Jupiter, a Caledonian macBrayne Ferry

cheers me dear........... Next thing was to start thinking about sanding and smoothing the hull down ready for painting. I have to paint upto the bulwarks and scuppers before I paint the inside of the bulwarks as the  process of masking up to stop overspray of black into the bulwarks would be horrendous and end up painting the nice duck egg blue of the inside with streaks of black.

But before I could do the sanding and painting I had to make a "fin" which sits at the bottom of the stem, right in front of the forward Voith Schneider unit.....this I presume was to protect the voith from foreign bodies.

This I made from a piece of chunky 3mm brass, which I drilled and pinned with stainless steel rod, and drilled into the grp stem.I also cut a small groove into the stem for the fin to slide into ( to stop twisting and trimmed out with a 2mm chisel.

Once this has set hard I will back fill from the inside with some polyester resin to make the whole job sturdy and watertight.


Once done I can then sand the hull smooth with wet and dry before painting.

I'll be glad when I get my other camera back from the repairers though for some better quality photos, lol

It is coming on very nicely   one little question, please forgive my ignorance but what is a "forward Voith Schneider unit"..... it reminds me of that saying, "we had one of them but the wheels fell off" LOL please tell Neil.

Hi Paul.......

It is easier to show pictures of Voiths.

They are a propulsion unit made up of vertical blades which operate via changing pitch to the blades, much the same as a helicopter.

This allows the ship to travel in any direction conceivable. The big holes in the bottom of the hull showing in some pictures are the locating holes for two Graupner VSP units that they used to make and will allow the model to go anywhere.

They are usually fitted to "tractor" tugs, allowing them to go sideways diagonally and any which way till they basically vanish up their own trumpets, lol............amazing things which only Graupner would ever consider making and manufacturing for the modelling world,  each unit uses two servos and a speed controller running  the motor at a maximum 3000 revs.

here's a few shots of real and model ones.


https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=voith+schneider+propulsion+system&biw=1280&bih=642&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CDAQsARqFQoTCP3-u_W3i8kCFcnVFAodW-kH4A

Ah! I get the gist of it now, thanks for the explanation, interesting idea, did they use these on the actual ferry

Oh yes, Paul.......the Jupiter, Juno, Saturn and ( one other ...forget the name) were the largest of the ships using the Voiths and were fast for their day, built in the 1970's and got the nickname of "streakers".

the larger ships in the Caledonian MacBrayne fleet are these days powered via schottel drives and the latest Loch Seaforth is powered by azipods as used on the larger Ocean Queens and other cruise ships,

But the smaller inter Island ferries are still equipped with Voith Schneiders.

Well, don't ya just learn a little more each day    just looked at both the others you mentioned    never new they existed either, thanks for the info 

no problems Paul.........my daughter, who I am building this for hopes one day to serve with Caledonian MacBrayne........she is at nautical college Fleetwood at the mo studying for her OOW as a cadet officer in the MN and is a geek on Calmac.

At 13 years of age she was steering a ferry across the Clyde on Voith Schneider propulsion......she got the bug then to become an officer.

her favourite ferry is the MV Loch Riddon which she spends time on each summer with the skipper and crew........she loves it and her first job when arriving at Largs each year for our hols is to go aboard the little ferry.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Loch_Riddon

I wish her good luck and hope she gets what she wants, a very keen young lady by the picture you paint, it's good to have direction and determination, especially at such a young age.

things are now moving on.....the first coat of filler primer has gone onto the hull after a thorough sanding down and tack wipe to get the dust off the model. areas will now be filled with surface putty and /or polyester filler where required and then rubbed down again, as will the whole of the hull once these storms have taken flight and I can do it outside.........too much water leaking into a once water tight garage already.........think I should be building an Ark really.

I see the holes for the propulsion units now   looking good

troutrunner wrote:

I wish her good luck and hope she gets what she wants, a very keen young lady by the picture you paint, it's good to have direction and determination, especially at such a young age.

I am extremely proud of her, Paul. if only I had had the courage to do what she has chosen to do I wouldn't have been stuck in a dead end teaching job for so many years........but sadly we had tossers of careers advisers when I was a teenager and the biggest tosser put me off joining the merch at the age of 15.

Neil,

Looks great  . Didn't realize how big she was  . Keep it coming.

Mark

Aye it's a fair size indeed Mark.....plenty of beam so should sail well.

I should have had it ready for this summer passed for my daughter ut due to a few personal problems lost my way a bit.......but back on it again now so should have it ready for the spring time for her.

Sadly disaster has struck in my workshop over the past few weeks. I have never known storms wind and rain constantly battering us from the north and east for so long and it has finally taken it's toll. a week or so ago I started seeing black marks on the carpet that I have lining my garage to keep the warmth in.
On further inspection I realised it was water, but it was only a small area about the size of a dinner plate........however over the past week it became so large that it covered one third of the floor space, and so I had to cut the carpet and underlay to find that the whole floor was absolutely sodden. I hung it over the washing line, but from the early photos it can be seen from the water in the garden that the rain is here to stay and so carpet and underlay will be off to the tip as soon as it dries sufficiently to put in the car........and more rain fell over the last few days and I have found that the silicon seal at the back wall of the 20 year old garage has gone, leaving me with no option but to live and bare it and keep everything off the floor.........luckily nothing was actually damaged, and I did find some items that I haven't used for years and so will put them on ebay or elsewhere for sale.

the sad thing is though that at the moment my workshop is in even more of a tip than it usually is as I have things on the workshop tops that would normally be on the floor.

With the weather we have been having,Im not surprised you have sprung a leak! How many lost chuck keys did you find my friend?? I expect some of them have antique value lol!
Hope you soon find out where the leak is,and be able to cure it!
Still watching your build with interest,keep up the good work!
Mick F

battleshipbuff wrote:

With the weather we have been having,Im not surprised you have sprung a leak! How many lost chuck keys did you find my friend?? I expect some of them have antique value lol!
Hope you soon find out where the leak is,and be able to cure it!
Mick F

Not yet matey...........but I did find a pair of nail clippers.................be able to trim me toe nails now, lol..............

on a serious note though, the leak is from the silicon seal that was laid under the prefabicated concrete panels that make up the end wall 21 years ago, and it would mean lifting that whole wall up even if I could get at it, as there is a shed next to the wall.................so I will just have to live with it and mop up after heavy rainfall in future.......c'est la vie.

And as I am giving up scratch modelling after the lifeboat hull for Baloo next summer on my retirement I will be taking out much of the bench work and selling off all my tools to buy an MG and a bike for my retirement................so don't see the point.

My shed had water coming up through the floor when we had heavy rain,up to an inch deep!I went to a good builders merchant,and bought what is called Tanking Cement.This is literally put on with a large brush,quite thickly,first brushing one lengthways,and when dry another vertically.I did my floor and 2 feet up the walls,one of which is a cob wall,and to make sure,finally coated it in bitumen paint.It was fairly easy to do,and it has cured the problem!
Are you doing the Clyde for Baloo? He wants to get us all together when his is done

cheers for the info Mick............unfortunately there's a shed in the way of the back wall and just don't have any access room at all to paint from the outside, and inside would be same problem because I clad the walls with battens and insulation stuff before adding a false wall of MDF.........so I have no chance of getting to it from either inside or out without either taking a shed apart otr all my back benches and wall/cladding so it will just have to stay as it is until I finally give up modelling and revert back to a garage.

No Matey.the lifeboat hull and superstructure is of the Steam Hydraulic lifeboat Queen from 1898..........am going to make just the moulds for the hull and superstructure and a set of mouldings so that I can make a pattern in obeche for the Hydraulic pump and valves to be printed on a 3 d printer and that is that.

Finally got some of the crap in my workshop thrown away and the leak on top of so back to the modelling. put the capping rail onto the  top of the uprights to the wheelhouse roof today and stained it with Mahogany and then sealed with cellulose sanding sealer.

I have also sanded the inside edges of the windows and doors ready for the window frames and doors. this is noticeable to the picture showing the wheelhouse and the lower accommodation superstructure which has still to be trimmed..............Rome wasn't built in a day.........but before mick French says owt......I know, I know it was probably built quicker than this model. lol.

And it is amazing what little gems are hidden away and forgotten until you have to clear some of the junk away from your workshop....

I had been given a lot of Lego many years ago and some was from old house structures and was in the process of sorting it when I found some latticed shutters from the windows, which will double up as ventilator frames. Saves making them.


 

Having survived the flood I got down to a little more work today, but at the important point of the exercise, I could only find one bottle of a two part epoxy mix, and so had to resort to plan two and use a two pack I have had for ages.............luckily it still worked as it had been unopened until this afternoon.

and the exercise was to fit flanges and cross members to the upper superstructure deck so that it doesn't sag in the middle where the main wheelhouse fits.

It has a support of the  mid deck cabin aft but one at the fore part, so made two cross members first and epoxy'd them in place and then cut pieces of 8x 6mm ply for the flanges for the combing to hold the removable wheel house in place. these will be set in place with epoxy once the 30minute setting stuff has hardened and cured tonight. 

I have never been one for spending good modelling time on making an elaborate and ornate stand for my models. A stand is a stand is a stand and as long as it serves its purpose it'll do me. If I want to make a show case model, then I will go the whole hog with a showcase and brass finials for the model to stand on.................but a working model.......the stand just has to do it's job if ever I get round to making one.......the lifeboats I built 5 years ago are still waiting one each, lol.

this one was knocked up in 20 minutes, but serves the purpose I made it for.........to raise the model off the deck to such a height that the blades on Voith Schnieder units will not be damaged one fitted, so that I can work on the upper parts of the model.........and from the looks of it.........it serves that purpose, ...........Job done.

getting the inside of the hull ready for spraying the outside...might sound a bit strange but certain things have had to be done...like setting the bow fin in place. it was originally pinned and glued in place, but those pins need to be set and waterproofed as water has a habit of getting into the tiniest of cracks.......and so the hull was precariously tilted on an angle and polyester resin poured into the bow to cover and lock in the pins holding the fin......once set and the outside filled with any little irregularities, the hull will be sprayed.

Don't let the little woman see you adding a food processor (Voith) to your boat it might be commandeered to the kitchen.

Damien wrote:

Don't let the little woman see you adding a food processor (Voith) to your boat it might be commandeered to the kitchen.

 food processer, love it......





her class at nautical college was asked last week if any of them had steered a ship before, and mollie was the only one who stuck her hand up.
Her tutor asked what propulsion units it had, as to whether azipods or standard propellers............Nah she replied, Twin voith Schneiders for and aft.....the tutor looked at her and said he had never steered on Voiths....and the rest of the group looked puzzled and started asking each other wtf were voith schnieders, lol......she sat there like the smug git that her old dad taught her to be, lol

by the way, the little woman went her own way last year with a piece of paper in her hand after 28 years of marriage, to her new partner.............yippeeee.....

hopefully my date with a beautiful lady will go well tomorrow, ..........I could not be happier, lol

It's always good to get a drop of paint ( courtesy of motor factors spray cans ) onto a hull......it starts to make the model look like a ship........even if it is only the anti fouling red oxide.
Next will be masking up ready for the satin black boot topping, once the red oxide has dried and cured.

the hull has now been masked and sprayed up and white lined.........beginning to look like the real job now.

I used Frog masking tape to mask the water line and once paper covered the red oxide with paper I turned the hull right way up and sprayed down onto the masking tape edge, to give a perfect filler via paint to get a sharp edge.

Once dry I applied the satin black boot topping and finally white lined the waterline mark with car body liner.

Next is the brush painting of the under side of the shelter deck and fittings with duck egg blue before painting the deck, engineers none slip greed, Humbrol ( I think ) 80.

Coming along nicely Neil  

Just done a little homework on this vessel, interesting read on Wikipedia.........

Wikipedia

Farewell to ferry Jupiter

Just thought these might be interesting to other folk.

cheers matey.........yes I should have put some links p........they were a fast and very manoeuvrable ship............sailed on them a number of times in happy days..................very good sea ships and god knows why Calmac got rid of them sadly.

bulwark inners, and superstructure walls on the car deck now painted.........however it looks somewhat dull so might chose a lighter green and go over it all again...........

need slight touching up here and there as my hands aren't as steady these days lol....................must take a dram or two before trying again, lol............

and then the lane markings put on the deck with red motor car lining tape before giving it all a satin varnish cote.

Also have to paint all the little vehicle securing points in yellow. that should brighten it all up somewhat.

another bit of the build that I have been putting off as it has been by guess work, as there are no visual markings on the plans........and that is, the lane markings for the car deck. However I do have photographs and enough markers on the deck ( i.e. the vehicle restraining brackets dotted all over the deck, which were marked on the plans ) to make the job a little better than guessing.

And so, working from these photos and brackets on deck I lined the deck today with car pin striping tape, and once all put on, they actually made sense.........well all except the red lining, which I still haven't made sense of yet.........but given time it might come to me in a brain fart what they are actually for.

I also painted all the vehicle brackets too. 

just had to load her up this morning........wish I had just one of those old classics on there, on their way to the Cowell Games, Dunoon, classic rally, lol

this afternoon been sorting out more fittings that go under that dreaded shelter deck......some sprayed with grey to take the red over coat, and some white to take the duck egg green......only oddity are the funnels which I mistook and sprayed white under but will be painted red, black and yellow later.

Certainly beginning to look the part Neil. Could the red lane markings indicate spaces for high vehicles?

Barrie

thinking that myself Barrie...........funny that I sailed on this ship as a passenger many times along with her sister ship.............and never noticed the markings at all........half yer life ya wander round wi' yer eyes shut.

red gloss now applied........most of these are emergency equipment lockers, but for the two funnels, which have black toppings and ladder units, with yellow backgrounds to the Scottish lion house motif.

Looking good Neil 

I dont know,I dont look in on this build for a couple of weeks,and what happens? The man starts getting on with it again! Now that IS coming along nicely,congratulations! Its certainly something different for you and for us! Hope Molly is still progressing through college,and will get all the results she needs to follow her chosen career.
I will look in on a regular basis now that you have restarted building.
PS you mentioned a date??? Come on whats all the news on that then???
Best Wishes my friend err keep it up?
Mick F

The date.......lol........that fell flatter than one of my pancakes...lol.......will tell about mollie when i get out of bed later but my back n leg are playing up cronic the last couple of days.

Plenty more fish, Damien, lol.

Done a bit more to take my mind off other things.

It's always easier to paint all the fiddly little fittings that are the same colour, in one go without wasting paint.......and so down to Halfords motor factor to match the duck egg blue from the cabins and bulwarks with a spray can.........and low and behold I came up with a perfect match from the Halfords range of FORD NORDIC BLUE.......... so I placed all the vents goosenecks and other ancillaries to be painted black on one pile and blue on another, and sprayed merrily away....a lot of time and paint saved.























don't think they are all going on lol, but rather paint them all that are available, than run out of certain bits and have to paint again, lol

I also painted the caps of the funnels black and they and the hooded cowel vents look good atop the engine room casings together.
Also the match of the two different paints once put together is quite amazing with little to notice any difference between the two.

Lot of work there! I notice you have appeared to have made solid funnels? Would have really looked good with a smoke unit and diesel smoke coming out of them?
Mick F

don't know what happened there Mick, but I posted a reply to this two days ago from my phone........no matey the funnels are hollow, but I don't go in for working gismos on my models at all.

I once went to inordinate amounts of trouble and work to put lots of lights into a Caldercraft Clyde puffer I built nearly 30 years ago.........and within three weeks of putting it into the drink at Fleetwood salt water lakes all of them HAD FAILED and no longer worked as all the wiring had corroded.................so that was it for me.

I don't decry those that do put lots of working stuff on their boats, and it is great to see, but not for me.............don't think I have ever sailed in the dark anyway, lol