The Ship Model Forum

Thanks to all for the kind comments.

Bob, the horizontal lines were scribed with a screw set drawing compass - locating off the main deck. The vertical lines were drawn with a #5 pencil. Varying degrees of rust was added using brown and red pencils. I tried to make her look like an old ship that had seen a long war.

Martin, you keep winning contests. My ships would break the judges dental mirrors.

Have finished APA-49, USS Ormsby. She was one of the first war built APAs to enter service and earned 6 battle stars from Tarawa to Leyte. I wanted to show her as she was at Leyte, somewhat worn by 1.5 years in the Pacific.

Pic 1 is the best overall view I found (credit to W. Clarke National Archives). The pic was taken March 1945 after a refit and obvious changes include directors for the 5", more 20mm and the midships mast moved forward from the funnel to the top of the pilot house.

Pic 2 & 3 are the ship.

Looks like you nailed it. Great job!

Have finally finished the 4 C2-S-B1 hulls, An AGC, APA and 2 AKAs. I am amazed at the differences in the ships. They did start out with the same hull.

The first 2 pics show the 4 C2 hulls in process and finished.

Pic 3 is 5 completed APAs. It is interesting how the king-posts line up.

Color, APA-49 (foreground pic 3) is the same color (5-O & 20B) as APA-34 (middle pic 3) yet shows much lighter??? The ships were on a table 6' from a large south facing picture window, the light was not direct but still quite bright. No flash was used. The only thing I could adjust in the future is distance from the camera. I did use the macro setting, the ships were 1' to 2' from the lens.

BEAUTIFUL and fine modelmaking!

The models are sharp and a real credit!

Bravo!

Jim Baumann

hello Jim

I just read your in full thread and I am speechless your way to work is just amazing
the result ,makes you want to follow your path MERCI!
cheers
Nicolas

The next project is 2 victory ships, Boulder Victory AK-227 (VC2-S-AP2) and Kenton APA-122 (VC2-S-AP5). These ships were built later (mid to late 1944) than the C2's and C3's that I did previously and the differences between the straight cargo ship and the APA are much more involved.

For a change plans and info was not lacking! I bought 1/192 Haskell plans from FDD a long time ago (redrawn by TW and include hull stations), HNSA has plans online which allowed me to make 1/350 copies and I have the Revell Montrose (which is amazingly accurate w/l and above) to give an overall 3D view. The K was harder, plans online here http://www.lanevictory.org/laneVspecs.php
and Fine Art did Lane Victory and I wore out that link http://www.fineartmodels.com/fineartmod ... .html#grid

I thought I would explain hull construction in detail with this build.

pic 1 A block of poplar 18" x 2.5" x .75". The dimensions of a VC2 in 1/350 are 15.61" x 2.13". The elevation was glued to the block with rubber cement.

pic 2 The sheer curve was nibbled close with a radial arm saw, then sanded to the line with a palm orbital sander.

pic 3 .030" styrene sheet was glued to the hulls and blocks with contact cement. The trick to get the blocks accurately placed on the hull is to drill and locate pins before gluing. When a clamp bears down between the block and waterlin the loose piece will NOT slide. The pins come out with no problem.

pic 4 Blocks attached. The full width structure over #4 hold identifies the APA.

Continuing on...

pic 5 Plans rubber cemented to decks. Width rough cut with table saw and then hand sanded to 2.13" (max beam) see pic 6.

pic 6 Hand sanding setup. Square wood piece keeps sidewall of ship perpendicular to waterline. The process is slow enough that it is fairly easy to nail the size.

pic 7 Excess corner material removed with band saw. Deck corners sanded to line with vertical disc sander.

pic 8 Some parts roughed out.

Will be quiet for a while, the next job is sanding/carving all the 3D curves, and while I absolutely enjoy this job, it does not go quickly.

Thank you very much for the step-by-step run down as it was very informative. Keep up the awesome work man

What Ciffy said Jim! Thank you.....





Bob Pink.

Looking good so far, glad to see you back at it Jim.

Hello Jim

thanks for your step by step ,I think you will pave the way for a lot of people, me in first

superb realisation

best regards
Nicolas

To all..you are welcome. I hope the finished ships are good enough to "justify" the methods.

It took 2.5 days to sand the curves on the hull. I pushed a little because the weather was NICE (70/40), the forecast for the weekend was COLD 50/30) and I sand outside on the porch.

Pic 1 shows the tools used. The convex stern is all rounding off. I used a disc sander (not shown), the orbital palm sander and a sanding stick made from a 1" piece of rubber backed laminate flooring. The rubber gives a cushion that smooths and blends very well. The concave bow is all hollowing out. The hand grinder with the drum sander was set on slow speed and the motion was longitudinal strokes, like peeling a potato. The most useful idea was coarse (100 grit) paper held around an empty plastic glue bottle. The deformation of the bottle when pressure was applied again gave a cushion which helps to blend and hollow out. The small diameter pen was used at the transition area high on the bow.

Pic 2 and 3 show the results.

The bow bulwarks. This has always been a problem for me, I never know beforehand if the result will be bad or good. I think these will be OK, but I will have to go through a fill -sand - prime cycle to really know.

Pic 1 shows how masking tape follows the hull contour that you want to maintain with the bulwarks. I find a pen that draws a line .15" vertically from the deck and then mark the deck intersection and .15" high.

Pic 2 Remove the tape and attach to .020" styrene. The lines are visible through the tape. Mark p&s, the hull is hand built and NOT symmetrical (the bulwarks can be bent backwards). Cut with scissors.

Pic 3 Establish the major bend, heat in 165 F water and form around the drill.

Pic 4 Super glue to hull, using masking tape to position.

On to fixing.

Jim,

I have asked at various times how to shape Styrene but haven't gotten much in the way of useful answers.
I've heated it with a heat gun, stove burner, etc with varying results (mostly bad with molten plastic blobs all over). The thought of using hot water never occurred to me though. So? It will actually go 'limp' at that low of temp?

More info please!

Cody,

You do NOT want limp, you will loose all shape.

You want to use the lowest temp and heat the smallest area that will permit the bend without cracking and gives you a "set" when the bending pressure is removed. 165 did it for this very simple bend of a thin, small part. I only heated about 3/8" at the center of the part. Go to page 3 of this thread, 195 did it for a thicker,larger hull side.

Water is nice, the heat transfer is fast (15 seconds for the small piece above) and temperature control is easy (cooking thermometers are cheap and available at any supermarket, I also use it for cooking). Do not put thermometer into the microwave, I do not even put it in the oven.

All I can say to wrap is to experiment until you get the result you want. I was at the 3rd drill size before I matched the curve at the bow of the ship.

Very impressive work, I've thoroughly enjoyed the updates.

thanks Jim

Great work!
Love this topik!
Excellent models and innovative technologies!

Regards, Evgeny.

I wanted to show how the "K" looks with most major parts roughed out...

Pic 1 Las Vegas Victory 1946. Good, informative pics of the USN's Victory Ks are rather rare.

Pic 2 K-227 as she is right now.

Pic 3 Cannot resist comparisons. Liberty in foreground, Victory in background.

Pic 4 Stern view to show size difference.

On to fitting her out. There are 3 features which should be "interesting" (that means I have not done it before and experience has taught me that the first try may well be a joke).
1 The solid main deck bulwarks with the long gaps at the bottom. Right now I will try .100" deep styrene (.010" thick) glued on top of a conventional .130" PE railing.
2 The prominent "end caps" on the bridge wings, right now I hope a single piece .010" thick with the "windows" cut out will do the trick.
3 The vent tops on the 4 kingposts located at the corners of the midships structure, they look like tubular louvers. Right now I do not have a clue, but the fun is to cone up with something that I can reproduce 6 times ( the APA has 2 also).