Anteo by rvchima - FINISHED - Panart - 1:30 - Harbour Tug

[rvchima]

Full Profile View

 

I haven't posted a full profile in a while, so here's what it looks like now. The cabin and engine house are just laying in place.

 

I've built a few fixtures for the deck and cabin, but there is a lot more to be made.

[rvchima]

First Coat of Primer

 

The next step in construction is to plank the deck and add a third layer of planking to the inside of the rails. But I plan to paint the outside of the hull first to keep paint off the deck. Here's the first coat of primer. Tomorrow I'll take a good look and fill all the cracks I missed before.

 

Wanted: Ideas for a Stand

 

I won't be able to use my keel stand anymore after I finish painting the hull. I would like to build a stand that looks like a tug up on wood blocks in dry dock.

 

Here's a photo of a different tug model on a stand like I have in mind, but I do want to be realistic. I have searched online for a cool photo of a real tug in dry dock, but I haven't found anything to my liking. If you have have any ideas for an appropriate stand, please post photos or links, or message me directly. Many thanks.

 

Edited June 5, 2015 by rvchima

[augie]

Looking very neat.

[popeye the sailor]

you've done very well.........some real super progress!

[Gundorph]

Looks great... Love that Tug...

[ASAT]

Looking great Rod, do you have any closer pics of that winch or how it went together? I like the wheelhouse bits as well, are you going to detail that area? Keep up the good work...   Lou

[rvchima]

Color Scheme Blues, and Greens

 

The model on the box is painted an interesting blue-green color that has been hard to match. I went so far as to analyze a digital photo of the model, extract the red/green/blue components of the hull color, and compare to color charts from Krylon, Testors, and Rustoleum. The closest match was Krylon's appropriately named "Surf" color, which I was unable to find locally. I ordered a can from a supplier on amazon.com 16 days ago and haven't received it yet. Handy Tip: Don't order from Bic Warehouse.

 

In the meantime I bought a couple other Krylon paints and made some color samples. On the left is "Emerald Green," with "Periwinkle" for the stack. On the right is "John Deere Green," with "Pewter Gray" for the stack. I really like the combination on the left, but hate to start painting until I see what "Surf" looks like. What do you think?

[rvchima]

Cabin

 

While waiting for my paint to arrive I jumped ahead in the plans and completed the cabin. The instrument panels are made of lacquered cherry, and the planking is finished with 3 coats of orange shellac.

 

Panart supplies a lot of beautiful brass pieces for portholes, hinges, and railings that really dress the model up. They also explain the high cost of the model. So far I've run short of some wood strips, but every brass piece has been neatly bagged and in the box.

 

Here's a view of the bow with the cabin in place.

 

Lots of Little Parts. 208 hours, 160 days.

 

Lately I've been building lots of little, difficult parts.

 

The mast was hand planed to shape from a 12 mm dowel. The brass lights were all supplied.

 

These 13 braces support the deck where the cabin overhangs the lower quarters.

 

The funnels are made of a brass casting on top with wooden supports below.

 

Six life preservers are made from plastic rings and red striping tape. They will eventually hang on the cabin.

 

Six turned wooden barrels were supplied. I painted them, then wrapped them with model airplane trim tape. The fill caps are painted nail heads.

 

 

[rvchima]

Overall View

 

Here's where it stands today. The hull and stack are both primed grey and ready to paint. The engine house and aft structure are primed white and will be painted the same color as the stack.

 

There is a notch cut in the rudder support for installing the prop shaft. I will have to glue the cut out piece back in place and repaint after the prop is installed. Too bad the shaft can't be installed from inside the hull.

[augie]

Touches of brass really dress her up!

[rvchima]

Winch Plans for Lou

 

A couple of weeks ago Lou asked for more details about the winch. Sorry Lou, I completely forgot. The plans for the winch are attached below. The frame is laser cut ply, and the mounting blocks are basswood. All of the other parts are turned brass. The motor is a dummy brass shell with endcaps, but the gears and brakes could all be made to operate if you wanted to go to the trouble. I hope this helps.

 

[rvchima]

4 Water Inlets

Any tug boat experts out there? Why would you have 4 huge water inlets on the deck of a tug boat? I sure don't know, but these were fun to make anyway. The bodies are PVC tube and the tops are laser cut ply. The brass hand wheels were rough but I chucked them in my rotary tool and smoothed them with 400 grit wet sandpaper. They screw into little posts made out of a dowel - the same dowel as the mast. Those posts were hard to drill, center, and align, but I got them right after three tries. The kit includes hundreds of little brass hinge posts that are glued into holes that you drill. I was a little apprehensive of them at first, but they work very well. In fact the lids on these water inlets were fully operable until I glued them into place. I figured that I'd never open them and they'd be dangling loose in 10 years.

[michael20]

What a fantastic looking model. I just happen to run across your build and it has captivated me. I will pull up a chair and wait for more fantastic updates.

      Happy Modeling,

               Marty G.

[Gundorph]

Lost for words... Fantastic build...

[popeye the sailor]

looking really sweet Rod!   very nice progress indeed! 

[Archi]

Bravo!

[Mirabell61]

Hi Rod,

 

thats a fine kit, especially those metal parts are eyecatchers,.....

In your post #1, pic 6 it is showing etched, rivet-plates, is this including plates for the hull as well ?

 

Your build Looks very well done to date...

 

Nils

[kurtvd19]

Rod:

That's my model of the ALICE E. tug that you wanted to build a similar mounting for your tug.  Here are some photos of a friends tug model.  He ran a shipyard so knows what the real dry dock stuff looks like.  I want to do something similar one day.

Kurt

[rvchima]

The Anteo Was Almost Launched

Two weeks ago my Anteo tugboat almost got launched. We had the "storm of the century" here and my basement rec room and workshop were flooded. The photo shows my rec room with my Syren model and Amati U-47 U-boat kit (future build) safely out of harms way, while my DeWalt tool bag floats by from my workshop. The ensuing chaos has kept me from posting for a while, but things are mostly back to normal and I am building again.

 

Final Paint Scheme

 

Before the flood I decided on a paint scheme: Emerald Green for the hull and Periwinkle for the trim. I love the final look.

 

Engine House

 

The engine house has 10 hinged windows. Each hinge is made with two brass "eyes" drilled into the house, a third drilled into the window, and a pin made of brass wire. Each window has a brass porthole with a clear plastic insert. I love the detail in the Panart kits!

 

I had planned to glue the windows shut so I didn't finish the insides, but the hinges were so cool that I had to leave them operable.

 

Lifeboat Containers

 

The lifeboat containers are vacuum formed plastic. They would probably be fiberglass on the real tug so I left them with their glossy white finish.

 

Stand

 

 

Kurt, thank you for identifying the Alice E model. It looks beautiful. I found the image in a Google image search. Do you have pictures posted on MSW? I ended up making a stand a lot like yours, but I still have to mount it on a wood base.

 

And the stand for the Coral Sea is awesome! There are more little details on the ground than I have on my whole boat.

Edited July 31, 2015 by rvchima

[rvchima]

Hull Plates

 

The Anteo kit includes a large sheet of photo etched brass plates that surround the top of the hull. I felt that shiny brass was unrealistic around the top of of a tug, so I colored the plates black with a chemical used to patina stained glass.

 

The plates are a b*tch to attach. Most plates have a hole that has to be cut through a triple-planked basswood hull. No matter how carefully I drill, cut, or sand, the paint gets scratched on the outside, the wood tears out on the inside, and a tool slips and gouges my beautiful deck. It will take a bit of cleanup after the plates are all attached. The plates are attached with 3M double sided tape. That works beautifully. Each plate edge has 7 or more holes for tiny brass nails. The only problem is that the nails are too long so I have to cut them off. The blunt nails don't drive well so I have to pre-drill every hole. I'm getting about 3 plates done each night.

 

 

[augie]

Glad to see you're still afloat........um, you know what I mean.  Love the color scheme.  And the engine house is perfection!

[kurtvd19]

Rod:

I don't think those are water inlet ports both from the size and from where they are located.  Tanks tend to be on the perimeter of the hull with filling ports either against the superstructure or the bulwarks.  What I think these are from the size and location would be escape hatches from the engine room areas.  Tugs always have some sort of escape hatch through the deck - usually forward and aft.  This is my guess on the subject.

 

As to the Alice E model - it predates MSW by a bunch.  It was commissioned by the tug owners and resides in their corporate offices a few miles south of me on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal part of the IL Waterway and the route from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River.  No plans existed for the build but I was able to get on it anytime I needed and measured and photographed all the details - made the drawings necessary and built it up.  I attached a few photos of the actual tug - the stern towing bitt and the stack.  The photo of the Becky E is almost a sister of the Alice E (both started life as DPC tugs during WWII) but with the original pilothouse..  These are the few that I have scanned as the model was built when I was using my Canon F1's and film.

 

The two photos of the model tug - again from the days before I went digital - are of a model built on the same hull as the Alice E.  The tires were cast in Alumalite after making a master in Aluminum of one half of the tire - the ones used on the Alice E. were off 747's that were obtained from O'Hare Airport and nobody makes a 747 model in 1/2" scale to get a master tire to copy so the Aluminum master.  Easy to make as the tires have 5 grooves around the circumference with one centered making a perfect joint for the halves of the model tires.  Took 38 on the Alice E. tug, I don't remember the count on the other model.

 

Take care,

Kurt

 

 

[rvchima]

Kurt,

 

Thank you for posting the photos of the Alice E and your model of her. Seeing photos of a beautiful scratch-built model like yours helps bring me back to earth when I start to feel complacent about my work on a kit

 

The "water inlets" on the Anteo are labeled as such on the plans, but other Italian-to-English translations in the instructions are pretty poor. Two ports are located on the main deck behind the engine room and could easily be escape hatches, but two more are located on the upper deck above what I think are crew quarters. There are several doors below so escape hatches seem unnecessary, but water tanks don't seem likely there either.

 

Finally, I had not heard of the nautical research guild, and just spent a couple of hours on your site. It sure looks like something that I need to join.

 

Rod

[kurtvd19]

Rod:

I hope you sign on to the NRG.  We are going to press with the next issue of the Journal next week so sign up soon to get the latest issue.

 

Sometimes kit manufacturers just do weird stuff - I think the water inlets are one of these - why would there be inlets above the cabin area?  That's one nice thing about having access to the real thing to look at and get to know exactly what each component is and what it's used for.  Always loved tugs from afar but once I was able to touch and feel them it was even better.  Part of my deal when I started building models of the tugs for Egan was that I got to go out on each of the tugs for "research" but actually more like joy rides.  Got to go on many trips to grab a barge from someplace or drop one off.  One memorable trip was on Lake Michigan from Whiting, IN to the Cal Sag Canal on December 30 with the Lake iced over.  Pushing the tanker barge through the ice was neat - I was toasty warm in the pilot house - but the deck hands were out on the head of the barge coming out of Whiting till we got onto the Lake and then again once we hit the canal till we parked it in Lemont.  They really earn their money.  That trip was on the Becky E that was in the one photo.

 

Take care,

Kurt

[rvchima]

Hull Plates Completed

 

It took about 30 hours to finish the plates, cut all the ports in the bulwarks, and attach the plates with double sided tape and approximately 525 tiny brass nails. Not suitable for someone with a short attention span, but I suppose none of this is .

 

Final Details

 

I finally ran into some parts that were missing from the Panart kit. There are 6 oval ports in the bulwarks that are lined with cast bronze fittings. Only 4 fittings came with my kit, so I made 2 more out of brass sheet and wire. I formed the parts around a wooden form, soldered them together, and plated them with copper patina for stained glass. They don't look too bad.

 

The plans show the upper rails made out of 3 mm x 8 mm basswood, with no information about how to make them fit the compound curvature of the bulwarks. I didn't have enough basswood that size left, so I bought lots of 1/8 in. square strips. I traced the outline of the bulwarks onto cardboard, subtracted 1/4 in., and traced that onto a Masonite form that I then cut and sanded. Then I steamed the basswood strips with a wallpaper steamer, bent them around the form, and glued them with CA. Pretty complicated for a railing but they came out nice.

 

Here's the final result showing the ports and rail. The rail and deck all have 3 coats of orange shellac. The black arches (or whatever the proper nautical term is) were also steam bent out of basswood.  Cast bronze letters were provided and painted white for the ANTEO name.

Edited August 14, 2015 by rvchima

[rvchima]

THE ANTEO SAILS!

 

My ANTEO harbour tug model is complete after only 205 days and 323 hours of my free time. This model was quite a bit more work than I expected, but it was worth it. I love the lines of this tug, and my long deliberations over the color scheme paid off. Now I just need a place to display it in our house.

 

Here are some details of the model.

 

Two beautiful hinged bronze anchors come with the kit, but the shafts are completely hidden inside the hull.

 

The plans show a rope bow fender on the model. There was plenty of rope but no directions were included. I Googled "How to make a rope bow fender," stayed up all night, and made my own. I think I could do better on a second try but I used all my rope. Maybe next model.

 

Little brass rungs were included for the ladders, but the brass wire was much too soft. I used music wire instead and glued the rungs in place with CA. The life raft canisters are hinged and will tip down, and the hand winches turn.

 

I love all the details around the engine room.

 

Here's the business end of the ship. The prop turns and the rudder is hinged. The plans show how to set the model up for radio control, but I would be reluctant to put this much work into the water.

 

I built a walnut base to hold my basswood stand.

 

And finally, here's a gull's eye view of the ANTEO.

 

COMING SOON - Amati U-Boat U-47 Type VII B 1:72 Scale - STAY TUNED!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kurtvd19]

Rod:

Congratulations on completing a very nice model.  The display stand and base are very nice too.

Kurt

[augie]

The complete package is outstanding.  If your rudder is anything like the one on my tug, normal vibrations from the house will turn it off center now and again.

 

Great job.  I'll look forward to your next project!!!

[rvchima]

Thanks Augie.  I saw a completed model of the Confederacy at the Model Expo booth at a hobby show in 2012 when I bought my Syren. I'm glad now that I didn't try to start out with such a detailed model and can enjoy following your magnificent build instead.

Rod

[Ian B]

super model, I am a sail ship fan but I am now so tempted to build something similar after following this build, looking forward to your U47 :D