Steamer Ben Ain

[Guest]

The actual progress of the Ben Ain Model took a bit of a breather next as attentions were turned towards completing two significant modifications to the steam plant. The first of which was to move the boiler back a little bit more and the second being the fitting of a gas regulating valve.

After numerous fitting trials with the newly completed bridge unit and the fiberglass rear accommodation section in place it was becoming apparent that the boiler needed to be about 5mm further back to get the flue central in the funnel. One option was to simply put the funnel central to the flue but as the top of the fiberglass unit was marked with plate detail one of the areas was clearly defined as the section that the funnel should be centralized in so to a trained eye it may look slightly out. I decided that I could move the boiler back the required distance by remaking the steam supply pipe to the engine and have an arrangement whereby the pipe did not enter the engine horizontally but entered via a 90 degree elbow. This entailed making up an elbow from two fittings silver soldered together to fit the control valve threads and fitting it to a complete new steam supply pipe, complete with “T” piece for the blowing through line.

With the new pipe in place the boiler could be moved back the required 5mm and further measurements indicated that the boiler flue would now be considerably more centralized in the funnel.

The next modification was the fitting of a gas regulating valve on the gas tank. One of the main reasons for having the gas tank and the separator tank in the same area was to be able to transfer heat from the hot separator tank to the cold gas tank, thereby attempting to alleviate the issues of the gas tank over cooling under heavy use. The first part of this set up entailed the manufacture of a copper heat transfer bridge which was actually made from a cut up piece of 2” diameter copper pipe and a copper electrical connecting strap from a heavy electrical plant switchboard. The unit was then lagged with refrigerant plant insulation to ensure the heat is directed through the strap and thereby deposit the heat into the gas tank. By doing this and supplying heat to the tank it is then important to ensure that the supplied gas pressure remains constant hence the fitting of a Cheddar manufacture pressure regulating valve. This should then smooth out any supply pressure fluctuations and keep the burner flame consistent. The valve was simply fitted into the line from the gas tank to the Cheddar Electronic Gas Valve.

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[Guest]

With the steam plant modifications completed it was time to return to the model and progress the area of the raised quarter deck. This was still bare ply and needed to go through the same entire process that had been completed on the main deck. The first job, was to sand down the P 38 filler in the bulwark faces to cover the fiberglass texture and give a nice smooth finish for the detail to be glued to. Next was to cover the deck with the heavy cartridge paper supplied with the kit after first cutting it into similar sized plates as the main deck and marking out the edges with flush rivets. When the glue was dry the edges around the deck openings were trimmed to fit.

The white metal butt straps were fitted next by simply gluing to the bulwarks and trimming back after the glue was set to the top of the bulwark with a pair of electrical side cutters. The kit supplied aluminium tube was fitted with suitable lengths of chain at either end, the ends bent to fit the curve of the deck and the tubes glued to the deck and bulwarks. Bulwark stays were made up exactly as they had been for the main deck and fitted in place followed by the pieces of plastic moulding angle iron at the foot and the top.

The next job was to work on the aft mooring winch unit which was designed to be a removable unit to give access to the rudder stock. The kit suggested a single transverse beam with the wooden slats glued to it cantilever style but I had doubts as to the strength of this arrangement. Consequently two transverse beams were used with the deck slats glued across the top of them both giving a much more rigid arrangement. The box section to fit the deck opening was made from ply scrap and a hatch cover was glued to the top of that with another piece of detailed cartridge paper glued to that. The white metal winch was assembled as per the instructions after treating the capstan to a quick spin in the lathe to dress it up into a perfect cylindrical shape and the whole unit sprayed with a grey primer before a couple of coats of semi gloss Tamiya Acrylic. The deck woodwork was varnished with two coats of satin yacht varnish after the ends were dressed up to be perfectly square to each other. A coat of the deck red paint was applied to the structure and a couple of pieces of the plastic moulding angle iron was added to the rear to neaten up the fit to the bulwarks. Cut outs in the forward main beam were added for the steering chain to pass through and a detail touch was to put a flange over the entrance made from a spare white metal porthole cut in two.

Other items completed at this time were the locating of the chain wheels and the securing of the chains in position taking care that the chains looked as though they run around the forward pulleys when in fact the removable wheelhouse is quite a separate piece.

Once I was happy with the fit of the mooring winch assembly it was time to address the capping rails. The tops of the bulwarks, bulwark stays, plastic angle iron and butt straps were all dressed up level with a large sanding flat surface and the curved capping rail was marked out from the hull by pencil and cut out of 0.8mm ply. This was glued to the bulwark top and the top of the stays.

The longitudinal sections were cut from 5mm x 1mm planking and the forward upturns made from a piece of aluminium tube cut to size and glued to the forward end over the bridge bulkhead guides. The capping rails were then all dressed up by sanding the tops and the edges and blending the different pieces where they joined. Finally the semi circular plastic extrusion was fitted to the outside edge of the capping rail after putting a sharp 90 degree bend at the forward end to match the curve of the aluminium tube.

Also at this point the mooring ports were fitted by first gluing the ring on the inside of the bulwark, drilling a hole through the hull then opening it out to almost meet the edge of the ring. The second ring was then glued on the outside before finally dressing up the inside surface with round files and emery cloth to smooth out the inside and outside ring with the bulwark. The internal grids of the wash ports were also fitted by dressing up and simply gluing to the inside face of the bulwarks.

The next job was to attend to the deck detail items with the bollards requiring the most work. The bollards supplied with the kit did not appear to match either the kit supplied plan or the other plans and drawing I had of the ship so I set about modifying them to the arrangement as shown in the picture. Two strips of 8mm wide wood, one 1mm thick and the other 2mm thick, were glued together and then rounded off to make the base riser. The while metal base was dressed up and the wooden riser glued to it. Next the base was drilled through to accept the pins on the cylinders and they were then glued to the risers, once again after a quick spin in the lathe to true them up. Finally more pieces of the 8mm x 1mm were drilled through with a 6mm drill, cut across the hole and then trimmed to size to make the gusset plates which were then glued in between the cylinders. A bit of a lengthy performance but the resulting bollards are considerably more true to the plan and after a coat of primer and a coat of Tamiya satin black look the part.



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[Guest]

...and a shot of the bollard!

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[Guest]

There really are some stunning build threads going on at the moment. This one is always a pleasure to come back to when you get the time to work on her Bunk.

The attention to detail rivals the SE5A build. That steam plant is a wonderfull piece of engineering. The new improved bollards really do look the part now.

Any chance this will be finished for the Summer ?

That will give us two things to look forward to! Ben's maiden voyage and the SE5A test flights.

[Guest]

Tiger, many thanks for the kind words. Praise indeed to be even considered in the same breath as the amazing model that Grahame is putting together. I am completely in awe of the SE5A.

As for Summer I'm afraid completion is a long way off. I have been working on it steadily now during my leaves for four years and I reckon I have at least another two years to go, maybe a bit more.

I was looking at the large fibre glass moulding for the aft accomodation and the two boats and have come to the conclusion that I am going to have to make them myself from scratch. Once again then a job that is done for me is probably going to consume another couple of weeks of my spare time!!

Still, as the Missis says, "Keeps me out of the pub!"

[Guest]

I purchased a water gauge for my loco boiler as I've got to the stage of working out which steam fittings I'll need and how I'm going to route the pipework etc in the cab.

On my Boiler water level glass, the glass tube extends into the fitting each end and a short length of silicone tube slips over each end, the nut threads down and compresses the tube to make it steamtight.

3/8"x32 Water Gauge including 6mm Glass (1/8" Pipe Outlet)

Obviously I can't just thread the fittings into a threaded insert in the boiler as the end wont be able to turn the fitting to thread it on when the glass tube is fitted, I'd need a an compression joint or something. On your steam plant on the Ben Ain, how is the water gauge fitted?

:thinking:

[Guest]

Alan, Mine is a bit different but they all incorporate the same principle i.e. you should be able to replace the glass in place without having to disturb the fittings.

Firstly slacken off and remove both compression nuts, then you remove the nut from the top of the top fitting and then slide the glass tube through the top fitting, slide the rubbers and compression nuts on the tube as you slide it through then drop it into the lower fitting. Assemble and tighten the glands and refit the top nut.

[Guest]

Thanks for that! It's obvious when you know how it works! I don't know why but for some reason on mine I assumed that the top fitting was machined from a piece of hex stock, I didn't realise it was a separate nut.

[Guest]

At this point in the construction the model was destined for display at a model engineering exhibition so it was decided that a more appropriate stand would be required to display it at its best. The stand used so far in the construction was simply made from the profiles supplied with the plan to produce two upright supports made from sections of teak plank. These were cut to shape, spaced with suitable dowels and attached to risers to give a slightly more appealing design as well as lifting the model a little bit higher off the base board.

The base was simply a piece of laminated pine board, varnished, with a block of teak fitted for the name plate. Felt pads were added to the tops of the profiles to protect the hull and a brass name plate was added to the teak block. This proved to be a suitable stand for working on the model and would later form the basis of a carrying box but it was not the best for display purposes.

It is often the case with model boats that the stand is not given the attention it deserves. It is the means of displaying your model to it’s best so it should enhance the model, look professional and present the model at it’s best. One of the most impressive methods of presenting a model ship, and precisely why it is used in museums the world over, is to place the model on pillars. This allows the model to be elevated to a level that allows easy views of the entire hull and presents it as an object free of it’s base. There are many ways of interpreting the pillar design but one of the most widely used and one of the most attractive is to use brass pillars on a polished wooden base.

The first piece to obtain was a suitable piece of teak to form the base. This was procured from a ships wood store, and even then required laminating to produce a piece of the required size, and was cut to size and thickness before a router was run along the edges of the base to finish it off. This base was then given three coats of a polyurethane varnish, rubbing down between coats to give an extremely durable and waterproof finish.

Next the attentions were turned to the pillars and the best method of design. The idea was to come up with a simple yet elegant design that could be easily produced on a model making lathe. The final configuration was generated from 25mm round bar stock, taken down to two smaller diameters with a tool profiled to give a similar radius at either end of the cuts. In this way a single tool could be used for the entire process, generating a simple pillar that complemented the complexity of the finished model.

Four pillars would be used, two along the keel and two across the midships section so stock brass was prepared for the machining. When all four pillars were turned, drilled and tapped to M8 in the base and parted off the top faces were machined to give exactly the correct heights to support the model evenly. The final machining process was to mill a slot across the top face of the two pillars that were to hold the keel of a suitable height and depth to locate the keel. Once the machining was completed all four pillars were sent away to a local metal finishers to be polished to a high degree.

On their return the base was marked out for the four positions and drilled, then counter bored to clear the heads of the M8 screws, before fitting the pillars in place and lining up the slots in the centre line pillars.

A final finishing touch to protect the hull detail from the pillar was to cut to size pieces of balsa wood, glue them to the tops of the pillars and paint them black with some enamel paint. This provides a degree of cushion for the weight of the model and protects the surface of the hull from abrasion and scratches.

Finally the name plate was stolen from the building stand and fitted to the display stand to finish it off.

The materials and techniques used in the stand are available to the majority of model makers with a reasonably equipped workshop however if such equipment is not available then alternatives can be sourced for the various components. The most important considerations are to make a stand, within your available resources, that will present the model at it’s best and look as good as you can make it.

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[Guest]

Before progress could be made with the Ben Ain a significant decision had to be made, namely do I use the supplied fibre glass moulding for the quarterdeck superstructure or scratch build a unit.



The first part of the operation was to fit the coamings to the deck opening in exactly the same way as was done with the main hatch opening. Vertical 25mm coamings were fitted and glued to the internal opening beams, ensuring that they remained vertical during the drying process and webs were added at the corners to ensure rigidity of the structure to resist the forces involved with fitting and removing the superstructure.



The supplied moulding had a few issues that required addressing, such as the vertical sides were not straight and vertical so required pulling in with an internal frame, the lower edge was not square to the deck so it had to be dressed up to fit, the forward bulkhead was square to the top so it did not match the angle at the back of the bridge unit made with the deck, the top was flat and not cambered and the moulded detail was not as crisp as I would have preferred with the door openings and plate joints being square to the top rather than vertical as they should be. Combined with this the unit was also a bit on the heavy side so I decided to have a bit of a play around with some plywood to see how difficult it would be to manufacture a unit from scratch.



The unit looks to be a simple enough shape but the ends should be vertical when sat on the slightly angled quarterdeck. This means that the forward and aft bulkheads should also be slightly angled and all the plate detail and door openings should also be vertical when the unit is fitted. I started by making two side plates from the original moulding and marked out the openings. The forward edge was angled to butt up to the bridge unit and the aft edge was angled similarly. Two pieces of 10mm x 10mm stock wood were fitted at the aft edge with 5mm x 5mm supports glued to them to keep them square with the ply bulkhead as the aft edges are curved so will have to be carved from the solid wood. The width of the unit was determined from the moulding and the difference measured from the deck opening determined that the ply bulkheads needed to be 5mm from the coaming so an internal frame of 5mm stock was used to space the sides.



Once the dimensions were settled all the openings were cut from the sides and pieces were made for the forward and aft bulkheads, with a suitably curved top, and the box unit was glued together on the model. The separation of the side bulkheads was set by fitting transverse beams to support the boat decking as well as additional internal frame work and these were used to support half bulkheads with curved top edges which would give the support and curvature for the cambered top deck.



At this point the ply top was cut to shape and the correct position of the funnel opening was determined and cut out with a hole saw and sanded to suit the supplied plastic pipe for the funnel. Once the fit of the top was finalised the top deck was glued down and held to the curved formers until the glue had completely set. When set the unit was finally removed from the model and the quality of the fit to the model determined. From this point on there was no question that the unit was going to be a success and would produce a lighter and more accurate item than the original fibre glass moulding. Internal bracing and stiffeners were added to ensure rigidity and a weir was build around the internal funnel opening from 5mm x 5mm stock wood. The aft corners were rounded off to a 5mm radius by using a sanding block made from sandpaper glued to a piece of board. This enables an even radius along the whole length of the corner and makes for blending the radius to the flat bulkheads a lot easier.



The plastic tube of the funnel was cleaned up and roughened with emery cloth before inserting into the tight fit of the hole in the deck. Once the position was matched to the boiler flue the unit was removed and Isopon resin was poured into the weir to ensure a rigid joint and location with the plastic tube.



The funnel was progressed with the addition of the white metal fittings included with the kit with the position of the fittings being determined from the plan. The ships whistle, cast in white metal, would have to be painted to resemble brass so this was scratch built from bits of scrap brass tube glued together to give a neater unit.



The next structural item to be made was the engine room skylight which was built up from the kit parts with the openings being held open with stays and the white metal fastenings being replaced by M2 screws, nuts and washers to give a much crisper level of detail for the items. The location on the top deck was determined and an opening was cut into the deck to allow through ventilation from the boiler space below when the model is steaming. The internal surfaces were painted with a coat of primer then radiator enamel before gluing the unit to the top of the superstructure.



The bunker opening at the forward end of the superstructure was built up next similarly to the kit instructions with the difference that the transverse beams were laminated from planks, which enabled them to be formed to match the curvature of the camber. The bunker opening frame was glued in place with internal supports for the hatch boards also added. Once this was in place a semi circular plastic moulding was added around the top edge, finishing the deck edge off and following the curved aft corners and the camber of the aft bulkhead.



The final significant part of the unit was to fit the last piece of planked deck on the aft port quarter of the top deck and this was made up in exactly the same way as the other decks had been constructed from 5mm x 1mm planks of lime, spaced with 0.5mm plasticard pieces and the caulking made from white PVA mixed with black powder paint. The final surface was sanded down to reveal the planking below and the deck given three coats of polyurethane varnish.



With the planked deck finished the structure of the unit was considered as complete and the detailed fitting out of the unit could be commenced.



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[Guest]

....and the second half of the pictures for the last post!

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[Guest]

I have been following this mamoth build from when I first signed up. This is my first post on the thread but I just wanted to say this build over the years has been an inspiration and she already looks superb.

[Guest]

Thanks for the comments Mankster. I sometimes doubt my sanity for making things as difficult as I possibly can but then I have to keep telling myself it will be worth it in the end!

I am now starting the process of building the lifeboats out of 5mm x 1mm strips of pear planking. If it goes right I will add it to this thread, if it doesn't I will be spray painting the fibre glass mouldings that came with the kit!!!

[Guest]

Once the main structure of the quarter deck accommodation unit was completed it was time to start work on the detailed fitting out of the unit. I wanted to add riveted detail to match in with the rest of the model as well as emulate the original fibre glass unit as well as add scribed panel lines to follow the plate detail.

The first step was an overall two coats of grey primer to show up the imperfections and cover up the building markings so that scribing could be done that bit more clearly. The primer was sprayed inside and out after first masking off the boat platform support beams and the wooden decking and protecting the inside of the machinery space skylight. A gentle rub down with fine grade wet and dry was done between coats and it was decided that the remaining grain of the wood still visible would be suitably covered with the three coats of matt enamel to be painted on. Once the primer had dried the panel lines were all scribed on the surface using a small flexible steel rule and the back of a Stanley knife blade. Care was taken to ensure that the vertical panel lines on the bulkheads were actually vertical when the unit was in place on the angled deck and therefore lined up with the edges of the door openings.

Next was to add the detail to the sides of the structure such as the doors and handrails. The doors were cut from thin ply and dressed up before being fitted with the white metal fittings such as hinges and handles supplied in the kit. A number were deliberately left open to allow viewing of the insides of the model when in operation as well as to assist in the ventilation of the machinery space when under way. The handrails were also the kit supplied white metal supports with the supplied plastic coated fine rod for the handrail itself. The fittings were all glued in place with araldite after first carefully marking out and drilling the bulkheads to suit.

Once the doors and handrails were in place the first coat of enamel was brushed on, once again with a small flat brush to generate some surface texture as well as to ensure that all the little nooks and crannies were covered. This gave another opportunity to see how the scribed panel lines were looking as well as to determine whether the wood grain was going to be completely covered with the final two coats of enamel. Once the first coat had dried completely it was time to get out the cyano gel and add the rivet detail to the panel edges. Care was taken to try to keep the beads small, regular and consistent, not always easy when your hand is getting quite weary. Once that was done around the bulkheads and the top deck the next coat of brown enamel was brushed on before finally going over with the orange top coat of enamel. The wood grain had now all completely been covered and the surface could pass off as plated steel.

The rivet detail added to the steel work was suitable for the accommodation structure but would have been far too cumbersome and out of scale if added to the funnel, which would almost certainly be fabricated from a thin gauge sheet steel. I tried to find relevant pictures of the structure of a period funnel in vain so made the decision that the sheets would almost certainly be held together with some form of straps to support the riveted edges and the only decision was then to estimate a size, spacing and whether to consider a single or double row. I eventually settled on a single row, fitted to a strap so made up some lengths of suitable strapping from the paper stock supplied in the kit for the steel decking. The edge of the paper was trimmed before scoring along it with a ponce or pounce wheel after offsetting the steel rule by approximately half a millimetre and then finally cutting the strap off by an offset of another half millimetre. This gave a one millimetre wide strap with a row of rivets along the centre line. These straps were then cut to length and glued onto the funnel structure, with the rivets proud, with cyano after estimating a likely plate configuration. This would at least add some detail to the funnel surface and give an opportunity for some weathering to be added to highlight the detail at a later stage.

Although the inside of the structure had been sprayed with two coats of primer no other paint had been applied since then mainly because I wanted to complete the electrical installation before any further painting. I used some circular plastic bulkhead fittings off the shelf, removed the supplied 3v lamps and replaced them with 12v grain of wheat lamps. It is my intention to use 12v lamps throughout the model and supply them with a 7.2v pack. This gives a reasonable period glow, as I am assuming from the age of the vessel that most, if not all, lighting would be from oil lamps, as well as ensuring as long a life as possible for the lamps themselves. The wiring again was made up from old telephone cable, twisted together, and arranged in two circuits. I want to switch the accommodation and navigation lights separately so the internal lights were wired up in parallel and the stern light was given a separate supply. All the wires were held in place before being completely covered over with araldite to ensure a resistance to heat and moisture effects. The exact arrangement for getting the power into the circuit has not been decided at this point but I want to devise an arrangement whereby some form of contact is made when the housing is dropped in place on the model. I very much want to avoid having to connect and disconnect cables from screwed connectors to remove the housing from the model, which always seems to be a clumsy operation and prone to damaging parts of the model. The stern lamp was a purchased brass item, which was a lot more clearly defined than the white metal piece supplied in the kit, which was painted up to look like copper and a clear lens made from thin acetate sheet fitted.

Also at this time the ring bolts were fitted around the structure, which were to eventually take the mast and funnel shrouds. I intend making these from picture hanging wire so I will want to have a small amount of tension in them so the ring bolts have to at least be secure and capable of taking this tension. The supplied white metal ones were replaced with items made from thin brass wire, glued into the surfaces of the superstructure and the funnel ring. They were glued with araldite giving a very strong bond and a blob was added inside the structure to secure the ends of the ring bolts. The large ring bolts for tying down the lifeboats were also added but the kit supplied white metal ones were used here as they are not going to be required to have any strength.

The next job was to start working on the boat platforms and here once again the vertical supports for the ends of the beams were supplied as white metal castings. These were quite heavy and would take quite a bit of dressing up to fit the ends of the beams as well as being a bit exposed when the structure is removed for access to the model. Because of this I wanted a really strong bond between the supports and the beam ends so I decided to scratch build them from wood. The outside flat vertical faces were cut from coffee stirrers with the ends being trimmed to size and angle to suit the sloping deck. The ribs on the inside were cut from 1mm x 1mm stock and glued to the back before gluing the supports in place on the beam ends, after trimming them to length, taking care that they remained in the correct position as the glue dried. When they were secure I made some knees from stock strip wood after making a circular cutter out of a piece of stainless steel tube. Tapping this with a hammer onto the strip wood gave a very neat and consistent curved edge to the knee so these were then trimmed to size before gluing them to either side of the vertical supports at the beam ends. The white metal profile pieces from the kit were finally added to the base of the supports with a spot of araldite. The two davit supports were also constructed from wood for the same reasons as the vertical supports with these being fabricated from more coffee stirrers and short sections of cut brass tube of such a size as to allow the main tube to slide through it. These were all glued together with araldite onto the kit supplied bulwark saddle pieces and attached to the superstructure with wood glue.

As I particularly did not want paint to mark the platform planking I measured out the plank spacing and then painted up the platform supports and the davit supports leaving gaps for the platform planking to be glued to the support surface. When the paint was dried the planks were added and the ends dressed up before varnishing the planks with two coats of satin and one coat of matt polyurethane varnish. The next job in this area was the addition of the boat supports which were made from coffee stirrers and strip wood planks after carefully cutting the boat hull profile out of the vertical piece. These I particularly wanted to show as being fitted to the platforms with bolts so I trimmed down some brass M2 screws, cut off the cheese heads and fitted nuts and washers to either side. These then made a particularly effective looking bolted fastening for the boat supports and will look particularly effective when finally weathered.

The next job on the boat platforms was to put the davits together and decisions as to the arrangements had to be made next. The kit did not include any falls which would have almost certainly consisted of a couple of double blocks with boats such as were fitted to the Ben Ain so the possibilities of making them had to be thought about. I had in my spares box a very old packet of wooden double blocks for use with sailing ship rigging which looked about the right size for 1/35th scale double sheeves. The fact that they did not actually contain sheeves did not really matter because when they were rigged with suitable diameter rope this fact would not be visible. The first stage was to add the dead eye so a piece of thin wire was wound round a former to create a loop before winding around the wooden block and then twisting the tails together on the other side. A blob of araldite was then applied to first one side and then, when set, to the other to create a rounded block shape. The twisted tails were snipped off and the end dressed up on a piece of fine sandpaper before drilling a hole to accept the swivel hook, made from domestic copper cable core. Another blob or araldite was added to the end and the swivel hook inserted through the blob and into the drilled hole. This gave a nice rounded block with a dead eye in one end and a swivel hook in the other, perfect to make up a block and tackle set of falls. The blocks were painted black and rigged with a suitable diameter cord, which was left with an appropriate length of tail. The tail was coiled and bound and given a twist around the fall ropes to keep the whole thing neat and as you might expect to see it in a stowed position on a ships boat.

The ends of the davits were also modified to remove the original castings which enabled the addition of an eyelet to take the falls. The ends were prepared and dressed up straight before a copper tube with a hole drilled through it was araldited to the end. The davit was then also drilled through the end and an eyelet added, which was actually a brass handrail support from a larger model. This was held on the top with a suitable brass nut which also located the tab fitted to allow the slewing ropes to be attached. When the davits were completed they were painted up with the three coats of matt enamel before fitting the falls and placing them in the support brackets.

The final touch at this point was to paint up the funnel so a mix of matt red and earth was made to take the harsh edge off the red paint and tone it down to a slightly more realistic shade. The two coats were deliberately put on sparingly so the over painted black below it showed through slightly, which will provide a far more realistic base for the final weathering. The white of the Maltese Cross was also toned down with a few spots of matt earth to prevent it looking quite so stark. The vent pipe and the whistle were then glued to the front of the funnel and given a coat of tamiya clear smoke to also better prepare them for final weathering. This also gives a much more realistic patina for the brass whistle and acts rather like a wash in the way that it holds in the shadows and recessed detail.

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[Guest]

steam engine

Which steam engine are you building the boat for?

have you bui

I thought I would share a few pictures of the progress of my steam boat with the members of the forum and maybe pass on a few of my own trials, tribulations and ideas.The first couple of pictures show the very early stages of hull preparation and a few modifications I made to the basic kit. The kit is a Mountfleet models “Ben Ain” North Sea Steam coaster and consists of a fibre glass hull, a set of plans, a collection of strip wood and printed ply panels and a box of white metal fittings. One of the first things was to think of how I wanted the steam plant to work as this has a direct impact on the internal layout. I did want a boiler feed tank so that I could pump up the boiler with feed as it was used so that meant I had to include a feed tank in the construction. As I wanted to balance the weight of the boiler and engine at the aft end and I wanted as much space available as possible I decided to make the feed tank in the bow.

One picture shows test fitting the tank in the bow before putting the top on and inside can be seen the baffles to reduce free surface effect of the feed water. Another convenience of having the tank here is that it can be easily be connected to the accommodation vent cowls for filing and venting the tank, which I did at a later stage. The tank was made of polystyrene sheet which should give suitable water resistance and was easy to work with. Inside the hull can be seen the gloss cram paint finish which serves the purpose of being easy to wipe clean when being used. I used a radiator paint to resist any heat effects of the boiler and put a total of three coats on to smooth out the fibre glass internal finish. Also in the hull shot can be seen the boiler and engine mounting frames and the fist piece of wood to be used as a bearer for the steam plant. After the initial bath trials I estimated that about 30-35 lbs of ballast was going to be needed so I manufactured two steel plates, 16cm x 16 cm x 8mm thick and laid them in the bottom of the hull. This area was dammed with the three wooden bearers and completely encased in resin so that the brass base plate had something to screw to when it came time to fit. Also the inside of the bilge keel can be seen and the tabs used to locate them.

The aim of the effect of the finished boat is that it will look weathered and as realistic as possible from the outside but when it is opened up this will contrast with the insides, which will be the gleaming pristine brass and copper steam plant. That is the theory anyway. To help with this effect the outside of the hull had rivet detail added on the platework. I tried to emulate the correct rivet arrangement as used on real coasters of the time and used thick gel superglue to create the rivets. Riveting the hull took me most of my spare time for a week with regular rests to regain the feeling in my hands.

One last thing of note is the fore deck planking. The kit includes a printed ply overlay, which has all the grain going across all the planks. To improve the effect I planked the deck myself using lime strip wood and finishing off with a mixture of weatherproof PVA glus mixed with black powder paint. The resultant mix was rubbed into all the caulking and saned down to give the overall deck finish. The deck was then coated with three coats of matt yacht varnish and rubbed down between coats.