1930's Aberdeen Steam Trawler - Modified 1/48 Calder Craft Milford Star

[Caledonia]

They say a change is as good as I rest; I'll let you know when I am finished this next project. This has been a long term ambition of mine, so I am going to take it nice and slow. For a review of the kit and some personal history, please see the link below.

http://www.scale-models.co.uk/product-reviews/12060-side-steam-trawler-milford-star-1-48-caldercraft.html

Here are a few shots from the Box Art from the Milford Star Kit.

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From the history provided in the link above, I plan to convert the Oil Fired Milford Star to its original coal fired Aberdeen Trawler of the 1930's

First job is to smooth out the inside of the GRP Hull in way of the Bulwarks; photo below shows the roughness.

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Once this is done I will fit the Rudder, but as this will be a static model, I will not be fitting the propeller shaft tube, and will leave off the propeller till near the end.

The main deck will then be fitted, I have bought some white ash strips, and would prefer to plank off the main deck, rather than use the overlay sheet provided, see photo below (rough cut) but I have to try some weathering of both to see which gives the best results.

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As you can see below, the hull plating has been moulded into th GRP, if a little exaggerated. There are no rivet details, so I plan to use wet slide decal rivets which I have sourced from the USA. This will be used on the Hull and all superstructure.

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I haven't given up my aircraft modelling entirely, as I will fit in the odd kit during this build.

Cheers Derek

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[Bunkerbarge]

Of all the ways you can upgrade these models I would suggest that doing your own planking instead of using the pre-printed overlays is the most bang for your buck. It is a labour of love but a huge difference in effect and well worth it.

 

[Caledonia]

Hi Richard, that would be my preferred option also, the white ash is almost grain free however so to make it more realistic I will attempt several ways of roughing up the surface to simulate some grain. Will post my results on some trial pieces when they are finished. Cheers Derek

 

[Bunkerbarge]

I use one of these:

Distresser Weathering Brush

They really are brilliant and you get a couple of speare bristle sets with a handle. You can also use brass suede brushes though from a cobblers.

 

[Caledonia]

Thanks Richard, have been experimenting and am getting reasonable results by painting the planks grey, when dry, drag them through the teeth of a razor saw, and coat with promodeller (florymodeller) black wash, when dry, rub off with kitchen towel. Trying some refinements still. My enthusiasm has been temporarily side tracked with my SR-71A Blackbird build which won't take long. Cheers Derek

 

[Caledonia]

The GRP moulding for the Hull for some reason has been moulded with what looks like an overlapping plate joint feature; this is wrong and did not exist on the Trawler's, nor indeed in the box art supplied with the kit (no reference is made in the instructions). First step therefore is to remove this from the model, I initially used a Razor Saw, see photo below, but found a coping saw to be easier and quicker. I had to remove about 6mm from the top of the Hull and the Forecastle. Still to clean the cut edges up, but as it took about 5 hours to saw the above material off as the model is approx 900mm long, will leave the clean up for another day. Cheers Derek

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[Caledonia]

Finished tidying up the top of the bulwark after removing about 6mm, photos below show the before and after.

Have fixed some blocks 19mm down from the top of the bulwarks temporarily with PVA, will secure with epoxy once the PVA has had a chance to dry, these blocks will help locate the main deck at the correct height.

Will post some more photos once the main deck, and forecastle deck and bulkhead has been fitted. Cheers Derek

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[Caledonia]

Deviated from the plans sequence of construction as I wanted to add a hawser pipe for the anchor chain, this was not supplied with the kit, so improvised with a drinking straw. This meant I had to fit the forecastle deck first. Have now fitted the bulkhead and main deck (after much pairing and filing) and filled in the large opening on the forward part of the main deck provided for those who wanted to sail her. I forgot to photograph the underside of the main deck before I fitted it; I added 6 lateral beams and two longitudinal plywood strips in way of the opening mentioned above.

Will use car body filler to smooth off the inside of the GRP bulwarks as they are pretty rough, and fill some gaps, then some major filling/sanding. Cheers Derek

p.s. all the above was glued with epoxy.

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[Caledonia]

The Boss wanted the living room decorated, so lost a week.

Here are the lower superstructure components

The curvature of the lower edge of the longitudinal sections of the superstructure does not match the finished deck, so I glued a strip of 2.5 sq.mm balsa wood and shaped it to suit.

Some general shots of the superstructure construction: have reinforced all of the joints with 2.5sq.mm balsa wood as I plan to do much of the superstructure construction off of the deck. The second and third bulkheads from the left on the first picture are additions I have made to make the structure more rigid, have also added the Engine Room Skylight deck at this stage for the same reason.

These photos show the Funnel Deck added, also the two location blocks I have added on the deck for location of the superstructure relative to the hole in the deck. Have added a transverse batten to keep the deck flat. The last shot below shows an error on the kit where the rear galley wall is too short so have had to add an infill.

Finally there seems also to be a problem with the Skylight shape, on the left of the photo below the end of the skylight sitting on the deck is the correct height, but if you look at the components on the left, the slope angle of the end plates need to be more acute in order for the side panels to meet up with the top panel whilst maintaining the correct height.

Cheers Derek

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[Caledonia]

Here is the mod needed to the Engine Room Skylight for it to fit, upper part as supplied with the Kit, lower part modified to fit, next photo shows the installed Skylight and the Galley Roof fitted.

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Here are the parts for the Wheelhouse, don't plan to use the printed decking sheet, as I would like to do my own planking. Two problems with the kit

1) The Door/Window configuration on the printed sheet are wrong, but easily remedied.

2) The width of the veranda deck forward of the wheelhouse is too wide according to all of the photos I have, this will need to be shortened.

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Cheers Derek

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[Caledonia]

Have roughly shaped the Wheelhouse to give an indication of what it would look like - not very convincing and completely inaccurate even for the S.T. Milford Star, also the white metal window frames, see below, look like a dogs hind leg.

Whilst pondering this problem,have cut out the wash ports on the hull; will fit the doors (supplied with the kit) and the safety bars (not supplied) after I apply the sanding sealer and rub down the deck.

Right - I have decided to reduce the corner radius of the wheelhouse corners from 13mm to 7mm, to do this I have had to salvage the corners from the cut sheet and glue them back on to the wheelhouse floor and roof. Have also reduced the length of the wheelhouse.

Have decided to scratch build a new wheelhouse from scrap plywood from the kit. Have marked out the door/window layout from what I have found on the internet photos; cut-out the new wheelhouse and added the floor. The S.T.Milford Star and all the other 'Round Table' Class Trawlers had three front windows and two quarter windows. Have, as you can see below cut-out the holes for the quarter windows but still have to make a frame for these quarter windows.

I will make the window frames from 0.5mm wood, and the sills, window ledge and chart table from 1mm scrap plywood. Stiffeners will be made from plastic card.

Cheers Derek

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[treyzx10r]

Derek great job so far ,nice fix on the wheel house!

 

[Caledonia]

Hi Trey thanks for those words on encouragement.

A few shots of the progress on the wheelhouse. Have fitted the inner shelf, done the window frames using 0.5 x 3mm lime wood strip, cut flush on the inside and 0.5mm protrusion on the outside. Stiffeners have also been added to the inside walls, these are a bit of a guess, I am sure there must have been some. Have added the verandah deck to the superstructure after first shortening it by 17mm at the front. Have also shortened the roof of the wheelhouse by 11mm.

Going to be busy for the next couple of weeks so will not be posting any more until nearer the end of September. Cheers Derek

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[Sky Raider]

Loving this.... going to be a fantastic project. Keep up the good work.

Andy

 

[colin m]

Looking great Derek. You can cram buckets and buckets of detail into this build. That should see you going until Christmas !

Colin M........

 

[Caledonia]

Andy/Colin, thanks for your interest, much appreciated.

Have made a new back wall for the wheelhouse, and panelled this and the wheelhouse roof with 3 x 0.5mm Lime Wood strips. Strips were set 0.25mm apart and a triangular needle file was used to chamfer the edges.

The kit comes with the following white metal fittings: -

Wheel and Standard

1-Voice Pipe(a Trawler had two, will make my own)

Engine Room Telegraph

Binnacle

Not suppied, and will be scratch built: -

Echo Sounder Box

2-Doors for wheelhouse

Chart Table

Door for companionway in floor leading to the Skippers Cabin below the wheelhouse

Thought you might like to see a late 1950's photo of a Trawler, this one does not have a Verandah Deck at the Wheelhouse.

Cheers Derek

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[colin m]

One of the cable ships I worked on was just over 30 yrs old, spent most of it's life in the far east and had wood worm on the bridge !

Colin M.........

 

[Caledonia]

Hi All, spent quite a lot of time this week cleaning up the joint between the deck and hull, also the moulding imperfections on the GRP Hull. Marked off and drilled holes for the single and double ball handrail stanchions on the superstructure, see below. The two small blocks of wood you can see have been cut from a larger block supplied with the kit, these will be the water tanks above the engine room and behind the wheelhouse.

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There is an error in the kit in so much as Calder Craft have forgotten the steps from the deck onto the top of the engine room casing, this is situated just aft of the ladder base coming down from the Wheelhouse. There are usually two steps either chequer plate or round bar rungs U-shaped, I will be using the latter method. a gap has to be left on the handrail along the side of the casing for access to these rungs

Made up some safety bars by stripping the insulation off some old solid conductor telephone wire, and super glued them to each of the ten wash ports on the bulwarks.

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Have also stained the Wheelhouse roof and back wall panelling 'teak' (not as red as it looks in the photo).

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Next I am trying to get all the wooden bits finished so that I can apply sanding sealer to them and start adding the fittings and get started painting.

Cheers Derek

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[Caledonia]

This week I got the Bulwark Capping Rail Fitted.

The kit supplies some printed plywood sheets for the three Hatches on the model; comprising of coaming sides and a printed top sheet to represent the hatch cover, I have attached a photo of how the Hatch coamings were really constructed. I have made the Fish Room Hatch square rather than the rectangular one on the kit. I have modified the construction using the kit's coamings but fabricated the top from 3 x 0.5mm Lime wood strips. Will also plank in the hatch covers, rather than use the printed plywood sheet supplied.

Finally, have been cutting out the components for the four Trawl Gallows. I am not going to use the plywood strips for the I-section web of the Gallow's, but will use some 3 x 0.5mm Lime wood strips as I found the Plywood splintered during cutting.

Cheers Derek

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[Caledonia]

Hi all, this week I have made and fitted the bulwark stiffeners. The instructions says to fit 20/side, but I have used 28/side as I think this is more realistic. Used 3x0.5mm lime wood strips instead of the plywood suggested in the instructions.

The first photo below shows the rudder and white metal fixing provided in the kit. This is probably aimed at those wanting to sail the ship, but as I want it for a static display, I have traced the rudder post platework from the original ships drawings, and using scrap 1.5mm tk plywood, cut out two identical shapes and glued them together to make this area more factual.

Cheers Derek

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