Small Edwardian Paddle Steamer

[optima21]

Hi guys, its been a while and time for an update, as it should be at its first event tomorrow, but one advantage of a boat this size is that you can try it out in a bath to see how it will perform (more about this later). Its been a steep learning curve with certain aspects of this and one of those was how to make small railings. Im guess soldering wire together can be done, but I decided that I wanted to make styrene ones to save weight (as styrene is roughly 1/8 the weight of brass) and would use styrene rods between 0.5mm to 1.0mm diameter. To stick them together I decided to use styrene cement and my prefered choice was Revell as the delivery tube made pin point delivery easy and was stronger that the "instant" type solvents.  For the main railings, I used 1.00mm rod for the handrail, 0.75mm rod for the stanchions and 0.5mm for for the lower rails. As the railings are only 8mm tall (including mounting) I decided that I needed a jig to align the pieces of styrene rod, so I cut V grooves with a carbide 60 degree engraving bit using my milling machine, and where the styrene was stuck together, there needed to be a hole so there was nothing else for the styrene to anything else as the cement can get anywhere due to capillary action. to cut the pieces of styrene to length I used rectangular (or square) pieces of metal, held it down over the rod and cut both sides of the metal with a scalpel and ended up with a styrene rod of the correct length.

the railings were made in 2 processes, first the handrail and stanchions were stuck together then after a few hours the part finished railing was removed, turned round and the lower rails fitted. for scale the masking take holding the rods in the grooves was 3mm wide. So thats how to make nice straight railing and seems pretty easy so far,  I wanted at least one curved railing,, and a small amount of heat can allow styrene to be curved.  the first few attempts were messy but the way that worked as to gently for the railing for the edge of something circular (in my case a jar lid), hold the railing under a piece of paper and then stick it down with high temperature "kapton" tape. I then shoved that in a pan of boiling water for a minute, then took it out and stuck it in cold water and to leave a curved rail. the high temperature tape is important of else the adhesive gets destroyed by the heat and makes a gooey mess.

After a bit of handling the railings both (straight and curved) ended up cracking which wasn't suitable for a working model, I thought this could have been due to bad preparation so degreased the rods first and also tried thin and gel superglue as an alternative (well I was desperate). it turned out that both the superglues were in a different league to the solvent adhesive, and so much stronger that I decided to use the thin one.  to apply this I cut the end off a small dressmaking needle and half of the eye to leave a U at the end. The U is the dipped into a drop of glue and is used to apply it where you want it. I also left the rail for a few hours in water and the superglue didnt dissolve either.

now that I could use superglue it mean that I could the handrail on after painting it, because if I had to use sytrene cement it would have worked as a good paint stripper.  also and the solvent dried out over a few days with styrene cement, the space between the stanchions reduced, which wasnt a problem for the first couple of stations but when the handrails are 13cm long the railing was 0.2 to 03mm short, but with superglue there wasnt any shrinkage.

hope that makes sense,

[optima21]

After I'd made the first railings (cemented together) I made the piece that would become the decking, and I thought it would look wrong with a flat area of brown so I decided that I needed to scribe some lines 1mm wide to give a basic plank effect, and to do this I used the engraving bit (used for the railings jig) in my millling machine but keep the cutter stationary and move the milling machine table backwards and forwards to scribe the planks. now that was a boring job, but I thought if I used a scriber/craft knife and ruler, there is no way I would do it accurately and would eventually slip. my method of mounting the styrene sheet for scribing was to stick it to a piece of MDF with double sided sticky tape, but to put masking tape on the MDF and styrene first so that it was easy to remove when I'd finished it. also by using MDF as a backing, I could co-ordinate drill the mounting holes for the stanchions (and other holes too).

Id also tried to co-ordinate drill the holes for the curved railings but they didnt line up correctly (which I later worked out to be shrinkage, so I needed to make a drilling guide for these holes, so I ended up rolling a thin layer of blue tack between some lollipop sticks and pressing the railing into that and drilling holes where the stanchions left an impression.

and this guide was used to drill the holes in the deck

after this I then changed to making the railing with superglue and the second set were more robust and didnt have shrinkage either, I also decided that I could make the handrail separately and glue it on afterwards. and somewhere around this time I had a rethink about what would be on this deck and made a cardboard and toothpick design.

the lower part of the railings were then stuck to the deck using thin superglue using a modified needle. the deck was held against a steel plate with magnets as the easiest way to hold it for aligning the stanchions

the hand rail was then bent to shape and held in masking tape for alignment. and being able to bend the styrene rod in the corner should make them stronger than having glued corners

these were left too long and mounted on lollipop sticks for painting

and then this was stuck to the stanchions again with superglue and using the masking tape for alignment

I think the deck "planking" and railings worked out well, but wish there was a quicker way to do them

[optima21]

I needed to make a couple of cabin, one for the bridge and one for the deck, and they had the sides aligned using square tubing and magnets.

then I started on the bridge assembly, the deck had been planked as before and holes were co-ordinate drilled. this was cut to size and the cabin was checked for fit. the ladders were also trimmed to length and used 2 x 8mm square toolbits as a guide

the windows in the cabins were glazed using sheet plastic, I tried using UV curing adhesive but struggled to get the tape to seal so the adhesive leaked out.

and then I needed another set of railings and another jig was made to hold the pieces together gluing then togther, these railings were made from 0.5mm styrene rod. on the left are the parts of the railing and on the right they are assembled and glued in position.

the ladders were then glued under the bridge wings

and the handrail was bent freehand and glued in position, and this worked out first attempt, I was expecting it to take a few trys.

the bridge cabin was then glued in place and the other 3 handrails were added. the lolipop sticks were used to align the bends

to mount the vent cowls (and deck cabin) to the deck I used some short spigots and loosley held then in place while I glued them in place.

and the vents that I made earlier were cut down to length (these are hollow so a drill was used in them to stop them collapsing.

and the final deck assembly which covers the radio control gear and is held in place with tiny magnets, and the whole assembly weighs in at 13.25 grams, which I think is about as light as I could have done, and was all made of styrene to save weight, and would have been a few grams heavier if I had used metal for making the railings

[Spankbucket]

You have really done a great job on this project! Well done!

[derekwarner_decoy]

Looking forward to seeing her on the water......looks superb

Derek

[optima21]

Thanks for your kind words guys 

At this stage I had something that was looking very boat like, and needed to sort the ballasting out for it, and at this stage I started playing with it in the bath, and used 90 grams of car wheel weights in the hull and while it gave a slight increase in freeboard, became so unstable that it would easily capsize, so wasnt happy about that. at this stage I also stuck the wheel weights under the hull and found the stability increased, so then thought about having a weight stuck under the keel to give the stability I wanted and slight increase in freeboard.

These sense prevailed and I tried the original ballast that I used the paddler was painted and that was 135g of 1p and 2p pieces, and this gave the stability I wanted at a slighly lower freeboard (as the boat was now heavier). I then filed some lead weights for ballast at a reduced weight of 124g and that seemed to work as well stability wise and have a slightly higher freeboard.

and the lead weights glued in place

the deck parts were then glued in place, and so the hull was then sealed. this is why getting the ballast right was important as once the decks were in place they couldnt be removed. this also shows battery to power it, the two geared motors to operate the paddles and the reciever and two speed controllers

and some pictures of the paddler, at this stage I havn't decided if it is complete or not, I like the simplicity of the design as it stands but still thinking if I need to fit some seats on the rear deck and lifebelts, but then it would look more cluttered. I had made some lifeboats but they wont be fitted as they will make it look too "busy" for my liking.

and for you Derek, here is is in water, both static and under power.

Im glad to say I think it turned out quite well, in both in terms of looks and being able to be played with in water. It looks different to how I first would have made it, but the construction ended up being simpler, and Im getting good at using tweezers for holding things now.  These days I tell people that if a model cant fit in a carrier bag, its too big......or else I'd end up being like this guy 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMS6p3tIz3A

when I get my pladdler out on a lake, I'll try and get some photos to post here.

[derekwarner_decoy]

Very good.....now that ballast....could be worth its weight in Gold

...and those sacrificial anodes [big blocks] will surely keep corrosion away for more than a lifetime

Derek 

[optima21]

and out on the water today, sorry about the quality of the pics, but it generally looks lost in a photo.

[DamienG]

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