Revell North Sea Trawler (1:142 scale)

[UrkerVisser]

Hi everybody!
I bought this North Sea trawler kit in 1:42 scale from a hobby dealer who only sells N scale trains (1:160 or 1:148 British).


I bought it over a year ago and intended to place it by a dock on my train layout with a self made model of an 'Otter Trawl" net laid out on the dock next to it for repairs.

This was supposed to be my 'Christmas Project 2024' but alas I took a nasty fall and broke a rib plus suffered a partial tear of the bicep tendon in my left shoulder. Therefore no ship building for a whole year!

Anyway, this is Revell's oldest kit still in production. Originally it was sold as the Boyd Line's 'Arctic Corsair' from Hull, England. But for that she's a tad bit too short.

Then the kit was sold as the fictive 'Russian Spy Ship' "Volga" for many years and lately as the 'Ross' "Jackal" from Grimsby, England. Alas she is too long to be a Ross 'Cat Class' trawler and has only 3 hatch covers on the deck and not four like the 'Arctic Corsair' or this model.

And whereas the 'Atlantic Corsair' was over 50 meters in length and thereby required to have the taller mast behind the stack, the 'Ross Jackal' (which was under 50 meters) didn't have this second tall mast.

The 'Cat Class' trawlers were also all named by local school children from Grimsby. Alas one child thought a 'Jackal' was a cat while another thought a 'Zebra' was a cat! Ross stuck with it anyway and the 'Cat Class' included a dog and horse!

It's still a nice model but if I could do decals in white I would rename her the Grimsby 'Crystal Palace' which has the proper appearance.

Anyway since this is a really old kit it's not quite up to today's tool and die standards. The hand railings are very 'chunky', the anchor and winches look horrible and the windows are only to be painted on in black. Also the deck detailing is weird. So there were a lot of little things to improve.

I did the windows with a fine, glossy black 'Edding' enamel paint pen. At night they would look glossy black anyway. Besides that there are no interior floors or walls inside of it anyway. I didn't trust cutting the windows out and then plastic glass wouldn't fit flush into the holes anyway. I decided to keep the kit 'traditional'.


Best Regards, UrkerVisser

 

[UrkerVisser]

Hi everybody!
Here's how I improved the winches and deck details using some spare parts from N scale model train building kits.


I used 'Gütermann - Jeans Thread' for the winch because this color is mixed with streaks of steel blue and silver.
Plus I added some other parts.

I cut away the 'phoney' stuff on the deck using a single edged razor blade and added roller capstans.

My winch cables also now come nicely up front without hitting the hatch covers.

I also drilled the forecastle deck and bow for metal anchor chains or lines. But no photos of this yet.

Best Regards, UrkerVisser

 

[UrkerVisser]

Painting my trawler was and still is a problem as this white plastic wouldn't cover with Revell semi gloss enamel paint. But the red on the hull covered nicely.

I tried painting the black a couple of times but apparently my paint had gone defective somehow after I used it successfully on my wooden 1:77 scale 'Bluenose' (1921) schooner.

Then I ordered new Revell paint and it only reactivated the defective coat underneath. I tried sanding the black down as much as possible and wiping it down with 'white spirits' turpentine. Now that it has thoroughly dried out for two weeks I ordered some 'Vallejo' semi gloss acrylic paint to finish it up with.

Really, I always liked 'Humbrol' paint better but my hobby dealers here don't have it presently. But 'Revell' has this nice semi gloss red for my hulls which 'Humbrol' didn't have anyway.

The photos show my white stripes still covered with masking tape.


I'm using semi gloss paint because I want the trawler to look somewhat wet. But I'll have to tone down the decking with a greyish wash. I saw photos of the Ross 'Tiger' after restauration work and the hatch covers and bulkheads were painted this bright red. Now I don't care for the results plus the 'Arctic Corsair' has black hatch covers and duller red-lead bulkheads.

I'll report back on this after my 'Vallejo' paint arrives.

Bye! UrkerVisser

 

[UrkerVisser]

Yesterday I sanded the black part of the hull with number 800 abrasive and then painted it with 'Vallejo Model Color' black right out of the squeeze bottle. I was amazed how nicely it went on with my good red wissel hair brush. It dried extremely fast and I could paint the other side of the ship straight away plus the clean up was minimal.

This is the first time I ever painted a plastic model with acrylic! I'll have to buy a lot more but my usual model ship hobby dealer is very weak in his selection of 'Vallejo' products.

Of course I don't need 'Vallejo's sets for painting trolls, monsters, Romans, Barbarians, tanks or soldiers but wish they had a set with the basics: red, blue, yellow, white, black and so forth. I also wanted to paint my hull satin finish and this paint is very, very matt!

Today is a beautiful sunny Sunday and I just got through sanding down imperfections with number 1200 abrasive and then thinned a couple drops of this paint with water and then repainted the hull with a very thin coat.

I think 'Vallejo' also makes a clear satin finish I could brush on over the black to give it a somewhat wet appearance. I want her to look like her first day after an overhaul and not like a 'rust bucket' again when she returns three weeks later!

Best Regards, UrkerVisser

 

[AndyA]

This kit seems to be based on the old Model Shipways solid wood hull kit of the British Motor Trawler "Hildina," which was built in 1951. The plans for that kit were drawn by H.S. Scott in 1954 for Model Shipways in 1:96 scale. Later, Pyro and then Lindberg marketed a plastic kit called "North Atlantic Fishing Trawler" that was a direct copy of the Model Shipways wood kit. From what I can see, the Pyro/Lindberg kit is of higher quality than the Revell kit. One defect in the P/L kit is that the masts were moulded with elliptical cross sections instead of the correct round shape. I assume that this made it easier to mold in plastic. When I built one, I fashioned round wood masts. Fair winds!

 

[UrkerVisser]

This is of course a nice trawler but has very little in common with Revell's 'Arctic Corsair' which is a lot longer and with a lot more HP. The superstructure on yours is also completely different.
UrkerVisser

 

[Kurt Konrath]

Nice to see another model railroader building ship kits with "fit" in scale for a scene on the railroad.

 

[UrkerVisser]

Nice to see another model railroader building ship kits with "fit" in scale for a scene on the railroad.

I also built a couple of sea going tugs in 1:200 which I used in harbor scene with my Z scale (1:220) layout. But I disassembled the layout and now have these two ships packed away.

Alas N scale look too small on this model.

But soon I will also need a glass and white metal display case from 'Ikea" for my ships like the two my wife has in the dining room for her LEGO projects.

The older I get the more things I have but always less room to store or display them. Everything has to go back into it's designated place straight away after use like living on board a ship! Haha!

Best Regards,
UrkerVisser

 

[Kurt Konrath]

If your Admiral is into LEGO projects, you may be a poorer man them many!

I have bought and assembled many a LEGO projects for my wife, who like the LEGO trains and building of the city in same scale.

 

[UrkerVisser]

So back to my trawler:
I was looking for a clear, water based, satin finish varnish to brush on over the 'Vallejo - Model Color' which is the nice, easy to work with black which I repainted my trawler with (Sorry, no photos). It looks good but is very matt looking.

I pulled away my 2 mm making tape off of the white stripe I did with an "Edding, gloss white paint marker with a very fine tip.

It all looks good but I need to do some fine touch up work on her before using this satin clear coat.
But maybe not this week as I've had four model ship projects running simultaneously lately. So I spread my time between ships and never sit idle.

Best Regards, UrkerVisser

 

[UrkerVisser]

Sunday, 16. March, 2025:
So now after another coat of 'Vallejo Model Color' black paint plus endless touch up work 'maybe' I'm now ready to apply the 'Kreul - Hobby Line' clear acrylic satin varnish over my black 'Vallejo Model Color' black.

One problem were the 7 port holes on both sides of the ship. I painted them grey blue to simulate the refection of the sea or sky. But they are into the white stripe but some also extend a bit into the black which made painting my white stripe very difficult.



I painted my white stripe with 2 mm wide masking tape and an 'Edding' 780 series enamel paint marker with a 0.8 mm tip. And also with a 751 which has a wider tip. It coats well but dries poorly.

So maybe I'll oder some some 'Vallejo Model Color' white and paint over it. I'm 65 years old and my hand was more stable last year than it is now.

Another chore today was cutting a door into the forecastle bulkhead.
I did this with an old single edged razor blade and a lot of tapping with a small hammer.





I painted the inside of the forecastle red a meter high from the deck then white above that like on the 'Ross Tiger'. I also need to buy or make a stairway for on the port side. This is also where the 'Tiger's' anchor is stowed.



I had to drill the hull for an anchor chain hawse and also on her port side for the mooring line fairlead as there was no port side anchor on this ship. A piece of green carpet thread with a loop will make a nice mooring line to coil up by the winch.

The square part around my anchor chain holes in the deck still need their hinged covers when no chain or line is there. My winch add-on parts were extras from various N scale 'Faller' kits. (Extra stuff is always nice to have on hand and 'Faller' even sells extra sprues of parts reasonable on request if you live in Germany.)

This door also gives me access to rigging my anchor chain and mooring line and for service incase my anchor chain breaks. (For example: If one of my little granddaughters grab it!) So its good to consider every possible problem in advance!

Best Regards, UrkerVisser

 

[UrkerVisser]

Tuesday, 25 March, 2025:
Ahoy!
Alas my 'Vallejo' paint is on back order and holding this project up!
Therefore I thought I would write some interesting facts about the kit, the prototype and my other trawler trivia. Otherwise you may think I've sailed off to 'Fidler's Green' or something! Haha!

This is 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' which was a sister ship to the museum ship 'Ross Tiger' in Grimsby.

But this model is really more 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.

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 things progress.

Best Regards, UrkerVisser