Ben Ain

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

The main remaining work was the running rigging, the derrick and the steam winch and the main hatch cover.

I turned attention to the build of the steam winch, which I modified by quite a bit and is the subject of a magazine article so I won’t go into the details here.  Most of the running rigging was improved by the use of after market blocks and pulleys and a selection of scale ropes.  All was then finished off with a light weathering.

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

A lot of bits and pieces of detailing was then attended to such as more gentle weathering and items such as the deck steam pipes.  The cast white metal steam pipes supplied were replaced by copper pipes of a suitable diameter, which was then bound with string and painted white to resemble steam pipe lagging.  Where the pipes run through deck conduit the chequer plate was painted a matt black , weathered and then gently worn away in areas of hight traffic with very fine wet and dry paper, to give a suitable worn and scuffed look.  Additional appropriate pipes were added and a couple of additional valves were added where I would expect them.  The kit supplied white metal anchor chain was replaced with a propper studded scale anchor chain.

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

So to finally bring us up to date I turned my attention to the hatch cover.  Again the supplied part was a printed ply overlay which did not look as realistic as I wanted.  With the grain going so obviously across all the planks it tended to stand out as a single peice rather than individual.  The overlay could be cut into individual planks, which would be a huge improvement but, my concern then was that the overlay was so thin, I suspected the planks would warp easily.  I decided to cut up my own planks.  First I obtained stripwood of the suitable width and thickness, made up a small jig and set about cutting the planks.  When I had a pile of planks I then adapted the jig to make a drilling jig and drilled the ends of the planks.  This was tricky as the wood was fairly soft and thin so had a tendency to split.  A very sharp drill, spinning fast and drilling fron both sides helped.  With the planks made the rear of the hand holes were blanked off with cartridge paper, which was then painted to match the colour of the wood and then the hatch boards were all weathered with a weak enamel wash.

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Then the fittings.  The strongbacks were simply cut from suitable strips of Evergreen, painted and weathered and the wooden wedges were cut from a suitable square section peice of softwood freehand.  The wedges were then all placed in a bath of thinned enamel wash and laid out on kitchen roll to dry .

The biggest job was making the handles.  This was Evergreen rod cut to consistent pieces, again by making a little brass cutting jig and glued across the hand holes with a spot of cyano.  I pre painted the rod but the white cut ends stood out so every single one had both cut ends painted up after they were glued in place.

So then I had the components I needed and, just to prove everything went together as they should I tried to assemble them.  They did the job.

Finally I needed a tarpaulin cover so this was made up from air conditioning duct tape, with the gum removed, stuck together and detailed with the pounce wheel.  This was then folded in a fairly typical arrangement ready to be draped across the hatch and given a coat of acid etching primer.

[James Hill 5Participant @jameshill5]

Great pictures Richard.

The close up nature of the way you’ve taken them shows the quality of work you’ve taken to get the result shown.

Jim.

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Sometimes its a bit scary when you see things so close up and can see all the faults!  Sometimes I take a picture, look at it and then decide to redo it because I’m not happy with it.

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

As usual it is those last little bits and pieces that seem to absorb so much time.  I have been working on a few detail pieces that I want to add to the hatch area to just enhance that ‘busy’ feel about the model.  The figures are in the process of being painted and have one or two more things to do to them but they are coming along and I’m quite pleased with them.  There is still more painting to do to both of them yet though.

I got hold of some bits and peices of detail such as oil can, a leather bag and a tea flask, all of which need further painting but are coming along nicely.

Finally I read that it was common in the 1920s and 1930s for coastal steamers to carry barrels of lubricating oil on deck as a deck cargo.  I managed to find myself some 1/32nd scale cast resin wooden barrels and painted them up with a buff base coat and a dark brown wash over the top.  The hoops will be picked out with gunmetal enamel, which polishes up when rubbed and looks very effective against the wooden finish.  One is open so will be put somewhere appropriate as a barrel for something like treating standing rigging ropes.  I still have a lot of the hoops to paint as it is a very laborious and painstaking process.

[James Hill 5Participant @jameshill5]

Very nice weathering detail Richard. As you say, it’s the fiddly little detail that makes any model come to life. Always worth the effort though.

Jim.

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