Scratchbuild Creole Queen

F

Ferd

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Hi BoulderBoater,
I have been looking for some plans for a sternwheeler and hope to start scratch building one this fall. I began by following Wim500's posts and was disappointed in the loss of his picture files. But now I see you are providing similar pictures of your build. I would like to know what one gets from Dumas for their plans - are they the papers I see laying under the frames of your hull? Are they worth ordering?
Fred in Canada
 
Hi Fred,
Yes, the plans I bought from Dumas I used as a start. They were $15 and included full instruction steps, (3 pages) without pictures which is frustrating. Also 2 large sheets of the model in plan and elevation, but at reduced scale to their model. I calculated the magnification to result in 1:40 scale, and had them enlarged at FedEx.
I then seriously changed the hull! I wanted the hull bottom to be flat out to the jigs because of my batteries. More later if you are interested.
Paul
 
Thanks for the info, Paul.
My experience has been building RC sailboats, but not the fine details for scale boats. I always wanted an RC sternwheeler so I will likely order the Dumas plans. I will watch for updates on your Creole Queen to keep me inspired for starting mine.
 
Hi Fred,
remember, the Dumas model is "quite small", and I enlarged it to about 60 inches which meant I redesigned the hull structure significantly. I wanted to fit a number of 6 inch wide batteries so I dispensed with the keel (?) and used the 2 jigs and a flat bottomed hull . Remains to be seen if this was a good idea - so far the resulting 'egg crate' hull seems immensely strong and I am continuing to add the hull sides. I screwed up on motors - I wanted 2 to power half of the paddles each, but their size was just that bit too big. So they will have to be staggered, with different belt lengths! Darn! My original idea was to make the model 6 ft rather than 5ft long, but the increase in weight put me off. Weight goes up pretty quick ( as cube of length) which is a bit daunting. The Dumas plans are a good starting point even though they want about $12 postage, as you can enlarge them however much you want, and redraw over the enlargements to suit.
cheers, Paul

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"Quite small?" I was thinking 48" is quite big. I'm thinking of the launching and retrieval of the boat.
Your build looks like it's coming along nicely. Before I jump into this project, I will want to check availability of wood and mechanical parts.
Where I live there is no hobby shop nearby and everything needs to be ordered and shipped. Canadian shipping fees are outrageous.
 
I have been wondering about the drive system I could use for the 48" version of the Creole Queen. I have no idea of the motor torque required and cannot find any recommendations. But I found the following motor at AliExpress. Do you think this would be adequate if I got the 12V motor at 160 (no load) RPM? And maybe control it with the ESC pictured, powered by a 3-cell LIPO battery. What are your thoughts on these components?

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Is the 48' version the Dumas kit size? I thought it was smaller. If you are building from scratch 48" is quite a convenient size - good for you !
I am using a PAIR of 555 motors (?), geared down to about 200rpm at 12v. Your motor, at 12V and 1.5A is using 18W which is not bad. Mine say 12V at 1/2A
which comes to only 12W total, on a bigger hull. I think you should be OK, but I might have to get something bigger. I'll be interested to hear if your motor is noisy - mine has in-line planetary gears which are very quiet but have to be mounted across the hull - a really tight fit !!
I hate LiPo batteries, but I think you will end up with about 12V from 3 of them. I use the ESC pictured, (or a clone) and have found them quite bullet-proof. I like the simple 3-pos switch for for/rev. and the inhibit switch. I am using LiFePO4 batteries. They are incredible, unless you want very high instant current.

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Hi Fred,
I've just realized I made a huge mistake. Somewhere I misread the scale of the Dumas model. I thought it was smaller than 48" but 1:48 scale of 192ft original is truly 48". The Amazon site claims it is 1:24 scale - obviously wrong (not a 8ft model!) , and on another site it said 1:82 scale. I bought the plans, which were not model full scale, and just enlarged them to 1:40 scale - that is about 60 inches. So mine is not that much larger! I wish I knew what the Dumas model weighed, can't find that anywhere. The original had 'gross tonnage' of 400 t, which does not help.
 
The first line in the instructions states "the Dumas kit is a 1/4" = 1 foot scale model", so that makes it a 48" kit.

I emailed Dumas to ask what exactly I would receive if I ordered the plans. They may have thought I was considering ordering the Creole kit because they emailed me back with 6 pages of plans plus the build instructions. The plan sheets that show the hull look like they have a few measurements but not legible at all. When printed, these pages are just 8 1/2" x 11" sheets and the various hull components are shown at different scales.

Now I can see how these plans are not made to scratch build from and I'm still not confident in working from these plans. I think the hull is the most critical part of the boat so I would prefer templates of the parts, even if I have to scale them. Before diving into this project, I will check out any other sources for better plans - not necessarily the Creole Queen, but it's a nice looking sternwheeler.
 
the 1/4" = 1 foot is 1:48 scale, but coincidentally, 1/48th of 192 ft is about 48 inches !
the plans I got were good quality and very legible. even when enlarged to 1:48 scale they were good. So enlarging them further to 1:40 scale resulted in very usable drawings of all the ribs, jigs, topside details, etc. Maybe they sent you copies of copies, but what I got was worth more to me than $15, even though I spent about $70 at Fedex getting everything enlarged to my scale.

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I'm still not sure why wim500 started this thread with title "scratch-built creole queen 1/82 ". What does the "1/82 refer to - not the scale, length or date?
 
Yes, that's 28" long - pretty small for RC control., Then, in one of the first posts he mentioned it would be 85cm long (33 inches?). But he also says he re-did the plans, so who knows what scale he ended up with.

The picture of your Dumas plans that you posted this morning is quite different (and much better) than what they emailed me. Yesterday you posted two other pictures of your hull sitting on some plans. Are those also Dumas plans?
 
Yes, that really confused me also. I could not decide what his size was, and the Dumas plans were not "life size" for their model so I just scaled the plans to get the right size for me. Yes, the drawings you see in my picture are all of the Dumas plans scaled up to 1:40 scale. They are really good, although several sheets were different scale. I calculated the enlargement ratios (like 165%) and got the Fedex guy to run them through their enlarger/printer. They came out very clear, and I cut out the different outlines and reduplicated them on a domestic copier. As you can see, I drew all over them and did not make any extra copies. Sorry, I wish I had done so!
 
I have no idea what size is the motor for the Dumas kit. They never identify it, but maybe someone reading this knows its spec. or part number. Once the motor is geared down, the torque is increased, but total power out put is still important. As I'm using 2 small motors, I hope they will be enough. I have 200rpm, so I will belt drive the paddles with 48 and 36 toothed wheels, to get speed down to 150rpm.
 
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Boulderboater said:
Yes, that really confused me also. I could not decide what his size was, and the Dumas plans were not "life size" for their model so I just scaled the plans to get the right size for me. Yes, the drawings you see in my picture are all of the Dumas plans scaled up to 1:40 scale. They are really good, although several sheets were different scale. I calculated the enlargement ratios (like 165%) and got the Fedex guy to run them through their enlarger/printer. They came out very clear, and I cut out the different outlines and reduplicated them on a domestic copier. As you can see, I drew all over them and did not make any extra copies. Sorry, I wish I had done so!
Click to expand...
Hallo @Boulderboater
we wish you all the BESt and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Birthday-Cake
 
Ferd said:
Yes, that's 28" long - pretty small for RC control., Then, in one of the first posts he mentioned it would be 85cm long (33 inches?). But he also says he re-did the plans, so who knows what scale he ended up with.

The picture of your Dumas plans that you posted this morning is quite different (and much better) than what they emailed me. Yesterday you posted two other pictures of your hull sitting on some plans. Are those also Dumas plans?
Click to expand...
Hi Fred,
have you decided to get the Dumas plans and scale them up, or to get their complete kit? The reviews of the kit I have seen on Amazon, etc. are quite scathing.
I have previously bought different Dumas kits and agree that the quality is terrible. The parts are punched out with worn-out equipment that crushes the wood, which was already de-laminating and warped.
 
I'm almost ready to order the plans only, definitely not the kit.
Shipping charges are not provided at checkout, so I emailed them again to ask. Shipping anything to Canada can be VERY expensive. I'm also going through my inventory of various thicknesses of plywood. Is 1/8" plywood used for the larger hull & deck pieces?
 
Yes, they charged me about $12 shipping ! ! ! I have been using 1/8 th birch ply on the hull. Double or treble thickness in places.
 
Dumas tells me I will get hard copies of the plans for $15 plus $7.29 shipping. That will be about $30-$40 Canadian, depending on any duty charged at the border. I have put in the order for the plans. I'm expecting 10-15 days for delivery if they use USPS.
 
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