I build scale model Mississippi River type sternwheeler steam paddle boats. I have a few commercially produced kits but like to scratch build my own. I also build scale model circus wagons and other horse drawn vehicles. Recently while working on a couple models in my shop the idea dawned on me, an easy way to build the paddle wheels for stern wheelers. The wagon wheels for horse drawn wagons work good for converting them for the starting point for the paddle wheels of steamboats. Not sure why this idea didn’t dawn on me before now. I have both wooden and plastic wagon wheels which some will now be used to build scale model paddle wheels for stern wheeler riverboats…
Some paddle wheels were polygonal rather than round. Others, while round, had internal bracing tangential to rotation. Would you add the internal rotational bracing or just omit it.
Reminds me of the story of the riverboat captain who was towing some cargo barges down the Mississippi river for delivery to a port in New Orleans. His engine died, and he drifted helplessly into the Gulf of Mexico. This inspired him to write the song, “Do You Know What It Means, To Miss New Orleans?”
Good old Steamboat Wilie…
John Boute has a good reading out. Heard him sing it at a party made me cry.