Lady of Skye (puffer)

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

As i stated at the beginning of this thread it’s not going to be a full on building blog more a pictorial update from time to time. As usual I would welcome constructive criticism  “as my old apprentice master once said long ago in the far distant past”your never to old to learn ,” and thanks to that philosophy I got into scratch building model boats four years or so ago

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

Coming on slowly

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

A very neat and tidy build Mick.  Now for all the bits and pieces of detailing.

[Len Morris 2Participant @lenmorris2]

Hi Mick,

She seems to be coming on quite quickly and is looking very good.  Surprised at the amount of rake on the bows.  Just wonder if that’s an admiralty mod to the older puffer hull shapes for their VIC boats.  Wonder how you’re going to drive the rudder.  Adding all the detail and rigging is the fun bit but seemed to take me forever!

Len. 🙂

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

Looking at some  of the welded hull vic puffers built just prior and into the second world war, they did have a slightly more pronounced rake to their bow.  possibly to improve sea going performance. Researching the model and studying the history of puffers prior to building it I realised no two puffers were the same . Some of the later ones had their smoke stack / funnel aft of the wheel house and some of the early built riveted one had no enclosed wheel house at all( can you imagine how cold and wet that would have been on a Scottish winters day . Hardy folk those seamen were in those days). That’s part of the pleasure i get from scratch building model boats, is learning about the history and folk law of the project before endeavouring to build. My models maybe not the most accurate scale models ( I use a lot of so called artistic licence)but I try to bring some of the feel and romance of the full sized boat to them. As for the rudder drive I’m thinking of somehow using chains as in the full size boat haven’t worked it out yet , you’ll probably see some of that artistic licence come into effect again lol.

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

The bow rake looked more than it actually is due to the angle of the camera,  a more accurate rake is seen if you look from the bow back

[Len Morris 2Participant @lenmorris2]

Totally agree Mick.  Puffers were built with no end of variations.  I personally like the boats with the funnel in front of the wheel house.  It’s an endearing quirkiness of the Puffer.

My rudder is operated by chains just like the full sized boats.  Took a bit of fiddling to get it set up and working reliably but well worth the effort.

 

 

Len. 🙂

[James Hill 5Participant @jameshill5]

Lovely build Mick, you’re way ahead of me.

Jim.

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

Another rainy Saturday morning, so no club Lake  today (was going to take the trawler out for a sail) . Still all not lost, had a productive morning in the workshop. Got the rudder and rudder mounts made up and dry fitted . Made up the fresh water tank and fitted , all in all a good morning

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

I normally like to make my own parts where possible but one of my local club members remembered back in the mid nineties he had imported a 1/24th scale puffer hull kit complete with a aftermarket detail kit. He never got around to building it and sold the hull but not the detail kit and after searching in his attic found the box it came in complete with original invoice (95 pounds Stirling) and all the parts still in their sealed bags. He offered it to me for the nominal sum of $100 AU ( 50 pounds UK) which I quickly excepted even though a lot of the bits I couldn’t use as I already was well into the build . But my next build is going to be 1/24th scale early 1900s  Queensland government built mine layer the S.S Miner so a lot of the part will transfere over to that project . All the bits are in as new condition and are either resin, brass or white metal ,scale wise they are pretty well spot on apart from the staunchings which are only one inch high which equates to 2 ft in full scale but I already have  fitted the right scale ones before these came up. A nice present for my eightieth birthday on thursday.

BTW the noddy heads are not mine this is the photo he took to show me what he had.

B

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

A bag of bits like that is always a sound investment!

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

Getting close to completion just final details and electronics

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

She looked good on the lake (maiden voyage)

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Beautiful, again, get a good shot of her and send it into the magazine editor.  She is always on the lookout for good readers model shots.

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

today’s outing mainly to sort out ballast.  Photos by clubs photographer.

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

Nice addition to the fleet.

Chris

[mick eastParticipant @mickeast46851]

had to rethink the name as I couldn’t get letters small enough . But VIC31 seems to suit her better

The top photo is my sons attempt to give the boat a historic look , if you squint your eyes almost shut and you have a few pints under your belt you can almost imagine it being a 1950s shot of a real puffer at the dock side ( quite a few pints mind you LOL)

 

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

She looks spot on Mick.  Great pictures, definitely worth sending a couple into the magazine.

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