Semi Scale Hull Trawler Arctic Corsair.

[ojays]

I am currently in the middle of a scratch build for the residents of the care facility my disabled wife and I live in.

Born and bred in Hull, we have a long history with the fishing industry that sadly is no more.
Several of the residents and their families are ex trawlermen, who only have their memories of the life they loved.
I had been approached by the management who have arranged a a local historian, to visit us in July to give a show of films etc, of our lost industry.
Knowing I like to model, they have asked if I will build a model of the 'Arctic Corsair' our local living history museum berthed on the River Hull.
Always up for a challenge I thought why not, little knowing what a challenge it would turn out to be.
Most of my builds have been over a period of several months and sometimes to years, but this with the lockdown and time restriction means I will cut some corners where possible.
Not only having to deal with this lockdown (meaning having to get materials on line) or use what I have in my spares drawer, the real 'Corsair' has been put into dry dock and not accessible, so I had to resort to googling photo's of her.
A fellow modeller provided me with copies of the actual builders plans so I thought, great I can do this.

I had been working on the build for about 5 weeks, when I was told there was a video made on board her before she dry docked.
This 'You Tube' video was narrated by an ex crew member, who went on to explain that many modifications were carried out by the crew, this to make their work a little easier.
I had already built the basic hull/deck using a mixture of balsa/card and plasticard, all from my bits & pieces drawer so that was no problem.
The modifications involved many deck and trawl fittings, which are very difficult to make out clearly on the video, so I resorted to the net.
Loads of photo's from different years, with a variety of differences noted.
It was at this point I decided it would be semi scale, as I couldn't verify at what stage the various modifications were made.

I'm sure the ex seaman will be able to pick it apart, but at least it will give them something to talk about.

I

[Jon Heptonstall]

Great project.What scale,roughly,is this?
Jon.

[ojays]

Great project.What scale,roughly,is this?
Jon.

Roughly 1/64th

[ojays]

Using a combination of Sarik supplied Navena plans and the shipbuilder blue prints provided by another group member,
I started off with the usual basic skeleton with which to fit the deck and hull sides to.
So as not to waste what I have in stock, I resorted to cutting up cereal boxes to make templates for everything.

The deck is balsa, and I'll be leaving this bare as I want to use the grain for the planking.
The hull sides are also balsa, however I have clad them in plasticard so as to be able to scribe plates seams in.
Unfortunately I was a little too enthusiastic with the adhesive, which caused a little distortion in the plasticard.
I always have plenty of Squadron Green/Grey putty in stock, so I laid a skimming of it over the distorted areas and then
wet sanded them until level.
The hull strakes were then added prior to a coat of etch primer.

[boatman]

HI Gregg very nice craftmanship on the hull is this goin to be the trawler in the pic ? as i Iike that ship as its got some nice lines about her an I don't know much about trawlers as my main intrest is warships but this is a must follow thread for me anyway lookin great an 1/64 scale is an unsual size to build in as i had poeple ask me that WHY I had built my HMS YORK STRECHED TYPE 42 BATCH 3 an my HMS EDINBURGH TYPE 42 STRECHED DESTROYERS BATCH 3 an my answer was AS ITS THE SCALE THE M.O.D BUILDS MODEL HULLS in to test in test tanks for stability an hull speed so on with your build Gregg good luck on the build i'll be followin along
chris

[ojays]

HI Gregg very nice craftmanship on the hull is this goin to be the trawler in the pic ? as i Iike that ship as its got some nice lines about her an I don't know much about trawlers as my main intrest is warships but this is a must follow thread for me anyway lookin great an 1/64 scale is an unsual size to build in as i had poeple ask me that WHY I had built my HMS YORK STRECHED TYPE 42 BATCH 3 an my HMS EDINBURGH TYPE 42 STRECHED DESTROYERS BATCH 3 an my answer was AS ITS THE SCALE THE M.O.D BUILDS MODEL HULLS in to test in test tanks for stability an hull speed so on with your build Gregg good luck on the build i'll be followin along
chris

The reason it is 1/64 scale, is because I used the plans of the Navena by James Pottinger for the basic frame work. Although I did change the stern, as the plans are for flat transom, whereas the Corsair has a round stern.
Yes this is going to be the Arctic Corsair, the one in the picture.

Previous to making my first boat/ship, I had always been an aviation builder, plastic kits and building/flying radio controlled aircraft.
However living where we are I haven't got the space for models with volume, and boats/ships are linear so I changed genre.
The other problem was although my take off's and actual flying were OK, I never mastered the landings, usually ending up with a pile of bits to take home. In fact when my daughters were younger, they would ask if we were going out to crash the plane this weekend dad.

I'll post some more build pics when I have time, my wife has just bought a load of items that require assembling and fitting. I think I need to change the password on the laptop to curb her spending sprees. ;-)

[scottie3158]

Sounds like a great project. You are off to a good start I will follow along.

[ojays]

Mocked up the lower accommodation and lower bridge area around a balsa frame, with plasticard and cardboard.
Also carved the funnel out of a laminated balsa block, to act as a former for a plasticard wrap.
The funnel area also encompasses another accommodation area.
While the glue was setting I used cardboard again as a template for the prow area.

[ojays]

For the portholes I used a drill to make holes in the superstructure, and I used plastic tube cut into little sections and inserted them into the holes leaving a little proud. At a later stage I'll use 'Gauzy Stuff' to for the actual glass.
Having put together the superstructure and clad it in plasticard, and drilled the portholes, it was time to figure out a way of colouring the areas that look like wood panelling.
On the Corsair they had painted the front area and bridge to look like wood, although it is actually rivetted steel plates.
Luckily I had some of the stick on wooden decking left over from my Corvette build, so cut it into sections and applied were needed. It actually worked out a lot better than I imagined.
At this point I made up some net boxes from (yes again) plasticard, scribed and coloured to look like planks, with steel uprights.
Before fitting the net boxes, I drew planking onto the balsa deck, and coloured with Vallejo wood colouring using several shades to make the wood look distressed.

[boatman]

HI Gregg oh im lovein this really nice to see another big floaty thing bein built on here an im followin an really nice work on the bridge an S/S lookin forward to more
chris

[scottie3158]

Greg, nice work mate.

[boatman]

HI Gregg whats happening on this build ?
chris

[ojays]

Hi guys.
Sorry I have been off the grid for a while dealing with family stuff. Along with trying to rearrange my wife's 60th birthday, that should have been in
Lanzarote with our girls and girl friends. As the holiday was cancelled due to this covid business, we managed to sort a surprise party for her instead which meant modelling took a bit of a backstep.
Running out of time, I elected to cut down on a lot of the detailing I intended to do as needing to get it completed now.

All the deck fittings I made from plasticard and balsa, the dinghy was a bought one as I hadn't time to make a mould for it.

The canvas on the dinghy is from kitchen tissue over a brass wire frame. The tissue was coated in thinned PVA mixed with white acrylic paint.

The main mast once again is plastic tube with brass rod inserts to step it down.

The stanchions are bought brass ones with thick gauge monofilament fishing line for the rails, thinner line used for the rigging etc.

The draped netting is from medical gauze, once again using the PVA and coloured paint mix.
The bobbing floats are small beads threaded onto yet more fishing line and painted.

All the plastic parts were primed with etch primer before brush painting with Vallejo acrylic paints.
The pennant numbers/name were purchased from e-bay and attached after painting, then the whole ship was sealed with Windsor & Newton acrylic gloss varnish, the decks coated in W&N matt varnish.

All the portholes were then filled using Gauzy Stuff Glaze to give the look of having glass in them.

I am currently making a display case to keep it all safe from inquisitive fingers.

[spanner570]

Wow Gregg, she's gorgeous and no mistake!

Great to see her finished, and well worth the wait.

Well done.

Ron

[Mini Me]

She's a Beauty Gregg. Glad to see it finished....I have no doubt it will be very well received!
Rick H.