Steve D

Thanks Andrew. I wrote to the Naval Attaché at the London embassy. The reply literally took 2 years, but they returned a load of information and pictures which was nice of them, even if slow. It's always worth a shot, the people in those embassies must get bored.... Cheers Steve

Nope you would be queueing in the open air for your food at that split door, rain or shine... Thanks but you are being kind. Look at the hull, then the well-deck houses, reasonably tidy but very crude. Then look at the boats made 15 months later, and you can see I was much more confident with finer detail. You can see a clear evolution of skill in this one vessel. At least in those days I was getting better with time. now the opposite seems true, at some point I must have peaked...... Cheers Steve

This is a trip down memory lane to my first scratch-build over 25 years ago. I had built a large kit of "Peggy" a steam drifter with a working steam engine and found that I had replaced so much of the kit that the result was probably 40% scratch-built so I decided to build a complete working model from scratch. Around that time Model Shipwright published plans for the Brazilian Customs Cruise Amapa build by Thornycroft's in 1907 (Edition 88 if anyone wants to buy a copy). This pretty little vessel has all the hallmarks of a late Victorian cruiser on a small scale, even a nod to the ramming bows that became popular after the Russo-Japanese war. At 130ft long, a working model at 1:32nd scale seemed about right to me. The model took 18 months to build, all in wood and brass, about 90% scratch. The hull was a bit of a disaster to be honest but the result has a sort of old world charm that I still love to this day. It has aged well, acquiring a nice vintage patina over the years. The wooden deck has gone a wonderful honey colour while the boats still shine as they did when completed. As a working boat, it was not a huge success, having a tendency to try to capsize in a turn, I didn't run it much... I wrote about the build in Edition 104 of Model Shipwright, warts and all and the model received an undeserved Silver medal at the Model Engineering Exhibition, can't remember which year She has been languishing since our move over 2 years ago as I had nowhere in the new house to display her. One of the reasons I've not been posting is I've spent the last few weeks fitting out a loft space as a small gallery and yesterday she was unwrapped and placed on her niche, giving me the opportunity to photograph her for the first time in many years. I painted her grey overall but a year after I completed the model, the Brazilian embassy replied to a letter I had sent them 2 years before asking for information on the vessel and enclosed pictures showing she was in Victorian white with mustard funnel etc, what a shame as I love that colour scheme The boats were my first papier mache hulls, they have stood up well To access the battery etc, the entire well-deck lifts out. This didn't really work well after the rigging was completed..... The wheelhouse is mahogany and is fitted out internally A rather simplified Hotchkiss 3 pdr QF but a nicely detailed steam anchor winch The galley door open for service, the galley stove was made from copper I'm very tempted to build her again at 1:48th scale, in the right colour scheme, would make an interesting companion model It's nice to see her again after over 2 years in storage... Thanks for stopping by, the R-boat rfi thread will be soon, once I finish the case and pillars Cheers Steve

Excellent work as ever Pascal. Maybe it doesn't matter at this scale, but are all these boats carvel, I would expect all but the large power boats to be clinker-built? Really, what I guess I'm saying is that I'd love to see how you would draw a clinker hull. I've given it a lot of thought, for moulds. My hulls are all paper mache but I need to build a buck and printing is an interesting idea for that. It could include the ribs and make a quick and easy high definition inner shell Cheers Steve

The numbering of these R-boats is very confusing. R-146 featured in the video, is an R25 class design but part of the batch R130 - 150 built in 1943 at 150 tonnes and 41m long whereas R-155 (also an R-25 type) which I have modelled was built in 1940 was 126 t and 35m long. The later boats were all built with the armoured porthole style bridge you see in the video and some of the earlier boats were later upgraded with the same bridge design but not, I think, R-155. The numbering is all over the place, they left gaps, possibly to confuse the enemy, certainly to confuse modellers.... Steve

Saw this list night and couldn't resit adding it as a nice postscript to the build Enjoy Cheers Steve

Where's the stoker? Those small boats make great larger scale projects, I'm really tempted Wonderful as ever Pascal, I won't get tired of saying it Cheers Steve

Mike, Reading through "Midget Submarines of the Second World War" by Paul Kemp, I came across these two images of operational Kaiten, the first being launched from a cruiser, the second on the casing of I-370. You may seen have these, but in case not. Also, great shot of a Japanese smoke machine in the first image Note what looks like a white aiming stripe on the top in the first image, seems a logical addition cheers Steve

Ha, I'm not sure suicide sub crews got much in the way of training ("you press this accelerator button and point it at that big floaty thing with the American flag...")... Personally, I don't think they would have any discernible waterline, but they would get water and salt streaks from spray and rain, plus inevitable scratches from slings when handling. Also, at this stage of the war, and for a single use weapon, my guess is that the paint job would be sloppy to say the least, they may even be left in bare metal Just thinking it looks very clean right now Steve

Thanks Rob, as you will know, very few things I make please me, but I also love those ladders. It was a shame to paint and weather them. I had three attempts at rope fenders, none of which were good enough. Luckily, these cylinder style fenders are also shown on some photographs so I was saved Thanks John, I could not agree more. I don't know about you, but while I'm never quite happy as I build, give it a year or so and when I look at it again, I often wonder how on earth I made it. Like a good Burgundy (and I do like a good Burgundy ), the models somehow seem to get better with age, isn't that strange Cheers Steve

No, thank you Jochen for your help, my knowledge of the Kriegsmarine was more or less non-existent, less so now Thanks Beefy, one of the reasons I love this project is the deck equipment. Check out the war-time images and the boats were loaded with stuff, mine is actually quite clean by comparison. The sweep gear in particular were really fun to research and make Cheers Steve

Many comments refer to my using different materials, I just use what seems logical for the job and try not to limit my thinking to plastic which I hate because I'm so rubbish at using it.... Thanks for your continued interest and comments Dmitriy, they are very much appreciated Thanks Peter, what is truly astounding is that assembling a pile of bits and components, all of which can be made better, somehow creates a whole that looks OK. Over 20 years now and 15 completed builds, I'm never happy and still learning At the end of last year, I had some guys line out and floor a section of the loft space that was lost to the world. In it sits Jason so at least its unpacked now, that's a start.... a secret, for now. But I promise something different and a real challenge for my metal working. Thanks Stuart, I love your projects so I'm really glad you found some interest in my ramblings

Well, finally, all good things come to an end and this is the last build post on this thread. The r-boat is done bar a little touch-up and the signature crewman for scale. But first, the last bits of deck clutter. The dan-buoy racks nearly had me admitting defeat (nearly...). I should have etched them, of course I should, but I didn't and so they had to be made of brass. This is particularly tough as any heat had one loop added and two falling off... They were made from wire, 0.8mm for the main loop, beaten flat and framed with 0.6mm wire, the loops were made from 0.5mm wire. The wood frame in the foreground is the size and shape template They then needed a back-stay from 0.7 mm wire, not wonderfully clear in this shot They were so frustrating I waited a full two weeks before making the second pair. Normally the second one of anything is easier, normally.... Here they are in place with the poles added Once that was behind me, I was able to move on to the loop aerial, from ez line, *thick. This shot hopefully shows the layout Next came over 25 feet of rope on my old ropewalk. This time I used a dark-brown cotton and have dry-brushed it a mix of beige brown and deck tan after setting with weak PVA to highlight the twisted threads. The ropewalk is hard to photograph, I set it up on the woodwork bench which gives me ~ 6 feet per run. I made this thing over 20 years ago, with a brass gearbox and the moving end and cable guide from a couple of toy trucks I found somewhere, no expense spared,,, It's tedious as it's manual but strangely satisfying. The rope for this vessel was 6 strand cotton, makes up about 0.4 mm dia. Zoom the image to get the detail. The white plastic bits were 3d printed on my old printer Close-up of the cable guide doing its job and making rope.. With stronger thread, this should just happen when the rope is ready to be made, with this very thin cotton, it needed a little encouragement Once complete, it needs stretching and evening out as it will tend to kink if you're not careful. It looks great under the magnifying glass, will anyone appreciate it, I doubt it Here are two of the 4 mooring lines, double zoom to see the lay of the rope More on ropes, the sweep gear is tied in place with a grey linen thread, obviously the loose end has to be coiled, hence my little rope coil tool Released and soaked in weak pva, they lay-down nicely These vessels had 5 m long ladders on each side. They seemed to be to help crew get in and out of the boats. They are quite wide, unusually so, I guess to help the crew not falling in. They are made of wood, 1 mm lime dowel where my new toy (birthday present) came in useful, its a dowel/tube cutter to cut 46 lengths exactly identical. Don't know if its really necessary, but it did make that job a little quicker. Beautifully made, watchmakers tool I think I had a spare nickel silver etching with the rung spacing on it which helped a lot on drilling the rung holes, all 4 stretchers at once A simple jig helped assembly After clean-up and sanding to shape And after painting, and weathering. Of course, starting with wood means sanding back gives the perfect worn finish Boat hooks are normally the last items I make, these ones have 1 mm dia walnut shafts And so, here we are, the end of the build. These boat fenders can be seen on a number of pictures. Early in the war they were rope, but later they look like sheet metal floats, still the damage to the rubbing strips shows they were not always deployed.. Note the forward boat hook, suspended from the wire rail And the midships boat hook, starboard ladder in place and better picture of the loop aerial And the stern with the sweep gear all stowed The case and brass name plate have arrived so I have the oak base to cut and the pillars to turn and it will be ready to display. It will be back shortly with better photography in an RFI thread with the introduction to my next build, a diorama Thanks for all the help, comments and likes. I hope you found it interesting and gained some knowledge. There are no large models of this type that I could find in the 11 months of this project, so this thread fills a gap in the record, I seem to have uploaded nearly 300 pictures, hopefully a good source for others to follow. Cheers Steve

Great waterline weathering Pascal, overall its looking pretty awesome

Sounds like a keeper...

Thanks Jochen, this vessel has so much deck detail to enjoy and build, I don't know why there are so few models out there. It is indeed a neglected subject Thanks Rich, the finish line is in sight now and I'm looking forward to the next challenge already Cheers Steve

Completion of the sweep gear went well in the end. The shear kites are an interesting challenge and a good demonstration of my staged soldering sequence once I finally worked out how to put them together... Here are the major pieces The frame on the right was etched to help get the curved plate right, but in the end I didn't need it. The main curved plate is made from .3mm copper, easy to bend smoothly and solders so well. This frame needed 4 stages: Silver solder the poles to the flat plate Soft solder the curved ends of the poles to the curved plate and that angle plate, single operation Solder paste the diagonal plate to the flat plate see slots) Make is the tow frame with solder paste (.05 mm brass wire beaten flat) and then glue this in place wiht cyno This picture shows stage two And this close-up shows the 4 operations And here are all 8 sweep components awaiting weathering and washes Sweet, I'm quite pleased with them. Not sure how else you could make these, they would have been too fragile to print... Here they are, sitting on the rear deck Cheers Steve

Hi James, Thanks for the kind words, I hope to encourage others to use these more traditional methods. Re Software, for 2d work (inc photo-etched artwork) I use TurboCad which is a sort of cut down discount AutoCad (which I can't afford...). It's OK and I'm now very fast on it, but it's file export options are not wonderful. For the etch artwork I print the file into a 1200 dpi .pdf file. There are now a few companies who will do relief etching on demand but I have always used 4D in London's Aldgate. They are suppliers to professional model makers and are very fussy wiht their product. They also turn work round very quickly, they are very helpful and will fix issues with your artwork. One important thing to note is that different thickness of metal can support different drawing fineness and this needs to be very carefully considered when producing the drawing. Also, as its quite a large investment (an A4 sheet is over £100 in 20 thou brass), mistakes are expensive. Because of this and my clumsy fingers, I stick to 20 thou (inches) or 0.45mm which I'm used to and know what I can get away with. It also works well with 1:48th scale and the rivet detail I like. 4D have line thickness guidelines on their website but you can push it a little more. Getting artwork right is a journey, I've been at it for 20 years off and on and I still make mistakes Their website is https://modelshop.co.uk/ I hope that helps. If I can help further, please just reach out, I'm always happy to assist Cheers Steve

Now that is very cool and exciting Pascal. One for a wet afternoon once the current model is completed Thanks Steve

Ah, the Reeperbahn, now that brings back memories Thanks Jochen, don't worry, the flag hangs very discretely, the other side is even more discrete Observant people will notice this is not where I had planned to mount the ensign. The longwave(?) loop aerial that runs round the deckhouse assembly clashed with the previous location, not cool. I studied all my photographs and can see at least 5 locations for the ensign jack, at least one of which was on the centreline on the engine room casing skylight. It has to be some way forward to clear the hatch. This required a shorter jack than the deck mounted option. The loop aerial would be supported from the main mast yard by design, but as they clearly eliminated the mast in operations after around 1940 (I assume to reduce visibility) they had to support this aerial from the diagonal poles at the front of the wheelhouse roof and also place two new tall pole supports on the deck forward of the midships bollard to clear the lookout positions on the wheelhouse roof. It's all getting a but crowded there, these poles will be installed once I've cracked the danbuoy pole racks. This will all become clearer later in the week. As an aside, in this picture you can just see the aerial entry point to the wheelhouse on the roof just forward of the port nav light. Small details matter Cheers Steve

Don't quit quite yet Andreas or you'll miss the ropewalk

Good idea, just don't tell her who suggested it....

Sorry for the gap in updates, lots of little jobs that didn't each seem worth posting. So, here is a bigger update as I get close to competing the model First, stanchions, lots of them, mass soldering bases in place The boat has 60 stanchions, most standard but some special ones by the gangway Working my way forward. In the foreground, the first two danbuoy pole racks which I didn't like, a little too course, I'm some way towards the re-built finer ones. The poles are made from 0.8 mm rod and some spherical weights. After I'd printed some, I decided they were too small, then rummaging through my odd bits drawers, I found the remnants of an old artificial peal necklace, these are perfect Don't throw anything away.... Anyway, back to the stanchions, all the way forward to a pad-eye forward anchor with a shackle to loop the wires through The handrails are Soft Touch knot tying stainless steel premium flex wire, 21 strand 0.14 inch (.36 mm) diameter wire. Works really well and looks like wire rope, the ends are loops fixed with cleates from 1mm thin wall tubing (0.8mm ID) Note the middle wire isn't fitted where the depth charges are, only the top line. Similar at the stern, only the top wire runs across the sweep wire fairleads Amazing difference the handrails make The winch lines were finished off with loops fed through the shackle guides, smoke buoys installed by the galley hatch assembly Then a couple of chipping and weathering pictures. There is a lot of weathering to do on a model this large. These are the smoke floats and depth charge canvas covers. I'm fitting 4, leaving 2 depth charges ready to use. Love the creasing of the canvas that comes from the tissue layup Next the guns, depth charges and those strange open deck racks, still not sure what they are for, pictures show them holding rope fenders but I think they were intended for flak ammo. Finally the ensign painting using Tulip fabric paint as my previous threads. Super fussy to do wiht a 5/0 brush. Including the swastika may split the crowd (and I know its prohibited in Germany), but that was the flag. Now it's been hung in weak PVA to set the shape, the swastika is barely visible, picture later Leaving the sweep gear to make up from a mix of etched and printed parts (plus a bit of wire of course...). There are 8 major components 2 no depth dragons 2 no shear kits 4 no line buoys First two completed where the depth Dragons, this is what real ones look like My tiny version That's all I've got today, very nearly complete now. This coming week should see the end of the build thread, thanks for sticking with it, seems a long one Cheers Steve

Well observed Pascal, easier to see on this image. This is an earlier R25 sub-class with a platform round the quarterdeck gun and forward ball vents, later replaced with a transverse vent similar to the S-boat vents, no camouflage. Also note this is a reversed image. Important detail at 1/35th, less so at 1:48th Cheers Steve

Anyone who has followed my previous threads will recognise this stage, where I decide earlier items are not good enough and I remake them, hopefully better. First example on this model, the ensign staff. First, fitting the rear ball vents to the engine room casing and the emergency tiller left no room for the previous version, so I felt a bit better making a second one. For this I went down a size in wire/tubing, and placed it in a turned deck fitting Here is is compared to the original. Tapering 1mm rod is fun if you don't mind the swearing Clearer once painted, much finer 👍 I realise I didn't show the gun build stages for the first gun so for those interested, here are a few pictures The base was made from a disk and a drum soldered with paste, shown in my lathe being bored out for the gun cradle My old Unimat lathe (25 years old now) still works fine, though the motor is a little temperamental these days. It's a luxury I know, but I couldn't use brass without it Lower cone is just under 11 deg slope (10.71 deg actually) Top sorted The 3mm pin in the chuck is cut off before deck fitting as the base needs a slight hollow to match the deck camber Gun fitted and hinged to cradle Elevating wheel and printed ammo carrier installed, first one for comparison Gunner's cradle and gunsight fitted, bit hard to see, sorry Finally, shell casing net fitted and painted, first for comparison, pretty similar. The second one will be shown elevated in AA mode on the quarter deck, bow gun horizontal. Note both nets now black per the original, the first one was white before Back to those pesky danbuoy pole racks, more on that challenge tomorrow and another rebuilding tale Cheers Steve