My build - King of the Mississipi

A picture or two of the state of my build of this paddle river boat. I have been at this for four months and am now bald and hate superglue with a passion!
A complex kit and a surprise Xmas present. A lot of repeditive sawing of stripwood, planking decking and other never- ending tasks. Still, we are getting there. I am nearing the end of the journey, and she DOES look impressive.

More pictures to come.

Nice work! I am about to put in the vertical supports on the second deck on mine. Did you need to angle those? I am thinking it is possibly sanding the top and bottom of each one to fit?

Yes. Plenty of good PVA glue, a good sanding block and a lot of patience. The glue is a good gap filler and let's you fiddle.

Piccies of your build?

Thanks! Build Log I started. Hopefully the link works.

Always nice to see the build of another Paddle Steamer, ‘Jnewey’.
Regards, Peter

More pics for anyone interested. Not far off finishing now. Tacking the rigging line to a thin piece of wire solved the block threading problem. Note the passenger lying down on the job!

The worst thing with this kit is the myriad of small bits you have to tack on everywhere. Superglue is fine for some of them, but I prefer good high-tack PVA glue. It gives you time to fiddle.Now the rigging is done, we are on the final lap. Paddle wheels and rudders and a few other finishing touches and we are done.

As to the rigging, opening the tiny holes up on the tackle blocks is vital. As is.....superglue! Any superhuman patience.

I did all the railings by eye. I think you can tell.

Then I found a set of positioning templates in the kit. Not mentioned in the instructions but shown in the parts list. Grrrrr..
Still we do what we do......that's the trouble with these video instructions!


I also found that there wasn't quite enough chain. Amazon and some 1.5mm chain sorted that.


Another would-be problem was the braces that pass through from the top deck downwards. Make sure the holes for them are opened up to fit BEFORE you try and force them in. I didn't......

A tough kit for me, but we got there.