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[MGrob]

Hi all, here is the progress of my smit nederland build. Have always wanted a tug and with recent restoration to one of my other boats i thought i'd give building a kit ago.

any help and ideas about the build will be much appreciated, cheers...











all the best

Rob

[Stavros]

Welcome to the forum and keep up the good work,and DEFINATLY keep posting the build as it goes along

Stavros

[BlazingPenguin]

Yer doing well with the wee Smit....keep it up! 
One of the very common failings with this model is that people fail to work at filling the grain, time spent there will lift the boat above the chaff.
Sometimes after a period of time the ply deck can sag, I find that fitting some triangles....like the bulwarks, below the deck goes some way to stopping this.

[MGrob]

cheers for the advice, and more pics to come soon.

i have heard before that the deck can warp so i already have placed triangler pieces under the deck to help prevent this.

not much more to do until primer, will keep you posted

[Martin (Admin)]

Looking good Rob! 

NB. What is that around the hull bows in photoo 3?

Martin

[MGrob]

sorry if im gonna sound dumb, but what area of the bow are you looking at? and is there something wrong?

[Captain Povey]

Hi Rob, She is looking good and I will follow the build with interest. As I have not built one of these from scratch but only refurbished one a thought comes to mind. I am struggling to find a way of sealing the hatch on mine with out making it too ugly and I am keen to avoid doing a 'Tug Kenny' on the first sailing. I think it might worth considering how to fix and seal the hatch now before you go too far and I am sure there is lots of good advice out there. Cheers Graham. 

[meechingman]

I'm restoring one at the moment, Captain. I'm off to work in a few minutes (got to do something while yet more paint dries on the deck) but I'll post a pic of how I've done it later tonight.
Andy

[MGrob]

the hatch on this tug has concerned me, and any ideas would be great.

seems like a bad design but would be great to see how Andy has done his

[Martin (Admin)]

Looking good Rob! 

NB. What is that around the hull bows in photoo 3?

Martin

[MGrob]

ahhhhh i now see what you were looking at.

theres no problem there, it was the reflection of the water from the pond.

[Martin (Admin)]

 

Martin

[meechingman]

I want to use mine for towing, and obviously the deck would just pull off!  :-\
So I put a wooden 'lip' at the rear of the opening, glued and bolted. The deck slides under this and is held firm. The next step is to add brass turnbuttons port and starboard, just aft of the superstructure. These will turn through 90 degrees in use and clamp the deck in place at that point. I don't think it will move! Finally, I've either got to remove the winch and bollards and replace them with ones that are not just glued in place - or, and this is the preferred option, drill through the deck, very carefully, into the bitts and winch and screw them in place.

Haven't done the turnbuttons yet, but I'll post some pix when I do. The bolt heads in both cases will be covered with black plastic caps.

Andy

[bobinnit]

Hi Rob, very nice looking boat, will be interesting to see the progress.

[BlazingPenguin]

You may find that rigours of towing will pull the stern, or at least the aft quarters clear under water from time to time, my remedy was to seal the hatch with clear 'Freezer Tape'...got mine from a chap who advertises on Ebay in the model boat section from time to time, but I may have his email if required.

[MGrob]

cheers for the advice Andy....

has certainly given me some ideas of my own to seal the hatch compartment.

[MGrob]

hi guys, done some more to the build last night and this morning.


started detailing the bridge and finishing the shaping of the roof


the roof section took some shaping. but finally happy with how its come out.


also made the air vents


and made 1 of the 2 exhaust stacks

will soon be time to put down some primer and give her some colours

Rob 

[Captain Povey]

Hi Rob and all the other contributors particularly on the hatch sealing. Some good ideas there. Rob while I think about it if you are planning to make radar rotate it would be worth thinking about it now. I did manage to retrofit mine as part of the refurb but it was a bit awkward with the cabins etc all fitted to the deck. Cheers Graham. 

[bigford]

to all of you wood boat builders LOTS of sanding sealer then body filler
billings wood grain is so hard to cover up. not so bad if your boat is
suppose to be wooden but these are steel tug.

just some advise  the boat is looking great

[MGrob]

plenty of sanding sealer at the ready,, 

i have also got the radar working now thanks from the advice from Captain Povey 

[meechingman]

Now here's a puzzler for me that I'm sure someone will know the answer to.

Having now completed all the refitting and repainting of the main deck, bulwarks and fittings, I'm looking at repainting the hull itself. The original owner sure goofed this, starting by not using a primer coat. Then, measuring from main deck level, at the front end of the main freeing port, down to the top of the boot topping and plimsoll line on the starboard side, it's 70mm, but on the port side only 60mm. Can someone tell me what this measurement should be please? is it shown on the plans (which, of course, I don't have!)

Cheers
Andy

[banjo]

Try these:-

[meechingman]

Thanks Banjo.    I was afraid it would be something like that, so it's going to be a complete strip and repaint. :(

Next question has to be - what's best for stripping enamel, or should I just rub down slightly, prime and then spray?

Thanks
Andy

[banjo]

Stavos is the painting expert ...see some of his paint threads...

If it was mine I would use lots of elbow grease, wet and dry lots of soapy water and cut it back till the white showed through.
Then use Plasti-Kote spray undercoat then the MATT SUPER....
I'd avoid high gloss finish at all costs..

but I'm no expert...

 

TRY http://www.abcmodelsport.net/p390562/MODELSTRIP.html

[Captain Povey]

Hi Andy,  I was going to say that as a guide, with my boat on the table the height to the water line from the bottom, measured at the middle of the length is 95mm but Banjo beat me to it with a more accurate method. I am no expert on painting and there are plenty on here who are and a quick search of the topic will give you loads of info. For my own boat I decided that stripping was not an option. I was afraid that any solvent good enough to remove enamel would probably also melt the hull. I just gave it a good rub down and repainted. It was brushed on as I do not have a spray gun. Cheers Graham.