The Ship Model Forum

Thanks Pieter! On to the next one ;)

Ziet er strak uit Roel.

thanks Jim!!!
I finally got this beasty finished. I suppose I really should find a way to make my own decals...

Not very pleased with the helicopter markings, the ones on my previous build were much nicer, but then the area wasn't as cluttered as this one.

Most excellent modelmaking in 1/700

sharp and delicate, the proportions of modern merchant shipping are an acquired aesthetic journey.... :big_grin:

but the model stand out indisputably!

Bravo
JB

So, some more progress. Really getting there now. Only things remaining is solving that helicopter spot marking as well as the bridge between the accomodation block and the funnel casing along with the inert gas lines between engine room and deck (passing under that bridge).

Funnel has been done as well, haven't actually been able to find extra pictures of her with the Tankers International (TI) logo on the funnel, apart from my own pictures, I guess she had that logo for just a short time before changing to the Euronav logo.
Initially being built for Greek owners under the Hellespont names (Hellespont Alhambra, Hellespont Fairfax, Hellespont Metropolis and Hellespont Tara), the four ships were bought by OSG and Euronav, but pooled together in the Tankers International Pool, hence the name starting with TI. Shortly after, they separated and went to their respective owners, changing their funnel markings to the OSG and Euronav logo's. Currently they are under Euronav ownership and dropped the TI in their name as well. Two are now used as Floating Storage and Offloading units under the name FSO Asia and FSO Africa, while two are still sailing under the names Europe and Oceania.
Rumour has it those four names were originally chosen, since TI America or America was considered too dangerous with regards to terrorist attacks at that time. Not sure whether that's true, but it's kind of an obvious omission.

Forgot to add this picture of the real thing. Here you see a ship-to-ship transfer, with the hoses resting on the reinforced railing next to the manifold.

So finally, some more pics.
Nearly there now.

Unfortunately a major screw-up on the helicopter landing markings. I'm affraid I'll have to sand it off and respray that part of the ship. Delicate thing, but I guess it'll be necessary. Tried with a marker as well, but it doesn't seem to get a grip on the white coat and it doesn't dry.

Furthermore on the details:
Yellow painted equipment forward and aft are the "Emergency Towing Gear". Forward on large tankers, this consists of 2 Smit brackets as well a box with a chafing chain. This is a large chain that can be connected to the Smit Brackets and then overboard towards a tug. This chain is to be used in major emergency cases, where the chain delivers high strenght as well as resistance against fire and chafing in the fairlead.

Aft there is an emergency towing reel, with a long very large diameter wire and a strong point. In the small yellow box at the stern there is a buoy with a messenger line. Once deployed, the buoy with light floats behind the ship, pulling with it the messenger line. These are to be picked up by a vessel in distress (or a tug), which then pulls in the big steel wire. At the end of the wire, there is a fixed strong piece that gets caught in the strong point of the tanker, this way she can tow other vessels. This is also common on all tankers.

The small red winches are the "fire wires", again common on tankers, although not always present on a fixed winch/storage reel. These wires are deployed forward and after overboard when in port. In case of fire at the jetty or other emergencies, the tanker can then be towed away by tugs without any assistance from the tanker. This practice is now discontinued as they figured out that, when tugs pull the wires, it creates a big hazard onboard for passing crew. Either the wire would break or the bollard or fairlead would give away if the tugs pull. Generally wires are protected by green canvas against corrosion, therefore the outside of the reels is painted green.

Next to the manifold you can also see a bigger piece of railing, this is reinforced to carry the weight of cargo hoses in case of ship-to-ship operations. Since I already placed the fairleads, I decided to also place this piece at the ship's side.

[color=#0000BF]In the picture of the manifold you can see some glue from the masking tape was left on the white paint. Any suggestions on how best to remove that glue? [/color]

Made some major steps lately. She received a ton more details and... Paint!
Finally the white boat became a red boat.

When the battery of the camera is charged again, I'll be back with better pictures.
Only thing remaining now is painting of the funnel and finishing of the accomodation block as well as the lifeboats.

Hello Roel happy New year for you too
Well what i can say....
Absolutely amazing this build.
The details are wonderfull. Amazing
:woo_hoo:

Happy New Year to all readers!! :woo_hoo:


Hi Pieter,

I have two ways of using it. One is to have a hole slightly larger than the stanchion I'm inserting (into a full penetration hole in the deck). I then push the stanchion down with a flat piece (styrene or file) untill it's flush with the jig.
Second way is simply to use the jig to file down already installed parts, this does require creation of several jigs of same thickness, since you file away part of it during repetitive use.

it took me a long time to install large numbers of small details, but I'm nearly ready for some paint now.
I also installed the shelters, small shelter places several 10's of meters apart in a line going forward. All tankers over 100m need to have a safe access to the bow during bad weather. On most of them that don't have an underdeck passageway, this is in form of shelters and a walkway near midships connecting those shelters and also with railing to avoid people being washed off the deck during storm. I produced these tiny shelters by using U-beams of styrene, cut to length and added a 0.3mm thick roof.

Nice use of a jig like that. Must remember this for when I am stratchbuiling bollards again.

And a small update.
Getting further towards the next coat of paint. Decided to go a little further before adding the next layer of white primer. At first I wanted to avoid "shadows" cast by taller object, but I guess I don't have to be too affraid of it, considering everything's white anyway.

First are the engine room fans. Although there is just a tiny edge, I decided to turn that small edge on the lathe. Getting them all exactly the same height was of course another challenge.
Below you can see the jig I used to get the smaller stems at the same height. I oversize them at first, then put them in a hole in a jig of the correct thickness, cut the excess material and then file to get it flush with the jig.

Although the ballast vents were not marked on any plans I deducted their positions from some good pictures and decided to add them as well. First I inserted 0.8mm brass wire pieces in pre-drilled holes. THen filed them to the correct height, again using a jig, this time 1mm thick.
Last addition were the vent heads, small disks of about 1mm thickness.

As you can see in some pics, she also received some vent masts as well as purge ports for the cargo tanks. I guess I'll carry on detailing until complete, before I do the next coat.

The only thing I'll probably add afterwards are the platforms with the foam guns, as they would really cast a shadow on the piping below them.

very high level modelling job :cool_1:

Thanks for the comments guys.

Phil, the main issues for me when building two very different scales are:
- You try to put too much detail in the small scale, because you're used to it in the larger scale. Where before I would occasionally decide to leave something off due to the small size, I'm now trying to keep the same detailing level in 1/700 as I did on 1/100... Which of course makes it very difficult and often overscale.
- In larger scale you over detail as well, because I have the skill to build the tiny 1/700 things, I'm building each 1/100 detail as a separate "1/700 model". Which means it's very detailed, but takes very long to get anything done.
- 1/100 appears to be too difficult due to the long building time, switching back to 1/700 was a good thing to do, since I was getting demotivated by the long building time in 1/100. On the other hand I have continued in 1/100 as well and will probably switch back to that model soon (perhaps 1 more 1/700 build before that).

I've continued on this model. I'm currently finishing the accomodation block as well as some prominent deck features. I've added the water breaks, plates with holes that are there to deflect waves coming over the deck. Due to the sheer size of this ship, large waves coming over the deck would add such a weight to the structure that the deck might collapse. Therefore they added these wave deflectors to guide the water back overboard.
To keep my sanity, I'm adding the small frames (0.3mm thickness) on 1 water break each day. I'm also building the hose handling and storing cranes as well as other masts. Also the bollards have been added, preparing for the next coat of white primer.

Wow, beautiful construction

Jorge

amazing build my friend.
small scale big details
incredible :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1:

Brilliant!

Nice work. Having gone from your humongous previous build to this smaller model, what are your thoughts about the ease of modelling in larger and smaller scales?

Phil

And the longitudinal piping is as good as finished now. Small overview.
[attachment=1]Europe62.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=2]Europe63.jpg[/attachment]

And I've drawn the waterline on the hull, showing the massive size of the underwater body.
[attachment=0]Europe61.jpg[/attachment]

Manifold transverse lines finished, finally started with the typical longitudinal piping. Seen a couple of models of these ships with awefully oversized piping, and I think that's a pitty. To avoid that appearance I'm using several sizes of wire.
A new issue I've discovered is that I'm not used to put these thin wires over such lengths and that they are not easy to keep straight.
Below you can see a solution for the first wires. Afterwards I inserted small pieces of 0.3mm wire between the previous fixed pipe and the next new pipe to install in order to keep everything parallel.