RN Steam Picket boat (1900) 1/48th Scale

[PICKETBOAT]

Hi all

Before I continue with the deck construction I thought some of you might be interested in the "drive train" or as some call it the "running set".

I sourced a supplier who custom made this to fit the model. The 3mm OD brass stern tube had small nylon bearings pushed into each end. The M2 stainless shaft was threaded only on the outer end. They also supplied, from stock, a simple little black nylon prop. It would have been nice to fit a brass one, but I failed to find one which was the correct diameter, blade design and pitch all at a sensible price. The prop was tapped for M2 and had a small brass lock nut.
Connecting the shaft to the motor could not have been easier. The little orange rubber tube flexible coupling was a push fit onto the shaft. The motor shaft was slightly smaller OD, but a small length of plastic wiring insulation pushed onto the motor shaft brought it up to 2mm OD so that the orange rubber coupling fitted perfectly.

The original vessels seem to have had their propellers secured with a huge nut/locking pin. I therefore modified the black nylon prop by removing the point and reproducing the original lock nut. The finished article was primed and then finished in a brass colour.

It works perfectly as the quite shallow pitch does not overload the tiny motor, looks to scale, but still moves the model along at a scale speed.

[PICKETBOAT]

Hi all


The next deck component to be assembled was the forward crew accommodation roof. This was also carefully trimmed out of the vac formed sheet leaving a lip at its base.

The domed upper section (apparently called the �fustrum� ) was also cut out. The section of plastic immediately beneath it was also cut away. This saved a tiny bit of weight top side. I am always aware of keeping top side weight down on working models and each little bit counts no matter how small.

The resin porthole surrounds were glued in position. I found it easier to cut out the plastic behind the oval port hole surrounds after they were glued in place. I drilled a small hole in the centre before filing the oval holes with a small rat tailed file. The other resin parts (hatch and gun mount ring) were glued in place before the crew accommodation roof was sprayed with primer.

[PICKETBOAT]

Hi all

The RC receiver and ESC needed a flat surface to sit on, so a small plastic card tray was cut to shape and glued in place beneath the fore deck The RC equipment was secure with �hook and loop� tape to ensure it did not rattle around, but could easily be removed for maintenance. The small 1 amp ESC was small enough to fit quite far forward. I used the small Pico model from Action Electronics, which has excellent low speed control.

The aft cockpit moulding had been removed from the vac forming sheet. The deck had been cut away to accept it before it (the deck) had been secured, but some very minor trimming was now done to ensure a neat fit and to make sure the cockpit sunk down to the correct level.

You can see on the pictures that some of the smaller deck fittings, like steering cable pulleys have been fitted. The deck inside the cabin has also been drilled to accept the main on/off switch.

The cockpit has had the resin cast seat cushions and floor grating fitted but I did not glue the cockpit in place at this stage. It was first assembled with the rest of the cabin and cabin bulkhead and finally installed as a single unit. This will be shown later.

[Folgore]

Hi Picketboat!

It's shaping up really well!

Regards

Chrischan

[PICKETBOAT]

Thanks Chrischan

The �salami slice� construction continues.

Ok I have compressed the �on line� construction time for this model, but it did go together quite quickly. The design of the initial moulds and master patterns took about 50% of the total build time (approx two months), but once I had done these, the actual construction of the model itself did not take too long.

Back to the build.

The edge of the cockpit understandably had some sort of wood or metal edging. This shows up clearly on contemporary photos. Strip plastic could have been used to reproduce this but in the end I used fine lead wire, which was easily formed to match the curved corners. CA glue fixes this well.

The cast resin covers for the steering cables were also glued in place (red arrow). On the prototype vessels these covered the steering cables where they ran from the wheel to the deck edge, and thus reduce the �trip hazard� for the crew.

The other pictures show how the rear wall of the cabin is installed and how it slots into the front section of the cockpit. A little careful trimming was again required, but when I was happy with the fit these two sections were glued together with solvent weld adhesive.

You will notice that the model reproduces the small "sump" at the bottom of the cockpit just in front of the cabin door. I made sure that this was a waterproof seal as any water shipped into the cockpit would end up there (just like the real vessel). I wanted it to stay in the cockpit so it could easily be tipped out rather then seeping into the main hull space.

[PICKETBOAT]

Hi all

The two cabin/cockpit components were now glued together. You can see the small gap under the door which needed to be filled to prevent water ingress.

The cabin had to be reinforced slightly along its lower edges. Two small strips of plastic were glued along the inner edge (red arrows).

This also increased the surface area to be glued to the deck when this component was installed. I was sure that just gluing the thin edge of the vac formed cabin straight onto the deck was a recipe for disaster. The cabin roof will be removable to access the on of switch and as the roof was a interference fit I did not want to end up pulling the whole cabin off the deck!

[Neptune]

Wow, great job once again. Looks like you sort of constructed a kit from the beginning. And one with a nice fit!

Looking great so far, looking forward to see the electronics as well. Looks like a tiny space inside.

[PICKETBOAT]

Hi Neptune, Hi all

Thanks for the comments Neptune. It might look small and cramped but all the electrics fitted into the hull quite easily. The receiver was an old full sized one I had lying around and the rudder servo used was a mini version, not one of the very small ones. In these days of sub micro radio gear much smaller working models than this can be made. Any way more details of the internal lay out soon.

I now returned to the boiler room roof part of the model. I carefully removed the required resin components from the casting base.

The twin funnels were resin cast, each one in three sections, the hinged base, the mid straight section and the fluted top section. These were assembled with CA and the �horrid� joint in the middle filled and sanded to make it disappear. A short length of aluminium tube was set into the base of each funnel to give a very secure fix.

I guess I could have made these funnels with some fine plastic or brass tube and avoided the joint half way up the funnel, but then I would have had to create the fluted top section.

As I said in my previous notes the twin funnel version of these vessels differed little from the single funnel version (both would have been in service at the same time). I plan to build a single funnel vessel in the future using the components I now have at my disposal. I will use tube for the funnel on this planned project and install a smoke generator. There is plenty of space and hull capacity for this.

The pictures show the fittings being installed on the vac formed boiler room roof. Note the position of the wheel �up stand�. Some photos show this off-set to port and others show it on a centre line. I think visibility was a big issue for the helmsman particularly when coming along side a vessel or jetty. All he could see forward was a �whacking great� funnel and the backs of two burly midshipmen! Off-setting the wheel to port would have helped him a little. I placed the wheel central on this model as the forward visibility on twin funnel picket boats was a little better and off-setting the wheel would have defeated the whole object of the twin funnels.

[PICKETBOAT]

Hi all

Some of the resin cast fittings I had manufactured were quite small and I wondered how well they would turn out. I need not have worried. The pressurised casting chamber proved its worth and picked up the fine detail very well.

The smallest items were the deck edge fairleads of which there are four. They were removed from the casting base as previously described. They were cast as a small strip to make handling a little easier, and when they had been sanded smooth on their base they were separated off with a sharp knife. Care was taken not to sneeze at this stage!

The fairleads were set into the top of the deck edge timber so small slots were carefully cut away before the fairleads were glued in place. The picture shows the bow fairleads and the forward crew accommodation ventilator installed.

At this stage I set about painting the hull. Nothing complicated here. As the vac formed hull had a nice smooth surface anyway it was just a matter of a light sanding with some foam backed wet and dry paper. The wooden deck edge was masked off and the model inverted before it was sprayed with white primer. The cast resin rudder was sprayed at the same time.

[Folgore]

Nice!

Now I'm really curious to see the paint job.

Regards

Chrischan

[PICKETBOAT]

Hi all

The main deck components were also finished in grey primer prior to painting.

Further back in this thread you can see a copy of a contemporary painting giving an indication of one of the possible paint schemes for these little vessels. I had decided to try and reproduce this. The main hull is shown as white, but I am always wary of using modern �intense� white on older vessels. I much prefer to use �off white�.

My �day job� brings me into contact with, and requires that I reproduce, �period� paint finishes and colours. The old white paints of the late 19th and early 20th century were usually a mix of varnish, oil, and lead oxide and turpentine. The lead continued to oxidise after application, and turned a silvery grey while the varnish and oil mix yellowed quickly.

I therefore chose a suitable off white (a very very pale grey with a hint of yellow) for the hull and cabin roof, and this was spray applied.

[Folgore]

Hello Picketboat,

The old white paints of the late 19th and early 20th century were usually a mix of varnish, oil, and lead oxide and turpentine. The lead continued to oxidise after application, and turned a silvery grey while the varnish and oil mix yellowed quickly.

THIS is an information! Thank you very much for that.

Regards

Chrischan

[PICKETBOAT]

Hi Crischan, hi all

I�m pleased if any little bits of information can be of help to other modellers.

Here are a couple more pictures of the primed deck structures being tried in position. The hull is still in white primer at this stage, so still looks a little too �white� for me.

You can see that I have installed the two coaling scuttles on the wooden deck. Having removed them from the casting base I rubbed the backs on fine sand paper to get them as thin as I could before gluing them in place.

[PICKETBOAT]

Hi all

The plans and photographs of these vessels show four securing cleats attached to the deck, two forward and two aft. The main body of these components had also been cast in resin.

Drilling them with a 0.5mm drill before they were removed from the casting base meant they were a lot easier to handle and deal with. I also inserted the length of brass wire and glued it in place before they were sliced off the base and separated.

[Neptune]

Very nice overall results so far.
It's indeed a trick I use a lot as well, keeping things attached to bigger parts to handle while doing a delicate operation like 0.5mm drilling etc. I do the same with stanchions etc. only afterwards cutting them.
The casting came out extremely nice again as well!

[PICKETBOAT]

Neptune

Thanks for following the build.

In the thread I talk about drilling and assembling tiny components but seem to forget that 1/48th scale is considered "large scale" by most of the ship modelling fraternity.

I sometimes dip into the forums' scratch build projects of models of 1/700th scale, and realise what I am building is pretty huge and lumpy in comparison. The skill level of the guys working at these scales is amazing.

[PICKETBOAT]

Hi all

Having sprayed the main deck structures in primer I now set about painting them in my chosen colours. The cabin roof was also sprayed off white to match the hull. The cabin walls were wooden on the original vessels, so here I painted them flat brown. When this was dry I used some brown ink to achieve a reasonable grained effect, trying to match the wood of the deck. This was then varnished over with matt varnish again to match the deck.

The other deck structures were painted a suitable �Victorian� buff brown, based on the colour painting I was using as a reference.

You can see the �up stand� for the ships wheel has not had the wheel fitted yet, however, the control cable has been reproduced using fine monofilament (orange arrow). I drilled two fine holes in the edge of the boiler room roof, just below the wheel and then threaded the monofilament through these and over the small pulley on the top of the �up stand� securing it with CA.

The funnels were finished in a brass finish. Here I used my �discovery�. The spirit based gold marker pens made by �Pilot� (and available from most stationers) are fantastic. I also used them on the port holes and cabin window surrounds. The secret is not to varnish or spray over the gold when it has dried as this makes it instantly dull.

[PICKETBOAT]

Hi all

This is the sixth working model I have built that has a visible deck mounted tiller and on each one I have used the same method (with slight variations) to make this a working element of the steering mechanism.

What I have tried to do, on each of the six models, is to disguise as much as possible any non scale elements, so that the finished model can be displayed on its stand without being spoilt by any clumsy and obvious steering rods or servo arms which would not have been on the original vessel.

In this and the other models I simply stole the rudder connecting technology from model aircraft guys, and connected the rudder to the servo in a �closed loop�. I have heard modellers complaining that some models, which have limited space aft, are difficult to install a rudder servo into. Maybe this technique could be adapted to get round this problem? The rudder servo can be mounted well away from the stern, even as in this model, almost amidships.

Back to the picket boat model. Just next to the deck mounted pulley I drilled a 2mm hole (red arrow). Into this was inserted a small piece of 2mm OD copper tube which had been annealed and bent at 90 degrees. Both ends were flared slightly and the mouths smoothed and polished. The port side copper tube has already been installed (blue arrow). The top of the tube is flush with the wooden deck when installed and is hardly visible. The other end of the tube points forward towards the hole previously drilled in the aft deck support cross member.

[PICKETBOAT]

Hi all

The tiller was connected to the servo with nylon mono filament (0.26mm fishing line).
A decent sized piece was attached, mid way along its length to the tiller, using a knot sealed with CA. The two ends were then threaded into the two copper tubes, carried forward through the holes in the aft deck support beam to the servo arm.

The servo arm had been fitted with two tiny (fishing) swivels attached with small self tapping screws.

I hope you are with me so far.


Next position the servo arm so that it is square across the hull, at 90 degrees to the centre line. Thread the two lengths of mono filament through the two small swivels and pull them tight together while ensuring the tiller is dead ahead. Two small off cuts of the copper tube can be used to secure the nylon line by crimping them shut as in the picture (yellow arrow). There should be no slack in the control loop, but it should not be that tight that it risks damaging either the tiller or the servo.

A small amount of petroleum jelly injected into the small bent copper tubes ensures the set up is water tight and friction free. This should be done when the model is complete and checked once each sailing season.

The control lines run below deck either side of the cockpit (which has still not been installed at this point). If the control line fails for some reason in the future, it is still possible to re-thread it with the cockpit installed, but it is a bit fiddly. This should not be a real issue as I have models using this control method which are 9 years old and non of them have failed.

[Folgore]

I am, Sir. And I like it a lot

Regards

Chrischan