shipmodel

Hi Gaetan - A tip of the hat to you and to Vossiewulf for clearing up my questions as to why some of the knives on "Forged in Fire" will not cut. Your dedication to sharpness reminded me of Terry Pratchett's character Death, who hones his scythe on leather, then wool, cotton, silk, and even the wind. He finally gets the edge that he wants with sunlight itself. If you are going to sever the soul from the body you should have the sharpest blade possible. I guess every job has its need for its own kind of edged tool. Dan

I'll be following along as well. I have used it sparingly, but I am more and more fascinated with the possibilities of this new technology. Dan

Pulling up a chair myself. Dan

Hello again to everyone. I am trying to have the log catch up to the build, but I keep getting distracted by reading the excellent build logs from Michael, Rick, Gaetan, Keith, and all the others who are sharing their tribulations and triumphs. Thank you all. Meanwhile, in the Brooklyn dry dock the Leviathan is closing in on the last structural elements. The A Deck house aft of the forward superstructure will complete the major constructions. In the photo this area does not look that complex, but this is deceiving. The plan view shows how irregular the outline is, with more nooks and crannies than an English muffin. For some reason this deck plan is rarely reproduced. This is the best one that I could put together. It was taken from the end papers of Frank Braynard’s book and, from the label of “OBERANS. . . .” it is clearly the plans of the Vaterland and not the Leviathan. It also suffers from crossing the gutter between the pages of the book, and a section just ahead of the middle funnel is blurry. Photographs show that the area is even more complex than appears on the plans. Deck house heights go up and down and the roof is busy with all sorts of machinery and small structures. Higher resolution photos confirm this complexity, but since they are taken of the ocean liner, the overall white color scheme makes teasing out the details difficult. Ventilators, ductwork, machinery and even a belfry can be made out, but exact sizes, placements, and relationships between them are an ongoing challenge. Then there is the problem that the troop ship varies quite a bit from the ocean liner, and not just because of the camouflage. Here, for example, two large structures can be seen that do not appear on the liner. Ventilators? Lookout positions? Range finders? Their size and locations have to be accounted for even while the basic structures are built. Combining all of the available information, I came up with a series of shapes that were roughed out in basswood. The three brass weights stood in for the funnels so I could get an idea of relative heights and placements. Starting at the forward end I did some basic detailing of the support areas under the funnels. Both the forward and middle funnels stand on bases with angled sides and curved ends. 12 louvers sit on each side. Here is the forward one after sheathing and painting, with the next section aft, the rounded top of the main salon. The paint on the salon camouflage is just the primer, which is too dark and was corrected later. Neither piece is permanently attached at this point. Louver pieces were made of wood and styrene. They are flat triangles which were made up as a long strip, then parted off to the correct length (see insert). The 48 louver sections were made up and installed on the two bases. After final sheathing and painting of the forward base and the salon cover they were carefully positioned and secured. You can see how they interlock with some areas of the base overlapping the salon, while other areas of the salon overlap the funnel base. Fitting together this bit of jigsaw took some time and care. Continuing aft the rest of the interlocking sections of the deck house were fitted, sheathed and painted. Despite the care that I took there were still one or two small gaps that had to be filled with slivers of sheathing. All of the flat roofs were painted uniform grey on the theory that there would have been no reason in 1917 during WW I to camouflage areas that could only be seen from the air. The troop ship side was primed in a medium grey which was a start for the final camouflage colors. And here is the double photo with all of the basic structures complete. This was taken on February 1, so I am now only a month behind the build. Hopefully I will catch up soon. Till then, be well. Dan

Hi Mark - From what I can see you should get a good set of molds for your castings. One trick that I picked up from some forgotten article is to vibrate the mold as the rubber is setting, which will help any small bubbles rise to the surface and disappear. If you do not have access to a vibrating table (the article was in a scientific journal which assumed that your laboratory had one) then tape a powered toothbrush to the side of the mold and let it run while the rubber is setting. Best of success to you. I look forward to seeing how things work out. Dan

Hello to all. Thanks, as always, for the likes and compliments. I had a touch of insomnia last night, so here is the next segment. A brief one this time, and mostly pictures. On top the A Deck house is the Bridge Deck with the bridge and the officers’ quarters in its deck house. To show its elegance, the Vaterland was built with many touches of dark, luxurious hardwoods, including the bridge and the rail around the bridge wings. The bridge itself, with its many windows, juts out from the line of the bridge rail and is cantilevered over A Deck. You can see the fine woodworking in this photo of Captain Hans Ruser on the starboard bridge wing of the Vaterland. Inside the bridge are several telegraphs and other ship handling equipment including a steering wheel. Note that the wind deflector where the captain has stashed his binoculars only protects the outer part of the bridge wing. The SS Leviathan boasted the same fine finishes, restored after war duty. Captain Herbert Hartley gazes over the bow behind a wind deflector that now goes all the way to the bridge. Aft of the bridge the walls of the officers’ quarters are metal again, with a door, two portholes, several windows and some ventilation equipment. The plans are good in this area. The deck house is outlined in red. Note that it is not symmetrical. There is a stairway up to the roof only on the port side. The area of the bridge is in blue. The top of the officers’ quarters is a bit complex, but not too big a challenge. I left some extra meat on the front edge so I could refine it to exactly match the curve below. Here are the two pieces from a bit earlier in the build when their shapes were still being refined. I got caught up in the building process and forgot to take photos for a bit. Using my usual techniques I sheathed and decked the pieces, then added a paper door, brass portholes and handrails, and my homemade window decals. At the front the underlying basswood structure is sheathed in cherry veneer, rather than styrene, with fine cut strips as moldings. For the front face of the bridge I dipped a piece of veneer in wood hardener. When it dried it had enough strength to survive having the windows drilled, carved out, and finished with a square profile needle file. I curved it to make sure that it fit in the space that it had to fill before doing the final trimming. The Bridge Deck was carefully positioned on top of the A Deck house and glued down. The bridge face was installed, along with two angled single window panels. Caprails along the bridge wings were fashioned and installed, along with two cast pewter telegraphs from Bluejacket. A steering wheel was put inside the bridge, but it is almost impossible to see. For some reason Captain Hartley is dressed as a railroad conductor, but he does add a sense of scale to the area. Photoetched railings were added to the Bridge Deck at this point. I do not think that I will be working much in this area any more, and it would be more difficult to put them on once the subassembly was added to the model. The troop ship side was done the same way, with the camouflage paint laid on before detailing. After double and triple checking that everything was done the assembly was installed on the model. Supports were added under the outer ends of the bridge wings as seen in the photos, and it is now ready for final detailing. Thanks for following along. More soon. Dan

Hi Nils - and all who are following and liking what I have been posting. Sorry I have been tied up for a bit with personal matters and my writing time has mostly been taken up with the QAR articles for the Journal. Anyway, here is the next segment. Continuing the build up from where I left off, the next level to be addressed was A Deck, highlighted in the photo. As can be seen, this is a highly complicated and multi-level construction which is visually very important to the model since there is no covering deck above it. The tall superstructure forward of the first funnel is the most intricate and its position is the most critical since it has to match exactly the structures already in place. The aft end of the deck house aft of the third funnel could be off by a small amount without anyone the wiser, but not this area. So although I would have preferred to start with a simpler area, the forward superstructure had to be tackled at this point. This turned out to be one of the trickier parts of the build. At the forward face there is a large opening in front of the recessed A Deck house with a dark solid railing, which turned out to be made of wood. Four round pillars support the Bridge Deck, with large boxy uprights to either side that support the bridge wings. Judging from the heights of the people, the A Deck house is much taller than the B Deck house, but exactly how tall is difficult to determine. The plans gave me good news and bad news. In the cross section view I realized that the entire unit could be built separately from the rest of the ship. There was a natural separation above the B Deck line and forward of the first funnel. But within this area both the Library and the 1st Class Smoke Room are taller than the rest of the decks. I had a lot of difficulty in figuring out how this would work with what had already been built. Using one of these rooms as the height of the deckhouse would not be tall enough, and using both would be much too tall. Using Photoshop I compared the plans to the photo of the ship. The top of the B Deck windows that had been already constructed gave me the level for A Deck, as indicated. But on the plans there was no corresponding deck line, so I drew it in blue. Now it was clear that the Library room actually extended up through A deck and this extra height was added to the height of the Smoke Room to make up the full height of the deck house. With the height of the deck house determined I could fit the rest of the features to it. The shape of the deck house is highlighted in red, although I later determined that the area in blue is actually a landing that is outside of the main structure of the deck house. The uprights at the front are revealed to be hollow, that is, they do not have any supporting structures within them, just a stairway leading down to B deck. Combining all of this information with examination of more photos I made final plans and started cutting wood. To the basic ½” deckhouse height I added 3/16” on top to make up the added height of the Smoke Room and an additional 3/16 below for the top of the Library. This was cut and assembled before the forward face was sheathed with a set of laser-cut windows. The paper pattern for the Bridge Deck was cut and used to test its relationship to the shape of the deckhouse. Now the side uprights could be cut and installed so they matched the height of the deckhouse. This was tested against the Bridge Deck plate and the initial shapes of the upper works. You can also see how the windows were taken out on the liner side and mounted on a grey background. On the troop ship side the windows were left in, since photos of the time show that they were covered like the lower windows to prevent light giving away the ship’s position. To stabilize the uprights I fashioned a piece that would be hidden under the Bridge Deck and by the overhang in front. The solid railing was made from cherry veneer with the grain oriented vertically to simulate wainscoting. A narrow wooden caprail was cut from veneer, curved, and installed on top. The deck house was still removable and by doing so I could judge how this front face compared to the various photographs. With some minor quibbles I was satisfied. Holes were drilled through the upright support piece and the four pillars made up from bass rod and installed. The Bridge Deck plate was trimmed to final shape to match the finished structures below and the rough structures above. It was secured to the top of the deckhouse, but not yet to the uprights and their support. On the troop ship side the masking for the camouflage paint was laid on according to the photos. The camouflage was hand-painted across all the deck levels up to the Bridge Deck. I did forget to add the horizontal moldings before painting, but they will be colored later. The Bridge Deck plate has had the deck paper laid on and has been edged using my usual techniques. Across the front and around the bridge wings a solid wooden railing has been installed. The sides of the deck house were sheathed and laser cut windows installed as seen in the photos. A stairway was installed from the Bridge Deck to a landing which sits at the height of the top of the Library with a short stairway down to A Deck. Handrails were fashioned and installed since it will be hard to get to this area once the piece is installed permanently. On the troop ship side the painting was continued around as indicated in the camouflage plan, the painting and the photos. At the front of the railing is a white plastic reinforcement, but this will be hidden inside the bridge in the finished model. My next post, which I hope to get to soon, will cover the bridge and the deckhouse which contains the officers’ quarters. Until then, be well. Dan

Hi Johann - Beautiful work on the servings and turning in the thimbles in the pendants. Are you going to tar (blacken) them or leave them the tan color? One suggestion, if I may - I found that when I seized the head of the pendants and shrouds too closely to the masthead, the total bulk of the seizings of all of the shrouds would not go through the lubber's hole in the tops. I had to redo them so the seizing was below the top so I had some flexibility. I do not know if this problem will arise for you, but you should be aware of it early. Best of success on the project. I will continue to follow along with interest. Dan

Brilliant, Keith! Take a well deserved bow. Dan

Hi Siggi, Druxey and Mark - I am greatly enjoying your discussion. To add my two cents - The one consideration that has not been mentioned yet is how the gun would act during recoil. If the rope is fixed around the cascabel, either by a loop and a seizing or by a cont splice, then if the gun is anything but exactly perpendicular to the bulwark, the shock of the recoil will be taken up unevenly, leading to a torque on the rear of the barrel, which could not be good for the gun or the gunners. In extreme cases I guess it could overturn the carriage. Leaving the breaching rope to run free, whether with a loop or without, would even up those stresses. Dan

Hi Marc - Very realistic wood effects. I have used similar techniques, but your method gets very close to perfect. Druxey - would the lower deck be where the discharges for the bilge pumps would be? No need to pump water any higher than needed. Dan

Hi Marc - Looking really good, like a warship should. I am a bit behind in following this. My system has been marking your posts as spam for the past several weeks, and I just caught it. Will stay on top of it more in the future. See you soon. Dan

Hello again and thanks to all who are following along. I buckled down and put this together a bit sooner than I thought I could, and I hope you enjoy it. This segment catches up the build to about December 1 of last year. Soon I hope to be current. First, I got some welcome confirmation from Professor Smith of our best guesses for the dazzle paint colors. Somewhere in the archives of the museum he came up with color chips of the paints used during World War I. The one most in question, Blue Green 1, is at the upper left and matches quite closely to the color already on the model, so no overpainting will be needed. Whew! Construction itself continued upwards with B Deck, which is highlighted in the photo below. This and other pictures told me that only the forward two long sections are enclosed by window units, while aft of them the side is open with pillars and a solid rail. The details of the deck house are rarely seen since it sits well back from the side of the ship. I relied on the one photo below which was taken at just the right angle to show the doors and windows at this level. After lots of time spent poring over the photos and trying to decipher the notations on the plans, I came up with these windows for the deck houses of both B and A Decks. It’s a bit surprising what can be done pretty easily with Photoshop and clear decal film for an ink-jet printer. The deck house shape was taken from the plans and was assembled from various rectangular pieces of ½” basswood. After sheathing it in styrene the troop ship side was painted grey. Portholes were drilled and installed, followed by the doors, window decals, and handrails. At the side the forward window sections are built up from smaller sections and panels, but most of the photos are taken from too far away to be really helpful. In a close-up of the troop ship I learned that the windows consist of three-panel units with added pillars in between. The frames have cross-pieces setting off the top third of each panel, but no corresponding lower frames. The upper and lower thirds have solid panels behind the frames, leaving only the center third open. I laid out the repeating frame units in Photoshop using the ‘copy’ function a lot so I could generate the long runs that I needed. A similar set of windows was laid out for the face of the forward superstructure and its deckhouse. These were laser cut for my by Charlie Zardoz, a good modeler with some build logs on this site, and a great guy. He managed to get the penetration set so the windows just pop out while the frames remain sturdily behind. After sizing and cutting out the lengths that I needed two back panels were installed to cover the upper and lower thirds, then the units were painted. Here is one of the troop ship pieces before installation. And after. The darker area seen through the open windows is the side of the deck house which is set back and painted flat black to create the impression of depth. The dust is not for effect and will be removed. The process was similar on the ocean liner side, but with more colors. I have not located any color photos or paintings of the liner which have this detail, so I opted for a warm brown for the frames and tan for the backing pieces. The pillars are each added individually and left the bare color of white styrene. A black background proved too much of a contrast with these colors, so a warmer grey was used. The aft portion of the ship’s side at this level has numerous pillars set every 14mm on the model. As before, they are 0.032” brass rod, painted white on the ocean liner side and grey on the other. A quick wooden spacer and guide ensured that the opening was a consistent 10mm tall and that the pillars were vertical. Gluing them with cyano and white glue double locked them in place and strengthened the support for the deck piece of A Deck, which had a tendency to warp a little. The face of the bow superstructure got a run of tall window frames as well. The frames match the ones on the side of the ship, but have no backing pieces or added pillars. Here they are in place with the window filling pieces taken out on the ocean liner side and set over a grey background. I left the window pieces in on the troop ship side to match photos showing covers over them, probably to block any stray light. The edges of the frames were given a dark wash to improve contrast. Above, the smaller window units have been applied to the initial mock-up of the A Deck house. So here is the model status as of December 1 of last year. Bit by bit, taking small steps, I am working inward and upward toward the upper decks and funnels. I find it quite interesting that changing the paint scheme changes the look, to my eye, of the husky, tall troop ship into the low, sleek ocean liner even though I know, for a fact, that they are identical. More soon. Dan

Gracias, amigo - I have the luxury of a reasonably complete work day to devote to building, not to mention all the time I spend in the evenings thinking about my next move. But I am seriously behind in writing this log. Sorry, I'll get something out soon. I tend to rely on photographs over any plans that I can find. Even modern plans are usually "as designed" and not "as built". Those from over 100 years ago, like those of the USS Maine and the Leviathan, can be significantly different. Fortunately she was a famous ship in her day and newspaper cameramen were producing lots of photos, many of which are now in various libraries who have put their collections online. We live in a time of unparalleled availability of knowledge. I could not begin to do the depth of research that I do, or attempt the level of accuracy that I aim for, without their generosity. But photos are not the last word either, except for a frozen moment in time. I have images from all of her incarnations - as the Vaterland from 1914-1917; as the USS Leviathan, 1917-1919 (and in storage 1919-1922), relaunched as the SS Leviathan 1924-1934. Each of these periods has a surprising number of differing details, even structural ones. Figuring out which ones to include and which to reject is part of the fun. Thanks for following along. Dan

Hi Mark - Sorry your first experiment with photoetch did not work out. There is something quite satisfying about working your way up the learning curve and doing a difficult job yourself. That said, there is also something satisfying about achieving a desired result, even if it takes some help from someone else. Take a look at the monograms that Chuck Passaro is producing over at Syren Ship Models. They are very realistic, they come in 3 sizes. and cost only $12 for 90 of them. https://www.syrenshipmodelcompany.com/turned-brass-cannon.php#!/Monograms-English-1750-1820-for-brass-cannon-3-sizes-90-per-pack/p/58972038/category=5764759. For the record, I am a friend of Chuck, but have no connection to the company other than being a happy customer. Best of success. Dan

Hi Johann - Yes, I have wormed mainstays and forestays down to a scale of 1/96 (1/8" = 1'). I used a hand-cranked serving machine of my own design (see photos for the serving setup. I don't have a photo of the worming process, but it is essentially similar). The trick is to start all three worming lines at the same time, hold them in between thumb and fingers of one hand, which makes the tensions equal, and then to crank very slowly. It lays up pretty easily. I prefer the hand-cranked machine because I can stop and reverse easily if anything gets off-line. Securing them with dilute white glue, as Druxey suggests, is the final step. Best of success. Dan

Hi Keith - Welcome back and Happy New Year. You have made my year a bit happier already, anticipating following along with another of your lovely builds. Dan

Marc - For more pictures of the SL models at the convention, and many more, go here - https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/threads/international-convention-of-model-shipbuilding-rochefort-france-18-th-21-st-october-2018.2050/

Actually, it's dead easy. I can show you the next time you are over, but here is a quick explanation - 1. Lay out your nail pattern on a wooden plank that is longer and wider than you need and about 1/4" thick. 2 . Use a drill press to make holes the same size as the needle shaft. 3. Suspend the plank parallel to and about 1/4" above a hard, flat surface like a piece of glass. 4. Slide the needles through all the holes until they just touch the glass. 5. Flood the top side of the plank around the needles with thin CA. 6. When dry and the needles are fixed in place, turn over and flood the bottom side. 7. Trim the stamper from the plank, trim off the excess needle shafts, mount a handle and start stamping.

Those rings you need are much smaller than I can make. Instead what I do is make an eyebolt. This gives me both the ring and a shaft to secure it to the model. After installation the ring can be bent in any desired direction. A piece of fine wire is folded around the shaft of a small drill bitt and the tails are twisted together until the eye forms around the drill. Doing it that way I can get even smaller 'rings' than you need. It works for me.

Marc - Once again you inspire me with your scholarship and perseverance. It would drive me mad, Mad, Mad I Tell You !! - sorry about that little moment - so when I did the nailheads on the copper plates of Oneida, I made up a block of needles in the right pattern and impressed them all at once for each plate. Of course, I had to make a lot of them, so it more than justified the time spent making up the stamper. In your case, not so much. Whatever method you settle on, I know your result will be equally inspiring. Dan

Hi Marc - How do you plan on making those numerous nailheads on the inside of the port lids. I never did it. They always seemed to be too much trouble to replicate on a surface that would rarely be seen. On a wooden surface they would have to be done one at a time. But on plastic, I think a custom decal could be created. Just musing out loud. Dan

Coming along very nicely and neatly. Well done. Dan

Hi Vossie - The short answer is - they are all correct. Each shipyard, each designer, each shipwright would have had his own style and construction method that he preferred. Even two similar ships coming out of the same shipyard, built by the same shipwright, might have different details depending on when during his career the ship was built. Deck design would have been particularly variable, depending on the availability of longer or shorter planks at the time of construction. Unlike some French designs, the deck of an English or American cutter is not a significant structural component, so the only consideration would have been how to make it sturdy with the least wood wasted and the least manpower expended. Nibbing, hook scarphs, and other fancy joinery would have been limited to as few locations as possible, consistent with eliminating weak spots and reducing the chances of rot, unless the ship owner asked for all the bells and whistles. On a model, however, the appearance of the deck planking is a significant visual element. Like you, I have seen all combinations of nibbing, straight planking, tapered planking, hook scarphs, and many more besides. I expect that some things have been done on a model that were never done on a working ship. It is just a question of style. So go for it. Do the nibbing, the complicated scarph joints, hook joints and any other joinery that fits with the overall artistic presentation of your model. Whatever you decide, you can rest easy knowing that there was almost certainly a ship out there whose builder made the same choices. Be well Dan

Put me on the list for a first edition.