Taurus by Havelock - Model Shipways - Scale 1:64 - Steam Towboat

[Havelock]

I initially purchased Model Shipway's 18th Century Longboat as my first wood boat project and, shortly after, this kit as an alternate starter. The longboat proved to be more advanced than I'm comfortable with so I've put it on hold till I get more experience and confidence. I replaced the longboat with OcCre's Polaris kit that's specifically designed for first time builders and am currently about halfway through that build but have decided to start building this towboat in parallel.

 

There is only one other build log of this kit that I can find at present:  Taurus Steam Towboat by Duanelaker

 

Here is the kit... minus the solid wood hull I managed to leave out of the shot 😕  :

 

 

Be aware that the cabins have been changed from solid wood to a new laser cut version. The build manual is still the original, with instructions for the solid wood cabins, however there is a separate sheet with instructions for the new laser-cut ones.

 

First step is getting the roughly hewn solid hull into shape.

 

The stern was relatively easy:

 

 

 

 

 

However, the bulwark needs to be thinned down from 1/8" to between 1/32" and 1/16". I created a makeshift scribe using a #11 blade and a clamp with thin wood strips:

 

 

 

 

This worked out pretty well:

 

 

Was then able to hack away with the x-acto:

 

 

To get down to about 1/16":

 

 

Still a lot of sanding and cutting left to do.

 

However.... one mistake I managed to make was not shaping the bow prior to thinning the bulwark. On my hull the bow required a lot of sanding if I wanted to get the "Catboat" stem look (fig. 2c in the manual) which I did want. However because I have already defined the bulwark it wasn't possible to sand back the top of the bow as much as was needed so I was forced to go with fig. 2a. Not the end of the world but annoying all the same.

 

 

 

[VTHokiEE]

I’ve always been tempted by this kit so I’m excited to live vicariously through you.

[Havelock]

 

Trying to get some ideas on a paint scheme and possible modifications so went browsing around google images. Thought I would post a few examples here:

 

 

If I ever do a scratch build I think it will be one of these kinds of tugboats. 

[Jim Lad]

A nice start.  You've made a very neat job of those bulwarks.

 

John

[Havelock]

Thanks, John. It's coming along.

 

Not too happy with the fit of the stern grating:

 

 

Decided to try shape it better with the sander:

 

 

A little better and at least it doesn't overhang the step at the stern:

 

 

 

For the bow stem I wanted something that looked more like the figures in the instructions, so I took a larger plank from the Polaris kit and made a slot for it to fit into:

 

 

And shaped the plank accordingly:

 

 

Not going to install it till I'm adding the rubbing strakes as I'm sure I'm going to break it off while still sanding the hull.

 

Which brings us to what I did all today... sanding, and lots of it, to get the deck ready, the bulwarks thinned, the bow point finished and the main cabin shaped for the deck and roof. Also got the decking cut out and treated with wipe-on-poly:

 

 

 

Of course I managed to over do it with the bulwark thinning:

 

 

Not the end of the world. Can fix it with a little wood filler and the rubbing strake will be along that line.

 

Moving forward I have to plan the next few steps. The instructions are a little too brief and I need to figure out a proper construction and painting order. For example, I don't want to install the deck until I finish painting the hull, as I'm going to be airbrushing it, and also need to figure out exactly how I want the main cabin to look. 

 

[Havelock]

Went out to buy beeswax...

 

 

came back with wood strips and brass rods too. Thought it might be good to have an assortment of materials on hand. Oh also got a miter box and ordered an X-Y table for my new drill press.... hmmm, seems half the fun of hobbies is acquiring stuff... 😬

[Jim Lad]

Re your bulwark - half the fun of this hobby is taking care of little problems that happen along the way!

 

John

[Cathead]

Nice application of problem-solving skills so far, as John says that's half the fun. Of course, the other half is inventing new words when you discover your next problem to solve!