G'day Mark,
You've been rather quiet of late?
I weakened, and as I has spent so much on getting the plans out from Cornwall, decided to have a go at this model, with some serious mods!
I had the plans up-sized to 1:24 and the two sheets now measure 2.4m x 850mm each, and as I don't have a bench that big, it's on the floor to work on them!
Haven't had much time to start anything the last few weeks with work commitments, but have pretty much cleared my orders, so hope to start in the next few days.
I plan to alter the hull shape to more like the images, and the "rise of floor" to the stern will be much like the images of Raasay on the slips, also with the Vee to the stern.
The dimensions will be mainly guesstimates, as the overall width on the plan is just under 12", whereas it should only be 10'5", being 74ft x 21ft wide as built.
Anyway, this will be a challenge, but I won't go to the trouble of trying to get the drawings from Calmac, as I spent too much on what I have, and it will have to do.
Somewhere on this forum I read that a lot of people don't like using packing case material, but I re-saw a lot of dumped timber and have no trouble with anything I have used in
35 odd years of modelmaking. It's also about re-cycling, and why waste good material just because it doesn't come at a high price from a timber merchant! And, don't get me started on Balsa!
Last little project, the Dredge Tender, was a crap plan as well, but in the end it turned out OK, and the timber I used in that was from a Miele Washing machine crate, and it worked quite well. I'll be using that in this new venture as well. The one timber I won't use is Radiata Pine, which is full of sap and very boney, but pretty much anything else is fair game!
Ian.