Month: April 2006

Not the best picture but it shows the tiny little holes I drilled in two round toothpicks to complete my custom rudders. The kit came with a small piece of wood to be cut in half and glued directly to the hull. NOT. Ugly and not to scale so I made this two up. I will not tell you how many stupid little toothpicks bit the dust. Holding the drill bit steady and gluing tiny items is challenging nowdays.Those of you who I know personally should appreciate this great feat! Those of you whom I have never met just take my word for it – this is a big deal.

While in Mississippi we went up to Vicksburg. On the way out of the museum I purchased a wooden model kit of the U.S.S. Cairo. I have built plastic models off and on for years. I thought (oops silly me) that since it was made of wood parts it would be easier to hold on to the pieces. the assembled one looked like it would be easy to glue together. Well . ..

How was I suppose to know that you had to make the pieces first?

The instructions are not as one distributer’s  website states:

The USS Cairo is approximately 12” long. It is a copy of the Civil War Union Ironclad sunk at Vicksburg, Mississippi and now on display at Vicksburg Military Park.

Authentically styled wooden museum model kits. These are complete with detailed instructions and wooden parts pre-cut for model building. Some of the parts must be sanded and painted. Glue is not furnished. Kits are extremely high quality.

Correction! All the parts that are not made out of metal ( not very many ) have to be shaped, sanded, and painted. I can do this I say each day as I slowly plug away at creating a pilot house with eight sides out of a general shaped piece of wood. Ladders, yes, I have made ladders three different ways before one sort of worked. It does look like a ladder anyway.

• The detailed instructions are sand gun cabin, hull, then glue together.
• sand belt rails sponsons ladder and decking before installing
• install sponsons and rudders to hull section
• Place armour belt on gun cabin and hull
• drill hoes for guns mast davit and ventilators now
• attach decking to hull and gun cabin

Anyway, the point is that each part needs to be built by looking at a drawing that gives the general location and size of things but not quite to scale….

I have pictures to prove that I am doing this woo hoo … if it comes out looking like the only picture of the Cairo in existence I will be happy. I have given up seeking anything close to perfection and am striving for “finished”.

Maybe I will upload a picture or two of my progress.

Other posts:

Cairo Model Update Progress

Cairo Model Pictures – Almost done

For my friends that requested photos of the damage to one of their favorite stops on vacation. Here is one of the photos taken at the KOA Camp. The folks their told us that the pile of rubbish is the remains of the trailers. The trailers in the background are those of cleanup workers, volunteers and others. The camp apparently is open to clean up crews, construction workers, evacuees, and other storm related crews. They are trying hard to get the camp ready for this summer.