FINISHED: Building Sword Fishing boat Andrea Gail in 1/350

[Guido]

Gentlemen �

I�ve been starting a scratch built sword-fishing boat for another forum, but thought some you might be interested to see it here too.

I am building the Andrea Gail from the movie �The Perfect Storm�.
Of cause the real Andrea Gail went down in the storm in 1991, and the boat in the movie was just a representation. Originally I was aiming at build the real Andrea Gail, so I tried finding reference on the net. An evening�s research result presented me with only 2 pictures of the real AG. I was quite obvious that the real AG in her final configuration was completely different from the ship seen in the movie. The type of ship is not uncommon at all, but the AG was heavily modified by her owner. The available information presented me with too little reference to go for the real deal. So I decided to go along the lines of the movie vessel. Her real name is �Lady Grace�. Google her and the AG and you�ll come up with a whole set of good photos and reference, especially if you follow the links to other forum, which in turn, will lead you to private photo collections. Initially planning to build her in 1/700 it became evident that 700th would be too small for my taste so I switched to 350th.
With the main measurements at hand I went to make a sheet �sandwich� representing the main 2 decks: focsle and weather deck. I took a scan of my overhead layout sketch, printed it on a regular sticker, which was then applied to the sandwich.



The rough shape was sanded down with a disk sander.



The shaping took me about 2 hours with a good set of sanding sticks and a smooth-over with a 3M wet-sanding pad.





I am quite satisfied with the result of my first ever scratch-built hull so far. Next I�ll have to fill the tiny gaps between the sandwich layers with putty and smooth it over again.

Wow! It sure feels good to be back in the hobby again and I think I�ve had a pretty good start.

TBC�

Cheers,
Guido

[Christian Bruer]

Hi Guido,

nice to know you are back on your workbench and I'm corious about your progress with this interesting project!

[JIM BAUMANN]

Aha!

you are back in the saddle!!

Great to see you back in action!

JIM B

[Guido]

Thanks guys!

I continue...

Since the AG will be placed in a seabed, I don�t have to worry about the lower hull features.
To get an even surface I glued a piece of sheet to the bulkhead and applied a GMM WT Door to get a sense of scale. In a next step I scribed an uneven pattern of steel deck panels onto the weather deck (made visible with pencil dust) and cut the fishing net chute into the stern. Then the chute is covered up at the deck again, as it is not in used on those swordfish boats.



Next would be the bumper guards around the hull. The sandwich structure of the hull provides me with a good guiding line for the lower bumper guard. I attach a .5 mm round strip from Lion Roar on the stern and let the glue cure thoroughly.



While the glue cures, I start the upper deck construction until fist portion of the bumper guard has dried. Even though this lower bumper guard does not extend fully around the hull on the original vessel I still make it like this here first. It will be cut to proper length later.
Its curing time again and I turn back to the upper deck. The cut-out for the access ladder and the various drilling spots are marked down same as the basic shape and positioning stubs of the wheel house are put in place. Support struts according to the reference at hand are being put in place underneath the deck overhang.



While the starboard bumper guard is being glued on, I use the time to get some detail onto bulkhead. Bit and pieces are being taken mostly from Lion Roar 1/700 PE sets.



With all this done I glue the upper deck in place and attach the bulwarks.



As hardly anything is perfect, there is a gap and a ledge that needs filling around the bulwark-deck seam. I apply Tamiya putty liberally.



Cheers,
Guido

[Dave Rowe]

Very impressive Guido!

[Finland's Jonne]

Guido!

I enjoying very well how you have done!
Continue your great work, Guido!

Jonne

[Guido]

Gentlemen �

Thank you for your encouragement!

After removing and smoothing over, the putty I constructed the cargo hold cover amidships. I spiced it up using L�Arsenal and Tauro PE parts. Then I went on to place the weather deck�s bulwark. It is an Evergreen styrene strip having the height I needed. I pre-shaped it by rolling a thin steel rod. Maybe it would be even easer to fit the bulwark using straight strip and fix it section by section.




Well, it went on OK even though he bulwark is leaning a bit to the starboard inside of the deck. The bulwark should actually be slightly slanted to the inside, but I did not know how to achieve a constant slant, so I went for a straight bulwark.




With the second bumper guard in place I drilled out the scuppers, added the reinforcements at the stern, the handrail along and support struts to the inside of the bulwark. To blend the handrail with the bulwark I added two layers of Elmer�s to the gap between them. It worked out OK, even though this renders the edge of the bulwark a bit uneven.




I turned my attention to the wheelhouse. I took my about an hour to make the layout of the wheelhouse with Photo-shop. I printed the graphic onto a high grade paper and cut the windows and door from the side and back wall. They were then fold and glued to the deck. After having all in good position I infused highly liquid super glue into the paper. The front of the wheelhouse is a separate part. As the front wall on the original vessels consists of 5 panels, each containing a window, arranged in a very flat arc, so that the front of the wheelhouse is ever so slightly curved. The panels are very slim resulting in very thin struts between the individual windows. The easiest way seemed to be to cut one opening and back them with thin rod to simulate the struts.
To the inside of the wheelhouse I added a dashboard, a captain�s chair, and a chart table to the port side of the back wall.




That�s it for today.
Comments, questions and critique are welcome, as usual!

Cheers,
Guido

[Cadman]

That's pretty cool. I've been wanting to see someone do one of those ever since I saw the movie Perfect Storm. Now any thought to modeling a huge wave for her to ride up on?

[LE BOSCO]

Hi Guido
very nice job!! And original!!
I am going to follow your topic
Cordially
le bosco

[Guido]

That's pretty cool. I've been wanting to see someone do one of those ever since I saw the movie Perfect Storm. Now any thought to modeling a huge wave for her to ride up on?

That, of cause, will be the ultimate goal of this build.
I really wonder nobody tried it before. I seriously hope I can make it look credible.

Cheers,
Guido

[les]

Looks real good. I don't know why the manufacturers don't do more models of vessels we see every day. Fishing boats, tugs and the like are in every harbor around the world. There are endless designs to choose. Revell and Lindberg are our only two options and most of their stuff was made in the 50's & 60's.

[Lucky]

Hi Guido
Your job is very beautiful
You built the great wave?

Ciao
Luciano

[J. Soca]

She is taking shape real fast Guido and you have done terrific i'll keep my eyes open for that wave i'd like to see it too...



Jose

[Devin]

Impressive work, Guido. Thanks for sharing. I'm working on bits and pieces of my first ever scratch-build myself, and tutorials like this are a great help.

Just curious, is there a reason you used clear styrene for the fore-deck area, or was it just something you had laying about?

[Guido]

Gentlemen!

Thank you for your interest in my project and your kind words.
I hope to be able to send some more progress report tomorrow.

@ Lucky: Yes I will do the wave, too

@ Devin: The clear styrene is an Evergreen product. It is only 0.3mm thick but is a lot stiffer than any other sheet material of the same thickness. I prefer it much over any other product to make platforms and flying decks. If you take a wet sanding pad and roughen up the surface you can draw onto it with a pecil and still have a see-thourgh effect: It helps me much when alining stuff.

Cheers,
Guido

[roy allen]

Lovely piece of work Guido

Hope the wave works out, only ever seen one real freak wave up close.
Don't want to see another one.
But will be able to deal with one in 1/350

Roy

[Guido]

Gentlemen-

Modest progress has been made this week.
I had Mark Walberg and George Clooney visiting the yard. They put on their wet suits (George with pants only, Mark with full dress) and took their places in the wheelhouse.



I put on the roof, but forgot to take a photo. So you have to wait until the curtain is raised again.
I know that it makes things complicated, but I do like to make and paint the small parts separately. So I am finished with the major construction: Time to paint! I painted the decks and wheelhouse white/greyish white. The come the hull colour. Masking first



� and then the green for the hull. I am using Mitsubishi Navy Green from WEM: A most beautiful green and IMHO pretty close to what I need. Weathering will darken it.



While paints are drying I start with the base just to have an idea. 1/350 asks for a really big base, if you want to have an impressive wave.



Tomorrow I hope to finish the hull�s second layer of colour coat and start to make the paper templates for the overhead fishing gear.

Cheers,
Guido

[LE BOSCO]

HI Guido
Your project promises to be great!! I love it really!
Bye
the bosco

[Guido]

Gentlemen-

Thank you for your kind comments.


I have been using the weekend for some more modest progress. I finished painting the hull and gave it a coat of Revell dull coat. It isn�t exactly dead-flat, but the slight sheen seems just right for scale effect.





After a day of drying, I applied a black wash of oil paint. First time I do that to a ship model, to keep my resolve to try something new with every build. Here the wash it still wet, which makes it kind of prominent in the pictures:





I plan to apply another coat of dull clear coat, which should blend the dirt effect of the wash with the background. I hope it will.

As oil washes need notoriously long time to dry, I was getting ready to continue with the base, but I wasn�t in a mood for all the dirt with the styrofoam, so I started with the overhead fishing gear.



Next will be the forward gear or the base. I don�t know yet.


Cheers,
Guido

[Dave Wooley]

Hi Guido This is an all together different project , it has charm and it has character , seldom if ever seen on a warship model . , looking forward to seeing more.
Dave Wooley