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Old 02-26-2012, 06:57 AM
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Tapcho Tapcho is offline
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Finnish steam tug S/S Koitar from 1905

For some reason I’m currently so stuck with my paper modeling projects and can’t get anything done so I thought I needed some change. I didn’t go to my plastic models vault like I usually do but instead decided to do something from scratch

Finland used to make most of it’s NGI from it’s huge forests back in the 20th century. At first it was mainly timber that we exported but gradually high quality pulp, paper, cardboard and packing materials. As a country of thousands of lakes timber was mainly transported through waterways, along rivers to the lakes and from there to various sawmills and paper factories.

Many shipyards operated alongside of the biggest lakes and the one that built this ship near city Varkaus. There’s an internet archive that offers the digitalized blueprints of the many vessels built in these shipyards and you can find it here. Some of these old steamers are preserved and serve as leisure boats these days.

This one was built as a half model according to plans found from that archive. I used various materials including wood, metal, plastic, cardboard and paper. Here’s a little story how she was built:

I carved the hull from solid piece of wood with my knife and sandpaper without the keel. When I was happy with her lines I backed the wooden hull with a piece of cardboard and formed the keel. Then I sandwiched on top another piece of cardboard and formed the bumper line. On top of that came the deck piece leaving a lip for the deck sidewalls formed from cardboard. Deck was made with Photoshop. Wheelhouse and other deck assemblies are wooden blocks painted accordingly and the roofs are cardboard. The towing rope is made of thin copper wire first twisted as a three strand cable, then rolled and lastly painted brownish.

This was a three day project and I started last Thursday adding the final pieces (the rigging) this morning. She’s not exactly like the real one, I added some features the original was missing but what are true to the era anyway.

I’m not all together happy with the results. I managed to cramp a lot of details to it when building (for instance the hull sidewalls on deck level have all the vertical supports in place, all 20 of them) but the painting vent wrong and is a bit poor. I used artists acrylics, maybe I just hurried too much. I mounted her on a piece of theak board i found. I still have to make some sort of stand for it - she's very fragile.

I posted this one to ‘the other thing we do’ instead of the nautical forum because of wast array of different materials used. The scale of the ship is about 1/100. The original measures about 19 meters in waterline and this one is about 9,5 centimeters long. I hope you enjoy this one.

Best Regards,

Tappi
Attached Thumbnails
Finnish steam tug S/S Koitar from 1905-ss-koitar-sivu.jpg   Finnish steam tug S/S Koitar from 1905-ss-koitar-keula.jpg   Finnish steam tug S/S Koitar from 1905-ss-koitar-kansi.jpg   Finnish steam tug S/S Koitar from 1905-r130.jpg   Finnish steam tug S/S Koitar from 1905-r131.jpg  

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Old 02-26-2012, 07:23 AM
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D-H D-H is offline
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She is charming and unique and any project involving a tug is well worthwhile.

I am sure the links to the plans will be well received too!

D
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Old 02-26-2012, 07:28 AM
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Papercaptain Papercaptain is offline
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Hello, Tappi!
A very fine piece of workmanship done here - reminds us of the half models of the early 20th century! Thank you for presenting it and a big compliment from an aficionado of these little jewels.
If I'm not mistaken, the scale should be 1/200: 19,0 m = 9,5 cm?!
Kind regards,
Papercaptain

Last edited by Papercaptain; 02-26-2012 at 07:29 AM. Reason: Scale corrected
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Old 02-26-2012, 09:52 AM
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Tapcho Tapcho is offline
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Thanks D and Captain! The scale was a silly mistake, of course she's 1/200 (honestly, I've never been good with scale calculations). Another mistake is her building year in the title it should be 1904. Her name is old finnish and means poetically something like morningbreak. That name had also one of the virgin goddess spirits that are presented in our national tale Kalevala.

BR Tappi
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Old 02-26-2012, 11:05 AM
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Very nice Tappi! I like the old steam tugs, they did a great deal of work in their day for sure
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Old 02-26-2012, 11:15 AM
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jimkrauzlis jimkrauzlis is offline
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Very nicely done, Tappi!

She came out very well... brilliantly, by my eye. This is a very interesting way to portray a vessel, and doing it at this scale makes for a very attractive little gem. The link to plans is very much appreciated as well.

The charm of steam tugs is so very well presented by this build, thanks for sharing this with all of us...it was an enjoyable story and attractive build making great use of various media.

Cheers!
Jim
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Old 02-26-2012, 11:37 AM
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Don Boose Don Boose is offline
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It's a beautiful model, Tappi, and fits in with the recent theme of merchant ships, civilian watercraft, and especially tugs and workboats.

To my eye, steam tugs with tall funnels are the most appealing and interesting of all such craft. You have certainly captured the look of those wonderful watercraft.

Don
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Old 02-26-2012, 01:07 PM
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Tapcho Tapcho is offline
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Thanks Glen, Jim and Don. I love old steamers very dearly and this one was a pleasure to build. I solved the issue of presenting her - I found a 19th century visiting card display stand and fiddled it to hold the teak backing. I also noticed that I forgot to build the navigation lights so more to come - at least two pics anyway. ;-)

BR Tappi
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Old 02-27-2012, 01:33 AM
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Ok, I added the missing navigation lightbox to the ships side. Front navigation lights were hanging on a wire by the mast on the other side of the ship (not presented in a half model). The mast and the funnel were foldable in the original vessel and lovered down when passing a low bridge.

The second photo shows the stand I found. It's collapsible so I can store the model flat if I need to. Final picture shows it in place, at least for now. I call this one done. On towards new adventures in modeling. Thanks everybody for your kind attention and interest. ;-)

BR Tappi
Attached Thumbnails
Finnish steam tug S/S Koitar from 1905-navigation.jpg   Finnish steam tug S/S Koitar from 1905-stand.jpg   Finnish steam tug S/S Koitar from 1905-place.jpg  
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Old 02-27-2012, 01:53 AM
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Pat_craft Pat_craft is offline
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I haven't see it... A really nice one !! I love it !
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