Scratch Build Log of a 1/38 scale POB R/C Bunker Boat

The cradle is built, the keel is laid, and the bulkheads are laid out for the scroll saw.

It's hard to see from this angle but the stringer laying on the building board is scribed in profile to establish the deck sheer. If that's as clear as mud, see my next post.

Now you can see that the stringers are attached to the upside down building board and scribed to define the position of the bulkheads so as to define the sheer of the deck when it's laid.

 And here's the frame right side up. Curiously, the plans didn't provide for the blocking between bulkheads. I added them because of the incredible weakness without them. I can't imagine how this would have held together with balsa construction.

A bit of a tortional warp in the (mostly) completed frame. I wet down the whole enchilada and twisted it with weighted clamps. Overnight did the trick.

Some of the superstructure dry fitted. Now the deck sheer is obvious. The block forming the stern is balsa. It will serve to help the planking form some serious compound bends in that area.

Nice work on an unusual subject. Keep us posted on the build and keep the pics coming.

Jim

Thanks Jim. Not at all unusual for me. All I do anymore is late 19th - early 20th working boats, maybe static, maybe R/C, always in wood.

 Here's the frame for the wheelhouse. The posts are 1/4" square spruce. The roof and deck are from an 1/8" mahogany plywood door skin. I bought an approx 30"X6'9" piece of this for about $7 and I'll have enough for another 5 or 6 models out of it. It's really junk wood but the price is right. 

Another view. The paper garbage is the residue of the template cut from the plan 

The forward deckhouse with wheellhouse above dry fitted to the deck. The skins were a bit of a challenge. The radius of that bend around the wheelhouse is 1.5". I used 2 layers of 1/32" plywood, placed with the surface ply vertical. I think the wood is birch.

More work on the superstructure while waiting for the planking to arrive. The 4X5 fish hatch is built over 1/8" plywood on a frame of 1/2 X 3/16 pine. The planking is from a 2X5mm sycamore sample sent to me from HobbyMill. The simulated caulking is done by running a #2 pencil along the edges of the plank before laying it. The color is imparted by a coat of sanding sealer (toxic stuff, use outdoors only!).

Here's the fish hatch installed. It's removable for access to the R/C gear.

The crow's nest.

The Helen, as typical of such boats, carried two 32' purse boats on davits at the stern. These were used to set the seine, draw the purse closed, and assist in hauling the catch. I made them bread & butter style from 1/2 and 1/4" poplar sheet, and decked them with the sycamore planking.

The rowboat is callecd the striker. Think foreman of the operation. It stows on the fish hatch when underway.

I found some photos online of completed Helen Euphane models. The first one is a scratch built from these same plans. The following 3 are 1/24 scale models from kits. The photos are poor quality but they give some idea, especially of the purse boats hanging from their davits.

Thanks for posting this interesting build. It also brings back childhood memories. I grew up near Sandy Hook New Jersey, and if we stayed at the beach late enough we often got to see the menhaden fleet coming back in from the ocean. A pleasant memory I had forgotten.

You're welcome! I love the character of these boats. Come back often. A lot more to come.

BTW, the Sandy Hook Lightship is one of my future projects.

Hey Rich, I like it. Being a tugboat lover, to me these boats are stretched tugs with a center well. I have a bunch of tugboat models including a Hartman tug that's been a work in progress for about 8 years now. Hartman made a fiberglass 1/24 scale Menhaden fishing trawler that they called the The Big Bunker Boat (61" long with a 11" beam). After Dwight Hartman pass away there was no way to get these great boats, but now http://www.loyalhannadockyard.com/ has the molds and is producing  Hartman boats again. I'd sure like to get one, but $575 for a hull and deck is out of reach for me. I'd scratch build it like you are doing. I build in wood and plastic, and have a Model Shipways Rattlesnake on the bench right now about 70% done. It's right next to a 1/72 scale plastic model of a Cessna 172 float plane. I've seen you on one of the wooden boat forums that I go to (I pretty much frequent them all). It's good to have you here, and I will be looking forward to following your build.

                                                                                                                                   Ken

Back to "work". Wheelhouse windows & doors installed. The opaque window material is salvaged from some packaging plastic. There's an off-white LED inside. It took most of 2 days to get those in and looking acceptable.

The forward deckhouse with the first of the portholes installed. These are brass, and come with the glass already installed. From Cornwall Model Boats (UK).

Another look at the forward deckhouse. The doors are plastic, also from Cornwall (an excellent source for fittings). Don't worry about the smeary paint; it's a first coat.

Ken, thank you. The Hartman kit you refer to is the one in the bottom 3 photos I posted, and yes, it's too pricey for us mere common folk. Besides, molded hulls are not my medium. For me, nothing models a wooden boat like wood. You likely have a sense of what I mean, since you're modeling the MS Rattlesnake. 

The wires out the top of the wheelhouse are for navlights and a searchlight forward. A word about painting this model. I don't have an airbrush (maybe someday) and I'm painting challenged anyway. I got tired of paying the big bucks for one ounce bottles of Testor's and did an experiment. I know the main justification for model paints; pigment. I researched for the most heavily pigmented house paint available in this part of the world. Behr was my winner, and handily, available at my local Home Depot. I bought quarts of their best premium exterior acryllic (about $18 per quart) in the 2 colors I'm using. A lot of experimenting and failing finally produced the formula: one to one paint to water!! Flows beautifully. I'll not buy ripoff model paints in future, at least for brush painting on wood. A word of caution; in case you didn't know, don't try to cover oil based paint with acryllic, but oil over acryllic works well.

The very basic superstructure is done. Many details still to add.

The aft cabin is removable for access to the R/C gear.

The planking finally arrived. About 20% done in this photo. The colored dots are push pins used to hold the plank in position until the glue sets. I use the premium grade of Titebond, not because it's that much better than other PVA glues, but because the clamp time is half that of the others. I never use CA other than to temporarily hold a piece until the PVA or epoxy sets. CA joints on wood are too weak and brittle.

If you're wondering about the chronology of these posts, I'm just catching up with photos of stuff completed some months ago. I can't do any new work on her now because I don't have a residence currently; staying at my daughter's home until I relocate, and all my shop equipment & materials are in storage.

Here's another look at the aft cabin, now fully rigged. The stack is a piece of 1" PVC. Eventually I'll line that with 1/2" copper pipe and install a smoke generator. The turnbuckles and clevises actually work. They are also from Cornwall. I'll use more of the same later to anchor the ratlines and stays.

The planking is complete. This hull is single planked, because I chose to use a very thick (2mm or about 5/64") material. The reflection is due to a coat of sanding sealer, before sanding it down. The "stripe" of wood on the skeg is the doubler I added to accomodate a 5mm propeller tube within the 1/4" thickness of the keel. It's now ready for filling and sanding.

I don't own a lathe or a mill, and I wanted a steam winch for a chain achor rode. All I could find was This brass electric winch with two drums but no gypseys (chain gears). I filed off the peens holding the drums on the shaft, pressed them off, inserted brass washers to simulate the gypseys, and pressed them back on. This copper chain was all I could find that was to scale. It should be studded to be authentic, so this is a compromise. If anyone asks me why an electric winch on a 1902 vessel, my response will be "mind your own business"  . 

Here's the first photo of the superstructure on the planked hull. You can make out the purse boat davits on the stern, the anchor winch in the bow, and some added detail on the forward deckhouse and wheelhouse.

The railing is .025" piano wire which I annealed with a butane torch to make it bendable. The stanchions are from Cornwall. The ladder was fashioned here and its handrails are 3/64" brass rod. The navlights, searchlight, hooter, and radar antenna are also from Cornwall. The galley stack is a piece of 1/4" brass tube with a short length of 5/16" swaged onto the end of it. The hangar for the bell is too big; it will be changed.

Rich, she is really looking good. How are you going to finish up the hull, fiberglass?

                                                                                                                      Ken

No fiberglas Ken. She will be painted with the same Behr acryllic house paint. I'll line the interior with polyester resin for waterproofing, but I want the hull to have the same feel as her prototype did in 1902.

The rub rail installed. The stern piece is cut from 1/4" poplar, the stringers are 1/4 square spruce, hence the difference in color. Also visible is the 5/32" brass tube for the 1/8" rudder post.

The original anchors on the Helen (and most of the rest of the fleet) were danforth type, stowed on the deck and run outboard with a small davit on the bow. I had no room for all that gear plus the winch and wheelhouse companionway, so I went with navy type stockless anchors stowed outboard into hawsepipe fairleads, In this photo just dry fitted. Some of the fleet actually had this exact arrangement. The anchors are from Model Expo.

Here's the bow light, a white 3mm LED in a brass housing set below the crow's nest. I cut a groove from the light down to accomodate the wiring and backfilled it with the same filler I used on the hull.

Here's the rudder servo and speed controller installed. The link to the rudder post is dry fitted. Also, a good view of the planking from inboard, coated with polyester resin for waterproofing.

The phenolic washer under the link is to prevent tinning the rudder post and tube together when soldering the link on. It has to fit snugly on the post.

I'm using a 75 turn motor. I don't think I'll need a brushless because I'll be using 2.4ghz radio so I don't believe brush noise will be a problem. Time will tell.

First coat of paint on the hull. It's just to help me see where I need more filler & sanding. Also, the mast is stepped. Still to go: hang the boats, install the bulwarks and caprail, add the bitts, mooring bollard, stern rail, ratlines, boom, and rope rigging. Getting there!

Had to back up one. The plans made no provision for access to the rudder linkage. Too risky for me, so I added another removeable hatch.

That's all I can show you for a while, until I can get more permanently located and get my shop set up again.

Great job, Rich. Thank you for letting us see it.

And thank you sir!

Nice work there Rich. Fishing boats make great RC projects.

I knew about shad from a different historical aspect. Shad was a valued food fish for humans prior to the last century. George Washington mentions fishing for it on the Potomic. In the early spring they would make a run up rivers to spawn like salmon. In fact the tree, Shadblow (Amelanchier) would bloom and bear berries at the same time, hence the name. The early season berries were greatly appreciated by the early settlers when few other fruits were available.

Mike T.

I'm not sure I should admit to knowing this much about fish, but we are talking two different fish here. The fish Telsono is talking about are the American and Hickory shad, Alosa  sapidissima and Alosa mediocris. There is an excellent book by John McPhee titled The Founding Fish which goes into its crucial rule in Colonial America. After coming close to extinction it is once again an important sport fish, especially here in Virginia and also on the Delaware River. It has also been behind efforts to remove old damns that prevented them from reaching former spawning waters. It also has entered the Virginia political world in the form of "shad  plankings" which while ostensibly barbecues are important for shmozing and arm twisting of candidates.

The other shad, caught by the type of boat Rich had built, is a very diferent fish. While the American and Hickory shad typically run from 3 to 5 pounds, this type is a smaller oily fish usually of less than one pound. It is usually used for fish oils and meal. The name seems to vary by region. In NJ we called them menhaden. Bunker, pogy,alewife, and shad are used in other  regions. Technically it is Brevoortia tyrannus.

Richard