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

[Mirabell61]

1 hour ago, shipmodel said:

Hi Nils - 

 

Thanks so much for the compliment.  I think it is coming along nicely too.

 

You seem to have duplicated my entire post before putting in your reply.  Could you edit the post by taking it out and just leaving your comment?  I don't want the log to end up too long.

 

Thanks

 

Dan

Oops, sorry Dan,

have taken it out.....

 

Nils

 

[Hubac's Historian]

Excellent results Dan!  Given the success you had with 3-D printing the funnels, might these windowed bulhkeads also be good candidates for 3-D printing?  Would there be a similar time investment in cleaning up printe bulkheads vs. laser cut?

[shipmodel]

Hi Marc - 

 

Not sure how the windows would come out in 3-D printing.  Probably pretty well.  But the laser was the first thing I thought of.  Not much more to it than that.

 

Dan

 

 

[druxey]

Nice progress, Dan. Those portholes are a distinct improvement. The family seen in the photo - not yours, perchance?

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

G'day Dan

I havta agree it has Nils, a bloody brilliant idea about the windows sections. As I was reading your log, I looked at the photos of the ship and I thought that is gonna be hard to do. 

Presto you did it.

Havagooday and weekend 

Greg 

[Jim Lad]

I somehow seem to have missed your updates for quite a while, Dan.. She's really coming along well - congratulations.

 

John

[BANYAN]

Very nice updates Dan; that is a very good rendition of the windows using styrene and will add very nicely to the great detail you are achieving.  As Druxey also said, the portholes are a marked improvement.  I am very much enjoying following your build.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[shipmodel]

 

Hi all, and many thanks for the comments and likes.  This model is turning into an exploration of a number of different solutions to problems which do not come up in a sailing ship model.  I hope my experiments can shorten the learning curve for others, the way that all my reading has shortened mine.

 

Druxey – although I cannot claim any direct relationship with the family shown, I have to confess that during my college years I often bore an embarrassing resemblance to the young man on the right.  Thank god that phase of my life is over.  LOL

 

I hope all my American friends had a good 4^th of July, and everyone else just had a great weekend.   The Admiral got away from work for a week and we spent it with the family upstate.  I managed to sneak away to the workshop, and made some good progress.  I will post several segments in the near future.  Here is the first:

 

I was installing the window segments on the promenade deck when I left off.  Here is how they came out after gluing.   Above them you can see the Boat deck cabins after initial shaping and sheathing, with one of the inset doorways.  On top is the rough unsheathed layer for the Upper deck.

 

The seams between the segments were filled and overpainted with gloss white.  The upper and lower edges were sanded so they fair into each other.  At the forward end they butt and fair into the sheathing of the forward face of the Promenade deck.  This is pretty simple.

 

But at the stern the Promenade deck ends with three and a half openings that fair at the lower edge into the bulwark rails leading around the fantail.  Their upper pieces form the bulwark rails of the Upper deck that surround the pool area.

 

From overhead and aft you can see that this upper deck creates a large overhang that cradles the lower pool with access by a pair of angled staircases.  The outer corners of the deck and bulwark rails are rounded and are the continuations of those bulwarks above the windows.

 

An expanded section of the plans shows the structure of this area.  Unfortunately, some details are still unclear.  For example, in the enlarged insert you can see how the stairway comes down to what looks, for all the world, like an enclosed area.  There are no doors indicated, as there are everywhere else.  How is the staircase accessed from the lower deck?  Also, is there a difference indicated by the dotted line versus the dashed line which both seem to indicate the shape of the upper deck?  What is the small triangular area labeled “dep.” with a door into it?

 

The side view in the plans does not help.  There is not much detail, and it raises more questions than it answers.  For instance, the area above the Promenade deck windows is drawn in to indicate a break in the line of the bulwark rail.  Without going into all the photos that were examined, it turns out that this is a narrow setback that houses the boat winches.  But there are no plans that show this feature from the top, so its depth could not be taken off as drawn.  More on this later.

 

In any event, paper patterns were made up based on my best guesses as to the answers to these and other questions, then tested before being used to lay out the styrene piece.

 

This piece was set in place and the upper extension was wrapped around the Upper deck layer.  This creates a semi-enclosed passageway leading to an entry door to the Promenade deck.  I opted to semi-enclose the stairs with an L-shaped wall that is open to the inside of the deck area, as can be seen in the port side wing.  A few windows were laid out along the inner wall of the passageway as seen in some of the photos.  They were done by making up custom water-slide decals on my computer and printing out onto decal film.  The line of windows that can be seen below the Promenade deck were done in this fashion as well.

 

And here is the view from aft with the starboard and center bulwark rail pieces installed.  The port side piece was shaped and installed, then all of the joints and seams were sanded fair and even.   Looking closely you can see that the fantail curve has a dark handrail above the bulwark.  It was my first attempt at this feature and turned out not to be acceptable.  It has since been removed and future segments of the log will go into the various solutions that were tried.  As of this writing I am still not satisfied with the results.

 

Next I turned to the boat winch setback.  It had to be made up of an unsupported bulwark railing that was perfectly straight and attached only at the bottom.  I estimated that it would be about 4 feet wide to give enough room for the machinery.  I cut a strip of wood just over 1/8” wide and clamped it to the top of the Promenade deck.  A strip of styrene 3mm high was cut and clipped to the wood strip.  The styrene was spot glued with cyano from the inside.  When it could support itself the clips were removed and a bead of white glue was painted along the base.  

 

The railing came out just as I hoped.  Here is how she looked.  Unfortunately, the depth was wrong.  With a 4 foot setback, when I placed the Boat deck on top, there was not enough room for the passengers to walk past each other between the railing and the deck house.

 

After agonizing for a bit, I gritted my teeth and removed the railing as carefully as possible.  It wasn’t carefully enough, and some sections of the decking came up with it.  But after sanding away any glue residue, the decking sections were replaced and the bulwark rails relocated to form a 1/16” (2 foot) setback.  Now when the Boat deck house is set in place, the walkway is much better sized for passenger use.

 

As you can see, the Boat deck house is being sheathed and its deck and bulwark railings are being set up.  This is where I will pick it up in the next posting.

 

As always, comments and alternate solutions are very welcome.

 

Be well

 

Dan

 

 

[BANYAN]

Very nice work Dan, she is looking great.  No alternative solutions from me as I think you have a great technique going.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Hubac's Historian]

Hey Dan,

 

Great progress and an interesting post!

 

This area on the Lido deck, with the stairwell enclosure: I'm afraid I don't have any solutions, but more questions.

 

The symbol they are using to indicate the swing of the doors on three sides of the srairwell enclosure also appears on the inside face of the outer bulwark.  If it's a door, in one instance, what does it represent in the other?

 

Also, from one stairwell enclosure to the other, the inner pair of double doors is shown to have opposing-handed doors on the port side, while on the starboard side, both doors swing into the enclosure: why wouldn't the arrangement be symetrical?

 

As for the dashed versus the dotted line, perhaps the dashed line indicates the run of an interior bulwark on the Lido deck, which is covered over by the Promenade deck?

 

Did the shipyard that constructed her, build a sister or near-sister in the same time period? Perhaps pictures exist of the stern of a similar ship that might shed light on these issues.

[shipmodel]

Hi Marc - 

 

All very good questions, to which I don't have a lot of answers.  Here is what I think I know - 

 

There are, in fact, doors in the bulwark rail.   There are two outlines drawn under the openings on the plans profile that fit the locations of the door symbols, and would make sense as access points for crew and light cargo, or emergency exits.  None of my photographs are of sufficient resolution to be sure, but I can't think of another way to justify the plans to each other.    

Yes, they should be symmetrical.  My speculation is that the reason is either 1) the doors swing both ways, like a restaurant kitchen, so they are drawn correctly, or 2) they are not drawn correctly. But since they are interior doors i didn't worry about it.

 

Certainly a possibility.  I couldn't make any feature fit both the dots and the dashes at the same time.  Fortunately, as you say, they are mostly interior and covered.

 

Yes there is a sister ship, the SS Raffaello, which is almost the same, but not quite.  Most of the differences are cosmetic, so am using photos of her for structural details where I don't have a sufficiently detailed photo from Michelangelo.  None of the photos of her show this area in any detail.  

 

Dan

 

[BANYAN]

Hi Dan, as to the 'doors' in the bulwark rail; do they align with any of the lifeboat falls?  If so, they may also be passenger embarkation (to lifeboat) gates?

 

cheers

 

Pat

[shipmodel]

Hi Pat - 

 

No, the lifeboats are all much further forward.  But if there were inflatable or broken down life rafts on the Promenade deck, I guess these doorways could be used for emergencies.

 

I am not enough of an ocean liner expert to know this detail.

 

Dan

 

 

 

[shipmodel]

Hi Marc - 

 

I found a photo that shows the kind of doors that I think we are discussing.  It is of similar ones at the stern, but you get the idea.  Unfortunately, any doors along the side cannot be seen due to the angle of the photo. 

 

What do you think?

 

Dan

[shipmodel]

 

Hi again.  A short segment this time.  More when I have the time to write things down.

 

Before moving up to the Boat deck, the forward end of the Promenade deck had to be detailed and the deck secured down to the lower hull.  In this photo the deck is the lowest of the three layers of the forward superstructure.  There are some doors, one of which is open, and some supports for the cargo booms, which will be added later.  The interesting feature is the upper edge of the bulwark railing.

This feature can be seen across the top of the railings on the upper superstructure and on both bridge wings (ignore the man kneeling on the bow companionway - I have no idea why he is there). 

From the side it is clear that these must be wind deflectors, a detail that was explained by Andy (realworkingsailor) during the Andrea Doria build.  Unfortunately, his photo of the feature has disappeared from my log.  He described them as “a concave (when viewed from fwd) shaped piece of steel attached by brackets about 3" ahead of the bulwark.”  On the Michelangelo they appear to be flat, not concave, but angled back to direct the wind.

This matches the feature as best as can be derived from the plans.  Note that the bulwark is shown to be cut back to give the deflector some space.

With all that in mind, an area was marked out on the front of the Promenade deck railing and shallow cuts were made at each end.

The top edge was reduced in thickness from 0.02” to less than 0.010”, as seen in the insert.  The rest of the angled area was sanded to this edge.

A piece of styrene strip 0.010” x 0.040” was cut to length and installed at an angle along the top edge of the railing.  The shadow line that this created looks very much like what is seen in the photos, so I was happy with the result.

Six photoetched outer doors were painted and installed, then the Promenade deck layer was glued and set in place.  The first of several pipe clamps can be seen doing its job, with wooden pads protecting the model surface both top and bottom.

So here is the model with the Promenade deck finished and installed and the Boat deck set in place to judge the various sizes and relationships. 

More soon.

 

Be well

 

Dan

 

 

 

 

[Mirabell61]

Beautiful work Dan,

and amazing details at that scale !

 

Nils

[druxey]

The man in the photo, Dan? Purely there for scale comparison and your convenience. Nice work on the deflectors.

[KeithAug]

Beautifully neat craftsmanship Dan. She is turning out really smart.

[shipmodel]

Hi to all who are following along - 

 

Sorry that I have not posted any progress recently, but I had to complete the second edition of the Queen Anne's Revenge for the North Carolina Maritime Museum.  You can see the finished model by clicking on the Queen Anne's Revenge site below in my signature and going to the end.

 

I will get back to this project shortly.

 

Best wishes to all our friends in Texas and Florida.

 

Dan 

 

 

[shipmodel]

Hi all –

 

Thanks for the likes and compliments, and for following along.  Now that the QAR 2 is done and delivered I can get back to this project, and to posting progress reports.  Sorry for the long delay. 

 

Here is where I had reached last time, the hull shaped and painted, with the Promenade deck done except for some small details.  The Boat deck has been shaped, both the deckhouse and its ‘roof’ which becomes the surface of the next deck up, the Superior deck.  The Boat deckhouse, including several inset doorways, has been mostly sheathed.  Decking sheet has been applied to the Superior deck surface where it will show around the deckhouse.

From here the solid railing was applied around the perimeter of the deckhouse.  It was important to make sure that it rose a consistent height of 3mm (42”) above the deck surface so it did not look uneven.

In addition, this solid railing here and around the Superior deck is shown on the plans and the photographs as overhanging the deckhouse below. The overhang is only about a foot, but it creates a shadow line that had to be replicated.

My solution to these two problems was to first shape and sheathe the lower deckhouse.  The roof piece was cut slightly overlarge, then trimmed and sanded to sit exactly flush with the sheathed deckhouse.  In the photo the deckhouse is upside down with the untrimmed edge of the roof to the left and the finished edge to the right.   This is actually the Superior deckhouse and its roof, but the technique for the Boat deck was the same. 

After finishing the roof edge my paper planking sheets were cut oversize and glued down parallel to the centerline.  When the glue was dry the paper was trimmed to the edge.  This has to be done now, since it would be much more difficult to cut the decking to fit after the railings are on.  On top of the roof several spacers of 3mm sheet wood were loosely taped to the planking

Now the deckhouse was turned over again on a clean, level spot on the workbench.  A plastic strip 5mm wide was cut, then set down on the bench and offered to the trimmed edge of the deckhouse roof.  It covered the edge and, because of the spacers, always rose a consistent 3mm above the deck.  Piece by piece it was permanently attached to the roof edge.

Here is the railing of the Superior deck overhanging the Boat deck.  The shadow line is just enough, I think, to indicate the overhang without being too stark.

And here the Superior deckhouse has been capped by the overhanging Lido deck rail.

This worked very well for the aft ends of these two decks.  At the bow, however, there was a problem.   As you can see in the photo, the forward faces of the Boat and Superior decks are flush with each other, as are the sides, aft to a common setback just ahead of the boats.

Not only are the two decks flush, but the forward face is sloped aft quite a bit, as seen on the plans.

To produce this smooth slope, I needed the two decks fixed together, but to work on the details of the deckhouses, especially the handrails that go above the solid railings, they had to be separate.  I have to say that I have not yet solved this problem.  I did clamp the decks together, drilled pilot holes and screwed them together without glue.  This allowed me to do the rough shaping of the combined bow end, but I found that the positioning was not exactly repeatable, so I am still working on a better solution and leaving the forward area unfinished for now.

As a bit of an incentive, I removed the masking from the lower hull and applied the upper, narrow green line with 1/16” vinyl pinstriping tape.  I am not happy with the product.  It is too thick and does not take the needed curves at the bow and stern very easily.  The 3/16” boot topping was impossible to work around the counter at the stern without radical and obvious surgery, so it was removed.  Unfortunately, I have not been able to find thin striping tape in green in the right widths.  I am still experimenting with other solutions without a lot of success.  But with the remaining deck pieces and funnel cages stacked up, I can see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

And here she is posed in front of the model sized plan for the QAR.  Quite a contrast, nu?

 

More soon.

 

Be well, everyone.

 

Dan

 

 

[Mirabell61]

Very nice progress Dan,

 

a delight to see how you do it at that small scale...

 

Nils

[BANYAN]

Great progress; she is looking very grand Dan

 

cheers

 

Pat

[druxey]

The problem of too thick striping tape is one I've had as well, Dan. My solution was to stretch and paint thin paper the color required, then cut off narrow strips. I then tape the ends of the strips face down so they won't blow away and spray glue the backs. Result is instant thin striping tape. Might work for you?

[shipmodel]

Hi Druxey - 

 

Good suggestion.  I will add it to my experiments.  How do you get the paper to achieve a smooth horizontal line across surfaces that curve in three dimensions?  Do you cut the curve beforehand?

 

Thanks

 

Dan

[druxey]

If the curve is slight,  thin paper will form nicely. I suppose, say, under the counter, you will need to pattern and cut a section to shape.

[hexnut]

I've had good luck with painting waterslide decal film--(I use 8.5x11" clear paper from MicroMark)  a coat of desired color, then a coat of clear. (more coats of clear= stiffer and easier to position decals) the film stays fairly flexible...

[Hubac's Historian]

Dan, why is it that you won't mask and airbrush the green striping?

[shipmodel]

Hi Bob - 

 

I have some decal film, but did not think that it was strong enough to make a striping tape out of.  Another thing to try.  Thanks.

 

Marc - 

 

I am bad . . . make that HORRIBLE . . . at masking and painting.  No matter what I do I always get some bleeding under the mask.  Then I have to clean that up, then I have to clean up the cleanup, etc. etc.  I am also not confident that I can mask both edges of the green so it is a consistent width.  If I had done some prior planning I could have done a reverse mask of the green lines, but now that the hull is painted, that option is gone.  Maybe next time.

 

Dan

 

 

[druxey]

Another miniaturist strategy is to laminate the hull in such a way that one thin lamination becomes the boot topping. Disassemble after shaping the hull, paint the various sections, reassemble and - voila! No masking required. Of course, that strategy is too late to use on this model.

[hexnut]

2 hours ago, shipmodel said:

 

I have some decal film, but did not think that it was strong enough to make a striping tape out of.  Another thing to try.  Thanks.

The clear coats add strength--luckily it's going over a white hull, so the green on the clear film should read okay... you may need to apply in a couple of pieces.

Edited September 28, 2017 by hexnut