Round Table Class Trawler +++FINISHED+++

[Ray S]

Hello all! This will be unusual, me starting a second build in a Group Build! I have decided to go for something REALLY big this time:

 

 

And to prove it is HUGE:

 

 

Hmm...anyway, the detail parts next

 

 

and the etch of course:

 

 

Now, considering the size of the etch, how about these instructions?

 

 

A whole A4 sheet for the etch fittings only. I did not think there were that many on the fret! It will be a while before I start this one, I have ordered a set of Colourcoats paint from Jamie at Sovereign Hobbies so I will start this when they arrive.

 

Don't forget, any help or tips will be greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers,

 

Ray

 

 

Edited July 27, 2017 by Ray S
Change the title

[Grandboof]

Interesting subject Good choice 

Martin H

[Hewy]

One tip from me Ray, a very powerfull magnifying lens , goodness me that's gonna be tiny, got to see this built

Glynn

[Ray S]

Hello all. Time for an update methinks.

 

Jamie at Sovereign Hobbies was a splendid chap, and I got my set of paints within a couple of working days, so top marks to him! I needed to finish off a fun build of a Fokker Triplane first (No NOT the Red Baron's plane, but someone else's and not much of a hint of red on it) although I made such a ropey job of it it will remain unpublished. 

 

Now to the Trawler:

 

First up, I needed to get rid of a few (5) pouring stubs. They were very thin, and came off very easily. The resin was lovely to sand, and I took the usual precautions for safety.

 

 

I trimmed them off first with a pair of side-cutters, then sanded them down, and finally used a blade to sharpen up the keel. White Ensign made this trawler as a full hull ship (boat?) and in their words it was so that if you wanted to build it and show her off in a rough sea, you could and not have to create the lower hull. Personally, I prefer to have ships full hull anyway as you can see their full lines when they are mounted on a stand. Sadly it is not always the case that you get a lower hull, so I frequently have to put my ships 'at sea' so you can see their graceful lines in their natural environment, which makes them look good anyway*. I decided I would do this one as a ship out of water, so I needed a stand as White Ensign did not provide one:

 

 

I just used some plastic strip and an offcut from some plastic I have been using for a scratchbuld I am also working on, and tried to get the lower hull lines on the verticals as close as possible to allow the ship to sit safely. Then it was time for paint on the ship! Just primer, mind you, but what a difference it has made to the detail that was visible! First, in the bare resin:

 

 

Then after the Tamiya Fine Grey Primer:

 

 

 

Please note that at the moment, there has been NO gluing of parts at all: this hull is just as it came from the caster. All I can say is WOW! What a stunning piece of mould-making skill this is! It bodes well for the rest of the build and I just hope I can do it justice. I have trimmed the other parts off their casting stubs and got them sanded down ready for fitting.

 

Thanks for looking, more updates soon.

 

Ray

Edited July 11, 2017 by Ray S
Tidy up the post

[thorfinn]

Lovely project!

I've got one of their Flower class corvettes in the same scale waiting, so I'm very keen to see how this one shapes up.

Cheers

[Ray S]

Hello all! It is now time for some proper painting. I am using Colourcoats paints, and they have gone on quite well. I have encountered a hitch though. You can probably tell with the photos:

 

 

 

The lower photo shows it up quite well - I have missed a casting flaw on the starboard side! I am just at the moment wondering whether I should make this onto a 'rough sea' base after all. I may see if I can correct the flaw first with some Perfect Plastic Putty as it is water-workable and does not ruin totally the paint work. If that does not work, then rough sea will cover it! I will try it out tomorrow. The paintwork is just a first coat at the moment, and I need to re-adjust some of the camo demarcations. It almost looks to me now as I edit this that the flaw looks to be just about on the waterline, so the black swirl needs to be higher up the hull.

 

I will let you know!

 

Oh yes, I do not have a port side colour profile, so I hope I can find some images on the web...

 

Cheers, Ray

Edited July 12, 2017 by Ray S
Added extra info!

[Murdo]

That's a very wee beastie Ray.

 

Good luck mate and don't make the photos too big.         

[Ray S]

On 7/12/2017 at 11:49 PM, Murdo said:

That's a very wee beastie Ray.

 

Good luck mate and don't make the photos too big.         

 

Hello Murdo! 'Very Wee' does not quite cover it! The ship is small, but it is not the smallest I have done by a long chalk. If I remember I will pop a comparison photo on later to show what my smallest ship was! Oh yes, it was the same scale too.

 

Anyway, I used PPP to fill the flaw in the rear starboard hull side and it worked a treat, and did not ruin the paintwork either. I have started gluing on some of the fittings and they have fitted quite well after a minimum of adjustment.

 

 

I adjusted the camouflage demarcations okay and got the pattern closer to the painting guide, and from the above photo you cannot see the flaw now. It almost looked like the master pattern was originally waterline, then a lower hull added at a later stage. I am NOT complaining though, I am seriously impressed with the quality of the mouldings. In the bridge, there are even pipes on the bulwarks and controls which I did not see until I was painting it. I have come up with this as the port side markings:

 

 

It looks justifiable to me! On the tall ventilators you can quite easily see mould lines - in real life on the model you can't! That applies to quite a few things with this ship, and I appreciate why Murdo has said not to have the photo's too big. Trouble is, if I take a photo a bit further away you cannot see the thing! The etch is starting to go on now. I pre-sprayed the fret with Tamiya fine primer but it does seem to come off easily, but at least there is still quite a bit left which makes detail painting easier. I have fitted the ladders up to the  bridge deck, fo'c'sle and the forward gun platform, the support struts under the bridge deck gun mounts, the working platform aft and a couple of flat bits midships, and the boat deck.

 

 

 

 

And here she is as of now (a bit out of focus I am sorry)

 

 

Another product I have been using and cannot praise highly enough is the paints. I have used Colourcoats almost exclusively on this, and the paint is fabulous for brush painting. I have not thinned it at all, and it goes on pretty smoothly and covers in just a couple of coats. Being enamel, I go by the manufacturer's guide and give it 6 hours between coats and had no worries at all. Big thumbs up there.

 

I now have to try and solder some seriously fine brass rod for the two masts, the fore mast is .5mm and the mast that fits on the funnel is .2mm, and then try and rig it. I am not sure if I will use Caenis thread or some very fine wire from speaker cable core. The latter will put no stress on the thin masts, so that may be the way I go. Oh yes, I can see it too, which is not easily the case with Caenis thread, although the thread will be more in scale.

 

That is it for now, another update soon I hope, thanks for looking in!

 

Ray

Edited July 16, 2017 by Ray S
Tidy up the post

[nimrod54]

Looking good Ray. It's good to know that the Colourcoats paints perform well as I have just purchased a set for USN WWII Pacific aircraft, so thanks for that info. I'm looking forward to seeing how the rigging goes.

 

[Kallisti]

Gosh where will you find space to display this? 

 

Lovely project

[Hewy]

Another tiny masterpiece ray

Glynn

[Ray S]

On 7/16/2017 at 5:34 PM, nimrod54 said:

Looking good Ray. It's good to know that the Colourcoats paints perform well as I have just purchased a set for USN WWII Pacific aircraft, so thanks for that info. I'm looking forward to seeing how the rigging goes.

 

 

Thanks John. I think I am favouring wire for the rigging, but I will be trying that later.

 

On 7/16/2017 at 9:35 PM, Kallisti said:

Gosh where will you find space to display this? 

 

 

Good question Kallisti, I was thinking of making a cabinet out of a spare matchbox! Thank goodness my wife loves candles - it means plenty of raw material for that!

 

On 7/17/2017 at 7:30 PM, Hewy said:

Another tiny masterpiece ray

Glynn

 

Very kind Glynn, thanks.

 

Well, I have been able to get some more done to this ship. First up, I encountered a hitch:

 

 

The etch for the prop surround/rudder seems to be slightly too large and protrudes under the keel line. It butted perfectly up under the transom and around the prop shaft, so I could not adjust it, and it is a too complex shape to try and scratch, so I am leaving it at the moment as fitted. Depending on the size of the prop, I may try and replace it with a wire and plastic one instead. Then it was time to try and solder the foremast up. I rigged up a jig:

 

 

Then remembered to transfer it to a ceramic tile before soldering, which of course I should have done first. Anyway, I managed to solder it square and true(ish) and it needed minimal clean up to get rid of the excess solder. One thing I need to do is get used to filing in tapers to yardarms and masts, this is not quite right, but again it is not really noticeable on the display stand.

I did toy with the idea of replacing the etched ratlines (is that the word?) but the wire I had (.3mm) looked to be about the same size as the etch, so I went with what was supplied in the kit.

 

 

I have fitted most of the remaining resin parts, funnel, carley float and lifeboat and I found some spare oars for the lifeboat on another etch fret I had.

 

 

 

 

 

I am getting close to the final run in now, so hopefully the next update should show her finished.

 

Thanks for looking in and the kind comments,

 

Ray

Edited July 19, 2017 by Ray S
Tidy up the post

[Murdo]

Ray, 

 

"One thing I need to do is get used to filing in tapers to yardarms and masts, this is not quite right, but again it is not really noticeable on the display stand."

 

If you mean the gap above and below the solder line then have a look at UV glues (ultra violet light setting). They can be excellent fillers and are usually self levelling until set by the UV torch. If used sparingly with the torch they can be used to "step up" areas that have a bad gap. 

 

"Edited":   Sorry Ray, read "Filing" as "Filling"...   180 degree difference between the two

Edited July 20, 2017 by Murdo
Can't read English

[Ray S]

Don't worry Murdo! It is a good tip about the UV glue though, I will have to investigate that a bit more.

 

Ray

[Ray S]

Hello all, I am calling this finished now! It still fought a bit towards the end. For example, the rear gun. Here is the fret:

 

 

The gun pedestal is at the top just left of the railings. Look carefully and you will see that it is not attached to the rest of the fret by fine nibs, but a truly massive (relatively) couple of pieces of brass at the lower end of the shield. It took some doing to score the metal and release the shield, but I managed. I also started to rig the ship too, and first up used some wire from a speaker cable. It was silver coloured and looked quite thin. I ran a Sharpie marker over some pieces and added them to the ship:

 

 

It now looked too thick to me! Off they came, and I then used EZ-Line. I got the rigging completed to my satisfaction (nowhere near as much as in real life but it gives an impression), and then added the final bits of etch, a loading davit by the front gun, an aerial at the top of the fore mast and the anchor, which was smaller than the wooden toothpick point I used to position it. So, here she is:

 

 

 

I will pop a few more into the Gallery shortly.

 

I did not fit the minesweeping gear at the bow, I have seen plenty of photographs without the equipment, and I prefer the look without. I still have the bit if needs be.

 

I have to admit I had great fun building this one. I know it is small, but it was well worth the £9.99 I was charged for it. This is not the smallest ship I have built, and as I promised earlier in the build, here is a picture of the Trawler alongside a tugboat in the same scale:

 

 

Thanks for looking and the encouragement,

 

Ray

Edited July 27, 2017 by Ray S
Tidy up the post

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Ok great work 👍... tell us the truth you have Bionic eyes right 😱 That ship/boat is tiny and excruciatingly detailed. Again i say 👍'S up no im going to give it a Double 👍👍.

 

 

[stevehnz]

Some beautiful work there Ray on what is a relatively forgotten class of warship. They did have such cool names I reckon. I googled them to figure out just how tiny it is, a little over two inches long by my calcs so your photos on my screen are about 50% bigger than the model. Holy moly, that is incredible detailing in that scale. That gets an honourable "Awesome" from me.

Steve.

[AndrewE]

I really like this build, all that detail packed into such a small space, amazing. An excellent build.

[Grandboof]

WOW beautiful work 

Martin H