The Ship Model Forum

The largest ship I've ever sailed, this ship forms part of a 4-ship class that were the largest double hull tankers ever built. With a capactiy of 3.2million barrels of crude oil, these ships are even larger than the regular VLCC.

I've made an attempt over 10 years ago, after sailing on this vessel, to make a waterline model of her in paper. It was waterlined and never really got anywhere near finished (didn't have a clue about scratch building or where to obtain better materials for it at that time).
Now, after obtaining the necessary skills by building gas carrier models, I'm in for another, much better effort.

Due to her bulk being underwater, I decided to try to make a full hull model of this ship in order to fully grasp the size of these vessels.
It's also part of my effort to keep prototyping, never fully building a model the same way as the one before her. This is the first time I'll attempt a full hull scratchbuild in 1/700. I'm still somewhat undecided as to which method and order to hull construction I will apply. So for now everything is mostly dry fitted in order to allow adjustments once I decide what to do.

I've made a rather odd start due to lack of styrene in appropriate sizes and thickness. That has been solved now, so I hope to make some serious progress soon.

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Yard conversion to merchant shipbuilding

I always like your small scale builds of huge modern ships!¬
they are not beautiful (?!!) -- but nevertheless--very interesting!!



JIM B

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Thanks Jim,

she definately isn't the cutest ship around, but she does fit in my colourful collection

Here's some progress. Inserted styrene cylinders (sanded to around 75% of the circumference) in the sides of the main deck. This is feature quite common on tankers as it divides the stress of the hull evenly and avoids concentrating the forces on the corner joint of the deck and the side of the hull.

You can also see the rather large camber of the hull. This is present on most merchant ships to make sure the water drains. On previous models I have not paid too much attention to this, but on this vessel the camber is quite obvious. The weight of water remaining on deck after a wave washing over, would be quite considerable, so it needs to be drained as soon as possible. Only the centre 14m are actually level, outwards of that on both sides the decks goes down. I pre-cut the camber, then bent the deck to represent this and to fit on the top of the frames. I will likely fill the small cuts and sand them smooth later on.

After inserting it, I filed it down to get a more even contact surface using a scrap piece of styrene and a flat file.
I did determin the construction method now and I'm collecting all info about hull shape from the plans in order to get the shape as accurate as possible. In waterline this would be a relatively easy build, but full hull has its complications.

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Yard conversion to merchant shipbuilding

And another update. Slowly she's starting to get some shape.

For this one I'll keep the deck off until the milliput on the rest of the body is dried and sanded to shape. Experience from previous models with this method, showed me that from time to time the supporting plates to which I attach the milliput afterwards, give way when I push the milliput too hard. In order to prevent this with large size pieces on this model, I will leave off the deck, so I an support the supporting plates from the inside.

Parallel body outline has been attached too now. Will soon add the supporting plates, tangent planes, to support the milliput, my most dreaded job on such a model.

As for thickness, due to the size of this model I've opted to build most pieces of 1.5mm styrene, while the longtudinal is made of 2mm styrene. On smaller size models I only make the frames and longitudinals of 1.5mm while the rest (parallel body plates, deck) is mostly made of 0.75 or 1mm.
In this case I opted for thicker pieces due to the large size and long lengths encountered. Don't want the parallel body plates to be bent.

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Yard conversion to merchant shipbuilding

And another few steps further now.

Closing the hull with the supporting plates for the milliput shell. I'm using mostly scrap pieces, like the pieces I cut out of the internal frames of this hull. Furthermore I never really throw styrene away, so small sharp triangles etc. I'm now using to full up spaces in order to reduce the amount of expensive milliput.

I'm just finished adding milliput on the bow section. It took a lot more than I expected. I guess I'll have to try and fill more spaces with styrene scrap on the aft section. Experience has throught me that this never works in one go. You always need to do it in two or three layers of milliput as there will always be places where you don't have enough, showing dents in the hull. After initial layer I do sand it down to a good shape to identify the places where I need to add more.

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Yard conversion to merchant shipbuilding

Looking good--always interesting to see these gargantuan fat boats!!



JB

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....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com

Hi loyal reader Jim

Here are some pics of the real ship, that show her actual size. When you approach this ship in loaded condition, she looks relatively low. However when you embark or disembark in ballast condition, the crane comes in handy...

And an update. The milliput was first applied to the bow as mentioned before. On the stern I added more styrene to reduce the amount of milliput. Still I'll probably run short of it.
At this moment the stern is covered as well (pics will follow). I've used about 80% of a package of milliput for that. However, some parts are still bare, since I've saved the remaining 20%. I might have enough, but I'm first sanding the initial layer of milliput to identify the places that require additional filler.

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Yard conversion to merchant shipbuilding

Neptune,

I have seen a few builds where the space between the frames was filled with foam, either with foam blocks or with the expanding foam from a can. The foam was then carved and sanded to the shape of the hull.

I have no experience (yet) with milliput, so I do not know if it would react chemically with the foam. But if it doesn't, it would be easier to use to fill in the spaces than using lots of scrap styrene pieces as filler.

However, carving and sanding foam creates a lot of chips and dust, and some of the expanding foams really stink and must be used in well ventilated spaces. This isn't optimal for working on board a ship.

Any thoughts?

Phil

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A collision at sea will ruin your entire day. Aristotle

Hi Phil,

I've seen that method as well, but used with large scale ships with wooden framework to act as a plug for fibreglassing.

Not sure about it. The reason I'm a bit doubtful is that I have no idea how "hard" the foam would push against the frames. With this rather fragile styrene frame, I'm affraid the foam might bend the frames. Also, once the foam is sanded, it have a lot of open bubbles inside, cavities that would eventually have to be filled with styrene as well, so not sure if there would be a real benefit. Also the Milliput needs to have some thickness for strength, if the framing is filled up with foam, it would require extra sanding to allow for some thickness for sanding afterwards. Not sure if the foam wouldn't compress when the milliput is pushed on it...

Chemically I'm not sure, I do know the PU foam does react with polyester resin, builders therefore cover it with either aluminium foil or other foils to avoid a reaction. I have no experience with milliput on this, but I doesn't appear to react too much with anything apart from its own resin/hardner. It can/has to be mixed with water in order to make it more flexible, but it doesn't really react with it.

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Yard conversion to merchant shipbuilding

Since I overestimated the strength of the 1.5mm sheeting, I peeled off the deck again to brace the sides and deck more. There was simply too much flexing in the sides and deck, which would eventually lead to cracking at the seams.

Now I re-attached it and it's much better. Also added more filler, so this is where we are.

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Yard conversion to merchant shipbuilding

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Hi Neptune, I am taking a lot of interest in your latest build of the tanker, I wouldn't tackle smaller scales, what scale is it,my ship's bow is built in the same method to yours.

Brilliant stuff, fiberglass I will use on the second hull of the same model ship I am modelling, could used it on the first build saving on all that time, does the fiberglass get hard to sand.

Like the bridge can't wait to it finished, my ship too has small cranes, only used for lowing a dinghy down to the water.

Tony from hot down under summer is here

Hi Tony,

this one's 1/700. Fibreglass is sandable, although on the large tanker you see behind (1/100), I've used a layer of car body filler on top of the fibreglass, allows to correct any shape errors in the hull and keeps the fibreglass shell intact.

Here's a small size comparison, with an unfinished Burke on deck and the unfinished Kuznetsov next to it. The Burke I might finish some time in the future, the Kuznetsov would be very unlikely (10 years old, used enamels back then).

After sanding I corrected and filled some spots on the hull and sanded again. Now she's in the first sacrificial coat of spray putty to spot any additional shape errors. Looks like the bow will need some extra sanding/shaping. Fairly satisfied so far.

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Yard conversion to merchant shipbuilding

Another update.
Sanded the sacrificial coat of spray putty away and rectified some bumps.
Here the result after sanding, where I identified the main issue on portside bow. Some smaller dents in the bilge area on both sides.

I also inserted small tubes for the anchor bells. A small base plate with correct dimensions was added to give an idea of the actual size while sanding/filing to shape later on.

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Yard conversion to merchant shipbuilding