How to Build a Model Paddle Steamer

Riverboats were once common sights from St. Louis to New Orleans.

Steam-powered ships and boats used paddle wheels before propellers became common. The vessel's steam engines were used to turn massive paddle wheels, mounted on the sides for ocean-going ships or at the back for riverboats. Although most vessels today are propeller-driven, you can still find paddle wheel ships on some rivers and lakes. Stern-wheel paddle steamers, once common on the Mississippi River as freight haulers, now traverse those waters as cruise ships and tourist vessels. This model is a small stern-wheeler typical of the Mississippi boats, such as the famous Natchez and Robert E. Lee.

Things You'll Need

• Reference picture of a stern-wheel steamboat
• Wood, 1-by-4-by-8 inches
• Saw
• Sheet balsa wood, 4-by-24 inches
• Wood glue
• 1 soda straw
• Hobby knife
• 2 pencils
• Craft sticks
• Straight-edged ruler

Instructions

1. Draw the boat's deck plan on the flat side of the 2-by-4 so that the ends of the boat meet the ends of the wood and so that the sides of the deck meet the edges of the wood. As this is a stern-wheeler, meaning that the paddle wheel goes at the back end of the boat, make the back end of the drawing straight rather than boat-shaped.

2. Cut the boat's shape out of the wood with the saw. The end result will be a flat, boat-shaped piece of wood -- exactly right for a stern-wheel steamboat.

3. Make the cabin walls and roof from the sheet balsa. Make the side walls 2 inches tall and 4 inches long. The end walls will be 2-by-2-inch squares. The roof will be 2-by-4 inches. At the same time, cut five more 2-by-2-inch squares from the balsa to build the pilot house.

4. Glue the top, side and end pieces of the cabin together to form a rectangular box. It will be open on one side. Glue the five 2-by-2-inch pieces of the pilot house together to form a cube with one open side.

5. Glue the cabin onto the hull 2 inches from the front and centered on the deck from side to side with the open side down. Glue the pilot house on top of the front of the cabin.

6. Cut the soda straw in half and glue the two pieces side by side, behind the pilot house, to make the boat's smokestacks.

7. Cut one of the pencils to 4 inches in length and glue one craft stick to each of the flat sides of the pencil to form the paddle wheel. Leave two adjacent sides of the pencil blank to represent paddles under water.

8. Glue two craft sticks on either side of the boat so that they stick off the back just far enough to capture the paddle wheel between them. Rotate the paddle wheel so that the two "blank" spaces are facing down and glue it between the craft sticks. Your stern-wheel paddle steamer is now complete. Give the glue some time to dry before you add details and paint it.

Tips & Warnings

• One of the most prominent features on stern-wheel boats is the open-air gallery of the main cabin. You can create this by gluing craft sticks lengthwise along the upper edge of the cabin to create an overhang.

• Paint the hull and cabins white and the smokestack and paddle wheel black. You can use black paint to indicate the windows in the pilot house.

References

• Lionel Casson; Illustrated History of Ships & Boats, 1964
• Frank Mastini; Ship Modeling Simplified, 1990