ccoyle

And here we are, the finished Diorama.
 
Thanks for all the comments and likes along the way

I actually quite like the RAF desert camo and have a Halinski Spitfire Vb tropical that can be built in either RAF or USAAF markings. The latter had their RAF roundels painted over and then the USAAF insignia applied over the top of that. Several Polish publishers have offered the P-40 in North Africa camo, including WAK, Halinski, and most recently from Card Army (Marcin Dworzecki did the art on both the Halinski and Card Army kits).

Always sad to a grand old ship neglected and in decline, but I can understand why. They are expensive to fix and expensive to maintain, and there's a lot of resources locked up in all that metal.

Great build, Chris. I like the 'curvy' lines of this old fighter.
Well done,
Dan

Chris,
  Very nicely done!

The Big Reveal!
 
This kit proved to be much more challenging than I anticipated, but I am mostly happy with the result. The propeller hub ended up being a little troublesome -- the first painting effort produced a cracked finish, so several additional rounds of filling and sanding were needed. It wound up being pretty smooth, though, and easily wins the "Best Paper Hub I Have Ever Done" award. Enjoy the pictures!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I really like the angle on this next shot because you can easily see the Typhoon's lines in the ol' Hurricane.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
This last one is the new wallpaper on my phone.

 
Cheers!
 

The Big Reveal!
 
This kit proved to be much more challenging than I anticipated, but I am mostly happy with the result. The propeller hub ended up being a little troublesome -- the first painting effort produced a cracked finish, so several additional rounds of filling and sanding were needed. It wound up being pretty smooth, though, and easily wins the "Best Paper Hub I Have Ever Done" award. Enjoy the pictures!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I really like the angle on this next shot because you can easily see the Typhoon's lines in the ol' Hurricane.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
This last one is the new wallpaper on my phone.

 
Cheers!
 

Welcome aboard, Pete! What sort of ship do you think you might work on? So many choices out there -- kinda like aircraft!
 
P.S. Check out our Non-Ship Builds sub-forum to see what our members dabble in when they're not busy building ships!

I actually quite like the RAF desert camo and have a Halinski Spitfire Vb tropical that can be built in either RAF or USAAF markings. The latter had their RAF roundels painted over and then the USAAF insignia applied over the top of that. Several Polish publishers have offered the P-40 in North Africa camo, including WAK, Halinski, and most recently from Card Army (Marcin Dworzecki did the art on both the Halinski and Card Army kits).

I actually quite like the RAF desert camo and have a Halinski Spitfire Vb tropical that can be built in either RAF or USAAF markings. The latter had their RAF roundels painted over and then the USAAF insignia applied over the top of that. Several Polish publishers have offered the P-40 in North Africa camo, including WAK, Halinski, and most recently from Card Army (Marcin Dworzecki did the art on both the Halinski and Card Army kits).

Various companies have produced kits in plastic or card. An internet search will turn up quite a few examples, e.g., Revell, Glencoe, JSC (card). The Revell 1/600 kit should still be available new, and the 1/400 JSC kit is still in print.

I actually quite like the RAF desert camo and have a Halinski Spitfire Vb tropical that can be built in either RAF or USAAF markings. The latter had their RAF roundels painted over and then the USAAF insignia applied over the top of that. Several Polish publishers have offered the P-40 in North Africa camo, including WAK, Halinski, and most recently from Card Army (Marcin Dworzecki did the art on both the Halinski and Card Army kits).

The Big Reveal!
 
This kit proved to be much more challenging than I anticipated, but I am mostly happy with the result. The propeller hub ended up being a little troublesome -- the first painting effort produced a cracked finish, so several additional rounds of filling and sanding were needed. It wound up being pretty smooth, though, and easily wins the "Best Paper Hub I Have Ever Done" award. Enjoy the pictures!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I really like the angle on this next shot because you can easily see the Typhoon's lines in the ol' Hurricane.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
This last one is the new wallpaper on my phone.

 
Cheers!
 

The Big Reveal!
 
This kit proved to be much more challenging than I anticipated, but I am mostly happy with the result. The propeller hub ended up being a little troublesome -- the first painting effort produced a cracked finish, so several additional rounds of filling and sanding were needed. It wound up being pretty smooth, though, and easily wins the "Best Paper Hub I Have Ever Done" award. Enjoy the pictures!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I really like the angle on this next shot because you can easily see the Typhoon's lines in the ol' Hurricane.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
This last one is the new wallpaper on my phone.

 
Cheers!
 

I actually quite like the RAF desert camo and have a Halinski Spitfire Vb tropical that can be built in either RAF or USAAF markings. The latter had their RAF roundels painted over and then the USAAF insignia applied over the top of that. Several Polish publishers have offered the P-40 in North Africa camo, including WAK, Halinski, and most recently from Card Army (Marcin Dworzecki did the art on both the Halinski and Card Army kits).

The Big Reveal!
 
This kit proved to be much more challenging than I anticipated, but I am mostly happy with the result. The propeller hub ended up being a little troublesome -- the first painting effort produced a cracked finish, so several additional rounds of filling and sanding were needed. It wound up being pretty smooth, though, and easily wins the "Best Paper Hub I Have Ever Done" award. Enjoy the pictures!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I really like the angle on this next shot because you can easily see the Typhoon's lines in the ol' Hurricane.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
This last one is the new wallpaper on my phone.

 
Cheers!
 

There is an old expression about a boat being a hole in the water into which you throw money.  Unfortunately, United States is just a bigger hole to fill.
 
IMHO there are engineering, business, and legal reasons preventing her from sailing again:
 
Business:  The passenger ship business seems to be aimed at two different demographics; at one end those that want to join 4999 others aboard a floating theme park/ 24-7 floating casino and at the other end those wanting a quiet experience aboard a small ship.  United States would seem to appeal to neither of these groups.  The United States, while a big ship carried 1000-2000 passengers. Fares would, therefore, be high, so she would have to tap into the small cruise ship market.  Would ongoing demand be high enough to allow her to book profitable passenger loads?
 
Engineering:  She is a steam ship!  Nobody, operates steamships any more.  She has a 900psi US Navy plant.  The only steam plants operated today in US Navy vessels are in nuclear powered vessels; different animals.  Her boilers, if they can even be brought back to life are equipped to burn bunker c oil, a nasty pollutant that the rest of the world is trying to eliminate from their merchant marine fleets. The state of the art today in marine engineering for passenger carrying vessels seems to be an integrated system where electricity from one source is distributed to both the propulsion system and the system supplying on board hotel services. This also allows use of electric driven trainable pods to improve maneuvering.  Even if it could be brought back to life, United States’ machinery is 70 years out of date.
 
Legal:  She is an American Flagged ship.  The Jones act would require her to be manned with an expensive American crew.  She could be reflagged under a flag of convenience; Liberia, Panama, Bahamas, etc. but would she then be the United States?
 
Better for whoever owns her to admit defeat and as Bob Cleek says turn her into razor blades.
 
Roger
 
 
 
 

Thanks Chris and all for the warm welcome!
Thought I’d jump in with a DDG-
the 1/200 Curtis Wilbur and HS Models update for it are on the way!
 
cheers
Pete

Greetings Fellow Modelers
 
After a busy month with little time for modeling, I've finally begun work on the fish hold of this dragger.
 
 
But first, please allow me a quick diversion.
 
The path of the recent solar eclipse tracked over Maine on a day when there was barely a cloud in the sky.  My wife and I traveled several hours north on country roads to get close to the center of totality.  A total solar eclipse is such an astronomical coincidence that it's hard for me to get my head around it. That from a moving 100-mile diameter shadow on earth, two spheres appear to be the exact same size because one being 400 times larger is 400 times farther away, and that they line up precisely with the smaller sphere blocking all the direct light of the larger while leaving the entirety of its corona visible.  Perhaps I'm a simpleton, but I find this extraordinary.  To be honest, I thought this was going to be an interesting but ho-hum visual event, but when it went dark and I took off the glasses to see where the sun had gone, I was mesmerized.
 
I had a DSLR mounted on a tripod with 200mm of lens.  I promised myself beforehand to enjoy the experience and not spend the few minutes of totality tinkering with camera settings.  So, I preset the camera and hoped for the best - manual focus, aperture priority, exposure bracketing, cable release and crossed fingers.  I pushed the cable release quite a few times without ever looking at the results.  Later, I found most were completely blown out and a few were just terribly overexposed.  But I'm not disappointed.
 

 

 
 
The lens flare image below is my favorite.  A lousy eclipse photo, but an interesting image just the same – kind of surreal.
 

 
 
 
Fish Hold
 
My decision to display the boat with the hatches open and maybe a bunker plate or two, requires that the entirety of the hold be modeled as I can't predict what will be visible through each opening and view angle. Mainly that view will be small fragments of individual bunkers and planked partitions, so this modeling will be on the quick and crude side.
 
Before I started in on that, I first washed the hull exterior with India ink/alcohol to give it a little age. About 2 parts ink out of a hundred. I've yet to decide on how the hull will be painted/weathered, but this small amount of coloring doesn't narrow my options, and the alcohol tends to remove shiny sanding spots and helps to unify the overall look – at least to my eye.
 

 
 
I then penciled on the water line. I placed the hull back onto the base and used a squared scrap of construction lumber with a pencil glued to it.
 

 
 
The fish hold uses up almost 17' (5.1m) of hull length. The area is partitioned off into 20 individual bunkers/pens as shown below in the top-view drawing. The pens with green dots hold the ice/fish and the red dot areas do not. The blue dots are the stationary posts that hold the wood slats which make up the partitioning. The four pens in the center over the keel functions as a walkway but can also be partitioned to hold ice/fish.
 

 
 
Shown below is the lower half-section at station #7. The open space against the side of the hull is the area identified by red dots. This area is empty and begins at the lowest bilge ceiling strake. This drawing detail is actually from the “transverse section” plan sheet of a completely different boat by the same designer a few years prior to the Pelican, but it is labeled as the “type plan” for the Pelican.  Consequently, the dimensioning is incorrect for my boat, but the structural construction is the same – presumably.
 

 
 
The bases for the posts are 6” square timbers and on the model the six center bases are mounted on wood strips that span the entire length of the fish hold. The six bases away from the center are beveled to reflect the changing shape of the hull as it narrows toward the bow. The drawing below shows the bevel for the posts in the area near station 6A.
 

 
And for the posts in the area near station 4A. Note that the bevel has changed due to the base sitting higher up in the hull. This is necessary because the interior space is narrower yet the distance between posts must be maintained.
 

 
I print out spacing guides to locate the center line for the wood strips the post bases will sit on.
 

 
I mark the center line for the inner and outer strips on each station bulkhead.
 

 

 
 
The strips are placed, and the outer post bases are beveled and glue on.
 

 
 
As per the plans, there are three planks below the lowest bilge ceiling strake and below that is concrete. Although they are not yet glued down, the image below shows those three planks in position. The six inner post bases have been added as well as some styrene sheet material to act as a support floor for the “concrete”.  Also, note how the post bases (top of photo) incrementally sit higher from left to right as the hull narrows.
 

 
It would have been easier to place the two lowest bilge ceiling strakes as one piece and mount the post bases on top of that. But, I didn't and decided instead to piece it together around the posts for reasons that in retrospect make absolutely no sense. But that's water under the bridge and in the end it won't show anyway.
 

 

 
 
I smeared on some Hydrocal to form the floor of the main fish pens.
 

 
 
Colored up the bulkhead planking with chalk/alcohol (burnt sienna, raw umber and black).
 

 
 
Made up the grating to place over the keel and gurry trough.
 

 
 
I'll be placing some dim-ish lighting in the hold, so a gloppy PVA mixed with black acrylic paint is slathered onto the hull to prevent light leaks. All of this mess will be hidden by the wood plank partitioning.
 

 

 
Next – posts, partitioning and completing the hold.
 
Thanks for taking a look.  Stay well.
 
Gary

That would be natural, P-40's delivered after Sept of '39 generally carried RAF camo... Didn't matter who they went to they were painted to RAF spec... I know for a fact the AVG's were part of a RAF order that were diverted to them in China...
 
Planes built and painted to USAAF spec would be overall OD Green.... They were selling these so fast that they included stick on decals of various National Insignia's for when they arrived at their final destination...
 
It's interesting to see these painted in RAF desert scheme sporting the Stars and Bars...

I do have a P-40 in my stash (another Halinski kit), and, interestingly, its basic brown and green colors are nearly identical to the Hurricane's. But I'm not in any hurry to get to it, so you may have to wait. 😉

I do have a P-40 in my stash (another Halinski kit), and, interestingly, its basic brown and green colors are nearly identical to the Hurricane's. But I'm not in any hurry to get to it, so you may have to wait. 😉

Various companies have produced kits in plastic or card. An internet search will turn up quite a few examples, e.g., Revell, Glencoe, JSC (card). The Revell 1/600 kit should still be available new, and the 1/400 JSC kit is still in print.

Always sad to a grand old ship neglected and in decline, but I can understand why. They are expensive to fix and expensive to maintain, and there's a lot of resources locked up in all that metal.

I agree with the previous comments -- she looks quite sharp!