ARL 12 USS Poseidon

[Fliger747]

Some work on the stern today! I checked the contours and found they needed to be reduced a little. My experiment at doing the double knuckles at the stern was to cut the vertical band at the stern from styrene and apply, then below, at the waterline knuckle glue a thin strip. Between these I used a straight edge to spread putty to approximate the straight, but inclined plates at this juncture. The putty sands easily and will be easy to reduce accurately to the proper contour. The plastic which is harder will provide a good edge for the knuckle. I'll see how this works out before proceeding to the bow doors.

Tom

[dhenning]

Looking good Tom. Can't wait to see the deck details develop. I've done a little more digging on the Achilles and actually have found a few photos. You were definitely right about the Achilles and Remus being used to develop the concept of the ARL. Looks like the cranes changed over time, the addition of the workshop space on the main deck, and the armament definitely changed overtime. Also found that my wife's cousins' grandfather, James J. Antoon, received the Navy Cross for his actions to save the ship and crewmates after the Achilles was hit by a kamikaze.

One of the first things mentioned in the info on the conversion of the Achilles to an ARL was the addition of two evaporators on the deck to supply the landing craft with fresh water. Do you know if the Poseidon also carried these on her deck? I have looked a little for pictures of a WWII variety evaporator, but most photos that I am finding are types below deck without any protective covers that I would assume would be needed for a weather deck installation.

Do you know if the ARLs kept the large vent stacks that were used on the LSTs to remove the gas/diesel fumes from the well/tank deck? Not enough detail on the photos that I have found of the Achilles to make that call on my part yet.

Keep up the updates and good work!
Dave

[Fliger747]

Dave:

Yes Poseidon carried extra evaporators, I believe on the starboard side on the main deck forward of the navigation bridge. However they were under cover. I don't believe that even later LST's retained the large vent stacks. Beyond being just repair ships these were mother ships as needed to support anybody in need, the fleet that came to stay brought it's own support. Sometimes when there would be a Kamikaze raid the boats ashore might get marooned. In Vietnam several were used as mother ships for the brown water navy.

It would be interesting to find out if she had the large A frame on the port side and the other booms. It may be that she didn't have the main deck house but a lot of open air workshop space to work on boats. Yes she go hit two different times, once off New Guinea by a dive bomber and forward much later by a Kamikaze.

Does the family have any wartime photos? I have my dads and it's a lot of help. Looking to find the exact bow doors dimensions. Sphinx's should have been operable but not shown on the plans.

Tom

[Fliger747]

Current hull progress. This shows the unique double knuckle (Useful "handy" tool for setting disputes between competing crews on liberty) of the ARL/LST Hull. I expect to allow for simpler forming of shell plates, to speed construction. The big forms are pretty correct right, now follows rather time consuming fairing and surface finish to follow.

Cheers: Tom

[Fliger747]

The last day or two I have been working on the bow. Today I printed the bulwark right at the bow and attached it. Doing some blending around the bow doors and main forecastle deck. Somehow I got the bow 40 mm tub too high and cut that down to the correct height. That my plans are in 1:96 and I am building in 1:120 leads to the occasional misstep in scaling.

Yes, I know the serious modelers would have the plans re printed...

Cheers: Tom

[Fliger747]

Today have added the aft 20 mm tubs to the O1 deck, drilled the main deckhouse portholes for "Officers Country". Currently attempting to print 12" scale portholes, these turn out to be very tiny items, so we shall see how they work!

Tom

[Fliger747]

Added the portholes (some) to the deckhouse, but printing some more as here there was a high attrition rate, small, fragile etc. Perhaps I will get the forward main deckhouse roughed out today, perhaps not. Task for the day was to change the tires and install the skis on my 1:1 scale airplane, but it's cold and cloudy which is an inclination to moving it to the roundtuit list.

As I have added the 20 mm tubs to the aft main deckhouse, I'll not attach it till the upside down hull work is complete. Otherwise doing such work is an invitation to retrograde assembly (smashing already installed detail). Attaching the basic forward deckhouse would allow upside-down hull work whilst protecting main deck details.

Also Haven't worked out how to attach the hull side ribs and what material to use. These have to be very straight! Possibilities include, sprue, thread, monofilament etc.

Cheers: Tom

[Fliger747]

Today's progress. Decided to hold off on attaching the forward deckhouse, will be easier to detail under a lamp on the table. Attached port midships 20 mm tub, printed six of the latest 20 mm Mk 10 Orlikons with MK 14 lead compensating sight such as Poseidon was equipped, She had eight so need to print at least two more. Forward port 20 mm tub (D shaped) printed, but not the lattice stand as yet. Midships is a huge vent structure, which i have printed, but now will locate accurately before attaching it.

Cheers: Tom

[Fliger747]

Yesterday did some printing, a smorgasbord really of small items. I now have the required number of 20 mm Orlikons plus an extra. Hank Strub sent me files for Chocks and Bitts which I re scaled a little for my project and I printed a raft of those plus some slightly refined inclined ladders and a further refined portside midships gun tub. As the post war plans I have aren't close to the WWII configuration, examination of numerous photos is necessary. Sometime additional interpretation intervenes after a prototype has been constructed.

The junction area between the forward and aft deckhouses required some modification as the change in deck height here got mismanaged. Always an adventure to use my large miter chop saw on model parts... Reminds me of when I chopped the APA hull in half with the bandsaw to add a plug.

Today, will probably design the gun tubs in front of the bridge area and maybe tweak the midships tub a little.

Cheers Tom

[Fliger747]

A note to Dave Henning: Achilles apparently did have the forward deckhouse as it was noted that off the Philippines when she was hit by a kamikaze it was the forward deckhouse which was the point of impact. LST 455 was an LST 1, which might have some small differences with the later hulls on which the majority of ARL's were built from. If you check out Navsource photos of Achelous, ARL1 I think you can get an idea of what Achilles might have looked like. The forward deckhouse is shorter, the ship has an elevator forward instead of a ramp, the bridge is LST like, on the O1 level with the block like open conning station above. Also the king posts are much shorter than the later ships. My guess is that the Achilles was used as a model for the early ARL's (1-9) and the later ones were more extensively modified.

Regards: Tom

[dhenning]

Great info Tom. Much appreciated. My home network is down waiting for the internet provider to send a new modem. Will start looking at Navsource again and start collecting images and making notes

Dave

[Fliger747]

Dave:

If I come across any useful info I'll pass it along. My strong guess is that Achilles would have greatly resembled ARL-1 which was probably modeled after her. Most noticeable is very little modification to the basic aft LST superstructure whereas ARL 11- whatever had the bridge raised a whole deck, not a small modification that would be carried out wartime in Sydney. Sydney is not blessed with huge dockyards despite the lovely harbour, much repair work was undertaken there so such a conversion would have had to been a high priority. Apparently one that was liked well enough to authorize and construct a large class. That stateside rather interesting that they took fully functioning and commissioned LST's and then sliced and patched extensively rather than build to the final spec. I guess less time consuming than disrupting the cornfield shipyards from the one thing they knew how to do!

Cheers: Tom

[Fliger747]

Current progress: Bits and chocks glued down, as are the 20 mm tubs, but not the Orlikons themselves. Currently printing the companionways that lead below from the break in the sheer forward. The Port one has a 20 mm tub perched on top!

All 8 Orlikons are updated models with the MK 14 lead compensating sight. These use Gyro's to establish a rate/rate acceleration value to establish a lead for the sight. This of course is dependent on smooth tracking. A similar system was used in the MK 51 directors for the Bofors, though more sophisticated. For an Auxiliary these had fairly decent close in AA protection, 8 Bofors and 8 Orlikons with a gapped field of fire. None were sunk, but one at least, Achilles did take a Kamikaze forward off the Philippines.

Not fast, 11 knots or so, but with shallow draft and twin rudders sharp turning ability was probably OK.

[Iceman 29]

It looks great!

I'm sure the level of detail will be memorable!

[BB62vet]

Tom,

That's really starting to take shape!!! I had forgotten about your Rapid Black resin - however, it does show the details very nicely prior to being painted! Your portholes should work out nicely on the superstructure!

Hank

[Fliger747]

Thank you Pascal and Hank!

I have subsequently printed the two companionways including the Port one with the Orlikon tub. Looking at photos I have been going around and designing small fittings which were mostly present during WWII but were removed from Sphinx and aren't shown on the plans. Sort of stuck with this while NARA is closed and I can't access relevant BOGP's. At the forward end of the main deckhouse are a number of very large doors, which I am currently printing. These allowed access to racks of pipe, steel, wood and whatnot needed build/repair whatever happened by in distress.

I'll probably hold off attaching the portside companionway because of the fragility of the attached (flimsy) tub.

Tom

[Fliger747]

Added some small items, boy this ship has a lot of ventilators. With all the various workshops I can see where this was very important. There are awarthships I beams by the A frame derrick as reinforcements between there and the winch. I had added the midships portside 20 mm tub, which I subsequently ripped back off and modified with a deeper tub. This ship had some large tubs as the deck space was generally available. I suspect the limitation on light AA was crew size. The ready boxes were usually (with exceptions) inside the splinter plating rather than outside. I printed a pelorous to mount on the flying bridge and some voice tubes (from Hank) and more gas bottles and racks.

Around the edge of the O1 level are floater net baskets. Unlike many warships these are a solid trough, not a mesh. So now to figure out how to do the floats. A trip to the bead store may help but if not I can 3D a zillion of them.

Cheers: Tom

[Fliger747]

Ah, Floater nets and baskets. Baskets printed OK though I need to measure as best I can the size of the shorter ones. Mostly strewn along the edges of the O1 level forward. Perhaps the bead store was useful, perhaps not. I did print 500-600 floats but having issues getting the center hole for stringing big enough via the printing process. Perhaps a VERY fine wire (if I can find some) would work well. Mono fish line would maybe work but wire would be better as it would stay bent. It is not really essential to string these but would offer some advantage. The trough like baskets are simple, being solid instead of a mesh, but have a more complex attachment structure.

Cheers: Tom

[DrPR]

A good source of fine wire is old AC power cords. These are multistrand wires of very small diameter.

Phil

[Fliger747]

Phil:

Good suggestion as usual. I just cut off some extension cords and replaced the end fittings with some more HD units. I guess the labeling style of many strands is used to ensure flexibility. I did finish the large floater net basket at the front of the O1 level and I think it looks fairly convincing with all the individual floats glued in place. A little time consuming. All the rest of the baskets are shorter 10' units.

Yesterday I printed the aft deckhouse which included the tub for the stern 40 mm quad. For a large piece it came out pretty well on the first attempt. If I get my ASP in gear (he suffers from Reptile Disfunction on cold mornings) perhaps some photos later. At least all the armament and related tubs are now finished.

The Sphinx drawings aren't really totally helpful as she for her 60's missions her configuration was altered quite a bit in detail. There a few good photos on Navsource and I have my dad's photos from WWII. The ships had quite a bit of individual variation, some issuing forth from the builders, some from ship yard intervals and others self induced as they did have the experience, personnel and materials to carry out a lot of work themselves.

Tom