Boats & Water crafts

[Fenway Park]

Noch  offer a small range of canoes, dinghies and one small cabin cruiser in 1:160.

[cteno4]

Bernard,

 

these small craft are hard to find. you may have to do a little scratch building to make your own small craft like this. there are some small row boats and sail boats from brittish companies i have, ill dig them up.

 

next time im over at Curt's i can see if he would mind me taking a bunch of close up pictures of his boats they made. most are just simple block construction and look wonderful at a couple of feet. some detail painting could also fake a lot of detail as well. i was amazed how well his small harbor looked with these simple boats. again its the scene that tricks the mind into not looking at individual boat's detail as much as the mass of boats making the marina scene that the mind knows well and just fills in all the detail itself.

 

for those boats off by themselves then they may need a tad more detail to make them look cool as you just want to look closer at an individual thing like that and thus notice when the detail aint there... As a kid i carved a lot of little sail boats (usually while bored in class) about n scale (many times out of a pencil). very quick and easy to do and the cabin is usually dirt simple affair, then mast and boom. smaller boats have little or no railings. cockpit depression can be faked with a darker patch painted there or a small tarp over the boom covering that area if its docked.

 

i have been trying to find some old cake decorations i put alway a long time ago. the sail boats and motor boats were quite nice and detailed out of harder plastic (not the cheap soft un-detailed plastic that i have seen on most cake decorations these days). there was a great toy store in Berkeley (Mr Mopps, sadly closing soon after 40 years! it got me through grad school along with beers, lattes and bookstores, all of which berkeley had plenty of) that had a huge rack of bins of these kinds of little sort of doll house type toys for like 10 cents each. i asked the owner one day where he got them and he said most were cake decorations. a while later i was at a big baking store to get stuff for a grand, crazy wedding cake we were baking for  a friend and i saw a bunch of the same things there. at this big place though they were like 10 to a bag as they were sold to bakeries... i keep meaning to see if there is a similar store around here to check out.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Bernard]

I remember those decorations on birthday cakes until they were declared unsafe for children.

 

I have been able to find any type of military ship out there in scale but a tiny little power boat....forget it. I did find the jet ski at Hobby Search. What are other modelers putting in their lakes and rivers? 

[cteno4]

Bernard,

 

you are probably right on the unsafe for children... damn.

 

here is an option i have been looking at, but not pulled the trigger on yet:

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Knightwing-A18-Atlantic-Lifeboat-Dinghy-New-Metal-Kit-/150394982230?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item23043d4f56#ht_1680wt_878

 

other ones:

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Knightwing-A17-D-Class-Lifeboat-2-x-Dinghys-Metal-Kit-/120502247363?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item1c0e7e5fc3#ht_1432wt_878

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Knightwing-A22-Speed-Boat-Dinghy-Trailer-New-Metal-Kit-/120493351284?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item1c0df6a174#ht_1680wt_878

 

odd little thing i stumbled on, a modular river system. really is hardly a stream though!

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/N-scale-MODULAR-RIVER-SYSTEM-STARTER-PACK-/200520424227?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item2eaff2db23#ht_769wt_878

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Bernard]

Jeff - Thanks you for all the research you did. There are some interesting scenes like the boat and the trailer.

[Scaper]

I bought a 5 foot cruise ship last year off ebay. I love it. Even at 5 feet it's still a tad under scale at 185:1 scale.

[inobu]

I bought a 5 foot cruise ship last year off ebay. I love it. Even at 5 feet it's still a tad under scale at 185:1 scale.

 

Hope it wasn't a Carnival, you may need to add a tug boat to make it prototypical.

 

Inobu 

[cteno4]

Ha, i was sorely tempted when i saw that on ebay! I think the wife would have killed me if that showed up. also I have a real hatred of the cruise ship industry and what damage its done to SE Alaska.

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

I bought a 5 foot cruise ship last year off ebay. I love it. Even at 5 feet it's still a tad under scale at 185:1 scale.

[Scaper]

Living in Victoria, B.C. There's Cruise ships docking every other day here through the summer. They are truly huge. No damage done by them here. Each ship can bring up to 2000 tourist, bringing money, and tourism dollars into the city. Each year more and more of them come too..it's crazy. This summer we had 5 in one day here. So many people downtown...Wow.

 

Here's a pic of the boat with some of my buildings in the background.

[CaptOblivious]

odd little thing i stumbled on, a modular river system. really is hardly a stream though!

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/N-scale-MODULAR-RIVER-SYSTEM-STARTER-PACK-/200520424227?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item2eaff2db23#ht_769wt_878

 

Ha, I recognize that stuff: It's wargaming terrain! Meant to represent a stream at 28mm scale (approx 1/32). Wouldn't look very good on a permanent layout, but it's lovely stuff for the temporary and ever-changing arrangements that wargames call for.

[Bernard]

Scaper - I recently went on a cruise and I was shocked when I saw the size of the ship. It is a huge skyscraper that is lying on the water. How those huge ships stay afloat amazes me.

 

Also, did you built that ship?

[cteno4]

Scraper,

 

[rant]

They dont really make a dent on large cities, but the tiny towns of Southeast Alaska have gotten swamped by them. the towns they visit are very small, some only like populations of 2000 or less, so one cruise ship can dump more passengers than there are people in the town. you can imagine what it is like to be in a tiny town with like a 6 block down town and have thousands of tourists flood in for a few hours.

 

the biggest problem is the money no longer really comes thru the community as much. many of the businesses that get most of the $$ from the tourists are now owned by the cruise ship lines or partner companies. most of the tour programs are owned and even run by non locals and at outrageous prices. for the prices folks pay for the cruise ship 2-4 hour shore excursions you could have a full day personal all the trimmings, locally guided affair that would blow the cruise ship crap out of the water. the experience folks get on these excursions is pathetic. the cruise ship industry says that that is all their passengers want, but if thats true then dont bother coming to alaska to do it as its not experiencing alaska.

 

they even bring in seasonal workers now that ends up acing the locals out of jobs and those jobs are at unlivable payscale for alaska. even construction is done by outsiders many times when its needed as they have larger contracts with the parent companies. now they are starting to build their own "wilderness" ports so they can own and control the whole portside operation. i fear they then will abandon many of the towns and that will really hurt them as they have grown dependent on the tourism $$ they do get... a few years back the state gov wanted to sell off wilderness land to the cruise ship lines, but the public was really against it. so next year the slashed the state university budget and instead gave the university a bunch of this land that the cruise lines wanted. this then forced the university system to look at selling off the land and forcing the public's hand in the issue and guess who was hired to manage the university land? the ex head of the cruise ship industry association! and the prices they were talking about where a total steal.

 

sorry to sound so bitter, but i have watched this happen over the last 30 years in southeast. i worked up there for years as a researcher and made many friends and usually do an annual pilgrimage back to fart with the whale and have beers with old friends. there are fewer and fewer towns that are fun to go to now because they are not anything like what they use to be before the cruise ship invasion. really only one town that was saved as the cruise ships could not get into it and thats Petersburg. its still pretty much the same as it was when i first visited 30 years back! think Sicily Alaska (northern exposures) on the coast. truly wonderful.

 

ok nuff said [/rant]

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Scaper]

Scaper - I recently went on a cruise and I was shocked when I saw the size of the ship. It is a huge skyscraper that is lying on the water. How those huge ships stay afloat amazes me.

 

Also, did you built that ship?

 

They are huge. I'm always amazed at this photo I took last year in Victoria's Harbor. It shows a 20 foot pleasure craft in front of a car ferry called "The Coho" ( The ferry goes twice a day from Downtown Victoria to Port Angeles, Wa.) Behind the Car Ferry Is a Norwegian Cruise Ship.

 

As far as this model I have... I bought it built and made off ebay. I love the ship. It's truly amazing.

 

Jeff,

 

I wouldn't Call Victoria a small town, but it's definitely not a large city either. It has a Metro of about 385 thousand people. That said, the Cruise ship industry has pumped lots of tourist dollars into the city. The last few years Victoria has boasted a billion dollar tourism industry. Of course only a portion of those dollars come from cruise ships. That said, when they dock it's noticable around town. Also last summer there was an international war games exercise, with pacific naval fleets, Japanese, American, Canadian, etc. The amount of extra people around town was crazy.

 

The only complaint that seems to be a loud voice here is the smell of the exhaust from the ships, and the loud horns they blow. Other than that the City is constantly trying to attract more ships each year. Also the City of Nanaimo here on the Island (only 130 thousand) is also trying to attract more and more ships too. They are seen here as attracting tourist dollars into the city.

 

Like em or not, they seem to be  pumping out larger and larger vessels each year. I saw one on the news the other day that was just commissioned. It was the largest cruise ship to date. They are truly massive ships.

 

Personally I don't mind them. Though I've never been on one. :D

[cteno4]

Scraper,

 

with at good sized metro area like victoria, it absorbs the cruise ships well and the business situation is much more strong and established. in the tiny towns of SE Alaska the ships absolutely swamp these tiny towns and a small investment can really begin to control the local economy. thats my big gripe with them there. its totally changed the little towns dramatically and not for the better.

 

exhaust is a problem, especially when they get out of town and go onto the bunker grade stuff. they can get away with that in parts of SE alaska and you can see the layer of soot in the air in the sunsets. they are not the biggest ships in the area by far on the inside.

 

all that being said i can appreciate them as amazing ships! My father was a ship captain and i grew up on his research ship and worked on them later in grad school. love all forms of ships and boats!

 

have you started gluing down 2000 scale people on the cruise ship deck and a bunch on the dock waving goodbye?! almost as fun as creating a rock concert scene! i was kind of tempted like i said when it came across ebay for a few minutes. i love large ship models and will probably get back into making them in retirement! always wanted to scratch build my dad's old ship, working on getting a set of rough hull plans for it so someday if i have the time i can do it.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Scaper]

Oh I understand what you mean now. I can see your point completely.

 

As far as people on the ship.. I so want to start gluing people on the deck. I've thought about a bunch of funny things I could put on the Cruise ship. All in time.

 

I really wish I could start building my layout one day. I guess in time I'll start. For now I just keep building my structures and other odds and ends. :D

 

I do love that model ship.

[cteno4]

Back to the boats, ive been snooping around and little luck in finding any small to mid sized boats at all near 1/150. the only thing i have is the Artitec police boat. its a resin cast model that could be a police or high speed patrol boat anywhere in the world.

 

http://www.fidelismodels.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=EM1157&Product_Code=Artitec_50108&Category_Code=Artitec_Boats_and_Submarines

 

they also have a fire boat that could easily be japanese

 

http://www.fidelismodels.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=EM1157&Product_Code=Artitec_50109&Category_Code=Artitec_Boats_and_Submarines

 

btw these prices are about double what i paid for them from a small hobby shop in england.

 

speaking of fireboats, this one would be fun to model!

 

http://wakouship2.exblog.jp/tags/%E6%B6%88%E9%98%B2%E8%88%B9/

 

i want to look a bit more at the basic shapes that cmr did on curt's layout as they got the shapes pretty good to give a nice impression. they did not detail them at all, but a few details and they would really pop. might be able to easily cut these out on the jig saw and shape some with the detail sander. if i do ill let you know if you want some rough hulls to play with.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Kamiyacho]

A few years ago I ordered some HO buildings directly from Artitec (just before I decided to go all-in on the Japanese N layout and leave the Dutch/Belgian HO layout for when my eyes give out completely).  Some of these boats might work.

 

http://www.artitec.nl/index.php/en/artitec-kits/category/n-ships

 

I will try to take some close-ups of my CMR boats as they do have some detail.

[Kamiyacho]

Not sure how much they will help, but here are a couple of pictures of small boats CMR made for me.  They have a bit of wooden plank detail as well as a few other bits here and there. In the coming years I plan to do some more detailing - may have to follow Jeff's example and wander through the local craft store to see what I can use.

[Bernard]

Thanks for adding the links for the boats, they really are beautiful. Curt your boats are the closest I come to a small pleasure boat. Here is a photo of 2 Greenmax boats that I recently got and put into the river.

[cteno4]

curt thanks for the post, i never leaned over the layout to take a really close look at their construction. now i see they are multiple layers. i think they may lasercut these and on some of the layers they can do little wood deck inscribing, then glue them all together and just sand the hull a little. man i wish i had a lasercutter!

 

about the time i get to fiddling with making some of these tomytec will come out with a line of pleasure craft so maybe ill start making one now and get them to move on their announcement!

 

I did find a nice wire cable for use on my crane barge. its very fine jewelry wire that is stranded and plastic coated. you can easily strip the plastic coating off with an xacto, then touch up with rail markers to the appropriate rust/blackish these get. still have to work on the crimps, but im thinking embossing foil strips rolled around the joint will work. also found some fine chains to pile up. anchors are probably going to be hand built as they get expensive as ship parts and not the right size/style i want. still have to go to the bead store and find the right sized beads for various fenders. found some HO tires that will make good tractor tire bumpers as well. also some crocheting floss that is a passible heavy braided line, but need to keep looking for a better solution there.

 

now also thinking of a dredge barge as well...

 

cheers

 

jeff

[cteno4]

Bernard,

 

curt reminded me there is a seller on ebay that had a lot of the old burt industires (dont think they are around anymore) container ships, container cranes and a small coast guard cutter.

 

http://stores.ebay.com/Paulas-Hobbies/N-Scale-Ships-and-Dock-Cranes-/_i.html?_fsub=7&_sid=119763759&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322

 

the cutter is really close to a lot of japanese ones, just a paint job on them. i think the japanese ones are not bright white like ours, but maybe a tad of gray and have Japan Coast Guard down the side. the only structural difference is that the japanese cutters (and a lot of their boats and small ships) have a much more pronounced bow than most US ones.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[cteno4]

been thinking about boat hulls and realized that paper waterline hulls might be a good starting point for some small pleasure craft. then fiddle with from there. you can do things like make the hull a tad higher and then put in some small strips along the deck like 1mm down to give gunnels and such very easily.

 

some ideas:

 

http://www.kaiho.mlit.go.jp/01kanku/paper/paper.htm

http://olypen.com/carapace/emiliana/default.htm

 

and scraper in case you want to make another cruise ship!

 

http://www.asukacruise.co.jp/focus/papercraft.html

 

cheers

 

jeff

[marknewton]

http://olypen.com/carapace/emiliana/default.htm

Jeff, that's bloody impressive for a paper model!  

 

(Makes me want to build ships!)

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

EDIT: Jeff, did you have a look at this bloke's other paper ship - the Polish paddle-steamer Krakus? Gorgeous looking vessel!

[cteno4]

Mark,

 

yes both are quite lovely models, he put a lot of work into them. the small coastal freighter looks like it would work on a japanese layout, nice high bow. easy to make a waterline model. i was really impressed with his hull sections that made a very nice hull curve!

 

i am really thinking that this might be a great solution to making simple small boats. cut out a base in foam core then wrap with a waterline hull and then a slightly sunken deck to give nice gunnels with the top of the hull edge. can also then give more sunken cockpit areas and then a simple styrene housing. then paint the whole thing.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[cteno4]

Dont know if japan ever operated any hovercraft this size, but impressive for a harbor!

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Airfix-1-144-BHC-SRN4-Hovercraft-Hoverlloyd-BR-Seaspeed-/330492722485?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4cf2e6bd35#ht_500wt_893

 

cheers

 

jeff