Big Marie S
Table of Contents
Click on the link to take you to the section of interest. This is page 3 of 4 pages.
1 Upper Deck Modification
2 Cabin Modification
3 Stuffing Tubes
4 Brass Rudders
5 Prop Nuts and Shaft Struts
6 Pilot House Beginnings
7 Scupper Enclosure
8 Motor Mounts
9 Upper Deck Railing
10 Upper Deck Hatch & Railing
11 Upper Deck Bulwark
12 Rub Rail
13 Exhaust Ports
14 Hull Drains
15 Bow Anchor Roller
16 Cabin Deck
17 Bollards
18 Hull Paint
19 Main Deck Railing
20 Bow Anchor Post
21 Cabin Seats
22 Cabin Door Sliding Rails
23 Bulwark Covering Boards
24 Bow Lettering
25 Cabin Painting
26 Cabin Doors
27 Cabin Windows
28 Cabin Exterior Seating
29 Upper Deck Bulwark
30 Life Floats
31 Electronic Speed Controllers
32 Remote on-off device (Keyfob)
33 Other Electronics
34 Rowboat Examples
35 Rowboat Construction
36 Rowboat before painting
37 Rowboat after painting
38 Upper Deck Sign Mounts
GO TO PAGE ONE
GO TO PAGE TWO
GO TO PAGE FOUR
Upper Deck Modification
September 2022. After receiving the new pictures at the bottom of the previous page, I noticed many things. One being I had the edge profile of the upper deck wrong. I laminated balsa to plywood to make a stiffer sheet. They were then cut and filed to shape to the existing deck edge. These additions were edge glued to the existing deck. After they were faired to the camber, the deck was coated with epoxy.
Cabin Modification
September 2022. The cabin sides were made with basswood, coated on the outside with epoxy resin, stained and coated with spar urethane on the inside. Over time it warped. Expected it might. Next boat I’ll be using aircraft multi layer plywood. To correct this problem I added hardwood stiffeners to the inside of the cabin. They were epoxied in place with G-Flex after scrapping away the spar urethane.
Stuffing Tubes
October 2022. When I designed the frames I incorporated cutouts for the stuffing tubes. The shafts are 3/16″. There will be a bronze bearing on the prop end of the tubes. The stuffing tubes themselves are 1/4″ ID with a 9/32″ OD. The motor side of the tube has a compression fitting with an o-ring. I inherited these stuffing tubes from another boat club member when he moved away. To make the exit hole I bought a 1/4″ 12″ long drill bit. I manually spun the bit while holding it in position. Doing that gave me a blister on my finger. Once the hole was thru the bottom of the hull, I used a round file to enlarge the hole to fit the 9/32″ tube. To make sure the tubes were parallel I made a jig to hold them equidistant apart. I also had spacers on the outside to hold them at the proper exit angle from the hull. The tubes were cut to the correct length. Once positioned with the jigs, they were spot glued with CA. After the jigs were removed, on the inside where the tube exits the hull, epoxy was dribbled around the tube. The epoxy was also pushed into position into hidden spots. The hull was flipped and after the epoxy thickened somewhat, any that dripped to the outside was scrapped away while it was still soft. Where the stuffing tube passed over two frames inside the hull, blocks were added and the brass tube was epoxied to these blocks.
Brass Rudders
November 2022. The rudder shape was taken from one of the pictures from Hoffman’s Marina. They were drawn out on paper, then transferred to masking tape on 1/32″ brass sheet. The brass was rough cut on the band saw then they were clamped together about in alignment with the drawn lines. They were then clamped in a vise and a file was used to file the edges down to those lines. Slots were cut in the shafts with a Dremel abrasive wheel and slots cut in the rudder with the band saw. The rudder slots were then filed so the shaft fits into the slots. This way they both had a firm connection between them.The paste that came with the silver bearing soldered was applied to where solder would go. Tiny slices of solder were cut from the length of silver bearing solder and they were placed in position. The hot plate was heated up until the solder melted and seeped into all of the joints. The solder seeped its way to the other side so I only needed to do this once. The joints were cleaned up with a file and the rudders polished up. As it turned out, the first set of rudders looked too small so I made a second larger set.
Prop Nuts and Shaft Struts
I bought a 1/4″ x 12″ brass hex rod on Amazon and chucked it up in the lathe. The proper size drill hole was drilled into the end for a 10/32″ tap. After the hole was tapped, the cutoff tool was used to cut a nut to length. I made about 10 nuts so that I had plenty for future models.
For the shaft struts, I cut a section of 9/32″ brass tube and a few sections for the supports. The base plate was cut from thicker brass stock. Both flat sides of the base plate were run across a file to make sure they were both truly flat, which they were not when I started. Holes were then drilled for a loose fit for 0.080 brass bolts. I used a wood jig to hold the arms in place against the tube and soldered them together with silver bearing solder on the hot plate.
The arms were rough cut to about the length needed then the edges were filed until they fit to the right height and angle required. A section of 1/32 plywood was placed on the hull along with other pieces to hold the bass plate in the proper position. The 1/32 plywood would insulate the epoxied hull from the heat of soldering. The arms were then soldered to the base plate. Pretty sure I did use silver bearing solder for this as well. All of the soldered joints were then filed and shaped. Eventually the struts will be painted as they appear on the real boat.
Struts, finishing up
Here I am showing the cleanup of the struts and trial fit of the struts and the rudders. The struts will have a 1/2 inch length bronze bearing CA’d within.
Pilot House Beginnings
For the pilot house sides, I had an unsed piece of 1/8″ aircraft plywood that I originally purchased probably back in the 80’s. This is leftover from building the cabin and pilot house of the SS Miss Belmar. One side is stained and both sides are coated with polyester resin. After drawing out the outlines it was cut and filed to the desired shape. The windows were rough drilled and then rough cut with a Dremel cut off blade then filed down to the drawn line. The front section was glued together using G-Flex. Once all sides were glued, it was placed in position on top of the cabin. A scale figure was placed to check the sizing and it was determined that the house was too tall. The figure is just shy of three inches which would make it close to six feet at 1/24 scale. If I removed a half inch from the bottom, it would be at the correct height. See the last three pictures. You can also see the cut line half inch up from the bottom.
Scupper Enclosures
December 2022. Before the bulwark covering board is glued in place I need to make and install enclosures for the scuppers. These need to be there so from the outside or inside it does not look like there is a cavity between them. If it were the real boat, they would guide the water running off of the deck, into the scuppers and drain to the outside of the boat. Basswood was used and strips were glued at the proper interval, then painted white. They were cut to the approximate width then filed down. Then glued in place.
Motor Installation
February 2023. The motor mounts I am using were ones that a club member had made 20+ years ago. I figured I have them so why not use them. I bought the pulley’s and belts from Stock Drive Products and they will give me a 2:1 ratio. A plywood platform was cut to fit that will hold the motors. An angled foundation bracket was added under the plywood platform as support. The platform will be screwed the the supports for easy removal of the motors for servicing. I have rubber washers between the motor mount and the plywood to dampen any vibration. Does this help at all? I tested it with and without the rubber washers. Seems to help some.
Upper Deck Railing
February-March 2023. For the upper deck railing I needed vertical stanchions, a one piece top rail and intermediate rails. Once the railing height was determined I could calculate where to drill holes for pins for the intermediate rails. The holes were laid out on a 12 inch 3/32 inch brass tube and drilled using the railing jig I had made up. Then the tubing was cut to a rough length then filed to length with a conforming radius on the top section. The top rail was laid out and holes drilled for the stanchion locations. The top rail was positioned on the deck with a jig and pins were inserted into adjacent stanchions to be sure they lined up correctly. Then the stanchions were soldered in place to the top rail. Pins were soldered into the bottom of the stanchions. Those pins indicated where on the deck to drill holes which the railing will eventually be glued into. Each intermediate rail was cut and filed to length then inserted into place with 1/16 inch pins at each joint, then soldered. Soldering the rails started in the middle aft then progressed up each side. After all soldering was done the joints were cleaned up with a file.
Upper Deck Hatch & Railing
March 2023. Looking at Hoffman Maria pictures of the boat you can see the upper deck hatch is offset. So it was marked out, drilled and filed to shape. Then the railing was cut, filed and soldered like all the previous railings.
Upper Deck Bulwark
March 2023. A few thickness of basswood was glued together to get the desired thickness of the bulwark. The side sections were glued to conform to the side of the deck edge as it has a slight curve to the deck edge. The front sections are flat. These will be finished up at a later time.
Main Deck Hatch Modification
March 2023. The hatch which covers the rudder area needs some way to hold it down. The aft end will slide under the covering board. A sliding mechanism was added. With them in position as pictured, the hatch can be inserted in place. The the two ‘knobs’ are pushed towards the center which causes the out edges to slide under the main deck, locking the deck in place and holding it down.
Rub Rail
March 2023. The rub rails were made when I glasses the hull. As it says in the picture captions, etal strapping was double faced taped to the hull to use as a cutting guide. A hobby saw tooth saw was used to cut the slots. This worked out very well! The slots were widened will thin files to the point where the rails were a friction fit in the slots. Once the rails were trimmed to shape to fit, they were epoxied in place, one at a time.
Exhaust Ports
June 2023. Exhaust ports are needed on the transom. Once I determined where the waterline would be I guessed about where the exhaust ports would be located. These were drilled out and filed to the size needed for the brass tubing. Flat brass stock was cut to size, solder slivers were cut and placed on a hot plate. This covered the end of the tube. The flat stock was trimmed down to the tube diameter. A small scrap of styrene was glued on the tube end. This will be a spacer to keep it away from the interior bulkhead. Holes were drilled in more flat stock the diameter of the tubes. The tubes were placed in the holes in the transom, marked, then the flat stock was soldered onto the tubes. These flanges were then filed to a round diameter.
Hull Drains
June 2023. From what I can see in some of the pictures, there are some drains in the hull for water run off or bilge pumps. So I made a few, the same process as the exhaust ports. Once the hole in the hull was drilled a backing plate was glued in place so the brass had something solid to be glued to. It’s unknown where below the waterline any water intake lines would be, how many, or where. So I’ll skip the unknown.
Bow Anchor Roller
June 2023. I have not used my lathe much. Made these rollers which will be mounted in the bow anchor roller. I made spares for future boats. The u-channel was made from square brass stock. The top portion was removed with the Dremel abrasive wheel and then filed down. An angle was trimmed down on one end. A triangular plate was added on the aft end. Brass rod was bent and soldered to the forward end. This rod keeps the anchor line and anchor where it should be as it is deployed and retrieved. I did an online search for bow rollers and modeled it after what I found from the search. It closely resembles what I can see in pictures. Pins where soldered to the underside of the channel and triangle to be used as mounting pins to the boat. As the Big Marie S, it appears to have one anchor. When it was the American Eagle, you can see it has an anchor tree for two anchors.
Cabin Deck
June 2023. I needed some way to secure the deck on top of the cabin to the cabin and not have any mounting hardware visible. I started with the aft end of the cabin. Basically, blocks of wood were glued to the inside of the cabin aft wall. This area will eventually be hidden inside the head. On one of the underside deck stiffeners. I secured an aluminum angle with a square hole. The deck was placed on top of the cabin, slid aft a little, and the square angle went around the block of wood securing the aft part of the deck in place.
To lock the deck in place, an interior area where the pilot house will sit resides over a section just behind the cabin doors. I drilled a hole for a 4-40 machine screw and insert a t-nut on the underside. This was glued to the cabin side. A drill bit was pushed upwards which placed a mark in the underside of the deck. This was drilled trough. When the deck was in place, the 4-40 machine screw was inserted inside the pilot house into the t-nut, hold the deck in place.
Bollards
June 2023. There are six bollards, three per side. Hardwood was cut to the correct size and holes were drilled on one end which will accept a brass rod for mounting. The brass was notched to add an additional hold spot for glue. The top and sides were filed down to show wear and tear from the rope constantly wearing the wood away. You will see the final product later.
Hull Painting
June 2023. Not much to show for hull painting. The entire hull was sprayed with white Rustoleum primer, then the sides with Satin White. I used my Noga gauge holder to help with the fore and aft trimming of the waterline. Also used a ruler to judge the bow. Shims were placed under the stand to raies or lower either end of the boat until the waterline was level. Once the waterline was determined, the white hull sides were masked off and the bottom was sprayed with Rustoleum blue. For the boot stripe, 1/4 inch 3M fine line tape was applied at the top of the blue bottom paint, or the bottom of the masked white side tape. Then fine line tape was applied to the bottom of the previously applied fine line tape. The center piece of tape was then removed leaving a 1/4 space to apply the red boot stripe. The bow for the boot stripe was a bit more difficult. Because of the angle of the hull at this point, the painted area had to be wider in order to accommodate the angle of the hull. The boot stripe needs to be 1/4 inch when viewed head on looking at the bow. If just the 1/4 inch tape was used, then the boot stripe would be too narrow.
Bulwark Railing
July 2023. The holes for the railing were previously drilled with the drill press and the railing was also previously made. The bottom of each stanchion was roughed up and notches were made for holding power of the adhesive. G-Flex was mixed up and it was applied in each hole with a pin. The railing was inserted into the bulwark. Spacers were used in order to keep each stanchion the proper distance from the top of the bulwark. Creative clamping was then done in order to keep the railing in place until the glue set up. The next day this was repeated for the other side.
Bow Anchor Post
July 2023. Some basswood was cut and glued for the anchor post. The working spot on the posts were also roughly filed down to show wear and usage of the rope binding. Holes were drilled in the bottom for a brass pin. These pins were used to locate the spot in the deck for drilling. The drill press was used to drill a pair of vertical holes. The area below the sub-deck between the frames was previously reinforced in preparation for drilling holes for the anchor handling equipment. Once the anchor post was painted it can be pushed in place with a nice friction fit until it is ready to be glued at a future time.
Main Deck Cabin Seats
July 2023. For the cabin seats I used the sliding cutter I made for cutting the deck planks. I made a narrower cut by changing the jig that holds the razor blade. The slats were stained with dark walnut before glueing. A fixture was made to hold the assembly as they were being glued up. Spacers were also made and used so the slats all had the same spacing. Cross members were used to hold the slats in position. These cross members will be glued to styrene braces which will glued to the cabin walls.
Cabin Door Rails
July-August 2023. The cabin doors appear to slide open on the real boat. One side of square brass stock was removed with a Dremel abrasive wheel and this was cleaned up with the abrasive wheel and files so that it is now a u-channel. This would be cut to fit on the door proper. The next size up square stock also had one side removed. This is what the door will slide in, the track. The bottom track will be glued to the cabin side. So that the doors are serviceable, the upper track will be removable. The heads were removed from 080 brass machine screws. The screws were soldered onto one side of the upper track. Holes will be drilled were needed for the upper track to bolt to the cabin.
Bulwark Covering Board
August 2023. I needed some way to secure the deck on top of the cabin to the cabin and not have any mounting hardware visible. I started with the aft end of the cabin. Basically, blocks of wood were glued to the inside of the cabin aft wall. This area will eventually be hidden inside the head. On one of the underside deck stiffeners. I secured an aluminum angle with a square hole. The deck was placed on top of the cabin, slide aft a little, and the square angle went around the block of wood securing the aft part of the deck in place.
Bow Lettering
October 2023. The graphics for the Big Marie S I am having designed and printed by Callie Graphics. You can see the process below. The process is pretty straight forward. Finely sand the surface, clean, apply the graphic, mask, spray with Rustoleum black gloss, remove masking. Due to the simulated planks there was some seepage into the lines which were cleaned up with a pick and Exacto blade. Eventually this and the rest of the hull will be wet sanded before a satin clear coat is applied. Same goes for the boot stripe on the waterline. At some time the graphic will be applied to the transom.
Cabin Painting
Fenruary 2024. The cabin was finally masked and painted with Rustoleum White Satin. After a few days for the paint to dry & cure it was wet sanded and spray with Rustoleum Satin Clear.
Cabin Doors
February 2024. The three cabin doors were previously cut from GRP, glass reinforced plastic. The tops and and bottoms were trimmed to fit the brass u-channel. They were painted with the usual Satin White. Basswood trim was cut to size, stained and clear coated. The trim pieces were then CA’d in place. A lower square panel was cut, finished and fitted in the lower part of the door. The trim around the window openings had about a 1/32 inch lip so that the acrylic windows would lay up against this lip. A black magic marker was used on the edge of the windows to create a gasket look, not that this part would be visible. The acrylic windows were glues in place with canopy glue. Brass wire was bent to shape and inserted into the outside of the door for use as a door handle. The bottom track for the door is glued to the cabin and the upper track is held in place with machine screws. This allows for adjustments to the track to allow the door to slide and for maintenance. There are two sliding doors near the front of the cabin and one at the aft end.
Cabin Windows
March 2024. The edge of the acrylic cabin windows were colored with a brown magic marker. I’m not entirely happy with how they appear using the brown marker. So going forward I will stick with black. On the SS Miss Belmar I hand painted the window edges and the inside edges on the cabin with Testor’s black. That method gave a very good representation of the window gasket. From what I can tell from the pictures that I do have, the windows on the Big Marie S appear different, so I went with brown. I’ll know but know body else will probably notice.
Cabin Seating, outside
March 2024. The exterior cabin seating, previously constructed and finished, was glued onto the individual supports. The top of each support had the paint scrapped away with an Exacto knife. Since the satin finish was hand applied with a cloth, nothing was applied were the glue would be in contact. The front wrap around seats were glued together as a sub-section prior to being glued in place, Since the front part of the cabin has a slight angle to it, the seats will slide in as a complete section with no problem. In these photos, you can also see the windows in place and the sliding doors very easily slide on their tracks.
Upper Deck Bulwark
May 2024. The upper deck bulwark now requires assembly. Glazing putty was applied then sanded to fill in any voids and make the surface smooth for paint. A Dremel was used to make slots where the joint will be. A tongue was inserted into one side then the joints were glued togather with G-Flex. As with any boat you need to be creative when clamping. Wax paper was put on the deck to prevent adhesion. The front ends were trimmed down to the sides. Glazing putty was applied to the front bottom to fill any gaps between the bulwark and cambered upper deck. Marks were made where the locator pins meet the deck and holes were drilled. The bulwark will be glued to the deck at a later time.
Life Floats part 1 of 2
April 2024. Some of the dates skip around. There were three life raft floats on the upper deck before the bulwark. When the boat changed hands and was renamed American Eagle it looks like they eliminated the rowboat and added a float. As far as I know from the Miss Belmar these type of floats had netting that extended a platform down into the water so people can stand. And there were ropes on the sides people can hold onto. A sort of sample is the second picture.
I drew up a plan in QCad and started cutting away using the Micromark table saw. Once rough cut to lenght I applied glazing putty and sanded to fill any voids. They were cut to length and a rabbit was cut on one side of each section. They were then glued together two sections at a time. Then those two sections were glued together. The excess was removed and sanded. On the inner corners I added a small piece of wood and that was filed and sanded down to a radius. Then the outer radius was sanded using a jig to get a uniorm radius. I used the Dremel router table to add a radius to all edges. Then glazing touch up again and sanded.
Finally, a rib was added around the perimeter. Not sure of the purpose of this rib.
Life Floats part 2 of 2
April 2024. I could not see how the floats were mounted to the deck so I came up with the following. Some basswood was glued 90 degrees to each other. They were then cut to about 1/4 inch sections. Holes were drilled and magnets inserted in the holes. Top and bottom was filled with baking soda then thin CA was applied. The top and bottom were then sanded.
Holes were drilled on the bottom side of each float, magnets inserted then filled, sanded, glazed and sanded. They have already been painted and mounts glued in place, will show that later.
Speed Controllers
September 2023. These speed controllers were kits someone in our club designed something like 20 years ago. They were meant to build as a club project but I am just getting around to building them now. You can buy inexpensive ones today that are probably better than these, but I like the challenge. Once they were built and tested, one of them was not working properly. To remedy this I was already a member on an electronics forum, so I asked away with the problem which they helped fix. In the end, a 7805 regulator was the main problem. Now I have two functional speed controls. Once the boat is lake tested, if they do not perform up to expectations, they are easily replaced.
Speed Controller Mounts
January 2024. The mounts were made of pine with magnets inserted into the corners to facilitate easy removal. Everything about all of the electronics in the model is going to be easy install and removal should service be needed. Not that there will be much service needed. The holes for the magnets were drilled undersize for a press fit and the magnets were roughed up and CA’d in place. The parts mounted in the hull were beveled to fit the angle of the hull and glued in place.
Remote on-off control (Keyfob)
January 2024. I purchased this Keyfob set off of Amazon. I will be using it to turn on & off power to the motors. The lights will have their own manual on & off switch as will be seen later. As purchase, it did not perform as I wanted it to. And I did not fully understand the foreign language English instructions. So I went for help on the electronics forum again. If you look at the fourth picture you will see three ‘soldered jumpers’ that need to be either soldered or not depending how you want the output to work. One jumper is by V+, one by NC and one by GND.
WILL COME BACK TO THIS LATER TO INDICATE WHAT JUMPERS SHOULD BE SOLDERED.
Other internal electronics
February 2024. I needed a place to mount on-off toggle switches and the Keyfob unit. A section of thin plywood was cut to shape to fit behind the ESC’s. The base of the Keyfob was stuck to the plywood with double sided tape. Once this was done a box was made to hold the LIPO battery and this fit behind the on-off tray. GRP was cut to shape for the toggle switches, then artwork was designed in QCad and laser printed on magazine paper. This was cut to size and taped to the GRP board. The GRP board was heated with a regular clothes iron, then the paper was flipped over and further heat was applied with the iron. Once this cooled, the board was left dipped in water and the magazine paper was finger rubbed off leaving the laser toner artwork on the GRP. Once cleaned up it was sprayed with clear satin enamel. The toggle switches, LED’s, and terminal connectors were then soldered in place to the GRP board and the board was fixed in place on the plywood board with nylon spacers. The battery harness was added as well as connecting wires to the receiver on-off device and speed controllers. Wires were added from the motors, each wire had 2mm bullet connectors which connected to mini fuses located under the ESC’s.
The BEC and lights are turned on by their own toggle switches. By turning these both on I can activate the lights by radio or other toggle switches which will be described later. The motor toggle switch has two positions. One is to use the Keyfob remote. Should I forget the Keyfob at home for some reason, I can activate the motors by flipping the toggle switch to Direct.
Rowboat examples
These pictures which I found on the web will be used to scratch build a 7-1/2 inch rowboat. Scaled up it will be 15 feet. On some of the pictures of the Big Marie S you can see an upside down rowboat on the upper deck. Since there are no actual pictures I will have to use my imagination to build this. I don’t know how they get this rowboat off of the upper deck as no lift or crane can be seen.
Rowboat Construction
April-May 2024. Once the plans were designed, they were printed and glue to basswood sheet. The frames were slotted and fit into slots in the keel (strongback) upside down on a sturdy board. Only the transom was glued to the keel as the transom piece will be the transom. The other frames will be removed as will the interior of the strongback. Each frame was measured from keel to sheer and the number of planks were determined as well as the plank width. After each plank was applied, the measurements were taken again for the next plank width. Once all of the planks were applied, it was removed from the build board. The frames were removed and the strongback was trimmed down on the inside. I had to fix the sheer on the forward starboard side. Whatever else that needed trimming was taken care of and small gaps in the planks were filled with gazing putty. Styrene strips for simulated frames were added as well as any other interior components.
Rowboat before painting
May 2024. Once the main contruction was done, styrene frames and other items were added to give the rowboat that ‘busy’ look. You can check the last picture of ‘Rowboat Examples’ and see the nautical term for some of the items. Under the seats, a square magnet was glued which will hold the rowboat in place upside down on the uper deck. The ‘floor’ and seats were not glued in place until after painting.
Rowboat after painting
May 2024. The rowboat was painted the usual Rustoleum satin white. The pictures show a somewhat rough finish, the real boat would not be ‘perfect’ but from a normal viewing distance, it appears fine. At least in my opinion. The deck mounts that the rowboat resides on has magnets embedded in the ends. The proper size tie down rope was CA’d to magnets and those attached to the hidden magnets.
Upper Deck Sign Mounts
June 2024. Back in time in the 80’s I made 1×4 inch sign boards which were meant to go on the SSS Miss Belmar mounted to the upper deck railing. I never completed them until now. I am waiting for the graphics from Callie Graphics to finish these sign boards. For the mount, square brass tubing fit perfectly. I had to make the square tubing into u-channel. To do this I set the square tube between two pieces of wood to steady it, then used a Dremel abrasive wheel to remove one side. Then small files were used to clean up the edges. I previously did this on larger square tubing for the sliding cabin doors. The ends of one side were bent down and soldered to create a stop for the sign boards. Once the u-channel was cut to length they were soldered to sheet brass. They were then soldered to the upper deck railing. Once the graphics are applied, they will look nice and I will be able to change the signs depending on the season the fish are running.
Future Section
Future section text