Model Boat Mayhem
The Shipyard ( Dry Dock ): Builds & Questions => Working Vessels => Topic started by: steve mahoney on March 15, 2020, 05:02:00 am
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Well, the Sea Mule is done and dusted, and the build wasn’t very fufilling. Perhaps it was the subject – maybe all the straight lines, or the styrene construction, or all of that grey paint. I just never really got into it. However, now my bench is clear, and with this next project I’m back on familiar ground. I’m back to my happy place – an NZ tug, made out of wood.
While I was researching my next project, the 1971, 17m, New Plymouth, Voith tug Maui (photo 1), I visited Russell Ward’s great site www.tugboats.co.nz (http://www.tugboats.co.nz). That was a mistake.
Every time I visit the site I find a new tug that’s crying out to be built as a model. Last time I got hooked by a photo of the 1925 Kumea and that immediately jumped to the top of my wishlist. Turned into a model that I’m still quite pleased with.
This time, tucked away at the bottom of a site page was an old newspaper clipping from 1945 with a photo of a tug I’d never heard of before: The Colonial Sugar Refinery Co. tug: Maro.
Last century the Colonial Sugar Refinery Co produced sugar in Australia and Fiji and shipped it all over the British Empire. CSR is no more but in its heyday it was a huge monopoly, owning vast areas of Queensland and Fiji, had its own refineries, railways, harbours and a dozen cargo ships, plus tugs.
The Maro was a 50ft, wooden, diesel tug built at the company’s Auckland Chelsea refinery yard in late 1945-6 by the CSR’s own, in-house shipwright – talk about vertical market integration.
It had a Gardner 8LW engine, single screw and was built to handle the company’s ships and barges that called at the refinery on Auckland harbour’s North Shore.
Seems strange that they built a tug at that time as just down the road at Devonport Naval Base the NZ and US Navies were decommissioning and disposing of a lot of surplus wartime equipment. A fleet of mothballed boats was in Auckland harbor until completely disposed of until the late ‘40s. A lot of USN stuff like YTLs, Sea Mules and workboats went up to the smaller Pacific islands, the surplus RNZN tugs were distributed around the country’s smaller ports. Wellington, my home town, ended up with 2 former Royal Navy Envoy Class tugs. Some of the USN workboats went up to Hong Kong as police boats (last photo).
Most NZ tugs prior to WWII were built in Britain however during the war dozens of tugs were built in Auckland for the USN and I’m thinking that any tug built there at the end of the war would surely have been influenced by the navy tugs that had been built just across the harbour. Some of the USN workboats were quite an advanced design for 1945 (photos 5 & 6) compared to the YTL tugs being produced at the same time.
The Maro does look a little like the USN workboat made across the harbour and its silhouette is more similar to a traditional US tug than to any British design of the era – low superstructure over the engine-room, square stern, high wheelhouse, short funnel, low gunwales, wrap-around front windows. It’s very different from the usual NZ tugs of that time with its pre-war shaped hull, tall US style wheelhouse, and very 1950s style funnel.
There is virtually no information and only a handful of photos of the Maro left. I did find a profile photo, one from the bow quarter and one of the stern in dry dock. That should be enough to draw up some hull lines and a basic GA – with a bit of guesswork.
Maro was sold into private ownership sometime in the 1960s and extensively modified – but not in a good way. The latest image I have is from sometime in the ‘70s or ‘80s and it looks like it has been altered a few more times and is unrecognizable from the original layout. I’ll make it as it is in the first photo I found – brand new and on its sea trials.
It should make an interesting and unique little model.
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So, here goes…
Construction will be plank on frame – my usual process. Drawing up the lines was pretty straightforward-ish. The hull lines are based on a generic US wooden 45ft tug hull, amended to fit from a plan I found online.
I used the photos, the 50ft LOA, and the 6’6’’ height of the wheelhouse ceiling as starting points to figure out the proportions of the superstructure. Russell Ward, who started me down this track, remembers going on board many years ago, and that the wheelhouse was tiny, ‘like a phone box’ and that it had a ‘very large wheel’.
The sole photo of the boat out of water shows the very full curve of the hull, rudder footing, shaft and a squared off stern/transom. The stern lines are very fine. Looks pretty close to the lines I found online, only a little adjustment and change to the squared stern deck needed.
At 1/50 this comes out to a model of 310mm LOA, 90mm wide, 130mm high. That gives the 50ft Maro a beam of 14.5ft and a draught of 6.8ft. Sounds about right.
So far, so good.
As with my previous builds, this is the same old process: the keel and ribs are laser cut 3.6mm and 1.5mm ply. The deck ply has the planking lines etched into it on the other side. Forgot to get a photo of it at this stage.
If you've seen one of my builds you'll know the drill. Everything slotted together pretty quickly and were braced to keep everything true and square. This trusty old building board has been used on my last 5 or 6 builds. It’s way to big for this little project but it’s there and it works fine – one size, many styles. Probably got a few more projects left in it yet.
This is a display only model so no need to worry about interior space, which explains all of the internal bracing.
The deck with the planking lines laser etched into it and has already been stained a ‘teak’ colour. Plenty of teak in Fiji and it would have been easy to send some down as deck cargo on one of the sugar boats. The ‘timber’ deck will be masked to prevent any wayward glue or paint spoiling the finish. The masking won’t come off until final painting stage. I’ve done this on a couple of previous builds and it saves a lot of potential headaches.
Once the bow and stern were packed out with balsa blocks, the hull was faired – quickly and simply with some 80 and 120 grit paper, before the first planks went on. I’m using 2mm basswood for the planks. Not too many complex curves on this one so steaming won't be necessary.
The downloaded hull lines that I used as a starting point for the hull proved to be a bit inaccurate and had a pronounced ‘hip’ in the curve of the hull around the stern mid-sections. I had copied them faithfully but it sometimes happens that the originals aren’t exactly correct. Before any glueing happens I always lay a few planks over the frames at various places to make sure that the curves are smooth and natural looking. No extra packing required, just the ‘hips’ to be smoothed out. This was rectified with a bit of aggressive sanding before the first planks could be attached.
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My planking is not up to the standard of many of the guys on the forum so I won’t embarrass myself by showing too many progress photos. As much as I’d like to be, I’m not a model shipwright. For me, the planking is merely to form the basic shape of the hull. A few sessions of filler, sanding and painting will turn the rough hull into a much smoother surface that looks like a proper hull.
For the planks I’m using 2mm Basswood/Lime strips. They went on a lot easier and more smoothly than expected. I start with a plank that fits with the most ease and then work away either side of it, same position port and starboard.
I was able to get the whole lot done in one decent session over the course of a morning and an afternoon. I used 10 tubes of CA Gel – most of it on my fingers. Luckily they are cheap – tubes of glue, not fingers. Had to have a couple of breaks outside as I was starting to enjoy the fumes a bit too much. Ate half a Date Loaf during one of the breaks.
When the planking had reach up to about the waterline I put a coat of polyester resin and some matting on the interior to give the planks some extra adhesion and solidity. It also helps if I sand any areas too finely later on.
This resin strengthening part’s not easy with the deck in place but I’ve done it a few times before and have figured out the best/easiest way to do it. When the resin has been poured in through a funnel I slosh it around to make sure all of the interior gets a good covering and then press some coarse matting into it along the inboard side of the planks. Works fine.
More fumes, more Date Loaf.
The rough hull has had a sand to fair it up and now it needs a coat of white primer to really highlight any bumps, dents or areas that need fixing. Then the work really begins.
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That is nice work so far, its a great shape :-))
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Must agree with SteamboatPhil......the above water lines belie the actual beauty :kiss: of her underwater lines....... Derek
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Thanks steamboatPhil and Derek.
It is starting to come together now. We are in full virus lockdown for the next 4 weeks so plenty of bench time ahead.
The hull has now had 2 sessions of fill, sand and paint and it’s at a stage where I can attach the bulwarks. Plenty of work left to do on the hull but some other parts need to be attached first. The laser cut bulwark knees/supports slot into their pre aligned holes pretty easily. They look a bit wonky but they are all square and perpendicular to the deck. The shear makes some of them look out of alignment.
On closer inspection a few days later, some were out of alignment. These were pulled out very gently with some pliers and re-fitted.
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Next step is the bulwarks but before they go on I need to attach the rubbing strip. This is quite narrow around the side of the boat but much wider at the stern where it extends out from the transom.
I would normally apply the bulwarks before the rubbing strip but it goes on now to clean and cover up the messy edge between the deck and the top planks. It also gives me a nice clean line to butt the base of the bulwark ply up to.
The rubbing strip made up of sections of 3mm basswood. 2 stern, 2 bow and 2 side sections. The long segments along the sides are slightly bent upwards at the bow end to follow the shear of the deck. This was done with brute force and many clamps while glueing. Basswood is a nice material to work with.
The top edge is the most critical, any gaps are easily filled. The hull at the stern needs a little extra work under the transom but nothing too drastic.
The stempost has been re-instated and rudder box has been added.
Now it all needs tidying up. Back the the fill, sand, prime, repeat cycle. It's raining all day and we can't go out for our allocated exercise so this will be a nice diversion.
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This is a beautiful build Steve! :-))
... could you put a cup, can of coke, etc. in one of the next photos please as I'm not fully appreciating the scale :embarrassed:
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Martin, I think you'll find the squares on the cutting mat are 5 cm.
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Thanks Martin, I'm able to put in a reasonable stretch at the bench each day at the moment so things are progressing well.
Dougal – you are correct. I'd never thought about it but the grid is 2" squares. Can hardly see the lines these days.
Anyway the bulwarks went on without any problems – too easy in fact, which always gets me worried. The worst time for Apaches is when there's no sign of Apaches!
I started with the section around the stern corners and transom: 2 layers of 0.4mm ply. The straight side sections are a single layer of 0.8mm ply laid so the bias of the ply runs horizontally – along the line of the deck. That's so that 2 of the 3 ply layers are running the way I want. The gentler curves at the bow are 0.8mm laid the other way to make the curve.
I make sure the ply is a good fit at the base, along the deck line and leave some excess at the top. A series of thin card patterns helps. The attached ply is easily sanded down to the top of the supports. But you guys all know how to do this. Turned out OK and is a lot stronger than it looks.
Once the rub rail and bulwarks were on I could add the last little bits to the hull and start finishing it off
Now a few more sessions of fill, sand, paint. Rinse and repeat...
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That wasn’t too bad, only needed 5 sessions of fill, sand & prime in total. Some hulls have had up to 7 or 8. For some reason hard chine hulls often give me more trouble. The SDM I built a few years ago got up to double figures. It had semi-circular bow and stern sections with very regular curves that showed any tiny bump or flat spot.
The scuppers/freeing ports and hawser holes have been cut out and the capping rail has been added. The bulwarks are very low and there will be a steel railing added later.
The scuppers are quite small and she sits pretty low in the water with not much freeboard – adequate for inner harbour work but not really sufficient for the open sea. This little tug used to tow loads across the Colville Channel out to Great Barrier Island – 80km. 99 times out of 100 that stretch is flat calm and a great trip. I’ve done a 1% trip and it can get very hairy. Our 45ft launch was reduced to very low speed heading straight into a huge breaking swell and was being thrown around – a lot. Our scuppers were working overtime. Everything in the cabin, galley, cupboards, fridge, drawers, lockers, etc was thrown all over the cabin, like a bomb had gone off in the place. The 1 tonne anchor chain in the chain locker was being thrown around so much we thought it might punch a hole in the side. When we eventually docked it had knotted itself into a solid ball. Took hours with a sledgehammer and 2 crowbars to even get it out of the locker to begin to untangle it. That was the least of our problems. It had been so rough that our chiller bin full of beer (50 kilos/20 doz cans) for our fishing weekend had bounced over the transom and was lost. One of the guys, with 30 years skippering experience, had been violenty seasick – for the first time ever – he blames it on the sight of the beer abandoning ship. He’s now known as ‘Colville Chowder’. Ask him for something to eat and that’s what he’ll bring up.
Back to the build – a little more tweaking and the hull will be ready for some paint.
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I may have mentioned before that I am super fussy with my hull finishes. Probably too fussy but I find this part quite relaxing, working my way up through the sandpaper grades until it’s the 1200 Wet & Dry. Can’t hide anything there. Beside, there's not much else to do in virus lockdown. Luckily the weather has been lovely, a last effort of summer, so sanding outdoors and painting has been pleasant.
Well, the final touches to the hull took a bit longer than planed. The more I buffed it up with the 1200 W&D the more I kept finding tiny areas that needed a little more attention. A couple of the planks I had used for the hull were quite a bit softer than the rest and these seemed to get a lot of pressure dents and scuffs from the slightest bump. All fixed now with a bit more filler and some resin.
The hull now no bumps, dents or spots, nothing. It is as smooth as a baby’s bum – which, as you know, is the internationally recognised technicnal term denoting the maximum smoothness possible. Feels like a plastic hull. Really worth the effort. I’m happy now.
Eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed that I’ve broken the rudder footing. But thank you for not mentioning it.
Yes, I’ve done this before – several times. This time I was a bit rough while drilling the hole for the rudder post. It’s easily fixed and actually makes attaching the rudder much easier. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
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The photo that initially got me interested in the Maro is a black & white image taken during her sea trials. They show the hull and superstructure in a mid tone colour. Pretty hard to tell what it was. In late 1945 there would have been plenty of surplus grey paint in Auckland. After nearly 6 years of war everyone was pretty sick of grey paint but there weren’t a lot of other choices. Paint was still rationed and this was the time when every railway wagon/carriage, farm building, fence, shed, and corrugated iron house roof in the country was painted Red Oxide. In those days if it wasn’t painted Red Oxide it was primer grey, waiting to be painted Red Oxide.
The funnel band and interior appear to be white (option 1).
The black & white profile shot from a few years later is probably very dark navy blue hull with a white superstructure – as were all of the CSR cargo ships. The funnels were the same hull blue with a red band and a black top strip (option 2). I’ve already got 5 tug models with dark blue hulls so that colour scheme is not doing it for me at the moment.
The next image shows the CSR funnel and company pennant designs. The lettering on the funnels was only used on the cargo ships, not the tugs.
The only colour photo I have of the Maro is from the 1960s or ‘70s when she was in private ownership with Subritzky Shipping and show her with a black and bright pale green hull, white bulwarks/superstructure with mid green trim/roofs. Black capping rail and deck equipment. The funnel is black with a green band and white stripes above and below it. The wheelhouse/bridge has a green band running around it. The superstructure over the engineroom had been completely altered when this photo was taken and totally changes the looks. They also raised the bulwarks at the bow and added some boxt structures around the funnel. It all looks rubbish but the colours are quite nice (option 3).
Subritzkys used her for general towing, a lot of their work was taking supplies out to the islands in the Hauraki Gulf. They are still going today as SeaLink and operate ferries and freight to Waiheke, Rakino, Great Barrier and several other islands out from Auckland. They don’t use the green livery these days.
I had planned on making mine as it is in the first photo I found: brand new and one colour over-all: Red Oxide above the waterline and superstructure, black below the waterline, (there would have been a ton of black anti-fouling paint available, ex-navy), teak deck. Primer grey or white roof and trim. White band on the funnel and white interior.
TimB made a Thames tosher tug on RCGroups in all Red Oxide and it looks great. Red Oxide’s colour and tone varies greatly depending on the age of the paintjob, wear & tear, application, manufacturer and the amount of sun it gets so it could be at one end, or other, of the Red Oxide spectrum. I’ve always liked the Moran Tugs maroon colour, which is almost in the range.
However, the more I looked at the 1970’s photo in the green and white, the more I liked that colour scheme. The green is a very 60’s colour. So I’ve decided to go for that. It’s first repaint under new ownership – before they altered and ruined the superstructure lines.
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So, here’s the painted hull. Took a bit longer to get here than the usual route.
I painted the white bulwarks first – all OK.
Then the green of the hull. Because we are in a total virus lock-down no shops are open and no mail order is available, I had to use whatever paints I had on hand. I always use Humrol enamels and luckily I had a selection of greens and blues in my box of tricks. Not quite the right greens and blues to mix the correct colour though. I got close in a pea green sort of way but after painting the hull and the inboard bulwarks I couldn’t live with it. Wrong green, and on closer inspection of the sole colour photo reference, the inner bulwarks were white. They were easily but time consumingly re-sprayed.
Getting the correct green was a problem. I couldn’t get even close to it with the Humbrol paints. I use Humbrol out of habit from when they were the only thing available back in the ‘70s. I guess I use enamels because they are used on real boats. And I’m used to them.
This time I couldn’t get what I wanted and so in the very back of the cupboard I found some old Valiejo acrylics that had been used for a Christmas gift a few years ago. Desperate times, desperate measures – I’ll give them a go!
I was able to mix exactly the right colour and it went through the airbrush no problem at all. Nice and opaque, even colour, and the perfect satin sheen, dries in no time and cleans up in water.
After years of blissful ignorance I’m now an acrylic convert. Why didn’t you guys tell me sooner?
The hull colour is just what I was after. The black anti-fouling took several/3 coats to match the sheen of the acrylic. The black is a real dust magnet. Same with my cars – after 3 black cars in a row that constantly collected dust and pollen I now have a white one.
The deck had been pretty well protected with masking tape during the hull forming stage and came through it all without too much damage. Nothing a little spot sanding and re-stain won’t fix.
OK. I’m happy with the hull so far. Only needs a couple of minor additions: bilge pump and waste water outlets. The propellor is one that I’ve had in the spares box for years. The size is just right. Bingo!
The hull can take a back-seat for a bit while I get on with the superstructure.
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Thats a great result! I'm still persevering with Humbrol / Revell oil based tinlets, quality is pretty shocking these days but they are still brushable over a decent area. Tried putting through the airbrush last week and just created clouds of airborn particles, and runs on the model. Acrylics are definately the way forward for airbrushing! I use Tamiya -not ventured yet to Vallejo yet except for varnish. That said, I really struggle with white, yellow and red on acrylics. I'm impressed wih your white work!
Rich
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Rich: Thanks. Still using enamel undercoat, the white always looks a lot better on top of that.
Are the Tamiya acrylics water clean up or do they need a special thinners?
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Tamiya bottle'lets (if that's a word) is water clean up. The tub of thinners they do is not expensive and lasts a very long time, I've bought 2 in 10 years but granted it's been a while since I dusted off the fume cabinet and went spraying properly again. Tamiya are well known for having a solvent content and their thinners work best though folk say to use window cleaner etc. I use a drop of detergent for spraying through then finish with a few drops of tamiya thinner for cleaning. For brush painting water clean-up with rubbing on soap, then a wad of spit on the brush (sounds horid but works perfect with any acrylic, spit seems to clean awesome) but I love them for airbrushing, they dry in seconds -but never to sure about longevity in a model that will get wet. They are a like or lothe paint I think -but what isn't! They're not great at brushing though -they dry very fast. And white, yellow and red are just rubbish.
Taranis gets on well with their aerosol primer on metal. I haven't, I thought it was terrible. Each to their own!
Rich
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Looks good mate well done tassie48
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Thanks Gregg. Good to see you are still kicking.
The laser cut parts for the superstructure fitted together pretty easily and quickly, with a little internal bracing to keep everything square. Looks a bit rough in the first photos but nothing to worry about.
Next stage, after a bit of filler, and the window frames and engine room companionway added. The 1mm wide window frames overlap the window hole by 0.5mm (to allow for the glazing) so there is only 0.5mm around the edge to glue. They seemed to give me more problems than they should have. Maybe I was just tired. Very fiddly and frustrating.
Now to tidy it up for undercoating.
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None of my reference photos show the access to the bridge/wheelhouse in any clarity so I’m having to guess here.
The wheelhouse deck is about 1200mm above the main deck – that’s 4 steps. But was it steps or a ladder.
The sea trials photo shows a very faint image of a top step/landing but it’s pretty hard to decipher exactly what’s there. There are no grab-rails.
I ended up making 3 options to see which version looked about right: a standard ladder which continues up to form the grab-rail (top left in the second photo), a step ladder with tread plates (top right), and a set of steps with separate hand rails (bottom). Steps running along the deck up to the wheelhouse won’t work as the gap between the bulwark and wheelhouse is too narrow to fit them in real life.
The basic ladder would have been the easiest option but boat builders usually don’t take the easy option – that’s what I normally do.
The basic ladder looks much too wide and it would have been difficult to open the door when balanced in the ladder.
The ladder with tread plates is a better solution and the Refinery would have had a metal working shop with skilled workers so this option could have easily been made on site.
The wooden step ladder fits in with the ‘feel’ of the boat and would have been much easier to get into the wheelhouse, especially standing on the 2nd or 3rd step and trying to open the door. Plus, if the boat builder took so much effort to make the wooden grab-rail supports that run along the funnel deck, making a couple of step-ladders would have been no problem at all.
I finished all 3 options and tried them on the boat – the wooden step ladders just seemed right. Looks right, feels right.
]The top step is around 1200mm off the main deck and only 1m away from the side of the boat, and the bulwarks opposite the door are only 500mm high, so any misstep by the crew leaving the wheelhouse and they would do a header straight into the drink. The boat in the sea trials photo probably isn’t totally completed and later photos show an extended railing opposite the cabin door to catch any flying deckhands.
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Interesting having fwd facing-opening bridge doors :D
Great for catching a breeze on a subtropical river amongst the sugarcane, not so great for catching green wave spray {-) down toward the Ditch
Not so sure the designer/builders understood this
Derek
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Well spotted Derek. That door is on the wrong side. Luckily the doors aren't glued in yet, only taped in for the photo. Won't be attached until everything has been painted and glazed.
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Wasn't questioning your build as the original appears as fwd opening :o ..........
My only experience of wooden bridge doors in wooden planked bridges on similar sized vessels were sliding bridge doors ...sliding fwd to open.....then sliding astern to close & keep the spray out
Derek
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The lock-down restrictions are starting to kick in – I’m running very low on some materials and the mail order places don’t re-open until next week. The lock-down came into effect so quickly that I didn’t get a chance to stock up beforehand and now I’m getting low on pretty much everything: brass rod, styrene, filler, glue, paint, thinners and undercoat. For the next part of the build I’ll try and make a few items that I can paint in batches.
The funnel was pretty straightforward. Made with my usual laser cut spine, packed out with balsa, then skinned in 2 layers of 0.2mm styrene. Added a 1mm half round styrene strip for the rolled lip at the top and some styrene to form the flange mounting at the base. These photos are a bit blurry but you get the picture – nothing new here.
The fresh water tank was formed the same way – 2 layers of thin styrene wrapped around a balsa base. The details are styrene. The PE valve handle also came from the spares box.
Whenever I get some PE done I always make 2 or 3 spares of everything so I now have a spares box which is full of surplus companionways, stanchions, valve wheels, port-holes, grilles and louvres of all shapes and sizes. A lot of it is specific to a particular build but sometimes one of the bits is just right for a current project. I've gotten used to working with the little PE pieces and don't destroy as many as I had imagined so any future PE won't include so many extras. I'm trying to work my way through the spares box where ever possible. I won't need 7mm portholes for years.
The engine-room louvres were made from some surplus PE brass louvres from a project from 3 or 4 years back, either the SDM or the ATBs I think. They were the right width and just needed to be trimmed to the correct length. Much better than trying to make some out of styrene at that size: 12 x 12mm.
Let’s see how they all look with some paint on.
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Hi Steve, I presume you have your own laser cutter?
rich
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Hi Rich, no laser cutter. I use a local sign maker who does laser cutting as a service. There are several in town and I've used a few of them over the years. I've been using these guys since my previous supplier retired about five years ago.
I would like one of my own, maybe when the costs for an 80w A3 laser get a bit more affordable. Out of the question at the moment.
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Finally got around to finishing off a couple of the things I started last week. The painting, which is usually a simple job for me, seemed to turn into a process of mistakes and accidents. I left a fingerprint in the semi dry paint on the wheelhouse, dropped a couple of newly painted object onto the ground while moving them outside to dry in the sun, dropped the engine room skylight housing into the tin of undercoat – that’s a first. Managed to extract it before it sank but cleaning it up took about 10 times longer than painting it.
And to cap it all off, I used some very old masking tape where the adhesive had gone off and either left behind a sticky residue or let paint bleed under it. Yes – those are runs on the rear wall of the wheelhouse but they will be covered up by the water tank – but thank you for not mentioning it.
All fixed now but very dissatisfying.
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Looks great Steve! Go on...keep us in suspense about the doors on the wheelhouse (though the holes paint a picture) LoL!
Rich
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Well spotted Rich.
I'm tending toward the wooden steps with a hand-rail on the door handle side only, so the door could open flat against the side of the wheelhouse.
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Hi Steve. Re paint runs do you use the usual trick of first spraying in the underlying colour again to seal the paint edge before going over with the new colour. I looked back the other day while paint was drying around some rubbing strakes and found comical peel-back in places my tape just didn't want to stick. I was amazed it turned out OK in the end!
...couple of tiny dabs with a fine brush will fix yours though, nobody will know! Very nice and neat.
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It seems that you can have too much of a good thing.
I had imagined that an 8 week lockdown would mean that I could spend all day at the work bench, however, after 4 weeks I completely lost interest in the Maro. It has been sitting neglected for over a month. I've tried to kick-start the project a couple of times and haven't made much progress.
I'm trying to get some enthusiasm back to get the thing finished and will put in some time over the next week. I have pretty much made all of the elements that need to be added to finish it but not much has happened. I didn't even take any photos of the little that I did manage to do.
I've made the mast, bitts, samson posts, windlass, life buoy rings, tow bow, railings and nav lights.
Because I don't have any reference of the deck equipment a lot of this stuff is 'best guess' scenario. So I've also made a rope bin and a rope drum. The bin was made from surplus laser cut duckboards. The drum: from some extra PE brass cogs that were originally made for a winch/windlass on the YTL I made couple of years ago. They worked fine once the teeth had been filed off. Soldering the outer rail was quite complicated – the spokes are 1.5mm long and were very difficult to solder. Worked out OK.
The hose reel was made from the spare PE brass tiller wheels from the Sea Mule I made earlier this year. The box of bits worked out this time.
These all need to be fixed in place. Probably only a few solid evenings' work and it'll be finished.
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Slowly plugging away. Got the mast completed and installed.
And attached the water tank.
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Some real pride going into this build! :-))
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Thanks Martin.
Not too much left to do now. Which is just as well because my mind has already started wandering to the next project.
I have a bag of car size tyres that I can use as fenders. I need 60 of them for a future project so every now and then I make a dozen and put them into storage. I only needed 6 for the Maro but the pre-made ones are more of the wider modern type – not the narrower tyres that were in use during the war.
Easily fixed. I made up 6 new tyres out of 2 rather than 3 1.5mm segments. You can see the difference between the 2 styles. The thinner style looks about right.
They are now attached and the boat is 99% done. The fire equipment is done. The hose reel now has a hose, made from thin gauge plastic coated wire, with a 'brass' nozzle. I won't bother making another bucket at 1/50 again. Too fiddly. Next time it'll be 3D printed. I still need to paint the inside of the bucket, and stain the fender ties.
The only jobs left are: a rope bow fender roll, attach the deck lights and the anchor.
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Lovely job, Steve, a model to be proud of. I see that the long dark cloud (as opposed to the long white cloud %) ) of covid restrictions has lifted over there in Aotearoa, so life must be returning to something approaching normal. You should now be able to restock your building supplies ready for your next project :-)
Peter.
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Thanks Peter, and yes, returning to normal alright. The rugby season has resumed and the mighty Hurricanes have taken up where they left off – with another thrashing tonight. Watching that was 2 hours that would have been better spent at the work-bench.
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Over here.......sentiments appear to be over brewing........a Melbourne small business 'Home Brewer" business is forced with a backlash....as their "Colonial Home Brew" name somehow portrays this Master & Slave relationship :-X
..so certain sections of our Community are calling for a ban on the product
Thank goodness they are not asking for a Black Ban {-)
Derek
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A gorgeous build log and project Steve! I could see no evidence of a broken rudder skeg or paint bleeds and can only think that Rugby withdrawal was making you giddy :}
Despite your interest waning some time back, the return to completing it shows no evidence of rushing the job to get it out of the way.
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Thanks Ballastanksian. Everything looks better when you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Not too much left to do and I can start thinking about the next one.
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Finished.
Well, almost. I only have only thing left to do. I still need to put on the names but that will have to wait until I get a batch of rub-downs produced.
The last little items seemed to take longer than they should have. I had initially planned on having a New York 'beard' style bow fender and had just about finished it when I decided to go with a 'pudding' style rope fender instead. The fender wasn't too much trouble – just hundreds of tiny hitches, that took hours to do. It was the turk's head around the middle of the fender that really caused problems. They are quite complicated to tie and I spent quite a few hours tying knots that looked more like the opposite end of the Turk from the head. Eventually got there with a 5 bight, 4 lead, triple pass knot. Now that it's dyed you can hardly see it. Doh!
So, here it is, minus name plates.
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I'm mostly happy with it. Nice hull shape and colour. My method for building hulls is getting easier each time. The acrylic paint isn't able to take the knocks as well as enamel – I'll know better next time.
I might have to learn a 3D drawing programme and start printing some of the labour intensive, repetitive parts – buckets, vents, nav lights, capstans, etc.
But first, I'll have a couple of days to figure out which boat makes it to the top of my wish list.
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It has been 6 months since I updated this build. I reached practical completion back in July but now I have finally added the name plate rub-downs. I had waited until I had several models worth of rub-downs to do in one order. These came from All-Out Graphics in Vancouver – excellent as usual.
So she's all done – at last.
Been on a shelf since July and I'm still pleased with her lines, and the final colour. Tugs from this era seem to have a lot of character.
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Great build Steve can not to see whats next you inspire people to build well done buddy tassie48