Lifeboat modelling saved Ted from lockdown blues

● Building replica vessels proved therapeutic for modelmaker

Modelmaker Ted Miller is on board with the suggestion that his long-time interest in lifeboats has turned into something of an obsession.

The shed beside his home in Thurso is jampacked with replicas of vessels he has made over the past 25 years. They feature a collection of seven lifeboats – which has just been joined by an eighth.

All his creations, in which each detail of the real craft is faithfully reproduced, are radiocontrolled and able to float.

The 75-year-old got the model-making bug from a relative and it has developed into an allconsuming passion.

His first lifeboat model was the Trent-class vessel based in Portree. That was followed by Longhope, Thurso and Leverburgh.

He has also replicated the Tyne-class former relief lifeboat, Good Shepherd, currently the pilot boat at Inverness harbour.

They are joined by models of the Atlantic-class Forresters, first stationed at Great Yarmouth, and a Brede-class rescue craft based at Poole.

His latest creation is based on the Trent-class Roy Barker 11 stationed in Wick.

Like the others, he buys a fibreglass hull and then sets about fitting out the vessel, which at just over 3ft is a one-in-16 scale version.

Mr Miller, who worked for a construction company, has had help from long-time friend and fellow model enthusiast

Mark Cormack, a former coxswain of Wick lifeboat who remains a crew member.

“Mark has kept me up to speed with recent modifications,” said Mr Miller.

“I look to reproduce all the details of the lifeboat such as the seating and all the dials and instrumentation on the wheelhouse – it should be as close as possible to the real thing.”

He started work on it in mid-November and has painstakingly fitted its motors and carried out buoyancy trials on the model in the bath of his Laurie Terrace home.

Mr Miller said: “With the coronavirus outbreak, I’ve had more time to work on it.

“It is also therapeutic as you can switch off from everything that is going on these days.”

The long-time secretary of Pentland Model Boat Club has regularly taken his lifeboat collection to RNLI events and helped raise funds for the charity.

Photographs by Sandy McCook ENTHUSIAST: Ted Miller with some of his hand-crafted lifeboat models which he has built over the past 25 years.

Ted uses tweezers to painstakingly manipulate delicate elements on the models

Every detail has been faithfully reproduced to be as close to the real thing