Fifie by Brucealanevans - FINISHED - Amati - 1:32 - Scottish Motor Fishing Vessel

[Brucealanevans]

Decided to finish the weathering so I can put the hull aside for the time being to work on the deck structures - cleaned up the shipyard, vacuumed, and straightened up to begin the micro-carpentry.

The vessel no longer looks like it just arrived; she's been working.

[Brucealanevans]

Thanks Chris for the "like". I'm enjoying the build (once the planking was done).

[Brucealanevans]

A little fun diversion today. Made up a bunch of little herring and a box to hold them for delivery. The boat will be portrayed as ready to dock with nets and buoys stored/drying.

 

[Brucealanevans]

A bit ticked off today.  Started working on the steam winch and discovered that the “signature” brass piece - the larger of the two drums - is not present. 
Asked for a replacement but as I was going to be blackening them I might try to fabricate something since there’s no telling when or if I might get one. It would be wood as I don’t do metal but painted black that’s ok. Won’t be as pretty a shape though. 

[Brucealanevans]

Well, I got impatient to get going (imagine that) so rather than wait around I fabricated the large winch drum from a small dowel.

Don't miss the brass since it is painted - just the primer coat now, will be green.

The closeup is of course somewhat unforgiving but overall looks good so forging ahead to finish the winch today.

[Brucealanevans]

And the steam winch is done, except for a bit of touch up of my somewhat amateurish weathering.

[Prowler901]

Your scratch built winch looks great!  Beautiful work on the Fifie so far.

 

Todd

[Brucealanevans]

Thanks Todd. Having fun now!

[Brucealanevans]

Put the pump and rope roller together from photo-etch.

These are quite fiddly, especially the rope roller. Some of the holes meant to pass the brass rods are too small and need to be filed out with a sharp ended needle file, which can be quite difficult as the pieces are so small. The same for two slots in the base of the roller which are too small to accept the tabs on the two small uprights for the center roller. All in all the rope roller was the most difficult thing so far on this kits. Also, the instructions have you cement the small support piece that fastens to the cap rail and then drill through the hole to the deck to drill the accepting hole for the post. Nope. Place the piece and drill a very small hole in the deck to mark the place, then remove the guide piece so you can work on making the deck hole large enough to accept the post. Verify the post slips easily through the guide piece (after painting if you are) and through the deck hole before cementing the mounting guide piece to the cap rail and the top of the inside deck rail, temporarily putting a piece of the 3mm dowel in to keep things aligned till the CA sets well.

Similarly the hole on the plunger end of the pump rocker arm was too small to accept the 1mm brass rod and too close to the edge to safely enlarge enough to do so. I had to substitute a thinner wire once I enlarge the hole as far as I could without rupturing through the end.

Looks OK in the end

 

Edited March 9, 2023 by Brucealanevans

[Brucealanevans]

After a vacation to visit daughter in UK got back to work. Finished the pilot house and glued it and the smoke stack in place. I have continued to blacken/paint all of the brass bits - to me looks a lot more like a poor fishing boat.

No real issues, just a lot of small detailed steps.

Next up: mast steps.

[Ken_2]

I love your detail work!  You set the bar very high. Keep it up!

Ken

[Brucealanevans]

Finishing up the hull and gluing on the deck fixtures is on today's agenda. Then I have to assemble, paint, and weather the buoys, and then decide how to display the drying nets. I am debating adding registration numbers to the boat, but am reluctant to try and stencil/paint them on. I'll try some stick-on numbers/letters and see if I can keep them from looking tacky. If not, no numbers for the "Miss Isla"

Meanwhile, I thought I needed more than one tray of herring ready to leave the boat, but I didn't want to spend another day making 50 tiny herring.

So I added a false bottom to the 3 trays, pasted on a photoshop picture of a pile of herring, and then distributed my supply of 3d herring amongst them (reserving 2 for lying around somewhere.

Here is the result. I think it looks pretty cool.

 

Edited March 30, 2023 by Brucealanevans

[Brucealanevans]

Everything finished to date fastened down. Stick on letters/numbers for registration sign looks pretty good so will keep it.

Next up is making the buoys and placing the drying net in the hold and up on the roller on one side. And adding the various eyebolts and remaining cleats.

 

Edited March 30, 2023 by Brucealanevans

[Brucealanevans]

Well here's a landmark: The boat itself is now done, and ready to begin work on the masts and rigging.

Probably will touch up the weathering of the hull, but now ready to move on.

[James H]

Just so beautiful. Wonderful workmanship. She really looks superb.

[Brucealanevans]

Thank you James. I’m happy with the working boat look. 

[Montaigne]

I had managed to miss this one, what a beautiful build. Hats off!

[Brucealanevans]

I've finished the masts and booms, save a coat of WOP, and everything attached directly to them. It is necessary to study both relevant plan sheets and double check with the pictures in the instruction book as there are a few things easy to miss. And this time I didn’t forget to carefully ream out the block holes BEFORE mounting them!

 

I can't put the aft mast and booms together until I get the sail. My sail maker - my wife - is having an extended stay in our Marblehead Massachusetts place, so I sent her the fabric and a sail pattern. Whether she receives it and finishes it it is unclear if she should send it back or I just wait till she returns. Either way I'll attach the sail to the upper boom and mast off ship.

Anyway, as the boat must be transported by car with all our other junk when we drive to Marblehead where it will live from here in Minnesota, it might be best not to install the masts and do the rigging until we go there for the summer in mid-May. I only have a mini-workshop there, so I need to make certain I've taken care of everything requiring my tool shop and equipment here before we go, and take my rigging tools with me.

In the meantime, I'll take a stab at building the ship's boat. With both my Morgan and Confederacy builds I left the little boats to the end which felt like an anti-climax. This little thing is small and fragile, so I suspect more than a bit of a challenge.

Edited April 8, 2023 by Brucealanevans

[Brucealanevans]

After a week of effort, finished the little boat. This was more than a bit of a bear to get together and finished acceptably; I expected a challenge after my previous experiences with planking small boats and was not disappointed. I'm however happy with the result.

Since I won't be installing the masts and the rigging until we get to our other house - which is where this ship will live - mid-May or so, there won't be much to show for the next month. Transport 2-3 days by car will be much easier with the masts not fixed in place. I'm going to fasten everything that attaches to the various eyebolts and glue them in, and touch up the 2 mast "feet".  Also will blacken anything left that needs blackening like the sail rings since I don't have the stuff at that place to do it there.

Pretty happy with how this looks.

[Brucealanevans]

Settled into my mini-shipyard in Marblehead for the summer.

Attached all the important lines for the foremast and crane, but nothing permanently fastened at this point so I can adjust the mast inclination appropriately when everything is in place.

[Brucealanevans]

Rigging is coming along. Unfortunately the 4 deadeyes I need for 4 aft mast stays apparently didn’t make the trip here so I had to order some and must wait to rig them and tighten everything up prior to fixing in place. 
 

[Brucealanevans]

Despite depicting the boat as unloading I decided to leave the sail up. It looks better. 

[Brucealanevans]

Finished the rigging after receiving the deadeyes from MExpo.

Now just to cement the dory in place and add my two additional crew (The one in the pilot house is hard to see). 

Case arriving today - the completed model should be on display soon!

 

[Brucealanevans]

Dory and crew added …

[Knocklouder]

Well done sir. The crew and your boat are awesome   

[Brucealanevans]

Thank you!

[Brucealanevans]

All done now. Here are some final pictures.

 

[Brucealanevans]

I built my first ship in 1979. I bought the Mantua Sharke to replace a partially built Billings Vasa kit that was way beyond my pay grade. I was just realizing there was no way I could finish the Vasa when I was relieved of the problem by the Rochester Minnesota flood of 1978 which blew in the basement wall of our first house and I think the partially built model probably headed downriver towards the Mississippi river. I built the Sharke with more success but never finished the rigging and just displayed it as it was. A few years ago while waiting for some parts for one of my bulilds I took a few days to finish the rigging to my current standards, place the sweep guns (which amazingly I still had) and brought it to our Marblehead house when we bought it a couple of years ago.

After that, no ship building until 2006 or so (New Bedford Whale Boat).

Now the Fifie is at home in Marblehead - likely the last ship I will build (out of room as I have previously mentioned). Here she is, nestled in her new case in the living room.

 

Edited June 15, 2023 by Brucealanevans

[ccoyle]

Excellent result, Bruce! The crew and catch add a nice dash of visual interest.

 

Cheers!

[Montaigne]

Love this build. Such a beautiful and somewhat unique looking fishing vessel, and a very fine built model.