1/87 'M.V. Goada Chief' (2009)

[Celestialsphere]

Hello Everyone,

My name is Andrew Riddle from Melbourne, Australia. I am a first time model ship builder and I have decided to log the progress online of the 'M.V. Goada Chief', my first build. This is a ship whose plan I found in the Model Shipwright publication. It's a Container Landing ship with additional tanker capability. It's owned by a company called 'Steamships Trading Company' (part of the Hong Kong Swire Group) based in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

The reason I chose 1/87th scale (HO model railroad scale = 3.5mm/foot) is the availability of ISO containers for a payload once the model is complete. At this scale the model will end up around 724mm long, a nice book shelf size. The real ship is 63m L.O.A.

Having sorted out the scale to use, I scanned the plans and brought them into the CAD system I use a work. I then printed the plans to scale on the plotter, and was ready to start.

Where? Well I decided to start small and build the exhaust casing (aka funnel). I've used 1mm styrene for this. Then I tried bending some brass tube for the exhausts, but that turned out no good as the tube collapsed as it bent. So after some thought I turned to a recent 1/35 Dragon kit of a german armoured car. Dragon kits have sprues around the parts with nice curved corners. Voila! A great source of curved exhausts - different sprues provided the two radii that I needed. Having drilled them out They look very reasonable.

Next step is the basics of the superstructure, again in 1mm styrene. This is reinforced internally with Evergreen L angle, glued with Tamiya Thin Cement and some CA in places.

A BIG thankyou to John Wilson on Shipspotting.com for his permission to use his photos of the ship in Brisbane.

This scratchbuilding is very satisfying.

[Neptune]

Welcome to the board,

Crisp work and of course interesting subject. Wouldn't say it's your first model, so I guess you've been building different subjects before!
I'll be following with great interest!!

[Capit�o Norbert]

Hi ANDREW
well i love so much this type of vessesls too.
good progress and maintain updated your progress

[Dave Wooley]

Welcome and good to see your work . Unusual scale looking forward to more progress updates.
Dave Wooley

[Niall]

On 1/87th scale containers have you seen this site -
http://www.igshansa.de/igsorg.html

[frank2056]

Loos great so far. Do you have a link to the Model Shipwright publication? Looks like a great ship to scratchbuild.

[JIM BAUMANN]

to modelwarships.com


Its good to see an unusual ship being built-- kudos!

Looking forward to following te build progress!


Jim Baumann

[Celestialsphere]

Thankyou for your encouragement everyone!

It is going to take a while to build this model, especially as winter (really very mild in Melbourne) is coming. I have the end of our single garage (unheated) set up with a work bench. I have attached a picture of my work area - sorry it's so untidy...

My work space

Neptune - I've been a modelmaking since the age of 6 - that's 30 years of model kits, wargaming figures, model railway doings (mostly dreamings) and recently some 1/35 armour.

Here's a link to a 1/144 scale helicopter I built;

http://hsfeatures.com/features04/pumahcmk1ar_1.htm

Revell 1/144 Puma

and a much modified 1/24 Fiat Bambino.

http://www.scaleworkshop.com/workshop/f ... pear_1.htm

Tamiya 1/24 Fiat 1000

Frank - Here is a link to the Model Dockyard website where they sell the Model Shipwright book - the Goada Chief appears in Issue 113;
http://www.model-dockyard.com/acatalog/ ... azine.html
although I purchased mine from Hylands Bookshop here in Melbourne.

Niall - That IGSHansa website is very inspiring! Something to aspire to, definitely.

Cheers

Andrew

[Celestialsphere]

Some progress

I have drawn up the bridge on the CAD system and developed the whole bridge shape into one piece that I printed out on paper. This is a mockup at this stage. I'm not sure exactly what to make it from, etched brass or styrene. Some more thought I think.

I also drew the various bulkheads on the computer, printed them out then glued them to 2.5mm balsa sheet with rubber cement. These have then been cut to slot into the longitudinal bulkhead that made of 6mm balsa.

Here she is today.

And a section of the plan with the exhaust casing laying on top.

Cheers

Andrew

[Celestialsphere]

Greetings All,

A quick update.

Work has progressed after a design rethink. I wasn't happy with the strength of the longitudinal spine of the model.
So I ducked down to the local Bunnings hardware store to purchase a length of one inch square section aluminium tube.
The ends of the aluminium were cut to clear the future hull planking. This was then screwed onto a new deck cut from 6mm MDF. Then the existing bulkheads were recut to fit over this super strong base. Strong, rigid and dead straight.
I am using a polyurethane glue which foams out from the joint on curing. Looks messy but it's a good bond.

Work in Progress picture:


Cheers

Andrew

Melbourne, Australia

[ARH]

This could be a silly question but, was your father a member of Melboure model boat club,

[Celestialsphere]

This could be a silly question but, was your father a member of Melboure model boat club,

Hello ARH, No my dad didn't live in Melbourne, but I have visited the Surrey Park Model Boat Club, if that's the one you're referring to.

Cheers,

Andrew

Melbourne, Australia

[Ticonderoga]

Hi Andrew,

how is the build coming along?

Your landing craft looks very similar to the RAN landing craft.

Regards,

Andrew (AKA Ticonderoga)

[Celestialsphere]

Hello Everyone,

A quick progress update - I've been building the skegs recently (incorporating the propellor shaft tubes) . These are made up of a sandwich of three sheets of brass, silver soldered together, then cut and filed to shape. I then cut the slots for the propellor shaft tubes until the tubes were a press fit then and soft soldered them in. Cleaning up took a while, assisted by scraping most of the excess solder off with a small flat chisel held at a fine angle. I wish I had found some thick brass sheet before I started as this has taken more time than I thought. Also I now think a small milling machine would be a Godsend for this type of work. Time to save those pennys...

The next task is to make up the bottom rudder gudgeons and solder these onto the bottom of the skegs. I can then attach the skegs to the main structure and finally get on with the hull planking. I will fashion the rudders later.



Slow progress I know but the garage is cold to work in now it's our (admittedly mild) winter down-under.

Ticonderoga - I have seen the Balikpapan Class RAN landing craft and quite like them - they look like a simple craft to scratchbuild.

Cheers

Andrew

Melbourne, Australia

[Ticonderoga]

Hi Andrew,

It looks like you will have a solid construction there, your "LCH" looks very nice.

I have ordered a set Balik plans from the Naval historical society. I will also check out your source as well.

FYI, in real life the Navy LCH's suffered from a lot of cracking of the deck and hull plates, directly below the forward screen, and were retro fitted with strengthers on the decks them selves. Your attention to the strength of the spine etc., is a good thing. Also, the flat bow door used to create a fair amount of "pounding" in anything but a sea state 1.

In the early days one of the H's, I forget which one, lost its bow door on a trip to Lord Howe Island and had to be towed, backwards, to Sydney. From then on, they were restricted to coastal work only.

Regards,

Andrew (aka Ticonderoga)

[Ticonderoga]

Hello Everyone,

A quick progress update - I've been building the skegs recently (incorporating the propellor shaft tubes) . These are made up of a sandwich of three sheets of brass, silver soldered together, then cut and filed to shape. I then cut the slots for the propellor shaft tubes until the tubes were a press fit then and soft soldered them in. Cleaning up took a while, assisted by scraping most of the excess solder off with a small flat chisel held at a fine angle. I wish I had found some thick brass sheet before I started as this has taken more time than I thought. Also I now think a small milling machine would be a Godsend for this type of work. Time to save those pennys...

The next task is to make up the bottom rudder gudgeons and solder these onto the bottom of the skegs. I can then attach the skegs to the main structure and finally get on with the hull planking. I will fashion the rudders later.



Slow progress I know but the garage is cold to work in now it's our (admittedly mild) winter down-under.

Ticonderoga - I have seen the Balikpapan Class RAN landing craft and quite like them - they look like a simple craft to scratchbuild.

Cheers

Andrew

Melbourne, Australia

Hi Andrew,

any news to report?

I am interested to see how the skegs work out, I have to build skegs for my slava so I am keen to see finished pics... bit cheeky

Regards,

Andrew

[Celestialsphere]

Hi everyone!

Thanks for your feedback.

Finally some news to report.

I have nearly finished the brass skegs. They have their bottom gudgeons installed to take the bottom rudder bearing. I will need to sort out the top bearing arrangement later. Here's a couple of pictures of them sitting in the slots I have cut in the three stern bulkheads. There is some block of MDF so they sit at the correct height. It's a bit messy down there but it's all square which is the important thing.



and a matchbox to scale



A short walk away, up the bow end, I am forming up the divided forecastle with the well in between for the bow ramp. The forward three bulkheads pass through the main deck from underneath in slots cut to suit. The sides of the well are cut from 1.5mm 3 ply. Once they are glued on I will have to figure out a way to temporarily protect the bow from bump and knocks as it will be quite delicate there.






And finally a view of the various parts to give an idea of what I'm aim for. The bridge is a paper mockup and the crane mockup is my Mini Maglite torch which happens to be the right size !



Cheers

Andrew

Melbourne, Australia

[Celestialsphere]

Greetings All

An overdue update. I've been slowly planking the bow where the nearly flat barge type bottom curves upwards and forward to the underside of the bow ramp.

This is the first hull planking I have done on a model boat. I firstly soaked a 30mm wide piece of 1.5mm 3 ply in water for about 3 days which softened it, then clamped it around a cylindrical object until it dried. This was glued to form the centre plating (there's no keel). On the port side I used a combination of 1.5mm balsa sheet with the grain running athwartships and 5x5mm balsa square sections where the curves become too sharp to easily bend the wood. This was sanded afterwards to the correct profile with the aid of card templates cut from spare lines plans. I carved a recess and added a 10mm wide plank to form the rest of the chined profile.
On the starboard side (still work in progress) I have added the 10mm wide plank first - definitely a better technique - then planked between it and the centre plating.

Port Side


Starboard Side


2-part Plastibond filler was used where I sanded away too much wood.

I am quite pleased with progress.

Cheers

Andrew

[Dave Wooley]

Hi Andrew I do like the method you have used to overcome the problem of the compound curves beneath the hull , this is good thinking .
Dave Wooley

[Wontok]

I thought you might be interested in seeing a couple of actions shots of her. I worked for Swire for 10 years and used the Goada Chief to send equipment to New Caledonia for the Goro Nickel Mine construction. I have a copy of the GA if it is of any use to you. All of the equipment you see was loaded from the Brisbane River bank at Hemmant. She beached at low tide, loaded all cargo and sailed on the high tide.

Feel free to drop me an email if you would like any further info. I have a file somewhere which has plenty of information about her.