Swiss Steamwheeler RIGI under construction

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Hankwilliams
Well done, hey good lookin`  , thanks for showing her!
She is a beauty, but from the later period after 1922. I`m building her from the early days, the short version from 1848, without any saloons on deck, what makes it more difficult to store the engine and boiler.
At the Moment I` waiting for the frames coming back from lasercut. Then the build will start.
Even if i`m working after the plan from VHS Luzern, I did scale her back to the original length of only 37 Meters, what means in 1:50 Scale only 74 cm. The Plan will be set in here at the download section after work.
Regards
Gerhard

[chewbacca]

hello

Beautiful boat  , the extensions are a good idea, I am going to make the same on my helvétie because I have problems of stability, it is not easy to have the good center of gravity.
Bye

[chewbacca]

If he(it) please you Gerhard, would have you a photo of a wheel of your boat, it could help me to improve mine, thank you in advance.
Bye

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi chewbacca
All parts and steps will be photographed when I`m at work with them. There is not one model I built in the past, that is not well documented with a minimum of around 200 photos! I`m also trying to draw detail plans of most of the parts, what is not only good for documenting, but also helps at repair works when neccessary!
Regards
Gerhard

[chewbacca]

OK ,  I am impatient .

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi chewbacca
The RIGI- wheels from the "early days" were just normal solid ones, no excentered wheels. As far as I know, the new wheels came with the lengthening of the ship. Remember, I will makr her form from the early days, the wheels are the solid version. If you would need a good plan for excentered wheels, i found one at the "Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum" where a lot of plans can be found
 http://www.digipeer.de/index.php?static=53
Regards
Gerhard

[chewbacca]

Thank you Gerhard good link for the plans

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi to All
Time for an update.
I have just received a message from Germany, the frames and keel parts are ready lasercut, I should get them at the middle of coming week. So, this means, I can finally start with the building fo the RIGI in a very short time. As ever, there will be a lot of photos made during the building, for me to documate the process and for your pleasure.
Best regards
Gerhard

[Gerhardvienna]

Hello, again
The very first part of the RIGI is built, today I made the steering wheel. At first I took some wooden toothpicks and rounded them down to 0,8 mm diameter, with 1mm head. As next I used a small piece of 0,5mm plywood and cutted 2 pieces of 3,5mm diameter plus two rings of 12,6 and 16mm. The spokes were glued to the lower plate and ring, between them I glued some 1mm Balsawood, to keep the exact distance between the spokes. At last I glued the upper Plate and ring, now I will have to wait until the glue is hardened, then I will sand and paint the wheel.
Regards
Gerhard

[Gerhardvienna]

Some more parts ready, the anchor, the stand for the anchor winch, some hooks, and the stand for the steering wheel are solderd. I always use pins for the "soldering form" as long as I don`t need more than only one or two identical pieces. Have a look at this......................
Regards Gerhard

[Doonie]

Excellent work Gerhardt.   I have put the Paddle-steamer RMS Dispatch to one side as my next big adventure is to solder up the railings on the top deck and I have absolutely NO IDEA how to start doing that.   Watching you work is helping.   Keep up the good work.

Doonie.

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Doonie
Thanks for this! f you wonder how to solder the railing, here are some maybe helpful photos. I make a soldering form from a piece of balsa-wood, and some "inlays from the same material. into the inlays I cut notches for the railing stands and the lines. That makes it easy to solder the railing, and th stands will be in correct distances. The lines are always under the stands, so you will have to take care for that, if the lines are outside of the stands, your railing will not look good. The first pic shows the soldering form, the second shows a piece of railing on my tugboat BISON, made from 0,8mm brass for the upper line and the stands, and 0,5mm brass for the lower line.
Regards
Gerhard

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi @All PD`s
the next parts are done, on my lathe i made the pollards for the double pleers. The short version of the RIGI had 3 on each side, they are only 4 x 3mm by piece, the baseplates are 4 x 12 mm small. It took a few hours to turn and drill that all, the soldering was the fastest work on that equipment.
And especially for Doonie and other interested, I made a new instruction, how to solder railings.
Greetings
Gerhard

[Gerhardvienna]

Once again, someting new has been done. The stand to the steering wheel did not fit to my intentions, so I had to make a new one, now it`s much better. This time I used 0,5mm brass sheet, and bend it over a mold core of balsa-wood. This gave a much better form for soldering the sidewalls to the stand, even drilling the holes to the wheels axle was easy to do. At the photo you see on the left the old stand, in the middle the new one, and on the right is the wooden core for soldering. But there was a bit more to do, even the grating for the navigator is ready, this one is made from some spare parts from an older construction kit i built some years ago. And, last but not least, I`ve got the lasercut frames and keel today, the look just fantastic. More about this comes soon!
Best wishes to you all
Gerhard

[Gerhardvienna]

Today there was some little soldering work again to do, I have made the Boat-hook, from 0,1mm brass sheet and 0,1mm brass wire, with a handle of some dark wood, it looks almost like the original. After that I had time to buold the framework, where i found out, that some mistake was made by myself. I gave the wrongf measures for the keel to my friend, and he lasercut it right correct to my neasures. But; lucky me; I could repair that. I took the correct drawings, glued them to the lasercut keel-parts, and cut the rest by hand, so it fits to the plan. After that i mounted each one of the frames to a piece of square 20 x 20mm pinewood, and screwed that to the helling board. Before glueing the keel-parts to the frames, I had to grind the paper away and glue the keel, which was made in 3 parts, together to one piece. Then I could glue the keel into the frames cutouts, it looks pretty good.
Regards
Gerhard