Heavyweight barge

[meechingman]

Well, I finally got the project started!
Anyone who's seen a Wyeforce or Southampton tug knows that they're just too fast for their own good, but have a fair bit of oomph behind them. So I wanted a barge that was heavy, with plenty of mass below the waterline to give my Southampton a challenge. A friend was having a new conservatory built so I got four lengths of mahogany from his old one. These were cut and shaped, then dowelled and glued together. The edges were then rounded off. I want it to carry 'coal', so the plywood 'hold' was then added.

I'd calculated the displacement and weight - about 12kg - to give her about an inch of freeboard and today gave her the 'bath test' to see if I was right. I was pretty near. :D

Now it's time to paint and add fittings. Our local aquarium shop sells loose gravel for fish tanks - any colour you like - so black will do just fine for the coal! It will also add just a bit more weight. I don't think it will alter her balance much as she's got so much weight under the water already.

Fendering will be made using black rubber hose, but can anyone in the UK know where I can get suitable deck fittings please?

A few pix are attached, I'll take a few more as work progresses and she makes her first voyage under tow.

Andy :)

[patmat2350]

Aye, you have a strong back then!
Those of us who are less robust might consider a false lid with a small pile of gravel, held in place by a saturation of glue (this is what the model railroaders do to keep their coal loads and track ballast in place). Then under the lid, have some easily removed ballast weights. Makes launching and retrieval a tad easier!
Pat M

[mike_victoriaBC]

I've built one but boxed it off with holes in the bottom drilled for winecorks (excuse to empty the bottle!) - let water in to add weight, drain it before you go and it's easy to lug home. I treated the inside with a cold cure type epoxy, seems to be ok. I've seen a number of these, especially the larger ones for ease of carrying.

[meechingman]

Well, I'm getting there. Here are some more pix. She's had three coats of aluminium based waterproof primer, three coats of deep red and two of black. Hope that's enough!

Following suggestions about the weight, I abandoned the idea of gravel! Instead I used four sheets of polystyrene tile, cut to fit and glued together as a sandwich. The top one was then sprayed with enamel black gloss. As I expected, this melted and deformed the polystyrene. A few bits of gravel were then glued on and the whole thing painted satin black (still a bit too glossy for coal, maybe).

Next up is the fendering and deck fittings, then she's off to the lake!

Andy G

[thething84]

i have a question. how do you work out the displacement. this may sound stupid.

[arrow5]

Another stupid question..what was wrong with real coal ? What scale the barge fittings required?

[meechingman]

I first worked out the volume of the barge, basically a rectangular slab with a triangular chunk missing at the front. That gave me the weight of water she would displace if floating just on the surface. I then weighed her. If she'd weighed the same as the weight of water she'd displace, she would float with no freeboard. She was lighter than that, so it was out with the calculator to 'guesstimate' how much of her volume would be under the water, and how much above. From that I had another guess at what the freeboard would be.

There's probably a better, more scientific way of doing this, but it worked near enough for me.

Coal might be a bit heavy, like the gravel I was planning to use. OK there's a lot of weight under water, but anything above would destabilise her slightly. Hence my decision to use fake coal, and it also has the advantage that the cargo is removable, if I'd like to change it at some time.

The tug is 1:36 scale, my local model shop just doesn't keep much. I'd also like to get rubber strip for all-round fendering.

Andy G :)

[meechingman]

Had a problem with getting 1:36 deck fittings, so I had to improvise. The stanchion posts are large sized marker pins from my notice board, sprayed black and epoxied in place. The all-round fendering strip I wanted is actually rubber draught excluder from my local B&Q hardware superstore. It's self adhesive, so I expect I'll have to epoxy that too - eventually. Don't know whether to leave it matt dark brown or paint it matt black. All that's left is the white stripe between the hull and boot topping colours. Then it's off to the pond! :)

Andy G

[Kmot]

Looks great! :)

You only need to make five more! :D

http://users.adelphia.net/~mrtomcook/Coal%20Bardge.JPG

[CG Bob]

i have a question. how do you work out the displacement. this may sound stupid.If you know the light and full load displacement of the full size vessel, you can use the following formula.
Full size displacement in tons x 2240 pounds (in a long ton), divided by the cube of the scale (scale x scale x scale); or you can by the scale 3 times.
An example: I'll be building a model of a USCG 210-foot cutter, which displaced about 1000 tons at full load. The model will be 1:48 scale, so the scale cube factor is 110,592 = 48x48x48. 1000 x 2240 = 2,240,000/110,592 = 20.3 pounds.

You DO NOT want to use the Gross or Net tonnage of a vessel for the calculation. The Gross & Net tonnages are based on the cubic capacity of the vessel, and not its weight (or mass).

[meechingman]

White line now applied. Luckily, the wife of one of my music students works for a company that does lines and lettering.

As for the pix, it's not the lake, but it gives you the idea. Maybe a bit of fun with Photoshop would put them on the water!

Andy G ;)

[wingnut163]

Ahoy Mates;
want to see some tugs and barges. goto RCScaleModelBoats@yahoogroups
man do they have the tugs and barges pluss a lot of other boats.

[DanL]

KMot - the pic you posted looks like the barge I just built for my tug...
it needs more weathering. And water.

[Kmot]

DanL: Wow!!! Very nice! :)

[Jeff G]

DanL I love it!

[Kmot]

But I did get your tug on the water, lol!

[wingnut163]

see that, sea triles with out leaving your computer.
im sure the real water will do as well.

[Jeff G]

The tug in the background looks like it may have a water in the hull problem!

[Umi_Ryuzuki]

I didn't want to spend too much time on this...
Just some quick scaling, airbrush, and distortions...

:rolleyes:

[MILLERTIME]

Return Trip

[RGinCanada]

I couldn't resist.

[meechingman]

Thanks for all that everyone! I hope the real trials go that well.

Although the white stripe between hull and boot topping is 'supposedly' waterproof - it's the same as a 'go faster' stripe on a car - would I be better to cover the whole thing in a waterproof varnish coat of some kind? If so, what would you recommend I use?

Thanks
Andy G