Javelin

Well a very old project of mine started back in 2010. It's been around ever since, working on it on and off until now. It's been bothering me ever since, she's the reason why I don't like to have a shelf of doom with long lasting projects. With every new small scale project I start, she's standing behind me, nagging for attention. As of late I've been busy planning to finally finish her and since the Spartacus project is on hold for the time being, I've slowly restarted construction on Chaconia. At first I built in a continuous period, however the pace slowed down during the detailing phase and eventually I've abandoned it. At first it would be temporary, just to take on a smaller project and finally get something finished, but as you can imagine, then came another "quick" project and another... Sometimes I did put her in the water and did some small jobs, but it never became my main project again. Now I'm intending to promote her again to the main project. So what is she? Chaconia is an LPG tanker, carrying Butane, Propane (or both) or Ammonia. Back in the days, she was mainly used to transport Ammonia from Trinidad (and other places) to the US (Gulf of Mexico area) for fertilizer production. She also brought Ammonia to Chile for production of explosives for the mining industry. She's not the cutest of ships, but back then it sounded like a good idea. In the end, so many years later, I must say that my period onboard that ship was probably, travelling wise, the most interesting voyage I ever did, covering a large part of South and Central America, including Maghellan Strait and Panama Canal passages. Since I didn't have a lot of resources back then, she was built in sub-optimal conditions and I also didn't have any expertise for such a project, having just started scratch-building in small scale ships. I shouldn't have done a project like that as a first large scale scratch build... In any case, she's there now, so I'll need to finish her. I'll bring you up to speed in probably quite a few posts with pictures. Basic construction was a wooden frame and hull, covered with glass fibre. From the start the R/C idea was incorporated and that complicated things. I had seen a lot of R/C projects online, but they were always twin screw warships. Having a straight, single-piece, keel, which wouldn't work for my project. So I had to get a solution. It's also my first- and only- planking job till now. The rudder post in position. Rudder post and propellor shaft spaces created.

Noticed someone making an angled surface in his carriages rather than a regular top/bottom straight edge. I can't remember in which topic this was, but I remember someone asking whether there was any evidence. Since I came across this one in Rotterdam recently, decided to put it here for future reference. Any additional info on it would be welcome as it was placed at the entrance of the maritime museum, as a sort of attraction to lure public rather than inside the museum itself. No info was near the gun. I assume, considering there are no eye-bolt etc. that this might be an older type of gun/carriage? As you can see it does have that angled edge between top and bottom piece, much like I remember seeing someone doing here on his model guns.

Because a picture says more than a 1000 words... The bubbles were not visible, even after 1 hour, only after that, it started to feel warm and the flakes seemed to dissolve, creating strange "streams" from the bottom to the top. Back then it even still looked smooth, but with those flows going up, the surface had lines in them and isn't even flat anymore. In any case, luckily I didn't push through.

Had a narrow escape today. I was all geared up to get that pouring job done this morning, but when I checked the contents of my remaining resin, I had my doubts about the remaining quantity. I required around 0.4L of epoxy for this diorama, and the resin bottle was only around 50% remaining, I forgot the wastage from the Sea Installer tests and the actual project. Together with the hardener I might actually have enough... In any case, it was open for a while and I had to use it sometime. During emptying the resin bottle, I did notice some white particles inside the liquid and when I was mixing with the hardener, those flakes remained in the mixture. During mixing however, the mixture remained opaque rather than turning back to clear, considering the low amount, I decided not to do the pour at all. When left to harden, the flakes slowly went down, but bubbles formed. The mixture also turned very hot, I was kind of lucky I mixed it in a glass jar rather than a plastic one. It also started to smoke (slightly), so I put the thing outside, where it was also colder than inside. Eventually it hardened, but there were certain "lines" in the mixture and large bubbles (what looked like a boiling reaction) formed from the bottom up. I 'm assuming there are 2 reasons for this: a) the stuff was too old / too long in opened condition before use or stored in a wrong temperature and b) the mix ratio was probably not good. I didn't weight this mixture as I had done several mixtures which worked ok, and I needed all of the remaining liquid. I suppose there was too much hardener left, creating a very rapid curing, releasing a lot of heat in a short period of time. I guess I was lucky, since I assume it would have melted the model if I had poured it in. Would have also been stupid if the amount was just enough to touch the bottom of the ship and not reach the waterline... She's shelved for the time being, need to order some stuff for several builds (finally need to finish that Sea Installer build as well). I'll see when I get to another attempt.

Great job you are doing there. There is also a material called Elforyn, a synthetic substitute for Elephant or Mammoth Ivory / tusk. Not sure how to glue it, but I'm pretty sure that company will help you with that. If it needs gluing of course. I suppose you can buy it in whatever size you need it, considering it's synthetic. https://www.elforyn.de/en/

Stupid question from somebody who never did this: did you pre-drill the holes for your screw pins against splitting of the frames or was this not required? Great planking job so far!

One more rigging pic. Here you can see the lay-out better, with a white background. The stopper wire is not tight of course and will be hanging partially in the epoxy. Last steps before epoxy. Something I haven't done nor tested before, is applying a coat of acrylic gel over the sand. I hope this will seal cavities and give a more smooth surface for the epoxy. I suppose, and hope, that this will eliminate or at least reduce the amount of air bubbles that are released from the cavities in the sand during the curing process of the epoxy. On previous tests, these bubbles were sometimes released only when the epoxy was in an advanced stage of curing, causing bubbles to get stuck midway, unable to rise to the surface, let alone get released on the surface... Although I haven't tested this separately, I assume this will count as a good test. Then comes the box. The sandwich of plates at the bottom wasn't very smooth on the sides, I could have sanded it smooth I guess... But I got impatient. In any case I built the box around it, glued it with CA in some places and then applied regular silicone to seal the gaps. When the bottom was done, I squeezed it on a rectangular plastic lid. The edge of the lid will contain any leakage and the bottom itself squeezed the silicone into the gaps. I never used CA on the transparent polyester plate (Vivak) of the casing. I see it's not really causing fogging, so that's something I've learned for the future as well. Apart from CA, it seems MEK is the only thing that can glue these plates together properly. I also sealed the corners of the box with silicone. You can see the dried glossy acrylic layer on top of the sand base in this picture. Next step will be pouring the epoxy and mounting the multicat and floating line. I'll go for a lighter shade of blue than on the Sea Installer build. You might remember this picture from that log. This is the shade I'll go for. This was also the test bottle to see the effect of wires in epoxy, where I had the Spartacus project already in mind.

Yes, that is what he means, however I doubt that any ship designers ever took such a practical point in account. When a right hand propellor turns in reverse, to slow down a ship, it creates a swing of the bow to starboard. This is called "the propeller effect". Therefore the easiest mooring manoevre is on portside, approach going forward, put a forward spring line on the quay bollard and then reverse the engine. Since the bow is kept fixed by the mooring line, the stern is pushed to the quay and can be made fast. With the quay on starboard this doesn't work, as reversing the engine, to slow down, the bow is pushed in the quay and the stern pulled away from it. As mentioned it's doubtful designers ever took that in account as other factors would also have an impact on the mooring operation and side of mooring.

Thanks Glen Enough of that rigging for now. Both side wires, anchor wires and stopper wires are now in place. So technically the main subject is ready for epoxy. So now the focus has shifted a bit towards that multicat and the floating line. I've also inserted another bracket in the bottom for anchoring of that floating line. So here's the bottom of the multicat, with its propulsion and rudders added (indeed an odd 3 propellors and rudders). I'll go as far as finishing the hull, so I can insert it in the epoxy, the rest will follow later as it'll be easier to handle once it's fixed in the block of epoxy. (Same for the dredger itself, a lesson learned from bottling the Sea Installer). And the attempt for the floating line. Not sure how I'll do this, I guess I'll try to insert it when the epoxy is nearly hard. If that fails, I can still lay it on top of the epoxy as I'll finish the surface with acrylic gel after all. And I'm also getting the box ready for the epoxy. It won't be filled to the edge of course. Technically I could also use a cheaper, non-transparent material for the boundaries, but I'd love to see what I'm doing when filling, so I chose something transparent. This will be sacrificial, so no need for extremely clean edges. I'll also use some silicone to seal the corners and bottom edges to avoid the epoxy from leaking out. The painted waterline of the dredger will be my indication for filling the box. Some small paint jobs left on the dredger (tumbling sheaves, "chain" that connects the anchor hoisting wires to the anchor) and then I'm ready.

Great to see with what you started in the pictures at the top of the page and seeing where it's going now! She could really use some attention. Great job so far

Although not strictly related to the model, as I'm not building the pumps, I thought I'd share a picture of one of the 3 dredge pumps on this beastie. Gives an idea of the size. Furthermore I've continued with the spiderweb of wires. Added the first anchor hoisting wire, the easy one... Glen's trick doesn't work on the Uni Caenis as it's a monofilament, which doesn't absorb any glue. It does work on the Veevus, as that's a multifilament, basically soaking up CA glue. I've also tried to stretch the Uni Caenis with a clothes pin and then treated it with acrylic gel to keep it straight. It seemed to have worked more or less. At least it's an improvement over the "dry" Caenis. I've also started by gluing it at each sheave and stretching it along the way, then glue it to the next sheave etc. To keep it in straight lines. The free hanging part that goes to the bottom was fixed there with acrylic gel, so you don't really see where it's glued. Sorry for the bad pictures, but the Caenis is that fine, that's hard for the camera to catch it without proper contrast. I guess at some point I'll use a white background or hold it into the light to show it in a better way. Since those wires are the last thing before pouring resin, I'm also proceeding with the multicat workboat. Added the bridge, crane pedestals and currently working on the large double winch. For the winch you can see I've outlined the contour on a 0.3mm sheet, then drilled a hole for the smaller winch, where I inserted a piece of 0.8mm brass, while for the large, higher placed, winch, I've added a small disk of 1.5mm diameter to the side of the winch. I'll then drill a hole in the center of that disk for the shaft. The disk is also 0.3mm thick, made in the same way I've shown before. I'll soon start with painting on this boat. I've also been pondering on the floating line. A piece of 0.8mm brass with small cut-outs for the separate parts of the line wasn't feasible. Either it broke, while trying to cut or the cuts (with file edge) were too coarse and varied to be plausible. I've now found a piece of telephone wire (with several small wires inside) of appropriate diameter, where I can simply cut the insulation as a cut-out, while maintaining the copper wires inside to hold the thing together and bend it as I want it. We'll see how that effort works out. Since those floating lines are also anchored to the bottom, I'll have to find a way to represent this as well.

Sea chest is indeed the official name for that. This appears to be the high sea chest, normally used in shallow water, while you normally also have a lower sea chest in the bottom of the ship, for use in deeper water (normal). Not sure if this system was already applied at that time period or if they just had 1 sea chest. Not sure on that hole in the drawing. Is that hole located above the waterline? I believe Ventil (with a word I can't really read), may mean overboard valve, not sure of which system though. The hole is also only located on Port side (nur BB).

Yes, the name is there. It says opening for "wasserkasten", which as far as I know is a cooling water inlet. It does say BB, which would mean it's only on the portside and not on starboard (the note about overlap of plating does mention BB and SB). Great job on that hull so far. Very sharp and professional result!

Thought I'd elaborate a bit on all the wires involved in the anchor handling process. In below picture, No1, horizontal, is the "guy wire", used to manipulate the anchor boom (in and out). No2 is the stopper wire. When the guy wire breaks, the anchor boom swings out uncontrollably due to the weight of the anchor and an angled hinge on which it rests. The stopper wire prevents the boom from flying all the way forward and hitting the gantry or damaging other stuff. The stopper is hanging as a loop alongside the vessel when the boom is fully in (which I will make on my model as well, considering the diameter of that wire, I'll use Veevus for this one). No3 is the anchor hoisting wire, used to pull the anchor, it's veered out when the boom is swung in, to lay it in a curve backwards from the anchor. This avoids the cutter to catch the wire when swinging towards the anchor. When stepping forward, the vessel slowly drags the anchor hoisting wire with it, but due to the large curve, it prevents the wire to end up between the anchor and the cutter. No4 is the sidewire, which, in this picture just drops below the water next to the raised ladder, in this case it lays in a shallow curve that points towards the anchor, where it is connected to the shank. Thought I'd share a pic of the main "weapon" as well. This is one of the many cutter heads, it's still in pristine condition here, but after a couple of hours that paint goes missing of course. It has a double function, the teeth are used to cut the stone/rocks, while it's shape creates a suction/scooping effect that throws the soil backwards inside the cutter head. Inside that head is the suction of the pumps, so they take out the soil and pump it to wherever it needs to go. The teeth are sacrificial and get replaced depending on the wear. There are different types of heads, the one in the picture is for rocks, but there are also multi-purpose heads used for clay/sand etc. They can also be equipped with different types of teeth, ranging from the pickpoints you see in the picture, to narrow chisels or real flat blades for sand, this all depends on the soil that needs to be cut. Additionally the cutter heads have different amounts of blades, depending on the hardness of the soil, lower amounts of blades leave bigger openings and higher production rates, while harder soils require a higher amount of blades to break the stones in smaller pieces, sacrificing on production rates. Although this cutter is several meters in diameter, on the model I've only used a general shape in rusty colour. It's impossible to create an effect of teeth on this +/- 2mm cutter head. Kind of useless as well, since it's mostly hidden by the bottom of the diorama.

Hi @Glen McGuire, Sorry for the confusion, the wire you've pointed at is the side wire, for which I'm using the Veevus (large diameter ). The anchor hoisting wire is smaller in diameter, hence I'll use the Uni Caenis. It's not yet present in the pictures above, since it's somewhat loosely spread over the bottom during dredging. This is done to avoid pulling the anchor out during dredging. It's only collected and tensioned when the anchor needs to be pulled out and moved forward. It's the spread that requires the Caenis to be in a natural/realistic curve, and that's a problem for the time being. For now I'm thinking of spot gluing it with acrylic gel to the bottom at certain points along its path.

Time for another small update. Got more modelling time in the past 2 days than in the last 3 months or so... Something I truly underestimated came next... Although I had rigged that ladder wire, I still had to tighten it. I came to a point where I feared that I had to unrig it and tension each leg separately. The lines were so close to each other that it was nearly impossible to discern the loops. The rope also has a tendency to tangle, which meant that it was crossed on the "wheels" on the ladder and gantry. Luckily I did succeed in separating the loops, tightening them and gluing them on the lower "wheels" on the ladder without unrigging them. I basically looked for a the first fixed point, which was at the sheaves at the aft end of the gantry. I then inserted a 0.3mm copper wire piece and separated the loops from there. I inserted another between the second and third loop. I then tightened each loop, eventually ending with the free end at the aft side of the gantry. I needed to hold it close to the light in order to see it properly. I guess I should pour the epoxy as soon as possible, as I've noticed on previously glued ropes that they seem to lose tension. After the ladder wire, it was time for the side wires. The wires that pull the ship from port to starboard between the two big dredging anchors. The white (will be painted later on) sheaves are called the "tumbling sheaves", they are huge (34 ton each) sheaves that swivel up and down following the direction of the sidewires while the ship is going back and forth. Here you see the starboard sidewire dry fitted. The anchor is also just dry fitted and will eventually be glued in place with the sand-acrylic mixture show it embedded in the bottom. After the tumbling sheave, the sidewire runs up the ladder towards the massive winches in front of the accomodation. I've just wrapped it around the winch drum here without glue for the time being. I'll wait to glue them untill the second sidewire is fitted. @Glen McGuire, @O.B.one, I have to use the smaller Uni Caenis wire for the anchor hoisting wire, but it has a tendency to keep its natural curves/loops (in fact same for the Veevus I'm using for the sidewires), do you have any tricks to make these tiny wires keep a curve that you want instead of tangling around itself? I've been thinking of using CA glue, but it doesn't seem to get a hold on that Caenis thread. It does work for the Veevus. I assume I could glue it to the bottom at certain points to follow a wanted curve.

Great looking hull. Sad to see that damage, but if you'd copper it, it'd be hidden after all. The colours of the wood are quite handsome, so she'd look good without the copper as well...

Again little was done over the past weeks, but at least we're making some progress. I believe this was a mistake in my sequence. I screwed myself by putting that anchorboom and barge loading pipes on portside, since I can't flip it on that side anymore for the work on the bottom of the vessel. I kept the propulsion for last, due to fears of its fragility, but I believe it would probably have survived some handling, while now, it was more difficult to install it... On the surgery table, she received her two "propellors", luckily for me they are mounted in tunnels, and 2 rudders. Propellor shafts are also mounted, centred in the tunnels. She does have a very large behind, resulting in short pieces of shaft sticking out of the hull. And I also gave her the anchor fenders and boarding platform on the side of the hull. The ladder wire, which determines the dredging depth is rigged, but not tightened. I'm using Veevus fly fishing thread for these as they are the largest diameter wires on the vessel, 85mm wires. Same for the wires going to the anchors. For anything with a smaller diameter I will use the Caenis thread. Due to a rather difficult rigging of this ladder wire, I glued it/fixed it, in the center sheaves and will then pull the thread on each side of the gantry tight. When tight I will probably try to glue it at each contact point on the upper and lower sheaves to keep it tight during the epoxy pour. The last free ends will then be glue to deck or a structure on the deck. (the original one passes in a pipe to two giant winches below deck).

Very sharp work. One minor detail, the side light on Starboard is green, while port side light is red. I see you painted SB red...

That's because a lot of members, like me, only become a member after your build/posts were made and discover it later on. Sometimes I put a like, sometimes not. It's mostly when I "follow" something that I really like it. Your build I've been following as one of the first builds since I'm a member. Great job so far!

Considering the great work on the rest of the hull, I'm happy to see that you're upgrading those galleries. Will definately be an improvement.

Great job so far. Do the details reflect the plans from Smithsonian or are those plans more obscure and open to interpretation?

I just discovered your log and with me, probably more readers. Due to visiting from my phone, I'm prone to go to the topics I follow as well as the ones mentioned in kit and scratch as the most recently updated. (that's how I ended up in this topic as well). Unfortunately it also means I'm missing a lot of topics as they disappear from most recently updated as soon as someone posts in another topic, if you have "bad luck", someone posts 1 minute after you and your topic update is missed by many. That said, it's a great build so far, I love the memorial detail as it's something that might be discovered a 100 years from now and someone will be puzzled (or know the story behind it). I can't imagine getting up to your level at some point. No matter what you decide, I do hope to see her finished at some point.

She's a very gorgeous ship. Your model does her justice. She'll look awesome with some colour as well.

Great result. Glossy acrylic gel is indeed difficult to work with. Very sticky and doesn't really flow. You can dilute it with water to make it flow, but does lose its glossy finish then... Your solution definately does wonders. Your coloring of the bottom really gives a great and realistic effect.