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R25 class Räumboot - building finally


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4 hours ago, stevehnz said:

its looking pretty jolly superb now

Thanks Steve, but there is more interesting detail planned,  These r-boats are great subjects as they are so full of interesting stuff.  Can't wait to get the ropewalk back in action, plenty of rope of various sizes hanging around in all the photographs....

 

Cheers

 

Steve

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What I believe are the emergency manual tillers are stowed on the engine room casing against the handrails.  Shown below in the red ellipses.  All the other motor boats of this size range have similar details

 

tiller

 

Here is my brass version ready to paint

 

DSCN2915

 

Now I've sorted the danbuoy sea-bed weights, I need to work out how they stowed the floats as they were shipped separately from the rods, no room on the racks for them mounted.  Without some kind of stowage rack, they would be a menace, so in the absence of any picture clues, I just drew something rational with holes for the buoys and eyelets for tie-down/lifting

 

Here is the deckhouse assembly, now actually more or less complete with stowage for 14 buoys (I guess more floats could be stowed below).. It's hard to see the tillers, but they are there.

 

DSCN2917

 

You can also see I've fitted the signalling mast, a whip aerial, the wire handrails, look-out safety chains and the searchlight. The wire handrails for this area were made from twisting 2 strands of 0.2mm copper wire, no room for using beading rope and collets

 

Here is the sea-level view from the port, weathering complete

 

DSCN2918

 

There's approximately 600 separate pieces of stuff in that deckhouse, nice to see the rivet detail on the armour plating and the curtains...

 

All the is missing now is the long loop aerial that threads through those sloping poles and feeds through the roof, small fitting to make for that, it will be added right at the end

 

Tomorrow, I will have a go at the danbuoy role racks 😟

 

Cheers

 

Steve

 

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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

 

DSCN2923

 

Clearer once painted, much finer 👍

 

DSCN2931

 

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

 

DSCN2924

 

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)

 

DSCN2925

 

Top sorted

 

DSCN2926

 

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

 

DSCN2927

 

Elevating wheel and printed ammo carrier installed, first one for comparison

 

DSCN2928

 

Gunner's cradle and gunsight fitted, bit hard to see, sorry

 

DSCN2929

 

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

 

DSCN2930

 

Back to those pesky danbuoy pole racks, more on that challenge tomorrow and another rebuilding tale

 

Cheers

 

Steve

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There are small rings on the sides of the tiller to attach hoists in my opinion, to maneuver more easily and maintain the tiller in position. It took a lot of effort to keep these bars steady.

 

 

52692722096_3fbae2b739_b.jpg

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14 minutes ago, Iceman 29 said:

There are small rings on the sides of the tiller to attach hoists

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.

 

R25e

 

Important detail at 1/35th, less so at 1:48th 

 

Cheers

 

Steve

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43 minutes ago, Iceman 29 said:

There are small rings on the sides of the tiller to attach hoists in my opinion,

As these are only on the one end of the tiller I very much doubt they were there for hoisting (lifting).

Rather, with the rings being on each side of the tiller, they would be used to connect a block and tackle arrangement on each side to give additional purchase/leverage on the tiller without  making it longer

Alternatively, or additionally, ropes could be lead outboard and forward on deck to a steering wheel arrangement. This was a standard arrangement for larger boats and ships in the age of sail before power steering.

main-qimg-0be9ad7f24ede53551c4643eb6c19c

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  • 2 weeks later...

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

 

DSCN2933

 

The boat has 60 stanchions, most standard but some special ones by the gangway

 

DSCN2937

 

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.

 

DSCN2934

 

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

 

DSCN2932

 

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

 

DSCN2935

 

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)

 

DSCN2938

 

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

 

DSCN2941

 

The winch lines were finished off with loops fed through the shackle guides, smoke buoys installed by the galley hatch assembly

 

DSCN2943

 

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

 

DSCN2942

 

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.

 

DSCN2944

 

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

 

DSCN2946

 

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

 

  1. 2 no depth dragons
  2. 2 no shear kits
  3. 4 no line buoys

 

DSCN2947

 

First two completed where the depth Dragons, this is what real ones look like

 

Depth dragon

 

My tiny version

 

DSCN2948

 

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

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I followed the whole construction, for me your diverse skills are particularly impressive!

Everything imaginable is included: wood, resin, metal, photoetched and even fabric. And everything went very well - thank you Steve!

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5 hours ago, Steve D said:

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

That translates into "Reeperbahn" and should be well known to any sailor! Don't miss out!

(and be careful using the term "pearl necklace" in that part of town)

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=reeperbahn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwioqdr38sX9AhVwQ_EDHZwmDmYQ_AUoAXoECAIQAw&biw=1533&bih=717&dpr=1

 

Nice work (as always!) esp. on the flag and it would be great if you manage to let it "hang" in a way the "thing" is not too much "in your face" but everybody can relax knowing "it is original" and everything is where it belongs.

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9 hours ago, Jochen Barett said:

That translates into "Reeperbahn" and should be well known to any sailor!

Ah, the Reeperbahn, now that brings back memories :party:

 

Thanks Jochen, don't worry, the flag hangs very discretely, the other side is even more discrete

 

DSCN2949

 

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

Edited by Steve D
added more explanation
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11 hours ago, Jochen Barett said:
16 hours ago, Steve D said:

:wink:

That translates into "Reeperbahn" and should be well known to any sailor! Don't miss out!

Been there, lots of rather large lades sitting in windows, hoping fr nearsighted sailors...

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Steve - this is a fantastic build, so much to learn from reading the posts. 

 

Could I ask which software you use to draw your photoetch sets, and which company you get to produce them? Sorry if I have missed this in your earlier posts. 

 

James 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Ships doc said:

Could I ask which software you use to draw your photoetch sets, and which company you get to produce them?

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

 

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Thanks Steve that's all really helpful information. 

 

I mainly work at 1/96 scale, my build of HMS Onslow is over on 'Model Boat Mayhem'. I'm considering doing an etch set for my next build - subject tbc. 

 

Keep up the great work we are all watching with interest! 

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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

 

DSCN2950

 

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:

 

  1. Silver solder the poles to the flat plate
  2. Soft solder the curved ends of the poles to the curved plate and that angle plate, single operation
  3. Solder paste the diagonal plate to the flat plate see slots)
  4. 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

 

DSCN2951

 

And this close-up shows the 4 operations

 

solder sequence

 

And here are all 8 sweep components awaiting weathering and washes

 

DSCN2954

 

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 

 

DSCN2955

 

Cheers

 

Steve

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13 hours ago, Jochen Barett said:

What a delight!

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

 

11 hours ago, Rich75 said:

I'm always amazed when I check in to see where you've got with this

Thanks Rich, the finish line is in sight now and I'm looking forward to the next challenge already

 

Cheers

 

Steve

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