Hi all - I'd like to announce that I'm currently working on a 1/250th scale card model kit of the Watkins tug "Anglia", better known as "Three-fingered Jack". Below is a rendering of the current state of the model. I'm still tweaking features as I find none of my available plans match exactly the one photograph I have of the ship. If anybody has photos of the Anglia, please let me know! I expect to have the model kit ready sometime this Spring.


Cheers,


Oliver

That's an interesting ship, I have never seen one with 3 funnels arranged that way. Did it have 3 boilers as well?

It did. The Anglia was designed as a long-distance tug and was for some time the largest and most powerful tug on the Thames. She gained fame for towing the disabled steamer "Syria" from St. Helena to London in 1875, then in 1878 she towed the barge carrying "Cleopatra's Needle" from El Ferrol to London. Here are two more renderings of the current state of the design.

Thanks to the help and advice of the kind Paddleducks, I'm making pretty good progress:

It's looking really good Oliver....

One thing I would say to any other members that perhaps haven't thought about it - Card kits are a great source for working models, all the parts you require are there, just rescale to the size you want and use different materials (wood or plasticard) and voilla, an almost instant kit....

I've done it a few times, and have a couple that will be made in the next few years, so don't dismiss card kits as a useful resource!

Regards
Eddy

I have progress to report... the parts sheets are done!

That looks really pretty Oliver. It's so nice to see a resurection of a boat that would otherwise just exist as a memory and a damaged photograph - well done!

Stuart

I'm amazed at how quickly you managed to produce that Oliver - You must spend all day everyday in front of the computer!!

Regards
Eddy

Ha - quite the opposite, Eddy! The Anglia has been in off-and-on production for almost three years now. The hard part is building the digital model. Once that's done, Rhino3d allows you to unroll the surfaces easily. Then you just need to arrange them and add color where required. Still, a considerable amount of work is still ahead of me: the assembly instructions are tedious to do and take a long time to write & verify. Lastly, I always like to include at least one page of historical notes. Sometimes that's like pulling teeth, but the Anglia certainly has a storied history and I'm afraid it won't all fit on one page. The kit will also include the "Cleopatra", and I think I have to rework that kit a little as well.

Cheers,

Oliver   

Slowly, slowly the build progresses...
The wheels are an inch in diameter and are probably the fiddliest bit on the whole model - and most of them gets hidden under the paddleboxes! The little flare at the rear of the boxes is shown in neither plan, but it's quite evident on the photograph.

Cheers,


Oliver

A little work of art Oliver - I have to say though I am SOOOO pleased I work in large scales! My eyes just couldn't cope.

Well done!

Stuart

A little more progress tonight...

This is very impressive work, well done and i look forward to the rest of the build.

Slow progress, but progress nonetheless. I've added the rope hatch and the aft boiler casings. I am feeling a bit uneasy about the boiler casings - Deason's plan shows a large square box, the other shows these shapes. In the photo I can detect faint variations in the visible edges of the boiler casings that may support the "separate" approach, but it's not clear-cut by any means. Does anybody have any insight?

Cheers,

Oliver

More progress. I don't have a lot of spare time at the moment, all these deck fittings should easily have fit into an evening's work...