Swim Head Barge

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi All

Whilst I was loitering on London Bridge yesterday I had the chance to take the attached photos of a barge moored in the Pool of London, not much attention paid to the humble barge, but I think they are a subject in their own right, and a good quality barge makes the tug look great on the water.

Regards Ray

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

That is the former Gosport Ferry alongside. It has recently been sold for use as a venue on the Thames.

Colin

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Barges, yes. I could try to make one from concrete then, like some still floating nearby….

​Ray you are so right. A tug simply floating about on its own is incomplete, and then, having lavished many man (or women) hours on it and expense, it gets coupled with a quick bodge job somethingorother to tow. In my books this ranks up there with driverless Fairey cabin cruisers

Ashley
 

Edited By ashley needham on 15/03/2017 16:56:19

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Surely driverless Faireys are the future Ashley, all the big car manufacturers are on it so why not boat builders?

Ray, that is a very clean looking barge. I have always admired the way that whole blocks of them are pushed and pulled through central London. It must take a lot of skill to negotiate all those bends and bridges, not to mention the other river traffic.

Colin

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

I could try to make one from concrete then

Don't forget to cement the ballast well in place.

Ref driverless Faireys, find me a decent scale driver figure and I'll happily use it. I've tried making figures several times and the results wouldn't looked out of place in Frankenstein's lab! Apart from a careless paint job nothing spoils a decent model more than unrealistic or out-of-scale crew figures. No Barbie dolls, clowns, superheroes or TV characters need apply, but 007 in a yacht club blazer, slacks, blue deck shoes and an Officer's cap would be more than welcome. Maybe someone will send me one from Russia, with love……

[I'll get me coat, shall I?]

DM

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Aha – this time I am one step ahead of you…

Presenting the EeZeBilt Thames Lighter. Free plans are here: **LINK** Build log is here: **LINK**

These plans make a 16" barge out of one sheet of 1/8" balsa (with a little scrap 1/16". They are designed for the Beaver EeZeBilt tug, but are simplicity to scale up and down to any size you like. Much bigger than 2 ft and you probably want to think about ply…

And to finish, here are three rather nice pictures of a Beaver made by a Russian boat club. Quite good for 12" long….

 

Edited By Dodgy Geezer on 15/03/2017 20:51:28

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Posted by Dave Milbourn on 15/03/2017 20:06:21:

Ref driverless Faireys, find me a decent scale driver figure and I'll happily use it. I've tried making figures several times and the results wouldn't looked out of place in Frankenstein's lab! Apart from a careless paint job nothing spoils a decent model more than unrealistic or out-of-scale crew figures….

What scale are you looking for? G scale model railway figures are around 1:22.5 and they don't need much modification… **LINK**

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

Thanks for the link, DG, but they are a tad small (my models are 1/16) and there's no-one there who looks the part – although there is one guy who looks far too much like me to bear looking at again! The only decent 1/16 scale figures I can find are Tamiya and they are either motor racing crew, WW2 military or Roman soldiers. In a word, no.
I'd rather have Ashley and his ilk make fun of something that isn't there than even more fun of something that is. I'm happy with my Faireys as they are, thank you.

DM

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi All

Being a 100% sad I measured a barge and produced a plan while I was working on Canary Wharf in 1990 built 2 back then and sold them with the tug, now 27 years later with my Vic Smeed +20% Tiddler the barge at 1-32 scale comes out at 26"long, with real Welsh Steam coal as ballast looks good I think. Will be building some at 1-24 scale for towing behind Cullamix when she's finished at 40"long

Regards Ray

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

DG. Well done sir, what a great easy plan for something so essential to tug operations.

DM. Poke fun??? Never !! (alright, now and then) . Light criticism is all. Personal viewpoint and all that.

​Ray. Nice one. Good picture of tug combo. How much better than just a tug.

Ashley

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

Light criticism is all.

I'm afraid the prize for spotting the absence of a driver has already been awarded. It's perhaps as well that there are no rivets on a wooden boat hull.

A source of suitable 1/16 scale figures would be more helpful.

DM

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Dave,

An option that I intend to look into at some stage or other is on-demand 3D-printing of figures that one has sculpted oneself in one's computer – a chap over on the Swedish modeller's forum on which I'm also active did this with some very interesting results a few years ago: **LINK**

Obviously the text of the thread is in Swedish, but I think already the photos speak almost for themselves.

Anyway, among other things he says that he used 3D-sculpting software called Mudbox, and had the resulting file printed by a online company called Sculpteo. The metal print-out he went for was quite expensive (and, at 1:16, would probably be a tad on the heavy side to put on top of a model boat), but at least according to what he says, plastic was also an option at a much more reasonable price …

As I said initially, this is something that I plan to explore, but have not yet looked into. I am, however, very attracted by the fact that it would make it possible to have basically any figure in any pose created to any scale.

Oh, and speaking of rivet-counting, I did of course take the chap in question to task for having put Frenchie's weskit buttons on the wrong side …

Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 16/03/2017 14:43:43

Edited By Banjoman on 16/03/2017 14:43:53

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Posted by Dave Milbourn on 16/03/2017 09:27:04:

Light criticism is all.

I'm afraid the prize for spotting the absence of a driver has already been awarded. It's perhaps as well that there are no rivets on a wooden boat hull.

A source of suitable 1/16 scale figures would be more helpful.

DM

1/16 is not an ideal size to go chasing – but it's worth looking at the car and railway modellers, who often have the same problem…

**LINK**

**LINK**

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

Thanks, chaps. I've had a very helpful link from Keith Long and, on the basis of what he found, I have placed an order for a figure.

I did contemplate using a simple 2D photograph (of Sean Connery as James Bond) stuck to a piece of cardboard and plonked into the driver's seat but then I remembered that's been done before….or something very like it…

It was either that or maybe a couple of photos just pasted onto the front and side screens…

;o)

DM

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Excuse my ignorance chaps, but where has this strange name come from?

Viz……..Swim Head Barge?

Bob

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

….But don't they look effective !! The requirement for James May was that he could duck under the boom, very difficult with a 3D figure.

Jeremy…well, some would say he lacks any real depth (as do the others if you were to trawl my album !)

​​Ashley

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

"Effective"?

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

To complement my posting from yesterday, here are the links to the 3D sculpting software that I mentioned

**LINK**

and also to the 3D-printing company Sculpteo

**LINK**

I'm sure there are plenty of alternatives out there for both, but as I said, this is something I intend to look into more fully at some later date …

Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 17/03/2017 08:26:53

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Oh, and of course it is always possible to sculpt one's own figures at home in the more traditional way, using a wire frame and such sculpting materials as Magic Sculp, Green Stuff and/or Milliput. The attraction for me with 3D printing is primarily that it might considerably facilitate recognizable portraiture of real (or imagined) people — for example (your preferred actor as) James Bond at the wheel of a Fairey, Captain Smith on the bridge of the Titanic or a known, photo-documented crew of a RNLI lifeboat in 1978 …

Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 17/03/2017 08:33:55

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Bob

I think I may have dreamed up the name, I know from the PN Thomas book British Steam Tugs which I bought 30 years ago which refers to the Fore & Aft Swims as the attached drawing, so maybe I should have named the thread Thames Swim Barge !

Regards Ray

[Geoff CropperParticipant @geoffcropper73342]

It seems no one knows what a swim headed barge looks like, and it's not a lighter for towing. Regards Geoff.

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

These are examples of Swim Head hulls

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

So is it the rounded ends and flat cut-up that makes it a swim head??

Noel`s barge is the business because it is so BIG. Need to bear that in mind when making a barge, although of course it is another boat to store UNLESS you make it so you can store your tug in it.

Ashley

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Hi Ashley

Yes its the distinctive flat cut up bow that makes it a swim head, this feature along with flat bottom and blunt stern were developed on the Thames and Medway in smaller versions and made very stable hulls in choppy water. The design slowly developed into increasingly larger boats that could trade out of the river mouths into the open sea.

Some of the modern versions reinforce the bow with structural steel.

Paul

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