shiloh

Search for, ' binnacle', on line, a wealth of information will appear for you to review.

jud

The ships I sailed aboard were of the Steel Navy Variety, all deck openings had some sort of guard or handrail around them, in the case of a watertight hatch-scuttle combo it was the open hatch itself with the holding stanchions. All weather deck ladders, " what some call stairs, we called ladders", had hand rails on the ladders along catwalks and other walkways. Below decks there were  handrails on some ladders, 'stairs', if they were long ones and not so steep. With low overheads and plenty of things to grab, hand rails were often not needed. Guess the answer is as it usually is, "It Depends", except for weather deck ladders, they typically had hand rails, grabbing at air for support does little good.

jud

Thank you for your comments. Guns will casting in soft silicone molds.

If you were casting a full size gun you probably would be using a green sand mold as was done originally. My post was only intended to address the cast in transition areas the original guns are required to have because of their casting methods, those fillets did add strength. Your model gun patterns would probably be more faithful to the original by including those transitions, even if your intended molding process will hold sharp corners, the guns you are modeling, did not have your casting options.

jud

When wanting to hang a line to straighten it, a small plane makes a good weight, the minis don't place a lot of strain on those small lines. Others seem to like them to taper planks or thin various parts of their models.

Looks like a good model and you are doing it justice. I went aboard DD 527 in Jan 1960, she had the flat bridge not the round as your model, also other differences, aft deck house structure was changed, 5" loading machine was gone, "K" guns were still there but the 40's under the bridge were replaced by Hedge Hogs. The 527 was hit by a, "Frances", twin engine bomber between the stacks at Layte Gulf, when I was aboard those torpedo tubes that were there had been replaced by two, twin 3"50 guns. The modernization of the Ammen did leave enough of the old original Fletcher's for me to see the model is faithful to the class. That hatch aft of Mt.55 lead directly to the berth deck where my rack was, the second door aft of the athwart ship passageway below the flag bags, was where you could go before revile, if you looked sad enough, might beg a roll from the baker to tide you over until breakfast. Please post more of your progress, I won't be the only one watching.

Just looked at some more of your photos, was impressed with the accuracy of the Twin 40MM gun and its Gun Tub, didn't expect to see the detail on the gun or the double row of Ammo Clips around the splinter shield, spent enough time in such a setup in RVN to know how it looked.

jud.

Castings when rammed up and poured do not hold sharp corners, inside or outside, as do machining s. Need some transition around the trunnions, and other objects cast in place with the gun, bearing surfaces such as trunnions were machined or trued in a separate operation. Those gun patterns look well done, just not ready for sand casting as most were done.

jud

When confused or in doubt.

Run in circles, scream and shout !

Need to fit the model in there someplace

Think I would use a flat surface and secure the hull to it with the deck perpendicular to the flat surface. At the stem and stern post measure up from the flat surface to the C/L at each end, adjust until equal and secure the hull at that point, making sure that the angle from the flat surface to the athwart ship deck line near amidships was still at a 90° angle.
Then use a sliding marker set at the measured C/L at the bow and run her around the hull marking as you go, until reaching the starting point. That will show any adjustments needed to obtain a uniform C/L mark around the hull and revealing any adjustments needed before permanently marking the hull Center line.

jud

That soft and bent drill bit provides you with the opportunity to learn how to straighten, harden, temper and sharpen your own drill bits, take advantage of it.

jud

It should have broken into two pieces. Hardness and temper is bad. If you straighten it like Bob suggests, re-harden it  and then temper it and you should have a good bit.

jud

As he said, his 14 year old plans leave something to be desire in the details. He would probably appreciate some input in that department especially since he has no ship building experience to draw on or even provide him with a heads up to trigger a question in advance.

jud

The stand looks good as is. Would be more stable if the bottom members of your stand were wider, you are going to have spars on the masts so width of the bottom of the stand could be just a bit shorter than the spars. You have all that space below the rig to work with, so use it to stabilize your Cutty Sark. Another option, leave the stand as designed and attach it to a wide dense and finished board with a plaque. Admire your ability to be innovative and persistent, you have a world wide bunch of people waiting for your progress posts.

Here it is not trimmed so it grows into ever spreading, impenetrable, thorny brush.

jud

Like your planking aids. Your bulkheads have enough width to add support to the planking and be a firm base when fairing for planking. Your results are fantastic.

jud

Nice to see this question and answer, shows some thinking about how it works, ( cause and effect ), going on.

jud

There is a model, I can't seem to relocate it, was not bright enough to tag it when I had it, on line that shows the rectangular structures as copper tanks, first impression was fresh water, but as she was equipped with an engine they may be fuel tanks, there are no facets or plugs to draw water from. Those circles alongside the mast, shown in the overhead view look like they have hinges, makes me wonder if they are there to vent the engine space that was fitted sometime during her career. I question them being pumps, although the model I mentioned had pumps, modeled as Elm pumps, placed there. If the suction inlets were below the pumps, they would not be the low point of the hull and would need elbows between the suction inlet and the pump to clear the bilges of water.. All speculation on my part, probably wrong in my opinion but it might trigger a responce from someone who knows for sure.

jud

http://shipmodeling.net/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=771&size=big

In spite of her not being a Baltimore Class, I will be keeping close tabs on your build; the effort to get to where you are indicates she will be a heck of a model. From looking at the photos of the ship that you posted and what you said about the similarities, it looks like her hull is close enough to a Baltimore Class that your hull templates and plans, with little change, could be used for a Baltimore Class model. Not planning on building a model of the Baltimore Class in spite of riding the Helena CA 75, from 60-63 as a 3” and 8” Gunners Mate. Looking Good

jud

The depths of cut in the carving whould have the biggest impact on the choice of wood thickness because it would effect strength. Or it could be a thickness of 6" limited the carving depth to 3 inches to maintain the needed strength. Another consideration might be; was the carving done off the ship and then attached to the structural members.

jud

Kind of looks like those two outboard frame members should have been parallel to the keel, with the cross beam in the notches. The planking probably is not straight there and using the notch and keel for alignment would allow a uniform curve of the planking. My opinion is based only on what I read and see in the last few posts, I have not built this model. Good Luck

jud

A low order or small charge that would raise the internal pressure a few psi could spring old Teredo Worm compromised planking or rotted Hull Timbers, opening seams that would quickly fill and sink her.

jud

thank yo all :-)

by the way, i have a question; do you  think that the boat looks too worn out to be further used? I have received some critiques about this, some say that this looks more like an abondened boat, what do u think?

mehmet

Only because you asked.

In spite of what I follow this with, your model shows skill and a well developed knowleged about how to use paint to obtain the effect you are going for.

Does not look sea worthy with all the openings from breakage and poor fitting. A boat can be aged, with the finish well worn or even gone and still be sea worthy. If the old vessel is still in service, it will show that someone is using her. Your efforts show consistency in your application of the finish, but maybe you overdid it.  To me this model appears to be a vessel sadly just draged above the tide mark and abandended to collect guano.

Just as she is, she could be the focus piece of an old fishing beach dorma.

jud

A few of my homemade machines...

nice work, even a tilting head for your mill.

jud

Like you Mike, I have never had a problem drilling a straight hole freehand, especially after getting it started, no bubble needed, the bits seem to track themselves well. Have often had some problems getting them started in the proper place and at desired angles freehand. Drilled in plastic, iron, steel, copper, brass, wood, concrete and glass. I welcome any mechanical aids I can get to work for me, especially when drilling something like a 1” hole in a steel angle iron, free hand with a ¾” or I” drill and have it catch and wind my hand into knots before I could get away, because I didn’t hold the alignment properly freehand. Today I use a cutting torch for that kind of work, but prefer to put it on my drill press if I can get it in. Mechanical aids are developed for good reasons and anyone who is asking about what works for others is worthy of a thoughtful answer. A stand with some up and down motion along with an XY table can be a great aid, especially with an angle vise added to the setup.

jud

My preference would to be to use plans in decimal feet or metric, I would probably convert inches and fractions directly to decimal feet from plans before I did anyththing with them.

Generally when you are dealing with machine tools, you are working in decimals of something, ' inches or metric', as long as you are using base 10, it should make little difference when you setup the machines. Having been a Surveyor I like to work in decimals, that is what the slide rule, calculator and computers use anyway. Fractions are converted to decimals by those machines in order to work with them, if asked some will convert them back.  I don't really care for imperial numbers, an awkward way of manipulating numbers if there are any calculations involved. Mills is a much better way of measuring and displaying angles than degrees, Minutes and Seconds, unless you convert to Decimal Degrees. Any machine you will have available to you, will be using decimals, make a choice or take pot luck, they all will do the job, mine uses decimal inches, it's the 12 inches equals a foot and fraction inches that is a problem and only then when manipulating them for a math problem.

jud

If you forget the plugs, That’s why you have thumbs. I rode a DD, a DE, a Heavy Cruiser and 3 LST's, all WW 2 ships and all boats open to the sky with the plugs out.

If you want to cover your boats, should be OK as long as you show plenty of floats and life rafts for the crew and troops.

jud