So this is the Revell Harbour Tug Boat model. It didn’t have a fantastic rating or reviews, but I purchased it anyway because I thought this is a really charming little subject. So yeah, I picked up one of these guys, I think it cost me around £15 cost me. You can see a review video HERE.
A Rather basic kit the Plastic is horrible. I don’t know what makes up the plastic actually is but it’s not a nice plastic quite fragile and brittle in places. There’s a fair few parts there. One thing I’ve noticed straight away on this kit though is there’s going to be a ton of there’s a ton of flash. It’s not a great cast in some places, I think there will be quite a lot of filling on this model.
Building The Revell 1/108th Scale Harbour Tug Boat
So first two hours into the build As expected absolutely tons of sanding, you can see in here the casting marks. They need to be scraped off. And sanded down but as you can see from the next picture we got there. We’ve got a nice smooth finish on that. So, you know, we can progress It’s taken a hell of a long time to get to this stage. I think this stage was about three hours. The next stage came along quite nicely.
After cleaning up all the parts they fit pretty well together. There are no windows with this model. So we’re gonna need to figure out something for those clear portholes and whatnot. But yeah, that’s it test fitted together again a ton of sanding and a ton of bits and pieces but it’s gone together. I’m going to paint it up and separate parts and hopefully put it together quite nicely.
Painting And Weathering The Scale Model Tugboat
So the painting on this is a little bit tricky. To Start there is some masking on the hull. Most of the painting is on the cabins exterior. As most of the detailed parts are pre-moulded there is quite a lot of fine detail work left.
This definitely hasn’t been the easier of models to build or paint but now I can get on with the final stage of weathering.
I have started out with a few layers of oil washes and some streaking down the sides of the hull.
Now on to adding some rust to the boat, using both paints and pigment I’m quite happy with the results. Just a couple more bits to do on this guy.
Now I have added the rigging and the ropes to the lifeboat. I guess at this point I’m going to call it done. Check out this little video of the build.
The Finished Revell Scale Model Tugboat
All in all, it has been a fun build. Frustration at the amount of flash and the pre-moulded part but I don’t really see another tugboat model on the market. At under £20, it is quite good value, and with a little bit of love, you could get a really nice result.