steamschooner

Made this spreader adapter for my little drill press so I could use it as a mill. Light wood milling is all I will use it for but now I can adjust the depth of  cuts.
Happy New Year everyone

Made this spreader adapter for my little drill press so I could use it as a mill. Light wood milling is all I will use it for but now I can adjust the depth of  cuts.
Happy New Year everyone

Made this spreader adapter for my little drill press so I could use it as a mill. Light wood milling is all I will use it for but now I can adjust the depth of  cuts.
Happy New Year everyone

Made this spreader adapter for my little drill press so I could use it as a mill. Light wood milling is all I will use it for but now I can adjust the depth of  cuts.
Happy New Year everyone

USS St. Louis Ironclad Project Update 31 December 2018
We continue to make great progress on this project but I can't say the same for maintaining the inputs to this build log. Attached are a few new photographs and I will try to update the accompanying text soon.
 
Johnhoward

Work has finally commenced on the poor, neglected Arabia. My shoulder is slowly improving with rest; it's still sore but I've been able to cook and do dishes again. Driving my stick-shift truck is probably the most problematic behavior I can't avoid, but since I work at home I only have to do that once a week or so. Most importantly, I can cut, sand, glue, and paint!
 
I decided to tackle the boilers next. See my design thread for a full review of the original components, but below are reposted the two best photos I know of showing the boilers still at the wreck site.
 

The first decision I need to make was how to simulate the rivets joining the roughly 2' wide sheets of iron composing the boiler tubes and the skirting around them. I had already purchased a dowel of the right diameter for the boiler tubes (about 3.5' wide and 24' long). So I dug around in my scrap box and turned up a very thin sheet of scribed styrene originally meant to simulate siding for model railroad buildings. Experimentation showed that the scribing was perfect for allowing the sheets to bend around dowel, so I marked off three pieces necessary to wrap half of each dowel. I did only half because (a) the bottom half won't be seen and (b) this one piece of perfect scrap wasn't big enough to do the rest.

Next I experimented with punching divots into the styrene to simulate rivets. I tried a variety of tools, from pointed files to pencils, and finally settled on a small Phillips screwdriver that made nice indentations while being too blunt to go through the material. It was also more ergonomic to use than other options, important since I'd be doing a lot of this. Once I was happy with my method, I carefully measured out 2' increments along the boilers and began punching manually. I think the results look quite good, as seen below.

To attach these sheets to the boiler dowels, I laid a line of CA down the middle of each sheet and glued it to the dowel. Once that set, I laid another line of CA along one edge, wrapped and clamped that, then did the other side (see above). This worked nicely, though I had to work quickly to get the clamps set before the CA set. Next I started building a cradle to hold the boiler tubes and support the rest of the boiler structure, as seen below with the finished boilers.

Here are the boiler tubes resting in their cradle; you can start to envision the final product.

Next, I painted the tubes with the same black I used for the engines. It's a thick Model Shipways paint that does a decent job of blending different materials together and giving a metal-like finish. I'll dull the finish with some pastels.

Next, I started expanding the rest of the structure, adding details made of wood and thin styrene to simulate the various furnace doors, ash doors, legs, and other parts of the boiler assembly. I also added sheeting along both sides, using the same rivet-punch technique as the boilers.


That's where the boilers stand now. Next, I'll finish adding details and structural elements, finish painting, and weather it with pastels. Then I'll have to decide how much of the detailed piping I want to install, I don't think I can handle all of it, so I'll work out a reasonable simulation. If you go back to the design thread linked above, you'll see what I mean at the stern end of the boilers.
 
Still, I think this looks pretty good for something knocked together from mostly scrap parts, with a sore shoulder. On the finished model, it'll be somewhat buried in the shadows of the main deck, so I don't feel the need to simulate every detail. I'm a big believer in creating the illusion of accuracy rather than counting every rivet.
 
Thanks for sticking with me over the long delay.
 

Continuing south, it's time for one of Chile's greatest maritime experiences, the ferry route to Patagonia. South of Puerto Montt, the mainland breaks up into over 1,000 km of islands, fjords, and mountains capped by two major ice sheets. It's not possible to travel to Chilean Patagonia by land unless you cross the Andes into Argentina, but there is a ferry service that runs through the fjordlands to Puerto Natales. Similar to the Alaskan Ferry system (which I've also used), this is a working service whose primary purpose is to serve communities and locals in the region, but which carries tourists as well to balance the books. The voyage takes four days and three nights, all of which are overloaded with scenery, bird-watching, and of course interesting maritime traffic.

The Evangelistas was build in 1978 (about my age) and measures about 115x21 m with a draft under 5 m. She takes many hours to load with trucks, trailers, and other cargo, which seasonally can include livestock from Patagonian ranches. Above, you see the stern-loading ramp extending to shore at Puerto Montt. She also carries around 300 passengers (both tourists and regional residents) and 40 crew.
 

A different, but similar Navimag ferry encountered on the voyage gives a rough sense of context. I never got a shot of the Evangelistas, though she's easy to Google if you want to, because we didn't have a chance while boarding and we didn't disembark until after dark (and she sailed the next morning before we got back down to the harbor).
 

Puerto Montt, like Valparaiso, is chock full of interesting shipping. In many ways, visiting Chilean ports felt like time traveling back 70 or 100 years, because there's so much greater diversity in the size and nature of the shipping, and much more cargo handling is done by hand or small crane. Everything from small-medium ocean-going freighters to little flat-bottomed lighters shuttling things all over the harbor; it was a bustle of activity that felt very different from modern US ports with their super-large shipping. I could have spent all day watching this.

The Orca Yagan, which is listed online as a Fish Carrier. I assume this means it services the myriad salmon farms spread throughout Chilean Patagonia. I'm not a big fan of fish farming, but this was a very attractive vessel, especially clean and well-kept.
 

This neat little tug was hovering around the ferry, bobbing like a cork in the tiniest waves.

We saw a lot of ships of this general type; I have no idea what they are, but most had lots of piping and equipment on their rear decks, suggesting they aren't cargo ships. There's oil and gas exploration in southern Patagonia, but not in the fjordland area, so I don't know what these are.
 

The wreck of a Greek freighter, I believe from the 1950s, deep in a remote Patagonian fjord. It's sitting on solid ground, a sunken hilltop that forms a dangerous reef in the middle of the fjord.
 

We particularly enjoyed being allowed to visit the bridge. They have a modern navigation system shoehorned in at far right, but are clearly comfortable with older methods of navigation. There's a big chart table that has a full set of charts always at the ready, which we enjoyed poring over. Some of these fjords are over 600 m deep, often deeper than they are wide.


Patagonian wind earns its reputation. Here, it was screaming from astern and whipping sheets of spray off the water into walls of mist that carried forward like curtains. With the sun at the correct angle, beautiful rainbows arced from the bow. Very few people saw this, as most were huddled indoors. We spent 95% of our time on deck regardless of weather and were rewarded with wonderful experiences like this, as well as all sorts of good birds and other marine life (like the relatively rare Chilean dolphin along with albatrosses and skuas).

Arriving in Puerto Natales in southern Chilean Patagonia, we had to wait for this Navimag freighter to clear the one loading dock. Everything was delayed because the wind was too strong to allow safe departure or arrival; we circled the harbor for hours waiting for it to die down with evening. We didn't disembark until after 11pm, dark even in high-latitude summer, but the sunset over the town and harbor gave glorious light. Just astern of the freighter is another patrol boat very similar to the one shown above in Valdivia.
 
In the next installment, we'll head further south to Punta Arenas on the Straights of Magellen, and an amazing museum with full-size replicas of historic ships.

Ilhan, My current project uses a rod and chain type of steering. The rods run in a box like channel which the cabin coaming is one side of the box. The channel top is removable( bolted or screwed ) so any breaks can be got to.  Where crew have to cross over there is a ramp butted to each side to prevent tripping.  
On yours the box like channel is pushed up against the rail coaming. The rail coaming would be one side of the box. Below is what I see in your drawings above.
 
 
 

Steve

Ilhan, My current project uses a rod and chain type of steering. The rods run in a box like channel which the cabin coaming is one side of the box. The channel top is removable( bolted or screwed ) so any breaks can be got to.  Where crew have to cross over there is a ramp butted to each side to prevent tripping.  
On yours the box like channel is pushed up against the rail coaming. The rail coaming would be one side of the box. Below is what I see in your drawings above.
 
 
 

Steve

Valdivia has other nautical attractions in addition to the forts. The town's waterfront hosts a variety of tour boats that visit the forts by sea as well as exploring a large nature reserve upriver.
The large structure at center is the town's market, where a wonderful mix of fresh produce, cheese, and seafood are sold. The seafood stalls back up to the water, making disposal of offal and other fresh refuse easy. Chile's fresh seafood is one of the country's greatest assets to a visitor. Lest this seem wasteful or polluting, a large population of gulls and sea lions happily takes care of anything going over the side:
 

Among the interesting vessels tied up along the waterfront, we found an old Chilean Navy submarine (open for tours, but not when we were there) and this modern patrol vessel:
 

The region also hosted many interesting fishing boats. Most noticeable were a distinct style of open boat, always painted red and yellow, an example of which I saw in the Valparaiso Museuo Naval. These, however, were often rigged with simple triangular sails. Looking out to sea from the Niebla Fort, I could see a series of these far out with their sails rigged, but my camera wasn't good enough to capture them. Here are two not-so-great photos of the type in harbor:
 


I wanted to learn more about these, but couldn't get clear answers from local fishermen. When I asked what they were called, for example, all I could get was "lancha", which is a generic Spanish word for "launch" or "boat". Online searches have turned up nothing more (not even better photos), and my Spanish isn't good enough to dig deep into historical archives. If/when I return, I'd like to focus on learning more about these; they were the first time I've ever seen sail-based fishing boats in actual operation. They'd make a really interesting modeling project if I could get enough information and better photos.
 
Much of this part of the coast reminded me of northern California or southern Oregon, with rocky headlands separating beaches and isolated fishing villages. A particularly nice location is Curiñanco, to the north, where a nature reserve protects huge old trees on steep slopes above the water and a rocky beach generates beautiful waves and preserves some really interesting bedrock geology (what looked to us like deposits from past tsunamis along this very tectonically active coast).

Aft Hatches
 
With the installation of the mizzen mast, the hatches and their winches all the major pieces are now in place:

Next up, the southern coastal port of Valdivia, probably my favorite town in Chile. Founded by the Spanish in 1552 on at the junction of several rivers, maybe 10 km upriver from the Pacific Ocean, it's chock full of nautical interest. The site was inhabited long before the Spanish, given its excellent location and abundant natural resources, and played a key role in the Chilean War of Independence. I'm going to cover this in two posts, given how much there is to say and show, and this will still only be a brief summary.
 
Part I: The Valdivian fort system
 
At the river's mouth, the Spanish built a network of coastal forts that made Valdivia the best-defended port in the country. These were upgraded in the late 18th century. Interlocking fields of fire and a narrow navigational channel meant the area was considered impregnable, yet the southern forts were stormed in 1820 by Chilean forces under the command of Lord Thomas Cochrane (model for Patrick O'Brien's Jack Aubrey) during the Chilean War of Independence. This action was fictionalized in the final novel of Bernard Cornwell's excellent Sharpe series.  Two of these forts are open to the public today, including the Castillo de Niebla on the north shore, which has excellent interpretive material and sweeping views across the bay:

Above, you're looking upriver toward Valdivia (10 km inland). The low ground along the left half of the image was carved out of the bedrock promontory by the Spanish, creating a moat that isolated the rest of the fortress to the right. Even accounting for the fairly soft sandstone here, it's an impressive engineering feat and creates a really unique setting.
 

A reconstructed building surrounded by original foundations. Inside are very well-done interpretive materials including more nice ship models.
 

A view across Corral Bay, aimed a bit farther left (east) than the photo I used in the introductory post to this series.  Here you can see two shot furnaces serving the cannons; the magazine was carved out of the bedrock further to the left. Originally, the protective walls (can't remember the right term) were sandstone, but were worn away by centuries of visitors, so they reconstructed some on the left and while the right side remains in its worn-down state. Some of the cannons are originals, too, according to the interpretive materials. Across the bay at center, though it's hard to pick out, is the Castillo de San Sebastián de la Cruz Fort (more commonly called the Corral Fort), the other location open to the public. To the right, the rest of the network's forts spread along south shore out of view (again, see photo in first post).

Another view of Niebla's main battery. I liked the juxtaposition of the modern freighter in the background with the old Spanish cannons. In both photos, notice the angled slots carved into the rock floor on both sides of each cannon emplacement. The interpretive materials state that these were for rolling heated shot to the cannon mouths, which makes a certain amount of sense, though to my mind it doesn't explain why you need slots on both sides for every emplacement (I wouldn't think anyone carrying heated shot would run around to the far side). I had initially thought the slots were meant to ensure each cannon stayed in its "lane", given that they perfectly match what would seem to be the maximum traverse and there didn't seem to be any allowance or need for other rigging (as on a warship). Any further input from more knowledgeable folks? I don't know much about fortress design.
 

And here's the opposite view, looking north from the Corral Fort back at Niebla (from the guard tower, count back four cannon emplacements and the Niebla Fort is directly above). This fort is a bit more run down and has no interpretation, but it's a fascinating visit nonetheless. You can tell the Spanish never expected an overland attack here, everything is aimed toward the sea. They assumed the rugged coastline and hills would keep land troops away, but they didn't expect Cochrane's creativity and the Chilean forces' zeal. If I recall correctly, this fort and Niebla never even put up a fight, once the first few forts along the coast had fallen, the Spanish garrisons here up and fled. In their defense, this was a godforsaken posting at the end of the world, the Spanish empire was reeling, and there wasn't a lot of reason to die here.

And here are the Catheads centuries later. I thought it was interesting that all the cannons here were on naval-type carriages, while all the cannons at Niebla were on army-style carriages. None of the interpretive materials went into detail on such things, so it's not clear if the carriages are meant to represent original forms or are somewhat random. Note that here, there were no slots around the gun emplacements, which could have several explanations. One, I didn't see any shot furnaces here, which I thought was odd, so if the Niebla slots were primarily for shot that would fit. Two, did this carriage design recoil sideways less than the ones at Niebla and/or have more rigging, so didn't need guidance slots? I don't know. It's interesting that here the ground is paved in rough stone, as opposed to the natural sandstone surface at Niebla. Lots of differences for forts so close to each other and from the same era.
 
In the next post, I'll leave the forts behind and explore some other interesting aspects of the Valdivia era. Thanks for reading.
 
UPDATE: Just realized I completely forgot that there's a third fort you can visit, on the Isla Mancera that sits in the bay just upstream of Niebla. We didn't get there because we ran out of time doing the first two, and boats to the island run less frequently than boats across the bay between Niebla and Corral. But anyone visiting should certainly try to do all three.

A major highlight of Valparaiso (Chile's main port) is the fantastic Museo Naval, which chronicles the country's maritime history in a beautiful building that, as I recall, used to be their Naval Academy. In classic Spanish style, it consists of a multi-level structure wrapped around a central courtyard with rooms on both floors dedicated to different themes:

Hiding at the back is what's labelled as the last-built wooden fishing boat of a specifically Chilean design. I somehow failed to get a better photo of this, which I deeply regretted once I started seeing many of these still in use further south but couldn't get as close. Just out of the photo to the right is one of the Fénix capsules developed by the Chilean Navy and NASA to rescue the miners trapped by the world-famous 2010 Copiapó mining accident. This was really interesting to examine, and I enjoyed watching a small boy playing in it.
 

One of the first rooms features a set of beautiful stained-glass windows made for the museum. Two depict a maritime globe, and three depict heroes of Chilean naval history. The photo above is of Lord Thomas Cochrane, likely of particular interest to many readers here.
 

There are many displays of nautical artifacts; I found these particularly fun.
 

A HUGE painting depicts a naval victory over the Spanish during the War of Independence. There are also many, many interesting ship models, of which I focused my photography on those from the War of Independence era (of most personal interest). Follow the link to learn more about their origins (photos below).
 

The battleship San Martin
 

The corvette Chacabuco
 

The frigate Lautaro. Lautaro was a famous indigenous leader in Chile from the 1500s who led the Mapuche resistance against the Spanish. Interestingly, the Mapuche maintained their independence throughout the Spanish era and well into modern Chilean history, a near-unique achievement in the New World.
 

The brigantine Araucano (an older Spanish word for the Mapuche, which appears in various forms all over Chile).
 

The brigantine Aguila (Eagle).
 

A separate room feature 20+ models from the Valparaiso modelling club. I couldn't photograph them all, but thought this cross-sectional diorama of a Spanish whaling vessel was particularly interesting as I've only ever thought about the English and American kinds.
 

A Rapa Nui canoe from the now-Chilean territory now known as Easter Island. We would find more examples of indigenous craft elsewhere, but this was the only one here.

Finally, a broader panorama of the Valparaiso waterfront that captures its diversity and visual interest, taken near the entrance to the museum. There's so much more I didn't share, including other maps, photos, drawings, paintings, articles, and displays dealing with fishing, exploration, recreational sailing, and so on. We spent hours there without getting bored, and I can't recommend it enough if you're lucky enough to get here. I left out the photo of the huge Esmerelda model shown in the first post of this series, but it and its companion Huascar are also fantastic.
 

Nr 2 & 3 Hatches
 
The rest of the big items for the other forward hatches are in place.

Main Deck
 
I’ll fit out the main deck working fore to aft and bigger to smaller. Hatch Nr1 has the big pieces in place:

Well, she's entering her 97th year.  She's the last of the Puget Sound steamers, and still has her original engine.  She was built by Matt Anderson in his backyard for West Pass Transportation Company.  She did the Seattle-Vashon Island-Tacoma run for eighteen years, before being taken down to run on the Columbia for a year.  From then until around 1980 she worked as a charter vessel, then becoming a museum ship.
 
The engine is older than the ship.  The engine is triple expansion and was built in 1904 by Heffernan Engine Works of Seattle.  It was originally installed in a vessel known as the Tyrus, which, when bought by WPTCo., was renamed Virginia IV.
 
We still go out; made over 70 trips last year.
 
I guess, from here, what do you want to know?  I can tell you in detail how to bring the plant up, but just be warned that I am not a very exciting writer.
 
The photos are the 1922 maiden voyage, 1935, a week ago (with my cell phone as I didn't have any other camera), and me fighting with the vacuum pump.
 
 

Chile’s coastline extends more than 4,000 km along the Pacific Ocean, wrapping around to the South Atlantic in southern Patagonia (not to mention Chile’s territorial claims in Antarctica). The country has a fascinating and diverse maritime history, including the unique boats used by indigenous peoples, its largely naval War of Independence against Spain (strongly influenced by British involvement), its later naval victory over Peru that cemented the region’s modern boundaries, its prominent role in influencing Charles Darwin’s evolving understanding of natural and geological history before he ever reached the Galapagos, its little-appreciated role in the final rescue of Shackleton's stranded crew in Antarctica, and the vast maritime resources such as rich fisheries available to the modern country.
 
Mrs. Cathead and I recently spend a month exploring the southern half of Chile (from Santiago to southern Patagonia), living out of our backpacks while using local buses and hostels to get closer to the landscape and people. We encountered and investigated many locations of maritime interest, and will share some photos, stories, and information in this thread in hopes of inspiring others to learn more about (and visit) this nautically fascinating country. This won’t be a full travelogue (for example, I’ll be leaving out all the time we spent hiking in the Andes and otherwise botanizing and geologizing inland), but a series of posts focusing on specific locations and/or themes of potential interest to MSW readers. Here are a few images as teasers, all of which will be expanded upon in subsequent posts.

Valparaiso, Chile's main seaport and a great place for modern ship-watching as well as host to a fantastic naval museum. The place is absolutely marinating in nautical history and diversity.

Ship models are everywhere in Chile, including this huge example of the Esmerelda, perhaps Chile's most famous warship. She sank in 1879 while engaging the more modern Peruvian ironclad Huáscar during the Battle of Iquique, sparking a patriotic furor that drove Chile's subsequent victory in that war as well as immortalizing her captain, Arturo Prat, to near-godlike status in Chile.

View south across Corral Bay from the Castillo de Niebla, a beautifully preserved Spanish coastal fortress. On the far shore lie the remains of five other Spanish fortresses stormed in 1820 by Chilean forces under the command of Lord Thomas Cochrane (model for Patrick O'Brien's Jack Aubrey) during the Chilean War of Independence. This action was fictionalized in the final novel of Bernard Cornwell's excellent Sharpe series.

Diverse shipping in Puerto Montt, with Volcán Calbuco in the background. Modern Chile features a fascinating array of interesting ships of many sizes and uses, far more varied than most US ports I've visited.

A full-scale replica of HMS Beagle, the first in the world to my knowledge, in southern Patagonia. Part of a private museum featuring other full-scale replicas of famous vessels including Magellan's Nao Victoria and Shackleton's James Caird.
 
I hope readers will enjoy the subsequent entries in this topic. I'll try to answer any questions that may arise, or perhaps someone more knowledgeable will chime in (and correct me if necessary). This trip certainly provided me with a series of new modeling possibilities, more than I'll ever be able to tackle.

Just so you all know I do work on my model from time to time. Like most I have many spring and summer things to do and do not get to spend much time in the shipyard. I have managed to cast some deck cleats( twice ) The first ones I ended up not liking, in photo on the left. The second ones are more correct with the wood block base as I have seen examples locally. For my stays and shrouds I used some telephone wire That had four coated strands and each strand has 7 small copper strands. After cleaning the coating from the wires I separated them and twisted up 3 strands for my davits and stack stays also aft mast shrouds. For my main mast shrouds I twisted up 7 strands. I used a single strand as whipping to tie off eyes. the copper wire will take L.O.S. nicely.Now on to the shroud bars/ladder.

Patrick, I have been at the bench just not alot to show for it. I did manage to get these little buggers made. Two on left the line was to heavy and they came out a little big for scale. I liked the color though. Middle ones are cotton string which was the right size scale wise but the color needed help. I colored one on the left. The three on the right is also cotton string that I found in my line stash. It had a reasonable color and the scale size worked out. Still need some triming and maybe a little coloring/weathering. Now it's on to the bow fender..... oh boy!!

Just a few more shots of the engine, have added a few things have a few to go.

Thanks John! And thanks for all the likes
 
Lifeboats
 
The kit provides boats in britannia with laser cut inserts for the thwarts.

 
I decided to show the boats with their canvas boat covers in place. I used a piece of wire as the internal brace for the covers. I tried to make the covers out of tape but that did not work very well so I used diluted white glue brushed onto tissue paper -you can see it one one of the boats here (it dries almost transparent):

After trimming and painting I was satisfied with the “canvas” look of them. Here they are rigged in place:

 
I’ll add coiled up monkey lines later but they are real dust magnets so I’ll wait to the end of the build for those. This finishes up the deck house except for the railings. Now it’s time to move to the main deck and start making this look like a cargo ship.

Thanks Kevin
 
Boat Davits
 
The kit provides britannia davits. I had planned to drill out the tops and insert 1/16” split rings as the attachment point for the upper block of the boat falls and the span wire that runs between the davit pairs but there was not enough material (room) up there to support drilling a hole big enough for a split ring to run through. I thought about flattening the tops with a pair of pliers to provide more drilling surface but I was worried that the metal would become too brittle. Looking through my parts locker I found my stash of .75mm Backstay Eyebolts from Model Shipways. Although I have never used them for their intended purpose they have been invaluable every time I needed to anchor a small eye. They will work with a #77 drill bit which is about the smallest I have. There was enough room to put them in place:

The line handling gear associated with the davits consisted of a T-bitt and a small line reel for each davit:

 
The kit shows both items on the plans but does not provide any material or mention them in the instructions - just an oversight I guess. The T-bitts were easily fabricated out of plastic rod and wire for the cross piece. I also drilled them for pinning to the deck since they will be under tension.  The reels were a little more work. They are quite small so 1/192 scale aftermarket line reels would be much too big. I have some 1/350 scale PE reels that would have worked but I did not have enough to build 8 so I ended up making them out of rod with sheet plastic supports:

Here is everything in place:

 
When I rig the davits I’ll snub the inboard end of the falls around the T-bitt and then pass it under the reel, draw up the slack and glue it in place.
 
I’ll have to finish the STBD side and then fit out the lifeboats.

Tim, I think I will follow you along on this one. My mother, in her younger days was a welder on liberty ships at the Kaiser yards in Portland.

You've got sharp eyes Denis
 
Thanks for the likes & comments, as always, much appreciated
 
Had the oportunity to work on the model, can't say I retreated into the mancave as I sit at my desk, which has become a mixture between desk and work bench ... maybe I can CA my customer's problems ...
 
Finished rigging the funnels, need to rig one more set of davits, fitted the rear superstructure, and added the vents - those "H" shaped ones - I need to find some anchor chain for this scale and type of ship, as the ones from the kit are horrendous.
 
Right ... picsies:

Thanks for all the likes and comments.  And Marc, never hesitate to point out something that I may have missed.  More eyes just means that fewer mistakes will get through to the final product.
 
With the model hull on the port side fully primed, it was time to figure out how to paint the complex and confusing ‘dazzle’ design that the troop ship bore. 

Dazzle camouflage, called ‘razzle-dazzle’ by us Yanks, was developed in England during World War I in response to Germany’s use of unlimited submarine warfare.  Credited to both a marine artist and a zoologist, the idea was not to make a ship invisible, as overall grey tries to do, but to make it difficult to estimate a target's range, speed, and heading.  It was intended primarily to mislead the enemy about a ship's course and so to make him take up a poor firing position.   It generally consisted of complex patterns of geometric shapes in contrasting colors that interrupt and intersect each other.   It has been suggested that it works on the coincidence rangefinders used by submarines by making it hard to align the split images in the eyepiece.  The clashing patterns look abnormal even when not seen through a rangefinder.  Below is an actual photo of the USS West Mahomet.  Try to find the bow.

As seen in this 1922 illustration from the Encyclopedia Brittanica, dazzle can work for single ships, but for a convoy the appearance can be overwhelmingly confusing.  

 Its effectiveness was analyzed after the war.  Although British data is equivocal, among American merchantmen 2,500 tons and over, 78 uncamouflaged ships were sunk, but only 11 camouflaged ships sunk by torpedoes.  No camouflaged US Navy ships were sunk at all.  In the words of a U-Boat captain:
      “It was not until she was within half a mile that I could make out she was one ship [not several] steering a course at right angles, crossing from starboard to port. The dark painted stripes on her after part made her stern appear her bow, and a broad cut of green paint amidships looks like a patch of water. The weather was bright and visibility good; this was the best camouflage I have ever seen.”
     This may have been what he was looking at -

Fortunately I did not have to rely on photographs of the troop ship to get the dazzle design I needed.  The National Archives contains drawings of the dazzle pattern for Leviathan.  Here is the one for the port side.  This and the several photographs of the ship taken during the war were my starting point. 

Obviously, both the pattern and the photos are in black and white, but color was also a central part of dazzle camouflage.  For Leviathan it appears from the different shadings within the various areas of the pattern that several colors were involved.  The Brittanica page has a chart of all the colors used, but which colors went in which area?  Fortunately, the Merchant Marine museum has a large painting of the ship in moderately heavy seas.  It was done by Frederick J. Waugh, a marine artist who had been part of the American Camouflage Section which was responsible for designing the patterns for US Navy ships.

The painting was very helpful in identifying the look of the ship, but for model making it has some problems.  Careful comparison with both the drawn pattern and the photographs reveals some inconsistencies in the size and location of some of the camouflage shapes, so I went back to the photos for the final layout.  As for the colors, I was somewhat hesitant to rely on Waugh’s choice of hue and tone since he has other artistic factors to consider beyond exact reproduction.  Instead, I went back to the color chart on the Brittanica page.  It was clear that the page had yellowed somewhat, so I took the chart and adjusted the contrast, hue, and saturation until the background color of the page and the white color chip looked as close as I could get them, which is the lower set of colors.  After consultation with Professor Smith, we selected 1 Grey, 3 Grey, 1 Blue Green, 2 Blue, and White.

With those decisions made I took the dazzle layout and enlarged it to the size of the model.  Here it is, propped against the model.  I should have put them side by side for comparison, but forgot to take the photo.  So for comparison here is a shot of the port side from an earlier date.  The red things are the backs of our dining room chairs.

To lay out the design I knew that I could not simply cut out the pattern.  The model has too many curves that would distort the shapes, and I found that in any case the pattern did not accurately match the landmarks and dimensions of the model.   I would have to draw the pattern on the model by eye.  I decided to start with the bow, even though it is the most complicated area, because it had a clearly defined edge that could be reliably fixed to a landmark on the ship.  I covered the bow with strips of masking tape, then drew on the diagonal line at the aft edge starting with the point where the superstructure met the side bulwark.  Using the photo, the drawing and the painting, together with a small straightedge and some ships’ curves, I sketched in the outlines of the color areas.      

A word here about the tape.  It is “Frogtape” in the yellow formula for delicate surfaces.  I find that it holds quite well and releases cleanly with no residue.  I messed up drawing the bow pattern several times and had to remove all of the first layer of tape which came up without damaging the surface at all.  No connection to the company, just a happy customer.
          I repeated the process at the stern, which has a much simpler pattern, but has to work around much more acute curves.  You can see how the shapes had to be modified to hit the landmarks on the ship rather than simply taking them from the drawing.   Once the drawing was satisfactory, I cut down through the tape to the hull using a new paper cutting blade. 

The tape was burnished down and a sealer coat of clear acrylic was brushed along the edge to reduce bleeding.  Then the three open areas were sprayed with the 1 Grey color.  When the tape was removed the results were surprisingly satisfactory considering how uneven the surface is.  Only a little cleanup along the edges was needed.

Returning to the bow the long white stripe was cut and unmasked, burnished, sealed and sprayed.   When it was dry the area was re-masked with tape.  The inside of the bulwarks, the tops of the deck houses, and all other side areas were masked with tape and newspaper before the light grey areas were unmasked and painted.  When everything was dry the masks were all removed.  The result was a - - - Disaster!
          Despite the burnishing and sealing there was bleeding at so many spots that I spent more time hand-painting the edges than I had spent on the masking.  Ultimately I was satisfied with the sharpness of the edges and the layout of the pattern, but it took a lot longer than it should have.

With most of the kinks worked out I taped over the long midships section and laid out the pattern.

This time, after removing the masks from the Blue Green areas, I lightly brushed the paint from the edge of the tape inward toward the center of the area.  Using a fairly dry brush gave me no bleeding under the edge so when the tape was removed the edge was cleanly marked by a light layer of paint. 

A second coat was hand painted up to the edge to even out the hue and to make it fully opaque.  This was not difficult with the edges so cleanly marked.  The same was done for the light grey areas.  Here is the forward portion of the ship.

And here the stern.  I will never look at this without seeing a rabbit chasing an octopus.

 I wonder what the U-Boat captain might have thought, seeing this in his periscope.

By way of comparison, here is the boring black and white of the ocean liner.

Travel and family gatherings will fill the rest of the month, so I bid everyone a joyous Happy Holidays and excellent New Year.
 
Dan