I plan on having the tiller concealed inside the hull it will pass though a slot in the transom, I know the Puffers had a chain linkage from the wheelhouse but I not going that far.
Joe.
Hi Joe ,
Some years ago I scratch built a near scale Puffer " SKYLIGHT " which had a steam plant installed, like you I puzzled over how to make the steering rudder near scale and hidden, the model was built at 1/2" to 1 foot giving a 33" model.
At the time SKYLIGHT was lying rotting away in Watt dry dock in Greenock, fortunately the stern was still visible and the steering chains gave me the idea to simulate the working of the rudder, like the original in first pic.
I made the tiller by fixing 2- bosses to the stern with holes in to take 3/32" brass rod with the rudder fixed to it, the tiller arm was operated by brass chain sliding in 5/32" copper tube and ran the chain around small pulley wheels as the original and attached to a servo below deck, hidden when the top boiler house and wheel house was fitted this worked very well and I think one of the Mini type servos would work well on your model, so just an idea if it would work for you.
Final resting place for SKYLIGHT before being Brocken up, note the angle that the Puffer is lying at, contrary to belief the hull on Puffers was not flat but had a 4 deg slope from the keel to the outside of the boat on both sides.
Hope this is of some help and interest to you.
George.