Isle-of-Man 1875 Paddle-steamer BEN-MY-CHREE 1/700 scratch

[JIM BAUMANN]

The model is making progress

though its quite hard as most of the information to proceed with is hard-won from study and examination of photos


I am fortunate that my French Friend has drawn up the artwork for the paddle-box slats and decorations

The model is making progress

though its quite hard as most of the information to proceed with is hard-won from study and examination of photos


I am fortunate that my French Friend has drawn up the artwork for the paddle-box slats and decorations

as well as the stern scroll work

I am hopeful that the decal printing definition can be maintained to a degree in 1/700 !

I am hopeful and excited



The underwater anti-fouling line has been done in dark red decal strip

The paddles caused me some thought,

This is a PE fret for a 1/350 King George V battleship--WEM-- from 2000

I can see the paddle wheels..... --can you?

This ought to make it easier

the KGV are the correct diameter for the paddlebox and cut to size

The Borodino I am saving for a future project!

The Blades are made of degaussing cable cut down

fiddly

more soon

Jim Baumann

[marijn van gils]

Fantastic as always!
And with again some very creative PE-puzzelling.

[Dino Carancini]

Brilliant

Old PE are a source of hidden details!

[Iceman 29]

You're ingenious and have a keen eye!

[Frank Spahr]

Excellent work and ingenious and creative use of your PE stock! Looking forward to your further progress!

Frank

[JIM BAUMANN]

Hello all
in between some health hiccups and 1/1 issues--I have made some progress

At last the decals for the paddle box have arrived

Ribbon printed and pretty sharp--only downside was I had to buy an A4 sheet
but that gives LOTS of opportunities to make mistakes and room for experimentation!

below -- low res re-sized from 1/1 scan

bearing in mind the paddlebox is 1/2 in wide( 14.1mm) at its base

Think the definition even when blown up looks good

[JIM BAUMANN]

additional news is that the ship is now " afloat "

I installed the hatch below cat walk-which runs over the fwd well deck

and the funnel cowl bases

and the begun making the slatted seating benches

[wefalck]

How do you find in your obviously huge stack of PE-frets what you are looking for?

[MartinJQuinn]

Beautiful work and creative solutions, as always!

[marijn van gils]

Good to see progress again! Those decals look great indeed!

[JIM BAUMANN]

Hello wefalck;

>> How do you find in your obviously huge stack of PE-frets what you are looking for?<<

that is a really good question; I have sort of a graphic memory( ish!)
but I can also see 'thru the PE fret parts and identify the shapes I want to cut for a given project--weird eh? --but works for me

meanwhile progress is ongoing;

cowl vents... this ship has plenty
I used the 3D printed ones from Starling models as they are small, well shaped and repeatable
but the rims were not quite thin enough and the hole not deep enough--not a criticism

so I proceeded to drill and thin using these tools

they are tricky to hold but blue-tak is my friend!

They have now been installed to the ship;

the slatted seating is also being installed

as are the railings

more shortly
JB

[SG1]

Great progress! still in awe for the paddle wheels, they're incredible

[1/6000]

Aren't the seats on the clerestry roofs a bit high? Maybe it's my eyesight, but it seems their seating height is almost twice as high as on the lassic benches on the right.
A wonderful built and most enjoyable to watch!

[JIM BAUMANN]

... a bit high....

Maybe.... yes-ish.

That said compare the clerestory seating ( which is elevated by some way )
compared to the seatbench by the deckhouse

ad also versus also the railing perimeter seat benches ---as in image below

( if it upsets me I may yet make them lower )

unfortunately you have --maybe-- handwringingly ... a point

[Yuth]

I'm going to be original and say that all this is devilishly superb and, above all, very well explained for hackneyed writers like me who have sausages instead of fingers. !

[1/6000]

I am quite sure to see some kind of elevated footstep in front of the elevated bench, which - then - is still somewhat high but with reasonable attention to it. That would make the height a) understandeable and b) the issue of the un-reachable and thus un-seatable bench fixeable by just easily adding that kind of step

[JIM BAUMANN]

Hello all ( especially @ 1/6000 ) ref tall seating... ==> ( see last image and paragraph )


some progress... I made myself a whole lot of new work....


Having studied ( endlessly) the few images of the Ben My Chree ( BmC)

I had puzzled over this image

and also wondered what the lines below meant

This was clarified in a Eureka moment by the 2 x images of the contemporary Isle of Man paddle steamer ' Queen Victoria ' 1885 as below

Noteworthy is that unlike the above ships benches--==> interspersed with gaps and of a ' slatted ' construction,

- that the railing perimeter seating benches on BmC are continuous past the davits and appear to be solid benches
( on the real shop the benches were set inboard by ca 3-4 inches ( 75-100 mm) to allow the benches clearance to the upright stem of the davits )

the below zoomed in crop clarifies much

making these in 1/700-- and getting them to adhere to a single horizontal of the railing...( ignoring the miniscule invisble gap)

posed quite some challenges...

Take some very fine , thin and light stainless steel 4 bar railing and cut as in image

then cut into appropriate size lengths

and the attach and infill the strips to the horizontal rail as annotated below

Note the gaps around the position of the davit ( see last image and paragraph )

as some light relief I made some skylights--- shaped styrene block with suitable sized ladderstock

I noticed a rubbing strake that had been missed off... and added it--alas late in the day.. but successfully

meanwhile also made some life-rings
( wrap soft wire around drill shank-make into a spiral, cut into circles and flatten with pliers)

make lots of--and choose the best ones --high discard rate

and attach to ship



as well as making differing sizes of davits to be able to construct the boat deck

made and attached mooring bits /bollards

and access steps for the high seating on the clerestory roof( @ 1/6000 )

which brings us back to the perimeter benches .....--
the benches I had installed missed out the davits--deliberately

as the davits needed to go on first.

In 1/1 scale that is easy--in 1/350 scale doable...

in 1/700 its all getting a bit delicate as well as crowded for tweezers and tempers!!

So the plan is to install the davits and the bridge the gaps past the davits
with Nitinol 0.047 wire ( attached with tacky matt varnish ) an thence infill the gap with thinned white glue
around the davit as well and paint, then apply seated passengers as well as standing--in the area which
will be covered by the boat-deck etc
I have proven the concept in one area --so I think it will be all OK r... ( we shall in the next update !!! )

[1:6000]

Wow, great progress!
And a very convincing solution

[JIM BAUMANN]

Hello all

progress is ongoing;

I was aiming at this....

but though Ben my Chree had a capacity of around 1200 souls
I doubt she was ALWAYS fully laden

I think I will lose the will to live to achieve that ...
( the ( 3-D) figures ( civilians from German mailorder firm Modellbauray
( pretty good too! )

https://modellbauray.com/products/1-700 ... 5759931660

have taken aaaages--altering poses, breaking and rebuilding legs to make the seated etc

so the rationale is;

as this is an open sea steamer in the northern part of the Irish sea...
==> and at 13 knots the trip -Liverpool to Douglas on the Isle of Man was around 6 hours

ergo only the hardiest of fools would stay on deck all the time !! -?

-especially as this ship plush heated salons
The on-deck inhabitants I guess would rotate--getting the air , smoking etc

and all being on deck only leaving Liverpool and making Land fall when in sight of the Isle of Man;
the rest of the trip is often open grey, gloomy and not unusual decidedly rough waters

I studied online Victorian 1890;s travelling fashions,
==> mostly dark ,grey or brown Tweeds with the odd dark green suit interloper
Ladies wore full length dresses--( I did not manage to make the Ladies rear end bustle!

I concentrated most of the people aft--where there is less wind.
( 13 knots boat speed--20 knot headwind = 33 knots = force 7...apparent ' feeling 'wind ( maybe low 8 in the gusts)


since I took this photo I have added another 80 or so figures
more seated ones on the perimeter bench seating--I still have to add the crew and the helmsman,

They Crew were hardy--especially on fully open bridge exposed to headwind for 6 hours

The weather in the Irish Sea is often NOT benign
as can be seen in the only photo I could find of her travelling at full lick in unfavourable weather in ( seemingly open sea )
though it may have been taken on approaching to the Isle of Man--hence people on foredeck as well--
the most exposed place for to cold onslaught of the wind!

more soon

Jim B

[wefalck]

... perhaps a few should be leaning over the rails