SS Michelangelo 1962 by shipmodel - FINISHED - 1/350 scale

[BenF89]

It's possible they're red and white. It wouldn't be unreasonable for them to be in the configuration red/white/red. That combination would allow for a variety of the standard international rule signals.

[Jack12477]

Dan, I agree with Druxey on the mast lights red over green would confuse any mariner. Can you get/borrow a copy of the "Nav Rules" from Kings Point or USCG ?  The book describes all the lights both on ships as well as nav bouys. Remember " red right returning" !

[BANYAN]

Great looking model Dan; the details are superb.  

If you look up "the task lighting" section of the "rules of the road" for maritime navigation you will find the appropriate task light colours.  The main task lights will need to have catered for - not under command, restricted in ability to maneuver, and perhaps under tow, which mandate combinations of white, yellow and red lights in specific sequences, arcs of visibility and spacing.  That may help determine the lighting colours and placement  and add some interest?

The attached pics provide a summary of some of the task and nav light Rules, and an example light control panel, that while a modern version covers the same types of light requirements for older vessels under the 'rules'.  the insignia/logos on the images show from which companies/organisations the graphics originate.

 

  

 

I hope this helps you add some life to the lights

 

cheers

 

Pat

[shipmodel]

Guys - 

 

I had no idea how those lights were used, but it makes perfect sense.

Jack, Pat - I will check to see if there was a regulation covering those lights for ocean liners in the 60's.  If that does not pan out, I will go with Ben's suggestion of red/white (silver)/red.

 

Many thanks for sharing the knowledge.

 

Dan

[Jack12477]

Dan, be careful, red-white-red or black ball-diamond-ball (daytime), indicates vessel is not able to maneuver.  USCG bouy tenders use this pattern when servicing a navigational aid (bouy). See Pat's chart, right side, 2nd panel down. ANT 101  (Aid to Navigation Team). 

 

Didn't recognize the light pattern at first, only the daytime pattern since our local ANT crew doesn't usually work on bouys after dark.

Edited May 10, 2018 by Jack12477

[BenF89]

My point was having the lights available in that combination may allow a variety of signals - not necessarily that they would all be illuminated all the time. (You could put just red over red to signal Not Under Command or Aground). 

 

Plus, I've heard about larger commercial ships displaying red/white/red lights in restricted channels - if a tanker is draft-limited in the middle of a channel, she doesn't have anywhere to go, so red/white/red is appropriate. Probably less common with a liner, but probably still required to be available to the commander of the ship. (Heck, we had to put a removable light mast with that signal and a bunch of others, like towing, on an 85 foot patrol boat, since they're international signals and if they're in certain situations, they have to display them.)

 

All that said, this only matters if the lens of the glass is colored, such that a red light would still look red even if it's off. If it's a colored bulb/filament, with the lights off, they would probably just look silver. So that may be the best route for a display model? 

[Jim Lad]

Red 'not under command' lights (at least at the time of the 'Michelangelo') had to be visible all around the horizon - not just from ahead.  The only navigation lights in the position of these lights on the mast would be white 'vessel under tow' lights.

 

John

[BenF89]

Oh, true - that's an excellent point. I totally overlooked that. Thanks John! (And thanks Dan for being patient with our navigation lights tangent!)

[shipmodel]

Ben, not to worry.  I am enjoying learning something new about my ship.

 

I enlarged the photo of the lights to see if there were any indications of color.  It was taken in daylight with the lights off, but they actually look sort of maroon.  Not much help there.  If there is a final consensus, I will go with that.  Otherwise, something with plausibility will be fine.

 

Dan

[shipmodel]

 

Hello to all the following group, and everyone who looked in.  Thanks for the many likes and compliments, and especially for the comments and critiques.  I will try to keep up the level of work.

 

This will be a short post, despite the month since my last one.  I took on a restoration project that was time sensitive, so I had to put the Michelangelo on the siding while that train went through.  The major work this time was on the cargo cranes that sit on the forward deck.

 

Here is the section of the plans for the cranes, lacking a lot of the details that can be seen in the two photos of the uprights.  As you can see, they are not the simple posts that many are, but have numerous fittings, rings, winches and flat blocks.  Notice particularly the three spotlights hanging from horizontal supports.

 

 

Each element was reproduced as closely as I could, given the small scale of the model.   The post and the booms were assembled from telescoping brass tubes with the top of the post turned from a small piece of hardwood dowel.  The boom pivot fittings, rings, winches, and the light supports were cut from styrene.  The lights themselves are small drops of epoxy on wire posts. 

 

The biggest problem turned out to be the cable blocks.  In the close-up you can see why.  The set consists of two upper single blocks attached to the post.  Attached to them is a smaller single block on the inner side, with a double block for the outer, heavier boom.  Note how flat they are.

 

I tried numerous ways to reproduce them without success.  They are just too small for my abilities.  I tried punched plastic discs, but could never get them to line up right, and attaching them to the post and to each other was impossible.  Cast metal blocks were better, but the attachment lugs broke repeatedly. Ultimately I settled on 2mm wood blocks that I am used to working with from sailing ship rigging.  Once painted white I think they came out acceptably.

 

The cables are 0.006” polished black thread which contrasts nicely with the dominant white and tan color scheme.  The final touch was to give the spotlights a touch of silver on their bottoms to represent the bulbs.

 

I can see that there are some paint chips and railing sections that got bent by my clumsy fingers while working on the cranes, and these will be addressed before the next posting. 

 

Until then, be well.

 

Dan

 

   

 

[Mirabell61]

Good work on the cranes and their pulleys Dan...

 

Nils

[Jim Lad]

I've made steel cargo blocks at 1:100, but I can see how they'd be a real problem at your scale. The overall effect you've achieved looks good.

 

John

[shipmodel]

Hi Nils, John - 

 

Thanks to you both.  Ultimately, I am satisfied with how the cranes look on the model, especially if I take off my glasses.    

I know that there is a solution out there, but I suspect it lies in the field of fine jewelry or by using circuit board manufacturing techniques.  Neither one was affordable in time or treasure for only 12 blocks.  Perhaps one day . . . 

 

Dan

[mtaylor]

Dan,

As I recall (it's been awhile since I saw it) Model Expo had an photo etching kit for not much money.   Might be worth looking into maybe not for this project but one down the road.

[shipmodel]

Hi Mark - 

 

Yes, I have the PE kit.  Unfortunately, my efforts to date have not been very good.  Something to work on in the future, as you say.

 

The learning is never ending, but that's one of the major reasons that I work in this field.

 

Dan 

[md1400cs]

Dan,

 

Just catching up as well. Such great progress. A has been said your funnels are indeed awesome. I remember as a kid that those funnels on the ship were so beautiful and futuristic looking. Your replica so captured, in scale those as well. Well done indeed. PS: pool aint so bad either (:-)

 

Cheers,

Edited June 9, 2018 by md1400cs

[shipmodel]

Hi again to all.  Many thanks for the likes and compliments, as always.   

 

It has been a while since my last post on this build log.  Summer means more outdoor activities with family and many more outdoor chores, so less modeling.  Someone should do something about that. 😋   This build has also been hijacked by another project.  I have been hired by the US Merchant Marine Academy museum to build 7 models in the next 4 years, and I have been doing the research and laying the groundwork for them.  I will, of course, be writing and posting build logs as I go along. 

 

The first of these will be quite an unusual model.  It will be of the USS/SS Leviathan (1914), which in her day was the largest ship in the world.   She was a troop ship during WW I and an ocean liner afterwards.  The troop ship was painted in a wild ‘dazzle’ camouflage, while the liner was dressed in the red-white-and blue livery of the US Lines.

 

The unique thing about the model is that I am directed to build the port side as the troop ship, with its guns, military style boats and dozens of life rafts, etc.  The starboard side will be done as the ocean liner with the guns removed and civilian style boats.  Down the centerline, where there were added lookout posts, rangefinder platforms and other structures, I am to cut them in half, make them hollow and paint the edges red to show the differences.   The scale is 1/16”=1’, so the model of this 950 foot ship will be just under 5 feet long.  Oh, and I only have 9 months to complete it.  Wish me luck.

 

I did get some work done though.  I ended the last installment of the log with the construction of the bow cargo cranes.  Next I turned to the lifeboats.  With the Michelangelo, as with all ocean liners, the boats are an important visual element.  In this illustration you can see how their bright orange interiors contrast with the general white colors of the ship.  There are several types of boats shown, including a motor launch, although I cannot decide if this is a grainy photograph or a painting that may differ somewhat from the actual ship.

 In this next photo there is no launch, although the first boat is smaller and the second has an enclosed cabin at the bow.  The boats hang from fairly simple one arm davits of a design that I have not seen before.  

From overhead I can see that the davits are joined to each other with a shaft that ends in large fittings which are probably the winches for the boat falls.  Toward the aft end of the boats there is a white blocky element which must be either the engine or the control station for the boat.

 The boats started life as appropriately sized pewter castings from Bluejacket.  With some refining they made excellent fittings.  First the sides were smoothed to remove the bumps which are meant to be safety lines, I guess.  The sternpost was straightened and concave hollows ground to let the water reach the propeller cavity.  A plastic rudder was roughly cut and secured with CA, then refined in place.

 The insides of each boat was ground thinner, as was the cast thwart insert.  After gluing it in, the whole boat was primed and painted white.  Then the thwart piece was painted a bright safety orange.  A short piece of plastic rectangular rod was set in for the engine.   Lift blocks were made from Bluejacket 2mm castings.  Their becket ends were cut off and their eyes were drilled out at the other end.  A wire was looped through the eye and secured in each hole at the ends of the boat.

            This photo shows the danger of macro lenses.  I had to go back to straighten the engine block and touch up the paint.  The speckled look is not a mistake, though.  Well, not much of a mistake.  The original orange was much too bright, even though it was the correct color.  For model purposes the intensity had to be tamed.  I opted for a light mist of spray paint from a distance.  The speckles are not individually visible without magnification unless your nose is an inch or two from the model, so the result is acceptable.  Nonetheless, the next time I would probably choose a thin wash of translucent white or grey.

 

The davits turned into a problem.  Here is my best photo of their shape.  They have a curved vertical arm with two flat pulley at the top.  About halfway down there is a support arm that holds the keel and has a padded block for the boat to rest against.  None of the commercial houses had anything close, and I needed 40 of them, all identical.

 

Making so many identical fittings proved to be beyond my skills, so once again I turned for help to my friends who do laser cutting.  Charlie Zardoz and Chuck Passaro are two of the most generous members of our community and they have my sincere thanks.  I first marked out and cut a master davit from plastic.  It turned out to be 22mm tall, about 7/8". 

 

I took that photo with a macro lens and exported it into CorelDraw, where I drew the outline of the shape.  I sent this out and had laser cut copies created in both wood and plastic.  The wooden ones were just the right thickness, but unfortunately there was a weak point at the base of the support arm where the grain runs vertically.  Even strengthening the wood with hardener only helped a bit.  The plastic ones were strong enough, but were too thin.

 In the end two of the plastic davits were glued together, with two punched discs to represent the pulleys.

The davits were secured against the deck house on the Boat deck 25mm from their partner.  They were joined by a .020” brass bar seated in two small blocks mounted to the inner faces of the davits.  Each boat was hung with .003" fly tying line that began in each block, ran up and over the inner pulley, through the lift block on the boat, up and over the outer pulley, and then through a hole in the bulwark that led behind the rail.  Small clips held tension on the lines until the height was adjusted, then everything was secured with CA and the excess line cut off invisibly behind the railing. 

 Here are the forward three boats on the port side.  The forward boat is slightly smaller and hangs just a bit lower than the rest.  PVA glue holds the boats to their support arms and everything is really quite secure.

And for scale, here is FDR about to board the middle boat.

 Here is the entire port side run of boats.  I wish I had more depth of field for a better photo, but you get the idea.

 And here is the starboard side.  I think it matches up pretty well to the illustration of the ship at the beginning of this post.

 

Only a few final details and it will be ready for launching.   I will report in again soon.  Till then,

 

Be well

 

Dan

 

 

Edited August 15, 2018 by shipmodel

[druxey]

What a repetitive job! Neat result, though.

[Hubac's Historian]

Great work on those castings, Dan.  They really cleaned up nicely.  Also, an interesting idea for muting the orange paint;  Chuck Close would appreciate that one.  Altogether, a fine job you have done on this elegant ship.  Congratulations, Dan!

[xken]

Dan, great job on the boats! I have been side tracked on the Detroit by a couple of commissions. Keep up the great work you are doing.

[michael mott]

Dan, great to see the Michelangelo closing in on the launch. Your new project sounds extremely challenging I wonder perhaps building the model as two halves so as to avoid becoming schizophrenic.

 

Michael

[BANYAN]

Very nice job on those davits Dan, they look terrific.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[shipmodel]

Hi guys - 

 

Thanks for all the likes and compliments.  Yes, Druxey, building an ocean liner is an exercise in repetition.  The first few were fun.  The recent ones more of a chore.  I have developed some techniques and have been the beneficiary of some wonderful gifts from friends in the community.  But still a chore.   Fortunately I get some commissions to build or restore sailing ships so I can keep those skills sharp.

 

Michael, I suggested that I build two half models and mount them on front-surface mirrors, but this was rejected in favor of the bizarre bi-polar model.  Well, it's their dime, so they get to make the decision.

 

Be well

 

Dan

 

[michael mott]

So Dan instead of mounting them on mirrors would it not be easier to make them separately and then glue them together as one? it would save a lot of masking and fiddling I think.

 

Michael

[mtaylor]

Just wow! on those boats, Dan.   They look darn good like you had a miniature assembly line with tiny workers putting them together.

[shipmodel]

Michael - I never even considered that solution.  Brilliant!  Unfortunately, I have already laid up the hull lifts, so I am committed (or should be) at this point.

 

Mark - Who told you my secret?  😉

 

Dan

[michael mott]

Oh well, I tried. Then again once the hull is glued up you could split it down the center line and simply add a thin layer on the cut to bring the size to the correct width.

[cog]

On 6/7/2018 at 4:04 AM, shipmodel said:

Hi Nils, John - 

 

Thanks to you both.  Ultimately, I am satisfied with how the cranes look on the model, especially if I take off my glasses.    

I know that there is a solution out there, but I suspect it lies in the field of fine jewelry or by using circuit board manufacturing techniques.  Neither one was affordable in time or treasure for only 12 blocks.  Perhaps one day . . . 

 

Dan

Dan,

I've enjoyed your build tremendously (still do), mostly catching up, so a some what late response. In my plastic builds, I came across 3D printed parts at 1/350 and even smaller highly detailed, which could be a solution to your dilemma of the blocks, maybe even other miniscule items ...

[shipmodel]

Hello all –

 

Thanks to all, as always, for the many likes and compliments.  I trust every one of my American friends has had a great Labor Day holiday with friends and family, and equally great wishes for everyone across the globe who graces my work with your interest.

 

We are reaching the end of this project so this will be the penultimate report – a short one on the final fiddly details.

 

The first detail was the bow ensign that was left to the end rather than endanger it during construction.  It is built up with a small platform above the bow hawse hole.  This is then topped by a vertical ensign post of 0.02” brass rod supported by a ‘vee’ brace of 0.011 wire.  Two-bar PE railings surround all.

And here it is after painting off the model and installation.

The next detailed fittings are the two radio masts rising from the radio shack on the Belvidere deck.  They are not detailed on the plans, but in this photo you can see them behind the people at the rail.

They were built up from brass rod, tiny plastic pieces, and PE railings that were cut, shaped, and adapted to new uses.

In the photograph above you can see one type of light on the ship, the ones that rise on two bars, then bend at the top to illuminate the deck.  In fact, there are three types of lights in various locations around the ship. 

The first type was made by bending iron wire back on itself very tightly.  The doubled end was then bent down toward the deck.  One leg of the stand was cut to 10mm while the second was left long to fit a hole in the deck.  The light body was formed from a drop of epoxy whose surface tension is used to pull it into a ball as it hardens.  The light itself is represented by a drop of gloss silver enamel.  Here too the properties of surface tension were my friend.  A small drop of paint was picked up in the end of a toothpick.  When applied to the fitting it drew itself up and dried as a perfect circle. 

The second type are simple floodlights on the end of single posts.  They are mostly located above the lifeboats to illuminate them if there were a nighttime evacuation.  These were also formed with epoxy and silver paint using surface tension.

The final type of light is the most complex.  Five rectangular light bodies are mounted on a pillar with the lights angled to either side.  They do not show up well on the plans and the photographs are not the clearest, but were enough to give me a good idea of what was needed.

A post of 0.032” brass rod was painted with white glue and five tiny lengths of plastic rod 0.015” x 0.020” were delicately adhered to the brass.  As the glue set up I teased the lights into position.  When dry the joints were reinforced with a drop of thin cyano.  I use this double gluing technique a lot on small parts.  It takes advantage of the sticky nature of PVA glue to get things into position, and the CA then can strengthen the joints without disturbing the positions of the parts.  When all was dry they were spray painted with gloss white and the faces of the lights were picked out in black with the paint on a toothpick.

So here is a shot of the midships area with all three types of lights.  I am pleased with how they came out, and happier still with how much ‘texture’ they add to the look of the model.

That’s it for now.  The final segment will be posted soon with the model mounted, cased, and ready to travel.

 

Until then, be well.

 

Dan

[Hubac's Historian]

Terrific work, Dan!