Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length.

[unbuiltnautilus]

I have just completed painting and weathering my canvas covers for a pair of lifeboats on a CHANT Tanker. When I finished I was convinced they looked like leather shoes. Am  I being paranoid or should I have stuck to the more traditional green or grey for the canvas?





All constructive comments appreciated, all other comments welcomed!!

[Roadrunner]

I think they look fine, if you did them in a traditional green then i think they would have been obscured by the deck colour, its nice to have some variation of colour especially when using greens and whites, browns tend to break up the colour and make it more catching! besides Canvas covers came in many colours, off white, green, navy blue, brown and black!

[unbuiltnautilus]

Thanks for the input, I have no practical knowledge of the various colours for the canvas, other than the usual greens, so many thanks.

[Bryan Young]

Not sure about Mocassins, but I've never seen brown canvas covers on a boat before.
Please don't take offence at this post....I'm only trying to hepl improve on what otherwise looks like an excellent model.
"Chants" were (as we all know) cheap and not so cheerful floating fuel dumps during WW2, so it's extremely unlikely that any canvas would be painted at all.
Natural "grey" would have been the order of the day. Having said that, I actually doubt very much if the boats actually had covers. Rapid access for quick boarding during operations in the English Channel would be "the norm". But if you insist on having covers, then you appear to have missed out the fore and aft ridge stay and the side stringers (wood things). Also (invariably) the "tie down" bits of the covers are triangular.
Sorry about all that, but I'd maintain that a Chant during wartime wouldn't have covers anyway. BY.

[rmaddock]

If my opinion is valid, they look fantastic.
I'd say they look like natural canvas but well weather beaten.

[DickyD]

I agree with Brian, the lifeboats would not have covers while working the Channel.

Unfortunately photos are few and far between though I did find one that I downloaded and blew up and the life boat does not appear to have a cover.

[unbuiltnautilus]

Thanks for the input guys, I wouldn't have asked if I didn't have doubts. The lifeboats are Mobile Marine Models  boats and I was more than a little unsure about the patterns for the tie down points, but lacking any further reference I went with what was offered in the mouldings. However, I probably should have looked at my own reference material...



My model is a post war, civilian conversion, and the two photos here seem to indicate covers, however, they also indicate the points made previously. A little bit of work is in order..

 
 But if you insist on having covers, then you appear to have missed out the fore and aft ridge stay and the side stringers (wood things). Also (invariably) the "tie down" bits of the covers are triangular.

Can you clarify what the above items are?

[Roadrunner]

I would have though that the 'chants' were built using available parts, that would include any canvas materials?

I know i stated that canvas come in several colours, but know that greens and greys are the typical however the Komet i'm working on original has a yellowish canvas covers for the life boats, (as this matched the funnels colour)

I guess that colours of parts can only really be sort through looking at documents or asking those who were on them or built them, as black and white photo' are very deceiving when telling colours, light shades indicate a light colour,(cream, white, grey, some greens in the lighter spectrum)  dark shades or black indicate just dark colours ( from black through to browns even reds and some blues)  so its very hard to tell what is right?

Personally i would be happy with the brown i think they look the part on that model, but if your not happy...then its your prerogative to change them, after all you have to live with the model!

[DickyD]

, as black and white photo' are very deceiving when telling colours, light shades indicate a light colour,(cream, white, grey, some greens in the lighter spectrum)  dark shades or black indicate just dark colours ( from black through to browns even reds and some blues)  so its very hard to tell what is right?

Very succinct glass hopper 

[stubbsy]

Yes they do look like Moccasins 

[unbuiltnautilus]

Yes they do look like Moccasins 

Hippy

[Roadrunner]

I'm surprised he managed to see the screen to see the images with his long hair covering his mush, First post as a new member and he starts with non constructive comments, he's going to go a long way.. hopfully he will take note and wash the seaweed outta his ears   

[Bryan Young]

"Moccassins"?.
OK. First of all "natural canvas" is a sort of pale grey colour. Any othe colour is added one way or another. The better cargo-liner companies tended to get grey and green hatch tarpaulins....that made it easier for the rotation of the 3 covers in use. The "red"(ish) ones were generally of a much lighter grade and made up into lifeboat sails. Some lifeboats had wooden covers...very unwieldy and were useles as "sun-shades" (having been ditched at the time of launching). The "ridge" pole was fitted f & a along the length of the boat (portable). The side stringers acted a bit like the things you see on a house roof, running from the top of the buiding to the gutter area. 3 or 4 each side on a normal lifeboat. Their presence gives the covers their distinctive "saggy" look.
The actual "cover" is sewn to other strips of canvas that hang vertically (ie, not all one piece), and the "extra" canvas triangles have tie down cringles at their pointy ends. The lashing down points...which go under the boat to the inboard side.
Although I appreciate that your model is "post war" and could well be very colourful, I doubt if the raft launcher at the back end would be retained. Similarly, the topmost blocks on your davits need to be turned 90 degrees otherwise the hauling part wouldn't have a lead to the deck. Hope this helps. BY.

[bat44]

what size are they if they come in 11's and at a good price I'll take a pair

[TugCowboy]

Nothing to add to the for/against cover arguments. But going by how it looks, I reckon it looks good!
Alex