The Ship Model Forum

Next model will be « Jacques Schiaffino » built at Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd in 1931. I got the plans from Tyne and Wear Archives.

Jacques (later renamed Ville de Dellys ) used to come once a week in front of my house in the 50’s and 60’s. He was on the Sete Algiers Line.

The pics are of the ship in front of my house, one can see my balcony !

The model will be 1/96 scale, it’s my first model at that scale and I’m scared a bit.

Should be an interesting project! 1:96 allows, and requires, a lot of small detail! The volume of a 1:96 model compared to a 1:192 is eight times! My current project is in the almost totally obscure 1;120 scale. As it turns out this was a bit of an accident as I was rescuing a hull I had built over 50 years before. The volume of the 1:96 over the 1:120 is half again! A lot of what you can do detail wise is related to the volume of the bits and pieces you will be producing. I am working with a friend a little bit on his 1:144 project and it is interesting to compare 3D printing capabilities between 1:144 and 1:122 parts, it is fairly considerable.

So in 1:96 you have many opportunities to scratch build your ship using traditional or new technology means. I hope that you are able to find enough detailed information to satisfy the needs of this scale!

Good luck, have fun! Tom

Fliger : I don't think I'll be able to make so much details like you do

The frames are laser cut from 3mm medium.
This is just a dry fit to see what it will look like : very long !

nice to see you go for something large scale this time. Already curious on how you will build your hull? Balsa wood on frames? Or filling between the frames? I assume it is waterline from what I see in your last pictures? And did you do the laser cutting yourself?

_________________
The merchant shipyard

There's a fab lab in my town with a laser cutting machine. I made the plans with Corel Draw.
I plan to fill the hull with balsa wood and cover it with 0,25 mm styrene.

It's waterline because I think a ship is tobe seen afloat and not in drydock !!

The frames are filled with balsa. Now it's sanding time !

I never thought a styrene clad hull would need so much sanding

Intersting construction technique! Tremendous amount of Balsa wood involved, being far from the source here, there probably isn't that much Balsa in the entire state! That should be a method allowing accurate hull shape. Are you using some laser technique for cutting the styrene or standard knife and ruler techniques? Makes for a clean construction.

Best regards: Tom

Hi Fliger !!!!!
Balsa is not very expensive, it cost me 20 euros on the net .
Concerning styrene I glue the shape printed on paper with a glue thats peels off easily without leaving any trace (PATTEX repair 100%), then I cut with Xacto blade and then peel off the paper.
I tried laser cutting on styrene but the cut is too large.

I've worked ond the windlass and the cargo winches. here is how they look before painting. I made them from photoetch styrene and resin mouldind for the winch drums. Some handles are missing , i'll glue them later as tey are too fragile

Beautiful windlasses. And an interesting ship.

Bollards are made with custom photo etch and aluminium rod.
The winches are now painted.
The mast is made from aluminium tube and the ladder is cuqtom photoetch

Very nice work on those winches!

The little wooden shacks (I don't know the real name ) on the bridge were made with veneer wood and using a photoetched template

with a little paint the funnel will be complete

Many clever construction methods! I have been considering getting a laser cutter, there are some modestly priced ones that might be useful for building of smaller models.

Thank you for sharing! Tom

thank you Tom!
The hull frames are laser cut, but the funnel frames are photoetched (0.2 mm copper)

I've tried laser cutting on styrene but the cut is too wide, it's too hard to get pieces at the right dimenson. Laser cut is perfect with wood or medium