Ships in 20mm / 1/72 for late Victorian coastal warfare - Steam yacht, pt. 10

[PortCharmers]

Looks very  nice so far.

What a shame, putting such an elegant yacht into harm's way.

What do you intend to use for railing? Wire or rope? Solder or glue? I can't see a way to fiddle a wire through with the stanchions already fitted. And thread would probably be extremely fragile. I imagine one could easily catch and damage it with the base of a figure.

[Duke Donald]

Beautiful build! Keep up the good work! I really want to see this finished.

[Cadet13]

Excellent build! I love all of the details and the thought put in behind where everything should go, like it were a real, functioning ship.

I imagine one could easily catch and damage it with the base of a figure.

Regular thread, yes, but I know that they make a type of thread called "outdoor" or something similar that is very VERY sturdy stuff; quite difficult to snap with your hands, let alone a figure base! I'm looking forward to seeing what cataphractarius has in mind.

[cataphractarius]

Thanks for the comments, folks.

The railings are indeed an issue - see the following update for the (first?) attempt at producing something remotely acceptable.

As for putting it into harm's way, well, what do you do when Monsieur le Frog comes knocking on the door? 

[cataphractarius]

Steam yacht part 11 - or: how to lose your sanity in an afternoon...

We had left the yacht with the stanchions in place. The initial plan for the railings was using the material I usually use for rigging models - Caenis thread normally used por tying flies. However, the only thread I had around was too thin and didn't look the part, so down with it again. Next attempt was using fine wire, but that I couldn't get even remotely straight. I finally settled for the material I'm least uncomfortable with - plastic, stretched sprue to be more precise. While it has a number of significant drawbacks - it breaks easily! - at least I know which pitfalls to avoid with it.

So stretched sprue it was. And then began the task of actually threading the stretched sprue through 150odd openings... I started with the bridge, which in retrospect was a bad idea, as due to the layout of the railings there it turned out to be the most complicated bit. Then I did the stern bit, for which I used two very long stretches - and you may guess what happened not once, but twice: I had put a little bit of weight on one end of each thread to keep it straight-ish while trying to get the other end through all these holes; which is a nice idea in principle, but when you are careless and tilt the ship, the whole stretch of sprue simply slides off again. O well...

In the end, this is the result.



The stanchions will get painted, and I'll probably also put painto onto the actual railings. A couple of shots show details (usually with that Farquarson trying to get onto the picture):



Farquarson milling around near the stern.



Farquarson in the bows, looking into the far-off distance.



Farquarson on the bridge, trying to look as if he was in control of things.

It's obvious that the bridge is by some margin the worst-looking bit. Perhaps I'll hide it behind canvas, that might actually look quite nice.

A comparison to the "Shikari" shows the very different approaches to the idea of a steam yacht - a small, stately cruising vessel versus a sleek boat built for speed.



Perhaps I should add that the "Shikari" will get some more colours, that's just the base coat...

After an afternoon filled with frustration and foul language there was finally some fun to be had. I added the name of the yacht, "Elspeth" - she is named after one of the daughter of a famous Paisley industrialist family - using lasercut letters fitting very neatly to the stern.



Oh, and of course Farquarson trying to look important.