that’s just fantastic! I remember when you started that one as a “quick, mostly OOB build”, I knew you would change your course. So many brilliant parts - weren’t the torpedo tubes among the first bigger adventures in this build log, or am I mixing things up? And the gun houses… And now you are building small boats with more accuracy and love for detail than others build their main ships… awesome! Even if I don’t always comment, I’m following and loving your build log! Great to see it back and progressing!
Cheers
Jan
Thanks Jan. Yes, my best out-of-the-box intentions never quite seem to pan out! I find I can’t even leave those poor boats alone - next up I’ll be cutting into the 9m motor launch deck aft to open up the passenger space… but I’m having fun with it! Glad to have you along for the ride.
Tim - I’m coming back to the party a little late but must echo what everyone has said - amazing work. Can’t wait to see how things progress in the future.
Tim - I’m coming back to the party a little late but must echo what everyone has said - amazing work. Can’t wait to see how things progress in the future.
Hi David. Thanks, and welcome back to what has turned out to be a long, leisurely party!
It just seemed wrong slicing into that beautiful deck…
…but it had to be done! Following the little template made from the Maru Mechanic drawing, l cut out the space for the passenger compartment.
Then I added the enclosure using .015 X .156 inch plastic strip shaped around the curves fore and aft. The strip at the bottom is a temporary .010 inch spacer to ensure room for the lower deck piece to come.
After the cement attaching the fore and aft enclosure pieces to the boat had set, I added wedges in the middle and faired them in to complete the unit. In my first attempt at this I had simply used a single piece for the compartment wall – but establishing the right length for the strip, precisely forming the curved ends, and keeping everything aligned while gluing the springy plastic in place proved too much to do all at the same time. Once I broke it into two pieces fore and aft, the task got much easier. Aligning the separate curved sections was no problem, and fairing in the middle bits later was also straightforward. Live and learn!
I cut a floor from the same wood as the upper deck and made some benches from .010 X .060 inch strip. Here are the parts test fitted along with the control cabin.
You wouldn’t think 1/700 scale leftovers would be much use on a 1/200 scale model, but a surprising number of parts (such as the cowl vents) can be adapted for this larger scale. The brass handgrabs along the front and roof, for example, were cut-down from rails of a Flyhawk 1/700 HMS Campbeltown, and the circle-shaped fittings, adapted from Flyhawk 1/700 Dauntless cockpit parts, now serve as 1/200 scale deadlights.
Other details were simple enough to fabricate. The odd little structure on the roof, a combination of running lights and a pennant indicating the ship to which the boat belonged, was built up with plastic rod and sheet.
The curved wire emerging from the cabin roof is a voice tube.
What a find, Tim! It’s just amazing to see how you’re able to re-purpose all these items that would otherwise be consigned to the dark corners of our hobby rooms…
