robert e lee

Gee !

 Is that her name ? ya coulda fooled me . I thought it was the Steve Tuck ! Nice job mate ! You can take those little windows and fill the panes with a mix of silver and blue at Fifty - Fifty mix and they will look great .

 Then paint those frames very light ghost grey . Just the mullions and small inner frames . T.B.

dry fitting the upper deck , I really must fix up the paint on those peer's ,

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stair case together , should I paint the hand rail T.B.

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I don't carry silver T.B. , so I put a bit of white into tamiya's  medium blue xf18 , all these close up's are showing me how bad my painting really is lol .

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Looking great Steve. I would leave the stair rail all white. I looked at all your pictures & it is really coming along great everywhere. The shot showing the second deck over the boiler is one of the best.

finally got around to gluing the deck and stairway in

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Looking good Steve. Cool project.

Steve:

   Hey , mate ! Did you know the  "Lees " Grand Stairway was painted with red treads and white risers ? Bet you didn't did you ? So'kay though , the job you are doing is getting close to what I say is prime competition level  . Good on You Mate !  T.B.

Beautiful model, just great! Really does need people.

Wow tanker, with a paint job like that, she oughta be named after General "Hooker".

Oh but wait, he was a Yankee...

I didn't know that tanker , my tastes don't run to that thank god ,

gmorrison

I have some 1/150 scale figure's to put on , just wish I had gene1 painting skill's to do a proper job .

bakster

nice to know your still around mate ,

Yeah G;

 At one time even with only trim in certain areas the " Lee " was somewhat garish . The well known boat had a cheaper owner eventually and white on everything was his choice .You could touch it up with whitewash !

GM, I took your advice & figured how to sew the sails on with straight, as opposed to diagonal, thread. It works great & is just as fast. See my Wasa. I put them a little further apart as at the time I thought they would be individual.

  I bet I am the  only one here who rode on a real wooden big Mississippi Riverboat in the  1930's. The Preident out of St Louis & New Orleans. 

haven't been on a real one gene , but there is a couple on the brisbane river qld and  one on the murray river , adelaide , they're a nice day out , they wouldn't be as big as the one's you rode on you lucky man

anyway's onward and upward's

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Looks better with every picture Steve.  Wait till you get the funnels & all that detail on, that when it is the most fun. Model building is something I guess you can do nearly forever. I quit a couple times & got back into more than ever. 

   I would really like to finish my Betsy Ann riverboat. I have got to check some more on getting photoetch for it. Did I ever tell you about the Cairo, a Civil War river gunboat. She was sunk by the first mine at Vicksburg Miss. It was a 5gal. bottle of black powder with an electric line to shore to set it off. She was all iron on top & wood hull. 

  She sunk in heavy mud, like the Wasa, in about 1864. She was found & raised in about 1958 or so. Everything on her was like new & preserved because of the mud. We have been to see her as they are restoring her.

Yo Steve !

 I would have to say , You're still looking good , Mate ! T.B.

cheer's to both gene and T. B.hopefully have some more in a couple of day's

couple of close up's of the front

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does this cargo look too big to scale T.B. , gene ,

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Hi Steve!

   If anything it looks a wee bit sparse . Because that area is where passengers don't go , you can stack it higher and closer together . Cargo would be stacked up to the second deck and all the way forward , stopping at the upper deck supports there .

      A good stopping point is the last brown upright forward ., Now , With all you've done the Advice about stacking it higher does Not apply ! She could be halfway upriver and dropped some supplies at the wharves along the way !

  Great work so far . By the way ,Did you paint the stair rails or just leave them white plastic ? The reason I ask is this . If you didn't paint the railings they will yellow off color after a while . And they will be impossible to paint then .  T.B.

It's Mee!

 I forgot to tell you something . Would you like to have two of them ? The one you're doing and another totally different looking boat ?

  I tried this with a client's model . She wanted a boat , but not the Lee . So , I got a Lee and removed the name letters first .Then ALL rails were replaced with KIBRI  H.O. Railroad wrought iron railing with a cap rail of Evergreen strip in a scale 2x6 . Then I redid the lettering with plastic , Small sign lettering .

   This lettering is three dimensional and fits those signs made of black felt with grooves where the "legs " on the letters fit . I just cut the " Legs " off and glued them in place for the new name .

     She was a "MA.S.H - T.V. show fan, so the name she chose was , You guessed it " Charles Emerson Winchester ". I painted the rails in medium blue with white caprails and the overhead " gingerbread " was dark blue with Gold highlights .

   I used the exact same boat and made those changes and you would've sworn it was a different kit ! Kibri makes all styles of wrought iron fence so there's no problem with that .    T.B.

" />starting to get some people on board

can anyone help me on how to make arrow head caps for the stove pipe please , I want to add a few more , not sure on how to go about it .thank's in advance

steve

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Coming along great Steve.  Just off the top of my head, you could cut a circle of plastic or paper & make a cut from the center out & fold it over on itself & glue it to get the pointed cap. You might have to make several to get the right size.

  I have been busy with doctors this week, just upkeep on old bones. An orthopedic for shots for the trigger fingers & eye check up. My bone doctor is a neat guy, career airborne doctor/ surgeon & he made all the jumps with the troops. He liked it & still looks like a kid. My VA doctor was the same thing . He wasn't as thrilled with the landing. he said it was like jumping off a 12' wall.

   Keep going because it is a beauty. If you want a little duller finish you can spray a 1/2 & 1/2 mix of glooscote & dullcote & then coat the windows with Future floor wax. It is great on giving a glass gloss. Make sure to try the spray on something that doesn't show, if you do it. I spray gloss & dull cote on everything from Tempera , enamel, acrylic to lacquer.

Mr. Steve;

 That wheelhouse is going to be great . Take the Wheel from a larger sail ship if you can . That kit one is a little thick . Don't forget to paint the deck a very dark green .

   All in all looking good , mate ! If I were you I'd try to thin the window openings a little bit .That way you can see your work better.  T.B.

 Steve, If you are going to thin the windows like TB said, it would be easier & better to cut the divided lites out & redo them with some thin evergreen strip or whatever you have. You could even use some clear plastic fit to the opening & put white tape or plastic strip on it for the dividers. I believe the front was left open with a small awning over it.

steve5

how to make arrow head caps for the stove pipe

Well, a body could take a wooden dowel the same diameter as the conical cap.  Then, whittle the end off to make a cone of just the end.

Next, get some 3mm ply cut a ccouple of 4x6cm rectangles out.  Cut 3x5cm "windows in each of those.

Pinch a bit of 0.020 styrene (err, 0.5mm) sheet between the ply frames.  Clamp that together with some bulldog paper clips (the big black spring style ones).

Stick the pointed dowel pointing up in a vise or some similar way.

Now, warm the styene sheet in the frames over a heat source, a candle or alcohol burner will suffice.  The plastic will go dull just before it tries to sag in the frame. 

Poke the softened plastic over the pointed dowel (gently) and draw it down to form the cone.  Do a couple, you might as well.  After it cools, trim out the cones, find the best one, and trim it to size.  Holding it round end down of fine sand or ganet paper refine the bottom edge.  Then, install on the stack.

If you really want to test your frustration level, take some stretched sprue or teeny wire and make the stand-offs for the chimney cone.  Otherwise, just glue the cone over the end of the stack.

tanker builder

thank's mate , unfortunately I don't have a thinner wheel , still looking though

gene

that sound's like a plan , I'll have a go at that tonight

capnmac82

thank's for the advice , I sometime's sit in wonder at the imagination of some of you guy's , I'm basically an OOB guy , but I'm trying .

had a go with the dremel and some dowel capnmac . about as good as I could do , but I'm happy with it .

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probably not what you guy's had in mind , but I cut the centre's out of the front and back and added perspex to the 4 side's , you can see inside alright now

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