WW1 Royal Navy paddle steamer mine-sweeper in 1/350

[JIM BAUMANN]

Hello al!

with the completion of the Winston Churchill sailing schooner
viewtopic.php?f=59&t=165003
I vowed to build a steam ship as the next project..

Here we go!

Racecourse Minesweepers of WW1 HMS Athelstone
==================================

She is the only ship of the class for which I could find a photo which had the pilothouse left as a panelled unpainted wood structure
( as per the side elevation image of the IWM model of HMS Ascot ( alas in IWM storage...)
and the above image

The model will be built using the much lauded HMS Ascot kit from AJM Models of Poland
reviewed here @ Modelwarships.com
viewtopic.php?f=84&t=159972

and built here by Felix Bustelo (who is the moderator @ Steel Navy)
http://www.steelnavy.net/AJMModelsHMSMe ... stelo.html

Potted history of the real ship: ( lightly abridged from wikipedia! )
=============================================

Built by Ailsa SB at Troon in Scotland, she was launched on 14 April 1916. For the rest of the war she served with the Auxiliary Patrol. Post war she was transferred to the Mine Clearance Service.

at the end of WW1 She was sold to The New Medway Steam Packet Company on 12 August 1927 and converted for excursion work on the Medway and Thames.
She was renamed Queen of Kent. For the next twelve years she could be found working from Sheerness and Southend.
Regular excursions took her to Gravesend, Margate, Clacton and Dover as well as cross-channel voyages to Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk.


In September 1939 she was requisitioned by the Admiralty for minesweeping duties once more and commissioned as HMS Queen of Kent, pennant number J74.
For Operation Overlord in June 1944 she was stationed at Peel Bank off the Isle of Wight as the Mulberry Accommodation & Despatch Control Ship.
Subsequently she was stationed at Dungeness.
After the war she was returned in 1946 to her owners to recommence excursion work around the Thames Estuary.


In January 1949 she was sold to Red Funnel and transferred to Southampton.
After refitting at Thorneycroft's yard at Northam she was commissioned in the spring as the company's second Lorna Doone.
For the next three years she operated excursions from Bournemouth in the summer.

She was finally withdrawn and scrapped by Dover Industries Ltd at Dover Eastern Docks in 1952.

====================================================================================================================

The plan is to build the 1/350 version as the RN Minsweeper HMS Atheslstone, and the 1/700 version in civilian service with Red Funnel lines
as the excursion steamer Lorna Doone, pertient to me as I live near Southampton on the Solent--the erstwhile steaming ground of Lorna Doone.

onwards with the HMS Athelstone !

The kit at first sight does look pretty good and comprehensive; the wooden deck( which I usually don't like to use- preferring a painted deck)
in this instance looks sharp and subtle

First job was to remove the huge casting flange block on the underside

To be able to portray a ship at speed I always add a layer to the underside , so as to be able to have the underwater portion showing midships in the typical displacement wave pattern of bow wave, stern wave and a hole in the middle!

Lacking a huge plank of styrene--- I used some square section evergreen

It gives a stable base and a sharp guide line for the underwater portion of the ship

Some of the parts have been rapid prototyped -digitally printed I think-- some of the smaller structures showed the typical Layer ribbing on the flat surfaces, r
removed with a quick pare of a Stanley blade

The hull also had some marks of that ilk I think ( highlighted here with Graphite dust

The first thing thereafter I did was to check the wood deck fit....

which alas was not entirely ideal, being a bit over-length on the weather deck and over-width on the paddle boxes.

The fore and aft location I optimised by removing a bit at both extremities, the lateral width problem was not as easliy re-solved-- as the margin planking even if partially removed would have looked odd.

I elected to shim outboard the paddleboxes, and build up the angled planes fwd and aft--
quite fiddly with much checking the deck against the unglued paddleboxes and for symmetry

( small tabs of double-sided tape on the paddleboxes and a sharp pencil were the key method!)

My paddleboxes had a casting offset on the inboard side- my shimming was not pretty

The enlargement of the fwd and aft facets were made piecemeal with strips of styrene

More soon

Jim Baumann

[Jabberwock]

Pop-corn and beer opened in anticipation.

Cheers, Jabb

[JIM BAUMANN]

Hi Jabberwock!

building anything ...? Telford this year?

meanwhile...

The challenges continued!

getting the paddle boxes to align athwartships correctly relative to the fore and aft position versus the enforced compromise of the deck...

The useful position blocks I reduced in size to gain fore and aft wiggle room ( in fractions of a mm albiet! )
--along with the cast on paddle box access doors--I shall replace them with PE items

It is possible that my hull's resin may shrunk slightly?

either way I had fit issues with the deck v. the hull

Nothing insurmountable

but more time

I was not completely happy about the edge of the rubbing strake around the paddle box,
as such I sanded it down in size to a squarer edge to allow me to make a crisp and tidy job
of the whole e thing once the boxes were installed with a strip of thin styrene strip

Infuriatingly --after staring at photos--I realised that there was a bit of an issue again with the portholes... (!!)

It seems the same hull casting was used for the WW2 Thanet version of the kit as the WW1 Ascot version...
Aarghhh!!

As a Navy built ship she had an upper row of portholes only
the lower portholes were added after WW1 in civilian service...

here is Athelston in her inter-war pleasure steamer guise as Queen of Kent- with lower portholes

and as its should be in WW1....

as can be seen on the Ascot builders model and every other image of the ship in W1 service... ( see image in my previous posting)

Hmnnn...

so this is the current status quo-- "HMS Porcupine..."

more soon

Jim Baumann

[Stefano Salesi]

a paddle minesweeper...that's so...so...so...steampunk?

that is really interesting!!!

[Jabberwock]

Hi Jabberwock!

building anything ...? Telford this year?

Still persevering with a Liberty and loads of add-ons.

Sadly won't be there, the 'Telford Show' entry in my social diary was crossed out in crayon and a subsequent, spouse initiated appointment, has been added in!

This looks really interesting tho' - will be following closely!

All the best Jim

Jabb

[Bouncy70]

a paddle minesweeper...that's so...so...so...steampunk?

that is really interesting!!!

Almost as steampunk as a paddle aircraft carrier! (Even one without a hangar.)

[JIM BAUMANN]

Sadly deceased Modelwarship scratchbuild supporter Bill Waldorf created a fabulous model in large scale of USS Wolverine

Paddle driven Aircraft carrier (! )

just google Bill Waldorf Wolverine...

( edit JB !! ) and right here:==> right here at modelwarships.com !!

http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/sh ... p2/p2.html

link to other images
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=bill+ ... 80&bih=611

[JIM BAUMANN]

Onwards and backwards..(???!)

The kit rather disappointingly seems to have issues...

...a minor issue is that the forward hollow tumble-home is insufficiently deep


the real thing has rather more than the kit ( photo courtesy of screenshot of IWM image )

I shall at this stage live with it ...and use some subtle shading to accentuate the slight hollow tumblehome that is there

A rather bigger issue is the virtually entire absence of any sheerline ( deckspring )

The real ship and the builders model demonstrably have quite a bit

The model sadly quite evidently does not have any discernible spring

Fortunately I have devised a cure...

will report after the cure ( or destruction!)

Best wishes

JIM B

[Bouncy70]

The best of luck with that... a ship without sheer just looks wrong.

[JIM BAUMANN]

Note to self...

....So you want to retrospectively induce the sheerline...... ?

well here is how I did it.
=============================

I drilled two 5.5 mm holes in the ship, countersunk the holes deeply enough so that
the bolt-heads were below the deck level and installed 2 x M5 stainless steel bolts.

I ensured I had clearance for 'wiggle' room as well not risking the resin hull casting splitting ...
These were glued in with epoxy from underneath and flooded with CA from above

I took the base of the glass case--which is made of solid mahogany framing with an MDF insert.
I drilled matching 6 mm holes

The rise and fall of the displacement wave pattern and the bow and stern wave was laid out with cocktail sticks glued in place

This was covered with artists textured watercolour paper ( as per my usual method described in much greater detail here)

link: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=37223

Fortunately I had previously added that thick square strip of styrene along the perimeter of the hull to give some waterline play

I sanded this out ( carefully!) so that at the centre of the hull the the styrene was sanded away almost completely,
then tapering out evenly fwd and aft-,with more material removed from the stern
than towards the bow ---
==> which needed to be higher with a more pronounced sweep

Placed on its base without the washers and nuts drawn up on the underside,

it looked like this, evidently showing the hollow that had been created

Once the nuts were drawn up

( and every 1/4 of a turn allowed me to 'tune' the sheerline to my liking)

The hollow was sucked down with the nut tension and the result was that "we " now have a sheerline ,
that looks akin to the photos of the real ship as well as the builders model.

So now onwards with making progress...



So as to create the deck-camber --which is noticeable on these ships

I added a thin strip of styrene down the centreline of the casting

The wooden deck will be glued down at both outer edges--
very gently curving over this centre spine,
==> thereby giving the desired deck camber



After that slight setback of changing the hull shape...(!)

I added the distinctive and visible deck-edge strake, made of thin copper wire,

this was surprisingly tricky to accomplish neatly

JIM B

[Devin]

Nice work, Jim. I have this kit in the stash and have nearly started it on several occasions. That you're fpointing out all the issues for the rest of us.

[marijn van gils]

Interesting project, and great work so far!

How did you go about attaching the deck-edge strake? Simply a lot of pre-bending to get the wire strait and conforming to the curves, then gluing section by section with superglue while adjusting the wire as you go? Or is there more to it?

Cheers,

Marijn

[JimVarnellABH2USN]

Hey Jim,
Fantastic work there, I too someday would like to build a paddle wheeled steamer but got to burn threw my stash still. I am going to be following along this build closely....................learning

[Strategos Augustus]

Great work Jim sorting the sheerline and the deck camber!

Looking satisfying so far!

[JIM BAUMANN]

Progress continues in fits and spurts!

I was a little bit bothered about the " flatness" of the hull; certainly plating runs are visible in some images.

I concluded that sometimes less-is-more and rather than emulate complete plating - which easily could look too busy-
-I opted for a single run

I was next bothered by the lack of sharpness/ definition of my potholes

certainly these had a profile--which in model-form--would help define them

I started making porthole frames of thin wire --this was formed into a spiral ' spring' around a drill shank,
then cut off in sets of two,

then halved to make circles.
...........tedious --but strangely... satisfying!

once installed it looked a bit more pleasing

I know I know-... -albeit it overscale--but in the overall perception of the model by the viewer...
( I hope ) it will blend...

next will be making the eyebrows on the hull side portholes -- ( but seems there are none on the paddleboxes)

meanwhile cowl vents....

The kit supplied items to my eyes are incorrect in shape--being too oval in the mouth.
I have started preparing some spare plastic items of the correct ( ish) diameter

I shall mount the cowls on piece of brass / copper/ aluminium tubing for the various heights

Meanwhile--as a pleasant diversion I assembled delightful photo-etched paddle wheels .
==>and then ... as the model is being presented in a waterline format, "brutally" cut away the surplus !

More soon!

Jim Baumann

[wefalck]

Quite impressive the paddle-wheel including the various levers at this scale ...

[JIM BAUMANN]

@ Marjinn who wrote;

How did you go about attaching the deck-edge strake? Simply a lot of pre-bending to get the wire strait and conforming to the curves, then gluing section by section with superglue while adjusting the wire as you go?

My apologies for no response yet --

I did not pre-bend the wire per se-- I straightened and stretched the copper wire ( tinned 38swg) between pliers for each length.

I attached one enc with CA--and with the hull supported on its side ( tricky with the paddle boxes! ) I then laid the wire down and tacked it on with CA

I eyeballed it to straight--and the infilled with more CA from above--ie deck to strake--this filled the ' valley' twixt casting an wire.

afterwards with 1500 grit gave it a light sand from above to make flat
HTH

JB

[JIM BAUMANN]

further good but slow progress;

I had removed the cast on doors each side of the paddleboxes early on for my convenience ( to ease the adjustment of fit)

however closer inspection of photos shows the doors to have been fitted inter-war for civilian service ease of access

The paddlebox surround platform access being via ladder in initial WW 1 naval service

I have sanded all the wooden decks down a bit with 1500 grit for more subtlety and less contrast of the caulking lines.
I also scraped down the butt join lines to be less prominent

I added a thin piece of wire at the fwd end of the aft deck to induce a bit of camber there also at the fwd end
This has worked well-- being " almost " not noticeable...

Off to Telford in 48 hours (!) --so will pick up when we get back!

JB

[Strategos Augustus]

It's nice to see the effect of the camberwire (if I may coin that) although it is difficult to communicate the effect fully via photograph.

I bet it is more noticeable to the touch and in person.

[JIM BAUMANN]

Hello all again!

after the excitement of Telford, normal service has resumed.
I wanted to get the hull mounted as it did not want cause inadvertent damage to paint or ( very sharp!) bows etc

but before I could do that In needed to get eyebrows installed

These were made from a spiral of very fine copper wire cut into circles then cut into semi-circles
These were applied to the hull using thinned paint-

-when set another light coat with a brush over the top rendered them more subtle

there are quite a lot of them, ad an awful lot of failed copper wire half circles on the floor !

I noticed that some of the structures on deck had a distinctive strake/ capping on them

I made mine using thin wire bent and installed in situ--( not without failures! )

withe the recess of wire to structure top filled with white glue and then painted it all became more pleasing to the eye
( the garish bright grey has since been toned down! )

The hulll has now been mounted and is much easier to manhandle!!!

More soon

Jim Baumann