LPG Tanker Chaconia by Javelin - Radio - 1/100

[Mirabell61]

excellent work Javelin,

 

Nils

[Javelin]

On 12/13/2023 at 5:42 PM, yvesvidal said:

Fantastic view, but it definitely needs more weight to be realistically poised on the water. Take full weight of the real ship divided by the cube of the scale (100x100x100) and you should have the exact value of the model weight.

 

Yves

I didn't respond to this message yet, sorry for that. 

I wouldn't say "definitely" as it's quite normal to sail in conditions like this. Ballast volume (and weight) on those ships doesn't match the cargo weight. In a ballast voyage you take into account your stability, longitudinal strength and full submerging of the propeller in account (the latter is something that can be played with to enter certain shallow ports if required). There is also a minimum bad weather draft forward to avoid excessive slamming, but that's quite a shallow draft too. In the end you try to take as little ballast as possible, since all the additional weight causes additional draft and therefore drag. This results in higher fuel consumption. You can also adjust the amounts during a voyage, depending on the weather or required arrival condition. 

 

You can also see how high she is in the water in the pictures @Valeriy V posted in the first page of this topic. 

As mentioned my "normal" sailing weight is 22kg, which equals 22.000t displacement in reality, which is approximately correct for the real vessel (in ballast of course). Full load she should be around 30-31.000t (I have the exact numbers somewhere), which would equal 30-31kg on the real model. I will of course increase the weight in a later stage, just to see it on the water like that, but that will likely also drain her battery much faster. 

I do believe her hull is strong enough to carry this amount of weight.

 

From my files it appears I left the lifeboats for a while (I'm thinking because I was in search of a good method for the grab lines, but it might also have been to split up the tedious piping job). In any case, I did continue with piping and other detailing. 

 

The construction method of the catwalk above the piping. This is a safe access to the bow during bad weather (tanker requirement). I used a paper template to measure and fit where stairs should come. The grating is actually made of an Ikea splash cover for cooking pots. It's a very fine mesh, stainless steel and strong. In this case the mesh gives strength to the styrene frame around it and not vice versa. (You can also see the old 1/700 Donau model in the dark background). 

 

More details of the bow, a passage for the forward spring line from the starboard winch towards the portside fairlead. A protection over the piping. More forward is a passage for people to pass over the piping going to the forepeak. 

 

And another special project, the deck tank. I thought I had in progress pics, but can't find them back. In any case, I took a PVC tube that was slightly larger than what I needed. I then split it longitudinally and removed a part of its circumference. I then compressed it around disks of appropriate diameter and glued it. In the last phase I turned it on my mini lathe to the appropriate diameter. The cut wasn't nice, so I had to use filler, the turning on the lathe cleaned that up. 

Eventually I made 2 end caps using a skeleton of styrene, filled with Milliput epoxy filler. I then also turned that off on the lather following the styrene skeleton (wish I found those pictures back...). 

In any case, here is the result installed onboard. Very unconventional ways to do this, but I have no practical technical education with lathes etc. And tried to figure things out by reading and trying (didn't even use Youtube in those days either). 

 

 

A lot of dry fit stuff in the above pictures, that's why most of it looks crooked. You also see the beginning of the transversal manifold piping, but that remains unchanged up till today... Lots of things to mount below those pipes. 

[jerome]

Such beautiful details Javalin for a radio controlled model.

You are building a very fine ship model.

its nice to to hear about the improvements on the actual ships.

The 1958 built tankers I sailed aboard back in the 1980’s were adequate

but a long ways from SOLAS compliance.

open life boats.

no inert gas system.

 

[Javelin]

Thanks Jerome, 

indeed, all the extra rules and requirements did improve a lot of things onboard. 

 

First of all Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (in the near future) to all. 

 

Although I fully understand the order of things seems rather chaotic, you have to remember this was built over a period of years and with 3-4 months periods in between. The big downside of those months at sea was that each time I got home, I had to figure out where I left of and what I was planning to do next. 

I guess after the deck tank, I decided to go for some finer work and finally finish one of the tank domes, starting forward. This would practically get the forward part of the ship finished, apart from some minor jobs. 

I bought some metal cast wheels from Dean's Marine for this. They're somewhat crude by today's standards, but I guess that's not so bad, considering it's a Radio Controlled model. No flimsy PE for this type of ship. They of course follow the same color code as the piping, so that you have a last warning when you're about to open the wrong valve  .

 

 

Then there are the "drip trays" to contain leakage from the manifold (where ship's pipes are connected to the shore pipes (or other ship's pipes) for loading and/or discharging. I built those a while back, with the "bright" idea of making part of them cover the seam of the hatch. As mentioned before, not a bright idea at all. 

However, this part could work, I just need to make it sturdier. Over the years it has been hit (slightly) or touched during construction and some of the supports have come off from underneath the grating. I guess I built it too true to reality without enough thought on the strength of it. I'll probably redesign it a bit to make it sturdier. 

 

 

One of the last details on those valves/pipes were the hydraulic valves. Some shut-off valves were automated, even in those days. This was by requirement, when a high level was reached in the cargo tanks, the loading valve of that tank would close, if for some reason the level kept rising to high high level, the manifold valves would also close and a signal given to the shore that stopped their pumps. Often through a pneumatic hose connection that triggered a shut-down when it lost pressure. This pressure loss could by caused by hose rupture or by pushing buttons that released pressure from that line. In any case, each liquid and vapour line had a hydraulic actuator on each manifold and each tank also had its own hydraulic actuator on the loading valve. Behind each one of those was a manual "double-shut" valve to avoid issues due to single valve leakage. I made those actuators long ago, I hope I made enough of them. 

These valves were really basic, opening by hydraulic pressure, closing by release of the hydraulic pressure and disk springs located in the big cylinder. I remember lots of issues with leaking packings and broken disks inside. The timing of closing was very defined to avoid pressure surges in the line when the valves closed with running pumps. Unfortunately this closing time had to be adjusted each port as it was dependent on the release of the hydraulic oil when the disks closed the valves and hydraulic oil runs a lot easier in hot areas than it does in cold areas... 

 

One of the issues I've encountered with such mass produced parts from long ago, is that I often seem to have either lost some of them or not made enough of them. Since it's so long ago, I forgot how I constructed them, so I need to figure out how I did those etc. I hope this will not be the case with these valves. 

[Jim Lad]

Beautiful pipe work, mate!

 

John

[Javelin]

Happy New Year to all. May you all enjoy a healthy 2024. 

 

Time for another update. 

Seems I entered a rather chaotic phase. Since I'm near to the point where I initially abandoned it, I guess this chaotic phase was a sign of what was coming. 

It started with issues with the piping. I normally work from a fixed end towards an open end. Meaning that I fix the pipe somewhere, be it a pump or tank entry, and then run it towards an end where I can adjust its length, be it a bend or an open manifold end or flange. 

This however started to interfere with the idea of building bottom-up in layers. At some point things need to be fixed to each other. 

The following two objects are probably what killed the build... They are the booster pumps. Apart from regular cargo pumps, booster pumps can be put in series with the cargo pumps to reach higher discharge pressures. This can be used to pump in long lines towards far away tanks, or simply to pump into pressurised tanks. In case of the pressurized tanks, this also means the gas needs to be heated to ambient temperature, for that purpose a cargo heater is installed next to the booster pumps. The beginning of that cargo heater you can actually see laying around in pictures in the previous post and in following picture in the left foreground. To finish that part of the cargo system, there is a separate high pressure line towards the manifold as well. On these ships you could only put one booster in each cargo system, or both booster pumps in parallel to each other. On other vessels occasionally you can also line up the booster pumps in series with each other, so basically making a series of 3 pumps to achieve even higher discharge pressures (at a cost of flow rate of course). 

When at sea, the pump motors were generally protected by green canvas, which is what I replicated here. I didn't really find a way to build the regular electric motor cooling fins and structure, so I decided for a general shape and then covered it in alu foil, which I then painted green. 

 

I then made some catwalk platforms for the compressor room/ deck house. 

 

 

As well as the lifeboat embarkation area. I needed to do that before I could mount the lifeboat davits. 

 

And then I also started thinking about finishing the accommodation. So I added the navigation lights. As usual placed in a very convenient place, easy to reach and replace the light bulbs (NOT!)... I've never really seen a ship where it was easy to get to these things. They always seem to be the last thing they add to a ship design without giving any thought to the fact that you have to replace those bulbs (quite often really). (but since I'm not an electrician, this wasn't really my problem 😄)

[Jim Lad]

She just gets more and more complex, mate!

 

John

[KeithAug]

You should have been a plumber. Beautifully neat pipes.

[Javelin]

Thanks for the comments and likes. 

 

If that'd be a real plumbing job, it would have been a really expensive one... 

 

We're now somewhere middle of 2015, the year I practically stopped building. 

As mentioned those booster pumps were a pain... The pumps themselves weren't, but the piping to and from them is/was. The piping from the normal cargo system towards the pumps runs at deck level, however they are connected to the manifold, which is basically the top layer in the piping. All of it is built with a considerable amount of bends, this is to allow for thermal expansion and shrinkage when the cold gas goes through the pipes. That makes it of course very difficult to fit. 
All in all, nowadays I'm not afraid to tackle that and soon will be that moment! 

Here is a picture of the real deal. Both booster pumps and the cargo heater. You can imagine it took me a while to get a clear idea on how to build this. Funny enough you also see the actual motor of a booster pump and one covered by (old) green canvas. 

 

However, back to 2015:

One of my drawings. I used to like making these plans/drawings, one of my most liked parts of this hobby. Nowadays unfortunately I don't get to that anymore. This drawing contains some piping, but also the catwalks for boarding the lifeboats. As you can see it has measurements on it and is drawn in scale. A lot of these details are not on plans, or very rudimentary, a combination of those drawings with lots of pictures allowed me to make these more detailed drawings. 

 

Then it was time to build those structures:

 

And on the lifeboat side of things:

Rigging the lifeboat. I didn't want to rely on actual hooks and preferred closed loops of rope through the eyes on the boats, simply because it's an RC model. Considering the weight of those lifeboats, with the epoxy filler, I doubt they'd actually float if lost on the water.You can also see the beginning of the grab lines on the side of the boat.

 

And the whole thing rigged and standing. It's nicely balanced, so I don't have to rely on the glue alone to keep it on the ship. The small styrene loops around the rigging simulate where the double wire turns into a single chain. By moving those rings apart, it looks like a single strand in between. 

 

 

[Jim Lad]

rather you than me building that booster pump layout, mate!

 

John

[Rick310]

WOW!!!

Rick

[KeithAug]

Excellent.

[Javelin]

Got so caught up in Keith's Germania build (started at the beginning of that 80page long topic recently!), that I forgot to continue here. 

 

It was time for the lifeboat to go onboard. No idea why I picked number 2 first... 

 

I had kept the rigging long and open, so I could attach it to the sheaves and winches below its stowage position. As you can see, I also started adding railing to the accommodation. The stanchions are Dean's Marine merchant railing PE parts, which I ordered separately. 

 

 

Then time to test the sturdiness on the water before I continued with the second boat. 

 

 

And so the second boat got on as well. You can also see the beginning of the liferafts. You can also see the swimming pool, common for vessels of those days. It was however mostly covered with a containerized fuel tank and containerized generator on several of those vessels due to issues with the ship's generators. 

 

And in the top left of this picture you can see one of the things that killed this build... Due to slow progress on the tanker, I decided to "tackle something smaller and quick to finish", so I started a 1/100 tug called Union Eagle (it's in the Gallery). That project itself ended up taking 3 years of construction (you can see the beginning of the hull, deck and superstructure in this picture), eventually pushing me back to 1/700 builds that were indeed easier to finish within 1 year. I kept following that road for a while. 

[KeithAug]

She looks immaculate - probably better finished than the real thing.

[Jim Lad]

Was number 2 your boat? 

 

She just keeps looking better and better.

 

John

[jerome]

Did you show these photos to the company or at least the officers and crew while you were sailing?

 

I think the #2 boat is the lifeboat.

#1 is on the port side.

#2 is on the starboard side.

[Javelin]

I do actually believe I was in boat #2, but can't say for certain, been a long while. 

 

I had some help getting plans and pictures from the company, so they were aware, but there is no real fixed crew on most merchant ships. It's generally a coming and going of people as holidays are shorter than work shifts, so a real rotation among a fixed group of people can't be made. We were doing 3 months (or more) on and 2 months (or less) off, so we couldn't replace the guy that replaced us. 

In some exceptional cases, like difficult ships, captains requested to send the same people back, and with some playing it sometimes worked to change another officer that went home at the moment your leave ended, but didn't happen too often. 

Only Captains, Chief officers, Chief Engineers and 2nd engineers were fixed for a period of time (around 2.5-5 years on a vessel), basically from dry dock period to dry dock period. 

 

Time for another update. 

One years after the last work, posted in previous update, I took her out again. My kid got a little older (3 years old), so I decided to get to the water with him. I programmed the engine and steering on one stick of the transmitter and had a "blank stick". I let him play with the blank stick, while controlling the ship myself to avoid accidents  Time to get a high speed trial and some nice turns to get that battery some running time. 

 

And somehow it took me another 4 years to make another attempt at continuing. I decided to go for an achievable goal, completing the accomodation. I first built the magnetic compass on the monkey bridge. It's not very detailed, as I intended to cover it with the same green canvas as the pump motors. 

I also put more railing, a job I avoided before. 

 

And built the bridge wing gyro compass repeaters. I bought some 1/100 Preiser figures in a civilian outfit, hoping I could use some of them for this build. I assume this well-dressed person could pass for a captain checking his bearings. 

 

I was fully intent on completing the whole vessel at that time, but I have no idea why I actually stopped shortly after these pics. I did continue for a bit, completing that compass and gyro repeaters etc. (but I didn't take pictures of that yet), but I assume yet another build got in the way at that time? I did also construct some piping for that booster pump forrest, which helped me to tackle it this time... Soon I'll be home and I'll be back with more progress and pictures. 

 

[Javelin]

Here we are then. Attempting to untangle this spaghetti around the heater. I also took an easy start at finishing tank dome 3, finally mounting the valve actuators and wheels. 

 

Sorry for the dark pictures. 

Tank dome 3. Note the white things, cargo tank safety valves, are just dry fitted. The copper rings are part of expansion bellows that allow the line to the vent mast to cool down rapidly without damage when the safety (overpressure) valves suddenly open. Currently they are dry fitted since the vent mast to which they will be connected, would be in the way of other works around the deck. 

In the back you see another recent addition in form of the pipelines to the deck tank. 

 

 

The beginning of the spaghetti. I had made most of these pipes in the past already, however, never glued them in place. The horizontal U-shape is one of the difficult parts, as its connection towards the heater is at the bottom of the U, I now need to match a very complicated pipe towards the heater. The heater is still loose on its supports, which allows me to at least move it a bit fore and aft, depending on the connecting pipe. 

 

Quite some work to do, but luckily it's mostly limited to 1 or 2 real choke points. Once I get past those, it should get easier. 

[Javelin]

I ran out of CA and seem to have underestimated the amount of mixed materials I'm using on this model... 

The heater system is itching as I've generally fixed the hottest items, but am unable to glue them in place now. 

 

The pipe on the starboard side, right side of the heater in following picture, is the determining pipe. The most complex one, and although bent as accurately as possible, it's never a 100% fit. Therefore, this pipe determines the fore-aft location of the heater itself. 
The (white) pipe on the left is the heating water inlet and is then placed depending on the final position of the heater itself. As a last step, the last bend of that pipe to fit the water pipe in the pipe rack, will be made last. 

So next step, gluing the last supports for the right pipe, glue the pipe and heater in place and then adapt the waterpipe, add its supports to deck and place it. 

The supports and placing of the white pipe on the right is also ready. This is the heating water outlet and will be connected to the top of the heater later on. 

 

Since I'm out of CA and I want to reach my goal of at least 2 parts per day, I continued with the main hose handling crane. This crane is used to handle bunker hoses and cargo hoses as well as cargo reducers (adaptation pieces for the manifold pipes to make them to the correct diameter for the shore installation). 

I had the boom for 10 years now... I also had the base for 5 years or so, since this is the 2nd version of the base. I now continued with the bottom place, reinforcement brackets etc. Also made the gearbox for the wire drum and the wire drum itself. I used my faithful leather punch for the disks of the drum and a piece of styrene rod for the drum itself. 

I'll finish this crane, but not put it on the vessel yet as it would impede work on cargo tank dome 2 and the manifold piping. 

[bricklayer]

Hi Roel,

your patience seems to be unlimited. Somewhen you`ll reach your goal in spite of odds and extensive breaks.

The superstucture with all it`s tubing and other bits looks immaculate.

The more I look at it the more it reminds me of the Solvay plant in Rheinberg, a town some 25 km east of Venlo.

Lots of tubing over there with some of it running across the road.

It`s a mistery to me though I know that each and every piece and bit is part of a clockwork.

I`d really like to see the vessel "face to face".

 

Michael

 

 

[Javelin]

Thanks for the praise Michael, 

 

unfortunately it's more stubbornness than patience. Just too stubborn to give up on this one. 

 

Slow, but steady progress. The heater section is nearly ready for the lower layers, which means I can soon glue it in place and carry on with the next layers of piping near the manifold (yes, fresh CA has arrived). 

 

First layer will be the bunker lines for Fuel Oil and Lube Oil. They are stationed forward and aft of the cargo manifold on both sides, so 4 stations in total. They have their own drip tray below them. I built those 10 years ago, but figured out after a long search through all the pictures, that they were wrong in shape (size was ok). I started conversion back then, but didn't go through with it. 

Currently I only found 3 out of 4 back, so I figured I'd simply start all over again. Shouldn't take that long. As you can see below, the original was like a full box, while in fact, the bottom is somewhere in the middle. 

The crane is now a little further advanced and put in primer. It used to be white primer, but somehow it turned brown inside the can. I can live with it. It clears out any markings and contrasts for the later white coats. 

 

 

[JKC27]

How I just found this, I don't know, but I will say that this is breathtakingly amazing.........and RC even!  Love the fittings, and the windows......top notch!

 

Your attention to the minute details is just fantastic.  This ship almost reminds me of the smaller versions we have on the great lakes, that carry petroleum related products.

 

This type of ship is very close to my main interest, as well as style of build.

 

Great job!

[Javelin]

Thanks. 

 

Been a while again. Progress is slow, but I didn't expect otherwise. In the beginning I was wondering why I gave up in the past, but now I know... Although I made more detailed plans for the manifold area, it seems they weren't quite complete yet. I had to go back and study a large amount of pictures for some more piping in the heater area. At least I think I'm close to completing that now. 

Slow going, with a lot of dry fitting, adjusting, removing, placing supports, dry fitting again and so on. 

One of the most annoying parts of stopping for long periods of time is that you lose momentum and when things aren't complete, you didn't build enough parts, then you need to build something extra, much like you built the others years before... 

It appeared that I forgot to count and build one of the control and monitoring boxes (for the booster pumps in this case). Luckily I started building it some years back and only had to complete it now with handles and support legs. 

Next to it you see the new bunker manifold drip trays (of course I found the 4th original one when I started building the new versions...😂)

 

And drip trays in position on each side of the cargo manifold (just a dry fit of course). On this picture you see another lesson I learned. On the left of the cargo manifold drip tray, you see a piece of deck that broke out. The lesson I learned is when you use a filler to level something, you need to make a boundary. This is the edge of the hatch, so if I had to do this again, I'd be putting two vertical strips, one on the hatch side, one on the hull side adjacent to each other and only then use filler and flatten it. Now, when the edges touch when I open/close the hatch, there is always a risk of breaking part of that filler. Too late to fix that now, with all the structures on it. 

 

And an overview of the heater area now. Most of the piping forward of the heater is just dry fitted. The white pipe, central in the picture was mounted too high compared to its connection on the hatch. I was about to leave it like that when I noticed it's actually too long as well. The flange connection on the left should be connected to a pipe floating in the air with a large elbow. Looking at the spacing here, there's not enough space for a such an elbow, so the flange needs to move forward. In short, I'll have to break out the aft support and while I'm at it, I'll also correct the height of these supports to match the height of the piece on the hatch. 

 

Once I complete this piping, I'm ready to move one layer up, I guess I'll complete the tank domes, last valves on tank dome 3 and some piping works and valves on tank dome 2 (you can see that in the picture of the primed crane). Then it's on to the bunker manifolds and bunker lines before moving finally up to the cargo manifold piping itself. I think I'll be doing that outside-in. First placing the flange connection and manifold valves on the manifold and later on adjust the piping to end up on the valves. It won't be easy, but like that at least I have the regular/proper spacing between the manifold pipes on the outsides. If it's just slightly off, it'll be a sore in the eye, while some inaccuracy on the piping itself won't be noticed. 

 

[KeithAug]

I never thought pipes could be so beautiful.

[TurkSailor]

Utterly amazing detail. 

[Javelin]

Although I don't really share Keith's opinion about the beauty of these pipes, here is something totally fun for him... (less so for me). 

 

All in all I do enjoy this part as well. My 2-parts-per-day target system seems to work as I have made more progress than I had expected. Somehow the remaining work seems less than what I had anticipated. 

 

Since the heater bottom level was finished and I need more research for the next level on the manifold, I decided to go for tank dome 2. I had done some work on it before, but left off before finishing. At first it looked like my younger self put my older self in a tight corner there... Untill I discovered most of that piping wasn't glued yet! So you'll see things disappearing in the next pictures, this is just to make more space to work. 

 

All in all it was ok to work in that crowded area. The painted pieces are old, the unpainted pipe is something I just made, with flanges for valves prepared, but not glued or filed down yet. 

 

Next up was finishing that line on the tank dome and make its connections to the cargo system. As explained, Tank 1 and Tank 3 are on a different system, while Tank 2 can be connected to either of these systems (and the systems can be connected to each other to form 1 system as well). 

This means that the piping of tank 2 can be shifted by shifting elbow pieces. They had a rather funny system that is used all around the ship, where the elbow pieces have an L-shape, with a long and short leg. By mounting it with either  the short part or the long part on the pipe, you connect to a different system. You can see the possible connections in following pics. 

 

Next was the connection of the condensate line (return from reliquefaction units) to the tank. I had already made a large part of that system, including the strainer, but not the by-pass line to the liquid line. So off to another run of dry-fit tests and adjustments. Luckily the thicker parts are insulation, while the thin, brass wire parts, are the actual pipe. Valves are mounted on the pipes themselves of course, so the insulation stops a little before and after the valves. From a modellers' perspective, this gives addition points to adjust the length of the piping. The brass wires are also drilled in, so eventually I can also add length by simply not pushing the brass wire all the way into the drilled holes. 

 

 

And the next step was more supports and additional crossing lines from the large diameter Inert Gas line towards the tank dome. Another dry fit. Slowly this tank dome will be finalized, a pretty big step (mentally at least). 

 

 

By using my 2-part-per-day method, I'm also not held back by any research (for now). If I finish something, like this tank dome, I still have a lot of individual items to make, so even if I'm somewhat stuck in the order of things, I can still make items that will be placed later on. I need to make them after all and for the time being, progress is progress! 

 

Although you don't really see it, I'm drilling most parts inside the deck for fitting. This gives additional strength apart from the glue. Although I haven't had any water over the deck yet, I also haven't sailed at full draft and I don't want half of the detailing disappearing after one accidental wash (one never knows). 

Edited February 23 by Javelin

[Jim Lad]

Just like a giant 3D jigsaw puzzle! 

 

John

[Javelin]

Didn't have the best of days yesterday. 

The next pipe on the schedule was a cross connection from the IG line towards the cargo tank. The difficulty in these pipes is a double bend of 90°, 1 horizontal, 1 vertical. The vertical one is not truly an issue, but it's the distances that have to be correct. You can adjust the height of the vertical bend, but between the vertical and horizontal 1 it needs to be correct, since you want the end to land where you need it to land. 

Spend about a day working on 1 pipe, which seemed to fit perfectly. Only in my haste, I made a branch at the top, and that branch had be at the bottom... So started all over again. Of course you can't do such a double bend twice at exactly the same distance... So it was a bit off, but I thought I could correct that by making the horizontal bend more than 90° and adjusting the length of the pipe at tank side. 

Issue with testing the fit of this pipe is that it wasn't stable. I had difficulty keeping it in place for an overall check and adjustment of measurments. 

 

After a day I decided it was ok and I started painting the thing for mounting on the model. This time, the branch was where it should be. At the bottom. The system is in some way quite brilliant. On the IG side, the aft connection is high, the forward one is low. On the tank side, the aft connection is low, the forward connection is high. There are two angled connection pieces that allow either the two low and two high pieces to connect to each other, or form two low-high connections. This allows you to either put gas to the bottom of your tank and evacuate through the top or to insert the gas on the top and evacuate from the bottom by only shifting two spool pieces. 

 

In following pics you see the forward IG pipe, 2 days of work (for some odd reason they painted part of that pipe white and not grey...). It looks ok from this side. 

 

But not from this side... It was too much of an angle compared to the other transverse pipe, I couldn't live with that, so I eventually tore it off again. 

 

So off to a new start. Bending it further was not possible without destroying it, but I still had the old pipe with the better bends. I decided to cut those bends off at the "flange" and mount it on the flange of the faulty pipe. Somehow those bends weren't proper neither. 

 

After some playing, I sort of rediscovered my old method, electrical wire. It nearly has the same diameter as the pipe itself and the copper core allows for a lot more adjustment than the styrene pipe. I did also find a way to support the salvaged part of the original pipe, which was cut at the flange, for making the double bend. 

 

 

So now they lined up properly. In the meanwhile I have also mounted the aft connection to the IG line and as you can see in the above pictures, I have completed installation of the manual valve pieces and painting of the condensate line on the aft edge of the dome. 

With this done, the piping work (apart from fixing and painting of the portside safety valve) on tank 2 is finished. 

 

 

 

[Dr PR]

Finished? All of it? I'll bet you are glad to have that behind you!!

 

I remember when you started using the insulated electrical wire for the piping. It isn't a common modelling material but for all that piping it is perfect. You can bend and reshape it many times to tweak the curves and get the right alignment.

[Ian_Grant]

Man, I wouldn't want to have to (carefully) dust your outstanding model ... ☺️