Next up was a new rudder and steering wheel, helm, tiller or whatever the proper nautical term is.
This was another scratch-build as the kit part was flawed anyway, having a significant inclusion on the front of the rim, which to be fair, wouldn’t have been hard to fill and paint over. It was however also a significant deviation from the real item, which was an unusual and attractive design.
The initial step was to bond three pieces of pear veneer with the grain of the centre layer at right angles to the others.
Then followed a lot of drilling, filing and sanding to get to…
The hub was made from aluminium sheet left over from the kit car I built.
And here’s the item after staining and varnishing, with the kit item alongside. The camera hasn’t picked out the delicate grain of the rim which is a pity.
Then came the rudder. The kit’s was a stainless steel item which was quite nice. It was also an unusual oval/spade shape whereas the pictures of Miss Severn indicate that it had a more rectangular zinc plated item.
The net result was that I ordered some ground steel rod to fit in the stuffing tube provided in the kit and made the rest from brass sheet.
The original in place.
The replacement.
I’m currently working on a quick (the term is relative…) diversion back in the WW1 aviation field: a build of Hasegawa’s white metal 1:8 Clerget 9B engine. It’s a holiday from boats after a year or so of doing those, so quite welcome. Depending on progress that may well feature as my next post rather than the Chris Craft or Miss Severn.
The next post in this series can be found here: ‘Miss Severn’ 1922 Gold Cup Racer – Mack Models 1:8 (Part 7). If you are interested in the build of the engine being installed in this model, then that has a series of posts all of its own starting here: Hispano-Suiza 8F (Part 1)
MBIQ Models 
Merry Christmas. The boat wheel is a masterpiece!
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Merry Christmas to you too.
I wondered how I was going to do the wheel and set off without knowing how I’d get to the end. It worked out OK though for all that.
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The white metal Clergies will be very interesting to follow.
Got the same kit in my stash.
🙂
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The Clerget kit has been hard work so far.
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Très belle réalisation
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Hi trouble, I’m back!
As always, inspirational, but I’m not going to follow you this time and make the boat, the Camel was enough! Love that rudder and impressed the wheel didn’t break and have to be remade several times. I think you are being less than honest, I think you have a team of very small elves helping out with the carpentry!
As for the Clerget, I’ve not tried the white metal kit, not even seen it. I have made two of the plastic, the latter with a lot of mods. I’d watch those scratch build springs though. The kit ones (plastic) are in the right direction in terms of they were extended out like a cloathes peg, but were doubled back. This was because the heat from the engine used to break the springs in a simple coil, so they made them more like a caliper to dissipate the heat.
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I’ve seen both the butterfly springs and the coil ones fitted to museum engines. The parts manual lists both too. That’s why I copped out on my plastic models and went for the coils. I did try making some of the others with a simple jig, but it was too hard to get repeatability so I gave in. It required a more complex jig and different wire to do properly.
I have enough problems reminding myself that the aim is to actually build the model as it is.
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