Shelter Deck Freighter

B

barry

Active Member
Jan 28, 2004
1,556
1
36
87
Brighton Uk
I need to redraw the Metaseq freighter and will have to wait for NOBI's next update to go on with it. In the meantime I thought I would try a quick build the old way I think it will help in the final design.

Shelter deck freighter built Gotaverkan in 1961

Length 472 ft
Breadth 65 ft
tonnage 8200

Model scale 1/400 length approx 34 cm

I chose this ship as i don't feel like rolling guns or sticking hundreds of wire pins round the edges. The lines are fairly simple and I liked the look of her. There will be quite a bit of guesswork in places so it cannot be a true scale model if anyone has any pics they would be appreciated.

Again I am using Photoshop to do the scaling and copying of various decks etc and the hull sides will need trimming after gluing,hence the interest in Metaseq.







Using colour in a mock up is probably a bit daft but it helps me sort out the decks as I go



barry
 
I need to redraw the Metaseq freighter and will have to wait for NOBI's next update to go on with it. In the meantime I thought I would try a quick build the old way I think it will help in the final design.

Shelter deck freighter built Gotaverkan in 1961

Length 472 ft
Breadth 65 ft
tonnage 8200

Model scale 1/400 length approx 34 cm

I chose this ship as i don't feel like rolling guns or sticking hundreds of wire pins round the edges. The lines are fairly simple and I liked the look of her. There will be quite a bit of guesswork in places so it cannot be a true scale model if anyone has any pics they would be appreciated.

Again I am using Photoshop to do the scaling and copying of various decks etc and the hull sides will need trimming after gluing,hence the interest in Metaseq.







Using colour in a mock up is probably a bit daft but it helps me sort out the decks as I go



barry
 
Hull sides

Finished one side the bow is reasonably accurate the stern was more complex and fits where it touches there is adequate wrap around there just looks crude. Before gluing the hull sides I applied a generous coat of PVA glue to the backs to allow for some sanding and easier cutting. When the hull was well cured I trimmed the sides to fit with a good "sharp" blade very slowly then sanded the edges it comes out quite well. I will have to make a thin paper boot topping later. It all fitted quite well until I realised I had slipped cutting the top of the bulwarks so there is a dip on the inside unfortunately. Having done this side I will spot glue the other and obtain a better fitting piece to read back into photoshop.(just in case I never actually master metseq and peper).

I'm just trying to prove to myself they are not absolutely necessary to design simple models. If this ship had a counter stern it would not be so good. The front of the bridge could be a bit of a laugh as well !! It leans backwards on the front curved face and also has the deck curve. The curve I have solved by extrapolating the the top of the nearest former and I know the length required for the base curve all I need now is 12 fingers to hold the pattern at the right angle for the rake. If I had any sense I would build it straight up and down.

To get the finished length of the bridge front I just wrapped a piece of thin paper round the front of the deck former and marked it with a sharp pencil.



sm60jd.jpg




barry
 
Darn, Barry, those links to the hosted pictures aren't working for me...is it just me...again? :smile:

You always make the complicated stuff look so easy. The transom looks pretty good from the larger picture and she's got some nice lines. That side of the house must have been fun to make, cutting out all those little holes. :smile:

Just a thought, but when you lay up the front of the bridge for fitting, since this is a first run project, is it possible to use pins or tacks to hold the bridge piece up against the formers, etc., while you use your other three hands to pencil in the necessary adjustments? Just a thought, mind you, to free up your hands.

Anyway, she's really looking great, and you are making great strides in speed of build too!

Thanks for the photos, and I'm really looking forward to seeing more of her as you go along, mate.

Cheers!

Jim
 
Bridge front

Finally turned my brain on and did the bridge front with siatki (messing about about lining up the squares in metaseq certainly helped to get a smooth font face) it's just vertical at the moment it only has a couple of degrees of lean back. The final one will be in 4 parts 1mm aft wall and 2 1.5mm formers and a thin card front face I can then take the rake into account easily by trimming back the top former and cut the front face edges to suit. The mock first level of the rear bridge seems ok. The front deck join still needs trimming slightly as well.

pic01644iw.jpg


pic01637ix.jpg


The ruler is 30 cms

@Maurice

Thanks for the redrawn hull formers I shall use those on try 2.
 
freighter bridge and funnel

Finally managed to sort out the bridge decks. The funnel is oversize by about 20% but the shape is somewhere near, does not help painting it yellow. Unfortunately the lack of detail information is showing at the rear ends of the deck structures which are looking a bit blank at the moment.

@Jim

Can I use canvas dodgers over the railings in merchant ships?

I do not fancy tackling 1/400th rails although your thread ones looked OK.
In fact you will probably get an email saying put the detail bits on please.

pic01667ql.jpg



pic01653xf.jpg
 
Hi, Barry :smile:

Canvas dodgers? Are those canvas covers over the overhead framing along the wings on the bridge level? If this ship was on a run that took her to the tropic climates you can probably expect to see some sort of shading on the bridge level over the wings to keep the sun off of the navigating officers.
I was wondering what year this ship was built, because some of the railings, particularly in the house area, would likely have teak top rails, so they would be a nice wooden color, much as you've probably seen on passenger ships, if it was from the 60's to early 80's.

I can send you an email on the house details if you like as from the plans there is an entry way on the main deck on both sides leading into the house. It seems the house fairs into the side hull with a portal/walkway along the main deck at each side which seems to be a blind alley, but there is a watertight door that gives you access aft and into the house on the main deck level both port and starboard sides. From the front of the house aft the "weather deck" is one level up from the forward weather deck, so the entry way leads into the house. Other ships, where the weather deck is at the same main deck level, the entryway goes unobstructed to the after deck, but it doesn't seem to be that way with this ship design. This is a pretty intricate design for a house.

It's hard to tell without a side view, but the front of the funnel merges into the pilot house, but I think you already see that.

Oh, fear not, mate, I imagine the after section will fill out with a lot of nice detail once you build up the cargo hatches and the poop deck houses, which seem to have a weather deck house topped with another platform the deck of which goes all the way out to the stern. With the four lifeboats on the boat deck and the cargo cranes aft of that, there'll be plenty of interesting stuff back aft. :wink:

Let me know if any of this makes any sense, or I will try and sketch out what I am trying to describe. She's a beautifully designed ship, a great deal more interesting than the earlier designs having a continuous main deck with some wonderfully sleek lines incorporated in her design, but that can be a bit challenging to build, I would imagine.

Have you been able to find any photos of her online that might suggest her color scheme? I know I tried but I might have mis-spelled her name in the search.

Really coming along quite well, Barry! Keep at it mate, she's going to be an absolute beauty!

Cheers!

Jim
 
cargo hatches

Looks as rough as a bears rear but at least it shows all the mistakes, well most of them. Lost the measuring stick I think because the stern cabin is 2mm too tall but it fits into the stern.

I shall build a couple of cranes to check the size and then it's back to the drawing board to do it properly.

I tried making a few small bits in pepakura but of course it only prints out and will not store the output. Anybody know how to buy the thing.

@Jim

I think I understood your advice and there is now a passageway on the main deck of the ship to connect with the superstructure. I would be happy if you could send a couple of sketches of the bridge, likely windows on the upper bridge. Canvas dodgers are the ones lashed to the ships rails warship style, blame my old man that's what he used to call them. Thanks mate !!

pic01752sl.jpg






barry
 
Cleaning up the hull sides

You can't get cruder than this, I cut the sides back off the hull and then scanned them back into the computer. I used photoshop to clean them back up.

 
Whatever works, mate, whatever works! :smile:

I figure when I get going on the container ship this is the same route I'm going to take for the major pieces...seems to be a nice, direct method that gives you a good feel for the fit of parts as you go along...I'm not talented like a good number of the members who work wonders using the various computer programs to design kits, whose work just continues to amaze me.

Cheers!

Jim
 
revamping parts

For some reason I cannot draw curves in photoshop try as I will I have no idea where the lines will shoot off to. I discovered with a lot of messing about I can achieve curves in MSPaint. Also the method I am using copying everthing is fine for decks etc but not too good at getting a good line on the spines etc I have wanted to be able to overwrite the hacked out rough bits and came up with convoluted metod of dimming the whole drawing (or part of it) in photoshop transferring that image to MSPaint. Then draw the curves required which show up quite nicely read it back into Photoshop and applied the magic wand and I got a passable line drawing out.



I then chopped the resulting drawing to fit the 7.5 x 10.5 printer area I choose.



My friend Maurice noticed my misinterpretation of the sectional drawings and very kindly sent me the proper lines which I have hacked about here, the resulting formers need some adjustment to fit still (my fault not Maurice)



As far as using metseq I think I will probably stick to small sections for the time being such as a new range finder for Eskimo's bridge. When I input the whole ship drawing into pepakura it threw a fit over how many faces there were. I did get round it by cutting out large parts of the mesh and did things a bit at a time.

As an afterthought the drawings above print a whole lot better than shows on the screen.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom