1/700 LPG Carrier

[Avery Boyer]

Excellent work Neptun, the detail is mind-boggling. I am working on the Chemical carrier Hellespont Crusader, which has far, far less piping but is still very intimidating...I can't imagine the level of work that went to that huge maze!

[Nektarios]

So we have 5 viewers, great!

Anyway, here is where we are today. Most of the deck stuff is in place now. Of course I can continue adding detail until I'm dead, but I guess I'm more or less at the end of it. More detail would only cause extra clutter and confusion.
As you can see the superstructure is in place, the pool is now painted. Furthermore I cut the sides of the B-deck to correspond to the hull. Now I will add the aft bulwark with some supports for that B-deck. Then the lifeboats and the masts. This ship has 7 ventmasts (normal LPG carrier has 1 or 2) and of course a forward and aft mast. Then it's mainly painting, I guess I'll first put that red E on the funnel, as I did on the Excel LNG carrier. Then I'll continue detailing. the aft part and put the bollards in place.
If you have good eyes, you can see the progress made compared to last time, if you have bad eyes, you probably didn't notice that there are pipes on that ship
Hope to finish this one soon, with current pace I think end of next week should be possible. Then I can put her next to her buddy Excel.

[ARH]

Neptune said, So we have 5 viewers, great!

No, there are at least 6, Ive got my eye on you,

[Neptune]

aha, six wow, too much actually.

Thanks for the comments Avery. I noticed you were building an offshore Supply Boat too. So am I, although I'm building one from Maersk. I did see that link you gave, with plenty interesting plans for sure! Chemical carrier with less piping than Donau? Strange, normally they are the only ships with more of them! Depending on size. I'll have to check those plans too. Maybe something for the future, although I have enough work trying to build the ships I'm navigating on.
Too bad Hellespont sold these ULCCs, Ti Europe on which I sailed before used to be Hellespont Tara, would have been great to have the plans of those giants on the net.
The Donau (means Danube) will be put in a waterbase, just like Excel I think. Not sure if I'm going to do anything special this time. I'm always fighting with the thought of putting a gas carrier in port, but then the fight is hard since I like to see ships at sea rather than port. Port is an unnatural environment for merchant ships.

[Neptune]

And there we go. Company logo on the funnel now. Both sides. Stupid me also tried to write LPG on the sides of the compressor room (like on the real thing). Yet I don't know how I'll succeed in painting a P and G so small. Straight things are ok, the L is already there now.

Furthermore I've finished the aft details, rollers, bollards, and started with the bulwarks and supports on the side of the superstructure. Also the basic block for the lifeboats is under construction. Furthermore the cranes are also ready, although I'll wait to install them until the end.
What is left? The aft beam crane as well as some platforms on the compressor room. Of course also the masts need some detailing and the ventmasts have to be placed also (still pondering my head over that one).

[Dave Wooley]

Hi Roel this is a challenging project . You could not have chosen a more difficult subject but you have accomplished the job with consummate skill , simply superb workmanship .
Dave Wooley

[Cadman]

Looking cool Roel. Obviously a very busy deck. I think it captures the look and feel of the plumbers nightmare on the real ship.

[ASFC]

Very nice Roel! Very very nice........

[Neptune]

nearing the end now. Found my Photobucket thing back too.
So the aft end of the ship is nearly finished now. Main things that are left are the masts, including ventmasts, the bollards on deck and forward, and some platforms around the compressor room.
I did write the LPG on the compressor room, thought it was required. I painted it with stretched sprue. Still needs some touch up on the G, but it's ok on this side. Other side still has to follow. The L and I of the "P" were done using masking tape. The "E" on the funnel is also done using masking tape. Starting with I and then add the horizontal lines, one by one.
The top of the bridge is coloured Red now, we did that just after dry dock. It was like that before I heard.
I'm a happy guy that I decided to depict her as she is now. Before she also had a stern discharge line, taking two pipelines from the centre on the forward deck, going around the superstructure on starboard, then bridging the space between the two superstructures and eventually ending on a hingeable pipe over the poop deck. In the very beginning, the pool was also covered by a structure and the CO2 room on starboard side top of the funnel was not there. Before last dry dock she also had extra pipes coming from an IG plant in the fo'csle and extra lines coming from the slop tanks forward.... Guess I'm a lucky guy that this ship is getting easier by the years

[Pieter]

Looks very nice Roel. I'm looking forward to your supplier.

[Neptune]

Here is one for Pieter, you won't have to wait long I guess (although I'm a little tired of detailing and that's of course again the only thing that's left on the supply boat too). I built most of her when I was onboard.


I'm still a bit in doubt as to how to depict the Donau. First I wanted to put her in close encounter with some fishing boats, like we had in India all the time. But on the other side I'd like to do something more special, like putting during an anchoring manoevre. I think it'll be the fishing boats as the manoeuvre would probably take too much of the attention away from the detail and it would look odd. Maybe with next ship I'll do some anchoring manoeuvre.
Anyway, added the ventmasts today. Also the platforms all around the compressor room are in place and the LPG mark on portside also. Also did some bollards more, but they are testing my nerves the most!






Also the beam of the beam crane aft is put in place. This crane is just on top of the skylight for the engine room and is hence used mainly to put spares etc. inside the engine room. You can't really see it, but on port side there are four ventmasts, there are two of them forward, steel wire ones. They are side by side. On starboard there are only three. You can see the connections on the portside ones forward on that prismatic structure. Just below the ventmasts and the forward sides are the entrances from the ventlines.

I also found out I should at least put the gangway on both sides and in some cases maybe try to put some stairs, simplified, since all the seperate platforms look a little strange like this.

[Cadman]

I don't want to sound like a broken record, but this is way cool. Nice work Roel. A refreshing change from Haze grey and a first in this scale!

[Pieter]

Close encounter with fishing boats near India sounds scary to me. I have some drawings of their 19th century sailing predecessors lying around somewhere, PM me if you're interested. The difference to their 21st century versions will probably involve taking away the masts and adding some kind of engine.

[MichelB]

This is a really impressive model, Neptune. My congrats, and good luck on the road back to sanity!

[Neptune]

I actually wanted to wait until it was finished. But since I lacked the final colours for the paint, I decided to show the last steps too.
So the fishing boats were made (and yes Pieter, these fishing boats have hardly changed, some still have the sails, others are indeed improved with an engine by now).
And the lay-out was a very common and (hopefully) realistic situation (which you encounter a few hundred times in one watch when you are near the coast in certain bays).
The distances are small, but realistic, occasionally you can't take more than that due to the risk of grounding.
once the wakes and top layer of the base are painted I will add the lifeboats and liferafts to the Donau. Also the Sat-C radome and HF/MF antenna will be painted then.
Since the Donau is making a turn, difficult to see, due to the unpainted wakes. I gave her a slight roll, adding some styrene strips on one side and following around the hull to fill up the gaps.




the small project I did mainly onboard is also advancing, although slowly due to the Udaloy (see Works in Progress in Picture Post). However there are only few parts in a supply boat, so there isn't that much work left to do either.

[Cadman]

Bravo Zulu Roel. This looks really cool. When you are completely finished, please send some pics in to the gallery as well.

[Neptune]

Small teaser. Donau is finished now. Didn't add too much detail anymore. Only the lifeboats, spare anchor and some other minor stuff.
A disadvantage of building the ships on which you sail is that you can continue adding details until the end of your life... I decided to leave off the purging pipes of the hold spaces and even something as simple as stairs. Anyway the small dio is finished and the water base is very satisfactory to me. The teaser picture shows that size truly is a relative concept. Donau, a handy size LPG with the Excel (used to be a standard LNG, now it is only a handy size one), TI Europe, unfinished, but showing her size, as well as a Slava class cruiser and a "large" ocean going salvage tug.
The pics of Donau herself are sent to Mr. Sean.

[Pieter]

Heel erg mooi!

[MichelB]

Ja, nou en of! Daar drink ik op!

[ASFC]

Frigging Hell.......look at that monster of a ship in the background!

Very nice, very very nice.........