Roger Pellett

A great job building a fascinating model.  Now you need to build a 1:32 scale USS Akron to suspend it from!!

BTW I never cease to be amazed at what these pilots were expected to do.  If launching and recovering these small planes in the slipstream of the huge Zepplin were not enough imagine using one of these primitive radio sets (I assume still Morse code at that time) while flying the plane and navigating so you could find your way back to the mother ship. 

Roger

Someone a while ago on one of the threads, I don’t remember which tried using expandable urethane foam.  Anyhow, it was not possible to judge how much material to use and the stuff expanded beyond expectations resulting in a mess.

Roger

With the money spent on Germania Nova I’ll bet that her hull has been faired too.  I have always wondered what happens to the Bondo if the boat hits a dock.  Wefalck is correct that high class riveted yachts were built by backing joints between plates with backing strips thus substituting butt joints for lapped ones.  Of course, a good bit of cosmetic finishing would still be required.

Roger

A friend of mine has been restoring a very large steel hulled motor yacht originally built by Berger in Manitowoc, WI.  The boat is now located in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  As the hull plating is welded to the frames by fillet welds as these welds cool from welding temperature they cause dimpling of the plating known as “oil canning.”  While this is noticeable on some Naval and commercial vessels it is unacceptable on a luxury yacht.

The solution is to cover the hull in marine grade “Bondo” and then fair the entire hull by sanding with longboards.  This cosmetic coating lasts about 10 years after which it must be renewed.  A lot of backbreaking labor .which is apparently available in South Florida.

Perhaps Germania’s builders somehow avoided this problem and the Bondo but on the other hand, the poured epoxy finish might be closer than we realize.

Roger

Keith,

This has worked for me:

Select a piece of brass tubing of the required diameter.

Turn a mandral to a snug fit inside the brass tube.

Center drill the mandrel to fit a small pilot drill

Assemble by sliding the brass tube over the mandrel leaving a length protruding beyond the end of the mandrel.  Slide the pilot drill into its hole. The brass tube and pilot drill can be secured by epoxy or CA glue.

File a set of teeth around the circumference of the protruding brass tube and debur.

You now have a small brass hole saw, not something for use on metals but good enough to drill holes through thin wood.  You can also accurately drill the small pilot holes first and then use the pilot drill on your hole saw to just guide the tool.

Roger

I believe that in building the very best models, the builder Has an artistic vision of what he/she wants to end up with.  In executing this vision the builder can use a mix of finishing techniques to achieve his goals.  For example, an Admiralty style model of an Eighteenth Century man-o-War with boxwood hull and painted trim can be stunning.  On the other hand, I personally do not find ships of the same period where color is simulated by different types of wood to be nearly as attractive.  In the end it all comes down to one’s sense of taste.

Roger

Kieth,

Beautiful workmanship!

Your lines drawing depicts Germania Nova as a single screw vessel.  Two handles on an engine room telegraph would indicate a twin screw vessel, but your picture would appear to be for Germania Nova too.  ????

Roger

Hi Dan,

Nice work on the model continues.  In a much earlier post, I commented that U.S. Navy Naval Constructor Edward Ellsberg was loaned to US Lines by the Navy to solve a problem of inadequate ventilation in passenger spaces and the fire rooms. It is therefore possible that these large centrifugal blowers were added while serving as a US Lines passenger liner and were not present while she was a troopship.  Addition of mechanical ventilation might have also been the reason why the slots in the third stack were plated over.

Did Leviathan burn oil or coal as a trooper?  The fire room ventilation problems were apparently related to conversion to oil.

Roger

Standing to one side of a table saw ripping lumber has its own problems.  If by doing so you can’t use a push stick and the wood kicks back there can be nothing keeping your hand out of the blade .  I have severe nerve damage in an index finger and a scar on the middle finger from such an incident.

Roger

Pear is also an excellent choice for your purpose:  close grain, Works nicely and bends well.

Roger

The giant hanger where the airships Akron and Macon were built still stands in South Akron, Ohio.  

Roger

Ed has also published a book on another project, a Nelson era Royal Navy frigate.  His monofilament line technique may be described in that book.

Roger

I suggest that you review Ed Tosti’s build log of the ship Young America in the Scratch Built models section of the forum.  Ed is a master of using and blackening miniature fastenings.  Another trick learned from Ed is the use of black monofilament plastic fishing line to simulate iron fastenings.

Roger

I wish to correct yesterday’s post responding to Lou’s post.  Upon further examination of the drawing there are two tanks in the third funnel marked “F and S water gravity tanks,” not “Feed Water Tanks”.  Lou is, therefore, correct.  These are storage tanks for fresh and salt water probably intended for “hotel” services such as drinking water and sanitary drains.  The feedwater expansion tanks do not appear on the drawing.

Roger

No Lou.  The condensate system in a steam plant is an enclosed system that returns condensed steam from the turbines back to the feed pumps where it is pressurized to boiler pressure and sent back to the boilers.  In theory this is a completely enclosed system with leakage neither or out.  This is necessary in ocean going vessels as any salt from salt water would eventually concentrate in the boilers.

In pracrice, fresh water from the condensate system is lost from various vents and drains and from blowing down the boilers to remove impurities.  Fresh water must, therefore, be added.  This “make up” water as well as water needed for “hotel services” is produced in evaporators that distill salt water.  This is a separate system.

In addition to providing necessary head for the feed pumps, the tank high up in the ship performed two other functions.  First as a daereator where air entrapped in the system could be vented off.  Second it served as a reservoir to control condensate/ feed water surges when the ship was maneuvering.

Over the years steam steam engineering has progressed where no usable energy is wasted.  I don’t know where Leviathan’s steam plant was on this spectrum but I would guess that space and money would have existed to include a lot of refinements.

Roger

Some steam engineering:  This ship would have had a regenerative feedwater system in which waste steam and steam bled from different turbine stages was used to heat the feed water before it passed into the boilers.  This means that the water entering the suction side of the feed water pumps would be hot.  The design of the feed water pumps required a certain pressure in excess of the boiling point of the water to prevent cavitation at the pump inlet.  For those interested the technical term for this is “Net Positive Suction Head.”

The feed water tank in the aft funnel would have held heated water that had passed through the feed water heaters and was about to enter the feed pumps.  The height of the tank relative to the pumps  provided the necessary head to prevent cavitation.

Roger

What was the point of using the old hull?  It would seem that you could have easily carved a new one from scratch.  That stern needs some serious reshaping, and even then you will not be confident that this model matches the lines of any known vessel.

Roger

The most fragile part of a ship model is obviously its rigging.  Before copying the rigging of a model (either on your own model or in print) it makes sense to learn something about the model being copied.  Has the model been rerigged, or restored?  If so who rerigged it?  When was it done? What sources were used? In the absence of such information, what evidence do you have that the rigging is original?  If you are committing your conclusions to writing, you should document your evidence.  In his book Peterson failed to do this so there is no way to judge the accuracy of the models that he copied.

Even if the rigging of the models in the museum is original, although they are housed in a Swedish museum, none are Swedish regional watercraft.  How knowledgeable was the model maker about the details of three foreign vessels?

Unfortunately, Lee’s book is not useful for rigging small fore and aft vessels.  For cutters and sloops Steel’s Masting and Rigging supplemented with Tom Cunliffe’s Hand Reef and Steer is a better choice.  The book on period American rigging practices has not been written.

Roger

Michael,

Before committing maybe a quick half model?

Roger

I find Disc sanders to be very useful.  I have two, a 10in dia one driven by my homemade thickness sander’s shaft and a small “Jarmac” sander with 4in disc on my workbench.  Human nature puts a premium on convenience.  If you need to go to your table saw and mount your sanding disc every time you  want to sand a little from a strip of planking guess what?  You won’t take the trouble and your workmanship will suffer.  Buy a small bench top disc sander.

Roger

Steve,

An unusual and massive project well done!

I’d like to weigh in on a couple of points raised above.

Spare prop:  Up here on the Great Lakes where mishaps in narrow, shallow channels are not uncommon ships are often fitted with propellers with bolt on blades, and often carried spare blades on their fantail. Even today, propeller work is performed without dry docking in the Duluth Harbor by trimming the ship by the bow to expose the screw.  Although replacing a large heavy screw might require dry docking, US Navy advanced bases included floating dry docks so a ship carrying its own spare could be quickly repaired.  The location near the bow of the vessel probably has to do with maintaining her longitudinal trim.

Lifeboats:  I personally think that your model would be more interesting if you show the boats uncovered.  Vacuum forming is a technique easily mastered with a minimum of equipment that you probably have around the house.  If you are unhappy with the kit provided boats you could vacuum form a whole fleet of new ones in an evening.

Roger

Mark,

I’m sorry to hear about your inner turmoil.  It sounds like you have found effective treatment that works for you.  I’m glad that you are beginning to see a path out of the darkness.

Regarding Licorne; As the shipwright it is up to you to declare when she is finished and judging by your posts you have the makings of an impressive model even if you declare her finished now.  So why don’t you clean her up, mount her on a display board and enjoy her. If in the future you decide to work on her that’s great otherwise display her as a wooden ship under construction.

Roger

The Tamyika (sp?) primer is first class and I bought mine at Hobby Lobby.  I have used it for priming cast metal military figures.

Roger

Griphos,

Do you use Mesquite for ship modeling? What are it’s properties?  I have a couple of logs given to me many years ago that I have never used.

Roger

A major problem with breech loading guns was obtaining an effective gas seal. In designing a pressure containing mechanical joint the designer must consider two different factors.  Containing the forces from pressure, and creating a seal to contain fluid leakage.  The wedged can technology might have been sufficient to withstand explosive forces from black powder  but would have leaked badly.  Although as Welfalk points out breech loading required precision machining, another advance for many calibers was the brass cartridge that would expand against the barrel.  German major caliber guns at Jutland used brass powder cartridges.  The Royal Navy used silk bagged ones, relying only on the machined screw threads at the breech for a seal.

Roger