Steamer Ben Ain - Page 5

**Bunkerbarge** · 07-02-2006

Glad to be of help Mark. I look forward to your updates.

All the best

Richard

tigertc · 08-02-2006

Wow, a truly awesome model Bunk.

**Bunkerbarge** · 08-02-2006

Thanks Tiger

new to trains · 08-02-2006

i have a 1 to 24th scale puffer half built, i too will give the riveting a go, i have been putting it off !- but your pictures inspire !- the mad thing is i have used the cyano gel for this purpose before ( for rivets on a lifeboat )and also to replicate thick solid seam welds on the pressure vessel of my research submersible- but all those little dots AAAHHHH !
need to buy in some activator for the job !

**Bunkerbarge** · 08-02-2006

Guy,

It probably took most of my spare time for a week, mainly as I discovered that the rivets were in double runs, but the result is a world apart from what I started with. Well worth the effort.

new to trains · 09-02-2006

ahh, there we go ' most of my spare time for a week'...... i have two kids under school age- I have NO spare time !

**Bunkerbarge** · 09-02-2006

Guy,

This is something that you can do over whatever period of time you want. You can pick up the Cyano and do a quick half an hour whenever you feel like it so don't be put off.

Also remember your puffer hull is a lot smaller than my coaster so you have a lot less to do.

Also I learned that putting the cyano directly onto the fibre glass didn't work as it was absorbed into the surface. If, however, you seal the surface with a coat of primer (Halfords best) then apply the cyano gel it 'beads' a lot more effectively.

new to trains · 10-02-2006

the hull is in primer already..... so will give it a go !- will let you know how i get on !

**Bunkerbarge** · 09-04-2006

I only recently realised that I didn’t post an update on the progress of the Ben Ain during my last leave so I thought I had better put that right.

It always makes me smile when models always seem to go through the same Six Phases of a Project that we consider for any other work namely:
1. Enthusiam

2. Disillusionment

3. Panic

4. Search for the Guilty

5. Punishment of the innocent

6. Praise and honors for the non-participants

Well last leave I had a bit of panic and certainly a bit more of disillusionment!

The disillusionment comes from the fact that you realise that you are over two years into the project and you still haven’t got both decks on the thing coupled with the fact that everything you do seems to take so much longer than was originally anticipated.

The next big step was not just putting the wheelhouse together but designing a construction that could be removed to gain the best access to the steam plant. An electric motor would be relatively straightforward to fit, remove and tinker with but a steam plant really has to be lifted out as an entirety with its base for running on the bench, cleaning, fettling etc. When I fitted the aft deck it soon became apparent that the main beam at the forward end of the aft deck had to remain in place to keep the sides of the hull at the correct distance apart and rigid so I made a couple of modifications to allow the plant to hook below this and fit in place without needing it to be removed.

This gave me a basis for the wheelhouse assembly as I had a flat vertical bulkhead at the forward end and the aft end of the wheelhouse. My idea was to make a complete wheelhouse assembly that fitted over the boat and incorporated the upper portion of the hull where it rises to meet the flying bridge supports, the wheelhouse, flying bridge and accommodation housing.

I started of with holding two vertical bulkheads in guides against the existing bulkheads and manufactured an assembly that hooked over the top of the existing bulkheads. I then had the forward and aft bulkheads in place. These were then joined with longitudinal beams, with braces, to hold the two bulkheads together. I now had the basis of a removable assembly. This would slide vertically out of the boat as a, hopefully, rigid assembly and when in the boat would all be held firmly in place by the bulkhead guides fitted to the ship.

Now I needed to build on this foundation. I added a few more stiffeners and then planked the bridge deck across the camber with 0.5 mm spacers cut from plasticard between each plank. When the planking was complete I mixed up my powder paint and PVA “Caulking” and spread it over the deck and well into the plank gaps. Next came the laborious task of rubbing it all down again to the bare wood, hopefully leaving a nicely caulked deck when it is done. When this was sealed I decided to strengthen the underside a bit more by sealing it with a coat of resin, which when set gave me an assembly which did actually slide out of the guides and would seem to be quite strong when it is off the boat. The camber helps with this strength, as will the wheelhouse and flying bridge assembly when they are added.

The nest step of the process was to start to put the wheelhouse together. This was a sub assembly that I made on the bench and, as always I just do not seem to be able to make the thing according to the instructions. Consequently mine has internal wainscoting, a shelf around the window frames, flag locker and chart table. It will also, of course, be fitted with a binnacle and telegraph and all the other detailed little bits and bobs that will bring it to life.

The attached pictures show the process of putting together the wheelhouse assembly as far as it has gone so far. There is still a lot of work to go into this one particular piece but now I can at least see what I wanted to achieve with it. Painting it will have to be done very carefully as I cannot afford anything to warp or increase in thickness so I think it will be a couple of coats and a gentle rubbing down. I think I will then lubricate the guides with wax to ensure a smooth operation for, hopefully, longer than I will be doing it for.

I hope there is a bit of interest for some of you there. Next time home I would like to get the vast majority of the wheelhouse assembly finished but, amongst all this, I also have the Revell U-Boat to finish, a Flying Styro Me109 to put together and a couple of jobs around the house if Annette has her way!!

**Bunkerbarge** · 25-07-2006

Well the Ben Ain didn’t progress a great deal during my last leave, mainly as I wanted to complete the revel U-Boat so that at least I could say I had finished something.

I did however progress the bridge unit a little and, although it doesn’t look like a great deal I actually progressed it in such a way as to be able to be very pleased that some of the tricky bits and ideas actually worked.

The whole issue with the bridge is that it has to be a removable unit, unlike the kit intentions. To this end I have been building up the unit on the ship in such a way as to be able to slide it neatly off the decks and have a strong but light piece that sits securely on the model. The thing that has taken a lot of time patience and perseverance is the way in which the removable piece interfaces with the model. Just to keep it complicated research suggests that the design of the kit bridge deck bulwarks is not accurate either so that had to be considered.

The next job was actually to recover the original planked deck with another layer of planks. I did this as I was not happy with the finish of the original planks as I had laid them on a not very strong backing, not realizing that they would not sand down evenly to remove the caulking. Consequently I first of all replanked the decking over the top of the original which worked considerably better and I had a nice deck surface to work with.

Next I was very lucky to find a book at a book stand at Doncaster Model Show which was a history of the Ramsey Steamship Company, who operated the Ben Ain for a number of years and which contained three photo’s of the ship. These photo’s helped me to design the arrangement of the bulwarks to fit to the deck and helped to clarify the arrangement of the area.

First though I needed to progress the bridge housing itself as this had to be taken to a stage whereby it could be fitted to the bridge deck. It is considerably easier to fit detail into the bridge before it is glued down so I worked on the flag locker, chart table and internal painting. The flags are actually real signal flags in paper, rolled up and inserted into the locker so the correct colours are actually visible in the correct holes. The inside was painted and the wood varnished and the window frames were fitted before shaping the top edge to follow the correct contour of the flying bridge deck to be fitted above.

One thing the pictures showed quite clearly was the way in which the bridge deck bulwarks lean in and how the bulwark capping rail meets it at either end. I fitted the bulwarks, cut from ply, then added a forward bulwark stay and a centre bulwark stay before actually cutting away the ply rear bulkhead. This ensured that the aft bulkhead was cut away in just the correct shape leaving the opening for the ladder to be added later. This bulkhead will be further cut away when the bridge is finally fitted to leave a perfectly shaped and strong support for the whole piece.

So that was really about as far as I got. I am now very happy that the removable piece matches up very neatly with the hull and the bulwarks look a lot more like the real thing than the kit suggests. I have had a lot of uncertainty up until now as to how the piece was going to be constructed so to see the bridge unit fitted with bulwarks and looking as I wanted it has given me quite a renewed sense of enthusiasm so I am really looking forward to getting back next time and progressing the model a bit more.