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

[Javelin]

Waited to respond until I had something to show. 

 

Sorry for trying to put years of operations and many courses and manuals in a single post... I guess that was a bit much. 

 

In any case, as mentioned before, the first liquid line was the hardest as I had to line it out, get a good length etc. Once this one was done (and for those paying attention, in the last picture it had already its end flanges and orange painted extremities in place), I could continue with the others. 

I was very reluctant to glue it in place, due to so many things that need to line up at one time, that I didn't glue it in place for a long time. Although I wanted to continue aft with the vapor line next to my finished liquid line, I decided not to do that. 

Although everything is far from perfect, I had a feeling that the longitudinal distance between the manifold flanges would be very important for the overall view of the model. I therefore went ahead with the aft liquid line. Once that was done, I could go towards the center and make sure those distances were at least symmetrical. 

Again everything was laying dry fitted for a very long time, until I was sure that I had at least the space to cram in the other lines. 

I then glued the two liquid (orange tipped) lines in place and continued inward with the vapor lines etc. 

 

Here you see how I lined up all manifold flanges to be at a straight line transversally. Because I had the two liquid lines fixed, I could use a straight piece of styrene touching the flanges. I then marked the edge of the "new" pipes and cut them off at that mark. 

 

 

Once I had the flanges on on one side, I then used that piece of styrene against all flanges (with the white pipes still dry fitted) and used the same trick to mark out the other side. Then I cut that side and glued the flange. Up till that moment I had the "flanges", small rings, that I needed for valves, loose on the pipes. Once the flanges were in place, I could measure and glue the first flange for the first valve and so on. 

 

And a bit of extra. As you can see on the liquid manifold ends, there are two valves. 1 is manual, with a wheel (inboard), the other is hydraulic (outboard), with a big actuator. The manual valve is called a double shut valve and is installed because a single valve can leak, chances of having two valves leaking at the same time are much smaller. Since the liquid lines can go quite high in pressure, this is a requirement for liquid lines only. On the vapour line you can see there is no more manual valve behind the hydraulic actuator. 

The high pressure line also has a double valve (more work for me again). 

 

I've been thinking of making the manifold flanges bolted, in a similar way as the strainer lids. But eventually I decided against it. It would probably be out of scale, take a long time to make and I had already used blank discs as end flanges on other parts of the vessel, so it would be out of the normal to have them with bolts here. 

 

And last but not least I tested with a paper template, the walkway that's supposed to come on top. To my greater surprise (I had to make some things slightly out of scale and expected the accumulated error to be quite large), it fitted quite well. 

I will make a cardboard adapted version of this catwalk before I make the final one in the same way as I made the driptray gratings. 

 

 

[Javelin]

Time for another update as I'm finally finishing that manifold area, something I hadn't even thought possible apart from the very start of this model. 

 

I was waiting for yellow paint to arrive, so I continued with the dreaded last line on the booster-heater system. The line ran below the rest, then came up, turned over to finally arrive at the discharge. Quite a puzzle of mounting, fitting, adjusting etc. 

 

Then the yellow paint arrived, so I could finish the vapour lines on the manifold, fix them in place and start working on that last crucial Inert Gas line. 

 

Below was my initially bent pipe, bent around 10 years ago without really having anything else apart from the plan. You can see what I mean with having the distances between the lines symmetrical and having the pipes themselves parallel. This line clearly needed some adjustment, but bending it from one piece and matching all criteria is quite impossible. 

 

After clipping the longitudinal part and adjusting its length:

 

And overview of the manifold. Vapour lines and IG line are also connected to the longitudinal pipes in the pipe rack. 

I left a little distance between the booster system and the High Pressure line, since the High Pressure line is on the hatch, while the booster system is on the vessel. In order to avoid damage, I've noticed that you can't quite make good joints, so leaving a little distance between should prevent some collisions between parts while opening the hatch. The small gap will probably be hardly visible since there will be a piece of catwalk above it after all. 

 

You can also see the instrumentation boxes behind the HP line. It took me a while to line them up as 2 feet are on the vessel, while the box itself is connected to 2 feet on the hatch. 

 

I haven't removed the hatch for quite a while, it's time to do that now since I need to fix the supports of the aft catwalk from the piping downward. I expect some adjustments to be made to avoid collisions during opening/closing of the hatch. 

 

In the last two pics you can also see the shape of the cargo pump upper parts. They'll be covered in the green tarpaulin, like the booster pump motors, so they are just roughly shapes, while the tarp will be glued over them with some small ropes to hold it (like the real thing). I think I'll use a light coloured sewing thread for that. 

[Ian_Grant]

I have to comment as clicking "wow" just doesn't do your work justice.  Incredible skill on this intricate network of piping. She'll be a sight to see afloat!

[KeithAug]

Excellent Roel. Just wish I understood it all!

[Jim Lad]

Just first class, Roel!!

 

John

[mtaylor]

Beautiful work on the piping and mind boggling at the same time.

[Keith Black]

 Simply amazing, Roel.

[Rick310]

How in the world does one keep all that straight?

WOW!!!

Rick

[Javelin]

Thanks for the comments and likes. 

 

How do I keep that straight? One of the most important tricks (but I hadn't applied it from the beginning unfortunately) is not going progressively from one side to another, but instead doing first one side, then the other side to get two fixed points. Afterwards you use a ruler or something straight to line up everything in between. I used that in several different iterations on the manifold area. I first did the support beams and then used straight lines to mount the supports in between. Similarly I first fixed the liquid manifold lines and used those two flanges to line up all the flanges in between. 

 

This week it's a small update. I had to build the level gauges for the tanks as well as the bulkhead valve handles, all for the pump domes. As mentioned somewhere before, the tanks are in fact mostly split in two, a Portside and Starboard side on each tank. They can be connected by a valve at the bottom, the bulkhead valve. This also means both halves have their own level gauge, which makes 6 in total. 

10 years ago I had made 1 level gauge, then made 5 supports, but never got to finishing them. Lucky for me at this point, since I had less job to do to actually finish them. I did decide to go for some additional detailing now. 

The bulkhead valves I wanted to leave off entirely back when I started this build. Now I did decide they 'd make a good addition to add to the clutter (and therefore realism of the model). 

 

You can see the level gauges and bulkhead valve handle between the two pumps. The pumps themselves are just shapes for now. Dry fitted. Since I've moved up to the top layers on the manifold, it's time to also go up on the rest of the vessel. The pumps and pump domes themselves are now the next point of attention to finalize. 

 

You can also see a lot of pencil marks on deck, that's not sloppiness (for once), they are actually marks for additional details. Most of them were already built, but I'm keeping them off to have more space to work (mostly to rest my hand/fingers during installation of other parts). I suppose I'm nearly at the point where they will be installed. 

 

The last major point on the cargo system is the Inert Gas line. The forward part was finished, but not the aft part. There is big blower with heating on the aft. Bending the pipe with this kind of diameter is difficult, that's why I probably didn't finish it in the past. The blower was made, the straight piece of IG line was made, but nothing was connected. I was lucky I didn't fix that long part of pipe, since I had adjust a few things to make it all fit. 

Once this part is fixed, I need to make the connections to vapour dome 3 and then it's finally finished. 

 

The damage mark on the aft of the tank dome is from a detail that got knocked off long ago. It'll be mounted again once the pumps are installed, since again I will need some access to the aft of those pumps. 

 

I will now admit what I know for quite a while now. The stanchions for the catwalk are all too short... I noticed it when I was building the manifold upper layer. There should be more space between the catwalk and the upper pipes, some other pipes need to be on top of those pipes, below the catwalk, and as it is now, that's not possible. Additionally the manifold valve actuators should be lower than the catwalk bottom and as it is now, they aren't.

The difference is around 3-4mm, so can't be really ignored. I've been devising a solution where I will install reversed U-shapes on the inside of the L-shaped supports, but haven't gotten too far in planning that. I'm also slowly changing my mind and I'll probably build the catwalks up on the vessel itself instead of building it off the ship and try to install it as one piece. 

 

 

[Keith Black]

 Roel, your detail work is just incredible.  Each update leaves me shaking my head in admiration. 

[Jim Lad]

Your determination to get this right is admired!

 

John

[Rick310]

This just incredible!

Rick

[Javelin]

Thanks guys.

 

Took her out for a spin last weekend, finally some better weather over here.

All is still operational, but no pics since I was too busy controlling the vessel with some wind  in very confined waters.

I did discover some issues though. 

First I didn't remember how to mount the ballast, so I need to mark it for next time. 

That wasn't the biggest issue though. The hatch went on and off quite ok when setting everything up. However I had the habit of going with my arm through the hole below the accomodation block to pop the aft edge of the hatch up and the tilted it out. 

When she's in the water and ballasted, I can't  pass that way because the ballast and battery are in the way. In the past I grabbed the compressor room, slightly lifted  the hatch and then grabbed the aft edge, with the new detailing, that became quite risky. 

I had a small hole foreseen underneath the crane pedestal with the aim to put an M4 threadbar through it, squeezing the deck and pedestal together, with the nut inside the jib base at the top of the pedestal. This way I'd be sure it was strong enough to lift the hatch without solely relying on glue and plastic.

This has proven impossible, since the jib base is off center and too small. 

Using the reinforced detailed crane as a handle to lift the hatch probably wasn't such a great idea anyway.

I came up with a new idea, which I'll show soon. Didn't have much time to continue construction last week, but did make some progress.

[Javelin]

And finally found some time for the pictures of last week's work. 

 

Small reminder of that crane, not entirely finished, but gives an idea of how great an idea it was to use it as a handle to lift that hatch...

 

Now on to the solution. I used a bolt with washer, M6, since I didn't really find an M4 in the store, and M6 would still fit after all.

 

I then decided to basically do the same as my original idea, except that in this case the crane pedestal would be the cover of the assembly. This does mean I need to remove the crane for lifting the hatch, but I believe it's safer for the crane's integrity. Since the top and pedestal will be glued together and the jib will rest in the jib rest, the direction of the pedestal will be correct as well. 

Due to the relatively long piece below the nut, the crane pedestal will fit snugly on top and will not move when the vessel is underway. I had to machine that part a bit to make it fit, but it's now both tight, yet loose enough to comfortably lift the crane off. 

In the first picture, with the full crane, it's actually already mounted on top of the nut-bolt assembly. 

 

 

So in order to remove the hatch, I will now grab that piece of threaded bar to lift the aft side of the hatch. (still need to test that though). 

 

And finally I also installed the branches of the IG line towards tank 3, meaning that part is finished as well. Time to start extending all the stanchions for the catwalk. Not something I look forward to, but has to be done before going to the next layer of piping. 

 

Edited July 2 by Javelin

[Ian_Grant]

....."next layer of piping"........Egad!!

[Javelin]

Well @Ian_Grant, that layer is actually not that much. Sounds like a complete layer, but all in all it's just the bunker line on PS of the manifold. It runs just on top of the cargo piping and therefore represents a "layer". On the rest of the vessel that layer is not present. There is one more layer and that is the deck tank piping, this runs over that PS bunkerline and therefore is considered a new layer (by me). So sounds like a lot of work, but all in all the piping is mostly done. I also still need to connect the cargo piping to the deck house, which is probably going to take me a while as well. 

 

In the meanwhile I've been stalling over those stanchions... Finally finishing my Spartacus diorama didn't happen by coincidence last week. I really did not look forward to extending all of those stanchions and was really upset that I could have avoided this from the beginning. I did however discover how it happened. I started with those stanchions on the fore part of the ship then going aft. I forgot that there is a step in the catwalk just aft of the deck house. 

This also means that at least all those stanchions next to and in front of the deck house won't need extending (yay). 

That said I needed a grip on this issue and get a hold of a starting point. 

I started with some left out supports on the aft part of the manifold. They had to be built top-down since they'd be hanging over the edge (see pics below). Those stanchions were attached to the piping on top and then I had one hovering pipe that was halfway supported by those supports as well. That one needed to be placed first as the PS bunkerline is adjacent to it. 

That bunkerline, along with the deck tank piping are the determining factor for the minimum stanchion height for the catwalk. So that was my starting point. 

I put some arrows in below pic to show the new parts as nobody would probably figure out what was new and what wasn't... I didn't mark all of them, but you get the idea.

 

As mentioned it's a hovering part, a lot of installing and removing of the hatch. It also forces me to adjust the edges as I still have occasional collisions when installing the hatch and that should go smoothly. I must say this spaghetti does hide the edge of the hatch quite well. 

 

Then came the initial bunker line (unpainted, white) with its bends and the extensions. I decided to go the more labour intensive, but more correct way of making small strips that fit inside the L-shape of the supports. I will then add small lengths of L-supports to extend the originals. 

The other idea, which would have probably been easier was making inverted U-shapes and glue those in the edges of the supports without adding L-pieces, but it probably would look very odd. 

 

I then made a small measuring tool, a piece of 2mm rod with a marking (also carved) and a small foot to keep it standing. I then add the strips to the correct height. Later on the L-support will follow until I attach my bunker line.

 

Once that is approved, I'll do the SB side supports and have a steady level to extend the rest in between. 

Bear with me, it's going to take some time. I'll probably do some jobs in between as well, like finishing those cargo pumps, adding wheels to the discharge valves of those pumps, perhaps do the deck house piping etc. to get some distraction from the tedious strip cutting and installing.  

[KeithAug]

It all looks magnificent Roel, I do worry however that you have a bit of a pipework obsession.

[Rick310]

Just so unbelievably impressive!$

Rick

[Glen McGuire]

Every time you post a new update of your piping, it blows my mind.  I will never ever complain about rigging or ratlines again!

[Javelin]

@Glen McGuire, @Rick310 and @KeithAug, thanks for the comments. 

Everyone thanks for the likes as well. 

 

Keith, I'm not exactly sure... After sailing on those gas carriers I went to dredging. There's a lot less pipes there. On the other side, they are much much much larger, so I'm not sure if that means I'm in rehab or if it's getting worse. In any case, I guess what comes next will confirm your verdict. It's the voices really, can't argue with them...

 

So what happened next, well, progress wasn't exactly as fast I imagined it would be. Mostly due to garden chores and summer holidays for the kids. However, I got to a rather complex point. 

I installed the extensions of the stanchions and that portside bunkerline (part of it anyway). 

 

 

Aparently I didn't take a picture yet of the finished thing. I'll do that soon. 

 

However, I wanted to finish that bunker line with the aft part (mounted on the fixed part of the ship, not on the hatch, when I figured out I had to cross some lines etc. That's where I found out I had to cross the safety line. That's basically a line that connects a whole bunch of overpressure valves to the vent mast. Each piece of pipe that can be blocked in between two closed valves is required to have such a valve mounted on the pipe. They are small, mostly spring loaded, valves that relieve the pressure when the closed-in liquid or vapour starts to expand by temperature. Whatever that is released is sent either back to the tank or to the vent mast. 

I was not really intending to build it when I started this build due to its complexity and varying sizes. I was also "allowed" to leave that decision for the future as it's location is on the outside of the pipe rack and it would therefore be possible to add it later... 

That said, I guess it wasn't possible to postpone that decision anymore and something would definitely look amiss if I left it out completely. It's a rather large line and it's painted white, a nice contrast with all the grey around it. 

So off I went. 
Here's a picture of the real safety lines. 1 is the long one, the other crosses it and comes from the deck tank overpressure valves. 

 

And the deck tank with its safety valves. 

 

So I decided to start with the hardest part, some overpressure valves/ safety relief valves. These are just dry mounted, flanges and valves aren't yet glued to the brass wire below them. 

I decided to only partially install the safety line on the vessel. At least it won't look like something's missing, it just won't be complete. These safety valves are the largest onboard, all the others are 1 or 2 sizes smaller and would be very difficult to build properly. 

 

And then came the lines themselves. Haven't completed them yet, but it looks like it's heading in the right direction. This however also forces me to paint and fix that aft vent mast in place, something I'd prefer at a later stage as I still need to work in that area for the deck tank piping and catwalk. That said, it is what it is and I'll have to work around it. 

 

 

She's slowly getting as crowded as the real thing by now. 

 

[Rick310]

Tremendous!!

Rick

[yvesvidal]

Unbelievable !!!! You must be a plumber in your professional life.... 🙂

 

Yves

[Javelin]

Just a sailor @yvesvidal, no plumber (although I do admit it has crossed my mind to change trade and go work ashore as a plumber in the past). 

 

So prodding on. Kind of forgot where I left off here. 

in the meanwhile the PS bunkerline has been installed. I marked its position in following picture. 

 

Then came the last part of that bunker line, since it's on the hatch, and the aft part is quite complicated, I decided to separate front from aft. Aft part can be seen in next picture. This was the second or third attempt I believe. In the foreground you can also see the finished safety valves installed on the deck tank and the line running from them to the vent mast. 

 

 

After extending the supports, my original liquid and vapour line from the deck tank were not correct anymore. I had to make them again and that took me quite a few attempts. However, currently they are ready and in primer. You can also see the extensions on the supports, nearly all of them are done in this area. On the right you can see a different view of the safety valves. The odd run of that line to the vent mast is of course there due to very fast cooling. The pipe is normally at ambient temperature, but if/when those safety valves open, it cools down very fast, so the turns in that line allow it to bend and shrink without tearing apart. 

 

Below picture also illustrates why I normally work bottom up. The vent mast on the right really is in my way when I'm working near that deck tank area, however I don't think I had another option at this point. 

The only major piping left is the connections from that deck tank going forwards where they connect to the other lines, passing over all other pipes, that's the final layer of piping. I did however notice I ran out of 1mm brass rod, so either I try to make it from 1mm styrene rod or continue building something else until I make another order at the model shop. 

The reason I'd use brass in this case is that those pipes also have 2 U-shapes and brass allows you to bend back and extend a bend a bit. 1mm styrene rod really looks odd when you bend it back and will also easily tear apart when bending again. 

 

I also finished 1 cargo pump with rope around the canvas etc. but no pictures yet. My shore leave is running out again, so I have to pick my fights. The grey mixed paint is also pretty much finished and I don't think I'll be mixing a new batch before I leave again. I'm currently not making my 2-part quotum, but at least the build isn't stalled nor did I start a new project in the meantime, so I'm ok with it. 

 

 

 

Edited August 8 by Javelin

[KeithAug]

So we are nearly at the end of the piping marathon. Good job really as I have nearly run out of superlatives. Fandabadosey is my last.

[Glen McGuire]

36 minutes ago, Javelin said:

I start a new project

Nice teaser!  Are you doing a build log for it?

[Keith Black]

Amazing, Roel, simply amazing. 

[Jim Lad]

Just catching up. Roel This is rapidly reaching lunatic proportions! 😲

 

John

[Javelin]

On 8/8/2024 at 9:58 PM, KeithAug said:

So we are nearly at the end of the piping marathon. Good job really as I have nearly run out of superlatives. Fandabadosey is my last.

 

A marathon it is, a bit boring for you guys, but I guess this topic would be awesomely quiet if I'd wait with an update until I finished that piping completely. 

I need to tie up some loose ends, but at least the end is near. 

I did notice that making these unique items takes a lot of time for hardly any visible progress on the vessel. Tedious repeating jobs do give faster visual progress. 

Hadn't heard of Fandabadosey before 😂

 

On 8/8/2024 at 10:29 PM, Glen McGuire said:

Nice teaser!  Are you doing a build log for it?

Nice try Mr McGuire, you did pull that piece of sentence out of context. English may not be my mother tongue, I do believe "nor" in front of a piece of sentence means "neither" or "I did not" 😁.

If I start something new, rest assured I'll make a build log for it. A couple of projects are taking form, most of them involving bottles, but none are truly 100% balanced at this point. Mostly issues with scale and bottle sizes and shapes. 

 

Thanks for all the likes and comments everybody. A real update will follow soon. 

[Javelin]

As promised, another small update. As you've probably become aware of my previous ramblings, I'm not building very straight forward anymore. It's more cluttered and all around the place now. 

So first I'll show the deck tank area. Lines are finally painted and installed (last light grey paint used now). 

 

I had also finished that aft PS bunker line. Here is a view with the hatch removed. Don't look at the dirt laying around, I just used my Proxxon with a cutting disk to reduce the piping on the pipe rack to avoid clashing with the piping on the hatch. I'll clean it up when I'm happy with the result. 

I also do need to fix this bunker pipe with some brackets to the stanchions behind it. 

You can also see a recent addition. The ship has 2 big dry powder guns (fire fighting) aft of the manifold on elevated platforms, one on each side. I've built the platforms now, but they'll need to be painted grey and would in any case be in the way if I'd install them now. I'll also fully detail them with railing etc. before installing them. 

And last but not least, I nearly finished pump dome 1. Both pump motors (covered by canvas) are installed and the support for the cabling is also installed between them. 

I had not planned to do the cabling when I started this build, yet without the cabling and support, something seemed missing from the cluttered pump dome, so I decided to add it as well. The cabling will be done with 0.2mm-ish copper wire. It's quite easy to cut and bend and the cables don't need to be as straight as the piping, so this should be ok. 

 

The plan is now to continue on the remaining pump domes. I'll also further adjust the piping around the hatch to finally solve this nagging issue. Additionally I'm now looking at constructing the remaining mooring fittings (roller fairleads and closed chocks and finalizing the chain stoppers for the anchor chains). All of those items are not grey so I should be able to finish those. 

 

And here is a picture of the real thing again. So the deck tank still needs the walkway on top and over the piping. That will be quite a difficult one, considering the round surface of the tank. And you can also see the dry powder gun platforms (red arrows). 

 

Edited August 12 by Javelin
added picture of the real ship

[Glen McGuire]

The piping work amazes me every time I look at it.  The only difference between the pictures of your model and pictures of the real thing is that the real thing is a bit grungy.  Incredible job, Roel!