Tramp Steamer by von_bednar - 1/100 scale - 1920s/30s - 3d printed with scratch built elements.

[lmagna]

Sorry but the pictures didn't appear, (Pun intended) to have made the journey. 

[von_bednar]

15 minutes ago, lmagna said:

Sorry but the pictures didn't appear, (Pun intended) to have made the journey. 

 

Ooops. Previously I pasted (crtl+V) them instead of properly uploading so I think that might have been the issue. Re-uploaded, so hopefully they work now.

 

If anything, at least we have another pun out of it

[lmagna]

Journey made and looking nice.

[Mirabell61]

Very nice Model !

 

Nils

[von_bednar]

*** UPDATE 3 ***

 

Well, this is an overdue update. I've been slowly chipping away on the model for the last few weeks, but there was a lot of trial and error and progress was quite incremental. I kept telling myself I will take some photos when I have some actual progress to show and didn't even notice then all this little progress actually added up to something. What I need to do is to actually take in-progress photos, but to do this I really need to get better about cleaning up my workspace, because otherwise I will just end up posting photos of a huge mess with a model hidden somewhere inside

 

Anyway, this is how the model looks now:

 

 

 

The aft decks and superstructure are pretty much done. I mean, the top deck and railing still need a bit of painting touch-up and there's bunch of details / greebles to add, but the general shape is there and I'm relatively happy with it. My painting definitely improved as I got more familiar how the paints react with each other (I'm using cheap craft paint, so there's a bit of fiddling with them to make them look ok on 3d printed parts). Making the roof covers out of some fine sandpaper was also a good call - it keeps with the "color palette" of the model and adds interesting texture. My cutting was far from perfect, but I will add some details to those roofs and hope those will hide the most jarring mistakes.

 

As this will also be a model used for wargames the decks and roofs are removable and held in place using tiny magnets. At first I wanted to hide all the magnets using some detail that makes sense for the room, but I soon discovered that I'm basically pushing the limits of my printer too hard so I can only make very basic details if I want them to be that small and it also requires designing it with clean multiplies of the nozzle size. My efforts can be seen in the smallest building which I decided would be an armory and maybe a med bay. Seeing the effect compared to the amount of time it takes to actually print decently I decided to just incorporate the magnets into the structure when possible, and when not - use small tabs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The buildings were pretty easy to design and print, but one thing that was not as fun was the post processing. When printing straight lines with FDM the layer lines are quite visible and are even more visible when you think of painting it in something different than just solid color. So for all of the buildings I had to do decent amount of sanding to smooth it out. This is the best photo I took trying to show it, and while it doesn't look too bad here, it really does in person and even more so once painted.

 

 

Another hiccup that really kept me from posting update was that the middle deck developed quite a curve. Well, it turns out 3d printed PLA plastic is quite porous - to the point that if you use watered down wood glue it will warp similar to how thin mdf or cardboard does when the glue shrinks and pulls it together. Sadly I discovered it after I already planked the whole false deck and not wanting to redo the wood again I tried bunch of different things to straighten it out over a course of a week or so. They kinda worked. The deck is not perfectly straight, but it's good enough for my first model that I have at this point decided is mainly a learning experience (although it will still get some use in wargames).

 

 

Although that porosity can also be a bit of an asset. A thin enough print can be bent into a shape and covered with some thinned wood/PVA glue to help it hold that shape afterwards. This is how the aft railing was made to curve around the back. It probably would have kept the shape just held with CA glue, but that I think the shrinking PVA helped at least a bit.

 

Next on my agenda is finishing the railings, adding some detail to the back decks... although I'm honestly playing it by ear here, so we will see what will be added next. At least this time I will try to keep a log and update more often.

 

Fred.

Edited July 5, 2022 by von_bednar

[KeithAug]

32 minutes ago, von_bednar said:

Another hiccup that really kept me from posting update was that the middle deck developed quite a curve.

Fixing mistakes is all part of the fun, although it is interesting to note that 3D printed stuff can be porous. A good learning point to share. 
 

 

[von_bednar]

25 minutes ago, KeithAug said:

...it is interesting to note that 3D printed stuff can be porous. A good learning point to share. 

 

As far as I know, all 3d printed plastic is porous to some extent. Usually it's not an issue as the interior structure of the print (usually some kind of crosshatching) will stop any deformation from moisture. I was trying to research porosity of different 3d printable materials after the fact, but couldn't find any hard data from a trusted source. From the look of it, the PLA type plastic I used would be as porous as soft wood of similar thickness.

 

My problem was printing a thin (sub 1mm) false deck. At this scale you don't have that internal structure, just "walls" which is plastic squirted in overlapping lines. There's a decent strength along the length of each line, but less so between two lines side to side. I just printed with default settings which was layers at opposite 45 degree angles, but I wonder if a different approach would be more resistant? Using a concentric fill or even overlapping lines at random angles might create a more sturdy surface. It's definitely something I want to test and/or research one day.

 

As for mistakes - it took me a while to accept them. I was really overwhelmed by the level of skill of the members of this forum and felt a bit inadequate to post the mess I made. I was almost ready to give up on this model, but remembered that things like this happen when I work on other things (mainly graphic design) - at some point it just looks bleak, but if you keep chugging along I'll be able to turn it into something half decent, and often learn a new thing or two along the way. So I decided to do just that... and fixing that curved deck (well, almost, but it used to look like almost like a cross section of a bowl before) really put new wind in my sails.

[von_bednar]

Thank you for the kind words. I really want the model to look used and "lived in" and hope that the weathering and detailing I have planned will only add to the effect

 

The differentiation between the planks was a bit of a happy accident. I started with getting a soft pencil rubbed on the edges of the planks, but it was slow going (mainly because the wood I use is not perfectly even so getting even coverage was tricky), so I changed to a Conte pencil I had. The pencil is graphite or charcoal suspended in a clay or wax. Because it's so soft it gets into the nooks and carnies of the wood... and when the wood is treated with some boiled linseed oil afterwards the black darkens and expands nicely.

 

6 hours ago, E Z Breeze said:

I assume you know that this is shaping up to be far too good for wargaming.

 

The good news is I mainly wargame solo, so I can confirm that the model will be treated well even during games

[von_bednar]

Oh wow, it's been a while!

 

So, the project was put on hiatus because my 3d printer broke down and it took me way too long to fix it. Then life got in the way, and once I fixed the printer I got side tracked with other projects. Now it's finally time to get back to the steamer!

 

The first thing I decided to tackle was the cargo cover. I made two so far and I'm not quite happy with either. I couldn't find any good reference photos for early XX century cargo ships, so I found something from late XIX century ship that looked interesting and tried that, but I'm not sold on those. Now I'm thinking maybe I should make a more true to life cover, instead of trying to be fancy?

 

Does anyone have any good reference photos of tramp steamers 1920s/30s where I could see the cargo cover? Even better if I can see what's underneath the tarp (I assume they used tarps/canvas to cover the hatch at the time).

 

If not, any advice on making a decent cargo cover? Maybe I should make the tarp the same color as the roofs. I went with grey because I didn't want to make it seem like I'm using a limited palette (even though I am ) but now it really sticks out. Also, I used a cleaning wipe for the tarp (facial tissue ripped too easily when I tried to shape it onto the cover), any other approaches to making those (I think I've seen someone using painted parchment paper somewhere in the past).

 

Anyway, this weekend I'll focus on the foredeck with mast and the thing that pulls the anchor chains (I really should learn the proper nomenclature). What size of chain would be appropriate for anchors on this ship in 1:100 scale? I got some 1.5mm wide chain but it looks like it might be too small for an anchor.

 

Finally, please excuse the haphazard photos. Not only my workbench is a mess so I took a quick pic from my computer desk (where I was also storing some other projects...as the workbench is a mess ), but also the phone camera is doing something to the color/contrast to make it really harsh - the colors are more subdued in real life.

 

Edited March 31, 2023 by von_bednar
Fixed some typos and added photo quality disclaimer

[von_bednar]

*** UPDATE 4 ***

 

Finally some proper progress to report... not major, but progress nonetheless.

 

I basically spent the last two weeks working on a design for the cargo cover I can be happy with and spent bulk of that time on research. Mainly because I realized that I know very little about the minutia of how those cargo covers "work." I mean, I knew that under those tarps there's an opening leading to the hold, but not how it's constructed to be both solid enough to be walked on yet allow of loading of huge cargo... and sources explaining it in detail were few and far between.

 

So I went on a research spree. Eventually, after combing through any and all photos, diagrams and videos I could get my hands on I found a glimpse of workers opening a cargo hold in some archival footage from the late 30s! It showed a metal frame covered with large wooden planks that were being removed by workers. I also assume the metal frame could be disassembled and removed as later in the same footage the opening didn't have the frame when they were loading large pallets of cargo with a crane. I wish I had saved the video, because I can't find it anymore and it was the only bit of media I've seen showing "what's under that tarp" on a pre WW2 steamer.

 

Anyway, equipped with this knowledge I decided to try to recreate that style of cargo cover for my model.

 

The frame is a single 3d printed piece (so you can remove it from the cargo "hole" and have a large opening without worrying about how the frame is actually constructed in real life). It took some trial and error to get everything just right as I needed it to fit the existing opening, work well with the size of wood I'm using (coffee stirrers) and allow me to add the "handrails" for the rope. The handrails are actually staples, as my entry level 3d printer can't print any thinner than .4mm, but I think they work pretty well.

 

I painted the frame to match the other metal parts of the ship, then cut and stained the planks to look aged (it's supposed to be pretty "well loved" working vessel after all). For the tarp, I remembered seeing some train modeller using painted parchment paper with good success. Unfortunately it seems the key to his success was using lacquer paint, as my attempts with acrylic flaked like crazy. So there was another period of trial and error of using different papers for the tarp. In the end a black art paper had the right mix of fine texture, and being both rigid and flexible enough to simulate tarp being removed. Oh yeah, I decided to uncover a bit of the cargo cover, showing what's underneath. After all, I did all this research, I should show it off Also, I wanted the cargo cover to be a bit of a focal point for the ship. A bit of scale rope (a little oversized, but I wanted to see the rope texture) tied the whole thing together (pun intended).

 

Oh yeah, and in the end I decided to paint the tarp burgundy, keeping with my existing color palette. I tested some other colors, but they were either standing out or blending in too much... and I've seen this kind of burgundy cover on tramp steamers photos (from mid XX century, but still), so I used that to convince myself that it's ok  

 

All in all, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out:

 

 

 

...next on my agenda is the windlass (or is it the anchor winch - I should really learn the proper nomenclature). The one that came with the original 3d printable model is both really simple (it was for a 1/200 scale model, so bit low on detail) and too new for my liking (the 2005 King Kong movie used a 1956 ship for its SS Venture, and the included windlass looked electric), so I decided to make my own. I've been messing with it for better part of a week and I'm almost ready to print.

 

It's loosely based on some late XIX / early XX century steam models I found in photos and drawings. I took different elements and combined them together into something that looks interesting (at least to me), still seems plausible and, most importantly, will print on my cheapo 3d printer. Here's a little preview, I think it's keeping up with the "comic book reality" that I'm aiming for:

 

 

 

Edited April 19, 2023 by von_bednar
Fixed typos, made text more readable.

[KeithAug]

On 4/18/2023 at 1:56 AM, von_bednar said:

The frame is a single 3d printed piece

Wish I knew how to do 3D printing - all the software issues and failed printing attempt I read of sort of puts me off. I admire those who have mastered the the technique as you seem to have.

 

[von_bednar]

On 4/20/2023 at 10:47 AM, KeithAug said:

Wish I knew how to do 3D printing - all the software issues and failed printing attempt I read of sort of puts me off. I admire those who have mastered the the technique as you seem to have.

 

Thank you! It means a lot, especially because I see all the amazing woodworking skills on show here and I feel like I'm cheating when 3d printing. I hope that one day to have a decent workshop and get my woodworking skills even in the same ballpark as others on here (your work included, I'm stunned by your models!). 

 

As for 3d printing issues. Sadly we are not there yet with 3D printing to be as simple as everyday paper printing. It's getting there, but as of right now 3d printing is still a hobby in its own right. So there's a bit of a learning curve and a bit of trial and error, but like in any hobby, once you're over those early hurdles, it's pretty plain sailing. It also helps if you have some experience with CAD or 3d modelling, as you can design against limitations of the printer. I'm by no means an expert myself, but would recommend people give it a try if they are open to picking up a new hobby - especially that nowadays you can get a basic setup for less than couple wooden model kits

 

---

 

...and while on topic of 3d printing. I printed the anchor winch I designed and it seems quite out of place on my model. I think its too big and "vintage" for the ship. I made the same mistake as with the XIX century covers above - I love the designs, but they just don't feel right for this model. So I guess I will go back to anchor winch that was included with the original model... and maybe work on some XIX steamer down the line

 

More updates to come.