The Ship Model Forum

So I've decided that I *must* drill teh deck and hull of my 1/350th Hood and do the hawse pipes... what techniques have y'all used to do such a complex set of inner-diameter compund curves?

I'm thinking of drilling the plastic out, then packing the area with epoxy putty and poking thin holes in it with toothpicks before it sets so I have an idea of the proper line between to shape.

In the Kaisers Bunker website for the Pommern. He made a cone shape out of plastic and placed that vertically into the hull to obtain the shape. Trimmed it out with filler.

tracy white wrote:So I've decided that I *must* drill teh deck and hull of my 1/350th Hood and do the hawse pipes... what techniques have y'all used to do such a complex set of inner-diameter compund curves?

I'm thinking of drilling the plastic out, then packing the area with epoxy putty and poking thin holes in it with toothpicks before it sets so I have an idea of the proper line between to shape.

I haven't seen the Hood kit so I don't what its hawse pipes look like or are supposed to look like. For WWII era USN ships (assuming there's resin or built up styrene under the deck openings) I drill down at the forward end of the deck hole then lean the drill back and use it like a reamer to shape the "ramp" Since there's going to be a chain in there I don't worry about it too far in but I make sure there's enough depth to take 1/4" or so of chain. Hull side I either drill a deep enough hole to seat the anchor stock (resin) or just drill through the hull wall (plastic).

On plastic kits I've realized -- too late of course -- that the hawse pipes should be dealt with before the deck and hull are glued together. On the Essex I wish I had drilled the holes in both the hull and deck, then taken brass tubing, or mabye even heated platic tubing, and bent it to the correct angles and installed. But like Ron says, as long as it looks right where it goes in and out, that's all that matters.

-Devin

I wouldn't worry about it too much other than the fact that they're pretty big on the ship and I haven't seen evidence that they were covered with gratings on some of the US BBs. I've used your technique Ron... I was just looking for a few ideas for how to "join" the two holes well.

Devin wrote:On plastic kits I've realized -- too late of course -- that the hawse pipes should be dealt with before the deck and hull are glued together. On the Essex I wish I had drilled the holes in both the hull and deck, then taken brass tubing, or mabye even heated platic tubing, and bent it to the correct angles and installed. But like Ron says, as long as it looks right where it goes in and out, that's all that matters.

Aluminum or copper would be a better bet, they bend and cut easier thatn brass.

tracy White wrote:I wouldn't worry about it too much other than the fact that they're pretty big on the ship and I haven't seen evidence that they were covered with gratings on some of the US BBs. I've used your technique Ron... I was just looking for a few ideas for how to "join" the two holes well.

On a few resin kits I've used a smaller drill than needed to make intersecting holes from both ends then larger drills to ream them up to size. Not perfect but once the chain and anchor in place you'd never know. Figure out how to get that area to be a solid block of resin and it would work.

Ron Smith wrote:On a few resin kits I've used a smaller drill than needed to make intersecting holes from both ends then larger drills to ream them up to size. Not perfect but once the chain and anchor in place you'd never know. Figure out how to get that area to be a solid block of resin and it would work.

I was thinking of using Milliput as it's a little more carvable. Come to think of it maybe I'll try and sculpt it as it's setting for the rough form.....

Hi all
Ive been going to sea as a deck seaman in the merchant marine for 24 years and have 3 years navy time as well and what I've seen is that hawse pipes are very large diameter pipes that run straight through with no bends. We see the elipticle or oval shape at either end because of the angle that the pipe runs through the ship. I'm working on my Hood right now and I tried to run a straight length of tube through and the two end wouldn't match up without a bend in the tube which tells me that one end or the other is wrong. I don't feel like doing any surgery on this build so Tracy I think your idea is a good one . I've got one almost done and with an anchor in one end and a hawse pipe cover on the other it should be very convinceing.
Mark Pfaff

Hi, If you look at pages 61 and 62 in the IRON DUKE BUILD it will give you the info, ARH