Model Boat Mayhem
The Shipyard ( Dry Dock ): Builds & Questions => Working Vessels => Topic started by: steve mahoney on October 30, 2020, 07:17:44 pm
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I’ve been out of model making since the beginning of the year. I put it down to Covid but it’s really just apathy, lethargy and a massive dose of CBA
But my wishlist of tugs keeps growing and these models won’t make themselves, so it’s time to get back to work. Besides, you guys have had enough of a break from New Zealand tugs so it’s time for another one.
Not sure how long this one will take. I'm hoping that I'll get my mojo back when the project actually gets off the ground.First: A little background information...1960 – 2000 were the heydays of tug building in New Zealand. Before that, most of the tugs had come from British makers, to a British desgn. By 1960 the local NZ yards had developed the skills and size needed to compete with their British competitors. WWII had lead to great expansion in the industry and introduced many new techniques and skills in steel boat building. It was also about this time that many Harbour Boards were replacing aging fleets. Good times for all.
By the turn of the millenium cheaper, off-the-shelf, cookie-cutter design tugs from China, Singapore, Vietnam and Turkey had taken over the market. There’s nothing wrong with Damen, Sanmar and Allen designs – but they do lack a bit of individuality and character. It’s like a world with only Toyotas. Now if you visit another port it’s: same boat, maybe different colour, same, same.
1971 however, was a particularly good year for NZ tug builders, especially for Whangarei Engineering (WECO). They had orders for 5 tugs from 3 ports: Tika from Auckland (1st and 2nd photos, my last build); Kupe, Ngahue and Toia from my hometown (photos 3 & 4); and the Maui from New Plymouth. The Kupe class tugs were 31m and the Tika and Maui were both around 17m.
NZ made tugs had a reputation for being very well built. They were all custom made. The 5 tugs built by WECO that year were 3 totally different designs: 4 Voith & 1 twin screw; 3 different engine and towing systems. Even different galley and accomodation equipment and finishes. Even the 3 Kupe class tugs for Wellington all had different winches and fire-fighting systems. No standardisation or economies of scale. I guess that’s what eventually broke the industry in NZ – building a Mercedes for a Corolla price.
But in ‘71 things looked good and the tugs were duly delivered on time and on budget.
All 5 tugs are still working now, almost 50 years later. You don’t get old by being useless.
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Great looking model! What size or scale is it? I'm thinking of getting into tug builds (from helicopters) and considered the new Damen one at Napier near me but it looks a bit chubby for my eye and may go for a leaner shape like the 1907 Stan tug.
Cheers
Nelson
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Thanks Nelson,
The Tika is pretty small at 1/50 – only 350mm long. A bit small for RC on a big pond.
A Damen 1907 at 1/25 would be a great model, although finding hull lines for any Damen is a difficult.
The Ahuriri from Napier is on my 'to do' list – it's a long list! I've got a few other NZ tug models here: https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/member.php?u=102411
and some of the builds are also on this forum.
Steve
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Thanks for the response Steve, and the link to the other art work. I'm really pondering about scale: I'd like to keep to a single scale and start with something not too ambitious in the 50 - 65cm size and later do one of the larger tugs that might be nearer a metre in length. I like Damen because the company has scale drawings on their product sheets. Although as you say it does not include hull section. I actually emailed asking them but was told it was intellectual property not to be given. But the hulls appear to be made of "flat" steel sheet in about three sections each side, so it should be possible to interpolate from the drawings approximately what the crass sections will be. It also raises the option of making the hull from styrene sheet or ply. And even if a fibreglass mould is made, it may be easier to mock it up from flat sheets than carving wood.
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Why not 1:35 or 36 so 50cm and loads of accessories that you can get for detailing!
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Why not 1:35 or 36 so 50cm and loads of accessories that you can get for detailing!
OK. Are you saying 1:35 is a regular scale for parts? I looked on Cornwall models and no scales seemed to be mentioned except for kits.
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1/32 is a standard size for most UK/US fittings. A 1907 at 1/32 would be 610mm long.
You should be able to figure out basic cross sections based on the General Arrangement. I've done this for most of my builds. A hard chine hull like this wouldn't be too difficult. Let me know if you need a hand drawing it up.
Ply is definitely the way to go with a hull like that.
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Yup, 1:35 is for loads of crew/cargo such as oil drums etc/odds and sods etc. I.e. all the, generally, militaria suitably civilianised. Crew can be easily got at 1:32 but often the plastic at that scale seems to be "interesting" when you try to get paint to stick and the Mobile Marine Models kits and fittings are all at 1:32.
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1/32 is a standard size for most UK/US fittings. A 1907 at 1/32 would be 610mm long.
You should be able to figure out basic cross sections based on the General Arrangement. I've done this for most of my builds. A hard chine hull like this wouldn't be too difficult. Let me know if you need a hand drawing it up.
Ply is definitely the way to go with a hull like that.
That image was an empty frame to me - is it just me?
I'm tempted to look at styrene sheet.
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That image was an empty frame to me - is it just me?
I'm tempted to look at styrene sheet.
Same for me too npomeroy
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How's that?
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yep that's good I can see it now
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A bit more background:
Up until ‘71 the city of New Plymouth had only had a small exposed harbour, not suitable for large ships. Small rivermouth ports at nearby Patea and Waitara were being phased out and the New Plymouth Harbour Board had big plans for the future (it’s now a large export port and homeport for the local offshore oil industry). The little Maui was the first tug for the newly developed Port Taranaki. At only 17m she’s small. “How small?” you ask. Check out the 1st photo. That's either a really big rubber duck or a tiny tug.
She’s still working everyday, now up north in Auckland. I went onboard a couple of years ago and she’s still in good nick: solid as a rock, comfortable quarters – and rides really well.
While she isn’t beatiful in a classical sense, she is fit for purpose – the same way a bulldog is. She looks like a strong little tug – no frills, nothing fancy.
The Kupe class tugs completed at WECO that year are stereotypical NZ tugs. Many ports went on to have similar WECO tugs and they seemed to be all over the country. They are the tugs I remember as a boy. My son even got to drive the Kupe around the harbour when he was little.
That 31m hull design and Voith system used on the Kupe was refined and used on various tugs until the 1990s when ASD tugs became more popular. The Te Matua and Hauroko have identical hulls and drives systems – based on the Kupe. I have a 1/50 Te Matua that I plan to rebuild at some stage. The Hauroko is very muscular looking tug and I've got to have one of those too.
I’ll be attempting to make a display model of the Maui at 1/50. My usual MO: laser cut components, plank/ply on frame, with some 3D printed parts and PE brass details.
PS. It’s not all bad news for boatbuilding in NZ these days: WECO are still making very good tugs (PT Mary and PT May – also in the wishlist) and the industry has refocussed on high-end yachts and super yachts.
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1/32 is a standard size for most UK/US fittings. A 1907 at 1/32 would be 610mm long.
You should be able to figure out basic cross sections based on the General Arrangement. I've done this for most of my builds. A hard chine hull like this wouldn't be too difficult. Let me know if you need a hand drawing it up.
Ply is definitely the way to go with a hull like that.
Yes I have the GA drawings and intend to work from them. Another long-time scale builder I met recently was very persuasive towards the full line drawings being essential. But he may not have know how simple the lines were on this tug. I'm tempted to do it in fibreglass to avoid needing space-consuming internal framework.
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At 1/32 a 1907 would be 610 long by 240 wide with 110mm below the deck. Even with some space for hull ribs/frames you would still have plenty of room for the internals. Might need to have some of the deck removable for good access though.
Keep us posted with a build log.
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Maui’s current owners let me onboard to take a load of photos and also gave me a copy of the GA so I was able to draw up the parts for laser cutting. These slot together and then the flat sections of the hull go on. The hull is a bit tricky – it’s like a hard chine but with curves – if you know what I mean. Luckily it is very similar to the bigger WECO tug hulls, and I have a complete set of hull lines for the 31m Kupe – a gift courtesy of the Wellington Harbour Board. I made a 1/50 Kupe 20 years ago and it wasn’t too difficult to draw up and amend the Kupe lines to work for the smaller curvier Maui hull. This build will also be good practise for a couple of future projects: Te Matua and Hauroko.
Here are the laser-cut sheets ready for popping out and cleaning of the scorched edges. This is not the display face of the ply, that’s still covered with tape.
...and in the plastic tub are all of the major components needed to build the basic carcase. There’s a tug in there somewhere, I just need to put it together.
So, out with the trusty old building board...
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... and a few hours and a few tubes of CA later.
The bracing is overkill but as this is a display model only I don't need any internal cavities. I'm building the hull the same way I would build a plug for a mould. Quick and easy.
Now to start packing the stern and bow sections with balsa blocks.
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Attached the deck and packed out below it to attach the top chine sheeting. This is 1mm ply.
I haven't really attacked this build with the enthusiasm I would have liked. It is a slow and complex build and I haven't even got to the complex part yet.
So I thought that I might sideline this project for a few weeks and knock out something quick and easy to get me back into the swing of things. I'll start another thread on this new little project. I will get back to the Maui as soon as I've got up a head of steam.
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I have been slowly making a little bit of progress between working on the Tui and Busby builds.
The base plates are attached – this is where the Voith drives will go. It's there only section of the hull that is fairly simple.
...and the bow and stern have been packed out with balsa. Some of the curves around the stern are quite complex. Haven't figured out how I'll attack those parts. The lower curved section above the base plate will be planked and hopefully I can use ply sheet for the hull sides.
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Trying to juggle 3 builds at once is having both good and bad points. The builds are all pretty much at the same stages – getting the hull sorted out, so there seems to be a never ending cycle of fill, sand, prime, repeat. On the good side, if I get bored with one build or hit a problem I can move on to the next one.
However everything seems to be progressing at a snail's pace. Christmas binge eating, maintenance work around the house and 'stuff' have cut down my time at the bench.
I managed to get a solid start on the hull. The base is 2 flat panels, the sides are very regular, smooth surfaces, the bow and stern and lower curves are quite complex. The straightforward sections are 1mm ply. The lower curved section has been planked. What a mess. I made a terrible job of it. There seemed to be no sweet plank at all, every plank needed shaping. I should have just packed it out and carved it. Luckily I could smooth/fix/hide it with filler and paint.
When the planking had reached as high as it would go I gave the interior a good coat of resin and cloth to really lock everything in place, fill any gaps, and to stiffen up the balsa. Slowly starting to get in shape now.
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When I got asked to build the model of the Busby, this one got put on hold back in December, stuck in a cupboard and then packed in a box when we moved town. At that stage the hull was complete with the bulwarks attached.
The Busby build has reached a bit of natural break while waiting for some material so I thought that I’d get this build back on track.
It has been so long since I looked at this project so I took a few hours to re-acquaint myself with the build, plans and photos.
The first thing I noticed was that pretty much everything I had done was wrong.
The skeg was was too simplistic and too shallow. The free ports /scuppers weren’t in the right places. The bulwarks at the bow should have been higher and slope down for the first 20% of the length on the boat. The stern bulwarks are much more square than I had made them. And the hull had plenty of unwanted bumps and shoulders. I had originally marked the bulwark knees/supports in the correct places but for some reason I’d altered them to make a much more rounded stern rail. I can’t figure out why I did any of this – other than not paying attention and assuming that I new what I was doing, and going at it like a bull at a gate – something my wife has been telling me for years.
The bumps were fixed with a few rounds of fill/sand/prime and now I’m down to the 800 grit wet & dry. Quite therapeutic. That part’s looking OK now although the balsa I had used is very poor quality, very soft and dents easily. Hopefully a thin coat of resin or a few coats of diluted primer will soak in and toughen it up a bit.
The skeg now has some proper shape and form – my first attempt looked like I hadn’t really been trying – she says that a bit too.
The bulwarks were more of a problem. I should have removed them and started again from scratch but I’m a stubborn cuss (yeah, I’ve heard that as well) so I persevered with trying to fix what was already there. You can see in the photo the incorrect positions that the supports had been moved to. Took twice as long and twice the stress of starting again but I like to fix things rather than throw them out and get a new one. I should tell her that
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OK, the hull and bulwarks are now looking much better. The freeing ports/scuppers and hawser holes have been cut out (in the correct places), and the skeg looks about right.
The hull is very squat (one of the crew told me that Maui was very comfortable is a heavy sea) and looks a bit big in the bum but that’s how it is in the plans.
Next tasks are the capping rail, rubbing strips, fender housing, hawser hole details, Voith blades, and the protection plate. The plate will need to be made as a separate unit so that the hull and blade units can be attached and painted first. I’ll probably also need to make a new building cradle to work around the protection plate.
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Many moons ago I built Graupner’s “Parat”. I was Master on the full scale one for a while. There are only three controls on a Twin Voith installation, thrust port and starboard levers ahead and astern and a wheel for transverse thrust (steering). No speed controller required, just a switch, as the rotors and engines turn continuously and the controls only introduce pitch. So, one servo for each rotor, ahead and astern thrust and a third servo linked to an idler (empty) to effect steering. Graupner in their wisdom specified a speed controller and 4 servos. The rotors in neutral thrust take minimal load until pitch is applied. When the lever in the middle of each unit is moved by a servo in one direction, thrust is applied at 90° to the direction of the lever. The rotors are contrarotating, ie. one clockwise tother is anti-clockwise. It doesn’t matter which way. I modified my transmitter so that I had two levers for ahead and astern and a rotary controller knob for the steering servo. Put one lever ahead the other astern and steer in the opposite direction and the boat will move sideways. Hope this is understandable.
Jerry C.
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Thanks Jerry. This one is display only, 340mm LOA at 1/50, much too small for working Voith drives. Making them is way beyond my ability and the commercially available units are big and very, very expensive.
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Understand, I didn’t think. Yes, they are very expensive however, they are very simple devices and with 3D printing around now they could be made for a fraction of the cost. The only problem I ever had with mine was fouling a mooring line for one of the hire rowing boats on the lake but two lads from the local sub aqua club swam out and recovered it for me. A quick donation from me to the air ambulance service at their suggestion followed!
Enjoy your build.
Jerry C.
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I have a 1/50 version of the 31m Voith tug Kupe but with twin screws. I'd like to rebuild it at 1/20 but the commercially available drives are too small and too expensive.
The Graupner Voith drives are over $NZ300 each plus shipping, and the better engineered Bauers are over $NZ500 each. I could never swing that past the boss, and I'm wary of the committing to the Graupner drives as I have a couple of Graupner ASD drives on my SDM tug and they are not very robust (poor design). Can't use them any more for fear of losing a nozzle in the middle of the pond.
I guess that project will have to stay on the back-burner for a while.
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Seve.....is that $NZ 500.00 each purchasing directly on the Manufacturer?......what type of Freight is included?
DHL [an arm of Deutsche Post] is very expensive with their Insurance Costs
[Metric minature hex headed [M1.5 to M+++] brass bolts & nuts are near an exclusive to Germany]
I have experienced a small parcel approx 70 Euro of B&N was beefed up to 112 EURO with DHL freight & Insurance or a 40% of the costs as extras ..the delivery time was 12 days
I have also experienced a similar 70 Euro in B&N from the same supplier with standard Deutsche Post with 12 Euro postagewith a landed deliver time of 6 days O0
However I understand the need for insurance + fully tracked number <*< with higher value individual items such as you Bauer drives
Derek
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Hi,
A contrarotating VSP sounds fascinating but hideously complicated. The single one I have for a project is just about enogh as it is!
Steve we all know you put exquisite static models of this type together, much like Bob W does for sailing ships so happy to watch your builds and watch them coming together.
Rich
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Thanks Rich.
Derek: the NZ micro-dollar is buying as much these days. NZ$1.65 per Euro, plus freight (post) and insurance, plus there could be 15% a sales tax at this end. That all adds up to make it prohibitive.
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After patting myself on the back for fixing the errors on the stern bulwarks I started on the capping rail and fender housing.
The capping rail is steel tube so this was replicated with styrene rod on the now correct height bulwarks. Easy peasy.
The boat was built with a rubber rubbing strip in a moulded channel running completely around the boat, level with the deck. I had built in a flat surface onto the hull for easy attachment of the styrene channel. When I started putting the channel in place it didn't look right. The plans, as-built photos and the current photos didn't match. Stop me if you'd heard this one before... I hadn't been paying attention – again. What is it with this guy? I'm beginning to wonder if my wife is right.
The real Maui has been altered a few time over the past 50 years and the original rubbing strip housing at the stern has been changed to accommodate a large fender roll. This meant major surgery to the stern – again. The transom is now cut/squared off and the stern has also been altered.
It's all sorted out now but not a glowing testament to my powers of observation and concentration.
The next job is the fender housing. The fender roll is held in place by a simple system of ties but this system will be quite difficult to reproduce at 1/50.
I'll have to give it some thought – something I haven't been doing too much of on this build.
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Brian C's fantastic Mauritania certainly puts my meagre efforts into perspective. I suddenly feel very ham-fisted and slap-dash.
Anyway, I seem to be back on track – at last. The fender housing is all attached. The fenders will be attached after final painting.
The anchor points for the stern fender roll at the base of the housing are some brass eyes from the spares box. They will be hidden by the fender when it's in place.
The hull is pretty much completed, although I always seem to find a few spots that need attention whenever I look at the photos.
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The hard work has all been done on the hull so now I can start on the mock ups of the Voith drives.
These are surrounded by a protection/skid plate. I've made this as a seperate unit that can be painted and stuck on after the completed Voith propellers have been attached to the painted hull. This piece was relatively simple and straightforward. The struts have a brass rod core with a styrene covering so it's pretty strong and attaches to some solid points on the hull and keel frames.
The plate on the Maui doesn't have the 2 forward outer struts that are used the larger 31m version of this hull type as you can see in the B/W photo of the Maui beached for survey, and the last few photos of the 31m Kupe (the red one) and Hauroko in dry dock. You can also see how the original 1971 hull shape on Kupe was developed and simplified to the Hauroko's hard chines in the 1980s. Hauroko is a big beast of a tug and I hope to build one, and rebuild Te Matua (both are based on the same hull) in the future so this is good practice.
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Lovely work Steve, I do enjoy reading about your builds
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Thanks MLJ
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Not too much progress to report this time.
I had planned to paint the hull but the warm weather has kicked in and my workspace in the garage is suddenly becoming an oven. So much so that the paint coming out of the airbrush was pretty much drying on contact. That meant a very course, grainy coating – even when well diluted. It was also fouling the nozzle on a regular basis. Slow and dissatisfying with much wet & dry repair work. I also managed to drop the paint reservoir bottle and break the cap with the tube/attachment clean in two. Glue won't fix it as there's always a lot of solvent sloshing around in there. A new airbrush is in
So the hull has taken a back seat for a while and I started on the superstructure, and assembled the basic carcass out of ply. The GA that I have is not exactly 100% accurate and the curves on the front of the superstructure are much flatter than on the drawings. Same for the wheelhouse/bridge sides: they are flat/straight with no forward radiused corners in real life and curved with radiused corners on the plans, as you can see by comparing the photo with the GA. Fortunately these issues were easily fixed before I got to far down the wrong track.
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Things have been progressing, slowly.
There always seems to be a sequence that a build has to follow. With the hull now ready for painting it's: paint above the waterline, then paint the deck/bulwarks, then attach the rubber rubbing strip, then paint below the waterline, then attach Voith blades and protection plate, then retouch the paint, then attach the stern fender. Sounds complicated but there is is a method to the madness – do the jobs with the least amount of fiddly work and chances of having to do major re-work first and the delicate stuff last.
So the theory goes...
I'm at the painting the deck stage at the moment. In the meantime I added some details to the superstructure before its fist coat of paint – a small lip around the edges of the upper deck, the porthole surrounds, recessed port power panel. There are plenty more details to go on after this has been painted.
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Between painting sessions I made a start on the funnel/mast. On the real boat this is a simple but elegant piece of formed steel (photo 1). Easy to do if you have some basic metalwork skills – so I had to figure out another way to do it.
Usually I would skin the funnel with thin styrene and I've had success with laminating styrene into complex curves before. Not this time, the forward curve of the mast is too tight and the styrene wouldn't hold its shape. After a few frustrating attempts I resorted to 0.8mm ply set around a removable frame. Worked out fine – genius! Although if you've been following the build you'll know that it was more by good luck than good management.
I made 2 masts at the same time, to slightly different widths – the dimensions on the GA just didn't look right when made.
To sand the lower curve of the mast/funnel an airbrush paint bottle was exactly the right size to use as a sanding block. Managed not to drop this one.
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And a couple more...
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It has been awhile since the last update and I don't really have any excuses for the slow progress. 2020 seems like a wasted year, in model building terms. Moved house 3 times and another in 2 weeks, boats in long term storage, plus a 4 month COVID lockdown, and the hottest summer on record has turned my workshop into an oven. Haven't been able to work in there for weeks. Happy days.
Nevertheless I have managed to make a little, slow progress since Christmas, once I had single handedly demolished the Christmas ham.
The hull is now completed and has had the two mock 4 bladed Voith units and skid plate attached. It's all painted and now ready for the deck vents, bollards, etc. The "rubber" rubbing strip has been attached but the stern fender will be quite a complex job so I'll put that aside for awhile.
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The Panama ports/fairleads are exactly the same size and shape as the ones I had 3D printed for my YTL625 build a few years ago. By pure fluke I had 3 left over from that build – just right for this project.
The photos of them on this project are a bit too dark but they look fine in real life. The last photo shows them a lot clearer on the YTL.
I'm trying to spark up some enthusiasm for this build but it's hard to get back on the horse. Yesterday I was checking out the previously painted superstructure housing and managed to drop it from full height. Instinctively I put out a foot to try and break its fall before it hit the concrete floor. A bit to forcefully as I only managed to hit it on the volley and boot it into the wall. Was never able to do that on the footy field! Doh!
It didn't do too much damage apart from a dent in the deck/wall/rain lip joint. More remedial work...
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Some fine Steve. O0
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I look forward to following some of your builds Steve. :-)
Garry
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Thanks Garry. I'll have to get this one back on track. We have moved house 4 times in the last 18 months and workshops haven't been an option in our temporary homes. One last move to go in the next month and hopefully then I'll be able to get everything out of storage and set up a workshop again.
I must say that I have certainly missed time at the bench.
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Yes moving around a lot is certainly very disruptive, I hope you are able to settle down soon.
Where are you?
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Left Wellington for Auckland, then Orewa, then Northshore now back in Wellington looking for something permanent. Crazy time to be buying and selling houses.
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That is a lot of moving about Steve, was it for work?
I'm down in North Canterbury.