crazypoet

This is quite a challenge! I'm following with interest

So why am I not in the least surprised by this?

I LOVE THIS!!! Great way to say hello - welcome aboard!

I love watching you work, particularly as you do wholesale changes from the original kit limits. You're an inspiration!

While I'm working on the remaining engine hardware, I'm starting the rest of the Steam Plant - hot well and condenser. There were components that allowed for water/steam to be recycled through the system. Both of these were made of iron in the original. I've done the initial shaping and sealing of the wood kit components, in prep for the first coat of Alclad primer/filler. They both will have a variety of pipes, fittings and braces installed before they're done.

Welcome! I look forward to watching your progress on this. I've wondered about those kits - this is the first time I'll have seen one built

I just watched the new Star Wars yesterday - now I'm itching to do the "new" x-wing that Poe flies. This build is an inspiration - keep it up!

I love this build!!! Thanks for walking us through the whole process

Well. Ok. I did it. I finally had enough and pulled the trigger on a micro-mark home photo-etch kit. I realized that what I am going to need in terms of fittings for this and other kits will require better control in shape and fit than I can get with a Dremel and needle file - not to mention those times when I'll need multiples of a given part. I'll let y'all know when it arrives, along with how well it actually works... Meantime, I'm still designing the parts I'll need to properly finish this engine :-)

Thanks! This is going to be a long project. I'd hoped to have it done over the winter, but I suspect it will be well into Spring instead. At least it's not going to be boring... :-) I got the pumps and cam housing done today, so I can start the serious design work on the Stephenson link fittings. Cam Pump one Pump two These needed to be installed to give me an idea about what I need to work around for the next straps. Much head-scratching to follow...! ;-)

So... Starting the front of the engine. The first challenge is the feed pumps, which sit on either side of the crankshaft and which were driven by cams and rods connecting the pumps to the shaft. The pumps are white metal castings, which originally had too-bendable and out-of-scale posts on the end which one was supposed to simply rest against the crankshaft. Two issues came up with this - first, it just looked wrong. The cams and drive rods would have needed some protection from the elements, and so would have had some sort of enclosure and guides. Second, and more to a point of practicality from a building perspective, the lack of a cam housing would leave the Stepehson valve linkage unsupported insofar as spacing along the crank is concerned. So. My approach, after much head-scratching, was to cut the posts off the castings, and drill them to accept a short length of 1/16" brass tubing. The tube will serve to guide and connect a length of 1/32" brass rod to the pumps. At the crankshaft end of things, I scratch-built a cam housing to both anchor the connecting rods and provide support to the Stephenson eccentrics later. I used a bit of scrap wood, scale resin rivets and two more bits of 1/16" brass tube for this. To add a touch of interest, I also added a brad hex bolt to the bottom to represent a drain plug. Here are the pieces as they exist today. The pain is Tamiya NATO black, with a bit of colloidal graphite and Vallejo rust wash to tone things down. The caps on the pumps are Alclad titanium gold with a thin wash of Vallejo light rust. The next step is to connect things up, and use this as the starting point for the forward/reverse lever which was used to shift the Stephenson linkage. I need to design and fabricate that all from scratch, as there was no provision for it in the kit at all.

Ooops - I deleted the pic that I linked in that last post. I'll fix the post later, when I can get to a PC. In the meantime, I've got the back and top of the engine together. Baseplate, main bearings, crankshaft, frame, cylinder/valve box and flywheel. This took far longer than it should have, mainly because of my own ham-handed attempt to fix the alignment problem I mentioned above. So here are the components and steps... the various bits and pieces: Assembled baseplate, crank, piston rod, flywheel and main bearings: Frame pieces and completed assembly: I used brass hex bolts to connect the top plate and frame pieces, and to connect the frame to the baseplate. The kit provided hex styrene rod, which just didn't feel right. The cylinder/valve box: I added wood lagging around the cylinder, based on other examples of Clute engines from their 1873 catalog. I also decided to go with a black iron finish overall- again based on their catalog. The completed assembly: Next, I have to finish the front of the engine, along with the plumbing. This will include the Stephenson link for the valve, two feed pumps and a lever for setting the valve linkage. I'm heavily modifying all of these, as the kit approach left the Stephenson linkage completely unsupported and with no connecting levers for setting the valve timing. It also didn't have a good way to connect the feed pumps to the crankshaft - these would have been driven by cams on the crankshaft, and that was not well-represented in the kit pieces. Pulling this all together will take some time, as I have to design and fabricate several of the assemblies from scratch. Fun stuff!

Beautiful work on this!

Well, after a couple of holidays, waiting on parts and good weather for painting, I finally have an update. The engine in this model is supposed to turn over - the crankshaft drives the piston, valve timing link and Stephenson linkage. This means that alignment and clearance between parts *really* matters (as if it ever doesn't?) My first go ended up having issues. The crankshaft counterweights are laser-cut wood. As it happens, the laser beam begins to cut at a slight angle as one approaches the ends of the board stock. This is most pronounced in thicker wood. So. The counterweights each connect to a segment of the crankshaft and are joined through the piston rod. This assembly sits between the main bearings on the engine base plate, with not much in the way of clearance. Because of the slight angle to the laser cuts, the angle between the counterweights and crankshaft was not exactly square, and I didn't catch this until I'd joined them through the piston rod and main bearings. When I turned the crank, the counterweights would bind slightly at two points and flex/warp around the join between the wood counterweight and the metal crankshaft. Not a good thing, and my bad for not catching it sooner. I made this situation far worse when I tried a shortcut fix to trim them square. Nope - I ended up damaging both counterweights and one of the main bearings badly enough that they needed to be replaced. Model expo is good about this sort of thing, and shipped me out a sheet with replacements for the parts I'd trashed. i took a great deal more care in ensuring that everything was square and well-aligned this time! My Dremel was put into service as a mini lathe and I carefully trimmed the faces of the counterweights to make them exactly square to the holes for the crankshaft. Then much sanding, filling, priming and painting to make the new bits match the old. I'm happy with the results - the new engine core turns beautifully - I'll post a video after I put things together. In the meantime, here's the current state of the crank, counterweights, main bearings, piston rod and flywheel... Most of the assembly is wood, with a bit of brass rod, aluminum tubing and brass hex bolts. I'll assemble the rest of the engine core this week, and do a video of the whole thing turning over - it's kind of cool Back on track!

Quick update on this - I managed to damage (read: "thoroughly screw-up") one of the engine parts while test-fitting, and I'm building a replacement. I also had a loooong stretch of rainy weekends where I couldn't do any painting. But the engine is coming back together and the bones will be ready for their debut in a couple of weeks. Still scratching my head on the Stephenson Linkage for the valve timing, but I can't really start on that until the main frame and cylinder are in-place.

Nice!!!! What did you use for the canvas - it looks great!

I love this kit! Watching with interest and a touch of envy...

getting ready for color changes... I had to take the main bearings off the baseplate and disassemble the crankshaft, piston rod and counterweights. Fortunately, I hadn't started painting the frame and cylinder, so no rework is needed there. I'm happy with the state of the cylinder and gearbox - I'm almost wishing I could leave it in bright brass - it's pretty! Unfortunately, the good people at Clute were much more concerned with functionality than appearance... Perhaps I could do a future build as more of a lake or inshore cruiser - could be fun! More after repainting...

Side note 2... The Adirondack Museum had a copy, and sent me a scan of the 1873 Clute Brothers catalog. I was correct in that it would not show the particular engine that I'm building (10 years of progress...). However, it does provide some telling details. The Clute Brothers used wood lagging on the cylinders of their engines when there was a possibility of contact, they used steel and iron with little to no brass work, and they seem not to have painted their engines. What this means for me is that I have to decide if they would have made changes for an engine intended for maritime use. some surfaces - those not integral to the main castings - may have been of brass or bronze, but I think iron is more likely, so I'll go with that. Likewise on paint - I believe that the base and frame would likely have been painted, but the "working" parts of the engine would have been bare metal - bright steel and black iron. So.... I'm going to change my approach accordingly. Watch for updates!

BRILLIANT work

Good lord - this is gorgeous!!! I've a fondness for the Avenger, and you're treating the subject beautifully

Gorgeous!!!! This kind of kit could get me back into armor modeling

This is a great interview, and brought out things that I never would have known otherwise - thank you!

One other thing I'm working on is an enclosure for the driveshaft cams that drive the two feed pumps (condensate return and seawater feed). The kit has castings of the pumps, but has their drive rods simply rest against the driveshaft to "simulate a driven mechanism". So... I'll be delving into more period examples to come up with something that looks right.

Quick update on the steam engine. I finished the piston rod and crankshaft counterweights, and got a good start on the main bearings. For the structural elements of the engine, I'm using Alclad Exhaust Manifold as the base color, and will use a (yet to be determined) green overcoat. I'll use salt for chipping and wear effects where needed. The provided main bearings are single piece, which would have caused some painting and finishing headaches. To get around this, I cut each bearing into the two pieces that would have actually existed, and I'm using scale brass hex bolts to connect them. First, the piston rod and crank shaft: The crankshaft is 1/8" aluminum tube. For the moment, a 3/32 alignment tube holds everything straight by passing through both sections of the crank - that will be removed and the crankshaft painted before I place it into the main bearings. Main bearings: Frame alignment dry-fit: Main bearing and baseplate ready for their finish coat: I tracked down a museum that has an old Clute Brothers catalog in their collection - it's from 1873, so it likely won't show the particular engine I'm building, but it should have (hopefully!) some information on finishes/colors/logos/nameplates that I can use. The museum is sending me a scan of the catalog on CD - should be here in about a week. I'm holding off on painting the structural elements until I can read the catalog, but there's a ton of work I can do in the meantime. The cylinder/gearbox and forward/reverse mechanism will be done in brass and cast iron finishes, and I can build and base-coat all the structural pieces while I'm waiting. My head-scratching issue of the moment is the lever and connections to actually move the valve linkage - this is utterly missing from the kit. The only provision for it at all is a hole in one of the PE components where a lever or connecting rod would connect, but everything else is left to the imagination. It will take a bit of research to come up with something period-appropriate. This will be fun!