shipmodel

Beautiful work on the dolphins, Marc. They will really set off the rails. Can't wait to see how they work out. Dan

Hi Mark - Yes, I have the PE kit. Unfortunately, my efforts to date have not been very good. Something to work on in the future, as you say. The learning is never ending, but that's one of the major reasons that I work in this field. Dan

Hi Nils, John - Thanks to you both. Ultimately, I am satisfied with how the cranes look on the model, especially if I take off my glasses. I know that there is a solution out there, but I suspect it lies in the field of fine jewelry or by using circuit board manufacturing techniques. Neither one was affordable in time or treasure for only 12 blocks. Perhaps one day . . . Dan

Hello to all the following group, and everyone who looked in. Thanks for the many likes and compliments, and especially for the comments and critiques. I will try to keep up the level of work. This will be a short post, despite the month since my last one. I took on a restoration project that was time sensitive, so I had to put the Michelangelo on the siding while that train went through. The major work this time was on the cargo cranes that sit on the forward deck. Here is the section of the plans for the cranes, lacking a lot of the details that can be seen in the two photos of the uprights. As you can see, they are not the simple posts that many are, but have numerous fittings, rings, winches and flat blocks. Notice particularly the three spotlights hanging from horizontal supports. Each element was reproduced as closely as I could, given the small scale of the model. The post and the booms were assembled from telescoping brass tubes with the top of the post turned from a small piece of hardwood dowel. The boom pivot fittings, rings, winches, and the light supports were cut from styrene. The lights themselves are small drops of epoxy on wire posts. The biggest problem turned out to be the cable blocks. In the close-up you can see why. The set consists of two upper single blocks attached to the post. Attached to them is a smaller single block on the inner side, with a double block for the outer, heavier boom. Note how flat they are. I tried numerous ways to reproduce them without success. They are just too small for my abilities. I tried punched plastic discs, but could never get them to line up right, and attaching them to the post and to each other was impossible. Cast metal blocks were better, but the attachment lugs broke repeatedly. Ultimately I settled on 2mm wood blocks that I am used to working with from sailing ship rigging. Once painted white I think they came out acceptably. The cables are 0.006” polished black thread which contrasts nicely with the dominant white and tan color scheme. The final touch was to give the spotlights a touch of silver on their bottoms to represent the bulbs. I can see that there are some paint chips and railing sections that got bent by my clumsy fingers while working on the cranes, and these will be addressed before the next posting. Until then, be well. Dan

John - A very nice rendition of an unusual subject. Thanks for taking us along on the journey. The Hunley project sounds like an interesting one as well. I look forward to following along. Be well Dan

Hi JD - Just read through your log. She is coming along very nicely. It was enlightening to see how your skills, techniques, and attention to detail grew and progressed as you worked through the multitude of problems that building a top level ship model entails. Congratulations! I will be following along from now on. Dan

Ben, not to worry. I am enjoying learning something new about my ship. I enlarged the photo of the lights to see if there were any indications of color. It was taken in daylight with the lights off, but they actually look sort of maroon. Not much help there. If there is a final consensus, I will go with that. Otherwise, something with plausibility will be fine. Dan

Guys - I had no idea how those lights were used, but it makes perfect sense. Jack, Pat - I will check to see if there was a regulation covering those lights for ocean liners in the 60's. If that does not pan out, I will go with Ben's suggestion of red/white (silver)/red. Many thanks for sharing the knowledge. Dan

Hi Druxey - Yes, I have the red and green running lights on the sides of the ship. Not sure at all what color the lights on the mast would have been. I was just trying for some visual distinction and interest. Instead of red and green I may give them a touch of silver. Leaving them all white makes them look like indistinct blobs. Thanks for the feedback. Dan

Hi again to everyone following, with many thanks for the likes and comments. A number of you were at the Joint Clubs Conference in New London last week, and mucho thanks also for the compliments from those who saw her in person. Between the last posting and Joint Clubs I did some work on details to get her ready. The first of these were the two masts that define the height of the ship. In these somewhat grainy photos you can see that they are somewhat complicated structures, especially the foremast. From the plans it is clear that they are not simple tapered cylinders, but are built up of telescoping sections. Each has 6 segments of various lengths, starting with a 4mm diameter at the base. Each has a flared support at the base and one or more platforms for radars and lookouts. Photos like the one below showed many of the details, although some still had to be inferred. Here I could see the lookout station, the two railed radar platforms, the two spars, the foghorn, and the three lower lights. Also seen are the several stays, lifts for the spars, radio and flag lines. I attempted to duplicate as much of this detail as I could. The masts began with 5 telescoping thin-walled brass tubes, topped with a final solid rod. Flared support bases were fashioned from hardwood. A 4mm hole was drilled into a larger billet at a 7 degree angle. Wood was removed from the forward side of the hole and the mast tubes were glued in. Then the remaining wood was carved to shape. A brass pin was secured into the bottom for later mounting. Here the aft mast has received its tapered brass spar, soldered into a groove ground into the front face of the mast. The aft face has a small railed lookout platform with a photoetched access door. The ensign staff is soldered into a hole just below the lookout location. (It is a bit out of focus, but I had moved on before I realized this so I could not reshoot it.) The mast was painted according to photo evidence, with the base set into a small deckhouse. After mounting on the ship I added a pre-skewed paper flag using my usual techniques. The lines are 0.006” fly tying threads in black and tan. The stays will be added later, the lower ones through the hole just below the lookout platform. The foremast got its tapered brass spars soldered on, with lookout and radar platforms pieced up from styrene sheet and strip. Railings and ladders are photoetched, as is the access door at the base. The three lower lights are pieced together from very tiny pieces of rod and strip. A wooden piece was also added to the forward side of the base as seen in photos. The foghorn was added and the mast was painted. I do not know whether it is accurate, but I painted two of the lights red and green for some visual interest. The next small detail, although a very visually important one, is the “flying wing” shaped bar that sits between the main pool and the funnel house. Using the plans and various available photos of minimal clarity and detail, I made my best guess as to its layout. Here it is with a green barrier that sets it off from the pool area. Overall, I think it matches pretty well to the first photo. The final detail for this segment is the searchlight platform that rises above the monkey bridge on the Belvidere deck. Here is the best photo of it that I found, with the deck opened to passengers. The plans do not have a lot of detail, but enough to get the proportions and dimensions. The riser was carved from hardwood with a styrene platform and supports. Railings and the ladder are PE brass. For the searchlight itself I found a small metal casting, detailing it with bits of styrene. I painted the body bronze and ground out the forward face to a bright, concave surface. That finished the work that I could accomplish before the Conference, so here it is just before being packed for transport. The lifeboats with their uniquely shaped davits are the only major components left. Getting close to the end. Be well Dan

Hi Tom - Best of success with the semi-retirement and the move. I envy you your future workshop with a view of the lake. Sweet! As for straps, I have had good success - no movement and no damage - by taking some small-bubble bubble wrap and cutting a long, fairly wide strip which I roll into a strap. This is run across the model amidships, maybe just aft of the boats, and held down with washers and screws to the base on either side. This keeps the model from jumping in the base when/if your moving van hits a bump along the road. The strap does not have to be very tight, just firm enough to prevent movement. If you are worried about abrasion from the strap, a small piece of soft cloth along the rails will prevent that. Whatever you decide, good luck and I hope to see your final progress soon. Dan

I wasn't aware of the Scientific American article, but I doubt that the torpedo boat made the trip to Cuba. It is clear from the photo of the Maine entering Havana harbor that it was not aboard at the time. Nor was it on the ship in later photos while moored. Conspiracy and cover-up speculation aside, I don't remember it being mentioned at any point in any of the testimony during the several inquests following the explosion. I opted not to mount either one in the display for the Brooklyn Navy Yard museum. As they used to say - "Yer pays yer money and yer takes yer choice." Best of success. Dan

Hi there - Another very interesting build using modern technology. I will be following with lots of interest. I did a USS Maine in the same scale some time ago and found out two things that might be useful to you. First, although authorized, the torpedo boats were never carried by the Maine in the two years between her commissioning in 1896 and her end in 1898. I had to scrap the ones that I started. You can certainly add them to your model, and they look good, but not historically accurate. Also, there were a series of photographs taken of the entire ship from various angles and others taken on deck in several places. These are in the Library of Congress and have been scanned at 1200 bpi, so they can be enlarged to an amazing degree, which can show many construction details that do not show up anywhere else. They are free to download from the Library's website, which I don't have at the moment. Let me know and I can dig it up for you. In the meanwhile, below is what can be done with an enlargement of one of the overall shots. Hope it is useful to you. Dan

Hi Charlie - The shipbuilders' rule is that no plank should ever taper to less than half its original width. When you find your spiled planks getting that narrow, it's time for a drop plank. Now that you have some planks laid, you can pencil in the rest of the strakes to see where stealers will be needed. Looking good. Dan

Hi Charlie - The planking is coming along nicely. Your technique with the thinned putty is a good one and should work well for you. Something that works for me when spiling is to first lay on a piece of frosted tape over the curved area to be planked, then draw the plank shape on it. Take it off and lay it flat onto cardstock. Cut it out to make your pattern. When you are confident, you can lay the tape directly onto your planks and skip the cardstock step entirely. Dan

Nils - A beautiful rendition of an unusual subject. Bravo. Dan

Brilliant, Denis! I will be smiling all day. Dan

Very nice work, Marc - The port decorations came out even better than I thought they would. With a coat of primer many of those differences will be minimized, and I am sure that an integral whole appearance will arise from the disparate colors and textures that you have now. Looking forward to seeing her grow. Dan

Thank you all. It was a very enjoyable project, and I am happy if it contributes, in a small way, to the general appreciation of maritime history. The North Carolina people have done a great job with their museum and especially curator Paul Fontenoy and historian David Moore whose excellent article on the ship appears in the latest issue of the Nautical Research Journal. Be well Dan

Hi Aviaamator - Thanks for looking in and enjoying my journey. I hope the machines and devices can make your own modeling a bit easier. One small note - almost all of the rigging, with the exception of the smallest seizing line, is museum grade linen line from a supply that I have been carefully hoarding for years. Only the color has been changed from natural to black for the standing rigging with fabric dye. Be well Dan

Hi Mark - Yes, working with very small blocks is tedious, but I have developed some techniques that have simplified the process for me. Here is a quick overview of the one that I use the most. I hope that it can give you some ideas for your own work: The central concept is that the stropping line is always under tension until the stropping is complete. To do this, I took a Helping Hands tool and added a small alligator clip and a light spring to one of the tool's end clips, the left one in my case because I am right handed. The selected stropping line is wrapped around three sides of the block and clipped into the stationary jaws on the right, with the tails held firmly in the spring clip (a). The selected serving line (always smaller than the stropping line) is looped or tied around the strop tails (b), then wound tightly up towards the block, forming a nicely tapered siezing (c). This is glued with your favorite glue and left to dry. Once the glue is dry the extra seizing line is snipped off and the block is released. At this point it has two tails, making it suitable for tying the block to a spar or other rigging point (a). If the block is going to be at the end of a pendant or other similar location, one of the tails is cut off very close to the seizing and a loop is seized into the end of the tail in a similar manner (b). This technique works for me from the largest down to really small blocks. In photo (c) the block on the left is a 7mm triple; the middle is a 4mm single which is the one in the photos, and on the right is a 2mm single. The technique is the same, just the choice of stropping and seizing line changes. The smallest block is seized with fly tying thread, which is about the smallest that my old hands and eyes can still work with. On that note, an added benefit is that with the tails on it is much harder for the block to get itself lost when I am opening up the sheave holes. Of course there is more - seizing in hooks or eyebolts to the blocks, double stropping, etc. but you get the idea, I am sure. You can probably think of some improvements. Hope that helps a bit. Dan

Thanks, Keith. But why no comment on our bathing beauty? I put her in just for youngsters like you - Dan

Great work. Congratulations! I learned quite a lot from following your build. Thank you. Dan

Hi to everyone, and thanks again for the comments and compliments from craftsmen and artists whose work I so highly respect. With the funnel cages and pillars completed, I turned to the smoke deflection caps. There are no plan views of them, but in this photo their shape can be seen. They are wedge shaped with a rounded front. The funnel tube exits towards the front with a raised ring around it. There is a round plate at the front whose purpose I could not determine. Low railings go around the cap near the edge and another railing around the exit plate. The back of the cap has a shallow vee shape. The plans show the cap from the side. It has two portions, an upper one with a constant height, and a lower one that is shaped and tapered to set the upper surface at an angle. The length of the cap was measured and the photo above was adjusted to correct for the foreshortening caused by the camera angle. The adjusted photo was printed out and used as my pattern. Construction began by cutting two plates 2mm thick from hardwood. The lower plate on the left is upside down with the outer ring of the cage marked on it and a hole drilled to accept the top of the pillar. The upper plate, on the right, has a slightly smaller hole drilled to fit a brass tube that slides inside the pillar tube for a secure joint. The lower plate was marked to show how it was to be beveled, while the upper plate got its tube, disk, and cover plate. With the lower plate shaped the two were joined. A bit of hand sanding finished the edges. Some 2-bar railing had its top rail trimmed, then the remaining 1-bar rail was installed as seen in the photos. When the construction was satisfactory the entire cap was painted matte black. The cages and pillars were located and secured to the cap with white glue, locking them in place in relation to each other. Once everything was solid the intersections of the reinforcing ring were drilled to accept 0.12” wire. The holes had to be angled, sometimes pretty severely, so the wires would land on the inner ring around the pillar in such a way that they radiate in a regular pattern from the inner cylinder to the outer oval. The wisdom of the added reinforcement was fully realized and I had no breakage of the brittle cages despite some fairly large machining forces. After gluing with cyano the wires were clipped and the stubs ground flush. With a small brush I reached through the openings in the cage to paint the radial wires white, as shown in the photos. In the forward funnel two grommets stand in for the foghorns, while a painted piece of pierced brass sheet makes up the walkway. The cages got a touch-up with white acrylic paint and a final coat of gloss clear finish. Here is how they look, set in place, the photo taken using a flash with the blue background set a little too close. Here they are backlit. And here is the look from dead ahead. It is not quite the Times cover, but pretty close With the pools and funnels in place the ship is starting to round into final form. Next, the two masts that define the height of the ship. Until then, be well. Dan

Hi again to all – Thanks for all the support and compliments. I am glad that you are enjoying this voyage. With the pools finished, I turned to the next detailed subassemblies, the funnels. As you can see, they are some of the most visually important elements of the ship. In profile they dominate the center of the ship, especially because of the dark caps that contrast with the rest of the white colors of the ship. In the enlargement you can see that there are three major components to the funnels – the latticework cages, a central tube, and those smoke protection caps. The plans show that the two funnel cages, tubes and caps are identical, but the forward funnel has a pierced skirt that lifts it higher than the aft one, requiring a taller base for the funnel tube. The caps angle forward about 2.5 degrees and have low railings on top. This color photo reveals that the forward funnel has a ladder up the front face of the octagonal base and up the forward line of the central pillar. Painted bands with the red and green colors of the Italian Line circle the cage just under the cap. Two foghorns are mounted just above the reinforcing ring about halfway up the cage. From underneath you can see the bars that connect the cage to the pillar from each six-way intersection at the level of the reinforcing ring. Also, the central pillar is not a simple tube, but has a number of smaller tubes circling it, all confined by a number of wires. Between the foghorns is a grating platform, probably to service the horns. These details are all seen clearly in the photo from the cover of the New York Times magazine section. It also shows that the bottom skirt is supported on the back of each vertical upright by a triangular buttress. The details are, of course, the only things that interest me in the photograph. . . . As reported earlier in the build log, the cages were 3-D printed by Hexnut. The first set was just a bit small. My bad, not his. I worked out the proper dimensions and he redid the design and had them printed by Shapeways. They were even more perfect than the first set. Thanks again, Bob. I started construction with the central pillars, and with the bases first. From the photographs it is clear that they are octagonal with sloped sides. The aft one is 6mm tall, the forward one 12mm. To make the aft octagon I cut a hardwood piece into a square on the Preac saw. Using simple geometry I located the center, then marked out a circle just to the edge of the square. Using a 45 degree square I drew lines at each corner tangent to the circle. This defined the octagon (a). I measured the slope from the plans and drew a smaller concentric circle. Using 90 degree and 45 degree squares a concentric octagon was marked out (b). To keep everything clear I darkened the waste wood (c). Then it was easy to cut off the corners on the band saw and to slope the sides to the top line using a disc sander. The forward one was made in a similar fashion, just taller. The central pillar began with a brass tube 10mm in diameter set into a shallow drilled hole in the center of the base. Three rings of 0.01”x 0.04” strip were wrapped around the tube and secured. The location of the middle one had to match the reinforcing ring on the cage, which is why the base had to be built first (a). A photoetched ladder was cut and fitted to the front center of the tube before 15 rods of 0.035” were set up and glued to the three rings around the tube (b). Solid rings top and bottom and an interrupted one in the center secured the vertical rods, and four restraining wires further detailed the pillar (c). This construction fit nicely inside the cage and needed only a little tweaking. Once I was happy with it, both the pillar and the cage were given their first coat of spray primer. The skirt for the forward funnel began with a paper pattern. Between the oval shape and the changing flare there was no way that I could predict what it would look like. Small pieces of translucent tape were applied to the bottom of the cage and flared as needed. The inner line was marked at the lower edge of the cage, and the center of the front was marked with a cross. The tape was carefully stripped off and applied to a piece of card. The inner line was cut and tested against the cage. Once I was happy with it, a line was drawn defining a strip 6.5mm wide. It forms a very strange shape (a). This was transferred to 0.03” sheet and cut out, fitted and glued to the cage. The bottom edge was lightly sanded so it sat flat and firm (b). With the solid skirt in place the 16 windows were marked out with 1mm rings top and bottom and verticals coming down from each lower joint on the cage. Each opening was first drilled out in the center, then carefully whittled close to the lines with a fresh blade in my knife. Needle files finished the work (a). Oversized tapered pieces of 0.03” strip were glued to the verticals with white glue, then the joint was strengthened with cyano on each side. When everything was dry the excess was cut off. You can see three finished buttresses with three more being installed (b). Once they were all in, the bottom of the skirt was again gently sanded so everything would sit flat. I knew that I wanted to include the rods from the cage to the pillar if I could. Gentle experimentation convinced me that the cages were not strong enough to survive the stresses of drilling holes at each 6-way intersection. I therefore added a reinforcing strip of 0.02” x 0.04” behind the ring. With it in place and after being primed, the color bands were carefully painted on (a). So here are the two components of each funnel as they will fit to each other. The bars cannot be installed with them not fixed to each other, and will have to wait until they are mounted to the cap (b). Next, the caps will be constructed and the funnels assembled. Be well. Dan