Member Model – Rowen’s HMS Beagle

There have been eight ships named Beagle in the Royal Navy, the second was the one made famous in the voyage of Charles Darwin.

The one modelled by Rowen is the eighth, a hydrographic survey ship of the Bulldog class, commissioned in 1968 and sold in 2002. These vessels were unique in the RN in having been painted white.

The glassfibre hull for the model was purchased from “Models by Design” and brought back to Canada from the UK. The hull moulding required minor rework, but nothing unexpected. After checking dimensions and hull form, Rowen made up a framework which was glued into the hull to stiffen it and provide a structure for mounting components. It later became clear that, although the port bulwarks were the correct height and shape, the starboard were cut slightly too low at the stern ends. These were built up to correct height with plywood and reinforced with glass fibre.

An alloy template was made to the size of the deck wash port slots which were then drilled and filed to the templte dimensions.  The fairleads were made out of sections of a plastic syringe body, cut to length and hot swaged over a leather hole punch to give a tapered appearance. The same technique was used on the bull lead, but with styrene tubing as the hole is bigger. It was sleeved with more styrene tube and filed to produce the profile.
HUCO-style double universal joints were temporarily replaced with styrene rod cut to the same length. The brass couplings ends were inserted into the ends of the rod so the alignment is maintained.

The motors were mounted on a short bulkhead which was initially tacked into the hull. Once the alignment was established the bulkhead was epoxied in place and the dummy sleeves removed. A small rubber block was inserted lightly into the gap between the motor casing and hull to relieve the weight on the bulkhead.

Porthole frames were made from 5/16″ o.d. styrene tube for the outer frame and a ¼” acrylic rod inserted to resemble the glass. They were cut from the lengths of rod using a pipe cutter. The outer frame was epoxied into holes drilled into the hull and any gaps filled up with epoxy. The glasses were left out until the painting was complete. The cut acrylic rod surfaces required polishing to remove the cutting marks.

The rudders were made from 0.045” styrene sheet, heated and bent double around a brass rod. The rudder shaft was inserted in the correct location and then CA glued into place. The open halves of the sheet were glued together and trimmed to final dimensions, and the cavity surrounding the shaft filled with epoxy adhesive. The rudder shaft tubes had previously been installed into a wooden block glued in the hull to provide a rigid mounting.
To retain as much accss to the hull interior as possible, the deck was made from two pieces, a “skirt” about 1″ wide that contained the bulwark stanchions and waterways. On top of this was added a detachable deck, which was planked. The planking is laser cut basswood with an uncut portion at the end of each sheet to aid installation. The uncut portion holds the strips in alignment and helps in gluing them down straight. It saves time also except when it becomes necessary to joggle them into the margin plank.

Rowen purchased a slow speed 12v motor to make the radar scanner operable. The motor was mounted upside down to the wheelhouse internal roof with its extended driveshaft poking through and pointing upwards. The internal mast tube slipped snugly onto the gearbox output shaft sleeve. The output shaft was extended up to the mast radar platform level using a length of brass tube with a small pinion gear fitted into the end. The radar scanner sits on a platform extending forwards from the mast. Two idler gears from an old clock (which also provided the input shaft and radar shaft pinions), formed a geartrain which provided the correct offset for the scanner mounting shaft. The platform was made from styrene with brass bushes fitted to act as bearings for the pinions and idler gears. Unfortunately the platform is deeper than shown on the drawings, but it does not look out of place and is an appropriate place to use “modeller’s licence”. This approach avoided having the scanner motor slung under the platform and visible.

Most of the fittings are either scratch built, with some from a couple of specialist epoxy cast item suppliers. One of the challenges was the survey boat, which resembled an Admiral’s barge. Information from a variety of sources enabled Rowen to make a fair facsimile from a solid piece of basswood.

The only approach that could be considered out of the ordinary was the Land Rover installation. He first made up a mounting plate as no self-respecting RN crew could live with the oil pools on the decking! The vehicle itself is attached to a ¼” coaxial plug, which fits into a mating socket which is also used for charging the batteries.

Sailing trials confirmed a recommendation by another modeller of this vessel that the whole of the rudders should be underwater, and the handling improved enormously when ballasted to do this. Rowen initially ran using 6V batteries, and while he was satisfied with the 6V performance, it left little “Emergency” reserve. After receiving a higher capacity voltage reducer, he decided to temporarily wire it in and, running from 12V, see what the effect of gradually increasing voltage would be. In his opinion 7 volts is ideal, there is an adequate reserve and she has a realistic bow-wave and wave pattern. He also tried 8 and then 9 volts. 8 is fine with a more pronounced bow wave, but she starts to get unrealistically fast at 9. After this testing he decided to install the reducer permanently, set at 8 volts, so can throttle back and enjoy the ship with plenty of reserve.