Hi All,
Just finished my first RC Model boat, a scale conversion of the original Revell HMCS Snowberry in 1/72 scale - it only took me 20 years to complete 0 thanks for letting me in; this was her on her maiden sea trial at New Brighton Model Boating Lake in April - erm intro? Ok
I'm Suzanne, late 50's, married, based on the edge of Manchester, UK, work in education, and I am a serial hobbyist - leatherworker, hobby blacksmith, drone pilot and now RC boat builder!
My Dad and brother got me into building models for their railway setup, which then grew into some scratchbuilding, and, as I had an interest in flying - had a PPL in my late teens with a scholarship from the ATC - also took me into aircraft kits and the occasional boat. Pretty much stopped with models as I grew up, but always remained creative and did some Norse-age re-enactment, which is where the blacksmithing and leatherworking came from...
About 20 years ago on a rainy day out to York we found ourselves in a model shop, and I saw Snowberry, I had seen her before, but never had the chance to even think about getting her, but hubby encouraged me, and after a long conversation with the shop owner - who sold me the kit, and all the required parts for the RC conversion, along with explaining how to set it all up - all before the interweb had really taken off! Suffice to say, I got the hull built and painted, the RC gear fitted and working - tested in the bath - the decs fitted, and the superstructure built, 4" gun fitted and wheelhouse done, and then she had a fall from the top of a 6' wardrobe, parts exploded and I almost binned her - but my yorkshireman hubby said no, put it aside and come back to it when you are ready, he really doesnt like to see money wasted...
She sat there in the back bedroom for years, looking sad, and making me feel guilty, until I had forgotten just how much had gone missing and been damaged.
Fast forward to November last year, and hubby decided he wants to build wooden sailing ships, so I bought him a couple of kits for Xmas (a 1/225th Victory, and a 1/50th Black Pearl), and seeing him enjoying himself made me think about resurrecting and finishing Sbowberry.
Took me a day to gently clean her of all the dust and to survey the damage... The broken parts had been put back into the box; I thought we had them all, but sadly not. On inspection, it was to find the front baffles to the side of the gun and behind the gun, several cabinets, the bridge floor, wheelhouse support on one side, gangways, the superstructure that fits below the funnel and the hedgehog mortar were all missing!
Well, took some doing with only the kit instructions and other parts, but with soem effort - and a lot of false starts and swearing - I managed to create some acceptable scratchbilt replacements, and finally managed to get her completed - with some additional 3d printed crew from ebay, some extra decals from Above and Beyond Scale Graphice, and a fair bit of extra detail breated from plastic-card, inspired by the Pontos PE kit, which is sadly no longer available.
She isnt perfect, but she looks good enough for me, I have done a fair bit of weathering, and although I can see the issues, other folks have been very complimentary about her, and I believe she is on the Readers Models page of this months Model Boat Magazine...
Anyhows, some more pics...
New Brighton Again...
And again...
On the workbench in the loft conversion, after affixing the upgraded decals from Above and Beyond
Crew - originals from the Revell kit, a bit of extra detailing and (I know) the incorrect lifebelt with HMCS Snowberry on - I know they didnt have the ship names on during the war, but the decals were too good not to use... Artistic licence...
More original crew and Above and Beyond decals...
Anyhows, if you got this far, thanks for listening and looking, hope you liked the pics, and as a bonus, here is a short video of Snowberry on her first Sea Trials
https://youtu.be/4TlPLa1Bs3c?si=lR0ejNhRdGV6q1n8
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Topic: New member and first RC Boat - HMCS Snowberry (Read 3293 times)