Zebulon B Vance by ESF - FINISHED - Dean's Marine - 1:96 - PLASTIC - RADIO

[cog]

I just got a notification, they are willing to fast track you to Apprentice 1.5

You were to late with the sweeping  experience certificate, else they might have given you the 1.75

My summer jobs ... unloading sea containers by hand, stacking the boxes on palets we did 5000 boxes a day 9Kg a box

[popeye the sailor]

hello there Steve........quite a log you have here.......and quite a ship too     for what this kit is......you might as well call it a scratch build!   very well done though......     a thing to consider in regards to the davits.....they are in the raised position.......when boarding the boats,  they would be lowered,  so there would be room to move around them.   I read about you wife's illness......glad it arrived to an outcome you both were hoping for.  nice work on the railings.......I've done a few fishing vessels in my day,  and they can actually be a lot of fun to create.  I make them on the boat,  either by using CA,  or fix them in place and remove them for solder if needed.   if you desire to do anything with the decals,  I'm all ears............I'll refrain from bringing them up again,  since I read you decided on the ones you already have.   but,  if you want to.....look at my Andrea Gail build {log or gallery}....that's about what you will need to do.   

 

common Carl........gee......after his first one,  he was no longer considered a newbie   

 

now I feel bad that I found this log so late...........

[lmagna]

I personally think that your skillful correction of the railings on the docking wings proves you are doing nothing less than master level work. Most times making a redo look as clean as it is the first time it was done is harder than the first time when you are working with a clean slate. 

[cog]

2 hours ago, popeye the sailor said:

common Carl........gee......after his first one,  he was no longer considered a newbie   

 

1 hour ago, lmagna said:

I personally think that your skillful correction of the railings on the docking wings proves you are doing nothing less than master level work. Most times making a redo look as clean as it is the first time it was done is harder than the first time when you are working with a clean slate. 

But lads, it is not up to me to make such a weighty decision, I am just the messenger. I am still waiting on the Apprenticeship confirmation for myself, so Steve is already in the fast lane

[lmagna]

26 minutes ago, cog said:

Apprenticeship confirmation

You must not have filled out the proper paperwork! With all the 1/350 builds you have done and the quality of the finished works you are right at the top of your field as well. Quit being a slacker and get it submitted!!

[ESF]

To all who gave likes, thank you and thanks for stopping by.

 

Carl, another apprentice hurdle?  Okay, when I wasn't sweeping the loading dock I was loading grocery tractor trailers by hand.  The measure was at least two 40,000 lb trailers a night.  A packed load was more like 44,000.  Since the empties were sitting in the yard all day the inside temp was about 110 to 120 degrees F.  And frequently we squeezed in the unloading of a trailer full of toilet paper.  So it looks like you and I are about even on lugging.

 

Popeye (Denis), I'm honored you have stopped in.  Love your build logs but I have usually lurked in the background since I didn't feel I had anything to offer in such weighty company.  Thanks for your suggestions and kind words about the build and health.  I will definitely check your decal experience - I've been putting off adding the Vance name and depth markings because I would really like them in white letters but haven't figured out how to do it yet.  I've made some waterslide decals in black but they are just a backup that keep crying out to be installed.  I tried making the letters very pale gray but that was a flop.

 

Lou, coming to the rescue of a poor apprentice is much appreciated, whether it be Carl or me.

 

Well, back to work work (as compared to fun (shipyard) work)

 

Steve 

[lmagna]

Not coming to the rescue of anyone. Just stating the obvious.

[ESF]

To those who gave likes, thank you and thanks for stopping by.

 

Lou, with all you’ve been through you deserve a break.  Rescue is not necessary.  Tempting sometimes, but not necessary.

 

Steve

 

Railings - starboard yay!

Apart from some railing end nipping, the forward, starboard and aft railings are all fabricated and ready for the paint shop.  Below are some cheesecake closeups (no final gluing yet).

In the pic above you can see the unfinished railing ends and the starboard aft corner of the boat deck with some wonkiness where the deck and columns for the bridge deck come together  Needs a repair but I'm wondering what the repair should be.

 

The 16 lifeboats are underway.  See below.  A strip must be added at gunwale level, and the thwarts/side benches are supported with doubled up 0.5 x 3.2 mm strips.  Clothes pins are allowing much faster progress.  Meanwhile the lifeboat rigging, thwart pieces and footings (floorboards?) are in paint.  The instructions call for the rigging to be all white but somehow dirty tan seemed more appropriate although it may be a bit much with the thwarts the same color.

 

Edited May 23, 2019 by ESF
typos

[cog]

Hmmm, a sight for sore eyes, Steve

[popeye the sailor]

very nice job with the railings!  they look outstanding    that's quite a process for the life boats.......they will look great when all done.

 

 

you would have to look way in the archives of this forum to find my Cutty Sark log.   in it is the entire saga of how I got the decal program........although it doesn't solve all of my problems.  the big hurdle in all of this,  is most printers won't print white.   the only one that I know of,  are the old ALPS printers.   if you do a search,  you might find a place that has them......not sure if I kept the site that sells refurbished ones.  weighing out the price of the printer,  and how often I make decals,  it's not much of a plus.

 

not sure if you were a member at this time,  but you might glean some idea from this log.  Michael did some impressive work restoring this liner.

 

 

[ESF]

To those who gave likes, thank you and thanks for stopping by.

 

Carl, thanks for your kind comment.  My eyes are getting sore.  I can’t imagine what 1/350 does to vision.

 

Denis, thanks for your compliments and suggestions.  I had seen a portion of Michael’s restoration but not the part with the lifeboats.  Michael and you are in a whole other universe of talent and skill that I can only aspire to.  I will definitely check out your Cutty Sark build before I get back to decal work.

 

Steve

 

Sidetracked

After celebrating the completion of starboard railing fabrication I got sidetracked with the 16 lifeboats.

 

My first attempt for mounting the lifeboats is lifting eyes mounted at each end of the thwarts, as an attachment point for the PE downfall leg, instead of trying to heat sink the leg into the footings as recommended in the instructions.  Pictures I have seen of lifeboats show some sort of attachment point at the thwart level.  I started with some kit wire that was too small for railings.  It twists up into a small eye using a standard steel pin for a twisting post.  The eye scales about 3 inches.

A view topside of a sample thwart.

Under the thwart I left the lift eye long and glued it in place for more pullout strength.

After painting, the PE downfall has a bit more heft and roundness, and seems to be a middling substitute for rigging up 64 stropped blocks.

 

Looks like an easy job doesn’t it.  Unfortunately when I test fit the davit, boat, thwart, lift eye and downfall I discovered the downfall is too long with no way to shorten it, other than cut and solder which would probably be a massive muck up on 32 downfalls, although probably quite humorous to the membership.  The only way it works using the PE is to fasten the downfall bottom leg at the footing level and make up the difference between the top of the downfall and the davit with rigging rope.  Back to the drawing board, er instructions.

This cobbled up bit of kit is the second test to see how downfall length and boat position is impacted by following the instructions, but with a lift eye added to allow installing the downfall after the thwarts are glued in place.  I removed a lift eye from the test thwart and reset it into the footing, then straightened out the leg of the downfall and rebent it into a short hook.  Wishing I had three small hands I hung the downfall off a taped-in-place davit and hooked it into the lift eye.  The length works okay for boat position but I’m curious if a boat would ever actually be suspended by a downfall anchored into the bottom of the boat.  It seems like it would make the boat very tippy during launching, unless there were ways of stabilizing it until it reached the water.  The alternative is to spring for 64 blocks and make real downfalls, which would allow the lift eye to be installed at thwart level.

 

Returning to pondering while working I primed the remaining davits and continued adding thwart supports to the lifeboats, neither one of which is pic-worthy.

[CGN39BCO]

Very nice work.

 

White lettering is always a problem, speaking as a (mostly) reformed model railroader.  From the launch photo at the top of your build log, the depth markings are about 12" high and the name lettering about twice that,  or about 1/8" and 1/4" characters on the model.  In my experience the alternatives are dry transfers and waterslide decals.

 

"Woodland Scenics Dry Transfer Decals Gothic Numbers White" and "Woodland Scenics Dry Transfer Decals Gothic Letters White" include the characters you need,  although you may find the weight of the lines, particularly in the letters, a little heavy compared to the photograph.  The problem with dry transfers is alignment when applying them, as they have to be burnished on one by one.  But it can be done, sometimes with some scraping off of what was just put on.  Dry transfers are available from Amazon, other on line sources and local hobby shops (if you have one).  If you haven't used dry transfers before, you'll also need a burnisher.

 

Microscale is the largest manufacturer of waterslide decals for model railroading and puts out a sheet of white Gothic letters and numbers in a variety of sizes on their sheet 95001.  They now sell direct on their on line site and from other distributors and retailers.  But the alignment and character weight issues are about the same.

 

That leaves custom waterslide decals.  ALPS printers are getting harder and harder to find, but you can have the use of one without buying it.  Many of the remaining ones are now in use by custom decal shops.  Googling "custom decals model railroad" brings up a long list.  Pulling a couple from it, Kadee is a major manufacturer in the industry and offers custom decals for about $40 per 8 1/2" x 11" sheet, but seems to have fairly strict requirements for the art files they'll use.  Shawmut Car Shops has been around quite a while as a one man shop, is about half the price and seems to be more open on the type of files they'll accept as artwork.  Both use ALPS printers.  Or try others on the list.   I have no connection with any of the sources mentioned.

 

On a custom sheet you could lay out the depth markings on the appropriate angle for the bow, port and starboard, probably a vertical column for the stern, port and starboard, the name for the bow, both sides, and stern and any other markings you might want (Plimsoll marks?  boat numbers?) - you can get a lot on an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet - for this and future projects.

 

Bill

[lmagna]

Lose internet for a few days and you are off in another direction making a bunch of little boats and trying to hang them like Christmas lights!

 

I always thought of passenger ships as a bunch of portholes held together with thin strips of metal but I think your number of railings out number the portholes by a considerable measure!

[Rcboater Bill]

Steve,

 

The topic of custom white decals came up again on one of the plastic model forums I frequent.   Here’s a link to a post on a variety of suppliers:

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/custom-decal-company-enthusiast-recommendations-t505171.html

 

Draft numbers  are generally 6” high on a real ship.  It makes it easy to tell the vessel’s draft at a glance—   if the waterline is at the bottom of the number, that is the draft in feet, if it is at the top, that’s another half foot. Draft markings are available from a couple of suppliers- 1/96 is a popular scale for warships in the US.

 

-Bill

 

 

[ESF]

To those who gave likes, thank you and thanks for stopping by.

 

Bill, thanks for your kind words, and a special thanks for your detailed info on lettering options.   As a lapsed (if you call 60 years a lapse) model railroader I still pick up the annual copies of MR's great layouts and have wondered how so much white lettering was being made.  Popeye (Denis)also offered great insight and between the two of you I have a lot to think about.  BC (before computers) I went through many, many sheets of Letraset dry transfer letters and in fact I still have my wood stylus (dull pointy on one end for transferring, broad flattish on the other for burnishing under a scrap of yellow tracing paper).  Back then the alignment was easy because we worked on flat media taped to flat drawing boards.

 

Lou, sorry I sneaked down lifeboat alley while you weren't looking.  I'm convinced passenger ships are bits of hole-punched metal held together with railing tape.

 

Steve

[ESF]

RC Boater Bill,  thanks for stopping by and thanks for the white letter link and notes.  I'm going to have quite a library of white letter info courtesy of our great community.

 

Steve

[popeye the sailor]

gave me a big head's up too........thanks gents!

[cog]

2 hours ago, popeye the sailor said:

gave me a big head's up too........thanks gents!

That's why you need to follow interesting builds like this one

[ESF]

To those who gave likes, thank you and thanks for stopping by.

 

Denis, you are always welcome and I appreciate your advice and feedback.

 

Carl, thanks for the promo.  Your ongoing support has carried me a long way and encourages me to always try to do better.

 

Steve

 

Lifeboats and railings

 

I was on the road for a few days, part business, part fun but I'm back at it.

In the spirit of the Liberty ships the production line for lifeboats worked well and hull fabrication was finished.

I cut some foam to fit inside the hulls, then toothpicked the pieces to a foam board and primed and painted the hulls.

I wasn’t sure if I could draw a waterline on each lifeboat but the pencil on a block method worked easier than on a larger model.  I eyeballed vertical to hold the boat in place on the table while I guided the pencil around the little hull.  I masked all the hulls with green autobody tape, well-burnished along the edge.  Then back to the foam blocks for the second color.

I’m pleased as punch with the hull painting.  Only one hull needed a second trip to the paint shop, due to thin coverage in a small spot.  The waterlines were clean and there was no paint pulling when removing the tape, probably because I let the base coat dry for about five days.

I removed a group of railings, gave them a soapy water wash, rinse and dry and set them into foam, with markings for each section.  I protected the marks with tape to ensure they didn’t get painted over.

The first batch of railings is ready for final installation but I was still pondering how to handle the davit downfalls.  The solution was some nice cargo blocks I found at Bluejacket and in short order I received a little pile of them from which I made the mockup below.  I think it is a good improvement over the kit PE and will allow the lifeboat eyes to be installed at thwart level where they belong.

The overspray on inside of the lifeboats is no big deal since they will be painted gray with dirty tan thwarts and footings.  The cargo blocks need to be painted - or might they have been galvanized metal in WWII?

[cog]

5 hours ago, ESF said:

galvanized metal in WWII?

Can't imagine, to expensive, takes to long (another trip for them to get galvanised), whilst at sea a paint bucket is at hand, never seen a "galvaniser bath" at a ship ... the whole process is a pain to execute on board, with all the different stadia, I don't know about the cold method which we can use now, but I know it isn't as good as the hot tub and wonder if it was available at WWII yet

[Kevin]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanization

[Kevin]

love the better tackle for the life boats, much more realistic, lol you will be thinking of your next project soon

[Rcboater Bill]

Once again, I’m a little late with comments-    In my haste to reply about the white lettering, I totally missed the post a few spots higher up about the boat falls.  

 

Regarding the PE falls- the upper block is usually fixed to the end of the davit, not hanging lower from a pendant.  That might account for why the PE parts seemed to be too long?   If they are still too long, I’d suggest sending Ron Dean a note to let him know about the problem.   

You are right about the lower end, the falls are never attached to the bottom of the boat- it would be dangerously unstable.

 

In any case, I think your replacement looks better than the PE.  PE can’t do justice to round items- they just come out too flat. In 1/350 scale the PE boat falls look good- but 1/96 scale is too big to hide the faults in shape and depth.

 

One thing about your replacement-  generally, the lower block is attached to the boat’s lift point with some sort of quick release fitting.  The most dangerous time in a small boat launch is when the boat is in the water with the falls still attached. As the ship rolls and the boat rises and falls in the waves, the falls go from having lots of slack which can easily get caught on things (including body parts) to suddenly snapping tight as the boat drops away in a trough. 

 

In regards to color, I’d expect the blocks to be painted, probably the same color as the davits.

 

I’m not familiar with Vance’s specific configuration, but I’d expect the lower block to be close to the eye on the boat. I wouldn’t bother trying to replicate the quick release mechanism, I’d probably just go with a simple loop.

 

This is probably more info than you were looking for, but I figure that sometimes it helps to understand how things were used when trying to model them...

 

-Bill

 

 

Edited June 2, 2019 by Rcboater Bill
fixed typos

[ESF]

To those who gave likes, thank you and thanks for stopping by.

 

Carl, thanks for your insight.  I cleaned the minimal flash off the cargo blocks and one side now has a coat of flat light gray paint - same color as decks.

 

Kevin, thanks for your kind comment.  The next construction will be much smaller I assure you.

 

Bill, thanks for your feedback.  I had the gray coat on the cargo blocks before I read your message.  Below, courtesy of the National Archives, is a pic of the davit rigging from the Vance in her John J. Meany guise (they changed the name to Meany during her hospital duty, than back to Vance for war bride transport).  I think my current configuration will give a reasonable representation of the rigging.

 

Steve

Since it is a Sunday afternoon and I just finished the permanent installation of the first batch of railings (top deck starboard, boat deck starboard) I thought I’d share some progress pics, tarted up with incomplete lifeboats for effect.  It brings up a question - are lifeboats stored bow forward or aft?  I'm guessing bow forward from the photo above, assuming the name was on the bow.  And would the rudder/tiller be stored in the boat or in place (shipped?)?  There's a fragile PE piece I'd just as soon leave in the boat if that would be acceptable protocol.

[Rcboater Bill]

Steve,

 

I think your picture of the Meany answers the question about the rudder&tiller— looks like they aren’t installed in that photo..?   

 

-Bill

[BenF89]

I agree- the reference photo seems not to show the rudders on the boats. And, for boats that aren’t double ended, they go bow forward. I expect it would be the same for your boats (Titanic’s were double ended and arranged bow forward, for example). Probably just a traditional practice- it doesn’t ‘feel’ right to put the bows aft, and probably doesn’t make a difference functionally (boat is as likely to sink by stern as by bow, and it should not matter which way the boat faces anyway), so go with the ‘feeling.’

Edited June 3, 2019 by BenF89

[cog]

It seems I do not have to retype my response as the previous posts state my findings.

 

I do hope you will get the railings up soon for this geriatric with his 4x4. Lovely work Steve

 

Cheers

[popeye the sailor]

very nice progress.......railings and life boats are looking great!  

[ESF]

To those who gave likes, thank you and thanks for stopping by.

 

Bill and Ben, thanks for your feedback.  Bows forward, probably with rudder/tillers laying on the thwarts.

 

Carl, your wish is my command.

 

Denis, thanks for your kind comments.

 

Steve

 

A milestone day

Tonight marks the completion of all forward, aft and starboard railings, except for paint touchups and some final alignment tweaks.  Thanks to everyone who offered guidance, feedback, and encouragement.  Celebratory photos follow.

 

Next up are starboard davits and boats.  I should probably do the railing touchups first.

 

[cog]

3 hours ago, ESF said:

I should probably do the railing touchups first.

Depends on your steady hands ...

 

Very fine view Steve. The railings look real spiffy very well done. Although, I am still looking for those touch ups ...