The Ship Model Forum

Cliffy, Mac, Thanks.

Cliffy, The next ship is Applings AKA cousin. Then it will be something different.

Sean, "Hey Jim, have you thought of making the ship from the film Away All Boats?" Actually a hard question.
If you go by the book (my inclination) then the C3-S-A2 Bolivar on page 5 is a Belinda.
If you want the movie, the USN loaned USS Randall, a VC2-S-AP5 Haskell class APA. The Kenton (APA-122) on page 9 is a Haskell class APA.
If you research deeper, Kenneth Dodson, the author of "Away All Boats" served on USS Pierce APA-50 (C2-S-B1). She is a sister to Ormsby (APA-49) on page 8.
Your choice.

Hi Jim,

I am late and at the end of this thread, and seeing the finished models (together!) in the gallery, I have no words...

Very inspiring work, an example of how scratchbuilding should be.

Awesome builds Jim. Kevin

Hello Jim:

I have just read all the pages of your builds. I am in awe of your talent and output. I am interested in these ships as my dad served on the USS Marvin H. MacIntyre, APA 129. On the magazine cover of Cal Shipyards, it looks like you can see the hull number down the row of bows. I have built the Revell Attack Transport, Montrose and Randall several times, but now would like to do something on a more detailed level. Your work is inspiring and motivational.
Thanks for sharing your work and your talents.

Best wishes

Wow. I am currently with a book-length history of a C2-S-B1 build by Federal ship in 1942 and operated by Grace Line. I was really taken by this work on the C2's.

Where did you find the deck plans with which you worked?

theron,

1/192 plans of C2-S-B1 USS Marquette AKA 95 can be purchased from The Floating Drydock. They are in the "G" series and are copies of USN "Booklet of General Plans". There are no hull lines but there are a few longitudinal sections and below main deck "deck plans". You can get a fairly accurate hull with this information.

Back at it!!

Researching the Maritime Commission's Liberty and Victory ships made me aware of a similar ship building effort that occurred during WWI, the "Hog Island" ships. Hog Island is a real place, located just outside Philadelphia PA and was the site of a shipyard set up by an entity of the US Government, the United States Shipping Board.

The intent of this yard was to reduce the shipping shortage caused by WWI. The yard produced two types, the Type A (1022) freighter and the Type B (1024) transport.

As happened with it's other major shipbuilding effort (the flush deck DD's), the USA's effort was more than a day late with 110 A's and 24 B's completed between 1918 and 1921.

These ships were designed for ease of fabrication and as a result had no sheer with vertical stems for both and a vertical stern for the transport. The ships were considered aesthetic failures but were functionally well regarded.

I wondered if any of these ships served the USN during WWII. It turns out that some freighters composed the Capella Class freighters (AK-13, 15, 16, 17) and two transports, Argonne AS-10 and Samaritan AH-10 served as well.

I chose to build the Samaritan AH-10, the collection needed a Hospital Ship and "white" will no doubt provide some challenges.

Samaritan was 10,700 tons, 448" LOA, 58" beam, 6,000 HP turbine which gave 15 knots.

Pic 1 to 3 shows a 1944, 1945 and 1946 fit of this ship. I will do the 1944 fit (as always) and will aim for a good deal of "grunge" befitting a 20+ year old riveted hull. Pic 4 shows the plans (first time in color) and the start of the hull.

Welcome back Jim,

Enjoy the looks of the USSB First World War designs and always a pleasure to watch your work. Must have cooled off a bit in Arizona.

Best Regards,

Mac

The hull now looks more "hullish", I can finally distinguish the bow from the stern. Pic's 1 & 2 show the hull after removal of the corners with a scroll saw and going as far as I can/risk with the disc sander.

The next step is to round off the stern contours with the hand held orbital sander (easy & fun), hollow out the bow contours with the slow speed drum sander AND plenty of hand sanding (not easy but rewarding when the "got it" moment happens). The midships hull sides will be finished using the wood block as a vertical guide, the midships superstructure pile will be pinned to the hull and sanded to final width with the same set up.

The last picture shows where I am right now, the stack comes from a 1/570 Titanic (parted out for the Heywood on page 4 of this post).

"Fun" things to look forward to include the bridge face and masts (slender poles popping up from a flimsy bridge between two king-posts).

She looks really good, Jim!


Bob Pink.

Hello Jim
as for Bob, your work is a reference for me I'm looking forward to implement your method! thank you so much for sharing
cheers
Nicolas

Hull 98%+ shaped. Need to add eight 45 degree gussets from the 3 islands to the main deck and the bow bulwarks (vertical!), then it is Bondo and sand.

The stern took 45 minutes to get here from the previous post while the bow took "forever" using primarily coarse sandpaper wrapped around a piece of 1/2" brass tubing (75% of the bow material was removed with the small drum sander in 5 minutes, but it does not pay to get too close to finished size).

Your hull looks outstanding, Jim!



Bob Pink.

Hi Jim:

I always enjoy reading your build logs and your topics. Years ago I worked with a guy who had served on the Appling. It's neat to see a picture of the ship and your excellent model of the ship.
Thanks for your work and sharing your work.

Progress!!!

Pic 1 Bondo and sanded

Pic 2 Primed

Pic 3 The last coat of five colors (almond > wood deck,white > hull, black > boot-topping, green > stripe and red > cross).

Pic 4 A ship crying "FIX ME", the green and red BLED! Should be able to cope.

Jim,

I don't remember sending you my "How to Paint" instructions. Strange.

Defective tape, nothing more, nothing less. But no, they went around spreading rumors ...

Very best regards,

Mac

Mac, did not have trouble with white over almond or black over white. I "thunk" the green and red are just thinner and capillary like crazy into any tape seam. I have the pilot house roof and the stack to see if I can deal with it better.

The ship itself loosely assembled. On to the easy things...boats, lift, masts, and 101 other misc items. The last item will be weathering, which is probably going to be a make or break proposition.

Jim,

I was going to suggest decals but it appears you cleaned it up very well. Someone once said something to the effect that it isn't adversity that sets one apart but rather the ability to recover.

With the superstructure in place, she's really taking shape. Looks very good. Love these USSB designs.

The weathering will certainly be a challenge. Very easy to overdue on a white surface. Have you ever used pastel chalks? They are my preferred method for HO scale railroad cars and seem, to me, to work well on light colors. Also have the advantage of being able to wash off mistakes.

Looking forward to seeing more,

Mac

Jim,

I really wasn't conscience of weathering on your models which implies there isn't any or that it is quite well done. Took a few moments to review this thread and discovered, not really to my surprise, that it is quite well done. You certainly don't require any suggestions from me.

How's USS Samaritan going? I find some detail work intriguing, but repetitive details annoying. I think it's my advancing years! Hope everything is going well and look forward to seeing more.

Regards,

Mac

Mac,

Just slow making parts.
My supply of bollards made on page 6 ran out.
Scratched 12 lifeboats ...TWICE!!! Used .015" plastic from milk bottles the first time, and discovered that Code 2 plastic (high density polyethylene) DOES NOT HOLD PAINT!!! Wasted one day of work and then two days to get over my mad. Am happy with the green stripe, knowing that masking was NOT an option painted a 4" X 4" piece of paper (.004" thick) on one side, sliced .030" wide strips with an exacto blade and ended up with a .005" thick poor mans decal. Attached with lots of white glue. The thickness is not apparent, the glue disappeared and I had no problem lining up both sides at the bow/stern.
Life boat davits are done...You get the idea...plugging out parts.

Weathering, thanks for the compliment, my favorites are:
1 Colored pencils, usually worked over with a wet Q-Tip.
2 Dilute acrylic paint wash applied after matte coat, usually with a Q-Tip (water based for better control and ease of repair).
3 White to black graded pastel chalks and colored chalks. My favorite pastel experience was the first time I tried them. Used a light grey (to represent salt streaking ) on an otherwise "clean" model of the Essex Class carrier Yorktown in dazzle (lots of hull sides). Had a fantastic result for a first try, was really happy. Then sprayed my usual matte finish to "seal" the job. The salt effect disappeared, I learned that chalks have to be applied LAST!! Did the salt again (liked it again), then took pictures and discovered that the camera does NOT see pastel as well as the human eye.