Wild West stern-wheel river-going steamboat (Proud Mary) - real world MOC model

[Murdoch17]

Left a good job in the city
Workin' for the man ev'ry night and day
And I never lost one minute of sleepin'
Worryin' 'bout the way things might have been

Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river

First off:  I saw a similar steamboat on LEGO Ideas several years ago and just finally got around to recreating it from the pictures provided. (the project sadly never made it past several hundred votes, it my memory is correct.) I modified it heavily into the version you see here with my own tweaks and twists in the design installed, such as I added a second funnel, revised the placement of said funnels to the front of the ship, and removed the roof off most of the second deck. Oh, and I added three whistles to the top of the pilot's cab like those in set 21317. (Steamboat Willie). Also, my version does NOT have a swing-open right side like the original Ideas model that was my inspiration... thus you cannot get at the inside, and why would you want to? Their is nothing inside at all anyway on my version, save for the blue deck chairs on the top level.

The name of the ship is the Proud Mary, after the Creedence Clearwater Revival song of the same name (as quoted above), as I figured it would be appropriate. This model will go with the rest of my Western models, on my Wild West layout.

The captain of the Proud Mary is Thaddeus Sweeney, better known as "Old Man Sweet-tooth", for his habit of chewing saltwater taffy when the going gets tough and and giving candy out to the little children whenever he lands at small towns and native american villages such as Lone Tree, Nebraska, or Fort Legoredo, Colorado. He usually plies his brand-new-for-1872 stern-wheel steamboat up and down the Rapid River, with the Missouri River in Iowa at one end, and the the mighty cliff face of Showdown Canyon Springs at the other end in the middle of Colorado. Thaddeus is the only one he trusts to handle his ship, as he says the Rapid River is too treacherous for many newer pilots, as the wrecks that litter the shoreline prove. However, even Captain Sweeney admits from time to time that age is catching up to him, and he has been looking for a suitable first mate for the Proud Mary for some time.

Edited April 3, 2019 by Murdoch17

[Pdaitabird]

Looks good, especially the SNOT technique for the hull.

[Murdoch17]

On 3/15/2019 at 9:48 AM, Pdaitabird said:

Looks good, especially the SNOT technique for the hull.

Glad you like it @Pdaitabird! Here's a bit of an upgrade, just before she gets built in real bricks:

I added a second funnel, revised the placement of said funnels to the front of the ship, and removed the roof off most of the second deck. Oh, and I added three whistles to the top of the pilot's cab like those in set 21317. (Steamboat Willie) Also, a custom civil war-era US flag is going to fly off the flag pole at the other end of the ship when built in real life. This same flag type will fly over my enlarged Fort Legoredo... whenever that gets built!

[Murdoch17]

slight BUMP: the real world model picture's of the Proud Mary have just been uploaded to the first post.

Please see that post for more details on this 1870's-era steamboat!

Edited April 3, 2019 by Murdoch17