by Jim Baumann
1/400 Paddlesteamer Uri, 1901 (Collecta Restoration)
The lake steamer Uri was named after the Canton (county) Uri, which borders the large mountain ringed lake of Lucerne in Switzerland.
I had the privilege of seeing Uri steaming across the lake whilst travelling on a sister-ship, the Stadt Luzern, dUring a tour of central Europe in 2003. Needless to say, I immediately had paddlesteamer fever! I wanted a model of such a steamer in my collection, but alas I knew only of the model kit of Goethe,a Rhine steamer manufactured by Revell Germany. Nice enough, but at 1/160 a bit large, a bit too modern and definitely not Swiss!
During a visit to Berne (capital of Switzerland) I saw in a model shop some ready built models of the lake steamers in 1/400, these were full hull and were nice enough and not too expensive; alas which one should I choose? I dithered about unable to decide which- if not all –to buy.... Eventually I placated my spending euphoria with the thought that I could mail order the model(s)( all!) at a later date.... Back home in the UK sense prevailed (they were quite costly) and no paddlesteamer collection was purchased!
In January 2004 on German e-Bay I happened upon the sale of a 1/400 model from the Hamburg firm of 'Collecta' (I believe no longer trading) who produced a series of high quality cased collector's models ranging from sailing ships to... paddle steamers! The model was described as waterline and slightly damaged with parts missing….
The model arrived with the aft awning damaged beyond repair, mast broken and various bits missing and damaged. The lettering for the name was all but invisible, flags were clunky and flat, windows unglazed, seating a strange colour, the paddlebox overhangs had no supporting struts, deck overhangs had no stanchions and the funnel was devoid of steam pipes etc. Despite these failings it looked like a quick, easy and fun project.... and it was! I set to work immediately-completing the model 4 weeks later.
The Uri was built of a die-cast hull furnished with an entirely photo-etched superstructure, which contained some canny and intricate design features which would eventually thwart complete disassembly to try and make it finer, especially the rails.
I wanted to depict the vessel steaming across the lake with her decks crowded with passengers. This meant I had to lever open tins of paint in bright colours that had been sealed for decades, even having to buy additional bright colours to allow me to 'clothe' the multitude of passengers seated and standing. Waving at people on shore is common, so many of the 'saluting' GMM figures had their arms parted from caps to wave, whilst the remainder had to be bent to various seating poses, ladies had bare upper-arms, some in short skirts!
Some of the steamers have had their semi-permanent canvas 'canopy' replaced with grey painted aluminium sheeting, so models of these vessels should have the ‘canopy’ represented totally flat, a much easier prospect to model using styrene sheet!
Uri however still retains the original canvas style awning, and hence I had to re- make the large canopy frame using brass wire and then make the covering using thinned white glue spanning the apertures between the frames to represent the canvas awning. Flags were made on the PC and printed with an Alps printer onto decal film and applied over aluminium foil. The lettering for the name script was made in the above manner with two decals being made; one in black and the other in gold. These were then overlaid on the model to produce the shaded effect; doubtlessly a skilful PC user could manage this somewhat tedious operation as one decal.
The model was set onto its artists textured watercolour paper ‘lake’(!) and rigged with sprue in my usual
My paddlesteamer frenzy has been, for the moment, satiated. Uri is a most unusual model, the restoration and detailing of which proved challenginghowever it made a refreshing change from
