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Author Topic: Mountfleet Lighter No. 7  (Read 11556 times)

Norseman

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Re: Mountfleet Lighter No. 7
« Reply #25 on: January 20, 2016, 06:23:40 pm »

Yes very nice and will look great being towed.

Dave
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JimG

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Re: Mountfleet Lighter No. 7
« Reply #26 on: January 30, 2016, 02:25:33 pm »

Time to start adding some more of the fittings.
First up was the lifting rings for the hatch boards, these were stuck down onto the sticky side of masking tape before spraying. Then some weathering was attempted, rust was added where the most wear would be found. With around 100 rings it was no fun trying to make them all look different. They were then glued onto the hatch boards, two per board. No attempt was made to make them all positioned exactly the same, just in the same region.
Now time for some of the deck fittings, these are moulded with a peg on the underside to help in giving a stronger glue joint. The bull ring in the bow was also pinned with three brass pins to give extra strength. The panama fairleads and bollard bases were sprayed before gluing in place. The bollards are separate and will be pinned through the deck into the doublers added before gluing down the deck.

Jim
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JimG

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Re: Mountfleet Lighter No. 7
« Reply #27 on: February 17, 2016, 09:53:31 pm »

The bollard uprights were cleaned up and painted then glued in place. There is a pin on the bottom which is glued into a hole in the deck to give it more strength and allowing it to be used to attach a towing line.
The latches on the deckhouse doors were next, these are made from two metal castings. The handle casting was rather loose in the door so some superglue was added to it and allowed to dry. This increased it's diameter and gave a better fit. The catch is keyed onto a square section  to keep in the right position, This was both glued on and the end of the square section flattened onto it to make sure it stays secure. (The softness of white metal does have some uses.) The catch was then be trimmed and adjusted to hold the door closed and finally it could be painted.
There is a raised hatch on the deck at the bows, a block of wood is provided but this is too small to fit the moulded hatch cover. I did not have a suitable block to replace it so decided to print the replacement. It didn't take too long to draw up and produce the stl file needed for the printer so printing soon started. The printer was set to print with 0.1mm layers to give the best results and reduce the amount of preparation for painting. One drawback with the normal printing method used for home printers is it gives a ridged vertical surface where each layer is added, the finer the layers the less obvious the ridges. After printing it was cleaned up then 2 coats of filler primer sprayed on. After sanding this gave a suitable surface for the top coat. The moulded hatch was then added on top and the catches then fitted. it was then sprayed with the top coat then glued in place to the deck.
There are 4 rope reels on the deck, these are made from metal castings and a section of plastic tube with a brass rod axle. Once they were all assembled and painted they were glued in place. Again there is a pin on the base of each upright that glues into a hole in the deck.

Jim
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Dreadnought

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Re: Mountfleet Lighter No. 7
« Reply #28 on: February 18, 2016, 11:14:19 am »

A fine looking barge you have there  :-)       like the hatch detail :-)
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Captain fizz

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Re: Mountfleet Lighter No. 7
« Reply #29 on: February 20, 2016, 06:08:05 pm »

That's a very good looking barge and beautifully detailed.
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Mackenzie

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Re: Mountfleet Lighter No. 7
« Reply #30 on: February 21, 2016, 02:29:46 am »

Hi Jim, good to see barge is coming on, we have not seen you at club, are you brining it up to view soon? Jim
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JimG

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Re: Mountfleet Lighter No. 7
« Reply #31 on: March 20, 2016, 01:15:49 pm »

I've had a bit of a break from modelling so time to get a bit more work done.
As this lighter is crewed there is a full set of stanchions round the deck. With a total of 40 stanchions and each made up from 1.5mm brass rod with 3 metal castings there was a lot of building to do. The rod provided was cut into 40  lengths, one end filed flat. (The other end is glued into the deck so shape doesn't matter. A simple jig was made to help in the positioning of the cast parts. Most of the castings had to be cut from a strip then cleaned up before gluing in place. Plenty of spares were provided, these were needed as many of them were badly moulded and scrapped. The end stanchions have an extra moulding added to hold the upper end of a stiffening stay.
After painting the end stanchions had cast turnbuckles added then they were all glued in place. The glued ends were left long so go through the full thickness of the deck and in-wales for strength. The stays for the ends were then bent from 1.5mm rod and fitted between the deck and the stanchion. The provided line was waxed using the provided beeswax block then strung between the turnbuckles.
The remaining line can then be used on the rope drums already fitted.

Jim
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ballastanksian

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Re: Mountfleet Lighter No. 7
« Reply #32 on: March 20, 2016, 01:37:41 pm »

It has just occurred to me seeing your build log how many gizmos there are on a barge. Apart from the stancions, all those bollards and the like, not mentioning the door furniture (Ok I just did %) ).

Excellent progress, shes looking fabberlous.
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JimG

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Re: Mountfleet Lighter No. 7
« Reply #33 on: March 20, 2016, 08:10:05 pm »

Thanks ballastanksian,
this lighter does have more fittings than most barges which does add to it's looks.
A couple more of the fittings have now been added. There is a cowl vent to the accommodation in the stern, the cast metal one provided is rather crude so a Caldercraft resin cowl was used. The upright was printed to fit the cowl. As usual this gives a ridged surface which was sanded down first then levelled with spray filler primer. Once the cowl was fitted the join line was covered using Tamiya masking tape to give an overlap. The completed unit could then be painted and finally glued in place, a 1.5mm brass pin was added in the bottom to fit in a hole in the deck for strength.
In front of the hatch in the bows there is the mooring light. The upright was made from alloy tube with a printed flange added to the top and bottom. There is a vacformed light cover provided but I used a large clear LED I had which was virtually the same size. The LED leads fitted perfectly into the tube allowing it to be fitted to the top flange. (It is not wired up as I do not intend to fit working navigation lighting as I am unlikely to be towing it at night.) After priming and painting it was fitted in place, again with a brass rod pin into the deck for strength.

Jim
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ballastanksian

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Re: Mountfleet Lighter No. 7
« Reply #34 on: March 20, 2016, 09:09:41 pm »

How about that for canny recycling! I love the LED idea.
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