S.S. Stadacona by realworkingsailor - Sylvan Scale Models - Kitbash, 1:87, Resin/Multimedia

[realworkingsailor]

Well... I think it's safe to say the storm has blown over, and the skies are clearing.

 

In that light, I'll start a new log for something completely different. Sylvan scale models are known more to the model railroad community, producing resin kits of vehicles, structures and rolling stock. They also have a small line of marine models. Mostly waterline models for layout display.

 

For those of you who are not aware, I am a member of the Railview Model Railway Club, operating in Marham ON. An older club (of similar name) recently disbanded, and a few of the old members, and a ton of new members have taken over the lease of 3 office units in Markham (3400 square feet). This new club is very busy renovating the space and will be constructing a new layout shortly.

 

Getting closer to the topic at hand, part of the layout will depict operations at Hamilton, ON. including the large Stelco steel mill. I've been there many times in the past on ships, unloading iron ore, and I thought is would be a great idea, as a scenic element, to depict the same. 

 

Starting with the basic Sylvan "Canaller" model I intend to extend the hull and scratch build a self unloading system. The intent is to make a model that will look superficially similar to a vessel operated by Canada Steamship Lines from the late 1920s to the mid 1960s, and Later by Reoch Transport until around 1984.

 

Trying to replicate the full sized vessel would be an excercise in madness, and would be too large to fit in the space alloted on the club layout. Doing a quick check, the dimensions of the model I will be producing, I will end up with a model that will be roughly 70% the size of the real ship (in scale). As such the model will be over 4.5 feet long as it is. All I can say is thank G** I don't have to plank it.

 

So without further a-do, the start of my next project.

Edited November 23, 2013 by realworkingsailor

[realworkingsailor]

I had ordered the basic kit, as well as two midsection extensions back in September. They were all waiting for me upon my return home earlier this week.

 

Whoever thought is was a good idea to package white resin parts in white tissue paper should be shot. Anyway, a quick check and it appears all parts are there.

 

The kit itself is fairly simple, at least as far as number of parts and basic assembly. The real challenge in dealing with resin is how the clean up, preparation and detailing goes. Many parts come warped out of shape. This is fairly easy to fix with a quick dip in hot water. Most parts don't fit together with the laser cut precision of wood kits (or other plastic kits for that matter). There will be much filing, filling, sanding, checking and re-checking of parts

 

 

Andy

Edited November 23, 2013 by realworkingsailor

[realworkingsailor]

The instructions that come with the kit are familiar to anyone who's built a model railroad resin kit before. Somewhat basic, but they cover everything. As is typical with railway kits, they come with an exploded isometric drawing of the whole kit. This has it's uses, and since most of the details are somewhat molded on, accurately locating pieces is not much of a concern. The back page(s) include detail drawings of various pieces like the wheelhouse interior, winch and windlass construction etc.

 

Andy

Edited November 23, 2013 by realworkingsailor

[realworkingsailor]

The basic kit is 3 feet long. I've added two extra midsections (at 10" each) for a total length of 56". Make no mistake, this thing will be huge. I will need a long rigid building board for this beastie. Just for good measure, in the last photo, I've included my Pegasus in the background for comparison.

 

 

I will be picking at this build from time to time. I don't expect hull construction to take very long, the fun will be in the painting and detailling. I've got a lot of work ahead of me. This has to be a showpiece model, given it's location. For more information on the club check out: http://www.railviewmrc.ca/

 

For any of you who might be intrigued enough to try a large resin kit, have a look here: http://www.sylvanscalemodels.com/

 

Andy

[Anja]

Hello Andy,

 

Welcome home.

Good luck with your build.

 

Anja

[JeffT]

I've never seen a resin ship kit. Interesting.

[mtaylor]

Welcome home.  I hope all is well with you and your family and that you get to stay with them for a bit before shipping out.

 

Looks to be an interesting build and all.  By the way, the Shore Leave area has a model railroad section started.

[TBlack]

Andy,

 

Your Peggy looks like a dingy by comparison. I just finished building a resin kit of the Titanic for my grandson, and, while the assembly wasn't difficult, like your model, there was a lot of detailed painting which consumed most of my time. Good luck with this beast!

 

Tom

 

PS I just looked at the linked page for your RR club; it doesn't look like they're going to need your ship for a while, so at least you have time to spend on the build.

Edited November 23, 2013 by TBlack

[Trussben]

I shall follow along with your new build Andy.

 

Ben

[JPett]

Ahoy Andy

 

Nice kit WOW

 

Just a word on resign kits. Treat it as you would Ebony. The dust is actually worst from a health stand point. Wear a mask and use a damp paper towel to clean up any dust when you sand.

 

Good luck, got this log "pinned"

Edited November 23, 2013 by JPett

[Jim Lad]

Nice to see another model of a ship with propellers, Andy.

 

The additional midship sections are interesting.  Do they also come with addition deck and hatch sections?

 

John

[hamilton]

Hi Andy:

 

Don't get too distracted, now! This should be a very interesting build - As others have said, I've never seen a resin kit before - I'm curious in particular about your finishing techniques - though if you've been involved in model railroads, I imagine you have quite a number of good techniques in your arsenal! 

hamilton

[augie]

Welcome home Andy.

 

Looks very interesting

[popeye the sailor]

OMG  Andy!!!   this is one cool looking build........I've never done resin before.   I'll be watching with great interest!!! 

 

hope all is well with you and your family...glad your back!

[realworkingsailor]

Hello everyone. Glad to see such positive responses. I'll probably be starting some of the actual construction tomorrow. Or at least, the first preparations.

 

JP, I did a quick query on polyurethane plastics, I've used them before with no ill effects, and my research seems to back this up, at least as far as fully cured polyurethane polymers are concerned. My biggest issue will be with the CA necessary for assembly. I've used epoxy in the past on resin, and aside from being a bit more of a pain having to mix batches of it, I also found it very finicky in bonding with the resin.... Things had to be just right every single time... Otherwise I'd be flicking cured epoxy off with my fingernails.

 

John, yes the extra midship sections are fully equipped. One issue I will have to deal with, I need to add more hatches. Lakers of this era were known as "hatch farms" due to the sheer numbers of hatches. All manual, telescoping, tarp and wedge work for the crew.

 

I'll keep you all informed as I progress on this one.

 

Andy

[rafine]

Some years ago, when I was doing my model railroad, I looked at these kits, but even in their unextended version they were too large for my available space. I was always sorry that I couldn't do one and will follow your build with interest.

 

Bob

[JPett]

Ahoy Andy

 

Not trying to argue, but

 

It is well know fact in the resin community that inhaling the fine dust from sanding the kits is considered hazardous. Maybe Ebony was a bad example. Perhaps asestos would be a better comparison. Not as nearly as bad but worth taking the right precautions.

 

Here are some links

 

http://dreamforge-games.com/workingwithresinmodels.html

 

http://www.ehow.com/info_8306336_dangers-polyurethane-resin-dust.html

 

Some kits I built even came with a warning. Where I got the moist paper towel clean up comment from.

 

 

This is a great site for resin kits; they are a lot of fun

 

http://www.modelwarships.com/features/how-to/resin/resin-howto.html

Edited November 24, 2013 by JPett

[gjdale]

Welcome home Andy. This looks like an interesting "side project". I'll follow along with interest.

[realworkingsailor]

First steps of this build involve the creation of anchor pockets in the bow casting. If you look at the prototype photo, you'll see the original had the anchors recessed into pockets. The model lacks these and shows simply an embossed ring where the hawse pipe penetrates the hull. Using a waterline marking tool, I marked out the top and bottom of the pocket (hopefully symetrical on each side), and then marked the sides. I drilled the four corners and then cut out the rough dimensions of the pocket with an x-acto saw.

 

Cleaned and squared up, the inside top, and outside bottom edges where beveled. Using 0.030" styrene I then created a basic pocket. A simple prismatic structure. This was then glued to the inside of the hull. I had a spare anchor from a previous build that I used for testing and reference for size. There is still a bit of refinment left to be done, mostly with some styrene shapes (1/4 round on each side and 1/2 round just below) as well as some putty work to smooth everything out.

 

It's important to do these kinds of modifications now, before hull assembly, as things get a little difficult to manipulate later on.

 

Doing this you can get a sense of some of the drawbacks of a resin kit. Very quickly on I noticed the wall thickness of the casting differed by quite a bit from side to side. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, since the kit was never designed to be treated in the manner to which I am subjecting it. This should be the last time I have to do any major modification through the lower hull. When the fo'c'sle deck goes on, I will use a piece of aluminum tubing to complete the hawse pipe connection. Although this detail can't be seen, leaving it off would leave odd holes in the deck that would not look right, and could potentially spill light where I don't want it. (Yes I am planing on illuminating some parts of the model).

 

Andy

Edited January 22, 2016 by realworkingsailor

[calt4]

Nice picture of the Bluewater bridge

With the late freighter going under the bridge

I grew up in Lakeport North of the Bluewater. Bridge

Also live in Marysville on the St. Clair River

The detailing of the ship is great

Enjoyed your building log

[Jim Lad]

I think we can now say that you've officially started, Andy.

 

Looks like there's some very nice detail moulded into the hull.

 

John

[TBlack]

Andy, Have you tried this product?

 

Tom

 

 

 

http://www.testors.com/product/136637/3527C/_/Non-Toxic_Cement_Liquid_Cement

[popeye the sailor]

I have the red label...I like it quite a bit,  but I use the tubes mostly.   I remember the non-toxic stuff from long ago......smelled like lemons

:D

[realworkingsailor]

Styrene cement in any form will not work with polyurethane resin. It's CA or epoxy I'm afraid.

 

Andy

[WackoWolf]

From past experience I have to agree with Andy 100%. It doesn't work. Try using epoxy or CA, I don't care for the CA but there are times you have no choice (even though there is always a plan .

[mobbsie]

Looks to be an interesting build Andy, I like what you have achieved so far.

 

Mind if I join the other watchers.

 

Be Good

 

mobbsie

[realworkingsailor]

Continuing on this morning with the completion of the port anchor pocket. I then moved to dry fitting the next hull section as well as the first two sections of the main deck. All of this involves much fitting, filing and fitting again... to be followed by more filing. This will continue for some time yet, until I can manage to get things fitting as closely and squarely as possible. Only then, will glue be applied. If you look closely, I've also removed the hatch coaming for the first two hatches. This area will largely be taken up by the above deck portion of the self unloading equipment, namely the top of the loop belt casing, the A-frame support for the unloading boom and finaly the pivot, trunion and heel of the unloading boom itself. I've saved the coamings for later use, as I mentioned before, this ship would count as a "hatch farm" and the number of hatches will need to be almost doubled. Most coamings will need to be scratch built, and these two will serve as patterns for them. Eventually, they too will find a home on the deck.

 

Andy

[Jim Lad]

Were such narrow hatches usual on these ships, Andy?

 

John

[realworkingsailor]

Hi John,

 

This is quite a normal setup for lakes vessels up until the later half of the 20th century. In salt water vessels, heavy transverse bulkheads between cargo holds add lateral strength to the vessel's structure. In lakers, the transverse bulkheads are little more than screen bulkheads and contribute little to the structure. Consequently the ships are fitted with numerous transverse deck beams. In order to open up as much of the holds as possible for loading, multiple small hatches are used.

This is also another reflection on the nature of the cargos carried, primarily bulk ore, coal, stone, salt, grain and cement. Theses products do not need large hatch openings for loading.

 

Andy

[Chuck]

That is quite a change from the sticks and strings.   I have never modeled a steel hull so I will watch with interest.  From what I understand these types of models are all about the paintwork ans finishing.  Jim H (captainPugwash) is very skilled at that sort of thing if you need some tips with new materials.

 

Chuck