Small sailing vessels - market research for a scratch-aid kit

[TheQ]

Did someone mention Norfolk Wherry.?

.

Seriously I'd love a model Norfolk Wherry or Keel, but I've only come across 1:250 or much larger R/C controlled, nothing in railway modelling scales..

 

As it is my N layout will have a MacBraynes ferry and a few fishing / rowing boats.. But I may sneak in a model of my little sailing boat.. 32mm by 8 mm in N 

PS years ago I capsized just in front of the wherry  Albion..

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, Andy Hayter said:

The Artitec model Tjalk can with less or more modification be made to look like a UK sailing barge.

 

https://www.artitecshop.com/en/tjalk-two-brothers.html

 

 

 

50 minutes ago, bgman said:

 

Its a nice model I have to agree but will need some very careful modification to look like a Thames Barge.

 

That said they were used for various cargos and one was berthed close to me in Exeter some years ago and also in Plymouth so it is a possibility that one could be seen in other British ports ?

 

G

There is one that is a regular visitor to the Thames although converted to a yacht.

 

[The White Rabbit]

18 hours ago, Schooner said:

 Anything that can be done to lend a hand, please do say here and I'd be pleased to help if possible.

 

Offering some unsolicited broad-brush thoughts, and despite the enthusiasm for offshore fishing craft seen above, I think it's fair to assume that smaller coasters would be the best fit for the majority of layouts? I wonder if it might be possible to reduce the working craft of Britain to one or two typical types per coast, with the aim of helping to set time and place for a layout quayside. All these vessels could be seen in their hundreds up until the First World War, and were not uncommon until the Second World War, with some continuing into the 1970s. Their working lives were expected to be 20-30 years, but often exceeded 50 and there were centurian examples of each type mentioned below. The tired-looking dumb barge taking the ground under the railway embankment on the Teign as a Castle thunders by in 1930 might just have run supplies to Nelson's blockading squadron off Brest in her youth and carried the stone from quarry to the same embankment in her prime...

 

Thanks Schooner. Perhaps information/sources a bit later, then a proof-read of instructions/commentary and/or a test-build?

 

Unfortunately, as per Early Risers posts, I had a Christmas 'present' of a parent's death, so I am a bit distracted at the moment and not checking in as regularly. But once I have the time to spend on this, I want to think the various bits through, speak with a local laser-cutter and do some graphic work. A full plastic kit (or even a small range of several) would be fantastic but I can't help feel it would sound like the chaps who ask Bachmann & Hornby reps at shows why they don't do a model of a ***** as I'd buy one and so would my mate... (Though I'd love to be proved wrong!)

 

 Yes, my OP is re fishing/small craft but I agree many (more?) modellers could use smaller coasters. And I could easily be tempted by one if it fitted with my quayside. 

 

Pedantically, Nelson never commanded the Channel Fleet blockading Brest, though he did have a role i/c the Channel near Dover in 1801 or so, when the government was worried by Bonaparte's Army of England camped at Boulogne (which later did far better service for him at Austerlitz). The Channel Fleet blockading Brest was usually supplied from 'hoys' rather than barges but I take your point about the reusing of/changing roles of small craft. I'd guess it would depend on all sorts of things, including how hard a life the hull had had. 

 

 

[The White Rabbit]

13 hours ago, phil_sutters said:

At the smaller end of the sizes, the Zvezda Medieval Lifeboat is a beautifully detailed whaler-sized boat at 76mm oa. https://www.wonderlandmodels.com/products/zvezda-172-medieval-life-boat/ . It has one or two elements that need adaptation, but the hull, gratings, seats etc are finely moulded.

 

 

One of the layout topics is the delightful 'Little Muddle', it has a quayside and a little while ago I posted some pictures of my take on this kit. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/120848-little-muddle/page/328/&tab=comments#comment-4193415 

 

A nice little kit, thoroughly recommended, though I'm not completely impartial! 

 

46444 did a piece on a Yorkshire coble in his blog: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/94453-blog-46444s-009-gauge-blog-building-a-coble-fishing-boat/&tab=comments#comment-1730512 using this kit. 

[Schooner]

I'm really sorry to hear that WR, a bloody awful thing to have to manage at the 'best' of times which these certainly are not. My sympathies.

 

I note how many suppliers stock a variety of sub-optimal, out of scale options, and so wonder if there might not be room for something halfway accurate (if generic...no where have I heard a debate about that before...). Regardless, an option in this regard is infinitely better than no options at all. 

 

22 hours ago, The White Rabbit said:

Pedantically...

You got me! 

 

Looking forward to more as and when, all the best

 

Schooner

 

 

 

[The White Rabbit]

Just a brief post to say that - subject to my health and continued existence - this is definitely still on the agenda. Unfortunately over the last three years things have got worse and my modelling time has been squeezed out of existence. Just as I started to get on top of a caring workload and family problems in 2021, my own health collapsed and after treatment and surgery, is still rather shaky. If 'things' can be sorted out in 2023 and I start feeling better, then I plan to get back to this and get something moving. Sorry for the delay but that's been the way life's been recently!