scratch-building 1/350 '1915-1920' Dutch-generic-tugboat

[JIM BAUMANN]

how is that for a misleading title !

well now back in 2014 I was engaged in building a model SMS Vulkan-- the WW 1 submarine rescue ship
the plan was ( and is) to present her at the point of the 2 Tugs picking up the tow to take her to Harwich for scrapping
on 04 April in 1919.
the build of the ship van be read here at MW.com

viewtopic.php?f=59&t=154091

The Vulkan is 75 'ish% completed--




back then I was going to scratch-build some ' generic' type tugboats--thinking that would be good enough...
6 years worth of extra obsession and general desire to get things right...
resulted in my re-starting the Vulkan tow project--and agreeing with Maarten Schoenfelds post back 2014 ....

that my tugs were quite wrong!

Beam, sheer, foredeck length, decking etc etc etc

So-- before embarking on building the correct tugs - 1885 German Built RETTER and 1906 Dutch built SCHELDE (I)--
the construction of which will re-continue on in the above posted VULKAN thread

I decided that some scratchbuilding practice of a Dutch style tug would be useful to try and discover the pitfalls prior to comencing the 2 x tug boat build .

So I recycled the more appropriate of the 2 tugs hulls and made a start

the following images stem from 2014









I had added the rubbing strake and capping rail in wire




the typical Dutch type curved covered side-walkway deck I had made in brass




and there it sort of stalled....

as I realised that I had been outed' by Maarten ...


.....]I was not going to get away with any old tug-boat !!

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fast forward to late December 2020....


Ignoring the mild-to severe identity, dimensional and proportional issues...
I made to make a start on this " practice vessel "

I made a new aft engine room deck-house in brass with skylight ports made of wire circles

the decks back thenon Dutch Tugs were -in the main--wood covered--

so making some templates for this on a part made hull-- always good for a new challenge
using the self adhesive edges of post-it- notes spliced and strike-marked for re-assembly off the model

These templates were assembled and re-cut as a 1 piece template and corrected and recuit again
before transferring outlines to ' wood' decking sheet '

fine tuning the fit and installing to the hull ( with the brass deck removed again for access )

I made some rope port openings as ovals ( wire wrapped into coil around 2 drill bits )

these were installed with other pieces of wire to form the curved ends to the brass deck

The edges of this deck had pronounced cappings all round on most of this type of tug .

onto the bridge and wheel house next

more shortly!

JIM B ( learning lots at the moment! )

[JIM BAUMANN]

The bridge on these vessels seem to be often wooden , with a timber capping rail at the top.

I made mine using some gently curved 1/350 PE torpedo net shelving ( WEM Borodino)

The pilot house I cut, bent around and shut from some spare PE ( fittingly! from the Vulkan kit PE )

The simulated implied wood panelling was made using squares of ladder stock and suitable cropped handrail PE

glues on with thinned varnish- the roof was cut of paper and soaked in CA

current status...

==> awaiting paint to dry-- cutting some funnels

more soon

JB

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

This 'generic Dutch' tug is turning out just lovely, Jim! Hope to see it finished.

BTW, 'Generic' would also be a lovely name to put onto the bow, like 'Pacific' or 'Atlantic' - but those were names of German tugs... In Dutch, the name should be 'Generiek'

[marijn van gils]

Beautiful work Jim! And creative 'mis'-use of PE as usual!

Even though I'm eager to watch you model Bretagne, I'm glad you're continuing on this build too.

[JIM BAUMANN]

Hello again!
progress on this model has been steady ,
( as well as the research and unearthing of plans and images for
the " proper " tugs for the Vulkan project ( Dutch Schelde 1906 ) and German RETTER 1885)

Having practice run a scratch-building this ' generic' tug has proved to be a useful exercise--
and should pave the way for rather speedier builds of the 'proper ' tugs.

we shall see...!

The tugs of this era were often distinctive by their huge tall funnels...

These had noticeable funnel rings

To make these-- I cut some recesses into the aluminium tubes that were to be the funnels

with an old KS metals miniature tube cutter

I then made some rings of thin wire that would sit within the grooves

( fiddly to get the size EXACTLY right..!

The result was that one had instant location of rings on funnels, with the
recessing of the rings into the funnel giving an effect of half-round section
and more subtle

With paint it started to look more funnel like

--meanwhile the wheelhouse was glazed with white glue

and I made the stairs-- ( WEM PE Koenig ) as these stairs are narrower than most.
I cut away the PE handrails as I will make my own thinner versions in wire

I made some skylights using some old PE

and installed them

and made the fwd and aft companionways

The trouble with making a generic tug --especially this one... !
that was based on my 6 year old guesswork-from-a-few-photos-woodcarved-hull.......

is that the proportions were not quite right ( long foredeck )

as such the second funnel was basically in the wrong place etc etc

simples-- delete it !

fortunately I have come across some photos of tugs of this type that do only have one funnel...!!

Overall views of current state

More soon

JIM B

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

Hi Jim,

The 'generic' tug is coming along quite nicely!

You noticed there were also tugs with a single funnel: right, these were smaller (having a single boiler) and were mainly used as harbour or inshore tugs.

Hence these also had a broader beam versus the length, about 1:4 instead of 1:6 for the ocean tugs. This 'generic' tug also has the broader beam, so you might easily 'rename' it. Only point is then: the scale is not really 1:350 anymore, but more something like 1:300. But that's no problem either in this case!

[Christian Bruer]

Hello Jim,

wonderful work and details. I will definitely use some of your hints and techniques for my next scratch building project. What a pity that I missed it before I start my Shotton.

[JIM BAUMANN]

Good evening gentlemen and any Ladies ...

herewith a bit more progress on the tug;

Most tug-boats have curved rails over the aft deck-- aft of the tow-point, to prevent the tow-line from snagging or getting caught
on deck-houses, bollards etc etc

These often are--on the real thing, a T-section-- though not ever so deep in section,
=>which is why I abandoned any over scale attempt at creating an T-section and used styrene strip 1 mm wide, pre curved and glues on in slight compression.

Once installed, I ran some slightly stale CA glue (!) ( to give me some time) along the underside on a sharpened cock-tail stick so at to encourage them keep their shape.
On some photos of real tugs of that era, one can discern bracing gussets --on the aft edge

Tugs of this ilk mostly carried 2 boats, often with one under cover and the other in readiness to deploy.

The covered boat port-side was actually a scrap open 1/700 launch, that gained a ridge-back of wire and a canvas covering made of white glue spanning the gap ( more photos of the port side next time.

The Starboard boat was small pulling boat from my (extensive !) scrap-box of bits,
--this gained wooden outer whales ( made of tape cut to size) , a rudder with tiller and some oars.

The railings were cut-and-shut to size -- on most tugs of that era these were 3 bar railing.
On a small vessel such as this, the PE railings can often start to look overpowering,
hence I used the thinnest I could find

==> which for me is still 1/350 WEM Koenig

I under-coated them in light grey-( and they can barely be seen against the background...( just how I like it! )
-and now that they are installed , they will get another coat of white.

next I completed the bulwark bracing; these triangular items ( which are pretty small!)
were made of paper slivers, tacked on with matt varnish.

I added another cowl vent midships aft of the skylight. I had an old plastic item from an unknow donor source
which was suitable; BUT it was solid.
As ever I drilled it out, and honed it until it became acceptable

next on the works list are the mooring bollards, fairlead fwd, anchors, rails on wheel-house roof with a binnacle,
4 x Davits for the boats, make handrails of wire for the stairways, 2 x masts,lifebelts etc etc
mount it on water ( and decide how fast it will be going! !)

so it will keep me busy!

It has been --so far-- an interesting project and great practice for scratch-building the 2 x tugs for the Vulkan tow.

[JIM BAUMANN]

back with a few more details,

all of which are starting to make the model look as a small ship and ergo ...
easing towards completion!

I made the 8 x mooring bits / bollards of a sliver of black paper and 20 thou styrene rod

Here is an image of the Port boat , with its cover made of white glue.

The fairleads were bent up from a small strip of brass, when installed,
the ends were backfilled in situ with thinned white glue to
simulate it being a casting

The companionway stairs had their handrails bent up from thin wire to suit the steep inclines

The Dutch tugs used a huge strong double Samson post rather than the usual quick release hook



40 thou vertical rod and 20 thou horizontal rod

The navigation light lamps sit in L shaped ' boxes' -- these were made of paper
they will be placed on the rails at the edge of the fwd bridge

The tug had some subtle weathering applied to the hull--
YThese vessels show the signs of hard use,
but are never tatty or neglected

-- less is more-- as based on photos.

more soon!

JIM B

[marijn van gils]

Your microscope has again seen some good use recently!

Fantastic work! (as usual)

[Frank Spahr]

Most impressive and dedicated work, as usual - looking forward to the diorama with Vulkan!

[JIM BAUMANN]

Thank you for your kind words gentlemen!

Progress is continuing,

Ahead of the wheelhouse bridge many of these tugs had a framework of metal and wood for a sun awning

There are many different designs-- varying from tug to tug its seems..
This model being a generic ( hybrid!) I chose to make a hybrid frame-work--taking a bit of all of them

this was made of thin wire for the uprights and scrap PE strip to represent the timber outside framing

I was told --by my Tug mentor....
That my Samson towing posts was insufficiently large-- so off came the old ...

and a new one was constructed, thicker material for the uprights, and taller

Pole masts were made of brass tubing with a tapered top section, small curved ' mini-gaffs' (?)
were added of scraps of brass PE handrail longitudinals.

Ratline shrouds were cut from a larger piece of PE

I had added anchors fwd-- boat hoists and various sessions straightening of small sections of handrail
where tweezers had made contact accidentally!



The overall effect is quite pleasing.

next will be mounting the tug on her on water

more soon

JIM B

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

Hi Jim,

Love those beautiful masts, ratlines, the better proportioned and shaped Samson post, and I'm in awe for the awning! And you didn't miss the compass binnacle on top of the wheelhouse.

Maarten

[marijn van gils]

She's coming along beautiful!
It would be a very worthy stand-alone model. Two of those with Vulkan will be spectacular!

[JIM BAUMANN]

Thank you both;

@ marijn

This one being the ' practice run-model '-
this one will be a stand -alone model

cheers
JB

[marijn van gils]

Quite a practice run Jim...

Now I do understand that you will put her in the water as a next step!

[MartinJQuinn]

The overall effect is quite pleasing.

And how! Superb work.

[wefalck]

Somehow, I had missed these recent developments. Strange.

Love those wooden bridges and pilot-houses. Seems they tended to be made from wood in those pre-gyro compass days to reduce the disturbance of magnetic compasses.

As to the funnel(s): are you sure these were reenforcement rings above and below the white band on the funnel itself ? My understanding was that the owners' funnel marks were set onto a kind of sleeve that was slighly larger than the funnel in order to create an air-space inbetween. The reason was that funnels can get quite hot and paints at that time would crack and yellow, so putting the funnel marks on a sleeve kept them longer in a good state.

This may not apply to funnels that were double-walled, as general practice from the 1870s on or so in larger vessels, where each boiler may have its own smoke pipe. The reason again was to prevent the smoke pipes from cooling down, which would have reduced the draught for the fires.

Will keep following the developments ...

[JIM BAUMANN]

Thank you for watching! --your input will also be appreciated.

as for the funnel...--this slightly later design tug I reckoned must have had double wall funnels

( as has mine ...now..!)

I think the rings are for funnel stay take off as well

whereas this one which is an earlier design --does have the sleeves as you suggest

[pascalemod]

Nothing like building a palette cleanser project like a tugboat or something. Im in process of building a generic 1/700 German 20s tugboat with similar walkway covers. So fun to see you do this and an inspiration for the process, in a smaller scale!