Greetings guys,
I took a little vacation to Florida the last week.
Bondo, IMO it would be a good move to put thin wire vent lines back on the deck. It would make it look busier.
Speaking of sea stories and wet decks, I heard more than one story of people being washed overboard from a loaded tanker’s deck, and at least one tale of a guy going overboard from the foredeck, and washing back aboard back aft.
Fred
The freighters I’ve seen don’t have bootstripes either and I’m around them almost all the time. And most of the time I’ve seen fully loaded ships with the freeboard just about 8 feet and an overloaded ship could be 6 feet freeboard
Gentlemen, an update. I received two drawings from the National Museum of American History this week. Each is a general arrangement drawing, one of a T3-S-A1 tanker, in this case hull no. 4390 which is the Duquesne. She looks like this:
The hull is similar in shape to the Revell T2 fore and aft, however the superstructures are flat across the front, for which I don’t know the terminology, and the hull is about 23 feet shorter. Otherwise very similar to a T2. However the need to replace all of the superstructures, plus a general lack of interest on my part, abandons this design.
The second drawing is of a T3-S2-A3 converted AO Auxiliary Fleet Oiler, in this case either the AO-63 Cimarron or the AO-64 Tolovana. They look like this:
Here the problem is the entire forecastle and bow. It would seem that the Revell kit would serve this ship well, although it would have to be lengthed, but the recreation of the bow is beyond my interest. So I think two T2’s are in the works, rather than any conversions.
Good news gentlemen! Frank Gerhardt’s US Maritime Commission website is back online:
http://www.usmaritimecommission.de/
When I get time I’ll go back and edit all my links so they work.
Fred
LIFE IS GOOOOOOD!!!
Thanks, Fred, you’re my HERO!
See my PM
I’ve just received my paints fron WEM and am ready to go forward. There’s a BBQ at Marinship that we are going to this weekend. I am planning to go forward with two models; one the Mission Carmel tanker and the other TBD fleet oiler in a measure camo, this summer.
I’ll put a paper together on improvements to the kit.
BTW look at my latest a/c model in “aircraft” a PBY
just ordered some L’Arsenal 3"/50 deck guns from Pacificfront Hobbies yesterday should be in sometime next week. and ordered some stuff from Sprue Brothers but that was for the Graf Zeppelin and a M2 Bradley I was thinking about working on in the near future.
Well I pretty much have everything I need except for the railing (that would get in the way anyways and could always be added last) so should I just fill in the portholes and sand them smooth then add the PE portholes and drill out the centers?
BONDOMAN ----- When I worked for OLYMPIC STEAMSHIP CO OF SEATTLE we were under contract to the then M.S.T.S. aegis . we had all our ships painted U.S.N. colors (i.e. Haze grey hulls and verticals, White overheads and Standard U.S.N. deck grey . By the way M.S.T.S stood for MILITARY SEA TRANSPORT SERVICE . , the name changed after I was employed by B.P./SHELL in GREAT BRITIAN .-------TANKERBUILDER
Back on the deck of a good old tanker! Thanks TB this thread needs life. I’ve been occupied graduating a daughter from HS, but I am back in the game. I agree with your color selections. Have you looked at that german maritime site? It’s way cool.
Was your line an Onassis co.?
ok BUMP. I will revive this thread this fall.
The Mission Carmel is back on the ways. I’ve given up the idea of a parallel build, so the second kit will get salted away for now.
Here’s the hull as modified so far, and the original part in the background.
Added the fillets at the forward, midship and stern structures. I think this really is the single most important mod and makes it look right.
Cut down to laden freeboard, around 12 feet,
Cleared off the “half capstans” the cast railings, and the boat deck structure.
Cleared off an “impressive” part of the kit, which is the vent pipe system that was cast into the deck piece and ran from the access hatches to a central collector main. On the ship, this was a fairly small diameter pipe, but on the kit is a big pipe with unions , flanges etc, While it looked “busy” it made no sense, Fred correct me if I’m wrong.
It’s removal can be seen by the white areas, and I’ll replace the lines with thin wire.
I will build up the distribution system piping that runs fore/aft and end it in the pump room trunk structures. More on that later.
Glued a piece of stretched sprue up the sternpost, filled and sanded it in to get the correct pointed profile.
Good progress. Yes, the pipes you took off were supposed to be venting pipes which in reality would be about 4" diameter. The kit shows them as big as the main cargo piping.
Fred
Hello Bondoman
I served aboard the USS Taluga AO-62 during Vietnam. Your freeboard is almost anything you want to make it. When we left Subic Bay, we were riding low in the water. FULL. As we refueled ships off the coast of Vietnam, we started riding higher in the water. As we left the Gulf of Tonkin (after refueling the carriers) we had 30+ feet of freeboard. EMPTY.
The USS Taluga AO-62 served in the Pacific WW II, Korea and Vietnam.
Hey good to hear from you, and thank you for your service. Fred built a very nice revell T2 in civilian lines using the hull the way it comes, and that looks fine too. I like the full look, although if I do another one I’d probably let her sit at about 20 ft freeboard just to show off a camouflage paint job.
If you have any pictures we’d love to see them. I’ll look up your ship too.
Hey bondoman-- Now that you mention it I think the co. might,ve been a subsidiary of IPIROTIKI which was bought by ONASSIS interests then sold again. That,s another reason I went BRITISH. B.P./SHELL have been around for a long time long before the merger.The pay was as good ,or better, and the working conditions were definitely better!The captain on one of those ships was the boss, and, no stuff out of line concerning the job was tolerated. I do know I kept better hours than the boys at EXXON and TEXACO!!I feel for you ,BUT , I have to beg indulgence, I pushed three out thru high school then college, ALL GIRLS!!! Tankerbuilder
Jeffry–You are so right my friend. One voyage the SHELL ORION was loaded to the PACIFIC limit. Problem, We had to cross the ATLANTIC. Result , FREEBOARD 7.25 feet!!! That was one scary trip. When the business agent found out that the refinery and storage people overloaded us they lost their contract!! The ORION Drew 55’ at her best and we could go to 65 if we had to. Remember we were 1,092 feet at waterline(the DESIGN waterline) and 1,120" loa. We could NOT get in the famous ditch! We were 9’ to wide!The ORION was not the biggest by todays standards but she had a very poor turning radiius and could,nt stop worth a &^*&^(4 miles from ten or twelve knots,To full diw)Fuel economy stank and she didn,t even have backseat tv,s! he-he tankerbuilder
I picked up a bunch of 0.010 wire which I think is about right. I do need a rear gun. Thoughts?
The kit’s guns are so crude. How about at least replacing the gun barrels with brass wire?
I thought it had a 5"/25 gun and a 3" gun Veteran models makes a decent 5"/25 and L’arsenal makes the 3" guns that you used on your USS San Fransisco a while back. And are if you want some 20mm’s there is L’arsenal and LionRoar.
Mikeym_us, I have got the answer to that one . The 3 or four section per side skylight had round glazing(like little portholes) and the dogs were similar to the large dogs on NAVAL deck hatches only smaller. There are two ,one at each lower corner of each light section. The holding mechanism is quite similar to the hood props that you,ve seen ,in that, the prop has a tube mounted on a swivel. The other tube is of course smaller (this is square tubing, by the way) and mounted on a swivel on the hatch. when you open them you have a pawl that catches at four settings. Then you just push in on the pawl and they close quite quickly!! The SHELL INVICTA had four of those darned things. (She had been modified so many times it was scary!!)Well, gotta mosey along. Tankerbuilder