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Friday, June 30, 2023

Making Boat Repairs

Time to fix those deteriorated rubber bands and make a few other repairs on my Skaven steamship:


 

Considering this ship is about 20 years old and has been through five house moves, it's held up surprisingly well. The rubber bands that I used for the drive belts on the paddle wheel have, however, disintegrated. I'm not surprised though– As a toy collector, I am well aware of the perils of rubber components: The rubber O-rings and dumbells that hold vintage G.I. Joe and Masters of the Universe figures together rarely survive the ravages of time and inevitably need to be replaced.

So I should have known better. But let this be a lesson, kids– Don't use rubber bands in your hobby projects if you want them to hold up for the long run.

The first thing I needed to do was remove the crystallized remains of the rubber. After about an hour of meticulous clipping and scraping, I was able to get it all.


 

I touched up the scrapes on the metal and wood with a little paint, and then I cut some new drive belts from a scrap of .75mm thick black styrene. I made them 1/8-inch wide, about the same as the old rubber bands, and stuck them on a piece of double-sided tape for painting. First, I primed them black and sprayed them with Tamiya AS-22 "Dark Earth" spray.

 

 

Then, I drybrushed them with a mix of GW XV-88 brown and GW Screaming Skull, mixing the color progressively lighter to highlight the edges. The final touch was to paint a few lines with the highlight color to represent cracks in the leather.

 

 

With everything cleaned up and painted, it was time to attach the belts.

 

 

And now I remember why I used the rubber bands in the first place... Getting these things glued on was a major pain and took at least two hours. Because they stretched, the rubber bands allowed me to simply loop them around the wheels without needing to trim them to a particular length. The rubber took super glue just fine, and because they were already a suitable beige color, I only needed to wash them with brown ink to make them appear weathered.


These plastic strips didn't want to stick half the time; more than once, I misjudged the length and ended up with a belt that was too short; and I had to trim the width of the strip in a few spots to fit around the framing. As much of a hassle as this all was, I still wish that I had done this in the first place.

 



 

Another thing I wanted to address is the banner pole on the captain's chair, which is made from the seat and driver from the old metal Doom Wheel. The pole is intended for a paper banner, but I never got around to adding one.

 

 

I decided to replace the pole with a plastic banner. After digging through my Skaven parts box, I came up with a few possibilities:

 

 

I settled on the Plague Monk banner. The bells were removed, and I trimmed away the banner pole in the center. On its back, I filled the gap with putty and cut some tears to match the ones on the front.

 

 

Next, I drilled all the way through post and inserted a paper clip so I could pin it between the top and bottom of the metal banner pole.

 

 

 

To keep everything clean while drilling out the base of the pole, I poked it through a paper towel to catch the metal shavings. 

 

 

I primed and painted the new pirate flag and added a Skaven icon of crossed bones.

 

Everything was pinned in place, and I touched up the wood on the pole so it all matched. 

 


 

Aside from that, there were a few spots of chipped paint that needed to be addressed. Now the Skaven steamship is good as new, better in fact.


'Til next time!

6 comments:

  1. Great stuff - the new flag looks excellent, and the belts really add to the look of the gears. Worth the trouble IMO.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! I just wish it hadn't taken me 20 years to do it! :D

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  2. Those belts look great, like those old powered looms they used to have in mills. The flag looks great too.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! The idea was to have as many gears and flywheels as I could, with the belts linking them all. (And they all mach up– That is, if you follow the rotation pattern on each side, the gears and belts would all be spinning correctly to turn the paddle wheel... if they could move, that is.)

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  3. I have always liked this model. Looks even better with the refit.

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