Diorama: Shipwreck of the tanker Olympic Bravery, Ouessant (Ushant) Island, France, 1976.
The theme will be the sinking of the Olympic Bravery on the island of Ouessant near Keller Island on January 24, 1976.
* Read "Keller Island" below, as well as "Drummont Castle".
The ship will be shown as it was after the storm of March 13, 1976 when it broke in two.
The diorama will be at 1/700, but the ship alone will be a good size at this scale with its 343 meters or 49 cm.
The ship will be made in 3D printing.
I kept this page that I had recovered in an edition of the newspaper l'Express of the same year. It's her who gave me the idea.
Fortunately, I will be helped on the documentary side by my friend Roland, which saves me a lot of time and precision because he is the one who can talk about this shipwreck, very young, he was there at that time with his camera.
The story (Wiki):
The Olympic Bravery is a Liberian oil tanker (a flag of convenience), built by the Chantiers de l'Atlantique in Saint-Nazaire and launched in 1975 (its godmother was Christina Onassis as it belonged to the group of Greek shipowner Aristotle Onassis), whose sinking occurred on January 24, 1976, on the reefs of Yuzin Bay, on the north coast of the island of Ouessant, in Brittany, France.
The tanker, after leaving the port of Brest where it was undergoing repairs for boiler problems, ran aground empty, but the 800 tonnes of fuel oil needed for its propulsion were enough to oil several kilometers of coastline. Its thirty crew members were saved.
This wreck was one of the main oil spills in France, and more particularly in Brittany, along with those of the Amoco Cadiz, the Boehlen, the Gino, the Torrey Canyon and the Erika, although the list is unfortunately long all over the world.
Before the grounding:
The brand new tanker had been refused delivery on several occasions for defects reported by its owner.
She was on her way to be laid up, just out of the yard.
The vessel came to Brest from the shipyard for minor modifications, then sailed to Norway to be laid up. The ship was taken in charge by the AFO shipyard in Brest.
It had already postponed its departure from Saint Nazaire several times due to various technical problems.
The ship set sail on January 23, 1976 ... on the eve of a serious gale .... and the boiler problems already identified at the time of its departure from Saint Nazaire started again at the time of rounding the Breton point, at the worst moment, a handful of miles from Ushant.
For more than 3 hours, the tanker was delivered, light, to the strong wind and the swell. Disaster was inevitable.
The facts:
Despite the dispersants used, the fuel oil spread over 4 kilometers of the Ushant coastline; the coasts were cleaned by the army, with shovels and buckets, the 400 tons of fuel oil remaining in the bunkers being pumped out after being heated.
These 400 tonnes of heavy fuel oil were only the fuel used to propel the ship.
The shipowner was accused by some journalists of having voluntarily caused the loss of his ship, due to the serious crisis in the maritime transport of petroleum products that was raging at that time, with many tankers being laid up.
The wreck:
The wreck of the Olympic Bravery is very dislocated and damaged, but its remains extend continuously for more than 350 meters long, about 100 meters from the coast, in depths of 10 to 35 meters. It is, it seems, the largest shipwreck in the world accessible by scuba.
Photo: :copyright: Roland Grard or from his collection
Nothing morbid here, just the dirty history of my area. I like wrecks and their history, sometimes tragic but not always.
A lot has been done here in Brittany in France to avoid this kind of accident, but it can happen again. The zero risk does not exist.
No deaths in this one unlike most of the military ships on this forum, just a military helicopter accident but not directly related to the grounding.
A very limited pollution compared to the sinking of the "Amoco Cadiz" a few dozen miles away, 220,000 tons of crude oil spilled on the Brittany coast. One of the most important ecological disasters to date.
In the last two wars. There were several pollution like this one every day and sometimes experienced much more dangerous materials, by the way "the problem" still remains today, but it is put under the carpet.
There is a plan in MRB N° 212, the hull plan comes from there.
For the castle and the layout of the deck and hull, I have the original plan of the Olympic Bravery from the Chantier de l'Atlantique, Saint Nazaire, thanks to Roland.
But I used the MRB plan of the Shell ships (but also Auxiliaire de Navigation and Total TCFN) for the hull which is identical.
For the photos of the ship, I have the copy of the originals taken in Brest before the wreck, in Ouessant by Roland and those of the Chantiers de l'Atlantique also entrusted to Roland.
The MRB 212:
It's not perfect, but for the scale it's ok ( 12,3 mm diameter ). I only have this as a canvas, but it's better than nothing.
That will be a super interesting project! I'm VERY interested how you will manage all the piping, pumps, valves and cargo equipment on deck? Really nice stuff for 3D detailing! Your screw and rudder look perfect already!
But I cringe at the cost of printing the entire hull in 3D! Particularly the large prismatic part (of constant section). Would it not be much cheaper to build that part from plastic card? And only print the complex curved bow and stern areas?
_________________ "I've heard there's a wicked war a-blazing, and the taste of war I know so very well Even now I see the foreign flag a-raising, their guns on fire as we sail into hell" Roger Whittaker +9/13/2023
No is less expensive than plastic card from Evergreen Card, i think..
The blocks are hollowed out, so it uses a small amount of resin. This is very interesting in terms of cost. There is of course the investment of the 3D printer at the base.
For the pipes, I choose to make a mix of Evergreen, 3D printing, piano wire, iron wire, copper wire.
At 1/700, the valves will be a bit small to be represented, I think, maybe symbolically, I don't know yet, I practice for the first time this scale, I'm rather fan of 1/200 and above.
For the tanker T2 at 1/200, I had printed half blocks (half hull) around 11.5 centimeters high. In total the 80cm long ship was made of 14 hollowed half blocks.
But since that time I received the Anycubic Mono X which allows to print a max base of 19,2 by 12 cm on a height of 24,5 cm.
This ship will be 49 cm long, smaller and will be printed in 3 full hollowed out blocks (not halves, it is 7.28 cm wide, so I am far from the max width..).
Printing a 20 cm block can take 14 hours. This way:
Model of the front mast which is 25 mm high. I have a few details to add.
The test bow. I painted quickly today, without really waiting for it to dry to the core.
White Revell 05 matte. Green, base Revell green SM364+ addition of Revell black SM302. Dark red antifouling, my pot is too old, at least 20 years. I re-ordered some. But I managed to apply it by filtering it, otherwise the color is perfect: Humbrol 60 matt Lighter red, antifouling, Humbrol satin 132, which will have to be made matt with Revell 02 varnish.
The light yellow color of the inside of the bulwark and the mast is still to be found.
Draught scale: White Revell 05 matte.
The white marks for the places where the tugs can push will be in white 05 too.
Name: Charcoal gray Revell 09.
The Olympic Bravery in form C in Saint-Nazaire. I based my choice of colors on this beautiful photo.
I printed the front mast. It will be a bit further back on the final version and the bulwark will be 2 to 3 mm longer. There will be some railing to glue. The 7 deck lights to be placed.
I'm drawing the front maneuver right now. Fortunately I have some good pictures.
Yesterday:
The huge windlass, I worked on this kind of gear, especially to replace the chain brake bands, not an easy task.
Each chain link weighs more than 200 kilos.
The front winch, with special hawser reel system of the time.
Ropes are not used anymore on big ships, too flexible, they are often replaced by steel cables, with a 10 to 20 meters rope at the end to bring some flexibility. The disadvantage is that it is very heavy to move for the boatmen. The winch drums are then very specific. you can see it on these personal pictures:
An example:
Cartagena, Spain.
Up the Mississippi River: The front winch, and on the left you can see half of the bollard of the towing chain. It is on this chain that the tug's tow is captivated in case of towing at sea when the ship has no propulsion and is drifting near the coast.
You can see it better on this picture, it is painted in yellow. The small loading mast is used to move the chain if necessary to maintain it and also to take the Suez projector out of the forecastle and mount it on the platform where the bosco is on the front platform.
Forward winch.
Today:
Some modifications have been made, and details improved.
The printing of the front part is in progress, the first one, it has three unequal slices in the length, it has a reason. Because I remind you, there will be two copies built, a full, site model style, and a copy for the diorama. The central part being the part treated differently on the two entities because of the place of the break of the ship.
223 mm high, impressive this printer, I do not get used to it, I love it. She could print 3 or 4 of these hulls at the same time Max 245mm. A resin ogre.
End around 00h30n or 10h30 for this slot. This is one of the highest (longest) pieces I've had to print.
I surround myself with all the experience I've acquired to prepare this print before pressing the button, I mustn't fail, at best I waste resin, at worst I can damage the film or "better" the 4K screen, so I take at least 4 times to recheck everything that can potentially screw up the print, a long job that is not the most exciting, but which is essential, I spent a good day there.
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Max 245mm. A resin ogre.
