1930's Aberdeen Steam Trawler - Modified 1/48 Calder Craft Milford Star

[womblrup]

Hi there,

I became a member of this forum after I have found your very interesting building report. Searching the internet for a model suitable to run with a life steam engine (fiberglass hull, not too wide, beautiful lines, sufficient displacement, and not too big) I found the Milford Star.

Looking foward to see how your project continues. Regards, womblrup

 

[Caledonia]

Hi womblurb, thanks for your message and welcome to the forum. I am making my model a static display, and have no experience with model steam engines, but there are plenty in the forum who can help you if you need any advice etc, their a frendly bunch so don't be afraid to ask.

Progress this week is as follows.

Thought I would tackle the trawling gallows, a job I have been putting off as it's a bit fiddly. As mentioned earlier I substituted 3x0.5mm lime wood strip for the printed plywood supplied with the kit for the web of the I-beam which makes the gallows. I filled a cup with boiling water and dipped the lime wood strip centre section into the water to soften it up, and gently bent it round a 20mm diameter piece of scrap plastic from one of my old aircraft kits. I then soaked it again in the water for about a minute, and held it on a loop with a fold back clip. These strips were left overnight to dry with the clips in place. When gluing the strips to each of the flanges of the I-beam I coated both surfaces with PVA glue, left them for 5 minutes to dry before joinig them together (as you would with a contact adhesive). They were then left overnight for the glue to dry properly. The feet and stiffeners were added, so that the gallows were inclined at 70 Deg. from the horizontal.

Fitted all the wash pot doors, the platform coaming for the lifeboat and the breakwater; might add a flange to the top edge of the breakwater as I would guess that they would have used a bulb flat to stiffen the free edge.

Finally I deviated from the model and made up my own Centre Fairleads, might add a few more stiffeners.

Still have a few small fiddly bits, them I will paint the wood with sanding sealer, and prime the GRP hull, so will post more when there is something significant to show. Cheers Derek

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[Caledonia]

Several people who have posted on his build have advised that they plan to make this model. Thought I would point out an error (one of many) on this kit. If you look at the first photo below you will see that the drawing supplied with the kit correctly shows the chevron rubbing strakes on the side of the ships hull aligned correctly with the gallows. If however you look at the moulding on the same photo you will see that these strakes have been moved aft a whole pitch. The photo of the box art below shows the error on the finished model. Its up to each modeller of course, but I am going the move the gallows to align with the strakes as they should be which means that the fore mast and reeving has also to move aft; don't fancy messing with the GRP moulding. Hope this helps. Cheers Derek

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[Caledonia]

Been doing all the final bits and pieces before I start using the sanding sealer and painting.

Have added the Fish Room and Stores Hatch Coaming to the Deck; a Reeving Sheeve and Post on the stbd and port bulwarks; on the Forecastle have drilled the holes for he Handrail Stanchions; a Seating for a Water Tank and added a flange to the Breakwater.

Have added the Navigation Lamp Holders on the roof of the Wheelhouse and two seatings for Water Tanks. An Access Hatch Coaming has been added to the Engine Room Casing.

Photos of similar vessels of the era show that the Wheelhouse Doors are panelled, also specifically for the 'Star' vessels the port side has no window and the stbd side has a window. To represent the panelling, have used some scrap 3 ply wood and carved off the outer ply on the inside and outside to represent panelling. For the door with a window have used two white metal frames supplied with the kit, and will sandwich the window between them later.

Have added the web stiffeners under the Verandah Deck using 8x0.5mm lime wood.

I noticed on the photo of an old Trawler I posted earlier that there was a box section and two Padeyes fitted on top of the Gallows, so have made up something to represent this. The box is made from 3x0.5mm lime wood strip and the Padeyes from scrap plastic.

I think I am now ready to apply the sanding sealer and smooth of everything ready for installing the fittings and painting. Cheers Derek

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[Ian M]

You are doing a great job here Derek. Its always good when you get to the point where you can start thinking paint.

Ian M

 

[Caledonia]

Thanks Ian, airbrushing this baby will be like painting the Forth Road Bridge with a tooth brush!!!

Anyway have now applied sanding sealer, sanded down and primed all the principal components with my usual Tamiya Primer aerosol. Have done the wheelhouse and roof white as the walls of the wheelhouse inside will be white, and the outside wall upper half and roof also white. Am now going to concentrate on finishing the wheelhouse. One point to note is when doing the mast fittings one of the bore sizes were way too small and in other cases too large; had to cut the ring to fit the mast diameter and used wooden fillers where there was a gap. Cheers Derek

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[Caledonia]

Have finished the Wheelhouse internals, and added a scrap piece of plastic to represent a roof light, have also used scrap wood to make up a fish finding echo sounder for the rear wall; these were fitted to trawlers after WWII and was based on the asdics used for detecting submarines.

The support for the wheel, duckboard and the chart and chart table were not supplied with the kit and had to be scratch built. The roof and rear wall have been roughed up slightly and some green mildew weathering powder added. Have also dirtied the floor

Have designed the lettering and funnel flag decals, and have them on order from 'Barry's Model Lettering', the lettering being in very thin white vinyl. As you will see I will be naming my Trawler the 'Star of Freedom', its pedigree is the same as the 'Star of Orkney' but I have found two photos one port one starboard of the vessel which is very helpful. Unfortunately when ownership of this vessel was transfered to the Milford Fisheries Ltd., and renamed the 'Robert Limbrick' it was lost with all hands (crew of 12) in February 1957 during a storm off the Isle of Mull. No distress signal was received, the wreck being discovered by a Fraserburgh Drifter. Cheers Derek

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[Ian M]

Looking very good that wheel house. Lived in.

I can recall if this is a stand model or an R/C, But if on the shelf or in the water its going to look great.

Ian M

 

[Ian M]

Ops just read the previous post.

Stand model it is then!

Ian M

 

[Caledonia]

A few shots of the Wheelhouse showing it masked off for final painting, windows glazed, rear panelled wall fitted and the emergency steering room added but still to be painted. The emergency steering room was a Navy thing when the Trawlers were used for mine sweeping duties.

I plan to leave the port side Wheelhouse door open, and the shots below are taken through this door frame after the inner Wheelhouse panelled roof was fitted.

Finally have been working on the roof of the Wheelhouse, the kit does not include the supports for the Vent and Morse Lamp, so made these out of cocktail sticks. For the lamps for the Navigation Lights and Morse Lamp, I used the plastic cover you get off of some paint brushes. The Water Tank overflow pipe is a paper clip.

Cheers Derek

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[Ian M]

coming along a treat Derek.

Ian M

 

[Caledonia]

Thanks Ian for your interest. I have used the 'Micro-Mark' water slide rivet sheet for the 'O'-gauge railway (=1/48 scale) and added them to the wheelhouse. The window area of the 1930's Trawler was 'generally' made of wood, and the lower half was made of rivetted steel construction, hence the rivet pattern. I will be painting over the rivets at a later date.

When fitting the forecastle deck, it was pre-cut and was not a good fit, so I lost the beading which goes round the edge; have now fitted some 1/16" sq. balsa wood to represent this beading

Plan to concentrate on the lower superstructure next, before doing any more painting. Cheers Derek

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[treyzx10r]

Wheelhouse came out excelent Derek

 

[Caledonia]

Thanks treyzx10r, appreciate the support.

Changed my mind about painting, thought I had better finish the wheelhouse to see how the decal rivets showed up under paint. For the white I used Lifecolor LC 01 Matt White, and for the mustard colour I used Lifecolor UA 097 'Middle Stone' all hand painted Finished with Lifecolor Satin Varnish LC 77. Very pleased with the rivet finish. I forgot to mention the 'Micro-Mart' decals were excellent, and had no problem using micro set and micro sol.

Have fitted the white metal doors and windows to the lower superstructure and marked it off for applying the rivet decals. Lots of white metal fittings to clean-up and fit.

Merry Christmas to all Derek

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[Caledonia]

A happy and prosperous new year everyone.

Finished adding the rivets to the lower superstructure.

Cheers Derek

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[yak face]

This is looking mighty impressive already derek! nice rivets , i hope you counted em all LOL!! keep it up mate cheers tony

 

[Ian M]

Derek! That is a hell of a lot of rivets!

I am so looking forward to seeing the end results of all your hard work.

Ian M

 

[Sky Raider]

Just caught up on this one. Fantastic work, outstanding. Keep it up.

Andy

 

[treyzx10r]

Derek my eyes hurt just thinking about dealing with those rivets,nicely done its looking great! Cheers and a Happy New Year to you as well,Trey

 

[Caledonia]

Thanks Gents, a lot more rivets to go when I get onto the Hull.

The kit instructions are pretty poor to put it politely and there is a lot of errors on the material list as well. For the steering chain pipe, stove vents and funnel vent pipe I have decided to use brass pipe for these instead of the plastic pipe supplied but not mentioned in the instructions.

Have made up the stove vents from the brass tube, and the engine room vent pipe cowl.

Have added the engine room casing handrails and loosely fitted the single ball handrail supports around the casing. A lot of time is taken up cleaning the white metal fittings.

Cheers Derek

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