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Author Topic: Bryan's 'Modellers Draught' 45ft Admirals Barge build.  (Read 81950 times)

Bryan Young

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Re: Bryan's “Modellers Draught”. 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #200 on: November 18, 2012, 03:52:26 pm »

Kim and Stavros.
Very kind offers from the pair of you.
However. Looking into my various “archives” I find that the drawing on my plans isn’t representative of the type. More a flight of fancy, in my opinion.
     A boat of 45ft in length doesn’t really require the sort of geared steering gear as would be used on a river tug of slightly more length (and weight). It could probably be steered by one man on a tiller without ill effects. Then, considering that the rudder wouldn’t operate beyond 40* either way (and that’s optimistic), I reckon that one full turn of the wheel would be enough to go from amidships to “hard over” one way or the other. So that comes down to the diameter of the (chain) pulleys attached to the steering wheel. This makes my life simpler. I can fabricate the housing structure from plasticard with stiffening edges and so on to resemble a pair of iron castings.
   All that needs tinking about now is how to cut neat channels into the wooden decking that are both guides and protection for the chains.
    Such is the fun of scratch-building. No instruction book to slavishly follow. Work out ones own solutions and get on with it. A form of “education” in a way!
    But first, complete the 2 for’d hatches. Pics of them soon. Then I might have a go at the scaffolding job that supports the ensign staff.
As always, solve one problem and another rears its head.
But now that I’m over a really nasty cold/flu that laid me low for awhile and
some good support from at least 3 club members, I’m beginning to enjoy this build again.
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Bryan Young

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Re: Bryan's “Modellers Draught”. 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #201 on: November 20, 2012, 04:10:07 pm »

      One of the more “awkward” aspects of boats and ships is that vertical panels/plates are always vertical to a pure horizontal (the LWL is generally a good guide) no matter how severe the deck line sheer is. This makes a big visual difference on a model.
This is easily seen when it came to making the 2 hatches on the foredeck. The hull sheer is quite pronounced in this area. In this instance I also wanted to bring the top of the hatches closer to the horizontal rather than following the sheer line….mainly to allow the short handrail on the for’d hatch to follow the line of handrails on the engine room casing. It finished up with the after end of the skylight being 1/16” deeper than the for’d end. Doesn’t sound much, but makes a big difference to the visual aspect.
    The steel hatch is a simple construction. The main “structure” is a block of balsa clad with plasticard (stuck on with double-sided tape)The only fittings required for this hatch are the hinges (plastic  tubing), the “eye” that fits into the vertical “hold-back” stanchion, the handgrip and the 2 locking dogs,
    The skylight in the first pic is the basic “box” before smoothing off the edges prior to cladding with plasticard and fitting the 3 stanchions and handrail (pic 2). The stanchions are set into short lengths of alloy tubing with a brass washer around the base. Pic 3 is the completed unit. The main component of the 2 wooden “lids” is the transparent “glazing” The wood veneer is stuck on to the glazing with contact adhesive, trimmed and the edges painted to disguise the edges of the glazing. This was followed by 3 coats of Walnut varnish. The brass window bars were a fiddle to get into place, and they aren’t perfect…but that’s the best I could do with little in the way of binocular vision. Hinges are just bits of brass tubing lightly scored to show the 3 segments.
Now I’ll find something else to do. Steering gear perhaps….but I’d really like to do the ensign staff supports as they have a big impact on the final look of the model.
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Bryan Young

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Re: Bryan's “Modellers Draught”. 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #202 on: November 29, 2012, 04:12:57 pm »

Oh, woe, woe and thrice woe!
Another failure to distrust so-called “accurate” plans. Here’s me trying to teach the old dictum of “measure twice and cut once”….and then trust in somebody else.
I specifically spaced the gap between the cabin and the engine room casing to the dimensions “as shown”. All has went well until I made up the framework of the steering pedestal. Now that 2 days thought and work has elapsed I thought I’d got it cracked. The pedestal looks good, but there just isn’t enough space for the helmsman, unless he happens to be 6ft tall and as thin as a rake.
I have a couple of choices here.
My main preference is to keep the pedestal “independent” (i.e. stand alone) to allow the steering chains to have a continuous run without being “broken”.
Or secondly, to attach the pedestal to the engine room casing. Which means breaking/disguising/ the chain.
Both alternatives will mean using a smaller than desired chain.
Going down the second route could give me a bit more space to allow for a coxwain of more normal proportions.
At the moment I’m not very happy about either solution. I suppose that it’s a salutary lesson to all of us (be it scratch or kit building) to be aware that “people” are supposed to fit and be able to work in the spaces allowed.
     So, 2 days later and mk 2 version done. This unit will be permanently fixed to the engine casing and compass support structure. The only advantage I can see over my original idea is that there’ll be no danger of clouting the pedestal when removing or replacing the engine casing. Win some, lose some I guess.
   The 2 enclosed pics primarily show the steering pedestal nestling up against the compass support. Another thing I must get around to making. This entire casing unit slides very neatly into the deck cut-out…with the “L” shaped plasticard section that sits on the deck when it’s in place.
I found (when finishing off “Bluebird of Chelsea”) that water ingress into the hull without recourse to large coamings could be prevented by making this sort of structure and coating the “hidden” part (the bit below the “L” flange) with a layer of petroleum jelly (or “Vaseline), which is my intention again this time. The same will apply around the base of the cabin.
I’ve had to buy a slightly smaller chain than I’d have liked…..but that’s really the only way I could think of to hide the chain entry into the stern grating area. Rats. But it’s the thought that counts, isn’t it?
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Bryan Young

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Re: Bryan's “Modellers Draught”. 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #203 on: December 10, 2012, 05:14:18 pm »

Pondering on “the way ahead” during this nasty cold spell I decided to content myself with doing the rubbing strake. If “content” is anywhere close to the right word.
There was jus no way I could use real timber around the stern area…the remainder (from about 8” for’d of the sharp curves would be quite easy in timber, So I decided on Plasticard sections for the whole thing. This would make the “unit” a 6 component part. As one of my respondents noted, I don’t make things easy for myself! But it’s the end result that counts. In “real” life this thing is almost 9” from deck level to the bottom. So I’m looking at around ¾” at this scale. A mock-up showed this to look a bit silly. So I’ve gone for ½” max.
     Remember that when I started this build all of 9 months ago, I promised a “warts’n’all tale. Well, this is a big “wart”.
I got the top 4 components fitted to the hull OK. But to make it all look like walnut, I began varnishing the unit with “Ronseal” walnut varnish. I’ve had excellent results with this stuff…but not over an area this large/prominent. It all started to dry “blotchy”. I just couldn’t get a regular, even coat. OK in parts but the overall effect was pretty awful. Pondering time. It then struck me that varnish by its very nature is meant to be transparent. Even the coloured variety. Otherwise it would be called paint. So the white plastic extrusion material was showing through. Idiot. I hadn’t put a base coat of paint over the white. So. Mask it all off again, rub down the blotches and re-coat with a flat base colour (pale brown). And now I find that I’ll probably have to repaint the dark blue hull. Some days just don’t work out as expected.
      The first pic shows the various components of the rubbing strake. The concave bit is painted gold, but I won’t fit this and the quadrant bit underneath it until I’ve rubbed down and repainted the blue part of the hull.
Pic 2 shows the complete pigs ear I made of the varnishing (foreground) but the background section is after remedial treatment was carried out. I think it will take another coat of the walnut varnish to both give it a better sheen and make it look a bit more “wood like”.
 
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Martin (Admin)

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Re: Bryan's 'Modellers Draught' 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #204 on: December 12, 2012, 09:47:24 pm »

PM me the post Bryan and I'll see if I can post it.

Martin    :-)
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Bryan Young

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Re: Bryan's 'Modellers Draught' 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #205 on: December 14, 2012, 03:59:22 pm »

Now that the “renovation” work is now more or less done the difference is much more to my liking.Didn’t enjoy doing it…but I sort of like the result. Spent most of a day struggling to fit the gold concave section. It kept trying to twist, but eventually stuck down. The gold gives just that touch of contrast between the “brown” and the blue, so much so that I’ve decided not to fit the quadrant section below the gold. Using the concave section looks a lot better than using a simple strip of flat tape. (pic no.1)
   Pic 2 is mainly of some new additions. Just started on the ensign staffso a fair amount of work still to be done there. Then there’s the “spare” boathook behind the cabin coaming. The 2 mooring posts (cut down stanchions to maintain a sort of family resemblance) and 2 of the 4 pulleys for the steering chain. There’s also the 2 “stand alone” stanchions to aid the wobbly Admiral getting on and of “his” boat. The 2 stern fairleads are simple plastic things trimmed to fit into the spurnwater.
The final 2 shots are basically more of the same but from a different angle.
Still a long way to go!
 
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rmaddock

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Re: Bryan's 'Modellers Draught' 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #206 on: December 14, 2012, 04:08:07 pm »

Oh yes. Looking good  :}
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Bryan Young

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Re: Bryan's 'Modellers Draught' 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #207 on: December 14, 2012, 04:17:58 pm »

Oh yes. Looking good  :}
     Thank you for that. I was getting quite worried that something "terminal" had happened.
I was going to complete the ensign staff today...but as the light outside has been near total darkness all day I gave up on any yhoughts of "garage" work and continued with the chain steering arrangement. More soon. Bryan.
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irishcarguy

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Re: Bryan's 'Modellers Draught' 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #208 on: December 14, 2012, 04:21:45 pm »

Hi Brian, you do lovely work & it is a pleasure to see it on here & to follow your progress. I hope you have a Merry Xmas & a happy new year as well. Mick B.
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Mick B.

Norseman

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Re: Bryan's 'Modellers Draught' 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #209 on: December 14, 2012, 04:27:26 pm »

I've just been looking at your Dolphins there Bryan - very nice they are too.

Dave.
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Bryan Young

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Re: Bryan's 'Modellers Draught' 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #210 on: December 19, 2012, 05:04:06 pm »

It sure seems that this week has been the “short straw” week.
Started off with that dratted computer glitch. At least that didn’t cost anything. But today ….a different story. Decided to heave out the (Emco) mini drill/mill with its compound table to cut a slot into the tubular brass ensign staff That went OK, but after switching on again to drill a couple of simple holes there was a big blue flash and a bang. Haven’t a clue about the cause. Either the motor or the blessed (and complicated) switch. Perhaps I see an expensive Xmas present on the horizon. I mean, just where can you get stuff repaired these days without having to spend a fortune on shipping costs. A great pity really, as I do like this machine. If it’s the switch then I may be able to replace it with the new one I bought for another machine but haven’t got around to fitting. But I’m certainly not going to fork out a fortune on a new motor. It’s always surprised me that a new motor for my Proxxon lathe was almost half the cost of the inferior one fitted to my old Unimat lathe.
       Anyway. I’m now up to £720 for the barge. Mainly “sundries” like paint and glue.
      But enough of all that.
The last couple of days have been spent fitting the steering chains….Mrs.Y gets on with the buying and wrapping of “stuff” as Xmas approaches.
Pic 1 is of the general layout of the aft decking (with the exception of the yet to be fitted ensign staff halyard fittings).
Pics 2 & 3 are general shots showing the chain run.
Pic 4 is the run of the chain through a channel to the steering pedestal…..removable at this stage until I fit the wheel and compass.
      The 8 little rollers guiding the chains (actually keeping the chains from gauging the woodwork) are simple enough to make. A very short length of plastic tubing, 2 discs (plasticard) cut with a multi-headed leather punch and a bit of wire down the tube. Superglue together and trim the back of the discs flat with a pair of the wifes nail cutters. Paint brass and fit.
     I’ve just made out a list of the 25 jobs that still need doing/making “on deck”. No doubt the list will grow.
 
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pugwash

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Re: Bryan's 'Modellers Draught' 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #211 on: December 19, 2012, 11:49:21 pm »

Bryan this is totally different to your previous builds but it is turning into a real classy model.
Excellent 
Geoff
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Bryan Young

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Re: Bryan's 'Modellers Draught' 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #212 on: December 22, 2012, 10:56:14 am »

Glancing over my more recent postings about this build, I find that all the photos over the last 3 months have been of “bits” and none showing the “whole”. So as it’s coming up to the time for an involuntary break in proceedings, I’ll show how it looks at the moment…..after 9 and a half months from conception date. But as I said earlier; still a long way to go.
      Thanks for all your viewings and postings. Without your support and encouragement it could well have become a rather dreary task.
So have a pleasant Xmas break and a productive new year.
Regards to you all.  Bryan Young.
 
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Tug-Kenny RIP

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Re: Bryan's 'Modellers Draught' 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #213 on: December 22, 2012, 11:13:30 am »


Love it.    :-))

Thanks for showing the latest views. Well worth the effort.

Have a nice holiday break.

Ken

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vnkiwi

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Re: Bryan's 'Modellers Draught' 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #214 on: December 22, 2012, 11:32:04 am »

Beautiful Bryan, and a merry Christmas to you and yours, with a safe and happy New Year to follow
Thank you for the brilliant build
vnkiwi
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Kim

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Re: Bryan's 'Modellers Draught' 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #215 on: December 23, 2012, 12:16:13 am »

Hi Bryan,
I really do like the overall view you have posted she really looks good.
I have to say i't was a priveledge to be involved in a small way and i look forward to seeing her on the water..
Wishing you & family the best for Christmas and 2013.
Regards,
Kim
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Norseman

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Re: Bryan's “Modellers Draught”. 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #216 on: December 23, 2012, 01:58:57 am »

The attached photo is a paper mock-up of the compass and helmsmans position.

I always think the builds that show the thoughts behind the actions are the builds I learn something from. I never would have thought of placing a paper mock up into the real model before making the actual part. It is something I'll definitely keep in mind. Oh yes, A Very Merry Christmas to you and yours Bryan.

Dave
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Re: Bryan's 'Modellers Draught' 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #217 on: December 23, 2012, 09:50:30 am »

  I now this model has given you quite a few headaches over the course of the build Bryan, but looking at how she is starting to look it has certainly been worth it. :-)) Have a nice Christmas and all the best for the New Year.
Brian

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Re: Bryan's 'Modellers Draught' 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #218 on: December 23, 2012, 07:39:03 pm »

If you are lucky it could be the Capacitor on the motor which has blown. From the description that is what it sounds like, I hope.  Nemesis
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Bryan Young

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Re: Bryan's 'Modellers Draught' 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #219 on: January 05, 2013, 01:37:30 pm »

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
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Norseman

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Re: Bryan's 'Modellers Draught' 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #220 on: January 05, 2013, 01:51:13 pm »

Hi Bryan
Do you intend to add the missing lifting points?
Re enforced jollity season - I'm a bit Bah Humbug too
Dave
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Bryan Young

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Re: Bryan's 'Modellers Draught' 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #221 on: January 05, 2013, 02:33:30 pm »

Hi Bryan
Do you intend to add the missing lifting points?
Re enforced jollity season - I'm a bit Bah Humbug too
Dave
The "missing" pair of lifting points are already fitted at the after end of the deck in way of the aft end of the engine casing...out of camera shot. They'll probably appear when I get the steering wheel etc fitted. Bryan.
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Hodgy1990

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Re: Bryan's 'Modellers Draught' 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #222 on: January 05, 2013, 10:05:09 pm »

wow really exceptinal work there bryan loving the barge, cant wait to see it in the flesh, keep up the good work as always bryan
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Bryan Young

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Re: Bryan's 'Modellers Draught' 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #223 on: January 09, 2013, 02:40:11 pm »

Entering another phase with this build.
“Bits That Have Been Bothering Me”
Two in particular, the compass and the whistle. I still haven’t sussed out the compass, but I think I’ve cracked the whistle.
Being very traditional in my thinking, I always assumed that a steam whistle would be attached to the funnel. Wrong (again). On enlarging an already fuzzy old photo I found one mounted on the casing deck almost alongside the safety valve box.
This entire contraption seemed to be about 2ft tall (2” at this scale) and had an odd shaped lever sticking out of it. To my mind this was obviously attached to a lanyard ending at a handle that the coxwain could pull to blow the thing. Not so. Rigging up a “dummy” I found that any lanyard would either prevent the hatches from opening and have to pass through one of the main cowl vents. Not possible/probable.
Then the significance of the “ball” on top of the operating lever struck me. It was “Hand Operated” by the bowman when told by the coxwain. So all became “clear”.
Making it was a different thing altogether.     There are 15 components on this thing. I could have turned the entire “body” from aluminium and simply slid a bit of brass over the top part but for 1 thing, that being I’ve never been able to turn a “ball”. So I (very) carefully enlarged the stringing hole in a “pearl” from an old necklace using a pin vice rather than a proper drill. The rest of it is bits of brass tube and plasticard slid over a 1/16” brass tube. In the photos the operating levr looks a bit on the heavy side, but it is only a scale 0.75” dia. My excuse is that things painted white always look a bit “heavy”! I’m afraid my eyesight prevented me form fitting the lever linkage. A pity, really.
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Bryan Young

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Re: Bryan's 'Modellers Draught' 45ft Admirals Barge build.
« Reply #224 on: January 12, 2013, 04:54:20 pm »

In common with many of you, I’m following Brians build of “Amity” with great interest. Even though we chat about both our models on a weekly basis it’s more than interesting/educational to see his ideas put into both practice and print.
But the main thing is our two very different approaches to model making, although we do bat different ideas back and forth now and again. I’m sure he won’t mind my saying so, but it took awhile to convince him that using Perspex for his rudders was a “good idea”. I haven’t had occasion to use this stuff on the barge…but I probably will If you’ve never used Perspex (not “Lexan”) I really urge you to do so. Most of mine comes from offcuts out of a skip when tossed away by companies that use the stuff.
It’s easy to shape, drill and mill and tap. It takes paint wonderfully well. It used to be very difficult to join 2 pieces of it together, but now you can buy tubes of cement suitable for “hard plastics” (smells like ether, the original bonding agent), and superglue works well. It also bends well with the very judicious application of heat.     But back to “The Barge”.
Once I finished my version of the whistle I decided to make at least an attempt to make the compass.
This is a “boat compass” and not at all like the ships “standard” compass with its wooden binnacle. No “soft iron” spheres or Flinders Bar. Nor does a boat compass need all the small correcting magnets commonly found within a standard binnacle. So in effect it’s a simple compass rose set in gimbals and enclosed in a removable (non-removable in my case) cowl with a couple of fittings.
This cowl and the making of had been bugging me for weeks. In no way am I good enough to turn a 3 dimensional elliptical solid. The modern “conical” sort are easy…but not this old thing. But then I found a large “bead” of exactly the right size and shape in the bits’n’pieces tin. At 0.75” dia.in plan and 0.5” in height. Perfect. Filed a sloping flat for the window flap lid to fit, filed a concave hollow into a bit of plastic tube to be a snug fit against the contours of the “bead, fitted a lid and I was almost there. Obviously the window has to be at a height above the deck for the helmsman to see the compass (rarely, I expect). So a length of brass tube was fitted under the cowl. That bit (tube plus cowl) is just under 3” tall and stands on a plinth making the window just under 4” (4ft) above the deck.
Why paint it white and not have it in polished brass? Two reasons. One is that all the photos of these craft have the compass cowl and column in white, and secondly, I reckoned that more polished brass would look a bit OTT.
But before I “do” the wheel, the voice pipe needs to be at least sited. BY.
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