Introduction
Ship design, both naval and civilian, has evolved over the
centuries and inevitably some oddities have turned up in the natural course of
events. Some like the John Ericsson’s USS Monitor
were arguably successful and lead to other innovations. Others like Isambard
Kingdom Brunel’s Great Eastern were
considered flops but lessons were learned. Somewhere in between these two
examples lies Ford’s Eagle Boats.
While Ford’s ambitious construction schedule was quite simply too ambitious
and did not meet initial contractual obligations, the Eagle
Boat could be considered the forerunner of such mass produced
ships as the Higgins LCVPs and PT Boats and the modular Liberty Ships.
The Kit
About the same time that Steve "The Crimson King"
Backer received his test run copy of the Iron Shipwright’s Eagle
Boat, I received a small box from Jon "Berserker"
Warneke. After my team of trained bomb and narcotics sniffing dachshunds
completed their check without incident, I opened it up to find a pre-production
run of the Eagle Boat. At this point
I will not get into the details of the kit’s resin parts, since Steve already
covered this in his kit preview (Click for ISW
Eagle Boat Preview). I did get the photo-etched brass from Ted "Music
Man" Paris about a week or so later, which was not available at the
time of Steve’s preview. The small photo-etch brass set is well done and
provides a variety of pre-measured railings, 3 inclined ladders (2 needed + 1
extra), vertical ladder stock, the amidships tower and platform, 5 boat davits
(4 needed + 1 extra), anchor handling boom, funnel cap, ship’s wheels, mast
aerial, rigging with spreaders, and what looks like a wind vane.
With the resin and photo-etch parts provided you could build one of the 60 Eagle
Boats constructed in almost any fit. Based on the excellent
selection of photos on Navsource, the pre-WW2 fits did not have the rafts fitted
so I omitted those from my build. They were fitted on one if not all of the 8
that served in WW2. However, if you want to build the model in a wartime fit you
will probably need a hedgehog launcher, which replaced the 4-in gun in the #1
position on at least one ship, and depth-charge racks both of which are not
provided with the kit. Since this was a pre-production version of the kit, I did
not receive a set of instructions, so I will now make the requisite disclaimer:
I cannot comment on the quality or content of the instructions.
The Build
Armed with a set of photos I downloaded from Navsource and the
detailed profile drawing from Friedman’s U.S. Small Combatants,
I decided to model Eagle Boat 49 in a
1920’s fit. It would be a very straightforward build and I wanted to build
another ship in interwar USN colors. First thing I did was to breakout my trusty
Dremel with a cutting disk, my biohazard gear and went into my garage to cut the
hull down into a waterline version. This is what I normally do with models of
this size. After washing the converted hull and smaller parts I gave them all a
coat of white Krylon spray can primer. Like I mentioned above, the model was a
very straightforward with only a few changes/additions which I will cover. The
model was a pair of molded on chocks on the foc’sle which I did not find
usable. Based on photos, the anchor stocks are threaded through them but the
resin versions were too small and the openings were not cast clean through. I
removed them and substituted a pair of photo-etch closed chocks from a White
Ensign Models set left over from their Ton Class
mine hunter kit. I also added one to the stern raised up on a bit of plastic
stock, again based on the photos.
The kit’s funnel was slightly but stubbornly warped. I tried my best to
straighten it out but to no avail. So I scratch built a replacement using
plastic tubing, strip and a punched disk. I added a bit of brass tube for the
galley exhaust that was fitted on most of the Eagle
Boats. The kit comes with loads of cowl vents in a variety of
sizes and styles. For the 7 vents fitted on the stern deck, I had to cut the
resin parts down quite a bit to make them the correct height. Otherwise they
would be too tall in get in the way of the 3-in gun fitted on the stern. The
photo-etched tower platform was the railings included to make one piece. While
this is helpful, I found that the rails were a little too short in length to
meet at the corners properly once folded up. You could replace them but since I
was going to simulate a canvas covering I keep them as is and applied Krystal
Klear to fill in the railings. I also found that the pre-measured bow railings
were too long, so I trimmed them down accordingly. I scratch built the mast
using the kit’s resin version as a pattern and I added some spare photo-etch
to make the cage around the platform. I also scratch built the awning frames at
the ship’s stern using plastic strip and thin brass wire.
Finishing Touches
I painted my model using WEM Colourcoats Prewar #5
Standard Navy Gray (US01) and Prewar #20 Standard Deck Gray (US02). The hull
numbers and name of the transom are from a Microscale alphanumeric decal
set and the U.S. flag is from the Gold Medal Models set. I added
four resin crew members from the great L’Arsenal set. I gave the model
a light weathering using pastel dust and the lifeboat restraints are unwaxed
dental floss painted tan. The seascape was made from artist’s acrylic gel and
painted with acrylic paints.
Conclusion
This model was a very enjoyable build of, let’s face it, a very
ugly ship. The Eagle Boats are the
naval equivalent of "a face only a mother could love". Yet,
somehow this adds to its appeal and makes for an interesting addition to your
ship model collection. I like subjects that are off the beaten path and this
certainly qualifies. With a few minor tweaks it is a great little kit. I tip my
hat to Ed Grune for building the master and to Iron Shipwright
for tackling this esoteric subject.
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