The Ship Model Forum

Earlier this year, I was able to get my grubby little hands on the last available copy of a small kit from Loose Cannon East, a 1/700 "SS Munrio". It is a small merchant ship design from the tail end of WW I, part of the abortive mass production of various war emergency merchantmen in the USA. As it were, production was halted after only five ships of the class were built. She is a fairly standard mid-engined, three island design of about 6000 tons.

My subject is one of these, "Ashbee", rebuilt with a diesel engine instead of the as-designed steam turbines. She was in Norwegian hands under the name "Norse Lady" from 1936 to 1946 and spent the war mainly transporting lumber around the Western hemisphere, sailing solo or in convoy.

SS Ashbee as launched, ca 1920:


After WW II, as "MS Rolla" under Belgian ownership. I assume that she looked much like this as "MS Norse Lady" in WW II:


"MS Rolla" in a later photo. Note the different superstructure and smoke-stack:

Parts for this version and the 1920 version are included in the kit. Some bashing is needed for the intermediate version in photo number two.

The photo etch in the kit. Rather exhaustive:


The basic hull, out of the box:


Some doors, deck fittings etc added, portholes drilled out, basic superstructure dry-fitted:


I have turned the "Rolla" middle superstructure level back-to-front and made a bulwark from plasticard to represent the open post-war version. I have also added a bulwark to the top of the superstructure, atop what I think is the radio shack. The smokestack must be shortened a bit.

Very nice,I'll be following your build.

Scott

Neat little kit and an interesting project

Very nice!

That should be something special when finished.

Excellent! Will look forward to watching this build.

A coat of primer to see what is going on. Some sanding is obviously needed!

I have shortened the smokestack and added boat crutches from 0.5 mm plasticard, the boats are still loose. The two small boats under the bridge are from the kit, the larger ones aft of the smokestack are taken from the very useful "British harbour set" from Combrig.

I've made flagpoles fore and aft and radio mast on the bridge from 0.4 mm brass rod. The kit masts are not yet fastened. I need to refine their shape a bit.

handsome looking ship!

good progress

may I respectfully suggest to go down a size for the fwd and aft flagpoles...

they look a wee bit clunky to my eye .

Cheers
JIM B

That they do. One of the things one only really sees after a lick of primer

I will see if I have any brass thinner than 0.4 mm on hand. Not too certain about that.

*** Edit: No worries, the local hoppy shop (I have one!!!) has 0.2 and 0.3 mm brass rod in stock.

Some minor sanding and trimming here and there, and I've given the decks a coating of what is basically antifouling or primer red. As likely a colour as any I suppose. The flag-poles fore and aft will be replaced with thinner ones tomorrow I think.

The towering lighter is just a reminder of how petite this thing really is.

A first coat of Light Sea Grey for the hull. I've masked the deck and superstructure with Camouflage Masking Putty from MIG. An interesting alternative to yellow Tamiya tape. A bit like a stiffer play-doh, knead it, shape it and stick it in place.

I've removed the oversized flagpoles and will replace them with thinner ones at a later stage in the build. I don't quite trust the physical strength of 0.2 or 0.3 mm brass rod!

In other news I've cut out the display baseplate for the model, glued paper to it as a starting point for a seascape and drilled holes for mounting screws in baseplate and model. And I've made a work handle for the model, it uses the same screw holes as the baseplate.

Baseplate of 6 mm MDF, holes drilled for screws to hold the model in place, countersunk on the bottom side of the plate. A sheet of fairly thick watercolour paper with a pronounced texture is glued on the plate top to act as a base for the waterscape. It will be painted with suitable maritime colours and then waved-up with acrylic water products from AK. I will cut out the hull outline next so the model will sit "in" the water:


You can see the three screw-holes that I have drilled into the bottom of the hull. Some caution and foresight is needed here so the screws don't poke out of the model's deck!

Underside of baseplate, with countersunk screw-holes:



The paper will be trimmed to size later of course.

I've cut out the hull shape and drawn in a rough outline of hull wave patterns for a speed of about 10 knots (which would be balls-to-the-walls flat-out speed for this ship but never mind that!):


My next move is to splash some oil paint on it. Dark tones for this ship, blacks, grays, blues, a hint of brown. I'm thinking the Atlantic ocean, approaching shore, Octoberish and your typically ghastly autumn weather. It will be overlaid with "acrylic water" with a blue tint which will brighten it somewhat and even it out.


Back in the photo tent, model in place to get an impression. I've brush-painted the gray on the upper works of the ship, another coat is needed and some touchup of the deck. (Hull and decks are spray-painted but, oh, the masking and the tape does so want to rip the paint away...) I've slimmed down the masts and installed the first photoetch on them too by the way. Wake patterns are lightly sketched with pencil on top of the oil paint, not really visible in the photo.

The baseplate has been watered up and the model has been screwed into place, hopefully permanently.


The middle level of the superstructure has been glued in place and I've started attaching photoetch. Masts, upper bridge etc are just installed for photography, not glued yet.


The hull has been weathered, obviously. I'm trying to give the impression of a very hard-worked ship that is still trying to keep shipshape. Old, tired, but not a rust-bucket.

Most of the photoetch is in place now. Some touch up of the PE paint is needed, it does flake off when handled.

Nice build!!



Bob Pink.

The model as such is nearly complete. The masts are not glued in place and the booms and rigging are not done, and I need to touch up the paint here and there. I intend to add a deck load of lumber which will cover most of the visible surface in the well decks.

Real life has kept me busy since New Year's, but at last I can show some progress again. I wish to portray the ship carrying lumber like she did much of the time during WWII. Not very exciting, not terribly war-winning even, but necessary.

Now, lumber is not the heaviest of cargos, so the ship would max out on internal volume long before maxing out on weight. One often sees such ships carrying lumber as deck-cargo, stacked high and wide. Here are a couple of examples:


"Anna", a small Norwegian lumber-freighter not very different from "Norse Lady", carrying neutrality markings (WW I? Unknown.) Note that lumber is stacked absolutely everywhere, even blocking the wing passages below the bridge!


"Trollnes", a slightly larger ship than "Norse Lady", again carrying a deck cargo of lumber. I am guessing this is WW II era, plusminus a few years. She is not as madly overloaded as "Anna". Note the athwartships (chain?) straps securing the lumber.

These are just two examples, there are many more out there. Of note is the tendency to fill in the well-decks while leaving the cargo booms free (just) to operate. A small "well" is left open around the masts and winches. Sometimes a gangway of planks runs on top of the lumber piles, connecting forecastle/bridge/stern. It is quite common to see temporary battens supporting the lumber piles set up along the ship's sides, again made from lumber. Cannibalized from the load perhaps?

Now, the first thing I did was to use cardboard and mark out the available space for my cargo in the well-decks:

I need to leave room around the masts, for stairs and ventilators at each corner of the deck, and at the sides for the mast's shrouds. The shrouds do complicate things!


Cardboard templates. I then cut out the same shapes from plasticard, the plastic rests on top of the cargo hatches so have to be extended downwards to deck level and up to the desired height.


Nearly completed deck cargo "pallets" - I have made them so that they can be removed from the model for painting and installed as units later. The bow pallet, left, shows an all-plank cargo, supported at the ship's sides by wooden battens. The stern pallet, right, shows a more mixed cargo - some planks at the sides, logs and large square timber balks midships. Here I have added the gangway mentioned above to connect bridge and sterncastle. A similar one will be added to the bow pallet.


The model with cargo pallets in place. The masts will be installed at the same time as the finished, painted pallets - the shrouds run through openings in the deck cargo so it all has to be done rather carefully.

The deck-load pallets are pretty much complete and I have given them the basic coat of paint. Some washes will follow.

She looks great! Love a busy ship!!



Bob Pink.

The deck load is really very excellent!!

The ship looks so much more interesting now -and a decload of lumber is seldom modelled!

BTW-- whist thig are still alterable

==> the stagger in the aft curved railing-- is that intentional?

I usually butt-join railings with a expansion joint of thinned white glue

HTH

JIM B