Sea Port Model Works 65' Workboat / Lighter

[ReadingBob]

And now for something completely different!

This is a kit I picked up the EXPO up in Altoona.  It's Sea Port Model Works 65' Workboat / Lighter.  I've build a few Sea Port kits over the years, mostly very small stuff.  The biggest being an N Scale Sardine Carrier for Cuse.  This one is a little more complex than any I've done in the past.


Hard to believe I hadn't even opened the box.  Here's the fun part, breaking the seal to see what I'm getting myself into.   


The kit comes with a relatively thick instruction book.


Plus various sealed packages of laser cut parts, metal castings, resin castings, plastic windows, etc. and a resin cast 'waterline' hull which will make it appear as if it's floating in water when placed on a flat surface.


The first thing I noticed is the hull has a bit of curve to it. It doesn't lay quite flat.  If I hold the back end down the front sticks up pretty far.  We'll take care of that a little bit later.


I started by cleaning the castings up with files, sanding sticks, emery boards, etc.  This is a metal cowl casting and I used a fine sanding stick to smooth out the little bit of a part line that it had.


More in a moment...

[ACL1504]

Bob,

I'm in on this one for sure. It will be "a beaut" when finished.

Tom

[PaulS]

I will be following along as well Bob.


Should be a fine model when finished and looking forward to learning a few things from you along the way.
Enjoy and all the best,
--Paul

[ReadingBob]

I took the resin hull casting and soaked it in hot water to try to make it pliable enough that I could straighten it out.  No dice.  Maybe I didn't have the water hot enough.  No problem.  I took a heat gun, set to it's Lowest, and directed it back and forth across the bottom of the casting (nothing to hurt down there) until I could set it down on a flat surface and hold the both ends down while it cooled.  That did the trick.  If anything I may have gone the other direction a wee bit but not noticeable.


For some of the resin castings I removed the flash by sanding the flat side until the flash disappeared.


Some of the window castings had a tiny bit of flash that I removed by gently scraping it off with the tip of an X-Acto knife.


I removed the window castings with a sprue cutter.


I touched up the window castings with an emery board.


You can't really see it that well in this photo but the life preserver castings appeared to missing parts of the rope ring that goes around them.  I was trying to figure out what to do about that.


More in a moment...

[tom.boyd.125]

Bob,
Looking forward to this one !
Only have one resin boat kit on the shelf here.
Thanks for taking the dive and hope that it will make me purchase a second one.
Tommy

[ReadingBob]

You know what they say.  When all else fails read the instructions.  It's true in this case.  The instruction address the life preservers.  They say to remove the rope ring.   


I started cutting out all the laser cut parts.  I found one window where one cut was missing which prevented removal of a piece where a window pane should go. 


I carefully made my own cut with an X-Acto knife and steel ruler. Problem solved.


The resin castings got a bath with a mix of Deep Purple and water.  I forget who recommended the Deep Purple cleaner to me years ago when I was working on a resin kit but I have a lifetime supply of it. 


This is the last picture for today.  I plan on painting the boat Red/Black/White.  After priming with Floquil Earth I airbrushed the inner side of the hull with Floquil Caboose Red.  Then I masked off the parts I want to stay red when I airbrush it with Grimy Black.  This was a bit tedious.  After doing this I sprayed the masking tape with the Caboose Red again to seal the edges.  Once that sets I'll sprat it with Grimy Black, cross my fingers and hope the black doesn't bleed under the masking tape.


That's all for today.  There's a lot of pieces to this.  I'll be painting castings for a quite some time. 

Thanks for following along!

[ReadingBob]

Bob,

I'm in on this one for sure. It will be "a beaut" when finished.

Tom

Thanks for following along Tom!  This should look good next to Red Hook Wharf when I get around to that building that one.   

[ReadingBob]

I will be following along as well Bob.


Should be a fine model when finished and looking forward to learning a few things from you along the way.
Enjoy and all the best,
--Paul

Thanks Paul!  A slight deviation from a structure for sure but it should be a fun kit to build.  May take me a little while but I'll get there.  I hope.   

[ReadingBob]

Bob,
Looking forward to this one !
Only have one resin boat kit on the shelf here.
Thanks for taking the dive and hope that it will make me purchase a second one.
Tommy

Thanks Tommy!  Thought I'd try something different for a change.  Should be fun.  I'll be experimenting a little bit with weathering too.  I want it to look like a boat that's spend more time working than it does being keep in tip top shape.   

[Mark Dalrymple]

Looking good, Bob.

I'll be watching your progress on this one for sure.

Cheers, Mark.

[Janbouli]

Following along , I have this in my stash to do also.

[ReadingBob]

Looking good, Bob.

I'll be watching your progress on this one for sure.

Cheers, Mark.

Hi Mark!  Thanks for following along.  I've been having fun with it so far.   

[ReadingBob]

Following along , I have this in my stash to do also.

Great to have you following along Jan!  You'll be able to see what you're getting into when you decide to tackle this one (which I look forward to).   

[madharry]

Great job so far. It looks like they upgraded the kit with laser cut wooden parts. My kit is all resin parts on which I am not so keen on.
Mike

[ReadingBob]

Great job so far. It looks like they upgraded the kit with laser cut wooden parts. My kit is all resin parts on which I am not so keen on.
Mike

Thanks Mike!  Glad to have you following along.  I seem to recall that when I bought this one at the EXPO a few years back there were two versions available and I went with the upgraded one.