Brett Slater

Completely missed this first time around. An absolutely beautiful model or a beautiful ship. Could I ask where you obtained the plans from ??

Lovely work, having never used fibre glass before i'll be interested to see what the process is. Presumably the mesh you've shaped over the hull is the "fibre" ?

Very interesting subject beautifully executed. Could i ask where you obtained the plans from ?

The workmanship on display here is out of this world. Just brilliant.

The photos of her in later life show her with the yards removed. I'm not sure when this was done to be honest. At some point there was a refit and the upper deck was remodelled - perhaps it was then or when she did her Boer war service as troop carrier. Being my first foray into the nautical arena i decided early on that i would model her without yards but in a pre refit configuration . Maybe this is historically incorrect but the prospect of tackling the yards felt too much given my lack of experience. With hindsight this is my biggest regret, the rigging wasn't as difficult as i imagined it would be and i think i could have managed it (suspect it might have taken another few months though).

I think they do work but i'm reliably informed they aren't wound up as they're too noisy !!

Thanks - the clocks is my other half, she wasn't at all pleased when we found that the only place to put Servia meant that she had to move them all from the cupboard top to make space !

One final photo of the ship in its case...

Beautiful work i didn't realise these types of kits existed. I imagine they must take a huge amount of precision and skill to make them look this un-card like. Dread to think how tricky the curves must be.

If you want to see absolute card genius have a look at the work of DORIS on this site. Here is an example

I'm calling this done. Plenty of mistakes but what a learning exercise !! Hope you enjoy the pictures...

This is a stunning piece of work. Your metalworking skills are incredible. As someone who is yet to venture beyond plastic and wood but is thinking of metal work can anyone recommend books or other resources that would help me get started ?

Yes it is (first anything in about 35 years tbh) and believe me I've made plenty of mistakes along the way (as you'll see when i post some proper pictures of the whole thing). Most i've managed to fix but some i spotted too late and will have to live with. Have too say that i've absolutely loved working on this though.

I've just finished the propeller (4th attempt) and again this is made entirely from plastic sheet. You can also see the brass lifeboat davits and the shapeways blocks that i've been using and will use when the lifeboats are fitted.

Thanks, i think i read that the builders model is in Halifax as you say. I think i also read that it is in 1/48 scale so probably getting on for 4metres in length ! I wish i could have seen it before i started this project but flying to Canada would have blown my budget !

Thanks for posting the pictures. I did come across these before but as with most of the photos of Servia they seem to show her later in life after the refit that added the extra layer of superstructure to the mid section (you can see the white rear of this in the first photo and on the left of the people in the second) . How much this refit impacted the rest of the ship i do not know but there are even differences between the plan and some of the details on the forward section in this photo The skylight and vents aft of the foremast are missing on the plan and on the builders model. Its hard to know where to draw the line so I've just tried to follow the plans in the hope that I can get a reasonably accurate depiction of the ship in her earlier days.

Thanks for the link. It looks like they do have some of the tall ship plans but none for the steamers. I seem to recall that Model Dockyard also had a lovely set of plans for the Queen Mary. I hope these become available elsewhere.

Thankyou. To be honest i wouldn't recommend the plastic card approach for the hull, it came out ok in the end but the amount of time that i had to spend laying the planks, sanding and then filling/replacing them makes me think that wood is the better option. I'd also be interested to know if the Model Dockyard plans can be obtained elsewhere as they had some really interesting subjects.

Yes i tried various approaches to the vents but using the dapping set and heated plastic sheet seemed to give the best results. I'd love to know how others have tackled these with ordinary tools (the most complex thing in my toolbox is a drill !)

Hi, The plans i used were drawn by Harold Underhill, i had a link to the website where they could be purchased but this no longer seems to work. The plans consist of 3 sets of drawings; the general arrangement that you can see on the wall in one the pictures, another for section and sheer lines and another for the rigging/masts etc. Interestingly the set i bought seemed quite old and were covered in hand written notes marking differences between the plans and the builders model that lives in a museum in Canada (i think). I could find little else to work with to be honest and decided to take the plans as "correct" and follow them apart from where the notes marked differences. At some point in its life the ship's sailing rig was removed, whether this was before or after it was refitted i do not know but have decided to model it in this configuration mainly because being my first attempt at anything like this i was terrified of the complexity the extra rigging would add !

I've been a member of the site for a few years but this will be my first nautical build and the first build in about 35 years. I modelled a lot in my youth but then it was mainly aircraft and AFVs from kits. I always remember seeing a beautifully detailed 1/700 waterline ship at a competition way back in the early 1980's and thinking that one day i'd like to tackle something along the same lines. As i said in my post in the "introduction" section for various reasons i never really had the space or time to remain active in the hobby but closer to retirement I've been able to return. For reasons that I'm still not sure about I decided to ignore the myriad unmade kits sitting in my attic and instead try my hand at a scratch built ship. My eyesight precluded me working in 1/700 and i looked for something larger which was when I stumbled across the Underhill plans for Servia, i knew almost immediately that this was the subject i wanted to try. This project started a couple of years ago and was intended, initially at least, as an experiment and a way to get used to the tools and materials again after such a long break. Unfortunately because of this I didn't take a lot of photographs along the way but now that the project is nearing completion I thought i would start a "mini" build log with what i do have. With hind sight i wish i had just taken the plunge at the beginning as i think that advice from some of the more seasoned veterans on the site would have helped me avoid many of the pitfalls that i encountered along the way (i think that probably 20% of the time spent on the project has been undoing mistakes and rebuilding components using a different approach). Since the hull is painted I decided to work in plastic as this was the medium i was most familiar with. I started with a baseboard carefully marked out from the plans and cut the various cross sections out from 2mm plastic sheet. The hull was then skinned in 0.5mm plastic card strips apart from around the stern where balsa blocks where carved to shape. Internally the hull was then braced with more plastic and filler to provide rigidity that would allow me to smooth the hull. There were now many cycles of filling/sanding and priming... Basic superstructures were made from more plastic sheet and various detailing added to the hull Deck planking was done using maple floor veneer cut into 1mm strips which were then glued into place. Filler tinted with acrylic paint was then used caulk the planks and then sanded back. I hunted unsuccessfully for tubing that could be used for the funnels and in the end had to fall back on plastic sheet again. I used a balsa rod and rolled paper around this until it was the correct diameter. Plastic sheet was then wrapped around this, glued and sanded back before cutting the lengths off required for the funnels. The joints between the funnel sections were again added with more plastic. The wheelhouse, skylights etc were then fashioned from plastic sheet, primed and given an oil paint finish to simulate the wooden finish indicated by the plans. Vents for the deck proved difficult. I eventually used a dapping set bought off eBay to shape heated plastic sheet into hemi-spheres, fitted these to plastic rod shafts and then filler to blend the 2 together. For lifeboats i made a vac forming box to produce multiple copies of the various boats from masters carved from balsa The end result was not good so the whole process was repeated and eventually i got something i could live with although i think with hind sight 3d printing might be the way to go here. The jury is still out on these and i might look at a 4th attempt. Masts were made from dowel and bamboo knitting needles sanded back. The long grain of bamboo makes them strong along the central axis and quite easy to sand back to the thin diameter required for the upper sections of the mast. Ever since the whole thing started i've been dreading the point where rigging and in particular rat-lines would need to be tackled so at this point i chickened out and built a case to protect the whole thing from dust etc. Unfortunately once this was done i had to start some rigging. I started with the upper ratlines using fishing line for the verticals. Dead eyes at this scale are too large to ignore but still very small so i devised an approach to mass produce these by pegging a loop of line between two tacks on a wooden board. Blu tac was then used to adjust the gap between the 2 lines before small plastic discs (cut using a leather punch) were glued in pairs to the 2 lines. Once dry the lines were then cut into sections, each containing 2 discs, that could be attached to the main ratline. Additional discs were then used to cap the dead eyes to produce a reasonable representation of 2 circular block with the 3 lines passing between them. Paint is then used to fill the gaps and finish them. I used infini line for the horizontals on the ratlines and found PVA glue the best to secure them. Shapeways produce a 1/200 set of blocks that then used on the anchors So this is the story so far. I'll be adding more over the coming few weeks as i continue with the final fittings, railings etc.

Thanks. I'll start my "mini" build log tomorrow so you can have a look at progress.

I've been a member for a few years now and regularly visit the site and look with awe at the craftmanship on display. I thought it was probably about time that i introduced myself properly. I began modelling quite young (i still remember buying my first Airfix kit from a jumble sale back in about 1970). I spent many a happy day modelling away during my teen years (mainly aircraft and AFVs) and then life happened ! Whilst i still followed the hobby i could never really get set up properly to get back into it largely because of many moves (I've worked all over the place in finance/IT mainly). Anyway to cut a long story short i eventually got into a position to do something about this and bizarrely ignored my attic full of unmade aircraft kits and decided to build a ship instead ! I've always had a soft spot for early 20th century ocean liners and briefly toyed with having a go at the Airfix Mauretania but then i was fortunate enough to spot some plans on eBay of RMS Servia. Initially my plan was to just try to build the hull using the techniques gleaned from the posts on this site and to be honest i never really thought it would get very far. I took a couple of photos along the way but certainly not enough to justify a build log. Once the hull was done it sat on a cupboard for months untouched but once lockdown started i picked the whole thing up again as a cure for cabin fever but again i don't think i actually thought it would reach completion - scratch building a 1/200 ship when as a first foray back into modelling after 35 years seemed like a tall order and i think it was really intended just to get a feel for the tools and materials again. Well after a couple of years and probably about 800 hours work it is almost done (mostly down to stubbornness rather than skill i suspect) and i'll be putting some pictures etc on the site hopefully in the next few weeks. In hindsight i wish that i had started a proper build log at the beginning as i think the guidance from the veterans out there could have helped me avoid some of the pitfalls that i hit along the way. Since the etiquette on the site for scratch projects seems to be posting a full log of the project I apologise in advance for the meagre number of wip photos that i'll have to share (and also for my dire knowledge of nautical terminology) ! All the best and Happy New Year