Martin Field
Western Thunderer
Some interest was shown in this in another thread, so I thought I'd put some pics up.
It's really knocking on a bit these days as I started it about 10-11 years ago, just after we moved back on the bank, having lived afloat for 5 years. It was all I had and still have, space for.
It's completely made up, but with the Welsh Marcher country in mind as far as the canal goes at least as our old boat Heather Bell, was built slightly narrow to make doing the Welsh Canal a little easier.
It depicts a well used wharf that serves a country estate stone and timber business via a narrow gauge line. The old blacksmith now spends more time repairing the locos and stock and his son has gone the way of so many country smiths by turning the old forge building into a small workshop, specialising in microcars, bikes and vintage cars. He doubles up by helping load and unload the trains and boats and services the boat engines. Refuelling the boats that call here is a good little earner as there are fewer and fewer places that a boatman can "oilup" these days.
A cafe, originally a hut to serve the railwaymen, now functions as a service to a wider clientelle, since it is very popular with bikers as a local run out and destination. An old caravan was found on an allotment and now offers diners a small sit-down aspect for a proper meal and a toilet, something always embarrassingly missing before.
The base is an open frame in 9mm ply with the higher ground done with hot glued cardboard strips, which are then epoxy resinned. The road is clearly too steep so will be redirected to off scene and the hill will become a tunnel.
The boat is a replica exactly, in wood, of the wooden Heather Bell, a craft whose structure I know like "l'interieur d
e ma poche", having restored it fully (three oak trees were used to re-plank her). The apparent oddity of her iron frames (when I get round to doing them) is accurate. When wooden boats were literally knocked up, one team did one side and one the other and they didn't seem to use a stick of inches or try to keep even with the other team! My frames were anything from 3 feet to 3'-6" apart and never opposite each other. They were blacksmith made as witness the marks on them where they were tapered and bent round.
The water will be Perspex with the underside painted and some of the surface engraved with a few ripples and polished.
It's really knocking on a bit these days as I started it about 10-11 years ago, just after we moved back on the bank, having lived afloat for 5 years. It was all I had and still have, space for.
It's completely made up, but with the Welsh Marcher country in mind as far as the canal goes at least as our old boat Heather Bell, was built slightly narrow to make doing the Welsh Canal a little easier.
It depicts a well used wharf that serves a country estate stone and timber business via a narrow gauge line. The old blacksmith now spends more time repairing the locos and stock and his son has gone the way of so many country smiths by turning the old forge building into a small workshop, specialising in microcars, bikes and vintage cars. He doubles up by helping load and unload the trains and boats and services the boat engines. Refuelling the boats that call here is a good little earner as there are fewer and fewer places that a boatman can "oilup" these days.
A cafe, originally a hut to serve the railwaymen, now functions as a service to a wider clientelle, since it is very popular with bikers as a local run out and destination. An old caravan was found on an allotment and now offers diners a small sit-down aspect for a proper meal and a toilet, something always embarrassingly missing before.
The base is an open frame in 9mm ply with the higher ground done with hot glued cardboard strips, which are then epoxy resinned. The road is clearly too steep so will be redirected to off scene and the hill will become a tunnel.
The boat is a replica exactly, in wood, of the wooden Heather Bell, a craft whose structure I know like "l'interieur d
e ma poche", having restored it fully (three oak trees were used to re-plank her). The apparent oddity of her iron frames (when I get round to doing them) is accurate. When wooden boats were literally knocked up, one team did one side and one the other and they didn't seem to use a stick of inches or try to keep even with the other team! My frames were anything from 3 feet to 3'-6" apart and never opposite each other. They were blacksmith made as witness the marks on them where they were tapered and bent round.The water will be Perspex with the underside painted and some of the surface engraved with a few ripples and polished.
Berkeley at Denton Brook
