Boats & Water crafts

[Bernard]

I'm coming to the point on my layout that I'm going to be adding some boats and other water crafts to the river, lake and harbor scenes.

I looked at Hobby Search and this is what I found:

http://www.1999.co.jp/search_e.asp?Typ1_c=104&scope=1&scope2=0&urikire=1&itkey=boat

 

Are there any other boats that members can recommend and where to purchase them, I'm looking for a variety of crafts.

[Darren Jeffries]

It is very difficult to find anything 1:166 scale for boats. The best bet is to use perspective to your advantage and go with 1:200

 

In this scale I can find the following:

http://www.emodels.co.uk/plastic-kits/revell-1200-kustwacht-waker-coast-guard-vessel-05240-p-14173.html

http://www.emodels.co.uk/plastic-kits/revell-1200-smit-houston-5239-p-11164.html

http://www.emodels.co.uk/plastic-kits/trumpeter-1200-chinese-naval-destroyer-shen-zhen-03611-p-13548.html

http://www.emodels.co.uk/plastic-kits/trumpeter-1200-courageous-former-soviet-destroyer-03609-p-13547.html

http://www.emodels.co.uk/plastic-kits/trumpeter-1200-dalian-chinese-destroyer-03607-p-13545.html

http://www.emodels.co.uk/plastic-kits/trumpeter-1200-haerbin-chinese-naval-destroyer-03603-p-13541.html

http://www.emodels.co.uk/plastic-kits/trumpeter-1200-huaibei-chinese-naval-frigate-03601-p-13539.html

http://www.emodels.co.uk/plastic-kits/trumpeter-1200-kaifeng-chinese-naval-destroyer-kaifeng-03606-p-13544.html

http://www.emodels.co.uk/plastic-kits/trumpeter-1200-qingdao-chinese-naval-destroyer-03604-p-13542.html

http://www.emodels.co.uk/plastic-kits/trumpeter-1200-sovremenny-class-destroyer-type-03612-p-13549.html

http://www.emodels.co.uk/plastic-kits/trumpeter-1200-sovremenny-class-destroyer-type-956e-03613-p-13550.html

http://www.emodels.co.uk/plastic-kits/trumpeter-1200-tongling-chinese-naval-frigate-03602-p-13540.html

http://www.emodels.co.uk/plastic-kits/trumpeter-1200-tsinan-chinese-naval-destroyer-03605-p-13543.html

http://www.emodels.co.uk/plastic-kits/trumpeter-1200-zhuhai-chinese-naval-destroyer-03608-p-13546.html

 

Any of the above should be easy enough to convert to look japanese. If you wanted to order anything, bear in mind international shipping charges.... they can get a bit high!

[Bernard]

Darren - You sure know your ships!

I'm also looking for some small pleasure boats, little row boats, and even some jet skis.

The Coast Guard boat would look good in the harbor scene.

[Darren Jeffries]

Modelling kits are my other main hobby. Mostly aircraft though. I had a thought about the shipping, it would be cheaper for you to ship to me and i can forward on. Better that than the charges they quote. I'll have a look for smaller craft.

[marknewton]

Bernard, in one of the (many) boxes I haven't yet unpacked are a couple of model boat magazines I picked up recently. I'm sure there were a couple of ads for small scale resin boats and ship kits. IIRC, they were around 1/144th scale, I also seem to recall that one of the kits advertised was for a Japanese whalecatcher. I don't want to start any arguments about the rights and wrongs of whaling, but they're a distinctively Japanese-looking vessel. I'll try to find the magazines and pass on the name of the manufacturer.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[Bernard]

Here are the 3 water areas on the layout. The first one is deep water, like a harbor, the second is the River and the last is a Lake. I'm planning o having different types of boats in each area. (The lake with have a man in a boat fishing.)

Also, I started putting WS realistic water in the river and the lake but I need more of the stuff to finish and it's expensive (between 15 - 20 USD per bottle and I think I need about 5 to 6 more bottles to finish) Any ideas for alternates that would be less expensive? The WS water pellets are less but have to be melted through heat and I've heard from other modelers that the results aren't the best.

[Guest ___]

I'm surprised Jeff hasn't chirp[ed in yet, having the entire seaport set TomyTech just released. From what I saw of them last week at his place, the boats look pretty good.

[cteno4]

I'm surprised Jeff hasn't chirp[ed in yet, having the entire seaport set TomyTech just released. From what I saw of them last week at his place, the boats look pretty good.

 

Ok chirp chirp.

 

yes the tomytec fishing boats and three waterside buildings (fish warehouse with jetty, fish market w/ dock, and boat shed with haul out and marine rr) make quite a nice little shore scene. not cheap, but not horrible. the boats have removable bottom half hulls so you can have them as a waterline model or full hull model (for the haul out in the boat yard or shed). the boats are the more modern style of small japanese fishing boats. the greenmax fishing boats are similar style, but a bit older. i plan on having one of the greenmax boats in the yard that is in bad shape and getting a much needed overhaul.

 

i can snap some picts of them, but there are lots of them out there already. working on adding a lot of details into them like small boats, crates, pallets, forklift, dumpster area, haul out crap, etc

 

found a few smaller boats that can fill in the scene, from some small speed boats (maybe one on a trailer being launched) to a cabin cruiser and a small patrol boat. also a few small and medium inflatables.

 

im going to do my harbor scene as a small diorama that i can snuggle up to ttrak or the home layout. water scenes are tough to do nice so if i can get it all right i want to be able to use it in different ways!

 

for larger ships there are two that can also be used for a medium sized harbor that are close to 1:150 scale. theres a coastal tanker and a north sea fishing boat. i think the tanker is at about 150' or so and could be modified into a small coastal container ship. i have been trying to find sources for what sort of ships or barges that are used in japan for coast container shipping. most of the large iso containers are apparently taken mostly by coastal shipping in japan and not by rail as clearance is a problem for the 40' containers on most japanese rail lines. stuff that goes by rail is broken up into the smaller 12 and 20' containers for rail traffic. when in japan i remember seeing a lot of barges with larger cranes on them and now wonder if they were for coastal container shipping as they were usually around container docks, but i dont remember seeing any with containers on them. at the time i wasnt trying to figure out their purpose!

 

the whaling boat sounds interesting as it could probably be turned into a small fish tender/processing boat if you dont want a whaler!

 

i have a few different materials here to try for the rippled water surface, then paint and do a few coast of gloss medium to give some water depth to it. ocean water you rarely see any transparency on from a distance under most lighting conditions so dont think ill be doing the magic water as i really want a rippled surface.

 

nuff chirpin for me...

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[Bernard]

Jeff - If you don't mind I would appreciate a few photos. I think I saw what you described at Hobby Search but the photos are distant.

 

What are you planning on using for water for your scene? In another thread I've been experimenting with

Artistic Clear Acrylic Glaze. So far I'm getting mixed results, I'm in the process of trying a different approach to applying it, thinner coats.

[cteno4]

Bernard,

 

Ok ill snap a few picts. hope to have the basement working this weekend for the new train shop and play area so i want to set up a little photo area anyway, so this will be a good project to start that.

 

on the water im going to first experiment with two different plastic surfaces i have here. both have ripples in them, one with larger humps and the other with smaller longer ones. thinking the smaller longer ones may work well for an open shore harbor scene. hard thing will be what to do behind the break water as it should be more flat there. trying to texture tiny surface swell/ripples seems to be quite a challenge if i were to do it all by hand. assume i could do it with some thick acrylic artist paint to build the texture. from most of the coastal shore modeling i have seen the painted surface covered with a gloss glaze like you mention seems to give the best sea shore effect.

 

dont think i will go for the magic water / epoxy poured solutions for this as you get one shot with your dock and boat and shore. if it doesnt work pretty hard to rip out and fix. i played with clear epoxies a long time back for other things and it can be a real art to keep things working the same. found small changes could really change the outcome. would use it for something like a pond.

 

not planning on working on the water until later this year, to many things to work on otherwise right now. right now ive just been piddling when i have a little time detailing the buildings more and want to start on the beat up green max boats after the buildings are fully detailed.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[Darren Jeffries]

Bernard... surfing the net and came across this website:

 

http://www.langley-models.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Boats__Ships__quayside_walls_etc_63.html

 

I remembered you saying you were looking for boats. Dont know if these will fit with what you are doing, but i noted the rowing boats.

[cteno4]

I have the rowing boats and the police boat. both are quite nice and figured would work in my little harbor scene. the police boat looked like a couple of coastal patrol boats i saw on my first visit to japan. i can put folks in touch with a small shop in england that can get these and ship pretty cheaply if anyone is interested.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Bernard]

Bernard... surfing the net and came across this website:

 

http://www.langley-models.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Boats__Ships__quayside_walls_etc_63.html

 

I remembered you saying you were looking for boats. Dont know if these will fit with what you are doing, but i noted the rowing boats.

 

Darren - after my post on TB, I'm not allowed to purchase any prototype that was made until after I was born.

[Mudkip Orange]

You need to have a swimming british dude and bikini-clad japanese diver girl, a la Bond and his girl in You Only Live Twice.

[marknewton]

Bernard, you  might find some ideas and inspiration for your waterside scenes here.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tsuda/sets/300982/

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[Bernard]

Mark - Thanks for the photos, being an American we never get to see boats like this. The boats Tomix sells are probably the best for my river, now all I have to do is solve the "water" problem on my river without having to resort to WS realistic water. :confused3:

[marknewton]

When you say water problem, what's not working out for you?

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[cteno4]

Mark,

 

thanks for these galleries, the ferries are great! now you have me thinking i need a ferry dock at the end of my water scene! then to have to scratch build a small ferry! would give a very interesting use of cars! damn now the wheel are turning, one more project!

 

actually those shots also had a lot of great background reference images also with the dockside cranes and the cable bridge in the distance.

 

the photographer also has some other great galleries. one with matsuris that have raincoats on! never seen that before!

 

 

thanks again, love the shots

 

cheers

 

jeff

[cteno4]

Bernard,

 

just noticed that the langley row boats just popped up on ebay

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320397879798&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123

 

this seller is the one that i also did a direct order with to get the police boat.

 

also have you seen the small green max skiffs? HitJapan has had them for sale in the past.

 

http://www.japanmodelrailways.com/shopenglish2008/start.php?d_19071.php

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Fenway Park]

The Revell North Sea trawler is 1/142 but I am sure can be made into some Ocean going vessel. The Coastal Tanker from Eastern Models is the old Frog kit which is claimed to be 1/130.

 

Trumpeter make a modern Chinese Navy missile destroyer in 1/150 as well as a 1930s gun boat also in 1/150.

 

Last of all Revell offer USS Fletcher in 1/144: a WW2 destroyer that were sold onto American allies later in the 1950s. Not sure if some went to the JSDF.

 

Hope this helps.

[cteno4]

The Shell Coastal Tanker was also re-released by modelcraft and is 1/130. it comes up on ebay now and then for reasonable prices. i grabbed one with the thought of turning one into a small coastal container ship.

 

cool thing about ships is folks dont realize the decks are usually pretty close together an doorways pretty short (being 6' 4" and growing up on a ship and working on them lots my head has many lumps and scars to prove it!) This means if the ship is a tad over scale, most folks wont realize it since they think the decks should be further apart than they are from comparison to terrestrial buildings.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Bernard]

Mark - I've used WS reaistic water and I like what it does to simulate water, I just don't like the price $21.00 USD and I would need about 5 bottles. :icon_scratch:

 

I'm working with a acrylic gloss glaze and seeing if that works, so far I'm getting mixed feeling about using it. It might have something to do with my paint scheme to simulate water.

That's all.

 

When you say water problem, what's not working out for you?

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

Mark, thanks for these galleries, the ferries are great! now you have me thinking i need a ferry dock at the end of my water scene! then to have to scratch build a small ferry! would give a very interesting use of cars! damn now the wheel are turning, one more project!

 

My pleasure, Jeff. I was very pleased to find that gallery myself, as it features the ferry dock at the end of the Kaetsuno Railway/Manyosen, which is one of the railways I'm modelling. I wasn't originally planning to include Koshinokata on the layout, but I think that might change. I'm thinking I might build the scene as a module which could be then linked to the layout in place of the Komatsu station module for a change of scenery and operations.

 

the photographer also has some other great galleries. one with matsuris that have raincoats on! never seen that before!

 

Neither have I. As you say, they're great galleries. Whenever I find something like this, I send the photographer an email thanking them. They all seem to be pleased that someone is inspired by their efforts.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

Mark - I've used WS reaistic water and I like what it does to simulate water, I just don't like the price $21.00 USD and I would need about 5 bottles. :icon_scratch:

 

Bernard, I haven't used the WS water myself, but I understand your concern about the price - very spendy!

 

I'm working with a acrylic gloss glaze and seeing if that works, so far I'm getting mixed feeling about using it. It might have something to do with my paint scheme to simulate water.That's all.

 

I know what you mean, it's not an easy task. One thing I have found is that the nearer the water surface is to your eye level, the more realistic it can look. I made a storage pond for a mill on a friend's layout, which I was rather disappointed with, but when we installed the finished scene on his layout at about 55" off the floor, it looked much better. Looking down on a simulated body of water only seems to highlight how artificial it looks.

 

I know that doesn't help you if your layout is at waist height, though!

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[Bernard]

Okay, going to resurface this thread.

 

I have some of the greenmax boats now, what I'm looking for is some small motor boats, sailboats, basically pleasure boats for my layout. (can't imagine seeing a water skier being pulled by a Destroyer )

Anybody know where I can find these?