Marie Felling by rvchima - FINISHED - Caldercraft - 1:32 - Harbour Tug

[Jim Lad]

You've made a very nice job of those railings, Rob.  Well worth the effort.

 

John

[rvchima]

A Bunch of Photos Before Final Assembly - Hull

 

 

 

The rope fender is by Caldercraft. I soaked it in coffee to darken the color. Now my ship smells like a Starbucks. I made the Marie Felling text using a Brother label maker, white on clear. You can see the clear if you look closely but it's not bad.

 

The tires are by Amati. They seem small to me but at 1:32 scale they are about thee size of the tires on my Honda CRV. I held the line with a spring clamp while I tied them in place.

 

Power steering! The ship had a small steam engine inside a cabin that will be installed at the right. It drove chains that looped around the aft deck, through a couple of "spring boxes", and to the tiller under the grating on the left. The steam engine was controlled by the ship's wheel.

Mistake 1: I installed the aft grating long before the steering chains, so I had to fish the chains underneath and pin them through the grating.

Mistake 2: The pulleys each comprised 3 cast pieces that I cleaned up, painted, and assembled. Then I discovered that the supplied chain didn't fit. I eventually glued the pulley wheels solid and drilled out one side to fit the chain.

[rvchima]

A Bunch of Photos Before Final Assembly - Forward Cabin, Mast, and Lifeboat

The instructions call for a tall mast with three lights, a yard arm for signal flags, a derrick, a lifeboat, and a searchlight on top of the bridge.

 

There are a few old photos of the Marie Felling around. This one shows a low mast, one light (maybe?), no yard arm, no derrick, life rafts, and no searchlight. It turns out that the owner of Caldercraft wasn't too keen on scale details as long as the model looked somewhat like the real thing. I mostly went by the instructions but made some changes for practical reasons.

 

 

The instructions call for the mast to extend 370 mm above the boat deck, making the model 650 mm (25.5") high. I cut the mast down about 100 mm and removed the junk on top. The model now stands 550 mm (21.5") high. I kept the derrick. It is rigged with a 5:1 pulley system for the boat but a 1:1 pulley for the boom. I wonder if you could really handle that boom with a simple pulley?

 

The lifeboat comes as two vacuum formed halves, with nice gratings but white metal oars, oar locks, and rudder. I added wooden seats and built a wooden rudder and oars.

 

[rvchima]

A Bunch of Photos Before Final Assembly - Aft Cabin

I didn't use the color scheme from the original Marie Felling either.

 

 

Looks like I have some touch up to do on that rail!

 

Watch out for that last step! Other build logs have noticed that the stairs in the main cabin don't reach the upper deck - the castings are about two steps short. I didn't notice until I had built the first set, and I wasn't about to build them again.

 

The towing hooks and release levers would actually work if they were made of something stronger.

 

The kit does not show these beams over the skylights but another photo of the actual ship does. I bent them from some thick copper rod.

[rvchima]

Two More Things to Build

 

Two laminated towing beams will protect the equipment on the aft deck.

 

[yvesvidal]

Absolutely superb and well in the Caldercraft tradition. Lovely model.

 

Yves

[Jim Lad]

Very nicely done, Rod.

 

John

[Old Collingwood]

Amazing work.

 

OC.

[rvchima]

Building a Stand

 

I built a new stand out of cherry and joined the corners with a Kreg jig. It was a little complicated clamping the ends to the rails, but it worked out OK.

 

Parts I didn't Use

Here are the parts that I didn't use. It seems like Caldercraft updates parts and leaves the old ones in the box.

• A nice sheet of plywood for the deck (laser cut deck included)
• Gratings for the aft deck (laser cut aft deck included)
• Lots of dowels and brass rod (I bought new brass for the railings)
• Several wood blocks
• Stanchions (I bought brass stanchions)
• Ladders (I built my own)
• Links for anchor chain (I bought a nice brass chain)
• Lots of other random white metal parts.

[rvchima]

Marie Felling - Complete, 285 hours, 88 days

 

Final pictures of the Marie Felling. It was fairly easy with the GRP hull and cabins, and somewhat monotonous with all the white metal pieces.  It does make up into a beautiful model though and would be great for RC if you're into that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jim Lad]

A very neatly constructed model, Rod.

 

John

[BobG]

Absolutely beautiful, Rod. Congratulations on a very fine build!

[rvchima]

Many thanks to the folks who looked in. I hope that this build will help someone interested in Caldercraft models in the future.

[Roger Pellett]

Very nice work, Rod.  She really looks like a steel hulled ship.  I particularly like the bottom paint color.

 

Roger

 

 

[ccoyle]

She looks fabulous!

[CDW]

Outstanding model!

[yvesvidal]

Rod,

 

Another Calder Craft model taken to exquisite completion. Congratulations on this realistic tug and thank you for sharing the build with us.

 

Yves

[Old Collingwood]

I agree  with all the comments  - you have done a lovely job on her.

 

OC.

[Landlubber Mike]

Beautiful model!  Well done!

[lmagna]

On 10/22/2021 at 5:53 PM, rvchima said:

It does make up into a beautiful model though and would be great for RC if you're into that.

You did a very nice job on this kit, and yes it does make a very nice looking and reasonably powerful RC model yet is still maneuverable because of the twin screws. Bring your buddy to get it into the water though. It does weigh a bit!

[Tugman]

Great build, really enjoyed going over it.

Quick question (and please excuse my ignorance!), how did you do the water-line so perfectly straight? 

Thanks

Tugman