The Ship Model Forum

Cliffy B -

I'm not ignoring you - I can't see your photos, so I can't comment. I'll try tonight @ home and see if they come thru there. Sometimes images don't show up here at work - security software, etc. (I guess).

Hank

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HMS III
Mocksville, NC
BB62 vet 68-69

Builder's yard:
USS STODDARD (DD-566) 66-68 1:144, Various Lg Scale FC Directors
Finished:
USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) 67-69 1:200
USN Sloop/Ship PEACOCK (1813) 1:48
ROYAL CAROLINE (1748) 1:47
AVS (1768) 1:48

The fit of the parts looks pretty good. I had wondered how well the bow section would fit, but from this angle looks to be precise molding.

Have a great holiday season! Tom

Cliffy B - Thanks so much for the very nice shot of the after stbd scuttle & winter wonderland!!

The decking looks fairly new compared to what NJ looked like back in 2001/2004 when I was on board. After 10 years in mothballs the deck was a mess. I think they are getting ready to refurb. or perhaps have or are in progress - but it sure needs it.

Hank

_________________
HMS III
Mocksville, NC
BB62 vet 68-69

Builder's yard:
USS STODDARD (DD-566) 66-68 1:144, Various Lg Scale FC Directors
Finished:
USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) 67-69 1:200
USN Sloop/Ship PEACOCK (1813) 1:48
ROYAL CAROLINE (1748) 1:47
AVS (1768) 1:48

Need anymore just ask

From my understanding our deck looks so nice is because its the only sister to actually have real Teak and not Douglas Fir applied in the 1986-88. The story goes we were the last to be completed and the modernization project was actually on time and UNDER budget so they asked the re-commissioning CO what he wanted to do with the couple of million left over and he asked for full teak and got it.

We're pressure washing ours currently but it would look soooooo much better if we could actually Holy Stone it. Get it looking gleaming white again.

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Drawing Board:
1/700 Whiff USS Leyte and escorts 1984
1/700 Whiff USN Modernized CAs 1984
1/700 Whiff ASW Showdown - FFs vs SSGN 1984

Slipway:
1/700 Whiff USN ASW Hunter Killer Group Dio 1984

Cliffy:

As always thanks for the info. You might check with some outfits that do paint removal and wood stripping. They would have informed opinions on pressure washing of wood. My understanding it is very bad for the wood, forcing water into the wood fibers. I do understand that you don't have insufficient deck force to get out the holystones. Glad you did get real teak, getting to be a pretty expensive wood, but certainly more weather resistant.

Regards. Tom

The big problem with Mr. Kim's stuff is that he doesn't add a waterway in his deck set. This sucks big time. I'm trying to figure out how to print my own decks. Cutting away Kim's wood deck for a waterway looses a lot of edge detail. If I could only get some wood?

Smor. wrote:


Smor -

I am in the process of doing just that - CAD drafting the main deck (01-04 levels to follow) in order to have a 3rd party source laser etch and cut the decks for me. I will send them the .dgn file and let them assess whether this is feasible or not. If not, I may end up simply purchasing scribed deck material (uncut) and using my drawings, cut the deck sections out myself. This is a tedious operation and not something that can be done overnight. So, I expect that I will be CADdrafting for a month or so in the evenings to ensure that I've gotten everything detailed correctly.

As for the waterways, I was under the impression that they were included in the Pontos Detail Up Sets (both with and without decks). I have the set without the decks on order - should arrive tomorrow evening if UPS does their thing on time !! If they are not included, I've thought of another possible alternative - K&S Metal channel - I can't say since I'm away from my shop whether or not they offer a brass channel the proper width (height is immaterial since it can be filed down as necessary). If they offer a channel the proper width then it can be used as the waterway and the decking would be cut to the inside of the mounted channel.

You didn't mention which IOWA class ship you were modeling nor the era of that ship, so I really can't offer any advice, except to say that hand drawing the deck is, in my opinion, a somewhat impossible task. I have my CAD parameters for this drawing file set to 1/64" tolerance (0.0156") which will hopefully be sufficient for the vendor to cut deck sections that fit properly. FYI - I am a CAD professional having been in Facilities Engineering for 35+ years using Bentley MicroStation CAD software.

I hope this provides some clarity.

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HMS III
Mocksville, NC
BB62 vet 68-69

Builder's yard:
USS STODDARD (DD-566) 66-68 1:144, Various Lg Scale FC Directors
Finished:
USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) 67-69 1:200
USN Sloop/Ship PEACOCK (1813) 1:48
ROYAL CAROLINE (1748) 1:47
AVS (1768) 1:48

Not sure if you've seen these, but they might be a useful (if not a bit tedious) solution to your deck problem, Hank.

http://www.freetimehobbies.com/artwox-p ... ling-ship/

They come in several widths too.

_________________
-Jason Channell

Current Project: 1/200 Bismarck

Jason,

Thanks for the info. I'll keep that in mind. It may be a viable use around deck objects where you have a single plank that surrounds that object with the planking butting into it. Of course, it will have to match the width of the other planking. I noticed that Artwox has several widths available.

Hank

_________________
HMS III
Mocksville, NC
BB62 vet 68-69

Builder's yard:
USS STODDARD (DD-566) 66-68 1:144, Various Lg Scale FC Directors
Finished:
USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) 67-69 1:200
USN Sloop/Ship PEACOCK (1813) 1:48
ROYAL CAROLINE (1748) 1:47
AVS (1768) 1:48

I received my Pontos Detail Up Set without Deck today and have posted an initial review of the set in the Reviews Forum under 1:200 MISSOURI upgrades heading, etc. I won't rewrite it here. Once is enough!

Hank

_________________
HMS III
Mocksville, NC
BB62 vet 68-69

Builder's yard:
USS STODDARD (DD-566) 66-68 1:144, Various Lg Scale FC Directors
Finished:
USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) 67-69 1:200
USN Sloop/Ship PEACOCK (1813) 1:48
ROYAL CAROLINE (1748) 1:47
AVS (1768) 1:48

I just saw that kit in flesh and boy it's big. This build is going to be nice one, so a must follow along. Keep up the good work

Mike

_________________
Mike

Thanks, Mike - glad you're "on board"!

Hank

_________________
HMS III
Mocksville, NC
BB62 vet 68-69

Builder's yard:
USS STODDARD (DD-566) 66-68 1:144, Various Lg Scale FC Directors
Finished:
USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) 67-69 1:200
USN Sloop/Ship PEACOCK (1813) 1:48
ROYAL CAROLINE (1748) 1:47
AVS (1768) 1:48

I think I found some good deck wood in an unlikely place. Grizzly Tools has various sized veneers backed by paper. Many woods offered, though a fine grained wood such as Cherry might be better than say actual teak. I think something like 3 sq ft was about six bucks. I think I will get some and see how suitable. The original wood that I planked the fore half of the ship was of such a material.

The 1 mm strips noted above are slightly over scale, but not by too much, about an 8" plank vrs 5 1/2". I do think that hand planking a deck isn't as bad as one might think. A couple of days work, at least for the newer versions as there aren't as many gun tubs etc to work around. An objection to the laser cut decks is that any colors in the wood carry over from board to board, as well as any grain pattern. But yes slightly tedious.

Waterways: K&S has some quite small brass angle and there is some quite small plastruct H section that might be about the right size. Really all you need is a slight lip on the hull and leave the approx 1 mm gap between the deck and the edge. The thickness of the wood decking makes fora pretty convincing waterway.

Cheers. Tom

Tom,

Nice to have you back from "Liberty Call".

I hand planked ROYAL CAROLINE (royal yacht, 1:47 POB) with individual planks and it took a week or so to do the whole ship's 3 exposed decks. Those planks were roughly 1/16" wide by 1 1/4" long; can't recall now the type of wood, but a very light off white, approx. 1/64" or less thick. So, hand-planking isn't out of the question.

I may try something (just to see if it can be done and what the results will look like) different as an experiment: Printing a pattern of decking the correct width of the planks with a couple items that would indicate 40mm gun tubs or vents/hatch openings on a piece of veneer 8 1/2"x11" using the printer at my office. If it's possible, then you could (theoretically) lighten the black to a very dark gray for the plank lines and come out with a very nice "deck". I have a box of wood veneer samples I've had for many years I bought from Constantine's (don't know if they are still in business) and perhaps I can locate a suitable piece for experimenting.

Hank

_________________
HMS III
Mocksville, NC
BB62 vet 68-69

Builder's yard:
USS STODDARD (DD-566) 66-68 1:144, Various Lg Scale FC Directors
Finished:
USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) 67-69 1:200
USN Sloop/Ship PEACOCK (1813) 1:48
ROYAL CAROLINE (1748) 1:47
AVS (1768) 1:48

Back home. Was greeted by a cold house and frozen pipes. Some days are better than others. Back to full operation after doing some emergency plumbing repairs. So back to ship building again a day or two. Plating of the hull has attracted a number of comments and it will be interesting to see what transpires. Even with thin styrene the compound curves around the fantail might be interesting. Has anyone done such work with any of the other 1:200 large ships?

Cheers. Tom

Tom,

We'll be getting our first really cold weather over the next week - maybe down to 10 f. or so - which is cold for mid-NC these days and I'll be down east so I'm hoping that things don't freeze up while I'm at work.

I have quite a bit of Evergreen styrene sheets that I bought several years ago for other things and may see what their thickness is - I think they are way too thick for hull plating. I'll check that out Sunday night when I'm back at my home away/shop. I also have some black very thin sheet plastic (I used for fabricating metal parts for my 1:48 carronade carriage metalwork on PEACOCK) which may be the right thickness - like a satin sheet of bond paper. But, this is secondary to determining how "off" the hull really is. That and the CAD main deck drawing work will precede anything else.

Good luck with the pipes (been there/done that).

Hank

_________________
HMS III
Mocksville, NC
BB62 vet 68-69

Builder's yard:
USS STODDARD (DD-566) 66-68 1:144, Various Lg Scale FC Directors
Finished:
USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) 67-69 1:200
USN Sloop/Ship PEACOCK (1813) 1:48
ROYAL CAROLINE (1748) 1:47
AVS (1768) 1:48

Probably the thinnest available material available? Guessing something like #20 lb shell plating overlapped leaving a 1/2" gusset? That works out to 0.0025". Yes, about the thickness of a bond paper.

10F is chilly for NC! I plumbed the house when I built it 31 years ago and installed a lot of shutoff valves, which made for good damage control and restoration of function in easy stages. Valves are cheap, I like lots of valves.... Having a stock of bits and pieces of copper fitting, PEX etc make some sort of 3AM response practical....

Will have to search a bit to see what has been done that looks to be still smooth in contour like a warship hull and not like some ironclad. Alaska CB1 which is a long tern WIP is a waterline and I used the mask and spray build primer in the bow section to achieve the similar effect to the Missouri plating. The stern I did a thin styrene over a styrene grid on the main hull to achieve a somewhat dimpled plating effect as one see on ships in service. Above the waterline the BB61 series has the plating lapped with the upper plate on the bottom and below the waterline it appears to alternate. Plating the whole hull might be quite an adventure!

Tom

Indeed, trying to achieve a whole hull plating was something I had not considered doing, only the bow areas down to where they meld into the flat sides. But, who knows? Depends now on how much work is involved correcting the hull itself.

Hank

Our house has mostly that damn polybutylene (gray) piping from the '80's. A 25 year headache. I've finally got most of the horizontal piping in the crawl space replaced w/Pex around the PCV and water heater. I've added additional piping thru the years also w/shutoff valves on each new branch. The only way to go!

_________________
HMS III
Mocksville, NC
BB62 vet 68-69

Builder's yard:
USS STODDARD (DD-566) 66-68 1:144, Various Lg Scale FC Directors
Finished:
USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) 67-69 1:200
USN Sloop/Ship PEACOCK (1813) 1:48
ROYAL CAROLINE (1748) 1:47
AVS (1768) 1:48

Will have to look through my photos and see what relevant images I have of the areas where the plates blend to overlapped and non overlapped. Though the armor belt is internal, the overlapped sections appear to be outside the citadel areas. There is a photo somewhere that shows BB63 as the drydock is being flooded and shows the hull plating forward quite nicely. This was at Pearl as the ship is being readied for display status. As the area below the boot top is also painted gray, the delineation of the plating is pretty good!

Yes the plastic pipe was an idea whose time has fortunately passed. Most of the pipe is copper with a few additions run in pex. Hey the plastic pipe is good for various barbettes etc....

Tom

BB62vet, I'm also planning on building my 1/200 scale Missouri in a later fit, either as USS Wisconsin circa 1957, or as a Vietnam War USS New Jersey like yours. My question is what are you planning to do for the post war 1/200 radars since Pontos isn't going to be helping us out with any later era sets? No other after market supplier makes photo etch postwar radars in 1/200.