Monday, July 10, 2017

YSD Self propelled Derrick

Wrecking Barge

With Warship day approaching, a fair bit of effort went in to bringing one of my dad's projects to the water. 

He'd built the basics of the YSF Self Propelled Derrik, or US Navy Wrecking barge, from a plan in Radio Control Boat Modeller. I can't date the plan as the magazine doesn't give a year but it's the September/October issue. No designer either but I'd put money on Glyn Guest. 

Anyway, the hull is nicely simple, all the fun is above decks with a crane and raised bridge plus loads of detail.

Modelling nerds will spot the Airfix crane. Its easy availability set the length of the model as the gib should be nearly as long as the hull. This results in a boat a bit shorter than it should be. With 78 built (details here) there were many variations so we're not going to worry too much, at least not worrying requires scratchbuilding a complicated lattice structure.


Wrecking Barge back view

In charge of paint, I used several different greys (should that be "grays" as this is an American boat?) dry-brushed with Humbrol 64 to unify the scene. There's a bit more work to finish the model but after a frantic effort, we got it on the water and looking good.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

"Greys" - "grays", "colours" - "colors" , to say nothing of lift - elevator or bonnet - hood! The British and the Americans really are two peoples separated by a common language.