I love seeing your work Richard and I thought I had a nice workshop until I saw yours

Some weeks ago I acquired a 1964 Billing Boats Mercantic complete with most of the fittings. I was fully prepared for all the wood to be beyond redemption being over 50 yrs old and dry.

I was correct but I coated the parts in resin to stop them disintegrating while I used what I could to help create new parts.

The original frames were all cut on a bandsaw it would seem and were not very symmetrical so I made the new ones correct and these are going to Billing Boats to help them bring the kit back into production.

Many of the mahogany parts were printed with the grain running the wrong way so that it fought against the direction it needed bending. These were all remade in 1.5mm ply.

The photo gallery is still growing here Mercantic build

Pictured yesterday

Ballasted a couple of weeks ago. 6.4kg including nearly 900grams of loose adjustable.

All my builds are brushless driven these days . Overlander 2836 can manage a large range of models and propellers just by changing the supply voltage, this is using 2s 7.4volts . Coupled with a waterproof car speed controller these work well.

Archive image taken over the English Channel. There are very few colour pictures from her time so there is an open door for artistic expression.

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Thanks but unfortunately cannot be viewed full size and I don't want to buy them

Yes I've seen the EBBA VICTOR. Some people (Facebook) are saying she's converted from Mercantic but its misinformation as they have different IMO numbers.

Mercantic is an abandoned pile of scrap not recoverable and looks nothing like her original build

Nice example https://youtu.be/NLTioTFhgLQ

As I've come to understand it the well deck was a crafty means of reducing gross tonnage whilst still being able to stack on top of it. Tax dodge

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Richard andAndrew, great work both of you,very nice hulls, shiny etc etc.

Not a planking man myself, nor a highly detailed chap either, but paintwork is in my opinion the be all and end all of a model and that’s what I like to get right. Good prep, using masking tape and so on.

Ashley

Hi Tim, I completely agree that would be the correct arrangement in real life. I guess I had become preoccupied with trying to get the engine as low as possible as the crankshaft is quite high and lost sight of "reality". I can get away with it as there is much more strength in the planking than in a real clinker hull and most of the arrangement will be obscured.

I continued having a play with the water tank today and cleaned out the threads with a tap before screwing in the valve and the sight glass with some liquid thread sealant. I then placed it into its cradle and assembled the boiler banding holding it in place. I will leave the lower decking as a removable piece as it sits on the keel and the hull and is completely located by the ribs.

I then finished the scratch built barrel pump made from a slice of a model railway tank with plasticard covers and ribbing, plastic nuts and bits of pipework, a bamboo skewer handle and some brass steam fittings for the pipe connections.

Edited By Richard Simpson on 03/08/2021 18:55:15

Meanwhile I thought my model was well overdue for a stand. Using my templates of frames 3 & 7 I made a rough to be fine tuned painted and fitted with piano lid felt.

white flecks are dust

Sitting pretty

A little brass painting too. Tamiya FINE white primer followed by Halfords appliance white. Works for me every time, no better primer for brass.

Edited By Andrew Waters on 03/08/2021 19:57:28

I also built this on the dining room table while I first came home and was convalescing. I wanted something simple to assemble to give me something to do while I couldn't move around. You have to put together your own differential gearboxes with these so they are quite an interesting build.