Hope - is a 50ft steam pinnace... pt. 2: paint, paint, paint - and a fisherboat!

[cataphractarius]

You know what is wrong in this world? A conspiration, a cabale, a mafia of both big and small kit manufacturers has conspired to simply kill off what would certainly be the most viable segment of the market ever, the one segment of the market that is clearly the most important one for the one and compelling reason that it's the one I'm interested in most - true scale models of late 19th c. coastal shipping, both naval and general maritime.

If you look around at the mainstream purveyors of plastic kits, I can see countless different variations of Shermiger tanks and Spitwulfschmitt planes, as if anyone were actually interested in these - or as if they had any historical significance whatsoever! Imagine there being countless kits of even the most exotic variations of, say, Messerschmitt aircraft available, but noone producing, say, a Cerberus class 1/72 coastal ironclad. Can you believe that? I can't, yet it's true.

Of course, even in the darkest hour of our hobby, there is always someone out there offering a little comfort. There is that small light that refuses to get extinguished, that plucky and dedicated representative of true modeling screaming defiance into the face of the Spitwulfschmitt-Shermiger mafia.

It may not be a fire big enough to keep you warm and comfortable at night, but it is enough to keep you awake, and not to lose hope for what may be a brighter future, one day, when the shiny catalogues of the big companies are full of torpedo gunboats, paddle tugs, turret vessels, armoured trains, SBBL 32pdr guns, and the like.

Such a light is burning down in Hampshire.

There, in the small village of Ashe, already mentioned in the Domesday book as the home of four villagers, ten smallholders and ten slaves, the august company "Sgts' Mess" offers the Victorian modeler hope - in the shape of their kit BO7 which is labelled rather unpretentiously "Pinnace":

>> http://www.sgtsmess.co.uk/bo7-pinnace.html <<

In fact it's a kit of a 50ft steam pinnace or picket boat, a type of vessel that was constructed in the hundreds, saw service both with the Royal Navies and other, foreign establishments failing in their attempts to come close to the senior service; pinnaces were used in a variety of roles, from tugs for unpowered rowing boats to general runabouts and even to second-class torpedo boats. Capable of being armed with machine guns, light quickfirers and torpedos, they were the mainstay of any operation in coastal waters. In short, if you had to pick just one kit to be made for late 19th c. coastal warfare, a pinnace would probably the object of choice.

So what do we get once we open the package?

Pride of place belongs to the boat, which is a single-piece casting. Basically all that is needed is a halfway decent paintjob to make it stand out. There are a number of nice little details directly cast onto the main piece, like the anchor chain or the lifebuoy, and the general quality of the casting is very good; very little cleanup to do.



Of course one can always add further details, but even straight out of the box this has a lot of potential. The rest of the kit is made up of the funnel, a couple of ventilators and a six-pounder gun; these are done in white metal.



The funnel is slightly raked, but this can be easily corrected if intended. Putting all the pieces together the model already looks very much the thing:



This is going to be a fun build! I'll probably add a couple of details - the steering position between the main and the aft deckhouse for example, and also some torpedo dropping gear - it will be an interesting challenge to see whether I can make that removable, as these were quite delicate.

A final note - the kit also comes with a couple of 20mm figures; the picture below is not very good, unfortunately, but the poses are rather nice; one sailor is apparently, well, steering the boat, while the others come with a cup, a fag and an Aldis lamp.



Unfortunately, the figures look rather 1930ish (which should not come as a surprise, as they are designed for the 1930s to WW2), so they are not that useful for Victorian coastal wargaming; a nice addition for the spares box, though.

[Mishima]

That looks very very nice.
Tim

[Vanvlak]

That IS lovely. And the intro was very entertaining too 
I have to admit to a strong linking for pre-dreadnoughts and their contemporaries.

[Steve F]

a cup, a fag and an Aldis lamp.

Not quite Omar Khayyam's "a jug of wine, a loaf of bread and thou," but it will do when the chill of the sea comes in.

Nice looking model: I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with it.

[Eric the Shed]

great review

is there a link?

[Drachenklinge]

Found that one > http://www.sgtsmess.co.uk/bo7-pinnace.html

What troubles me a wee bit is that there seems to be not so much space for based minis. Any thoughts about that?

However, that little jewel realy looks splendid

[cataphractarius]

great review

is there a link?

Thanks, and sorry for forgetting the link - I knew there was something...

Drachenklinge is spot on; I've added the link above. Incidentally, they also have a very (very!) nice kit of the Romney-Dymchurch armoured train, the smallest armoured train in the world, other watercraft and all sorts of interesting things, though most of it is for the 1930s to WW2.

[cataphractarius]

What troubles me a wee bit is that there seems to be not so much space for based minis. Any thoughts about that?

You definitely have a point here. My 20mm nemesis, Gunner Farquarson, is based on a 15x15mm base, and he has trouble fitting anywhere else but in (or rather on top of) the rear cockpit.



My current thinking is that I'll have two sets of figures for the crew - one on standard bases for boarding action, land action etc., and one designed to fit onto the pinnace as it is. That's slightly complicated, but allows me to make best use of this beautiful craft.

[cataphractarius]

With work on the yacht progressing slowly and just a little bit more colours added I used the rest of this week's modelling time for slapping some paint onto the steam pinnace. The small craft shipyard currently looks more or less like this:



On the left there are the two Sgt's Mess pinnaces, still lacking a couple of coats of paint. The plan is to get all the basic painting done before more details are added (gun, steering position, torpedo dropping gear etc).

On the right is another addition to the pool of vessels suitable for late Victorian coastal warfare - a French fishing boat, a Sinagot to be more precise.

This is a Heller kit built straight out of the box; the kit is supposed to be 1/60, but as Farquarson - who seems to have managed to divert the attention of that characterful individual mentioned in the last update on the yacht and to return to the colours - shows it works just as well for 1/72.



The kit is for a full-hull model, so first it was necessary to cut it down (or up...) to create a waterline model.



That was actually very easy as the waterline is marked on the hull. Adding less than two dozen parts results in this:



After adding some basic colours - apparently these boats mostly had a black hull and reddish sails - it already looks quite a little bit like a channel fisherboat. I also added some very basic rigging - generally, as the model is mainly intended for gaming, the rigging will be considerably simplified. It's really just a busy look I'm after, not an authentic reproduction of the original, as that would make it pretty difficult to get figures on the boat.



Then the interior got a couple of washes, resulting in a rather worn look.



Finally, I added sails and a little bit more rigging, and that's where we are at the moment. As Farquarson shows, there is room for at least half a dozen figure on the boat, provided the bases are not too big. This should make at least a nice addition to the scenery.



What remains to be done, though, is the wheathering of the hull and further touch-ups with paint. I also need an anchor and a couple of other pieces of equipment. Well, that's something for another day.

[dampfpanzerwagon]

Nice.

Thanks for the updates.

Tony