The Ship Model Forum

Please note:

I have recently sold the business of Chylds Hall Model Shipyard business to Adam Slater at Mountfleet Models. He now has all the plans, moulds, patterns and rights of production for the models I designed and marketed, including this little Picket Boat and the German Destroyer of 1914 (build also on this forum).

I enjoyed designing and building these models and I would like to thank all the modelers around the world who helped with construction suggestions and research information.

Happy modelling

Steve (Picketboat)

THIS NOTE IS FOR THE SITE ADMINISTRATORS

I do not have any more to add to this picket boat build, having finished it with some on the water pictures. Is it a suitable addition to the "completed build" section? I leave it up to you.

Many thanks. :thumbs_up_1:

She is a lovely wee model and performs absolutely beautifully, quite astonishing workmanship.
It was great to see her on the water Steve.

Neptune

Yes compared to the model the pond is BIG, however I was amazed how buoyant and sea worthy it was. This is certainly an indication of the thought that went into the design of the hull on the original vessel and this shows up when the model is seen riding over some quite large (out of scale) waves.
The 5mm plastic coaming around the edge of the main deck aperture (and hidden under the boiler house roof) was essential to keep water out of the hull. If I build another one I will certainly consider fitting a small smoke generator (with its own 6v power supply) as there is more than enough hull capacity and buoyancy.

That's a pretty awesome pond! And a pretty small boat, still surprised by its size compared to its surroundings (= builder). :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1:

Hi all

Well that just about finishes off this picket boat model. The figures were installed and the only thing left was to take a few more pictures of the finished model sailing, this time with the crew aboard. A perfect opportunity came up at the recent [b]Scottish National Model Warship Weekend[/b] in Glasgow.

The sun was shining, there was only a light breeze and there were plenty of models on the water. The little picket boat set off from the dock, out of the harbour mouth on its way to deliver the "Admiral" to his ship. The sequence of pictures below tell the story. Many thanks to Doug Kinloch from Edinburgh MBC for taking the pictures.

The more observant of you will notice that the ship involved is in fact a WW2 Flower class corvette. There was unfortunately no 1/48th scale Pre-Dreadnought at the show (surprise surprise). Never mind the correctly scaled corvette made a nice substitute. A nicely built model in it's own right and I'm very sorry that I failed to get the name of the builder.

I hope everyone who followed the build found it both interesting and informative. Thanks for the positive comments posted by forum members.

I shall now be getting back to building the 1/48th scale Russian Torpedo Gunboat "Kazarski" (1890). When I progress a little further I shall start posting details.

Hi all

The figures are all cast with bases, as the casting process requires a reservoir of liquid resin to fill any gaps in the figure as it sets. The bases look just like any other stand or base seen on war gaming figures, however, they would look pretty silly on the deck of a ship model. Removing the figure from its base is easy and involves exactly the same process as removing any other cast resin fitting from a casting base. A fine blade fret saw was used and again the blade follows the surface of the base and there is little loss of material (ie the bottom of the figures feet).

Mounting the figures on a model requires a little thought. I used a 0.5mm drill and pin vice to drill up into one of the figures' legs approximately 8mm. I then inserted a short length (30mm) of 0.5mm brass wire securing it with CA. Having decide the location of the figure on the model the deck was drilled with a 0.5mm drill and the figure was installed. Obviously the figure can be glued in place but it is also possible to [b]not[/b] use glue so the figures can be removed or swapped. The wire inserted into the deck should be at least 20mm long to reduce the chances of "man overboard" particularly on working models. On models of 1/48th scale a 0.5mm hole in the deck is barely visible.

One of the figures was in a kneeling pose and was cast inverted, ie standing on its head. This was so that the detail on the underside where its feet and legs met the deck were not lost in an amorphous casing mass. Again this was sliced of the base using the above process.

Dabber56

Thanks for your comments. I will contact you via PM.

Very clever Steve, in time will you be making these figures available....

:thumbs_up_1:

Hi all

Well that pretty much finishes off the construction of these figures, some of which which were designed as a finishing touch for this picket boat model. As I said previously, there are seven figures in total, (see pictures below) but not all were intended for use on the picket boat, despite the fact they were all in suitable period clothing for 1900.

All I need to do now is to show how the figures were mounted on the finished model.

The figures have been an interesting little side project, and I would at some time in the future like to make some more, possibly a gun crew for the 12 pound QF gun on my HMS Velox model, but in the meantime I must get on with other more pressing projects.

Sandy

I will see you at the National Model Warship Weekend when all will be revealed and we can discuss your project in detail. I will bring some motors for you to see. The Belgian contingent seem to be experts on the "sub miniature" RC equipment. They were showing me how they use dismantled servos for their models. Brilliant.

Hi Steve,

They look great. Will you be selling them? :smallsmile:

Away from home at the moment but looking forward to seeing you at NWW (I'll be there Saturday only though).

Since I missed your sailing visit with the launch I am very keen to see it and talk about how you electricised it.

I am thinking of r/cing the Revell 48th scale PCF, but I don't think I have quite as much weight to play with.

The Belgians are coming over again this year and they seem masters at lightweight R/Cing using mobile phone electric motors.

I may need to buy a couple of those littel motors from you...

Apologies for not sending an email and breaking into your thread.

See you soon.

All the best
Sandy

Hi all

And three more finished figures. These are destined for the picket boat model. The Officer and the seated sailor will be in the aft cockpit and the kneeling sailor adjusting the mooring lines (in white duck working uniform with bare feet) will be in the bow. The cast resin bases will be removed with a fine fret saw and a brass 0.5mm wire fitted into the legs (as a locating pin) to help secure the figure to the model.

Thanks Chrischan

I also produced a couple of figures which are not for the picket boat, but are in the same vintage uniforms so will be suitable for my other late Victorian RN vessels. Here is the finished signaller complete with semaphore flags. The flags were added to the cast resin figure using brass wire and aluminium adhesive tape. The aluminium tape makes it easy to animate the flags.

Hi Picketboat!

That's a great result. These figures will definately add
a decent amount of „liveliness” to your boat.

Regards

Chrischan

Hi all

Well this is the moment of truth. You never really know how well these moulds work until you try them out.

I poured the resin and increased the pressure pot internal pressure to 50 psi.

Not bad results in the end. OK so it's not exactly "Games Workshop" quality but for home produced figures they are not too bad. There was a small amount of very thin, and thus easily removed, flash along the mould seam. The "walking sticks were very easily removed with small side cutters. These served their purpose very well and there was no loss of limbs.

Beards and chins are a slight problem with small air bubbles trapped under the figures chins on some de moulds. A fine incision in the RTV mould,vertically under the chin allowed the bubble out. The resulting "web" under the chin was easily removed on the de moulded figure.

Hi all

Here you can see the secondary incisions into to RTV mould (at 90 degrees), which make it possible to extract the figures with out-stretched arms and "walking sticks". Next I pour resin.

Hi all

It was at this point I did a little calculation and figured I had spent about as much time working on the seven figures as I had making up pretty much all of the picket boat model !!!!!!!!

The next stage was to remove the figures (masters) from their entombment within the RTV silicon rubber. This is a little tricky and needs a sharp scalpel, a steady hand and a good light.

I started at one end and making an incision along the mid line, making repeated cuts, until I met approximately the side line of the figures, then continuing along to the next figure. Pulling the mould apart as I went along was a bit difficult (you sort of need three hands for this) but eventually I went all the way along and half the mould came away. The figures were still captivated by their out stretched arms and "walking sticks" so secondary incisions were made at 90 degrees until I came to the "walking sticks" . The figures were then carefully removed. The mould was checked and fitted back together and secured with three small rubber bands.

I was now ready for casting.

Hi all

The next stage was to fill the plastic card box with RTV silicon rubber, carefully measured and catalysed in this case with slow (blue) catalyst. This had previously been de gassed in a vacuum chamber to 18 inches of mercury. The whole mould was then put into a pressure chamber and left overnight at 50 psi. The following day the walls of the mould were removed.