1/100 Chaconia LPG carrier

[DrPR]

Another option would be to mount the motor above the prop shaft with the motor axis parallel to the shaft, and couple them in some way. This would put the motor higher where it would stay dry. Coupling could be with nylon gears or a belt.

With gears the spacing would depend upon the largest diameter gear you can get on the prop shaft, and the amount of speed increase (torque reduction) you can get by with. A larger diameter gear on the motor will result in more revolutions of the prop shaft per revolution of the motor, and reduced torque for the prop. It would also increase the load on the motor and motor heating. You could use a third idler gear between the motor gear and shaft gear to increase the elevation of the motor.

A belt drive would work OK - they are sometimes used on model train engines. Use a toothed belt and sprockets. This would allow a 1:1 sprocket size on the motor and shaft. The belt might stretch with time and need replacement, or you could mount the motor on an adjustable mount that allows tightening the belt. Use the largest diameter sprocket that you can get on the prop shaft to reduce curvature (flexing) of the belt. This method would allow you to mount the motor as high as you like, depending upon the length of belt that you use.

Either way will work and would probably be quieter and more vibration free than the double universal joint.

Small Parts Inc. and McMaster-Carr have an assortment of gears, sprockets and belts.

Phil

[JohnMGD]

Just switched to your Chaconia build, stunning work, looks very, very good Roel. By the way, do you have a gallery of ships you already finished in the past ??

John.

[Neptune]

Hi John,

I'm not particularly known to finish things The only things I've finished up till now are small scale builds, which you can find in the gallery.
The Udaloy was my first big scale kit for RC. After noticing the amount of fixing needed on the Udaloy and the amount of "impossible to fix" items, I shifted towards a full scratchbuild on Chaconia. So basically it's waiting for this one to finish.

I'm going to go with the above guys' suggestion and stick the motor to the wood with household silicone. It've tested it without the mounting and runs less noisy than with the mount.
I'm currently making "boxes" with lead ballast to fix inside the ship, so that it doesn't take 1 hour to assemble the ship when I arrive near a pond.

[Neptune]

Ok then, a small update again. The structural construction is taking some time due to drying time of the glue. In the meanwhile I'm continuing with the detailing forward.

Under construction now are the supports for the forepeak deck.

First I cut a cross section in the stanchion's bottom.



Then I bend two trapezoid shapes to a 90� angle. Then I fit it inside the cross.



And then one is placed. There's three of them in total. Still have to put a liferaft below the forepeak and some piping.

[Dave Wooley]

Hi Roel really good detailed work here
Dave Wooley

[okayani]

Hi Roel really good detailed work here
Dave Wooley

Hello,
Can you share the bluprint of chaconia.
regards

[Neptune]

Hello,

well, blueprints I don't have. I've been asking for plans of other Boelwerf ships as well, but even the engineers of that yard have no clue where these plans are nowadays. I heard something about a certain place, but I haven't checked it out yet (you have to pay to get access and it's expensive to take any copies there, so as long as I'm not sure that it contains what I need...)

Anyway a small update. Looks like a small job, but ended up being quite a big one. I've been doing the framing on the bulwark which "connects" the raised forepeak deck with the main deck on the sides. Since things have to be rather strong, I've been cutting small gaps in the wooden bulwark to supports the frames inside. It gives a good placement and a bigger glueing surface.
It also involved the installation of a roller fairlead on both sides (something of which I didn't have a good measurement) and a closed fairlead/chock.
Here is a picture of the roller (the beginning of it). Eventually I installed a smaller diameter of roll since this one looked too large. This type of roller is again made to change a rope's direction without damaging it. Behind these two vertical rolls there are two horizontal rolls.


And here the inside of the bulwark, still have to paint it.


And a larger overview including the three supports below the forepeak deck. On the foreground you can vaguely discern the outline of a breakwater which is mounted on deck. One of the next small projects.

[Dave Wooley]

Hi Roel this is looking really good . Don't the ships carry a full set of plans?
Dave Wooley

[DrPR]

Roel,

Just to clarify things, are you serving on this ship now? Or is this one of your previous ships?

Whatever, you are doing a great job of modeling the ship.

Phil

[Neptune]

Ships "should" carry a full set of plans, however it depends a LOT on the yard what you will get. Japanese and Korean yards will not supply you with a frame plan but rather with a 1/100 scale plan of certain frames along the length and parts (same scale) of the frames in between. The Belgian yard did provide a frame plan, but it's the same as on all of the ships in the class, which isn't exactly true.
These plans aren't really blueprints though.

Phil,
I'm indeed not sailing on these ships (lucky me, not so lucky for the model) anymore. It's been a two years since I've been on LPG ships. I'm still in the same company though, so I did have access to a lot of pictures and plans.
Normally with the sale of a ship, also the plans are transfered to the new owner, so I'm not sure if they are still there. In any case I have enough reference material for the build, only on some occasions I don't have find it on a picture. The framing inside the bulwark was done using a combination of pictures and plans since the plans weren't really correct on that. (other ships don't have the same pattern of drain holes in that side plate).

I'm working on the support for a spare anchor now. Soon I'll tackle the breakwater.

[Capit�o Norbert]

Hello ROEL
Nice bow arrangments.
i like so much your buildings

[moomoon]

Very nice hudge build, feel like we're sailing on it
When I want to model something I sailed on, it will be easier, I'm a small windsurfer

[Neptune]

Well thanks. And I'm convinced you should actually give yours a try as well .

Very small update, but at least I'm starting to get back in the drive. I've been pondering my head over that one piece of (yet unpainted nor fitted) pipe that you see laying on the deck. My final idea is that it just protects electrical wiring from just aft of the breakwater till forward. Nowadays the Koreans are putting all wiring along the full length of the ship in pipes. On the Belgian ships they just put it in a tray on the bottom of that bunch of piping on deck. Only here they are protected against waves.

I'm working slowly from forward to aft. The seat for the spare anchor (which was never carried) is placed as well as the doors and fire boxes etc. The ballast tank entry hatches are just painted one layer and dry fitted. The spring line winch has received its supports, adapted tot he shape of the deck (they placed that thing right on where the deck goes from straight to angled to form a camber).

And here is a detail shot of that anchor seat, drain pipe etc. Sloppy paint job I just noticed. I'm still in doubt whether to make a small rectangular stamp to show the real touch-up painting done on such ships or not...



Once the winch is ready I'll have put her in place and place the hydraulic lines which come from the forward hydraulic unit over the deck. Also the pipe on the portside has some additional piping and wiring next to it with a small bridge mounted over it. It'll be interesting in colouring again since only the top of the big pipe is painted black and 2 out of 4 hydraulic lines are also black.
After that will be the breakwater. Not sure yet if I'll use wood or styrene for that...

[Neptune]

This will probably be the last post for a while again.

The pipe you see in the last post actually has 3 Viking-Johnson couplings, it's a device that connects two pipes in a watertight way. It's basically two rings with some rubber in between and bolts holding the two rings. If you screw these bolts together, the rubber gets squeezed and impairs any leakage.



I'm currently busy on the supports for that pipe.

And the hydraulic lines have taken most of my time. Drilled some 0.5mm holes in tiny pieces of styrene as supports. Two "pipes" are 0.5mm, the other 2 are 0.3mm.





Winch is not fixed yet, first I'll place the small drip tray, only after that I'll place the winch inside.

[Ticonderoga]

Hi Neptune,

Ive been a way from the forums for a while, but back in gear now (just in time for the Christmas season...... )

Anyway, I have just read through your build and I have to say Chaconia is looking very nice in deed. I really appreaciate your fine detail work - very inspring.

Andrew

[Neptune]

Hello Andrew,
thanks for the encouraging comment!

Last day of the year, thought I'd start with my "good intention" for next year, at least I'm taking a head start like that.

After my recent move and the preliminary installation of a workshop (only the beginning is done, but just enough to start building again), I've restarted construction on Chaconia, at a pace which I haven't had for quite a while.

Installed some more piping and cable supports forward before starting construction of the breakwater. The breakwater consists of the original design with some add-on parts to protect the ventilation fans. The original 2 ships didn't have ventilation fans near the tank dome. So they just had a regular shaped, symmetrical breakwater. Instead of really redesigning it, they just added pieces to it to protect those fans.

The parts you can see now is the side plate and the original symmetrical breakwater. The add-on pieces will be only done once the original breakwater is fixed in place, in order to make it fit well. Angles for these pieces were calculated using globe triangle maths, no fancy stuff there.

The ventilation fans are the parts that look like they come straight from Star Wars.
I also installed the drip tray for the spring winch, so the winch can be placed.
Next step is to paint and glue the fans in place, add some piping, then glue the original breakwater in place and start putting framing on it. Afterwards the side plate gets glued in place and I'll make a paper/cardboard template for the connection between those two parts.

January will be quiet, February will be busy

Last pics for this year! Happy New Year to everyone.

[Neptune]

I don't do this too often, but here are a couple of pics of the actual ship. Some of my reference material, as you can see, it would take a while to get a real-looking weathering on this ship...
Anyway, now you have an idea what I mean with that breakwater. The colour of the fans changes from time to time towards the deck colour or towards this dark grey.




The flexible hoses you see connected to the ventilation fans are used to ventilate the cargo tanks. Normally they aren't there. (can't take pictures if the ship isn't gas free after all).

[Ticonderoga]

Hi Neptune,

Happy New Year to you too! All the best for you and yours and I wish you fair winds and following seas.

You are right, those fan housings certainly look like they inspired the Star Wars designers Your work, as always, is nice to see.

Andrew

[Neptune]

Finally back home and didn't waste a minute (sort of)!

So I continued where I left that wave breaker/bulwark.
I decided after all to add the "bent frame" look to the small supporting brackets. In reality they are straight frames where the aft edge was bent around, this creates a much stronger resistance to buckling (frames don't tend to tear apart, they tend to just go sideways). I was kinda scared that it would be oversized, but it doesn't. It's was a pretty simple method, I glued a 1mm x 0.4mm strip of styrene on the side of the frames and once dry, I filed the edge off to create a rounded edge.


Here you see the original version as placed on the first two ships (which didn't have the ventilation fans to protect).


Here is the first piece of the add-on breakwater.


Here is the "finished" breakwater, only the side piece is dry fitted for now, since i'm waiting to mix some glue untill I need a higher quantity (easier to get the mixture right in higher quantities).



And here from the other side, clearly visible that there was a basic original breakwater with an add on.


So, now that this is finished, I'll continue detailing the fans, place them and then place the tank dome.
During my stay abroad I've also "designed" a plan for the piping supports. I don't have an original plan, but with the help of a lot of pictures and refence devices, I've been able to get a pretty accurate plan myself.

[Capit�o Norbert]

Hello Roel your building is fantastic
love your main deck arrangments in scratch.
your model looks very good