Victory Cargo ship by reklein - BlueJacket Shipcrafters - kit hull with scratchbuilt superstructure

[reklein]

Since I couldn't find a kit of a military Victoryship I decided to build one based on the Bluejacket kit. So far the hull is done and I'm now beavering away on the super stucture. The armament is by HR products, and the PE is by Toms Model works and Bluejacket. Have a look.   Bill in Idaho

[PrimoDude]

I am envious...Beautiful work, congratulations.

[reklein]

Thanks folks for your likes and comments.  Bill

[schooner]

Bill, great looking build!

 

Couple of questions:

- Where did you get your plans?

- What types of things are you using HR products for (I know there isn't much available from anyone in 1/16 scale)? How would you rate their quality?

- I've been looking at this BJ kit for sometime as a possible future build - did you find thinning the bulwarks difficult?

 

Looking forward to following this one!

Tim

Edited August 21, 2014 by schooner

[reklein]

First off the scale of the model is 1/192. The plans for the military version are from a down load from Model Shipwright. Just google Victory CARGO ship. I emphasize cargo because a lot of HMS Victory will show up. The HR products I ordered are the quad 40s the dual 40sthe 20s and the 3inch gun, and the life rafts.Generarlly the castings aren't too bad just require a lot of careful clean up. I'm attempting to cast my own LCVPs and LCM 3s but having trouble with bubbles in the castings. You can see my two masters for these in the pics.

    I removed the midships bulwarks altogether and rabbeted in basswood sheet stock instead. I thinned the bow bulwarks without much trouble.A more difficult task was getting the hull shaped properly specially in the stern area around the screw and rudder. You'll have to make templates for the whole hull and also a profile template to get the stern shaped properly.

   The portholes are scratch from brass wire wound on a finish nail and cut into tiny circles then glued to the bulkheads. After painting the gray they will be picked out with gloss black. The gun tubs are formed from styrene pulled over the table edge much like one would curl a ribbon. Then startng with one end glued to the deck and formed round while touching the fresh glue with kicker to hold everything in place while forming.

   The Blue Jacket hull is a good starting place and quite a bit of the Blue jacket fittings will be needed. The Blue jacket kit also comes with a lot styrene to cover the superstructure for a good steel ship look.

    I have an old Stering Models C-2 Cargo ship sitting on a shelf and like an Idiot I'm thinking what a cool rebuild to a 1/96 Victory ship it would make.

          Bill in Idaho

[fnkershner]

Bill - Its great to see your build. I had a wonderful time last year on the Jerimiah O'Brian. I will be very interested in seeing how yours comes out.

[Chuck Seiler]

Bill,

 

   What is th edifference between the Bluejacket kit and what you are calling "the military version"?  I thought they were all military versions?  Were some converted after the war?

[reklein]

The Bluejacket kit is a post war civilian cargo ship converted from the military. I don't know who did the conversions,but all the weapons and extra cabin deck gun decks and their mounts were removed. They were then sold to many countries to rebuild their merchant fleets after the war. A little more than 500 of these ships were built. The Lewiston Victory is said to have been built in 60 days. The reason I'm buidling this particular ship besides being an interesting subject ,is that our city raised enough in bonds to build one of these ships. It will be displayed in the county museum when finished. I am donating the labor to build it.The military version had 1 3"50,12 40 mm bofors and another dozen or so 20 mm guns  BILL

[reklein]

Hers a few pics of my latest work. Building and installing the tiny PE ladders from Toms Modelworks. Someone commented about getting to the fiddly bits and this model has em in spades. To Top it off I had to redo all the lettering because I stripped them all off when I absentmindedly put masking tape over them. The next big project will be making the life Raft racks. There are 25 rafts to fit.All of the superstructe is wood block with styrene laminated using R/C 56 or equivalent. Its a glue the RCers use to attach plastic canopies. Seems to work well. We'll see 10 yrs down the line. All the cargo masts are scratched from Styrene. I'm doing this project for a local museum so even though I'm volunteering my time there is still incentive to get finished. I've been putting in 4-6 hrs /day  with a day off here and there for 3 months  now. I haven.t totaled up the time. So much for now. Bill in Idaho

[AnobiumPunctatum]

Nice model. Which scale has the model?

[foxy]

Looking good Bill.

 

Like the use of scratch built items, they help the grey cells to work too.

 

foxy

Edited September 25, 2014 by foxy

[reklein]

Christian, the scale is 1/192 or 1/16" equals one foot. I like scratch building, then  i build a kit to relax. I see by the photo though that I need to fill under the forward house. Bill

[foxy]

How do you fix PE Bill.

CA or PVA.

What ever looks good .

 

Your right John on a similar kit, but this is scratch built.

 

Some say the white glue is better but not as strong as CA, but gives more to accidents .

 

Great work.

 

Frank

Edited September 26, 2014 by foxy

[reklein]

I'm using CA and kicker. I apply the CA, join the parts, and apply a very small amount of the kicker with the bottom end of the kicker sprayer pickup tube. Probably a small glass rod would be a better applicator but if I need a squirt of kicker the sprayer is handy. This method gives me a little time to adjust the position of the parts to be joined. I always keep thin,thicker and gel CA on hand. It would be nice to have three hands for this operation.  Bill

[jud]

Good looking work on your model, gives me some Ideas on how one might go about using similar materials for a build of the Harnett County as she was in RVN.

jud

Edited September 26, 2014 by jud

[reklein]

I'm wondering how close the Sterling C-2 cargo ship is to a Victory ship. I have a Sterling hull I built and am thinking of turning it into a Haskell class ship. I'd probably be the only person around who'd know any difference. One could call a rose an onion if one was introducing it to a new crowd. There's a lot of history on these on the web. Too much for me to sort out ad I sorta have a mix of prototypes going here in this one model. Don't tell anyone though.  Bill

[reklein]

I'm making slow progress. Just about finished with railings. Will then work on Carley floats(rafts) then flag masts, then rigging.

[fnkershner]

Nice work Bill. She looks great.