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

[Caledonia]

Spent most of the week cutting and sanding the 4" strips needed for the weather deck. Have glued on some of the fittings before planking the deck, these are the four gallows, the chequer plates, and six coal skuttles; have repositioned the skuttles so that they are actually above the coal bunker position shown on the Hall Russels drawing. Still more fitting to add but they are white metal and need a lot of cleaning up.

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Have started planking around the fishroom hatches in order to assess how difficult it will be. There is always a gap about one plank width around hatches, winches etc, so as you can see I secure planks with blue tack, measure the length; cut them all to length and before glueing remove one of the planks. Once all the planking is finishes I will weather all the deck, fittings etc.

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Cheers Derek

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[Caledonia]

My fingers are about dropping off making and handling the planking, so thought I would have a break and post a few progress shots.

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After taking this shot I thought I have better prepare the reeving sheaves, bollards and fairleads as some of these will need to be fitted before I can plank around them. The sheaves and brackets come with the kit; the white metal castings needed a lot of cleaning up. I fitted a baseplate under the brackets. The Bollards are as supplied with the kit. I decided to purchase new fairleads as only two were supplied with the kit and I am fairly sure four would have been fitted (two at the stern missing -I think), also the fairleads supplied looked very small to my eye.

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Finally a couple of shots of the planking just as my fingers gave up.

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Cheers Derek

p.s. Forgot to mention that you may have observed that the two rear Gallows have been removed as I kept bumping into them, so will refit them when I am finishing the planking at the stern

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[mobear]

thats truly fabulous mate looks neat and tidy

mobear

 

[Sky Raider]

What a fantastic job your doing of that one. Will be stunning im sure, well on the way to it as it is.

Andy

 

[treyzx10r]

Wow that planking is looking awesome!! I do'nt envy you the task but you're nailing it !!

 

[Ian M]

Wow that planking is looking awesome!! I do'nt envy you the task but you're nailing it !!

I think he's gluing them actually :laughing:

Joking aside it is looking great Derek. Looking forward to see how you get on with the joggling.

Ian M

 

[steve244]

found a couple of pics of her not the best tho

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[Caledonia]

Thanks for your comments Lads, much appreciated.

Steve, I found these photos in the Milford Trawler website, but I appreciate your efforts.

Ian regarding Joggling of the deck planking, If you look at the photo of the 'Fish Room Hatch' below you will see that they did not have any margin planking as the printed sheet supplied with the kit suggested, these luxuries are reserved for yacht's and ferries. Trawlers were extremely basic in construction in the 1930's - 1950's.

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Finally got the planking finished, still to apply the heavy weathering but that comes later. Also re-fitted the Gallows and painted them.

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In case anyone want to do their own planking I used: -

35 off Lime wood strips 3mm x 0.5mm x 1000mm Long, this included a few used to scratch built parts of the winch etc.

2 off Bottles of Super Glue as identified previously.

Cheers Derek

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[mobear]

fabulous work there,i`m loving this.hatches only had lips on them to stop water from going down the hole lol

mobear

 

[papa 695]

Hi Derek. Not posted on here for a while but been watching , and may i say what great work you have put into this build, looks great and thats without the weathering

 

[steve244]

Looking really nice derek

 

[Caledonia]

Thanks for you comments lads. Just noticed that it's a year since I started this project: time flies as you get older.

Ole, as a pont of interest, the landing on top of the hatches was to support timber planks which were then covered with tarpauline, no such thing as fancy 'McGregor hatches' in those days. When the Trawlers came in they opened the hatches for at least an hour before the men went in, in order to freshen the air otherwise the men felt ill - sounds like H2S.

Been concentrating on the forecastle; got everything fitted, and made the first pass at weathering. Need to make a few adjustments but almost there. Hope you like the photos. For me the anchor chain supplied with the kit looks too small.

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Cheers Derek

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[mobear]

thats lovely mate and thnx for info lol,i like the way the rust spots arent uniform,magnificent

mobear

 

[Caledonia]

Thanks Ole for your support. Have now weathered the deck using Doc O'Brien's Weathering powder and one of my wifes make-up brushes kindly donated, added some rust along the bulwarks etc, and fitted the trawl winch, superstructure, f'w'd hatch covers and masts. I bought two lifebelts to add to the superstructure railing as most Trawlers had these fitted. Cheers Derek

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[mobear]

stunning absolutely stunning,love the rusting bits and just the overall look and feel of it

mobear

 

[Caledonia]

Thanks Ole, I can really highly recommend the rust colours produced by Lifecolor, they are even more realistic than my photos suggest. They would be ideal for those Railway: Military and Dio modellers out there. They do sets as well. Cheers Derek

https://airbrushes.com/product_info.php?products_id=2845&osCsid=37515f83a93b303c827bad2e748c386e

https://airbrushes.com/index.php?cPath=4_202_203&osCsid=37515f83a93b303c827bad2e748c386e

Excellent airbrush and hand brush qualities.

 

[mobear]

thnx for the headsup on the paints

mobear

 

[Caledonia]

Fitted the horizontal and diagonal stays for the Trawling Gallows. Caldercraft say to use the same section as the handrails, which they quote as 1mm but in fact is 0.5mm which is the correct size. They have not supplied enough rod to do this. There was enough materials to do the diagonal stays, but I used some 1.6mm dia evergreen strip for the horizontal stays which is more accurate when you study old photos.

I also fitted the stanchions for the fish pond boards, which I made earlier. I am not fitting the boards as they were only fitted at sea when the net was taken onboard and the crew were gutting the fish.

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Made the Lifeboat; as you can see you get a vac-form hull and printed plywood. You are supposed to cut out the thin plywood strips for the hull ribs etc; I used Evergreen 1mm x 2mm strips instead and Plastic Weld, which made life must easier. I bent some paper clips for the Rowlocks and chocolate wrapper for the Tarpaulin. I left the life boat open to add interest to the stern of the Trawler. White Metal Oars were supplied which I tried to paint to make them like wood. The inside of the Lifeboat was left unpainted, but a varnished it with lifecolor satin varnish with about 5% black added to enhance the planking detail.

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Caldercraft do not provide any materials or instructions as to how the Lifeboat is fitted, so I will make up some Eyebolts from paper clips and lash it to the Stern Housing roof.

Cheers Derek

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[mobear]

fantastic job i love the detailing you did to the lifeboat,off your own back its great,master boat builder in the making i think lol

mobear

 

[Ian M]

Cracking little life boat that Derek!

The trawler is looking even better than last I saw it.

I can see that the end is in sight for this build.

Ian M