Cap San Diego 1/160

[mikegr]

Hello friends. I am building Cap San Diego my favorite merchant vessel .
Cap San Diego is a general cargo ship, situated as a museum ship in Hamburg, Germany. Notable for Her elegant silhouette, She was the last of a series of six ships known as the white swans of the South Atlantic, and marked the apex of German-built general cargo ships before the advent of the container ship and the decline of Germany's heavy industry.
It will be built 1 meter long, 1/160. It is my first scratch project but I have done long study and have great patience as well. As a prototype I will use a 1/200 paper model of the ship. First I will scale up the parts then paste them on wood panels.

[Fliger747]

Very stylish ship! Reminds me of the general lines of the Savannah. Have fun!

[Neptune]

I'm definately following. Very good looking ship! Good luck with all the detailing and rigging though

[Pieter]

I saw her when I cycled from Rostock to Groningen a few years ago. Love that ship!

[mikegr]

So progress has began a few weeks ago. I m lucky i have free time every day and also weekends.
Since its my first scratch built i only used basic electric tools, specifically a dremel type tool with multiple accessories. Others are hand tools.

I first printed the plans enlarged by 31%. Normally 28% would be ok but i noticed while printing in 1:1 scale total model length was almost 3 cm shorter than advertised. So i had to recalculate.

Then i cut them and stick them on 4mm MDF which had in hand. Then i cut all, using my multitool and sand them. Lots of sand. It took me more than a week of daily evening work.

Main frame came in 2 pieces. Used a 8mm plywood.

[mikegr]

First difficulty from trasfering the paper model to wood: The frame slots for the bulkheads to be fitted in were only 1 mm wide. Since these are 4mm thick i had to redraw them to 3mm (i saved 1mm in case i make any mistake while cutting). I marked them with orange modelling tape. Same for bulkheads: Instead of 1mm wide they were cut to 8mm.

Ofcourse cuting them with the rotary tool for first time wasnt easy. Mismatches occured, some minor, few greater ones. So fitting the bulkheads to frame vertically was not the only problem. I had to measure the distance from the edges to the frame as well, for each bulkhead to make sure they were installed evenly.

[mikegr]

I have finished fitting the bulkheads on frame. I did some trimming and used filler as well in the slots

[Fliger747]

Coming along nicely! Just curious as to how you settled on the 1:160 scale? I received some funny looks building in 1:120 as not being a popular scale with parts available. For my project that was part of the challenge, use no commercial parts. I liked the scale and will build in it again.

Keep up the good work! Tom

[mikegr]

Coming along nicely! Just curious as to how you settled on the 1:160 scale? I received some funny looks building in 1:120 as not being a popular scale with parts available. For my project that was part of the challenge, use no commercial parts. I liked the scale and will build in it again.

Keep up the good work! Tom

Thank you Tom
I took the 1/160 because I wanted it to be 1 meter long.
As for the parts I have them all i just need to copy them to wood or other materials. The forum gave me great inspiration and I already started my first scratchbulit themes. Practice, practice,practice.

[mikegr]

Worst thing is that i am running this building of my favourite ship under strict quarantine and supplies are hard to get if not impossile.
My table jigsaw was sent for repair. However cause of lockdown new part, power adjusting rotor, may take weeks to arrive. And there's work to be done. So while browsing find this idea. It took me 20 minutes to built it as I had a spare table on hand.



I also did a bit of improvising

[mikegr]

the initial paper model plan calls for a 3 decker ship. However that would require too much woodwork which I would like to avoid as a begginer.Putting square strips would be an option but this would prevent me from filling the space between the bulkheads which is a must. Why? Because I'm going to plank the model by aluminum or brass sheet 0.2mm thick which is easier to work with, than wood. But this thing has to sit somewhere so my model won't look like a Coke can. After research I decided to use polystyrene, lighter and easier to give it shape

[mikegr]

i have almost finished the filling with polysterene. Cause of the 8mm thick central frame, correction must be performed to bow snd stern, both ends should be sharpened, will do it tomorrow if weather not very cold.

[mikegr]

hello again

I finished the styrowork on the hull. I also trimmed the bulkheads to give the right inclination to the deck. I used 3 mm MDF. I painted it with 3 coats of special primer.
I used superfine car filler to certain areas. It it said to be the most superfine, making it apropriate to model work. It proved to be a failure so i used acrylic putty for builders which turned to be exeptional, creamy, smooth and easy to work with without getting dry too early like car filler.

Next started making the superstructure. Unlike most commercial vessels this accomodation has many curves making it distinctive and more challenging to build.

[mikegr]

After some devastating snowfall i returned to work. Shopping my mail is still slow but managed to get some provisions, balsa wood, spray colors etc.

I finished the superstructure frame using 2mm MDF using my dremel type mulitool.

[JIM BAUMANN]

Cap San Diego is taking shape!!!

the hull looks pretty good

ingenious way of making Table saw--shame about the table ...

[mikegr]

Cap San Diego is taking shape!!!

the hull looks pretty good

ingenious way of making Table saw--shame about the table ...

At least found something useful to do with that table. Besides now that i got my table saw back, with some putty and paint will look like new

Now,
I have been doing progress every day. But it was a painfull period, it was going very slow. I Decided to make the curved front area of the superstructure with aluminum 0.20 mm think. It can bent far more easily than wood in which i have little experience to work with. I shaped the windows on wood using dremel for start and mini files later. In aluminum, it was harder.
I decided to make the raised window frames as seen on pictures, a detail that appears only in highest quality ready made models of Cap San Diego in the market. I came up with the idea of using staples, cut in L shape. Two of them would be used for each window. In theory seemed correct but in practice was quite challenging. I Had to make hundreds of corrections.
Some lockdown partialy lifted and had the chance to get some balsa wood sheets in different thickness. This was nice to work with, easier than MDF and easier to shaped than aluminum, even a bit fragile. It can also be glued very effectively with regular all purpose glue. I used to make some parts for the commanding bridge.




3 sided dice

[Fliger747]

A fairly difficult set of compound curves to accomplish! Aluminum can be a good ship modeling material when used with other mediums. Good luck! Tom

[mikegr]

A fairly difficult set of compound curves to accomplish! Aluminum can be a good ship modeling material when used with other mediums. Good luck! Tom

Thanks Tom. Indeed shaping curves is more challenging but this is what makes the ship looking special,one of the last of its kind.

I have been working a lot building the superstructure using aluminum 0.20mm and balsa wood which obtained recently as lockdown has relaxed a bit and material supply is easier. I drilled the holes with dremel tool, then glued the frames. Used the frames as a guide to form the rectangular shape using dremel again and mini files. Some frames came off when contacted the high speed turn of the tool so i had to re glue them, spending considerable extra time.

I worked with balsa making the front section of the bridge. It was easier to make the oval shaped windows than aluminum, however is quite fragile material. Another advantage comparing to other woods is that it can be glued very strong with regular glue at almost no time. Experimenting with all materials is a good way of learning.
Watching the Ship's page on Facebook noticed that stayed id drydock for 26 days for overhaul, that gave me access to some great pictures. Fortunately the photo material is adequate, giving me the opportunity to correct some mistakes as the instructions of the paper model as bit confusing for a newbie.
Note that decks 1 and 2 has been put in reverse order just for picture purposes

[mikegr]

lot of work, small progress.
I bought wood film in order to simulate the wooden deck. Although this is a relatively modern ship it has elements of the past. Wooden decks and a lot of rigging.

I cut the film in 2 cm length pieces and aprox. 1 mm wide. I finished planking the rear area of the lower deck. Then i added details on quarterdeck (if this is the right term) according to some photos i have, pipes, ventilation and fire stations. Finally i painted the main deck, however i may change it since the color in the real ship seems to vary from time to time. Not the gaps at the side while test fitting the superstructure part to the main deck, this is cause of the inclination i created as in the real ship and it has to be filled now. Also will work no on fixing other paint and fiting imperfections

[Fliger747]

I planked the decks of my 1:192 Missouri with a wood veneer which peeled off of an adhesive backing. With a tool to do so I ripped these into appropriate plank widths (your 1 mm is good). I then finished this with a flat varnish and sanded to get an even surface. I liked the rather nice random effect of the wood grain. There are many effective planking techniques and I am glad that you have chosen to take this step, I much prefer it to the laser striped wooden decks available for many of the popular kits. You are experimenting with some novel techniques which is always a wonderful approach to modeling!

Regards! Tom