It's been at least four years since I had a Fleet Day for my N-Scale ships, and I noticed that all of the links of that last review are broken, since Trainboard switched software a while ago. We've gained about 10,000 members since then, and many of you probably haven't seen what I've been up to since I tried my first N-Scale ship in 2002. And probably don't realize that others have built ships for their harbors. I've been told I inspired a number of members back then to try their hand at scratchbuilding ships, since there are few kits in the scale. I urge them to join in this thread--it's not about my ships at all, but everyone who has become addicted--and model shipbuilding in any scale is addictive--to show their efforts anew. Search engines just don't find your posts. I know this in searching for my own posts. So, I'm going to start this with a few posts about my Beavercove freighter--my biggest ship, and a labor of love. Gone are the days when I could compose a complete review of my ships over a weekend, with about 20 posts to a thread. I'm going to dribble this out bit by bit, ship by ship, over a period of time. My aim is to convince you that building ships is not all that difficult. It's a bit different than the rectilinear world of factories and houses, but not that much more difficult. Trainboard limits posts to four images, so I'll start with a few posts about the Beavercove. The Beavercove was built, along with four other sister ships, in 1947 to replace the ships lost by Canadian Pacific during WWII. She is 497 feet long, with a top speed of 19 knots. Here's a 3/4th bow view. And here's a 3/4th stern view. I used solid gunwhales instead of railings. The gunwhale stays are parts from the Bachmann Car Repair Shop. This is an overall view of bow section. Here's a closer look at forward hatches 1 & 2. The crew (on order) is rolling back hatch No.2. There are winches, winch control stands, and boom rests, along with ladders up the posts and lots of rigging. More on a second post.
Here I'll continue with the Beavercove images. Let's look at some of the details. I commited to more detail on smaller ships, such as my minesweeper, subchaser, and small cutter. Little did I realize what this translated to on a big ship like the Beavercove. My rigging is about 50% of the actual rigging, but I simply gave up. I left out the blocks, after trying to rig them--not feasible unless I wanted to spend a year just rigging the blocks. So let's look at a close-up of hatches 3 & 4. This was my second try at a large styrene hull, and the sections on the plans cut across the hatch openings. I knew this and, in the future, will adjust the sections so they don't cut across the hatches. I used a vertical keel, which split the hatches in half along the length. I think a vertical keel is essential for strength--but I could have done two keels on either side of the hatches. Here's a look at the bridge and superstructure from the bow. The Beavercove carried about 20 passengers. Fitting the superstructure to a swept and cambered deck was a challenge. I still have a litle detail painting to do. Here's a look at the stern. The booms are up on the landside, but mostly in their cradles on the seaward side. Here's a high shot from the stern. Most of the rigging is 2-lb monofiliament, about a scale 0.5 inch. It's harder to work with than thread, as it's springy. Thread is a bit larger. The monofiliament also takes coloring very well from a Sharpie, or indelible marker/
And, finally, a few details from the stern, looking forward. I still have some dull-coating and weathering to do--next trip to the LHS, as I'm out of dull-coat. In the next posts I'll turn to some of the other freighters. Please feel free to join in, post images, or comment!
I'm still looking for my photos of the refurbishment of the Queen of the Fleet, the Naomi Beth, my first N-Scale ship of considerable size. While I'm looking, here Ship No. 2, the Sarah Adams. Unlike the other early ships, it doesn't need too much refurbishment. I think modern ships are easier to model, as they have far less rigging. Here's what I wrote a long time ago: At the far south end of the West Harbor is the second freighter I ever built from scratch. It's a model of the fast freighter Rio de Janeiro, which served between South America and England. Some of the holds are refrigerated for perishables. It could achieve about 20-23 knots. It has modern cranes. The backdrop is from Homer, Alaska. The railroad is thus built on a spit of land, much like Homer is. Ships come in from the background, pass under the bridge (next shots) and dock in either the West or East Harbor. I like this concept, but it wouldn't have occured to me if I hadn't visited Homer in 2003. The two tugs were purchased from Savonart via eBay. They are quite acceptable, but wait 'til you see the two Navy harbor tugs that I scratchbuilt for the East Harbor.
Here's the third ship, the Rachel Ann. I've never photographed her well because, frankly, I don't like the way I built her. She is next in line for a refurbishment to my new standards. Not a bad ship, but it rides too high, and needs much detail work on the decks. She is, however, an absolutely wonderful (in my opinion) background item in this shot of the West Harbor. Yes, it looks like I painted the smokestack between shots.
The Salty Dog is an experience. I'm 6'-3" and some of the ceiling can't be more than 7'-0", and it's plastered with dollar bills pinned up there, and smokey. Can't remember whether it was peanut shells or ground up corn husks on the floor, or maybe both. Looks like a dive, smells like a dive, except there windows on at least two sides, maybe three, so it's not dark. I guess there's crime in Homer but, lordy, there's only one road out, or in, for that matter. Of all the out-of-the-way places I've been, Homer seems the epitome of the end of the road. You can drive to Prudhomme Bay, but there's no real civilization there, just oil company stuff. I used to have a panorama of Homer on-line, but it's been lost.
I'm afraid this will be sort of random, as I find images I like, most with a railroad theme. Here's a Yard Minesweeper in the West Harbor. It's 139-feet long, and all wood, so it wouldn't set off magnetic mines. Small shipyards in the Northeast made about 450 of them in less than three years. These smaller boats are really fun to build. I built this while in Florida with bits of styrene, an Exacto knife, and sandpaper, while tending to an ailing relative.
Here's the 125-foot Active-class cutter MacLane in port with the 219-foot Diver-class Achusnet, recently retired in 2010 after 71 years of service.
Thanks, Joe. A lot of the refurbishment has to do with winches and rigging. I just didn't understand what was going on when I started eight years ago. And also markings and paint schemes. For example, the Coast Guard's paint scheme in the mid-1950s, the era I model, was really different from today--black hulls, for example. As I've done research, I've just learned what was correct and what wasn't. Some modelers do a lot of research on their engines and rolling stock; I've just extended that research to my ships and bridges. Eight years ago I was running mid-1960s rolling stock on my mid-1950s layout. I try not to do that any longer--I really didn't have that much 1960s stuff after all. But there's still a little freedom. I found out that a Benson-class destroyer was in the Reserve fleet in Boston in 1957 as a training ship--voila, a Benson class! Of course, it took me two years to find that bit of info.
Ah, here's the Naomi Beth, refurbished. This is the ship that started it all in 2002. I had a left-over mahogany plank from a gooseneck desk top molding, so I looked at a few pictures of a C-2 freighter, and shaped the plank. The hull and the deck houses are the only things that survived a 2007 rebuild.
Here's a detail of the Naomi Beth. The winches are built from small grommets and bits of plastic. At this scale, the winch controls are not much more than a square rod. And the boom mounts are the center bolster hole of old rapido trucks, with just about everything else cut away. The fire hose is a strip of paper folded, with a tiny grommet on the end, resting in a painted brass U channel. The round ventilators are just bits of dowels or straws with punched paper disks (from a three hole punch) on the top.
Here are two of my favorite ships: a subchaser and the Active-class cutter. The Active class was 125 feet (not 146 as I wrote earlier) long; the subchaser 173 feet. The subchaser was really simple to build after I found plan and profile views in a Russian book (the US shipped a number of these to the Soviet Union during WWII). The two ships marked my coming of age as a ship modeler, as I finally understood what I was looking at in photos and plans. At only 13 inches long, the subchaser will fit on most any layout. These smaller ships allowed me to build a lot more detail, such as small davits, searchlights, winches, etc. I later applied the techniques learned on these to larger ships.
Great pictures Pete! OK I’ll post a few of my own but first I must preface said pictures with a few disclaimers: Few people if any (and I certainly aint’ one of them) can beat Mr. PNs ability for shipbuilding and eye for detail. I was one of those who you inspired Pete so thought I’d add to the thread to show you that your contributions do have an impact on the hobby. I don’t even know how to spell “prototypical” without spellchecker. 3 foot rule applies in my kingdom. OK, first up is a barge I made a couple years ago. This was meant to be a blast from my past as well as a focal point for my grain facility. Growing up I watched countless Tidewater barges making their way up and down the Snake River in Eastern Washington hauling grain from Lewiston ID west to the coast. This was my first scratch building project and I learned a bunch of things from it. For example, how expensive hobby styrene sheets are and how cheap “for sale” signs are. Also, if your’re going to make a waterline ship, the bottom of the hull better be as flat as your water. (Still trying to figure out how to make this thing sit flat on the water surface). Next up is my container ship. The Lady Sea was put into service earlier this year by Titan Shipping. While she is dwarfed by the modern class of container ships, Eastport required a smaller size ship due to its limited harbor depth. The Lady Sea measures a mere 520 feet and still barely fits into port. She got her start as a meager piece of old 2X6. A bit of sanding and judicious amounts of styrene as well as parts found around the house and she was ready to sail. There’s my contribution to the nautical part of the hobby. I probably won’t do much more ship building since there just isn’t room on my layout for another vessel. I am however on the verge of building a wooden 3 masted schooner for decoration in the family room. Again not to scale but hopefully more intricate than my train room vessles. Brian
Pete - outstanding modelling!! As a former Navy guy, I'm digging seeing these N scale ships! You can definitely see how your modelling techniques have improved through the various models. Art - looking good, I really like the barge.
