Jupiter, a Caledonian macBrayne Ferry

been doing a bit more today between an out of hours visit to the health centre for my daughter...........she's fine, just a virus.

the capping rail and bulwark supports, doors and fire boxes added to lounge deck and the doors added,............companionway given first coat of deck green, and the superstructure sanded ready for painting.

the fo'csle has also beef fitted with bulwark supports and dry fitted with a few fixtures n fittings.

finally I found out the upper deck plywood overlay which will eventually be planked.........one piece was missing.......probably used it at some stage for mixing epoxy resin on, lol..............so made another piece from the starboard side overlay as a pattern.

the companionways and rails have been added. I had to make new stanchions from plasticard, as the full set I have somewhere in my workshop have gone  walk about somewhere and I couldn't lay my hands on them.
mind you, the state of my workshop at the moment, is anyone surprised.

I love the shape you've managed on those railings. I can never get those type of bends to look right. Is that brass or copper wire?

Barrie

Thanks barrie......its just mild steel coloured with copper.....no anealing necessary unless highly difficult configurations needed......picked up from an engineers workshop that was closing down 20 odd years ago......sadly on last strands now......but been a godsend......about 20 guage if i remember.

I used to replace all the hard to work crap piano wire that came with caldercraft and mountfleet models kits with this stuff so it has served its purpose many times as well as my own scratch built trawlers before i got on to lifeboats....and a bloody ferry lol.

nhp651 wrote:

...its just mild steel coloured with copper....

Hi Neil,

It's probably, by the look and sound of it, 1/16th oxyacetylene welding rod as that is copper coated to stop the onset of rust in a damp workshop environment.

Work this morning took nearly 5 hours.......it is surprising just how long what one thinks is a small job takes a long while........... the sanding, trimming and fitting 40 window surrounds of similar size but they make the superstructures come alive.

These were cast some time ago from polyurethane resin.

Ahh cheers Paul.........didnt know that......yes it is that dia.....been in the workshop years and true....never shown any rust at all......but great for modelling.

I don't think that I could build a ferry, and put vehicles on the car deck without adorning the ship with happy holiday makers and crew, and so some time ago I bought a lot on ebay of people in different poses at 1:43 scale. I also had a few figures at 1:87 scale that came from a railway set.....these I am going to use as children/
Finally over the years I collected about 14 white metal figures from the Caldercraft range which I am going to paint in Calmac blue overalls and hi viz vests on,

amongst those painted tonight which are all going on the Lounge deck before the next deck goes on are two crew and the rest happy trippers to Dunoon Where the ferry is heading.lol

Just a few touch ups to go and all the figures for deck "clutter" have been painted.....ships ab's in blue overalls with orange high viz vests and engineers in overalls white plus a lady 3rd officer[ thought my daughter who will own the model when finished would like that seeing as she is halfway to that qualification herself] as yet to have her trousers painted black make up the crew and passengers.......around 60 figures in all should bring the ship to life.

Eventually a 1mm brass pin will be inserted into a leg of each figure to locate it and fix it to the deck.

Fiddly job painting all those figures, well done they look the part now

it  took hours mate, but I think it'll be worth it when they are all stuck on the decks of the model..............first time I have ever added figures that weren't already painted..

I put the foot pin in first so I have something to put a clip on whilst painting mate.

I always do things the hard way matey.....you know me by now.

All the standing figures have now had a pin inserted into one foot, by drilling up into the leg with a .90mm drill bit.

not an easy or quick task as each hole drilled left molten plastic wrapped around the bit, and had to be cleaned off with a knife. I had the drill on the slowest of revolutions I could but still melted the little legs.

Also, being thin legs, and I getting older tend to shake a little of the hand, and a few of the holes went off track and exited through the side of the leg. about 6 - 8 went this way.

Not to be beaten by this, I still attached the pin, but re tracked the hole by sinking the drill bit into the leg a little.

This did however leave a gouge in the leg. Once the pin and cyano had dried I filled the unsightly gouge with nothing more than a little modellers plastecine, which was then painted over to make good the mistake. Then, none of the figures needed to be thrown away, and thus, no wastage.

stern mooring capstans have also been fabricated from 2 separate castings and painted up


              

  So the passengers & crew are all stuck up Hmmmm 

Damien wrote:

  So the passengers & crew are all stuck up Hmmmm 

don't know about all stuck up...............

but they sure are "all shook up, uh haah"..........elvis has left the building lol.

They remind me of the opp I had my leg. It's full of pins and screws 
Nice work

ouch!!!

Ouch indeed

All figures have now been painted and pinned for location on the decks where ever they need to be to make the ship look cluttered, and the first of them have been put onto the lounge deck and glued in place, including to rather short little infants that are N gauge railway figures which act as little ones going to the sea side with bucket and spade.

The Companionway has also had it's hand rails fitted which will eventually link up to the upper deck hand rails.

Finally the front of the main superstructure has had a coat of brilliant white as have the two side panels. These will of course need more painting as and when they are filled after mating up with the hull sides............but I wanted to paint the window surrounds so that I can glaze them easily from behind once they have been fitted.

And there's enough crew and passenger's left for the other parts of the ship.

  Looking good mate.

Smashing job

well, the first ( or is it) blunder of the new phase of building.

I was cutting a piece of wood to locate the front of the superstructure seen in the photo and realised that I hadn't connected the leads to the front motor before I had fitted the Voith Schneider unit into the bow, and looking at it now it seems quite impossible to do so now without the removal of the VspU....which I don't want to do..............

So I decided to cut a small hatch into the fore deck precisely above the motor so that I can solder leads onto the terminals....I can then disguise the hatch with an escape hatch that goes in the position that it is and any further disguise can be hidden by mooring ropes.

The fillet was glued in place using 5 minute epoxy and then when set the main superstructure was glued in place using 15 minute epoxy and allowed to set for a few hours......held in place by clamps and trusty batteries.

hi neil,
I have often done the same thing, but in my case on purpose as the saying goes just in case I don't like it when you cant get at something, this happens when I have fitted servos often only to find the travel isn't right. but like you they are classed as inspection hatches, you can never have enough so no more said

david

davidjt wrote:

hi neil,
I have often done the same thing, but in my case on purpose as the saying goes just in case I don't like it when you cant get at something, this happens when I have fitted servos often only to find the travel isn't right. but like you they are classed as inspection hatches, you can never have enough so no more said

david

I was sat admiring what I had done so far as this stage is tricky and needs to be done in a well ordered fashion when I realised that I had made a monumental cockup.........I had glued on the wrong section of upper superstructure in the wrong order.

The side pieces should have been glued on first so that I could fill and sand and fair in to the hull, and from behind, glaze the windows before putting the top and front piece on..........and yet blundering through.............I have glued the top on first.

So I have trimmed the top part of the port side nearer to the side, and also trimmed a slice out of the top with a power file. This will allow me to be able to glaze the windows from behind, once the sides have been attached and sprayed.

a catastrophe avoided. this is the fun of scratch building.......rectifying your own cockups lol.

I blame these instances on age mate I'm a month and a bit from being officially old question WHY does time go faster & faster with each year of age??????????????

You are so right.....in my childhood days summer holidays lasted a lifetime......now they are gone in a flash........

first side on,...... second side gluing, and the wheelhouse n main mast resting on top to give me some encouragement to make progress, lol.................i'll leave that gluing and setting for a few hours before taking the clamps off and fairing in with polyester filler.

once this has been applied it won't take long before the superstructure and bow bulwarks [outer] are sprayed white.

You're racing away now Neil. I expect it will be finished by the time I get back from my holiday

Barrie

Not that quick mate.....but it will be ready for taking to scotland at the end of july to sail al largs n richmond boat club glasgow

but getting quicker day by day, lol

both superstructure sides are now firmly fixed and the fore and aft gussets to the edges of the superstructure both port and starboard have been fitted, and filled.

the window frames were removed so I had a clear run at sanding the joints had been done and they will be refitted tomorrow before masking up and spraying white.

Last night before I went to Manchester to see Shawn Mendes in concert I masked up the hull to repair the paint that had been lost from fairing in the superstructure to the hull. Then I applied the window frames that I had taken off earlier in order to sand the superstructure and hull together.

Today I masked up the rest of the front end of the hull using the green "Frog Tape" as the demarking line. I find this superb and far better than Tamiya tape as it leaves an even cleaner line.

Then I gave it a coat of Halfords "Appliance white" and then retired to watch the F1 qualifying,

I'll go out later once it has dried ( takes longer than normal Halfords colours as it tends to "cure" rather than dry) and give another coat.

Now is the moment I have been waiting for, for some time.

My friend Andrew sent to me over a month ago the company logos and name for the ship that he had had printed into stencils in vinyl.

As it comes near to giving the ship her proud name I decided to unwrap the parcel to look at the lettering. Superb is the only way to express my delight.

But the naming "ceremony" will have to wait until I finish the painting of the superstructure and let the white paint "cure"......but they will bring her to life.

For those not conversant with GAELIC ..."lupadar" is Gaelic for Jupiter. 

Blurry marvelous mate 

whilst the paint has been curing I have been working on the top of the superstructure.

there has been a definite concave dip in the top and in some areas the outer plating containing the windows is higher than the centre. taken measurements I have cut some strips of timber to the correct depth to lay onto the deck to raise the ply wood over lay.

I have also removed the masking and she looks quite good if I say so myself.

cutting and sanding the "fillets" for getting a true line on the upper deck, so that it will sit properly.

Also fitting the full combing around the access to the bow Voith Schneider unit, to allow the wheelhouse and flying bridge structure to fit snugly in place.

before I can glue the wooden under deck to the grp cabin top which has been fully "fillited" to even up the discrepancies in levels I had to glaze the windows in that lounge area.

I have used blue tinted acetate sheet so that I didn't have to detail the inside of the lounge , which would have been a pain in the backside.

To glaze them I used a strong waterproof double sided tape around the edges. I have used this method many times, including fixing wire mesh into the inside of a steam driven Imara tug, and the method has never ever let me down..no fogging and no gluey mess.

The combing for the wheelhouse fits on the rear and two sided but because of the shape and angle of the front face it slides forwards and backwards by around 15 mm, and so a fillet was needed at the front to stop it sliding.

I used a piece of obeche and shaped it to both the angle of the front and the curve on my belt linisher and then glued to the inner side with 2 part epoxy.

whilst doing so I also painted the wings of the front part of the upper deck with sanding sealer so that I can spray that part with white before gluing to the superstructure. This will make it easier now than having to mask up again all the superstructure that has just been painted.

The laying of the wooden deck has begun.

Around the perimeter of the upper boat deck I drilled into the grp, 2mm holes every 10mm. this is to act as an anchor for the epoxy resin to the wood making a good bond.

I started with the rear part surrounding the main companionway, and then glued in place the front section with the bridge wings attached, using plenty of weights clamps and my good old fingers till the 15 minute epoxy had set.

The side fore parts were glued in using clamps and masking tape. and finally the aft parts have finally been trimmed and glued in place.

Timber to timber I used aliphatic resin waterproof wood glue, and timber to grp, 2 part epoxy.

And finally for today, the deck has been filled with polyester car body filler, sanded to cut out the high spots and a small fillet been put in along side the starboard side of the combing which will be sanded smooth tomorrow.

This is the boat deck and is now ready for laying the individual planking and caulking which is a major part of the ship  

Next job is to get the wheel house moulding fitting snugly to the deck on which it sits.
You can see from the first few photos that there are gaps caused by high and low points on the bottom edge of the mould, and the only way to get this perfect is for the deck housing to fit parallel to the deck.

Back in 1987 when I was reviewing my first model kit for Marine Modelling International the space between the bulwarks and the deck housing on the kit, the Caldercraft Ryhope was so limited I pondered for a while on how to get this fit exact, and came up with the following method.

I cut a stub off a pencil and sanded down on face of it flat to give a lead height of around 1.5mm above surface height.

It was then easy just to score around the raised wall of the superstructure, thus giving a parallel line to the deck.

the deck housing can then be sanded down to fit the deck.