to be more in line with the Flying Scotsman and add a curved companionway forward.

Add some exhaust piping details at the rear of the stack

Add some additional structure aft of each sponson - I am unsure what these storage rooms / heads are called ?? But you will see them taking shape in styrene

Enlarge the air ventilators

Add small details like gunwale "doors" ? fore and aft of the sponsons and steps up the back of the sponsons

Improve details in the wheel house / pilot house up top ( she has no wheel or chart table etc)

So here are a few pictures of what  I have done so far:

Test fit





Better camera now on...

Some additional support for the power plant mounting tray- fiber glassed in



Getting a feel for the plasticard additions







Small support bits here and there










A little more later as this almost catches me up to where I am now

Cheers

[mogogear]

I found in order to be able to remove the steam plant in once piece that I would need to remove a cross beam ( but make it replaceable also!!)

Here is what I came up with- nothing new to you learned paddlers I am sure



Beam OUT



Till more occurs

[mogogear]

 A few other details






A bit of paint after the primer





And a few pilot house details before I put the roodfback on

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's......Mo .....I like the build.....    ...but is that companionway entrance just FWD of the gas tank in the FWD hold

If it is ....is it in scale?    or are all of the crew dwarfs?  ................Derek 

[mogogear]

 

I can get the crew to not smoke below deck I suppose- But I am happy to laugh at myself and my dwarf sized companionway...I do not know what I was up to but I would have had to pay the crew more money to kneel every time they went below deck ....
 

I would blame it on a bad calculator- but that would just be me... I suppose it does need to be full 1:24 person tall.. ..Now that I look at Lachies fore companionway , his is a tad bit taller.

At 24 scale..It would seem to be about 2.75" / 7 cm tall..I am at 2"  / 5cm...back to the work bench.



The one on Lachies model is forward also..So that is mostly where I worked out where it was going

[mogogear]

So lets go...



as I am as far from a professional modeler there is ( I like boats and I love steam) and I could use learned input for whomever is willing to spill it my way...

The hull is 48" long x 17" at the sponsons( I know how long the Mayflower was - but not the boat this is based on)

The wheels are 140mm in diameter

The pilot house is 2 5/8" to the very top of the roof ( I would assume that a person in balance  to that main structure would be about  2.25" (?) tall)

The other various doors on the superstructure are also out of scale as they are all 2" tall ( which is too short- this is where I went afoul- I measured them and copied it to my companionway).    I also attributed my scale to 1:24 as a estimate and it is not so... 

If an average seaman's height is 67"..( in my fractured world) ,to have him turn out 2.25" tall that would indicate 1:30 scale or so...True?


Lastly for a 2.25" tall scale person to use a companionway on this boat it would need  one 2.5' tall ...true

Am I even in the right ocean here gentlemen/?

HELP PLEASE

 

[Barry]

I think your scale is 1:30. Looking at the height of the companion way to the length of the hull on the drawing in British Steam Tugs by PN Thomas I'd say that 1.98" 2' near enough would be the right height. Not all companion ways are high enough to pass through standing.
I like to make a cardboard figure, to the right scale, on a little stand to place on my models it helps get things in the right perspective sometimes.

[mogogear]

Barry

No matter what- the suggestion of making a cardboard cut out of a person is pure gold for this very inexperienced modeler..the attachments are  very kind - thank you

I will take all that the members will throw my way

[mjt60a]

I was about to mention that I've seen companionways with a sliding 'hatch' in the top (as in the 4th image in Barrys' post) and in one case another pair of doors, presumably to keep the height low, the plan of PS Menna (labeled SS Menna on the plan!) in the downloads secton shows a companionway for passenger use that is full height but the one at the bow for crew use must be about three feet high!
Must admit though I've no idea about the type on Flying Scotsman and just asumed it had a sliding hatch, but it does look quite tall on that drawing...

[djcf]

Hi Mo,

behind the windlass is the rear of a companionway with sliding top...looks to be about 6" above rail height in this case (Waverley)

regards
Clark

[mogogear]

Thanks for the companionway shot.

Since my superstructure is raised as it covers the combing, it does not sit flush wit the res t of the deck. A preexisting height issue.

Here is a shot of how things looked as I got the boat




Here is a mock up of a proposed arrangement - moving the mast aft a little and the companionway up on to the raised area and  just forward of the mast as it is in the plans.



Not perfect at all as the mast is close to the bottom of the stairway- but as the original stair in the drawing is off center - I may have to live with that small issue

I would cover the hole obviously - this is a quick and dirty placement to to help me visualize- I still think the companionway needs to look narrower and angled a bit differently

What say you all

Thanks

[mogogear]

While others things are being thought about - I had the first round cladding the Cheddar boiler..I had no mahogany so I dressed her up in purple heart wood..this is after fitting everything into place- it now all comes off - finish the wood with some varnish, black the ends and tack down the wool felt  and back on with everything!