Two Saturdays ago my Dad and I took a trip over to Barnsley to pick up a model kit of a fishing trawler. He had very kindly ordered and paid for it as a present to me. We picked it up the manufacturer, Model Slipway which is a small husband and wife cottage industry.
The kits are made in a series of large sheds, portakabins and a garage in the back garden. It is composed of a fibre glass hull, several large sheets of flat plastic with parts either printed or engraved on, and hundreds of tiny metal castings. Also included are a set of full size engineering drawings and a thick instruction manual.
Their porakabins are full of racks containing thousands of little hand cast fittings that they cast themselves. The kits are hand made up of all the required parts to order. When you consider how labour intensive the manufacture and putting together of each kit is you realise that they are not overly priced. Click on one of the two pictures above and look at the detail.
I made a start with the first item on the list.. A stand, this isn't included but is made by marking out a supplied paper template on a piece of plywood. You need the stand to have somewhere to sit the hull !
Next up.. have a good read of the instruction manual to learn how the rudder and propeller shaft fit. This is always a tense moment as it involves drilling holes in the bottom of the hull. Every hole is a potential leak !
Not good at reading technical drawings, this is probably not the hobby for you ! What you see above ends up looking like this below.
Inside the boat the propeller shaft and rudder can be seen below and then in the second picture a wooden block has been stuck in to mount the electric motor on.
With the 6v motor screwed in place, we have a form of propulsion
It will probably take several months to construct as its not quite as simple as an Airfix kit. Don't hit the un-follow button as I don't plan on posting daily updates, perhaps just weekly so you can watch it grow. When finished it should look like this....
The kit is a scale model of a real Shelter Deck sea trawler, that can be seen operating out of Scarborough harbour. She was built in 1990 by Cambeltown Shipbuilders. In the picture below she can be seen acting a s a Guard boat for an oil rig. This is a common activity for trawlers to supplement fishing income.
