Fire Island Lightship

The "Tub" 

This kit is based on the Nantucket Lightship. Serious scratchbuilding of the bridge and new deck houses are needed to portray the Fire Island Lightship 

New bridge underway... 

Bridge and deckhouses coming along. The kit supplied parts for the Nantucket are in the foreground. The kit's rear cabin is acceptable but will be modified. 

Construction in-progress of middle deckhouse 

Middle deckhouse coming along... 

Railings on the bridge are done. 

Bridge doors made from plastic sheet. 

Door attached to bridge. Notice the "gingerbread" trim that has been added to the bridge. 

Plastic rod for door hinges. 

Plastic strip for hinge tines. 

Wire door handle. 

Finished door with kit ladder. 

The kit's rear cabin has been striped and sanded down. A couple of the portholes have been filled. 

More details added to the bridge, including brass handrails. 

Re-building the rear cabin. 

Making hinges for the mid cabin skylights. 

Finished hinges on the skylights. 

Replaced the chunky plastic cable on the hoist with nylon string. 

Making a new smoke stack out of rolled plastic sheet. 

Added trim from half-round and flat plastic strip. 

Added stack cap from plastic sheet. 

Adding deck features. The brown wood block is from the spare parts box. 

Finished and attached the smoke stack. 

Getting closer to being ready to paint. 

Had to make the four top funnels for the foghorn out of plastic rod and tube (curved by melting), and filler. The main-stem funnel is a modified kit part. 

About ready to start painting! 

The hull is primed with oxide red, which will also be the base color below the waterline. 

Paint: gray deck and cabin roofs; red hull 

Masking the gray cabin roof areas with Silly Putty so white paint can be applied. 

The dirty yellow color now being applied is called "spar". 

Printed from WordArt in Word on white decal paper using pink ink so any edges wouldn't show too bad after I cut-out the decals. Happily, the ink washes off! 

Starboard side done. 

Ship's bell in place. The dirty looking spots on the bridge are black oil-paint wash for weathering that has not yet been "rubbed-in" to the latex base. 

Boats are done; light prisms added (bare metal foil) 

All finished except for the rigging!