Rudolf

Magnificent work, George. I'm very impressed.
 
Steven

Tomorow I'll short out the pictures of the near finished model, here a couple more during this stage of the built with me in for scale 

Some more photos during that phase. Afterwards I started the rigging process, and the diorama base 

The scale of the ship was really a challenge, but anything bigger and I would not have the time to experiment on till completion. Here are my attempts to make a tiny lion figurehead, the carving being a few millimeters tall 


 

The next photos show quite a few weeks later, back and forth on test painting, correcting the surfaces in many places and working with the stern galleries 

The bow details were made mostly with plastic strips and pieces. After this point I started going back and forth trying to correct the generally the surfaces and the stern in particularly. It was the most frustrating but useful part of the built 

So here is the stern being worked on. All surfaces were still quite rough at this point The plans called for a balcony as well. The masts are simply inserted and not properly fitted. As for the deck, I did it by hand as a seperate piece, which is still not fitted properly down. I also made a nice base for a full hull display, a plan I later revised. Notice the boxes inserted to create the gunports, quite a lot of them and about 2,5mm cubed 

The yards were made with the same method, I also heavily used melted spruce, both here and throught the ship 

I used balsa wood, bamboo pieces sanded down and plastic strips to make the masts. Some yards I later remade 

I'm going slowly on. Glued the rail made of 1mm pear strip and planked the forecastle.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

Painting of the hull is finished. I used Tamiya acrylic paints and an airbrush Badger 100 LG. 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

The ladder on the pilot house was also easy.  I used some brass model railroad ladder stock, cutting, filing, and bending to shape...

An interesting feature of these boats were the masker air-emitter belts.  Two band of half-round pipes created bubbles to mask boat noises from acoustic mines.  I was fortunate to find close-up photos of these pipes on the internet, and they were easy to make from plastic strip and half-round tubing.  The hard part was re-painting the hull, since I put them on as an after thought....🙄

Here's the re-tooled alidade/pelorus instrument.

GB,
 
Nice looking vessel you've built! I've also not heard of an MSB even though I was a radioman operator onboard three different
MSO's on the east coast. One comment about the cable on the reel - the cables on board our ships all had segmented floats on
them. The photo is the stern of the USS Alacrity, 1969, as an example. Sure don't know if those river boats had them tho'.
 
Gary
 
 

I thought I'd weigh-in on anchors 😁.  I really couldn't find any after-market parts that would be both the proper size and type.  The US Navy boat anchors appear to have been (are) a fluke style.  Anyway, experimenting with wire, plastic strip, brass rod, and styrene sheet (the thickness of a thin sheet of paper), I got the results I wanted.

Here are most of the parts and tools (not counting very thin plastic glue and cyanoacrylate):

 
Here's a finished anchor:
I started by tapering a small square styrene strip by shaving it with a hobby knife...
 
Then I used wire for the head ring, and brass rod for the stock...
Plastic sheet made the flukes...
Little slivers of plastic sheet were needed to finish the flukes...
Anchors Away!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The pilot house roof has some equipment and railing.  I decided to make the railing out of small brass rod.  The majority was bent (painstakingly) to shape and installed.  Then, the supporting stanchions were located and fitted using super glue.  Other bits and pieces came from various sources (HO scale diesel horn; 1/35 scale Panzer 3 spotlight; and "what-ever-it-is" from the Lindberg lightship model).  They all represent roof items seen in photos of the real boats, in both size and location.  I just don't know what the "what-ever-it-is" is on the real boat...

One of the little details needed are air vents.  They were small on the real boat, and really tiny in 1/96 scale.  However, the vents were clearly visible in front of the pilot house, and sat on small dorade boxes.  Here's how I made the air vents from styrene tubes...
 

Two sizes were needed to make the flared vent...
 

Using a round file I formed a half circle notch on one side of the large tube...


The smaller tube was glued into the notch at a right angle.  Then, filler is used to build-up a bulb around the joint...

The vent is then filed and sanded to it's final shape...

At the stern end of the boat sits a framework of rollers and pulleys that are used to play-out the cables.  My photos show these had different configurations, probably due to modifications or improvements made over time.  However the basic framework looks the same.  With the small scale I'm working in, and because this structure is relatively small, complex,  and made of metal, I decided to make it out of styrene.  The following photos show a little of the construction and how it will appear on the boat, although it is not yet glued-on.  I also have to touch-up the paint a little....

The next big challenge was building the large reel for the electronic mine sweeping cable.  I find it difficult to draw or make perfect circles, and that's exactly the shape of the reel!  Constriction started with a wood disk cut from the 1/32"  basswood sheet.  A circle gauge helped me get the disc close.  Then, carefully measured spokes for the reel were attached, made from styrene rod.  The same rod was used to wraparound the outer edge of the spokes.  The result was not perfect, but presentable... .  Again, old photo-etch was used for the reel hubs.  To represent the smooth cable, I used black insulated copper wire.  The reel is mounted on piano wire and can really turn (don't know why; it doesn't have to for the purpose of the model).
The outer rod was placed after the initial set of eight spokes were attached.  The second set of eight spokes were added later...

A wood dowel was used for the core of the reel...

 

 
The double exhaust stacks for the gas-turbine were also a "head-scratcher."  Although the boat was powered by twin diesel engines, a gas turbine was used to produce electricity for the electronic mine sweeping gear.  I first tried to make the conical tops out of rolled sheet styrene, but that didn't work.  So, I ended up carving them from wood dowel.  The lower tubes are also wood dowel.  Some styrene strip was used for trim...

 
These were the three big challenges I worried about the most: the pilot house, the reel, and the gas turbine exhaust stacks.  The rest of the boat's details might be tedious, but I really love the detail work!

I have to admit, this was the easiest planking job I ever did.  Since I planned to smooth and fill the hull anyway, I wasn't too worried about accuracy.  I began making 3mm wide strips from 1/32" basswood sheet.  After fixing the garboard strake, I just added the planks without tapering anything.  They went on beautifully, with only one tapered cheater needed amidships at the curve of the hull.  I then coated the hull with acrylic wood putty, diluted with tap water to make a thick slurry. After sanding everything smooth, I applied "Mr. Surfacer 1000", found any blemishes, and sanded them out.
 
Here's the finished hull, with trim pieces starting to be added...

It’s still been a number of months since I actually made any progress, but I just realized I had done some work on the centerboard trunk since I last updated here, as well as the beginnings of the seat supports, so I figured I’d share. 
I’m going to the Finger Lakes Boating Museum tomorrow to see #167, which was meticulously restored a few years ago. It’s a Skaneateles built boat exactly like I’m trying to recreate, so I’m looking forward to taking lots of hi-res close ups for reference! It’ll be interesting to see what kind of differences there are between it and #1 since that was the prototype and 167 is a full on production run boat.

Rudder and hardware dry fit successful! I’m so glad I’m still able to use the pintles and gudgeons I made for the first Lightning five years ago!

Well I went through my paint stash and just happened to find a light grey that I didn't remember having that just happened to be the exact shade that I was expecting the first one to be! So I went ahead and repainted. I am very happy with how the inside looks now. I also got the deck fitting blocking and mast partner installed, as well as the skeg. Throw the centerboard in there for a quick mock-up and she's starting to look like a proper Lightning!

Initial trial of chainplate attachment successful! I went with the Micro-Mark 00-90x1/8 screws and nuts. The flat head screws countersink nicely into the 1/16” planking with just enough thread poking through to accept the brass strip and the nut! Let’s just hope the actual planking on the boat behaves itself as well as this test piece did! I won’t have to countersink the heads quite as far as this I don’t think. Just enough to be able to fill and fair. I’m thinking probably 4 screws per chainplate will be sufficient.