The Storm Slayer Ship

It always feels a bit of a shame have any models that you have painstakingly created and temporarily displayed end up hidden away at the back of your shed or garage. Their day in the sun almost forgotten and the pleasure you once felt from the pride in their creation is put on hold while the models wait in isolation, until you run out of room and decide it’s time for their dismantling.

Sometimes I hold onto a few models longer than others and two previous models of ships still sit beached there wondering if they will ever sail again back out into the public domain.

I get a bit bored with seeing my models tucked away but this hobby only gives you so much pleasure from being able to exhibit them, and the real buzz I get is from the creation process, and so it didn’t take much to decide that two wasn’t enough, and that I would build one more, but instead of a ship I would go for more like a galleon.

I started by building two identical parts of the hull and joined them together adding the main deck. This was soon followed by the adding of other decks, steps and many additional details, and for the three main masts I used two axles, and just one for the upper masts.

I had a ship design shape in mind but it’s never easy with Meccano due to mainly having straight parts for the building of the desired hull, and to make matters worse, many parts found in the large 10 models I have that are all tied up in many tucked away models that no one ever sees anymore but that I haven’t got round to dismantling.

Anyway I set about using the red angle girders I had to hand which I had in some quantity and decided I would see where that would get me.

Despite my reservation about available parts, and as you do with Meccano, I persevered with the resources at hand and soon the tide had turned and the ship was almost finished and looking good.

I had fixed most of the riggings already and was planning on adding white sails cut from cloth when I thought about the unused roll of red plastic sheeting I had in the garage, and I decided to cut the unconventional red sails from it, and I was immediately pleased with it.

With the bulk of the design now finished, I decided to seat the vessel in a supporting tower structure for the purpose of display and holding it in the appropriate position, and from where it would be able to swing or rock as if on the waves out at sea, and to achieve this I inserted a long heavy-duty axles to the centre of the hull which rested in two channels built on top of the towers.

I added a motor with lots of gears to achieve the desired speed of motion and was elated once the model was tested and found to be working perfectly. The swinging action is very smooth and better than in my other boat model, The Wrath of Tides, and in my contented state I decided to do away with the idea of also adding any cannons.

The Storm Slayer — The journey out into the world is just beginning, let’s see how this one ends!