I got a call exactly 5 weeks ago from a customer…who explained that a certain company had dropped his builder’s model of one of his cruise ships…causing massive damage to the hull and superstructure.
The model is 8 feet long, weighs 110lbs., and is made of brass, including the hull, superstructure, etc…most of the small parts are machined metal, cast resin, or plastic.
The finials tore the hull open from the bow to just forward of the skeg, separating the brass keel plates and severly warping the transverse bulkheads. The glass case (10ft. x 4 ft.) was 3/8 inch tempered glass, caved in on top of the model, driving the finials up into the hull, and the weight of the model itself coming down bent or broke most of the joints. Rails were destroyed, and the funnel was severaly cracked. We were missing about 60% of the plastic cabin dividers on the 02 and 03 levels.
Well, we started work 4 weeks ago, and we finished on Thursday night. I’ll post up better pics once we get the model outside to photograph.
To give you an idea of the size of this model, that’s a bottle of Testor’s ModelMaster paint near the stern…
Below are the details of the real ship/s,
As I can’t see the name of the vessel on the model.
I have given you the details of both ships.
Crystal Harmony was built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan.
and Crystal Symphony was built by Kvaerner Masa Yards, Inc, in Finland and are both operated by Crystal Cruises, Inc.
The Crystal Serenity is the newest ship to join the fleet and was at Ch de l’Atlantique / Alstom in Saint Nazaire, France and commissioned last year.
I build the real ships and was involved with the Queen Mary 2 project
at Ch de l’Atlantique / Alstom in Saint Nazaire, France on behalf of Carnival Corporate Shipbuilding.
I am an avid model builder in my free time.
Looks like you had your work cut out.
If you want to see some great cruise ship models, you should try to get into the Seatrade cruise convention in Miami next year (this years show was weeks ago).
All the shipyards who exhibit there have a fantastic collection of models.
The shipyard model of the Queen Mary 2 is really incredible.
I hope the information is of interest.
Regards,
Beau Mansfield.
Crystal Harmony.
Length: 241.00m
Beam: 29.60m
Draft: 7.50m
GRT: 48621
NRT: 20289
DWT: 8642
Class: L.R.
IMO Reg: 8806204
Engines: 4 x MAN B&W.
Kw: 32800
Speed:22.00kts
Call Sign: C6IP2
Flag: Bahamas.
Status: Active.
Crew: 505
Passengers: 1010
Cruise Line: Crystal Cruises, Inc.
N.Y.K. Cruise Co.
Shipyard: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
Yard No: 2100
Country of Build Japan.
Year: 1990
Cost: $240m
Cruise Area: Caribbean, Europe, South America and Panama Canal.
Crystal Symphony.
Length: 203.00m
Beam: 30.20m
Draft: 8.00m
GRT: 51004
NRT: 19887
DWT: 4500
Class: L.R.
IMO Reg: 9066667
Engines: 6 x Sulzer.
Kw: 38880
Speed:22.00kts
Call Sign: C6NY3
Flag: Bahamas.
Status: Active.
Crew: 545
Passengers: 1010
Cruise Line: Crystal Cruises, Inc.
N.Y.K. Cruise Co.
Shipyard: Kvaerner Masa Yards, Inc (Turku).
Yard No: 1323
Country of Build Finland.
Year: 1995
Cost: $300m
Cruise Area: Africa, Alaska, Caribbean, Europe and Panama Canal.
Argh Beau, you’re gonna get me in trouble!! I was ahem deliberately keeping quiet about the details of the Harmony at the Line’s request…
But hey, I didn’t say it, you did!! [;)]
Aimee, I have the profile and deck plans, but no hull lines. Since the line was in such a hurry to get this model repaired, they sent me whatever they had laying around at the time.
Man oh man…I know what its like to “repair” a model ship. I was given the task of restoring my passed-on Grandfather’s (inlaw, no less) AMAZING scratch-built Halve Maen. He made it when he was 16…no way on Gods green earth I could have done ANYTHING like that when I was 16. Anyways, it had been destroyed in an earthquake…
I’ll put another post about that story out on the list with pictures and stuff.
But, man, nice job on that! its a labor of love.
-jon
Oh maan,
My brain locked up on the process,… soldering/brazing, sanding, bondo, sanding, priming sanding priming sanding priming sanding…beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
You guys did a heck of a job.
And it looks like that is one of those jobs, that can never be as good the second time around.
Hopefully the actual ship will never experience the same trauma.
Actually, I didn’t use an ounce of Bondo on this one…when I was repairing the hull, I knew I had to increase the structural integrity of the hull at the finial points, which was also the areas that received the most damage. Instead of using Bondo to level the plates, I used J&B Liquid steel…an expoxy. I experimented with it on the forward part of the hull where the damage wasn’t as severe, and found that once it hardened, it added considerable strength to the area, something that Bondo just wouldn’t do. It sands as easily as Bondo does, takes paint very well (being gray primer color to start) and was easy to work with without the fumes. I was amazed at how well it turned out, so much in fact that I applied about a 1 inch bead over the interior seams inside the hull just for added strength. When I accidentally got a drop on the counter, after it was dry I had to chisel it off, taking a chunk of formica with it…it’s tough stuff.
I also used another trade secret for the final glazing, it’s a porcelain filler called (Don’t laugh) Porc-a-Filler. Another incredible compound to work with. Very easy to spread, sands wonderfully, and with a coat of clear over the final, is just like glass. It’s cheap too, about $5 at Home Depot.
Hear is a copy of a post I placed on another site with regards to problems I am having. Umi sent me a link to this thread because of the repair work that is mentioned in this thread. Any comments?
I am having problems with a boat that I am trying to fiberglass. At the time that I glassed the boat in question, I glassed another boat at the same time. The boat with the problem is Los Angeles Fireboat #2. It is their new Voith Drive boat, same boat as Umi is building. The other boat, that is not having a problem is the HIJMS Shimakaze, a WWII heavy destroyer. Both were done on the same day, using the same technique and same epoxy resin.
Here is the problem. On the bottom of the keel of the fire boat( which is a flat surface and facing up as the boat is left to dry) there are spots where the resin is still soft and sticky. These spots were too large to sand out as they would gum up the sand paper. The Shimakaze had non of these problems. Both boats were prepped the same way and constructed out of the same balsa wood. The only differnence that I would percieve is that the Shimakaze has a round surface when placed keel up to dry.
Not wanting to spend all my time cutting up pieces of gummy sand paper, I took a blade and cut out the soft spots to where there was no soft areas that I could cut out with an xacto blade. What this did was create areas of indentation where the soft resin was cut out and there would be a sticky bottom to these spots. The largest spot would be about 4x3cm.
I then came back and reglassed the entire boat hull with a differnent brand of epoxy resin. It was percieved that the brand that I had used was old, it was perhaps 2 years on the shelf after having been opened.
All seemed well, the glass job looked good. That is until the finishing touches. I used Kyron spray paint to prime the boat to evaluate for defects. I sanded this out and then appiled Deft Sanding Laquer to make the finishing touches before another primer coat.
There are now several areas where there is a blistering or wrippling of the surface. Sanding of this demonstrates soft resin again. I have now cut these out as I had done before, and it appears as if I am back to where I was before. The areas seem to be at the same depth as before and in the same general area. It is as if what ever was under the last glass attempt, worked its way up through the last glass attempt, unless I sanded down to that level. But I do not percieve that I did sand down through the last layer of glass to expose this soft area.
I do not recall what the first resin was. It was a blue container that I had obtained from TAP plastics with a small bottle of activator. The last layer was from TAP plastics and it was two container of equal volume between resin and hardener. It is the red and the beige containers.
Any ideas as to what to do to fill these defects and be able to finish off the hull? All areas not affected ( that vast majority of the boat) looks fine.
There’s obviously something wrong with either the resin or the surface under it. Depending upon how deep the indentations are, I would recommend using a wood based filler such as DAP wood filler. I would also put down a barrier primer first. For the finish coat, use Porc-a-Filler Porcelain Filler, available at Home Depot.
Jeff,
Sweet job on the cruise ship, even if we are beating up on them in that other thread. I think the whole repair project would make a great article for FSM, since it’s unique and you encounter some problems unlike those found in a straight build-up. How about some other repair jobs? I know you must get some really tired stuff donated to the museum that needs restoration and that’s probably an untapped source of tips and techniques for us wannabes out here.
Jeff one work of caution about JB weld. Dont use the quick set stuff JB Quick. I used it a few times years ago. As it ages, it gets very brittle, and seperates in chunks. Just a word of caution. The slow cure stuff has never let me down.
I was ahem deliberately keeping quiet about the details of the Harmony at the Line’s request…
