LPG Tanker Chaconia by Javelin - Radio - 1/100

[Javelin]

Oh yes, dusting is an issue, although I am thinking of a display case for this one. Probably won't sail with it anymore in that case, or just make a case where I can easily put the vessel in and out (perhaps even through the bottom of the case? ) In any case, when I'm dusting off parts of the vessel where I'm working, it literally has piles of dust on it... 

 

Since I need to go to sea again (yes, time to continue my research on that manifold area), I've been doing some small items and projects around the vessel. 

Somehow I've always avoided the ventilation of forward spaces. It's a pipe with several bends in it, connected to a more or less central vertical ventilation shaft containing the fan. I now built that. The head of the fan was turned on a mini lathe, but I believe the diameter is too small, so I'll probably have to redo that. One of my issues is availability of styrene rods for easy machining. Currently I've had to glue tubes of different diameters to each other, but often the glue is not evenly distributed, causing damage when I'm turning on the edge between the tubes. I guess I'll have to find a source of rods as I'm a bit tired of trying many times to get a single good result. 

It still needs to be painted. 

 

(you can also see the crooked forward mast, this happened in a collision with a bridge, where I lost sight of the vessel. I will still need to fix that some day)

 

Next were the bursting discs of the hold spaces. Each (independent) tank is sitting inside a hold space. This space is normally filled with either inert gas (LPG/flammable cargo) or dry air (ammonia). The pressure in those spaces is above atmospheric and of course subject to change with temperature. In order to protect the ship's structure, there are overpressure (safety) valves on those hold spaces, to release pressure when it gets too high. If, for some reason, the pressure is rising and the safety valves cannot handle the rise, there is a big bursting disc on each space. This disc simply breaks and open the space up to the atmosphere. Since you don't want parts of those discs flying around the deck when that happens, they are mounted in a protective cover that catches any debris. 

I had built 3 elbows about 10 years ago, finishing 1 completely, and then somehow never completed the remaining 2. Since I had an example, I knew exactly what to do, so they are all ready now. The very fine net around the piece is actually a tea bag. In those days they sold these plastic tea bags, luckily I saved a few, since I don't see those in the shop anymore. They have a very fine, strong netting texture. 

 

I also made a platform for tank 2, that will later on be sided by 2 stairs, 1 on each side of the big seawater pipe. It will receive a few more feet, but I first need to complete the piping below before I can finalize that (part of the research).You can also see one of those unfinished bursting disc structures. 

 

The platform will eventually be flush with the tank dome. 

 

 

Although I didn't remember the crappy paint job on this vessel, I can see some spots that need some fixing.... A lot of them in fact. Painting, clearly my least favorite part of this hobby. 

[Dr PR]

Do you ever buy from McMaster-Carr? It is an industrial supplier but they sell small quantities to hobbyists too. I have been purchasing from them for decades. Top quality items at prices better than you find in hobby shops (if you can still find a hobby shop).

 

They have quite a selection of plastic and metal stock for machining. The only shortcoming is that much of their stock is larger sizes and not the very small things for modelling.

 

https://www.mcmaster.com/products/rods/?s=plastic+rods

 

Look around their site and you will find all sorts of useful things!

Edited March 9 by Dr PR

[Javelin]

It definately looks very useful, but I live in Belgium, so I guess it might be a bit difficult to order from them. I have however found some online shops for plastics closer to my place, so that's where I'll go shopping very soon. 

 

In the meanwhile I've continued with the hose handling crane. Painted it, detailed it further (not yet on this picture). 

I will however keep it loose untill the equipment around it is finished. I had the idea (at the beginning of this build) of putting a thread bar with nuts through it, so I could use it as a handle to lift the lid from the hull, but I've decided against it. There was little room inside that crane to put a nut and I guess grabbing it, pulling some weight on it, would probably destroy the crane eventually. 

 

Apart from this, I've finally started tackling some issues passed on to me by the younger-me. 

For structural members that can take some hit from the water, I decided to glue it directly to the wood rather than to the filler coat that covers it. However, this means I have to remove some of that filler to insert the pieces. On the manifold drip trays, I made a mistake in that, so now I need to cover some gaps and paint them over. On both sides I made a measuring error, placing the drip trays too much forward. 

 

And on the forward edge, those drip trays should have acted as camouflage for the lid seam. The idea was good, the execution on the other hand... 

Not sure what I was thinking when I thought of fixing the aft boundary of the drip tray on the vessel and the forward and aft boundary to the lid. 

Apart from that, there is also a small angle that's supposed to be there, but it seems younger-me didn't really think of a solution for that. 

 

I have now removed the aft boundary from the vessel, inserted a plate as a doubler to the bottom in order to have the complete drip tray boundary fixed to the lid. Since the grating is on top of that drip tray, the plate will be hardly visible, an acceptable sacrifice to solve this little issue. 

 

Still lots of clean-up to do on the vessel, I guess I'll start using my airbrush along with my regular paint brush that I've been using to remove the dust up till now. 

 

 

[64Pacific]

Impressive work, the piping looks great!

[Mirabell61]

Excellent work Roel,

congrats, a real eye catcher

Nils

[Javelin]

Thanks Nils, 

This is the (partial) result of the corrections. You can also see in the first image what I meant with the boundary thing on the edge of the hatch. The filler chipped (and will probably continue to do so) at the edge, probably during removal and placement of the hatch (under which the battery and ballast are). If I would have put a vertical styrene plate (sanded flush with the filler) on the hatch and ship edge to contain the filler, this chipping probably wouldn't have happened. I've been thinking about inserting it now, but I guess this might do more harm than good. Sanding it flush and repainting only that edge will be difficult to blend in with 10-year old paint. There is of course also the issue of already placed details on that edge. 

The I-beam that supports the cargo lines next to the drip tray will also have to be redone. 

 

 

Some clean-up work to do on this side underneath the drip tray. There are some cut remains from the original glued boundary plate on the deck. 

 

Currently I'm building up a view of all the support structures in the manifold area. I'm looking at pictures from a lot of different angles to figure out how these structures are made. Unlike today, where things are rather uniform, it seems these supports were somewhat improvised around the piping. 

This is one of these typical things where you can spend hours figuring out what to build, to be called away to do something else and having to restart the next day... That's why I'm making these plans now. No doubt I'll still have to look at some pictures to verify things, but at least I have an idea of the way ahead when I restart building. 

The left part is actually a blank version of the walkway on top of the manifold area taken from of the ship's plans, which I then copied several times and where I can then add different layers of piping and supports without remeasuring all the time. It also helps me to verify some distances with comparisons of other equipment. 

 

 

[KeithAug]

Pipes have never been so interesting.

[Valeriy V]

These intricacies of pipes are simply crazy! I will never build a tanker model. 

  Great job, Roel! ✌️

[Dr PR]

Aw, come on Valeriy! No guts, no glory!

[Javelin]

So, time to continue. 

I do have plans now, but still I need to think about the sequence of construction. I also had some hesitation regarding 2 small pipes coming from the compressor room towards the manifold. I had made provisions for those pipes in way of making large supports on the big pipe to accommodate them, but I was never sure if I'd place them after all. 

Eventually I decided to place the pipes. I had put part of a pipe below that manifold. It didn't look right, so I removed it and built those pipes in different sections. The joints next to tank dome 2 will mostly be covered by the platform shown in previous posts. In below picture you can see the brass pipes running parallel to the big pipe. The joints are hidden in the shadows.

 

The reason I had to put them now was of course that they were also a bottleneck for construction of the manifold. I wouldn't be able to place them if I continued further on the manifold. 

 

And I've started the structure of the manifold on portside. All beams in place here.