St Roch by Lecrenb - 1:48 scale - RCMP Schooner rigged as schooner c. 1930/35

[Lecrenb]

Still waiting to hear from the Fram museum, but from information received from Harvey Golden and Wefalck I am leaning away from the belt idea towards a drive chain. Belt or chain, raising the cargo derrick, hence the guide rollers, would provide tension and act as a sort of clutch...

I can always adapt the pulley on the anchor winch if necessary, but there is no information as to what it looked like on St. Roch. 

The missing link is the drive on the cargo winch, was there a separate gear that is not in my reference pictures, or was it wrapped around the warping drum?

That cargo winch is coming up next on my list!

Regards,

Bruce

 

[Lecrenb]

Good afternoon all, and I hope everyone is having a decent summer so far, as we are here in Alberta!

I am moving on to detailing St. Roch's main deck... this work consists of making the cargo winch, the hatch covers, and stowing the spare rudder.

First I want to share with you a picture from 1928 or 1929, from the book "Arctic Workhorse" by James Delgado.

It shows a crewman breaking cargo from the hold using the cargo boom on the main mast. Of interest is the port side of the cargo winch in the background... you can see the warping drum, right next to it is what appears to be a pulley for the anchor winch drive, then a shaft to the cable spool and presumably the gearing in the background. 

This picture is informing my detailing of the main deck as described in the next posts...

Edited July 17 by Lecrenb

[Lecrenb]

First up is the cargo winch, which I am recreating using what information I can glean from the previous picture and the sketch on the designer's 1928 plan... here are the pieces I am making so far...

The winch is powered from a take-off on the main diesel engine, I have to work on the gears and shafts for that next. Thoughts, ideas, and comments are most welcome!

 

[Lecrenb]

I have also made the canvas cover for the hatch, painted grey/green same as the other similar surfaces, and the hatch cover boards. This photo shows how I am thinking about displaying them, stacked up beside the hatch so you can see the strong beams down inside. These were a feature of St. Roch to prevent her being crushed in the ice, so I thought it important to show them.

Referring back to the picture with the crewman, I am inspired to consider a diorama based on it. The main reason would be to include a figure that would give scale to the model. I did not do this for my previous models because I am crap at figure making and painting. I could also put some cargo in the hold, not enough to conceal the beams, and copy the use of the main mast cargo boom to give some action.

I am not considering multiple figures or a lot of deck clutter, as I want to enhance the model, not detract from it.

Any comments or suggestions on this idea are greatly appreciated!

 

 

[Lecrenb]

The previous picture shows the spare rudder on the main deck. I note that the earlier photo of the crewman handling cargo does not appear to show the rudder, but it should be partially visible if it were stowed where I have it at the moment. It is important to note that the picture shows the original small deckhouse, so there would be more room on the poop aft.

This main deck is where the rudder is stowed on the ship today, but it seems an improbable location given today's large, full beam superstructure! Without the mainmast the only possible way to get the spare rudder aft would be to use the foremast boom to lower it overside into a lifeboat, then haul it aft and sway it up using the mizzen boom! There is no room aft of the superstructure for it today...

In the 1930s there is not much room on the poop as well, and I won't know for certain if the rudder can fit there until I make the lifeboat supports. However there is a passage along the waist from the main deck, and the mainmast with it's cargo boom could help move the rudder if necessary.

Still working on this conundrum!

Regards,

Bruce

 

Edited July 17 by Lecrenb

[wefalck]

Personally, I like to 'animate' my models, but then they are usually arranged as scenic display. In your case, a single figure for scale may be just the right thing.

[AON]

Bruce,

There is a fellow in our MSON club that 3D models and resin prints figures.

He made one of me playing my fiddle sitting crosslegged for placement on my orlop deck (deep in the ship for anyone that tries to see tha far). I can ask him if he has anything suitable and have him contact you if you wish.

Alan

[Lecrenb]

5 hours ago, wefalck said:

Personally, I like to 'animate' my models, but then they are usually arranged as scenic display. In your case, a single figure for scale may be just the right thing.

Thank you very much Wefalck!

[Lecrenb]

19 hours ago, AON said:

Bruce,

There is a fellow in our MSON club that 3D models and resin prints figures.

He made one of me playing my fiddle sitting crosslegged for placement on my orlop deck (deep in the ship for anyone that tries to see tha far). I can ask him if he has anything suitable and have him contact you if you wish.

Alan

Sure Alan, that would be appreciated. I was thinking about looking for an O gauge (1:48 scale) model railroad figure to modify... but a bespoke figure like the one in the photo would be great!

Regards,

Bruce

 

P.S...

I remember reading an article many years ago, can't recall the source, about conservators bore-scoping a model that was due for restoration. The scope was put down into the stern area of the model where a completely detailed interior was discovered. It had been hidden for scores of years, and as the scope went deeper, they discovered the captain's cabin complete with a parrot in a cage!

So one day a restorer or conservator will speculate about the Bellerophon Fiddler!

 

 

Edited July 18 by Lecrenb

[AON]

I've just sent him a note.

[AON]

Heard back and emailed you his contact info.

[Lecrenb]

On 7/19/2025 at 4:33 AM, AON said:

Heard back and emailed you his contact info.

Yup, we've communicated and he has a figure 'out of the box' which should be perfect! Now to order some cargo!

Thanks for setting us up!

[Lecrenb]

Here is the cargo winch finished, except for the power take-off shaft... 

Here it is trial fitted on the base. The pulleys on each winch line up and clear the main hatch, so if they were rigged to power the anchor winch they would be accurate!

Thanks all for looking in!

Bruce

 

 

[Lecrenb]

Cargo winch is done and fitted to St. Roch... the shaft to the break is the power take off from the main engine, engaged when the winches needed to be operated.

The line will extend up the cargo boom via a pair of pulleys and end in a cargo hook.

My intent is to show a crewman handling cargo coming up from the hold, using the cargo boom. Look back a few posts and you will find the photo that inspired me to add this feature. The idea is not to copy the whole scene, but to use the crewman to give a sense of scale to the model while illustrating the main role of St. Roch, to be a supply vessel for Arctic detachments.

Still not sure about stowing the rudder here, so I'm moving on to the poop deck and the life boat mountings...

Thanks for looking in!

 

 

[Lecrenb]

I had previously used Quaycraft 16' RN pattern dinghys for my HMCS Chicoutimi corvette model, and I was very impressed with their high quality, detail, and accuracy. This first photo shows the dinghy I fitted out for HMCS Chicoutimi.

I went looking for Quaycraft boats for St. Roch, and found both the 18' double ended dinghy and 20' double ended motorboat that I needed at Cornwall Model Boats. Unfortunately they were out of stock and Quaycraft had shut down due to illness. When talking to Cornwall Model Boats I discovered they had the rights to Quaycraft products and could cast the resin models of the boats I needed!

Unfortunately the quality of the boats I ordered for St. Roch was not equal to the earlier dinghy models I ordered. There was a fair bit of flash to clean up and the interior of the 18' dinghy was only partially molded, the majority being solid resin, as seen in the photo below. 

I cleaned up the exterior and added rings for the life rope that will run around the upper hull.

I was going to equip the dinghy, but I really have no choice now but to model it with a cover. A bit disappointing, but accurate for St. Roch's display! I have made the boat chocks, and I have to transfer the measurements to St. Roch's hull so I can accurately fit them there. The plan below is part of the designer's 1928 drawing, and photos of the boat mounts matches this drawing.

Once the mounts are made and the boats are painted I will finish detailing them with their covers and gripes.

Then I will have to see if there is room on the poop for the spare rudder, and if not, decide where it will go!

Thanks for looking in and following along!

 

 

[Lecrenb]

Moving right along... here is the 18' dinghy test fit to its' chocks, which are placed on deck to check fits and clearances...

I am following photos that show the chocks mounted on the cap rail, and the plans that show a metal pole and brace on the inboard end of the chocks. 

Assuming RCMP Constables in 1930 averaged 5'6" tall (165 cm) then the gunwales of the dinghy are at head height... no problem to unlash the dinghy.

The boats take up much of the remaining room on the poop deck... there will be a 20' motorboat on the starboard side. The deckhouse did not extend aft until 1930, however the lobby and wireless office doors can both swing open (the camera angle shows it tight, but there is 18 scale inches between the house and the boat).  The davits, which mount outboard on the rub rail, also line up pretty well with their position relative to the dinghy, as seen in photos.

Here is the test fit from aft...

The notches in the wale for the davits are more clearly seen, and I have glued the pintles and gudgeons to the dinghy, ready for the rudder to be added.

It is clear now that with the extended deckhouse there is no room for the spare rudder, either under or alongside one of the boats. It also can't be lashed to the deckhouse because the rudder post will foul the main boom.

Looks like it may have to be stowed on the main deck, but before I make a final decision I will consult the Vancouver Maritime Museum...

Thanks again for looking in!

 

Edited July 26 by Lecrenb

[Lecrenb]

I got the rudder and tiller attached to the dinghy, also the lifting lugs (which won't be seen once the cover is on) and it is now ready for paint. I'll set it aside until the motorboat is ready then I'll shoot them both together...

I sourced some silkspan from a friend on another modelling site, so once it arrives I'll start marking out the sails per David Antscherl's Sphinx Appendix volume.

That is getting ahead of myself, however I want some silkspan offcuts to make covers for the dinghy and motorboat. 

 

Meanwhile the dinghy's chocks are finished and glued in place on the deck and cap rail, per the ship's plans. I still have to add the braces, but the re-routed steering cables are now in the way, so I will have to adjust the braces a bit. I won't remove them, but I have to try and get into the shipwright's heads as they carried out St. Roch's 1930 refit!

A little bit of cleanup on the rail, and I'm also ready for the gripes and davits to be installed... again, I'll hold off a bit, it will be easier to rig these items once the boats are painted and installed.

 

So there's lots to do to finish the lifeboats, so I'd better stop here and crack on!

Regards,

Bruce

 

 

[Lecrenb]

I thought folks might like to see the motorboat... so here it is, a much better quality casting similar to my aformemtioned RN dinghy, with a fully molded interior and separate parts for the motor housing and thwarts.

I have cleaned up the flash and installed the rings holding the life rope around the outside. 

Despite having a better interior, I am still going to cover the motorboat. St. Roch's boat is under cover and I have no details on the correct interior details, especially the motor!

Regards,

Bruce

 

[Lecrenb]

5 hours ago, Lecrenb said:

I thought folks might like to see the motorboat... so here it is, a much better quality casting similar to my aformemtioned RN dinghy, with a fully molded interior and separate parts for the motor housing and thwarts.

I have cleaned up the flash and installed the rings holding the life rope around the outside. 

Despite having a better interior, I am still going to cover the motorboat. St. Roch's boat is under cover and I have no details on the correct interior details, especially the motor!

Regards,

Bruce

 

The silkspan arrived today, so now I am off to make a sail making frame a-la Antscherl!

[Lecrenb]

A while back I said I wanted to create a cargo handling scene involving a sailor, to give scale to the model. A friend of a friend on another modelling site knew a guy on thingiverse.com who 3D prints figures for model railroaders... he showed me a photo of the figure below that he prints in 1:160 (N scale trains), and which looked perfect for my scene!

So the friend of the friend did one up for me in 1:48, and sliced the limbs off so it would lay flat, thereby saving about $15.00 in postage!

Here it is, out of the envelope:

And after assembly with CA glue, I drilled a hole up the leg for a wire to make handling the figure easier. It just needed a small smear of filler on the leg seam, the arms fit perfectly!

I haven't painted figures in decades, staying away from them since my previous efforts all looked very cartoon-like. But now I know how to dry brush, and there is You-Tube! I used Tamiya acrylics, first priming him with semi-gloss black, then air brushing flat white from above to highlight details.

Then I dry brushed various layers and colours to get the shading I wanted. I left his shoes and belt semi gloss black, adding a flat aluminum buckle and flat black cap.

The pants and shirt are dark brown, followed by flat white then light brown on the shirt.

Here I have posed him on the plank that he will walk across the open hold on, pushing his sling load of cargo...

I dry brushed some flat yellow onto his face and arms, but he looked jaundiced, so I made a skin tone from red and yellow, which makes orange, followed by a drop of white to tone down the colour, and finally a drop of light brown...

Here he is ready to install.

I need to make the cargo, and the sailor may not get mounted until the main mast and cargo boom are installed, which may be a while...

We'll see how it goes!

I think this is not perfect but a far cry from the cartoon finishes my previous figures sported!

Thanks everyone for looking in!

 

 

 

[Coyote_6]

That figure looks pretty convincing, especially at a bigger scale.  Nice work!

[Lecrenb]

45 minutes ago, Coyote_6 said:

That figure looks pretty convincing, especially at a bigger scale.  Nice work!

Thank you very much Steve, and Alan too! That means a lot... perhaps the old dog can learn a new trick!

Regards,

Bruce

 

Edited Wednesday at 08:10 PM by Lecrenb

[kurtvd19]

Looking good Bruce.

[Lecrenb]

I have never made sails for models before, so the old dog will try to learn another new trick, mentored by David Antscherl and his Appendix to his Sphinx series of books. Thanks you very much in advance David!

Silkspan is proving very hard to come by, so I can't say enough good things about people in the modelling fraternity who open themselves and their stashes to help those in need! Needless to say, like my sailor figure, I was saved by a fellow modeller who kindly donated enough Silkspan for my St. Roch... there may even be scraps left over for lifeboat covers!

My sails will be furled, to hide my inevitable mistakes as much as giving a clear view of the decks, therefore I reduced the height of each sail about 30%, to allow for scale thickness of the material!

The first picture shows the paper templates I made, sitting on the Silkspan. This lets me size the required sail-making frame...

I marked the foot of each sail and oriented them in the same plane, so when it is time to mark the cloths that make up each sail it should be a matter of drawing the lines in parallel across the entire sheet. I hope!

I found a suitable sized piece of plywood in my garage scrap lumber stash, and using measurements taken from the templates and allowing for the required overlap of the Silkspan onto the wood, I marked out the hole to cut, creating the frame and insert in one operation.

A clearance hole and one pass with my scroll saw was all it took, then a bit of finishing with my palm sander.  The cut is not perfectly square because the scroll saw throat is a bit smaller than the length of cut!

The insert will support the Silkspan while it is being worked on, and the frame will hold it taut.  

Here is the frame checking for size on my templates. I flipped over the foresail template which reduces the amount of Silkspan needed.

Next step is to start painting and tinting the Silkspan to look like canvas... David recommends mixing and thinning artists' tube acrylics, but this is expensive and will be almost all left over, so I am going to try my Tamiya acrylics on an offcut piece... my experience is that the paint will remain flexible after drying, so fingers crossed!

If anyone has tried this I would love to know how it turned out!

Thanks for looking in!

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 09:00 PM by Lecrenb

[AON]

I took the Admiralty workshop offered by David years ago and it turned out wonderfully!

I have it framed and hanging in my workshop as a reminder of a weekend well spent.

[Lecrenb]

3 hours ago, AON said:

I took the Admiralty workshop offered by David years ago and it turned out wonderfully!

I have it framed and hanging in my workshop as a reminder of a weekend well spent.

Was his sail making part of that?

 

[Lecrenb]

I also got the boat cradles complete, now they are waiting for their boats...

I now fussed around with the spare rudder, and found two ways in which it could in fact be stowed aft...

The rudder is presently stowed on St. Roch's main deck, from where it would be tremendously difficult to get it aft, past the full breadth superstructure, if it was ever needed. The larger superstructure would also preclude the rudder from being stowed aft. I also don't believe the mizzen mast that was installed in 1944 had the geometry or capacity to replace the rudder if needed, unlike the previous main sail boom. 

I wasn't sure if there would be room after my 1930 deckhouse was built, but pictures do not show it on the main deck, so where else would it go? The next pictures give a couple of options:

I think the last picture is the best guess, since the rudder would not interfere with the boat lashings.

I intend to send my pics off to the Vancouver museum and ask their opinion... wish me luck!

 

[Dr PR]

I followed Tom Lauria's YouTube procedure in Making Sails for Ship Models From Silkspan. Here is a link:

 

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/19611-albatros-by-dr-pr-finished-mantua-scale-148-revenue-cutter-kitbash-about-1815/?do=findComment&comment=1035392

 

Using your frame should give better results!

[wefalck]

There is always a bit of confusion, whether silkspan refers to a fabric or silkpaper (both were used in the past to 'span' over model aircraft wings). 

 

For the fabric you can also look for the finest screen for silk-screen printing, say on ebay.

 

For the paper you can look for the one that is used in book/manuscript restoring to double torn leaves. It is exremely thin and weighs only 7 g/m2. I got mine through a specialised on-line supplier.

 

[AON]

10 hours ago, Lecrenb said:

Was his sail making part of that?

YES