SS Michelangelo 1962 by shipmodel - FINISHED - 1/350 scale

[shipmodel]

 

Thanks for all the comments.  I'm glad that my experiences were entertaining. 

 

Yes, it is quite the unique project.  I have worked on larger models - a 20 foot model of the Queen Mary for South Street Seaport, and an even larger builder's model of an oil tanker with gold plated piping for an oil shipping company headquarters on Park Avenue here in NYC - but this one is, as Druxey noted,  the strangest mix of precision and crude work.   I have never seen its like before. 

 

From what I know, it was all done by Wally himself, other than the figures, both the good parts and the bad.  I can only imagine that he did the basic work in a hurry, but once the parade was over he kept working on it, adding those little touches that only he would know about, until I came along.  I'm sure that I didn't discover all of them and there are still secrets that will surprise the next restorer.

 

Dan

[shipmodel]

Hi again to all - 

 

Here is the second and final installment of this little build log.  Hope you enjoy it.

 

With the model and bases polished up, I could move to the fun part – populating it with people.  The vision of Professor Smith was to make the Pike display more ‘hands-on’ and interesting for the school age groups that visit the museum.   The idea was to have a number of vignettes around the ship that would show both the civilian crew and the naval armed guardsmen in realistic settings.    The internet quickly turned up a number of wartime photographs of Navy men servicing the guns.  Here are a few.

Photographs of civilian crewmen were harder to find, other than sterile, posed shots of a ship’s entire crew, all of them scrubbed up as if for their class photo.  I did round up a few, like these motley sailors at cards, and the captain at his desk.

The figures themselves were sourced from Shapeways.  I knew of them from the funnel cages for the Michelangelo, but was surprised at how many offerings were in their catalog when I searched for “1/24 navy figures”.  Dozens of poses, uniforms, helmets, and caps.  Here are a few.  The guardsmen came from their combat sets, with helmets and life jackets.  The crew from the merchant navy sets, some with lifejackets, some without, and even one in the apron and hat of a cook.

The figures are produced in two quality levels, coarse and fine, with the latter being a good deal more expensive.  The financial parameters of the contract mandated the former.  Although they are described as ‘soft’ by Shapeways, when they arrived I found that they are printed in a hard, brittle white plastic with just a little give.  Following the instructions, they were cleaned of oils and primed.  Here is the figure of a kneeling loader for the 5 inch gun.  In the close-up you can see how rough the surface actually is, especially on the skin areas.  Some details, like his helmet brim and strap, have extra lumps of plastic, while the strap is connected to his neck with an extra web.

Using knives and grinding bitts the extra bumps were removed and the helmet strap was cut free.  A wire wheel was used to smooth the flesh of the face and hands, leaving the white plastic showing.  To perfect the pose the hands were sliced off at the wrists and rotated.

I painted the figures with craft acrylics in basic colors.  Little attempt was made to be hyper-realistic with shading and washes, trusting to the eye of the viewer to supply those textures.  The 5 inch shell was turned to military specifications from a birch dowel on my drill press/lathe.    

Although all alone and in closeup the figure appears crude, but on deck I think it worked out pretty well. 

And here is the 5 inch gun with six guardsmen crewing it.  Notice that there are separate propellant charges and warheads, as well as some joined as one shell ready for use.   

It was while researching the gun and its ammunition that I discovered another little-known detail of Wally’s model.  All the way to the starboard side of the gun there are three shells upside down in a fixture.  It turns out that this is the fuse setting machine.  The fire control officer in control center would wire down the proper setting to the machine, and the crank was turned till the shell setting matched.  This substantially improved American rate of fire.

Here is the 3 inch gun at the bow with a gunner and loader.  Even in a fairly close-up shot the Shapeways figures stand up to examination.

The 20mm Oerlikons are served by gunners whose arms were surgically removed and positioned to grasp the handles of the model’s guns.  One is African-American, as were many sailors during the war, watching out warily for the enemy.

The civilian crew is on lookout as well.  The helmsman stands ready at the wheel with his eye on the gimballed compass and the old man’s eye on him.

On deck a few crewmen muscle oil drums onto a pallet while the mate shades his eyes and keeps them honest.

I’m still adding touches.  There will be several figures involved in a lifeboat drill, and additional deck workers.  As an extra I rounded up a 1/24 scale Sherman tank, a broken Radio Shack R/C toy.  After removing the incorrect spotlight, muzzle brake, switches and markings, their holes were filled and painted.  The broken tracks were repaired and reinforced with black fabric tape and the tank set on deck where it will have some crewmen securing it with chains.

But whatever other vignettes get built, there is one that is already a hit with the school crowd.  At the rail the cook watches while his KP swabby empties a pail full of scratch-built garbage.

Hope that this was an entertaining diversion.  Now back to the Michelangelo.

 

Dan

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 9, 2018 by shipmodel
change images

[druxey]

You obviously have had much too much fun, Dan. Now, back to Michaelangelo! Seriously, the populated model looks great. Well done.

[Jim Lad]

Nice work with the crewmen, Dan!

 

John

[mtaylor]

Wonderful, Dan.  The crew just adds the touch to make one smile.

[KeithAug]

Dan, 

 

Strongly advise against dumping the garbage over the side. Bound to attract the attention of an unwelcome wolf pack.

 

Great figures, they add loads of interest.

[BANYAN]

You have transformed the model into an educational and interesting asset for the museum Dan; a very nice job indeed on your repairs and detailing.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[shipmodel]

 

Thank you all for your comments.  I did have a lot of fun on this unusual project.  I hope that the visitors also get a chuckle, as well as learning a few things about our brave sailors who kept the Atlantic lifeline open in some of the darkest hours.

 

If you live in or are visiting the New York area, this little gem of a museum is worth the time.  Many ship models, from an exquisitely detailed 15 foot long SS Washington to a cabinet of 1:1200 miniatures, as well as a huge interactive tabletop exhibit of a convoy at sea.  Rooms of navigation equipment and videos of sailors' recounting their experiences.  Contact them at museum@usmma.edu    Phone: 516-726-6047

 

 

 

    

[Roger Pellett]

This has been on my to do list whenever we visit my daughter., son-in-law and granddaughter in Brooklyn but I have never gone in part as I am unsure of public transport on Long Island.  Can this be reached by subway, train, or bus from Brooklyn

 

Roger

[shipmodel]

Hi Roger - 

 

Not really sure.  I know that the Long Island Railroad goes from Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan to Great Neck, which is the closest large town, but I doubt if you can walk from the station to the Academy.   Uber and Lift will have cars that can take you.  However you get there, you will have a great time.

 

When you are in Brooklyn, check out the museum at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.  Another small gem (not to mention two of my pieces) with interactive exhibits on the history of the Navy Yard.  I know that busses take you right there, the entrance is on Flushing Avenue, where you get right in and do not have to go through the security gate to the Yard itself.

Dan

[shipmodel]

Hello again to all.  

 

So, back to the Michelangelo.  The ship's structure was completed last time and I began on the various detailed subassemblies.  Since I already did a mock up of the main pool, I started with that.

 

Here is the best color photo of the pool that I could find.  It is a bit low resolution, but looking carefully, it appears that the pool deck is raised two steps above deck level and is built of dark red planks that run athwartships.   The light tan areas come and go in the photos, and are probably removable mats.   There is a railing all around with solid benches along some portions of the deck edge.  There are four stainless steel ladders into the pool.  The slide is in the center, with its stairs to the port side.

The slide is a simple curve with raised edges.  It is supported on one angled leg and the edge of the pool.  The photo below is of the slide from the Promenade deck, but as far as I can tell all three slides are identical, except that this one has the slide to the starboard side.  There are kiddie pools for each large pool, but they all different.  Information from several photos had to be combined to get their final shapes and details.

Here is the mock up that I started with.  Actually it is the second one, the first did not merit a photograph.  This deck color is reasonably good, but the grain runs the wrong way and the half moon steps are too deep, so it had to be replaced.   The pool insert needed some cleanup and repainting, but was salvageable. 

The final deck was built up of three layers: a bottom lift of 0.030” styrene with only the space for the main pool cut out.  The second was a layer of 0.020” plastic topped with a scribed sheet of cherry veneer.  They had cutouts for the main pool, the steps, and the kiddie pool.   This gave those features some depth.

The veneer was scribed by first cutting it to a rectangle on the table saw.  It was taped to a cutting mat printed with 12 rows of dots every half inch.  This is 1/24 inch, or almost exactly 1mm.  A metal straightedge was laid along one row and a light pencil line was drawn across the wood.  The graphite from the pencil was tattooed into the veneer by scribing along the line with the back of a #10 blade.  With a coat of clear finish it came up to a nice warm red tone.

The layers were stacked and glued.  The main pool was sanded and repainted, then dropped into its space and secured there.   The kiddie pool had sections of two different heights surrounding it. They were painted off the deck and installed.

The vertical edge of the deck did not appear clearly in any of my photographs, so I went with a simple strip that created a lip around the deck surface.  PE railings were cut, bent and fitted to the lip, then secured in the usual way.  Some random streaks of lighter blue were squiggled on the bottom of the pool.  I find that this looks a bit more convincing under water.

Here is the pool filled with 5-minute epoxy water.  The ladders are 0.011” wire colored with non-buffing aluminum enamel.  They were simply bent to a narrow ‘U’ and inserted into holes picked out with a needle and then hand drilled.  I tried several different ways to get rungs on the ladders, but nothing worked to my satisfaction, so they were left off.   The side benches have been curved and installed and are ready for painting.

The final element for the pool is the most complex, the slide.   It started with a rough cutout like the one below.  The curve of the sliding surface was sanded into it and it was painted with the aluminum before sheets of thin plastic were superglued to both sides. 

The plastic was cut away to leave a raised lip around the sliding surface and a higher raised portion at the top to push off of.  The rest of the plastic and the wood was ground off until the “Y” shape of the slide emerged.  Then it was painted a slightly contrasting blue.

The back of the slide was notched for a polygonal platform whose shape was seen in another photograph, topped with a steel railing.  A narrow style of PE ladder was bent up, painted and installed.  After looking at this photo I realized that the handrails did not meet properly, so some very careful bending was needed before they did.

With that done, here is the slide and aft end of the pool.  I think it matches reasonably closely to the first photo in this log.  I do see, though, that during handling and construction the brown has come off the lower handrail.   

After touchups the pool was temporarily dropped into place in the deck.  It is not perfect, but I am not unhappy with how it looks.

And here is my second favorite President, come to check on the progress.  With his approval it was removed and placed in secure storage.

 

More soon.

 

Dan

  

 

 

[Hubac's Historian]

Excellent detailing, Dan!  That pool slide is impossibly small.  At first, I was thinking that you should keep trying to install ladder rungs, but then that dime put everything into perspective for me; at that scale, ladder rungs are just are not necessary.

[amateur]

Perhaps not perfect in your own eyes, but it looks quite perfect to me.

 

Jan

[michael mott]

Is it a saltwater pool?... Lovely exquisite work Dan

 

Michael

[shipmodel]

Hi all - 

 

Thanks Marc, Jan and Michael for your comments, and to everyone for the likes.  Here are a quick couple of photos of some progress on both the Michelangelo and the Zebulon Pike.

 

First, the lower two swimming pools on the liner.  Their shapes do not appear anywhere on the plans and had to be derived from the photographs.  The techniques and materials are the same as for those of the main pool, just slightly reduced in size.

And here are two final photographs of the crew at work on the Pike.  Two crewmen are tensioning the chains that hold down the Sherman tank, while a number of men are engaged in a lifeboat drill with the boat swung out.  One of the docents at the museum took a look and said, "Just like the real thing.  Two men working and five others standing around watching . . . "

Happy Pesach, Good Friday, and Easter to all who celebrate the holidays, and best wishes for a great day to everyone else.

 

Dan

 

[druxey]

Nice realistic populating work, Dan. Happy holidays to you, too.

 

 

[BANYAN]

Those figurines are very well done Dan; very realistic postures and well detailed.

 

cheers

 

Pat 

[shipmodel]

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

 

 

 

Edited April 6, 2018 by shipmodel

[Hubac's Historian]

WOW - these funnels really are the stars of the show and you are nailing it Dan!  Beautiful work, ingeniously done.

[KeithAug]

3 hours ago, shipmodel said:

The details are, of course, the only things that interest me in the photograph

You must be very old Dan or does the optivisor have a filter?

Funnels looking really smart.

Edited April 6, 2018 by KeithAug

[druxey]

Aiee! What happened to good, old fashioned, simple smokestacks? These are far more complicated than given by their first impression. Well done, Dan.

[BANYAN]

Terrific result on those funnels Dan; they look very good - you have manged to capture the intricacy of those 'beasts' even at scale.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[mtaylor]

A model engineering marvel if ever there was one, Dan.   

[shipmodel]

 

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

[KeithAug]

Brilliant work Dan. Funnels look amazing.

[shipmodel]

Thanks, Keith.

 

But why no comment on our bathing beauty?  I put her in just for youngsters like you -  

 

Dan

[shipmodel]

 

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

[druxey]

Nice details, but port and starboard lights (red and green) need to be on the appropriate sides of the ship, not in line facing dead ahead. Confusion and worse would ensue! Usually they are placed on the wings of the bridge. 

[Jim Lad]

Just catching up after having been away for a while, Dan.  She really is looking first class - especially those magnificent funnels.  The only nit is those mast lights - definitely all white lights, as Druxey said.

 

John

[shipmodel]

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