Mooring & Birthing Tug Wyeforce Built by Ken Gould

Scale 1/24 Our Secretary asked if members would like to write up how they build their models. If in the process I am teaching your mother to suck eggs sorry, so here goes and don’t let me be the last to put pen to paper. I brought this kit from Laurie of The Model Slipway some twelve years ago with the intention of making a quick build and then start my career in tug towing at events local and national, so much for good intentions. Like all good modellers, I checked the contents of the box with the parts list as there were nearly six hundred bits, and then I read the destructions a couple times before starting. Having spent a considerable amount of time over the years researching ships plans, I have a healthy scepticism regarding their accuracy. So with this in mind, I spread out the two non scale sheets both concerning the position of the .superstructure and fittings, there being no hull lines as it was a GRP moulding. The box also contained the usual mix of die-cut parts, printed parts, styrene sheet, doweling, etched brass and metal rod and a bag of tyres. I found in the December 96 edition of Model Boats a review of the kit by Paul Freshney and in another edition John Doyle’s super detailing article.

With an old engineering adage in mind of measure twice and cut once, I started on the hull. As with any piercing of a hull it should be done with care, masking tape over the area in question will help when marking, drilling and filing.

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With the two propshafts, kort nozzles and the twin rudder shafts in place, the whole lot was two-part epoxied using the 24 hour type not the 5 minute stuff. I had in stock two large low drain motors that should do the job, but because of their weight, size and diameter they had to go up front; necessitating 10” long intermediate propshafts running closely either side of the 12v 7amp jelly cell battery. I found some couplings from SHG Marine, but under load were very noisy so changed them for ABCO type with brass inserts. Whilst on the subject of motors, on the first test run the original ones did not produce the boat speed required; so I replaced the pair with some unknown make which rotated at 9000 rpm and drew just over 1.4amps each at full speed, just about right for this type and size of boat. On reflection, one should keep to the conventional approach as much as possible, short propshafts and one coupling per motor.

Back to the build, the deck was next, with the 5m/m wood square section deck support and six cross sections epoxy glued in place around the inside of the hull, the deck was cut to shape and made a close fit. As the full size deck plates are welded together. I scored the top surfaces to reproduce this effect. As I want to use the boat for towing, the triple Sampson post was changed from the merely decorative to a hard fixed point by drilling the three uprights and gluing 5m/m studding in place, this in turn was fixed to a square horseshoe shaped aluminium section epoxied to the

inside of the hull just under the deck, nuts and washers completed the strong point.

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There is only one superstructure in two sections; my main difficulty was the upper wheel house assembly with its twenty three window openings and twelve panels, masking tape comes into its own here. With all bits in the right place and squared up, I Plasweld solvent melted the appropriate edges together, reinforcing on the inside with very thin strips of plastic as required. When fully dry, small amounts of JP Green

Model Filler were used to get the sharp outer edges required. The lower accommodation section was a straight forward styrene build as was the two funnels. I then glued the funnels to the upper section and filled any naff fitting bits. To join the upper and lower sections I used two self tapping screws I didn’t glue as this would make painting much harder later on. The stanchions are white metal and the top rail is of brass, necessitating the making of a jig so both sides and the front ladder rails turn out the same. The four ladders in the kit were not up to much so I made my own, once again using a jig. The mast went together as per drawing, modifying so as to accept the navigating lights, 1 anchor and 3 steaming lights, I use very fine motor winding wire as you can get many of these into a small area or super glued to the outside and not look out of place. The choice of light type is a personal one, on this occasion I used 12v grain of wheat bulbs from Hunter Systems lit on 9v I later changed to the full 12v because at the last club evening sail, I had trouble at times discerning which direction it was travelling due to the lower luminosity, the extra 3v made all the difference.

The openness of the wheel house gave me the opportunity to include lots of furniture so I made the roof removable. Hence the next problem, which was to arrange for a 12v supply to the four nav lights and one searchlight on the roof, a buzz bar under the roof was the answer. The roof is held in place by two strips of thin magnetic plastic stuck to the underside this is attracted to two strips of ground down hacksaw blade glued at the ends to the wheel house insides. For the radar I ran a small diameter shaft down to the lower level and connected via a D coupling to a motor and gearbox run on 1.5v hiding all this inside a double bunk

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Most of the ships furniture and fittings are white metal and clean up quite nicely; the exception was the five double bollards which had to be made of plastic, brass and wood. Under the shelter deck a hawser winch was added and quite a bit of hydraulic piping and three reservoir tanks so enhancing this area. All water tight doors were given a more realistic look.

Two diesel condensers were made from scrap plastic and brass and fitted into the hull sides. The three white metal loud speakers were poor, so were replaced with a moulded plastic type from the Dortmund Exhibition trip. The flat balustrade rail was wrong so was replaced with a round section type. It was now time to start painting, where two different colours meet I either made the parts separate or used Tamiya masking tape, quite the best on the market for non creeping clear edges. The whole outside hull was given two coats of Halfords red oxide and left to dry for a couple of days. I then sprayed the blue area to the front half of the bulwarks, when dry; masked it off to get a 12m/m wide parallel line. I had earlier made a working stand so the boat sat square and was easy to mark the water line using a pencil in a

scribing block. Next I masked off below the water line and then sprayed the top half with Halfords satin black. I used a rolled up towel to sit the hull on to dry. With my back turned; it rolled off the table hit the floor and sprung the back half of the deck. It was at this point I thought of taking up flying, then I realised aircraft roll off the table more often than boats, so repaired the deck. Next came the main deck and superstructure deck, having masked off both they were sprayed green using a Badger

spray gun and Humbrol paints. When masking I use kitchen foil instead of paper because it scrunches up so much easier into the right shape. Inside bulwarks and outside superstructures were spray coloured buff along with the window frames. The insides of the upper and lower superstructures were sprayed white. All fittings were sprayed white before receiving their top colours. After all the spraying was done, the transfers were stuck on; or to be more precise individual vinyl letters from Model Flags.com as the kit ones were absolutely terrible.

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To get the vinyl letters in the right place. I first computer generated the correctly spaced words on white paper, then temporarily fixed this to the area in question and copy stuck the vinyl’s directly above the paper working from the centre out. Two coats of 50/50 white spirit and Humbrol satin coat completed the job, all was left for a week to fully dry. I have noticed that modern water based paints are far more tolerant of atmospherics, and will give a very good finish when used

outside even in damp and cold conditions. Now for the best bit the assembly. I tend to drill the bottom of small based fittings and insert brass rod into then. When fitting, I superglue the brass into the locating hole, not the fitting, thus making a neater mating. The two sections of the hand rails were fixed into place and spot glued from the inside. Ladders were fitted in the same way as the bollards, spot glued. With all the other fittings in place, I turned my attention to glazing the windows. Having previously dry fitted and numbered them I made up a solution of 75/25 amounts Resin W and water. I then placed a window in a frame and run the glue mix around the inside edge using a dental probe. It took some time to complete this task and a small fortune in the swear box, leave overnight to fully dry. The two upper cabin doors were of white metal and so heavy I remade them in wood with brass furniture.

The bag of tyres with the kit were far too hard and the cord was bright white and useless so I brought twenty four softer tyres, along with larger ones for the bow and stern, a little licence was involved here as there is no fixed sizes shown. Pucker brown cord from Billings Models was used to hang the small tyres and I decided to add fixing chains to the three larger ones.

Chain I had but no U bolts, voices in my head said make them. The twelve little darlings took me all day to make along with more money in the swear box. The three types of towing hawser were plaited from soft cord and then dyed dark brown, finishing with a bowline or whipped loop at the end.

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The electronics was next; I was using Action Electronics for onboard control and Futaba T6YG six channel for overall control. This Futaba kit was brought from Howes Models for a derisory small amount of money. I had drafted out the lighting into three circuits, 1.navigation lights, 2.inside/outside cabin/search lights, 3.anchor light. An Action P62 four function switcher took care of the three circuits, the forth being connected to the radar. Motion control was by two P79 Condor speed controllers, they worked well but the turning circle was too large, so I added a P40 mixer. The tug will now crab sideways if required, all very satisfactory. I did add a sound unit but it got on my nerves so removed it. Dave from Action Electronics was very helpful and

items arrived when he said they would, can’t ask for more than that. The problem of access to anything within the hull without breaking bits off is always ever present, so I fixed all the electrics onto one board and mounted it under the stern hatch cover. The three on/off switches, fuses and charging leads for RX and main batteries are now available without much trouble.

I finished off the project with a polished hard wood stand. By the way; if your brass propellers get tarnished just dunk them in Coca Cola for five minutes and Bob’s your uncle; bright and shinny. Drinking it afterwards is optional. With my new tug under my arm I can now face my fellow modeller down at the lake without comments of

“who the hell is that, oh, must be a new member”. Talking of arm, it weighs in at 21lbs so a carrying case had to be made (box) unfortunately it took two to carry it; hence the wheels chaps and no more comments about a green coffin please!! I know this story’s a bit long, well quite a bit long, but having finished reading it, take solace from the fact that it kept you out of the pub for a while, thereby saving money for your next project. Ken Gould.

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