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Lindberg 1:163 scale Robert E Lee River Boat with lights


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Hello once again.

I was sent this kit by a special friend in the USA who knew of my interest in the River Boats of the deep south and I wanted to create something special for my own views mainly but I'm hoping that others would also find it interesting or inspiring.
The plan:

To add lighting wherever I can to illuminate it in the style that they were seen when operating on the river. I don't know for sure what I will be able to achieve as I am basically trying things out as I go along. It could be a bumpy ride or it could be very educational for me but, whatever happens, I will share it with those who are interested. It may not be historically correct but it will be as I would have thought these boats would have been back in that era. So, come aboard shipmates and let's set sail..............

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I've cut out the middle section to allow for storing of the wiring 

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The Hull has been fixed to the deck and deck supports added that were not included in the kit.

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This is the underside of the boiler unit. I opened a couple of the boiler doors and added a flickering LED to create the impression of a fire burning.

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This is a video of the effect 

These are the log piles which sit by the boiler and are used to create the steam required.

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The boiler and log piles in place but not fixed yet. Deck has been painted now.

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If you are going to be running a lot of wires you might want to consider using some of the very fine silicon wire sold by The Component Shop-very thin and flexible and available in a number of colours. I, have used it in several R/ C projects and it works very well. Keeping track of different circuits via colours is helpful too. 

I like the boiler effect. I think these kits are not exactly state of the art so it leaves you a fairly clean slate to add as much detail and doo-dahs as you like,

 

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On 1/7/2020 at 6:05 PM, Martian Hale said:

A very interesting project. I look forward to seeing how it develops.

 

Martian 👽

Thanks for your interest. It is an interesting project I must admit. In some places it is easy to add lights but now I am finding it challenging to place lights in areas where they cannot be seen. More pictures coming soon as I've been doing a lot of prep work.

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3 hours ago, mollythedog said:

If you are going to be running a lot of wires you might want to consider using some of the very fine silicon wire sold by The Component Shop-very thin and flexible and available in a number of colours. I, have used it in several R/ C projects and it works very well. Keeping track of different circuits via colours is helpful too. 

I like the boiler effect. I think these kits are not exactly state of the art so it leaves you a fairly clean slate to add as much detail and doo-dahs as you like,

 

Thanks, Molly. I will have a look at that store to see what other bits would be useful with my builds. At present I use kynar wire which is very thin and flexible. It is used in game controllers, mice, etc, and is a reasonable price. As you say, the kit is open for many variations. I've looked online and there are so many different versions of these boats but I am just going with what I think looks right, without it looking too modern.

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Moving on now, I thought it strange that the boardwalks around the boilers didn't have any guard rails supplied in the kit, so decided to add them from my spares box.

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The name and paddles are painted. Very little is seen of the paddles which is a shame.

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The rear cabins. As usual I have added a mirror paper around the walls, floor and ceiling as this helps spread the light around the whole 'room'.

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A test run of the rear lights to check for light leakages. Roof not secured yet,

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I had to open all of windows up as they were all blocked in but from a distance they look ok. I also added glazing to the windows as none was included in the kit. I think that even in those days they must have had glass.

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12 hours ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

I have one of these on the go. I was given it in an old Kleeware boxing. I managed to pick up a wooden decking kit for it. No lights in mine, but it will be getting the glazing treatment. Bit of a fiddle, isn't it?

To be honest the Lindberg kit is not too bad to put together once you get used to the flashing on some of the parts and there is not a great deal of detail but, overall, it is a build that I am enjoying as I have not done a paddle steamer before. The good thing is that you start from the hull and just build up each deck as you go along. 

While gathering info from the Internet I saw some builds where people had used the add-on parts and they really do bring a lot of detail to the kit especially the wooden decking. So I think that was a good choice of yours. For glazing I used thin pliable clear plastic often found from products received in the post or in the shopping trolley.
Are you posting any pictures?

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Hi Kevin. No photos of the build I'm afraid. I tend to do bits along with other builds. I sprayed the whole kit on the sprues with Halfords white primer before I began. I was going to use PVA for the windows, but clear acetate would work just as well. The holes in the wooden decking don't quite match up, so it needs a bit of carpentry to sort it out. A model I had designs on for decades before this was gifted last year. Here's a nice colour painting for reference.

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1 hour ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

Hi Kevin. No photos of the build I'm afraid. I tend to do bits along with other builds. I sprayed the whole kit on the sprues with Halfords white primer before I began. I was going to use PVA for the windows, but clear acetate would work just as well. The holes in the wooden decking don't quite match up, so it needs a bit of carpentry to sort it out. A model I had designs on for decades before this was gifted last year. Here's a nice colour painting for reference.

 

Thanks for the large picture. It will be a great reference tool. Like you, I was gifted this kit. A friend who lives in the USA sent it to me as they are so hard to obtain in the UK. The problem with trying to recreate a boat like this is that most decent reference material is in black and white. There are only a few coloured pictures of the real thing and these are usually paintings that people have done. Having said that, I think it allows you some give and take regarding accuracy and most people have put their own twist on their builds. So I think you can get away with things not being totally accurate.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The rear section is now ready for sealing and the right amount of LED's have been fitted (I hope)

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The upper deck walls are now fitted and the internal lights seem to work ok. The upper deck is yet to be fixed.

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Now for some testing in the dark to see if I am creating the right atmosphere without it becoming a giant beacon.

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The internal and external lights for the upper deck front section have been added. A few wires can be seen, lol.

Also, the main stair case has been fitted into place.

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Some final test shots in the dark before biting the bullet and fixing the top section down.

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Everything secured now and a little weight added to make sure it all fits properly. There is a curve in the decks so you 

have to make sure everything touches and there is no leaking light. No going back now if something doesn't work.

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All went well and everything is secure. The top deck cabins have been fixed and the LED's are in place awaiting soldering.

Rob34 Rob35 Rob36

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi again. Finally had some time to get this monster going again. Top deck cabin LED's now fixed and linked. This shows how I have placed reflective silver foil around the walls to help to dispel the lighting.

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Top deck roof placed as well as the steering cabin.

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This is how I added the navigation lights to the stacks. I couldn't think of another way to do them but they seem to look ok.

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Deck 'furniture' in place ready for the rigging.

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Stacks in place and centre stack supports in place.

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Testing the stack lighting.

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Front walkway masts now in place. The rigging is looming..........

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First part of the decking rigging complete. This is the part that I really enjoy.

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Front gang planks rigging finished now as well as the front mast.

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A real nice ship, to bad there's so few if any of these around. It is a shame so much of the wheels are covered. Just thought,HO smoke generators would be neat to look like it's at idle. Going to need a big bathtub for it.

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10 hours ago, Murdo said:

Fabulous work!

 

Would love to see what you're powering your LEDs with and how they're connected. Are you using 3.5v soft white LEDs and resistors?

Thank you Murdo.

The main thing that I liked about this build was that all of the lights would be on at the same time (unlike vehicles, where you have to run so many separate leads) so my plan is to only have 2 wires to connect to the power source. I split the boat into sections. All of the rear LED's were connected to one block, the front to another and then the third section was the top. These blocks were then joined together by one wire and one (yes one) resistor which gave me the right ambience for the atmosphere that I wanted to create of an old ship from the past. 
Usually I power my kits with 4 AA batteries in a holder but I have just bought some coin batteries and holders as they don't take up much space. I will post pictures when I get to that part.

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7 hours ago, busnproplinerfan said:

A real nice ship, to bad there's so few if any of these around. It is a shame so much of the wheels are covered. Just thought,HO smoke generators would be neat to look like it's at idle. Going to need a big bathtub for it.

Hi 

I must say that this is an amazing kit to build as there is so much that you could add to it. I was lucky to have a friend from the US who sent me the kit but, as you said, it is a hard kit to get hold of but if you do mange to get one you will be pleased with it. 
I added lights to it but there is plenty of room to install a smoke generator and even a motor to drive the paddles. I agree about the paddles being hidden but you could cut away the side panel of one of them and cover it with a clear plastic cover? If you really wanted to go to town, you could actually furnish all of the rooms if the resources are available.
As for the bath tub, I did wonder myself if it would actually float but I don't know if I am brave enough to try it................yet! Ha! Ha!

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Welcome back everyone. I am now getting near to the end with this build and I'd like to say that I quite enjoyed this build. With a lot of thought and planning I feel I have achieved what I set out to do.
 

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The flags are now in place. I have lot of problems as the decal flags just fell apart so I had to create some from scraps.

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The finished item. I have added some smoke and steam effects to the stacks.

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Thank you all for following this build and I hope that you enjoyed it. I also hope that it has given others the inspiration to get this kit and create an unusual and stunning model to display.
I will be posting more finished pictures in the RFI section.

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