The Ship Model Forum

Hello guys,

Before I started intern ship aboard Well Enhancer I did a job at IHC Merwede, where, at that time, the diving support vessel Seven Atlantic was being build.
This ship looks better then the Well Enhancer, partially due to the less square build superstructure.
Seven Atlantic is longer at 144m length, and wider at 26m width, she lays a little deeper in the water, and weighs quite a bit more.
Seven Atlantic is powered by 3 azimuths under the stern, and at the bow she has 2 retractable azimuths and 1 tunnel bow thruster, which is the other way around compared to Well Enhancer.
Here's a picture of Seven Atlantic:


While I was still working at the yard I decided I wanted to build a model of it, but I was busy with another model (not the Well Enhancer), and I had trouble finding a good scale.
At that time I was thinking about 1:100 and 1:50, but 1:50 would had been way to big (2,9m length, can't get that down the stairs), but 1:100 would make it pretty hard for me to reach the level of detailing I wanted to reach.
Above the detailing problems the propulsion was also a problem in 1:100 scale, as I wanted to drive her with Azimuths.
At the time my intern ship started I came up with a scale that was nicely in between the 2 noted scales, 1:75.
I figured that I would be able to find a quick way to scale the sizes found in the drawings to 1:75, which was the main reason way I wanted to go for 1:100 or 1:50.
That didn't turn out to be true, but a proper scaling device (of which I own several different versions) has got 1:75 sizes on it.
One quite big advantage of this scale is that Graupner used to have a "schottel" that is almost an exact scale version of the azimuths on the real ship.
Unfortunately those units are not being made any more, so when I start building Seven Atlantic I'll need to make azimuths myself.

Because I want to build this model for so long now I had already started making some thoughts on how I want to build her.
Today I continued working on this design.
First I finally decided what functions I wanted to make working (very important for how many Arduino's I'd need, and the wiring).
This came out at 158 functions, though the dynamic positioning is not included here.
The DP will be capable of controlling every propulsion unit separately, for high accuracy.

The hull have 20 frames made of 9mm plywood, 1 keel and 1 tweendeck, both made of 9mm thick plywood as well.
The hull plating will be made of planks which I will personally saw from a 3mm thick sheet of plywood.
This will give a very strong an stiff hull.
The frames will be adjusted to fit with the construction above it (underneath the main crane for starters).

The model will be 1,93m long and 0,35m wide.
She will weigh 46kg at waterline.

More will follow later on.

Greetings Josse

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Making a complete new Well Enhancer, again scale 1:75.

I forgot to mention that this model is currently only in the design stage, and will be so for at least 2 more years, as I need to have a place of my own, as I now don't have room for a model this size.
Besides the room issue I also want to complete the Well Enhancer first, which is a vital source for learning how I could build a ship model properly.
Seven Atlantic will incorporate the lessons learned while building Well Enhancer, like:
-Use more then just 4 frames.
-Use thicker plastic sheets then just 0,25mm.
And many more lessons.

In this thread I'll first keep you guys up to date about the most important details, and as soon as the actual build starts I'll let you know.

Greetings Josse

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Making a complete new Well Enhancer, again scale 1:75.

Small update regarding the planning being done.
I continued the work on shaping the frames, as there will be frames that should have some removable parts in order to make the bulwark part of the hull, but also to make it easier to install a "sidewalk" inside the hull running forward from the rear deck, which is open from the rear deck.
As this sidewalk will be properly detailed it needs to be fairly easy to fit it inside the hull.
All I now need to do is make the sidewalk, get the removable pieces of frame out, and gently mount the sidewalk.

Then I started working on the ROV arrangement.
There will be a hangar for 4 ROV's, 2 spares, and there will be 2 moonpools.
The moonpools turned out to be placed in a terrible position, as it passes through a frame, and would actually also effect the width of the frame.
As the moonpool is only visible at the bottom of the ship (which won't be showed...) I decided to move the moonpool a bit so it suites me better.

While I was working on the stuff mentioned above I noticed that there wouldn't be enough room for adjusting the width of the ballast tanks manually.
Therefore I decided I could better use electric motors to adjust the width, as a switch box could be placed somewhere where there is room, and that would take much less space then the manual control system.
It also gives me better control of the adjustments, and it would make it easier to make the system such that adjusting port and starboard tanks separately would be possible.
That off course would be a big bonus.

Greetings Josse

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Making a complete new Well Enhancer, again scale 1:75.

Yesterday I started making a manual in which I'll mostly write down the reasons why I want to do something the way I want to do that.
Off course it will also contain a step-by-step tutorial on how to build the model, though I leave the details for my common sense for the time when I build the model.
The manual is being written for me alone, so there's no point in telling just how a frame should be cut out for instance, the manual won't even mention that it is required to cut anything, my common sense tells me I should do that...

Then there's some changes on the idea of the ballast tanks.
I thought of building free-flood tanks, but that means I'd have to lift 47kg of ship model out of the water before the water drops out.
According to the Dutch laws I'd need to ask 2 people to help me lift her out of the water...
As I'm already working with lots of electronics it would be a small step to add some electrical powered valves in the tanks to have the tanks fill themselves, and add a pump to empty the tanks before taking her out of the water.
That surely would increase the comfort of sailing with her.

Then I took a better look at the drawings, and found out the dive-area and main superstructure are connected at deck 6 level, which mean it would be pretty tough to make them properly removable separately, which was my first idea.
As the helodeck forces me to have the front wall of the main superstructure fixed to the hull (and thus requiring that the main superstructure would be moved backwards a bit before being lifted up, as I could damage the helodeck otherwise), so it turned out to be best to have both superstructures fixed together.
That does make it more vulnerable, so I'll have to add some proper reinforcement to the bottom of the deck, but that is not a problem.
I also considered having the helodeck fixed to the superstructure, but that would mean that the anchor winches are being positioned on a removable deck, which is not quite clever as well.

I decided that I'd need to have a large building plate on which I can fix the decks of each step of the build, so I can build the walls on them, and fully detail them (except for the frames, as the cap rails of the bulwarks will be made out of fibre glass which also covers the hull, so I would damage the frames if I would add them to the deck first), and then I'll carefully place the entire deck.
The removable decks will be properly sealed so that water can't get in using U-bars with a little bit of oil in it.
This model will be build such that she can handle the heaviest weather, as that is what I really like about these kind of ships.

Greetings Josse

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Making a complete new Well Enhancer, again scale 1:75.

Josse
Good luck with this project .

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If you are not living on the edge then you are taking up to much space

Done some more engineering on the Seven Atlantic.
I wasn't really happy with the idea of having a forklift driving around in the food storage, so I started to design a crane like the cranes in the shed of a shipyard.
It will move on wheels placed on an edge, being moved around by 2 winches.
It can't be any easier then this, and this will work much more accurate then having to fine tune the speed with which the wheels of the forklift turn when it comes down to cornering.
When it comes down to moving a pallet around it's also an easier way of working.
Now I don't need to lift a pallet, I simple lower a frame over the pallet and then I move it over the floor.
Only thing here is that the frame will need to be fixed in some way to the carriage above it in order to have it really move the pallet around.
This is very easy to fix, just put a brass bar in the frame, don't apply glue as the frame needs to move up and down a bit, and then it won't move at all.
Besides, there is a servo linked to the frame as well which has a bolt through it's arm to move it up and down.
All in all it's a simple and straight forward solution, with only 1 major flaw: I will need to get some pieces out of the frames.
Fortunately that's mostly just below the deck, so there's enough strength already and if not a few pieces of wood added to the frames will get the strength up to the desired amount.

I also started working on the shape of the tween-decks and the keel, so now I'm pretty ready to build the hull.
On the other hand I still don't have room for building her and Well Enhancer also needs to be very close to finished as well.

Greetings Josse

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Making a complete new Well Enhancer, again scale 1:75.

Why choose a scale of 1:75? When there are so many after market accessories available for 1:72 scale.
Lots of fittings are available in Australia as there is a strong commitment to 1:72 from the guys at Task-Force 72
Just a thought by the way.

Hello rpeteru,

Thanks for the advice.
To me the difference between 1:75 and 1:72 is too small to not use both scales.
1:75 is easier to measure in metric units with which I work, and I have a special ruler-like thing with 1:75 scale on it, so if I know the size of a part that ruler will help me get the right size without needing to use a calculator.
Besides that I tend to make as much by myself as possible.
A friend of me is willing to teach me how to PE easing his equipment so I can make my own PE.
My crew will be 1:72 scale as that is as close as it can get to 1:75 scale.

Greetings Josse

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Making a complete new Well Enhancer, again scale 1:75.

Since I bought myself a car which doesn't quite match the size of the car my father used to drive I'm now forced to build Seven Atlantic in 2 pieces.
That means I'll need to use some connectors which will be protected from the water by making a U-profile which will be filled with a flat bar which will be made on the other hull section.
The hull will be devided at the rear wall of the dive area which means there will be 87cm long rear sections (which can nicely fill some empty spaces in the car behind the Well Enhancer) and a 106cm long bow section which can will the other empty space in the car.
Due to the means of construction of the hull I'll need to connect the 2 hull sections before putting her in the water.
At least 1 battery needs to be inside the hull so I can open the ballast tanks.

Then some news about where I will most likely start building Seven Atlantic (when Well Enhancer is much closer to completion), at first I thought I wouldn't have room in my room but it turns out that there is room along side Well Enhancer.
I needed to move my bed a few cm's and needed to remove a plank which was hanging on the wall, otherwise Well Enhancers tower didn't fit underneath it.
This means that the construction of Seven Atlantic can start as soon as Well Enhancer is pretty much finished and has all electronics issues solved.
This is also made possible as I finally also have designed the keel and the 2 tweendecks.

Then some news about the electronics.
I've been checking the list of functions and found a few things that didn't match with the ship or that needed to be improved.
I assumed that Seven Atlantic would, like Well Enhancer, have 2 fire monitors fitted, instead Seven Atlantic has not even 1 fire monitor.
That means 6 less working functions.
Then I checked the arrangement of the other functions.
Quite some functions were counted as 2 functions as I at first planned to change the direction in which the function would work by connecting the 1 wire to pin 1 and the second wire to pin 2.
Now that I checked it out again I came to the conclusion that it would be easier and more accurate to use servo controls which need only 1 function but does have the option of turning left and right.
The result is that this model will no longer get close to 160 working function but a bit over 140 functions instead.
I also checked the list of inputs and considerably reduced that amount.
I had some 30-40 inputs planned for determining the positions of the smaller craft, ROV's and the helo.
These inputs have now been dropped as I think it will be very hard at best to get this working whilst it hardly improves the operation of these crafts.
It would make it easier to control several craft at the same time but I plan to build the software for the laptop such that I can control both Well Enhancer and Seven Atlantic at the same time which means I can practice controlling several models at the same time anyways.
Only difference between controlling several smaller craft and controlling 2 huge shipmodels at the same time is that both Well Enhancer and Seven Atlantic are not likely to get out of sight due to other models positioned in between me and my models whilst the smaller craft can easily be lost out of sight.

Greetings Josse

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Making a complete new Well Enhancer, again scale 1:75.