Shemarah II

[Amy jane SeptemberParticipant @amyjaneseptember49770]

A long labour of love there Gareth, and a lovely one. Perhaps time for a a cuppa and slice before starting the next project?

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

Hi Amy,

Glad you like Shemarah, I might have a drink when I finish but bearing in mind where the real Shemarah is based it should be a single malt I think. You just go carefully with that home made propeller and don't stand in line with the blades when its running.

I have managed to get a few more bits done over the weekend. I have fitted the black boxes that sit near the bottom of each tall whip aerial. I am not sure what they are, I guess its some sort of amplifier or interface box.

I have made and fitted the aerials on the RHS of the wheelhouse roof.

I have also made the ones for the other side but not fitted them yet, still waiting for the paint to dry.

I have fitted the loudspeaker that sits on the front of the wheelhouse roof.

I have also made and fitted the mooring ropes.

I have also done a bit of paint touching up here and there, including filling and painting the screws holding down the wheelhouse roof. I have also assembled the windscreen wipers, using a photoetched set from Kit Form Services.   The wheelhouse steps and railings have been glued in place, as have the main winches and the life raft.  No going back now if I have to modify those bits.

The main remaining largish job is to remove the rear gantry and fit the loud speaker on the right hand upright. I could have done it in situ but when I looked at the photos of the real thing I realised there is a control box next to it and an electrical conduit running up the front of each upright so its easier to remove the whole thing and fit all the bits. It would have been much easier if I had fitted them last year when I built the gantry, still you learn these things from experience.

Gareth

 

 

 

Edited By Gareth Jones on 21/04/2014 20:37:20

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

Well after just over three years work Shemarah II is just about complete. Only the sound system to tweak and a few bits of touching up and weathering to do on the paintwork.

I have added the windscreen wipers, front and back

Two of the crew are studying a bit of a hydraulic problem with one of the net drum motors.

(it's not real oil, just a drop of old varnish)

The conduits and loudspeaker have been added to the rear gantry.

And the final bit to be added was, symbolically perhaps the ships bell.

Unfortunately its tippling down here at the moment and forecast to do the same tomorrow so you will have to wait a while for some decent sailing photos. However here are a few I took in the workshop this evening.

Tomorrow I am going to make a start on a major spring clean and reorganisation of the workshop prior to starting the next project.

Gareth

[mike farrellParticipant @mikefarrell21522]

Hi Gareth , first thanks for a wonderful history of the build which I have followed since I first came on the Forum

I am one of the lucky people to see her in the raw and at the time my despair was so great I went home and told my wife that I after seeing your creation and what you achieved I could never be as good and perhaps I should give up. Her reply was , go and learn as you now have a target. During the tread I have learned a lot of tricks and use your tread as a reference point when I get stuck. I am getting better and am proud of 3 boats I have built I hope to see her at Doncaster if our there to see the finished most outstanding model I have ever seen Michael

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

Hi Mike,

I am glad you have enjoyed the thread and pleased that you have also learned something useful from it.

We are going to Cleethorpes this Sunday morning for a VMYG meeting. If you would like to come along and see the finished article I will put her in the car.

Regards

Gareth

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

Here are some photos taken of the finished version of Shemarah in our back garden plus a few on its outing to Sidney Park in Grimsby this morning.

I have still got the sound system to tweak and add the supplementary sounds to the engine and I am still on the lookout for some better fishing nets, apart from that – its done.

Thanks for all the interest shown in the blog, its been an entertaining few years and I hope you have all found something interesting to read and see. Maybe I will start another on my next project, but you will have to wait a while for that.

Regards

Gareth

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

A beautiful model, Gareth……..A joy forever!

I like the oil drip….Nice idea

Bob

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

Thanks for the compliments Bob.  Maybe I will do another blog when I start my next major build.  At the moment I am busy tidying up the workshop and about to build a box for Shemarah.  However I have started looking at drawings of Humber keels and sloops.

I have finally taken the plunge and ordered some filet lace for the fishing nets. The only source I could find was in Florida but after a couple of weeks its arrived and looks much better than the original plastic netting. Its made from cotton and literally is a knotted het, in this case with holes about 3.5 mm across. I have dyed it green and the colour has come out a bit vivid but with time it will fade and accumulate a bit of dust and general debris. The netting was quite expensive at $15 for an 18 inch square but does look much more like the real nets.

I have done the final tweaks to the sound system and added the supplementary sounds of a horn and some seagulls. This turned out to be a bit of a nightmare job, not because of any problems with the sound unit but because the wheelhouse roof has begun to generate a high pitched tinny rattle when the engine sound is played. The ceiling was only 1 mm ply and seemed to be resonating since it directly faces the speaker in the floor. I also had noticed that the 3 LEDs inside the wheelhouse ceiling had stopped working but was planning to leave them for the time being.

I reluctantly decided to take off the wheelhouse roof again, which meant scraping the filler and paint from the 6 screws that hold it on. I replaced the ceiling with a slightly thicker and stiiifer sheet of 1.5 mm ply and repaired the dry soldered joint in the LED wiring. At that point the problems started as the roof would not fit back on properly. This led to a lot of fiddling around and dislodged 2 floodlights, a drain pipe and the ladder up the wheelhouse side. I finally got the whole thing back together, although the roof still does not fit as well as I would have like but you cant see the gaps unless you peer up under the overhang of the roof. On checking the sound system the roof still rattles, although much less than before, but I am not going to go though all the palaver of removing the roof again so I have just turned the volume down and I might try an alternative 'engine' to see if any of the other sounds are less prone to the problem. None of the engines in the sound library actually matches Shemarah's Cummins diesel and I have no idea what it actually sounds like anyway. This morning I have finished the repairs to the wheelhouse so I am more or less back where I started.

I have done a few other bits of titivating ready for Shemarah's first appearance in its completed form at the CADMA show this weekend. I have made up the other two winch leadscrews, using my favoured approach of simulating the grooves using thin Trimline. Its still not completely accurate but until I can come up with a better option (or buy a suitable lathe), its the best I can do. I have also done a bit more weathering around the anchor recess and along the waterline. Some of this is quite realistic as the tyre fenders picked up a bit of real life dirt on a recent outing in Llandudno.

Gareth

Edited By Gareth Jones on 04/06/2014 08:27:28

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

Somehow, no matter how long you spend on a model, there is always a bit more to do. I decided that Shemarah really neded to look a bit more weather worn than she did so I have spent the last few weeks adding a few rusty areas. I have had varying degrees of success with this in the past but after a bit of practice on my original model of a TID tug, I have come up with a process that seems to work.

The model is painted overall in acrylic paints. I add a few spots, streaks and patches of Revell rust brown acrylic in areas where the paint will get damaged and the underlying steel will go rusty, i.e. corners, edges, crevices and joints etc, working in a small area at a time. This is then left for an hour or so to dry. I then go over the same areas with a small brush, just spotting in a small amount of a lighter orangy brown Revell enamel. Before this has dried I take a slightly larger brush, dip it in cellulose thinners and dry it on a piece of paper towel, just taking the excess thinners off. Using this nearly dry brush I then wash the lighter brown over the area, working it downwards in the way that water staining would spread from a patch of rust. The underlying dark brown acrylic is not affected by this and remains visible under the 'stain'

Here are a few examples on Shemarah:-

The rust on the wire rope was done using Humbrol weathering powder.

The process seems quite good at producing localised rusty areas. Its perhaps less effective in a large area whre you need a combination of rust, water staining and general muck. So far I am quite pleased with the effect, just got a few more areas to attend to before Shemarah gets packed in the car along with my wife's collection of yachts to make the trip to Haydock Park next month.

[Amy jane SeptemberParticipant @amyjaneseptember49770]

Oooohhh, Such nice detailing, she's a real credit to you sir!

[Mike Waterhouse 1Participant @mikewaterhouse1]

Hi Gareth

Thank you for the link to your build………excellent workmanship and a joy to read.

When seeing your boat "in the flesh" it's hard to take in just how involved the build has been.

I hope you'll bring it along to Colwny Bay again next year.

Kind regards to you and Elizabeth.

Mike.

[lewis metcalfParticipant @lewismetcalf15347]

Hi Gareth what an amazing job you have done . You realy got the detail and the likeness of her . it is like I am back on the shemarah again. You are clearly a verry skilled man good work

[James Alex. PottingerParticipant @jamesalex-pottinger62936]

One of the best model I have ever seen built to my plans. Jim

[James Alex. PottingerParticipant @jamesalex-pottinger62936]

One of the best model I have ever seen built to my plans. Jim

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

Thank you for those kind words Jim. Maybe next year we will get around to bringing the model up to Scotland for you and Donald Moodie to have a look at.

Regards

Gareth

[James Alex. PottingerParticipant @jamesalex-pottinger62936]

doubt if I will be able to see her, have moved back to sunny

Shetland, land of my birth.

best regards Gareth,Jim

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

This will probably be the epilogue of the Shemarah thread. A couple of months ago Elizabeth and I visited the vast Richard Howard collection of model boats at Beale Park near Reading. It was an open day for potential buyers but we not really tempted by anything despite the huge variety of boats on offer. However it did bring home to us that we really should do something to downsize our collection of about 30 model boats and yachts, about half of which rarely get sailed. We therefore decided that we would begin to sell off some of our collection, if only to make way for potential future projects.

Coincidentally, about a week later I received an email from Donald Moodie, the master of the full sized Shemarah II, asking if I would be interested in selling my model to him, as in his words 'Shemarah has been a large part of my working life and to have such a fantastic model would be a dream come true' Shemarah has also been a large part of my modelling life but it could not go to a more deserving home, much better than it spending years sitting in its box in our shed. It had its final model show outing at Blackpool last month and its last local outing to the York MBC night sail event before being checked out ready for collection.

Donald came down to collect it yesterday and it is now in the home of his father, Peter Moodie, who commissioned Shemarah II from the Campbeltown shipyard for the Moodie family business in 1996. When he rang me to express his delight at having the model he sounded as excited as Donald was when he collected it. They had already tested it out in the family bath within a couple of hours of getting back to Scotland. The picture below shows Donald collecting the model from our workshop yesterday.

The workshop is now clear for my next project which is to be a major refurbishment of Snogg, my 1:24 scale model of an 80 ft Elco PT boat that I originally refurbished about 10 years ago. This time it is going to get a brushless conversion, working roll off racks and torpedoes and much more scale detail. I might start a new thread on the project once it gets underway properly, probably after Xmas.

Gareth

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

Gareth

I have exactly 180° the situation in that Huntress 'Maid of Baltimore' – the original full-size boat for my 1/12 and 1/8 scale models – is up for sale. I'd buy her in a heatbeat except that a Fairey powerboat would not be at home on the Trent, with a speed limit of 4mph. The alternative would be to moor her somewhere on the coast, with the attendant costs of mooring, maintenance and travelling there.

Life can be so cruel sometimes…

Dave M

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

A boat like that will be a money pit Dave, no matter how tempting….

Colin

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

Colin

Quite – and having moved to Moneypot Cottage there's not a lot of that stuff around any more.

Gareth

"Snogg"??? I think we should be told more….

Dave M

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

Snogg was the subject of a magazine article some years ago and the last time I looked it was somewhere on this site, I am sure Colin knows where it is. The model is an Elco 80 ft PT boat, build no PT602, surplus to USN requirements and supplied to the Norwegian Navy at the end of the war as the first of the Snogg class. Snogg is Norwegian for fast.

Gareth

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