The Ship Model Forum

Hi Picketboat,

I've been waiting for this update, and your little vessel is very
good-looking!

Do you have any plans for the following project? The civil version,
or something completely different? I am really curious about it.

Regards

Chrischan

Chrischan

No immediate (rapid) plans for the follow up "civilian picket boat". It might be very hard to find working drawings or original plans for one of these little civilian boats. The Naval versions all seemed to follow a fairly standardized format and "general arrangements", so a reasonable decent civilian model could be made from the vac formed hull I already have, using the photo shown on this thread as inspiration. I could just make up an additional mould/former to produce the enlarged boiler room roof with a single funnel and different deck detail.

I have also come across drawings for the German Imperial Navy picket boat equivalent of the same date but that's a whole different "can of worms".

I must get back to building the Russian Torpedo Gunboat which is crying out for my attention.

So many models. so little time.

Hi all

Just the fine detail now.

The strange multi-purpose metal bracket between the two funnels was installed using brass wire. From the photographs available I could see that it must have slotted into two brackets on the front of the funnels. These were made up from thin aluminium foil.
Interestingly it's size and position indicated that it must have also acted as an extra support when the funnels folded down as it sits on the deck between the boiler room and the forward crew compartment.

Photos also show metal brackets on the sides of the forward crew compartment roof to take iron supports carrying the port and starboard navigation lights. These were made up from fine wire and aluminium foil.

Hi all

Continuing the fine detail, I next made up some boat hooks. Many contemporary photos show crew members standing at the ready, either in the bow or stern, holding boat hooks. When not in use these hooks seem to have been stored along the side of the boiler room roof, some times single or sometimes double each side. Occasionally they are seen along the deck edge.

The lengths seem to vary slightly but taking a bare footed sailor standing at 5 ft 10 inches, I was able to work out from the pictures that the boat hooks must have been about 12 ft.

Some lime wood (bass) was run up on the miniature circular saw, and with medium and fine sand paper the square section was changed to round cross section, with a slight taper to the top end.

The top was wrapped with a small piece of self adhesive aluminium foil to form the ferrule and the the tiny "S" shaped hook was bent from 0.2mm brass wire.

Thin aluminium was used to form the storage hooks. When two boat hooks are stored the lower one often ran across the port holes on the side of the boiler room roof.

When I eventually get round to making figures for this model I will certainly want to have a crew man standing ready with a boat hook.

Looking good Picketboat!

Thanks Chrischan

Hi all

Some photos show (barely discernible) a voice pipe just forward of the wheel. This stands to reason as the helmsman would want to communicate with the engineer down in the boiler room, and even steaming with hatches and sky lights open (often the case) it would have been difficult to shout down to the engineer.
I made this voice pipe up from some brass wire bent to shape and finished using the previously mentioned gold marker pens.

Also note the life belt casually stored on the cabin roof. They (only one per vessel!) were also sometime stood up at the front of the boiler room roof just under the butt of the gun. The life belt is also a cast resin fitting used on my other models.

Hi all

The finishing touch.

I thought it would be good to have an ensign flying from the flag staff so I bought a really nice one from a manufacturer while I was at a model convention in the UK.

Just the right size and printed onto fine silk with the edges already sealed and trimmed. Cost a mere �2.

Hanging it from a halyard means it does flutter a little in the breeze. Soaking it in dilute PVA and rolling it up a little would be best for a static model display.

Just waiting for some decent weather to take on the water photos.

Saw this model in the water today and even had a shot of sailing it...

SUPERB model in the flesh it's awesome the pictures on here don't do it justice

Colin

Thanks for "taking the helm" while I scrabbled about on my hands and knees trying to get a few decent photos of the finished model on the water. Many thanks to all at Glasgow Richmond Model Boat Club for their help, enthusiasm, sense of humour and excellent tea. I am looking forward to attending the Model Warship Weekend at GRMBC later in the season. It certainly sounds like this event is getting bigger and better with each year, and I will be in attendance with my models.

The Picket Boat model performed very well on the water, with only slight radio control interference towards the end of the sail which remains a mystery. It is amazingly controllable and turns in about twice it's own length. It rides over waves well and the tiny motor gives a scale speed, with a slight excess of power to get out of trouble if required.

It would look better with a few crew members, so that is the next challenge.

She's ship-shape in Bristol fashion there, Picketboat! Good thing there wasn't much wave action, eh?

Looking good Steve, I look forward to seeing her at the warship weekend!

Thanks Doug

I guess I'm moving into your field of "Tiny Models" although I think you have a major head start on me. See you at the Glasgow Warship Weekend.

Steve, fantastic build log, most informative. This will help in my build which I started on Sunday, from the excellent kit purchased from yourself some months ago. Many thanks for the info I received via email today.

Gary

Hi all and thanks Gary.

A QUESTION FOR FOLLOWERS OF THIS THREAD

Well that's the model finished and on the water it performs great, however it looks more than a little "Marie Celeste" the total absence of crew rendering it rather odd looking. I think this could be because of the following:-

It's a small model, but modelled at what many consider a large scale (1/48th).

Nearly all the pictures one comes across of these vessels show them under way with crew on deck.

The model looks fine in static mode on it's display stand but as soon as it's on the water something happens and it does not look quite right.
I know installing figures is very much a personal thing, (some modellers hate to see crew fitted) and I have models which run and look fine without figures, but not this one. I therefore decided to adapt/sculpt and then cast some RN figures (in correct uniform for 1880 to 1912) initially to fit this model but with the hope that they could also be used on some of my other models.

Here is the question.

Should I post the research, design, manufacture and painting of the figures onto the end of this picket boat model build, or start a new build article headed something like Late Victorian/Edwardian RN figures 1/48th scale?

Maybe the followers of this build would let me know what would be best or most appropriate.

It's not about appropriate or not. This is mainly a modelling site and the crew is part of your boat, so I'd say YES, please post it.
There is also the work of a member called JBA, he mainly made figures with only small parts of ships as part of the dio, this work was also posted on the main site and many people loved it, so I'm pretty sure you're figures would be welcome as well. I for one, will be following.
(as long as they are not toy-looking, like many of these puppets in large scale yachts )

love to see that work

OK steviecee and Neptune

I have not modeled figures for a very long time and then they were at a different scale, so this has been a bit of a re-learning process.

First I needed some reference material so I looked through my books for photos of RN crew around 1900. There was certainly some variation in uniform style and we must remember that crew made their own clothes from supplied fabric until 1907. Standardized measurements for trousers,collars etc were introduced earlier in 1891 and these were checked and administered by Ship's police or divisional officers, but crew were keen to add their own personal touches or embellishments if they could get away with it.

Hats were slightly smaller in the brim (up to the 1920's uniform change) and the "frock" seems to have been cut differently sometimes tucked into the top of the trousers although not always.

The uniform was the ubiquitous navy blue black colour although sometime sailors are seen in white "duck".

The straw "sennet" hats were made by the crew and also seem to have been in use, in warm weather conditions, up to the 1920's.

The pictures here were used as a basis for modelling the crew members.

Hi all

THE FIGURES TO POPULATE THE MODEL

It is possible to carve figures from scratch but unless you are very skilled it's easy to get proportions and measurements slightly out and at these scales it tends to make "little people" look very odd.

It's much easier to adapt suitable existing figures, that way you can concentrate on just the clothing and fine detail, the proportions hopefully are already dealt with.

I looked around for commercial figures at 1/48th scale. Not a massive choice I am afraid, but I eventually found some on-line which were designed to complement architectural models. They were good quality hard white polystyrene which made them easy to carve and glue (with both solvent and CA) and they were clad in tight fitting 1960's clothing. The later was a plus as I was going to re cloth them in baggy clothes of 1900 and these could be added over the top of the existing attire without having to carve too much away.

I also decided to re-position arms, legs and heads to make them look a little more animated and to give them suitable poses for the picket boat model. I decided that I needed the following.

One officer standing in the cockpit (in a suitable officer "hands behind the back" pose).

One helmsman (seaman) struggling with the wheel.

One seaman standing with "boat hook at the ready".

One seaman sitting in the cockpit "watching the world go by".

The pictures show three of the figures as they arrived and the start of the adaptations to one figure (officer).

I'm sure you alredy know this, but 1:48 is O Scale in the model train world. There are many O Scale figures available, including some sailors. Maybe even some British sailors.

Phil

Phil

Your are correct and I had some how forgotten this fact. I think O gauge is 1/43rd scale (not wanting to be pedantic) but quite acceptable size wise. I found some nice little O gauge white metal figures at a UK model rail show a few years back. No sailors but a reasonable selection of overall clad workmen, drivers and canal boat skippers proved very use-able with minor modifications, however they were heavy, and I had to be quite careful not to over populate the deck of small, slim, shallow drafted sailing models for fear of compromising stability.
Light weight plastic figures are most suitable and easiest to modify and I'm always on the look out for additional sources of 1/48th or 1/43rd scale figures. Thanks for flagging this up Phil, I shall hunt through possible US sources. In the mean time keep watching to see my crew members take shape after the initial "dismembering" stage.