Cargo Ship Revisited Pt3…………….

Well a lot has happened since we last met. I sat down and deliberated, pondered and finally decided to radically change the design of the ship. As you may know, I’m building this ship for the second time. I loved the last one I built but, I really wanted to build it again but in a different colour. The colour I preferred, was a shade of green, which adorns a group of vessels that visit the port I work at. The next problem was how to change the colour. I contacted Scalescenes and John kindly sent me an editable version of the plans. My wife Jak works within the craft and design industry, and knows her way around an editing suite, so she got the job of changing the colour for me. The next problem was, the ship I had in mind is a lot more modern than the original from scalescenes, so here was where I had to make that radical decision. I chopped of the stern to make it square!

Before……..                                                                                                                     ……..after.

      

I know it doesn't look much, but for someone who normally only builds to the plan, a bit of kit bashing scares me a bit. Especially as I’d come this far. If it didn’t work, there were a lot of hours gone down the drain. I should of thought about this from the start. Anyway it worked and with a bit of work and the addition of a kit bashed hand rail, I was quite pleased with myself.

     

     

The next challenge was the holds. The original old style has two holds with hatch boards. These would have to be changed to a more modern large hatch covers.

I had to set to and make a re-designed hold. I wanted to totally wrap around the original holds with one large hold and level off the top, so that I could make some large hatch covers. I have a large collection of scalescenes kits, so I had a rake through some of them, and found within the T009 Modern Industrial Building, a section of the interior wall that looked a lot like the side of the holds I was trying to emulate. With the addition of some uprights to the side of the hold, I was pleased with the result.

     

     

Next came the hatch covers. My wife Jak  just happened to have some foam mount board. This worked really well as it was 5mm thick, and when I lapped the edges and wrapped them in the green hatch colour cover layer, it looked like the greased rubber seals on the modern ships.

     

     

Right, you’re up to date. I’m off to fit these hatches, and try to find how to make some sort of gantry crane to move them.

Until Next Time…………….

A Cheeky Build……….

As my main job, I work as a stock controller at the local port. It happens that once a month I am required to work both Saturday and Sunday. Granted it is only for four hours or so each day but, the time does seem to drag a little, as it is not as busy as it is during the week. So, after yesterday morning sitting twiddling my thumbs waiting for wagons to turn up to be loaded, I decided that today I would take a knife, ruler, glue and some card to work and fill in my time building a model. I didn’t want to take the new build I have started, the T007 Office Block, as all of the elements are laid out on my table. So I thought I would have a bash at the free R002b Low Relief Warehouse. It’s not a difficult build as it is designed as a free download to encourage people try the products available from scalescenes. Sort of try before you buy. It only took me a couple of hours in total to finish this build in between wagons coming in, but it did help the time fly by. If I can build this in a couple of hours, I’m sure that if you downloaded this kit or even the R002 Small Goods Shed, with a little patience and some gluey fingers, you will not be disappointed with the results. So go on, give it a try, you may just enjoy it.

Here it is in all of it’s glory…

        

        

P.S. Don’t tell the boss what I’ve been up to.

Hopefully this time next week I will have so pictures of the T007 Office block to show you. After that I may go missing for a couple of weeks, but don’t worry it’s just that Jak and I going the the last night of the proms at Castle Howard next weekend and the weekend after Jak’s Boss Gary is getting married to a delightful American girl Bailey, at Maften Hall in Northumberland and we have been invited. We have booked a room for the night so we don’t have to worry about getting home afterwards. So no model making for a couple of weeks.

Until Next Time…………

Chris

 

Finished Coil Shed…………

Well it’s all finished now, and OMG!! (as the kids on the street are saying) I can honestly say, I have impressed myself. It’s hard to think that only eighteen months ago I hadn’t even picked up a craft knife. I have come a long way since I found scalescenes and downloaded my first model.

From this, the free Small Sidings Shed……….

……………to this, a Large Coil Shed.

         

As you can see, I sort of managed to replicate the coil crab for the crane. It’s not perfect but, it’s close enough for me. The sign on the side of the shed “Port of Seaham” is one of the logo’s we have at the docks. It was made using Safmat from Letraset. It is perfect for the job as once printed and cut out, when you stick it to the wall the background becomes almost see through, perfect.

As I told you previously, I’m going to give this model to the Dock Company for display purposes. So I haven’t glued the roof into place, so that ot can be taken off to view the interior and all of the coils.

          

          

And because it is a modern building, just look at all of the Health and Safety Notices!

Just for your information and to save you trying to count them, there is seventy six coils in he shed. I’m only glad that I decided to only build one shed. Because if I had made it to scale, to fill the five sheds, there would have been about four hundred coils to make. The seventy six were bad enough.

The next project is going to be the new one from scalescenes, the T007 Office Block or Hotel.

Until Next Time………..

Chris

Coils For The Shed…………

I’ve started the coils for my scalescenes T009 Modern Industrial Building, and I think I have got a production line going.

The process started by taking a photograph of the coils we have at the docks.

 

Next, my darling Wife Jak took the image and worked her jiggery pokery to come up with a sheet of one hundred and forty coil pictures. I then printed this onto an A4 label sheet.

With a couple of Jaks hole punches it’s a cinch to pop out the coil images.

Next came the tricky bit. I started by buying a length of wooden dowel from my local hardware shop. I am fortunate that I have a small workshop at the back of my house (my sanctuary)where I have a built in bench saw and a pillar drill at my disposal. This made it easy for me cut the coil blanks to length and then drill a hole in the centre. A quick sand on the sander, and I have some coil blanks.

        

Then a quick touch of colour with my marker pens…….

……stick on the ends pictures……

…….glue them all together and da daaahhh……

        

……a row of coils.

I think I’m quite happy with the result. Do you agree?

No, these are not my coils, this is one of the coil sheds at the docks.

If I can replicate this coil shed with a few more rows of coils, I will be a “happy chappy”

Until Next Time……..

Chris

Update On Modern Industrial Building…………

Well I didn’t get the scalescenes T009 Modern Industrial Building finished like I thought I might do at the weekend, but I did get quite a lot done. It is all coming together quite nicely. I’m pleased that I eventually decided not to build a long line of the of the sheds, as I think it might have been a little fragile.

I was having a bit of a problem trying to secure the roof supports to the walls, as I had tidied away all my small clamps, and I couldn’t for the life of me find them.

         

I think that I may have to invest in another set of these small clamps as I just about had enough. They were not expensive, in fact I think I got them off of Ebay for a couple of pounds for sixteen. They are worth their weight in gold when you run out of hands.

        

Once the main structure was glued and clamped, I set it aside to dry and I then started on the overhead gantry crane that runs the length of the shed. But I have a confession to make. I was so carried away making it, I forgot to take some pictures of the build, and I’m sure not going to take it apart to start again. I did manage to remember to take some pictures of it all finished.

         

I know, I know, I made another mistake. One of the beams should have been put on the other way round, so that the SWL info was on the outside of the crane.

I didn’t notice until it was all finished and all glued up, so it  will just have to stay like that.

I cut out all of  the roof sections and got the glued up, but I haven’t put them in place just yet, as I might just leave them loose so that they can be removed to see the inside. It is not going onto Wynyard Lane as it is too modern, so it is destined  to be an exhibition piece for the office at the docks.

In order to lift the coils that I intend to fill the shed with, the crane is going to have a coil crab made. This shouldn’t be much of a problem, as the kit comes with a spreader beam that I intend to modify to look something like this…..

 

Once the crane is finished, I’m going to make some coils.

Until Next Time…………..

Chris

T009 Modern Industrial Building…………

As promised I have sorted the pictures out, that I have so far, for the T009 Modern Industrial Building from scalescenes. As I mentioned in my previous post, I have ditched the idea of try to replicate a warehouse we have at the docks. It was a task far bigger than I am capable of. So I am just going to build the standard kit. Should be a doddle now then!!

This now, is so simple. Great big pieces to cut out and only one window, WHOOO HOOO.

Just a case of laminating backs to fronts for the top and bottom sections, and there is some very fine strips called “girts” that go on the inside walls of the building.

Once the all of the sections are made up, it’s just a case of marrying the tops to the bottoms.

Once all four walls are built, you have the choice of where you want to put the door or doors. There are three styles of door to choose from. One is a large roller shutter door. The second is a smaller version of roller shutter door and the third is a loading dock option. The one I opted for was the first one. To enable you to place the door where ever you want on the structure, you are supplied with a couple of simple but effective templates. Just simply choose where the door is to be and the draw round with a sharp pencil. then cut out with your sharp knife.

         

Now that you have a hole, you need to trim it with the relevant trim and make the roller shutter door.It tidy’s the edges quite nicely and the door can be made to be either open, closed or in what ever position you require it in. For my scenario, it will be in the up position, so that you will be able to see the steel coils inside the shed.

Now comes the fiddly bit that, which was one of the reasons I didn’t go with the big build. They are no hard to cut out, I sometimes find it quite therapeutic but, when you have hands and fingers like mine, the thought of having to cut out about twenty eight sets of these made me nervous.

         

The little yellow bit is for the support for the rail which the gantry crane will eventually run along.

I don’t think it is going to take me much longer to complete this build, as I now have all of the supports done. The roof is pretty much straight forward. So hopefully I might get it finished this weekend.

Until Next Time…………..

Chris