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R25 class Räumboot - building finally


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The sweep winch is a small model in its own right, ~ 50 pieces of brass and only one hard solder operation, the end wheels are rings hard soldered from 1 mm soft brass wire. All the rest is solder paste and cyno glue.

 

These are the etched parts

 

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First stage is turning up the tapered column that holds a (locking?) wheel, the centre drive section is made up from two etched components

 

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Next the drums are made up from etched end plates and brass tube sections.

 

The end frames are made up from a multi-layer sandwich of etched parts, solder paste used here.  The 0.6 mm pins help keep them aligned  The safety cover ring is then added using a little solder wire

 

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Trial fit of the first end

 

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The end wheel is a ring soldered to the etched frame which is bent to create the dished effect.

 

And here it is complete before priming.  The top rods have 16 BA nuts added to their ends

 

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And after painting, makes the detail clearer next to my completed galley hatch with tissue paper side screens

 

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A shot looking towards the stern

 

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Those drums need a printed core added before I add the wire rope (to save time and pointless winding).  This is a big feature on the rear deck, its OK I reckon.

 

While I was doing this, I drew up a radio for the wheelhouse from some pictures I saw online.  On its own it seemed a little small so I added another copy on top (the pictures seem to show lots of radio like boxes).  This is going in the wheelhouse and will be just visible through the windows, just adds a little clutter

 

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I'm also working on the wheelhouse cladding in brass etch.

 

The first job was adding the open bridge inner sides and braces, soldered flat

 

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And here installed.  Note the window curtains on the far side, that tissue mould worked a treat

 

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Radio position between the rear windows

 

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I have some charts to add to the worktops later, its all looking too clean, they are tiny copies of Kriegsmarine naval charts of Norway

 

Cheers

 

Steve

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Yes Dmitriy, it would not be the same 3D printed, it just wouldn't. 

 

The radio doesn't work yet, no aerials...:rofl:

 

Meanwhile, as I was posting that I noticed that the locking wheel column was on the wrong side :doh:  If there are two ways to use a part, I can guarantee to be wrong, I'm quite infallible in my wrongness.

 

Luckily, it was simple to cut free and reposition, that would have bothered me for ever...

 

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On to the next challenge

 

Cheers

 

Steve

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6 hours ago, Steve D said:

The sweep winch is a small model in its own right, ~ 50 pieces of brass and only one hard solder operation, the end wheels are rings hard soldered from 1 mm soft brass wire. All the rest is solder paste and cyno glue.

+++

And after painting, makes the detail clearer next to my completed galley hatch with tissue paper side screens

 

DSCN2829

+++

Steve

 

Mmmmmh! What a delight!

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Little component update, not sure if this is interesting to anyone, but I'll keep posting, some of these details are not totally obvious

 

First, the 4 winch lines have shackle guides on a bar just to the rear of the winch.  The pad-eyes were part of the etch sheet, the shackles were scratch made in my normal manner.  I had a step by step picture of these, but they are so small, it's hopelessly out of focus, so you'll have to imagine how I made them...  This is about as small as I can go with shackles, the silver solder wire starts to look really big before soldering....

 

 

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Next the stern rollers.  This was perhaps the fussiest etch I've ever done, it actually took me 4 hours of watching tiny bits of brass wire ping into the peripheral rubble that resides on my workbench to help me lose stuff.  I tried three ways of making up those tiny rollers, from sleeves of thin wall tube to tuning on the lathe.  I seriously considered just printing the damn thing.  Still, perseverance won in the end, :phew:

 

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Hard to photograph to do it justice, 24 pieces in total may give some idea.  Those horizontal rollers work of course...

 

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The wires sticking up will take the stern wire closing stanchions which will be made of 0.8mm thin wall tube, slots over that 0.6mm wire

 

While I was sorting impossible components, I turned to the binnacle

 

Sliding that circular rod through the grab stanchions was interesting, enough said

 

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Looks better in primer.  Years ago, I would have tapered the ends of the turnbuckles on those rod stays, I'm definitely getting older....  Still I'm very pleased with the result

 

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Last one for this update, one of the spare wire reels, simple....  This afternoon I've printed the cores that will pack it out to save my having to use a mile of wire to fil it, update later on what I mean by this

 

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So, in closing, the quarterdeck is now starting to bristle with little jewels

 

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The apparent simplicity of this model hides a lot of work actually.  In the distance you can just see the wheelhouse roof ladder, grab handles and steps to the engine room casing roof

 

Tomorrow, the radio operators seat 👍

 

Cheers

 

Steve

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6 hours ago, Steve D said:

While I was sorting impossible components, I turned to the binnacle

 

Sliding that circular rod through the grab stanchions was interesting, enough said

 

DSCN2838

 

Do keep an eye on that binnacle! Some German sailors found out that you could drink the compass fluid (and refill with tap water so nobody will notice until it's wintertime).

https://www.toplicht.de/en/navigation-books/compasses/compass-fluid/8812/compass-fluid-ethanol-mixture

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On 14/12/2022 at 19:47, Courageous said:

Impressive metalwork on the sweep winch

Thanks Stuart, all these things are one-off miniature kits that I only get one shot at as the etchings are so expensive. 

 

I was pleased with the way that one came together, it is so prominent on the deck, it had to be right, I guess I must have learnt something over the years  :hmmm:

 

Cheers

 

Steve

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You really are an inspiration Steve, as you commented earlier, each part is a kit/work of art, in its own right, you also have an extremely wide range of skills across a range of materials, and you do it all so quickly, I still think Elves are involved somewhere !!

 

Cheers

 

David

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Tiny update, Sunday lunch needed cooking, tree needed decorating, lights needed hanging up, all stuff which doesn't contribute to project completion... 

 

Still, I snuck off and squeezed in the ensign yard

 

First, this started with some 1.5 mm brass rod that needed tapering.  This is done on my lathe with the end in a 2mm tube for support

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After tapering down to 0.8 mm with a button left on the end

 

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That is cut off and replaced with a mast cap of 3mm diameter.  I often drill a tiny hole in the mast caps for the ensign hoist, but this one was too small to bother with

 

It is mounted in a sloping guide sleeve on a base with stiffeners which was cut from some scrap tee section, shown below after soldering

 

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And then there is a second sloping stay that runs to the deck.  The yard is mounted amidships on the engine room casing roof, sweeping lines get in the way of a stern mounted ensign

 

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The stay was hard soldered to a short length of 2.5mm tube and then cut away and soldered to the sleeve with paste.  The stay base is a scrap of brass from an old etching sheet

 

Here it is in place before priming.  On the right you can see the wheelhouse roof ladder and the mast tabernacle which needs cutting in.  All this stuff is just resting in place at present, I'm building up to priming the wheelhouse assembly, making sure I've not missed anything vital (I guarantee I will have..) before I take that big irreversible step

 

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Cheers

 

Steve

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It had to be done, closing up the wheelhouse/chart room/radio room etc.  But first I added the chair, the final curtains and glazing some charts and dividers, ruler etc (that navigation won't do itself...) and lastly, I couldn't resist sticking in an Enigma machine in its wooden carry case

 

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All just a bit of fun and not meant to be totally realistic as I don't have good pictures of the interior to base stuff on.  So, this is just to add a little interest when looking through the windows.  The charts however are WW2 Kriegsmarine charts...

 

Then I treated the wooden roof with yellow filling primer and wet&dry to eliminate any grain, took a deep breath and stuck it down.  No turning back now

 

A lot of very careful masking later, and some Tamiya pale grey fine surface primer and this is the result

 

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The shot also shows the engine room casing handrails.  I'm not totally happy with these, they look a little heavy to me (white always makes things look larger) but they are the finest commercial ones available, with my own diagonal bracing added.  These are 15 mm high stanchions whereas the usual size for 1:48th scale is 18mm.  However, 18mm clearly looked too tall compared to the pictures of the bridge sides (I made a run up and discarded it) so I've gone with the lower ones.  I think this is what is throwing off the look to my mind as I'm used to seeing 18mm.  The taller ones will be used on the wheelhouse roof though with all kinds of extension pieces added....  The gangways hang on these lower ones so they will probably not be so noticeable once its all complete. 

 

The flag locker is resting there, actually on the wrong side, the pictures I have show what I believe are two of them on the starboard side.  I've laid down some tissue for the canvas flap

 

Here is the bow view with some more deck items installed to provide a sense of the final more cluttered look.  The things on the wheelhouse roof centreline ahead of the hatch canopy are mounting tubes for the searchlight as the roof is planked on those roof beams and so the fixings need to rise above the planking.  It will be all made clear later

 

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Starting to assemble final items now and of course, I still have the second flak to make up and finish along with the first one so I've not run out of work yet.  So a few weeks to go, but quite a change in the past couple of days

 

I'm actually looking forward to adding some colour and weathering which is weird as I hate painting

 

Cheers

 

Steve

 

 

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The model begins to take on the appearance of a ship!

I wonder where the hell you managed to find the cryptographic Enigma and secret maps of the Kriegsmarine?!

 

And one more question - how were the cabins of these boats heated in the cold?

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16 hours ago, Dmitriy1967 said:

how were the cabins of these boats heated in the cold

Given these were diesel boats, I'm guessing they would be electrically heated, no steam to pass around...

 

The Enigma I've used was a model rejected by the Germans as being too small :rofl:

 

Cheers

 

Steve

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Last update before Christmas drags me away from the worksop.

 

Been working on the wheelhouse assembly painting and completion items.  Slowly fixing stuff once I work up the courage that I don't need to handle things anymore.

 

Here is the wheelhouse in primer ready for the final coat

 

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Making this removal is more work, but it certainly helps handling when doing final details without having to manoeuvre the whole vessel around on my lap, which at 30 inches long is a bit of a lump

 

Jump ahead a bit and here we are in final colour with the lifebuoys and other tiny details fitted (nav lights etc).  I'm very pleased with the look of the lifebuoys, 3rd version, ropes from fine crochet thread, knocked back with some wood stain.  I think I have the proportions right with comparison to the pictures, they are much thinner than RN lifebuoys.  Note the claxon just to the aft of the second lifebuoy.  Engine room skylight and vent in primer still in this shot, hatch nearly complete

 

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Forward view with the simple camo contract triangle.  The rivet detail on the wheelhouse was worth the expense and effort, its very crisp

 

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Now a start has been made on the wooden platform in maple, 2mm x 0.5mm strip

 

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And the tabernacle resting in place and the first side of the rear handrails.  There is a debate raging in my head about the mast, will cover that in a later post when I've come to a decision

 

Meanwhile here it is with all the wooden platforms completed.  Note those 0.9mm tubes sticking out of the roof decking that are to take the searchlight.  Obviously this wood needs weathering, way to clean and bright, but it turned out reasonably crisp, straight and most important of all, symmetrical

 

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And lastly with the forward hatch shield in place and painted

 

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That's all for a few days so let me wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year 🤞

 

Thanks for your encouragement and positive comments, it really does add a huge boost to my solitary efforts to produce quality models from nothing, I should say thank you more often...

 

Cheers

 

Steve

 

 

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