BOATS AT ‘THORNWICK BAY’

Plastic barriers are a common sight around the country, employed to guard roadworks, building sites and for many other uses. A convincing modern roadworks scene would require lots of spray-painted markings on the ground, showing where the different servic

Are you able to provide any information on the model boats that were used on Nick Hamilton’s ‘Thornwick Bay’ layout, which appeared in the August issue

(MR302)? Dave Price, by email Nick Hamilton says: The two larger vessels seen in front of the harbour wall were both built from kits, the schooner a very nasty laser-cut wooden one from the far east, and the fishing boat a plastic kit by Heller. In both cases the hulls were rather elegant, but the rest were not what I wanted…

The schooner was roughly based on a late 19th-century vessel that had been converted to diesel power and apparently kept in the same family for generations until the 1960s. Both ships’ masts were made from old paintbrush handles, sanded to size, coated with shellac then abraded with steel wool and finished with wax. This gives a convincing aged amber colour and sheen. The rigging/ropework was created with fine thread and the collapsed sails were formed from tissue paper doped with cyanoacrylate glue then painted, the same process being used on the hold covers.

The wheelhouses, engine and holds were scratchbuilt from plastic card, and all the coiled ropes were again crafted from thread, wound around a needle and retained by thin cyano glue. Some of the mechanical parts, such as winches, were formed from bits of an old digital camera, and the tiny chains were sourced online. I did use one or two parts from the Heller ship, such as the lifeboats, oars and various hatch covers.

I used Vallejo acrylics throughout, keeping a fairly limited and muted pallet, which worked well with the masts and original wooden deck on the schooner.