Civilian/Military Transports Group Build Apr.15-Oct.15, 2011

[Jim Smith]

Pieter,
Is the Poelau Laut the one from HP models? I think I saw it in their catalogue some time ago but have never seen it made up or on any of the websites. Look forward to seeing your model completed. Are you completing it as a civilian or a troopship?

Timmy,
Great looking Brasil Maru.

Jim S

[Pieter]

Hi Jim,
Poelau Laut in the HP catalog? That would have been nice.... I'm scratchbuilding her. I glued .3mm styrene sheet over a carved balsa core with a 1mm styrene keel plate. She'll be in her civilian, late 1930's outfit as that is the periode for which I have good references. I'm using BFM resin details as well as parts from my Hikawa Maru / Brasil Maru stash.
Her troopship history is interesting however. The Poelau and "Ta" classes were designed as fast cargo liners with limited (34) first class passenger accomodation on the Amsterdam-Batavia route. However the Nederland line and her friendly rivals of the Rotterdam Lloyd were required by law be able to carry Indonesian muslim pilgrims to Mecca. This was made possible by outfitting these fast freight liners (and RL's Kota class) with teak decks, extra removable accomodation in the 'tween deck spaces, extra toilets and kitchens in the quarter and 12-16 lifeboats. For insurance reasons these 9700brt combination cargo ships were officially certified as 1100 passenger capacity liners. When war in the Pacific broke out in 1941 troopships were much in demand and the US Shipping Board spotted Poelau Laut's official 1100 passenger capacity. The 'board automatically assumed that an 1100 passenger liner could easily carry 2000 GI's....
The GI's disagreed. The 503rd PRCT Batallion has the line "Grateful to this day for never having to set foot on the decks of the Poelau Laut again. " on its website to remember 44 days on Poelau Laut in 1942.
The full story can be found here:
http://503prct.org/poelau_laut/poelau_laut.html
I don't have enough information on the wartime changes to Poelau Laut to be able to build her as a troopship.

[Pieter]

Anyway, on with the building process. Many ships of this period have something which can be described as a diagonal straight stem. Keeping this straight and pointed while carving and plating the hull is difficult as both carving and plating will tend to push you towards a curved stem or too much toward a vertical stem. As you can see in my previous pictures I ended up with a number of loose plates on a rather blunt looking stem which was too short as I had carved off too much balsa. After looking at Jim Russells' Leonard Wood I decided to tackle this by putting a 1*2 mm Evergreen strip in front of the hull and filling the gaps with a combination of balsa scraps and superglue. After sanding this I took my plating (.25 by 3.2 mm evergreen strips) to the new stem strip and started a few rounds of filling and sanding. This is how it looked in early september.

The traditional elliptical stern was much easier to build. Once carved the plating easily followed the hull form towards
the fantail.

[reigels]

Great start - looking forward to seeing this one!

[Pieter]

Thanks Scott.
By the second week of september I was building the winches, mainly by combining BFM parts. I did not use photo etch for extra detailing as Battlefleet's new winch sets are very nice castings.

After that I primed the hull and most superstructure parts in Tamiya superfine white. The bridges levels were still unfinished tough and were place temporarily on the hull in order to take pictures .

[Guest]

Great models guys!!

Well deserved gold, Timmy

Harry@BFM

[janschu]

Hello,

here is a little update from me.









I have just completed the winches and the depth charge equipment. That is the anchor winch (the chains will be attached when i
put the the winch on the fore deck) and three working winches for the refueling equipment. The two depth charge rails will go on
the stern deck.





At the moment i am doing the "stuff" to crowd the decks, like rafts, fenders, fuel hoses (either on deck or in the stowage rack next
to the walkway), ... and of course latrines!
I hope to get this stuff ready next week because i will take the ship to an exhibition in Leipzig next weekend.
weekend.

Greetings from the North Sea Coast, Jan

[Pieter]

Very nice work Jan. Will you be taking this one to Euro Scale Modelling in october?

[Jim Smith]

Jan & Pieter - following your builds with interest. Both looking really good.
Timmy, lovely job on the Brasil Maru.

Here are some photos of my latest build - Niko Models' 'Yasukawa Maru' but in her pre-war Kawasaki Kisen ('K' Line) livery. Thanks to all on the website (CASF Pre-War Japanese Merchant Ships) for details on deck/hull colours etc.

Jim S (Freighter)

[taskforce48]

Looking great so far everyone!

Just 2 weeks left, Let's keep it going.

Matt

[janschu]

Dear Sirs,

bad news from me. I am sorry, but i have the sad duty to inform you, that my ship will not be completed in time.

Too much to do at work. Reduced personnel due to holidays and illness. Therefore work was quite strenous the last weeks
and as a result in leisure time i had not much ambitions to go on. Many of the small works like rafts, latrines, fenders,
supporting framework for the catwalk, accomodation ladders, two of the three life boats and finally the rigging have to be
made. And i really dislike to do these things in a hurry.

So, once again, i relly would have liked to take part in that group build but time but the limited time doesn�t permit it.

Greetings from the North Sea Coast, Jan

[Pieter]

Like Jan I don't think I will be able to finish the full project in time. There's some progress to be reported though.
These are two snapshots I took earlier in the week:

The hull and part of the superstructure have been painted and :

I've started working on the three tall masts and the small cranes which made these ships stand out visually.

BTW I've just realised that adding quadrant davits early in the built is not a good idea at all. I'm currently in my third generation of davits on the corners as the resident black hole has eaten the previous ones.....

[taskforce48]

Looking good so far We have a till 11:59PST tomorrow night, you can do it!

Matt

[Pieter]

I will be away from my hobby room for the coming two days so I post this to show where the build is now. Will send a timestamped picture to Matt in a few days. I'm also planning to add passengers, rigging and a base later in this thread if that's OK.
Mast and cranes placed yesterday night, finally the classic look I was aiming for:

And how she looks now:

[moomoon]

Very nice ship Pieter, like it a lot

[taskforce48]

Well, it's been fun but unfortunately it has come to an end. Now comes the hard part, deciding which of the following builds is going to take 1st place

TimmyC -- 1/700 Brasil Maru (Fujimi)
Jim Smith -- Sado Maru/Sakito Maru in pre-war fit/NYK colours
Bob Cicconi -- 1/700 SS Pearl (BFM)
Pieter -- 1/700 Poelau Laut (Scratchbuilt)
JimRussel -- 1/350 USS Leonard Wood APA-12 (Scratchbuilt)

If any of the above builders would like to send in additional photos for the judging, please post them here or e-mail me with them.

Stand by for updates!

Matt

[taskforce48]

I will be away from my hobby room for the coming two days so I post this to show where the build is now. Will send a timestamped picture to Matt in a few days. I'm also planning to add passengers, rigging and a base later in this thread if that's OK.
Mast and cranes placed yesterday night, finally the classic look I was aiming for:

Pieter,

I am taking it you are calling her done, which I think she looks done. The photos you send me in the next day or so as long as they show her unchanged from the images posted that will be fine. As for the adding more, that is fine as these posts will not be closed but anything additional will not be considered in the judging if it was added after the 15th. I am looking to have a decision by next Friday so please send the photos in before than.

Thanks

Matt

[JimRussell]

Matt,

Enjoyed the build! The only addditional photos I took show Leonard Wood with other APA's, the Heywood (another WWI transport conversion), the Burleigh (largest of the WWII built APA's) and an APD for scale. Three more nare planned for the future, a C2, VC2 and a small S4.

[Jim Smith]

A few more pics of Sado Maru. More pics on FineWaterline website

Jim S

[Timmy C]

All other pics of my Brasil Maru can be found in the gallery: http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html