Norse Lady, a small lumber ship in WW II

[Bouncy70]

Well spotted, that railing is bad craftsmanship on my part. I will try to fix it.

I agree that the deck-load maketh the ship in this case. I had no idea about the practice until I started looking into it for this project. The degree of apparent overloading of lumber in many cases surprised me - the overall effect is something one is more used to seeing on modern container ships!

I forgot to mention this, but it ought to be: The "planks" were spray-painted "Elfenbein", interior paint for WWII German tanks. Some slightly lighter "Deck Tan" was then used to pick out some planks, followed by a darker light brown for others. The colour difference is juuust enough to give some life to the surfaces.

Arguably the deck load is overscale but I am not too worried about this, it gives the right overall impression of loose planks and bits of wood in a moderately-tidy stack.

[wefalck]

In the old days, up to the first years after WW2 the Scandinavians used any old ship, sail and steam, to transport cut timber around Europe and beyond. Some of the 'hulks' were so leaky, that they literally floated on their cargo ...

Interesting subject and nice rendering

[Bouncy70]

In the old days, up to the first years after WW2 the Scandinavians used any old ship, sail and steam, to transport cut timber around Europe and beyond.

Oh, believe me, some of the 1920-30s Norwegian ships that I have seen photos of while researching this do not inspire any great deal of confidence when it comes to either seaworthiness or common sense! The principle seems to have been "add lumber until she starts to wobble or take in water, then remove the last plank you added".

I suppose there was no great profit in this trade, so they had to squeeze every penny until it squeaked.

[Bouncy70]

I've entertained myself with rigging the thing now, what little there is of it, the deck load is fixed in place and the masts likewise.

I've used the MIG/Uschi rigging thread for the first time, 0.02 og 0.03 mm diameter. Not too impressed frankly, the stuff is absurdly springy and that makes it very tricky to work with. I'll stick to monofilament fishing line of comparable diameter in the future I think, it is fixed-length and can be tightened up with a little bit of heat if needed. Much easier, and it knots better too.

I've added a little touch of weathering along the waterline of the model and touched up paint here and there. I have replaced the railing around the stern to get rid of the annoying overlap that Jim pointed out.







I still have to make the cargo booms and their attendant rigging, and there are some crew figures I am going to stick on here and there, and I'll put a Norwegian flag on her too, but the end is in sight now. Nearly finished!

This photo may be of interest by the way, it shows my photography setup. A small light-tent illuminated by the lamps on my work bench.

[Bouncy70]

Take a look at this thread, by the way:

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=168087

Captain Haddock is scratch building a 1/96 model of a very, very similar type of ship, also a WW I mass production type, a "Sub Boat".

[reigels]

Nice looking build. The deck cargo really sets it off.

[Bouncy70]

OK, found one upside to stretchy rigging material: When dropping the model upside-down on to the workbench, the foremast may bend but the rigging won't snap.

Situation recovered, although at some cost to the newly installed PE boom lifts.

[Pieter]

Ouch! Hope everything else is OK with your Norse Lady, it looks very nice so far.