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

[Jim Lad]

Looking good, Dan!

 

The hawse pipe covers are (or were) a very common fitting on merchant ships.  The idea was to stop water from squirting up the hawse pipes and over the deck when the ship dipped her bow into a sea.  They usually simply consisted of a flat steel plate shaped to fit over the top of the hawse pipe and around the anchor cable.  They were held in place by angle iron bars down each side of the hawse pipe and which they slipped into.  Mostly they were fitted with some kind of simple handle to make sliding them on and off easier.

 

John

[BANYAN]

Nice work on the forecastle fittings Dan, she is really taking on her finery now!

 

cheers

 

Pat

[KeithAug]

Really nice Dan.

[shipmodel]

Hi all - 

 

Thanks for the likes and comments, and especially to John for the explanation of hawse pipe covers.  i didn't know such a thing existed, but it makes perfect sense.  I did a quick search for an image, but only found examples for much smaller boats.  I am sure a photo exists, but I haven't found one yet.

 

Dan

 

 

[shipmodel]

Hi again to everyone following or looking in - 

 

So I did, ultimately, cut the anchor winch platform in half and insert a 4mm matching piece in between.  Like the rest of the platform it is a sandwich of 2mm hardwood with a top layer of 0.05” black plastic.  The bottom was ground to the proper slope angle and glued to the deck and to the winches.

 

The chain stoppers were further reduced in size by about 20%, and maybe a bit more on the handles.  Now the threaded rod is 0.025” and the handles are 0.009” wire.

 

For the hawse hole covers I made them up as a frame with a flat cover without any details.  I decided that simplicity was best here since I still do not know exactly what they looked like.

 

The changes are not especially noticeable, but in comparison I think they match just a bit better to the actual ship layout.

 

So here is the bow deck complete with the fittings secured.  I also added the small rounded platforms for the mate to stand on when mooring the ship.  You can see the starboard one stowed against the bulwark just above the hawse cover.  It flips up and extends out past the bulwark edge to give him full view of the dock and the ship.  You can see it extended in the photo of the ship, above.  The final fitting is a platform and railing at the extreme bow, with the ensign staff mounted in it.  I felt that it was too exposed and likely to catch my careless fingers, so it will be installed near the end of the build.

 

And here is a view of the entire working deck.  Nothing in it draws my eye as being out of scale, so I am content for the moment.

 

I hope everyone is equally content with their projects, and that you and your families all enjoy a healthy and happy Thanksgiving.

 

Dan

 

 

 

[Jim Lad]

Looking good, Dan!

 

John

[Mirabell61]

The working deck looks great Dan,

 

Nils

[Hubac's Historian]

Well done, Dan!  The fidelity from your model to the real thing is impeccable.  It all looks just right.

[KeithAug]

Great job Dan.

[shipmodel]

Thanks John, Nils, Marc, and Keith, and everyone who liked what I have done so far.  This build has turned out to be much more interesting than expected, and I trust that it is presenting some information and techniques that are not so usual for this site.

 

Dan

 

[shipmodel]

Hi all –

 

I hope everyone is recovering from a happy Thanksgiving, or Autumn festival of your choice (John, do you still call it Autumn down under, or is it Spring?)

 

Now that the boot topping and working bow deck were done, I went back to figuring out how to best work on the deckhouse details for the Boat and Superior decks, which had to be done separately because the setbacks were so narrow, while at the same time their bow sections had to be worked on together because their sides were flush.  Here is how the decks stacked up last September.

 

 I drilled and screwed them together to rough out the bow sections, but this was not as repeatable as I needed to work on the flush surfaces.

 

I decided that the only way this would work was to carefully cut the bow section off each deckhouse.  It protrudes a little athwartships, so there is a natural separation point.  I marked out a line perpendicular to the centerline using some basic geometry then cut along it, slowly and carefully, with my band saw.  The rough edges from the cuts were smoothed with a disc sander.

 

I glued the forward pieces together and will shape and fit them out later.  The two deckhouses are stacked together but remain unglued.

 

Now I turned to the railings around each deck.  In the first photo you can see how the solid railings are surmounted by a wooden handrail supported by single flanges that lead down to the deck.  There are no crossbar railings at all.  The base of the railing has a brown margin at the deck.  The handrail is fairly high to keep passengers from falling over.  Judging from the postures of the passengers I estimated that this is about 44”.  That is, 36” for the solid rail, and another 8” for the handrail.

 

The closest I could get to this configuration was on the photoetch (PE) fret from Gold Medal Models.  On their ‘Merchant Ship’ sheet there are two lengths of 1-bar railing which have only the top handrail and bottom base rails with no cross rails.  The rest of the railings are 2, 3, 4 and even 5-bar.  I bought three sets, despite the cost, but six lengths would not be enough for the whole model so it was saved for the most visible areas.  But where the back of the railing was hidden by an upper deckhouse, I used 2-bar PE.

 

To get a consistent handrail height above the solid railing I cut two tapered strips of 0.02” plastic and slipped them through the PE under the handrail as spacers.  0.02” is 7” in scale, so when the strips rested on the solid railing the handrail was just the right height above it.  The PE was carefully positioned and clamped in place with smooth-jawed electrical clips.

 

The above photo was taken while I was working out the method, so I just used some excess 4-bar railing, but the technique worked as well with fewer crossbars.  Here is what the setup looked like from outboard. 

 

With a section held in place, small drops of thin cyano on a toothpick were touched to the PE to hold it to the solid railing.  When the glue was dry the spacers and clips were moved along and another section was done.  Tension was maintained during the gluing process, and the result was a very straight, consistent handrail.  Here it is with the Superior deck house set in place for contrast.  When the cyano was fully dry the entire length of the railing was overpainted with white glue.  I like this double security.  The cyano gives the joint strength, while the white glue gives it some flexibility and shock absorbing qualities.

 

Having worked out the method, I turned to the tricky section of railing around the stern deck.  Not only did the railing have to curve, but the railing leaned outward a bit.  This conic shape meant that the PE would have to bend in three dimensions, which it cannot do.  I ruined the first length of the scarce 1-bar railing trying to make it bend.  Ultimately I had to carefully cut the base rail every other section and work slowly and carefully around the curve.

 

I learned from my mistakes and the second fitting of handrails here was satisfactory.

 

For the brown base of the railing I cut narrow strips of acid free art paper, soaked them in dilute white glue, and laid them around the perimeter of the rails.  This not only matched the photos, but hid some uneven spots caused by the cut base rails.

 

Using these methods the railings were installed around the perimeter of the Promenade and Boat decks.

 

Next segment will cover the final detailing of the Boat deck house and its installation on the model.  I will try to get it posted before the holidays.  If I do not post before then, a healthy and happy Holiday Season to one and all, and a very good New Year.

 

Dan

 

[KeithAug]

Lovely work Dan - and a great explanation.

[Jim Lad]

Looking good, Dan.  It was spring down here in the civilised part of the world - now (a very hot) summer!

 

John

[usedtosail]

Nice work Dan. Those railings look very tricky to do and you did a great job.

[xken]

Dan, great job on the rails. Having just done some I know how tricky there are to work with. 

 

[Mirabell61]

Hi Dan,

 

you did a great job on those rails, must have been one of the most tricky tasks on this model !!  

 

Nils

[shipmodel]

Hi all - 

 

Keith, John, Ken, Tom and Nils, thanks so much for the compliments, and thanks to everyone else who clicked the 'like' thumb.  It has been a bit rough at times, but it looks like it is coming out pretty well now that I have worked out most of the techniques.  The hardest part seems to be not messing up work previously done.  Bent railings and detached decal windows are the most common.  Two steps forward and one back.  As usual.  :-))

 

Dan

[michael mott]

Very nice progress Dan, a clever solution for the fine handrail.

 

Michael

[shipmodel]

 

Hi to all who are following this or just looked in -

 

Thanks again for the compliments and likes.  Here is a quick segment finishing off the Boat and Superior Decks.

 

After installing the railings last segment around the Boat deckhouse piece, I added handrails of polished brass.  Like the ones done earlier on the forward face of the Promenade deck superstructure, these were made from 0.11” brass wire.  Here, though, I left them bright, rather than painting them white.  Close examination of photos of the ship tell me that they should also be painted, but when I did that they all but disappeared.  Leaving them bright adds a visual touch that I quite like.

 

To install them, the wire was first rolled between two hard surfaces, the workbench top and a thick sheet of hardwood.  A few passes back and forth and all of the kinks disappear, although a bit of an arc sometimes remains.  I line up one end (the right end because I am right handed) where it belongs and secure the first ¼” by touching a toothpick with thin cyano under the wire.  The glue is spread along the wire with the tip of the toothpick and held in place until it sets.  I pull the wire to the left with my left hand and adjust until the next half inch or so is correctly positioned, which is then glued as before with the toothpick in my right hand.  This continues until I reach a doorway or the end of a wall.

 

As mentioned before, the Boat Deck is taller than the other decks.  I think this is to allow a greater ceiling height to the Promenade Deck lounges and other common spaces.  This then raises the doorways, which have to have two steps to reach them from the deck.  They were made by layering 0.03” strips of different widths together and cutting off a length of steps that fit the entryways to the doors.

 

The brown base was marked around the perimeter of the deckhouse which was carefully positioned and glued down to the model.  Handrails were installed around the perimeter of the upper railing in preparation for the installation of the Superior deckhouse.  Here it is set in place to judge the line of the handrails.

 

Using the same techniques, the Superior deckhouse got a bright brass handrail and a brown base before being installed.  At their aft ends both houses got margin planks wherever they crossed the deck planking lines.  I also fabricated and installed the pair of stairways leading down from the Superior to the Boat deck, along with their PE railings.

 

I think I am getting the hang of these techniques, and Franklin seems to agree.

 

With both deckhouses installed, I turned to the joint forward section of the decks which I had cut off earlier.  The first step was to adjust the disc sander to an angle of 10 degrees, as measured from the plans.  The forward face was sanded smooth and blended around the corners to meet the vertical sides.  The aft face was not completely hidden, and I had the separation kerf to fill, so a flat piece of 0.020” plastic was glued to the aft face of the piece.  The height was set to match the uppermost solid railings, but between them the sheet was cut down to deck height.  The exposed edge of the plastic will be covered later.

 

A large sheet of plastic was spot glued to the middle of the front face of the piece, then wrapped tightly around it.  The lower edge was marked and an upper edge was estimated with a generous extra allowance.  This piece was easier to work with once it was cut from the larger sheet.

 

The piece was glued in sections to the wood, taking care to press it tightly to the form with an overlap all around.  The lower edge was trimmed and sanded flush with the bottom of the wood, as were the overlaps at the back.  The top edge had to have a step in it.  Where it met the solid railings of the deckhouse it was 44 scale inches tall, but the forward edge was higher to protect the passengers.  This forward edge also features a wind deflector like the lower one made earlier.  Here you can see those details, as well as the pencil markings for the decal windows to come.  The piece is not installed yet.

 

Here the windows have been installed and the surface cleaned up of pencil marks, dings, smudges, etc.  Several coats of clear matte finish have been applied to secure the windows and protect the piece.

 

The brass handrail and the brown base have been added, along with a dark box between the windows that shows up in the photos, but which I have no idea as to its purpose.  At this point the piece was glued down.  A margin plank will be added on deck around the forward edge.

 

Here is a centerline shot that was used to check symmetry and placement.  Although not everything is 100% perfect, I don’t see anything that I have to rip out and redo.

 

So here is the current status of the ship.  I would like to say that the tricky parts are done, but they are just starting.  There are angled railing supports, pierced windows, cantilevered decks, and three swimming pools with ladders and elaborate slides.  But all that is for next year.

 

In the meanwhile, best wishes for Healthy and Happy Holidays, and a Peaceful and Prosperous New Year to all.

 

Dan  

[BANYAN]

Really nice work Dan, nicely detailed.  You do have those techniques mastered now, as this stage seems to have taken you a lot less time.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[KeithAug]

Dan.

 

What an amazing job you are doing and a good read as well. I’m still wondering how it is possible to get such detail at this scale. Wishing you a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

[michael mott]

Beautifully executed Dan. also

Wishing you a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

 

•  

 

Michael

Edited December 19, 2017 by michael mott
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[md1400cs]

Dan,

 

Indeed beautifully detailed, and well executed work in such a small scale - very impressive. She will look awesome when completed.

 

Regards,

[Hubac's Historian]

Oh, just a teensy-weensy little update 😉.  Dan, that’s more progress than I post in five updates on my log!  All superbly well done, and I agree that the bright hand rails are a nice touch.  Rest yourself for the nitty gritty.

[Jim Lad]

That all looks really nice, Dan.  Yes, handrails were usually painted or varnished (if they were wood), but I agree that leaving yours bright adds a very nice touch.

 

John

[shipmodel]

Hi to all –

 

I hope everyone had a good holiday season, as I did, but I am glad to be getting back to the workbench.

 

The first new piece of work is actually an upgrade of an earlier detail.  On the bow working deck there are four winch control handwheels mounted on the deckhouse.  I modeled these with 1/16” discs punched from sheet styrene.  With a marker I inked on the circumference and two crossed arms.  The result was acceptable, but hardly exemplary.

Good guy Hexnut came to the rescue again.  He was the one who did the designs for the 3-D printed funnel cages mentioned earlier in the log.  Now he found some photoetched handwheels in 1.5mm diameter and was generous enough to send me some.  I painted them black while still on the fret, then clipped them loose and mounted them on the control stand.  A much improved look.  Thanks again, Bob.

Returning to the main construction sequence, I used the usual techniques to detail the Lido deck.  Margin planks were installed where the planking ended at the bow and stern of the deck, while the brown baseboard was laid on at the bottom of the solid deck rails.  At the aft end the two stairways that go down to the Superior deck were fit and secured with PE railings around the openings. 

The same was done at the bow.  The PE handrails were not installed yet.  I learned from experience that the deckhouses and other upper details had to be almost complete and ready for installation before the rails were put on.  Doing the rails too soon guaranteed that I would damage them while working on the next level deckhouses.

Here at the level of the Lido deck things start to get quite complicated.  There is a separation between the bow area superstructures and those aft, under the funnels.  I looked at the plans and photos of the bow and saw that there are numerous complex shapes, overhangs, angled connections from one deck to the next, and other difficult elements that all have to blend seamlessly into each other.

This is especially true under and around the bridge wing, as you can see.

I have to admit that I chickened out.  I put the bow area aside and worked on the simpler aft structures.  These consist of the wedge shaped main auditorium with its busy and crowded roof, together with a taller, narrower structure under the two funnels.  In the middle of the funnel superstructure is an open area protected by large windows on either side.

Here is the auditorium roof enlarged.  There are four cross-trusses of different lengths.  The three long ones have six lightening holes, while the short aftmost one has only two.  All have numerous triangular supports.  Two solid beams run fore and aft across the trusses, with wide covering strips that end in angled swallow-tails.

The model auditorium was built up as usual with sheathed basswood.  But the roof was reduced in height to only a 0.03” sheet with an edging of 0.01” x 0.04” strip.  On top the locations for the beams and trusses were laid out from the centerline.  A strip of frosted tape was put down first to avoid marking the centerline on the roof.  Once the layout was done the tape was removed and the centerline with it.

Using 0.02” x 0.10” strip the trusses were cut to length and tapered towards their outboard ends.  The six lightening holes of 0.045” were drilled into each long strut and two in the short one.  0.10” tall I-beams were cut to fit between the trusses and capped with 0.125” wide strips, painted the grey roof color.  Swallowtail ends were ground into the aft ends of the covering strips and feathered onto the roof.

Triangular supports for the struts were cut from 0.01” thick strips to match the height of the trusses.  The outboard ones are barely 0.02” tall.  They were stood on end and delicately secured in place.  Various hatches, fences, and other elements were identified from the plans and photographs, then cut and fitted as needed.  These included some buttresses for the building walls.  These were originally triangles, but later trimmed back to give more clearance for walkways on deck.

Overall, I think I pretty closely matched the photos of the ship.  After the photo was taken the small marks on the roof were overpainted with roof grey.

The funnel deckhouse started as basswood lifts with an added 0.03” layer to match the height of the auditorium.  The middle windows were laser cut to my design by Charlie Zardoz.  (I’m starting to feel a bit like Blanche Duboise)   The cutting process works pretty well on plastic, but the edges tend to be a little melted and fragile.  My heavy hands broke out one vertical frame, as you can see.

The window units were reinforced with a layer of clear lexan affixed with white glue.  Then each vertical was further supported by a tapered pillar.

The exterior was sheathed as usual, including the forward faces which angled back 10 degrees to match the bow superstructure.  Doing this area would have been pretty easy if it were one surface, but the photos show quite clearly that the lower half sticks out just a bit more than the upper half, but then they both fair smoothly into the vertical sides.  Time, several discards, a few jiggers of bourbon, and it was done.  PE doors and ladders were installed per the photos.  Handrails were put on, but after looking at them critically I did not like the look of bright brass here, so they were painted white, as they were on the ship.

Here the auditorium and funnel deckhouse have been dry fit where they will live on the Lido deck.  The one thing that draws my eye is the larger door, outlined in black, near the forward end.  It should not be a surface mount, but inset, like many of the doorways on the decks below.  Unfortunately, I missed this detail when building the deckhouse.  The black outline is an OK work-around, but I will probably go back and cut in the doorway properly.  Hopefully I can do this without doing major damage to other details.

Next I will have to figure out the bow structures.  Hopefully they will turn out as well as these.  Until then . . .

Be well

 

Dan

[KeithAug]

Amazing Dan, but it strains my eyes and hurts my head. May need to get my eyes sorted.

[shipmodel]

Thanks Keith - 

 

I give lots of credit to modern optometry.  I'm actually 20/400+ in both eyes, which I'm told qualifies me as legally blind.  The first thing I do in the shop is put on the Optivisor, and the last thing is to take it off.

 

Dan

[md1400cs]

Dan,

 

Just catching up and back-peddling a bit adding missed likes clicks. Awesome detailing especially in such a small scale. That coin really puts your

excellent work into perspective. 

 

Cheers.

[Guest Riccardo1966]

Hello Dan,

Just been looking over this build, absolutely beautiful work. I know the difficulties in working in this scale well. I f I may ask, How did you achieve your deck planking, it looks drawn on to me, but i could be wrong.

Regards

Richard