The Ship Model Forum

hi all,this is what i decided to do for port holes.i found a buch of small brass circles that are use in making jewelry these fit in the holes in the hull.3 cents each. for the eyebrows i wraped .020 styrene rod around a brass tube that is the right dia. for the holes.i heated it up a bit with a lighter to make it keep its shape.after slipping it of the tube i cut it with sissors,this made a bunch of circles,which where then cut in half.the holes in the hull are done in four passes,#1 poke a small hole with a scribe. #2drill a small hole. #3 drill the correct dia. hole. #4counter sink the hole to fit the brass rings.repeat 387 times, i am now cross eyed

Thanks for explaining your method Russ, the result is outstanding. I'm off now to count the number of portholes on my plans.

Hi Russ your hull looks superb!!!!

Very Very Smart Russ, thank you for sharing. Varyag too has plenty of "scuttles" as we called them in the RAN.

Andrew

Isn't drilling little holes fun . I make nitrous oxide plates for race cars that requires drilling .020 holes in brass tubes .The portholes look great .

Hi Russ port holes the bane of my life. I recall that when I last made the eye brows for a 1:128 KM Blucher I used very fine fuse wire or strands of fine copper wire removed from a length of cabling then as you have done folded them around a suitable diameter of tubing . Each to his own but your results look excellent.
Dave Wooley

Andrew,

I have been wondering about the correct terminology for these small round windows. Although I have called them "port holes" all my life the BuShips blueprints call them "air ports."

In the US Navy "scuttles" are round hatches (typically 18" diameter) in decks or set into larger hatches.

Also, BuShips blueprints refer to the boiler exhaust pipes as "smoke pipes" although almost everyone calls them "funnels" or "stacks." I suspect that if we used the "official" terminology no one would know what we were talking about.

Yes,

In the RAN, and RN if I am not mistaken, they are called scuttles, and scuttles were ussually fitted with blanking plates on the inside and these were known as "deadlights", so called because they were used to cover the scuttle at night if the ship had been ordered to "Darken Ship", a very common order on the old HMAS Melbourne (Carrier) when we were night flying.

The older RN style ships that we had such as Vampire and Vendetta (Old school Darings), were also fitted with "Escape Scuttles". These were lareger than ordinary scuttles and contained no glass. They could be opened from inside the compartment and used as a form of emergency escape from the compartment. We used to have interesting competitions where, as midshipmen, we would go out through the wardroom escape scuttle, climb on to the upper deck and then run back down into the wardroom. The fastest would win a free beer from each person present in the wardroom

But we digress, we(I) should get back on topic

Sorry Russ

Andrew

thanks for the feedback guys,on the wild west coast of canada we call them portholes bilge keels have always given me fits.i hated cutting long slices in the hull,lot of chance of poping i plank.trying to fit a single piece of styrene or wood involved much cutting and fitting to get it to fit the hull curve.this is what i came up with.i used 3 strips of basswood,starting with a piece 1/8 by 1/8 in. this i glued to the hull in the right place,being a small sqaure strip it can bend in compound curves.after it came i piece 3/32 by 1/8 glued to the first piece,then one 1/16 by 3/32 glued to that one.i then trimed the ends and sanded it down a bit to smoth out the joins and it came out not to bad,and no cutting into the hull now i have to fiqure out where the thru hull fitting are,so far i can not find any pics,there is one of sheer sunk at the doc but i think the holes one sees are from the salvage crews gaining access.

Hi Russ,

A very nice approach to constructing the bilge keels I was contemplating the "pins in the bilge keel and drill the hull" method, but I think I like yours better. It certainly makes getting the initial line of the bilge keel correct much easier.

Getting timber the right size AND flexibility might be a challenge at 1/72 scale on a big ship - we will see.

Andrew


(Dedicated scuttle supporter )

hi andrew,laminating many small strips allows the wood to be bent and twisted fairly easy mine are three piece once they are glued on they are pretty tough i sanded mine pretty hard and they did not fall off. having built a few 1/192,1/200 ships i find it hard to get used to a bigger scale my brain seems to have 1/16" to the ft'. embeded in it .heres some progress on the rudder and prop struts.

Looking geat , rudder is neet . Were did you get the ponce wheel ?

hi richard the pounce wheel is from floating drydock. it is in the much,much more stuff under tools.

wonderfull job on shaft attachments
superb superb

thanks every one for your comments.after the sub deck was glued on i took my sander and beveled the outer sides down by 1/16" this will give a little camber,i do not think it will be noticable ,but it is there.to get the decking to fit i had to build the rough assembly of the deck housing.it is balsa that will be skinned with styrene latter.the decking where it butts to each other worked out well as the seam will be under the widest part of the deck house.i will use contact cement to glue the deck on,this is tricky as if you make a mistake ,big problem.i will lay a sheet of paper down first then start at the bow and work back.

Going really well Russ, and quickly too, well done.

Andrew

very fast job and precise Russ

hi all scratch builders,deck is installed ,still have to make plank length lines,i tried my very fine micron pen,it works great on my other decking ,but the stuff i am using this time has very faint glue lines ,almost a dark grey,i tried a lead pencil it seems to be close the the glue lines.i will try it on a piece of scrape later and see what ever one thinks before doing the deck.

Wow Russ, those planks look really good

It must have been a painstaking task to secure each individual plank and to keep the lines straight, well done.

Andrew

hi andrew, i can not take credit for indivdual planks it comes in a glued up sheet 3"by 22" about 1/16" thick.i have tried planking before cutting my own planks but it is not my forte.i have the great'st admiration for the guys who lay there own decking,it is a very time consuming finicky process.