British Powerboats MGB75
This project started with the Haynes Manual I'd bought while researching the Vosper MTB. This excellent book contains reproductions from two shipyard drawings and these were enough to challenge me to build it. Unusually, there are no commercial model plans available but I have a plan to prepare a set and will happily advance that plan if anyone is interested.
So, this is what I started with (the plan was scanned and scaled to 1:48th), it's pretty clear and good enough to work from. The second sheet has the lines... The Imperial War Museum also has some detail drawings scanned and available on-line which were a real help in deciphering the deck-house shape.
For those who are interested in the build process, you can find a complete description using this link MGB Build
The boat is mainly made in wood and metal, as with my other projects. The hull is diagonal planked in cherry and maple. In the right light, the faint diagonal lines on the hull are just discernible. Custom brass etchings were used for the gun mounts and other details, the props were cast bronze to my drawings and some components were 3D resin printed at home. The rope coil is rope made on my little ropewalk from 6-strands of fine off-white cotton. It's an emergency tow-rope anchored to the water-line tow point
The model is hand painted using Vallejo paints and washes. The blue (B15) and pale grey (507C) are my own mix, The white is Vallejo Off-white. After a lot of studying photographs, I decided the hull was grey while the deck-house is white. The cowl vents are blue. As ever, who really knows, but these colours do align with the photographs. The modelled was weathered using (mostly) Vallejo washes and metallic chipping, I like my models to look lived in (painting is a journey, I have a long way to travel but I think I'm getting better albeit slowly). The ensign was hand-painted on linen using fabric paint
The only commercial items I bought were the grab-rail stanchions, fine-scale O gauge railway items.
The model is mounted on a French-polished stop-chamfered oak base and turned brass pillars. The forward pillar has a steel pin that runs in a brass tube set into the keel to keep it balanced and allow it to seem to float.
Good shot showing the boat poles and home-made rope
Comparison with its companion model, my earlier Vosper MTB
