1/400 Bulk Carrier "Dimitris Manios"

[Yannis Karystinos]

Hello to everyone,

This is my first fully scratchbuilt project the m/v �Dimitris Manios�, a 37.664 D.W.T. bulk / lumber carrier in 1/400 scale. The ship was owned by LMZ Transoil Shipping and she was built on 1984 at Kanasashi Toyohashi shipyard in Japan.

HULL

The beginning of the construction was quite anorthodox. All the reference I had at my disposal were a general arrangement plan and a good set of clear big sized photos. The lack of a hull lines plan was compensated by detailed photos of the vessel taken at drydock and the help of my good friend Christos who is a naval architect by profession and whose expert advices were invaluable.

The material of choice was plastic as it�s a material that I�m familiar with and it�s also easy to use. The fact that the model would be only 47cm long helped to put aside any concerns about warping (only time will tell anyway). Styrene�s main problem is that it�s very soft so considering the lack of internal framing i had to find something strong to build upon. The solution was the hull of imex�s �Nedlloyd Bahrain�. Although shorter and narrower than the dimensions needed and additionally of different shape at bow and stern (quite a solution ha?) it provided a strong base for the things to come. The basic idea was to �fatten� the hull of �Bahrain� by adding plastic strips and then give the right shape by sculpting and sanding.

For starters the hull of �Bahrain� was cut amidships and an extra part was inserted to lengthen it to the proper size. The bow was cut off from the main deck and upwards along with the main deck bulwarks, while the stern was completely removed from the point where the hull begins to narrow.
The shaping of the bow begun with the placement of the forward section of the main deck in order to have a guide for the hull lines. Numerous strips of evergreen plastic were used to add the needed volume below the main deck followed by sculpting and sanding until the bow curves blended together. The forecastle was constructed in bread and butter manner then put to place, being an extra guide for the final bow shape.

I apologize for the not so good documentation of the construction but most of the time i was carried away by my entusiasm neglecting to take pictures. When photos can't explain effectively the building process i'ii try to do it with drawings.

Regards
Yannis

[Pieter]

Very interesting approach. I'm looking forward to see your progress on this build.

[Yannis Karystinos]

The shaping of the stern started with the same procedure as the bow. Placement of the aft part of the main deck, followed by the stern mirror. Then a styrene profile of �Manios� stern glued against the mirror followed by several layers of plastic put both horizontally and vertically in order to fill the gap below the main deck and give a basic shape of the stern curves. Super glue (zap-a-gap) provided strong bonds and stability of the material.
Constant checking ensured that both port and starboard sides were symmetrical.

The next step was to cover everything with gunze�s mr surfacer which unified all the pieces and highlighted the flaws. The process of smoothing out the surface was very tedious as sanding thinned the plastic strips of the outer shell causing them to peel off. Then more putty applied followed by more sanding. It was quite a nightmare as sanding is one of my less favourite modeling tasks but i couldn't complain as it began to resemble a ship's hull.


Regards
Yannis

[GTDEATH13]

Looking good...

[Dave Wooley]

Very nicely done
Dave Wooley

[Yannis Karystinos]

Niko thank you.

Dave thank you too. You have contributed to the making of this model in a sense.

Kind regards
Yannis

[Yannis Karystinos]

Some more photos of the final shaping of the stern and the ship's rudder.

[Yannis Karystinos]

The shaping of the hull proved to be a very tedious process so i decided to take a break with the construction of the superstructure, the cranes and the hatch covers. It was also a good time to measure and check how these structures would fit on the hull.

Regards
Yannis

[GTDEATH13]

How did you make the inclined top of the cranes?

Are you going to use any kind of photoetch? I am very curious to see how you are going to build the crane booms...

[reigels]

Very nice - And you work about 10x as fast as I do.

What are you going to do for windows on the super structure?

[Cadman]

Very nice, I will be checking your progress often.

[JIM BAUMANN]

How refreshing!


Something without guns!-modern too!



Jim Baumann

[Nektarios]

Very very nice Yiannis it was about time to post pics let us admire your work.

[Yannis Karystinos]

Hello to everyone,

First thanks to all of you for your attention and kind words.

Very nice - And you work about 10x as fast as I do.

What are you going to do for windows on the super structure?

Scott believe me i work 10 times slower than you do in normal mode. The model is already finished that's why it seems to progress so rapidly. With this project i was stepping in new ground a fact that made me even slower. If i was posting my progress during construction everyone on this forum would have died from boredom so i decided to finish it first and then sharing with you the ideas, solutions and problems behind this build.
The windows of the superstructure were decals designed on corel draw. I will explain this in detail soon.

How did you make the inclined top of the cranes?

Are you going to use any kind of photoetch? I am very curious to see how you are going to build the crane booms...

Niko of course i used photo etch but not until the last stages of the construction. The crane booms were a big problem which was solved thanks to Dave Wooley and his wonderful tutorial on how he made the cranes on the Kiev. The inclined top of the cranes was achieved from a styrene profile cut from the ship's general arrangement.

How refreshing!


Something without guns!-modern too!



Jim Baumann

Jim if the piracy off Somalia keeps rising we might see bulkers or cruiseships fitted with big guns and anti-ship missiles.

Regards
Yannis

[Yannis Karystinos]

I'm posting some photos of the supertstructure. It's construction was made by evergreen plastic and was pretty straightforward. The biggest challenge was the vertical lines on decks 3, 4 and 5. These were achieved by scribing two pieces of 0.13mm (.005inch) evergreen, one for each side, already cut to the shape of the superstructure. The lines of port side are of different pattern than those on the starboard.

Regards
Yannis

[Neptune]

Wowm amazing work. A pitty that I wasn't here to see this from the beginning. Makes my attempts for tankers look like a toddler's! Really glad to see people are following the merchant navy subject nowadays. The variety in that subject is really endless! I got myself a couple more plans too when I was onboard. In dry dock I got hold of a smal container vessel with cranes and of course I also got a plan of the ship I was navigating myself. Lots of new stuff to build
Keep up your good work, the hull looks incredibly smooth, something for which I'm still fighting to achieve! Good luck with the remaining part of this ship and the finishing of it.

Regards from a sincere admirer,
Roel

[Yannis Karystinos]

Roel thank you very much for your kind words. Unfortunately merchant ships despite their appeal is a neglected modelling subject. I guess it's up to us to present something more colourful and refreshing as Jim Baumann kindly stated earlier in this thread.

Best regards
Yannis

[Yannis Karystinos]

Some shots of the hull after been sprayed with the hull red.

[Yannis Karystinos]

Here are the final stages of painting and decal application. Most of the paints used were Gunze Sangyo acrylics. Some details were painted with humbrol enamel colours while the clear lacquer was Microscale�s satin.The decals were designed on Corel Draw 12 vector software and then printed on Expert�s Choice decal sheets. Unfortunately as I do not own an Alps printer I had to take a side way for the white decals. The windows and funnel grilles were printed in clear sheet while all the other details were printed on white such as company�s logo, Plimsoll line, bulbous bow and draft markings, name of the vessel and imo number. After printing the sheets were sprayed with several layers of Microscale Liquid Decal Film (MI-12) to seal the inks . All the decals were set in place using Microset (MI � 1) and Microsol (MI � 2).

Regards
Yannis

[Rowdy75]

That looks great. Superb work