[Base Modelarz+scratchbuilding]1/72 Trawler

[Thanh Thuy]

Salut à tous!

I begin my first post in this topic with a Trawler (my last "master-piece", built from december 2008 to March 2009) which has a story.
As I wrote in my introduction, I play wargames.
Several rules, several eras, several scenaries.
One of them is post-colonial wars, essentially in Africa, where France has some History to assume.
My elder son and I created a fictive country in Africa, a dictatorship selfnamed 'democracy' and called "République démocratique du Nimaga-Sanga", or more simply "Nimaga-Sanga" , which capital is the town of "Ifoba-N'Kela" (pronunce Yfow-bannkay-laa, which is a homophony of the french phrase " Il faut banquer là", what means in slang "you have to pay there" !:D ).
It gives you the sense of the game : corruption, ambushes, tricks...

This little but rich country (Petrol, diamonds...) with his 'FieldMarshal-President-Doctor' called Bendele Lumengo (pronounce "Bendeyley Loomenngoh" ) owner of the "Lumengo Petroleum", possesses an Army (allied to France...or not, it depends on the situation), an Air Force, a small Navy...and some mercenaries.
His dictator...sorry, President, I meant , is the owner of some other companies, like a drilling company, mining companies, forestry plantations, etc.

The trawler is one piece of this Navy, fitted out for...traffic, sorry, I meant trade and fishing.

Using 1/72 scaled models in the wargames, I built this ship after modifying the scale of an old Modelarz ship, and transformed her a lot : to acheave, there is no comparision with the original model.
I often do such modifications even in my scratchbuildings : I never use the original plans, it often changes and progresses.

So I decided to build my trawler with her hull cut on the draughtline. (draftline for US people).

She is not 100% paper (sorry :( , only...98% ) and have some other materials like poplar wood, lead sheet, plastic, copper, LEDs (impossible to light paper, except with matches!) etc.

OK, I stop this tooooo looong speeeech, and I say...

To be continued :p !

Bye...

Thanh Thuy.

[Michael Mash]

After that great story, I (we) look forward to seeing images of your boat!
Mike

[Thanh Thuy]

Hello tout le monde!

Here are the first five pictures of the assembly.

I first had to increase the scale from 1/100 to 1/72, as I generally work on this last scale for the wargames.
Of course, I used my scanner and computer to do so.

I obtained new sheets as new pattern to work and assemble.

As I built a model to be used on a game table, I had to prepare the blueprint to be cut on the draughtline level with a pen and a ruler.

Then, I cut, assemblied, glued, etc.









To digress, I decided first to make a card deck covered with paper "planks" of coloured drawing paper.
But I had no paper of this sort, and to paint a white sheet would have been risky, because of the distortion of the sheet with waterpaints.
Thus I decided to use the original deck, transformed at the correct scale, and I had no regret with that choice.



To be continued...

Thanh Thuy.

[Keds_Girl_Lala]

Very nice. I like your work and the use of the Modelarz kit also. Thank you!

[B-Manic]

Great story and a good start to the model. I look forward to seeing more.

[Thanh Thuy]

Thanks to both of you!

I carry on with the assembly of the hull, made of card shells, put and glued like tiles on a roof.











As you see, a 'small' fitting is necessary!

I did an interlude and built the rescue yawl:





And I added some planks on the flanks:



I was ready to make a try with the decks:




And here happened the first mistake : I shall tell it in the next post...

To be continued.

Thanh Thuy.

[Don Boose]

I enjoyed seeing the first steps of building this model. Thank you for posting this interesting thread.

Don

[SCEtoAUX]

Looking good so far. Thanks for the play by play description. It shows some of the pitfalls that might trap someone.

The framing looks good. Do you use anything special to keep everything aligned?

[Thanh Thuy]

Thank you both!

I carry on, with ...the first mistake!

When I increased the scale of the Modelarz model, I didn't realize that I failed and made a 1/100 become a 1/68 and not a 1/72.
Of course, the difference seems to be short, but in fact it changes all : no perfect fitting.



This part thus, was wrong in size.











...and I obtained a deck tilted forward.
As I didn't understand why, I carried on.
Some more details, to put on the decks:

















Just put without glue, to "preview":







The rescue boat on its deck, on the original blueprint:



The stern :



You have seen above what aspect had the original cabin : I didn't like it.
I decided to make my own later.

To be continued...

Thanh Thuy.

[Yu Gyokubun]

Tres bien!!!
I’m drawn into your world and look forward to next twist

Yu