Lindberg 1/95 Nantucket Lightship FINAL?? 6-03

That's cool, however the Lindberg model is I believe of LV 85, built in 1907. LV 112 followed quite a bit later.

Ok, guys, here is what I have learned:

Lightship 112 LV-112 at World Financial Center Main article: Nantucket Lightship LV112

In 1936, Pusey & Jones of Wilmington, Delaware built Lightship 112, the largest lightship ever, for $300,956.00. This ship was paid for by the British government as reparation for the deadly collision between Olympic and Lightship 117.[2]

During WWII, Lightship 112 was withdrawn from the Nantucket Shoals station and used as an examination vessel in Portland, Maine. On January 5, 1959 she was blown 80 miles off station in hurricane force winds accompanied by fifty-foot seas. This event effectively put her out of communication for several days due to water-damaged electronics. Lightship 112 outlasted all other lightships assigned to that station, having marked it for 39 years.

This site give the complete history:

http://www.fcgh.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=144&Itemid=26

Here is the sister ship Chesapeake. She has not been modified as much as Nantucket, and appears closer to what I am trying to build:

And here are the Radio beacon wires that were mentioned above:

Lord help me if I try to model those!!

 

 

 

 

Oh, now I want one too! Father's day wishlist. A successor to this one was run down and sunk by the Olympic.

HI ! the kit is the old REFINED PYRO as LINDBERG released it . I usedEVERGREEN plastic to detail it and CORNERSTONE h.o. rails and ladders on it .  The ship had an unknown sister off of dogger bank (SCOTLAND I believe ) That ship was run down and sunk . Colors were similar but I don,t know what her name was .

aber makes railins & ladders at 1:100 scale, probably close enough!

http://www.greatmodels.com/~smartcart/cgi/display.cgi?item_num=AB10003

look forward to the build

thunder1 wrote:

Keep in mind, on station the crew had little to do but scrape and paint the ship to keep busy, the weather decks on the Nantucket were pristine.

And make baskets.

Mike,

Thanks for the input.

I have ordered the SPAR paint and it is already on it's way.  Great tip.

I have not picked an exact year for the model, but I have ordered some 48-star cloth flags, so I guess that limits me to pre-60's.

I am also looking at some PE watertight doors.  There is one door that is molded open, but the mold is pretty weak.  I might grind that off and put the PE on there.

There is no radar nor 4-wire radio beacon indicated.  There are cross-beams on the masts with notches on them, so presumably they go there.

I will post more as I go, and again, excellent help!!!

I am in your debt.  

 

 

 

 

 

 Howdy

  First off, keep in mind this model made its first appearence in 1955 as a PYRO kit. Lifelike and now Lindberg offer it but never upgraded or improved upon the Pyro molds. Wait, I take that back, I have an original kit, the letters on the hull were raised, the builder, if steady handed, could paint "NANTUCKET" on the hull. For some reason the raised letters disappeared from the molding process by 1968.  As this kit dates to the 1950's,  your model presents the LV(light vessel) in it's 1950's guise. Since you are taking a good deal of time to build this kit, consider the following. The single biggest screw up most folk make is the paint job. The ship went through many paint scheme changes over it's long life. When built(1930's), the LV sported a red hull, red lifeboats, red davits, red masts, black ventalator funnels, black smoke stack, black fog horn, no railings on the roof of the radio shack or fog signal compartment. And NO RADAR! There were white painted railings atop the pilot house. When the Coast Guard absorbed the Lighthouse Service the masts, ventalators, davits and deck gear(bitts, chocks, capstan) were painted "spar", and lifeboats painted white. The CG also placed safety railings on the radio and fog signal houses as well as pipework on the fantail for the placing of awnings in hot weather. Radar appeared after WWII. In the 1960's the CG removed the ventalator funnels, cut down the smoke stack, removed the fog bell on the bow and upgraded the radio, radar, and radio beacon.  I'm not sure if the directions show the radio beacon antenna, they consist of four wires(seperated by wire spreader rings) stretched between masts. A lot of info I know, but you appear to going the extra mile on this kit. Just pick a time period and adjust accordingly.

As to your specific questions: there are a number of folk who have commented on ship rigging on this site. Go to search and type in ship rigging, I'm sure something will turn up. Just make sure you use NYLON not COTTON thread. So many beautiful models get ruined by cotton thread with its "fuzzy" look. Some builders use fishing line or even stretch sprue. The ladders are clunky, try to find a hobby shop that deals with HO train aftermarket supplies. They have a wide assortment of PE and metal ladders, and the scale is close. You could even construct them from Evergreen plastic strips and rods. And unless you plan to "WEATHER" the entire ship, having just the decks "worn and weathered" would appear, IMHO, kind of silly. Keep in mind, on station the crew had little to do but scrape and paint the ship to keep busy, the weather decks on the Nantucket were pristine.  By the way "SPAR" paint can be purchased from Snyder and Short, the paint guys. Don't make the mistake of painting the "Spar" items on the model with tan, yellow, mustard, or some other awful color, "Spar" is almost impossible to duplicate. Even rail road "buff" is wrong. And that makes most Light Vessel models look in-accurate.

Good Luck on your project

Mike M.