Once again, I am still hard at work on several projects that I’ve been doing. I’ll start here with some of the naval ships that are finally nearing completion. To refresh your memory, the three kits I’m working on are the Russian Slava-class cruiser Moskva, balanced by the US Navy ship USS Kidd, and of course a civilan container ship the MV Tampa. In addition, I’ve been repainting several other older ships to improve them from whenj I first built them, but I’ll post those pics a bit later.
I’ve gotten the Russian Moskva all painted up except possibly a few details. It’s easy to miss them with all the things going on aboard this ship. I also started the tiny helicopter for this ship so he’ll have it when she’ll be ready for launch.
Here is Moskva:
Next, I’ve been working on the USS Kidd. She’s been a fast and easy build for the most part once you get around all the very tiny parts. I also started to paint her as much as possible. There are a few more details that need to be taken care of before she can be declared ready for decals.
Ladies and Gentlemen, USS Kidd:
Finally, here is the MV Tampa. I got all the construction done on her and also touched up a bit of paint. Then I went to work building all the container boxes that are included in this kit that aren’t in the MS Toyama. Man, what a chore! I still have to paint all the containers and then finish some hull painting and then get it ready for decals.
Now here she is, MV Tampa:
Pretty impressive if I do say so myself!
I’ll post more later in a week when I return from Colorado.
Wow! I’ve been gone a week and had 51 views and no replies! I guess I need to seriously improve before anyone decides to say anything. Hey, I don’t mind if you are critical; just remember that I build these OOB when you decide to criticize. After all, I’ll never be as good as Jeff Herne, jtilley, subfixer and others here if I am not given advice on how to improve. Maybe I’m just too lightweight for this Forum…[:I][8-]
I followed you over here from the Ideal X thread. Pretty nice box ship there, I wasn’t aware there was a containership out of box like that. It will look great when all the containers are done. Hmm, I’ll have to take another look at that hull. Maybe it can be modified into a newer ship than the one I’ve been working on.
Hey Duke, what kit is the Tampa??? Does is come with all the containers?
I’m so used to seeing your builds in the wingy fourm and your series of Russian ships that are very well done.
Also, is the Kidd the 1/700 kit? I built the Hayler OOB and it took me forever with all the little parts that assemble the mast. Yours looks really nice.
I cannot fathom how you build so many clean models in so little time.
Scott
Thanks Fred! I appreciate it. It’ll be interesting to see the modifications you make to this kit.
I was quite taken by surprise myself when I came across this in one of my fellow IPMS member’s pile of kits for sale. I just had to have it.
Thanks Scott! I’m glad you came over to see these. Thanks for the compliment. The MV Tampa is a 1/400 scale Imex kit. Basically, it is the MS Toyama, and yes; two additional sprues were added to this kit that make up the stacks of containers on deck.
Thanks for the compliment on the USS Kidd. Yes, it is the 1/700 scale kit that is titled “USS Chandler”. I know what you mean about the masts. They did take some time to build. This kit also includes a small P/E fret to assemble the main radar. That will be the first time I ever assemble a P/E radar! It also comes with decal options for all four Kidd-class ships. I do plan on getting three more to make all four ships.
Thanks again for stopping in to see these. When my camera arrives, I’ll post more pics.
I thought that MS Tampa looked like an IMEX kit … they just have a certain … look, I guess. I just wish they were in a smaller scale due to my space consideration, but I look forward to seeing how all your containers turn out.
Yeah, they do. They are also relatively easy to build too. I’ll be working on the containers this weekend, but unless my camera arrives this weekend, I’ll be unable to take any pics till it arrives.
Was curious how you plan to finish the containers. Are you going to paint them in a variety of colors and emblems, or just one color/emblem? A lot of static display models you see in museums and in the lobbies of the shipping line depict one color and emblem, and they look very…corporate. Glad to see they gave you a mix of 20 footers and 40 footers. Are you considering any tie-down details?
Some excellent questions. To start, I’ll paint them a variety of colors. Emblems would be to small to see on these containers as they are barely half an inch long for the 40 footers. I know that coprorate models all have one color comtainer, but down in San Pedro all the container ships I’ve seen have all had a variety of colors. I will have several stacks that are all one color.
As for tie-downs, I don’t think my skills are adequate enough to depict tiedowns in 1/400 scale. I’m not even sure how they would look either, even if I could do them that small.
Thanks again for looking in. I’ll try to get pics up as soon as possible once my camera arrives from Colorado.
Just doing different colors will dress up the stack a lot. Grey, reddish, white and aluminum are the most common colors, but just about every color is out there. The logos would be hard. I have looked at some Microscale decal sheets for model RRs and you can get a few logos off them, but most would be too big for your 1/400 scale.
I don’t know what kind of tie down arrangement this particular ship would have. The most common is steel rods that go in an ‘X’ from the lower corners of the second and third tier, down to the deck. Most between the hatches would be hard to see anyway, but the forward end of # 1 hatch would stand out, as well as the aft end of the last hatch. Very small stretched sprue maybe? Makes my eyes water just thinking about it.
By the way, does anybody know of after-market model containers? Seems like with most merchant ships carrying them now somebody could put out containers and logo decals in common scales.
Fred
edit: that’s the lower corners of each container on the 2nd and 3rd tier.
Thanks Fred. I agree, that different colors will make it more interesting. I’ve already started three container stacks and they are looking good already. I still have to touch them up too.
I haven’t seen any logos that would work for a 1/400 scale container, so I’m just going to do the paint and that’s all. I did get a Model Railroader magazine and scored: One a one page ad, they actually have the color swatches for all the most common containers. I was able to match five colors, and had to mix four others to get two of the other colors.
Now that I’m thinking about it, I think maybe the tiedowns may be a bit beyond my skills. I doubt I could get the sprue thin enough, and even then, I don’t think I’d be able to get them in place. Since I’ve never seen containers tied down before, I think I may not have enough knowledge and skill to do the job right. It looks like I’ll be paintng the containers (which, BTW are hollow inside; they gave five parts to each container stack. Four side pieces, and a top piece) and then cementing them down to the deck.
Thanks again for your interest. So far, my Slava class cruiser is finished, it just needs clearcoat, decals and semigloss coat. Same with my USS Kidd, I also need to build the photo-etch radar for that one too. Now if my camera would get here, I could take pics and post them!
well you could just use the copper wires from a old lamp cord those should be the right scale thickness to represent the steel cable that was used for the tie downs. BTW guys RORO’s are different from container ships because they can carry vehicles as well as cargo containers hence the term Roll On Roll Off the Military uses RORO’s all the time during deployments to carry all their heavy equipment like tanks and construction equipment. Container ships have holds that only carry containers and when those holds are filled then they start stacking containers on top of the hatches.
You could consider making some custom decals with the Testor’s decal maker. I just used it and it works pretty well. You can probably get the logos off the internet, and print multiples of each. Look for both US and foreign carriers: Sealand (now Horizon Lines), APL, Maersk, COSCO, NOL, Yang Ming, Hanjin, CP, Cast, Hyundai, etc. There are also containers that are leased from non-carriers, such as Transamerica, GENSTAR, SEACO. As far as tie-downs, as suggested, you could use wire on the forward end of hatch one stacks, and after end of aft-most hatch. I think the whole rig will look pretty cool.
Oh, and each tie down is tightened with a turnbuckle at the bottom. Yeah, probably not worth doing in 1/400. KP80, I never heard of Testor’s decal maker. Now you’ve given me something else to do!
Mikey, are they really that thick? If that is the case, I wouldn’t mind giving it a shot if I could find pics of how they look. I tried a search of container ships to see if any showed pics of the containers tied down, but couldn’t find anthing useful.
Oh, and I do have a RORO too. Imex makes it; it’s called the Rouen. They even made it so the back hatch which lowers for vehicles can be raised and lowered! That will be a challenge in itself, since I’ll need to make an interior somehow. I’ll have to look into that.
Kp80, that is a pretty good idea. I have the Testors decal maker kit too. I’m not sure how visible the logos would be in 1/400 scale, but I may try and size them just to see. I am a little ambivalent about trying to put all those decals on all the small containers on this ship. Take a look at the top pic again. The tallest stacks have seven to ten container sides per each side of the stack, not counting those gaps in some of the stacks. Then I have 14 stacks to decal. Then’s alotta decals! I’d be spending more time decaling than I did building this one! LOL! I’d have to think hard on that.
I would consider the tie downs if I am able to find some pics showing how they look. I’ll keep searching to find some and see if it is something I can do.
Fred, you’re right about the turnbuckles. That I will definitely pass on. Oh and the Testor’s Decal maker is found in a small, blue square box that is about as high as a cough medicine box but slightly wider. I’ve seen several at Wal-Mart in their toy department in the locked cabonet where they keep their paints and glues. It contains a CD of their image software, several sheets of decal paper, and a spray can of decal film. At about 7-8.00 dollars a box, it ain’t bad a deal. One thing though, the software that comes with it is not very good. If you have a photo imaging software that can convert the images to the fomat recognised by the Testor’s software, then use that to size and possibly change the colors if needed before changing the format. Then import the changed image into the Testor’s software for printing. I learned that on these Forums several years back.
yeah copper wire from lamp cords are pretty small compared to the strands in a roll of electrical wire used for homes. the lamp cord wires are about the size of sewing thread in diameter but you will have to paint it steel color or at least rust color.
I’ll see if I can dig up some photos of the tie-downs and send. I think I can also find some photos of the ro-ro interior you’re thinking about. They’re cavernous, a big parking garage with ramps leading from deck to deck.
This is the fore or aft end of the containers. Each stack could be lashed like this, but not necessarily. It depends on the weight of the cargo. Empties may not be lashed at all. Besides the lashing rods, each corner of a container is locked to the adjacent one or the deck by a “twist-lock” or “cone”. Sometimes only the outboard stack is lashed.
By the way, those longer lashing rods are heavy! And each twist-lock, 4 to a container, weighs about 60 pounds. There is still a heck of a lot of manual labor involved with loading and unloading a ship.