Building St Columba

18/5/04 Received the plans and spent many hours studying them.
There are 3 A0 sheets, one is a very detailed plan and elevation, possibly taken from the original ship's plans. The other two are model construction plans but there are no build instructions.
While studying them I try to decide what level of detail I'm going to construct and how I'm going to fit various pieces of equipment. I've spent a lot of time thinking about the bow thruster as the hull width is only 1 1/2 inches at the point where it is installed. My first thought is to use a windscreen washer pump instead of a commercially available unit.

19/5/04
Marked and cut out the 3/8" plywood sheet which will be the base of the model, also marked out the 5 main ribs, the 3 small ribs around the bow and bow rudder and the 3 rudders. Although the plan shows 1/2" for the base and 1/4" for the ribs I've decided to use 3/8" for all these parts (I had a spare sheet from Bathurst)

20/5/04
Cut out and shaped all ribs. Considered the possibility of making the bow amd stern doors open. Began searching for 6 channel radio (2 x drive, 2 x rudders, bow thruster, spare for use with switcher for lights, bow door, stern door, etc.) motors, speed controllers, etc.

22/5/04
Cut and shaped lower strips - these will have the lower edge of the side skins glued and nailed to them.

25/5/04
Glued lower strips to base.Cut out notches in ribs to take stringers and started bending stringers prior to fitting.
Also worked out a way to have the bow door open and keep water out. With the bow having such a narrow section its not going to be easy to fit the thruster and rudder linkage and protect against water leaking in through the bow door but I think I can do it

30/5/04
Planed and sanded the three rudders. The bow rudder is protected at the front and bottom by an aluminium bar which will be glued in to make the bow solid. This will make fitting (or removing) the rudder a bit difficult but I think I've worked out how to do it - a hinge pin glued into the bottom edge which will sit in a hole in the bar and a removable pin in the top edge which will be secured in the rudder with a short, thin bolt.

5/6/04
Spent a lot of time this week in working out the mechanism which will open the bow door (See the pictures of Mecanno below). I found some more pictures of St Columba on the web which show certain areas in greater detail - notably the bow section. Due to this, (and because its going to open) I have had to modify the designed of the bow section. Glued all the ribs onto the base - cut out a new rib for the bow (this is just behind the rear edge of the bow door) - glued the first stringers into the bow section. Ordered a Futaba 6YG radio set, a pair of geared motors and a Servo Slower from Sussex Model Centre. The servo slower will be used to make the bow and stern doors open at scale speed.

20/6/04
Due to work commitments I wasn't able to do very much with St Columba last week. This week I have marked out, cut and glued together the 25 sections of balsa block which make up the stern section of the hull, below and just above the water line. The top surface is the deck at the rear door although I will be covering this later.
The plan shows outline shapes for 6 pieces made from 1" thick balsa but, since I could only get 1/2" balsa. I decided to make each 'slice' in two halves to reduce waste, I ended up with lots more pieces. Apart from saving on scrap while cutting the pieces out I will also be saving on the amount of carving that I will have to do. The following pictures are of the stern block with all pieces glued together but not carved to shape. The last pic shows the cut-outs giving clearance for the rudder arms under the deck.

4/7/04
Illness has prevented me from doing much recently. The large stern section block has been patially shaped and sanded - it can't be finished until I've glued it onto the hull with the skins in place. Radio, motors and other bits have arrived so I have been able to set up the prop shafts and motor mounting although final positioning will not take place for some time. A piece of off-cut ply holds the shafts at the correct height and in line with the motors.
I have glued and nailed the first skin to the frame - a flaw in the ply meant that it cracked as I bent it around at the stern so this needed patching with a bit of scrap. I used 2 hour epoxy and 5/8" moulding pins to fix the skin - and plenty of clamps to hold it while the glue set.

11/7/04
Fixed the second lower skin, trimmed and sanded them both down. Started to plane off the excess ply from the edges of the base board. Drilled through the stern block for prop and rudder tubes - the prop tubes are in the correct place, I just hope I got the rudder tubes right as well. After searching for and failing to find a windscreen washer pump which would be suitable to use as a bow thruster I have bought the small Graupner unit. A test in the sink running it at 6 volts has left me feeling that this was a good decision - it is very powerful and should push the bow around very nicely. Of course the real test will come when she's in the water..

18/7/04
Finished planing off the base board and sanded it down, it required a little bit of filler in places but its nice and smooth now. Did a lot of work on the bows - in particular the bow rudder and the aluminium bar that encloses it. Where the hull lines are severely curved around the bow I have opted to use balsa block instead of ply - it's so much easier to get the shape by carving and sanding. The ali bar will be glued and screwed into place to maintain strength but this means I've had to make sure the bow rudder can be easily removed in case of damage or failure. Since eqiupment failures can happen at any time I feel it is important to make everything easy to remove. A perfect eaxample of this is a friend who has a burnt out motor in his boat, it was fitted in the bow before the deck was glued down above it - now he's finding it very difficult to get the motor out.

25/7/04
More work on the (slightly) pointy end. Built the bow door up to the point where I could use it for lining up the side skins with the rest of the hull. It just needs a strip of 1/16th ply around the front at the top, then the rest will be built up from balsa block before final sanding to shape. I have had to make and fit the foredeck so that I could work out the correct positioning of the bow door as the hinge is fitted to this deck. Since there is a fair amount of equipment under it I've made it easily removable - it has a flange that locks into the hole in the rib and two pieces of scrap ply that fit either side of the small front rib. A pair of dowel rods lock it in place as can be seen in the photos.

1/8/04
I am pleased to say that, after many hours of work, I have a working bow door. To the right you can see a picture of the parts that make up the bow door hinge (top) and what I call the 'transfer' arms and hinges (bottom). Although the Meccano test used two transfer arms I decided that one would be enough on the model. However, since this would have to be in the middle of the door and would spoil the view through the hull I changed my mind and used two working through slots cut in the rib. This left the problem of how to drive the mechanism from a single servo. I decided to add an extra pair of arms (the black plastic ones) fixed to a bar. The servo links to one arm but drives both sides through the bar. It has taken a few hours to set up, changing link points and rod lengths but, with the Servo Slower turned down to the bottom, I get a realistic scale speed for the door opening. Now all I have to do is work out how to stop water getting in.
9/5/05 - A video clip is now available, click here

8/8/04 After another week of work I have fitted the two stern rudders and their servo and I now have a working stern door, although it isn't yet linked to the servo. The door is made from two pieces of 1/16 ply joined with a pair of plastic hinges. A brass rod across the top serves as the upper hinge while another brass rod across the bottom is used to open it. I originally planned to have one arm at each side raising the door but when I'd got one side done I found that it didn't need two. Since the stern door will be operated off the same servo as the bow door setting up the linkage could be a bit of a pain but first I need to get a 3 foot long rod.

22/8/04 Fitted the linkage from the servo to the stern door - what a pain, but its working well. No photo of this yet as I have removed all the servos and linkages while doing some sanding (bow and stern blocks) and other work. I have made and fitted an internal bow door which, along with some polythene, should help to stop water getting in while sailing. I am planning to add a bilge pump as a contingency measure in case I can't stop leakage through the door. The two red plastic parts are excess from the bow rudder arm, they make great hinges. I haven't yet decided how this will open but I hope to make it work along with the bow and stern doors.
A member of Mutual Model Boat Society makes fibreglass sheet which looks like ridged metal deck plating, I am planning to put this throughout the hull as the car deck.
I have also fitted the bow thruster this week. This is the Graupner unit and is supposed to be glued in place but, as I like things to be removable, I have made it so by using silicone tubing (the blue bits in the photo) to join the hull pipes to the motor.

5/9/04 After much trial and error I found that the travel of the bow door push rods is almost identical to the movement required to open the inner bow door. I short piece of string and a small lead weight (on the top edge of the door) is all that I needed to make the internal door open at the same time as the external door.
Reftitted all the servos, links, rudders, motors, prop shafts and props. Fitted a pair of microswitches close to the bow rudder servo to operate the bow thruster with full travel of the bow rudder.
The observant viewer will note that I have modified the rear rib, either I misread the plan or the plan is wrong but without this cut out I would not have been able to make the rear superstructure according to the plan.
Built up the stern section to include the mooring and upper decks. Cut out the four pieces of ply which make up the rest of the hull sides. Since these come above the deck and I want the decks to be removable I will cut out and shape the deck pieces before fitting the side skins. Once the side skins are fitted I can finish off sanding the balsa blocks, seal the hull and test it in water (providing I can find a bigger bath).

19/9/04 This week I have set up the wiring for the main motors and got my brother-in-law to perform a modification on the transmitter. I can now control both motors from one stick or, at the flick of a switch, have each motor on it's own stick - I hope this will make normal sailing easier and still give me greatest flexibility while manouvering.
I have added some spacers between the side strings to ensure the main deck remains level.
Cut and shaped all deck sections that fit between the sides and fitted the last four pieces of side skins. With the skins fitted I could then sand all the balsa blocks to shape. The hull is now ready to be sealed and tested in water. I still have to set up wiring for the bow thruster but I need to get it in water to do this so that I can check the current drain and polarity for the motor. Control for the thruster is a pair of microswitches beside the bow rudder servo. With the fine control allowed by the Futaba radio gear I have set the servo up so that the micro switches only activate when I put on full rudder very quickly - moving the stick slowly, even to full rudder, doesn't operate them.
Began construction of the superstructures starting with the forward sections.

17/10/04
Computer problems have prevented recent updates and work has meant that construction has slowed down.
Since the last update St Columba has been tested in the bath and found to be water-tight, the bow thruster wiring has been completed and tested - it worked well in the bath. She has also been on the water at Mutual Mills and performed reasonably well - no leaks, bow thruster will turn 180 degrees in about 15 seconds and no leaks through the bow door - however this was done with insufficient ballast to bring her down to the water line so it isn't a positive test. The plastic props moved her well in forward but their performance in reverse is very poor so they will be replaced with smaller brass props - the bow rudder had very little effect.
Construction of superstructure is well under way with the forward bridge, its mast and centre section almost complete. I like to be able to get my hands inside the model so all superstructure will be removable, this makes construction more difficult but will make repairs easier if anything goes wrong. The bridge will be fixed on top of the forward section when I have worked out a way to drive the two radar heads which are fitted to the forward mast.

7/11/04
I have now built almost all of the superstructure - pictures at the right and below are of the stern bridge and funnel. I have shown the parts that make up the stern bridge and a partially completed snap. The funnel is made from balsa block in 11 sections, glued together and sanded to shape. A touch of paint and some exhaust pipes will complete it. I have spent quite a lot of time on the fore-mast and its radar heads. An old servo drives a shaft inside the mast which in turn drives rubber bands to turn the radar heads - they're a little slow and a bit jerky but I am reasonably pleased with the result.
The top edges of the side skins have now been planed and sanded down to the correct levels - the mid section on both sides still needs cut-outs for access points but as I am going to use the top edge as a guide for positioning the side windows I have left it complete for now. If I cut out all windows individually I have 180 to do - this is not something I'm looking forward to doing.
Even with a few sections still missing it still looks impressive when put together on the bench.
The plastic propellors have now been replaced with a pair of brass ones - As with HMAS Bathurst, these have made a huge difference to performance on the water. It has also shown up another problem - steering. St Columba doesn't want to sail in a straight line - constant attention to the rudder is required to keep her on course. I think this is down to the 1/4" thick plywood rudders. I am going to make a new pair out of brass sheet and hope that they will correct the problem. Due to these steering problems I still haven't been able to give the bow rudder a proper test but it looks like it still has little effect on steering.

1/12/04
I couldn't put off cutting out the windows any longer. 56 'Slotted' windows cut using a brand new mini-drill with a grinding bit - 47 of these still to do on the port side.
St. Columba was on display at the Blackpool Model Boat show over the weekend. There was a great deal of interest in the model but I think this was because it was one of very few 'work in progress' models on display. I was showing off a bit on Sunday by displaying the opening bow door (I'll make a short video clip of this soon) everyone who saw it was very impressed - it makes all the hours of hard work seem worthwhile after all.
I drew all the windows onto the starboard side for the show (see pictures) now I'm waiting for a mini-jigsaw to arrive to cut these out.
I have replaced the plywood rudders with brass sheet, steering is still erratic, she seems to want to go anywhere but straight. I have been advised that 'bilge keels' should solve this problem - if it doesn't I'l have to think of something else, perhaps a keel down the centre on the underside.

15/1/05
Happy New Year to you.
Things slowed down for a while around Christmas and I couldn't find the time to do an update although work has continued. The main bridge is now complete with it's visor/canopy. Over sixty seats, 8 mushroom vents,12 liferaft davits and 22 liferaft storage lockers have been made. The seats are balsa - one or two thin strips glued onto a section of trailing edge (triangular section). Vents are dowel with balsa tops. Davits are a short length of dowel with a piece of shaped balsa for the arm and punched circles of plasti-card for pulleys. Lockers are solid balsa block.
As you will see from the pics painting has started. All the decks and superstructure have been painted. I still haven't got the mini-jigsaw so I haven't been able to paint the hull. The picture of the stern bridge (below right) is worth mentioning because of the louvre vents. A tip on how to create these details is included with the image.
I have fitted bilge keels and tried a bow skeg but she still wanders - last time out, without any input from me, she turned almost 180 degrees to port before changing direction and turning over 180 degrees to starboard! I think she just wanted to have a look around the lake.
I have made a couple of larger rudders, over twice the area of the originals, if these don't cure the problem I'll just have to accept that she has a mind of her own and live with it.

8/5/05
First let me appologise to regular visitors for not updating these pages sooner. This has been due to many reasosn but the most significant of these is lazyness - sorry!
All construction work was finished in February including cutting out the remaining windows in the hull. All that was left was to paint everything, make the handrails (seems like there's miles of them) and fit all the bits together. Much of these final stages couldn't be done until everything was painted but I couldn't make the handrails until I was happy with the painting of the decks and I couldn't paint the handrails until I'd made them. As a single part, the handrails have taken me the longest time to do - probably nearly two months off and on. It was a very fiddly job using individual stanchions and fine wire (0.25mm solid wire used for wire wrapping). It is very delicate and has suffered numerous accidents from careless handling both during and after assembly. Despite all this I am very pleased with the result as it brings the scale of the model to life.
I could have (and should have) updated this site with the following three pictures months ago - see above for the reason. I should also have made the video of the bow door opening but I still haven't - it's on it's way, honest!
9/5/05 - A video clip is now available, click here

8/5/05

Although not 100% complete (I'm still waiting for a friend to finish of the davits and lifeboats) St Columba is ready to take to the water. Having just checked back I find it's almost exactly 1 year since I received the plans. I think that's pretty good going - others won't agree! I wonder how long it took Aalborg Vaerfta/s to build the real one?
She is fully painted in her original Sealink livery and is as close to an exact copy as I can make her.
I have included 58 small LED's to light up the interior (these don't show up on the pics but I'm working on it) All three radar heads turn and she has opening bow and stern doors.

If anyone would like more information about this project feel free to e-mail me.

And now - what you've all been waiting for - the pictures...

10/5/05
For those interested in this stuff here's a few pictures of the internal layout.

15/5/05

Maiden voyage completed successfully. She handles well and looks great on the water. A small amount of ballast adjustment is all that is necessary. Despite a lack of seals around the bow door only a little water was taken on board. Externally she just needs davits and lifeboats to finish her off. Internally I still have to add the car decks and some side walls to give a clear, uninterupted view through the hull when the doors are open.
Although I say it myself, she's a mighty fine looking model and I am very proud of her.

18/5/04	Received the plans and spent many hours studying them. There are 3 A0 sheets, one is a very detailed plan and elevation, possibly taken from the original ship's plans. The other two are model construction plans but there are no build instructions. While studying them I try to decide what level of detail I'm going to construct and how I'm going to fit various pieces of equipment. I've spent a lot of time thinking about the bow thruster as the hull width is only 1 1/2 inches at the point where it is installed. My first thought is to use a windscreen washer pump instead of a commercially available unit.
19/5/04	Marked and cut out the 3/8" plywood sheet which will be the base of the model, also marked out the 5 main ribs, the 3 small ribs around the bow and bow rudder and the 3 rudders. Although the plan shows 1/2" for the base and 1/4" for the ribs I've decided to use 3/8" for all these parts (I had a spare sheet from Bathurst)
20/5/04	Cut out and shaped all ribs. Considered the possibility of making the bow amd stern doors open. Began searching for 6 channel radio (2 x drive, 2 x rudders, bow thruster, spare for use with switcher for lights, bow door, stern door, etc.) motors, speed controllers, etc.
22/5/04	Cut and shaped lower strips - these will have the lower edge of the side skins glued and nailed to them.
25/5/04	Glued lower strips to base.Cut out notches in ribs to take stringers and started bending stringers prior to fitting. Also worked out a way to have the bow door open and keep water out. With the bow having such a narrow section its not going to be easy to fit the thruster and rudder linkage and protect against water leaking in through the bow door but I think I can do it
30/5/04	Planed and sanded the three rudders. The bow rudder is protected at the front and bottom by an aluminium bar which will be glued in to make the bow solid. This will make fitting (or removing) the rudder a bit difficult but I think I've worked out how to do it - a hinge pin glued into the bottom edge which will sit in a hole in the bar and a removable pin in the top edge which will be secured in the rudder with a short, thin bolt.

5/6/04	Spent a lot of time this week in working out the mechanism which will open the bow door (See the pictures of Mecanno below). I found some more pictures of St Columba on the web which show certain areas in greater detail - notably the bow section. Due to this, (and because its going to open) I have had to modify the designed of the bow section. Glued all the ribs onto the base - cut out a new rib for the bow (this is just behind the rear edge of the bow door) - glued the first stringers into the bow section. Ordered a Futaba 6YG radio set, a pair of geared motors and a Servo Slower from Sussex Model Centre. The servo slower will be used to make the bow and stern doors open at scale speed.

20/6/04	Due to work commitments I wasn't able to do very much with St Columba last week. This week I have marked out, cut and glued together the 25 sections of balsa block which make up the stern section of the hull, below and just above the water line. The top surface is the deck at the rear door although I will be covering this later. The plan shows outline shapes for 6 pieces made from 1" thick balsa but, since I could only get 1/2" balsa. I decided to make each 'slice' in two halves to reduce waste, I ended up with lots more pieces. Apart from saving on scrap while cutting the pieces out I will also be saving on the amount of carving that I will have to do. The following pictures are of the stern block with all pieces glued together but not carved to shape. The last pic shows the cut-outs giving clearance for the rudder arms under the deck.

4/7/04	Illness has prevented me from doing much recently. The large stern section block has been patially shaped and sanded - it can't be finished until I've glued it onto the hull with the skins in place. Radio, motors and other bits have arrived so I have been able to set up the prop shafts and motor mounting although final positioning will not take place for some time. A piece of off-cut ply holds the shafts at the correct height and in line with the motors. I have glued and nailed the first skin to the frame - a flaw in the ply meant that it cracked as I bent it around at the stern so this needed patching with a bit of scrap. I used 2 hour epoxy and 5/8" moulding pins to fix the skin - and plenty of clamps to hold it while the glue set.

11/7/04	Fixed the second lower skin, trimmed and sanded them both down. Started to plane off the excess ply from the edges of the base board. Drilled through the stern block for prop and rudder tubes - the prop tubes are in the correct place, I just hope I got the rudder tubes right as well. After searching for and failing to find a windscreen washer pump which would be suitable to use as a bow thruster I have bought the small Graupner unit. A test in the sink running it at 6 volts has left me feeling that this was a good decision - it is very powerful and should push the bow around very nicely. Of course the real test will come when she's in the water..

18/7/04	Finished planing off the base board and sanded it down, it required a little bit of filler in places but its nice and smooth now. Did a lot of work on the bows - in particular the bow rudder and the aluminium bar that encloses it. Where the hull lines are severely curved around the bow I have opted to use balsa block instead of ply - it's so much easier to get the shape by carving and sanding. The ali bar will be glued and screwed into place to maintain strength but this means I've had to make sure the bow rudder can be easily removed in case of damage or failure. Since eqiupment failures can happen at any time I feel it is important to make everything easy to remove. A perfect eaxample of this is a friend who has a burnt out motor in his boat, it was fitted in the bow before the deck was glued down above it - now he's finding it very difficult to get the motor out.

25/7/04	More work on the (slightly) pointy end. Built the bow door up to the point where I could use it for lining up the side skins with the rest of the hull. It just needs a strip of 1/16th ply around the front at the top, then the rest will be built up from balsa block before final sanding to shape. I have had to make and fit the foredeck so that I could work out the correct positioning of the bow door as the hinge is fitted to this deck. Since there is a fair amount of equipment under it I've made it easily removable - it has a flange that locks into the hole in the rib and two pieces of scrap ply that fit either side of the small front rib. A pair of dowel rods lock it in place as can be seen in the photos.

1/8/04	I am pleased to say that, after many hours of work, I have a working bow door. To the right you can see a picture of the parts that make up the bow door hinge (top) and what I call the 'transfer' arms and hinges (bottom). Although the Meccano test used two transfer arms I decided that one would be enough on the model. However, since this would have to be in the middle of the door and would spoil the view through the hull I changed my mind and used two working through slots cut in the rib. This left the problem of how to drive the mechanism from a single servo. I decided to add an extra pair of arms (the black plastic ones) fixed to a bar. The servo links to one arm but drives both sides through the bar. It has taken a few hours to set up, changing link points and rod lengths but, with the Servo Slower turned down to the bottom, I get a realistic scale speed for the door opening. Now all I have to do is work out how to stop water getting in. 9/5/05 - A video clip is now available, click here

8/8/04	After another week of work I have fitted the two stern rudders and their servo and I now have a working stern door, although it isn't yet linked to the servo. The door is made from two pieces of 1/16 ply joined with a pair of plastic hinges. A brass rod across the top serves as the upper hinge while another brass rod across the bottom is used to open it. I originally planned to have one arm at each side raising the door but when I'd got one side done I found that it didn't need two. Since the stern door will be operated off the same servo as the bow door setting up the linkage could be a bit of a pain but first I need to get a 3 foot long rod.

22/8/04	Fitted the linkage from the servo to the stern door - what a pain, but its working well. No photo of this yet as I have removed all the servos and linkages while doing some sanding (bow and stern blocks) and other work. I have made and fitted an internal bow door which, along with some polythene, should help to stop water getting in while sailing. I am planning to add a bilge pump as a contingency measure in case I can't stop leakage through the door. The two red plastic parts are excess from the bow rudder arm, they make great hinges. I haven't yet decided how this will open but I hope to make it work along with the bow and stern doors. A member of Mutual Model Boat Society makes fibreglass sheet which looks like ridged metal deck plating, I am planning to put this throughout the hull as the car deck. I have also fitted the bow thruster this week. This is the Graupner unit and is supposed to be glued in place but, as I like things to be removable, I have made it so by using silicone tubing (the blue bits in the photo) to join the hull pipes to the motor.

5/9/04	After much trial and error I found that the travel of the bow door push rods is almost identical to the movement required to open the inner bow door. I short piece of string and a small lead weight (on the top edge of the door) is all that I needed to make the internal door open at the same time as the external door. Reftitted all the servos, links, rudders, motors, prop shafts and props. Fitted a pair of microswitches close to the bow rudder servo to operate the bow thruster with full travel of the bow rudder. The observant viewer will note that I have modified the rear rib, either I misread the plan or the plan is wrong but without this cut out I would not have been able to make the rear superstructure according to the plan. Built up the stern section to include the mooring and upper decks. Cut out the four pieces of ply which make up the rest of the hull sides. Since these come above the deck and I want the decks to be removable I will cut out and shape the deck pieces before fitting the side skins. Once the side skins are fitted I can finish off sanding the balsa blocks, seal the hull and test it in water (providing I can find a bigger bath).

19/9/04	This week I have set up the wiring for the main motors and got my brother-in-law to perform a modification on the transmitter. I can now control both motors from one stick or, at the flick of a switch, have each motor on it's own stick - I hope this will make normal sailing easier and still give me greatest flexibility while manouvering. I have added some spacers between the side strings to ensure the main deck remains level. Cut and shaped all deck sections that fit between the sides and fitted the last four pieces of side skins. With the skins fitted I could then sand all the balsa blocks to shape. The hull is now ready to be sealed and tested in water. I still have to set up wiring for the bow thruster but I need to get it in water to do this so that I can check the current drain and polarity for the motor. Control for the thruster is a pair of microswitches beside the bow rudder servo. With the fine control allowed by the Futaba radio gear I have set the servo up so that the micro switches only activate when I put on full rudder very quickly - moving the stick slowly, even to full rudder, doesn't operate them. Began construction of the superstructures starting with the forward sections.

17/10/04	Computer problems have prevented recent updates and work has meant that construction has slowed down. Since the last update St Columba has been tested in the bath and found to be water-tight, the bow thruster wiring has been completed and tested - it worked well in the bath. She has also been on the water at Mutual Mills and performed reasonably well - no leaks, bow thruster will turn 180 degrees in about 15 seconds and no leaks through the bow door - however this was done with insufficient ballast to bring her down to the water line so it isn't a positive test. The plastic props moved her well in forward but their performance in reverse is very poor so they will be replaced with smaller brass props - the bow rudder had very little effect. Construction of superstructure is well under way with the forward bridge, its mast and centre section almost complete. I like to be able to get my hands inside the model so all superstructure will be removable, this makes construction more difficult but will make repairs easier if anything goes wrong. The bridge will be fixed on top of the forward section when I have worked out a way to drive the two radar heads which are fitted to the forward mast.

7/11/04	I have now built almost all of the superstructure - pictures at the right and below are of the stern bridge and funnel. I have shown the parts that make up the stern bridge and a partially completed snap. The funnel is made from balsa block in 11 sections, glued together and sanded to shape. A touch of paint and some exhaust pipes will complete it. I have spent quite a lot of time on the fore-mast and its radar heads. An old servo drives a shaft inside the mast which in turn drives rubber bands to turn the radar heads - they're a little slow and a bit jerky but I am reasonably pleased with the result. The top edges of the side skins have now been planed and sanded down to the correct levels - the mid section on both sides still needs cut-outs for access points but as I am going to use the top edge as a guide for positioning the side windows I have left it complete for now. If I cut out all windows individually I have 180 to do - this is not something I'm looking forward to doing. Even with a few sections still missing it still looks impressive when put together on the bench. The plastic propellors have now been replaced with a pair of brass ones - As with HMAS Bathurst, these have made a huge difference to performance on the water. It has also shown up another problem - steering. St Columba doesn't want to sail in a straight line - constant attention to the rudder is required to keep her on course. I think this is down to the 1/4" thick plywood rudders. I am going to make a new pair out of brass sheet and hope that they will correct the problem. Due to these steering problems I still haven't been able to give the bow rudder a proper test but it looks like it still has little effect on steering.

1/12/04	I couldn't put off cutting out the windows any longer. 56 'Slotted' windows cut using a brand new mini-drill with a grinding bit - 47 of these still to do on the port side. St. Columba was on display at the Blackpool Model Boat show over the weekend. There was a great deal of interest in the model but I think this was because it was one of very few 'work in progress' models on display. I was showing off a bit on Sunday by displaying the opening bow door (I'll make a short video clip of this soon) everyone who saw it was very impressed - it makes all the hours of hard work seem worthwhile after all. I drew all the windows onto the starboard side for the show (see pictures) now I'm waiting for a mini-jigsaw to arrive to cut these out. I have replaced the plywood rudders with brass sheet, steering is still erratic, she seems to want to go anywhere but straight. I have been advised that 'bilge keels' should solve this problem - if it doesn't I'l have to think of something else, perhaps a keel down the centre on the underside.

15/1/05	Happy New Year to you. Things slowed down for a while around Christmas and I couldn't find the time to do an update although work has continued. The main bridge is now complete with it's visor/canopy. Over sixty seats, 8 mushroom vents,12 liferaft davits and 22 liferaft storage lockers have been made. The seats are balsa - one or two thin strips glued onto a section of trailing edge (triangular section). Vents are dowel with balsa tops. Davits are a short length of dowel with a piece of shaped balsa for the arm and punched circles of plasti-card for pulleys. Lockers are solid balsa block. As you will see from the pics painting has started. All the decks and superstructure have been painted. I still haven't got the mini-jigsaw so I haven't been able to paint the hull. The picture of the stern bridge (below right) is worth mentioning because of the louvre vents. A tip on how to create these details is included with the image. I have fitted bilge keels and tried a bow skeg but she still wanders - last time out, without any input from me, she turned almost 180 degrees to port before changing direction and turning over 180 degrees to starboard! I think she just wanted to have a look around the lake. I have made a couple of larger rudders, over twice the area of the originals, if these don't cure the problem I'll just have to accept that she has a mind of her own and live with it.

8/5/05	First let me appologise to regular visitors for not updating these pages sooner. This has been due to many reasosn but the most significant of these is lazyness - sorry! All construction work was finished in February including cutting out the remaining windows in the hull. All that was left was to paint everything, make the handrails (seems like there's miles of them) and fit all the bits together. Much of these final stages couldn't be done until everything was painted but I couldn't make the handrails until I was happy with the painting of the decks and I couldn't paint the handrails until I'd made them. As a single part, the handrails have taken me the longest time to do - probably nearly two months off and on. It was a very fiddly job using individual stanchions and fine wire (0.25mm solid wire used for wire wrapping). It is very delicate and has suffered numerous accidents from careless handling both during and after assembly. Despite all this I am very pleased with the result as it brings the scale of the model to life. I could have (and should have) updated this site with the following three pictures months ago - see above for the reason. I should also have made the video of the bow door opening but I still haven't - it's on it's way, honest! 9/5/05 - A video clip is now available, click here
8/5/05	Although not 100% complete (I'm still waiting for a friend to finish of the davits and lifeboats) St Columba is ready to take to the water. Having just checked back I find it's almost exactly 1 year since I received the plans. I think that's pretty good going - others won't agree! I wonder how long it took Aalborg Vaerfta/s to build the real one? She is fully painted in her original Sealink livery and is as close to an exact copy as I can make her. I have included 58 small LED's to light up the interior (these don't show up on the pics but I'm working on it) All three radar heads turn and she has opening bow and stern doors. If anyone would like more information about this project feel free to e-mail me. And now - what you've all been waiting for - the pictures...

10/5/05	For those interested in this stuff here's a few pictures of the internal layout.

15/5/05	Maiden voyage completed successfully. She handles well and looks great on the water. A small amount of ballast adjustment is all that is necessary. Despite a lack of seals around the bow door only a little water was taken on board. Externally she just needs davits and lifeboats to finish her off. Internally I still have to add the car decks and some side walls to give a clear, uninterupted view through the hull when the doors are open. Although I say it myself, she's a mighty fine looking model and I am very proud of her.

Construction of St Columba is now all but complete.

And now - what you've all been waiting for - the pictures...