The Ship Model Forum

Well there we go. I'm building a tug from scratch and I noticed Pieter was also building a tug, we're both building them in 1/700.
I don't know of any tugs that are commericially available in 1/700, so I started wondering, is there any interest in tugboats on this board? Or are Pieter and me the only fools around here?
Please also mention why you would like to build a tug and which one you'd like to build?

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The merchant shipyard

Since I voted too now. I'm building a Project 712 Ocean going Rescue and Salvage tug of the Russian Navy.
My first reason was that she fits in a diorama of the big exercise they did on the Atlantic back in 2005. Afterwards, during the build, I started to like it even more. Instead of looking forward to fitting weapons on a regular warship, I'm starting to look forward to mounting the cranes etc. It's a good and strong looking design too.

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The merchant shipyard

Roel, you a little behind the times were tugs are, here,s 3 of mine, built 10 and 15years ago.

nice build by the way.

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Simple but effective.

Hi Roel ,

I'm also a tug lover , hereby two of my models , both are at scale 1/100 and are RC'ed

Dundrum Bay , harbour tug :

http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/Modell ... /1ndex.htm

Mount's Bay , sea going tug





Regards ,

Laurent

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Scared of Nothing , Always Thirsty

Just call me the "Cereals Box Killer" , I guess

Battlefleet Models make a few:
http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/sh ... ew-03.html
http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/sh ... ew-02.html
http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/sh ... ew-01.html

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De quoi s'agit-il?

I like working boats.

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║ Seasick║
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I've got the Imex 1/200 Smit Nederland tug as well as a couple of 350th ISW Hogas for a diorama I'd like to do. I like the modern cycloidal drive boats too.

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Tracy White -Researcher@Large

"Let the evidence guide the research. Do not have a preconceived agenda which will only distort the result."
-Barbara Tuchman

I love tugs....1/350 would be really great in my opinion.

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A ship is always referred to as "she" because it costs so much to keep one in paint and powder.
Chester W. Nimitz

There are several in 1/700 scale. Dragon gives you a set with carriers, Hasagawa, I think, has a set of Japanese tugs and work boats. Loose Cannon has a Pawnee (Cheerokee class) with brass, Storm King (British WW II), Sunnadin (Allegheny class) and two smaller unnamed harbor tugs. Corsair Armada has the Viero (Bobolink class) with brass. WSW has a very small tug that comes in one of their sets that has a tanker and a freighter.HP has several sets of tugs in their listing, from several Navies and eras too. Jim Shirley had a couple of small tugs in a pier set and even Classic Warships had a tug in a kit of USS California many years ago. I think Combrig has some very early tugs also but I'm not sure.

In 1/350 scale I know of three or four different tugs by Iron Shipwright but I don't build in this scale and can't think of others right now.

Revell, Imex, Lindburg and others have kits in larger scales.

Scale Shipyard (Lee Upshaw) has some RC hulls.

There are a lot of tugs out in the hobby shops.

I voted for RC, as I'm building one at the minute (I'll post some photos when it's done; see the work-in-progress thread on modelboatmayhem.co.uk) but "large scale" is a close second; I've built the Revell harbour tug (it appeared in the MW gallery recently) and have the Lindberg/Pyro diesel tug kit. Although it's a bit modern for my liking, the new Revell 1/200 "Smit Rotterdam" has also caught my eye.

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Model Ship Kit Reviews

Wow, didn't know there were so many tugs available apart from the large number of big Smit RC boats I've seen. In my model shop they don't sell any tugs... So I wondered! Thanks for the reply though, it seems that there are quite a few people that built or are building or want to build one in 1/700.

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The merchant shipyard

I generally prefer 1:350 scale full hull models, but for those waterline ships in 1:700 that I build from time to time, I like to have a tug or something else around to give a sense of scale.

I have built the tug that comes in the Dragon Essex kits. It is a very nice and easily built model. I built mine in the course of three evenings.

Beside me here I have the Combrig harbour set with a British tug from the late 19th Century that eventually ended up in Russia, and the HP Models German Tugs set (x5), although only one of them actually fits the time period that most my ships are from (late 19th, early 20th century).

Pictures of my tug are posted in the pictures thread.

//M

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** lurking after abandoning all projects **

MW Models and the quite, but not entirely unrelated Ship SIG of IPMS Netherlands, have some 1/200 resin tugs available. They are trying to establish 1/200 as a serious tug scale as Heller, Revell and IMAI have issued injection molded tugs in this scale. And you can use railroad scale (Z) and architectural figures on these kits. One of their master builders, Maarten Schonfeld, taught me the balsa/styrene method of scratchbuilding though Maarten uses plastic (toluene based) glues en I'm using superglue (Cyano Acrylate). The MW kits are very nice though a bit expensive. They are too big for my housing situtaion but I did buy one of the kits, the Holland, to see what they are like. Holland as one of the best resin kits I have ever seen but as mentioned before I may not be impartial. I am a member of the ship SIG of IPMS Netherlands though I am not involved in any master building.

I voted yes, for 1/350 commercially available. I think there is a dearth of ancillary ships. It would be great to have an RN Navy Yard visualized, with the usual warships plus their Fleet Auxiliaries.

Just a thought.

Cheers,

Hugh

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1-350 wishes:
RN Cruisers/Destroyers (WW2)
USN Cruisers/Destroyers (WW2 + post war)

I'd like to see larger scales 1/200 & bigger. I've wondered why the plastics people have overlooked tugs and fishing boats for so many years. It seems like a natural, as everyone is familiar with them and there are so many designs.

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Any ship larger than a Destroyer is a waste of metal.

I would like to do a tug set in a 1/700 diorama with the severely damaged HMNZS Leander after the Battle of Kolombangara in the Solomon Islands in 1943. Two Lapwing-class minesweeper/fleet tugs (USS Rail and USS Vireo) assisted in getting the crippled ships back to Tulagi for repairs. Corsair Armada do a nice Vireo kit and sometime in the near future WEM will release the HMNZS Achilles... so a suitably battle damaged HMNZS Leander with a Vireo alongside should not be too much of a stretch.

Hey, guys, and as the man said, the best looking tugs are from Battlefleet models.com - see my harbour dio in the model ship gallery on this web site - go to dioramas and look at entry number 13 - year 2007.

Also my gallery on this site features the NY harbour tug and US Navy tug dio, and the USS Cherokee - all battle fleet models, all 1700.

cheers,

Peter F

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Peter F.

In 1/200 injection molded plastic you have Heller's Jean Bart/Utrecht, Smit Rotterdam and Le Suroit (tug like research vessel). I did the Utrecht in about 1984 and it seemed to be a very accurate and detailed kit, much better detailed than Heller's 1/400 warships which are IMHO rather basic. Heller is gone but the kits still seem to be available. Imai did their small harbour tug (usually Smit Frankrijk) in 1/200 and Revell Germany did this on also. Revell has the new Smit Houston available which is a new and very advanced kit. IMPS rumour has it that Revell Germany originally had a 1/144 kit in mind but was convinced to go for 1/200 in order to fit in scalewise with the other kits available. I just saw a description of the kit on moduni in which this 67 meter long monster is described as a harbour tug.... sigh...
About fishing boats, Heller also did a modern deep sea trawler/factory in 1/200, which was boxed as Bodasteinur last time I saw one. I'd love to see an Icelandic trawler in 1/600 for a Cod War diorama with an Airfix Leander.

The trawlers I'd like to see are the small ones that ply the waters of the west coast. They're really some neat boats and small enough that a large scale model wouldn't be that big. As for tugs, the small harbor tugs are the ones I prefer. Revell and Lindberg had one apiece but they left a lot to be desired.

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Any ship larger than a Destroyer is a waste of metal.

Fully agree with Peter F. - Battlefleet tugs are really good! Here is my latest one - USS Arapaho (AT-68):





More pics here: http://davidbilek.sweb.cz/