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

S

Sky Raider

Guest
Outstanding result so far. the added touches make a vast improvement on those boats. Keep up the good work.

Andy
 
T

treyzx10r

Guest
Coming along nicely Derek,outstanding detail work on the lifeboat!
 
C

Caledonia

Guest
Started the fishing gear with the Otter Boards or Trawl Doors (they keep the mouth of the nett open), there are many different designs so you takes your pick. Instructions say to use plywood and make them 40mm x 80mm; two off. Looking at old photos this looks too big, so I am making them 30mm x 60mm and have made my own three ply with 10mm x 0.5mm lime wood strips. Have made the surrounding metal framework from 0.5mm lime wood also. Incidentally there should be 4 off and not 2 off boards.

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The surrounding 'metal work' was them treated with sanding sealer and primed. The raw wood was then weathered with powder.

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You were supposed to use the same rod as the handrails for the triangular frames, but as mentioned previously not enough material was left over. Fortunately, I had some plastic coated gardening wire which I stripped; this material was about 50% thicker, which was more realistic to scale and was very much more pliable. For the attachment points from the Trawl, I bent some paper clips. These triangular frames were secured to the boards with the lead seal from a whisky bottle cut into small strip 3mm x 7mm. and super glued in place around the triangular frame.

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Finally I painted the 'metal work' and added some rust.

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I fitted the port side Otter Boards to the Trawler; I will fit the netts to the starboard side.

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Before I go any further I will have to make up a stand for the Trawler.

You can see how the Gallows and boards got a hammering from the photo below which also illustrates the triangular frames shackled to the trawl wire or warps.

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Cheers Derek

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M

mobear

Guest
well you couldnt get those boards any closer to the real thing than you have done,magnificent

mobear
 
T

treyzx10r

Guest
\ said:
well you couldnt get those boards any closer to the real thing than you have done,magnificentmobear
Could'nt have said it better,looking great Derek!
 
S

steve244

Guest
just catching up on things and youve done a great job there derek shes looking fantastic.

steve
 
C

Caledonia

Guest
Thanks for your kind comments chaps - much appreciated.

Well who spotted the deliberate mistake in my last posting??

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Original Corrected

I didn't notice either until I was studying the B&W photo I included in my last posting when I noticed the Otter Door was pointing in the wrong direction - have corrected it now, see above.

Made my stand for the Trawler, made it a fairly light affair as its a static display model, the colours more black than the photo suggests. I made the fwd stand 10mm taller than the aft one which over a span of 200mm lets the Trawlers waterline lay parallel to the water surface

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Have partially made the Trawl Net, but waiting for some materials to be delivered to finish it off.

I found this website which I posted earlier (general boat chat) and bought some fittings, have replaced all the kits navigation lights for better looking ones, they look too shiny just now, I still have to dull them down and add some patina.

HOME - modellingtimbers.co.uk This guy is a one man band who is also a very gifted modeller,he is on holiday this week so I won't get my second order until next week.

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Not a lot more I can do on the model until I get the additional materials other than fit the rigging anchor points.

Caldercraft do not provide any rigging thread, and are short on the number of fittings needed for the kit.

Cheers Derek

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C

Caledonia

Guest
While waiting for the rigging materials to be delivered, I was looking at the original Hall Russel's drawing of when the Trawler was a Mine Sweeper. I noticed she had dandy rollers at the stern, and on checking with available photos of the period, saw that this feature was carred over. I've made up two from scrap wood and a 4mm x 3mm single brass bollard and bent paper clip.

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My rigging materials arrived over the weekend which allowed me to finish the trawl net. When Trawlers finished fishing and were returning to port, they hoisted the nets cod end up the funnel to let then dry off; see B&W photo below, so this is how I have shown my one.

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Turning into the home straight now, just have the rigging to do, although there is a lot of work in that. I am pretty sure the main stays in a Trawler were wire rope, so I am going to try to use 0.8mm dia wire for these. Will post some weekly progress photos as usual.

Cheers Derek

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P

Polux

Guest
I must admit two things...

I'm all the time looking for inhuman quantity of words that I don't understand, and it deserves to do, for the interesting things you explain. And the second one, and the most importantly, I love your great build and Job!!

Keep up the good work!

Regards
 
C

Caledonia

Guest
Thanks for your kind words Polux, it's very much appreciated. If you have any queries, just ask, I'll try to answer them if I can.

A brief update, I was hoping to use thimbles for the wire rope rigging, but the bending stiffness of the wire rope is too great, resulting in too large an eye for the scale. I will therefore use some end fittings which resemble a swaged end fitting. I used these on the Otter Door rigging, see photo below. Unfortunately they are on a 2 to 3 week delivery. So will just have to wait before I can progress the Trawler.

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Cheers Derek

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Ian M

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Lost for words!

I will just have to say fantastic.

Ian M
 
C

Caledonia

Guest
Thanks Ian and Ole, much appreciated.

It's been a one forward and two back kind of week. I found out that the wire end fittings I have used, as mentioned in my last posting are no longer available. Problem is I had enough of them to do the f'w'd mast then ran out. (Still to weather the wire and jewelry). Spent a lot of my modelling time googling for a different supplier, but with no luck. Have ordered some miniature cast bronze thimbles (3.5mm long) and some smaller dia wire and some black cord. So should be able to make up something presentable.

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I hate photo etch stuff, so wasn't looking forward to making up some oval pattern sheaves, but they turned out o.k. (swear box needs emptying mind); still to make them look like rusting steel.

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Waiting fo the above materials to be delivered. Cheers Derek

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papa 695

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Looks great Derek hope you get the parts soon so we can see more. been watching this with interest and iv'e not been dissapointed ( not that i would have been anyway )
 
M

mobear

Guest
awesome looking so far,lets hope the quest you are on comes to fruition mate,and you don`t get to frustrated lol

mobear
 
C

Caledonia

Guest
Thanks Ian and Ole for the words of encouragement, much appreciated.

Have now decided my course of action, and the last of my bits and pieces were delivered yesterday. The 0.6mm wire rope had a much longer lay length than the 0.8mm which is strange, and when you bend it around the small thimbles it tends to kink/birdcage. So am abandoning the wire rope idea and have removed the wire stays I had previously fitted to the forward mast. Instead I plan to use 1mm dia black cord for the mast stays, and 0.25mm dia black cord as binding.

While I was waiting for the materials to be delivered, I came across an article when I was googling on Trawler navigation lights. The outcome is that I have modified the lights as follows. Note the light configuration depends on the era you are working on as regulations change over the years. For me after examining the few photos I have, I have settled on the following.

Forward mast Navigation light

Top: - Tri-colour light: Green-White-Red representing Starboard-Forward- Port respectively.

Middle: - Forward White light

Bottom: - 360 Deg White light

Aft

Aft facing white light

See photos below, where you will see I have added a Patina to the Lights brass bodies.

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On the Otter Boards I have added shackles to the wire rope fixing.

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On the aft Bollards I have changed them for Barred Bollards.

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Have invested in a few Brass Turnbuckles, the photo below compares the white metal kit turnbuckle supplied with the kit and the Brass ones purchased.

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So next week i will get down to the serious work of rigging the Trawler, and touching up some of the paint spots I see I have missed. Amazing what a photo shows up.

Cheers Derek

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M

mobear

Guest
oh my god!this is getting better and better,a full pic would be awesome,just to give us a sneak preview lol

mobear
 
C

Caledonia

Guest
Ole/Trey thanks for viewing.

And Ole especially for you some overall shots. I have added a same scale Tornado (1/48) to give some idea of how small these Trawlers were. How would you like to steam to Iceland in one of these in the winter in the old days with no Radar, air/sea rescue etc etc.

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Cheers Derek

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