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[JimG]

Finding myself rather lacking in desire to continue my build of a 1/12 Shannon but looking for something to build over the winter I got a Model Slipway Assurance class kit out of storage and started on its build. I bought the kit off of this site around 2 or 3 years ago so its about time it got started on.The kit is based on a substantial glass fibre hull which had a few minor blemishes easily cleaned up, the superstructure is built from CNC cut styrene sheet with a couple of sheets of printed styrene for the smaller parts. There were 11 bags of white metal fittings including 2 Oerlikon gund and a 12 pounder, not up to the standard of todays 3D printed ones but nowhere near the cost either. A sheet of etched brass parts for railings and other small details was also included. The funnel is a glass fibre moulding which while substantial is also distorted in cross section so doesn't fit the white metal castingfs for the funnel base and cap, I will be looking into trying to 3D print its replacement.The first step was to clean up the hull then drill out for the prop shaft and cut slots for the bilge keels. (The kit has the bilge keels glued to a styrene strip which then glues onto the hull. As the keel mounts are moulded onto the hull bottom I cut a slot in them and fitted the keels into the slots gluing them in with P40 then a layer of glass fibre and resin on the inside to cover them. I feel that this will give a stronger fit and be less easliy damaged.Once the shaft was fitted and glued in place with a filler I make from polyester resin and microballoons I printed an oiling tube and support for the inner end and fitted them to the shaft. I printed a tube which fitted in place of the coupling (tight fit on the brass ends of the coupling) and used this to see where the motor would be (MFA Torpedo with 2.5 : 1 gearbox) and printed a mount to fit. I used Siraya Tech Build resin which can be tapped to allow the motor to be fitted with 4mm socket screws for ease of removal if needed.After sanding the inside of the bulwarks the inwales were fitted (3 x 6mm styrene strip), the rear deck was removed from the sheet (CNC routed partway through) along with the parts for the rear hatch and deck beams) After cleaning up the edges the hatch coaming was made up and fitted to the deck, the deck beams were built and fitted in place in the hull, gluiong them to the inwales. Temporary wood braces were fitted to open the hull to the correct width based on the excellent plan included. After trimming the rear deck was glued in place. All styrene gluing was done using Tamiya cement which is thicker than other liquid styrene glues and gives a strong joint.
Jim

[JimG]

With one of the next jobs to be done to the hull being the fitting of ports to the uupper strakes the first step was to find them in the bag of white metal fittings. What were provided were just short metal tubes, rather heavy with mould lines showing half way. Basically fitting these would look rather course so I decided to print replacements. Around 5 minutes had the design produced, another minutes in the slicer had produced a set of 24 ports ready to print so copied to a pendrive, inserted in the printer and in less than half an hour a set of ports was ready. After washing and curing them they needed a little cleaning up, where they stick to the build plate the bottom is slightly oversized due to the extra exposure time needed to make sure they stick. This meant the hole in the centre need a quick clean out with a needle file and the outside of the rim had a quick sand to remove the extra width.The photos show the ports on the build plate after printing ( holes in the center still resin filled which washed out during processing) and a few of the finished ports with one of the original metal castings provided.
Jim

[JimG]

A bit more done now, any gaps between the rear deck and bulwarks have been filled and freeing ports cut in the bulwarks. The ports in the forward hull top have been drilled out to size and the printed ports test fittet, I won't be gluing them in until the fore deck is fittes as this will involve some sanding of the hull sides. The towhook stage has been built and the white metal towhook shrouds glued in place after the styrene had been lightly sanded to give a rougher surface, this will be primed before fitting at the front of the rear deck.I am giving it a coat of paint first as part of it is under the front deck.The rudder was made next, this is a double layer of styrene sheet with white metal hinges slotted over  and glued. This did need a bit of extra work as the printed cutouts in the front of the rudder did not fit the positions of the rudder pintles so some more had to be cut out and some bits added to give the final shape. The rudder can be fitted and removed from the pintles at this stage and will be left off until the hull is painted.The front deck has been started , trimming to shape to fit the hull and the hatch reinforcement added to the underside.
Jim

[Akira]

JimG, Looking very nice. What scale is she? I love the plating detail on the hull.

[JimG]

Thanks Akira, the scale is 1:43, the hull plating has came out well in the moulding, thankfully there was no attempt made to represent the riveting.
Jim

[JimG]

On with the work and the next step was to add the bulwark supports, these are cut from a section of one of the printed styrene sheets and were a good fit . I did remove a triangle from the bottom inner corner where the full size version would have to allow the free flow of water at the junction of the decks and bulwarks.The boat skids were glued onto the hull below the position of the boat deck, these are white metal castings which fit over the moulded rubbing strake.Finally the bulwark capping rails were fitted, these were cut from the printed sheet before gluing onto the bulwark tops. They were later sanded to shape on the outside of the bulwarks and filler added to any imperfections.

Jim

[JimG]

At this stage I started on the rear deck hatches, these are on the cnc cut sheet so just a little work need to finish cutting them out and trimming to exact size. The flush hatches just needed a little trimming to fit the holes in the deck and the raised engine room hatch was a good fit on the existing coaming. At the moment the flush hatches just drop into the deck with no positive fixing so this will have to be looked at.After sanding down the bulwark capping The hull was given an initial spray of primer to find where any extra work was needed, a bit more filler was needed in places so the finish sanding will take place after the filler has fully hardened.There are a number of add on parts to go onto the engine room hatch and rear deck, as these are basically just boxes intended to be made up from sheet I am thinking of drawing them up and 3D resin printing them as this will allow for some thinner sections than the styrene sheet allows.
Jim

[JimG]

Work has been proceding slowly, no hurry as there is still plenty of winter left. On the engine room cover there are two sections that mount on the stb side, these are for the salvage pump valves and manifolds and the manifold for the fire pump. When made from the printed styrene sheet the walls are a bit thick so I drew them up and resin printed them with half the thickness for the walls. Once glued to the hatch side a length of 1mm wire was bent to shape and mounted to the top of the wall to represent a rolled edge.A sliding hatch is fitted to the rear top of the casing, in all of the drawings I have of steam tugs (P.N. Thomas' excellent book British Steam Tugs) when a sliding hatch is fitted like this there is also a door to a companionway into the engine room. The kit doesn't have a door there so I scribed lines into the styrene at the rear of the casing to represent a door and added 0.5mm strip sections to represent hinges.
Jim

[JimG]

Time to work on the main deck and superstructure. Again these are made from CNC routered sheet so after finish cutting them out the edges were cleaned up and glued together. The deck has to be bent to fit the camber across the deck after trimming to fit the hole in the main deck, then 2 strips were glued lengthwise under the deck to stiffen it and form the fore and aft sheer.The superstructure is built on top of the deck hatch when it is in place making sure all of the parts fit closely to the deck even if not glued to the deck hatch. The windbreak fits round the wheelhouse deck and strips are cut from the printed sheet for supports and capping. A box is fitted to the front at deck level, this will have the mast fitted to it. Navigation light boxes were made from the printed sheet and mounted into holes cut in the windbreake.
Printed ports were then fitted to all of the pre drilled holes in the superstructure. (These were drilled undersize then I used a tapered reamer to take them out to the correct size for the ports. This makes sure they are round and there is not the risk of the drill catching in the styrene damaging the edges of the hole.) At this stage there ae still windows and doors to be fitted to the wheel house and other areas of the superstructure, these are white metal and still need a bit of cleaning up and as they will be brown to represent wood I may attach them after painting the superstructure gray.

Jim
 

[Ralph]

Looking good Jim

[JimG]

Thanks Ralph.

[JimG]

One last little bit for today. The wheelhouse deck has some unsupported areas, 2 small ones at the rear and a large area at the front where it overhangs the lower structure. As this is bad engineering I decided to add some supports, these were triangles cut from some of the scrap printed sheet glued under the deck. Without any plans or photos of this area I guessed the number and sizes that would be needed on the basis that it looks OK.
Jim