FRESHWATER
I decided to have a go at making
a radio control model of this ship as it 'should' be small enough
to transport by train in a large suitcase (I no longer have a
car). It's based on this picture and some others in books I have
and a couple I found online, I don't have any plans or much in
the way of details. The ship was built in 1927, as far as I know,
as a replacement for the PS Lymington and was employed as a ferry
for the Southern Railway between Lymington and Yarmouth, Isle
of Wight. I have read that it was while sailing on the Freshwater
that Dr Alan Robinson first had the idea of forming a paddlesteamer
preservation society to try to encourage the retention of the
relatively few examples still in use at the time (1959?). Freshwater
was sold to new owners and renamed Sussex Queen around 1960, then
transferred again and renamed Swannage Queen and was finally scrapped
in 1962.
The wheelhouse assembly.
I'm using 'recycled' materials
(ie. garbage) where possible. The wheelhouse is made from a 'Ferrero
Rocher' container (the old type which was made from thinner plastic
and had square corners) cut first into panels with a small hacksaw
then reassembled with polystyrene cement into the necessary shape.
This is then covered with mahogany strip left over from another
model (billings sea star - I didn't like the colour of this wood
for the decks) with clear openings left for the windows. The roof
is styrene sheet covered with 180 grade wet-n-dry.
The base/boiler casing is simply
made from styrene sheet
The funnel is made from two
'Red Bull' cans, both ends sawn off and eliptical balsa blocks
glued inside before the two are joined using the taper on the
top of one can to fit inside the other (this join is where the
black top is separated from the buff area below. A length of radio
solder is flattened using a metal object and glued in two strips,
one at the top and one over the join between the two cans. The
latter has small (1/16th) holes drilled in which four loops of
wire are inseted and glued. These pass through both cans and help
hold them together - as well as being where the supporting cables
are attached.
Boiler room vents are made from
lengths of brass tube, the cowl at the top can be bought from
an art supplies shop but cost around £1.20 each...So.....
I went to the news agents and they had some 'bubblegum machines'
outside. One had some cheap looking christmas cracker - type toys
inside so I got four of those. If you're really lucky you might
get a piece of chain that can be used on the model but that's
just a bonus, it's the packaging that I'm interested in. They
come in a plastic egg-shape container split down the middle, one
half is coloured vinyl and is of no use but the other is transparent
styrene and just the right size for the cowl vent. I glued it
(with araldite) to the tube then filled over the join with model
filler and cut out the hole inside using a hand-held 12 volt drill
(such as a Dremmel - though I have an Expo) . After sanding and
painting it doesen't look bad at all. The join where, on the real
thing, it's able to be turned into (or away from) the wind, is
represented using solder as before and the handles are brass wire.
Deck planking is actually wooden
strips used for lighting candles/pipe/cigarettes etc. and can
be bought from a pipe tobacco shop for about 50p per bundle. After
gluing it all down I stained it with a very weak mixture of black
poster paint (supplied in powder form) more like dirty water than
paint, then wiping over with a used teabag. Then cover the whole
lot with sanding sealer*. I then mixed black poster paint into
PVA glue and spread it all over the deck with a scrap of styrene
sheet/credit card etc. working it well into the cracks between
planks. When dry, sand it all off and if necessary, re-treat the
planks with thin paint/tea mixture before sealing the whole thing
with matt varnish.
*the reason for the sanding
sealer is to prevent the dyed-black PVA soaking into the end grain
on the joins between planks
The Hull
This is in much the same way
as that for the PBM edwardian paddlesteamer kit except for the
following alterations;
The dimensions will be roughly
doubled to give a 1/32nd scale model
The hull will be in two pieces,
about 1/3 and 2/3, held together with coach bolts and wing nuts
It will be deeper and slightly
wider than it realistically should be to give greater stability
at the expense of accuracy of shape
The sides are to be 'sloped'
at the bow, not vertical like on the kit
The frames will be made from
'whatever I have lying around' not good quality marine ply! -
it's all going to be covered in fibreglass tissue and resin so
it shouldn't get wet....
Once the frame is assembled
(glued and screwed) the outer skin of the hull is attached. I'm
using 1.3mm ply (I had to buy that) The stern is made using offcuts
of balsa glued then sanded into shape and is similar to a 'bread
and butter' construction but as I had lots of small pieces, it's
more like a brick wall...
Now that the hull is completely
covered I made a start on the forward saloon, I used left-over
pieces of ply, cut out the deck first then built the saloon on
top of it. The sponsons were made from styrene sheet and are held
temporarily in place here with a magnetic aquarium algae scraper...
The fore deck is planked the
same way as that around the wheelhouse...
Wooden doors are simulated by
simply staining the area where they'll be, adding the frames then
painting around them. Bulkhead lights are from the old type of
telephone operators desks. In telephone exchanges, these were
replaced years ago with square plastic ones and the old glass
ones scrapped. The brass fittings were recycled as a valuable
metal but we had thousands of these glass lenses all over the
workshop, I 'recycled' a couple of them. They're covered by pieces
of steel wire from garden ties (you get them if you ever buy a
cable for your computer/DVD player etc.) I just stripped off the
plastic and hopefully, they'll rust eventually... I fitted two
white LED's behind them and here they are being tested...
These port holes are made from
pieces of brass tube cut off and filled with clear casting resin,
the door handles are picture hanging nails cut short and glued
into small holes in the doors.... (passenger figure is an airfix
racing spectator - no longer sold as far as I know but can be
found on Ebay sometimes...)
Here are the forward structures
with all planking and painting done but a few things still needed
(window frames, companionway, windlass, railings, small vents
on the promenade deck to be made taller, two more plus mast to
be added to fore deck...) The fore deck will be glued into the
hull but the forward saloon and wheelhouse assembly will both
remain detachable to get to the wingnuts holding the hull together.
They will be secured by the cowl vents, which will have nuts fixed
inside and screw onto threaded rods attached into the main deck.
