Lachie Stewart's build of HMS Kempton

[marinemole]

My friend Lachie Stewart is off again on a new build. This time it is the Racecourse Class Paddle Minesweeper HMS Kempton.

Lachie had moulded a couple of hulls for the Jeanie Deans and, somewhat bravely in my view, took a saw to the hull to convert it to something suitable for HMS Kempton. He cut out a section from the middle of the hull to shorten it to scale length, cut down the quarter deck and made major changes to the shape of bow and stern.

His choice of Kempton was influenced by his fascination for ships built by Fergusons on the Clyde. He has drawings and also a selection of photographs he took of the model in the former Clyde Gallery collection at Glasgow Museum of Transport, before the present abomination was constructed. Inevitably he is hitting discrepancies between drawing, phorographs of the model and photographs of the full sized vessel.

I have uploaded smaller pictures to Photobucket and this will hopefully mean that PDs with smaller resolution screens will be able to view.

Andy

[the bombus]

I love it
more of this
Greetings from The Bombus

[bill stafford]

dear Andy ,
  i am also interested in this class of paddler , i have only a very small plan
limited info on this vessel , so keep the photos coming , they will help a lot , as im located in Australia,there are no other sources of info
could i ask the size of the model ??and scale ,as the beam looks wide , and im thinking of adding beam to my model as well .what is the paddle wheel diam.?? im thinking of doing mine in 1/48, but i will increase the wheel diam. to 140mm, and use some of the excellent paddle wheel kits available from FloatA Boat au..
my thinking of increasing the paddle wheel diam is to increase its performance .
 would there be any plans available in the future ??as this class of vessel is very hard to find info , a plan would help a lot
im sure this model will look VERY nice in the future , the ole gent who is making it , has done a loverly job on hes past models , and i would love too talk to him in person , one day ??
regards bill stafford

[derekwarner_decoy]

Bill........if Float a Boat have the 140 diameter Australian produced [high impact styrene?] paddle wheel kits left in stock well good, however another simple way of increasing performance without the need for larger diameter wheels would be to increase the paddle blade width.....

You may need some additional reinforcement for the wider blades....but the styrene angle iron from the hobby shops would be ideal & with minimal weight increase

I have had my FaB plans for PS Adelaide increased from 1:24 to 1:20 for additional flotation so down the track I will be needing a new wheel set of 214 mm OD & I understand there may be some current laser production problems

Keep us posted with you planned vessel build & wheel progress etc......Derek

[marinemole]

dear Andy ,

could i ask the size of the model ??and scale ,as the beam looks wide , and im thinking of adding beam to my model as well .what is the paddle wheel diam.?? im thinking of doing mine in 1/48, but i will increase the wheel diam. to 140mm, and use some of the excellent paddle wheel kits available from FloatA Boat au..
my thinking of increasing the paddle wheel diam is to increase its performance .
 would there be any plans available in the future ??as this class of vessel is very hard to find info , a plan would help a lot
im sure this model will look VERY nice in the future , the ole gent who is making it , has done a loverly job on hes past models , and i would love too talk to him in person , one day ??
regards bill stafford

Bill
Thank you for your interest in Lachie's model. As I've indicated in the past he is computer illiterate with no real interest in the subject, hence my role as publicity agent. I'm sure he would be happy to chat, it's one of his other favourite occupations.

Hexham is an improved Racecourse type and measured 235' x 29'3, 58' over the paddle boxes.

Jeanie Deans was 250'/258' (dependent on info source)        x 30', 58' over the paddle boxes.

Based on these measurements the beam of the model is scale as is length after cutting. Lachie has done his best to make the shape of the hull as scale as possible by modifying bow and stern but if the degree of taper in plan view on on the hulls was different then unfortunately not much can be done. The perils of using existing hull.

I'm sure the model is 1:48. Not sure on wheel diameter, he builds his own. I also don't know where Lachie sourced his drawing, possibly Ferguson's yard. Will ask him for answers when I talk to him next.

You may be interested in the attached photographs I took some years ago at the old Glasgow Museum of Transport. Lachie's photos of the same model are better quality and I will scan and post when he is finished.

If you are not already aware of Lachie's fame as an athlete then the following links may be of interest

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lachie_Stewart

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1XsjPsN6IQ

I'm afraid the photograph of him I posted is not too flattering, he is actually wearing well.

Best wishes with your build if you decide to go ahead.

Andy

[R.G.Y.]

The racecourse class of mine sweeper, was based on the Glen Usk. My model of the same below. But the Admiralty wanted an extra boiler, which upset the dynamics of the ships. Like increasing the diameter of the paddle wheels. Larger wheels will go deeper in the water creating drag so taking more power for the same or less speed. You could raise the shaft but that introduces other problems. RGY   

[bill stafford]

gday andy ,
  thank you so very much , the info+photos were exactly what i was looking for , thanks again .due to my location i was very limited w info on the vessel , i knew about it , but had nothing else to go on , it was the small plan in the new MB magazine that renewed my interest . as my info was limited , i even contemplated a Glen Guest approach, hence the flexibility in paddle wheel diam.
i have to finish 2 other australian tug before i can start on my model , the james patterson +sydney heroine ,if only in plan form , but i need to collect the information ,for when i have time to start drawing , as im a farmer , with limited spare time .
Derek-i have a FaBoat 140mm paddle wheel kit here, the width was within 5 mm of the calculated width required for the model , and at this early stage of planning , was close enough, but you are right , they could be widened by various means .in the past i have had wheels cut out with a laser ,i have started to collect bits for a 1/24 adelaide paddler .
i have a larger paddler going 42in.+16in+a 1/24 gemma small paddler 75%complete , hope to finish for goldsmith steam museum week end coming up .
paddlers do funny things , and i think , if the diam. of the wheel goes up ,so does the efficiency?? regards and thanks to all bill stafford

[djcf]

Hi Andy,
Please keep us updated with Lachie's build, very interesting and i'm sure it will be a great model.
Clark

[marinemole]

Another batch of photographs, many of these, and in previous post, were taken by Lachie himself as the build progresses.

He is actually fairly well on with elements of the superstructure and I took some pictures when I visited yesterday. To keep the build reasonably chronological I will post this set in a day or two.

Lots of detail of construction of the paddle boxes. Lachie is a great proponent of litho plating models so the basic structure doesn't require any great degree of finish. He usually fabricates in plasticard but tends to use wood, balsa where possible, on the paddle boxes to keep weight down.

Another point of interest is the hull plating. In the past he has used litho plate to plate fibreglass hulls, but has started recently using filler paste. He lays masking tape along the line of the plate and applies filler paste over the edge and faired down on the plate to stand proud. When sanded, blended in and the masking tape removed there is a raised plate edge to the thickness of the tape. The method certainly gets around the problem of compound curves when using lithoplate.

He also has a thing about the common practice of using brass eyelets for portholes. He uses brass tube flush with the level of the hull and with a prototypical eyebrow added above.

Unfortunately Lachie has suffered with acute arthritis in his hands for the past several years and this is proving an increasing frustration to his modelling ambitions. Hopefully many more models to come though.

Andy


 

[marinemole]

Some more pictures of Lachie's build. In answer to an earlier question his paddlewheels are about 4.25 inches in diameter and are moulded by himself. Lots of litho plate on the superstructure elements. He stained the wooden parts
before assembling to avoid unstained bits where there was excess glue.

Andy

[marinemole]

Just spoken to Lachie on the phone this morning and he is charging ahead. Paddles done and painted. Fixed blades, not feathering. These photographs were taken 11 days ago and will be interesting to compare with next batch. Hopefully I'll visit this afternoon and get more pictures.

Andy

[marinemole]

Been away this weekend and had forgotten I had taken these snaps 6 days ago. Compare with previous post of today of progress 11 days ago.

Notice my photobucket account is approaching bandwidth limit so pictures may disappear until the meter resets in a few days. Whole album is available at

http://s669.photobucket.com/user/carmanmole/library/Model%20Boats/HMS%20Kempton

and will be visible no matter lack of money in the meter.

Andy

[Harold H. Duncan]

coming along very nicely
cheers
kiwi

[bill stafford]

gday boys ,
 looking good , any chance of extra info on paddle wheel construction ??
sizes and materials ?? diam.+ width ??
im not looking for too much writing , so dont go to much trouble , but a bit of info would make nice reading .
thanks bill stafford 

[marinemole]

It's the 9th of the month and the kind people at Photobucket have put a shilling in the meter and reset my bandwidth limit, so pictures are visible again. Till next time that is.

Lachie has been using his small circular saw to cut strips for the paddle box sponson.







Paddles are now assembled and painted. Paddle diameter is approx 4.5 inches. Will come back width width.

Frames are cast in dental plastic with internal metal reinforcing. Floats are cut from perspex or similar and glued to the frames in fixed position. Metal reinforcement at joints. Think he used a jig for assembly. Simple but works.