The N scale ship building bug bit again. I've been a bit laid up with a bad cold, so I decided to spend a few hours browsing the Web, and came across the US Coast Guard's Active Class of cutters. They are 125 feet long, and served from 1929 well into the 1960s. That's a little over 9 inches long in N scale. I carved the hull out of a piece of oak, then glued styrene on it for the deck. There's a lot of sheer in the hull--the deck is curved from bow to stern. The superstructure is .040 styrene. ZOOM for full size [ September 21, 2005, 01:01 PM: Message edited by: Pete Nolan ]
Nicely done so far. I have a train ferry working on for some time now. I currently waiting to be bitten again.
Ahoy, Pete, another work of nautical genius is under way! Permission to come aboard? (sorry to hear you've been under the weather)
Made a lot of progress today. Everyone from the weddding is finally gone, so today was the first quiet Sunday since about January. I'm inventing my own shipbuilding and modeling techniques as I go along, which I find great fun. I'll post some pics later, when the paint has dried--yes, I made it far enough to start the preliminary painting! This little ship has been great fun for me. John Widmar's series on his roundhouse has encouraged me to tackle the little details. Bill Bittner's series on his ships have motivated me to get into all details around a ship--electrical piping, power boxes, etc. Later--
Hi Pete: That's a great looking ship there. Are you painting it the same scheme as the Acushnet, all white with black numbers? I've taken a break from shipbuilding for a little while and am currently concentrating on scenery in the town of Centralia. Here is a couple of pics of the carrier, 99% complete. I still need to weather it and finish two of the helos on deck. I'll post a lot more pics of it later on when it's totally complete.
Bill, that is just awesome. Next thing you know, you and Pete will move into another realm of "live steam!"
Well. It's not quite ready for prime time yet, but it's getting there. I've sprayed it white, and will hand paint the decks dark gray, the stack black, etc. The doors to the pilot house are open, so I'll have to do some detailing there. ZOOM for full size Bill, yes, it will be painted white, like the other. Immediately after WWII, the USGC went back to white. The red racing stripe appeared in the mid 60s, a few years beyond my era. I have a good picture of the McLane from the late 50s, which I'm using--with a little liberty. This little 9-incher has been a blast! There are just as many parts in a small ship as a big one, so I've been able to experiment a lot on details like davits for the lifeboats. Also, I've found stuff just by looking around. The smokestack, for example, is 7/16th" in diameter. Those cheapo foam brushs at HD are also 7/16th" in diameter!
Pete, As you know I've always admired your ships and in past conversations I've related how much I would like a Liberty Ship as part of my layout. Well, I guess in one way I've waited long enough- there's now a plastic model (wrong scale of course) of the Jeremiah O' Brien and since I enjoy plastic kits anyway I was thinking of getting it to guide me in efforts to 'shrink' one down to N-scale! Between growing up in the SF Bay Area and going past the ole 'Mothball Fleet' near Suisun and then the great job that the History Channel has done with their Liberty Ships episode I sure do have that itch? Now when I was much younger I recall seeing rows after rows of the WWII era freighters and warships lined up and it seemed that they stretched forever? I wonder what's left of that sight now? Don
Pete, It's amazing what you do with a block of wood and styrene! Bill, a great ship! [ September 05, 2005, 09:13 AM: Message edited by: Don Rickle ]
Fabulous job Pete! Your efforts never cease to amaze me. Everytime the ship topic comes up I one thing comes to mind: "I WANT ONE TOO!" Too bad Arizona's Navy isn't big enough for a cutter. Maybe if Caifornia falls into the ocean and Yuma becomes a bay.... To build from scratch like this it must take a lot of patience ... do you buy yours wholesale in bulk?
WCD, Bluejacket Shipmodels makes a 1:192 scale Liberty Ship kit for about $250. I do buy supplies in bulk, but not really wholesale. One LHS will order quite a few packages for me and give a discount. Also I bought a ton of tubing when that Florida firm had a fire sale a few years back. I bought a 4 x 8 styrene sheet a few years ago, and have used about half of it so far. A ship this size probably uses about an 8 x 10 sheet of styrene. Of course, I use different thicknesses--.010, .020, and .040. If I built the hull out of styrene, I might use two small sheets. But I didn't have plans or cross sections for this one--just some good pictures. I think scratchbuilding is more ingenuity than patience. Figuring out the davits, for example. It's the first time I had them come out decently (I've used 1:192 davits from Bluejacket before). I was working with 1/16" diameter copper tubing for a mast when I noticed it bent easily. Wrapping it around a magic marker was easy! So now I'll save the copper for bendy stuff, and use 1/16" brass tubing for masts.
Hi Pete: The only thing I didn't build from scratch was two small winches on a sponson below the deck crane. I scratchbuilt the 3"50 twin mounts from styrene tube and scrap. They came out better than I thought they would. They aren't exact, but they look close. Here are some better pics of the guns.
Bill, that carrier is beyond belief!! These great Navy models almost make me want to scrub the container port concept and build a Navy port! Russ [ September 05, 2005, 04:10 PM: Message edited by: tehachapifan ]
I'm still amazed, Bill. I've been trying to build a single 3"50 mount with much frustration. Russ, That's a scratchbuilt ship, if I recall. Very nice!
