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Started building a old Billing Boats kit. PS hull was told to be the last kit, they started a new production in wood some years later, available today. some tip about glue will be asked for 🙂
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RS1 Colin Archer, named for her designer / builder, was launched in 1893 in Larvik, Norway. The model, 1:15, is being kit built for Radio Control. The kit is by Billing Boats in Denmark. I wanted to build an RC boat and this one has a special appeal because Colin Archer also designed and built Leon, a 302 ton brigantine in 1880. I scratch built a model of Leon at 1:48. She now sits in a museum in Larvik dedicated to Colin Archer. Her build is described in forum "Build logs for subjects built 1851 - 1900". RS1 Colin Archer, after 40 years of very successful rescue operations saving many Norwegian fishermen, is now owned by the Norwegian Maritime Museum in Oslo. She is maintained and sailed at vintage ship gatherings in Northern Europe by the Colin Archer Cutter Club. The kit models her after the rescue years as she did not have an auxiliary engine until after she 'retired'. This picture is from the box top of the kit. On the way to being ready for planking, the hull is 37" long. Sparred she will be 50" long (62.5'), 54" high (67.5') with a 13" beam (16.25').
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Hi, I am new to this great forum, where I've been finding a tremendous amount of information about building modelships. I decided to start this Colin Archer build log after about a month into the "Colin Archer expert level project with RC fit" 😅. In the past I've made about 5-6 boatmodel kits at low - intermediate level (and a bunch airplanes). Eager to get an expert-level kit I bought a Colin Archer (CA) manufactured by Billing Boats with ABS-hull from another member in the forum. I've pfound a lot of inspiration and tips in the threads by Sundt, Arjan, Norwegian Plastic and Geam. The deckframe (strings and beams) were put together fairly well, bending the wood was a brainer that required water and a heating gun. On the right side is a broken small green speedboat, stolen from my son 😇, it had a 600-engine with a mounting bracket that fitted perfect into the hull.
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This summer I bought an old second hand kit that had already been started. I think its previous owner bought it in the mid nineties, the certificate that comes with the kit shows number 455. He had already fitted the deck, superstructures, bulwarks, chain plates and bow sprit. Also, the winch was assembled and the hull painted. Buying a kit that has been started by someone else is always a bit of a gamble and usually some mistakes have to be corrected and some parts may also prove to be missing. Fortunately, the only missing parts were a bag of small brass nails which could easily be sourced. Unfortunately, the previous owner of the kit made quite a few mistakes and I will only mention the most annoying ones now. The fore deck companionway and hatch were positioned incorrectly (one full centimetre too far forward). The plastic bulwark end parts were assembled and fitted incorrectly. Winch parts not assembled and painted properly. Needless to say, the colour of the hull bottom will also have to be addressed. Finally, no ballast was added to the hull and since the deck has already been fitted adding the lead ballast will now be more difficult. I started by shaping and assembling the masts and spars. The first pics : [img]https://i.imgur.com/LchH0C3.jpg[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/uLYrEYd.jpg[/img] For sanding the main mast into shape I temporarily screwed a metal rod into its base so it would fit into the electric drill head (the diameter of the mast is 2.2 cm, almost the size of a broom handle). Some pics of the boom : [img]https://i.imgur.com/QAz4dSY.jpg[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/PKWRqPC.jpg[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/R069kAc.jpg[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/u1tLn4f.jpg[/img] I applied a uniform colour to the darker pieces of wood : [img]https://i.imgur.com/oOoHPtj.jpg[/img] I have by now also shaped and assembled the boom of the mizzen mast and the gaff of the main mast. I will make and post some pics of these parts later. Regards, Arjan edit: not clear to me why the pics I posted don't show
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As mentioned in my Fisher34 build log, I have two Billings Colin Archer kits 1/15th scale in the cellar store-room. One of them is now in the broom-closet in my apartment, and the build has just started. Some work was started last summer, but the Fisher soon had full focus again, and the Colin Archer went down again! Andreas Sundt has posted a lot of his Colin Archer build already, so I won't be trying to compete with his efforts. I will however post a few words and photos, as there will probably be some differences between our respective builds. Cross-beams only loosely fitted.They'll be heated and straightened before installing. 6Kg of ballast added in bilges, and a removeable cover made in 3mm light-ply.' George
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This whole story began as I got the Billing boat kit of the Colin Archer as a birthday present in the beginning of January. Eager and without any idea of what I was getting myself into I carried the box down to my little den in the basement where the magic is supposed to happen. A box of plywood will somehow be transformed into a magnificent piece of naval history. Or that's my initial plan anyways. I have to say at this point that previous experience with any build kits has been blobs of glue with pieces of a plastic aeroplane hidden inside and an occasional successful Lego car. All this means that you should expect horrible errors but hopefully with small successes sprinkled in for good measure. So - lets get the log started. Picture of box: Instead of the content of the kit, which I didn’t take a picture of, here’s an overview of the dry dock area. No need to worry about the place getting dirty, but a horrible place to loose stuff on the floor as it consists of cobblestones and sand. The kit is not a standard keel and bulkhead, but rather two halves which after planking should form the complete hull. I used some tiny angle irons and paper clips to help get the bulkheads straight: I will go back and forth between port and starboard side for the images, so don't be confused. After sanding and shaping the bulkheads the next up was the planking. Any information on how to perform this task was almost non-existent in the instruction manual, so I went with my gut feeling. I have to admit that at certain times I felt that I might have confused gut feeling with stomach flue - I was not at all sure I was doing the right thing. For those who have never seen the elaborate instructions Billing Boats provide for planking the hull on a beginners set - here it is in all its glory. In the next schematic the whole hull was planked and sanded. 5 planks down - so far so good. And almost immediately after I hit a block in the road. The hull shape changed so rapidly that I had no chance whatsoever to bend the planke to follow the last one. At this point I decided that if the plank won't bend to my wishes - I'll have to bend to the planks. I decided to put the next plank where it fell naturally. I've later seen pictures of other builds which seem to do the same thing. Next up was filling the void with planks which actually was easier that I initially thought it would be. The last plank ended up being too narow for my liking so instead I joined two planks before gluing them into place. Some of the tapered planks had some difficulties with staying in place so I used some helping bits while the glue cured. n
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Review of Billing Boats' Colin Archer (BB606). Approx $100 USD kit. http://www.billingboats.com/da/20/2/boats/the-beginner/P-bb606-colin-archer.html The Colin Archer is a beautiful Norwegian rescue ship, and I had the privilege to help a friend renovate such a (full size) ship in Malaysia a few years ago. Main parts from laser cut plywood. Planking from balsa wood and mahogany(?). Masts from cheap softwood. Some parts from brass, but most parts like anchor, cleats, deadeyes, etc from plastic and softwood. No die cast metal parts. A few parts missing (forgivable), but a few parts like rudder handle shown in diagrams not included and not even listed (unforgivable). Marketed for beginners, but severely lacking in instructions to be easy for a beginner. I would say that kits like this is the reason beginners give up this hobby without even getting started. Its just feels overwhelming to look at all the parts and not be given adequate instructions on how to put the ship together. The actual process of building the ship is not hard at all, and a nice pleasure, once you know how to do it. If not, be prepared to spend hours on the Internet looking at old pictures of this ship. Kits like this have a potential to teach a lot of interesting things about ships, shipbuilding, sailing, and general history. A very easy lock-in of a new customer to come back for more ships, so I think it is very counter productive to have them lacking like this. For me (49 yrs, lots of practical experience of building various stuff, including model ships) its was fairly easy and fun to put it together. But as I said, for the average person it can quickly become a headache. Not recommended. Quality of parts slightly too low to be really enjoyable.
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