Model Boat Mayhem

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length.
Pages: [1] 2   Go Down

Author Topic: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug  (Read 5546 times)

steve mahoney

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 589
  • Location: New Zealand
WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« on: February 09, 2020, 09:33:53 pm »

Some of you may have seen some of my previous builds. I like to focus on tugs – New Zealand tugs. This next build is a US tug that has some very close links to NZ.

I had started a build log over at www.modeltugforum.com but some of you boys might be interested as well. I'll catch you up to the build over the next few days.

Immediately after Pearl Harbour the British bases in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, and the Dutch ones throughout Indonesia. then the Philipines, had fallen to the Japanese Army.

The Australian bases in New Guinea, and the Solomons, and the NZ ones in Samoa, Fiji, Tonga and the Cook Islands were seriously understrength and under-manned as most Aus and NZ Army, Airforce and Navy personnel had been fighting in Europe since the beginning of the war. Some of the more remote NZ Pacific stations had been reduced to weather stations and listening posts only. Some NZ coastwatching posts way out in the Pacific only had 1 or 2 staff and a radio powerful enough to transmit news of any enemy movements back to NZ. The most remote outpost in the northern Gilbert & Ellis Islands (4000km away) only had 14 Post Office radio staff to help protect it. They didn’t do too well against the full force of IJA. All beheaded.

There are more than 35,000 islands in the Pacific, Indonesia and the Philipines and as the US High Command planned its island-hopping strategy to move across the Pacific it realised that it would need dozens, maybe hundreds of forward bases and depots in tiny far-flung island spread right across the ocean.Some of those places already had very basic, small facilities but most of the islands had either nothing of any use or would be badly war damaged. Each USN forward base would need to have port facilities that could handle an instant influx of ships, cargo, fuel and people. The ‘Mulberry’ style harbours that were to be used in D Day wouldn’t be any use because of the vast distances to be transported. The USN would have to bring everything they needed with them.

One thing they would need was tugs – and plenty of them. Major seagoing vessels would still require a conventional tugboat like a YTL or a YTB, but many of the operations of the USN and the Army Transportation Corps could be performed by smaller vessels: HUTs (Harbour Utility Tug). They needed tugs that could be quickly and easily mass produced, easily transported, simple to use, and cheap.

The answer, just like the Jeep, and the Marston Mat, was a design and engineering stoke of genius: the Sea Mule.
Logged

steve mahoney

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 589
  • Location: New Zealand
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2020, 09:52:00 pm »

Rather than building a traditional boat, the Sea Mule was really four pontoons bolted together to form a motorised barge.

The two stern pontoons each housed a Chrysler Royal Marine Straight 6 (M8) petrol engine, and the two forward pontoons each held a fuel tank of about 700 gallons. No pilot house, or any kind of protection, was provided. A basic console for the wheel and throttles was on the deck, with a rudimentary safety rail.

The Sea Mule was a 41ft long and 14ft wide. Not at all good looking, but perfect for its role – robust, effective, cheap and simple to use.

They could easily be transported in their crates or assembled, by road, rail or as deck cargo.

The pre-fabricated mini tug came in 4 crates and could be assembled by its crew of 3 in a couple of days, using only the tools included, a crane and a gas welding set. Assembly was very simple and could be handled with a very basic level of skill and equipment. The assembly instructions are only 42 pages and much easier to follow than anything from Ikea. There was also a 'how to' film reel showing a complete assembly.

The tug components were built by Chrysler in Detroit, and Ingalls Iron Works in Birmingham, Alabama, to a pretty standard Bureau of Shipping template. The engines all came from Chrysler.

Here's a link to a video showing one in action:https://www.criticalpast.com/video/6...n-aboard-a-tug
Logged

steve mahoney

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 589
  • Location: New Zealand
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #2 on: February 09, 2020, 09:57:58 pm »

The tractor units could also be used individually and bolted onto a barge, although without a barge attached they would have been very unstable.

This one was photographed in Sydney Harbour.

Someone on the other forum pointed out the lack of a fuel tank on deck. It must have been inside the engine bay.


The propellor shaft angle and depth was adjustable on the tractor units. A pulley system could raise or lower the shaft.
Logged

warspite

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2,757
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #3 on: February 10, 2020, 12:32:30 pm »

Esentially an early springer
Logged
Operational - 1/72 LCMIII, 1/180 Sovereign, HMS Victory to be sailed
Non Operational - 1/72 Corvette, 1/72 E-Boat, 1/72 vosper mtb
incomplete, tug, cardboard castle class convert

steve mahoney

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 589
  • Location: New Zealand
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #4 on: February 12, 2020, 06:27:54 pm »

A little more background information...

The Sea Mules were designed with no concession to style at all. However, that has some appeal in itself – all function over form – a hard working machine in a tough environment. A friend of mine did his National Service driving a $5million German tank. He said that his four 19-year old crew members spent their whole 12 months trying to get it to do things it was never supposed to do and pushing it to its breaking point. I imaging that was the sort of life the Sea Mules had – 12 cylinders, 1400 gallons of gas and a crew of 19 year olds – what could possible go wrong?

Thousands of Sea Mules were delivered (I read somewhere: 8000 but I don’t know if this is correct) and used throughout the Pacific and Europe but only a few still survive. After the war some more up-market versions were made for the US and export markets, with a few added luxuries like wheelhouses (like Bob's Coast Guard version), and even accommodation.


Before I get started on the model I should say that for a design that had thousands made it is very hard to find any information or reference about them. The once mighty Sea Mule – just like the Dodo and the Passenger Pigeon, has just disappeared and has almost been forgotten. I have however managed to find a very basic GA and enough photos make a model.

Sea Mule design varied between the main US manufacturers so a Chrysler Sea Mule was a little different to an Ingrams one, and they had numerous developments and variations as the war went on. I plan to base my model on the Chrysler C-3 version that was produced in Auckland, in 1943. Several local boat yards made them for the USN, and this particular boat came from Mason Bros. of Mechanic’s Bay, Auckland. They made 75 in total, along with quite a few YTLs and workboats. The launching photo is one of 7 workboats launched that day, the other 2 are YTLs from Mason Bros.

YTL 622, 625 and 627 stayed in NZ after the war ended – 622 became HMNZS Manawanui (diving tender), 627 became HMNZS Arataki (Devonport Naval Base tug). 625 became the James O'Brien harbour tug. I have a build of the 625 here on the forum.

These YTLs were designed in the USA but after several were built in Australia it became apparent that there were some problems in the hull shapes. These were corrected in NZ and used for subsequent builds in NZ and Australia.

When the war ended the Navy’s active Sea Mules were sunk, abandoned or gifted to the islands that they were in. A couple stayed in NZ at the end of the war but they are long gone now.
Logged

steve mahoney

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 589
  • Location: New Zealand
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #5 on: February 12, 2020, 06:52:43 pm »

As usual this will be 1/50 display only.

Any info or insights you can offer – fire away...

The GA I have is a 1946 Ingalls version which is a bit different to the versions produced in NZ. Using some photos and the GA as a basis I was able to draw up some plans for an earlier 1943 Chrysler model. This version is much more basic than the 1946 version, and a lot cooler, I think. It’s the one featured in the diagrams in the first post. Unlike the later versions it has a central steering console, 2 very raised engine room hatches/intakes, and exposed radiators and steering gear.

Usually I make my hulls and superstructure from laser cut ply, it’s very easy, forgiving and predictable. This time I’ll try making the hull from hand cut styrene because I bought a lot of styrene at a great discounted rate about 18 months ago and I’ve got plenty of it left. The Sea Mule is all straight lines and 90º angles so it should be perfect for styrene construction. I like working with styrene but haven’t made a hull with it for over 20 years. I generally dont trust it in direct sunlight and have had a couple of disasters in the past with unpainted styrene left too close to a window. That was years ago and hopefully I’m now older and wiser – touch wood. To be on the safe side I’ll brace everything pretty thoroughly and keep the curtains drawn.

I've also got this build on www.modeltugforum.com and one of the guys there joked that my build would take longer than building a real Sea Mule. So to make it a big of a challenge, I'll try to build this model within the 48 hours that were needed to assemble a real one. That's 48 hours at the bench. I won't try and do it all in one go – I don't fancy using a scalpel after 47 hours straight work. Should be do-able. That's a couple of hours and evening for the next 3 weeks.

So, on with the build...
Logged

TailUK

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,672
  • Location: East Midlands
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #6 on: February 13, 2020, 09:03:05 am »

What a smashing little project.  Add in some army engineer figures and I reckon you'd have a show stopper.
Logged
No human society has ever functioned without models to capture, explain,disseminate,
persuade, sell, reinforce and analyse all kinds of ideas, values, concepts and situations.

david5

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 96
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #7 on: February 13, 2020, 05:22:12 pm »

Hello,
I’ve built one of those in 1/24 scale, it sails brilliantly and tows really well, cracking wee boat.
David5
Logged

steve mahoney

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 589
  • Location: New Zealand
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #8 on: February 13, 2020, 07:14:11 pm »

Warspite: Yes that has been mentioned. I prefer to think of Springers as late model Sea Mules. ok2

Thanks TailUK.

David – do you have any photos of your version? I'd be interested to see how you handled the steering gear. I've just finished the hatch latches and they would have been half the headache at 1/24. :}

OK, the build begins –
the clock's ticking.

I spent a couple of hours over a weekend sorting through my reference and figuring out the build process. Sometimes the build process isn't as straightforward as first imagined. R&D doesn't count in the 48 hours.

First thing here was to form the basic carcass of the hull. This is all 1.5mm styrene with some balsa blocks for spacing and bracing. A few gaps need filling but nothing too bad. The straight cutting lines and instant glueing time are working in my favour.

That was 3 hours gone.
Logged

Big Ada

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2,143
  • Location: Kent UK
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #9 on: February 14, 2020, 05:28:36 pm »

Watching with interest.

Len.
Logged

RST

  • Guest
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #10 on: February 14, 2020, 07:03:13 pm »

You're a bit behind your build blog on rcgroups. I've been watching that!  Nice work -I didn't realise you would build in polystyrene, thought you were firmly a wood man!


Interesting subject I'd never heard of before.



Rich
Logged

steve mahoney

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 589
  • Location: New Zealand
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #11 on: February 14, 2020, 10:11:01 pm »

Thanks Len.

Rich – yes the International Dateline is working in favour of RCG and modeltugforum  :} .
I'm actually a bit further ahead in the build than it looks in this forum but I'll bring you all up to speed in the next few days.

And, yes, I am usually a wood man, although this time I happened to get hold of a lot of cheap styrene and I'm treating this build as a learning curve. Not as forgiving a wood but I'm enjoying the instant glueing times. Next project will be back to wood. Although saying that, I'm juggling this build with maintenance and painting on my house – it's wooden and right by the sea on a windy coast, and after a week of scraping paint, sanding, replacing boards, priming and painting wood I'm starting to think that a plastic house might be a much better idea next time round. How big do they make styrene sheets?

So – a progress update: Started adding details to the hull carcass.
Firstly a chequer plate steel deck – the gap is for planking in the crew working area.

Then the side 'bumpers'. These were stamped out of the hull steel to strengthen and stiffen the large area of thin steel. Car maker ingenuity.

The deflector at the rear underside of the bow pontoons was made from planks bolted onto bracing struts. Easily made from styrene. The bolts are hexagonal styrene rod – but who can tell at this size?

There are beams under the deck to hold the section of deck planking, and beneath them is I beam bracing for the tow bitt footing.
3 hours for all that.

Just when I thought everything was going according to plan, the guard rail protecting the steering gear caused a few problems.
It is a semi-circular section of channel steel and I had planned to make it from a sandwich of styrene/brass/styrene to give the unsupported shape some rigidity. The brass acts like a backbone and holds the styrene in shape. It's a method I've used successfully before. Photo 6 shows the bending sandwiching process.

This time nothing went to plan. The styrene is CA glued onto the brass, the styrene is attached to the hull with styrene cement – in theory.
For some reason the combination of styrene cement and CA glue reacted badly and the styrene channel snapped and de-laminated for no apparent reason. This happened on 3 attempts. Finally I got it to work and managed to snap a good one off the hull with a bit of rough handling. Photo 7 shows the telltale crack just before failure.

Eventually I decided to use 2 part epoxy instead of CA glue and started again. I usually have no problems with CA glue and didn't even have any epoxy in the house. it's all sorted out now but that chewed up another 2 frustrating hours.
Logged

steve mahoney

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 589
  • Location: New Zealand
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #12 on: February 16, 2020, 06:44:04 pm »

Next task was the steering gear and rudders, and shafts. The supports for these were all steel tubing bolted together. Simple but complex – if you know what I mean. Easy to assemble and repair in real life but a bit of work at 1/50 scale.

The shafts and bearings for the propellors and rudders are brass. The supports and struts are styrene tubing. OK for a display only version but would have to be soldered or braised brass if it was a working model. The steering would be tricky to arrange on a working model.

The props are home made.

The nuts and bolt on the locking brackets are quite small and I made a lot of them expecting a high failure rate. Never happened and I have plenty left.

Most of this was quite fiddly work and it all took longer than planned. Another 6 hours.
Logged

steve mahoney

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 589
  • Location: New Zealand
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #13 on: February 16, 2020, 06:53:02 pm »

The rudders and propellor shafts are connected in an usual way. Probably made sense for on-site assembly by unskilled men and for easy maintenance but quite complex at 1/50. The rudder attachment points are quite fragile. Painting this will be fun!

The hatch plate had already been added to the deck, the planking on the steering section will come next. 2 radiators are needed for the inboard side of the pontoons, which are quite small and will be tricky. Propellors still aren't set in place yet.

The PE brass has a few parts for this boat and the next 2 builds. Here you can see the console dials, wheel and steering quadrants for the Mule. The quadrant wheels are made from 2 of these parts soldered together. There is a small lip etched out of the rim to leave a groove in the assembled piece for the steering cable. A job for good eyesight, a steady hand and a delicate piece of soldering. None of which I have, so I rely on good luck and lots of filing.

So far so good – another 4 hours.
Logged

derekwarner

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 9,463
  • Location: Wollongong Australia
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #14 on: February 16, 2020, 09:20:44 pm »

Brilliantly well detailed as usual Steve :-))


Can you give us some detail of the etched brass +? board


Derek
Logged
Derek Warner

Honorary Secretary [Retired]
Illawarra Live Steamers Co-op
Australia
www.ils.org.au

steve mahoney

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 589
  • Location: New Zealand
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #15 on: February 17, 2020, 08:22:42 pm »

Not sure what you mean by +? board Derek, however I can describe the brass etching process.

Etching is a photomechanical process that has been around for a couple of hundred years. It is used in printing and manufacturing.

Light shone through a film negative sets the film's image into a light-sensitive chemical coating on a sheet of metal. The sheet is then bathed in an acid solution and the area where the coating is not set is eaten away. The PE chemicals (usually ferrous chloride) are very corrosive and you may need a license to have them, if you're thinking of doing it at home. These days printing plates are zinc and the chemicals are all water-based and quite benign.

I do it an even easier way – I draw up the pieces I want and send the files to www.ppdltd.com in Scotland. They check the files, make the film, etch the sheet and post it back to me – perfect every time.

They have a large range of metals (brass, nickel silver, steel, stainless, bronze, copper, etc) in thickness from 0.1 to 4mm, and a sheet size from 300 x 100mm up to 300 x 1200mm. I've used them for about 8 years and they provide a great product, good service and an excellent turn around. It's not cheap when you include postage to NZ but as the pound has been steadily falling against the NZ$ for the last few years it's still worth it. I use brass, which is the cheapest material, and can be cut, folded, soldered, filed and painted easily. I like working with it. I can usually combine all of the detailed parts I need for 3 projects onto one A4 sheet to make it even more economical. I've never been less that super impressed with the results.

I draw up the parts I need in a vector drawing program. I use InDesign but Corel, FreeHand, Illustrator or any free drawing program would be fine, it just has to be a vector drawing program.

You can etch completely through the metal or only halfway in the same process, so you can get quite detailed parts. The PPDLtd website explains everything very well and they'll let you know if what you have sent them won't work. The attached diagram of the process (photo 1), from their website, explains it all very simply. The whole process is explained on their site much better than I can do here. They are great at answering newbie questions and offering advice.

As an example of how the files translate to a finished product, this is what I send them and what I get back. Photo 2 show the film where everything that is not black will etch right through the metal sheet. Photo 3 is the reverse side of the same sheet – a mirror image – this side will only be etched halfway through the metal – leaving raised details. The highlighted area is the back and front of the same piece – a dashboard. Photo 4 shows a section of the completed sheet, showing the front of the dashboard. The dashboard is 10mm long. I usually include a few spares on each sheet as I can be a bit clumsy and rough sometimes especially with the delicate parts.

If you can get your head around a drawing program, that's the hard work done.

www.hauler.com also do an etching service but I've never tried them. I can recommend PPDLtd. It's not as hard as you'd think and the results are really worth it.

If anyone has any questions about the drawing programs, file preparation, tolerances, dos and donts, files types or the process itself, PM me for post it on here.

Logged

steve mahoney

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 589
  • Location: New Zealand
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #16 on: February 18, 2020, 07:30:56 pm »

Managed to get a little more done between painting the house and making the most of the sunny days.

Planked the wooden deck area and added all of the lifting eyes and base plates for the railings.

The deck planks are styrene strips and sit flush with the chequer-plate steel deck.

Each pontoon has 4 lifting eyes. They were used to manoeuvre the seperate pontoon sections into position for assembly. I've put the eyes in now so that I can arrange the deck equipment around them. It'll be too tricky to attempt to put these in place when the deck details, railings, splash guard, push knees and control consoles are attached. The radiators and exhaust pipes for the under side of the hull aren't done yet. I've been avoiding thinking about the radiators

The hatches were pretty straightforward to make. All styrene.

In the end I only needed 4. Two that I had thought were hatches are inspection plates, so the 2 small ones are now discarded.

The latches were very tedious and time consuming. They are tiny and I'm not sure why I bothered. Sometimes you start down a rabbit hole and there's no going back. Next time I'll get the handles photo etched in brass.

5 hours for that lot.
Logged

steve mahoney

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 589
  • Location: New Zealand
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #17 on: February 20, 2020, 08:47:22 pm »

The next stage of this build is all of the larger deck equipment: 2 x engine bay hatch towers, steering console, bitts, railing, push knees and splash-guard – in no particular order.

First up is the splash-guard.

I planned to make this by laminating 3 layers of 0.2mm styrene and forming the shape around a template. I made a very simple jig out of off-cuts and made sure that it fitted in where it should on the deck and looked right. This was then used it to make a paper pattern for the basic guard shape. after a couple of adjustments the pattern was used to make the first /inside layer of styrene. This was held onto the jig with a few strategically placed pieces of double-sided tape. Then the next layer, about 2mm longer was glued on, then another.

I leave plenty of excess all round and sand everything down flush to the jig once the glue has completely dried. Works a treat. Maintains its shape well and is quite robust.

I finished the splash guard by adding the lip and tips. I might add a couple of small foot-plates to secure it to the deck. The residue from the tape will wash off.

This bit only took 3 hours so a success all round.
Logged

steve mahoney

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 589
  • Location: New Zealand
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #18 on: February 24, 2020, 07:15:46 pm »

Was also able to get the railings made. Quite a simple job, no tricky angles or curves, and only 2 rails. The rails are quite a bit beefier than on a normal boat rail. On the real Mules they were steel piping bolted together. I've gone for a simpler approach.

I enjoy soldering, it's very satisfying when it turns out well. The top rail was longer in length than the longest piece of rod available so it had to be joined at an unsupported place. This can often cause a weak point in the rail but this time it is solid and flush. It's even hard to spot the join. I'm happy.

This little section took 2 hours to complete but I was working quite slowly and making the most of it.


Had a day of solid rain the other day, so no chance to do any painting on the house. Instead I was able to get in a solid stretch at the bench and knocked off a few of the remaining big jobs – the consoles.

They came together surprisingly smoothly and quickly. I had been thinking about how to approach construction for a couple of days and luckily it all went according to plan. I love it when that happens.

As usual, they are a mix of styrene and brass. The dials are PE brass. The steering cable sheaves are very tiny and soldering on the brass rod for the cable section without flooding the little wheels with solder was a delicate job. I held my breath, crossed my fingers and closed my eyes. Worked out OK. With a bit of paint – everything is Ocean Grey – you'll hardly even see them.

All 3 consoles took a total of 8 hours. I'm managing to stick to the time-line. So far everything, including these consoles adds up to 36 hours.
Logged

steve mahoney

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 589
  • Location: New Zealand
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #19 on: March 01, 2020, 07:40:48 pm »

I've gotten most of the components completed and ready for some paint.

I had been consciously avoiding the radiators as 'too hard'. I had planned to make them out of brass rod bending them around a very complex jig with moveable parts. In the end it dawned on me that no-one would ever see the radiators – they are tucked away under the pontoons. Even if they did notice them you can't get a decent view of them without turning the boat upside down.

Executive decision – I made them out of styrene, and they they only took an hour for both. The curves aren't as good as you'd get with brass bent round a radius but for this purpose they will be fine.

Besides, when they are the same colour as the hull, and on a stand, you'll never see them. And, I'm supposed to be doing this for fun.

Also added the last little details to the deck: the cleats and base plates for the splash guard, railing posts and barge hitch.

Couldn't resist putting everything together for a sneak preview.

Now for some paint..
Logged

steve mahoney

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 589
  • Location: New Zealand
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #20 on: March 03, 2020, 07:39:25 pm »

With this project I’ve been trying not to buy too much and use as much from what I have onhand and in the spares and offcuts boxes. Same goes for the paint. With each project I like to mix double enough paint to complete the project. There’s nothing worse than running out of paint and having to try and make an exact match again. It’s almost impossible – I’ve been there!

So, in the box of paints from previous builds I had several blues and greys: 2 dark blues from Parahaki and Tika and some greys from the YTL, Kumea and Tumeke. These are all project from 1-3 years ago and I’ve got a little of each left. I used a bit from each to mix a match for the 2 colours I needed and had just enough – about 40ml.

I always mix my own colours. No colour ever comes out of the tin just right, in my view. My paint mixing is not a science – it’s trial and error, I'm very fussy. I like think that I’ve got an eye for it. Should have, it was crucial for my job for 40 years. Anyway I ended up with small plastic bottle with just enough paint in the right 1943 Deck Blue and another in 1943 Ocean Grey.

I sprayed on a coat of primer/undercoat and then the first top coat on the hull. So far so good.

Unfortunately between coats, the thinners I had used to mix the paint reacted badly with the plastic bottle and melted a hole in the side of it – spilling half of the grey paint onto the bench. Equal amounts of disaster, bad mood and bad language. I managed to save the bare minimum required to finish painting into a different jar. In fact the jar was totally empty and the airbrush was blowing fumes on the third and final coat.

I’ve managed to paint all of the components and the hull, and it doesn’t look too bad. Phew! More by good luck than good management.

The colour isn’t how I imagined it but it’s growing on me. I still prefer the paler grey.

You can see what I mean about the radiators being hard to see.
Logged

salimlun

  • Shipmate
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #21 on: March 04, 2020, 03:29:35 am »

All the essential parts are on the bottom boat hull  :-))
Logged

steve mahoney

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 589
  • Location: New Zealand
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #22 on: March 08, 2020, 09:11:41 am »

It’s finished!

Well, we have ‘practical completion’.

It still needs a stand. This one is borrowed from my last project, the Tika, just for the photos.

I didn’t manage to finish within the 48 hours – I was probably about 6 hours over. Lots of frustrating messing about at the end with paint and tiny details. Nothing seemed to go according to plan.
Logged

steve mahoney

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 589
  • Location: New Zealand
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #23 on: March 08, 2020, 09:15:05 am »

The last task in the build was to attach the steering cables to the completed model and it seemed to take ages.

I used some 0.33mm brass rod that I had picked up while on holiday in Scotland last year. A lot of hobby supplies are not readily available in NZ and airfreight can make them prohibitively expensive, so whenever I’m out of the country I try to stock up on hard to get items. Last trip I also picked up a lot of scale fittings from Berlin but they were lost in the post. Bummer. On one holiday to Tokyo I bought a lot of excellent miniature files that were confiscated at the airport as weapons. Ridiculous – anyone who can hijack a jumbo jet with a nail file deserves it.

Anyway, the 0.33mm brass is suprisingly strong and super springy. It was very difficult to get it to maintain the right shape. To get the correct radius for the curve around the steering quadrant I had to bend it around a tube half the size of the final radius. I must have made a dozen attempts before getting it right. I wasted a lot of the precious material and patience.

I’ve got to admit that I was just about over it by the time I’d finished. My heart wasn’t in it. In fact, as soon as the top coat of paint went on I pretty much lost interest in the project.


I’m not even sure why I picked this boat for a build in the first place – it’s an interesting and unique subject but it has none of the things I look for in a conventional tug. No funnel, no wheelhouse, towhook, winch, etc. It’s just a barge. Hasn't sparked much interest on the forums either.

And the colour just doesn’t do it for me. I guess I’m just not a navy grey kind of guy.

I’ll get some rub-downs for some hull marking but that can wait until I need some others for a future project. In the meantime this can sit on a shelf while I get on to a real tug.
Logged

derekwarner

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 9,463
  • Location: Wollongong Australia
Re: WWII USN Sea Mule Tug
« Reply #24 on: March 08, 2020, 09:32:33 am »

Congratulations Steve on the "practical completion" near within the Project Time Scale ;)


We could have waited for more.......


Amongst all others, I also particularly I like the USN grey/blue hull colour  :-))


Derek
Logged
Derek Warner

Honorary Secretary [Retired]
Illawarra Live Steamers Co-op
Australia
www.ils.org.au
Pages: [1] 2   Go Up
 

Page created in 0.091 seconds with 22 queries.