Free Enterprise V - A 1970's cross-channel ferry

I started this project some 4 years or so ago.  The idea was that I wanted an r/c model of a particular ferry but nobody produced a kit, so I decided to design and build my own.  My wife, Florence, came up with the idea that, if no UK manufacturer produced kits of classic ferries then why didnt we try and offer them?  Thus was born LINKSPAN MODELS.  And Free Enterprise V was to be our first offering.

Free Enterprise V was the second of 5 similar vessels designed by James Ayres for the Townsend Car Ferry company of Dover.  This company expanded rapidly in the 1970's to become Townsend Thoresen, the largest ferry operator in Europe.  FEV was built and launched in Shiedam, Holland, in 1970 and entered service on the Dover to Zeebrugge link and served with Townsend Thoresen Ferries until 1987 when they were taken over by P&O.  She was renamed Pride of Hythe and served until the early 1990's when she was sold to Mediterranian interests.  She did eventually return to the UK as the Laburnum for Trans Europa Ferries for a couple of years, but then eaked out her days between Italy and Albania until she was eventually scrapped in 2011.



I hope this build log may be of some interest and I will quickly run through what has been done to date.

Bearing in mind that I had never done anything remotely like this before, I had to think long and hard as to how to go about developing this kit.  Uppermost in my mind was that I wanted it to be a quality kit, one where a builder would not be frustrated by inadequate drawings, skant instructions, poor quality fittings etc., and I wanted to embrace as much new technology as possible in the design and execution of the kit such as CAD produced scale drawings, 3D printed masters for the resin fittings and laser-cut styrene for the decks and superstructures.  When I started out on this venture, no UK manufacturer was employing these techniques although now, I understand, Deans Marine have started using laser-cutting technology for some of their kits.  The hulls, however, will still have to be produced in the time honoured manner of hand-laid fibreglass, and this WILL introduce an element of innacuracy.

So, first up was to actually prepare the drawings and design.  Bearing in mind that NO published drawings of this ship exist, I had to work everything up from photographs, poor quality GA's and basic particulars.  However, I did strike lucky about 6 months into the design phase when I was introduced to a Naval Architect in Scotland whose responsibility it was at the time to 'look after' the ships of Trans Europa Ferries - and FEV was one of theirs!!!  He very kindly gave me a disc containing CAD GA drawings of her and these were then used to correct my mistakes.

Eventually, my drawings were advanced enough to consider making a start on the model itself:









From these, a set of ply formers and keel were produced to make a start on the plug.  This was then filled with foam sheet and carved and sanded to shape:

Once the shape was correct, a few layers of 'Easy-sand' filler were applied and so began a marathon session of rubbing down, making good, and further rubbing down until I was satisfied with the finish.  This seemed to take forever, and many things got in the way of progress including the day job and illness.  But eventually, the basic plug was done:



At the same time as preparing the plug, and to keep some sanity, I also prepared the drawings for the superstructures and decks that would be fed into the laser-cutting machine.  A sample set was produced to test the principle and to see where any changes were needed and where the weaknesses lay:















A set of laser-cut window blanks were also produced for adding to the plug:

At this point, I enlisted the help of my father as I thought it needed an 'outsider' to try to build the test parts for the superstructures.  It would be no good me doing it as I already knew in my head how it shoud go together and I wanted him to find where the mistakes were and the weaknesses in the build sequence might be.  To assist him, as well as the drawings I had already done, I produced some 3D images of how it should all fit together:













These, and more, will be included in the finished kit.

Using these, and the 2D drawings, dad managed to assemble all the superstructure parts satisfactorily, only managing to find a couple of dimensional errors.  Additionally, it was clear as he was building it, that with some small modifications made the ease with which it could be built would be improved:

A mighty fine piece of work Carl such dedication I no longer posses.

Using the black window blanks, these were fitted to the plug to enable the windows to be located for cutting out later following moulding:







The plug was then taken to the fabricators in Dorset to have them make the mould and produce two prototype hulls.

some incredible and beautiful work gone into that carl......and good to see you posting it on here....thanks matey........the workmanship is superb. neil.

Damien wrote:

A mighty fine piece of work Carl such dedication I no longer posses.

Cheers for that .  I am determined not to give up on this..... There are a few folk who have been waiting a few years for me to get this kit ready - I dont want to let them down

nhp651 wrote:

some incredible and beautiful work gone into that carl......and good to see you posting it on here....thanks matey........the workmanship is superb. neil.

More on it's way friend

Whilst the plug was at the fabricators, it was time to crack on with getting some of the fittings sorted out.  As I said earlier, I wanted to embrace modern technology as best I could to produce these kits so all the fittings are designed using 3D computer software (Sketchup) and then printed in 3D at Shapeways.  These will then be used as masters for casting in resin.  Unfortunately, I dont have the practical skill of Neil, or the eyesight, to hand-produce these at 1:96, but I CAN use my CAD skills.... At the moment, the cost of the 3D printed parts from Shapeways, whilst of excellent quality, are just too prohibitive to enable them to be included in the kit directly, but they really are excellent to be used as masters:











And these are some of the results:

As well as the miriad of fittings, the kits will contain 3 sheets of etched brass details (handrails, stanchions, window frames, vent grilles etc.).  These, again, were produced on the CAD and the drawings sent to the fabricator.  Within a week, I had the first brasswork back:

Well, after something like 4 years of work, the day finally came a couple of weeks ago for me to collect our first two hulls from the fabricator.  This chap had done a wonderful job on the mould and the first couple of hulls to come out of it are absolutely spot on!



And here they are safely tucked up in the Linkspan Models workshop:

















Now comes the task of cutting out all the openings..........

What a task this is!!! But it will be worth it in the end..............

Firstly, all the window blanks needed fettling to get a clean edge to them.  Unfortunately, I used 1mm thick styrene for the blanks when 0.5 would have been sufficient.  This meant that the fabricator had to 'feather' the edges of the blanks with a dash of filler so as not to have them 'grab' in the mould and cause damage.  A lesson learned for future kits.  Additionally, whilst I was halfway through cutting all the openings, a discussion ensued on Mayhem as to perhaps a better way could be found.

This is how I have prepared the openings on the first hull:







The difficulty ensues because, on the real ship, all the windows had a rain drip around them and I wanted to replicate this on the model:







Unfortunately, filing so close to the edge and trying to leave a very thin sliver of material to represent the rain drip, chipping of the gel-coat occurs:



I can rectify this on this hull, but clearly a better way is needed for the finished kits.  Following the discussion, a plan was formulated where this could be overcome, and the job of the builder made easier.  If I was to produce the window surrounds as resin fittings, all the builder needed to do was to cut an accurate hole, to the correct size, and insert the resin window frame into the hole.  To that end, I have designed all the different sized window frames and these have been sent to Shapeways for printing:





These will then be resin cast in sufficient numbers for each kit.  A far simpler method I think!!!

To bring this blog up to date, all the windows on the port side of hull no 1 have been opened and fettled and a start has now been made on the starbord side:





The motors have been delivered - 3 x 385's:



Prop-shafts and propellers are on order and I will be collecting a whole heap of stuff when I visit the Coalville show on Saturday.

Today, we also had the schematics for the electrical installation prepared by that very kind gentlman, Dave Milbourn :



Our plan with these prototypes is as follows.  This first hull will be our test bed for motors, shafts, installations, weight etc.  It will have the already built superstructure fitted and test sailed to ensure stability.  The second hull will be given to my father as a complete kit for him to build as if he was a customer.  Other than the usual idea of me being on the end of the phone to answer queries (as should be the case with all good kit manufacturers), he will be left to his own devices to see if what I have envisaged can actually be realised.

Time will tell........................

A few goodies have arrived

Castin resin and mould making silicone plus vacuum chamber - just waiting for the vacuum pump from Germany now:



And a small vacuum forming machine to produce the funnel and lifeboat vacforms:



The funnel and lifeboats will be the only vacform parts in the kit, all other fittings will be resin cast.

Additionally, the option on seating in the observation lounge and bridge consoles and equipment will be offered.  These are quite complex 3D printed models and quite expensive to buy from Shapeways, but the interiors of the bridge and observation lounge are quite visible so we want to at least offer the chance of fitting them out accurately should the modeller wish, without adding to the cost of producing the kit (and hence the asking price) for those who are happy to scratch detail these items:

Observation Lounge Seats - A one piece 3D printed component:



Bridge consoles and furniture - again, a one piece 3D printed component:

A few shots of the interior of the real ship.

The observation lounge:



The bridge:



Starboard bridge wing console:

Hi Carl, I have one of those vac formers for making the windscreens on the truck kits. One thing I found with it though was to make sure the base plate you mount the plug on is level with the mounting flange that grips the plastic, if not the plastic sheet will either tear (being stretched too thin) or pull out from under the flange... (Guess how I found that out!!!!) 




Mark..

Thanks for the heads-up on that Mark
I havent used a vac forming machine since I was at school some 38 years ago, so I think I will be melting a few practice sheets before I get stuck in too deeply!!!

This is a very interesting thread, I wish you good luck in the production of your kits, it all looks very good

Hi Carl, one other thing, if the heating element on the vac former is the same shape as mine, watch the corners at the front of the machine they don't seem to get hot enough. It can be overcome by swiveling the heat element either side of centre when you heat the plastic up...

Mark..

Another great entry to the forum, keep it up loving this build 

RR

I really wonder sometimes if I am not being a tad too fussy about the 'bits' for this boat

This is the rudder skeg.  It has taken me all evening - some 4 hours so far - to get this far!! Made a few mistakes....the first was forming it out of a lamination of 6mm ply instead of solid wood.  The damn ply laminations were weaker than my glued joints and both the corners sheared off.  Then the 'tongue' on the skeg disintegrated when I bored the rudder shaft hole through it (ply laminations again) so had to replace THAT with a solid.  Then I find that the whole unit isnt quite deep enough, so now laminated a 0.5mm piece of styrene to the bottom.  Have to let that dry overnight..................

This is supposed to be the master to be moulded in resin:



which is supposed to be mounted here:



it will need fairing in with some filler, and I think I will suggest in the kit instructions that it is very lightly tacked in position and secured with a self-tapping screw from inside the hull - just in case the rudder needs to be removed.

Ho hum.........nowt I can do with it tonight, so it is back to filing the window openings to shape and size.

Did I tell you I had a few of them to do????

use obeche for jobs like that Carl........it'll take you a quarter the time as hewing it out of solid pine, especially with knots in the pine............and just as strong. neil.

Thanks Neil - you live and learn eh?

Now - where is a good place to get obeche from?????

Time to trawl Google methinks............

it's classed as a tropical hardwood, but a lovely soft timber to carve and sand, very close grained so sands and seals well and cheap as chips......any hard wood timber merchant should have some............but don'r be fobbed off with ramin or similar timbers as they are harder...........you'll know when you have proper obeche as when it is sawn or sanded it smells like old fleetwood fish boxes, lol.........

let me know if you can't get any............ideal for carving small lifeboats for pressing into plastecine for moulding. neil

Havent had a chance to sort out some obeche yet, but managed to get the skeg sorted in the end

Will need some soon though to make the plugs for the lifeboats as Neil says.

Meantime, spent the day building a third workbench in the workshop where I can do all my casting of the fittings separate from the bench for plug building and the bench for fettling the hulls etc.  This way I can leave tools such as the vacuum pump and chamber along with materials such as the plasticine, lego and RTV rubber and casting resin all to hand.

Managed to build the first two moulding boxes for the rudder and the skeg.  These will be split moulds as the rudder will have the brass rudder post moulded in when the resin is poured:



My first ever attempt at casting will begin tomorrow morning with the first pour of the RTV solution

you'll be fine with it, Carl......looks like the mould boxes and masters are superbly placed..........what would we do without lego............best invention in the 20 century, lol

OK!!! Been busy in the workshop these past few days trying my hand at this resin casting lark  

Mixed success so far. The silicone rubber moulds seem to have worked out ok....bit of a "xxxxx" separating the two halves of the split moulds in the beginning, even though I used the recommended spray wax release agent supplied, but they came apart in the end. Cut the fill and air vent holes and then set to with the resin itself.

Boy oh boy do you have to work quick with this stuff!!! Whereas the silicone rubber took nigh on 24 hours to cure, the resin starts to go off in about 2 minutes!!! You really have to have everything ready at hand.

Well, to get the first hull underway with the fit-out of the motors, electrics and drive we needed a rudder and skeg. Additionally, there are a number of ventilation grilles on the hull which, on the model, are etched brass parts. These need a 'backing' letting into the hull for the brass parts to fit to - and on the hull there are 4 vents with especially shaped splash guards. These would have been too fragile made just from styrene so resin castings have been produced which have the splash guards and these then carry the vent grilles.



The rudder casting came out fine in the end. It has the brass rudder shaft cast and embedded within the resin. This is how it will be supplied in the kit.



The skeg, on the other hand, hasnt cast as well as I had hoped. Not too bad, but a couple of air bubbles were caught in the corners. It will be fine for the prototype hull, but I would like better in the kit.





Overall, I am not too displeased with this evening's efforts. Need to sort out the venting issue on the skeg mould, but all else seems to be heading in the right direction.

Loads more parts to cast now.......................

the recommended spray release agents i have found are crap, carl..........the best release agent i have found is good old petroleum jelly.....aka..vaseline..........and believe it or not it was recommended to me by the cheif engineer/moulder at Tiranti's, who actually sell spray release agent.........he told me it was rubbish compared with vaseline..........so use that between your two layers of rubber.............you'll have no more troubles.

and the moulds and mouldings look great. neil.

Ah - thanks for that Neil...vaseline eh?  Not sure if we have a tub of that in the bathroom but I am paying a visit to Morrisons tomorrow so that will go on the list

I am tempted with the skeg mould to cut the top completely off the mould as the top of the skeg is flat anyway and this should then avoid the air blockages in the corners.

The other issue I have had is with the moulds for the window frames.  They are so tiny that on my first batch I just placed them on a piece of styrene sheet at the bottom of the box and poured the rubber over them.  Trouble was, they floated up into the rubber!!! Especially when it was subjected to the vacuum tank....  Second attempt, I lightly stuck them to a second sheet of styrene which was also lightly tacked to the bottom of the box, but they still floated a little way into the rubber.  I think I need to fix them more firmly!!!!!!

Finished off the openings in the hull with the four vehicle deck extract grilles. In the kit, these will be supplied as resin cast fittings for letting into the hull because of their special shape with the splash deflectors. This would be very difficult to produce in sufficient strength for day to day sailing if just made from styrene. To these can be added the etched brass grilles:

This shows the location of the vents on the real ship:


And this is the sequence of creating them on the model:











There are numerous other vents similar to these dotted around the hull and superstructure and they will all be treated the same way:



Finally the hull, motors, some of the fittings, shafts, props, electronic gubbins and numerous other parts were taken over to dad's workshop for him to set to and build the first prototype. This first will be in the later colours of P&O when she was named Pride of Hythe and will use the previously built superstructure parts that were produced to test the theories asnd design of the laser cutting.

This shot shows the newly arrived hull with one of the superstructure 'modules' placed roughly in position:



Bearing in mind that these were built without the benefit of a hull to check fit and alignment, I can report that they fit the hull surprisingly well

Back to the workshop now as I have something like 55 fittings to mould and cast

Paid a visit to the shipyard today to sign off progress on the machinery and propulsion installation before it became too late to make any amendments..........glad to report that all is well and the choices of the MFA385 motors with bases and the M2x10"long shafts seem to be the correct choice. Obviously a full sailing test will prove the theory or otherwise!!! But so far, so good:



With the motors mounted on the floor of the hull, and the holes for the shafts cut in the marked locations, the shafts sit nicely horizontal. An A frame is yet to be made for the ends of the outer shafts, but this is not structural:





I have been wracking my brain for quite a while to come up with a simple method of producing the proptube to hull fairings, but I think dad has hit upon the idea which will work and is so simple. The idea is to take a length of 6.5mm plastic tube (which will slip over the proptube) and then shave an element off it until it forms a shape akin to a quill. This is then slotted over the proptube and pressed up against the hull until it sits fair. Following gluing in place, filler can be added around it to form a streamline shape, but it wont need much!! All details on how to do this will be included in the instructions:





A test fit of the rudder and skeg was made also....



I think we can say that it was successful

By the time I visit next week, we expect all these elements to have been completed and fitted and a start would have been made on the deck and superstructure fitting.

Onwards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Spent a very pleasant day at the Knightcote Model Boat Club open day yesterday.  A perfect excuse to launch the FEV on a maiden test voyage now that all the running gear is installed and working.  No superstructure or paint yet, but very soon now.

She sailed very well.  I was extremely nervous when I first slipped her into the water.  She took roughly 3.5kg of lead to bring her down to the designed waterline but, nevertheless, she didn't heel when the breeze got up or in the turn.

After a little while, I was a bit concerned that her turning performance wasn't as I expected.  Initially, I put this down to having 3 props all turning at the same speed (maybe running the outer two through a mixer might help?) and the fact that she was running on 12v - which only allowed 2 clicks on the throttle stick for her to run at a realistic speed.....no finesse!! However, when I pulled her out of the water it was clear that, having lost the centre prop, the turning ability of the ship was never going to be up to par!!!!!

I will still drop the power down to 6v though and test again - she needs more 'range' on the throttle stick for better control.

Here are a few shots from the day:











And a short video can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmdZ6ZpPov8&feature=em-upload_owner#action=share

And just to finish off this evening; My good lady wife, Florence, modelling the new Linkspan Models fleece:





Well, one has to have a smart image when exhibiting......................and it can be damn chilly at the pond-side!!!!!!

you just got me in trouble Carl......

was sat on the bog waiting for my bath to run when I watched the video again...First time I watched it without the volume turned on......

one daughter came knocking on the door, asking what the hells that noise................

Oh, only the Ride of the Valkyries, sweety.....

Of, I thought you were strangling the pug , came the reply

no taste some people......think they wanted it sailing to McBusted, lol

PMSL Neil!!!!

The visions that gave me...........

Been back to the shipyard at the weekend to see progress on the first prototype.  Coming along nicely I would say.  A few issues with the front 'wrap-around' superstructure that faces over the bow but now that I know what these are, I can modify the parts and make recommendations in the instructions as to how to go about building this - quite complex - structure.
 
Here are some shots from the visit:
 
Overall view with some of the original 'test' parts just dropped on for effect:
 

 
The complex front superstructure that has given us some headaches to get right:
 

 

 
And with the distinctive roof glued in place and held with tape:
 

 

 
This roof part will be supplied slightly over-size to compensate for variances in the fibreglass hull.  Once the glue has fully dried, the sides can be sanded back to the hull sides and the inner face can be curved to meet up with the inner face of the bulwarks.
 
This is the same area on the real ship:
 

 
The access ladder and hole in the roof will be cut through once everything has dried solid.
 
A general 'bow-on' shot:
 

 
And now a general view of the port side:
 

 
Either this week or next a bit of colour will be added to the hull...
 
Now to prepare the lifeboats and funnel for vac-forming...........

BTW - if anyone is planning on visiting the Deans Marin Open Weekend on the 12th & 13th September, we will be there with the prototype, the drawings, fittings, laser-cut sheets and etched brasswork.  Do come along and say 'hi'

that is MAGNIFICENT, Carl..................superb in all detail...................you have a winner there.

neil.l

Amazing 

Barrie

Thanks for the encouragement friends!!

Neil - I sure hope that all this effort will be worth it in the end.....and that at least a couple of kits get sold!!!!

2 weeks to go until the Open Weekend at Deans Marine and progress on the FEV is rolling along!!!!
 
The first prototype will actually be in her later P&O livery when she was named Pride of Hythe - the second prototype, with all the 'bugs' ironed out, will actually be the Free Enterprise V in the Townsend Thoresen livery.
 
So far, all the main superstructures are now built, but we are leaving the roof loose on the bridge and observation lounge for the show so that folk can get an idea of the detailing that will be possible:
 

 

 
A few passengers have now taken up residence in the observation lounge:
 

 

 

 
And the Officers and AB's are getting the ship ready to sail:
 

 

 
In addition, we have nearly completed the designs of all the 3D printed fittings for this model - the most complex being the forward combined mooring and anchor windlasses :
 

 
These will be complete models in themselves, only requiring detailing and painting.  They are with Shapeways now for printing in FUD.
 
Just a few jobs to do now:- get the funnel and lifeboats vac formed, triple-check the drawings, get the packing boxes made and delivered and finally write the build instructions!!!!
 
See you at the Deans Marine show?

Hello any further progress on this ?