Revell Container Ship Columbo Express 1/700

You would not transfer photos here, this site only allows you to embed photos already stored on another internet server. So you might be able to use the Flikr photos, but I'm not 100% sure; most companies that do not do picture hosting as their business do not like people embedding photos on another site as they have to pay for the bandwidth usage but receive no gain for it.

So I would look into Flikr's help pages or files to see if they talk about it.

Also, pictures cannot generally be enlarged without the quality degrading. It's possible, but things either start getting blurry or jaggy.

I recently received some good pictures of the huge container ship EMMA MAERSK on my computer. Being computer illiterate, how can I transfer these pictures from my computer to this thread on the Forum about the Revelle kit COLUMBO EXPRESS ? I do not want to experiment in trying to transfer these pictures, and in the process lose them through my inept fumbling. Can anyone out there in Forum land help me ?

 While in the process of asking for computer help, how can I enlarge photos I have stored on my Flickr hosting site before presenting them on the Forum ?

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

  Montani semper liberi !      Happy modeling to all and every one of you. 

                                                        Crackers    

 

 

 

I can't verify the paint color on the Hapag-Lloyd vessels. I do know that the paint we used on the Smit-Lloyd vessels was a dark green when first applied, but faded to approximately the same shade of weathered green in the photos of the accomodation ladders after some months in sunny weather conditions. I have added three photo's óf the first container vessel to visit the indented berth in Amsterdam, not a HL ship but also with the same green deck color.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y35/Grem56/LFH241009012.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y35/Grem56/LFH241009018.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y35/Grem56/LFH241009023.jpg

Julian

weebles

If you can get a look at the ships I would be interested to know if the decks on the super structure are actually green like they show in the plans.

Dave, I'd been trying to establish the validity of that myself and I think I can finally say... sort of.

This photo of the Shanghai express looks like a muted gray/green to me:
http://www.hapag-lloyd.com/images/press_and_media/photo_library/ShanghaiExpress02_Kalender_print.jpg

This one is much closer... check out the color of the inclined ladder steps and deck at the bottom of them:
http://www.hapag-lloyd.com/images/press_and_media/photo_library/ChicagoExpress06_Kalender_print.jpg

Looks like a pale green to me. I also noticed that they flipped the print in the second link!

 

They also have some photo-etched container cranes & other dockside handling equipment,  but still no aftermarket decals to ehance the container stack variety

Looks like our European friends are already on top of this:

http://shop.strato.de/epages/61404716.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61404716/Products/%22Containerstapel%20CE%22

There are also some individual resin containers available.

I think it would still be easier to cut down the kit's stacks though.

Fred

Thanks for the information.  I'll check into it.  Your pictures are coming out great. 

Dave

If you could get one of them to do that it would be terrific!  That's the one aspect of the build I'm in the dark on.

Dave

T'weren't stupid.

Ah, ok.  Sorry for the stupid question then.

Hi Kenny.. if you're talking US Hospital ships you're "close, but no Cigar."

USNS Mercy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USNS_Mercy_(T-AH-19)
Mercy was built as an oil tanker, SS Worth, by National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, San Diego, California, in 1976. Starting in July 1984, she was renamed and converted to a hospital ship by the same company.

USNS Comfort:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USNS_Comfort_(T-AH-20)
Like her sister ship USNS Mercy (T-AH-19), Comfort was built as an oil tanker in 1976 by the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company. Her original name was SS Rose City and she was launched from San Diego, California.

Oil Tanker Hulls are shaped differently and their age would make me believe that Mercy and Comfort lack the bulbous bow that the Columbo Express has.

Well, since modern hospital ships are converted container ships, I thought it would be a place to start.

As far as the color of the decks, I won't be able to get a good look at them.   They are way above my line of sight.   Short of going on board, or up in one of the gantry cranes, I don't know the solution...

Hey, maybe i'll ask one of my Puget Sound Pilot friends to take some detail pics!

Fred

Thanks for the comment. Personally; I find the program, itself, reasonably easy to use, it's taking the right sort of photos that I have trouble with.

To get the best out of the software you really need to use (in my opinion) a Digital SLR camera (set to manual focus), a good, solid tripod, a remote shutter release and a good light source.

The trick is taking many shots and slightly adjusting the focus after each shot.

I took 17 shots but I think I need some more practice as parts of the ship still look out of focus.

This is another attempt that took 18 photos to make.

 

I've heard of that program.  How difficult was it to use?  Are you satisfied with the results?  Your picture came out great.

Dave

Finally got round to making a start on this kit. I decided it would be an ideal subject to test a program I had. It's called Helicon Focus and it uses lots of photos taken with different  focus points to make an image with great depth of field.

 

 

 

If you can get a look at the ships I would be interested to know if the decks on the super structure are actually green like they show in the plans.  I have not seen any photos of the decks.  It would be nice to find that out. 

The loads you're seeing on the Hapag Lloyd ships are filled out by members of the Grand Alliance.  This is a load sharing program where members share vessels.  If you google The Grand Alliance Hapag Lloyd you'll see who all the players are.  It would be great if somebody could do decals.

Dave 

Since I bought this kit I've been  noticing the loads on Hapag-Lloyd ships in Seattle.  I go right by them on the way to work.  The orange Hapag-Lloyd containers make up only about 25% of the load.  The rest are mainly reddish cans, with quite a few blue NYK boxes.   The trade on the Far East to Europe run may differ from the Far East to US run.

Printing to decals on white film the full width of the container would work, but ... getting that film to conform to the ridges on the containers would not be fun. Still, for the sheer joy of being able to build something that is not all-over gray, this kit is on my list!

Hospital ship from this?  I think you might as well scratch build the whole thing.

As for container logos being white, making it inconvenient to make decals on an inkjet printer ( no white ink) the solution would be to create decals covering  the whole side of the can.  Then just print them on white decal paper.

I picked the kit up on sale just before Christmas.  It looks like it'll be a lot of fun to build.  I plan to cut down the container stacks, especially near the bridge, so you can see the bridge superstructure better.

Fred

Can a modern US hospital ship be made from this kit with some scratch building?

I'm going to put it in my display to my trumpy 1/700 USS Stennis.

That Revell PE doesn't look too bad; I was trying to tempt Loren Perry from Gold Medal Models into doing a set but he's going to steer people to his civilian ship set designed for the Titanic and Lusitania kits.

I was hoping for some tie downs such as you can see on the bottom twp rows of this picture:

http://www.hapag-lloyd.com/images/press_and_media/photo_library/ColomboExpress03_print.jpg

Hi Wilbur,

Just adding to what Ed Grune wrote about the current kit review, the direct link for it is here.

I am looking forward to my LHS stocking this since non-military subjects are usually not as plentiful.

I too plan on having a staggered container load of varying colors with homemade decals to give the model a more realistic appearance.

RODC

You CAN do 1/700 decals on an inkjet printer if you set it to the maximum dots-per-inch resolution, and they will look OK, not great but OK, but - you can't do white lettering. For that you need someone with an ALPS printer. Skimming through the index here, http://www.fotoreisverhaal.net/containers/summary.html, it looks like a lot of the shippers use white lettering, which is awfully inconsiderate for us modelers.

Color laser printers give you much crisper decals at that scale, but are generally cost-prohibitive for the casual modeler. I was glad that at least Revell made an attempt at putting ribbing on the containers, I shuddered at the thought of trying to add that on to several hundred individual containers with little bits of Evergreen strip!

 

I sent some messages around to the usual suspects about making some container markings.  The answers I got were "too busy", "don't have the equipment to do anything this small", "worried about copyright protection", or they just didn't reply.  It would be nice if somebody with the right equipment would step up and do something for this kit but I'm not that guy and I don't know who will. 

I think a reasonable job could be done by going with a load made mostly of Hapag-Lloyd containers, using the kit decals for those, and then some different colored containers mixed in with lettering that can be done with either a artist pencil or well placed dots of paint to represent letters.  Let's face it, in 1/700 scale they're going to be pretty tiny anyway. 

I also think that carving down and carving up some of these containers is a good idea.  I need to explore this further but I would think that some of the side panels cut from the bottom of a stack could be used to fill in areas carved out above, if that makes sense.  And what the heck, why not scratch build some flat racks to boot!  Maybe a tank container or more thrown in as well.

Looking at the Revell web site they seem to have a few PE sets out there.  Like you said, who knew!  Any I've seen are in Europe.  It looks like it's going for about EUR 25 or $36.00. 

I purchased White Ensign Models PE714 3 Bar Rails set in 1/700 which should be enough to do this model.  I got 3 of them in fact.  They include some ladders and steps which you can cut to size that I think are important to finish this kit off right.  Three of these sets were a lot less than EUR 25/USD 36!  They were UKL 1.49 each. 

Dave

The review of the kit in the current (February 2010) FSM indicates that the reviewer's only CON (in the side-bar box) was that the color call-outs were for Revell paints only.   

The reviewer in the text, notes that the instructions call for all of the containers to be painted orange & decaled with Hapag-Lloyd markings.  He than deviates from the out-of-the box review/build to mask & paint the containers in various colors and does not use the provided decals.    While not a fatal flaw, I would call that a CON also.    I hope that an aftermarket producer (Hey Micro Scale - you have contacts through your model railroad decals - listen up!)  would come up with a sheet of 1:700 scale container markings.

I'll get one.  I have a hundred dollar commission payment-in-supplies for a build I'm doing for Squadron's Nuremburg Toy show display.   I've marked this kit and a couple others in their January sales flier.

.   

To dust off this thread a bit, I was poking around on the Revell-Germany site and they now sell PE! Who knew? Including a set for this very kit: http://revell.de/en/products/model_kits/model_kits/products/?id=210&KGKANR=0&KGKOGP=10&KGSCHL=9&L=1&page=1&sort=0&nc=&searchactive=&q=&SWO=&ARMAS4=&PHPSESSID=eb2f523a2904e255c5d8b91043b69acb&KZSLPG=&offset=1&cmd=show&ARARTN=00703&sp=1

I had no idea either Revell even new what PE was.

 Hi. I,ve just been following the thread and I must say that is an interesting ship.I have the 1/350 CONTI-BELGICA from WILEMSHAVEN in paper. I built it once for a client and was so impressed with the detail, I had to have one for me.The CONTI has a medium mix of containers on board AND you can even order more! I wish they had done this ship in 1/350 because I find 1/700 too fiddly for my liking(too Small).By the way, in passing.The newer "tugs" are now referred to in ship industry publications as (SHIPHANDLING UNITS )NOT tugs.I guess thats because of VOITH-SCHNEIDER drives and such.(they,re almost as wide as they are long!) The word tug of course is NOT incorrect, but these babies can move sideways easier than I can park my car! I would recommend the CONTI-BELGICA for anyone.You can use the paper for patterns and build the ship from plastic.Remember there are BREAK-BULK ships that have been converted to carry containers and they look way different from this ship too.I would recommend also that you go to the library and go to the maritime publications area and you would be surprised at whats there on those ships! I hope this helps anyone that wants to go containering!   tankerbuilder