90' Ferry/Excursion Ship (Party Ship!) in N and Z

[pnolan48]

The Eilun plies the usually placid Wadden Sea off the Netherlands and Germany as a ferry and for-hire party ship, normally running to the resort Amrum Island from a variety of coastal ports.



The same or similar designs can be found around the world. Requiring little dock space or water depth, I've seen these 90-95-footers up and down the East and West Coasts of the US. They are not much bigger than many fishing vessels and often pull into small sandy beaches



At less than 100 tons, it does not require a "Heavy Ship" master. The kit includes all styrene and brass parts. See nscaleships.com for kit pricing. I think these will not be available as built-ups, but inquire. Z scale version shown.

[Philip H]

Pete,
That's a modern charter fishing boat in the US - also known as headboat. The Atlantic tuna fleet has dizens of these.
Well done!

[pnolan48]

Thanks, Phil! I've been on at least a dozen of these out of Boston, for booze cruises or daytime fishing trips. My mother and stepfather probably went fishing on one of them out of Gloucester or Rockport at least six times each season for--Lord--25 years. I hope the price--$40--draws some interest.

[jimmo]

Hey Pete, do you have another view? Those two views are fine but basically the same angle from the stern.

How about a bow shot like this?

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[pnolan48]

I just picked the wrong shots! Dang, I'll fix tomorrow.

[pnolan48]

Here you go:



Trying to do a product announcement on your iPhone while waiting in a medical clinic is not often successful!

[jimmo]

Thanks for the bow shot. Multi-tasking can be challenging, but it looks like you pulled it off.

Not to be nit-picky but the roof doesn't slope up as you have it on the model. Notice that the roof is actually level and the sheet metal rises up and around the front of the wheelhouse. Would that be easy to correct in building the kit?

[pnolan48]

It's been corrected. I just haven't had time to paint up another model.

[tehachapifan]

That's way cool looking! Might have to eventually get one once I actually finish my port area.

[jimmo]

Hey Pete, is there any way I can see what the kit parts look like? Maybe a quick shot of the parts spread out on a table. I'm just curious how you engineer such a model kit. I'm assuming that they are craftsman type kits and there would be a lot of forming and fitting.

Most of your kits appear to be modern, are there any that would go back to the '40s or '50s, or even earlier?

[pnolan48]

The Eilun is small and actually pretty simple, except for the hitch in the bow. The only forming is at the bow, where a clamp at the bottom of the bow pretty much does it. Gluing styrene around straight formers is pretty easy. There's really not much trimming--there's some because I leave a little margin that can usually be sanded off. Bigger ships do require more forming, as complex curves come into play. But then there are more formers. Some curves do not unwrap to a flat surface, so some larger bows require a relief cut that has to be filled and smoothed.

I'll agree that most of my small boats are modern. But the Active-class cutter goes back to the 1920s; the ATSF tugs to 1944; the Beavercove to 1947; the early container ship also back to 1947 for the hull, but 1970 for the superstructure; the subchaser to 1940, the Solano ferry to the 1890s; the Edna G. to the same; the W.A. Irvin laker to the late 1930s, and so on.

I'll send you a pdf of the Eilun via PM.

[jimmo]

Thanks Pete!