1/350 French coastal merchant Golo - first scratchbuild

[PetrOs]

Hey

For my coastal convoy diorama I needed a small coastal freighter, and in 1/350 scale you have none ready. So, I finally overcame my fear of scratching a "whole damn ship", and went out to search for the plans, and found a free set of fine plans (at french historic service page) of a 1936-built, french 1300 tons coastal freighter Golo, which looked exactly like the one I imagined for my dio! I have no idea of the ship's destiny or service, except a guess that it was probably a navy auxilliary, as the 1935 plans provide quite heavy armament for such a small vessel - 2 75 mm and 2 37 mm guns. Anyways, I went to build it. After considering gluing some balsa blocks together and sanding it all, I finally went for a more classic frame and plank hull. I used 1mm ABS plastic from the local RC shop to cut the central support structure and frames, and 0.8mm balsa for the base plate. After gluing the frame, i planked it using 0.8mm balsa on the flatter areas, and CA-soaked paper for more curved ones. I filled the bow and the stern with some polyester resin, as well as using the same resin to reinforce the paper skin from inside, so no holes appear while sanding. Afterwards, I added the decks (same 0.8 mm balsa) and applied a lot of squadron green putty (the tube was getting to dry to use further, anyways) to fix the stern and bow form defects, and to cover balsa, as well adding some CA-paper false board in the middle area. Now it shall dry overnight, for tomorrow sanding session.

So far, I am happy with my first effort, and scratchbuilding looks much easier for me now - just took some 9 hours of non stop work to get where I am now..

[PetrOs]

And 3 more photos

[Dave Wooley]

Hi PetroOz Good to see another fine scratch build taking form.
Dave Wooley

[PetrOs]

So, the hull is quite done, i am happy with its form and surface now. Only remaining job before painting it is to add more bulleyes in the rear part (24 to be exact, 12 per side), add water protection above them. Then I could go engraving the decks. In fact, I planned to leave the front and rear decks natural balsa color, but when priming the hull some grey primer soaked into the deck sides, so probably a paint job for me. Maybe I'll stain it and then partially sand it off..

I also ordered a large amount of fittings for it, including
Battlefleet models Winches, Capstans and Windlasses (in 1/700, but I could use the larger ones for the small cargo winches), L'Arsenal Liberty ship upgrade set (to share it with a planned Liberty ship), Corsair Armada Chocks, Battlefleet Bollards, L'Arsenal handwheels, WEM steering wheels... Just to make my life easier. I also located a number of boats from different kits to make some copies using polyester resin and kids modelling clay as a single-use form material (I plan to close the boats with canvas covers...). Thanks guys who helped me in selection!

As I have no idea who was the ship's user or how was its destiny, I just decided to use the IMHO most attractive paint scheme for a french pre-war shipping company (Thanks John@WEM for a list) G. Lamy & Cie.: black hull, red boot-topping, "yellow stone" superstructure, white boats. Shall bring some fresh colors to my shelves

[Mike Reading]

I admire the progress you have made to the model, and glad you were able to work out a method that works for you. In the end that's what achieves a satisfying model. Yes it's good to talk to other modellers and get their ideas. But I always prefer to think it through and decide how I would like to go from A to B in making the model.

Look forward to seeing your further photos. I'm currently doing a 1:600 scale waterline model of USS Missouri, and prior to that I did HMS Cornwall. I posted some photos of both in work in progress and completed models, respectively.

Regards
Michael

[Neptune]

Looks great! Good to see another person give it a try and again a new method of building! Great results so far. We're all learning again.

[Jean-Paul Binot]

Congratulations for this innovative build of an obscure but very attractive French support vessel.

Golo is the name of a coastal river in Corsica that was used to name at least 4 different auxiliary vessels of the French navy, the most famous being an auxiliary cruiser in the Great War (this was Golo II. The ship you are modelling is Golo III) I could not find much on the history of that ship, except that she was built in 1933 to serve as a coastal transport and was an ancestor to the amphibious force of the French navy. Her successor was a LST transferred from the US Navy in 1946 that served in Indochina.

I have found on the internet a photo of the Golo III in 1942.

[PetrOs]

Hey

Huge thanks! A very nice photo, and some very useful information, indeed! Seems it was a navy aux, so the civilian shipping colors would not fit... Any idea which colors would a navy auxiliary have in late 39 or early 40?

[Jean-Paul Binot]

I really do not know, but I guess that light grey overall with steel decks in dark grey and natural wood would do fine. You coudl afford some touches of bright colors with the ship's boats. The bridge seems to bave been open and there were metallic supports for awnings that would have been white, yet another opportunity to add some color. Black anchors and chain.

[PetrOs]

Thanks!

She's making some good progress now, all the bulleyes are drilled out, and Im adding the rain covers over them, and its about 80 of them..