Ready to Take to the Streets!

On Monday, after finishing Bob very early in the morning (I finished up the last touch-ups with the paint late Sunday night, so I got up at 4am to varnish), I dropped him off at the Heart of Catskill Office.

Here he is with some cousins:
Here are some details of Bob, once he was finished...

The fabulous wheels custom made by Corey:

The steam stack, and a portrait of Robert R. Livingston:

The back half of the boat, and a historic lithograph of the North River Steam-Boat (from the collection of Clermont State Historic Site):

View of his front with the "Hudson-Fulton Celebration Commission" ribbon (one of the originals, from the 1909 celebration, is in the collection of Clermont State Historic Site):

Ready to head out to the streets of Catskill!

I can't wait to see all of the beautiful cats lining the streets of Catskill. In the mean time though, our living room is so empty without Bob!

Putting it all together!

First, my apologies for taking so long to post an update-- life has been a little crazy the last couple weeks!


On Sunday, after spending all day painting (and re-painting, as it turned out not all my ideas worked out quite as well on the cat as they did in my head), I went out to meet with Corey, so we could finally get everything put together.



Before we got to installing the wheels, Corey helped me put in the steam stack. I had already primed and painted the end of a dowel, but since I had been working out of our apartment living room, I hadn't been able to trim it down. Once we figured out the right length, Corey got a hole drilled into the top of the cat, and we glued it down.


As I mentioned in previous posts, Corey so kindly agreed to fabricate the wheels, since metal work is well out of my comfort zone. Little did he know what he was agreeing to! All of the pieces for the wheels were custom made, and it turns out, they gave him (or at least his equipment) a run for his money. Thirty or so saw blades later, and after many many hours of work, he came out with wheels that were perfect for the cat-- exactly what I was hoping for.

We installed the wheels on a threaded metal rod, which required enlarging the holes we had previously drilled. Corey had to drill holes through spacers and through the metal wheels.

All together! (and the wheels even spin!)

Done!!!