The new journey begins

[Tim RoweParticipant @timrowe83142]

Well done Mick.  Something very different from your earlier models in the background.

Tim

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

Your right Tim it’s very different to my normal builds .sometimes it’s good to challenge one’s self . As my old apprentice master once said it’s better to try something new and fail than regret not trying at all

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

So I’m at the filling and sanding the irregularities in the hull stage  which thankfully aren’t too many . Still a messy job with filler dust coating everything including me.  Thank heavens for a good mouth/ nose guard.  There’s a lot to be said for fibreglass hulls though to be honest it would feel like cheating to me , a wooden hull even though it can be tedious at times (like sanding and filling)has a certain hands on appeal to me. There’s a great feeling of satisfaction about building something from a sheet of ply and wood planks that you don’t get from a preformed hull.

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

A quick update of progress as you can see the hull has been faired out and any regularities filled and sanded(bloody messy job dust every where LOL) the deck have been fitted and the base superstructure made . I’ve decided to deviate from the original plan as my interest is more to the prewar steam trawlers that operated out of Grimsby/ hull . Most of the future build is going to be a bit of guess work and a lot of research so not a full scale build more of a feel of the days gone past. As I have indicated before my interest is more about construction than operating the finished model ,so you can gather I’m having a fat old time at this stage of the build

[James Hill 5Participant @jameshill5]

Amazing how many boat modellers have a model railway in the background.

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

Update as of the 5th may , quite a bit of work done ,the wheel house superstructure has been built and first coats of paint applied . The rear deck/ stern section built and fitted ( man that entailed a lot of template cutting and no small amount of expletive loaded utterences to myself. )The workshop floor was covered in failed templates but we got there eventually.  Still happy with the projects progress but still a looooong way to go . Looking forward to makeing the model trawl and anchor winches and all the other ships engineering on the metal lathe but that’s a long way off .  Any one else building or have built a scratch built North Sea trawler model because it’s stretching my skill base and I’m learning new techniques every day.

[Tim Rowe 1Participant @timrowe1]

Forging ahead there Mick and looking very good indeed.

Tim

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Lovely traditional shape to it.  There are a number of good kit manufacturers who sell fittings that you might find suitable such as mobile Marine Models, Dean’s Marine and Mount Fleet.  They might provide a base for modifications and enhancements and save you some tedious parts of scratch building.

By coincidence I’ve just submitted an article that goes through how I modified a white metal kit of a steam deck cargo winch with scratch made bits and pieces to improve the overall look.  It should be in the June edition.

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

Thanks for the info on fittings but unfortunately the cost of postage over to the antipodes is hideously expensive.  To be honest I’m looking forward to fabricating the items myself as I’ve said in a previous post the model is not a exact scale model more a loose representation of a Grimsby trawler of the pre / post war era,  I think what  used to be called stand off scale. Mind you I’m striving to do lot better than that. Time will tell but I’m enjoying the journey immensely so far.

Regards Easty aka mick east

[Len Morris 2Participant @lenmorris2]

Well said Mick and good luck with the build.  The enjoyment should be from having made it yourself.  It’s expensive to just buy bits and stick them on and isn’t as satisfying.  Also for a working model don’t worry about minute details.  They’ll be invisible once your boat is any distance off the bank.  As regards templates I use cornflake box cardboard.  Cheap and easy to cut.  Too long, cut a bit off.  Too short, cut them in half, extend the bits for a fit and then stick a bit of card over the gap.  I then make a final template by drawing around the cobbled up one.

Len. 🙂

[Len Morris 2]

On Len Morris 2 Said:

Well said Mick and good luck with the build.  The enjoyment should be from having made it yourself.  It’s expensive to just buy bits and stick them on and isn’t as satisfying.  Also for a working model don’t worry about minute details.  They’ll be invisible once your boat is any distance off the bank.

Len. 🙂

I don’t think anyone was suggesting “Just buying bits and sticking them on”.  Using ready made fittings is just another means of helping us achieve the result we want, whether that is a working model, stand off scale or the most accurate scale representation of the real thing we can achieve.  I tend to use a combination of many different techniques to achieve the result I am after and tend to avoid dismissing something because it doesn’t fit any preferred philosophy.  This involves scratch building, modifying bought fittings, using as bought fittings and even going right back to basics and replacing kit supplied moulded fibre glass life boats with hand built planked clinker construction replacements.

I tend to find keeping an open mind helps in most forms of modelling while also allowing for cost and availability.

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

Funny enough I agree with both Ray and Richard ,if you can afford to buy ready made fittings great as it saves time but as a retired pensioner I have lots of that commodity but a finite amount of money to spend on my hobby ,so out of necessity I have to fabricate most of my fittings in house so to speak. Having a small metal lathe also helps but even I have had to make an  exception to staunching rails and have given into buying them from a company in New Zealand.  To be honest I get great pleasure from turning a few sheets of ply , a bundle of wood and a few different bits a bobs of metal into a working model , but in saying that I really admire a well built kit model , 3D printed model or a combination of all three and I am in awe at some of the models shown on this sites and others like it. BTW Richard my admiration of you building skills with the clinker ships boat is off the charts. I am looking forward to building a 1/35 scale one for the trawler but let me tell you it’s not going to be anywhere near the standard you have set.

Regards Easty aka mick east

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Mick, The boat above is 1/32nd scale and, back to your thinking, the cost was a bundle of wood strips and a plan.  Apart from the oars, which are bamboo skewers, everything is made from the same strip wood.  The real cost was in time, it took me around three months of spare time to put it together.  As I was working at the time, on a ship, I figured my time was better spent putting that together than it was watching rubbish videos in the evenings!

Then of course, because I used the original kit rowlocks, someone once told me it wasn’t a proper scratch build!  There’s always one.

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

I suppose it’s how you define scratch build,  I personally think if it’s not a precut kit it’s scratch built. I was once told on another forum that if you don’t draw the plans out yourself it’s not scratch built . Like your self I will carry on building in my own way comfortable in the knowledge that it’s keeping my brain and motor skills exercised unlike as you so rightfully say watching brain decaying videos and reality shows on the idiot box

Regards Easty

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

In these days of 3D printing and other methods the term ‘scratch building’ has become irrelevant. As Richard says, getting the result you want by the most convenient way that works for you is what counts.

Previously ‘scratch building’ needed to be defined for those entering competitions to facilitate judging but those days are now long gone. So now just do your own thing, if you can buy a fitting then fine, if you prefer to make it then also fine. Literally whatever floats your boat. You only need to please yourself.

Many of us are not getting any younger and completing models quickly assumes more importance.

I like to make unique models and if they incorporate commercial fittings I am happy with that – I still have a unique boat!

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Spot on Colin. Scratch building only needs to be defined for competitions. No one will agree on what scratch building is otherwise.
Ashley

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

up to date the deck been planked . I know the planking is over scale but this model was never going to be a exact scale model as I want to be able to sail her with out the worry of delicate detail being damaged . As I think I’ve said in earlier posts the model is a amalgamation of north sea trawlers built between the wars so more a romantic representation of a trawler of that era although life on board those ships was hard and far from romantic. 

[Tim Rowe 1Participant @timrowe1]

I think I should start calling you Easty.  Fine looking ship you are building there and you are rivalling the velocity of Ray Wood which is phenomenal!

What motor are you using and what size is your propeller?

Following with interest.

Tim

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

Tim everyone calls me Easty so that’s what I answer too . The reason my builds seem to chug along at a good pace is because I’m a retired sparky in my late seventies and have a good amount of time available to spend in the work shop( at least 4 hours a day ,some times a lot more if I get engrossed in a particular part of the build.) Back to the question of prop size ,its a brass four bladed 50mm one and the motor is a 540 brushed motor . At the moment I’ve got it connected up as a direct drive to the shaft but I’m pretty sure eventually I’m going to make a couple of pulleys and gear it down if I want to sail at a realistic speed. Thanks for following the build your interest is much appreciated.

Regards Mick East aka Easty

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

I take it you are using the shore side reference to ‘Sparky’, which would be an electrician, as opposed to the sea going version, which was always the ‘Radio Officer’, that is prior to them all becoming ‘Electronics Officers’!

For seafarers the ship’s electrician was usually the ‘Lecky’.

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

Your correct Richard I went through a apprenticeship in the UK (working for the now defunct ROYAL EASTERN COUNTIES HOSPITALS) I came over here when I was in my mid twenty’s and got a job as a electrical fitter (working on equipment rather than house / building wiring.) Eventually starting my own company repairing domestic appliances .

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi All,

My modelling productivity has hit an all time low 🙁  But the good news is I have a lady in my life again 2 years after I lost my darling Gwen , I’m spending 50 % 0f my time with my new partner in Wales I will have to kit out a second workshop there now 🙂 the Talyllyn station is only 10 minutes walk away 🙂

Having said that, I have found since retirement that less gets done 🙁 but the July free plan article & photos for Shandau has just gone off to Lindsey 🙂

Regards Ray

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Two years already Ray, where on earth does the time go nowadays?  I can see you volunteering at the railway next and spending half your life up to your elbows in axle grease and soot!  Make the most of your opportunities and enjoy.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

We took a trip on the railway back in 2017 – great fun.

Some commute though! (and a lot of it at 20mph by all accounts!)

Colin

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

Gosh I envy you , that rail  journey has been posted on utube heaps of times and though most have been in the rain ( well it is Wales after all) . I would love to do it. We over here have lots of great scenic attractions,  fantastic beaches , tropical jungles, outback deserts and vibrant cities but being a new country relatively speaking we don’t have that history or heritage going back hundreds of years and I miss that a lot .

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