The Ben Ain Build

[mjt60a]

....Weathering with a model such as this is going to be very tricky as the real ships were usually in a very dirty and well worn state. If I actually modelled the real vessel accurately it would look a mess....

It's looking fantastic, I have to admit I liked this model since first reading a review in one of the mags - then seeing one at the Model Engineer all those years ago...

I'm sometimes tempted to really weather a model in the way I've often seen done by model rail and model car hobbyists but I'm worried that (a) I might ruin it and (b) it'd look too derelict to be a working vessel...
This is the sort of thing - http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i40/Ayatollah2/Scratchin/Hearse1.jpg

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's....I have mentioned on another WEBSITE...that the insulation to the chimney/funnel not only look great but just above the boiler top.. ..150 degrees C needs to be contained & I am sure this will do the trick ..well done BB........Derek

[Bunkerbarge]

I'll let you know how the tests go, fingers crossed!

[Bunkerbarge]

Chapter Fifteen- The Boats

Part One

This section of the Ben Ain build was actually published as an independent article on building a clinker built boat in Model Boats Magazine in May 2009 and can still be purchased as a back issue from customer.services@myhobbystore.com

The Idea

Occasionally a challenge comes your way in your modeling that makes you stop and think, “Do I go for the easy option or do I embark on a whole new area of modeling and see what I can do to improve the final model?”   I think as modelers we are always looking for new challenges and new skills to develop and so invariably enjoy coming across such opportunities during our projects.  The actual original inspiration for this came from the boats that Bryan Young made for his General Havelock model and made me realize that I could do something a bit more individual.

Hence the decision not to use the supplied fibre-glass mouldings for the ships boats on my current steam coaster but to have a go at a scratch built clinker construction ships boat. 

The idea was sound enough but as I had never put together anything “plank-on-frame” in my life I was, yet again, in for a very steep learning curve.  The enthusiasm was initiated when I noticed a very nicely put together model at the Harrogate Engineering Show in May 2008 of a clinker built rowing boat and after a chat with the owner I took a few pictures and he very kindly produced the next day a set of rather old plans.  The first obvious thing was that the proportions were different to those of the ships boat I wanted to make so after a lot of thinking and head scratching I decided to scale the plans to a different amount longitudinally than across the body plan.  First of all I scaled the longitudinal section to 84% of the original then I scaled the body plan to 68% of the original giving me the correct proportions and external dimensions of the model boat I wanted to produce.  I then had to complete the body plan by hand sketching the sections taller to compensate for the slightly higher longitudinal section but when finished it all appeared to work together as a useable plan.

My original idea for materials was to use veneer sheeting for the planking and so I started the project with cutting some veneer into thin strips and trying to bend it.  The initial problems with cutting evenly dimensioned strips were assisted by use of a jig but I did find quite regularly that the blade would follow the grain and produce slightly varying widths of plank.  The final direction though was decided when I tried to bend the veneer.  No matter how long I kept it in hot water it still had a tendency to splinter at the edges and so I scrapped the idea of veneer and moved on to pre cut strips.  I went for 5mm x 1mm pear planks, which proved to be easy enough to cut, bent well without splintering and was about the right colour I was after for the finished model which was going to be varnished internally and painted externally, as per most ships lifeboats and dinghies of the period of my steamer.  I also decided on beech 4mm x 2mm strip wood for the keel, which did not require bending and which was strong and close grained to give the structure a bit of strength when the knees were laminated into it.

The Planking Jig

The first thing I did was to put together the keel along with it’s stern post, stem post, internal knees and the transom.  The keel and posts were made from the longitudinal plan from 4mm x 2mm beech, which has a nice colour and is relatively strong with fine close grain for just this purpose.  All the ends were rounded off according to the plan and a transom was made up from the body plan profiles of 5mm x 1mm pear planks, which will also be used for the planking, and glued in place across the stern post.  The keel was necessary to get the planking jig set up correctly and helped ensure that the jig was going to be workable.

Next I prepared a wooden base with a centre line and glued beams of 5mm x 5mm lime at the relevant locations of the stations taken from the longitudinal section on my scaled plan.  These would eventually locate the station profiles, cut from the body plan.  Then I put together a main spine for the jig which I laminated from 0.030 thou plus 0.060 thou plasticard.  This gave me a thickness of 0.090 thou, or 2.25mm, a perfect clearance for the 2mm beech keel.  The main spine was cut to clear the station beams and shaped to fit the keel before adding a number of plates to locate the keel and posts correctly on the main spine.  This is when it started to get a bit tricky and monotonous but well worth taking time and care to get this bit right.  The scaled body plan was copied and each station profile was cut out, giving a paper template, which was then transferred to more of the 0.030 thou plasticard sheet.  These station profiles were then carefully cut out and glued in identical pairs to either side to the beams on the base, ensuring that the tops were in line along the centre of the keel and they all followed the correct lines along the boat sides.

When this was all completed I finally had a planking jig with a keel and posts located in it and the serious job of planking the model could begin.

Planking

Being clinker construction the planking had to start at the keel so I started to work out a plan of action and to get it clear in my mind how the planks were going to be arranged.  As I was using 5mm x 1mm pear planks I decided on an overlap of 1mm so the planks were going to be 4mm spaced around the midship section, which would require the widest planks.  I then marked out the spacing on the profile edge with a black pen and worked out that I would need ten planks around the longest profile.  This then had to equate to the length of the other profiles so I measured the forward and aft ones and divided the length, allowing for a suitable small amount of sheer at the top plank, into ten.  This then gave me the width of the planks at either end at 4mm so my planks were going to taper from 5mm across the centre three profiles, then taper down to 4mm at the transom and the stem post.  It all sounded good so time to start cutting some wood.

I marked out the keel strake plank, cut it to the appropriate taper and soaked it in hot water for ten minutes.  I was then able to play it in my fingers to tease it into a reasonable shape as it cooled and dried, giving me a plank that actually sat on the jig reasonably close to the correct shape.  The ends were going to have to be held in place when glued as they could not be bent sufficiently to fit but I was happy with the majority of the fit.  It was at this point that my lack of experience showed itself when I came to glue down the first plank.  I glued it only at the centre, allowed it to dry and then glued it further along it’s length when I realized that using 0.030 thou plasticard for the profiles did not enable me to hold the plank to them and ensure they remained in shape as the glue dried.  I specifically used this material because it was easy to cut and shape and the wood glue would not adhere to it but the downside was that I could not use pins to hold the planks to the profiles while the glue set.  My only option was to use a combination of masking tape and elastic bands to hold the planks down, which proved to be very tricky and meant that the planks had to be glued down in stages, making the process quite long winded.  Still we live and learn and using wooden profiles would have been a lot more difficult to make. 

Another part of the process to tackle as the plank was in the process of being fitted was the ends.  At the transom the planks needed to be recessed into the edge of the transom to prevent ugly gaps being visible so before gluing the end down a sharp scalpel was used to cut a small tapered notch into the edge.  This enabled the plank end to sit down correctly and the next plank will be able to sit on top of it without a gap showing.  The fit at the stem post also proved to be a challenge and whilst trimming the ends to match the profile of the post was easy enough dealing with the overlap of the planks was not quite so straightforward.  At this point in the construction I decided to leave the ends trimmed to suit the centre line of the post and see how the planks looked when they were all fitted.

From this point on it was simply a case of laying down individual planks, cut to the same tapers and using the same process of gluing at the centre edge then, when set, gluing down the tapered ends.  It soon became apparent that the planks would develop a mind of their own when it came to lying flat so I soon realized that the 1mm overlap of each plank would have to be adjusted to suit the progression.  The biggest challenge came at the change from the bottom to the sides where the plank running along the corner wanted to lie in an entirely different position to where I wanted it.  It was also obvious that I was going to have to adjust the lay of the planks as they went up the sides to ensure that the final top plank laid at just the correct angle to give the shear I wanted from the transom to the bow.  This is probably what makes a clinker built hull a good choice for a first timer to plank on frame construction as the lay of the planks can be adjusted slightly as they are fitted, unlike planks that are butted together which have to be a perfect fit.  I also realized that the ten planks originally estimated was going to end up being eleven planks but the great beauty of a model of this nature is that no-one can say what is right or wrong.  Eventually the planking was completed and the time came to remove the hull from the planking frame.  It was actually quite a moment to see the inside of the hull for the first time and realize that it looked quite realistic. 

Ribs

I had mistakenly assumed that the planking was going to be the time consuming part of this project but as I turned my attentions to the internal ribbing it soon became obvious that this was not going to be exactly easy either.  The first challenge was what to make the ribs out of and my original experiments with bending cut up planks were not very successful.  I also tried veneer again but that unfortunately was even less successful and it simply splintered when I tried to bend it as it had done in my initial experiments.  Eventually I achieved a degree of success by cutting 1mm strips from the edge of the 5mm x 1mm pear planks, soaking them in hot water for 10 minutes and bending them around a former for consistency.  This proved to be a lot more effective then bending them in my fingers and I simply had to hold the strips on the former until they cooled and partly dried out.  Every now and then one would break or splinter but I achieved a reasonable success rate so I decided to use these 1mm x 1mm strips for the ribs.  Applying the ribs was also tricky and time consuming and the best method I eventually came up with was to lay the curved rib in the hull with a suitable excess protruding above the hull and hold it in place in the middle with a piece of sticky tape.  I could then place a few spots of glue along it to hold it to the internal planking and the excess could be used to help adjust the position until it was in just the right place.  I did the ribs in pairs and started at the centre one and placed them simply by eye, ensuring that the pairs were perpendicular to the keel and evenly spaced from the previous rib.  Starting in the centre ensured that any inaccuracies as I went along were minimized by travelling only half the length of the hull so I was able to eventually get the required number of ribs glued in place and I snipped the protruding ends off with a pair of fine electrical side cutters. 

Once all the ribs were in place the next part was to fit the four longitudinal stringers, two either side, to locate the thwarts to called the thwart stringers and the two along the top referred to as the gunwale stringers.  These were simply located in place with some low tack masking tape and spots of glue placed on the points where they rested on the ribs.  When the glue was set the masking tape was removed and the remaining locating points were also glued.  These stringers were also made from the 1mm x 1mm strips I had cut from the pear planks so all the internal structure was made of exactly the same wood.

[Bunkerbarge]

Part Two

Floor

The structure of the bottom boarding had to vary slightly from the original plan due to the fact that I had scaled the plan differently along it’s length and across the beam but my thoughts were that as long as I followed a similar structure and design to the plan it should look authentic when completed.  I started by laying five transverse floors across the hull at the height I wanted the bottom boards to sit, ensuring that they remained level and used some more of the 5mm x 1mm planking rather than the scale equivalent which should really have been more 1mm x 1mm.  This was for no other reason than I wanted a bit of strength here and the floors were hardly visible anyway below the bottom boards.

Then it was simply a case of cutting the bottom boards from more 5mm x 1mm pear, starting at the keel and working out and allowing for a realistic clearance around the edges.  I put a joint across the model below the second thwart to make finishing the taper at the aft end that bit easier and cut neat clearances around where the keel knees penetrated the boards.  I applied a couple of coats of satin polyurethane varnish to the internal surfaces of the internal planks up to the bottom board level as well as varnishing the relevant surfaces of the bottom boards before gluing them down to the floors.  I then varnished the top surfaces of the bottom boards as well as the internal planking just above the board level to ensure that everything was perfectly sealed and protected up to that level.


Thwarts

The thwarts were not surprisingly made up of laminated 5mm x 1mm pear planks glued edge to edge in just the same way as I made the transom and so made up planks of 10mm x 1mm for those thwarts that required it.  The thwarts were cut to shape and length with the two aft thwarts and the longitudinal seats made in situ to ensure a perfect fit at all the joints.  When all the thwarts were finished they were glued in place across the thwart stringers after cutting the aft thwart to neatly fit around the stern post.


Knees and Rowlocks

At this point the main structure of the boat was finished but the little detail bits that seem to be just as time consuming as all the other work still remained.  The plan called for a number of additional knees to be fitted to the thwarts and other parts of the structure and how to make these was something I needed to experiment with.  I started by drilling holes into pieces of the 5mm x 1mm pear planks but couldn’t get it to cut cleanly enough so eventually I tried 5mm x 1mm lime and had more success with that.  I drilled a hole of 4mm diameter through the centre of the plank then cut it across the diagonal before cutting the plank to suit at either end.  This gave me a very good basis for the thwart knees so I made 12 of these, two as spares which I did need, and then dressed them up with fine grade wet and dry rolled into a small tube to round them to shape.  These formed the thwart knees and were simply glued to the relevant thwarts and the side planking according to the plan.

The other knees located at either ends of the gunwale and across the thwart corners were made up individually from the pear planking and simply carefully carved and filed to shape before gluing in place.  This all sounds a bit on the easy side now that I am describing it after the event but there were a number of failures before I got it right ad probably as well that I work in the garage out of earshot of anyone else!  There is nothing more fiddly than sanding bits of wood only a couple of millimeters big.

The other remaining pieces of detail were the rowlocks and was one thing that I deviated from the plan for.  The plan had very traditional thole pin type rowlocks but I had some white metal rowlocks included with the original steamer kit so I decided to use those as I decided that they were suitably period for the model.  These could of course be simply scratch built from copper wire or wooden thole pins used, as was the case with the example I saw at Harrogate, but I cut and drilled six small blocks of the 4mm x 2mm beech, rounded them off and glued them to the top surface of the sanded down surface of the top plank, rib ends and gunwale stringer.  I simply glued the rowlocks into these blocks and left them as a white metal finish, which will eventually be varnished over.


Painting

Much as it pained me to do so all the references I could find of ships of this period were fitted with boats that were painted white, be they either the lifeboats or the dinghies.  Consequently for the model to remain authentic I had no alternative other than to paint the outside of the hull white and hide all that lovely woodwork.  I masked off the top plank on the outside and around the internal surfaces and sprayed two light coats of acrylic car body grey primer.  I wasn’t too bothered about the quality of the surface finish as I knew these boats were well used and the paint finish reflected this so the grey was only as a sealer and an indicator for the white.  I then sprayed two light coats of white primer, trying not to over do it and spoil the available grain texture but once again getting an even matt coverage.  Finally I brush painted white matt enamel over the primer.  I particularly want to have all the finishes on this model to be brushed to reflect the way in which paint was applied at the time and using a small flat brush with a thick enamel paint allowed additional surface textures to be generated which will be enhanced by weathering at a later stage in the model.

Fittings

As they say “The Devil’s in the detail” and if I was making this model as a stand alone item in it’s own right I could well have called it a day at this point.  I did however want to use it as part of the much larger steamer model and, as such, it had to fit into to atmosphere I want to create for this model.  Consequently I wanted to add a few bits that would bring the model to life and give it the real appearance of a used piece of equipment.


Cover:  There has been much debate over the years as regards the use of boat covers on ships of this type of period which has led me to believe that a lot of it was up to the captain or crew of the individual vessels.  There is good reason to believe that covers were supplied but regularly left off for such reasons as allowing the wood to expand in wet conditions thereby keeping the caulking tight or simply because crews did not have the time or the inclination to fit the covers.  I decided that obviously I wanted the internal detail of the  dinghy model to be visible but assuming a cover would be supplied then it could well be found inside the boat itself.  I therefore set about making a cover of approximately the right size and shape to fit the top of the boat out of metal foil tape with the gum removed by acetate thinners.  When I had the shape I folded the metal foil as I assumed it would be folded off the boat and then shaped it to fit over one of the thwarts.  The cover was then sprayed with acrylic grey primer before being painted up with matt green modeling enamel, which included some shading of the highlights and the shadows to give it a bit of realism.  The cover was then glued to one of the thwarts.

Anchor:  Almost certainly boats such as this would be fitted with a simple grappling anchor and so I made one up from domestic cable core, bent to shape, super glued together and fitted with a short length of chain from the bit box.  This was then fitted with a suitable length of scale rope, looped over the lifting eye on the stem post and to the end of the chain.  After a coat of matt metallic paint this passes as a suitably realistic anchor typical of the period and which would be quite likely to be found in the bottom of such a boat.

Oars:  The most significant item of internal detail was the oars.  Almost certainly stored in the boat itself and probably lashed to the thwarts or possibly on the bottom boards.  I needed six oars if they were to look credible so I set about experimenting with some possibilities.  I eventually found some small bamboo skewers in the kitchen, well they weren’t doing anything useful there, and cut a notch in a piece of the good old 5mm x 1mm pear to match the taper.  These were glued together and, when set, the paddle was carved to resemble the correct shape and then sanded to blend it in with the skewer.  I cut them to a suitable length and cut a handle in the end with a needle file in the lathe before giving them all two coats of varnish.  The finishing touch was using small pieces of brown heat shrink to resemble the leather protective shrouds found on such oars to prevent erosion of the shaft where it sits in the rowlock.  The oars were then bundled together and lashed to the thwarts on either side of the boat.

[Bunkerbarge]

Part Three

Once the fist boat had been manufactured it was a slightly easier process to decide on how to tackle the other boat.  The first boat is a transom sterned dinghy but the boat on the starboard side is a ships lifeboat so it is a double ended design.

I decided that the jig I used for the first boat could be adapted to use again by making the transom end of the jig reflect the bow end and so I simply removed some of the station profiles, made a few more of the same shape as the bow ones and added them to the jig.  Not only was I now deviating from the original plan as regards length and width but I had now copied and pasted two bow sections together.  I was really out on my own now.

Once the jig was made the process was exactly the same as it had been for the first boat with a keel built up to give a stern post and a stem post and the keel laid in the jig.  The model was then planked in exactly the same way as the first boat was and then fitted out with ribs before I actually got my hands on a superb Harold Underhill plan of a ships lifeboat, which I then referred to for the fitting out.  A floor was fitted of a similar design to the Underhill plan and typical lifeboat accessories such as stores bins and water bowsers were placed in the bottom.  The thwarts and their associated knees were all glued into the hull and a set of sails and a mast with all the relevant rigging was made from bamboo skewers and folded up and painted tin foil.  These were arranged inside the boat to enable all the detail to be visible and lockers and floor grids were fitted at either end of the boat.  A rudder was made up from scrap and hung on two pintles made from bent wire and a tiller was made and fitted, again built up from a bamboo skewer.

Outside the hull the original model footholds were glued to the base of the hull and grab ropes were fitted to small eyelets which were glued into small holes drilled into the top strake.  Once again a cover was made up from tin foil, with stitching runs printed on from a pounce wheel, before folding it up, spraying it with primer and finally painting it a typical green canvas colour.

That was basically the two boats required for the Ben Ain.  A bit of careful weathering would be the only remaining thing to do before fitting them to the boat platforms and a figure or two added to make it look a bit more realistic and justify having both boat covers folded up.  Instead of the two boats taking a couple of days to assemble from the fibre glass kit parts and some wood planking inside they ended up taking more like eight months from start to finish.

[mjt60a]

Wow, very good work!

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's.....& some brilliant detail modeling there BB ....what do you say?  ....a smaller model or two within a larger model?.....Derek

[Bunkerbarge]

Chapter Sixteen- Detailing the Quarterdeck Superstructure.

Part One

With the two boat models completed it was then simply a case of assembling the pieces and adding some more pieces of detail.

Water Tank

The first thing was to have a good look at the original owner’s plans for the ship and decide on just how the water tank should look.  I only had a side elevation and a plan but it still looked to me, based on the chamfered ends, like the tank would be cylindrical rather than square so I measured the diameter from the plan, scaled it to the model and set about looking for something of the correct diameter.  Strangely enough a broom handle in the garage seemed perfect so it mysteriously lost about two inches from it’s length one evening and I put the piece in the lathe to face it up and chamfer the ends as per the plan.  There was not a great deal else obvious from the plan however so the rest was basically assumed by me.  I decided that it would almost certainly be a steel tank with a means of filling and a gooseneck vent.  The filling line was capped with a hexagonal cap, a brass compression fitting from the steam bit box, and the vent was made up from the ever useful domestic copper cable core.  The tank I decided would be resting on two wooden battons on the deck and held down by two straps, bolted through the ends and the battons into the deck.  The battons were a couple of pieces of 4mm x 2mm beech, the straps were made from two strips of litho-plate, bent and drilled on the ends to match the battons and the bolts were four small diameter brass screws set into holes drilled in the deck.  I also detailed the ends of the tank with what I would assume to be joints with the end caps by gluing two strips of 1mm litho-plate around the circumference, which I’d previously run a pounce wheel along to give a rivet detail effect.  The pieces, apart from the battons. were primed and then painted before assembling on the wooden deck with the brass screws.


Aft Mast

Next to be made was the aft mast.  I hadn’t made a mast for the model yet so the best method was yet to be determined for their construction which combined ease, accuracy and, preferably, as little mess as possible.  I eventually decided to buy a small 12v powered lathe, which is actually produced for the purpose of making masts and spars, which had the distinct advantage of being able to be held in a workmate and taken outside.  I found that the 12v motor was far too fast with the first piece of wood being ejected across the garden so I eventually rigged up an old ‘Bob’s Board’ speed controller and used a 7.2 v Tamiya battery pack.  This worked a treat and gave me a bit of control over the process.  I marked up the dowel at the various diameters with a pencil and slowly reduced the diameter with rough sandpaper to the required taper.  This was then finished to a smooth surface with fine sandpaper ensuring the various white metal fittings fit at the correct points along its length.  The fittings were then painted up and glued in place, the mast treated to a couple of coats or matt varnish before gluing it to a hole in the deck with epoxy.


Standing Rigging

The next significant bit of detailing was the rigging and I started this with the wire shrouds for the aft mast and the funnel.  I wanted the wires to look realistic and the most significant aspect of this was always going to be able to maintain tension.  There really is nothing worst then loose standing rigging so I started to experiment with a few arrangements.  Eventually I decided the best was to emulate reality and use a bottle screw to tension the wires.  These are now quite readily available in a lot of suitable model sizes so I purchased a number of 12mm long ones with shackles of a suitable diameter joined together to the pad eyes with rings made from broken up old chain.  I tried a number of alternative possibilities for the wires to get a realistic look and eventually decided on the multistrand copper core of servo cables.  These looked just like steel cables of the correct diameter after a bit of increased twisting in the battery drill.  When they were looped and run through a short section of heat shrink to look like a thimble they looked pleasingly realistic.  The shrouds were all assembled with the wires cut to suit the extended bottle screws and the bottle screws carefully adjusted to tension the wires.  When they were all installed the wires were painted with a metallic grey enamel and the thimbles, bottle screws and shackles were painted with a grey enamel as they would almost certainly be of an aged galvanized finish.


Ventilators

The ventilators as supplied with the kit were white metal castings and not completely hollow, the instructions indicating that they were to be glued to the top face of a couple of lengths of dowel.  As I wanted to take advantage of every means possible of getting air in and out of the hull to keep things cool and the boiler supplied with oxygen I particularly wanted the ventilators to be operational so a few modifications were required.  First I set the white metal cowls up in the milling machine and skimmed the bases perfectly flat before gently pushing the end mill down the bore of the cowling to open it out and make it completely hollow.  This I managed to achieve without breaking through the thin white metal so I was quite relieved about that.  Next I looked high and low for a piece of hollow pipe to suit the outside diameter of the cowl and eventually settled on a piece of gas pipe, designed to supply gas fires, at the local hardware superstore,  This was cut to length and a brass insert was made to connect the pipe and the cowl together.  These pieces were then simply epoxied together and holes drilled in the sides to accommodate the handles, which were also epoxied.  Then I decided to simulate a bit of plate detail so I cut thin strips of cartridge paper, ran the pounce wheel along them and glued them in appropriate places around the pipe to look like a plate joint.  A coat of grey primer followed by red enamel inside the cowl and the satin black mix I used for the funnel and the hull on the rest of the ventilator.   The ventilators were then epoxied into the deck of the accommodation and supported underneath by a good build up of the glue. 

[Bunkerbarge]

Part Two

Weathering

Although putting the boats onto the model was to be the next step it was obvious that the painting of the main assembly should be completed before the boats were put in place, which would make painting so much more difficult.  I therefore decided that the time had come to complete the painting and the weathering of the structure.  The weathering was to be very simple to start with as I could always add to it later but the main effects of washes and dry brushing needed doing before the boats were attached.  I started with a very dark brown wash all over to make the steel plates grubby and enhance the rivets.  The top deck was done selectively two or three times as this area would be heavily dirtied with soot fallouts from the funnel.  The wooden deck was scrubbed with a wire brush to roughen up the surface before adding selectively more wash to try to get the area looking more realistic.  Wash was added more and more to such points as around the bases of the fittings and around the funnel.  The boats were also given a single light coat of wash to enhance the detail and subdue the very bright white paint of the hulls.  After the dark brown wash was dried another wash was used, again selectively, of a much lighter brown rust colour. This was added a lot more around the funnel and ventilators as well as such fittings that would rust like the bollards and staining around the water tank and around the screws and hinges of the engine room skylights. Once this wash had dried I was quite pleased with the effect and so decided to stop at that point.  More could be added at a later date if it was thought necessary.  The next step was the dry brushing and I simply used the top coat colour of matt enamel orange to very lightly go over the steel work, fixtures and rivets to very gently enhance the effects.  The difference is hardly noticeable but the raised detail and edges did stand out just that bit more.  Next it was a bit of scuffed paint effect which was done with a lead pencil on the surfaces where paint would likely to be worn away.  This was the tops of the ladder rungs, the tops of the handrails and the door handles.  This was fixed with a matt varnish, dry brushed over the top afterwards.  Finally a soot effect was airbrushed around the top of the funnel and the aft mast, so typical of vessels such as this.  This was more of a concern that most of the weathering as I have seen pictures of vessels like this one which look almost completely black around the aft end so trying to copy that would end up looking a mess.  I wanted the effect to be noticeable but not to the point of dominating the model so I brought it down enough to effect the red band on the funnel and just the top of the aft mast.


Attaching the Boats

Then it was time to finally add the boats.  After thinking for some time as to how I could go about attaching the boats without any glue being visible I finally decided to, yet again, simply rely on what is done in reality and I tied them down to the deck pad eyes and the ring bolts.  They were secure enough and the ends of the ropes were spotted with cyano to prevent them from ever coming adrift and the boats seemed surprisingly secure.  The ropes for slewing the davits were then added and tied down to the deck pad eyes with the ends being looped at the davit heads and secures again with short pieces of heat shrink to look like thimbles.  A spot of cyano glue was added just before the heat shrink was warmed up.


Coal Bunker

I’ve noticed in just about every example of this model that I’ve seen elsewhere that the modeler leaves a few planks of wood open on the bunker to show the coal inside.  Consequently I wanted to do something a bit different, particularly as the forward bunker was only ever open to fill it so would be very rarely seen open at any other time.  I was going to work on the assumption that the vessel had bunkered recently and the covers were being replaced so the boards were all fitted and the ring bolts added before submitting it to the washes and wire brush effects.  Then I made a cover from foil tape.  This tape comes in a roll and is glued and is used extensively in the air conditioning business but it’s big advantage is that it is just that bit thicker than the foil you get for kitchen use but not as thick as litho-plate, which could not be shaped as easily.  The only trouble is that you have to remove the glue first which requires a good rub with a paper towel soaked in a suitable solvent.  I use Hammerite thinners, which is about the only stuff that moves it.  I then cut it to size, run the pounce wheel over the back where seams would be likely and carefully fold it into shape.  This particular one has been folded to look like it is being laid out ready to open up over the bunker.  The cover is then carefully removed from the model and attached to a stick of wood with a spot of blu tac where it receives a couple of coats of grey primer and a base coat of green matt enamel.  The cover was then glued in place on the model and the highlights and shadows enhanced with lightened and darkened samples of the base colour to give the cover the required degree of life.  A rope loosely draped over the cover and coiled up was glued to the cover and a figure will be added later who will be positioned as though fitting the cover.


Running Rigging

The final part f the detailing of this piece was the adding of the falls to the davits.  These started off as purchased double blocks which actually have a wooden block with two brass rotating pulleys fitted.  I drilled the blocks, four of them on both sides and four of them on just the one side and fitted hooks and eyes made from bent wire to suit the running rigging.  The blocks were then painted up with matt grey enamel used for the pulleys and two coats of stained varnish used on the wood.  A coat of dark wash toned things down and a spot of rust coloured wash around the hooks and eyes completed the effect.  The blocks were then fitted with ropes to the eyes, looped and secured with heat shrink, before rigging the blocks in place on the davits.  The ends were drawn back through the guide pulley on the davit arm and secured around the cleat fitted to the davit.  The excess was then coiled up and bound before securing with a spot of cyano and placing inside the boats where they would normally be stored.  To finish off the boats a couple of lifelines added to the starboard lifeboat slewing rope completed the rigging.

[Bunkerbarge]

Part Three

The final touches were the addition of port glasses, which were cut from acetate sheeting on the top of a Christmas cracker box and glued inside the posts with spots of PVA adhesive, and steps made from the steam pipe covers supplied with the kit and glued on the door thresholds.

I may well add further detail as time goes by such as some clutter and ropes etc.  This area of these type of ships seemed to be used as a general store for all sorts of gear so a few bits and pieces will not look out of place and a couple of figures will really add some life to it.