The Ship Model Forum

As it is january I'm going to try and finish an old kit form the shelf of doom. Last years' shelf of doom kit is OK and awaiting a delivery of Buccaneers so I can finish the airgroup.
This years' shelf of doom kit will only get one helicopter, a CH 46, but I' m getting ahead of myself. Some 20 years ago I bought Loose Cannon's Victory ship kit. While nicely cast the kit suffered from a misplaced central superstructure and hatches. I attempted to build her as one of the emigrant ship conversion of the 50s but that was beyond my skill level at the time. Recently I stumbled on pictures of USS Regulus, a refrigerated stores ship that had the misfortune to run into rocks in Hong Kong in 1970. Regulus had most hatches replace by new superstructure so I can work around the problems of the kit.
I will be using the hull, anchors and the very nice PE set of the original kit. For reference I will be using drawings of SS Winthrop Victory and pictures of Regulus in UNREP evolutions and on the rocks in Hongkong while hoping her booklet of general plans will show up one day.
This is how I started.

And this is after two evenings' work. The rough outlines are there.

For detailing I'm working my may forward from the helicopter deck. Regulus had a large structure on top of the after most hatch after her reconstruction in 1955 and this opened to the helicopter deck after 1965. There are some 8mm films online that show it in use. I mostly use the pictures of Regulus as sunk in Hong Kong to work out the shape and details of the deck and the structure. And I have started buildng the main mast next.

The word of the week is 'greeblies'. The conversion of Regulus from a standard fast Victory ship to a refrigerated stores ship meant enlarging the various bridge levels in order to accommodate the cooling machinery as well as adding pipes and ventilators. So I spent much time with pieces of strip styrene and a good hand drill.




Somewhere during the 1960s the funnel was changed with the anti-fallout ' hat' being added which can also be seen in pictures of contemporary destroyers. And as you can see the funnel and bridge top were also given extra structures and ventilators. The bridge top did keep the rounded edges were 20mm guns were placed on the original ship.



And after all this I have finished my first mas. As I' m doing Regulus at the end of he career she has a radar platform on the main mast but to radar.

...and it has been a month now. Unlike last year I did not get the self of doom model finished in january. Coming down with a flu did not help. Neither did the US navy's decision to change every part they could think of in rebuilding their Victory ship into a refrigerated stores ship. Still I'm quite happy with what has been done.
I started with repainting the hull.


Then I took on the masts and other structures.

The final parts for last years' shelofdoom build were admired, cut out and otherwise ignored.

And every loose element was painted, festooned with winched as well as other parts and glued in place.


And this is where I am now. Over the next week or so I will add railings, decals and some limited rigging before putting her on a temporary base.
Full rigging and placement will happen once i have decided which ship she will be transferring refrigerated stores to.

Small update, lots of work.
All the winches and platforms are in place now.

The large 3 inch support structure was build, detailed and glued down. The guns themselves are rather fragile so they will follow later.

And most of the week was spent adding railings, ladders and more railings.


Thanks to a well stocked spares box I could start adding the typical two level boat arrangement that you can see in many USN ships of the period.
The workboat is covered in dry canvas rather than wet.