I've been doing some Googleing on HO scale offshore oil rigs. Anyone seen a model kit of one of these? If not, I wonder what it would take to build one from scratch full size in HO. I know it would be very big but would surly turn some heads! PLease drop any and all thought's, comment's, suggestions here.:thumb:
Full size oil rig?
- Thread starter KCS
- Start date
Well, I was thinking of a freight dock with a brand new freshly built oil rig getting ready to be hauled out to sea to be put to work using trains to bring in boat and rig parts such as large sheet's of steel and such. I guess if there's not any models of the sort that I could possibly kit bash into one then I'll have to do a lot of research and find out what all is involved to fully build one inside and out.(only parts inside that can be seen from the outside)
Wow, what a great idea:thumb:
The best way would probably be to build say the front quarter as a relief model. Scaled out that puppy's going to push 18-24" wide and tall easy. Plast-Struct gonna love you:thumb:
The best way would probably be to build say the front quarter as a relief model. Scaled out that puppy's going to push 18-24" wide and tall easy. Plast-Struct gonna love you:thumb:
I've never seen an HO model of an oil rig or production platform except at the airport in Houston, but I don't know if they were HO scale.
Oilfield rigs come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from the smallest work-over spud barge to the mamoth semi-submersibles or deep water platforms. There are in-land barges for drilling in marshes and swamps. No kits as far as I know.
What part of the world are you modeling? You'd be hard pressed to find an offshore rig up here in Massachusettes where the lead footed whiners don't want drilling off of the coast, but in the Gulf of Mexico west of Florida you will find a bunch. California makes the oil companies dress up thier rigs to look like skyscrapers, so they won't offend those who can see through the smog. The ocean creatures don't seem to mind.
Those would be boring to model anyways.
Era also plays a part, somewhat if you are worried about historical accuracy. IMHO, a model of a small jack-up rig orinland barge would be so cool.
Jack-ups usually have 3 legs and are thus laid out in a triangular shape, which will take up more room. you wouldn't have to model it standing this high. I think they were adding the leg sections at this point of its construction or refurb. The triangular legs are the most interesting and the most complicated, your choice.
Some have tubular legs. This is a nice compact rig and is still probably too big for a layout if done to scale, but if it were built 3/4 size you may be ble to fit it. I don't have any definite dimensions, but a rough guesstimate of the drill floor and surounding weather shiething around it looks to be about 30' x 30', so the whole thing looks to be 75' x 175-200' including the heliport.
The inland barge is basically the rig superstructure, living quarters, ancillary drilling equipment all on a barge. This one is probably about 150' long and 50' wide. That's a small jack-knife rig as it looks to hold a double (2 joints) of pipe, or tubing.
I've spent some time on a few of these in the GoM, but I am no expert. I'm sure there are a few others that could expound on this subject. I've always thought the airport models were so fascinating. You could sped hours just looking at them. But, there was/is something wrong with them:curse: . None of them were ever weathered!
EDIT: KCS, I didn't realize that you were in Shreveport. Go take a ride down to Amelia, just on the other side of Morgan City. When you cross over the bridge look right. There will be oodles of offshore oilfield equipment in all phases of construction. You could stop off in New Iberia and visit the Port of Iberia. There are RR tracks there and I believe they are still being used to supply a pipe coating company.
Oilfield rigs come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from the smallest work-over spud barge to the mamoth semi-submersibles or deep water platforms. There are in-land barges for drilling in marshes and swamps. No kits as far as I know.
What part of the world are you modeling? You'd be hard pressed to find an offshore rig up here in Massachusettes where the lead footed whiners don't want drilling off of the coast, but in the Gulf of Mexico west of Florida you will find a bunch. California makes the oil companies dress up thier rigs to look like skyscrapers, so they won't offend those who can see through the smog. The ocean creatures don't seem to mind.
Those would be boring to model anyways.Era also plays a part, somewhat if you are worried about historical accuracy. IMHO, a model of a small jack-up rig orinland barge would be so cool.
Jack-ups usually have 3 legs and are thus laid out in a triangular shape, which will take up more room. you wouldn't have to model it standing this high. I think they were adding the leg sections at this point of its construction or refurb. The triangular legs are the most interesting and the most complicated, your choice.
The inland barge is basically the rig superstructure, living quarters, ancillary drilling equipment all on a barge. This one is probably about 150' long and 50' wide. That's a small jack-knife rig as it looks to hold a double (2 joints) of pipe, or tubing.
I've spent some time on a few of these in the GoM, but I am no expert. I'm sure there are a few others that could expound on this subject. I've always thought the airport models were so fascinating. You could sped hours just looking at them. But, there was/is something wrong with them:curse: . None of them were ever weathered!
EDIT: KCS, I didn't realize that you were in Shreveport. Go take a ride down to Amelia, just on the other side of Morgan City. When you cross over the bridge look right. There will be oodles of offshore oilfield equipment in all phases of construction. You could stop off in New Iberia and visit the Port of Iberia. There are RR tracks there and I believe they are still being used to supply a pipe coating company.
When semi-submerisible oil platforms (the moveable kind you describe) are out at sea doing their job, they lower them down into the ocean quite some way to stabilise them, lowering their center of gravity and using their weight to keep them from turning over. When they're floating up on their pontoons they are way higher, which would mean the model would be massive. Also, they wouldn't bring it anywhere even close to the shore unless it was just being towed out of the dry dock it was built in.
If it's being towed, you're going to have to build at least two ocean going tugs. We're talking huge tugs here, 200 foot long. They'd be 1.5 foot long models each easily. Then comes the oilrig.
I'd estimate that your semi-submersible oil platform would be about 1.4 meters by 1.4 meters, and up on it's pontoons it would be at least 5 foot high, if not more. It would be an absolutely huge feature of the layout, and once completed, the layout would not be portable unless you made the oil platform removeable. Even then, the oil platform model would be so incredibly heavy and encrusted in detail that it would be a real feat just to move it.
I'd imagine you'd need a pretty comprehensive knowledge of oil rigs to be able to build one accurately. Especially considering you've got a 1.4 x 1.4 x 2 meter space to fill with details. Just building the tugs alone is going to be pretty hard if you've never built a model ship before, they have enough detail on them to have an experienced modeller working on one for a good 2 to 4 weeks.
Then you've got the massive drydock, foundries, metalworking warehouses, and all the details associated with building oil rigs...
There are ultra-small inshore drilling rigs, they can be anywhere between 10 to 500 (scale) meters out to sea, maybe a bit more. I'd suggest thinking about something like that if an oil platform is something you really want. Obviously I don't intend to put a damper on your enthusiasm, I think it's great that you like the idea of a "head turner" model, but what you're talking about is a huge undertaking. I certainly wouldn't like to have to make one from scratch on my own.
I rarely ever say this about a model project, but in this case, your project is simply impossible unless you were to hire a team of professional modellers and pay them some 10,000 dollars for their work.
If it's being towed, you're going to have to build at least two ocean going tugs. We're talking huge tugs here, 200 foot long. They'd be 1.5 foot long models each easily. Then comes the oilrig.
I'd estimate that your semi-submersible oil platform would be about 1.4 meters by 1.4 meters, and up on it's pontoons it would be at least 5 foot high, if not more. It would be an absolutely huge feature of the layout, and once completed, the layout would not be portable unless you made the oil platform removeable. Even then, the oil platform model would be so incredibly heavy and encrusted in detail that it would be a real feat just to move it.
I'd imagine you'd need a pretty comprehensive knowledge of oil rigs to be able to build one accurately. Especially considering you've got a 1.4 x 1.4 x 2 meter space to fill with details. Just building the tugs alone is going to be pretty hard if you've never built a model ship before, they have enough detail on them to have an experienced modeller working on one for a good 2 to 4 weeks.
Then you've got the massive drydock, foundries, metalworking warehouses, and all the details associated with building oil rigs...
There are ultra-small inshore drilling rigs, they can be anywhere between 10 to 500 (scale) meters out to sea, maybe a bit more. I'd suggest thinking about something like that if an oil platform is something you really want. Obviously I don't intend to put a damper on your enthusiasm, I think it's great that you like the idea of a "head turner" model, but what you're talking about is a huge undertaking. I certainly wouldn't like to have to make one from scratch on my own.
I rarely ever say this about a model project, but in this case, your project is simply impossible unless you were to hire a team of professional modellers and pay them some 10,000 dollars for their work.