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Misfit 2 Now finished and in RFI


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And here we go again.

Four years & 3000 miles after I presented the original Misfit floaty boat, I'm back with another one.

Here's a link to the original which had to be left behind when I left Riyadh due to size & weight restrictions.

I did strip certain key parts from the original and I will include most of them in this one.

 

Now back in the mid eighties I found myself (& family) posted to RAF Laarbruch. 

We had a spare bedroom so obviously I had to build a model railway (bear with me here).

With an interest in the Luftwaffe it had to be a WW2 airfield. Meantime I'd acquired a NOVO

Shell Welder tanker ship model (probably from a Pound shop) so I upscaled it to 1/72nd and

added a dockside to the airfield, as you do. 

I've wanted to redo the subject for a while & was looking at boat kits, but then remembered I still had the Welder. 

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And here it is. With a 1/35th Dockyard matey giving it the once over. He is not impressed by the paintjob

nor that most of the new superstructure is actually cardboard. When I stripped it down I found part of an

Airfix Phantom box!

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Here's matey, still in the hold tutting to himself. The model has spent decades in various attics so is a bit dusty!

 

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Fast forward a bit (lots) and here is the remains of the hull. As can be seen, I've cut out parts of it.

 

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It's not much prettier underneath either. 

 

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To brighten things up, here we see salvaged parts from the original Misfit. The A/C unit from the roof of

the wheelhouse went off to a krieger walker build a while ago so I have to replace that.

 

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Here we have a side view. The hull cutout has been boxed in with plastic card (this time) and there is another

hunk of it on the upper side. The crosshatched area shows me where I can fit the supports at the dockside.

 

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Here's the other end. More crosshatching (all will be revealed) and look, all that old paint has gone.

 

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Top view of the sharp end. Boxed in and paint sanded down. Under the boxed in part is a void. 

This corresponds with the crosshatch on the side. So I can drill a hole and inert a support rod easily.

 

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The blunt end. And it's all as above. These bulkheads/decks are not yet glued into place.

 

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As a break from you trying to figure out WTH I'm doing, here's a picture of a box of bits. Some or all will be

used in this build. Yes, ping pong balls. At the top are bits from a Dapol signal gantry, bottom right, the red things

are I beams (girders) for a model railway. These, and the gantry, I bought last week in Swineshead* (near Boston).

Sorry, the picture isn't very sharp.   *(Granary models)

 

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Here's something different. A block of wood. Next to a small brewery in Sheffield is a woodshop that makes

the frames for staircases. They have scrap wood, I have a woodburner at home. A polite request & bingo.

(saves them chucking it away). Now the floaty boat need a dock and the dock needs something to sit on.

So this block of wood was saved. On the wood are three plastic things. A certain company that sells flatpack

furniture (Four letters, starts with I) supplies these to cover the metal brackets used to attach shelving to your wall. 

Behind all this malarkey, it can be seen on the hull that the hold has been boxed in and floored. Again, not glued yet.

The boat will be alongside (nautical term) this way around, if you were wondering.

 

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Now between the three brown bits I've cut down some ancient Airfix station platform bits as a fill in method.

And the light brown bit standing at the back has been cut to fit. This will be the dock wall. It's actually a

Faller station platform. Like the Airfix one, it's 30 plus years old. Another piece of the same will go on top

of it to form the dock walk/roadway. The TET bottle shows the size of this endeavour.

 

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A closeup of the Airfix platform parts. 

 

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The left end. The end of the Faller platform will probably be cut to conform with the Airfix one, like the other end.

Obviously this would not be the entire dock, it's just a 'slice' of it but that bit will, I think, look better cut to fit.

 

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Here's a close up of the right end. The end piece curves around and looks better for it I feel.

What I've done at the ends will also make them stronger. The boat supports will go into the wall around here.

Although there will be additional structure 'behind the scenes' to help with weight support.

If all goes well, as with the original misfit build, the viewer will not be able to see any supports.

None of these bits are glued into place as yet. Things may yet change. The beauty of scratchbuilding!

 

And that is where we are at the moment after a couple of months of snatched time building this beastie.

The finish will be sometime next year at this rate! Ah well, slowly and carefully makes things better?

Besides, with the Winter, it gets a bit chilly in the manshed despite the heater & insulation.

I find I can ponder on the build as I drive around at work, so planning goes on even if no physical work gets done.

 

As always, comments and queries are always welcome

Thanks for looking,

Pete

 

 

 

 

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19 hours ago, rockpopandchips said:

I was there as a 6 year old back in the  early /midd 80's. 

I arrived in August of 1983. I think we got our flat in November in Weeze. Stayed for three years.

So our paths have crossed in the past. In fact, you were probably at school with our son, Matthew.

 

I have bits in the spares box that date back to the sixties! Thanks for the nice comments.

 

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I managed to get an hour or so in the manshed this afternoon.

Misfit 2 now has a wheelhouse (but no wheel as such yet).

I've reused the original Misfit 1 roof but turned through 90 degrees 

because number 2's hull isn't as wide as number 1 was.

I'll put pictures up when I get a chance to take some (poor light in there late this afternoon).

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As promised, a few photo's of last weekends work.

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The wheelhouse is a simple cconstruction of plastic card. The red windows are from an Airfix Railway station.

The roof is from the original Misfit and has bent a bit so will need some strong glue!

 

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The window on the front is from (I think) an Airfix Control tower. All these windows have spent about 30 years in a spares box!

 

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And in this one we can see the privy on the back. A bit of a tight fit for our 1/35th figure here,

but you're not going to want to stay in there for very long are you, Matey?

The privy door was a 1/24th scale truck part. I can't remember what though.

 

Now the original scale for this hull in it's FROG/NOVO Shell Welder guise was 1/130th.

Looking at it on the bench now that I've built the wheelhouse I feel it's too narrow for 1/35th.

So the plan is to dig out the Dremel and cut it down the centreline to add 15 to 20mm.

I think this will make it look less like a canalboat and give the added bonus of more hold space.

 

As always, comments, offers of money and rare gems etc are welcome.

Cheers

Pete

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I have absolutely nada advice for you for Petey Mc Peteface, but I’m loving the imagination going into this. After all no one can say it’s wrong can they?

 

BTW we need to know if the privvy door will be open. If so you need a suitable piece of porcelain and loo roll holder.

 

Just sayin’

 

Trevor

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That door will remain closed. 

If only because the hinges (bent plastic card) are already in place.

I may not even add any detail inside the wheelhouse. We'll see.

 

And no, this is a rivet counter free zone. I like it that way.

 

44 minutes ago, Max Headroom said:

I’m loving the imagination going into this

Thank you. There's plenty more where this came from. 

Time, however, is always in short supply.

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1 hour ago, Pete in Lincs said:

30 years in a spares box!

Wow, that is recycling at it's very best, you are promoted to "Saviour from the Plastic"

 

I think you are bang on the money regarding the narrowness of the hull, those extra mm's will be just the ticket, does that mean the privvy door will expand too ?

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38 minutes ago, Head in the clouds. said:

does that mean the privvy door will expand too ?

Depends what they've been eating.

Those slots in the door should suffice to release any pressure.

 

Thanks for the promotion. I'll sew on the extra stripes in the morning before parade.

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Another weekend and another couple of hours at the bench.

I said 15 to 20mm and settled on the 20.

I thought the Dremel might be a bit wayward so I simply scored with my scriber & Stanley knife.

 

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It's a game of two 'alves innit, Brian?

I then cut 30mm strips of plastic card so that I had a 5mm overlap into each half.

Mark 5mm into the halves, add glue to one and fit the 30mm strip. Then add the 20mm strip and finally

glue the other half of the boat to the 30mm strip. I've also added crosspieces at bulkheads.

 

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Et Voila! The card isn't quite as thick as the plastic of the hull so I later smoothed things out with Milliput.

I used it on other bits of the joints too. This will get smoothed down when I next get out to the bench.

(And goodness knows when that will be!)

 

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And, I think the proportions look a lot better now.

 

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I also get a wider hold and even Matey seems pleased. 

I need to widen decking etc to suit the new width, but I'm happy with today's end result.

As always, comments etc are welcome.

Cheers

Pete

 

 

 

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Well today, in between chopping/sawing wood for the log burner and 

cutting overhanging bits off next doors tree so we (Son in Law helped)

could slide in three new fence panels, I got in a bit of modelling time.

 

The Milliput on the bottom of the hull got rubbed down and the rest of the 

red paint under there went too. It's now pretty smooth but may need a smear

of Humbrol filler to finish it off. I wet sanded so it'll need to dry overnight.

 

I also had a go at the base and got a couple of bits sorted on that.

Now here is a dilemma for you. If I mount the model on the base

and decorate said base with figures, bits and bobs & maybe foliage,

does it mean that I've then built a diorama? If so, should I put this

in the diorama thread? Or, the base there, boat here, & together at the end?

My take is, I'm building a complicated stand that will mostly be hidden by the boat anyway.

So I will leave things as they are. Unless I get a threatening phone call from the Mods.*

 

*(Splendid fellows that they are)

 

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Thanks for the vote of confidence.

I got some Humbrol filler onto the joints today and refitted

the original LH forward deck piece along with a 20mm filler

piece of card in the middle. 

I've also had a look at how I'm going to mount the ship on the stand.

 

Thanks for looking and a Merry Christmas to all.

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  • 2 weeks later...

A quick update for those that are still awake....

 

I got a bit of time at the weekend and so I can now show the method of suspension for Misfit 2.

I'd already added another offcut of wood to the base. I just glued it on with 'No Nails'.

Some measuring of the hull and the base and I was happy to drill some holes.

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To the right is the glued on offcut. You can just make out two perspex rods going from the offcut and through into the hull.

The rods are cut from the twirly bit used to open or close vertical blinds. It was being thrown out! The horror!

 

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They're easier to see here, along with the structures I intend to fit. The grey girder type bits are ancient

model railway bits of unknown origin though they may be Airfix? They are there in case the gravity generators fail.

The ship should slide away off them rather than crash down onto the concrete structure of the dock.

(Us designers have to think of everything! Tsk!)

 

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And here is a shot from the bow end. The hull is being held horizontally by a Revell Contacta applicator

in this picture (yellow bit to the right). What i will do is make card 'tunnels' for the rods to slide into which

will then carry out the supporting role. The forward tunnel will be under a bulkhead and the one in the 

middle of the hull will become a bulkhead between the two holds. The forward deck with it's insert can

also be seen here. It will need a tidy up. I also got the filler on the hull bottom rubbed down smooth.

 

As always, thanks for looking and comments.

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So will we ever find out if it floats in your bath? I think a rubber duck is needed for scale.......

 

Seriously, I admire this freeform style of

modelling and am enjoying the trip and can’t wait to find out where it ends up. 👍🏻

 

Trevor

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