A Clyde Puffer - My first scratch build. Part 1 Part 2 |
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The black art of building from plans. |
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This all started, like many model boats I guess, after a friend of mine had built a small Puffer from a set of Dean's Marine moulting bought at a show for £20. The model turned out very presentable but I was far too small for my liking. |
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I
never had the bottle to try anything like this before but was spurred on
my encouraging emails from
Bob Wilson
and a lot of badgering from my mate 'Bradders' who's motto must be
"Why can't you do it?" Closely associated with "Have you done it
yet!"
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There
are various plans around for Clyde Puffers but being a 'tight wad' I
didn't want to actually pay for a set of plans so I
set about looking through
loads of old model magazines, I'm sure I had seen one somewhere! I
found 3 or 4 but settled on an old yellowing plans published in a
Model Boats Magazine special circa 1980.
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It's
called Locinvar, a semi scale build which produce a model of about 18
inches. This size is just the right size, big enough so as not to be a
'silly model' but small enough so I can just pick up and put in the car
without any fuss. You
could at one stage purchase a Styrene hull for it but this is no longer
available. Just have to DIY then! |
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After studying the plans for a few months I gave it up as a impossible job and got with building the Robbe S130. As time went by I kept coming back to the Puffer plans and kept tiring to 'build the model in my head'. Once I could do that building the model would then be a simple process of cutting things out and sticking bits together wouldn't it!!! Yeah, easy |
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This
inspired me to have a go - it looks so simple! |
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"So that's how
they do it!" |
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After
admiring my brilliant handy work for a little while, I soon found myself cutting and rough
shaping blocks of balsa between the formers, a time consuming job as every
single piece needed to be cut to size and every former was a
different distance apart. |
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After a few more hours, the
precision shape of a traditional Clyde Puffer was soon evident... well you
do have to look deeper than just surface detail !! Well that's it for now. 'Bradders' has taken the hull away to his workshop to show the hull his power sander but I won't get it back, under pain of death until I move my shed!! |
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The plans are still
available via Model Boats Magazine -
www.modelboats.co.uk
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