Waterborne Wednesday: St Mawes ferry

Let's get things straight, even if I built a model of the May Queen, there's no way I'd be tacking the dazzle camouflage!

To be honest, while the paint job is striking, I don't think it suits the boat. Nor the duck that it tows.

Perhaps I'm a bit dull, but give the the traditional livery - far more suitable for those lines.

Now that is a nice looking boat. I'm slightly surprised that there isn't a kit available. It's not an uncommon design after all.

More details of the St Mawes ferry on the website.

The perils of a 2nd hand kit

"Bollards", I said as I scrabbled in the bottom of the box looking for the the final parts to complete the model. The trouble with a second-hand kit is that you can't be sure all the parts are present.

One missing piece was the front bollard - but that was easily replaced with a bit of plastic tube and a 4mm diameter disk made using the handy leather punch.

At the back, the winch was missing one end, easily replaced with a bit of Plastikard even if it doesn't have the rivet heads that should be there.

Tricker were a pair of capstans. If I had a lathe to hand, I'm sure replacements could be turned up. As it was I improvised with a couple of brass bushes supplied with the servo. I've never really understood why these are included, probably an aeromodeller thing, so it's nice to find a use for them. More plastic disks from the punch (I must buy a proper set) and once they are painted, no-one will notice.

Boat crew

I don't like putting photos of model figures on the blog - they never look as good as in real life. However, they are part of the build, so here we go.

Three nicely moulded 3cm tall figures are included in the kit. A nice touch, so many other kits leave you to find some from the aftermarket and I'm not sure there is much choice in 5mm:1ft scale. There certainly wasn't when this kit was produced!

All were painted with Humbrol flesh and then dry-brushed with the lighter Revell shade. I suppose I could have left this since they should all be ruddy-face sailors. Or maybe they should be more orange for that American Presidents-style tan...

After that, some muted colours for the clothes and a wash of Citadel ink to put some shadow in. I wish this was sold in a slightly less dark shade as it's a bit stark, but that's the fashion for fantasy and military modellers, and as I say, it looks better in real life.

The lolly sticks as handles to hold the figures by the way. The superglue joints should break easily, but I found I needed to slide a knife blade under them after breaking the captain's toes off.

A close up the “Snaefell Mountaineer”

One of the least spotted vehicles on the Isle of Man is the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) railcar.

Normally hidden away, it come into its own transporting personnel up the mountain when the Snaefell Mountain Railway isn't operating.

A couple of years ago, the railcar went to Claytons Rail Services for a refit and there and I managed to visit and take a huge selection of photos with a view to building a model. This hasn't happened yet, but if you fancy the challenge, these pictures will help.

Snaefell Mountaineer photo gallery

Saturday Film Club: Emett special

We start with a well-made documentary on Rowland Emett's "A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley" - which is now owned by the National Railway Museum and currently on display at Shildon.

Then we head over to the Brockhampton & Umbridge Railway Preservation Society's Emett Collection, where we have Emett inspired models in G scale.