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Fittings
The making of the detailed steering wheel is of interest. Let us
hear from Roland Pierson on this subject:
“I first made a brass crown and then shaped a disk of pearwood
which I stuck inside. I reamed the disk to get the required thickness
of the wood. Then I turned two disks in Plexiglas with the same size
as the wheel. I then inserted the brass and pearwood in between
the Plexiglas disks and glued them together. Finally the spokes and
hub were added.”
The assembled steering wheel was added to the other
manufactured fittings such as fairleads, cleats, mooring bollards,
ironwork of the rudder, the anchor, etc. The capstan was made
from turned Plexiglas, the air vents were hot moulded in PVC, the
compass was made from brass, etc. These parts were all scratch-
built by Roland Pierson, none were ready made. This further
highlights the character of the Chimaera.
The lifeboat, the plan of which was taken from a book about
English pilot boats, was made using the classic construction
method with a mould to give a correctly positioned keel, and each
part was hollowed out to reduce weight.
The gratings in pearwood were tailor made to fit the openings.
They were machined using a Unimat table saw with a fixed width
guide. The grooves were made using a 50 mm diameter, 1 mm thick
cutter. This thickness of the cutter combined with the position of
the guide determined the final characteristics of the grating. The
rigging was made from shoemaker’s thread in the classic way on a
sewing machine.
superstructures
The main, removable cabin and small superstructure consisted of
a horizontal 2.5 mm thick aviation plywood base around which were
1.5 mm plywood walls. These structures were then covered with a
pearwood veneer. The front corners of the main cabin were made
of solid pearwood because of their curves.APRIL 2015 http://www.marinemodelmagazine.comThe removable rear deckThe main cabinThe bridge deckAir vents, hot moulded in PVCThe base of the mastp40_MMAPR15_Chimera Pierson.indd 42 9/3/15 11:02:01