The Ship Model Forum

Tom,

Everything is looking really nice! I studied your ladder jig & descriptions on the previous page and that's a well thought out jig/process for making the ladders - well done!

Hank

Thanks Hank!

I also have a method for making hand wheels, maybe I'll post that.

Cheers: Tom

Handwheels made by coiling soft copper wire around a mandrel, nipping each coil to make a circle, soldering or jointing with CA. Then the spokes are trimmed from a fine mosquito net and then finished when glued to a shaft.

The APA is equipped with four of these boat winches for the Whelan Davits.
The box protects the cable spool and the cables (two) emirate from the opening at the bottom.

Bow View, (Eye Phone). Again just a bunch of pieces piled on deck. Today's effort was mostly making steering wheels for the plethora of Higgin's Boats. A lot to do with installing all the frames extending up through the bulwarks fore and aft, painting the hull, prop and rudder then getting to the lifelines boat cradles and trying to figure a sensible way to do the standing and moving rigging.

Really nice work, Tom!!! Starting to look like an APA!!!

Hank

Same deal, Bow, port side. Even small items such as several cable reels can take some time!

A question!

There are four 55 gallon Drums on the fantail. I think this is probably oil for the smoke generator? The question is what color would the oil drums be?

Fire Main
Oil drum for fantail, there are four.

Tom,

Oil drums - wouldn't they (normally) be olive drab? I think in USN use they would be a light/med gray with black stenciling. JMHO!

Hank

Would be my guess, lt gray, but in a forward area could come from anywhere? Color coded like gas bottles? I unfortunately don't know what they were used for as they are near the smoke generators, but also right by the engine shop.

The drums might have been fuel for the boats?

Phil

Looking at the drawings, the barrels are situated right next to the smoke generators, each port and starboard on the fantail. So guessing the oil is used for those? I think the boat fuel is stored deep in the ship in a tank, will have to look at the inboard section again. I have the location of the smoke generators but not a detailed description of the ones installed. I am guessing the four tank type such as used on a Fletcher Class DD.

The Inboard section does not reveal where the boat fuel is stored. The LCVP's had variously 225 hp diesels or 250 hp gas engines so a lot of fuel would be required!

I found the gasoline storage (for the boats) at about from 105 port and starboard abeam the shaft alley. There is a fog oil tank at the very stern on the starboard side. So Oil drums for something or another. Looks like two oil drums would be enough to feed or resupply a four tank smoke generator.

Further research indicates that the smoke generator tanks were filled from std 55 gal oil drums.

Tom,

I think you right! Here is a link on HNSA to smoke generation on ships:

http://archive.hnsa.org/doc/smoke/index.htm

Goes into quite a bit of detail incl. mention of oil supply coming directly from 55 gal. drums to the storage tanks.

Hope this helps!

Hank

Thanks Hank, I found that today. Using the illustrations there I made two 4 tank generator units today. An interesting feature is the inclined track and an emergency release handle. Apparently they could be jettisoned overboard by pulling the handle.

Question! I see a divergence from what seems normal practice in a number of APA models. The entire hull is painted in boot top black. The photos I have examined do not show enough of the hull to see where the bottom ends, if it does. One AKA on a similar hull is light enough forward that it appears that maybe the boot top ends down about 8'.

Anybody have any definitive info on this?

Thanks: Tom

A very useful tool for scribing waterlines on the hull. Normally this tool can hold such measuring devices such as a dial indicator and attaches to any metal base with a strong magnet. Mechanical pencil works well as a scribe.