Caldercraft Steam Tug Imara 1/32nd scale by neptune

[neptune]

Continuing on with the fittings for the bridge, these two little supports hold a wrack that takes three belaying pins
that the wires ( ropes ) that come down from the mast are secured to, the idea is that the piece with the pins is not
glued it just sits there so that when you want to remove the superstructure you can slide the piece out and let it
hang down free, and then you can remove the superstructure with no problems,





after gluing the port side in place, I cut a piece of card to use as a measuring aid to ensure the starboard
side matched the port,



and one of the starboard side pieces glued in place, I think you may all get a little fed up with my descriptions,
but I like to add them so that maybe it may help some of the new guys or at least give them idea's,




both sides glued in place,


.

 

[neptune]

A few pics with most of the bridge fitting s just sitting in place, they will be removed and glued on later near
the end of the build, I still have to make and attach the binnacle glass,







.

 

[neptune]

and some of these characters will be the captain and crew, I have three captains an officer and two crew members,

 

[neptune]

for the binnacle glass I turned some perspex rod down to size, but the housing to hold the glass was a concave
shape so i tapered the end of the rod to be a tight push fit, I was going to use a circle of clear polystyrene but CA
glue really fogs it up, so I am hoping that when I get a coat of varnish on the binnacle glass it will not look too bad,


The piece pushed in place with a pair of pliers so no glue needed,



another couple of views, the camera flash makes the colours faded,


and a close up,

.

 

[neptune]

Iv'e moved onto the life boats for a bit of a change, this is the lower moulding for the transom ended boat,




The underneath of the mouldings for the transom ended life boat,



The two mouldings for the double ended life boat,




and after roughly trimming down ready for gluing together,



the transom ended boat glued up, I will leave them overnight to make sure the glue drys hard before trimming
them to the right size,

.

 

[Maarten]

View attachment 106572
and some of these characters will be the captain and crew, I have three captains an officer and two crew members,

Hi John, hope you are not going to sail with this crew. Three captains on a ship is a recipe for dissaster.

 

[neptune]

Hi John, hope you are not going to sail with this crew. Three captains on a ship is a recipe for dissaster.

I agree Maarten, I will have to remove two of the caps and demote them to a lesser rating,

best regards John.

 

[neptune]

A bit of a disappointment today when I checked out the ships boats, I must have been a bit heavy handed with the
Polystyrene cement as it had not dried and also it had eaten into the plastic of the boats, you can see it across the
top and bottom edges,



So back to the drawing board as they say, I managed to cut the two halves of each boat apart, and then I glued
( using CA glue this time ) a reinforcing strip around the insides of the gunnels as in the pic,



then I re glued the two parts together again using CA glue and also an accelerator for quick drying,




this is after using filler and a sand down,



this is the accelerator I use, but you have to make sure the parts are lined
up OK, as once you zap them with this there is no going back,




a view of where the boats will sit,



and both boats, still need a bit of a touch up and painting, but I\m happy with them,



another view,

thanks once again for the comments and all the likes,

best regards John,

.

 

[neptune]

I had some half round strip left from a previous build and I CA glued it around the top of the gunwale on both boats,




another view,




Then I made a start on the boat platforms that jut out from engine room casing, this is just the wood cut to the
size needed


I've fixed the front baton across the supports ,



the deck made up with the two recesses at the front and near the back,




and how it will sit in place when attached,



both platforms just sitting in place,
.

 

[mrshanks]

Your tug is awesome!! A tip regarding ZipKicker: it is nothing more than scented water. All CA glues will react and harden instantly by applying a small drop of water.. try it sometime and save a little bit of money.

 

[neptune]

Your tug is awesome!! A tip regarding ZipKicker: it is nothing more than scented water. All CA glues will react and harden instantly by applying a small drop of water.. try it sometime and save a little bit of money.

Thank you very much for the nice comment and also the tip about the ZipKicker I will try it out,

Best regards John,

 

[neptune]

Next up is attaching the lifeboat davits, the davit goes up through the base plate and sits in a notch either side
of the base plate, which you can see in the pic, then three cast bolts are CA glued down through three holes
drilled in the deck,



a pic of the supplied bolts,



starboard side just about fixed in place,



both davits in place with the top bars also attached,



close up of the port side,



overall view of both davits,
.

 

[Snowy]

Nice work mate I've only done 2 ships with guns but this looks great I like the difference
Cheers snowy

 

[neptune]

Nice work mate I've only done 2 ships with guns but this looks great I like the difference
Cheers snowy

G'day Snowy, thanks for the nice comments, they are a little bit different from the wooden walls, I like them as a bit of a change,

Best regards John,

 

[neptune]

I had to modify some of the blocks, because if I had used them the way they were moulded it would have meant
that they would have been laid on their side when rigged, so I cut off the connecting lug seen on the left, and
then drilled a small hole as in the middle block and then screwed in a small eye bolt as on the right block secured
with a small amount of CA glue,



You got to be careful when drilling the hole to make sure it is near as possible on the center, this one is just a
little bit off but the rigging ropes will still be able to go through OK,



and attached to the side of the funnel, you can see in this pic what I mean about the block would have been laying
on its side if I had not added the new eye bolt,



and the blocks on the davits,



close up,



the two blocks that go on the flag support pole do not need modifying as they sit correctly, you will
see more clearly what i mean once the davits are rigged,

.

 

[neptune]

Its time to attach the stays that support the funnel, this is the cast bottle screw attached by a brass ring to the
eye end of a fishing hook, I like using the fishing hook eye's because of their strength,



I used fishing cable that is covered with a plastic covering for the rigging cables, and to secure the ends of the
cable to the bottle screws and eye bolts I used the eyelets shown in the above pic,



First I ground the lip from the end then I squashed the tube, very carefully so I could get both cables in it,




I then slipped the tube up over both ends of the cable after it had been threaded
through the funnel eye bolt and crimped it in place,



working out the length of cable needed ,


shows the bottle screw attached to the eye bolt which has been CA glued into a hole drilled in the side of the bridge,



Port side cable waiting to be cut to size,


.

 

[neptune]

View of the aft funnel support cables,



showing how tye stays are attached to the cables and the bottle screw to the deck,



a clearer view of the fore and aft cables,



Overall view,


.

 

[neptune]

Just behind the funnel there is a type of flagpole or support pole to which there are two double blacks attached
for raising and lowering the davits, this pole is supported by another four support cables, these cables are
attached to four eye bolts fixed to the deck, there were no bottle screws for these so I just tied the cables
through the eye bolts with a normal knot sealed with a drop of CA glue, then I tied another knot further up
the cable and sealed that with another drop of CA glue,



the four support pole cables attached,



The lifting blocks at the top of the support pole,



and a close up of how I attached these support cables,


.

 

[neptune]

forgot to atach the cleats when I fixed the support mast in place, luckily I managed to be able to get the small
drill in and drill the holes and glue them in place,



also did the same with the aft bridge deck support pole,

.

 

[neptune]

Round the sides and along the back of the water tank there are supposed to be railings, but I kind of like it when
it is enclosed like with the rest of the bridge, so I used builders license and enclosed it,



I lined piece of plywood with the wood strips on both sides, this makes it nice and solid,




testing for size,



pieces cut to size and checking fit,



and just sitting in place after the top rails have been added,



another view,



view from the aft quarter, still some trims to be fitted,



and after gluing and a coat of varnish,


.