Hi guys,

I fully realize that you sailors might feel slightly depressed at the sight of my posts for the last 6 months.
I indeed love ship wrecks, they are for me the ultimate romantic vision.

Anyway, here's one of Makarov's improvised PT boats (named "Wytka" -cyrillic writing) that damaged Turkish steamer/ironclad "Erekli" in 1877 using pole mines (that's it guys, mines attached at the end of a very long pole)

Now it's 50 years later, beginning of the nineteen-twenties on the northern shore of the Black Sea .

i had *one* picture of a model, *one* contemporary techning, *one* plan side and above to do the boat. Of course the 3 sources didn't match but there you go


construction is Magic Sculp, balsa wood, photoetch and plastic.
I hope you will like my new baby !

Jean-Bernard,

My sneaky, sneaky friend! LOL :-)

You've done quite a bit of work sonce those last pics you showed me! Wow! She's really coming together (or rather apart ) nicely. I love the work on the boiler.

Now if only you'd show those other WIP pics of the scene you know... the ones I keep begging you to show, and you keep humbly saying they're no good :-)

Awesome work!!

Rudi

Ahoy, JB!

Looking impressive, as always...your scratch-build works amaze me, my friend, please keep up the updates!
Are those tiny brass nails used in the angle iron simulation around the cabin structures??
~Mark

Baeutiful work Jean, I love the boiler works !!!
As Tarok has hinted - you've got base pics ? The cats out you must show us those.
Excellent piece even if it is a little battle weary l.o.l.
Cheyenne

Hi friends, thanks for the fast answers

-Rudi, the kid you mean
Well it is looking rather nice except for the face. To my eyes he looks like a small monkey, so well, I prefer try and do another attempt on the face before posting it at HF!! thanks anyway

-Mark yes, i used some lead foil (not lead i think, but some soft metal, can't translate it) ro put around the angles, as the model I had as reference clearly showed these arrangements. those will be heavely wethered and rusted once finished!

-Glen, well, i wish i could post my refernce pics here, but i would have the kitmaker cops ringing on my door (well mailbox) in a matter of seconds :-)
so here's the best i can post right now:


Now, i won't hide that my lack of technical knowledge about steam boats was a real problem. Indeed i asked in 2 other forums some details about those, as one of my plans of another of Admiral Makarov's small PT Boats showed 2 entrances as well as some other hard to guess details.

But then -and you could be interested to bookmark this *great* link, here's what i have been given,

steam boat technics for dummies!!
This coupled with other reference drawings of mid 19th century small steamboats + a great detailed plans found at the french Service Historique website proved very useful. Now it shouldn't be that inacurate!!

thanks again guys

Hey Cheyenne,

Good to see you here, mate. (If you chat to Kevin G. soon tell him I say "hi"). Actually I was referring to a nice little sculpt JB has been working on but refuses to share As he says above... he reckons it looks like a monkey... :-)

Rudi

Allô Jean-Bernard

Yet another melancholic scene is growing and I am sure it will be (at least) as good as your previous works!
I really enjoy seing your Dios - full of History, with a story and atmosphere!
Please keep us posted, you "bloody" craftman!!!!
Skipper

jba, nice work!

Wytka as in Utka? This is Duck in Russian.

Do you know where on the northern shore of black sea this wreck is located? Ukraine?

Excellent work. Really very realistic looking, especially the boiler. I take it this is an actual wreck? Are there photos of her on line?

Thanks Rui Ion and Rodger!!

Ion thanks a lot for translating me this! "Witka" was just my poor transcription from cyrillic to latin! so it's a duck then :-)

To answer your question, my diorama will be situated in the Koktebel bay in Crimea as seen here (down) painted by Aivazovski.
But then the situation and all this is guesswork -I read somewhere "the Russians don't like throwing stuff away" so i guess they would have used this sturdy little boat until she sank or was broken down by rocks.

Rodger the damages on the boiler are completely guesswork and recoup on a big variety of ressources found on the net. I noticed the enginneers tended to recover the boiler itself with plates -as the boiler itself must certainly be of thick steel, no doubt that those outer plates should have been a lot lighter -then more subject to a rapid rusting.

Then My main ressources to scratchbuild the front was those pictures I took last summer while tramping in sea-marches near Bordeaux (South West of France -where you eat the best).

Those are great to see how the wood rots and also that when the wood rots you still have the nails that mark the wood etc. This is why if you look closely on the second pic, there are some plastic "nails" that I embeded in the wood for further realism.

Hi jba,

Another gem in the making. Beautiful work and an inspiration to us all.

This will be another 'Classic'.

Have fun.

Cheers

Al

Yep, that sure is right. Russians, like most eastern europeans, fix up stuff until the molecular structure breaks down and falls appart to dust.

If you need any help translating anything from Russian, PM me.

Great work JB. That's awesome.

Thanks Kenny and Alan!
Ion thanks for the proposition -indeed i might ask you something the like one of these days

Jean-Bernard

Jean-Bernard

Yet again it appears that you are producing a work of art.

Any one who has attempted to model a wrecked aircraft / ship/tank or has seen a well built model of a wreck will appreciate just how hard it is to get it to look real, a lot of extra work is required as you are not only showing the exterior but also the "Guts" of the subject on top of which there is the extra weathering that must represent corrosion.

The outer skin on the boiler is likely to have been a inslulator, common to wrap boilers with a material such as asbestos rope which in turn was held in place with a thin steel skin, the idea is to reduce boiler heat loss, improves boiler output while reducing fuel input.

My final comments before returning to my bed (eye operation only allows me 15 minutes upright in each hour) is:-

You build a bloody good wreck Jean-Bernard , a bloody good wreck.

PeteV

Wow thanks *a lot* Pete! i indeed asked myself what could have been between the boiler and the steel plates as there's a visible gap in the plans -i was supposing maybe tar, maybe nothing at all but that sounded a real bad solution -and of course fiberglass was an even worse solution :-),
so they used ropes then, simply amazing, i wouldn't have been thinking about that!

Much thanks for the extra info and the great compliments, they go to my heart I wish you well very soon indeed !!
JB

Jean-Bernard

Glad to have been of help.

Regarding the boiler, until it was found to be harmful asbestos was used to insulate boilers, before asbestos I believe it was common to surround them either with brick (stationary engines such as used in mines to pump water) or wood, the idea as I have said was to redice heat loss and increase the boilers effiecency.

On factory oil fired boilers I have seen asbestos rope used to wrap the boiler ,several layers being used and also asbestos matting, again several layers of overlapping mats being wrapped around the boiler , the last method I have seen was the boiler being totally covered in a cast of asbestos, I can only think that this was applied as a paste during manufacture like plaster of paris over a broken arm all these methods were finally covered with a thin metal skin to hold it in place.

If the retaining skin is holed/torn asbestos rope and matting tends to hang out in strands with fluffy ends, pull a piece of fibre glass matting and you will see the effect, the cast material tends to come off in lumps ( often hanging off ) exposing sections of the boiler , colouration will vary from white to off white with rust stains often seen around fitting mounts on the boiler such as safety valve points or pipe take offs, any leaking water or steam will collect at the lower section of the boiler when it cools and cause staining.

Remember that it was normal practice to insulate all steam pipes as well as the boiler, so pipes leaving the boiler to the engine would more than likely been covered to reduce heat loss which would result in a reduction of steam pressure and engine power, these are again likely to have been wrapped on asbestos bandage held in place by wire coil, steel sheet or chicken wire (I have actually seen chicken wire used on pipes)

Once again my friend you do a bloody good wreck

PeteV

2nd 15 minutes are over back to bed

Pete you are indeed of tremendous help! i can't believe the amount of time I spent figuring out this or that.
Indeed in the link about Steamboat i provided above, they tell about bricks, but i thought those would have been too heavy for such a small boat
if you look at the boiler's bottom, i just added some kind of support or railing with a bit of wood still clutching to it -a good way to ignore the problem.

But since you say that, i think i will figure out some kind of plaster & fiber stuff around the boiler , between the plates and the actual boiler -which could help to increase the amount of colors btw, whites and oranges and sandy colours could do well.

Thanks again my friend, it WILL be a great looking boiler from now on
I will do those next week end and post pics next monday.

and get better too!

... Now thanks to Pete Vill (PeteV), and with a little extra effort I do have a reasonably accurate and errr, "good looking" rusted boiler! complete with bricks too!

Looking very nice JB.

Jean-Bernard,

As Kenny has already said, its looking very good, keep us posted.

PeteV

thank you my friends! i just have the beach's ferns to do this evening and on with the painting!!


JB

Hi jba,

This is looking really great.

I donl' know if it would be of any use to you but Kleenex issue dipped in PVA (White) glue might work well for the bandages for the pipes. When it's dry if takes on the kind of effect Peter was talking about. It's fairly strong and could be cut in thin strips and wrapped where necessary. Just a thought.

I'd second Peter's comments, really inspiring work.

Cheers

Al

hey Al thanks -and for for the tip too!
Well it's a bit too late now as i have been doing it this way..

first some string, then some plaster, and then scratching the whole with a knife -when i had enough half fallen plaster I set it with superglue!
I have never seen this with my eyes, so what it might be short in accuracy I hope to compensate with good looks, because painting some rusty plaster can be quite fun!