INTRODUCTION.

I came up with the idea of building ‘Davetown’ a few years ago. Not having the room or the finances to build a large layout all at once I decided to build a series of small dioramas that I could eventually put together into a large diorama. My original plan was to scratch build as much as possible to give everything a unique look. HO scale seemed to be the logical choice since so much is available and I like working in scale where I can create a large area in a small space.

While searching the Internet I came across pictures of the tugboat grave yards around Shooter’s Island and Staten Island, New York. I thought a diorama with a couple of partially sunken tugboats would be a good addition to my town.

A search for available tugboat kits in HO scale turned up very little. The available kits were ether out of my price range or lacking in detail. I settled on Lindberg kits that I found on Ebay at really good prices.

TUG #1.

One of the kits that I found on Ebay was partially built and some of the parts were painted. There were also parts missing. I decided to start with this one because I was planning to do several things that I’d never done before.


Measuring the kit with a scale ruler shows that its about 85 feet long which is typical for east coast tugboats. The hatchways measured a little over 5 feet and the man that came with the kit measured about 8 feet tall. So, the scale is not exactly HO. Positioning the deck and cabin together with an HO scale figure showed me that the boats would look ok if they were positioned the right way.


I started out by putting the parts that were glued together in the freezer overnight then carefully prying them apart. I went to work on the deck cutting the hatches open with a triangular shaped cutter that I made from piano wire.





I used heavy grit sandpaper that’s used in a floor sander and a wire brush to create heaver grain in the deck. I glued the haul together and dragged the heavy sandpaper from stem to stern to create an open grain like in old weathered wood. I made heaver groves in the haul by dragging an x-Acto saw sideways down the haul. Then used a soft wire brush to remove all the fuzzes from the plastic.






With the cabin glued together I cut the doors open and did other sub assemblies. I airbrushed a heavy coat of Floquil primer on everything inside and out. After the primer dried I painted all the wood parts with ‘aged driftwood’ from Doctor Ben’s.






For the all the metal parts the first color coat was Floquil Roof Brown. [100_3443]Then I variegated the color with Floquil Rust and Floquil Weathered Black. [100_3445]The cabins were fogged in the upper and lower areas with Floquil Boxcar Red. [100_3448] The color on the haul appeared to even so I fogged over different areas with Floquil Weathered Black.










I wanted the cabin to have a pealing paint look so I used Folk Art Barnyard Red with beat up paint brush in a haphazard fashion avoiding areas around the center of the cabin and places where the paint would be completely worn off. After the paint was dry for about 24 hours I used a soft wire brush in a downward motion to scrape the paint away and give it an uneven look.




With most of the deck assembled I did some washes of black and rust. Knowing that I would have the boat listing to the port side I let it run in that direction.



I replaced the ladders and grab rails with scratch built parts. The ladders that came with the kit had the steps too far apart for HO scale so I added a step. Then assembled the cabin and wheelhouse. I used Testors airplane canopy glue to make the portholes and acetate for the front windows.




With the boat all assembled I used different shades of black and rust to highlight details and cover any visible glue.




Building this was fairly simple with only a few scratch built parts and few modifications. The effects of the weathering and paint gave it the basic look that I was trying to achieve.