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[The Antipodean]

After watching the weather and waiting for it to turn to a time when I can finish my Lady Lou paint I decided today that I should start the build of my Plashy.
I have always liked the look of these little workhorses and after I built my first one of the Plaudit from  plans in Model Boat magazine sometime in the 90s I am building a 1:16 scale model of her sister ship the Plashy.



I started off by getting the plans I had bought off ebay as 1:16 scale enlarged to the correct proportions and then cutting out the bulkheads and gluing them to a sheet of 1/4" ply


I have to wait for the weather to improve for me to work on the keel as I have no workshop and have to use a board across sawhorses as a bench.
The keel will be from 1/4" Brazillian Redwood that I have laying about and will be strong due to it's extremely straight grain and hardness.
The bulkheads will be trimmed back 2mm inside the line to account for planking and I am not sure how open they will be as I need to retain the strength of the ply while allowing for internal access.

[The Antipodean]

Had a nice day outside today so I decided to put a new blade in my scrollsaw and cut out some bulkheads and a keel. Have some sanding to do but I am a little bit closer.

[The Antipodean]

Due to a returning cold snap, 3' of snow with freezing rain on top of that I am stuck indoors and unable to proceed with the Plashy build, so I decided to get on with some of the Lady Lou.

I purchased a motor for it today and now have to customise it to fit into her hull, being removing a large section of the mounting shield and making a mount, removing excess bulkhead materiel and lowering the height of the keel. I also get make room for the battery which is a little taller than I expected but is the length and width are fine.




At this stage all I know is that it is 12v, I am about to test it to make sure it runs smoothly. It is a heater fan motor out of an American GM pick up truck. Low speed but very high torque. I do have to source a new multimeter as my one is very low amp and may not be able to handle the amps this beast draws.

[The Antipodean]

After some delays due to bad weather I managed to get some work done today.
I built a work table for it and then set the frame keel down as I want to make sure the top is rigid before I roll it for planking.I am also going to carve the bow and stern before I start the planking.

Once the stringers are set and the carving is finished I will be planking her with cedar strips that took more than a couple of hours to do and have left a rather large red stain in my yard. Hopefully it won't kill the lawn as SWMBO would not be amused with a bare red patch.

Had a couple of small problems as quality ply is not availble in this town and there seemed to be some air spaces in the layers that don't show until it is too late so there is a couple of patches that will be removed after planking.

[The Antipodean]

Well, I finally had a fine day in the workshop so I decided to get to work on the little beast again.
Started by finishing the shaping of the stringers and bulkheads and then started planking.



There will be a layer of resin with a medium weight cloth, the cedar planking is basically just there to hold my firbreglass in place.

While I was waiting on a plank to set up on each side I decided to keep messing with another project I am working on.
There was no line drawing or plans to work from so this one is from a few photos and a lot of guesswork.
It is an Auckland Harbour Launch Tug that was built in 1920 and was found well preserved in a barn.

[The Antipodean]

It has been a while since I have been able to work on this one. Started a new job and moved house and now I actually have a room to work on my projects.
Here is where it is at as of last night.




A little thing I have discovered is that model plans may definitely not resemble the vessel that they are meant to represent. After putting my plans against pictures of the prototype I discovered that there is so many differences I may just abandon the plans and work straight off the photos.
I have already changed the superstructure to match the prototype andwhile I do realise that the plans may be of the Plaudit's original construction, they don't match any available images on the web except for models people have made from that same plans.
I guess I am a little fussy when it comes to how close the design matches, even if I am a little lax on the detailing.

[Antipodean]

Have to excuse the mess folks, we are getting ready to move again







Here she is, sorry, no float test pics, they are locked in the missus' Photobucket and she can't remember her log in.

[Antipodean]

Sometimes I amaze myself, I managed to find the thread with the water tests in it.
My wife had an 8 x 10 made of one of the pool pics and took it to work, just to show her co-workers how "crafty" I am and one of them asked where we keep that as she had never seen it when she drove by our house. She thought it was a real vessel


http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,21174.0.html

[mark w]

Lookin' great. I like these tug/launches also, am working on one of my own now.
 
Mark

[Antipodean]

Thanks Mark, that is the 3rd model I have finished in 20 years so I am pretty happy with it.
I need to dig out the other hulls and finish them and then maybe I can open all the plans I have and choose another one. This is a very addictive hobby.