A tug (tugboat or towboat) is a type of vessel that maneuvers other vessels by pushing or pulling them either by direct contact or by means of a tow line. Tugs typically move vessels that either are restricted in their ability to maneuver on their own, such as ships in a crowded harbor or a narrow canal, or those that cannot move by themselves, such as barges, disabled ships, log rafts, or oil platforms.
Tugboats are powerful for their size and strongly built, and some are ocean-going. Some tugboats serve as icebreakers or salvage boats. Early tugboats had steam engines, but today most have diesel engines. Many tugboats have firefighting monitors, allowing them to assist in firefighting, especially in harbors.
Compared to seagoing tugboats, harbor tugboats are generally smaller and their width-to-length ratio is often higher, due to the need for a lower draught. In smaller harbors these are often also termed lunch bucket boats, because they are only manned when needed and only at a minimum (captain and deckhand), thus the crew will bring their own lunch with them.
The number of tugboats in a harbor varies with the harbor infrastructure and the types of tugboats. Things to take into consideration include ships with/without bow thrusters and forces like wind, current and waves and types of ship (e.g. in some countries there is a requirement for certain numbers and sizes of tugboats for port operations with gas tankers).
Source: [Wikipedia]
The United States Coast Guard has served our country dutifully since 1915 and as its motto Semper Paratus implies, they are “always ready”. Its sailors perform duties including search and rescue along with defense when so ordered. One of the workhorses of the service is the tugboat offered here by Lindberg. Tugboats served in rescue operations as well as “towing” and as icebreakers. This detailed kit is 12” long and is suitable for motorization. It includes a:
- Display base
- Waterslide decal sheet
- Pictorial assembly instructions
- USCG Waterslide decals
- Display base
- 12 inches long
- Lindberg Product Number: 228
- MSRP: $29.99
- Street Price: $21.99 USD
OK, it has been almost a year since the last time I built as a subject that ”floats”. That was exactly in September 2017 when I built the 1/700 Academy USS Enterprise CV-6. This time I chose from the shelf of my local hobby shop the 1/72 Lindberg COAST GUARD Tugboat kit # 228. Let me start by saying that either the kit is not the right scale or the figures are too big for the boat. This didn’t bother me at all but I consider worth to be mentioned to the more demanding model kit builders out there. The markings for this kit depicts THE SPINDLE from the US COAST GUARD. However, the most authenticating Coast Guard color stripes were omitted because I wanted to build this kit as a generic surplus still this some of the markings?
A silicone mold was made with ALUMILITE TO duplicate tires from other model kits in resin.
There is a lot of flash and mold lines to be cleaned with this kit. That’s because the tooling could be as old as the ship it represents. But once is cleaned, it still builds a very nice model. The pictorial instructions at some points are a bit confusing. But a seasoned builder will figure things out.
This kit was once available with an electric motor and you can tell by the extra parts provided on the sprues. There is also another version which is basically the same hull but with different decks. A fire boat was/is also available.
I added a strip of 3528 warm white LED lights to the upper and lower decks which are fed by a 9v battery. Those decks are cemented together complete with the captain but the upper structure is not cemented to the hull. That gives easy fast access to the battery. In case you’re wondering where that piece of frayed rope on the front bumper came from, it was a car antenna ornament from the junkyard. The real weather did a great job for me.
The inside was painted with Krylon ‘Chrome’ to prevent light from illuminating the plastic from the inside, to secure from any other light ‘leaks’ I used Vallejo putty around the top (notable in one of the pictures below).
Here is a short list of colors used provided by our good friends at Mission Models US.
My most sincere thanks to them for always being present in any project we start.
MMS-004 Red Oxide Primer
MMP-021 Intermediate Blue
MMP-001 White
MMP-075 Light Sea Grey
All the weathering was done with the exquisite product from Ammo by Mig Jimenez.
