Cargo Ship Revisited Pt4…………….

I've finally finished the T030 Cargo Ship from Scalescenes . I've had to put it onto the back burner for a short while, as I've recently lost my Father. Modelling was the last thing on my mind whilst he was so ill. He’s in a better place now and out of all of his dreadful pain and things are slowly returning to normal.

Anyway back to the ship. I left showing you the hatches I'd fashioned from some mounting board wrapped in a green cover layer. That left me with a dilemma, do I leave the modified hold white or do I change it to green to match the ship. I decided to go with the green, so I used my hand held airbrush with my Promarker alcohol pens. I was very pleased with the result. 

     

All that was left to do was all of the little fiddly details. Some steps for access to the aft and fore decks. A length of fine florists wire makes an ideal handrail.

     

     

Then the winch on the fore deck. Cleverly made with the addition of a couple of push pins fashioned for the drums. A trip to the local pound shop for a cheap chain necklace to make an anchor chain. A quick coat of black paint and you have an ideal anchor chain.

     

     

On the original ship design, it comes with two life boats on the aft deck. The problem I had was, when I chopped off the stern it left me with very little room for the life boats, so I had to improvise. One would have to do. Very clever, but simple design makes a perfect life boat.

     

     

     

I was stuck to what cargo to put in the hold. I thought of coal, sand and even steel coils, but I opted for a cargo of urea. This product gets shipped into our port in this shipping companies vessels. I couldn't use actual urea as it is a hygroscopic substance. Not good when your model is made entirely of card. I would end up with a soggy mess. My wife Jak had a pack of a product called Artista Super Light, it is a moist paper based modelling product which is easily fashioned into shape, and once it's air dried, it's ideal as a bulk lightweight cargo.

     

And here it is in all of its glory. As my attempt at a bit of a kit bash, I'm quite pleased with my effort.

     

     

     

The gantry crane that moves the hatches, was kindly made for me by a work colleague Andrew. He is a very good scratch builder (as you can see) and he made this out of strips of Evergreen plastic. And it is very accurate to the original crane. He took photos from a sister ship in the port.

Until Next Time………