Civilian/Military Transports Group Build Apr.15-Oct.15, 2011

[janschu]

Hello,

i am following this thread for quite a while and i must say, that there some really beautiful builds here.
Especially the APA-12 Leonard Wood is fantastic!

So, i would like to join in with my own contribution. It is the Wartime Standard Type 2TL oiler Seria Maru.
The model is completely scratchbuild using material like sheets, strips, rods, etc. from the Evergreen arsenal, and the scale is 1/350.
Here is apicture how the ship hopefully will look like when completed.
http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/seriamaru.htm

Some of the aftermarket parts used:
l'Arsenal: - AC 350 73, two bar railing, chain and tube type
- AC 350 22, 3"/50 guns, reworked to make them look like japanese 75mm AA guns (3 mounts)
NNT: - PE 350 001, life buoy
Flyhawk: - FH350012, IJN ammunition box
- FH350013, IJN ship windows
- FH350024, IJN ladeers & navigation light
LionRoar: - LE350020, IJN cable reel
- LE350026, IJN watertight door I
- LE350029, IJN cockboat davits set I
FineMolds: - FNMWZ-04, IJN 13mm machine gun set (4 single mounts)
- FNMWZ-05, IJN 25mm single gun set (4 mounts)
- FNMWZ-06, IJN 25mm twin gun set (8 mounts)
Veteran Model: - VTW 35032, IJN binocular set (some binoculars)
- VTW 35038, IJN fire control set (one 1.5m rangefinder)

Well, enough said, here are some pictures of the actual status.










So, what do you think?

Greetings from Germany,
Jan Schulz, SIG-Waterline

[Bob Cicconi]

Wow! Beautiful build so far!!

[Skiper]

Very nice and very different. Looking forward to see her done.

[Quincy]

Holy crap!!! That is nice!!!!!!!!!!




Bob Pink.

[JimRussell]

Jan,

Been gone for a few weeks and returned to find an absolutely stunning ship!

If you can, I would like to know how you made your hull. It is very nice.

[janschu]

Hello guys,

thank you for the kind words! I have made some progress with that ship so there will be an update
within the next few days.

Burkhardt (BMK) has turned some parts for me (cable rollers for the winches, collar for the funnel),
so at the moment i am doing the winches.

@Jim, well i have chosen this kind of vessel because the hull is really simple. Straight hull lines with
almost no curves. I have used the line drawings of Motoyuki san�s second book, http://www.hlj.com/product/MDG23041.
The Drawings are in 1/700, so i have enlarged them by 200% simply bringing them to 1/350.
The hull consists of a shaped base plate with two fixed hexagon nuts (to fasten the ship in its Trumpeter display case),
a number of frames also made from Evergreen and the decks. Then the hull sides were plated with sheets and the
excess material was cut off. The hull plating was simulated with Aizu tape, http://www.hlj.com/product/AIZ00018

I hope this helps.

Greetings from germany,
Jan Schulz, SIG-waterline

[reigels]

Nice clean build and a very striking model!

[janschu]

Thank you Scott,

in fact it is real fun to do such a vessel in 1/350 scale. Enables one to do much more detailling.
Well, maybe i do some more in the future. But there are no exact plans yet.

Greetings from Germany,
Jan Schulz, SIG-Waterline

[Timmy C]

Finally finished adding the 100-odd styrene supports in all the open gallery spaces. Tedious tedious, but done!

[Dan K]

Beautuful Seria Maru, Janschu!. Please post in the gallery as well.

Go, Timothy, go....

[Timmy C]

Added PE bridge windows to my Brasil Maru:

[Gordon Bjorklund]

Timmy,
Way to stick to a job until finished. I think that I would have quit adding supports after the first 46 or so and put the kit back in the box.

[Timmy C]

Thanks Gordon! It was tempting to stop doing it after the first level was done, but figured it was too late to turn back now, haha.

Here's how she looks now, with much of the superstructure dryfitted.

[Quincy]

Looking very good Timmy!




Bob Pink.

[Gordon Bjorklund]

Timmy,

I agree with Quincy, she looks very good. The extra work you have put into your build has paid off.

[Timmy C]

Ok, so after working on her till 3am for the past several days, I managed to finish her in time for the local model show today - won a gold (marked in absolute terms, rather than relative to competition, which was non-existent) for her, yay!

So here we go:

[Dan K]

Very nice work, Timmy. Which PE did you use for the railings?

[Timmy C]

Thanks Dan - I used GMM's Merchant Ship set (the one from way back in 1997 and technically designed for the Titanic and Lusitania kits [there was a 1/700 Lusi?!])

[Pieter]

Looks very nice Timmy! And yes, there was a 1/700 Lusitania available back in 1997, by a company called Bang Models in japan. Never seen it though.... I doubt that the GMM set was meant for this kit, I think Loren Perry simply made as 1/700 version of his 1/350 set as both Titanic and Lusitania were available in styrene in that scale.

[Pieter]

Due to work commitments and a certain unmentionable YT1300 I've been less active in the GB than I would have like to be. But some things did happen to Poelau Laut.
After looking at my first pictures in this thread I realized my hull was severely warped. Instead of correcting it I decided to save the decks and carve a new hull.
This is how she looked at the end of august.

As you can see I had a lot of trouble in getting the stem right.
I also started working on the superstructures at the time. Poelau laut had five of them. The bridge / passenger accomodation as well as the engine / social space on the middle deck, two small kitchen/toilet houses on the lower quarter for deck passengers and one on the quarter deck for the crew. I first concentrated on the large engine/social structure.
The structure's large windows were build up in layers of evergreen strip.

I alse started working on the bridge.