yvesvidal

I wish this kit would be offered at the scale of 1/32nd. It would go so well with many other fishing boas such as Emma C. Berry from Model Shipways and many more from European manufacturers. Yves

Beautiful model. I can smell the fish, shells and seaweeds already. Very very nice. Yves

Very nice start. It is always exciting to discover a new model from Chris Watton. Could you post a picture of the finished model, or at least what it is supposed to look like? Thanks Yves

I have finished working on the fuel tank, located on each side of the Officers/Kitchen compartment. The goal is to create a tank which is as close as possible to the prototype and that will reach under the Control room, as indicated in the blue-prints. It is a tedious work with a lot of adjustments. The bulkhead is completely opened and a round enclosure is fabricated: The module is dry-fitted into the hull: I have created a cut in the side water tank, to allow a better view in the kitchen, pantry and toilet room. Batteries will be sitting underneath. On the picture (above), you can see the round enclosure that will extend under the control room, to form the largest past of the fuel tank. Now, to paint everything and start installing all the batteries.... Yves

It looks so much better Kevin. Well done. Yves

That ship is monstrous. This is the most massive and bulky dreadnought I have ever seen. It is almost beautiful in its hideousness. Yves

Absolutely superb. Yves

Metal tube....yes, absolutely. Yves

A little update to show a lot of work. I spent my evening fabricating a compartment for the batteries. Something that looks more prototypical and that may explain how this submarine was designed and built. Only drawback, it will be hard to see once it is finished, but the satisfaction to know that all is there is priceless. Basically, we have an entire box fabricated to hold the 18 Battery blocks. Some blocks have four cells, other only have three. On each side of that battery box, fuel tanks. I am skipping the fabrication of the wasted water tanks, as it is impossible to see from outside. Here (above) we have a view of the fuel tank (lower position) with a window cut on the battery compartment, and topped by the water tank, arriving almost aligned with the top of the bunks. Below, the small window to the aft batteries room will not allow me to depict a sailor filing up electrolyte in the cells, as I did in the front batteries room. I may skip the first row of batteries as it will completely occult the inside perspective. I still have to build the pressure hull, which will be used to finish the fuel tank in the front. With the deck installed, we can say good-bye to the 18 battery modules..... Well, at least, it looks more realistic than the Trumpeter kit approach. Finally, the complete sandwich, showing the rather large volume dedicated to the fuel tank. Next, we will be cutting the front bulkhead to open the fuel tank and the ballast tanks on the side. After that, we can start painting all the walls and bulkheads, batteries and put everything together. Yves

I started working on the kit again, and realized the extent of the disaster for this particular compartment. A lot of surgery and modifications will have to be done if we want this section to have some kind of semblance to the prototype. I suspect that this section was designed during a national Chinese Holiday and that their Rice based alcohol was flowing liberally.... Anyway, the first piece to get a massive cut is the back wall. For some unknown (to me) reason, that wall protrudes outside of the pressure hull to reach the sky, right under the deck.... Go figure. As you can see below, once in place this is what it does. I assume that the ingress pipe for the engine and some air tanks are supposed to hide that mistake, but this is not very serious: And so we cut..... and we will file later on. Second crazy thing, the molding of that bulkhead. This is the forward bulkhead separating the kitchen/sub-officers section from the control room. In my world (and the world of German engineers) there is a fuel tank going through and a water tank terminating at this location. So why are we getting a bunch of big bolts? I suppose it is an artistic license from the Trumpeter. And so we file..... Third incongruity: The floor for the batteries. The kit calls for a slanted floor, giving a nice inclination for all the acid to spill. In addition, the proposed floor is flat and not staged as the forward batteries compartment was. Finally, that floor only holds half of what it should, in term of batteries. So we are going to need some surgery, de-construction and re-modelling. First, I am using the floor of the second set of parts I have to build something that resembles the drawings (go back a couple of posts earlier for details): Then I am cutting that floor in three sections, in order to create a stepped like floor with three levels: This is all glued back with styrene strips (your best friend with Trumpeter kits).... Et voila. We now have something that looks more like the blue-prints. Next, we will be butchering the bulkheads. Yves

This is from Wikipedia: Narrow Gauge[edit] Sn3½ or Sn42 gauge - 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge on 16.5 mm (0.65 in) gauge track (the same as HO gauge) Sm – 1 m gauge on 16.5 mm; Continental European.[5] Sn3 - 3 ft (914 mm) gauge on 14.3 mm (0.563 in) gauge track. Sn2 gauge - 2 ft (610 mm) gauge on 10.5 mm (0.413 in) (the same as HOn3 gauge) or 9 mm (0.354 in) gauge track Actually, Sm or Sn3 may be perfect for a wharf/harbor secondary line, next to your boat. Yves

For your trains, you have to use S-Scale: - N scale is 1/160 - HO is 1/87 (this will be too small). - S Scale is 1/64 (perfect) - O scale is 1/48 (way too big). Yves

Breathtaking....!!! This is the real thing, it is not a model. Yves

WOW!!! This is coming along nicely. Very realistic model. Yves

Very interesting and lovely boat. Billing Boats has been creating quite a few kits with this half-hulls technique. It works really well. Yves

I am impressed at the quality of your painting and the vast collection of jars that you have. Truly impressive. What are the ones in the center, saying Acrylic on the glass? Yves

Emphasis on "real" emergency.... Well said!! The whole thing is so ridiculous. Yves

I agree that finding a good quality kit is sometimes hard to do. There are so many of these fishing vessels around the Mediterranean Sea and the Normandy and Brittany shores, that you cannot go wrong if you decide to customize them a little bit. I know that Chris Watton is usually releasing very high quality boats, but the ones shown on your link are no-where to be found on the French coast lines. What you are building is "the" typical French fishing vessel. I have seen a lot of these when I was a kid and they are still used a lot nowadays. Artesiana Latina and Constructo released similar vessels (My brother built a couple of them) but AL is now out of business and Constructo's quality is not exactly what you want.... Below are a few examples, but honestly, the Chalutier you picked up is probably the nicest one: Marie-Ange by New Cap Maquettes Le Marsouin, one of my favorite but almost impossible to find. The Mare-Nostrum by AL....toy like when compared to your model. The Boulogne by Billing Boats. There are many more and it would take an entire thread to cover them all. I hope you do not feel like I hijacked your thread. Let em know. Thanks Yves

Your trawler is coming along very nicely. I hope you keep this one. Yves

I love your serving machine made with Meccano/Erector parts. It brings back a lot of fond memories. Yves

Beautiful hull. I like these French fishing boats. Thanks for building one of them. Yves

Very realistic. Yves

I like your research efforts to improve on the Trumpeter kit. Sounds familiar to me.... ;-) Yves

This is truly a BIG bird..... You did a superb job at painting it. Yves

Superb presentation of your beautiful gondola model. The black color of the base, depicts quite well the dark waters of Venice at night. Yves