Colin Archer 1:15 scale

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

The deck furnishings seem to be going together with the same level of care and attention to detail as the below decks areas did. Lovely job.

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Many thanks Richard, a few wood shavings about but can't tidy up after every job or I'll never get her finished.

Today I've been 'getting knotted' and 'all strung up'. Doing the running rigging on deck.

Most of the brass is supposed to painted white. I would have painted it if the parts were plastic, but I simply do not want to paint over all that brass. It will of course change colour after a while…so maybe I'll paint it brass when it all takes on a greenish hue.

Posting a few photos of today's efforts.

George

Edited By gecon on 06/07/2022 20:06:56

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

George, its copper that really goes green. Brass should simply tarnish to a dull matt dark finish after a few years but will probably look more realistic anyway. If you are going to paint it you should use and etching primer first but I'm with you and would leave it natural.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Yes, it's copper that goes green and brass that simply tarnishes but on one of my boats with brass portholes I omitted to wash down the hull after sailing in salt water and they did go green!

It is possible to maintain the brass effect with a clear lacquer or of course you could simply paint them with brass model paint. There are lots on the market and if you Google 'best brass model paint' it brings up a lot of discussions.

Colin

[geconParticipant @gecon]

I actually meant to write that I'd paint the brass bits WHITE if they went green-ish. But now that they are only going to be dull-ish brass I'll simply look forward to that process .

I have in fact painted some steel screws and washers with brass Humbrol nr.54 (?) as below.

George

 

The three brass painted washers just forward of the steering well represent bilge pump outlets port and starboard. The large centre washer is a 'porthole' to allow light into the aft cabin to illuminate the compass which is placed about 1meter below decks. If you zoom in on the photo you can just see the compass rose which is drawn in pencil onto the deckplanking. 

Don't know why the last bit is in bold text…sorry about that.

Starting making the sails now….will take a few days.  Wish a good weekend to all 

Edited By gecon on 07/07/2022 19:38:40

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Sail production is slightly delayed due to Admiralty getting her 4th Covid jab. All over 75 are advised to do this here in Norway due to the B5 variant deciding to pay a visit to our area. As is usually the case, one is not quite in top form the first couple of days after the 'jab'. I'm looking after the patient.

I have at least prepared the sails for the sewing machine activity sometime next week. Cut out lots of small bits to be added by glue and stitches, later.

While admiring some previously painted nav-light boxes I noticed that they were a strange shape. They were pointing aftwards! I rectified the fault by painting them again. This time in a different colour. Yes….I had painted the starboard one RED and the port one GREEN! No wonder I kept getting lost over the North Sea

George

Edited By gecon on 09/07/2022 17:39:44

[geconParticipant @gecon]

The much advertised sail-sewing course 'occurred' on Tuesday afternoon. The handle which operates the pressure foot broke off on wednesday evening! Repaired during Thursday using epoxy, aluminium sheet and a 2mm bolt.

Anyway the mizzen sail has now been produced. Not great, but it will have to do. Stitching on the 'underside' is a bit untidy in places. At this rate it'll take at least 2 weeks to make all the sails. The mizzen is tiny compared to the other sails so there's work to be done!

George

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Produced more 'string and blocks' while waiting for the sewing machine to cool down. Actually, I had to cool down. Sewing is not my favourite pastime, but I am getting better at it. Could hardly get worse.

George

The mizzen will get some blocks eventually – during a future sewing break.

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Sail-sewing session now completed. Only 6 days from course-start to fastening the last loose thread. That includes 20 hrs to repair the lifting lever failure on the sewing machine.

Used about 125 metres of extra stength polyester thread. Re-inforcing sections glued on with clear Universal UH Glue-hu, which is a sort of mix between contact glue and plastic cement. They were then sewn around the edges. Far from perfect, but good enough from 1 metre! I did not always have full control of the compass heading of the sewing needle you understand..

Next up is how to make a decent job of painting the 'RS No 1' logo on each side of the mainsail.

Couldn't get high enough to include the whole of the topsail in the photo. Sailcloth is quite stiff -so a bit wringkly- don't dare to iron it in case it melts!

George

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Not much activity today. Still recovering from the intensive sewing spree. Made up the rest of the blocks and added a few to the mizzen mast. Uphaul for the fork for the mizzen sail being the main issue. Cord needed severe coaxing to be threaded through some of the blocks. Some of the sheaves not qiute centralised you see

Next few days will be devoted to blocks/halyards/sheets etc so won't bore you with lots almost identical photos.

I have not actually checked to see if the sails fit properly into the 'spaces' between the spars/masts etc.

George

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Beautiful rigging job and a lovely bit of sail making. I really think this is the nicest example of this kit that I've seen.

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Thank you Richard, you're too kind. There are two or three others in Norway in the final stages of build. They all look very good to me. None have a scale-ish interiør though. They are on 'modelshipworld'.

George

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi George,

Well done sewing your sails on a machine I never did master that and hand sewed my barge sails, so don't be surprised if some red/brown cotton cloth and templates turn up in the post

Regards Ray

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Hi Ray, the Colin Archer original has in fact white-ish sails.

My original plan for the Fisher was to have the hull beige and the sails red-brown -as on the full size one I once owned. I could not source the red-brown sails, so everything went to white!. At that time I had never even seen a TSB -with the red-brown sails I actually needed!

George

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi George,

The Colin Archer looks good with white sails, I used Egyptian white cotton and use Dylon cold water Terracotta dye to get the barge sail colour, but I gather the Dylon is hard to get these days

Regards Ray

[geconParticipant @gecon]

CMB sometimes have what they call RED sailcloth by NEW CAP Maquettes. It's probably slightly brown-ish but I wasn't quite sure. Anyway, it was out of stock for ages around the time I was sourcing info to find out if I could actually produce a scratch built Fisher. It's synthetic and would not be seen on a TSB I suspect.

The sails on your TSB's definately look the part

George

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Working at fitting the mizzen and mainsail. Very fiddly, but not difficult if you do it slowly -and take frequent breaks!

The mizzen boom is attached to it's horse by brown-stained 1mm round elastic, threaded through the blocks. Doubled .5mm elastic is used to fasten the lower block to the horse. All this gives enough stretch in the system to allow the mizzen to self-tack softly. ie. without 'clonking' against the stops on the horse. It can also stretch a small amount if the breeze should pick up a bit.

 

The main boom blocks are threaded with the supplied 2mm cord. The top block -right under the boom- has to be released to allow the mainsail servo to control the main boom.

Painting the logo on the mainsail was a bit nerveracking. One stray drop of red or black paint would be visible from more than 1metre.!

George

 

Edited By gecon on 25/07/2022 14:49:42

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hello George,

That is a very good Logo , looks sharp, painting cloth needs nerve's of steel

What are you planning to build next ??

Regards Ray

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Hi Ray,

I don't have any plans for another boat/yacht I'm afraid. In fact the main plan is NOT to build any more! Even if the Admiralty permitted one of them on show in the flat, there is no space available for a forth one to be built.

The storeroom where the Colin Archer is now will be fitted with a long shelf (ca. 3metres) and the Christmas train layout from last year will be modified and installed in the storeroom. The glaucoma in my right eye is getting slowly worse and tiny blocks and yacht fittings are getting very difficult to work with. Mind you, N-scale trains aren't much better -but that's the plan for now.

I'm 71 yrs (today in fact!). I hope to get a few R/C-yachting outings before the chilly autumn weather sets in (in about 2 months). I want to try to photo and film the Fisher and Colin Archer sailing together.

George

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

Look forward to the photos and film George.

Chris

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Happy Birthday George!

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Hi Chris, I hope that I'll be ready for lauching in 4 about weeks. I don't remember how I managed to get the previous video onto YouTube but as I managed to open an 'account', it should not be too difficult next time around…or? I don't know how to make a link to post on the Forum but I have a heard of grandchildren to take care of that.

Thanks Richard, I regretted mentioning it the minute I pressed 'add posting'…and I did not remember that I could edit it out. Must be the age!

Back to the sail-making….

George

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

George you can edit it out but only within the first half an hour or so of posting. When you initially put a post up there is a text that appears in the top middle of the blue frame of the post window that says Edit Post. Click that and you can edit. This disappears after half an hour.

Edited By Richard Simpson on 26/07/2022 13:41:32

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Thanks Richard, I use the edit almost every time I post! Usually due to incorrect spelling -as you have noticed !

In this last case, I simply did not think of editing out the referance to .

George

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi George,

Belated Happy Birthday for yesterday, now I'm nearly 67 being 71 doesn't seem so old can you get your eye sight fixed ? Or have you got make even bigger boats

Since I saw the new Top Gun Maverick film I have been building an F14 Tomcat 1/48th scale for my daughter and grandaughter who have been to see it 5 time so far !! F18 Super Hornet next

Regards Ray

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