Chaconia by Javelin - 1/100 - RADIO - LPG Tanker

[Keith Black]

 I'm amazed, again. 

[FriedClams]

I've been reading your log over time and have enjoyed watching your progress on this very complex model.  I've especially enjoyed your modeling of the tanker's piping arrangement.  

 

I spent most of my working years in manufacturing as an industrial automation electrician and there was always chemical processing and treatment support systems associated with that manufacturing.  Your pipe modeling on this tanker reminds me of those systems although the operations and purposes are completely different.  Most of the individual process systems I worked on were quite simple when broken into segments and understood separately.  But when these systems were all crammed, stacked and constructed closely together in an area or even a separate building, they look intimidatingly complex.  A tangle of cable trays, racks of pipes, tubing, pump stations, valves, vessels, pits and tanks of all sizes.  Almost steampunk.

 

This modeling of yours has tremendous visual interest, authenticity and to me, great appeal.  Wonderful work, Roel!  Excellent craftsmanship and a level of detail seldom seen on a model.

 

Gary

[Javelin]

Thanks a lot guys for all the comments and likes. It's probably because of your active feedback that I have the drive to actually get this thing finished. Probably wouldn't have continued construction after the long hiatus if I hadn't found this board with its great members! 

 

Currently all cargo pumps are installed, but the wiring was proving difficult. I'll give that another go when I get back from sea with a fresh mind. 

Being at sea is like a short prison sentence. You're very limited in your choices. Each day you work the prescribed hours (and/or more as required), but you have to eat whatever they give you (and during several weeks you get to see a lot of things a lot of times...) and you're also limited in the things you can do during your free time, so you end up in a certain routine for weeks. I can follow build logs over here since we do have internet, but it only makes you want to create something yourself even more... So whenever I do get home, I really have a drive to get on with it. 

 

So last things I want to finish before I go were the rollers and chocks (if not finished, at least I wanted to get a working procedure and jigs to create them). 

First were the single rollers, I needed 8 of those. Afterwards there are another 10 of them that are combined with closed fairleads/chocks and then there are still 8 closed single fairleads remaining to be made. On top of that there is another emergency towing chock in the back, which is a bit larger and stronger than the others. 

So for the rollers, each consisting of 4 rollers, a base plate, side cheeks and a top plate, I decided to go for drilling rather than just gluing. It's still a sailing model, so I want those things to have at least some strength. 

First I made a jig for the two horizontal rollers to fit in the side cheeks. That's Number 1 in following picture. 

Then I scribed a line at the width of the cheeks, but kept it connected to the plastic plate for easier handling (Number 2 in the picture). Then I put my drilling jig on top of that strip and drilled the 2 holes. Then I marked and again scribed a line. Then came the next holes etc. The cheeks are rounded at the top, so I maked that curve (shape of the jig) to file them rounded later on. 

Last but not least, Number 3 is just a larger diameter tube with a 1.5mm hole in the center, it has the length of the rollers. So I just put a 1.5mm rod inside of it, push it flat on my desk and then cut it off. Later on I punch out the roller with a 1mm drill. Like this I had to create 4 rollers for each roller fairlead, so 72 of them. 

I then cut off the cheeks by following the scribed lines and filed the rounded top edge. 

 

Afterwards I made another "jig" (Number 4 in below pic), at the other side of the cheek jig for the vertical rollers. I then used the same method of scribing a strip and drilling the holes. The inside of the base plate is also beveled. (Number 5 in below pic). 

 

 

Then I glued the vertical rollers in place. And afterwards the horizontal ones in the cheeks. While the glue is still wet I then mounted it against the vertical rollers to make everything square and fit (Number 6 in above pic)

Last action, not visible in the pictures yet, is filling the top of the vertical rollers and the cheeks flat and level at the top and add a tiny plate on top. 

The methodology is basically the same as with the piping, leave an end open that you can adjust. In this case it's that top of the vertical rollers as well as the sides of the cheeks. I can file those flat and level, which allows me to have slight offsets in length or even slightly angled cuts on those styrene rods. 

This in turn makes the process go quite fast, mainly being limited by the drying time of the glue. 

 

Next came the double rollers, where I made a small mistake by scribing the strip for the base plate too narrow. This resulted in the cheeks being too wide to fit on top. Luckily I could recover the rollers themselves and I only had to remake the base plates. 

 

After that came the closed chocks. I'm still somewhat looking for a good method, but I did discover that I can put a mill in my hand drill and actually use it to make the shape of the holes nice. 

For now it looks like the method will be to drill the holes like in the picture. Then mill out the hole to a nicer oval shape.

The strip and the first holes were actually drilled some 10 years ago. I still remember where I wanted to get with that, but I didn't see the way to that target back then. 

We'll see where we get. 

I won't be installing those anytime soon though, they are integrated in the railing, so I'll be drilling holes to insert the railing in these later on, when I get to the stage of railing. 

 

[Jim Lad]

This build just continues to amaze, Roel.

 

John

[Dr PR]

Roel,

 

When you are at sea what is your duty rotation - how many hours on and off?

[Javelin]

Hi Phil, 

 

During dredging we do 12 hour shifts, so 12 hours on, 12 hours off. In our case we work from Noon to midnight or from Midnight to Noon. On other dredging vessels they often do from 0700 till 1900 and 1900 to 0700, so there you effectively have a day and night shift. They then change somewhere in the middle of their rotation so the dayshift does the night and opposite (with a transition of 2 backbreaking 18 hour shifts). Due our Noon to Midnight shifts we don't have a need to change and just do the whole trip, the same shift. 

For sailing it depends, if it's a short trip of just a couple of days or a week we generally stay in our 12 hour shifts, navigating instead of dredging. When it's a longer trip, it depends on what we agree on. Normally we'd then go to 3 8-hour shifts with some overtime adjacent to that. This creates one long break for relaxation. Dredging business is essentially a part of construction business and not really related to transportation business. It therefore works a lot less strict and without much hierarchy compared to the merchant marine/navy. 

In the merchant we kept the normal 4-hour watches with overtime in between, but this breaks your time off in several small breaks, not allowing for any normal 8-hour sleep. With current regulations regarding MLC (Maritime Labour Convention), the merchant sort of creates their own problem. With the dredging system it's a lot easier to follow those rules and their multitude of requirements (maximum 14 hours of work in any 24-hour period, maximum of 3 breaks of which one needs to be at least 6 hours etc. etc.) 

 

On to the closed chocks/fairleads. First things first, I'm in favor of roller fairleads. A lot of ship owners are going for the much cheaper closed fairleads nowadays, but in my opinion that's often a mistake. Rollers allow your mooring rope to move in all directions without really damaging the rope (they do require more greasing and maintenance).

This is particularly important in ports where you are exposed to a lot waves/swell and during ship-to-ship transfers (which are done very frequently nowadays. As an owner you may think you're not going to do such things, but very often a few years later they end up doing it anyway. Closed fairleads often chafe the mooring ropes/wires with resulting breakage and in some cases unwanted break-away. 

This is one of the arrangements on Chaconia.

 

The reason for the closed fairlead is for tugboats. You don't want to put a tug line through a roller fairlead, as forces are much higher when using a tug than when in any normal moored situation. Tugs can also exceed their normal maximum pull forces by pulling sideways, in this case the winch will not render the rope, even when set at a certain maximum. 

 

For the time being I settled on following method to make the closed fairleads.

First I make the front and back plate with the oval holes as shown in last post. Then I insert a 2mm thick piece of styrene tube. I put this one quite off center, with its side at the bottom of the fairlead. 

I then add small pieces of strip on each side of that tube to mimic the plates on the real one. 

And lastly I sand/file the strips flush with the edge of the tube and add the front/backplate. Later on I file/sand the whole thing to shape and hollow out the hole in the central tube to match the front and backplate. 

It's not a perfect copy as it's not rounded between the front and backplate, but I don't feel like adding filler and sanding on each one of those. The shape of the hole is also not quite as squared as the real thing, but I'll see if I adjust my oval hole later on. 

 

Here you see the fairlead standing up under an angle, looks fine for the time being. 

 

Here is one of those combination rollers-closed leads. The roller is built the same way as explained above, the base plate is just bigger to accommodate for the closed fairlead.

 

That's it for now. On to mass production again. I need 16 closed fairleads (10 of which are mounted in a combination with a roller fairlead). 

Edited August 20 by Javelin

[Keith Black]

 Amazing work on the fairleads and thank you Roel for the shift information and the fairlead comparisons. Your experience brings this build log to life. 

[Javelin]

Thanks Keith, 

 

So, after determining the way to build those fairleads, it was off to mass production. 

Finished all of them by now. As you can see there are left and right combinations of rollers and closed fairleads. The seperate plates in the midle of the picture are for single closed fairleads. On the main deck the sloped side of the base plate is much longer than on the combinations or single roller fairleads, while next to the accommodation block it's somewhere in between the two. I assume this has to do with the reinforcements under deck. 

 

And finally an overview picture with the fairleads dry fitted in place. It's the first time I actually put the accommodation block in place since I continued building her. I assume her overall appearance will not really change that much with the catwalk on. Largest items that are still missing are the large gangways on the deck edges on both sides. 

 

[KeithAug]

On 8/19/2024 at 9:14 PM, Javelin said:

So last things I want to finish before I go were the rollers and chocks

Oh good - no need to discover more surperaltive piping words. that's a heck of a lot of fairleads.

[Jim Lad]

What? You mean that's all? 😀

 

John

[mtaylor]

To me, this log is mind blowing.  Such complexity and so well assembled.   I' glad you it to us.

[Javelin]

Thanks for all the likes and comments. 

Despite having started a small project (Harry DeWolf), my main focus is still very much on Chaconia. 

Thought not to bore you with endless detailing, so here is the first gangway. It's not entirely finished yet and I'm thinking of keeping it off the ship until I put the railing inboard of it, if that's possible. 

Knowing myself, I need to start the second gangway soon in order to keep the momentum and not forget how I built the first one! 

 

There is fixed gangway at each side. It hinges outward and downward. The steps are triangular in shape with a rounded part. This allows it to be used under different angles. 

In most cases it can be used for pilot embarkation as well, sometimes a combination with a pilot ladder is requested (mostly when in ballast). 

 

On larger ships you'll see a white-red marking called a 9-meter mark. The separation between the white and red part of the rectangle marks the height at which there is 9m of freeboard. If that's visible that means you need to make a combination of a pilot ladder and a gangway (sort of compulsory, but still subject to pilot requirement). The pilot ladder will then be used to get from just above the water surface to the 9m mark and there the pilot can switch to the gangway to get to the deck. 

Nowadays with the really, really large ships, there is often a door in the side of the vessel so he doesn't need to climb that high on the side of the vessel anymore. 

 

The inboard part with the collapsed railings. 

 

And a dry fit in position. 

 

4 supports are required on the inside for stowage, but I decided to line it up first between the fore and aft parts and then add the supports in order to get the height of the supports correct. 

 

[Glen McGuire]

3 hours ago, Javelin said:

Thought not to bore you with endless detailing,

We made it through all that incredible piping layout/installation and now you are worried about boring us with details?  😃    You should know by now that we crave endless details! 

 

Such a fascinating project.  Keep up the brilliant work, Roel! 

[Javelin]

Thanks Glen, 

 

So working on several fronts now. I was waiting for a delivery of 1mm brass wire to continue that last layer of piping, so I continued with the second gangway (somehow always more difficult than the first one). 

At the same time I slowly started with the railing on the forecastle. That area is nearly finished, so I thought it was a good place to get started. A difficult place as well as the mooring fairleads are integrated in that railing, so it's not as straight forward as putting stanchions and adding the bars. 

In the meanwhile the 1mm brass has arrived, so I started on that as well. I did decide to first finish that second gangway before going any further. 

 

So, final layer of piping, dry fitted, with some scrap as supports for bending and measuring the bends etc. As you can see, that vent mast was quite annoying while working in that area, but I don't think I had much of an option on that one:

 

And pipes finished and painted with a first coat. 

 

The unpainted supports were added before I finished the pipes. Those will eventually be glued to the side of the catwalk later on. 

 

The easy part here is that I'm building up in small sections, doesn't require too much fitting and trying. However, I did have to wait for the first PE stanchions (bought from Dean's Marine) to determine the height of the top bar. 

 

The aft middle bar is not parallel, not sure if I can fix that. Since it's an RC model, I drilled all of those things and glued them in holes to make it more sturdy. I did double check the position of those holes, so not sure what went wrong here...

 

No pics of the second gangways yet, you've seen the first one, so it looks the same  . Once finished, I will paint them and store them somewhere safe.

 

[Keith Black]

 Always a treat seeing new additions to this breathtaking and complicated model, Roel.  

Edited October 18 by Keith Black

[Kevin]

how did you know the full upper deck layout, did you have a set of plans or just photos

i may have missed the post that gave the answer

[Javelin]

6 hours ago, Kevin said:

how did you know the full upper deck layout, did you have a set of plans or just photos

i may have missed the post that gave the answer

Hi Kevin, glad to see you back! (I've been following all of your builds up till now). 

I have some plans (mostly used the General Arrangement plan up till now, but used other plans for the hull etc. as well) and a huge amount (seems I have 4000+ pictures). Also worked on the real vessel and a sister ship for several months, but that's a long time ago. 

Problem with all those pictures is that a lot of them are of the same areas, taken at similar angles, so I'm going through a lot of them to find a picture of a tiny detail that's not visible on 1 pic of the area, but might be, on an other picture of that area from a slightly different angle... Takes a long time. These pics were generally taken during surveys, so they take pictures from the same viewpoint to see the general condition (and change in condition, improvement or deterioration) of that area.

Sometimes I find myself pondering over measurements or positions, estimated from several pictures, to eventually find out that these details were on the General Arrangement plan all along! 

On the other side, the pictures do show items that they either misplaced or omitted on the GA plan as well. 

 

The top layer of pipes that I'm installing now, is one of these cases. It's quite well detailed on the GA, but in the top view, the catwalk covers most of it. So the bend positions and measurements can be used, but the full run of the pipes, including where they tie in to the cargo system near the manifold, can not be seen. These are parts that I need to figure out from pictures. 

[KeithAug]

i continue to be enthralled Roel. Love the decoration on your workshop wall.

[Jim Lad]

Let me echo Keith's comments!

 

John

[Kevin]

11 hours ago, Javelin said:

 (I've been following all of your builds up till now). 

lol was it something i said

thank you for the reply, i did look a few years ago at getting one of the Deans Marine kits (Rix Harrier) that had a lot if pipework on the upper deck, but when looked at closely, the detail was just not there, so i purchased the Mountfleet St Nectan instead

 

 

[schooner]

I just discovered this build log, this is the best scratch detailing work that I have ever seen! Anywhere!

 

One question - how do you launch and recover this model? Do you use a cart that you wheel into the water? Do you have a cradle? Do you just pick it up in your arms and wade in and out of the water?

 

Please keep up the good (and detailed) work.

[Javelin]

On 10/18/2024 at 2:34 PM, schooner said:

 

One question - how do you launch and recover this model? Do you use a cart that you wheel into the water? Do you have a cradle? Do you just pick it up in your arms and wade in and out of the water?

 

 

Thanks for the compliment Tim and everybody else. 

 

Launching is quite an endeavour. She goes in by pieces. Since she's quite heave, first I prepare everything near the water. Then I float the hull, 12kg (=26 lbs), followed by installation of trays with lead ballast and the battery. Lastly I mount the hatch and accommodation (in that order).

The hull itself is rather easy to carry, without the accommodation and hatch, the reinforced coamings around the openings are good handles. 

Due to her size and freeboard, she doesn't have to stay upright during handling, the risk of water ingress while installing ballast etc. is minimal. 

 

I am thinking about a device to launch her, basically two loops with a bar at the bottom. 1 Loop would be near the bow, 1 near the stern, once waterborne I could then slide them fwd and aft and remove them. Still thinking of improvements on that though. 

 

All together she's a great learning experience, but also the reason I'm looking at Harry DeWolf for a next project. Harry is everything Chaconia is not... Light, small, little to no details and most of all, manoeuvrable! 

[KeithAug]

3 hours ago, Javelin said:

Then I float the hull, 12kg (=26 lbs), followed by installation of trays with lead ballast and the battery. Lastly I mount the hatch and accommodation (in that order).

Roel - How much does she weigh fully rigged? I have seen a number of launching frames constructed from plumbing materials, old bicycles, baby carriages etc etc.

[Javelin]

Hi @KeithAug, 

 

Full load weight would be around 30kg (66lbs), but normally I sail with around 22kg (48lbs). I have indeed also seen converted aluminum ladders with a rope/chain hoist system that would lower ships to the water etc. However with this kind of weight it would be difficult to use that option. On the other hand, considering how she turns out, I doubt I'll be sailing a lot with this one. I need something more maneuverable for the future (that's going to take a while though). 

 

So exciting times (for me at least). I've now completed the top layer of pipes. Not without hurdles though. 

The deck, and mainly the hatch, has warped a bit, so it's difficult to get things straight and at the correct height. After the usual dry fitting etc. I painted it all, to then figure out that the pipes looked a bit too bent to my liking. It dropped down considerably towards the forward part, with all the straight vertical supports, it was a bit too obvious. 

Looking at it again, I actually had to drop the backside a bit. So I decided to do some surgery, cut off 3 supports on the aft and lower the aft end of the pipes a bit. Quite a stressful surgery since I had to cut with my knife in the middle of the forest of pipes and support. 

First dry fit.

 

In following 3 positions I had to cut off the supports and realign the pipe (I removed one of the 2 pipes before cutting as well).

 

And then, after this was successfully performed and all reinstalled, it was finally time to determine the level for the catwalk. 

I first had to decide the highest point of the piping. I then put my steel ruler on that position, resting it on some of the supports and leveling it out transversally. As you can see, I used a 0.5mm piece of styrene on those supports to level it out. I have a certain margin since I'm using L brackets (like the real thing) to level out the catwalk. The L-shape allows me to go up and down a bit on the vertical supports.

 

I then glued the first transverse support on the portside. Once fixed, I glued one on the starboard side (arrow, underneath the ruler)

 

And once I had the level at the highest point, I continued aft. I used a large diameter styrene tube as a ruler, since it's big/long enough, but doesn't weight much. 

I did the same in this direction, mounted the tube over the supports, resting its forward end on the new transversal PS support. Then leveled it out using a spacer on the aft supports and then glued the first L-shapes along the length. 

Forward part of the tube on the fixed support. 

 

And the aft end, with the first L-shapes glued in position (arrows)

 

After contemplating several ways to make those catwalks, I decided to make them off the vessel and mount them when complete. 

The alternative would be to put L-shapes on the supports and later on put the gratings in. However, I'm afraid this way I'd have waved catwalks, also mounting the railing will be difficult, certainly around that deck tank etc. 

 

So the idea now is to measure everything out, make a template from cardboard or paper and then build the catwalk, including railing, on a flat surface. I'll then mount it and probably add the last transversal supports when the catwalk is ready. 

The catwalk construction will take a while I guess.  

[Keith Black]

 Roel, what is the model's length?

[Javelin]

haven't actually remeasured it recently, but she should be 1m65 (=5ft 4). 

That's why handling her by the aft and center coamings has proven to be the easiest way to handle her.

 

[Javelin]

So the tedious job of catwalks has started. In one way I looked forward to it, since it's the beginning of the end, but on the other side I wasn't too keen on starting it, since it's a tedious job of cutting out all the stanchions from the PE sprue and measuring and fitting etc. 

 

First things first, a paper template to get some correct fitting. It has a few platforms on the side where stairs are mounted. Some of those are on the GA plan, but some are omitted, so the paper template really is necessary to get the position of all of them correct. 

On top is a styrene L-shape. As you can see, they aren't quite straight over such long lengths. 

 

The idea is that the steel grating inside will give the strength and rigidity to the catwalk. However I have already some experience with these gratings and cutting them. They have a tendency to bend quite strongly. 

This is a very narrow strip that I tried for a small scale project. 

 

And this is the now 10-year old catwalk from around the deck house. Much less pronounced, but as you can see it does bend the styrene L-framing as well. I can probably fix this one by supporting and clamping though. 

 

The solution for this very long catwalk was to cut tiles. I basically cut 3cm long tiles (in reality the grating is also mounted in pieces rather than one long length, so no issues there). 

I glued the tiles in, with some weight on top to keep it all flat while gluing. Later on, I used the same trick to mount the railing on both sides. I glue the railing stanchions to the horizontals, so it also adds some rigidity to the whole thing. 

 

In the meanwhile I figured I can finally go ahead with the final detailing on this aft part. The catwalk is the top layer, so once it's mounted this part of the vessel would be finished near the center. I'm now checking all details that are still missing from aft to forward (of this section). Some of it was already made, some I still need to make. 

Here is a bridge with rollers on both sides to pass the aft spring line from the starboard winch over to portside of the vessel when mooring portside alongside. 

You can also see some manholes etc. that will be mounted just in front of that accommodation block. Time for measuring and gluing. 

 

[schooner]

Roel,

 

One idea for launching and recovering is something I saw here on the scratch logs for a fully rigged RC sailing frigate that looked about as long as your model (although much taller obviously). You can imagine how hard it would be to handle a fully rigged ship. Unfortunately I can't find the build log right now.

 

The builder built a wheeled cart with 2 wheels on one end and handles on the other, sort of like a wheelbarrow. something like that would allow you to launch and recover your model fully assembled. The cart is pushed into the water until the model floats free and when done the model is just run back onto the cart. If you look around for sites dealing with RC sailing models you should find something similar to what I'm describing.

 

Keep up the good work,

Tim

Edited November 1 by schooner

[Javelin]

On 11/1/2024 at 12:39 PM, schooner said:

Roel,

 

One idea for launching and recovering is something I saw here on the scratch logs for a fully rigged RC sailing frigate that looked about as long as your model (although much taller obviously). You can imagine how hard it would be to handle a fully rigged ship. Unfortunately I can't find the build log right now.

 

The builder built a wheeled cart with 2 wheels on one end and handles on the other, sort of like a wheelbarrow. something like that would allow you to launch and recover your model fully assembled. The cart is pushed into the water until the model floats free and when done the model is just run back onto the cart. If you look around for sites dealing with RC sailing models you should find something similar to what I'm describing.

 

Keep up the good work,

Tim

 

Hi Tim, 

 

Problem is, I live in Belgium. It's not really allowed to use RC ships (or swimming) in any public water. What little water that is available or remote enough not to be noticed, is difficult to access. The pond that I used in the past is actually a buffer for the fire brigade in an industrial zone. It's sides are built up by rock in mesh cages, placed in a stair/step way. Driving a cart inside with the ship on it is therefore not possible. Most of our ditches are also way too steep to drive a wheelbarrow-style cart towards the water. I will however keep looking for an easier way. 

 

Since my break is nearing its end and I have to get back to sea, I had to set a target, I guess that will be the installation of the catwalk on the aft part. I believe it's achievable since most of the details on the aft are now complete. 

 

Here you see the rollers and plate system for the mooring lines dry fitted over the piping. 

 

Although some details are not strictly necessary to be placed before the catwalk goes on, I did decide to really go aft to forward and complete whatever I can. Starting with gluing the parts you see on the right edge of the above picture. I then moved to the pump dome of tank 3 and so on. 

I had a slightly oopsie with the catwalk. Adjusting the length of the brass top wire, I dropped the pliers on it. Seems the supports couldn't handle the force. Luckily they are brass and I was able to bend them more or less straight again.

 

And here it's partially painted and dry fitted in position. The stairs are just there to show how it should be arranged. They are not the stairs for those positions. 

 

 

 

[Javelin]

On 10/17/2024 at 9:35 PM, KeithAug said:

i continue to be enthralled Roel. Love the decoration on your workshop wall.

 

Thanks Keith. It's actually a piece of the vessel where I got my captain's promotion. The funny part about it is that it was a Belgian flag vessel and somehow the Plimsol marking is in Dutch. The abbreviations ZW are for Zoet Water etc. Which I hadn't seen on any vessel, including a lot of other Belgian flag vessels before. Normally those markings are in English... 

Since it has a blue freeboard I used that blue as a background for a large cork world map, where I marked a lot of voyages I did. Still working out a way to actually connect the dots though. Putting pins in the cork is not an issue, but I'm not too keen on putting pins in the wall for the "sea waypoints". So for the time being there are just pins in port locations. I used different colours for different vessels/voyages.