So let the new year begin.
Nice to see 3 of the many Brians/Bryans from TMBC posting! Brian Chambers is on another thread with his Mauretania. It's also nice to see that we all have a different approach to scratch building and build widely differing sorts of models. Much more interesting that way!
Gospel according to the Life of Bryan:-….Hangovers and me can no longer co-exist.
What used to be a trivial one hour malady has, for some reason, decided to last for 2 days.
Once the head was clear again I began to muse on “things” I’d forgotten to do. Plus, I was getting more than a little fed-up with this enforced jollity season.
One of the oddball things about this model is that I haven’t been able to use bulkheads to divide the hull up into watertight compartments. Mainly ‘cos I don’t know (as yet) where the battery will have to go. I may still be able to fit a bulkhead up for’d, and I Might just be able to squeeze one in down aft, but the entire centre section will have to remain “open”. A length of perhaps 40” out of a total length of 50”. So shaped foam blocks could well be called for. Many model builders think that putting foam blocks into a hull improves buoyancy when the hull is flooded. Well, it does, but they don’t actually improve buoyancy…..what they really do is to deny water the space to add weight into the hull. Just a small point.
But then I realised that the biggest access for water was through the stern gratings. Silly of me, but not the 1st or indeed the last mistake. So I’ve sealed that up with a sheet of black plasticard.
A few other things struck me. These Steam Picket boats tended to live on board a ship. But the plans show no lifting arrangements for the 15 ton weight.
Another thing is the fitting of the coaling scuttles. In general, all deck fittings on a planked deck have custom made margin planks. But this assumes that there’s a steel deck under the planking. On a pure wooden hull the cross beams required are few and far between, so in many cases the so-called “margin planks” were fitted on the top of the main deck planks with their edges chamfered. I remembered this from my early career time aboard my 2 ancient cable-repair ships. Both of which had no steel top-deck but deck planking laid directly on to the hull framing.
Navigation lights. A bit of a moot point here. I’ve got photos of these barges fitted with and without the screens. But just to add a bit of colour, I’ve fitted them. No lamps are or will be fitted. Reason? What’s the point of fitting unlit oil lamps during daylight? The 2 pics:-
The 1st is just a general shot basically showing the amount of access I have to the interior of the hull. Still a fair number of “fittings” to make and fit though.
Second one shows the new bits. Sidelight screens, coaling hatches, the “pipe” holding the outer end of the anchor chain and 2 of the 4 large lifting eyes. These eys are of brass but painted with Humbrol “metalcote” gunmetal and buffed to a satin shine