After the basics of the torpedo tubes are done, I started completing the minor details, something not difficult at all. I have searched for a set of PE handwheels to complete these little things, but apparently these Mk.32 torpedo tubes are not produced in this 1/144 scale, and accordingly I have found no PE for them. I will have to think of something else.
I have also started the stands, again using 1.0 mm. Evergreen plate and some plastic from a yogourth container.
I will try to finish these stands tomorrow, if I find the time.
Brgds from this side,
Willie.[/size]
Last edited by Willie on Tue Oct 08, 2019 4:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).
The Mk.32 tubes are taking shape. The stands are half done, with the tubes already in position and almost complete too.
The lower tubes are kept apart and placed on the stands using two small pieces of 0.5 mm. Evergreen strip, invisible when the upper tubes are set in place themselves, using now two sections of 0.5 thick Evergreen tube, which are telescopic to the 3.2 tubing of which the tubes are made. Very easy to make, and again with quite convincing results :
I hope you like it, and very best regards from this side,
Willie.[/size]
Last edited by Willie on Tue Oct 08, 2019 4:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).
I am completing at the moment the aft structure, not difficult at all, but I have come across an element that puzzles me. I have no idea what it can be. Could somebody please lend me a hand ?
This element, on board USS The Sullivans :
And here on board Jorge Juan, same thing in a completely different position :
Thanks in advance, and best regards from this side of the world,
Willie.
Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).
The aft structure is almost finished, after adding almost all the minor elements, such as inner handrails, fuel and vents intakes, first aid box (I have seen it only onboard Jorge Juan), etc.
Here you are a couple of views :
I hope you like it, and very best regards,
Willie.
Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).
After finishing the previous, I thought that I have never seen the whole lot together, and considered it advisable to do it, to check that everything is OK.
Here you are some pics of the results :
I can see that some elements are slightly over scaled, but I think the overall effect is not bad.
I would appreciate all the criticism that you may consider necessary. As long as it is not painted, solving problems can be easy, and anyhow, at last it is getting Fletcher-class shape.
Nice going and best regards,
Willie.
Last edited by Willie on Sat Jun 29, 2019 12:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).
And thanks JCRay and Kubilay before anything else or your kind remarks.
Today was stack day. After what I had already done with the aft stack, I found myself bogged down with the rear steam exhausts in both stacks, that prevented me from further completing.
Jorge Juan was a standard Fletcher, with the regular exhausts :
It means that these exhausts were shared by other Fletchers, and I could make some excellent pics on board The Sullivans, and these are very useful. Fore stack :
Rear stack :
The offer of the kit is not too convincing :
Even if not too convincing, the real problem is that the kit offers only one exhaust, the fore one, and omits completely the rear element. Too bad, as they will have to be built from scratch then.
The rear one is the problem, as there are some interesting curves and very precise measures that have to be respected if the results are to be convincing. The headache is that every exhaust is a junction of two other exhausts each, again with sharp curves and even more restrictive size, and the supreme nightmare is that both primary exhausts get together with the big tube simetrically with very sharp angles, getting into it through a kind of wedge.
This is what I am talking about :
After much thinking and many hours of essay and mistake passtime, I built a wedge using 2.5 mm. Evergreen rod, sanding to shape and cutting and refining again.
The main exhaust was made with 2.0 mm. Evergreen rod again, preheating at certain points and bending over a 90� plastic block until it cooled down and took the definitive shape. Then it had to be filed and sanded to eliminate the unavoidable heat plastic swelling. The same (but much easier this time) was done with the secondary exhausts. The process had to be repeated a number of times, but I got it after wasting only 10-15 cm. rod. The lot was the completed with Evergreen tubing rings to fix the exhausts to the stack.
Seen from 30-40 cm. away, the results are quite nice.
The fore stack exhausts were built in the same way, and were, of course, much easier to produce :
I finished the thing adding two stretched sprue rings, to be painted in black, what will add a further note of realism. Not bad, I think.
I hope you like it, and very best regards from this side,
Willie.
Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).
The definitive test would be to place both stacks together , to double check the results of the process, and my opinion is that all the common elements are virtually identical in place and position, what is everything that could be wished for.
I hope you like it, and again nice going from the North Atlantic,
Willie.[/size]
Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).
Very impressive job on this destroyer, and those piping details on the sidewalls. Especially when you realized that this is all done by scratch building Very looking forward to the finished ship!
Silenoz wrote:Fine work on the Torpedolaunchers. Maybe some wires to finish these off...
You are right, and I had already thought about this, because I also think it lacks a little something. I will have to find some fine wire.
And as I have some free time at the moment, I have made use of it to give a pull to this ship.
Other than the steam exhaust, this crop of the pic previously uploaded shows some other very interesting details :
This vent was probably a fresh air intake for the boiler rooms underneath the stacks, because another one, identical but in reversed position, is placed by the aft stack :
And I found some months ago another picture of USS McGowan, taken in the late 50�s, that even though it is not crystal clear, but on the other hand taken at some 45� angle, shows incredibly interesting details of decks and equipment. This one :
This picture shows ready-use ammo magazines in the aft structure and at midship, as usual, but in all other modernized Fletchers that I have seen, the aft magazines were double, i.e., four, but it can be clearly seen that USS McGowan, and hence Jorge Juan had them single in all cases. The flag boxes were of the rounded type (in the Spanish Navy they used to be square) and the aft vent is looking backwards, something that can be confirmed in this other picture at a later refit :
It can be observed that the flag box is rounded in shape and curved on the top, and that the aft vent is again looking backwards. Once that this is clearly stated, making the elements can be tricky at times, but anyhow an easy job.
The vents, with open lids, so that the insides can be painted :
Some other elements include the ventilation trunk and the flag boxes :
The standard compass was made using the point of a BIC ball-pen, something that gives the perfect profile for the main body, and completed with Evergreen and stretched sprue. After finished and set in place, I would say that it is say 10% overscaled, but the effect is so excellent that I will accept it :
The ready-use ammo boxes on the sides of the clipshack are the shorter type, with heat isolators and single door; the other ones are the larger type, although I have never seen a clear pic of them, so I am not sure wether they had one or two doors :
So that�s all for now. I hope you like it, and very best regards,
Willie.
Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).
While I was making the last elements, and after the inmense amount of useful knowledge that I have got through these threads, I thought that I could share one of my tricks with you all, just in case it can be of some help for somebody else.
Obviously, and thank God, not all the elements that we build have to be painfully accurate, but simply accurate, and period. But when building some other things, accuracy is a must, as they will be the support for something else or are located in an exposed place, for example, and a lack in precision would ruin the visual effect. For this reason, some elements have to be straight, absolutely straight. My eyes used to be very sharp, what means they aren�t any longer, so I had to use something else to obtain straight lines. My trick is to use a reflex image, using the reverse of the acrylic block that I use as a chop, and done. After cutting, filing, sanding and refining, this is the last test, and when the object and the image are aligned, the thing is done; otherwise, patience more refining. Fortunately, patience is something that we modelers have in great store.
This is what I mean:
Considering that the first block in pics 1 and 2, for example, is 8.8 mm. high, the lines can be considered straight enough to be accepted.
As I say, this is very basic, but also very useful at times, and I will be glad if it is of some help for some friend modeler.
Nice going from the North Atlantic shores,
Willie.
Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).
After a further leaf over in the files, I came across this pic made onboard Jorge Juan, with a further surprise: besides the aft stack there was not one single vent, but two :
After some grumbling, and just in case, I checked the files, and found that the same happened to USS Cassin Young :
And the same to Velox :
Unnecessary to say, this led to a double check on the fore stack as well, in case the vents were also double. Another pic of USS Cassin Young shows that the assumption was right, but that the second vent was integrated in the clip shack structure in further refits, which is the case of The Sullivans and Jorge Juan :
And once everything was clear, it was necessary to make only one further vent. Not that they grow on trees, but you can find the third one in the same place where you found the other two :
And that�s all for now. To be followed, and best regards in the meanwhile,
Willie.
Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).
GREAT work on the details. I'm continually amazed at how much effort you are going to to add details. Bravo.
I have been out-of-pocket traveling and didn't comment on this earlier. But, you mentioned that these vents "probably" were fresh air intakes for the boiler rooms. That wouldn't be necessary, the "funnels" on these destroyers are "stacks" which combine the smoke pipe funnel and fresh air vents for the boilers (the grates on either side of the stacks). The FLETCHER's and other WWII-built USN destroyers were modernized during the 1950's and somewhat into the 1960's. One of the things that needed to be upgraded was the need for additional ventilation below decks. Additional ventilation was required for the added electronics to cool them. However, there was also a program to upgrade crew habitability with air conditioning, particularly for operations in the South Pacific and Med. I can't say what particular purpose these specific vents were for, but the most likely need was for additional ventilation. Such vents were located where space was available. The longer a destroyer was in service with the USN, the more vents would appear.
In building your model, it doesn't really matter, but it is just an interesting factoid.
I still need to check my BGP images to see if I can answer what the odd looking "can" mounted under the aft twin 3-in gun mount or along the bulkhead nearby is for. No promises, sometimes details like that are called out, and other times they are not. So far my best guess is that this is a "Foam Generator", as was noted on one BGP I have seen. (Most BGP's I have looked at don't include this detail)
Glad to see you back and shadowing my construction. The best thing of an experts' forum like this is that somebody will always find the answer to anything. For example, Mr. Davis, this construction has a before and an after my finding your Hazelwood�s docking plans.
Rick E Davis wrote:Willie,GREAT work on the details. I'm continually amazed at how much effort you are going to to add details. Bravo.
Why, thanks for your remarks. My father always insisted that we had to work to the limits of our abilities, not the the limits of our lazyness, and in this large scale attention to details should be a must.
Rick E Davis wrote: But, you mentioned that these vents "probably" were fresh air intakes for the boiler rooms. That wouldn't be necessary, the "funnels" on these destroyers are "stacks" which combine the smoke pipe funnel and fresh air vents for the boilers (the grates on either side of the stacks). In building your model, it doesn't really matter, but it is just an interesting factoid.
Again this is the input of an expert. Well, too much information will never harm you. Actually, in a long term construction like this, you end up loving the ship you are building, so details like this are always very appreciated.
I have researched all my files, and I have found that the vent chapter will probably never be closed, as apparently there are not two ships with the same pattern of anything.
I have found this interesting pic of Taylor DD468:
Three mushroom vents, and ventilation trunk, with no square vent.
And this is The Sullivans...
...displaying what seem to be vents 1 and 3 integrated under the clip shack (with number 2 probably in the opposed position), same ventilation trunk, and added square vent abreast the stack.
I am going to asume that this is what Jorge Juan also was, as there is no info (well, I haven�t got it yet) about these details on board her.
Mr. Davis, thanks again for your attention and interest, and very warmest regards from Spain,
Willie.
Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).
While deciding what to build next, I have started detailing the bulkheads in the fore structure. For a chance, I have some useful pics of the Spanish units, what avoids lots of search. Here Jorge Juan herself... :
...a picture that is perfectly complemented by this one of her sister ship Alcal� Galiano:
These elements are very easy and a pleasure to build:
And the very same on the other side, with again a quite detailed picture, for what is customary dealing with older Spanish ships :
These elements can be confirmed, and very clearly, on board The Sullivans, in a picture that is virtually the same thing :
Once it is clear what is to be made, the making itself is as much as nothing :
So that�s all for today�s crop, and very best regards,
Willie.
Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).
I want you to know that I am totally blown away by not only the amount of detail you are adding to this ship, but by your talent and creativity. I've been following this build with great interest to see how you approach complex items and your ingenuity in solving them. You are a remarkable craftsman, to say the least, and I can't wait to see your next installment to see what you do next.
I do have one question for you, if you don't mind. I am very interested in how you made these vent pipes.
I have been seriously thinking for some time about doing the same thing on my Missouri, but I can't figure out how to put the 180 degree bend at the top, nor how to enlarge the opening like you did. Would it be possible for you to go into a little more detail on how you made these?
Again, keep up the excellent work!!!
Larry
Larry Steiner
Completed: 1:200 USS Missouri (Monster Mo)
Next project: Definitely NOT another big ship!!
steinerman wrote:I am very interested in how you made these vent pipes.
Would it be possible for you to go into a little more detail on how you made these?
With pleasure.
Again it has to do with heat. Firstable, you have to choose the correct caliber. In this 1/144 scale I used for my pipes Evergreen 0.65 mm., but I usually use stretched sprue as well.
Then you will have to heat it very slowly, keeping it appart from the flame at a certain distance. Only with this you will have a kind of buttom at the tip of the rod, simply a side effect of heat:
The rod should be hot and relatively soft, but not bending on its own. And now what you are asking for: grab the rod with one hand and the base of the "buttom" with the tip of your tweezer, and stretch a bit, so that the rod does not bend, and then, always stretching, turn your wrist until you get a 180� turn. Keep this position for a few seconds and blow to cool the plastic down. Done.
You will need some exercise, but honestly, if I can do it, anybody can.
If you are building in 1/200 you will need probably 0.50 mm. rod.
I hope it has been of some use, and very best regards from the North Atlantic,
Willie.
Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).
