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Jim starts his build of the Drumgeith (BFM-713).
The hull is a fine, flawless casting with a perfectly smooth even surface.
I cut off the moulded hawsepipe mouths and the rib-to assist in the
flat placing of the tape.
The details will be re-instated later with items made of wire.
Using the BECC Vinyl Tape the plating runs are installed as near to
the lines in the plans as possible.
Using a contrasting colour helps greatly with ensuring the runs are as
near parallel as possible and assists greatly in eyeballing for symmetry.
Despite initial misgivings that the effect may be over scale ( which of course it is!-...what is not in 1/700!?!)
I
used the same tape to simulate the hinged scupper doors on the well-deck bulwarks
Once the first coat of paint was on it
started to look promising....
I shall now concentrate on the superstructure--more reports soon!
JB, UK, May 03, 2009
Work on the superstructure proceeded apace- it is a simple ship-( no guns!)
I carved off the cast on doors- although they are nice I reckoned I
could get a sharper look with PE doors- especially as I was having my
doors in varnished timber!
The boat support platform castings were thinned down with a blade- and
cut back slightly--this allowed a thin styrene strip to be installed-
which hid any imperfections in my paring blade-work!
The over length ends were trimmed back in situ by holding the ship
side-on to a small metal anvil- which gave a good cutting surface whilst
permitting access without damaging the ship.
 
The inside faces of the bulwarks had the bracing represented by strips
of 1/500 PE handrail glue to inside face at a slight angle- and the top
join back-filled with white glue and paint
I wanted to show the vessel with some sails set... but some research and
contemporary paintings do not quite corroborate... by 1910 Cargo
vessels relied on their steam plant for propulsion solely....
However I have heard and read of some of these early vessels using the
fore and aft canvas as steadying sails in a following or beam sea to
reduce athwarsthips rolling....
As such I needed to show the vessel in a ... following sea!
To this end I also needed some lower hull showing... alas missing in
a.... waterline model...! :big_grin:
Styrene strip to the rescue!
 
The following sea was made using automotive polyester body-filler (
smelly--work in well ventilated area)...( Isopon P38)
BUT- it has the advantage of setting within 10 minutes--allowing rapid
progress with long swells
In the photos the pink bits are the body-filler peeping through--the
white stuff is artists acrylic texture paste, this has a finer
structure and sets much slower--permitting longer working times.
The ship is now afloat, bowling through the sea at a heady speed...(!?)
and will have her rolling dampened by some canvas set fore and aft.
More progress soon!
Jim Baumann
Funnel logo was downloaded from this incredibly useful web-site: http://flagspot.net/flags/gb~hfmo.html#rajhmudieThis was re-sized in Serif 8.0 and printed on to white decal sheet on the PC end-to- end, and after application
to the new coppertube funnel the join in the decal was hidden underneath the steam pipe! The two main cowl vents were
the BFM items reworked, hollowed and drilled.
The remainder of the tiny deck vents were made from cored solder; deck drilled to insert.
Winches are BFM items--very
nice and will have some operating rods and wheels added yet.
Masts are the supplied tapered brass items, the cargo-spar bases and the block platform were made of small pieces
of
adapted scrap PE-with the supporting gussets being made of paper.
The previously removed resin hawse-pipe mouths were
remade with brass wire and the nice kit anchors installed.
The next stage will involve adding small details to winches , binnacle and wheel aft, davits and boats, followed by the
remaining railings and sun awning frames...
More photos soon
Jim Baumann
The most obvious addition is that of her steadying sails
few words how they were made:
Paper patterns were created, using the ship plan as a guide and the templates
were offered up to to the model.
The panel layout of the sails was drawn lightly using a sharp pencil on both sides
of some thin but crisp paper-I used a paper bag from the corner shop(!)
The templates were laid on to the panel blanks,
and outlined.
Note the mite seam on the staysails and flying jib; this was to permit the laying of the thread lines of
the cloth to resist stretching in both planes, leech and foot!
The sails were then formed using a styrene tube on a pad of soft paper to create the correct twist; thereafter they were
painted using repeat coats of thinned enamel paint until the panel lines just started to disappear.
The flying jib and staysails were attached to stretched copper wire using thinned matt varnish- Humbrol Matt cote--very
high tack and instant grab. This was backed up later with a thin line of CA spread with a piece of soft stretched sprue.
Other detailing that required a lot of time was the making of the awning frames on fore, midships and and poop decks.
Uprights
of fine brass PE ( cut from railing longitudinals of 1/350 fine railing) were joined using copper wire along the spines with
crossmembers and circumferential framing being made of stretched sprue.
Winches had rods and brakes added, even more cowl
vents were made and installed and the kit supplied bollards used after sanding down the mounting bases.
Lifeboats were installed, covers made of white glue with liferopes drawn in pencil. Davits of brass wire were made for
these afterwards.
Oval hawseholes were made of squashed copperwire circles cut off a spiral after winding round a drill
shank
Much subtle painting and weathering took place until I was happy that she looked like a hardworking tramp.
I
did not want to overdo it it--as I portrayed her,... the ship is only 18 months old!!
The sea was now painted using
wet-on-wet a
The watercrests, bow wave and wakes were added and enhanced using white matt acrylic
texture paste.
This plucky bluffbowed little steamer pushes some water ahead of her as well; ... " carrying a bone
in her teeth"
She is shown sliding down a long swell breaking through a crest...
The ship still needs a few crew-members,
perhaps a few off-duty stokers enjoying the air and a smoke midships on the high side. grateful to the 'old man...( captain)
for the use of the sails to relieve some of the strain of the backbreaking work of shoveling coal into hungry boilers... alas
auxiliary sails were quickly to become a thing of the past...
The model's current status is shown in this photo( flash
as always bleaches colours...!)
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