May 20th, 2022

Our May virtual ZOOM meeting was attended by 16 people.  You can tell the good weather has arrived!

Joe is a member of the Model Shipwrights of Western NY (Rochester, NY).  He presented their group build of the PBR Mark I - USN River Patrol Boat which is for the Military Historical Society of Rochester Museum.  The original contract for 120 of these boats was awarded to United Boat Works of Bellingham, WA.  They are a reworked design of a 31 foot pleasure/work craft with a fibreglass hull.  They had a 10'-7" beam, twin 180 HP diesel engines, Jacuzzi pump jet drive and a top speed of 28.5 knots.  Armament consisted of twin 50 calibre guns forward, single 50 calibre gun aft and single 30 calibre guns on the  port and starboard sides.  The 1:6 scale model would be 5 feet long.   The photos above support the description that follows.

The group started their build with slotted strong back fastened to a plywood base. The bulkheads were 3/16" plywood and Balsa fillers were added at the bow.  This was covered with a 1/16" basswood sheet.  Evercoat Easy Sand body filler and Nitro Stan Glazing Compound was used for fairing the hull.  Decking details and compartments were built on that.  The Gun Tub and aft gun were built off the model and fixed to it.  This is as far as the group have gotten with their build to date.

John presented his 1:25 scale plank on frame build of John Cabot's ship Matthew (1497).  No one knows what she actually looked like.  The job of replicating the ship for the 500th anniversary of the voyage (1997) was assigned to Colin Mudie who based his reconstruction on the know small caravels of the time.  The main differences being that the newer ship needed modern amenities such as, an engine, propellers, Carey floats (life rafts) and navigation equipment.  This rebuild took two years (1994-1996) at a cost of $3.8 million.  The full size ship is 78 feet long, 20-1/2 foot beam and has a draft of 7 feet.  John's model is based on this, less the modern updates, and is just over 3 feet long.  The photos above support the description that follows.

​Frames were made from wood blanks oriented to assure grain direction was at it strongest.  White PVA glue was used exclusively.  The model was built using the Harold Hahn method, using a notched template to install frames upside down with all top timber extensions secured to the build board.  After having all frames installed the wales and outer planking were added.

The model was flipped upright and work commenced on the interior.  First the installation of the deck support beams, followed by the deck planking.   Stanchions were added to support the bulwarks.  Details were added to the deck, winch, small boat, swivel guns, and crew figures. Masts with crows nest, rigging, sails and flags followed.  Now a days John colour inkjet prints his flags onto cigarette paper.  The paper is cellophane taped to regular bond paper so it can be fed through the printer.  In this case both sides were printed separately as mirror images onto silk and glued back to back.

Mort is building the Caldercraft HMS Victory at 1:72 scale.  He decided to expose and supplement the details of the captain's and masters secretary's cabins, and upper gun deck.  He replaced the kit supplied Tanganyika decking with Maple.  The port side of the quarterdeck and forecastle were planked whereas the starboard side was left open to allow viewing through the deck. He added hammocks to the hammock cranes around the perimeter of the ship.  He also hand painted all the signal flags and placed them inside the flag storage cabinet with canvas covers folded up on top.  The photos above show some of his work!