North Sea Fishing Trawler by UrkVisser - Revell - 1:142 scale - PLASTIC

[UrkVisser]

Hi everybody,

This thread is about Revell's North Sea Trawler kit in the scale of 1:142. It's actually Revell's oldest kit still in production.

 

 

It came out in 1970 as the fictive 'Russian Spy Ship - Volga' and was offered as such for many, many years. But in 1973 it was also the 'Arctic Huntress' (Boyd Line / Hull), in 1980 the Grimsby 'Kandahar', in 1998 the 'Arctic Corsair' (which is now a museum ship in Hull) and since 2015 the Grimsby 'Ross Jackal'. 

 

The 'Ross Jackal's' sister ship the 'Tiger' is a museum ship in Grimsby and is the last remaining trawler of the 'Ross 'Cat Class' which were built from 1957 to 1960 there about.

 

The ships of the 'Cat Class' were all named by children from a certain Grimsby elementary school. Alas one child thought a 'Jackal' was a cat! While another mistook the 'Zebra' as a cat! But Ross was a good sport about it all anyway and the 'Cat Class' ended up with a dog and a horse!

 

But this model really is like the 'Arctic Corsair' which was over 50 meters long and therefore required to have a taller mast aft of her stack (international lighting requirements). She also had 4 hatch covers on deck. The 'Cat Class' trawlers were under 50 meters long so they didn't have this tall mast aft. And also they only had 3 hatch covers.

 

But as a former Radio Engineer I love this model where I can also rig all of it's antenna systems: Medium Wave 500 KHz, Short Wave 2 to 30 MHz and by the 1960's also VHF vertical antennas also started appearing.

 

But naturally CW was always my favorite mode as it could usually punch right through fading, noise, static crashes and atmospheric quirks whereas SSB would be most likely unintelligible. CW could also transmit 10 times further than SSB on a given power in Watts.

 

Alas, the fishing trawler company owners wanted to save money by not employing radiomen which resulted in a huge loss of lives and trawlers. A trawler widow named Lillian Bilocca from Hull was a major activist against the companies due to this issue.

 

Anyway, I will add material to this thread as I progress.

 

Bye for now! UrkVisser

 

 

 

Edited Friday at 06:04 PM by ccoyle
corrected log title

[UrkVisser]

Hi everybody!

I assembled the hull without any problem at all and any flashing was minimal to cut away.

 

 

 

 

The winch and anchor winch needed a lot of cleaning up but after that I added various improvements out of my box of N scale model train parts.

 

 

 

 

 

I used 'Gütermann' Jeans thread in a steel blue with silver streaks for my winch cables. I left them extra long because I plan to make a model of the 'Otter Trawl' net.

 

 

Afterwards I set the winch on the deck straight away as a help in moving the hull around with wet paint; a good idea!

 

 

The guides with rollers unter the

winch allow my cables to clear all four hatch covers.  

 

I used a single edged razor blade to carve away 'phoney' deck detail and added roller-capstans for my winch cables.

 

 

 

I made the ventilator on top of the third hatch by filing plastic sprue scrap.

 

 

The hatch covers and bulwarks on the 'Ross Tiger' were painted this bright red after it was restored however now this red has faded. The 'Arctic Corsair' has black hatch covers. Both of these museum ships have wonderful websites.

 

All for now, Bye!

UrkVisser

[yvesvidal]

You did a great job with the color of the wood planking, on the deck. I sill remember that kit when I was a kid, it was tempting and my brother built it.

 

Yves

[UrkVisser]

Hi everybody!

Of course this kit is an example of 1970's tool and die technology and things now a days are a lot better. But I like 70's stuff anyway like my olive green impulse dial touch tone telephone (without DTMF) and my 'Marantz' stereo amplifier. Haha!

 

Anyway back on subject! The railings with this kit are very thick. I would like to find some N scale (1:160 or British 1:148 scale) railings in brass. Alas, too much lately is made of laser cut cardboard which may wilt on rainy days (which is almost always here) if my windows are open.

 

Another quirk of this kit is that

all of the windows and port holes are only to be painted on with black. Maybe a good clock maker could cut these window openings out but not me! And then what ever clear plastic would be glued in from behind wouldn't set flush anyway and there are no decks or walls inside either.

 

So then, in keeping 'traditional' with the 1970's I carefully painted the windows and port holes with a glossy black paint marker from 'Edding' with a very fine tip. It looks goods. At night when the trawler sits at a dock you would only see glossy black from her windows anyway. 

 

 

 

The box shows the superstructure painted brown but these trawlers looked better with wheel house painted white and the lower part of the superstructure painted mustard yellow; or in my case 'Revell Lufthansa Yellow'. A brownish yellow would also be good.

 

I painted the hull with Revell satin finish enamel because I want the trawler to look somewhat wet. Revell's red really went on nice but I had some weird reactions with the Revell black I was using and a new batch only reactivated the defective paint underneath.

 

So I sanded the black down as much as possible and cleaned it with white spirits turpentine.

 

Now that it has dried out for a week or so I ordered some 'Vallejo Model Color" black acyclic to finish the job. (Otherwise I always use enamel with a brush.)

 

I've always liked 'Humbrol' too but it's not available here at present due to some issue over containing MEK (it prevents the paint from forming a skin). 

 

Well, more on this project later!

Best Regards, UrkVisser

 

[UrkVisser]

40 minutes ago, yvesvidal said:

You did a great job with the color of the wood planking, on the deck.

Hi Yves!

Thanks for the compliment!

I painted the deck with Revell 382 SM satin finish leather brown and then a the next day with a thin wash of Revell 84 M matt wood brown thinned with a little white spirits turpentine.

 

I bought the kit for only around 20 € from a N scale train shop in December 2024 with the intent of using it in a harbor scene by a dock. Alas, a partially torn bicep tendon in my left shoulder and a broken left rib from a fall prevented me from building her for 14 whole months! That was my first year of 'enjoying' my retirement!

 

Best Wishes, UrkVisser

[JRB9019]

Hello UrkVisser,

Great progress on the trawler. Love the decks. I also agree that the superstructure. Most trawlers that I remember had the white upper and ochre/dirty yellow colour - all streaked with lots of rust of course!!

Re. the deck fittings, I have mine from SAEMANN Ätztechnik - i should think they are available in most European model shops. I've not seen them in the UK though. I've attached the catalogue for your info and hope you find it useful....  

 

Regards

John

Spare parts and accessories.pdf

[UrkVisser]

13 minutes ago, JRB9019 said:

Hello UrkVisser,

...Re. the deck fittings, I have mine from SAEMANN Ätztechnik - i should think they are available in most European model shops. I've not seen them in the UK though. I've attached the catalogue for your info and hope you find it useful....  

 

Regards

John

Spare parts and accessories.pdf 1017.01 kB · 0 downloads

Thanks John! That's a big help!

The only railings I could find are plastic ones from "Faller" for 1:160 scale railway bridges otherwise only laser cut cardboard which goes kaputt at the first slightest bump.

 

I've been very busy editing photos plus reducing them to 1MB or less for future posts.

 

Best Regards, UrkVisser

 

 

[UrkVisser]

Hi everybody!

Here is my next post about mt trawler project.

 

The bow of this trawler only has an anchor chain hawse on her starboard side while on the port side there's only a fairlead for a heavy mooring line (or maybe also for towing). Anyway you have to drill these through yourself on this model and also the two on the stern.

 

The forecastle deck also has no anchor or mooring line holes around it's double sided anchor winch. The original anchor winch was made by 'Ruston & Hornsby Ltd.' and also her main winch plus her engine (as in the case of the 'Ross Jackal' anyway).

 

The 'Ross Cat-Class' used the 'Ruston & Hornsby Ltd.' 7 cylinder diesel engine which was a new design especially for outstanding reliability and durability in a trawler's harsh marine environment. They typically had  150 to 200 BHP or 112 - 149 KW power.

 

On the other hand, the 'Arctic Corsair' and her sister ships had the 6 cylinder 'Mirrlees Monarch' diesel with 1800 BHP or 1300 KW.

 

Anyway, I also had to drill the forecastle deck in 4 places.

I plan to use some 1 mm anchor chain which I recently bought plus also some carpet thread ad a mooring line rolled up by the winch.

 

 

I used extra N scale parts from various 'Faller' building kits to improve this winch!

 

 

There is a white stripe painted under the 2 mm masking tape.

 

This photo shows the different positions of the fairlead and anchor chain hawse.

 

This was also so on the trawlers 'Crystal Palace' and on 'Grimsby Town'.

 

I painted the inside of the forecastle red and white like on the 'Ross Tiger' but this will never be seen again after the forecastle deck is glued on unless I cut a door into the bulkhead. 

 

 

 

Alas, here is my Revell black paint nightmare! I'll do more sanding and then paint her with the 'Vallejo' Model Color which arrived today.

 

 

The fairleads on both sides of the stern.

 

 

I like how the rudder swivels freely!

 

 

More on this later!

Best Regards, UrkVisser

Edited Saturday at 03:15 PM by UrkVisser

[shipman]

This is a very old kit; over the years I've seen several built to very high standards.

Being an elderly Yorkshireman, I have vivid memories of this type in the East Yorkshire ports such as Hull and Grimsby.

Over the years as the fishing industry declined one saw how the maintenance basically stopped.

The most remarkable example I recall was moored at Bridlington sometime in the late 1970's. I've never seen a more neglected example. The entire vessel was orange with rust, yet it was still in use, evidenced by the nets hanging to dry and the deck machinery was at least lubricated and operative.

Haven't seen one in decades, but in their day were regarded as the finest sea boats.

Actually the last I saw was in Goa, India taking day-trip tourists along the coast.

[UrkVisser]

Hi everybody!

I sanded the black paint off my trawler's hull a bit more this evening and then repainted it with 'Vallejo Model Color' black.

 

This was my first time using acrylic paint on plastic models because I always used enamel.

 

What a difference! This paint is in a little squeeze bottle and went on really nice and smooth with a good red wissel hair brush and covered excellent. 

 

It also dried extremely fast so I could do the other side of the hull straight away after painting the first side.

 

Any mess was also very minimal since it dried so quickly therefore no stray paint was smeared about here or there like with enamel.

 

It also cleaned up quickly with warm soapy water and I could keep my brushes fresh in a little cold water inbetween usage by brush size.

 

But this black paint is very matt and I wanted satin finish but 'Vallejo' has an over coat for this purpose. Alas, my usual dealer isn't very well stocked at present.

 

My hull needs to dry and any errors repainted so I'm not making any photos yet. It's too soon for that.

 

I actually wanted it to look like it's first day after an overhaul shiney and new and not like when it looks like a 'rust bucket' again 3 weeks later. Oh, well I'll decide what to do about it later.

 

The red part of the hull is still the Revell satin finish enamel crimson or wine red which I like a lot and used on my schooner's hull.

 

Now it's bed time, Bye!

UrkVisser

 

[JRB9019]

Re. the railings, here's a couple of photos of a build that a contact kindly sent me.

A huge difference to the provided ones for sure.

 

 

[UrkVisser]

Hi John! Your railings look good!

A very nice model plus I love your sea display!

Best Wishes, UrkVisser

 

[JRB9019]

UrkVisser

Thanks for your complement. 

Sadly, I must say that I cannot accept your complements. It's not my work I'm afraid, just info that I was sent.

I look forward to seeing more of your build though!

 

Regards

John