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Vosper MTB, probably 355 - scratchbuild reboot


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I started this build waay back when we were still living in Prague, 2005, I think... Then we moved here and it languished, unloved, on a shelf getting dusty. Having Just bought two more Coastal boats, I thought I really ought to finish it. Of course, in the intervening years Coastal Craft have come out with a Vosper....well that always seems to happen when you scratchbuild, eh?

Anyway, I've started in with trying to finish off the torpedo tubes etc. thinking I'll wrap this up in a week or so...HA! Lots and lots of tiny bits to fabricate, this is going to take a while, methinks. I managed to alter a GLS Oerlikon bandstand for the twin mounting aft of the bridge, cut some new supports to fit the layout

Some photos from the original start are on page 2...

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Thank you. It's dawning on me how many parts still need fabricating, and this includes a couple of ventilator cowls....joy. Meanwhile, i have to sort out which paintings of mine I'm going to stick in what will be my last exhibition here in Portugal. Gonna be a bit of a 'massive reductions!' sort of effort. We'll see.vosper_zps77d0bb8e.jpg

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More pondering. It always seems that with a scratch build the majority of your time is spent researching bits and pieces. The boat I'm aiming to reproduce is 355, like the one in my painting she had a full kit of oerlikons. It also has the later style of larger ventilator cowls. Which I'm going to have to fabricate. In the photo of 355 in Lambert's book it appears that they moved them forward from their normal position on the series. I think you'd have to as the bandstand seems to be placed right where they'd normally be with a .50cal. gun tub.

bandstand-fit_zpsbed09aa8.jpg

Unless the bandstand was a smaller version? Whatever, the amidships deck was pretty crowded!

Here's where I'm at. tubes etc. not glued on, just there for a look see at what needs to happen next. Think I need to make a list so I don't forget some damn cleat I can't then get to!

IMG_8128_zps2a1027c6.jpg

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Cheers Kev,

It's 50cm x 75cm (IIRC) and it sold it for £500, a few years back. I'm hoping to do more - gives an excuse to my model building! Admittedly not as much fun as other models I drew in my time *sigh*. But there y'go.

Meanwhile, using my trusty Proxxon DB250 dinky wood lathe, I've been doing ventilator cowls, big and small...

vos_2_zps8b5bacce.jpg

Did the three large ones are in wood, Beech, nice and tough. the littlies are turned from plastic rod...

vos_3_zps7cb853dc.jpg

cowls_zps7abfc39c.jpg

Turning plastic is, um, interesting, bit fast and it melts, mind you, wood burns... plastic doesn't half leave a mess especially if the only plastic rod you have is 7mm and you need to turn it down to 4.5 ish....

mess_zps051cd4b1.jpg

Bit of filler and they'll be good enough for rock and roll....

Ta for looking!

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Foxy, You'll find there's a bit of movement in the headstock due to the plastic casing. I eliminated the movement by opening up the case and gluing in a 20x2mm peice of alloy across the front of the case. Tightened things up nicely. The three jaw chuck is worth having too, as is a set of Axminster's mini woodturning tools.

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A bit more progress...re-did the ventilator cowls for the third or fourth time. Rather happier with the current lot. turned the bits out of Degame, which comes up really smooth. I really must lay in a stock of Evergreen stuff... The vents are rather further forward than the drawings in Lambert's book of 347, but that one had the machine gun tub. 355 had an Oerlikon bandstand and looking at the photo it looks to me... as though they moved the ventilators a few feet forward. So this is my best guess!

vents_zps56637a52.jpg

I've put a rail round the bandstand. Thin copper wire, silver soldered. The uprights are brass to which the rail is superglued. Whole thing now needs a bit of fettling and some paint...

b-s-1_zpsd9ef9708.jpg

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Beautiful work seadog.

I could have done with a lathe when I converted the Revell North sea Trawler into a South Atlantic Whaler. The vent cowls are still a serious niggle and annoyance to me.

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The Captain stopped by today to check on progress...There's been a lot, even if it doesn't look like it.

IMG_8195_zps1094f0c2.jpg

I've made the second flag locker (must add a pic of that) - a right pain to do, lots of strips of plastic and no jig. Ventilators, bull ring and Samson posts are now in place and painted. Neither the guns nor the tubes are fixed yet. The guns will go on about last - bit fragile, don'tcherknow. The tubes and torpedo supports will get glued on when I'm absolutely sure of their positions. Need to make a few fairleads and a couple of bollards as well.

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Funny old business, scratch-building. There's always some vital bit of info you didn't have, or overlooked...just at the wrong time. I've been working from the Drawings in Coastal Forces v. I of boat 347, being as she' was in the same contract as 355. So I've been building the mast to conform....

IMG_8206_zps0143adb2.jpg

Then I was catching up on Kev's type one build and thought that the IFF lookked familiar. So I went back to the book and looked at the photo of 355...oh poo.

355_zpsecb7d01f.jpg

Lambert's books are utterly invaluable.Unfortunately,also very expensive now....check Amazon...nuts. I'm lucky I bought them when I did. In Volume 1, Fairmile boats there's a lot of general Coastal forces reference. The pic below, f'r instance is really going to help sort the horribly complex radar for me, I hope.

radars_zps5c00e31d.jpg

A couple of good things to have when building this stuff are a mini blow torch, some paste silver solder and paste soft solder

IMG_8203_zps92f19364.jpg

This stuff from Palmer metals is brilliantly easy to use. I now await general rudeness about the syringe... :fight:

F

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" oh poo" Know that feeling only too well!

I'm sure you've already spotted that the 291U yagi points forward

I'm currently working on the 291 & 242 arrays

I've got to agree with you that John Lamberts books are invaluable for any one interested in Coastal Forces. I wish the promised Vol 3 would appear.

Keep up the great work

Cheers Kev

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" oh poo" Know that feeling only too well!

I'm sure you've already spotted that the 291U yagi points forward

Keep up the great work

Cheers Kev

Yes...*sigh* time for a redo I guess. I'm trying to think of a way to keep the whole lot (of each section) together while attempting to solder. The array in the photos was glued, pretty unsatisfactory.

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What I hate is that feeling you get when you make something perfectly acceptable but deep down you know your still going to strip it apart and start again!

Beautiful painting Seadog and excellent build. For the lathe I find 100rpm for styrene and 200rpm for acrylic slow enough for a good cut without the melt!

Look forward to the next installment! :-) :-) :-)

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After far more attempts than I want to think about, I gave up trying to solder an IFF aerial and made this jig out of scrap acrylic sheet:

IFF_zpsdbd58426.jpg

For the wires I used the last of my ceramic wire, soldered a couple of rings and the spar that attaches it to the mast glued it all together and it sort of worked. Not doing it again, anyway.

It's now mounted on the mast which I'm calling done, though I suspect the proportions of the drawing I used...

mast_zpsfd2f9967.jpg

I reckon it's done and will look OK when it's painted. There were a lot of variations, things were changing rapidly in '43...well, that's my excuse!

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P.S. I have a good source for copper and brass wire, should you need it for fiddly bits. Wires.co.uk they do tinned copper, stainless steel, bronze, silver and even gold wire....They also have metal mesh in various sizes too, Useful company.

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Ta, chaps...I'm taking a short break from the Vosper to catch up with the BPBco boat.... So I thought I'd post some pics of the process I went through to build the hull of this 'un...

hull-003.jpg

hull-004.jpg

hull-005.jpg

hull-008.jpg

spacer-placing.jpg

bridge-bits-004.jpg

Looong time between start and today!

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