discussion 1930's Aberdeen Steam Trawler - Modified 1/48 Calder Craft Milford Star

[Guest]

Derek nice work with the brass and the hand rails look superb!! Looking forward to seeing more. cheers Trey

 

[Guest]

Thanks Trey.

This week I have added the single handrail around the lower superstructure. I have added a section of rail near the Galley door not shown in the drawing but which would have been fitted. A fairly significant error in the model kit is that Calder Craft have forgotten to show a ladder either side of the vessel from the main deck up to the top of the engine room casing, this is needed of course so the crew can get to the Wheelhouse. You wil see from the photos below that I have added them just aft of the Wheelhouse, which is the correct position. Have fitted the fleeting sheeve half way along the casing.

Calder Craft have left it to your imagination how the vertical run of the steering chain pipe meets the horizontal run, I have made up a roller box and used some of the anchor chain to approximate how it should be. Have fitted the Stove Vents and the Engine Room Cowl Vent.

Have a couple of rivets to replace. Cheers Derek

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[Guest]

Derek you really are doing a great job with the detail work! Looking forward to seeing more ,cheers Trey

 

[Guest]

Hi Derek

I really enjoy following up the progress of your projekt and the way you document it with pictures. Thanks for sharing with us the functionallity of all the details you are adding and your working technics. Many things I can learn from your experience. Really thanks again.

regards, womblrup

 

[Guest]

Hi Derek, have you ever considered working scale lighting on your model? It would extend visabitity of this wonderfull boat also into hours without daylight. Cheers, womblrup

 

[Guest]

Thanks Trey and womblrup,

I have seen model ships on the internet with internal lighting it certainly looks good, but I don't plan to do it. I will be making the model very rusty however once I have finished the painting and will be adding the fishing net cod end hung off the funnel which they did do, to dry it off before storing.

This week I have been concentrating on the Engine room Vents and Funnel.

The Vents are made from white metal fittings and wooden dowl all provided with the kit. The Funnel is vacu-form which I am not using as it is pear shaped on plan which may be correct for the 'Milford Star' since it was converted from coal to oil burning, but the coal fired Trawlers (known as 'Smokey Joe's) had circular funnels usually. I am therefore using two empty plastic containers for the Funnel. After cutting one of the containers to make up the correct height I used four self tapping screws and some contact adhesive for the joint. The central hole you can see is for a wood screw to secure the Funnel to the engine room casing at a later date.

The fit between the Vent Cowl and the dowel was very poor so I used Tamiya tape and white Squadron putty. I used these materials to fill in the Funnel joint also. The white reinforcing ring below the Funnel top was cut from another containter lid and fixed with Klear.

White metal fittings were provided for both the steam pipe/support brackets and steam whistle/bracket. I used the 4mm O.D. plastic pipe supplied with the kit for the steam pipe. Unfortunately the kit did not provide the pipe to the steam whistle nor the pipe supports, fortunately I had some 1.5mm wire which I used and bent some smaller wire to make up the brackets.

Finally the above componets were primed with Tamiya light grey aerosol primer and rivets added.

Cheers Derek

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[Guest]

Nice fix Derek,the piping to the steam whistle is a great added detail as well. cheers Trey

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your comments Trey, much appreciated.

Have been working on the Veranda deck handrails. The timber handrail on the veranda deck looks too thin to my eye so I have thickened it up by gluing a 0.5mm tk strip. Have added the ladders and handrail, but have left the inboard section of ladder handrail loose to allow access when I plank the veranda deck.

Have added the water tank above the galley with inlet/outlet piping.

Have painted the primer to all the brass bits, handrailing etc. The 'Micro-Mark' decals sheet which I use for the Rivets includes a section of small squares, I have used these cut diagonally and added them to the steps to represent chequer plate.

Finally I suspect the enging room roof deck at the Funnel and Steam Pipe would be fitted with a doubler plate to support the weight, so I have adde this to the Funnel base and added rivets.

As this concludes all the components for the superstructure I will next week move back onto the Hull.

Cheers Derek

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[Guest]

Derek great looking job on the superstructure ,nice to see a major component come together. Really enjoying this build keep up the great work,cheers Trey

 

[Guest]

Thanks again Trey for your support, much appreciated.

This week its been two steps forward and one back. Regarding my posting #23, Page 3, you may recall that I moved the hole for the fwd mast aft to tie-in with the position of the fishing gallows which should be positioned over the hull strakes which on the kit were in the wrong position. This was the result.

I've changed my mind and decided to modify the strakes moulded to the GRP hull, I deleted the aft two strakes and added two new ones fwd using 1mm x 2mm 'Evergreen' stripstyrene. This meant moving the hole for the mast forward, and I added a second fish hold hatch.

The B&W photo below shows black vertical posts used to capture the fish pond timber boards used to capture the fish at sea when they are released from the net cod end. The fishermen then gutted and iced the fish on deck and sent them below through the deck fish room hatch for storage. (the photo below is taken in harbour during off loading the fish to the quay ready for the sale.)

The kit provided white metal angle section, see 1st. photo below. I have decided to make my own based on the above photo from 3mm x 0.5mm lime wood strips. Have also added additional bulwark plates for the capture of the fish pond timbers. The last photo below shows the post roughly in position to illustrate how they would be positioned. I am leaving them off untill I plank the deck.

All for now, Cheers Derek

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[papa 695]

Just caught up on this one Derek, Some great work so far keep it up

 

[Guest]

Hi Ian, thanks for your comments.

This week I have been finishing off the Rivets etc around the Main Deck area, below you will see the Bulkhead has had the doors and a window added as well as the rivets, you will also see the rivets at each of the bulwark stiffeners and deck hatch coamings.

Have added the Rivets to the rear coaming and added the steering chain box section covers complete with chequer plate decals to the top surface. This box section housed a helical tension spring which also acted as shock absorber for when a wave hit the rudder (no fly by wire in those days). The second photo shows a trial fit of the superstructure in way of the box section.

Finally have added rivets to the base of the four trawling gallows.

Cheers Derek

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[Ian M]

You missed one..... No only joking.

I have to ask how many can you put down before you have to stop and put your eyes back in.....?

Looking great by the way.

Ian M

 

[Guest]

Hi Ian, It's more boredom than eye strain that gets you, plenty more to come. Have started the Hull today the photo below shows the rivet pattern which will go round the hull.

Will have to break off shortly to start the Vietman GB. Cheers Derek

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[Guest]

Hi All, finally got the Hull Plating Rivets finished. Was worried I would wipe off the first side rivets when handling the model to rivet the second side so did a trial on some scrap plastic and varnished over some trial rivets with Lifecolor LC 77 Satin Clear (to my eye the finish was actually matt). I then used some of the Lifecolor paint I intend to use for the hull to check it would adhere to the varnished surfaces which it did, so I have brush varnished all the rivets. For the record it took 4-Packs of the Micro-Mark decals to rivet the entire ships Hull and Superstructure (one pack contains 2-Sheets). A few photos below. Cheers Derek

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[Ian M]

That looks fantastic. I wish I had heard of those before I did the glue dot rivets on my Bluebell!

Great work Derek

 

[Guest]

Hi Ian, I believe your Bluebell' is 1/72 if I remember; Micro-Mart don't do this scale unfortunately, so your time and massive patience was not wasted.

This week I have been concentrating on the Trawl Winch, the photo below shows the kit parts provided.

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When you sat the winch drum flange on the deck it was obvious the scale was wrong. The next photo shows the Flange layed on top of the Hall Russel's drawing which is 1/48; to scale the flange should be 4ft. and not 3ft. diameter.

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The shots below shows fabricating the replacement Flanges for the Drum and Band Brakes which were also the wrong diameter. One trick I found useful was when trying to shape the bore of the ring flange of the Band Brake was to roll up some sand paper into a cylinder and use this as a round file. You can see this in the second from the left photo below. The flanges were cut from 1mm x 3 ply scrap wood from the kit.

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The photos below show the Winch Drum sub-assemby with the Band Brake Flange fitted. Note the 48 tooth plastic spur gear in the background which I purchased separately, the boss has the be removed. Note also the slot I filed at one end of each Drum to allow the wire to pass through for an anchor when I wind on the wire I also purchased separately.

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Because of the larger Flange diameter I have had to fabricate new Cheek Plates for the Drum support. I have made up three as there is no way a Trawl Winch with the loads it was subjected to from the warps and the gear tooth load would not have had a central support. These Cheek Plates were made from scrap 2mm x 3 ply wood from the kit.

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Finally this is a shot of the sub-assembly showing the Cheek Plates supporting the Winch Drums on a 2mm shaft purchased separately. the 12 tooth spur pinion can be seen, again the boss has been removed.

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I still have to fabricate a new Winch Base and Deck Seating, but after that I hope I can cannibalize the rest of the fitting for the winch, still lots to do.

Cheers Derek

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[Guest]

christ almighty what a beautiful build,i will be watching from now on for the techniqyues used for this type of model,amazing work.

mobear

 

[Guest]

Great job on the winch Derek and the hull is looking splendid with those rivets !

 

[Guest]

Fantastic work Derek. You know the more i see of this the more im tempted to build a large scale sailing vessel of some description, im easily influenced just as i was the the Tiger Tank project. lol i find myself wanting again. :moneybags:

Cheers

Andy