Perfection in Ship Models . What does it Mean ?

Hey , I heard the Emperor penguins had a secret weapon .Wonder what it is ? Hmmmm .T.B.

Sailing around the Horn in a clipper was probably the most brutal thing you could do to a sailing ship....any ship for that matter(the Panama canal made that easier).  When entering a port many captains pressed their crew(of as many as 120 to as few as 50) into spiffing up the ship so she was presentable to the many critical eyes of owners and insurance firms.  Not to mention their own pride.

Personally I weather all my vessels, it invokes action as well as purpose....not to mention a slight sense of  age, which further enhances the romance of the models presence and ambiance.  IMV by the way.

Rob

Tanker

It is a strong possibility that they were. I bet you they are plotting against McMurdo and Green Peace......lol

You Know Souda .

I told the Captain the Penguins were looking at our ship in a strange way . Do you think they were conspiring to get our new Asroc too ?

Aha !

Very good question . Now here's how I solve that . The U.S.S.OZBOURN D.D.846 when arriving at Bremerton and the water drained from the drydock looked like someone sanded a lot of the red and some of the boot stripe off , or nearly so .

      What most folks are NOT aware of is this  .Salt water in it's natural state i/e the Atlantic and Pacific and other oceans and seas is Extremely corrosive to a ship . It's just like driving it through a Sahara made of water . So you get that abrasive reaction on those surfaces exposed most to it .

    That's why , If I do a full hull ship I mostly do Pristine Museum types . Once in a while I do the whole thing heavily weathered from Keel to Truck but it's rare .

     The best example I can give here is the famous sailing ship Cutty Sark .She looked , when new , like she had a copper bottom  .When in fact when she went in for re-fit it was a tarnished bronzy color .Why ? She wasn't sheathed in copper , rather Muntz Metal which is a whole different animal in salt water !

Thereby forever changing the balance of power at the Pole.

From my experience while I was active duty is the sea will do all she can to either kill you or make your journey impossible at times. I got sent TAD to the Nimitz to bring her around the Cape from the East coast to her homeport of the West coast. During that little trip around the Cape we lost one of our MK-116 RAM launchers. The seas just took it one night during high winds and heavy seas, it looked like someone had undone the bolts for it to be replaced. Needless to say there was an investigation which concluded that it was a rouge wave that took it, but during the investigation we got so tired of the constant question we started telling the inquiry that the penguins took it.

The only time a ship's underwater hull is really pristine, is in the builder's yard just before the ship is launched.  Dry docked availabilities will spruce it up from time to time, but it will eventually be a loosing battle.  The sea will eventually beat steel every time.

Modeling a ship is a challenge because there's always going to be the problem of "showing the ship as it really is," vs. " putting so much weathering on the model that it distracts the viewer from actually 'seeing the ship.'"

Donald McNarry addressed this in his book "Ship Modeling in Miniature."  McNarry said that if he actually depicted a sailing merchant ship with the decks chock-a-block with gear, livestock, chicken coops, etc., it would be too much of a distraction from the ship itself.

I'm currently struggling with weathering on a model that every so often as I work on it, the weathering looks less like wear and tear and more like a bad paint job.

I guess there's no real answer.  If the model is being built on a commission, then I guess it should be what the customer wants.  If it is just for the modeler, do it which ever way you'd like it.  But in any project, the builder should have some consideration for his possible audience.  If the model will be displayed with others just for fellow modelers that's one thing.  If one's spouse will allow it in the living room to be seen by non-modeler visitors to the home, perhaps a slightly different approach is required.

In any case, keep it fun.

If it moves salute it. If it doesn't move paint it. Seriously all deck gear, winches, booms, etc must be in shape to work all the time. As was found early in WWII too much paint is a fire hazard. So what goes on needs to be chipped off.  It is hard for anyone who has never been to sea to understand what ordinary wave action does,let alone a serious storm. On any large ship you are always going to find some area in red lead being repainted. I'll bet that is true even on a ship fresh from the yards. I know it was for the ship I was on because there were just too many jobs that needed to be done and too little time.  Probably the only ship that is in absolutely perfect shape is a builders model such as those in the maritime museums.

Really?  Why are Navy ships kept clean?

Because dirt + standing seawater leads to rust.  

Equipment that is rusty gets stuck and doesn't work.  Deckplates and bulkheads that get rusty get holes in them.  Holes low let in water.  Holes high let in water when the waterline has gone higher than it was supposed to go.

Look at a winch on deck.  If it gets rusty, it is not going to work as you intend.  And then that winch won't make the boom, crane or davit work when it is needed.

And, in case it's not obvious, oil leaks can lead to fires.  Accumulated trash, in the wastebasket or in the corner can lead to fires.  (perhaps better in these days when there is no smoking inside the ship)  Besides all that "clean ship is a happy ship" noise, somebody also said a clean ship is a safe ship.

Rick

And I have stories to accompany every example above.  :-)

Ray Marotta

In addition to maintaining their ships and aircraft, the Navy uses the nasty jobs of chipping paint, wiping down aircraft, compartment cleaning, mess cooking, and general work parties as an incentive to make rank.  ie. "If you don't like swabbing the deck, make rank and you won't have to."

Amen to that. Plus, the old saying "idle hands make for trouble" so that stuff kept us busy.

Lots of personnel to keep busy, cleaning, painting, general preventative maintenance work.

EJ

In addition to maintaining their ships and aircraft, the Navy uses the nasty jobs of chipping paint, wiping down aircraft, compartment cleaning, mess cooking, and general work parties as an incentive to make rank.  ie. "If you don't like swabbing the deck, make rank and you won't have to."

I'm sure there's a long list of reasons.

Showing the flag.

Entertaining visiting Congresspersons.

Deep pocket maintenance budgets.

Tanks the conundrum I can't get past is that when I consider weathering, I have to consider crew. Otherwise it's kind of a ghost ship looking deal.

Also what DO you do with the bottom?

I have heard an explanation on why naval ships appear cleaner than commercial ones.  Story goes  that because it takes more men to fight a ship than to simply sail it, there are more hands for cleaning it when not in combat.  Commercial ships have to limit crew size to maximize profits- only carry enough people to sail it, many fewer hands available to clean and maintain it.

Oh Yeah ?

Souda .

   You shoulda seen the U.S.S. OZBOURN - D.D.846 after a trip from The Phillippines to Pearl after making it through the remnants of a nasty Pacific storm . Paint ? What's that ?

    We stored some damage control timbers in a rack on deck ( 01 Level ) .When we got to Pearl even the racks braces and legs were no where to be found .HMMM.      T.B.

No ;

  You got that wrong , It's- BB1

Tank builder  is right on the fact after being at sea and going through a hurricane or a nor'easter a ship isn't a pretty site to behold. My last ship the Abraham Lincoln when we came home from our 10 month war cruise we looked like ragged crap. I'm sure all of you folks have seen the photos of the Ghost Fleet of Ready Reserve ships. Hell when we came home our captain explicitly order the crew not to repaint the ship because we would be going into the dry docks soon after returning home. Needless to say when the America and the Ranger were in better looking condition than use and they had been sitting for years as past of the Ghost Fleet. Salt water and flight ops will make any ship look nasty in a matter of days.

Well ;

    Now you see , that is right and proper too . When ships get together for a fleet excercise and there's three or four countries doing it , they do want their ships looking ship-shape and Bristol fashion.

    That means of course clean , bright as new and mean looking as ever . This is what makes ship fanciers of those who don't know they are . For instance the only Russian ship I had for years was the " Moscow ". I saw her in Hong Kong .

   Now the other later ones are members of my fleet . If I could only find Italian ships from WW - 2 In 1/350 I would add them to the American , French , English , German and Japanese vessels I have . They all are in various stages .Clean as new .Water-worn and damaged too .

     Did you know for instance a ship coming into port after enduring a storm of large magnitude at sea is not a pretty sight ? Broken rails , boats askew and tied down , Etc . All versions tell a story . That's as it should be .

I weather my armor heavily.

My aircraft not as much.

My ships not at all,I like em clean.

Just my own preferences.

haha, GM, I hope he spits coffee on that one.

I was think Kearsarge, though (BB-5)

GM, you did just give me a good line to use on my Gunny Uncle the next time he says "when the Marines got the Phantom, we,,,,,,,,,,,,,,," I will just ask him if he misses the days when they had Corsairs.

(the Marine FH-1 Phantom squadron had F4Us before they got FH-1s,,,,,,,and he is talking about Phantom IIs, lol)

Indeed....I find that building a model into a diorama lends not only to the model but to the actions performed by the particular ship.  In a small way I might be able to engage the viewer into an experience more then just a static view of a great model.  Let folks see what life may have been like for said ship.

It can lend itself to dramatically enlightening the viewer to the adventure of model building all together.

Rob

Arent you an original plank owner on BB-39?

Thanks Joe ;

It has been my experience that after some time away from port , no ship looks good . You should've seen the S.S. United States and other liners after that Trans - Atlantic  trip . Pristine ? No Way !

i have had thoughts of this for a long time    after looking at tons of photos  i noted that the photos of us navy wwii ships always looked great  and i was told that the sailors worked their fingers to the bone to keep them looking this way      on the other hand the japanese wwii photos the ships all looked like rust buckets  the reason i was told was lackof maint. supplies  based on the photos and what i was told i base mine on that       just my thoughts  

joe