Model ships in N scale

Dogwood Jul 4, 2022

  1. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    I believe Pete relocated plus his business improved that he was building models for companies.
     
  2. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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  3. Dogwood

    Dogwood TrainBoard Member

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    So I'm completely fascinated by his models. I'm actually considering how such scenery could be integrated.
     
  4. DeaconKC

    DeaconKC TrainBoard Member

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    If I can suggest, there are a lot of sand loading operations up and down most major rivers. Sand is pumped into small barges, then off loaded by small cranes. The barges are small and the facilities for the off-loading quite compact.
     
  5. bman

    bman TrainBoard Member

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    He was at our clubs event several years ago. Speaking with him he was indeed getting ready to make that move. I can't remember year sorry.
     
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  6. Pete Nolan

    Pete Nolan TrainBoard Supporter

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    Hi Folks! Yes, I'm still around.I've been slowed down by spinal arthritis the past four years but may be getting a handle on it (or am learning to live with it.) I still have more ships to announce but also some that I am going to retire as poor sellers or "just too hard to build." I've been doing this about 12 years now and have learned a few lessons--mostly that I'm lousy at maintaining 3D printers and resin molding stuff. I'm thinking of selling the business for a very reasonab;e price as it is mostly just computer files. I was always torturing the digital cutters to their limits cutting styrene. I learned you don't cut styrene--you just plough through it. I've got a couple of ferries coming up--the big Arthue K Anderson from the Great Lakes and the funky Cape Charles ferry (only 223' long and most 3D printed.) After these I may just gp with only custom work as 3D printing makes superstructures easy (when they print). The Albuquerque collosus is still with me and may get reconstructed soon.
     
  7. Pete Nolan

    Pete Nolan TrainBoard Supporter

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    I think I've explained how I got into N scale marine modeling before. As a kid, I built every plastic kit available. That was in the 1950s. Soon I drifted off to airplanes,including U-Line and R/C ones, and then of course into girls. In the mid-70s, I was working in PR for a medical company with a semi-mad senior VP who one day bought every model rocket company on the market. So I was PR manager for model rockets when a semi-mad VP decided ti have a model rocket launch at Harvard Stadium. I needed someo0ne with a license to launch model rockets so I drifted into a local hobby store and saw a Rivarossie 2-8-8-2 for sale for $53.95.

    Plunge ahead 20 years. I had built a number of small N scale layouts when I moved from Boston to Albuquerque. Small house in Bosotn eqaulled big house in Albuquerque, First I built the Pittston & Dewitt in an odd-shaped hobby room. It had a river. I couldn't find any N-scale riverboats, so I built two of my own.

    A few years later I built the Portsmouth Branch of the PRR in a single stall of a garage. Guess what? The main yard had to be level. Which left me this six inch by 20-foot level spot. Let's make a harbor!

    There were no N scale ships around that would fill a 20 foot harbor. So I built my own, starting with MDF hulks supplied by Sea Rails, and then superstructures built from styrene. Railings from the Yamato set (1/200) from Gold Metal Models. The books and more books by model shipbuilders including John Bolden's Ships in Miniature.

    It's been a long trip since those days! I've moved from Albuquerque to Ohio and then to three different locations in Alabama. I landed some museum and corporate commissions that helped the hobbyist business. I commissioned my own brass out of Scotland but will not be ordering again. I print my own 3D parts, from tiny bitts to boats up to 9 inches long. I've passed on from silicon molds and resins casts, so when those models (mostly smaller) are out of stock, they are done.

    I plan to be around a while. But build times for larger ships are increasing as i get older and less willing to work every day. So I encourage you to get your orders in for this Fall season.
     
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  8. ABR1967

    ABR1967 New Member

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    Updated price list?
     
  9. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I was looking at your site, to find a photo of the 50' Crabber. Did not see one, so must have somehow missed it? Wondering if it might fit the west coast/PNW, and what era? (Interested in 1950's or close.)
     
  10. Hoghead2

    Hoghead2 TrainBoard Member

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    Peter's models are amazing, Artitec are the only others I see. I have a coaster.
    Seems like we need to order whilst we still can!
    A buddy was presented with a stash of Traincat etched signal parts lately- there's a case in point.
    . s-l500.jpg
     
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  11. Pete Nolan

    Pete Nolan TrainBoard Supporter

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    Artitec made fine models but I wanted models that were much larger. I started with C2 freighters about 450' long. That's a different magnitude and requires a different approach. Traincat made wonderful brass, but seems to have dropped out. Bob also seemed to make them himself, whie I used a firm in Scotland, PPD.
    A lot of firms have come and gone. There were some from Southeast Asia who were offering Near N Scale models for about half my price. Some seemed very good; others were pretty crappy. I can't compete with them; I can only offer what I offer. I break down the $449 freighters as $100 to the builder and $349 to the importer.
    I bless everyone who enters this market. As any person in the hobby market will attest, it is not easy.
     
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  12. Pete Nolan

    Pete Nolan TrainBoard Supporter

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    Last edited: Sep 20, 2022
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  13. samusi01

    samusi01 TrainBoard Member

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    Would it be worthwhile to create a 3d printed version that can be cranked out without much effort? One of the items on my to-do list is to go back and re-do a design I did a while back to make it more 3d print friendly; it is the painted one in the below image. Originally I did it as a way to play around with some CNC milling features and try some material that was given me.

    Tugs.jpg
     

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