Building SMS Vulkan (sub-rescue ship )and its tugs in 1/350

[marijn van gils]

P1100782.jpg

And it starts to look like a ship already! Beautiful!

[JIM BAUMANN]

Good day all, after a bit of a Summer hiatus-- caused by overworking in 1:1 scale business,
relaxing after the business with the family! - , good weather => classic cars, beach and out-doorsey stuff...

with the onset of English autumn weather I am back at it--
still working on the Schelde 1 Tug.

recent works ;


Finished off the bulwark strengthening gussets, made a radio shack (from a wooden block with paper roof)
located the funnels
and started to install some of the railing...

The railing aft and fwd is rigid--the pieces of railing between the funnels are of collapsible stanchions and droopy cab;e to allow them to be lowered and or removed for boat launching.
I used rigid railing for both varieties ( old over-etched-ergo very thin ) WEM Koenig PE railing
and then gently -once installed --deflected the longitudinal 'cable' to make droopy cable

The rails ahead of the bridge ( where originally as built- the wooden palisade was) now had canvas dodgers on rails

quite some time was expended to cut and shut the railings so as to ensure stanchion placements resembled the real thing
and to allow for the cambered foredeck !

There was a raised bulwark at the extreme fwd end of the foredeck, which took some fettling to make !

The davits for the stb boat have a most odd arrangement, one which I have not to date seen anywhere else
the procedure to actually launch a boat looks pretty complicated requiring removal of funnel stays , railings etc
so I reckon...- not to be done in a proper hurry it seems!

the 'annotated-by-me excerpts ' of the plans should be self explanatory

translating this into miniature without becoming over-scale will be an interesting challenge...
a start has been made;

more progress update shortly !

JIM B

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

Oooh Jim,

SCHELDE is really becoming a GEM! I'm really so happy I spent effort to get you the plans of the real thing! You're doing them justice!

Maarten

[Iceman 29]

I don't know how you manage to work on such small things, it's very successful.

Even the camera is struggling.

Well done anyway, can't wait for the next part.

[Fliger747]

Yes, it's micro surgery!

Cheers: Tom

[maxim]

Great that there is again progress!

This davits are interesting - probably an attempt to make launching easier.

[Harpy]

Really nice!

[JIM BAUMANN]

Thansk you for all your supportive comments!

there has been a bit more recent progress,.
The 3 x cowl vents were made from some spare cast items I had from an unknown source.
By the time that the ship was in German hands, the vents were made rather taller than as originally built-
-to clear the radio-shack as well as the increased height of the bridge

these cast vents were hollowed out and fitted with a thin wire rim on their fwd face to increase the aperture size of the cowl

subsequently whilst perusing the plans very close up--I reckoned that the cowl flare needed to enlarged slightly
( not by too much--just to be 'suggested..'.

I did this by adding a secondary slightly larger diameter circle of thin wire to the cowl--
and with paint the 'flare' became just apparent

my interpretation
of the unusual layout davits has been made and installed;

along with a ships boat being carved and
fitted with a cover made of white glue-over-a-brass-wire ridge-pole.

At the same time the masts went up... a near-parallel lower tube mast with a tapered section above the ' step'

In the image I have of the vessel in German navy ownership, she is carrying a gaff on aft mast and extended height thin pole masts
--I reckon for WT ariels

At first I was un-nerved by the differing mast total heights relative to the funnels as shown on the plan-as-built

but breathed a little easier after further study of the the image below of Schelde in German hands !

Next challenge is the towing hook set-up...
According to my Dutch Mentor...( Maarten!) ...

Tugs in Dutch ownership traditionally always used the large Towing bollard twin Sampson posts -

But by the time the Tug was under the command of the Imperial German Navy
who eschewed the bollards in preferring a quick release hook system;

it is highly likely that she would have been fitted
with a conventional quick-release hook set up--

this would have been grafted on to the Sampson posts

perhaps in the spirit of manner of this image of a modern equivalent

but in the style of this contemporary German tug ( card) model

and also as seen on the builders model of the German Tug Retter ( 1885)
who shared the Vulkan Towage with Schelde

lets see how I get along!

JIM B

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

Hi Jim,

I'm hot on your heels! And what you're doing is marvellous! The ventilator cowls are beautiful indeed!

Just one critical remark: now I see a photo (P1110427.jpg) squarely from the side: is the forward funnel taller than the aft one? Shouldn't they be of the same height? Looking at the drawing I think they are...

[wefalck]

Here is a my model of a late 1860s German tug (after the text book on iron-shipbuilding by Steinhaus), where he drew this combination of bollards and towing-hook (the hook itself was not drawn, but I took it off the RELIANT in the NMM):

[JIM BAUMANN]

Maarten wrote....
>> is the forward funnel taller than the aft one? Shouldn't they be of the same height? Looking at the drawing I think they are...<<


a good bit of spotting !

-- that is a good point- and...==> or would be..-as my fwd funnel IS indeed fractionally taller than the aft funnel....

...==> relative to the waterline....

because--as you will recall -- the drawing is level with the KEEL-Line--not the waterline....

ergo -- with the drawing adjusted to be level the Waterline....

my funnels are .... spot -on !

see images below:

Ha!
( probably as much luck as judgement! )
=====================================================================

meanwhile however=spurred onwards -- I managed to make the towing hooks grafted onto the bollards
small slivers of brass PE and wire, nickel-silver scrap PE, white glue and brass PE hooklets...

( its wet thinned matt varnish all over the decks !!

with a splash of paint they looked quite agreeable.

Finished the evening off with painting the masts and making the fwd anchor Hawse-pipe surrounds

more progress shortly --onwards to completion.

JIM B

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

Jim,

Thank you! You fully convinced me, I guess I was not fully aware the waterline in the drawing is several degrees off. You're a hero!

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

Jim,

Thank you! You fully convinced me, I guess I was not fully aware the waterline in the drawing is several degrees off. You're a hero!

Again looking at photos of the ship she seems to are deeper in the water by her stern -- which is indeed the case even to the extend that the 'verticals' are canted backwards!

The towing hooks look beautiful!

[JIM BAUMANN]

Maarten wrote:

>>> which is indeed the case even to the extend that the 'verticals' are canted backwards! <<<


Indeed that is true when standing still...( must be quite horrible standing on a steeply sloping wheelhouse floor !! )

but ....---under way the stern lifts and the whole vessel stance 'flattens out'-- note the funnel angles change relative to the waterline.

[JIM BAUMANN]

WEFALK wrote;

...>> Here is a my model of a late 1860s German tug...<<



That looks sharp--what scale and where can I find some images of this model?
Intrigued and interested!

JIm B

[marijn van gils]

Great to see you back at the bench Jim! Wonderful and inspirational modelling as always!

[JIM BAUMANN]

Hello Gentlemen !

amazingly this model is nearing completion-- even though my available model building time has been in short supply recently!

the small stuff is always intriguing to make -- be it a kit build or a scratch build like this little tug.
Navigation light-boxes..

--often overlooked by modellers in 1/700--and sometimes not done in 1/350 or larger either!

On the Schelde --these were perched up AND outboard of the railing--which was quite a challenge !
I made mine of thin paper -- tacked together with matt varnish and then infused with very runny CA

I mounted some small snippets of handrail in a C-shape on the underside at a slight shallow angle, glued to the railing
whilst inclining the model to suitable angles so that the adhesive would set with the box./ struts at the desired angle

I also made quite a nice binnacle for the bridge roof
The fwd whistle and siren were also added -

-along with simulated deck-prisms on the aft and funnel deck, ( made of grey strips of decal sheet )

I also added the outside steering wheel and engine room telegraph either side of the aft mast

The " radiused -towage-line -deflector hoops " ( ??!!--==> what are they really called? on the aft deck
had stiffening braces barely visible on real life photos of the real thing!
==> but seen on the plans; these were added, made of thin pieces of nickel wire

The surprisingly large anchors -- for such a small vessel - were added -- using some suitable shape PE 1/700 anchors-
but-thickened with white glue and paint to give the impression of a very heavy casting..(!??:)


The ratlines on these Tugs consisted of just one set of foot-ropes between two shrouds

I had successfully used some Alliance Model-works relief etched ratlines on my 'practice run' tugboat the Maanzee.

It is very wasteful however to cut out the parts one wants-- as pictured below..( !! )

But the end effect is fairly satisfactory,

rigging is now underway using a combination of the Modelkasten Nitinol wire and some stretched sprue

[Iceman 29]

This model will be superb again and will join your beautiful collection (Where do you put it after so many years of modelling?), Jim.

It seems that the navigation lights were in fashion in Holland at the time. I noticed that it was almost identical to the SS Hydrograaf of the Royal Dutch Navy.

I have yet to draw this typical accessory for my current project, but it is clearly visible on the general plans of the ship.

[JIM BAUMANN]

ICEMAN wrote;
>>>.... your beautiful collection (Where do you put it after so many years of modelling?),.... <<<

welll.... the 1/700... for example ..--in many more cases like this....

the1/350 and larger scale models have a bigger footprint in depth and height -- so they end up ' stacks' or in between books on shelves,

or in different parts of the house

and some ...=as you see = when they reach the stage of ....
"" no-longer-front-line-display-quality "" -- some of the models end up in the Garages....
( which are of course heated ad humidified for the old cars anyway...
so no deterioration takes place to cars or models !

[wefalck]

Lucky you that your wife seems to tolerate them around the house

Did I comment already on the canvas covers on the bridge ? The way how these half-pulled down covers are rendered looks really convincing.

Concerning these navigation light-boxes: what many people probably don't realise is that for this kind of boxes in the pre-electric days the lamps would not be deployed during day-time, but would be safely stored in the lamp-locker. The petroleum lamps had to be cleaned regularly, particularly the glasses inside, to remove the soot. In the boxes there was a kind of flat finger over which the lamps slid with a metal strap rivetted to the back of the lamp. So for a day-time representation, one should probably only have these fingers visible.

Did the tug(s) have electric light at that time ?