'Q' ship reissue

The big chore in making this into a reasonable facsimile of a Hog Islander is the stern. The Hog Islanders had an overhanging stern counter. Other than that, the general layout is similar to the Carolyn/Atik. The Carolyn/Evelyn were built before the Hog Islanders.

I would be tempted to build this as the Hog Islander S.S. Robin Moor.

Fred

The other chore is the deck. The model has pronounced sheer fore-aft. The bulwarks curve up as well. The signature of a Hog of course is a dead flat deck.

I'm laying out my cuts.

I have no intention of dumping cold water on anything, but I feel obliged to say something to you gentlemen that I wish somebody had said to me before I started my H.M.S. Bounty.

I based that model on the hull from the Revell kit, from which I removed all of the molded detail. (None of it was accurate.) The model took me over two years to finish. When I was done, I wondered why on earth I'd bothered with the Revell hull. I figured that carving a new, properly-shaped hull out of wood would have taken me a week or so longer - and if I'd done that I would have been able to say (to myself, if nobody else) that I'd built the model from scratch.

That ancient Lindberg kit is awful. As several folks have noted, it amounts to little more than a toy. Based on the research you guys have done, it doesn't seem to be a scale model of anything.The projects you're talking about will take months and months - even if you don't work on any other model during that time.

So why bother with it? Lengthening the hull and deck, removing the sheer, replacing virtually all the "detail" parts, rebuilding the superstructure....To me that sounds remarkably like a scratchbuilding exercise.

My guess is that you could make a wood hull, from laminations of basswood or poplar, in a couple of evenings. Allow a couple more evenings to seal and prime the wood. Then you'd be starting with an accurate hull and decks. The time would probably would be cut in half if you made it a waterline model.

I hope nobody who routinely reads this forum thinks I'm a member of the "scratchbuilding is the only legitimate way to do it" brigade. But there comes a point where modifying a manufactured hull is actually more difficult, and more time-consuming, than cutting a new one out of a few pieces of wood. It sounds to me like this kit is firmly in that category.

I sure wish the kit industry would recognize how many wonderful model subjects the world of merchant shipping has to offer.  A few good plastic merchantmen have appeared in the past few years, but the selection is still pitiful. Things are a little better on the resin front, but not much.

If I were to build a model of a freighter, I'd pick a generic-looking tramp steamer from the twenties or thirties. And I'd name it the S.S. Inchcliffe Castle. And if you know why - well, whurra, whoosh, and even foosh, you're as much of an Olde Phogey as I am.

Funny, I HAD thought of that.

Well, I don't expect the model to be too accurate a portrayal of anything, but I am in one of those "stuck" modes so I'm giving something a little different a try.

I agree with you all of the way.  I plan on building this as is out of the box.  Can't see putting anything into a $7 dollar model.

Marcus.

What do you think a typical deck color might be?

It seems to be a medium value in the photos, not light or dark.

Would red oxide be appropriate? Or boxcar brown? It'll look better if its not the same color as the hull anti fouling, but it does look to be about the same value.

That straight section of bulwark between the two scalloped openings is just a shade over 3.5", which is the amount of extension needed.

So to try to clarify what I said before, I'm cutting one hull just forward of the aft scallop for the bow, and one hull just aft of the forward scallop for the stern. Butting the long ends together. Then reshape and enlarge the scallops to look like the real ship. Sand off the cast on anchors and put on some scrap ones, add new rudder and bilge keels and I'm calling the hull goodenuf. Should get to that this week, after swmbo gets me to put the lights up. My spares box of left over Revell stuff is helping out.

And yes, the shrouds do have foot bars.

The model comes with porthole decals in several sizes!

Marcus,

you mean no $40 PE investment in a $7 model?

That is breaking the rules.

Not really, I'll mix and match anything.

Sorry, I don't what over came me.

Some motivations stuff for you guys:

www.modelshipgallery.com/.../index.htm

www.modelshipgallery.com/.../qship-mt-main.html

without pe web.ipmsusa3.org/.../q-ship

PE makes quite a difference as usual.

Thanks, Felix.

I hadn't seen that first one. I like it, the observation that a taller stack makes it look older.

Further musings- you can see from the photo of the box that the kit includes a "free" stand. What a deal!

It also (the box) is a curious sort of nesting affair, like a donut box. When you open the lid, the outside front of the lower tray has a color side view and text block of the HMS Hyderabad "the only" purpose built Q ship. I'll try to post a photo.

in sequence the set up for taking saw to plastic.

Tomorrow the saw

Interesting work!

I found this in the PE spares. Each shroud is 3 inches long. Unfortunately, I can't tell now what set it comes from. It's for Titanic, but whether 1/400 from Tom's or from GMM, I don't know.

This is a very interesting thread. I really have to resist getting one of these Qships.

GMorrison, do you have or can get access to a band saw as that is what I use when cutting a ship hull in half to extend or shorten it? if the hull is 2 side pieces, i'd glue it together then mark the line on it were I want to cut it. done that on 3 revel 1/426 scale arizonas to make them into the nevadas & texas. did that also to cut down a dragon 1/350 scale gearing class destroyer into a sumner class for a guy down in Atlanta, Georgia.

I wasn't going to start this right now, but last night there was nothing on TV. I am going in a different way than GMorrison:

Just two cuts in the middle of the well decks, square and perpendicular.

Here it is laid out with the planned spacing. It looks a lot better! Like a ship should look:

The yellow line is a possible waterline. I may make it more down by the stern.

Now I've taken razor saw to plastic!

Carefully cut each piece leaving about 0.05" or so of the yellow parts.

And some fun scraps:

Set up a flat surface sanding pad. Draw sanded off the "yellow" areas.

Glued the front/ backs together along a straight edge, a little squadron green and ahoy!

Next, the decks. They have a pretty pronounced camber. I'm making them out of sheet styrene scrap.

I'll eyeball something and figure out a way to do it without a lot of brain damage.

I'm thinking maybe set up the transverse bulkheads at the various up and down steps in the deck first, use them to set the geometry.

Of course it will translate itself through a couple of deck levels in the accommodation.

Really try to keep it simple

Looks like a real ship doesn't it?

I haven't even looked at the screw.

I suppose bilge keels would be appropriate.

And I had to chuck that rudder.

I think Bondo found a front-on photo of a T2 bridge and blew it up and traced it. Smart dude.

GM-  are you going to lengthen the well deck "dips" on the sides toward the center section?  looks a little odd with that length of center section.  To me would be more balanced if the well deck dips and the center were all close to same length.  But that brings into the mix hold covers and crane positions.

Just curious, not a ship modeler.

Not only are the scallops too small, but they are weird shapes.  I really only have one photo to go on.

http://www.eaglespeak.us/2006/09/sunday-ship-history-q-ships.html

At the ends of reason re: scaling, I printed the underway shot and roughly scaled the basics.

Fred, whats the laden freeboard you picked? It looks to be about 12-15 ft here.

I get roughly 45 ft, 88 ft, 120 ft, 100 ft and 40 feet stem to stern. PLEASE ignore these numbers- I'll do a better job on a drafting table.

The bottom edges of the cut outs are at about deck height, plus a little. So I guess I can mark where the deck goes on the insides of each half, and glue my row of blocks to attach it to. Have to remove all the Lindberg locating ridges too. All pretty easy stuff. Then I'll mark out the ends of the cut outs, which are pretty square, make my cuts and curve the ends. Much more regular geometry than the kit., nice and square quarter round at the deck house and a gentle curve fore and aft.

In the past I've cut the openings square all the way to the bulkheads and added back quarter fillets made from thin stock. But that's probably going too far on this old sea dog.

I'm not sure what those numbers are. I'll have to do some better measuring, but the deep draft, from the line at the top of the stern aperture, looks to be about 21 feet. Midship, the line I drew looks like a draft of around 14 feet. IF I do a waterlined hull I will give her a drag aft, but it looks like I might be able to do a full hull model at this point.

It looks to me that there are crude molded railings on the stern and forecastle. I will take them off. Also to do before I go much further: those portholes on the main hull look way oversized. But I want to compare the positions of them to pictures. Then if the positions look accurate I'll drill smaller holes before I do any sanding to eliminate my seams around the spacers. That's 4 seams, not 2 as I said earlier.