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realworkingsailor

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  1. realworkingsailor
    Very well done Congratulations on completing her. Good Luck on you other unfinished ship(s). Andy
  2. realworkingsailor
    Glad you guys are getting something out of all this. What's nice, at select places there are great viewing platforms and interpretive centres that allow people to get up close with the history of the region, and the ships that still ply these waters. Andy
  3. realworkingsailor
    I do enjoy working with styrene plastic. There is such a nice variety of structural and dimensional shapes on the market, if you can imagine it, you can build it. The fun part comes when grafting styrene to polyurethane resin... CA can really test your patience at times (the infamous "why the heck are my fingers stuck yet part "a" has not bonded to part "b"?!?!? Ratzafratz!!!" statement springs to mind ) Andy
  4. realworkingsailor
    It may seem strange, but at one time the vessels plying the inland Great Lakes were some of the largest in the world. Even in the mid 20th century, most ocean going freighters settled comfortable around the 500 foot mark, lakers were already into the 700 foot range. Thanks to the opening of the 4th Welland Canal in 1932, ships of up to 730 feet could make the transit down from the upper lakes (Superior, Huron, Michigan and Erie) to Lake Ontario. At that time, the largest ocean going vessel that could reach the lakes was limited by the locks and canals of the pre-modern seaway. Smaller vessles, known as canallers, would tranship from lakes ports to ports on the lower St. Lawrence river. They were limited to a mere 261 feet long by 40 feet wide and a maximum draft of around 8 or 9 feet. These were small ships, but there were LOTS of them. In 1959 the current Seaway was opened. This allowed passage of the largest lake vessels (at that time) to the lower river, it also reduced the total number of locks from 28 to 7, between Montreal and Lake Ontario. The old time canaller sailors used to joke, that they would litterally walk from Cornwall to Montreal. This also meant the end of "Canal" sized vessels, as they were no longer efficient in the face of the larger vessels. Aside from specialty ships (cement carriers or package freighters), most canalers were gone by the end of the 1960s. The last unaltered canaller currently sits at Industrial Marine and Salvage in Port Colborne Ontario. The crane ship "D.C. Everest" (1953) was last used as a barge. She now sits awaiting her eventual fate. Another small update. Have completed the fo'c'sle bulwarks. Made of styrene sheet and strip. Each frame, and the bulwark was made from 0.030" styrene. The flanges and cap rail are all 0.015" x 0.080" styrene strip. I used the moulded on rivets on the hull as a reference for spacing the frames correctly. It will need a little touch up with filler along the bottome outside edge to fill any remaining small gaps and inconsistencies. But otherwise, I'm pleased with the result. Now it's time to get serious tackling the stern and mid sections and get that hull put together. Andy
  5. realworkingsailor
    Resin can be quite fickle to work with. Although you can take great pains with making a master, sometimes things go a bit sideways. As I pointed out earlier, inconsistent wall thickness is frequently one problem. Warping of not fully cured pieces is another frequent issue..... I have to straighten out a few pieces with this kit. Other inconsistencies can be attributed to the moulds. A good analogy would be the degradation you get when you make a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy. Don't get me wrong, small detailed pieces can be replicated quite successfully, the same doesn't always hold true for large kits. You just have to be ready with a good file, plenty of filler, and a good sense of humour. Andy
  6. realworkingsailor
    A small update to report. I've made the fillers for the open hatches on the main deck forward. Simply 0.030" styrene with some styrene re-enforcement underneath. I've also fitted the forward bulkhead and fo'c'sle deck. You can see I've also made good use of green putty. This stuff (Squadron Green Putty), although incredibly smelly (toluene....bleh), is another must-have for a build like this. Resin kits are notoriously imprecise in their construction, in order to have an acceptable finish, filler is needed. I've also cut down the forward bulwark to the stem. The prototype had the bulwark running much further back. I debated grafing an extension onto the existing part, but decided that it would be easier and neater to do it this way. Besides, I can now add all the structural framing. After I finish the bulwarks, I've got the stern to consider, then I'll move on to the main deck and start adding some length to this monster. Andy
  7. realworkingsailor
    Actually, now that I look back, there's one nice photo you have of the sub surfacing, you can see the fairlead(s), and even you can see it also had a sheave in the middle too... Andy
  8. realworkingsailor
    If you look back at some of your prototype photos, you can see them in use. Yes,, they are simply smooth guides for passing mooring lines through to the bitts. The open top just makes it easier to place or remove a line, rather than having to run the whole of the line through. You see that style more on smaller vessels with lighter mooring lines. Large ships with heavy lines need full fairleads with no open tops (generally speaking, a stronger fairlead). Andy
  9. realworkingsailor
    Sorry Mark, they would be fairleads, not cleats. Andy
  10. realworkingsailor
    As far as the bulker trade goes, the unloading gear is set up for it, remember the picture I posted of the grain leg? Hullet unloaders for iron ore are also quite narrow. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JErREoMOdDc&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DJErREoMOdDc Self unloading gear, although sometimes added as a later conversion, made the need for shore unloading gear completely obsolete. Andy
  11. realworkingsailor
    Hi John, This is quite a normal setup for lakes vessels up until the later half of the 20th century. In salt water vessels, heavy transverse bulkheads between cargo holds add lateral strength to the vessel's structure. In lakers, the transverse bulkheads are little more than screen bulkheads and contribute little to the structure. Consequently the ships are fitted with numerous transverse deck beams. In order to open up as much of the holds as possible for loading, multiple small hatches are used. This is also another reflection on the nature of the cargos carried, primarily bulk ore, coal, stone, salt, grain and cement. Theses products do not need large hatch openings for loading. Andy
  12. realworkingsailor
    Continuing on this morning with the completion of the port anchor pocket. I then moved to dry fitting the next hull section as well as the first two sections of the main deck. All of this involves much fitting, filing and fitting again... to be followed by more filing. This will continue for some time yet, until I can manage to get things fitting as closely and squarely as possible. Only then, will glue be applied. If you look closely, I've also removed the hatch coaming for the first two hatches. This area will largely be taken up by the above deck portion of the self unloading equipment, namely the top of the loop belt casing, the A-frame support for the unloading boom and finaly the pivot, trunion and heel of the unloading boom itself. I've saved the coamings for later use, as I mentioned before, this ship would count as a "hatch farm" and the number of hatches will need to be almost doubled. Most coamings will need to be scratch built, and these two will serve as patterns for them. Eventually, they too will find a home on the deck. Andy
  13. realworkingsailor
    Styrene cement in any form will not work with polyurethane resin. It's CA or epoxy I'm afraid. Andy
  14. realworkingsailor
    First steps of this build involve the creation of anchor pockets in the bow casting. If you look at the prototype photo, you'll see the original had the anchors recessed into pockets. The model lacks these and shows simply an embossed ring where the hawse pipe penetrates the hull. Using a waterline marking tool, I marked out the top and bottom of the pocket (hopefully symetrical on each side), and then marked the sides. I drilled the four corners and then cut out the rough dimensions of the pocket with an x-acto saw. Cleaned and squared up, the inside top, and outside bottom edges where beveled. Using 0.030" styrene I then created a basic pocket. A simple prismatic structure. This was then glued to the inside of the hull. I had a spare anchor from a previous build that I used for testing and reference for size. There is still a bit of refinment left to be done, mostly with some styrene shapes (1/4 round on each side and 1/2 round just below) as well as some putty work to smooth everything out. It's important to do these kinds of modifications now, before hull assembly, as things get a little difficult to manipulate later on. Doing this you can get a sense of some of the drawbacks of a resin kit. Very quickly on I noticed the wall thickness of the casting differed by quite a bit from side to side. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, since the kit was never designed to be treated in the manner to which I am subjecting it. This should be the last time I have to do any major modification through the lower hull. When the fo'c'sle deck goes on, I will use a piece of aluminum tubing to complete the hawse pipe connection. Although this detail can't be seen, leaving it off would leave odd holes in the deck that would not look right, and could potentially spill light where I don't want it. (Yes I am planing on illuminating some parts of the model). Andy
  15. realworkingsailor
    Hi Lawrence, I am home. Still trying to get back into ship building mode. I'm picking a little bit at my other build, as well as tying the odd ratline here and there on the Pegasus. Andy
  16. realworkingsailor
    Hello everyone. Glad to see such positive responses. I'll probably be starting some of the actual construction tomorrow. Or at least, the first preparations. JP, I did a quick query on polyurethane plastics, I've used them before with no ill effects, and my research seems to back this up, at least as far as fully cured polyurethane polymers are concerned. My biggest issue will be with the CA necessary for assembly. I've used epoxy in the past on resin, and aside from being a bit more of a pain having to mix batches of it, I also found it very finicky in bonding with the resin.... Things had to be just right every single time... Otherwise I'd be flicking cured epoxy off with my fingernails. John, yes the extra midship sections are fully equipped. One issue I will have to deal with, I need to add more hatches. Lakers of this era were known as "hatch farms" due to the sheer numbers of hatches. All manual, telescoping, tarp and wedge work for the crew. I'll keep you all informed as I progress on this one. Andy
  17. realworkingsailor
    The basic kit is 3 feet long. I've added two extra midsections (at 10" each) for a total length of 56". Make no mistake, this thing will be huge. I will need a long rigid building board for this beastie. Just for good measure, in the last photo, I've included my Pegasus in the background for comparison. I will be picking at this build from time to time. I don't expect hull construction to take very long, the fun will be in the painting and detailling. I've got a lot of work ahead of me. This has to be a showpiece model, given it's location. For more information on the club check out: http://www.railviewmrc.ca/ For any of you who might be intrigued enough to try a large resin kit, have a look here: http://www.sylvanscalemodels.com/ Andy
  18. realworkingsailor
    The instructions that come with the kit are familiar to anyone who's built a model railroad resin kit before. Somewhat basic, but they cover everything. As is typical with railway kits, they come with an exploded isometric drawing of the whole kit. This has it's uses, and since most of the details are somewhat molded on, accurately locating pieces is not much of a concern. The back page(s) include detail drawings of various pieces like the wheelhouse interior, winch and windlass construction etc. Andy
  19. realworkingsailor
    I had ordered the basic kit, as well as two midsection extensions back in September. They were all waiting for me upon my return home earlier this week. Whoever thought is was a good idea to package white resin parts in white tissue paper should be shot. Anyway, a quick check and it appears all parts are there. The kit itself is fairly simple, at least as far as number of parts and basic assembly. The real challenge in dealing with resin is how the clean up, preparation and detailing goes. Many parts come warped out of shape. This is fairly easy to fix with a quick dip in hot water. Most parts don't fit together with the laser cut precision of wood kits (or other plastic kits for that matter). There will be much filing, filling, sanding, checking and re-checking of parts Andy
  20. realworkingsailor
    Well... I think it's safe to say the storm has blown over, and the skies are clearing. In that light, I'll start a new log for something completely different. Sylvan scale models are known more to the model railroad community, producing resin kits of vehicles, structures and rolling stock. They also have a small line of marine models. Mostly waterline models for layout display. For those of you who are not aware, I am a member of the Railview Model Railway Club, operating in Marham ON. An older club (of similar name) recently disbanded, and a few of the old members, and a ton of new members have taken over the lease of 3 office units in Markham (3400 square feet). This new club is very busy renovating the space and will be constructing a new layout shortly. Getting closer to the topic at hand, part of the layout will depict operations at Hamilton, ON. including the large Stelco steel mill. I've been there many times in the past on ships, unloading iron ore, and I thought is would be a great idea, as a scenic element, to depict the same. Starting with the basic Sylvan "Canaller" model I intend to extend the hull and scratch build a self unloading system. The intent is to make a model that will look superficially similar to a vessel operated by Canada Steamship Lines from the late 1920s to the mid 1960s, and Later by Reoch Transport until around 1984. Trying to replicate the full sized vessel would be an excercise in madness, and would be too large to fit in the space alloted on the club layout. Doing a quick check, the dimensions of the model I will be producing, I will end up with a model that will be roughly 70% the size of the real ship (in scale). As such the model will be over 4.5 feet long as it is. All I can say is thank G** I don't have to plank it. So without further a-do, the start of my next project.
  21. realworkingsailor
    I don't think is was as much the weight of the gun, but rather the recoil, straight down. I can't imagine how those small ships would shudder every time one of those things fired. A very interesting build. Andy
  22. realworkingsailor
    Easy enough to do, and you really don't need too many for the task either. Something I may consider when my time comes...
  23. realworkingsailor
    Looks really nice. I wonder if if would be worth trying what Chuck did on his Winchelsea build... (You remember?) with the planks that widen under the gunport sills? Just a thought... Andy
  24. realworkingsailor
    I'm with everyone else, I'm really enjoying watching your build take shape. Getting a lot from the historical information you're adding in as well. Fascinating. Andy
  25. realworkingsailor
    Looks great, Randy! And you're right about the full sails making her look more alive!. It may be too late, but normally the spritsail would be more vertical, rather than being trussed up like a hammock (of course if that was the intention, I'm sure the idlers and loafers on your ship are thanking you profusely ) Andy

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