Victory Cargo Ship by Nathan559 - Bluejacket - 1:192

[Nathan559]

Good day to all! I am now starting my second ship model build. The first one I built was a bluejacket friendship sloop. I started it while in high school and did not finish until my first semester in college so admittedly I fell off the build log and did not update it as I should have. I gave it to my grandfather and it now lives in a beach house in Canada so I will not be able to post a completion update until I visit there again. 

 

Now that I have gotten my explanation of my negligence out of the way, time for the good part. The model I am building will be of the SS Frostburg Victory utilizing an old bluejacket kit I purchased from the used section of their store in Maine. The kit is complete, but lacks instruction so this one will be a challenge. The reasoning of a seemingly random choice is purely sentimental. The ship will be in a non combat configuration because that is how the kit is and I want to gain more experience before completely running away kit-bashing (though that will be my next project). Here I have a photo of the work area I set up in my garage. It isn't much but for a college student I think it is just fine. 

 

The blueprints I have to use are original to when the kit was first produced in 1946. A letter from bluejacket in the box claims a liberty ship instruction booklet was provided to supplement, the issue is I only have half of that somehow. The first issue I come to is an issue of circumstance. In shipping the box out to where I go to school, 2 places were unfortunately damaged. My first order of business will be to finish shaping the hull to its proper dimensions as well as repairing the two shown damage places. Hopefully in the next week I can accomplish this.  

 

 

 

[Dr PR]

Please post photos directly onto the forum.

[Nathan559]

Thanks for the feedback regarding where to post images. Here is a second go at it, hopefully formatted correctly this time. 

[schooner]

Success!

[schooner]

In case you didn't know there is one surviving Victory ship, the SS American Victory, down in Tampa Fl (https://www.americanvictory.org) you can google the ship's name to get some pics that may help and depending where you live you can even tour her, or the similar Liberty ship SS John W. Brown in Baltimore (https://www.ssjohnwbrown.org). 

 

The instructions for the current Bluejacket kit might be helpful - it would be worth a call to them to ask, they are very helpful.

 

Interesting photos, looks like someone did a fair amount of the drudgery in shaping the hull for you ... good deal.

[Nathan559]

Indeed they did, though the contours are not very close to where they need to be. I reached out to bluejacket to see if they had a model of the ship in their showroom, I will inquire about instructions as well. Not super necessary, I have 2/3 of an engineering design degree under my belt so blueprints and pictures alone should be enough. More information is always a good thing. Thanks for the leads, I did a fair amount of research before starting construction from which I have a large compilation of images both old and new. My goal is to do no less than 1 hour of labor per day which should help things progress quickly. 

[Harvey Golden]

2 hours ago, schooner said:

In case you didn't know there is one surviving Victory ship, the SS American Victory, down in Tampa Fl...

There's another on the West Coast-- the Red Oak Victory, a museum ship in Richmond, CA.  https://redoakvictory.us  I had though it was the last, so am glad to hear of one on the East Coast!

-H

[Nathan559]

The discussion of acquiring modern instructions from bluejacket stuck with me, so I ended up creating an excel sheet based off the fittings list posted on their website for the kit. After taking an inventory of what I have vs. what the new kit is supplied with there is only a couple discrepancies. 

 

- Searchlights: The new kit includes cast searchlights, mine does not seem to. I will probably scratch build these, with a strong possibility that I'll just end up making a quick solid works model and 3D printing them. 

- Small and Medium Goose Neck Vents: The modern kit has three sizes of goose neck vents, while the one I have only has the large size. Being that they are simple I will certainly scratch build these. Probably will take some square stock and bend it to the correct profile under heat or 3D print them. 

- 48 Star flag: Obviously I will just print this on some good quality paper. 

 

There are a couple fittings I have but am thinking about replacing:

- 3/32 and 1/8 single blocks: I have cast versions of these in the amounts I need, but I am considering replacing them with aftermarket blocks. Hard call on that one. 

- Anchor winch: I may end up scratch building a new version of this rather than use the cast version I have. 

 

Any insight on making these items is appreciated. Always good to hear other perspectives. 

 

On the topic of hull shaping, coming along well but slowly. I wish I had the stamina to sit down and sand for 3 or more hours at a time, but about an hour seems to be where I max out with patience. 

 

Final question, what are people's preferred primers? I mostly use true north paints for modelling ships but if someone has an idea for a larger quantity vessel of nice quality primer I would be happy to hear about it. 

[schooner]

I just use spray primer from the big box hardware stores - it shows any imperfections from shaping the hull that need attention and when you finally get a good smooth primer finish then you know you'll have a hull that looks like steel.

 

As far as the anchor winch, I ended up scratch building one for my Liberty ship using plastic rods and stock, brass tubing and most important of all some old watch gears I found online:

 

[MrBlueJacket]

Hi,

 

That kit you bought in September 2021 was from the estate of a good customer of ours, Dr. Jack McD. who passed away and his wife wanted us to disburse his hobby stuff.

 

When you finish this build thread, you will get a 10% discount on the next kit you buy from us.

 

Nic