German Tug 'Roland' 1903

[Ray S]

Hello all!

 

I have just finished a little beauty of a kit, the Combrig 1/700 sea-going tug. It is marketed as the Russian tug 'Rus', but the illustration on the box shows her in her earlier guise of 'Roland'.  I got it from Mike at Starling Models. Built in 1903, Roland was, the the time, the world's largest ocean-going tugboat. She was bought by Russia in 1904 and was eventually sailed on the ill-fated expedition to Tsushima. She was in a collision with the Russian collier Anadyr, and after the crew were taken off, eventually sunk by Japanese vessels.

 

I have searched high and low for references, but came up with a blank. I found an article on Wikipedia, then promptly could not find it thereafter! I have found no build of it either. I therefore (notice how I did not start that sentence with 'so'!) used the sole photograph on the box as my guide. The instructions are fairly basic (as usual with Combrig), there were no colour guides either, so what I have ended up with is conjecture.

 

It is a small model with good detail (how accurate I know not), and went together very easily. Being resin, some parts were brittle - a davit was in four pieces when I got it, and an anchor was in two. Being a modeller, I cracked on with the job and used my initiative, so the finished result has two ship's boats rather than three, and a repaired anchor. As usual with newer Combrig kits, this came with no masts, so I was able to try out my still new-found skills at soldering. I need to find out how to solder with solder paint, it should hopefully improve the joints on these small pieces of brass. However, I cannot do that yet, so the files came out and I filed off a lot of the excess solder. Location holes for the funnels and ventilators were just the right size and needed no adjustment. Things like the bollards and capstans were just glued to the deck. For a lot of the gluing, I used PVA as most of the stuff was not load-bearing. I used AmmoMIG rigging line (0.02mm) for the rigging secured with a hint of CA. The name-plates were printed out using the 'ARIAL' font at 3 and 5pt size settings, in Bold. Railings were from Atlantic Models, their Superfine Railings.

 

The base was MDA, covered with some textured card and painted with Humbrol enamels, a mix of Midnight Blue and Medium Sea Grey. I depicted the surface as a 'calm sea' so no white horses. The wake was a departure for me, I tried something new. I spread out some thin PVA where I thought the wake would be and mixed in some 'No Sand Polyfiller'. This is a very light mix, and with a bit of working around with a probe, produced the effect I was after. The wash on the outside of the wake was the same principle, but I worked the pollyfiller in a bit more with water, that left a more light, foamy impression.

 

Any way, enough waffle, her she is:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I may have made her going at a fair old clip. I have not been able to find out her top speed. Will you forgive me please?

 

As a last photograph, here she is with the obligatory pen for size comparison:

 

 

Thanks for looking (and reading!). 

 

All the best,

 

Ray

Edited January 24, 2020 by Ray S
Tidy the post

[longshanks]

Oi !! You stole my pen ....

 

Nice one Ray, particularly like the wake 

 

Kev

 

PS With the solder paint I clean the parts. Tiny amount of solder and flash it with a micro blow torch HTH

[Ray S]

2 hours ago, longshanks said:

Oi !! You stole my pen ....

 

Nice one Ray, particularly like the wake 

 

Kev

 

PS With the solder paint I clean the parts. Tiny amount of solder and flash it with a micro blow torch HTH

Thanks for the information Kev, much appreciated. I will look into this blow torch thingy...carefully.

 

All the best,

 

Ray

[Martian]

A real gem!

 

Martian 👽

[stevehnz]

A lovely wee build Ray, I was thinking this would be tiny in 1/700, your pen pic confirms that but it's smaller than I had envisaged which makes your build all the more noteworthy. 👍

Steve.

[robgizlu]

Ray - what a super little model!!

Really nicely finished and I like what you've done in the seascape

Fab!!

Rob