Calling all Ocean Liner and Cruise Ships fans!

[Tracy White]

I don't believe so. He annoyed me and I didn't agree with a lot of what he said, but I believe that any time a user gets kicked we all lose in one way or another. I'd have preferred that he just no have tried so hard to annoy people.

[PEPSI]

I don't believe so. He annoyed me and I didn't agree with a lot of what he said, but I believe that any time a user gets kicked we all lose in one way or another. I'd have preferred that he just no have tried so hard to annoy people.

Don�t worry Tracy.
we are with you.
As you said long time ago this people are trolls, so they must be removed in a definitive way, without more explanations.

[Guest]

Hmm. Just when I have scanned my answer to a challenge the challenge disappears. I hope I don't offend anyone by answering "mr X" anyway . Mr X indicated that Achille Lauro looked better than Willem Ruys with her higher funnels. I will try to show that what matters in liner is the silhouette as a whole, not just the funnels.
Disclaimer: Liner aestethics is a notoriously touchy subject and like all aesthetics subjective by definition. So these drawings are meant to convince in a friendly way and not say a given design is superior or better.
Willem Ruys was designed in the late 1930's by a team of the shipyard De Schelde led by J Blokland Visser with substantial input by D.T. Ruys and L.W. Bast of the Rotterdam Lloyd. The decision to place the lifeboats at main deck level was probabaly taken by Blokland Visser. By doing so he set the pattern for all modern cruise ships which were developed from "tropical" liners like Willem Ruys. Due to WW2 the ship was delivered in 1948 instead of 1940 as planned.
The ship had a piramidical silhouette with the geometric center just forward of the midships line; typical of modern liners of the period:

willemruys1948b.jpg

When the Rotterdam Lloyd had to end its liner service on the Amsterdam -Jakarta route in 1958 Willem Ruys was rebuild for a round the world service with needed more internal volume, more glassed in decks and some extra lifeboats. This could only be found aft of the center. In order to compensate for this and in order to keep the new sun decks aft free of soot the funnels were lengthened for the first time while keeping the silhouette reasonably balanced.

willemruys1958b.jpg

After Ruys was sold to Lauro there was another rebuild. Lengthening the stem did re-balance the design a little and the general clean up of the side by putting all lifeboats at a single deck restored some of the balance of the ships ' look. The funnels however changed both in length and in shape in such a way that the funnel / bridge assembly looks like it's leaning forward.

achillelauro1966b.jpg

After two rebuilds Blokland Visser's magnum opus was still a magninficent liner and her loss in 1994 was a great loss for liner lovers all over the world. But her rebuilds did not change her looks for the better.
The sketches are based on drawings in The Shipbuilding and Shipping record, Holland Shipbuilding and Guns& Luidinga (2010) respectively.

What about the cruise ships of today?
Are they well balanced?
I suppose that the "academic" answer is YES
If we compare the wrong "balanced" Achille Lauro with a modern and well "balanced" cruise ship...The new constructions look rather "unstable"! Their dimenssions were forced in height
And they were designed by architects!!
I know that a liner and a cruise ship are totally different ships. In fact some cruise ships look like buildings, not like ships.
But they are well balanced.

[MarkieSparkie]

Well I'd like 1:200 or 1:350 scale.

Some I'd like to see are:

Empress of Britain (II)
Andrea Doria
Olympia
Rex
Berengaria
America
United states
Bremen IV
Bremen V
Normandie
QE
QE2
QM
QM2
QV
Ile de France
France

Basically any ocean liner!

[patrick camilleri]

I've given up on the suppliers. My favorite scale is 1:600 and I've ended up scratchbuilding.

Done:
UNITED STATES
FRANCE
NORMANDIE

Under Construction:
RMS CARONIA


In the pipeline:
QE1
QM1
ANDREA DORIA

[Pieter]

That's a very nice Caronia Patrick. Giving up on manufacturers seems to have been productive.

[DougKn]

Can anyone direct me to a source of drawings of interwar US merchant vessels. I do small scale stuff, so medium quality drawings would be fine, even one of the ONI books might work. History on CD-Rom used to list some, but I think they are out of business. Any suggestions? (I've tried internet searches, but usually find only sailing or the few biggie passenger liners.)

Cheers

Doug K

[Shipbuilder]

I like building all types of Merchant Ships both sail & steam. Passenger ships can be a bit repetitive and they are certainly more difficult than sailing ships, but there are so many different types from quite small to very large, they are always interesting builds.

I never build kits at all and am therefore not constrained to whatever manufacturers want me to build.

Bob

[Guest]

Hi,
I'm interested in a "real" liner that's still around...sort-of. I'm exploring kit-bashing/ scratch building
the SS Delorleans/USS Crescent City. She's one that can still, with enough $$ and influence, be "walked-on" (but fast running out of time), has an unmatched pedigree among survivors (except for the Hikawa Maru...about the same size) and she seems just the right size. Are there any plans of her available?
Chris C.

[brooklin1]

Just a comment on a previous post on this thread.

Regarding what models a company will produce is driven by only one factor. Sales. In my other 'life', I do Formula One race car models. The main companies in that area are Tamiya, Fujimi, Hasegawa. Some items are guaranteed best sellers because of the car make, ie. Ferrari, or the driver, ie. Ayrton Senna. Japanese cars, brands or drivers are also popular because of the large Japanese, home market. As far as ocean liners go, I think something like the Queen Mary 2 was a no brainer for model companies. I still surprised there haven't been any new 'cruise' ships done lately. Maybe a licensing issue?

How do you get companies model made of your favorite ship? Try starting an e-mail campaign to the companies. If they hear from enough people, they may give it some thought.

[Pieter]

Daniel Jones of the (paper) magazine Plastic Ship Modeler did a number of articles on interwar US merchant vessels which featured nice 1/700 drawings and some pictures. After he stopped publishing PSM some of his articles were republished on the SMML website at http://smmlonline.com/articles/articles.html .
Some years ago I reworked one of his other drawings , of the small liner City of Panama, into "real" modeling drawings (with cross sections) using a picture of the official builders' model as a starting point. I'm not sure of Daniel would like to see them published here but you can pm me if you're interested in building City of Panama. She's on my 'to do ' list but will probably remain there for a while. So many interesting subjects...

Can anyone direct me to a source of drawings of interwar US merchant vessels. I do small scale stuff, so medium quality drawings would be fine, even one of the ONI books might work. History on CD-Rom used to list some, but I think they are out of business. Any suggestions? (I've tried internet searches, but usually find only sailing or the few biggie passenger liners.)

Cheers

Doug K

[Hugh L]

I would very much like to see your photos of City of Panama. Loose Cannon is producing a kit of her. Is there interest in another old classic, SS Lurline? She was used by the navy during WW II as a transport so there are a lot of possibilities.

[Pieter]

Hi Hugh, email sent. Personally I'm not that interested in Lurline but maybe others from the merchant GB can chime in ?

[Pieter]

I couldn't resist playing around a bit with what I had on City of Panama . The seaplane is another late 1920's icon, Pan American Airways' Sikorsky S-38.

[MartinJQuinn]

Anyone know any models, in any scale, of the passenger liner SS Cedric? Was passing some genealogy information back and forth with siblings and cousins today, and I see my Paternal Grandmother came to the US on the Cedric in 1922.

[Pieter]

The only celtic/Cedric model that i know of was made by Bassett-Lowke in 1/1200. Bassett-Lowke models are very difficult to find. Scratchbuild one? You seem to have the skills to do so and there's countless Titanic models on the market for small parts and fittings.

[Dan K]

Harland & Wolff built, White Star liner. Interesting - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Cedric

[Shipbuilder]

I have never built a kit of an ocean liner! I really like the freedom of being able to build whatever I want (subject to finding the plans).
Bob

[Victoria]

I really like the freedom of being able to build whatever I want (subject to finding the plans).
Bob

Wise words...
That is the challenge. And models like this last above are the best inspiration.

[Dellinger]

Check out the SS Italia on scratchbuild completed models