The Ship Model Forum

Some minor and not linear work today. I fitted two 26' Motor Whaleboats to Alaska, with cradles. One with canvas cowl and one without. On "Eless M" I fitted six life rings on the outboard rail and two small reels for CO2 hoses (Fire suppression). Additionally carefully airbrushed the black boot topping on the starboard side, after drying fully, will paint the port side. To help keep the black from creeping under the tape I first sprayed with a light mist of the trusty Krylon 1311.

Hank Strubb kindly inquired with Rick E Davis as to the color of WWII life rings. The answer shared back was that they were, during the war, colored to match the ships camouflage pattern. That makes life easier if less colorful. I guess if you want colorful, either go for a jungle pattern or model a White Star steamship.

Regards! Tom

Again sideways progress? I printed two pair of (four quads, 16 barrels) Bofors Quads in 1:192 and a bunch of 1:120 life rings. The rings will go on the APA's LCM's and LCVP's, positioned as seen in photos. The Bofors? Who knows as Alaska already has one's installed and the Modern Missouri doesn't have any. I will need to design a shield as the one's on the future ARL do have shields.

Contemporary progress: Ellesse "M".

Painted the boot top, painted the superstructure deck in deck blue, permanently attached a few items. One advantage of printing your own items is they do get damaged in handling. I managed to knock off the top of the director for the 40 mm Bofors and the starboard signal lamp on the bridge. Printing replacements...

Tom

Tom,

Else M is really looking like it's right out of the pages of Life Magazine - The 3D parts are really making the details stand out - well done!!! All you need to to load up tanks etc.

Hank

Hank's Thank!

Yesterday I airbrushed the well deck which was bit of a masking issue! Perhaps it would have been easier to paint the deck and mask it then do the bulkheads? Several photos show ad hoc heavy machine guns on tripods along the superstructure deck, I designed and printed a number of these yesterday but will do a little more research as to their location and number. A few exterior rails need refreshment as it were, they are fragile and suffer occasionally from builder klutziness. The aluminum hull is very robust by comparison though one can't do any "oil canning".

Alaska is getting a new set of quad 40 mm Bofors (13) which I have been printing, a fallout and modification of the bow Quad 40 I did for the APA. I added a shield to the test one's pictured earlier. The larger (1:120) one's on APA have the barrel units as separate pieces, the one's for Alaska (1:192) are fixed.

I added life rings to a number of Randall's boats but need to look closely at the drawings and photos to discover shipboard locations. I know that the O2 level has one's on each side on the forward awarthship rail. With over a thousand land lubber passengers I expect there were more strewn about.

Cheers: Tom

LSM today, minor cleanup on lifelines, added 4 50 BMG on tripods, 4 ready ammo boxes, the Wherry wherry small Captain's gig.

Time to consider starting work on the mast. Might be interesting to print this, but the high degree of flexibility possibly produces some rigging issues.

So far no commercial parts except for some Evergreen half round, exterior and on the takeoff deck.

Tom

Tom,

Very nice, indeed - the new parts/boats, etc. really add up in the detail dept. Since you have the plans, I would suggest go ahead and do the mast & components in 3D and print your own. This way you'll maintain your high level of detail. The rigging can be accommodated once you've got parts for it to rig to!

Hank

All of the previous masts I have modeled were from variously, wood, brass tube or turned Alloy. As an experiment I am printing the mast, an 8 1/2 hour time when printed vertically. Perhaps it will work, maybe not.

Sticking to the idea of no commercial parts. Well Ok the 40 thou 6064 T 3 aircraft aluminum from which the hull is formed, and the 1/16 thick plexiglass for the tank deck are commercial products if re purposed.

Always strained feelings about pure hand crafts vrs computer designed- manufacture. When the Surgeon says �Siri remove appendix�, is it still surgery?

Tom

Test LSM Mast. Seems to be structurally sound enough for the purposes intended.

Tom

Tom,

That looks fine - I think you've got a keeper on that one!! Can't see anything that wouldn't work with that. Any shrinkage in the print or did it come out at scale?

Later,

Hank

Hank

I went back and re measured against the drawing and moved the fog horn up a bit, shortened the ladder and lengthened the base. So successful as a proof of concept but printing another. Tom

Nice impression, Tom.

You just have to pay attention to the type of shrouds for the rigging. Better to avoid elastic wires which tend to bend the masts slowly after a few weeks.

Stretched plastic is better, there is no stress on the mast.

The method is well-known.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DMjcLjHQXY

Pascal

I hope you are well! I agree that the elastic rigging would be inappropriate here. I used stretched spruce for the lifelines. One thought might be to slip piano wire or hard brass through hollow elements? I have seen the excellent sprue rigging from some of the real master modelers.

Mast 2.0 should have printed overnight so will check on it in a bit.

Cheers. Tom

Today I modified the original mast as the new printed effort came out inexplicably mangled. Installed and made double rigged halyards from sprue. Sort of a PITA but it's theoretically a good method. Working up the bill offloading for the amphibious landing force vehicles to be carried. I think I'll have the three DUKW's (Ducks) in front, but they need painting etc.

Cheers: Tom

Pascal:

Thank you for posting the "method Jim Bauman" video. I have seen his textual descriptions before. I usually use a slightly different (not necessarily better) which involves using a small candle and twisting the middle of a small section of sprue over the candle and when it gets soft enough (depending on how thick you want the sprue wire) I pull with both hands.

Always good to share modeling technique!

Regards: Tom

An item about which I have only sketchy information is the LSM Stern winch. The drawing I have showed the vague plan layout and size. This unit appears similar in design and purpose to the LST stern winches of which I have seen photos. Till I get better info, this will be my stern winch. Interestingly further information often arrives after constructing an item, never before.

Too nice out! Going flying!

Tom

I don't know if this will help you Tom:

https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/inde ... 5/page/12/

David: that would be helpful as my next project is an ARL which based on an LST hull.

Pascal, that nice large scale model is very close to what my first effort is. I have the roller guide and the large gears are on the inside. My engine cover is similar, without the gas tank. I would expect it was run off of ships fuel?

David, Pascal and Hank:

Thank you for the information, I think I am getting on towards a reasonable approximation of the winch. My latest model has a stack like the one in the large scale model. My reasonable guess is that the large drive gears are inside the frame and not on the outside, exposed. Hank's info shows the exhaust with a large muffler awarthship and the pipe leading overboard through the hull side. What none of the information shows so far is the controls for operation. Electric winches such as used for cargo handling on large ships often had a remote control pedestal. This is a setup probably with clutches, a throttle etc.

Cheers: Tom

Latest LSM Stern "Wench". In the raw fresh from curing and with a dollop of auto primer. Further mods? Larger cathead and possibly mounted higher? Exhaust awartships (to the LSM) with a large horizontal muffler and run out to the hull side.

Tom